On the YouTube Content ID apocalypse
So, #YouTube has implemented a new #ContentID policy that is flagging a lot of reviewers and Let's Players. To make things worse, a lot of the people whose videos are being flagged have monetized their channels, meaning they make money off of these videos, a lot of them relying on these videos as their primary source of income.
I understand that Let's Players fall into about the same grey area of copyright that Star Wars fan filmmakers find themselves in (i.e., they toil with the knowledge that at any moment the copyright holder could swoop down and destroy them, most of these copyright holders just choose not to for the moment), but you couldn't get a more cut-and-dry example of fair use than reviewers.
But there's the rub... YouTube isn't a public forum... it's a privately-held corporation. They're well within their rights to associate with who they want, and by extension, flag and remove anything on their service without any notification if they feel it's in their best interest. It's just like getting belligerent at a restaurant or bar... heck yes, you can be asked to leave and then forceably removed if you don't comply.
But this isn't to say I agree with them taking down content that is absolutely protected by fair use law... it's to say, they're proving themselves to be just another corporation... not some grand utopian forum for democracy in the digital age. Which brings up a really interesting question... clearly, videos online have become a hugely important thing in the last few years.
Virtually every new computer comes with a bare-bones web-cam, and higher-quality cameras are affordable for most people, as is the software to make video with a professional polish. I think that online video and social media in general is a hugely important thing for the growth and maintenance of our democracy in the modern world... look at the state of televised news these days... they are virtually homogenous and extremely slanted, bowing to the private interest of their parent company. You have public access channels and PBS, but there are only so many hours in the day, and therefore only so much content that can be scheduled. In addition, PBS is becoming less and less public with the loss of State and Federal funding... just this year, I've heard that corporate pressure stymied a documentary on Hillary Clinton, and pressure from the Koch Brothers (a big underrighter for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) knocked down an expose on their antics. Online, though, you have have a community of tens and hundreds of thousands of people producing and uploading content... democracy in action. But now, with YouTube, we're seeing the hand of the Gatekeepers descending upon this community.
Sure, there are other video sites besides YouTube, and there are other social media sites besides Facebook, but those sites are relatively small... Facebook and YouTube are the new town square, where hundreds of thousands of people can stand and speak, where the vox populi can not only be expressed, but you, the individual, have the opportunity of reaching a huge audience.
My question is, can resources that are so important to groundswelling movements, to social change and progress--can these sites really be trusted in the hands of a few corporate elite? I propose, no. If YouTube can so brazenly cut down something so innocuous and yet so very legal as gaming and movie reviews, what's to stop them from silencing voices that dissent from their own political views, ala Fox News? What's to stop them from censoring the free-speech of the users who rely on social media to have a voice and a forum (not to mention a livelihood)?
So what's the answer? You can express your right of free speech on a street corner, you can say what you want to whomever... but the internet gives us so much more strength, our voice can be so much louder. Look at The Young Turks, who have over a million YouTube subscribers and who can reach millions more who stumble upon their station... they were too progressive for MSNBC, but they have a voice and have found a huge audience. What's to stop them from being silenced if some RW conglomerate acquires YouTube? There is no physical place to go, no gate to tie yourself to online. The internet is a series of Gatekeepers, we just rarely noticed them before because the internet was the Wild West. Well, welcome to the new age. A new age where the internet has simultaneously become an awesome force for social change, and yet is becoming more and more corporatized.
This is a pivotal moment for the internet community. This new resource, that so few understand, especially the old guard, the Washington establishment. I'm afraid by the time the trustees of our democracy realize the importance of the internet, of YouTube and Facebook, for the preservation of democracy, it will be too late.
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