YouTube vs Google ~ The Cost of Censorship [Text]

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Saturday, October 07, 2006





Message to YouTube - Don't Do It!

$1.6 billion sounds like a LOT. But, it's NOT.

YouTube, which burst from nowhere to become the most popular Web site for Internet video, has caught [Google's attention,] which reportedly is offering $1.6 billion for the upstart video service.
Don't do it! Don't sell your soul to The Man.

It would be a rich sum for a Web start-up that still operates from a loft above a pizza parlor in San Mateo, Calif. Even though it launched its business just over a year ago and runs with just 64 employees, YouTube has grown to dominate the promising new world of Internet video, attracting more than 100 million people a month.


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If Google succeeds in its bid to buy YouTube, it could mark a turning point in the evolution of the search-engine giant, and of the Internet. Alongside computerized search, video over the Internet may be one of the richest new opportunities on the Web.
It'll be a turning point, alright - the monetization and depopularization of YouTube.

In essence, [vulture] capitalism is "generalised commodity production," the transforming of all life into a "thing," something to be owned or traded.
If Google had the capability of building YouTube's popularity on its own, it would have done it in a heartbeat. But, they can't - that's why they're looking to BUY it.

But, it's like trying to buy love - you just can't do it - true love is NOT for sale.

YouTube wouldn't be the same under Google ownership. It would lose its flavor and soon lose its potential. YouTube, above all else, is clearly a labor of love, a product in the spirit of sharing. Sure, they deserve to earn a decent living from it. But YouTube must not be, primarily, in pursuit of profits.

That's what makes YouTube truly different from other entertainment venues.
"We're moving from a television generation to a video generation, and YouTube is by far the leader in video," said Rishad Tobaccowala, chief executive of Denuo, a Chicago-based unit of ad giant Publicis Groupe that focuses on Internet marketing.

YouTube appeals to people like Christian Hellsten, 30, an information technology consultant from Helsinki, Finland. "It's easier to go to YouTube and find something I like than watching some random show on TV," Hellsten said Friday in an interview through instant message. Besides entertainment, Hellsten also follows the war in Iraq via YouTube videos.

An equally enthusiastic fan of online video is Larry Page, a co-founder of Google. "I watch it a lot. It's really unbelievable. And I think it's really interesting compared to the things that I often see on television," Page told the Tribune earlier this summer. Page could not be reached for comment on the YouTube negotiation.

Google has $9.8 billion in cash and securities on hand, putting Page in a position to seize the largest Internet video site, should the two companies strike a deal. A deal also would ace out Microsoft, Yahoo and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., all of which reportedly have visited YouTube's offices in recent months.

At a time when other high-profile Web sites are rumored to be takeover targets, Google would be snatching up perhaps the hottest property on the Internet—at a lofty price. Facebook.com, a social networking site and another possible takeover target, could fetch $1 billion or more. The price Google is offering for YouTube is up 60 percent from the valuation discussed in blogs and bars throughout Silicon Valley since early this year.

More than 106 million people—about three of every five Internet users—streamed or downloaded at least one YouTube video in July, according to ComScore Networks Inc. Even so, YouTube's audience continues to grow at a breakneck pace, which could make YouTube a relative bargain today should the trendline continue.
Believe it or not, $1.6 billion is chump change. But, again it's not just about money - it's the principle that counts.

This offer is really a hostile takeover in disguise. They don't like the competition. And if the offer is refused, they will show their true colors.

Just like the Bush administration and Afghanistan, YouTube either accepts a carpet of gold, or they will get a carpet of bombs - in the form of a myriad of copyright infringement suits.

Talk of a sale also comes at a time when speculation is growing that YouTube might run into problems with creators of commercial video content, much as the music piracy site Napster foundered.

Mark Cuban, the flamboyant billionaire investor who co-founded HDNet and owns the Dallas Mavericks, declared in a September talk to advertisers that only a "moron" would buy YouTube, in part because of copyright issues.

Kevin Donahue, vice president of content at YouTube, said in an interview this summer that the company works hard to avoid offering copyrighted content for which it has no license. YouTube limits user-supplied videos to 10 minutes each, has a tool that enables copyright holders to search for pirated videos, and aggressively takes down any video believed to violate copyright.

"We're going as far as we can," Donahue said.

As part of the effort to avoid lawsuits, YouTube has negotiated rights deals with commercial video-makers. Google has rushed to do that, too. Among other deals, YouTube has exclusive rights to Webcast previews of NBC shows, while Google has rights to put some MTV content on its site.

Josh Bernoff, an analyst for Forrester Research, recently cited coypright concerns in a blog posting titled, "YouTube is Goin' Down."

Mind you, at its inception in medieval England, copyright was solely a mechanism of censorship - designed to keep tight control over the content of information and the availability of knowledge.

It only assumed its popular rationale of "protecting the rights of creators" later on. But, in reality, the only so-called 'creators' that copyright protects are those who 'create' money from thin air. They're the ones who attempt to 'finance' EVERY human venture or creation, thereby securing title to it and instituting a ROYALTY fee (rent, interest, whatever you want to call it) on its enjoyment.
"In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.


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That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest."

--James Madison, March 29, 1792

This argument is often used to attack the so-called redistribution of wealth via "welfare." But, it more aptly denounces the PRE-distribution of wealth through unjust patent and copyright laws - among other horrendous legal mechanisms of MONOPOLY, the most deadly of which is THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.

So, you see - this is not a friendly venture. This offer is really a HOSTILE TAKEOVER.

Takeover talks first were reported on a Silicon Valley blog called TechCrunch. A spokeswoman for YouTube and a spokesman for Google each declined to comment.

Google had little choice but to make the move. Even though Google recently put a link to Google Video on its main search page, replacing the sputtering price-shopping service Froogle, the company remains a distant third place on online video.

YouTube dominates with a 45 percent market share. MySpace videos account for 21 percent of the site visits, while Google garners a modest 11 percent share, according to Hitwise, an online tracking service.


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YouTube needs the computing power, Google needs the users, said Denuo's Tobaccowala. "That makes a good fit."
BULLSHIT! It's not a good fit - IT'S A SCAM.

Finance is attempting to takeover YouTube - it's that simple.

But, in the words of Tracy Chapman -
Dont be tempted by the shiny apple

Dont you eat of a bitter fruit

Hunger only for a taste of justice

Hunger only for a world of truth

cause all that you have is your soul.
Don't Do It - Just Say No to The Man.