I hear ya, and would typically agree that website owners should have the ultimate say, unless they’re posting something illegal. However, Google/YouTube isn’t exactly your ordinary website or company. It’s a publically traded giant with many thousands of owners (stockholders) who empower the board of directors to make decisions on their behalf. The company is also arguably a monopoly, upon which millions of people depend for not just information, but their livelihoods. Since there is no effective competition (seriously, which search engine(s) come anywhere near Google/YouTube in terms of usage?), we’re pretty much stuck with using them as no viable alternatives exist. Since they make their own rules, they can block whomever/whatever they please and if they want to censor what the public sees or give preference to major film studios over individuals, they’re free to do so. You may see no problem with that, but I find it very worrisome.
A huge fact everyone is overlooking is that ANYTHING produced by the U.S. Government—whether it’s a video to motivate people to become librarians or photos of wild mustangs taken by the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program—belongs to American citizens because it was paid for with tax dollars. Pure and simple, that video belongs to We The People, not Michael Sauers and certainly not NBC Universal. As such, this is an issue all Americans should be concerned with: a private entity laying claim to a creative work that was publically funded. Other than filing a lawsuit against YouTube, which could conceivably be a class action, I’m not aware of any way to force YouTube to remove the block. And, YouTube having no external guidelines or monitoring makes them the sole arbitor, which is a conflict of interest. I, for one, am getting sick and tired of The Great Google having so much power to decide what gets displayed and what is censored.
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Re: Re: Produced by U.S. Government = Owned by U.S. Citizens
I hear ya, and would typically agree that website owners should have the ultimate say, unless they’re posting something illegal. However, Google/YouTube isn’t exactly your ordinary website or company. It’s a publically traded giant with many thousands of owners (stockholders) who empower the board of directors to make decisions on their behalf. The company is also arguably a monopoly, upon which millions of people depend for not just information, but their livelihoods. Since there is no effective competition (seriously, which search engine(s) come anywhere near Google/YouTube in terms of usage?), we’re pretty much stuck with using them as no viable alternatives exist. Since they make their own rules, they can block whomever/whatever they please and if they want to censor what the public sees or give preference to major film studios over individuals, they’re free to do so. You may see no problem with that, but I find it very worrisome.
Produced by U.S. Government = Owned by U.S. Citizens
A huge fact everyone is overlooking is that ANYTHING produced by the U.S. Government—whether it’s a video to motivate people to become librarians or photos of wild mustangs taken by the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program—belongs to American citizens because it was paid for with tax dollars. Pure and simple, that video belongs to We The People, not Michael Sauers and certainly not NBC Universal. As such, this is an issue all Americans should be concerned with: a private entity laying claim to a creative work that was publically funded. Other than filing a lawsuit against YouTube, which could conceivably be a class action, I’m not aware of any way to force YouTube to remove the block. And, YouTube having no external guidelines or monitoring makes them the sole arbitor, which is a conflict of interest. I, for one, am getting sick and tired of The Great Google having so much power to decide what gets displayed and what is censored.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Rena.
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