Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Ups and downs at YouTube
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – a quick update on what is happening on the internet. I am your Cyberhost,
Now if you remember last week’s program when we did a special feature on FaceBook – the social networking site that is gripping the country, you will recall the wide variety of opinions on the site. What has been very interesting for me is the number of people who have secretly confefsseed to me that they are in fact FaceBook addicts.
It’s quite funny really how embarrassed they look.
I must admit that I have become a youTube addict, everytime I have a free moment at home – never at work of course - I log on to the site to check out music videos and the funny stuff.
But its not all time wasting – recently a nine year old boy in Brisbane Australia was recruited to play for Manchester United, because someone saw his prolific skills on a Youtube Video.
Another success story – two comics, Joe Bereta and Luke Barats signed a six figure deal with the NBC television network after more than a million people viewed their clips on YouTube. The pair of 23 year olds will now develop low cost sitcoms and sketches for one year – with an option to renew for a second.
My personal favourite – Brookers or Brooke Brodack has just been given a
The site is doing so well, and some particularly talented individuals have become so popular, that YouTube is trying to work out some kind of revenue sharing deal with people who attract large numbers of users.
But it is not all sunny skies at YouTube – the site has been sued several times for copyright infringements. People post music videos or exclusive interviews on the site without the permission of the owner. This has caused the content owners – big ones such as Sony, Fox and NBC to take legal action against YouTube.
In their defence, whenever a clip is found to be in breach of copyright they immediately remove the offending material.
Attacks against YouTube have recently escalated – now the National Musical Publishers Association in the US of A has lodged a complaint on behalf of songwriters who are not being properly compensated when their songs appear on the site.
Well, of course we are against the breach of any intellectual property laws – but it will indeed be a sad day if Youtube is ever forced to close down.
Oh, and just in case you thought that YouTube was only for us to watch silly American videos – don’t worry it is very easy to put up your own silly videos, – all you need is a good cellphone and an internet connection.
That’s it for today. Thanks for listening and please tune in again next week, same time, same place for more on the best of the web.
