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YouTube Finds Another Pandora's Box to Rip Open
As if YouTube wasn't a legal nightmare already, what with profiting off copywritten material, to profiting off of kids beating each other up, to profiting from underage girls dancing around their bedrooms in their underwear to hip hop songs... now YouTube wants to create a million more headaches to themselves by offering to pay those who upload popular videos.
On the surface it's a) nice b) smart c) competitive, but what happens if the subject of the video sues Google/YouTube because the video was originally theres, but stolen? What happens if the real director of the film appears and sues Google/YouTube and the person who originally claimed to be the director of the video?
What happens if the director of international movies like the one above sees that this clip has gotten over 2 million views, and he wants his cut?
Why fix what's not broken?
One reason LAist gives LonelyGirl15 zero props is because it was fake. It was outted because it was a bad fake, and the only reason that anyone gave a crap was because it starred a somewhat attractive young lady. If YouTube goes through with paying people for uploading videos, we will get an unending amount of LonelyGirl15 wannabes, not to mention worse fakes, and just plain dumber videos whose only intention was to get visits, thus money.
YouTube is perfectly fine the way it is. It's handily beaten all comers without a good search engine, despite its mostly dull content, and in spite of its decision not to include adult content.
We realize Google has billions burning a hole in their pockets. We just don't think this is a good place to invest all of that new money. How about irrigating Africa or something.
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