You Tube, Future Threatened ?

[captainhaddock]

According to a report in today's Guardian, an ammendment to the "Digital Economy Bill" threatens the future of "You-Tube".The ammendment, proposed by the Lib Dem's, allows for the closure of sites that allow the persistent infringement of Copyright.
Given the reports on this site about reproducing the Shadows archive material, I must admit that it doesn't surprise me at all. I have always been stunned by the amount of "Bootleg" material that is on you-tube and wondered how the posters get away with it.

[Fenderman]

I hope this dosen't happen. This is the only way we can view all the vintage Shads stuff.

[noelford]

As a freelance cartoonist, I am well aware of copyright issues and it's not nice when people rip off your work, using it without you permission and without payment.

It may, therefore, seem hypocritical, when I say that I visit YouTube a lot, and view, undoubtedly, material that is being used without consent or payment.

YouTube is a wonderful resource, but the problem is, you only have one choice: you stick by your principles and don't use it or you (in my case, reluctantly) say, this is too good to ignore. I'm pretty sure that, given the option, most people would be prepared to pay a small subscription which could be then channeled into a fund to at least make a small payment for content. Unfortunately, I can't see that option being offered because of the work that fair distribution of funds would incur.

[Bill Bowley]

Disregarding the rights and wrongs involved,I'm always amused when one country believes that its legislation will automatically take effect on a world wide activity - take a look at the copyright problems Microsoft has in India and China for instance - almost unenforceable. I think a YouTube clone will appear elsewhere should this one be halted by one country's legislation.

[Apache1]

I have heard that another site like YouTube is already being constructed to operate should this legislation come into place
you will always get pirate stations.
So they tell me the new site is being constructed under the "Digital Britain" umberella and will be very advanced in downloads and uploads,
it is said the quality will be as good as HD. with BlueRay technology.

I think this site (that has no name at present) will be put up irrespective of what happens to Youtube.

[wstagner]

Only comment I have about this is that I don't think I'd be such a shads/cliff fan if I had never seen the Birmingham 1986 live clips on U toob. The shads/cliff can thank U toob for whatever $ they got from me as result...not to mention the retailers.

Same could be said of many groups/fans I bet.

[Bluesnote]

I have to say irrespective of the rights and wrongs of Youtube, I've learned and seen stuff I never knew existed thanks to them. When I started back into the Shad music, I saw a lot of examples of tunes on Youtube that helped me immensly in the learning of. There is alway someone else to take over when a site gets shut down and I dont think Youtubes demise should it happen will be any different. When I first got into this computer world, there was a music download site, cant remember its name at the moment, but they got shut down and I thought this was a disaster for me. A few weeks later other sites appeared doing the same thing. In fact I think there are more free download sites than ever now when you start looking for them.