Archive for the ‘youtube’ tag
YouTube As A TV Channel – Part 2
As an addendum to my post about the Italian government classifying YouTube as a TV channel, in looking through J. Walter Thompson’s top 100 things to watch for 2011, coming in at number 100 is:
As YouTube transforms, there will be host of challenges ahead.
It will be fascinating to see the response of the networks & Hollywood. Thus will get ugly, as the old guard fights a turf war with the new kid.
A kid that can purchase them with the cash it has on hand.
Italians Classify YouTube As A TV Channel
What an interesting way to start the year!
According to Geekosystem, Italy’s version of the FCC (Italian Authority for Communications Guarantees) has classified any UGC (user generated content) site as television stations.
The reasoning is that if a site in any way curates their user generated content, even with automatic algorithms, “this amounts to editorial control,” and the site should be held to the same rules that apply to Italy’s broadcast television stations. This would subject these sites to a small tax, would require them to take down videos within 48 hours of the request of anyone who feels they have been slandered, and to not broadcast videos unsuitable for children at certain times of day (whatever that would actually mean for a completely online service).
Most importantly, however, the new resolutions would make YouTube and other sites legally responsible for all of their content.
Wow. Keep in mind that
Last Februrary, four Google employees were arrested and charged with “criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code” in regards to a clip uploaded to Google video that none of them appeared in, filmed, uploaded, or even found out about until after it had been taken down.
I’m sure there are many people in this country that would like UGC sites and aggregators to be held responsible for all their content. I wonder if this will affect the continuing Viacom/YouTube copyright litigation & appeals in any way.
If it gains any traction, this line of thought might have ramifications in the net neutrality debate, too.
We’ll have to watch this one closely in the coming months.