Here they go over a lot of what we talked about in class: Youtube has algorithms to search through videos and if any content matches copyrighted material, then they will take down the video; You can appeal a take-down decision about your video. In the video, one of the puppets, Mario, is mad because another puppet is criticizing the video he has made. His friend puppet, Fafa, tells Mario that he can't just go taking down people's videos because he doesn't like what they're doing or the content. I guess that's Youtube's policy with individual users, but as we discussed in class, it seems that big media companies can do just that, even if the video creator isn't infringing on copyright laws.
I looked beneath the video to read people's comments and see what they had to say about Youtube's policies, but the comment section has been disabled! I'm guessing the comments got nasty and Youtube wanted to shut it down, but I don't know for sure. This relates to another class theme about online discourse and commentary and how there is a need for more civility and thoughtful discussion. So I'm appealing to you all to offer some thoughtful discussion about the basis for Youtube's decision to allow big media companies to take down individual users' videos they don't like. On the one hand, Youtube is a private company and has every right to make contracts with whom they wish and to set their terms of use policies that users have to abide by. On the other hand, if what makes Youtube Youtube is mostly user-generated content, self-expression, and video variety, then shouldn't Youtube be more loyal to that segment of its customers? What do you think?
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