I’m a vlogger. I’m a member of the YouTube community, and have been since it was created way back when (but not really way back when.) since then, I’ve seen so many issues come and go, surface as time passed and the site became more popular, but the one issue that continues to rear its ugly head is the issue of copyrighted materials.
In the beginning, copyright issues weren’t at large because YouTube was a small site – not worth anyone’s time or energy. But as YouTube grew, major companies starting throwing in their lawsuits saying what music, tv / movie clips, etc that users could and could not upload. The first time I remember seeing a copyright issue was when Smosh’s Pokemon Theme Song video was taken down because of a copyright claim. It was a small, feel-good funny video of two 18-year olds lip-syncing to the pokemon theme song and they were forced to take it down because the Poke-people said they had to and Smosh was almost sued. Since then, all users face issues with copyright claims. User-generated material on the site varies from vlogs (like myself do,) original music, covers and parodies of music, animation, sketchs, and news shows. Now, users have to be extremely careful as to what they upload for fear that not only might their video be deleted, but that they might face a LAWSUIT because of a VIDEO. IT’S REDICULOUS! I have very copy-left opinions, as do the majority of popular YouTubers. To quote one of my favorite videos, “Magic Mars Bars” by Charlie McDonnell…
“I used to steal mars bars. I put it down to peer pressure really, but when I was little… everyday after school we would go down to the local shop, shove mars bars down our sleeves and walk out like we thought we were cool. If I had to pick which one is the worse crime – stealing mars bars or illegal file sharing – I’d probably say that stealing mars bars was the worse crime. My rational for this is if you go into a shop, and steal a mars bar, then the shop owner has one less mars bar. But in the case of file sharing, where you’re making copies of the same song, it’s essentially the same as having magic mars bars. Exactly the same scenario, you go into a shop and take a mars bar, but in the spot where your mars bar once lay, a brand new one appears as if by magic. Now, from the shopowner’s perspective, the situation still definitely isn’t perfect, even with magic mars bars, because if you can get free mars bars, why the hell are you ever going to buy a mars bar. But that mars bar is like a free sample. If you genuinely like that mars bar, then the logical conclusion if you like that mars bar is that you’re going to have to start buying mars bars because the people who make mars bars need money to make those mars bars and if you don’t pay them money then they’re not going to make any more mars bars and you’re not going to get any more mars bars, not even free ones!”
… sorry, long quote. But it really does completely sum up my viewpoint perfectly. Illegal file sharing is only illegal because music artists are greedy. Personally, I don’t download things illegally but if you like an artist and want them to continue making music then you probably want to support them by buying their music. This is slightly different, but still on the same topic of using copyrighted music in a video. If you use someone’s song in a video, then that means you like it and you want to share it with the people who watch you – WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? “It’s like free promotion, so you’re welcome” (Ryan Higa, Copyright.)
(sorry, this isn’t directly about girl talk and RIP, but it’s the same topic and the same issues so I thought I’d bring it up.)
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