YouTube's Success: Originality vs. Pirating

According to an article at blogs.zdnet.com, columnist Donna Bogatin discusses about the video super-site YouTube and if its content pirated or genuine is YouTube's "magic."

The article states, "Is the YouTube magic really the enabling of a 'creation of sophisticated goods,' or do the YouTube riches stem from the facilitation of the theft of others’ already created sophisticated goods?"

To companies, like Google, it really doesn't matter.

In October of last year, the search-engine mogul purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Sources at Google say they bought the rapidly-growing site due to it being a "popular video-sharing site [providing] an increasingly lucrative marketing hub."

But the question is: Now that YouTube's content is being monitored by networks such as NBC and Fox, will the site lose it's flair?

No.

Why? Because even though YouTube has become popular due to having copyrighted content, it has become even more popular from several independent productions.

Videos such as, Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager, Ask A Ninja and Lonelygirl15 have created such a craze that some are even receiving worldwide attention.

In fact, Lonelygirl15 was the front cover and main feature story included in Wired Magazine's December 2006 issue.Lonelygirl15 is a "user-contributed fictional video-journal" (phew - say that ten times fast) posted by Bree, played by actress Jessica Rose, and her experiences in two-minute segments.

The series has become one of YouTube's most popular videos and continues to gather viewers even after the series' was exposed as a work of fiction.

Furthermore, YouTube's influence, alongside the rise of popular community-site MySpace, made you and yours truly Time Magazines "Person of the Year."

Do people go to YouTube to catch Sunday nights Family Guy or re-runs of Seinfeld?

Sure. But is that what made YouTube what it is? I doubt it.

YouTube's success is not due to it's copyrighted content ... it was and will always be it's originality.

Viewers love the freedom of the site and the ability to be their own director, producer, actor ... whatever.

Viewers should YouTube, whether it be watching Lonelygirl15 or catching up on those childhood episodes of Transformers and Cheers.

So suck it up networks and think.

Advertisement on a website that has increased from 2.8 million viewers to 72.1 million in one year is a gold mine, the golden goose, cash crop, the fat of the land ... get it?

Remember, any publicity is good publicity.

-R

*http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=961
*http://www.stephanelee.com/wp-content/wired_cover14_12.jpg
*http://web.lexis-nexis.com.ucfproxy.fcla.edu/universe/document?_m=1e9a89502afd5662734e8f22f9b7607d&_docnum=7&wchp=dGLbVlz-zSkVA&_md5=e65a94d04497587533a956595680de60
*image courtesy of www.wired.com