NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Truth About YouTube and Advertising
The Truth About YouTube and Advertising
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000822.html
Greetings. This topic really deserves a longer piece to get into the
details, but I wanted to quickly note the unexpected spate of
"anti-YouTube advertising" comments I received in reaction to my
sending out a link earlier today to: "In YouTube, Google finds a
nimble model to compete with Facebook" ( http://j.mp/hbw78P [Mercury News] ).
Most of these complaints were of the "I hate the way Google puts ads
on everybody's videos" variety.
The problem is, Google/YouTube don't actually do this, and the notes I
received suggest considerable confusion on this score.
True, the most popular videos have ads and tend to be actively
monetized. But while I don't have hard statistics right at my
fingertips tonight, I'd wager that the overwhelmingly vast majority of
YouTube videos carry no ads at all.
Now, I'm like most other people -- there are some forms of ads related
to videos that I find more irritating than others. I consider long
"pre-roll" ads to be particularly irksome.
But I also feel that advertising overall on YouTube is a good value
proposition, considering the vast array of material that I can access
for free, much of which provides me with considerable enjoyment, as
I've related in past postings.
There are really only a few ways to end up with ads on your YouTube
videos.
One is to ask YouTube to become a partner, specifically to enable
monetization.
Another way is to accept the "Enable Revenue Sharing" offer that you
may receive if your video is trending in significant ways.
Both of these are entirely voluntary. So at this stage of the game,
if you don't want to be a partner and you don't accept the Revenue
Sharing offer, there normally won't be ads on, beside, or under your
video.
And if you see ads on a video, it usually means that the party
uploading the video requested (or agreed to) revenue sharing
monetization.
There is an exception to all this. There is a way to end up with ads
on your video without your permission, and with you not sharing in any
revenue. And that's if your video triggers a copyright owner "Content
ID" hit, that is, a claim that your video in whole or part infringes
on a copyright owner, as per the DMCA.
For now, I won't get into the complicated controversies about YouTube
Content ID, such as whether or not it is sometimes too aggressive, how
it relates to Fair Use and preauthorized use considerations, etc. Nor
will I consider here the various dispute mechanisms that exist for
YouTube video uploaders related to DMCA/Content ID claims.
Leaving that all aside for now, Content ID carries an enormously
positive benefit, in that it provides copyright owners with the means
to assert their ownership of materials without ordering a full
takedown of the associated videos.
And that's how ads may appear in such cases. If your uploaded video
triggers Content ID, you'll be notified of the claim and the action
specified by the copyright owner. There are various possibilities,
including but not limited to:
- Ads being inserted on or around the video
- Links to "where to purchase this music" sites under the video
(common when popular music has been used as a backing track during
some portion of the video)
- Video playback restricted in certain countries
- And so on
Usually, the notification you receive regarding the Content ID hit is
quite detailed and provides the information needed for you to decide
how you want to proceed.
In many cases, Content ID options have been key to keeping popular
videos available at all.
A classic example is the famous "Hitler in the Bunker" scene that has
been used for countless parodies (and c'mon, admit it, some of them
are pretty funny). For quite a while, the company owning the rights
to that footage was routinely pulling down those videos one by one
from YouTube, as full DMCA takedowns. But as of late (at least the
last time I checked) they had changed their strategy, and now are
simply monetizing those parodies with ads, rather than forcing their
removal entirely.
Legal purists may choose to argue the Fair Use issues involved in
this, but from a practical standpoint this seems like a pretty good
win-win. The parodies' creators get to keep showing their work, and
the creator of the source footage gets some action as well.
This complicated balancing act is now threatened with disruption by
the horrendous COICA legislation in the U.S. Senate, that apparently
seeks to undermine the entire premise of the DMCA, potentially
creating such high liabilities that services like YouTube could be
severely threatened (please see my recent "Internet Freedoms"
Interview for more on COICA risks and related matters -
http://j.mp/gguiZD [Lauren's Blog] ).
YouTube is a quintessential example of the complex issues that
surround user-submitted materials on publicly accessible Web sites. I
am an enormous YouTube fan, and I would consider its hobbling to be a
tremendous loss, not just for entertainment, but in a vast array of
serious educational aspects as well.
In these contexts, I frankly find shrill complaints about YouTube ads
to be of relatively little consequence -- perhaps more a reflection of
how people have come to expect everything for free on the Net -- even
free from advertising -- never mind the immense costs involved in
providing these services in the first place.
That's human nature, I suppose. But in the overall scheme of things,
is watching some ads really such an unreasonable price to "pay" --
given what we receive from YouTube?
I think it's a pretty fair exchange. And that's a damned good deal in
this life, especially these days.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://j.mp/laurenbuzz
Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com