December 19, 2007...1:35 am
Beware The Giants
It seems fitting that on the day that big media is allowed to get bigger, that we receive yet another reminder that putting trust into large corporations is never the smart move for indie content creators.
Perez Hilton’s YouTube Channel was suspended and his secondary account that he created to let the YouTubers know what happened was also deleted.
I remember speaking on a panel of YouTube celebs at Digital Hollywood and this topic came up.
A lot of the creators looked at me like I was nuts.
Why would YouTube ever cancel their account?
Why shouldn’t they continue to build their audience and businesses along side of the most popular video sharing site?
Because YouTube doesn’t care about any one creator, any one video.
If you or your video violates their TOS, then you’re screwed. And the way the TOS is written, practically every video has some sort of major or minor violation. (See Update Below)
Even writing this post, I’m going to cross my figners and hope they don’t cancel my account.
Sounds crazy. Sounds paranoid. I know. But I also know that we’ve found a way to make money without them. And I know that annoys them. And I suspect that’s what annoyed them about Perez, too.
YouTube’s behaviour is old media gatekeeping rearing its ugly head.
In this new media world, build your own domain. Create traffic that you can sell your own ads against. Build up your video views through your own site and then monetize them using Revver et. al., and then sell CPM ads as soon as you can.
UPDATE: I made Steve Chen aware of the situation. Steve has promoted this internally, but he thought that my comments on their TOS were unfair. I rechecked them and he’s right, they are pretty fair to the creators.
39 Comments
December 19, 2007 at 1:40 am
word.
December 19, 2007 at 1:42 am
Great first post…
December 19, 2007 at 1:43 am
i dont know if i told you that when i was planning the vloggies in 2006, i talked to someone at youtube (this was before the google purchase) and this someone said “yeah, we dont really care about stuff like that”
December 19, 2007 at 1:58 am
“I look forward to reading this blog later….”
December 19, 2007 at 2:09 am
Good first post Kent. Subscribed.
It’s crazy what has happened. TOS or not, I would think that there would at least, at the very least be fair warning (especially for partner accounts) before deleting someone’s video - never mind their ENTIRE account.
I’m hoping this gets resolved very soon and that they amend their procedures.
December 19, 2007 at 2:09 am
[...] We already know the guy is wicked smart but his posting about Perez Hilton’s YouTube problems and what new media types should take from it…. [...]
December 19, 2007 at 2:11 am
Well said Mr. Nichols!
December 19, 2007 at 2:11 am
This goes hand in hand with another article I read recently about Flickr vs. photoblogging and Twitter vs. regular blogging. Building your own brand came up numerous times in the discussion and I think it is good advice.
Looking forward to reading more from your blog!
December 19, 2007 at 2:14 am
Is there an unofficial Kent Nichols blog. Maybe even a Fake Kent Nichols?
December 19, 2007 at 3:01 am
Kent
This is by far the best post you have ever done.
Happy Holidays
Mike
December 19, 2007 at 3:02 am
The voice in my head as I read this was definitely the voice of the ninja.
Is that weird?
PS. Crossing your figners sounds uncomfortable.
December 19, 2007 at 4:38 am
[...] Thanks to Kent for getting me fired up at The Man [...]
December 19, 2007 at 5:23 am
YouTube is the hit-maker and the hit-taker-awayer.
One of our big priorities in the first month of 2008 is to make sure we drive back our YouTube viewers to our main site.
December 19, 2007 at 7:46 am
[...] is never the smart move for indie content creators. Perez Hilton’s YouTube Channel was suspended.read more | digg [...]
December 19, 2007 at 8:05 am
The web’s most interesting stories on Wed 19th Dec 2007
These are the web’s most talked about URLs on Wed 19th Dec 2007. The current winner is ..
December 19, 2007 at 8:06 am
I would say all businesses (big and small) need to re-evaluate their TOS policies.
We as a company are moving from a Host we were hosted with for over 4 years because of a three strikes and you are out policy. We had three TOS violations over so many years, none of which were our fault, and all of which could have been dealt with by a quick email or call. However, in most cases they turned off our entire package, and then made us jump through hoops for nothing more serious than a 16×16 .gif which they considered was copyright, and some bad-wisher alerted them to.
In all cases none of these .gifs proved to be copyright. But our Host now considers us to be on our last warning, and will pull the plug for any infraction - suspected, major, minor or from la la land - it does not matter.
When did *we* stop being the customer and businesses forget about talking to humans and enforcing rules in fair and balanced ways?
December 19, 2007 at 9:04 am
YouTube provides a great service and makes it easy to get content out to the masses. But in the end, its good to be “the master of your own domain.” (thanks Jerry)
Great post. Big fan of the Ninja.
December 19, 2007 at 12:05 pm
As Mr Woolf says really. Anyone that gives power can also take it back and youtube is no different.
December 19, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Kent
Great start to your blog. Look forward to reading more!
December 19, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Great post and great advice for everyone putting honest and hard work into their shows.
December 19, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I still think you’re nuts but not for what you have to say on this topic.
And are you using WordPress to host your blog?
December 19, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Great first post and sound advice.
Brand, brand, brand. Build your brand wherever you syndicate to.
December 19, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Dont pull any punches with the update Kent. Youtube can still pull your video account for whatever reason they want. Or no reason at all. This fact makes any kind of “fair terms of service” negligable.
If they want to be good community members, they would institute a fair process for taking down an account with open and transparent communication.
December 19, 2007 at 7:19 pm
KILLER advice and a hell of a first post. You can be damn sure I’m subscribed and reading.
December 19, 2007 at 7:25 pm
@jay
Yeah absolutely. But I was thinking of an earlier TOS where basically every vid was in violation. The way the TOS currently stands, most indie activity is covered.
But still who makes those determinations, and why those decisions were made are very opaque.
No matter what the TOS, you as a creator need to be aware that there’s always someone bigger than you, that you as an individual you are less consequential than the enterprise as a whole.
So you should try and diversify as much as possible in terms of audience and revenue streams.
December 19, 2007 at 8:03 pm
YouTube is a bad place to put your videos, because the whole site was founded on piracy to begin with. In order to protect themselves NOW, it’s very easy to get videos taken off of YouTube if you act like you have some authority.
I had *one* video taken off of youtube. A video that I edited myself from raw footage of a dance troupe that was given to the founder/choreographer by the festival that invited her group to dance there. Nobody contacted me at all, even by the email attached to my YouTube account, and I went to the site one day, and the video was removed.
Of course, I didn’t care, because I had the same video posted on several other public sites as well as on my own server, but for people that don’t do that, posting on YouTube is building a house on quicksand.
December 19, 2007 at 10:25 pm
[...] Blogger Perez Hilton recently had his YouTube account suspended, only to create a second account that was also disabled. Kent Nichols (of Ask a Ninja) has a great overview of the situation. [...]
December 20, 2007 at 3:40 am
Great first post, Kent—SUBSCRIBED! I’m looking forward to seeing more of your thoughts.
It looks to me as if YouTube may be trying to move in a new direction in recent days. Within the last week they have opened up their “partnership program”, redesigned the site, and they appear to be aggressively pulling videos with questionable copyright.
I don’t think they have much of a chance to remain viable unless they make some serious changes-I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more controversial moves from them soon as they try to remain relevant without getting sued constantly.
December 20, 2007 at 4:14 pm
You provide very sound advice for any online/new media content creator. It even scares me that such a large percentage of my podcast feed subscribers use iTunes to subscribe.
Apple has never knowingly or purposefully done anything to usurp my audience, but all it would take is a small change in the wrong direction or an new clause in the TOS and my audience could be seriously compromised.
Now, I don’t say this to bash Apple or iTunes (Hi Phil:), but I do want to offer another example of how content creators need to be very aware of what control they allow over the various stages of their distribution chain. Use many channels, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
December 20, 2007 at 4:44 pm
[...] video podcast, has started a blog. I’d like to add some additional insights based on his first post which brings up an important point—who has control over your audience. He cites the problems [...]
December 20, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Good thoughts.
As long as we don’t rely on YouTube then we should be fine.
December 20, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Kent - it’s important that people out there hear these things directly from you. Ubiquity is the key, that’s why there are so many different portals and channels and services. I can only imagine, as more and more entertainment professionals make their way to the web, the controls will become stricter and tighter. BUT - the sea change with the internet is that people like you have circumvented the machine to become independently profitable. And that’s rad.
Thanks for posting this.
December 21, 2007 at 2:55 am
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December 22, 2007 at 7:29 am
I had one of the first episodes of Abigail (http://www.abigailsxratedteendiary.com) taken down from YT because it talked about - literally just TALKED about - Britney Spears, and her label Zomba, flexing an itchy trigger finger, had it yanked. Bear in mind no music or pictures of Britney (or anyone other than myself) were used. I simply responded to this bullshit by filling out the appropriate forms that YouTube provide and within hours of that rebuttal, the video was back up and Zomba had exited stage left without saying another word.
So in my personal experience, this tells me that YouTube are very quick to pull something if they’ve been told it violates their TOS but are as equally quick to put it back up if they’re challenged on it and proven wrong. It also tells me Zomba have a dodgy way of deciding what’s legal or not but that’s another issue for another day. Looks like Perez experienced something else but I don’t know the details to that particular story.
Kent; you talk of this being ‘old media gatekeeping’ - and I couldn’t agree more! Why would anyone think that just because some of the means of modern distribution have changed that business hasn’t? It seems naive for people to assume that this is a ‘brave new world’ when it’s the same one we’ve always lived in - only now with flash animation! When you’re dealing with multi-million dollar corporations it seems foolish to forget they have board rooms and aren’t still run by 2 guys in a garage.
Everyone’s with me, right?!?
Fine. I’ll get my coat.
December 23, 2007 at 2:48 am
[...] Beware The Giants It seems fitting that on the day that big media is allowed to get bigger, that we receive yet another reminder that […] [...]
December 23, 2007 at 10:23 pm
This is the next step in the backlash that Youtube can expect. Maybe a recap of all the popular video hosts’ TOS is in order.
December 25, 2007 at 10:05 am
[...] not a particular fan of (that particular brand of) celebrity gossip. However, as noted in several places this is a straightforward, clear, example of the power of media oligopolies, and the problems that [...]
December 26, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Man, I was busy making Christmas cookies and missed this when you first put this up.
Awesome new blog, Kent, and thanks for the Revver mention. Of course, we agree with you wholeheartedly: own your content and your brand.
December 29, 2007 at 11:22 pm
I have always marveled at the efficiency of the Google propaganda machine. The way they collected all the disaffected Microsoft captives. The way they always played the underdog.
Reality is….they are just as, if not more than, as monopolicious as M$.
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