In 11 short months, YouTube, a Web site where Internet users can post video content, has become one of the most popular sites on the Web, drawing 9.1 million people per day in February, according to
Nielsen/NetRatings. It shows 30 million videos a day, making it one of the biggest providers of video on the Web, just behind Microsoft, but ahead of competitors Google and Yahoo, which charge for
video content. Why is it so popular? Again, it's all about its "purpose driven" ease of use: users can post content in minutes. Some of it is copyrighted, however -- like sports highlights, for
example, but users can put up anything they want, amounting to an average of 30,000 new videos a day. Obviously, the posting of copyrighted clips doesn't sit well with the media companies who own the
content, but it's not necessarily YouTube's fault what its users post. The issue is not dissimilar to Craigslist, which is now facing litigation from a fair housing group over discriminatory postings
on the online classifieds site. As the proprietor of a means of connecting buyers and sellers online, is Craigslist responsible for the way they do business? What about YouTube, as a proprietor of an
easy way for users to post and share the video they (ostensibly) own? For the time being, YouTube complies with all requests to remove copyrighted content, but with a small staff, it's impossible for
them to screen for copyrighted works before they're posted. Media execs say YouTube is great and all, but as one says, "five years from now I don't know how they make their money. Their problem is all
the pirated content."
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