• New York Daily News, Tuesday, November 7, 2006 12:16 PM

YouTube is this year's winner of Time magazine's "Invention of the Year." The "supereconomical" car and a soldier-saving robot are among the other inventions it beat out for the honor.

"Only YouTube created a new way for millions of people to entertain, educate, shock, rock and grok one another on a scale we've never seen before," the editors wrote in the issue honoring the viral video site. They added that rules of media and the Web fundamentally changed as a result of YouTube.

This is true to a degree. But we should keep in mind that it is YouTube that is now in a position where it must bend a little to the rules of traditional media, or Google, its new owner, will find itself with a series of copyright lawsuits. Indeed, much of its popularity is that users can upload any video they want--a feature that may change if media companies renege. So, as innovative as YouTube is--and user-uploaded video is certainly a game-changing invention--there should be a big asterisk next to its award that reads: "to be continued."

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