• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, August 24, 2007

Online marketing execs might be pleased with YouTube's new "overlay" ads, but it's not clear that viewers feel likewise.

In fact, judging from comments on YouTube's blog, users are quite perturbed by the ads, for which marketers are reportedly paying $20 per thousand impressions. Some complain that the ads, which appear on the bottom fifth of the page, cut off other viewers' written comments, while others are asking how to opt out of the ads. Some have simply announced they intend to abandon the site.

While there's no proof that the people who write in to YouTube's blog are representative of the site's 50-plus million monthly visitors, it certainly seems plausible that many users aren't happy to see ads suddenly appearing on a portion of their screens.

For now, YouTube is limiting the ads to official content partners, in hopes that it won't be accused of profiting from copyrighted material. Otherwise, the company could potentially lose the "safe harbor" protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That law generally protects Internet companies that host copyrighted content as long as they remove it upon request. Companies lose that protection, however, if they directly profit from the material. Courts still have to determine what constitutes a direct profit, but selling ads at $20 CPMs sounds like it could qualify -- which means that a great deal of material on the site will remain ad-free for the near future.