Just finished reading a Time Magazine article (print version!) on how the rising bureaucracy and increased protections on Wikipedia have led to a serious drop-off in new material over the last year or so, and now I go on YouTube and find five videos in a row, some with literally millions of views, stripped of their audio to cover themselves against copyright infringement. As an experiment I start doing random searches of every topic imaginable and if it's not some random person fucking around talking into a webcam, it's lost its audio. YouTube may be protecting itself against legal action but I immediately thought to myself "this is the day YouTube lost its relevance." The 60s are over, Myspace is dead, and everybody that survived those chaotic days is cutting their hair, putting on their business suits and grabbing their briefcases, done with their "don't trust any websites over 4 years old" rhetoric and happily selling out, prepping for their Reagan Democrats transition.
Only, in the process, these sites are forgetting what made them popular in the first place, and one of the main things is pure unfettered freedom. Look how Napster begat Morpheus begat Kazaa begat Limewire begat Pirate's Bay: as soon as one went legit or overrun with spam another immediately popped up supplying the new demand, and the old site became a shadow, a joke.
If Youtube bans all copyrighted material people will simply flock elsewhere and whatever big corporation snapped it up when it was cool will find themselves with a user base of older people who are just catching on and don't know all the cool kids have left. GrooveShark will explode, sell out, and die just the same. How many people felt a sudden icy grip in their innards when they got their first friend request from a buddy's mom or your uncle? If this keeps up and FaceBook becomes too Establishment we could see people diving overboard like rats fleeing a sinking ship or cast members fleeing ER.
Or is the entire Internet too part of the system now, all the fluidity gone and a rigid structure forming that can't be easily changed? Will people grin and bear it when they find themselves unable to get their favorite Muppet Show clip or Mott The Hoople song? Will Facebook statuses across the globe be washed clean of vulgarities and colorfully vile observations as more and more "grown ups" join and college kids realize they can't post pictures of themselves puking in the middle of a kegger blow job?
In the words of the thankfully resilient Onion, what do YOU think?
Only, in the process, these sites are forgetting what made them popular in the first place, and one of the main things is pure unfettered freedom. Look how Napster begat Morpheus begat Kazaa begat Limewire begat Pirate's Bay: as soon as one went legit or overrun with spam another immediately popped up supplying the new demand, and the old site became a shadow, a joke.
If Youtube bans all copyrighted material people will simply flock elsewhere and whatever big corporation snapped it up when it was cool will find themselves with a user base of older people who are just catching on and don't know all the cool kids have left. GrooveShark will explode, sell out, and die just the same. How many people felt a sudden icy grip in their innards when they got their first friend request from a buddy's mom or your uncle? If this keeps up and FaceBook becomes too Establishment we could see people diving overboard like rats fleeing a sinking ship or cast members fleeing ER.
Or is the entire Internet too part of the system now, all the fluidity gone and a rigid structure forming that can't be easily changed? Will people grin and bear it when they find themselves unable to get their favorite Muppet Show clip or Mott The Hoople song? Will Facebook statuses across the globe be washed clean of vulgarities and colorfully vile observations as more and more "grown ups" join and college kids realize they can't post pictures of themselves puking in the middle of a kegger blow job?
In the words of the thankfully resilient Onion, what do YOU think?
