Death of a fun site

Well, It didn't take YouTube long to start sucking. Thanks Google (the search engine giant recently purchased YouTube) - first you gave us a great search engine. Cool. Next came another noun-to-verb migration in the English language. Irritating, but I can live with it because of your search engine's coolness. But finally, you sucked the life out of formerly one of the coolest Websites on the planet.

Now YouTube (predictably) is running scared because it's owned by rich parents, a.k.a. Google. It's as if a poor African baby, living in malnourished poverty, was suddenly plucked out of the dessert and was handed hundreds of millions of dollars. Sorry, Madonna's baby.

You get the idea, though. Now that YouTube can be sued, stuffed suits (Read: dickhead lawyers) are no doubt running the "program," turning YouTube into BoobTube as it becomes increasingly hyper-sensitive about what content gets uploaded onto its site. That's YT's right, but it's destroying what made the site cool in the first place. Oh well, your 15 minutes are just about up anyway, YouBoobs.

Why all the bitterness? Because today, YouTube cancelled my account. No worries - I started up another one in about 10 minutes, but it was just a PITA. I knew it would happen before long though - considering all of the political stuff I like to upload - it was bound to get someone's attention.

You're going to laugh, but it was probably Fox (Really!), because the network has been anal about its content being uploaded, and the gravy on the whole meal is that I think I called Bill O'Lielly a dumb MFer or something in the comments section about one of the videos I uploaded. *Laughing* Imagine someone from Fox running across that! I relish the thought.

To be honest, I dunno why networks are so touchy about clips being uploaded. Whole programs and movies and such, I can understand, but a few minutes from a news program? (Okay, I'm being generous, calling Fox News "news" - what can I say, I'm in a charitable mood.) I'd think that networks would be happy that their shows are getting the attention. But, they don't see it that way.

Perhaps the San Francisco Chronicle put it best when YouTube pulled all Comedy Central Clips at the network's request:

"...there goes another huge chunk of YouTube, another one of the main reasons millions used the site, another vital organ of a once-brilliant idea now under the dumb hammer of corporate ad-revenue rule."

Yep, that about sums it up.

However, the up-and-coming networks or the flagging ones don't seem to mind their content being uploaded - MSNBC rating as the former and CNN the latter - funny how I never have trouble when I upload those. But, really popular content (Daily Show) and the really sensitive (Fox) are the ones that cry foul. You be the judge.

Really, this can all be summed up in two words: "lawyers" and "advertisers"; the two biggest reasons this is happening. I hope Google enjoys its purchase while the Website is worth anything, because in a few years (and I'm betting probably much sooner), the site will be yesterday's newspaper. Google may very well have had more fun burning all of those dollar bills it paid for YT, because before long, its investment will be merely ashes.

If YouTube kicks me off again, I'll simply start up my own blog on my own Website, hosting and all.