Youtube Define Your Product
YouTube is asking us not only to subscribe to our favourite channels, but buy them as well. There’s a monthly fee involved. Before we whip out credit cards, YouTube must define the product, especially channel ownership. Who is the content creator?
For me, it starts with the introduction: Hi guys. Welcome to my YouTube channel.
1. If that voice-over is laid on top of a video, actress/comedian Keke Palmer posted about her baby, it is opinion, not content and I will not buy an opinion channel.
2. If that voice over is laid on a scene from a Mary Igwe and Frederick Leonard movie, it is opinion not content. It is stealing from Nigerian producers who take financial risks to make projects. Some pull out their movies from the internet, to avoid content vandalism.
3. If that voice-over is laid on a video Prince Harry and his wife posted, it is opinion not content, especially if the voice-over predicts their divorce. I will not buy opinion channels.
This is just a tip of the iceberg of how people lie and steal, in the race for thousands of views. Other voice-overs are not as blatant. Example. Linda, in her channel talks about dangerous games girls play with strangers for the mighty dollar. She then uses a clip of a girl boasting that she flew to another country to sleep with a ball player. Linda is using the girl’s content to put a point across. What is YouTube’s position of this? Who is the owner of the content, the travelling salesman or Linda who said, ‘Hi guys. Welcome to my channel.’
I can anticipate YouTube’s response. It will direct us to its content policy. Yes, I’ve read it, but there are many videos that fly under the radar, which brings us to buying channels. There is so much spray painting and mauling of content, YouTube should re-visit the definition of ‘creator’ and explain it in simple language, before asking us to buy channels.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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