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For those of you who don’t know, Web 2.0 is this whole user generated content driven web experience that I blogged about previously back in August of 2007 ironically titled, Self Produced Crap. My issue then was with Andrew Keen. Mr. Keen had written a book and had made an appearance on The Colbert Report, basically crying about there being too many people producing stuff and not enough people making up the audience.

He may be right on that point. The other point he had was that most of what is self-produced is dreck. That part I had an issue with.

Anyway, this isn’t a rehash about that post. This is a scathing commentary about YouTube.

YouTube is probably the preeminent example of self-produced crap. Anybody with a video camera can film themselves telling a joke or singing a song or film their dog doing a trick. Next thing ya know, it’s an overnight smash and it’s being featured on CNN. Then by the following week everybody’s forgotten about it.

Well, let’s face it. Other than anything completely and totally original on YouTube, probably 97% of the self-produced crap that’s posted there makes use of somebody else’s material, be it video or music. Very little, if any, of it is done in a malicious context or in an attempt to rip off somebody else. My two videos (which I’ve now removed) were slideshows set to music. Really benign innocent crap. Yet, YouTube, under pressure from Warner Music Group, had to put on it’s Gestapo uniform and crack down on users who had videos that contained any music from a WMG artist or band and yours truly recently got busted.

Since I did not have authoriztion to use ZZTop’s “Rough Boy” with my Bill Maxwell slideshow, YouTube muted the video. The slideshow would still be seen, just with no music.

Man, I feel like such a bad ass now. I was using a song without authorization. GASP!

I figure the reason I got easily busted was because I was dumb enough to put “ZZTop” and “Rough Boy” in the tags. Of course, I also put “Robert Culp” in the tags and I figure, had I waited long enough, the video would’ve been blacked out or deleted for using his likeness without authorization.

You see where I’m going with this? I can’t show my appreciation for something without somebody getting their nickers in a twist about copyright infringement and unauthorized use and blah blah blah. I mean, come on, I’m not mass producing this video and selling it for profit. I make no money by having it posted on YouTube. I acknowledge that the source material is not my own and note where it did come from. I like the song. I love Culp as Maxwell. I thought it went well together and wanted to share it with other folks. But nope, that’s not good enough.

Doesn’t WMG think it’s possible that somebody who digs Culp/Maxwell coulda found the vid but maybe had never heard the song before? And maybe, after watching the vid, they decide they like it. So they go on over to iTunes or to Amazon.com or whereever and end up buying the song. Hey, lookit that, another royalty dime for Frank, Dusty and Billy.

Yeah. FREE ADVERTISING, you can’t handle that concept WMG??

Nope, they can’t. Instead it’s just “you don’t have permission to use this song. You suck. Your video is now muted.  We’re not making any money off this deal and you’re a jerk!”

Oh, I had the option to swap the music out for one of YouTube’s “authorized” songs. Damn, are they kidding? They got songs in there from artists/bands I’ve never heard of. I tried one song with the slideshow and absolutely hated it and there was no way I was going to sample any of the other music on there for this vid. I’m sorry but the slide show was timed to match “Rough Boy.” Anything else will just look stupid.

Of course, I coulda contested the copyright notice if I wanted to basically commit internet suicide. Hahah….right.

So, in the end the creative urge has been squelched. I’ve pulled both my videos, the Dukes one too, as I figure at somepoint somebody will get upset I used ol’ Willie’s version of “Georgia on My Mind” without permission too. Or Warner’s will get upset I’m using the Dukes of Hazzard images and force the thing to be deleted.

By the way, I never got notice that my video was being muted. I just happen to be checking on the thing yesterday and saw the bright pink (Pink? Who the hell picked pink for such a dire warning color?!) banner on my video indicating it had been muted. And who knows how long the thing had been muted.

Morons.

I am done with YouTube.