YouTube Adds 10-Minute Video Limit

By Ed Oswald | Published March 30, 2006, 10:48 AM

Popular viral video site YouTube.com earlier this week made some moves to ensure that copyrighted material was not making it on to its site. Effective immediately, the length of videos would be limited to ten minutes or less. In an analysis by the company, it said a majority of those longer videos were copyrighted.

"We're constantly trying to balance the rights of copyright owners with the rights of our users," the company said in a statement.

YouTube has drawn the ire of the broadcast networks, most recently NBC. Representatives of the network found copies of "Lazy Sunday," a rap parody by Saturday Night Live comedians Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg, on YouTube's pages and demanded they be removed.

Sifting through the content submitted by users is no easy task. Each day, tens of thousands of new videos are submitted to the site. Thus, the service also relies on self-policing by its users, who view some 15 million videos per day and are asked to report those with questionable content.

In a posting to the company's Web log, YouTube said it was aware that for some users, the ten-minute restriction would be an issue. The company is working on a solution, but for the time being it asked those who had legal-long form content to contact the service directly.

"We want to know how you've been impacted by this change and any thoughts or ideas you may have," YouTube said.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

I think what youtube should have is to ban some take down all the copyrighted material because I remembered that I read the article about youtube.com from www.wrestlezone.com that the wwe told them to removed all copyrighted stuff. I will say this that they need to join up with the networks like MTV and others.

Score: 0

|

Youtube.com should team up with the networks and offer these video's on special network pages that the network can add clips such as the "portman gangster rap" and "Lazy Sunday" as promotion for their shows. God knows the amount of money or resources they spend now is alot, and either of these videos are much better promotions for thier shows than some of the advertising we've seen in the past. Maybe even give back some of the earning that the advertising makes for youtube.com off these particular pages. It would be a win win for both sides. Youtube.com would gain back some of the lost revenue of not having these videos might have caused, and NBC for excample, would not look like asses, gain a little revenue, and gain the exposure for the show.

Just a thought.

Score: 0

|

"Lazy Sunday," had brough actual viewers back to the network, from the usual SNL crap.

But yeah there was quite a bit of copyright stuff on there. I watched a few episodes of 1990's series.

Score: 0

|

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie: 'Nobody's going to be 100% open'

The mobile apps ecosystems of the world may converge over time, led by apps being ported over across platforms, according to the Chief Software Architect.

Will Firefox beat IE9 to Direct2D rendering?

Just days after Microsoft executives gave conference attendees a peek at a new rendering technology, a Mozilla contributor revealed he's working on the same thing.

Where there's smoke: Apple warranty stance raises troubling questions

Carmi Levy | Wide Angle Zoom: Smoking can be dangerous not only for your lungs, it appears, but for your Apple hardware warranty.

The fallacy of Facebook privacy

Carmi Levy | Wide Angle Zoom: If an insurance company learns something interesting about its client through the Internet, is that snooping?

Microsoft 'worked with Apple' for Silverlight on iPhone, says Goldfarb

By not making such a big deal out of trying to stream video to the iPhone, Microsoft got a big deal out of it, revealed the Silverlight product manager.

Clicker.com cuts through the Web video chaos

In a world where homemade video and Hollywood movies travel the same pipeline, it's good to have a real search engine to cut through the clutter.

A case study in improving software: What Office 2010 can learn from Notion 3

A music composition product gambles with a complete overhaul, in an effort to make headway against two well-known competitors in a tough market.

Kindle 2 update adds battery life, native PDF reader

Amazon has pushed out an update to the Kindle 2 e-reader that lengthens battery life and adds a native PDF viewer.

Safari on iPhone gets competition from a $1 browser app

Apple likes to say it gives iPhone users a full browsing experience, but a new competitor tries to incorporate more desktop browser features.

Action Replay maker sues Microsoft for Xbox 360 'predatory technological barriers'

Third-party video game accessory maker Datel has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft over the Xbox 360's recent Dashboard update.