Well, okay, I know YouTube's still alive and kicking -- but I miss the old YouTube. The classic YouTube where you could find enormous chunks of your favorite movies and TV shows, offered up en masse and commercial-free.
I know that's not a very PC opinion to have -- "I miss piracy" -- but I have to express it nonetheless. I used to use YouTube to catch up on shows I missed the night before, to check out shows I'd heard good things about, and even to socialize at work -- boning up on key scenes of shows I didn't watch, that everyone at work was yakking about.
I know, it's still piracy, and there are people out there who get very touchy about that sort of thing -- but think on this: watching YouTube clips has actually turned me on to shows and movies that I never would have watched otherwise! If not for YouTube, for example, I never would have gotten into "Rescue Me" -- and now all three DVD seasons ($40 a pop) sit happily on my shelves.
Now -- thanks to a shockingly clean sweep of the entire system in recent months, and extremely diligent policing of the clips that have been uploaded since then -- I've been reduced to watching home videos of total strangers and lousy "remix" music videos made by bored teenagers.
Not that the talking cats, angry German kid and "leave Britney alone" manwoman aren't entertaining -- but I have to say that I miss my Family Guy, Sopranos and The Shield clips...
(I note, however, that YouTube is still chock-full of commercials. Strangely, the commercial manufacturers don't seem to have a problem with people viewing their ads for free...) ;-)
Ah well. All good things must come to an end, I suppose, and I'll just have to find some other way to stay abreast of what's going on on TV. (I suppose I could try actually watching TV...)
Am I advocating piracy by expressing this opinion? Or am I just showing that I'm a hypocrite? I don't know. I'm against piracy as a concept -- but, all the same, I have to admit that I'm going to miss the manly sport of hunkering down at my desk and watching a grainy South Park clip at the lowest possible volume while keeping an ear out for my boss.
It was a good run while it lasted. Good night, funny site...
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1 comment:
No you're not advocating piracy - I think you hold dear the original anarchic, and idealistic, promise of the internet: free and unlimited access to just about everything media. And if you're mourning YouTube, invest in lots of Kleenex, because corporate communications giants Verizon, Comcast and others are lobbying fierce and hard to fashion the landscape of the internet into something which they can control and make more money off of. It would behoove all of us to fight back
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