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Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

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Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#211

Post by comex »

cvwright wrote: post #160
Applejinx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made a video about this in January, before YouTube strongarmed Blender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ksbTTXHw8 I am pretty dismayed to be this right. I didn't think YT would be nearly this aggressive in service of the ideas I outlined. Basically, they take a cut off that activity. In some cases they could take most of or all the money, which is a clear win for them, but even when they pay out they're earning r…

Eventually this is going to get them in trouble with the Sherman Antitrust Act. From Wikipedia: > "Innocent monopoly", or monopoly achieved solely by merit, is perfectly legal, but acts by a monopolist to artificially preserve that status, or nefarious dealings to create a monopoly, are not. The purpose of the Sherman Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent…

> It's pretty clear that Google used their dominant position(s) in web search and web advertising to then dominate the user-generated video space.

That's not particularly clear to me. YouTube was already pretty huge when Google bought them in 2006: according to Wikipedia, the fifth most popular website, albeit of a far smaller Web. Google, meanwhile, had their own video-uploading service, Google Video, which launched three months before YouTube but was not nearly as successful. Sure, there's no doubt that YouTube has benefitted massively from Google's resources in the decade since, including their willingness to let it run without a profit. But based on that history, it seems far from inevitable that Google would be the one to dominate video.

It also doesn't seem like YouTube's growth is all that directly linked to Google Search's monopoly status, other than in that the latter powered Google's profits (but there are plenty of sources of money in the world). Google Search's video results have always shown videos from all websites rather than being YouTube-specific; who knows what they might have done if there had been more serious competition, but there wasn't, so they don't have that particular blood on their hands. You could argue that Google used its Search leverage to promote Web videos in general, as opposed to some other form of media, but I don't know what other form would be or why it would be preferable to video. (Perhaps live video? There might be another universe in which justin.tv was successful early on, rather than waiting most of a decade for the unexpected explosion of Twitch. But I think that given the state of Internet connections at the time, it made more sense for YouTube to happen first.)

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#212

Post by rrcaptain »

dilap wrote: post #179
abnry wrote: post #3

I can't believe this has been going on for three days. YouTube seems like it is actively sabotaging its independent content creator's channels. But in this case it's not just some random kid living with their parent's. MIT and Blender are both respectable orgs.

They've been pissing off their content creators for quiet a while now w/ completely arbitrary, machine-driven demonitization. Many of these creators are far beyond the "kid in a basement" category; they're celebs, have employees, and make $$$. It's crazy and really sad how YouTube bloomed into this awesome, independent alternative to all the crap coming out of hollywood and cable TV, but now they've decided to kneeca…

I mean, that only happened because advertisers learned that the "independent" creators were all assholes. Like this started after advertisers started pulling out when PewDiePie didn't just apologize and admit he was wrong with the Nazi stunts. He threw a fit and advertisers realized that YouTube isn't really as good as they thought it was.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#213

Post by sumanthvepa »

It seems to me that YouTube's business model is ad supported. They need to run ads to pay for infrastructure to support the service and make profit for themselves, since they are not charging the user. So a sufficiently large channel that does not permit ads will eat into their revenues.i.e. it becomes an expensive free rider. This, I guess, is the reason behind the decision. I suppose it makes sense. But I don't see why they don't offer a paid option to entities like Blender who don't want ads?

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#214

Post by beiller »

burnte wrote: post #158
beiller wrote: post #78

Blender is the epic example of free software slowly eventually eating the big proprietary guys' lunch. Volunteers spending countless hours writing software, because they were fed up with the very high pricing point of the alternatives (Maya, 3DS). Now hopefully they can kick off the eating of large internet incumbents like Youtube, maybe using some decentralized free video sharing like PeerTube. I love watching blend…

Remember that Blender started as proprietary software created by a Dutch company. The software was close source from its inception until 2002 when the parent company went bankrupt and the creator started a crowdfunding campaign to buy and open the source from the holding company's liquidation sale.

Yeah I watched an interview. It was cool how he says most of the major modeller refactors, and other very important code contributions were donated by volunteers.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#215

Post by ChuckMcM »

The next step will be that you won't be indexed by Google's web search engine if you don't have AdSense for Content ads. Why? Because the steam is going out of Google's ad business[1], and Google has no other business. They have added just about all of the advertising on their own pages they can get away with and they started by squeezing channels with fewer than 4k views a month, and now their squeezing channels that choose not to show ads.

Thinks about what this means in the big picture, Google cannot get enough people showing ads on their videos to support people who choose not to show ads. What percentage of Youtube videos don't show ads? 5% ? 10%?

Don't hate me for it, but my prediction is that the next lifeline Google will reach for will be charging money for turn by turn directions in maps. They really need to find some way other than search ads to make money.

[1] This is hyperbole, I don't think they will deindex sites but I can see it affecting the page rank.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#216

Post by andrewflnr »

burnte wrote: post #158
beiller wrote: post #78

Blender is the epic example of free software slowly eventually eating the big proprietary guys' lunch. Volunteers spending countless hours writing software, because they were fed up with the very high pricing point of the alternatives (Maya, 3DS). Now hopefully they can kick off the eating of large internet incumbents like Youtube, maybe using some decentralized free video sharing like PeerTube. I love watching blend…

Remember that Blender started as proprietary software created by a Dutch company. The software was close source from its inception until 2002 when the parent company went bankrupt and the creator started a crowdfunding campaign to buy and open the source from the holding company's liquidation sale.

Yes, and then it was able to start slowly taking over the world. I see the value of a proprietary cash-fueled kick start, but it wasn't the driving factor in blender's adoption, and other projects show it's clearly not necessary in the general case.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#217

Post by cwyers »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #215

The next step will be that you won't be indexed by Google's web search engine if you don't have AdSense for Content ads. Why? Because the steam is going out of Google's ad business[1], and Google has no other business. They have added just about all of the advertising on their own pages they can get away with and they started by squeezing channels with fewer than 4k views a month, and now their squeezing channels tha…

> Google cannot get enough people showing ads on their videos to support people who choose not to show ads.

Or maybe they just don't want to.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#218

Post by Theodores »

judge2020 wrote: post #207
Theodores wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other news, did anyone get a 'go ad free' pop-up on YouTube today, with 3 months free? Seems there are some changes going on.

Did you see this after already taking the 3 months before? I subscribe to Red (now premium, grandfathered price) and they seem to give this popup to every user.

First time seen, in the UK, which is not the primary market.

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#219

Post by cwyers »

cvwright wrote: post #171
fusiongyro wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see how this behavior helps artificially preserve their status as a monopoly or constitutes a nefarious dealing to create a monopoly, and the fact that Blender is using this opportunity to switch to another provider is not going to reinforce your point about YouTube being a monopoly.

No you're right, this particular behavior doesn't help to preserve their monopoly. It's evidence that they already have one. Companies who have to survive in a competitive marketplace don't typically go around driving away customers en masse. This is like something from 1990's Microsoft.

In what sense is Blender a customer if they aren't monetizing their videos, though?

Re: Blender is testing PeerTube after YouTube blocks their videos worldwide

#220

Post by dilap »

rrcaptain wrote: post #212
dilap wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've been pissing off their content creators for quiet a while now w/ completely arbitrary, machine-driven demonitization. Many of these creators are far beyond the "kid in a basement" category; they're celebs, have employees, and make $$$. It's crazy and really sad how YouTube bloomed into this awesome, independent alternative to all the crap coming out of hollywood and cable TV, but now they've decided to kneeca…

I mean, that only happened because advertisers learned that the "independent" creators were all assholes. Like this started after advertisers started pulling out when PewDiePie didn't just apologize and admit he was wrong with the Nazi stunts. He threw a fit and advertisers realized that YouTube isn't really as good as they thought it was.

I honestly don't believe this. I think YouTube used this as an excuse to crack down on channels they didn't like, for whatever reason. (And also a lot of other channels, because the flagging is poorly done. I know some people who run a very popular skateboarding instruction channel, and they've had huge problems with demonitization. The content is utterly inoffensive.)

I think if all you were concerned about is advertisers, you'd just let them pick that as a criteria: "Would you like to advertise on channels flagged by our system as potentially offensive?"

Some would, some wouldn't. Problem solved, you don't piss off creators, you make more money.

(Maybe the counter-argument to that is advertisers wouldn't want to appear on any YouTube channel because some other YouTube channel had offensive content, as though all of YouTube were a tainted brand, but that is frankly laughable.)

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