The Dread Pirate YouTube

Turns out that YouTube isn't following the "Don't Be Evil" motto under which Google runs their empire -- unless you think that profiting from other people's piracy is considered Honorable or Ethical.
Read more about it at the NYTimes:
September 2, 2010
YouTube Ads Turn Videos Into Revenue
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Last month, a YouTube user, TomR35, uploaded a clip from the AMC series "Mad Men" in which Don Draper makes a heartfelt speech about the importance of nostalgia in advertising.

Viewers wouldn't notice, but that clip also makes an important point about modern advertising — YouTube is an increasingly fruitful place for advertisers.

In the past, Lions Gate, which owns the rights to the "Mad Men" clip, might have requested that TomR35's version be taken down. But it has decided to leave clips like this up, and in return, YouTube runs ads with the video and splits the revenue with Lions Gate.

Remarkably, more than one-third of the two billion views of YouTube videos with ads each week are like TomR35's "Mad Men" clip — uploaded without the copyright owner's permission but left up by the owner's choice. They are automatically recognized by YouTube, using a system called Content ID that scans videos and compares them to material provided by copyright owners.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/technology/03youtube.html?_r=1&hpw