4 ms·

What was illegal about Neflix, YouTube, and Tesla at first?

chippiewill 2y ago
Youtube had a lot of illegal content early on and didn't make much effort to respect rightsholders etc. for a while until the service had taken off.
- diggan 2y ago
  Right, but that was more an unintended consequence of hosting user uploaded material. They still did delete stuff when companies (or their lawyers) wrote in to them requesting a take down. Compare that to Airbnb or Uber whose business model was "Ignore the law" in the very beginning, which is why they got banned in a bunch of places. YouTube's business model was never "Ignore the law" nor was it banned on as a wide scale as Airbnb and Uber.
  - closewith 2y ago
    A growth strategy, not an unintended consequence. Early YouTube without copyright infringement would have died in obscurity.
    - Cheer2171 2y ago
      Were you even on YouTube back then? It went viral for all kinds of viral home videos.
      - 9rx 2y ago
        YouTube lived in obscurity until it became the top search result for “Lazy Sunday”.
        Cheer2171 2y ago
        And when NBC finally decided to issue a DMCA takedown months later, Youtube immediately complied. Because that is what the US has decided is the law around user-generated content. NBC had it up for free on iTunes and let it stay up on Youtube because it brought attention to SNL, until someone in NBC's legal or C-suite won some internal fight.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
- Cheer2171 2y ago
  Youtube did not advertise itself as a site for illegal content. The advertised and most popular way to use youtube was to upload content you made yourself. Hence the name YOUtube. With Airbnb, there is no way to use the service as a host without violating the law in lots of jurisdictions. The service literally exists to glean some profit off facilitating illegal hotels.
ta1243 2y ago
Youtube came to fame because of sharing copyrighted material without permission of the copyright holders. Still does. With Tesla, I've no idea if there are laws preventing direct to customer selling, the "land of the free" has a lot of laws preventing freedom.
- Cheer2171 2y ago
  User-generated content platforms have had a very specific legal obligation around copyright for decades, which is that they must comply with DMCA takedowns.
- sixothree 2y ago
  Absolutely not. YouTube came to fame 100% because they made it easy for you to embed your own videos inside of a webpage. This was an incredibly difficult fear at the time that required specialized flash players, conversions, and what not. That’s why YouTube came to exist.
- wat10000 2y ago
  Many states have laws preventing direct to customer selling. Tesla works around this by just not selling in those states. If you live in one of those states and want to buy a Tesla, you pick it up in a neighboring state that does allow direct sales. Or these days they may have a better workaround where the car is officially purchased elsewhere but you don’t have to physically travel there. This is totally above-board since states are not allowed to regulate interstate commerce, so state laws against direct sales necessarily can only apply within the state.
  - ta1243 2y ago
    > Many states have laws preventing direct to customer selling Ahh, land of the free
marcosdumay 2y ago
Youtube got a lot of users by not fighting piracy. And Tesla had that thing where direct sales were illegal in the US. I don't know about Netflix.
- davidw 2y ago
  Leaving aside Tesla, banning direct sales is a boon to local car dealerships, who often fund some very reactionary local politics.

Youtube had a lot of illegal content early on and didn't make much effort to respect rightsholders etc. for a while until the service had taken off.

diggan 2y ago
Right, but that was more an unintended consequence of hosting user uploaded material. They still did delete stuff when companies (or their lawyers) wrote in to them requesting a take down. Compare that to Airbnb or Uber whose business model was "Ignore the law" in the very beginning, which is why they got banned in a bunch of places. YouTube's business model was never "Ignore the law" nor was it banned on as a wide scale as Airbnb and Uber.
- closewith 2y ago
  A growth strategy, not an unintended consequence. Early YouTube without copyright infringement would have died in obscurity.
  - Cheer2171 2y ago
    Were you even on YouTube back then? It went viral for all kinds of viral home videos.
    - 9rx 2y ago
      YouTube lived in obscurity until it became the top search result for “Lazy Sunday”.
      - Cheer2171 2y ago
        And when NBC finally decided to issue a DMCA takedown months later, Youtube immediately complied. Because that is what the US has decided is the law around user-generated content. NBC had it up for free on iTunes and let it stay up on Youtube because it brought attention to SNL, until someone in NBC's legal or C-suite won some internal fight.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
Cheer2171 2y ago
Youtube did not advertise itself as a site for illegal content. The advertised and most popular way to use youtube was to upload content you made yourself. Hence the name YOUtube. With Airbnb, there is no way to use the service as a host without violating the law in lots of jurisdictions. The service literally exists to glean some profit off facilitating illegal hotels.

ta1243 2y ago

Youtube came to fame because of sharing copyrighted material without permission of the copyright holders. Still does. With Tesla, I've no idea if there are laws preventing direct to customer selling, the "land of the free" has a lot of laws preventing freedom.

Cheer2171 2y ago
User-generated content platforms have had a very specific legal obligation around copyright for decades, which is that they must comply with DMCA takedowns.
sixothree 2y ago
Absolutely not. YouTube came to fame 100% because they made it easy for you to embed your own videos inside of a webpage. This was an incredibly difficult fear at the time that required specialized flash players, conversions, and what not. That’s why YouTube came to exist.
wat10000 2y ago
Many states have laws preventing direct to customer selling. Tesla works around this by just not selling in those states. If you live in one of those states and want to buy a Tesla, you pick it up in a neighboring state that does allow direct sales. Or these days they may have a better workaround where the car is officially purchased elsewhere but you don’t have to physically travel there. This is totally above-board since states are not allowed to regulate interstate commerce, so state laws against direct sales necessarily can only apply within the state.
- ta1243 2y ago
  > Many states have laws preventing direct to customer selling Ahh, land of the free

marcosdumay 2y ago

Youtube got a lot of users by not fighting piracy. And Tesla had that thing where direct sales were illegal in the US. I don't know about Netflix.

davidw 2y ago
Leaving aside Tesla, banning direct sales is a boon to local car dealerships, who often fund some very reactionary local politics.