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How the big boys win the race for most popular website and rake in the dough

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mouser:
For you paranoid delusional peasants out there who think the big rich websites play by different rules that the little people, here's some more fodder for your anger.

Recent documents from a lawsuit between YouTube and Viacom show how the companies vying to become the dominant video uploading websites (a battle which YouTube seemed to have won), knew quite well that to win the race to become the dominant video website would require focusing on illegally hosting copyrighted material.

So they weren't just content to simply turn a blind eye when people uploaded such copyrighted videos -- they were in a race to win the market, so naturally they did what any one would do, the founders of the site were busily uploading the illegal copyrighted videos themselves, in an attempt to boost the traffic on the site, and therefore win the popularity competition and make the big money.

Welcome to the web 2.0, where if you want to get bought out by google and make the big money, sometimes you have to do what it takes to inflate your traffic.  The law is for people in 2nd place.

"Chen twice wrote that 80 percent of user traffic depended on pirated videos. He opposed removing infringing videos on the ground that 'if you remove the potential copyright infringements... site traffic and virality will drop to maybe 20 percent of what it is.' Karim proposed they 'just remove the obviously copyright infringing stuff.' But Chen again insisted that even if they removed only such obviously infringing clips, site traffic would drop at least 80 percent. ('if [we] remove all that content[,] we go from 100,000 views a day down to about 20,000 views or maybe even lower')."

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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/smoking-guns-dark-secrets-spilled-in-youtube-viacom-filings.ars

mouser:
Not to be out scumbagged by YouTube, Viacom, the other party in the lawsuit, did their own share of dirty tricks:

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom.
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http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/03/broadcast-yourself.html

mouser:
You ever get the feeling that laws are for little people.. for corporations they are just suggestions.

higherstate:
Hey Mouser, 23000 posts, wow  8)

I think that it is true in most sphere's of life that successful people don't play by the rules. The rules were invented to keep the little people where they are and the successful people where they are.

A good example is the tax system. In the UK if you are wealthy you pay very little, if any tax (expensive accountants/lawyers + very accommodating government) but anyone on middle income playing by the rules pays heavily (up to 50%). I am sure most other countries are similar.

However, I am not saying this is good or bad, just making the point.

zridling:
Maybe those of us in what's left of the Middle class should form a corporation so we could get better treatment in court and from the political class!

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