But the law works both ways! What to YOU might be opinions you don't
like are backed astronomically by free speech on the other person's
side. YouTube is not here to make judgements on what types of
opinions they like or don't like! There's a damn good reason YouTube
doesn't "take down anything beyond which they're legally liable for,"
because they respect the legal rights of free speech on the other
end. People should be able to post videos about what they're legally
allowed to speak about in the real world, why should YouTube take
sides with you personally? If people can talk crap you don't like to
"start riots" on their websites or in school or college or the news
paper or they're rock albums etc etc etc, then they should be able to
do it on worldwide information sharing network.
YouTube "cops" are like any other cops... they might let some speeding
cars get away a little more than others, and, of course pull some over
a little more than they should be pulled over (see http://TubeRights.Org for my full opinions where Fair Use rights could improve here), but
they're not gonna pull over a car for a bumper sticker that says "Joe
Shmoe should die a violent death," unless it's bad enough to be
considered legal defamation. I'm sure there's some human motivation
involved that "we just don't want to bother with that hassle," but
their principle of legal ambivolence in *general* is to create the
most open place possible where people can share whatever they want
just like in real life. It's the whole point of the place!
If I remember right, there was a case where ACLU supported the KKK in
the case someone wanted to disallow them the right to gather and talk,
an absolute basic human right. It kicks rights to free speech in the
nuts to make law that you can talk, while others can't. I remember
Eminem's mom tried to sue him for defamation and I don't think much
came of it. That's because if he can talk crap about his mom to my
best friend, he can do it online or in his artwork.
YouTube could of course set rules and make their site a friendly
kiddie playground if they wanted to, but that's not what youtube's
about. It would be catastrophic for their business to start making
rules of who can post what here. If youtube were a president running
the country, they could have whatever agenda they want. It's not like
that. And they do have a very solid system when someone does cross
the line, accounts get taken down all the time. If anything videos
and accounts get taken down too MUCH. In particular, people who post
copyrighted material that the record companies don't like, IMHO. But
those fine lines can be sensitive, and the concept of taking down
stuff because you don't agree with someone's information, opinion, or
riot they want to start, is nowhere on the chart.
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