There was this time that I had a conversation with friends about the things we missed the most about the 90s and it turned out that most of us loved Takeshi's Castle. If you've lived through the early 90s in front of the television, it's more or less possible that you know what I'm talking about. I was one of the numerous kids back then who patiently looked forward to every Sunday to have a good laugh together with my friends.
The Japanese outdoor game show starts off with lots of contestants, who are to pass through several obstacles using their physical and mental skills. Some of the obstacles are seemingly impossible to finish while some just depends on gut feel and luck to overcome. I have no idea why a certain local station stopped televising such amusing show but just recently, another local station started showing new episodes. But I still liked the original Takeshi's Castle, with the original Filipino hosts. I even planned on buying a copy from the local television station just to bring back the giddy 90s feeling.
That plan never pushed through. And I am thankful it didn't because now I don't have to spend big bucks just to see my favorite show again. Another thanks to
YouTube
.
YouTube is the most famous video website where you can view, upload, and share videos across the Internet and even mobile devices. YouTube has a wide sphere of categories covered, such as current events, music videos, press releases, videos on hobbies and interests, or even your own home original videos. This giant leader was developed as a corollary effect of our evolved technology and generation.
Today, anyone can shoot a video, edit, and share them with anyone in the world. Even my 11-year old brother can edit a home video taken by him using a camera phone. It's not what you'd expect to see in a movie but it is surely a great progress of human activity to find out that a kid can now make a simple video snippet through user-friendly softwares without even having to take full-blown academic courses. YouTube is one provider of easy use and access of short videos.
In our fast-paced techie world today, internet users (those who are familiar with internet features such as blogs, online forums, online stores, instant messaging, etc.) are indeed faced with an overwhelming number of unique innovations of the internet but most of them overlook the fact that they risk themselves as possible victims of copyright infringement or privacy violation though it is quite possible as well that they are violators of copyright and privacy laws. While some are actually aware of these laws and rights guaranteed under such, there are still a large number of internet users who are not accorded with enough knowledge that there are rules and laws in their use and access of the Internet.
For several years now, YouTube has been faced with notices, complaints, and suits concerning copyright infringement. Copyright issues suddenly were the hottest issue within the online video market. Advocate groups of intellectual property law put forward that YouTube and similar sites, by providing a network of video database, is encouraging its users to violate copyright laws.
In defense, YouTube claims that it is protected under the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 passed by the 105th Congress of the United States of America. YouTube further provides in its policy wherein a copyright holder may send a copyright infringement notification to the company so that they can take action, discontinue the copyrighted material, and prevent the continued violation of copyright.
A copyright holder, who feels that there is an ongoing need to remove potentially infringing content, may also sign up for its Content Verification Program, which electronically notifies the company, removing any room for error, and significantly increases the speed at which they are able to remove any infringing content.
In the early 1990s, when the internet just boomed, movie and recording industries were the first ones to take active participation in making internet content providers responsible for any copyright infringement. Hollywood argued that internet companies should be held liable if it carries any illegal materials, whether they know it or not. This never happened.
Around 1995, Hollywood faced a strong rival, the ones who introduced the concept of internet, the Bell companies. Hollywood stood for copyright protection while Bell emphasized freedom of expression ideas on the internet. Conflict between these two viewpoints ensued. An impasse was reached in 1997, which forced both parties to submit to a compromise, after a balancing of interests by US Congress: the Online Copyright Liability Limitation Act which was the predecessor of Title II of DMCA (Section 512 of US Copyright Code).
