The Hacker Factor Blog

We like to believe that there is a distinction between legitimate companies and scams. Legitimate companies are honest. Legitimate companies will exchange currency for products. Legitimate companies obey the law. Legitimate companies don't intentionally try to con their customers.

Of course, there are plenty of examples where real companies straddle the line between legitimate and scam. For example, car rental companies will use fast talk to get you to buy insurance or upgrades that you don't need. (I've even had rental companies try to slip them onto my rental agreement without asking.) And don't get me started on the pharmaceutical, medical, and health insurance industries...

I always grow a little concerned when legitimate companies alter their methods to look more like a scam. For example, real emails from many legitimate banks used to look legitimate. However, some banks have changed their formats to look more like easy-to-copy phishing scams. In fact, many of the examples of real emails in the SonicWALL Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz look fake.

PayPal is another example. First they restricted my account unless I provided them with more personal information that they do not need and would be unable to validate. (Do I dare say blackmail?) Then they promised to delete my account if I did not comply. Well, it's been over a year and my account is still sitting there, and still access restricted.

Et tu, YouTube?

It has long been said that television makes us stupid. (Whether this is true or not.) I think this may apply to online videos as well. Specifically, it appears that the "Do No Evil" company has forgotten their motto.

I recently received an email from YouTube that appeared to contain a gracious offer:

Subject: Apply for revenue sharing for your video Al Qaeda and the Fly
From: YouTube <no_reply@youtube.com>
To: drhackerfactor

Dear drhackerfactor,

Your video Al Qaeda and the Fly has become popular on YouTube, and you're eligible to apply for the YouTube Partnership Program, which allows you to make money from playbacks of your video.

Once you're approved, making money from your video is easy. Here's how it works: First sign into your YouTube account. Then, complete the steps outlined here: http://www.youtube.com/ivp?v=[redacted]. Once you're finished, we'll start placing ads next to your video and pay you a share of the revenue as long as you meet the program requirements.

We look forward to adding your video to the YouTube Partnership Program. Thanks and good luck!

The YouTube Team

Wow... My video is finally popular! And they want me to join their partner program!

Flatliners

As with most scams, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Let's start with their first statement: "Your video Al Qaeda and the Fly has become popular on YouTube". Really? YouTube provides viewing statistics for videos. Here's the statistics for my video:



According to this, there was an initial spike when I first mentioned this video in my blog. And then? Totally flat. According to their own statistics, this video is not suddenly popular.

I began to go through YouTube's partnership tutorial. I'd elaborate, except Lance Ulanoff at PC Magazine has a great write-up of the process already.

Deal or No Deal

Basically, there are some very disturbing aspects.

1. The tutorial makes it very clear that "You should own all rights to the video!" Well, technically Al Qaida owns the rights to the video I posted. (Who do I write to in order to get permission to use this video snippet? "Dear Bin, Please let me use your video.") More interesting is the word "should". I "should" own all the rights. Not must, not will, not can... should.
   
   The next page of the tutorial becomes more threatening: "If you don't respect these rules, your video will be deleted from the site. No exceptions."
   
   
2. Their rules do not permit you to use anyone else's content, even if you have permission or are clearly under the Copyright Fair Use clause. (I believe this video clip is clearly Fair Use.) This actually makes partial sense since they cannot turn a profit using the Fair Use clause; profiting from someone else's works violates Fair Use.
   
   
3. They say that you will make money by allowing them to show ads. Ugh... more ads. I hate ads on web sites. Why would I want them to attach ads to my video?
   
   
4. There is one part of the tutorial that says "DO NOT submit any TV shows, music videos, music concerts, or commercials without the express permission of the producer, unless they consist entirely of content you created yourself." This is interesting since two pages back they said that I had to own it. Now they say I can profit if I have permission.
   
   
5. But here's my favorite part:
   

   Processing your video can take time. Please be patient!
   Once processed, one of the following will happen:
   * If approved, advertising will appear with the video.
   * If rejected, the video will be deleted from YouTube. You will receive an email notification if your video is rejected.

   
   So if I want to participate and obey all of their rules, they might still delete the video if they don't want to advertise on it. Real companies would just reject your application. YouTube will delete. As Google wrote in their FAQ:
   

   Not all users and videos are suitable for YouTube's Partnership program at this time. In addition, there are a variety of reasons why your application or revenue share request may not be approved. Please read through our qualifications for partnership and Terms of Use for more information.

   
   In other words, if your video won't make for a good advertisement, then they might delete it as a useless piece of tripe.
   
   But it does not end there... Buried in the fine print, Google also says that a rejection will mean a mandatory ban for two months, even if the denial was unjust.
   
   
6. Payment will be made through a Google AdSense account. (You need to make an account, but at least it isn't PayPal.) However, there are plenty of blogs that report of scam-like activities with AdSense. All of the problems with PayPal appear to be associated with AdSense as well.

We'll Be Right Back After These Important Messages

What I could not find anywhere were the terms of license. Can YouTube use the video anywhere they like? Can they share the video with third-party partners? Since they say that the video must be at least 30 seconds long, that sure sounds like a TV commercial segment. (The implication is that shorter videos will be deleted out of hand and you will be banned for two months.)

At face value, Google's YouTube service wants to advertise on my video. At this point, I have two options. I can become a partner and risk having them delete my video, or I can pass on the offer and continue using it under Copyright's Fair Use clause.

However, I think PC Magazine really sees an interesting twist. As Lance Ulanoff wrote:

Let me get this straight. YouTube invites me to be its partner and then turns around and uses the invitation to see if I'm a copyright infringer. That's what's happening here, isn't it? As I'm sure YouTube sees it, the only reason you'd be rejected from this program is if you ripped off someone else's content. That's a violation of policy, so they zap the video. I guess that automated system isn't working as well as YouTube would like. Now it has resorted to this.

Is YouTube trying to entrap potential copyright infringers, or bullying amateur filmmakers into an advertising scheme? Whatever happened to "Do No Evil?"

These are some issues that burden popular people like me...