Live streaming has become all the rage when it comes to television viewers having the capacity to watch their favorites shows whenever they want. With networks like Netflix and Amazon, viewers are now able to literally binge-watch an entire season of their favorite series in one day. Talking about series overload, this new capacity has its advantages and disadvantage which will have to be visited at a future time. Well, right when you think that these new networks have the game all figured out here comes a major problem. As it turns out, many of these networks are crying foul because they have become aware that YouTube is pervaded with rogue accounts that are streaming many of these top shows for free, without having acquired the rights to do so.
While the streaming or uploading of content without having the copyrights or permission to do so is a serious YouTube infraction, YouTube has not demonstrated that it has the capacity to effectively monitor and control this type of behavior on its platform. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world next to Google, who just happens to own it. This makes the video platform the second largest purveyor of content on the planet. With that type of content being constantly uploaded and streamed live, it is immensely difficult to manage what is being viewed by the public.
With uploads, the algorithms that the site has put in place will catch a lot of copyright infringements, but when content is being streamed live, it is significantly more difficult to identify it and stop it.
The excessive number of rogue accounts that are currently illegally streaming paid content on YouTube is almost unimaginable, and the number of these accounts is growing instead of diminishing. No matter what you favorite show is, you can find a rogue channel on YouTube that is streaming entire seasons of it, and you can even search for it by episode.
So, you are a fan of the 1990s sitcom, Martin. No problem, there are literally dozens of YouTube channels currently streaming multiple seasons of the show and there doesn’t seem to be much that YouTube can do about it, or is there. What you have to understand is that while YouTube is legally required to ensure that the content on its platform does not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of anyone, they are only required to take action that would be considered reasonable. If they can establish that they are carrying out measures that would be deemed reasonable in a court of law, they may escape legal consequences.
The reason that I make this point about due diligence is that YouTube earns quite a bit of ad revenue off of these live streams, and that may interfere with their motivation to find a solution to the problem. I am not saying that this is the case, but it is necessary to consider all of the possibilities when examining this enigmatic issue.
What is even more interesting is the fact that those who watch a lot of content on YouTube may even find suggestions in the up next queue, based on the content they watch. I must be fair in reporting this by indicating that these live streamers are not making any real money through ad revenue, and they are being shut down relatively quickly, only to pop back up under a new account.
