Youtube Music Rules

Most (if not all) video sharing sites such as MetaCafe and of course YouTube have rules about what you upload in terms of music or movie clips. They are very strict on what they allow and what they don't. I put songs into many of the movies that I upload to Youtube. With those videos, Youtube either inserts advertising on it or they take down my video. I can understand why they do that but it doesn't always make sense to me. Why wouldn't a music artist want their music in someone else's video creation? It would surely get them more fans and possibly boost their popularity. The reason they don't want people using the music would be because the song doesn't belong to them. But how would it hurt them if you gave full credit to the original artist? The credit (that is clearly visible) could be in the annotations or in the description box or anywhere that everyone could see it. Because of that Youtube video, more people now know the original. They might even head over to iTunes and buy it and put it onto their iPod. And the original artist has now made more money than he or she might have made otherwise. I might not know all the reasons for why Youtube and artists don't like it but it seems to me that the artist wants to control their song too much. I think Youtube and the music industry need to ease up on that. Maybe Youtube could have a partnership with record companys so that as long as someone gives clear and accurate credit to both the record company and the artist, then the user could upload the video. Youtube is a great place. Many new artists wouldn't be where they are today without the exposure that Youtube and amateur video makers have given them. Esmee Denters (a current Youtube music artist with a debut album coming out) was discovered by Justin Timberlake when he was cruising through Youtube. Without different people posting videos including her songs, he might not have found her! So all in all, what I'm saying is this: I think the music industry needs to think about the impact that Youtube has on the music-buying public. Even my videos--in which I give full credit to everyone--get taken down every once in a while and it really annoys me—especially when it is one of my best productions.

Video Game Ratings!

After every video game as been written, designed and tested, it goes to the ESRB. They rate the video on many different levels. The ratings range from E (everyone), E10+ (everyone 10+), T (teen), M (Mature 17+). There is also AO (adult only) and you can imagine what is in those games. But there are, at most, 10 of those games ever published. What I am most irritated about is how they rate them. Games such as Call of Duty (the older ones) are rated T, but they still have bloody killing in a realistic way--as if you were really fighting in the war. Then you have Halo which is quite a fun game yet rated M. When you compare the 2 games Call of Duty is defintely worse. In Halo, you might be shooting and killing, but there is hardly any blood. You are killing aliens and there is nothing realistic about it. This really sucks because a lot of parents will NOT let their 6th, 7th, and 8th graders play M games. So Halo is off limits but parents will let their kids play a war game in which you can kill other people and see their blood! The most recent Call of Duty game is rated M and I think the game deserves the M rating. Not that isn't an excellent game, but I just can't imagine it being rated T. Call of Duty is not the only game like this. The new Tom Clancy game is T and I think it's probably as bad as Halo (which isn't all that bad unless you're against shooter games). Halo is still M and Tom Clancy is T. This really is annoying. Now Halo and other games like it have now built up such a bad rep as a really violent terrible game and yet Medal of Honor is still T rated, but has the same level of violence as Halo, Call of Duty, and the Tom Clancy games. But Medal of Honor has a good rep (not perfect but not as bad as Halo or others) so it gets a T rating. I don't think the ESRB can fix this now. But I definitely think that they need to start comparing different games before they rate any new games. And just so you don't think that I'm not singling out only Halo, Dead or Alive 4, Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion, The Thief Trilogy, and Devil May Cry 4 just to name a few are also facing the same issue. All got M ratings when Call of Duty 2 and 3, The Bourne Conspiracy, Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter 1 and 2, and War Hawk all got away with T ratings when they really deserved the same rating as the previously mentioned games!