YouTube To Deactivate Accounts That ContainÂ âSpoilersâ
Beginning AprilÂ 2015, YouTube will deactivate usersâ accounts containingÂ film spoilers in their comments, even if aÂ âspoiler alertâ warning is posted. Â Moviemakers, copyright holders and producers claim that spoilers negatively affect box office revenue by keeping audiences away from movie theaters. âBesides being irritating,â says YouTube analyst Heath Peterson, âspoilers affect thousands of peopleâs opinionsÂ about a film. Â YouTube doesnât want to be a part of that, soÂ if the account holder violates the new rule, thatÂ accountâs getting deleted, as it should be.â YouTube already notifies users if posted content is owned by a third-party with the warning: âYour Video Contains Copyrighted Material.â Â Content may be blocked worldwide or removed. The upcoming rule however, goes a step further by punishing users who merelyÂ write a comment about a copyrighted work that reveals a storyâs key elements or a movieâs ending. âAny partÂ of a story is a protected work of the author, publisher or creator,â says intellectual propertyÂ attorney Maxine Bleedom. Â Revealing the end of someoneâs story is revealing the end of somebodyÂ elseâs creative work, and YouTube as content provider is within their rights to do what they want, in this case deleting a userâs account. Itâs controversial because itÂ creates arguments overÂ freeÂ speech and artistic expression, but if itâs in their TOSÂ and you agree to it, itâs legally binding.â Of course, this wonât stop those who âspoilâ from creating otherÂ accounts and doing the same thing, but it does show increased cooperation between social media sites and copyright holders. Even with more options available to view media, âfilling the seatsâ in movie theaters still makes up the lionâs share of income for moviemakers and independent producers. Â In 2012, nearly $11Â billion was spent at US theaters alone. Analyst Peterson backs the new YouTube rule in part because of a 1999 incident that occurred when seeing M. Night Shyamalanâs The Sixth Sense with a friend. âSo my friend turns to me at the beginning â right whenÂ we first see Bruce Willis â and he says, âOh, God, you know what? Â I get this. Heâs already dead, I figured it out already.â I wanted to punch him in the face! Â He spoiledÂ the whole movie for me.â Whether this new rule will be seen as a âpunch in the faceâ by the estimatedÂ 1 billionÂ monthly YouTube users is yet to be seen. But if youâve ever written a spoilerÂ yourself,Â youâve got less than a month to scrub that comment from YouTube, or else.