this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
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My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.

Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.

There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.

So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?

#tech #technology #Google #enshittification #youtube #video @technology #capitalism #film #television #cinema #art #arts #SocialMedia #business #economics

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[–] seindal@mastodon.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Why is everyone @-ing the same group of people in this post?

I think they're replies in mastodon?

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[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m not worried about it. You don’t need YouTube in your life.

If it bothers you this much you may be spending entirely way too much time on your computer.

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The problem here is not about any one persons YouTube habits. It's that we've been pouring so much into it as a group that if it goes away it'll be torching even more history. The Internet has a bad problem with losing things and it is already making finding old data difficult. This is especially noticable with games or even more specifically mods. Morrowind mods have a long and vibrant history of being lost forever because the hosts kept changing and archives going under. There are many games and mods I played as a kid that are gone now and forums talking about them that are also gone. YouTube is a single point of failure for a ton of video history and losing that history is generally considered to be A Bad Thing ™️

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[–] jmcrookston@mastodon.social 0 points 1 year ago
[–] AubreyDeLosDestinos@101010.pl 1 points 1 year ago
[–] akkartik@lethallava.land 2 points 1 year ago

@ajsadauskas@aus.social Minor correction: "becomes unprofitable" should be "becomes insufficiently lucrative".

Furthermore, how much revenue Google needs to make from each of its properties including Youtube keeps going up quarter after quarter thanks to insatiable shareholder appetite.

It's like sending a citizen each day to the nearby dragon to get it to leave you alone, but over time the price keeps going up.

@pluralistic@mamot.fr @technology@lemmy.ml

[–] Debesch@postchat.io 15 points 1 year ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology As a professional video editor with an add’l interest in audiovisual archiving, I spend a lot of time discussing how it’s not in my clients’ best interest to put their media legacy into YouTube/Google’s hands. Not only is it a compressed version, which isn’t good for repurposing (editor hat), there’s absolutely no guarantee it’s going to be there for the long-term (archivist hat). If they want to use it as a delivery platform, fine. It’s not an archive

[–] SheamusPatt@mstdn.ca 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology There's always @internetarchive . If you want a place to preserve your videos, and you don't require #monetization, upload them.
The #WaybackMachine might already capture your videos, but you don't need to take the chance, and their Video library is better curated.
https://archive.org/details/movies

[–] gilesgoat@toot.wales 3 points 1 year ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

Can I SHOUT LOUD ( to far too many people still covering their ears ! ) *TOLD YOU SO* ! ACTUALLY IS ALREADY HAPPENING ! .. "Oh it's always going to be on the internet to download when I need it" .. NO IT'S NOT !! How many times YT for whatever reason took down something or forbidden you to see in full or .. What's going to happen ? That when they'll really need money they'll start say PAY OR WE TAKE ALL DOWN .. and content will vanish from YT !

[–] BaroqueInMind@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Unless the public puts literally billions of dollars into funding and expanding public libraries to catalog all this video media into numerous publicly owned gigantic server farms that maintain the capacity to upgrade digital storage indefinitely, all video media is doomed to stay with privately owned capitalistic multinational corporations that are influenced by foreign governments to censoring various things at will, and all video media is destined to die forgotten and overwritten by future shitty memes and useless influencer garbage.

[–] gvlx@masto.pt 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

@BaroqueInMind @pluralistic @technology @ajsadauskas

We should all contribute to a global, distributed, federated, and resilient database, keeping a disk at home and (securely!!) sharing it with the world.

I wonder if the technology is already there?

#DigitalPreservation #GlobalCooperation

[–] SheamusPatt@mstdn.ca 4 points 1 year ago

@gvlx @BaroqueInMind @pluralistic @technology @ajsadauskas The @internetarchive would be happy to accept your donation (I give regularly). Their scope is global, though based in the #UnitedStates, and they're not affiliated with #government or any #Capitalist #corporation. As well as their continuous #WaybackMachine web scraping they also have #Video and #Text archives plus some niche things like the #CoverArt archive.
https://archive.org/donate

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[–] emptyother@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

Should be govt supported online libraries. Not under regular copyright rules (but they aren't allowed to profit or redistribute it either) but for potentially culturally relevant content that is 5 or more years since publication.

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology Youtube is basically my entertainment. I do not have cable or TV of an kind. I am very selective in my viewing. If you appear to be a decent human ie: not racist, not misogynistic, not fascist or nazi I will probably watch anything you have to offer. If you are an asshole I will block you.

[–] Throsby@infosec.exchange 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

The same thing that's happened with numerous print newspapers around the world. When they downsize, sack the backroom staff, and move to shopfronts they dump - literally - those priceless collections of photographs, negatives, and, yes, glass plate negatives, as though they were old office furniture.

[–] bookninja@mstdn.social 6 points 1 year ago

@Throsby @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology old microfilm will get vinegar syndrome if it isn’t stored properly and if it is older acetate microfilm. Eventually it will become unusable. It’s expensive to replace just one reel of microfilm. Old newspaper clippings will all eventually crumble. I believe librarians and archives are the best place to save our history and culture. Unfortunately they are often not well-funded.

[–] kneworldodor@mastodon.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Throsby @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology I wonder how much of this is captured by the local library? There was a time I could check old newspaper content on microfiche.

[–] Throsby@infosec.exchange 4 points 1 year ago

@kneworldodor @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

We do have that. The libraries scrupulously keep copies, but not necessarily physical media.

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[–] mina@berlin.social 4 points 1 year ago

@ajsadauskas

That's actually a problem.

There is no backup for this collective memory outside the servers of this company.

@pluralistic @technology

[–] lps@masto.1146.nohost.me 4 points 1 year ago (8 children)

@ajsadauskas
That's why #peertube is so important! Everyone should be migrating or at least mirroring there ASAP... It will happen.
@pluralistic @technology

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[–] askDNA@urusai.social 6 points 1 year ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology This is why it's important to own one's own content and only post it to social media, etc., as a secondary copy.

[–] VoxofGod@mastodon.social 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

Curious if you are aware of anyway of downloading one's content off YouTube for this all but inevitable moment?

[–] nbhansen@hci.social 3 points 1 year ago

@VoxofGod @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology 4k videodownloader is great for downloading everyones content <3

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yt-dl.

Command line tool, works on all desktop OS's, can handle things in batch, download full playlists, etc.

I believe the current up to date/maintained fork of it is yt-dlp

I use Downie (on Mac) but there’s a video downloader app for every platform. It doesn’t download the ads either 😉

[–] Judeet88@universeodon.com 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology Anyone who's put all their precious eggs in one basket controlled by someone/something else is a fool.

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[–] clever_banana@lemmy.today 9 points 1 year ago

Always mirror your content on a few PeerTube sites. When 1 goes down, its your responsibility to re mirror

[–] ezwal@social.lol 7 points 1 year ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology @tsturm Unfortunately, we’re probably going to find out.

[–] bortzmeyer@mastodon.gougere.fr 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology Some of it is saved by public services (for content in french, by INA).

[–] mmu_man@m.g3l.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@bortzmeyer @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology we can't have one service archive everything, maybe even @internetarchive … But could we make a service/browser plugin to tell if a video is archived already somewhere and propose where to add it? If it's in French -> INA, and so on…

[–] mmu_man@m.g3l.org 3 points 1 year ago

@bortzmeyer @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology @internetarchive Maybe there's some collaboration possible with SearxNG? (I recall writing the INA search addon)

[–] AlexanderKingsbury@mastodon.social 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

Then we will quickly learn which people were prudent enough to keep backups, and which were not.

#datahoard

[–] eaplmx@mastodon.online 4 points 1 year ago

@AlexanderKingsbury @ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology
Agreed! It's an important point of redundancy. If it's worthy, should be stored and distrubuted even if the most popular way is unavailable (I say)

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