YouTube = You get ripped off?

This is a heads up to those of you who read the blog and upload your content to YouTube, thinking about distributing your video there? Better think twice. YouTube has recently revised their Terms & Conditions which now allow them to sell whatever you upload there however they want:

“…by submitting the User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube’s (and its successor’s) business… in any media formats and through any media channels.”

What this means is if you upload your web series to their servers they can now sell DVDs of it, merchandise it and probably even make a Hollywood version of it – and you don’t get a cent. These rights can also be transferred to anyone who buys YouTube, which is very possible since its incredible site traffic (100+ million videos a day) makes it an attractive acquistion target and the company currently isn’t making any money for its owners.

Want a good video hosting alternative that doesn’t take all your rights? Try licensing your content under Creative Commons and use Archive.org, or go the route of the Ask A Ninja guys and dump YouTube for Revver and maybe make some money in the process.

Story via Wired.