SpudFiles

Just wanted to give everybody notice about these changes https://support.google.com/youtube/thre ... 2017?hl=en because it may effect your Youtube videos. The page I linked to has a quick check tool to help you find any effected video's you may have here or other forums you use. So if you missaed or didn't get the email about the upcoming changes, here ya go.

According to the new Terms of Service, YouTube will no longer allow users to post videos that are longer than 15 minutes. This change is being made in order to reduce the amount of time people spend on the site. YouTube is also introducing a new feature that will allow users to save videos for offline viewing.

This is a great feature for people who have limited data or who want to watch videos without an internet connection.

Finally, YouTube is changing its copyright policy. Videos that are uploaded to the site must now be original content that has been created by the user. This means that users will no longer be able to upload videos that they have found on other websites or social media platforms.

That's not entirely true, as I understand it

Users with unverified accounts may only post videos less than 15 minutes long. Verified accounts can post videos up to 12 hours long. The cynic in me says it's nothing to do with reducing the amount of time people spend on the site, as that would be utterly counter to their business goals.

Offline viewing is available in selected areas, exclusively through the mobile app, by those using youtube premium. It won't elp those with limited data, as you still have to download the whole thing. A smart user wishing to view youtube videos offline would use a video downloader, which would allow them to not only download without youtube premium, on any platform, but also to avoid ads. Go figure.

As for copyright, Youtube's copyright policies are a bad joke, and remain so. Having your content stolen is common, and it's hard for a single content creator to get their content back. However, it's extremely easy for the horde of big business copyright trolls to claim a single creator's content as their own. If you want a f'rexample or two, go look at Fran Blanche's channel , FranLab. She's been telecineing NASA footage she owns (in one case, the original, unique, camera roll) and putting it online. Despite the fact that this is NASA footage and thus explicitly and legally public domain, it's getting copyright strikes from major corporations who have used snippets of the same pubic domain footage in their productions.