Why, its exactly the same principle. (as for half, i wasnt being literal :P but you gotta admit a lot of people are not on asprin).
At least you have a service which is trying to cooperate and stop it as best they can. If it gets closed down then im sute theres many up and comming companies in s.america, russia, latvia or somewhere that would LOVE to take up the slack (and they wouldnt give a toss about copyrights, nor would they need to)
Anyone remember napster? Yep, closing that down really helped. :/
If a newspaper did what Youtube did they would be shutdown, if a TV station did what youtube did, they would be shutdown, if a book publisher did what youtube did, they would be shutdown.
Only because its possible for them to edit/choose the content. Take (proper) live TV, you cannot hold the TV network responsible if someone commits copyright violation or performs an obscene act or an act of extreme violence before 9am, simply because its beyond their power to do anything about it (as it is for youtube). Sure they can cut the broadcast but in many cases the gawping shocked crew are quite slow to hit the red button. (and by then the damage is done anyway) At least you have a service which is trying to cooperate and stop it as best they can. If it gets closed down then im sute theres many up and comming companies in s.america, russia, latvia or somewhere that would LOVE to take up the slack (and they wouldnt give a toss about copyrights, nor would they need to)
Anyone remember napster? Yep, closing that down really helped. :/