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YouTube is one of the Web's most popular websites. It's primarily
delivers video, which is uploaded by users of the site. YouTube
was created by three individuals, who had previously worked for
the payment transfer company, Paypal. The names of the founders
were,
- Chad Hurley
- Jawed Karim
- Steve Chen
YouTube is reliant on Adobe Flash to play the video files. Users
of YouTube, therefore, are required to install a Flash plugin to
be able to view the video files uploaded to YouTube. Initially,
virtually all files uploaded to YouTube were by private individuals.
As YouTube's fame and use increased exponentially, media companies
such as ITV began to provide their own private channels.
The YouTube project was funded in 2005, with the website launched
in the same year. Funding for the project was in the region of eleven
million dollars. The first video was uploaded by one of the owners,
and showed him visiting the zoo. The site was purchased by Google
in 2006 for over one billion dollars. The price paid by Google shocked
some onlookers at the time.
There has been two controversies concerning YouTube,
- Copyrighted material which is uploaded.
- Offensive material concerning illegal acts which is uploaded.
YouTube do attempt to police their website so that both of the
above files are taken down as soon as possible. But, due to the
massive amount of video uploaded, these files can be uploaded for
extended periods of time before they are removed.
YouTube tend to relay on their users and copyright holders to flag
files as contravening their rules. Rather than reviewing files when
they are uploaded. This policy has led to numerous lawsuits issued
against YouTube. With some copyright holders believing YouTube are
lax in their policing.
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