Downsides of Youtube

Since late 2005, the video site Youtube.com has exploded into a worldwide phenomenon for user-posted videos. As we have all seen before, anyone can become a celebrity with just a personal computer, video camera, or cell phone at Youtube. But just as being on Youtube can open many doors for a person, it can also cause for a lot of unwanted problems as well. The biggest problem obviously being copyright infringements. Several videos on the website have violated the copyrights of music, movies, commercials, and companies. All of which have caused law suits for these people, along with their videos being removed from the website. Posting videos on Youtbube has not only caused problems with copyright infringements, but have caused a number of different problems for Youtube users. One man was fired and had his forklift license revoked when a video of himself was found on Youtube performing wheelies and other stunts on a work forklift. In Ohio, three men faced criminal charges after posting videos of themselves impersonating police officers and playing pranks on unsuspecting civilians. Other problems that come with improper usage of Youtube, can include the comments from people that are posted on the website. Users of Youtube, deal with a double edged sword. On one hand, it can be fun and incredibly useful in a number of different ways. But on the other hand, it has lead to several problems, as people have served jail time, have lost their jobs, and have paid fines from their improper usage of the website.