I am not sure if this has been discussed before, but I wanted to bring my thoughts to this board concerning publishers and content which they do not own.
Bear with me while I lay out some redundant facts and information.
For this, I am specifically focusing on YouTube content creators.
As it stands, content creators (on YouTube) rely on ad revenue to help support their channel and provide access to more resources which they can then use to increase the quality of their content, release content more frequently, and otherwise make an honest living. The issue is that these ads are intrusive, annoying, invasive, and all-around toxic in many ways. Many users have blocked ads via extensions like Adblock, and continue to view their favorite creators’ content, only now they are not passively supporting their channel. Thus, the content creator does not make as much money as they otherwise would, which can ultimately negatively affect their channel and financial wellbeing.
This is where Brave comes in. Brave offers users the option to “tip” their favorite creators with BAT tokens which can be exchanged for actual real-world currency. Thus, the user can support their favorite creators without having to view intrusive ads, and the creators can now remove ads from their content. It’s a win-win situation.
However, this is where we get to the meat of my question. I am subscribed to lots of channels on YouTube, and many of them are not original content. In other words, they are clips, edits, or even entire videos of someone else. An example could be Joe Rogan podcast clips, or excerpts from a lecture such as Jordan Peterson, Charles Dawkins, or police interrogation videos.
Now I am not an expert with regards to YouTube legalities and things like that, but I do know that YouTube will review your content and decide and a couple of things: 1), is it eligible for ad revenue and 2), is the content copyrighted. If the content is copyrighted, it will most likely be removed. However, I have seen some channels which state “We have been given permission to use this content from the original creator” or even “this falls under fair use”, etc…In this case, I assume that YouTube reviews this and determines if the content is in fact copyrighted or falls under fair use, and that in either case, does not entitle the uploader to receive ad revenue since they are posting content to which they do not own the rights.
My issue is, what are the moral and ethical guidelines when it comes to tipping channels such as these, where they break down large discussions or conversations into bite size excerpts (Bite Size philosophy channel on YouTube) which can be easily and quickly digested and enjoyed? These are channels which pump out several videos a week, and do not own the rights to the content they publish. Is it fair for them to receive monetary tips and payment for something they ultimate did not create, aside from parsing through the content and cutting it into smaller segments? Where does Brave stand on this, and how can it be justified?