I did notice that, which is a miracle, considering so many services don’t support that anymore. When youtube stopped buffering the entire video, that was the point where I started using the likes of youtube-dl. And by extension: “So what if my internet is garbage, I am gonna watch in 4K anyway.” Terrible state of internet infrastructure in much of the US.
I also noticed the video stayed in the browser cache so when I returned to that page it played instantly without any re-download. Excellent!
Keeping up with the developments, all of this is looking to allow a lot of people across the web to know about the Blender Foundation and Blender 3D (as more sites pick up the story, some from well known magazines).
On the flip side, this is slowly turning into a PR disaster for Google (especially since MIT, one of the world’s top schools, is also involved).
It’s not about copyright. Apparently Google has decided that Blender Foundation must monetize, or they will no longer be able to post videos at all.
Considering how abnormal so much else feels right now. Sudden un warrented bans like this feel very disturbing. I think the call to try to put the word out is a good one.
Oay, so the problem got resolved:
I personally still feel YouTube is amazingly bad at informing you about their ToS.
Only the intro video seems to work for me.
I would suggest that the BF keeps that one page backed by the Peertube software regardless (due to the high quality and the fact that Google’s continually shifting TOS cannot impact them).
Good to see they are back though, though YouTube is now in a position where they will actually have to start competing as the alternative platforms gain steam.
Videos finally play again instead of merely appearing as thumbs that would error out as before. Anyone else?
It’s working fine for me again too.
Meh, looking at the official page on the topic again:
Thursday June 21 2018, by Ton Roosendaal
Last night all videos came back (except the one from Andrew Price, which still is blocked in USA).
According to another person in Youtube we now do have to sign the other agreement as well. You can read it here.I’m not sure if we should accept this. Will be studied on.
Bleh.
(Posted in another topic accidentally)
Works for me now.
The BF doesn’t have a choice in the matter if they still want the feedback and the exposure that YouTube provides (as I don’t think a lot of those who don’t use Blender will bother to go to the Peertube backed page).
Just make a 60 second video with nothing but a slide showing the peertube link for every video in the channel ^^.
Maybe all the offended by youtube’s recent mishaps that don’t rely solely on ads (patreon funded channels and nonprofit ones) could move there and boost the new platform. competition ius a good thing
FYI the cause of this all was some new EU regulation. The contract isn’t bad in light of that new law YouTube could not be forced to pay for content.
Only idiotic that this happened to non commercial channels. Ea our comp channel never had this and both are free. So why do they try it on these channels is beyond my logic
According to an article in The Verge, the process of bills going from conception to law is a slow process in Europe (that one about copyright will not get a final vote until December). I don’t live in Europe so I rely on such sources to tell me about their government.
Perhaps YouTube is trying to mitigate any possible damage early on if the pro-internet groups lose.
Its a chicken and egg issue. Youtube will only have that “market share” of viewers as long as people keep releasing content on it, or rely solely on it as their content platform. Blender Foundation has social media accounts and some reach, they just have to link to, and promote the new videos on a different streaming site (even if alongside their YT vids).
More popular content/content providers make more popular streaming sites. Even if the content is first on Youtube… promoting and shifting content over to the other can be a viable option, a slow transition with promotion of the new streaming site.
The free and open types need to help create the alternatives or bring about the existing ones success. For what its worth, Blender already is growing the FOSS mentality at least, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get enough people to begin using a new video site. Places like BitChute.com would probably jump to work with the BF or others in growing the platform and making it more viable.
The whole situation seems a product of misunderstanding than malicious intent. It seems to be mainly a Google fault.
I took a look at the agreement Ton got sent to sign that he linked, its nothing special, as a lawyer I am surprised how short and simple it is, so at first look does not look fishy to me.
The new regulations on personal data protection has nothing to do with this agreement and is not even mentioned in the agreement anyway. Essentially the agreement allows to promote videos in its front page or through its auto play feature, its necessary evil to grant rights to Google because in EU personal data is far more strictly protected than in USA or other countries. Anything created is considered personal data , including videos.
There is also a conflict of law, the law of the country company is based on, the law of country of the viewer and of course law of the country of the content creator. So it can be quite messy legal wise. Google a company from US, BF from Europe, viewers all around the world. Everyone can sue everyone.
Welcome, to legal hell.
But no there is no conspiracy of Google trying to destroy Blender.
Autodesk is powerful, but not that powerful 
But yeah it does not look good when someone shut down your youtube channel, even accidentally.
European legislation like in most countries around the world is a lengthy process but for good reason. It has to get the approval of politicians, judges, lawyers and of course the general public. Trying to find the delicate balance is always tricky. But then submitting a contribution to Blender source code has to go through a lengthy review process as well. The process is there to insure quality and is there for a very good reason. Legislation that is rushed or badly formulated ends up being rejected by the court system. Or even worse, cause a public outrage.Like Facebook recently did with its own mess on personal data.
While the Blender Foundation is mulling as to whether to pull out of YouTube completely. Here is another example of Google’s algorithms gone mad.
So in a sense, this could mean everything from old Mythbusters clips to the Will it Blend series to videos of CD’s in a microwave being in danger (which in total makes up a sizable portion of all the content on the site). Eventually, YouTube won’t be of much use anymore because there will hardly be anything left outside of what is posted by Pew Die Pie and the other big celebrities.
YouTube’s right to monetize: YouTube has the right to monetize all content on the platform and ads may appear on videos from channels not in the YouTube Partner Program.
It seems that Google changed rules that address no ads on channels like Blender or NASA.