Everyone loves YouTube. After all, where else can you get obscure video clips of cats doing cute and funny things? Or videos that your favorite celebrity did from halfway around the world?
It also allows for viewers to find things that may have been thought to be lost to time. There have been versions of The Phantom of the Opera that many "phans" thought were lost forever. Someone, somewhere, happened to have the version and uploaded and then, suddenly, it wasn't lost.
Then, as Ebert mentions, there are loads of 'free' movies available on YouTube, though not always in one piece. You may have to watch the movie in 10-15 minute segments, but it's there. Ebert himself states that the list of videos he's seen (for 'free') includes No Country for Old Men, A.I., The Ring, and The Grudge (Chapter 2 of Ebert). Here is a video I found within 30 seconds of searching that includes the entirety of the 25th Anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera:
It also allows for viewers to find things that may have been thought to be lost to time. There have been versions of The Phantom of the Opera that many "phans" thought were lost forever. Someone, somewhere, happened to have the version and uploaded and then, suddenly, it wasn't lost.
Then, as Ebert mentions, there are loads of 'free' movies available on YouTube, though not always in one piece. You may have to watch the movie in 10-15 minute segments, but it's there. Ebert himself states that the list of videos he's seen (for 'free') includes No Country for Old Men, A.I., The Ring, and The Grudge (Chapter 2 of Ebert). Here is a video I found within 30 seconds of searching that includes the entirety of the 25th Anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera:
Now, this video (as of this posting) was posted for free viewing, but it is certainly not supposed to be. What I want to know, however, is what you think. Do you think that it's okay for these types of videos to be posted online without charge? As a college student, free is awesome. Any time we don't have to pay, it's great. At the same time, these videos can be saved and downloaded with websites, so aren't they essentially the same thing as pirated videos? What do you think?
