Shawn Stafford at oudaily.com (http://bit.ly/L9FdBi) says:

The shutdown of Megaupload is an equally significant event.

With this event, the days of easy carefree file sharing are slowly becoming a thing of the past, moving most, if not all, file sharing to password protected torrenting sites, where you use a program to download many pieces of a file from many different people at once.

YouTube

This, I think, calls for an altogether new video file-sharing platform that allows users to download and store at least the majority of its content. An NY Times report says:

In an effort to attract a steadier stream of viewers and advertisers, YouTube is introducing entertainment channels, planning to produce about 100 in all … For YouTube, the gamble is whether audiences used to YouTube’s anarchic energy will subscribe to the channels in numbers significant enough to entice advertisers to pay higher rates. Google will present the channels to advertisers in New York in May 2012 …
(at http://nyti.ms/aukXIR)

Well, sorry, but I am not much into YouTube videos that I cannot download. I treasure the anarchic energy of YouTube. Once upon a time, I used to think that there was some fabulous content there that I wanted. No longer. And that is because:

Every time I wanna watch a video, you irk the patience out of me with your ads and annotations.
You want to bore me with suggested content based on those few videos I watched last week.
Your YouTube digest is full of suggestions that I may or may not like. If I do like some, it’s no use because I cannot show ‘em to my family and friends on my mobile.

You are a major source of disappointment to a vast user base. As soon as there’s a good, alternative channel, you are definitely going to lose ground.
You don’t want me to download ANY content because there are hardly any download links available on any of the videos.

That this is the sentiment of the average user of YouTube is anybody’s guess. I am told that copyrighted material is not being handled appropriately in the first place. And in my view, what is copyrighted material doing on YouTube anyway? I don’t want any of it. I want material that I can happily and safely download. I look at YouTube as a platform for vlogging and I want to store quality videos for future reference.

Since that is what took YouTube off to a flying start, I dare say it owes me – the casual browser and downloader – the privilege to download the videos it hosts. Private, copyrighted content is not invited to the party.

I want YouTube to offer ONLY videos available for free distribution. I want nothing out of Howllywood or TV channels. When I want that, I’ll go to the respective sources. I don’t want worries about infringing any copyrights. What I am interested in is a guiltless and worry-free experience of my favorite online video channel.

If YouTube (and Google, its owner) cannot understand these simple requirements, it can and will very well go out of fashion. Period.

What has been your experience with YouTube? And what are your expectations from this excellent vlogging platform? Please tell me in the comments.