What can happen to teens' Web videos

Who actually owns those millions of video clips on YouTube.com – their creators? Nope. YouTube does. In "What goes on the Net stays on the Net," PBS tech writer Robert Cringley says that, apparently in preparing for a copyright-related lawsuit and in "feinting toward going public," YouTube just "clarified" in its terms of use "exactly who DOES own all that video." Not that YouTube would, but under its new license, here's what the site could do with any video your teen film producer uploads to the site, Cringley says: "produce a Best of YouTube DVD and sell it on late-night TV. They could take your musical performance, strip the audio from the video, and sell it to almost anyone for almost any use. They could refuse to take down your video, no matter how embarrassing. They could charge YOU for your own video. And of course they could insert ads in the video virtually anywhere." The thing is, lots of young videographers wouldn't hesitate for a second to put themselves in a position like that – for their chance to be "famous" and make connections with "fans." That's why we need to know what can happen to their homemade, often self-starring videos, because the above possibilities are the *best-case* scenarios for what can happen to photos and videos of minors on the Web. For more, please click to this week's issue of my newsletter.