YouTube has been sending emails to Indian users on updating its Terms and Conditions. You can read them at length here: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms
The two main things out of this change (in my understanding) seem to have both a positive and a negative spin:
1.) Currently, creators on YouTube join a YouTube Partner Program to get the best of their expertise on content development, direct access to Creative Support, etc. In turn, they allow YouTube to run ads in between their content and they themselves get some share of the revenue. Now, with YouTube’s Right to Monetize, creators who may have chosen not to interrupt streaming and may not have joined the YPP will also find their content interrupted with ads. But they won’t get any revenues out of those ads until and unless they join the YPP (for which there’s an application and now the competition will only get tougher.
2.)YouTube has explicitly used the term “or faces” to state that facial recognition techniques cannot be employed to harvest anyone’s data without their consent. Earlier, it did not mention this term as a part of identifiable information for the user.
So, what do content creators and developers think about this move towards greater commercialisation of content? Are there any other issues which you were able to flag in the T&C that affect digital rights significantly? Share your thoughts, please!