It might not be going away but it will soon be policed so much that there will be nothing worth "surfing" for anymore.
Combine that with what frogboy4 said...
The internet is still like the wild west. It is likely the last frontier to be explored and to stake claims. The staking usually comes from the biggest bullies. I understand protecting a copyright. There really is no copyright police, the enforcement falls upon the party of ownership (and its minions). Google is a corporate giant...this was only a matter of time.
Exactly. Exactly what I've been saying. The internet WAS like the wild west, and it was only a matter of time before the rich man kicked the natives off their land to find gold. Napster? Fine. You actually got to keep the music and burn it onto disk. Using songs and characters for a fan work? That should be like Drawing Mickey Mouse for the amusement of your friends. No harm is really being done.
Youtube is basically like watching a video your friend rented at his house. That's it. I mean, sure. Go after people who post full lenght movies that just came out, or full epiosdes of something last night. I feel this is mainly because of the moron who posted the episode of 24 before it aired last year.
And if MTV is soooooo anal about not posting music videos... go back to actually
airing music videos. While your at it, make up more sites like Turbo Nick where you can watch stuff on line legally for your site. Give the fans a more legal friendly alternative.
In all it hurts fans of classic commercials, TV shows, stuff from other countries that can't be brought over here (I saw 2 Asterix movies this way), and basically anyone who loves Television, but hates to watch it. Especially now.
Rumors of a Sesame Street clip archive have surfaced, but until I see something big, we're going to have to find an alternative that hasn't been bullied by Viacom, or we have to go back to the archaic tape trades we thought we were finnally rid of.