GodTube

ABC recently discovered GodTube. I've known about GodTube for awhile. To be honest, I don't watch many videos on GodTube--I really don't have time. What I like about GodTube, as opposed to YouTube, is that you have a pretty good idea going into it what you're getting. Granted, GodTube is a copy of YouTube, but with religious overtones. It's like somebody looked at YouTube and said, this would make a great tool for Christians if only it were run by Christian people. It's pretty obvious that it isn't run by Christians--and that's not necessarily bad; if the only businesses allowed to operate were Christian-run businesses, we would be in trouble. YouTube has a long history of, well, interesting ethical choices. They have a policy that they will not allow copyrighted content on their site, however, they have, until recently, put the onus of copyright protection on their contributors and the owners of said copyright. In other words, you aren't supposed to post content to their site unless you own the rights to it--and their terms of use page spells out exactly how you can tell if you own the rights or not, but if you do, they don't really check, but if someone else complains that they own the copyright, YouTube will take the video off their site. As an example, a video was posted on YouTube several months ago that met the criteria for original content, but a TV show about internet video used the video on their show (without permission from the producer of said video). The producer video'd the TV program that featured his video, and posted the video on YouTube, in place of his original video, including on-air comments about his video. The network informed YouTube that they owned the copyright, and YouTube took down the video. The original producer tried to make the case that they used his video without permission, but that really didn't fly--it's not like he was collecting royalties from YouTube.

More than that, though, YouTube has a policy that they will not host material that is deemed offensive. Experience has taught us that what we consider to be offensive isn't necessarily what YouTube considers offensive. There are many videos on YouTube that would not be rated PG in by the MPAA. More than that, there are a number of videos that criticize various religions or ethnic groups. Some of these are taken down very quickly, others stay put for years. Generally, if it is anti-Christian or anti-Semitic, it is deemed to be non-offensive. If it is critical of Islam, it is removed quickly; even if it is clear that it is only critical of terrorists groups as opposed to Islam as a whole. Perhaps that is because Jews and Christians don't have a history of flying airplanes into buildings. Don't misunderstand me, I am well aware that most Muslims are very peaceful people. I know that. I know that the vast majority of Muslims who have immigrated to this country are here because they are trying to get away from the extremists who sponsor terror. I mean those people no ill-will. My point is, simply, that YouTube clearly is more concerned about offending the terrorists than they are the vast majority of their users. To be honest, I can somewhat understand. They offend me, I quit using their site. They have lost one user. This will have a fairly negligible effect on their advertising revenue. They offend some terrorist group, they may get some of their people killed. There is also the concern that the terrorists may not target YouTube, but the producers of the video, but leaving the operators of YouTube with some sense of responsibility (or not--some people are quite immune to such things, but I would like to think that they would feel some responsibility). There is a certain wisdom to the way YouTube operates. The thing is, if I go to YouTube, and click on 'humor,' I may get a video that will make me laugh, or I may get some pop-tart showing me things that I don't really need to see, or some bigot making jokes about the Holocaust...

Granted, the videos at GodTube mostly leave me disappointed. Some of them are funny. Some of them are thought-provoking. A lot of them take a great concept and use wooden acting, bad camera angles and poor scripting to just, I don't know how to describe it--it's like instead of taking a photograph of a beautiful sunset, you sit down and paint it using watercolors on graph paper in the rain (I suppose if you don't have a camera or canvas or a dry spot to paint, that's the best you can do).

It's been pointed out that GodTube is a little embarrassing. It's such an obvious copy. The site could have been designed a lot better. Most of the videos could be a lot better. Some of them are just plain stupid. But they are clean. They are not offensive (well, not usually, anyway, and not offensive in the sense that they are showing things they ought not, or expressing opinions that offend--sometimes they are offensively stupid, but that's about it). One of my personal favorite videos on GodTube is called, "Baby Got Book." It's a take-off of a secular music video, but this guy talks (sings?) about how he likes women with (big) Bibles. I've watched it several times and I still get a chuckle out of it. One of my least favorite is one that calls the banana an atheist's worst nightmare--although, to be honest, that one is stupid enough to be funny, even though it clearly wasn't intended as humor.

So, the question is, do I watch YouTube, and risk being offended at what I see, or watch GodTube, and risk being disappointed? Or just stay busy with other things, and not worry about it...