Muted Videos….What is the world coming to…..?

       “The Internet is a field of unconstrained expression” (Strangelove, 199). This freedom of expression that allows people to be themselves has helped to create “a new type of public space” (199) that is not controlled by the market. People think freely and develop their own meaning, which allows them to resist control.

       Corporations do not like this freedom as it makes them feel as though they have lost control over their audience. They feel this control is necessary in order to sell their products and the lifestyle that comes along with it.

 

 

       The freedom of the Internet is under attack and it has started with YouTube. Users make videos and use their favorite songs as the soundtracks and this has been done since the beginning of YouTube.

       However, lately YouTube creators have decided to start muting videos that use unauthorized copyrighted material, such as songs because of a copyright infringement.

Videos that this has been done to have the official YouTube notice:

“This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders. This audio has been disabled”

        If YouTube starts being thorough and following through with this on every video then there will be a lot of amateur videos that will be muted and without sound videos tend to lose their appeal. I don’t think that any users are going to be happy about this as it limits their creativity as well as the freedom they once had on the Internet.

       The Internet is known as a place where private property became public property, this however is changing and one day may no longer the case. The freedom of the Internet is under attack. If we do not start to fight back and put up more resistance, than the Internet may one day fall under corporate control.

        It starts with YouTube and then from there it could expand. I think that corporations want to control human communication and social networks so that they can use them to their advantage while selling their products.

It is very difficult to find an example of these videos online because once they have been muted, the creator will usually take the video off YouTube because it has lost much of its appeal and meaning.

        The videos that I have posted are examples of this new phenomenon. Both of these videos were once accommodated by a song that the creator felt represented the video and made it exciting.

 

 

        I am sure that the Jenga Pistol would have been a lot more exciting to watch if there was a soundtrack. It would be like watching a silent movie, and that is never good.