Google Favoritism? Eric Schmidt’s 55 Minutes of YouTube Fame

by on September 7, 2007 · 16 comments

Do Google execs get special treatment on YouTube? Maybe. Last month, Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, spoke at the Progress and Freedom Foundation’s annual conference in Aspen. Among the topics covered were the value of an open Internet and the need for net neutrality rules. Soon thereafter, the Google public policy team posted their bosses’ speech on the (Google-owned) YouTube site. No problem with that, except that the clip runs some 55 minutes. Since early 2006, YouTube – to the consternation of many users — has limited videos to 10 minutes.

It’s not clear how the clip – one among several over-limit pieces by Schmidt on YouTube -made it past YouTube’s time limit cops. The policy itself seems clear. A notice on the YouTube “Help Center” site states clearly:

“You can no longer upload videos longer than ten minutes regardless of what type of account you have. Users who had previously been allowed to upload longer content still retain this ability, so you may occasionally see videos that are longer than ten minutes.”

YouTube does have some premium memberships, such as “director” and “guru” that confer special privileges – but extra-long videos it not among them. Google – which purchased YouTube last fall – has hinted it may change the rule, but for now it stands. At least for other people.

Net neutrality proponents consistently argue that regulation is needed to prevent Internet service providers from favoring their own content. Google itself has cited “prioritizing data packet delivery based on the ownership or affiliation…of the content” as a neutrality violation that should be banned. Perhaps the Google staff thought it was so important to get the word out about net neutrality that neutrality itself had to be discarded.

Perhaps there is a more innocuous explanation for the extra 45 minutes on this video, maybe some generally-applicable exception buried in the YouTube rules. Barring that, Schmidt’s video may have to be cut back a bit.

Now, who wants to tell the boss he spoke too long?

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About James Gattuso

James Gattuso is a Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy in the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Gattuso also leads the Enterprise and Free Markets Initiative at Heritage, with responsiblity for a range of regulatory and market issues. Prior to joining Heritage, he served as Vice President for Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and also as Vice President for Policy Development with Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). From 1990 to 1993, he was Deputy Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy at the Federal Communications Commission. From May 1991 to June 1992, he was detailed from the FCC to the office of Vice President Dan Quayle, where he served as Associate Director of the President's Council on Competitiveness. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife Dana, 8 year-old son, Peter (whom he relies upon to operate his VCR), and his four year-old daughter Lindsey (who does the DVD player.) He has no known hobbies, but is not nearly as boring as he seems.

Read more articles by James Gattuso.

  • http://www.copyrightings.com Kevin

    This post is complete trash. The account which put up Schmidt’s video is a Director account which anyone can acquire. Don’t be ridiculous.

  • http://www.copyrightings.com Kevin

    http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=4KWKYZN7znU

    Director accounts can have videos longer than 10 minutes. Do some research.

  • http://www.blurringborders.com kdonovan11

    This post is complete trash. The account which put up Schmidt’s video is a Director account which anyone can acquire. Don’t be ridiculous.

  • http://www.blurringborders.com kdonovan11

    http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=4KWKYZN7znU

    Director accounts can have videos longer than 10 minutes. Do some research.

  • Anonymous

    Theh commenter above missed the fact that “Director” accounts no longer are given the ability to post videos longer than 10 minutes. According the the YouTube Help Center faq quoted above: “You can no longer upload videos longer than ten minutes regardless of what type of account you have”. (http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=71673&ctx=sib).

    It does go on to say that “Users who had previously been allowed to upload longer content still retain this ability, so you may occasionally see videos that are longer than ten minutes.” According to the YouTube blog, this applies to accounts approved before January 2007. I don’t know when the “director” account used by the Google staff was established, but the earliest video posted under that account was in February. (There is also an exception for filmmakers and “instructors”, although it’s not clear how those terms are defined. (http://devcms.com/2007/04/17/on-the-10-minute-limit/)

    As I said in the original post, there very possibly is an innocuous explanation here, given the byzantine nature of YouTube’s rules. But simply having a “director” account isn’t enough.

  • Anonymous

    Theh commenter above missed the fact that “Director” accounts no longer are given the ability to post videos longer than 10 minutes. According the the YouTube Help Center faq quoted above: “You can no longer upload videos longer than ten minutes regardless of what type of account you have”. (http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answe…).

    It does go on to say that “Users who had previously been allowed to upload longer content still retain this ability, so you may occasionally see videos that are longer than ten minutes.” According to the YouTube blog, this applies to accounts approved before January 2007. I don’t know when the “director” account used by the Google staff was established, but the earliest video posted under that account was in February. (There is also an exception for filmmakers and “instructors”, although it’s not clear how those terms are defined. (http://devcms.com/2007/04/17/on-the-10-minute-l…)

    As I said in the original post, there very possibly is an innocuous explanation here, given the byzantine nature of YouTube’s rules. But simply having a “director” account isn’t enough.

  • http://www.manifestdensity.net Tom

    As others have noted, this is a very silly post. There are plenty of other online video vendors out there — the monopoly conditions that make net neutrality a concern have nothing to do with this case. If a company wants to offer one division’s services to another cheaply, they’re welcome to do so. Failing to grasp this makes me wonder if the author understands the concerns of the pro-neutrality faction at all. It’s fine to disagree, but to assume some sort of online communism is at work isn’t correct at all. Besides which, Google offers this service to many others in a means similar to their Google Grants program. It’s not spelled out on the site, but if you have a compelling need for no time limits you can get in touch with them and ask for an exception. I’ve heard this related directly by a Google employee.

  • http://www.manifestdensity.net Tom

    As others have noted, this is a very silly post. There are plenty of other online video vendors out there — the monopoly conditions that make net neutrality a concern have nothing to do with this case. If a company wants to offer one division’s services to another cheaply, they’re welcome to do so. Failing to grasp this makes me wonder if the author understands the concerns of the pro-neutrality faction at all. It’s fine to disagree, but to assume some sort of online communism is at work isn’t correct at all.
    Besides which, Google offers this service to many others in a means similar to their Google Grants program. It’s not spelled out on the site, but if you have a compelling need for no time limits you can get in touch with them and ask for an exception. I’ve heard this related directly by a Google employee.

  • http://mcgath.blogspot.com Gary McGath

    The owners of a website get to put up extra material of their own? Horrors! Get the government!

  • http://mcgath.blogspot.com Gary McGath

    The owners of a website get to put up extra material of their own? Horrors! Get the government!

  • anonMT

    I think the git above missed the entire point of this blogpost; there’s sufficient irony in YouTube, which is merely owned like Google not actually an extra limb of it, bowing down to senior executive while pissing on the rest of the folks who have to suffer with the ten minute limit.

    Let’s face it, the only reason that limit is in place is because YouTube is paranoid of people uploading whole movies – heaven forbid someone’s wedding party be longer than ten minutes – yet the more cunning of users are able to break up their videos, thus bypassing the silly ten minute limit.

    The problem is, the less tech savvy people (namely, the majority of YouTube users) are unable to do this, so they can’t upload their video at all. It hurts those who aren’t going against the law and does nothing to deter the pirates.

    Ridiculous.

  • anonMT

    I think the git above missed the entire point of this blogpost; there’s sufficient irony in YouTube, which is merely owned like Google not actually an extra limb of it, bowing down to senior executive while pissing on the rest of the folks who have to suffer with the ten minute limit.

    Let’s face it, the only reason that limit is in place is because YouTube is paranoid of people uploading whole movies – heaven forbid someone’s wedding party be longer than ten minutes – yet the more cunning of users are able to break up their videos, thus bypassing the silly ten minute limit.

    The problem is, the less tech savvy people (namely, the majority of YouTube users) are unable to do this, so they can’t upload their video at all. It hurts those who aren’t going against the law and does nothing to deter the pirates.

    Ridiculous.

  • carlos

    I have uploaded videos up to 11 minutes. sometimes it wont let me, is like he has a mind of its own LOL

  • anonymouse77

    Why dwell on such a minor side issue when youtube videos are clearly given a lowered bar on the main google.com search page?

  • anonymouse77

    Why dwell on such a minor side issue when youtube videos are clearly given a lowered bar on the main google.com search page?

  • anonymouse77

    Why dwell on such a minor side issue when youtube videos are clearly given a lowered bar on the main google.com search page?

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