Last September I stumbled across an amazing new technology known as YouTube. Ya, I know, I was just a bit late to the party. Well, in the process of setting up a new channel I started reading about ‘monetization.’ This seemed like an interesting idea to me at the time with the only pitfall being that, because advertising is involved, the standard of content was more strict than what the common copyright standards are. Well, I took a good long look at what our ‘risks were’ and what they ‘might be’ and decided to find new music and to take a more strict approach to the outside content that we use on the show and see where this ‘monetization’ thing takes us. Since that time, YouTube has paid us a bit over $300 of taxable dollars. In the meantime, I have been learning new tricks for the show from some gamers. That’s right, gamers. It seems that there are a number of ‘talk’ shows on YouTube and something called ‘Twitch’ that do live streaming in order to talk up their craft. Some of them share how they do their shows from behind the scenes and I have picked up some really good pointers along the way. But what has disturbed me is how much these guys dislike ‘monetization.’ In fact, there some real horror stories out there about how aggressive YouTube was in demanding permission from these guys. Remember, there is no ‘fair use’ provision in the ‘monetization’ arena.

So this morning I get an email from YouTube wanting me to affirm permissions for a particular show. So I go back to that show and think about it for a bit. Now, do I think that I can produce the needed information? Yes, I do. But I keep thinking about how the gamers talk about how the nightmare begins and this is it. With that said, I decided that the prudent course of action is to remove all of our monetizations and cancel the account because its just not worth it. So I did just that.

So, why do I need to announce this here? There can be no doubt that we have critics. Some of these critics have vivid imaginations and would certainly take notice that the ads are now gone. There is no doubt in my mind that the wild speculation would begin right there and suddenly I am in some sort of copyright violation somewhere offending someone and I wanted to head that off. There has been no such complaint.

With all of this said, I am very much aware that we are putting content on YouTube that our critics do not want to be made available to the general public. From the beginning of this I have been concerned with the possibility that YouTube might come along and point at one of our videos, declare it offensive and remove it without appeal. Worse, they could simply declare our entire channel offensive and remove it without appeal. It is my goal that we will eventually have all of Dr. White’s debates posted to the channel in HD and that we continue live streaming the Dividing Line as well. But I am under no illusions that there are not risks involved in doing this and I need to exercise the wisdom needed not to give them any foothold that could cause an undue burden to the ministry.

The point of this as well as all of what we do here is to further the gospel by equipping the saints with a quality apologetic that they can use to share the faith more effectively with a lost and dying world under judgement.

Blessings

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