Just like Google, You-Tube is now extremely arbitrary in their actions with users. My account, while I was in Iran, was 'permanently suspended.' I'd only received one email before about copyright infringement. And believe me, what I posted fell clearly within fair use guidelines. But alas, they've been bought by Google, and we all know how horribly arbitrary Google is: [1]

There is totally no way to defend you against this, you get no warning at all if a clip has been flagged, you just have to come to the conclusion whilst browsing your video archive. This particular clip was uploaded in September last year. It’s been on there for months, and all of the sudden the content isn’t appropriate anymore?

Moreover, You-Tube's utility as an archive has clearly dimished: [2]

Anyway, I’m done with YouTube, almost. It is clear they have no interest in preserving a digital archive of video content for the future, and that I cannot rely on them for posterity. I will continue to look for video sharing services, but it is clear YouTube has value merely as a bandwidth saver, not as an actual utility for web publishing. Any video I link to or embed can dissapear at a moments notice because of an unrelated and questionably legal video.

Feel free to continue to use You-Tube links and embeds here at The Agonist, but I'll be looking for something better. A service that actually lives up to its own motto. After all, what was all that stuff about 'Don't Be Evil?'

Just crap if you ask me.