YouTube has had a well intentioned upload limitation of 100 megabytes, or 10 minutes, for a long time now. Mainly in an effort to stop copyright infringement.
This of course means that anyone wishing to put a copyrighted TV episode on the site has to break it up in to small pieces, which is annoying, and does indeed prevent it happening too often.
10 Minute Limit Lifted For Some
While the 100mb limit is still in place, and not going anywhere, YouTube have now allowed trusted uploaders and YouTube partners to exceed the 10 minute limit, something which Charles Trippy has done by a long way.
Trippy, the man behind Viral Video Fever, decided to push the new allowance to its limit, by uploading a video which runs for over nine hours. And here it is in all of its glory:
The Longest Video Ever On YouTube
You watched it all, I’m sure… no, me neither. The fact is, it’s neither exciting or watchable, and the chances are no-one (at least in their right mind) will watch the whole thing through.
What it does do however, is work as a stunt, and maybe a form of art. And more importantly, it brings up in to question the whole limitations idea again.
YouTube has had to work hard to overcome the blatant copyright infringements committed on the site, but is the 10 minute limitation one of those which should now be consigned to the dustbin for ever, and for everyone?
For those of you who like the complete picture, Trippy also produced the shortest video ever and uploaded it to YouTube:
The Shortest Video Ever On YouTube
Conclusions
What do you think? Not necessarily to the videos which are just there because they can be, but to the whole idea of limitations on video sharing sites in the first place?
Aside from the obvious copyright issues involved, it won’t actually make any difference to YouTube whether there is one nine hour video on the site, or 60 ten minute clips.
