Thanks to its gorgeous scenery and impressive car industry, Germany is likely to have a lot of sights worth seeing. And thanks to a new version of YouTube, Germans will have a special place to share them.
YouTube Germany is a mostly-in-German site that features mostly-in-German videos. Unlike the release of YouTube Canada, this seems quite logical, and the exceptions – phrases like “Broadcast Yourself” and “powered by Google” are evident, and a clip from “The Cosby Show” is featured on the front page – aren’t a real problem. But since my knowledge of German is nonexistent, we’ll turn to Markus Spath for further details.
“[T]hey run a special competition to welcome and hook up new German users . . . and legal disclaimers seem to have been adapted to local laws,” reports Spath. Furthermore, “Google has been negotiating with many Germany publishers and their channels should pop up soon.”
This seems like great news all around. Yet the one thing YouTube Germany will have to be careful about, legal disclaimers or not, is the presence of Nazi propaganda. YouTube has gotten in trouble over such videos before, and a bit of lawyer-ese won’t change people’s feelings on the subject.
