YouTube's Ad situation

So recently, as many of you may be aware, there's been a bit of drama on YouTube regarding advertisers.
TL;DR the Wall Street Journal reported that there are ads on "bigoted" content (ISIS, KKK, Neo Nazis), so a shitload of huge companies (shit like Coca Cola) pulled ads, forcing YouTube to implement a system that automatically pulls ads from "offensive" content, massively fucking over big channels. Now there's a huge shitstorm with every big YouTube personality making videos on the subject.

Is YouTube a viable source of income?
Was it a good idea to trust YouTube despite their past failings?
Should YouTubers have a backup plan in case shit goes south?
 
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Charles Morgenstern said:
We can only hope this is a result of the SJWs' own agitation to crack down on bullshit which may offend them. That they are being caught up in their own trap is poetic justice.
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It's also been reported that this dude named Eric Feinberg might be behind it all.
What he did was fucking genius from an evil businessman standpoint:

-Basically he has a patented way of finding "offensive" content on social media sites.
-He used this to find offensive content on YouTube.
-He told the advertisers about it.
-The advertisers pull out.
-He claims that there's no way for YouTube to find all the offensive videos without breaking his patent.
-So YouTube is forced to pay him to solve the problem that he created.

It's fucking brilliant.
Source:
http://adage.com/article/digital/eric-feinberg-man-google-youtube-brand-safety-crisis/308435/
 
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Reactions: Chaosbandit, Sergeant Politeness, Elysian and 12 others
It's 2017. If you're still naive enough to put your livelihood at the mercy of a soulless megacorp that can and will throw you under the bus on their advertisers' whims, the joke's on you. Everyone with a trace of foresight has already weaned themselves from ad revenue.
 
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Manly-Chicken said:
It's also been reported that this dude named Eric Feinberg might be behind it all.
What he did was fucking genius from an evil businessman standpoint:

-Basically he has a patented way of finding "offensive" content on social media sites.
-He used this to find offensive content on YouTube.
-He told the advertisers about it.
-The advertisers pull out.
-He claims that there's no way for YouTube to find all the offensive videos without breaking his patent.
-So YouTube is forced to pay him to solve the problem that he created.

It's fucking brilliant.
Source:
http://adage.com/article/digital/eric-feinberg-man-google-youtube-brand-safety-crisis/308435/
Click to expand...

Damn, that's genius.
 
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WhatNemesisMeans said:
Curiously I don't see the big, successful youtubers complaining about this.
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A lot of the big YouTubers are smart enough to have more revenue streams than just YouTube ad money. Most of the big names have Patreons, merchandise they can sell, or stream on Twitch (which is apparently more profitable than YouTube). Some of them even work directly with advertisers and do sponsored videos.
 
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Super Collie said:
h3h3 should be rightfully worried about it because ever since they turned to clickbait content their core fans have abandoned them.
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He made a video showing "proof" the WSJ doctored screenshots to make it look like ads ran on a video with the word "nigger" in the title. The "evidence" was the video hasn't earned money in months, and the screenshot was recent, implying there haven't been ads on the video in months.
HOWEVER, the video was apparently copyright ID'd, meaning there COULD have still been ads on it, but all the revenue was going to the song's owner, explaining how there could be ads on the video, but the guy earned $0.
https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/848669691660963840

EDIT:
Confirmed that the screenshots were legit and H3H3 and co. were wrong.
https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/848685375379972096
 
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Manly-Chicken said:
It's also been reported that this dude named Eric Feinberg might be behind it all.
What he did was fucking genius from an evil businessman standpoint:

-Basically he has a patented way of finding "offensive" content on social media sites.
-He used this to find offensive content on YouTube.
-He told the advertisers about it.
-The advertisers pull out.
-He claims that there's no way for YouTube to find all the offensive videos without breaking his patent.
-So YouTube is forced to pay him to solve the problem that he created.

It's fucking brilliant.
Source:
http://adage.com/article/digital/eric-feinberg-man-google-youtube-brand-safety-crisis/308435/
Click to expand...
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=...1=9521164.PN.%26OS=PN/9521164%26RS=PN/9521164

This is a terribly overbroad patent. I would imagine Google's lawyers would bowl him over in court if he tried to enforce the patent.
 
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Marvin said:
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=09521164&PageNum=4&IDKey=D515B0C3C37A&HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1%26Sect2=HITOFF%26d=PALL%26p=1%26u=%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsrchnum.htm%26r=1%26f=G%26l=50%26s1=9521164.PN.%26OS=PN/9521164%26RS=PN/9521164

This is a terribly overbroad patent. I would imagine Google's lawyers would bowl him over in court if he tried to enforce the patent.
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Patent law is one of the most expensive to litigate over. It may have been cheaper to settle.
 
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