YouTube getting all Hulu – that’s a bad thing

Starting on December 2nd, YouTube is planning on blocking access to content based on where and how it’s being delivered. This according to Popcorn Hour’s COO Alex Limberis:

On November 18, 2009 Syabas, makers of the award-winning Popcorn Hour product line, uploaded a message to their Media Service Portal that said, “As of Wednesday, December 2, 2009, YouTube will no longer be available to Popcorn Hour users.”

Please understand that this is neither a technical glitch nor a decision the company has voluntarily made. To be clear, Google has changed YouTube’s terms of service to exclude Set Top Boxes and other devices, and, as a result, Syabas has been asked to remove the content from their platform. We are working diligently with Google/YouTube to restore the service in the future.

In short, this means they don’t want YouTube to be watched on your TV set unless it’s through Google approved partner(s).  This is very much what Hulu, the US only service that provides online streaming of network television shows and films, complete with advertising.  If you use one of these dedicated media streamers, you can never be guaranteed whether the service will work.  (UPDATED after the break)

More specifically, from YouTube’s Terms Of Service:

Your API Client will not, and You will not encourage or create functionality for Your users or other third parties to use the YouTube API in connection with any API Client created for use on television set top boxes, television game consoles, or video screens packaged and marketed as television sets [Section II item 10]

Even though Hulu’s practice of blocking set tops is annoying at the least, YouTube pulling these shenanigans is even more reprehensible.  Google’s YouTube is built on the back of user generated content, not a tightly controlled media conglomorate.  As a video aggregator that depends on 10s of thousands of freely uploaded videos to be the backbone of its advertising delivery mechanism, should YouTube have the right to restrict access based on the type of device being used?  Personally, I don’t think so.  Let’s hope the API ban doesn’t extend to software that runs on computer systems that are hooked up to TV sets as well.

Next thing you know, they’ll be restricting mobile access to Android devices.  So much for not being evil.

UPDATE via Engadget:  Google’s response

Since July of 2008, YouTube’s Terms of Service has restricted implementations for televisions based on our APIs. YouTube has been in active discussions with various developers on how best to implement YouTube on set top boxes and TVs. There are several companies, however, that have deployed solutions, like video scraping technology, to circumvent the rules and violate YouTube’s Terms of Service. Companies that have negotiated agreements to use our APIs, like TiVo, Sony, Panasonic and PS3 are not impacted.