From what I've know, Youtube will not delete videos that don't belong to you if: a. You claim it's not your property, and that it belongs to another source. b. Give direct link to the site of it's owners. If you have a CNN video that the Youtube channel CNN has posted, your video wll most likely be deleted. Youtube is doing this to protect copyright, and avoid copyright infrigments. What company will risk the chance of being sued? Not youtube.

YouTube doesn't just delete copyrighted videos. They'll delete any video that an entertainment company have filed a 'take down notice' for - even if they don't have any rights to that video at all. This is thanks to a wonderful law called the DMCA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA YouTube don't bother investigating the legitimacy of take down notices, because they don't have the resources to do so. So if you spotted a video you don't like on YouTube, you could just issue a 'take down notice' under the provisions of the DMCA (claiming that it infringes on your copyright) and they'll likely obey it even if it's a fraud. Of course, they're most likely to roll over if you're a big entertainment company like Viacom. By the way, issuing a fraudulent take down notice is against the law, but since the penalty for not obeying a legit 'take down notice' is high, most people don't bother to challenge them and this leads to big entertainment companies wielding a very big hammer that most would not dare oppose. Welcome to the new copyright regime. What I find most interesting about the entertainment industry's stance on copyright is that much of what they're against falls under fair use laws. Plus - the free advertising provided when clips of shows (as opposed to whole programs) are posted on YouTube is something you wouldn't think a content owner would object to. But I digress. Sorry about the rant, but this is a topic that really touches a nerve with me.......

Copying is against the law at $20,000 and?or 20 years in jail. Easy answer, $20,000+20 years or just take it off. Would you like to pay $20,000 for a 2-minute clip?