Movie

The Wall Street Journal points out an interesting trend: loads of illegally uploaded, full-length movies are finding their way on to YouTube, and studios are doing nothing about it.

And you know what? It's right. A quick Google throws up full versions of The Three Faces of Eve, Misery, Battle Royale, The Illusionist... we could go on, but you can use a search engine by yourself.

The Journal suggests that most of these films are from Walt Disney, Columbia and Tristar studios, and—as of yet—they're not doing anything about it. From the WSJ:

Why the movie studios didn't block the films by using a special YouTube program-called Content ID-for identifying their copyrighted content is a mystery.

Google in late 2007 launched Content ID, which helps identify copyrighted material so content owners can block the content from appearing on the site altogether, or in certain geographical markets. Alternatively, content owners can choose to let YouTube sell online advertisements that appear next to or on top of the videos while they play.

Clearly, this isn't a situation that will last for very long; those studios are bound to wise up sooner or later and pull that content. But in the meantime, you can probably find yourself a fine evening of free movie viewing on YouTube—if you don't find the idea morally troubling. [WSJ]

Update: As Giz reader Giant Speck points out, there is a Reddit page dedicated to pointing out full movies on YouTube.