Amazon has opened up Amazon Video Direct for movies, webcasts, etc. from users. I've just uploaded several of my films there. It's not a straight replacement for YouTube, but it's an easy and direct option for distribution.

"Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown"

They're screwing over any one who doesn't line up perfectly with YouTube's concept of "acceptable" view, which will shut down freedom of speech on YouTube.

@DrDave - Sure. It's pretty straightforward with just a few bumps along the way for me that were quickly resolved.

First, you need to sign up with AVD, which includes providing a bank account and tax info so that they can pay you. Once done, you sign the contract and you can get the specs for video, audio, etc. It's pretty easy to set Media Encoder to the proper specs (though there's no preset yet). You will have to provide CC files. There are several formats that they will accept, but interestingly, not the .STL that is most common. I found that .SRT worked for me with 24fps and 23.976fps material. I use Rev.com to do the captions - for $1/minute run time turned around in <24 hours. AVD accepted all my Rev files.

You pick your own prices for sale and rental of HD and SD material in each market (US, UK, Germany, Japan). For free streaming on Amazon Prime, the price is fixed. You can see the rates on the AVD site. You pick/design your own image and key art files.

I had a hiccup because some of my files already existed on Amazon under a different distributor. It had been a miscommunication, but the distrib and AVD worked with me to resolve it quickly. Another surprise is that if your content has any on-screen URLs, you need to remove them. Most of my movies had a movie website URL at the end of the credits, which is pretty common among indie films. So I took those off. Once all is done and accepted, your movies go online in a day or two.

Pretty painless. There is a dashboard that shows your sales on about a daily basis for various titles, territories, and methods of purchase. I think this is about as specific as I can be, but you can find a lot of info on the AVD website. I haven't gotten around to payment time, but I don't foresee problems there. It's pretty straightforward and the process has been quite transparent.

I don't know if I'll make a lot of money on my films--they are not new in distribution, but then, most have some recognizable actors in them, and that helps. AVD puts films in front of an enormous potential audience. My main goal is just to have these films available for people to see. All of my films have had distribution, but the traditional distributors have had some painful elements to them. AVD doesn't have to be perfect to be a lot better than traditional distributors.

You can find my films on AVD by searching for my name. There are also a couple of films on there that I directed or wrote but don't really have any involvement with, and I don't know any details about those.

I'm happy to help if you have any other questions.

What rights, if any, does one sign away?

Will YouTube's current policy changes turn into a success?

Which of the following lifted youtube from obscurity into the dominance it now enjoys:

The illegally uploaded copyrighted, non-native content or the native, consumer created videos that sometimes went into becoming viral?

Is there any kind of public statistics about this as a proof?

If the previous is the more correct answer, then youtubes current emphasis to kill the independent production and promote the videos made by various corporations and MCN:s is understandable. That would prove that the professionally made content always was and would remain to be the moneymaker. and the consumer created content was, from a wider perspective, always more of an economic burden, than an asset. Maybe the youtube of yesterday was a pipedream? And we return to the “old ways” where there was only a handful of trusted production houses and channels to choose from? Are we too much blinded by our own bias, our dreams and wishes concerning the viability of independently created content?

Look how nice they are

Creators have also complained that YouTube’s trending section, an important page for finding viewers, often skips over their videos — instead showing sports highlights, movie trailers, music videos, and late-night clips. Wojcicki’s blog marks the first time that an executive at YouTube has addressed those frustrations at length.

To address complaints, Wojcicki says at least half of all trending videos will now come from YouTubers, “with the remainder coming from music and traditional media."

Surprise, now not only you will see most shitty channels made to dumb people down present in trending, but they even get half of slots from them for paid promotion of their big partners.