If you love to watch advertisements that interrupt Internet content, then read no further. You will be happy with YouTube/Google's new move to proliferate commercial interruptions. Otherwise, read on.

The day before yesterday, I received an email message from YouTube (a division of Google) about changes to their "terms of service".

Included was a notification that they are asserting a new policy to display advertising on ALL videos.

Previously there were two options, based on the decision of the content creator (channel owner).

• The creator could join the "YouTube Partner Program". In this case their videos could be "monetized": YouTube/Google would display advertisements in conjunction with the videos. Google would be paid by the advertisers and then share a portion of that income with the creator.
• The creator could choose to never join the program and therefore provide their videos to the public without advertising.

Now, the creator CANNOT select the second option. YouTube/Google, trying to create additional revenue for themselves, will, without consent of video creators place ads on the videos and NOT share any of their income with the owner of the video!

YouTube/Google has always limited the people who are eligible to join the "Partner Program". They only want to share with those creators how have a large number of subscribers and monthly "views".

I create videos on my own initiative, with no payment whatsoever from anybody. I am happy with that choice. And I want viewers to be able to watch what I hope is entertaining or educational material without it becoming commercialized. I own the videos. They were NOT created by YouTube/Google. All they do is host the platform from which they can be viewed. Google has created a business from providing "free" services, sometimes with paid enhancements available. They make their money by skimming huge amounts of data from the interactions of users with Google products. They then turn those users into "product" that they can leverage across a wide swath of Internet activity by charging companies to access those those users.

Personally, I loathe advertisements interrupting videos. With few exceptions, when an ad appears in a video, I turn that video off. I understand and respect the idea that some creators want to turn their channels into money-making ventures where they can earn funds from allowing ads. But that is not my purpose!

To protect viewers (and potential new viewers) of my modest efforts at video creation I am moving forward with alternative mechanisms to distribute the content.

This includes hosting videos on a private site that I own, as well as distributing the videos through "Vimeo" which is a well-known video platform that has a reputation for higher quality video processing, and DOES NOT PLACE ADS on the videos. I will keep you informed as these changes occur.  I will continue to *also* post to YouTube, but will provide information about ad-free options for viewing.

Have a good day.