Now imagine SOPA existed 5 years ago, considering Viacom already tried to kill Youtube through a lawsuit. We would be living in an alternative reality right now, without Youtube and probably without any similar website. I suppose BitTorrent's streaming app would've been out a few years earlier.
Pretty much thanks to google by the looks of it. I wonder why google hasn't yet used it's heft to cut a deal (a la itunes) with movie makers for distribution. Google already knows our surfing habits, so they could deliver the same ads we get now at the movie theaters, excepts individually targeted. I'm guessing that the ad revenue alone would replace cinema revenues and allow for the "free" movies everyone wants these days.
This makes me realize how out-of-touch I am. I've never even heard of the 2nd most popular video streaming site (Vevo).
I still don't understand why TV makes so much money and Youtube so little.