Jan 26 2024 - Obituary Pirates

 

Remember that song's lyrics - money for nothing and your chicks for free - wasn't that Dire Straits?  Isn't that the dream?  Not having to work and being admired and wanted by millions of people? I think that accounts for the bizarre industry of YouTube obituary pirates. Here's the introduction from the Wired.com in 2023: "A FEW WEEKS ago, a friend of mine found out that a childhood classmate had died unexpectedly. They hadn’t stayed in touch, but he was sad and curious about what had happened, so he did what people do when they hear that someone they know has passed away: Googled her obituary. What he found was odd—so much so that he texted to ask if I’d ever heard of such a thing. Along with pages hosting her official obit, he saw 10 separate YouTube videos of different people casually reciting information about her death." This is a continuation of a trend that's gone on for years - obituary rewriting is good business.  Piracy websites work at  search engine optimization to rise to the top of the search results, and then charge a premium for digital ads that appear next to the obituary text easily copied from funeral homes, local papers, etc.   That it has moved on to YouTube videos tells the story of how much money ice to be made from the ads. Videos get uploaded every few minutes - aligned with people dying all the time, probably at a regular and predictable rate.  So there are now YouTube obituary channels dedicated to cloning obituaries.  YouTube doesn't seem to mind - the requests for comment from the journalist were ignored.  In the meantime, other more legitimate sources have noticed how much money there is to make. Newspapers now post facebook obituaries to drive traffic to their news sites.  That's because obituaries are big business.  How many pages are published in the Globe and Mail in the Saturday edition?  I've often thought that they are mostly knock-offs of a predictable format.  The names and relationships changed for these Captains of America who ran vast companies but somehow lived  "for their families" and love of the outdoors, etc. etc. Could you guess on such an easy way to make money?  You don't have to write any songs, just republish obituaries.

Here's another bark/wood abstract - this one is driftwood on Salt Spring Island.  Or is that Salt Springs Island?   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca