I admit it. I go to YouTube a lot. A LOT. I can’t help it! There are some pretty funny videos at YouTube, along with the weird, the bizarre, the just plain disturbing, and the seriously creepy. I have a YouTube channel of my very own, in fact. Some of my videos are pretty funny too, as well as disturbing. But the relationship between YouTube and conservatives has been rocky and remains so. And of course, they are owned by Barackoogle.

Moe wrote recently about a copyright issue Leon and I experienced with a video at YouTube. It was resolved satisfactorily. They put their ads on our video and will make money from it. Nice.

Well it seems that now other labels are catching on to this. You can’t stop people ripping your music, why not profit from it? And who better, I ask you, to profit from than one Rick Astley? Hmm? Rick-rolling is a phenomenon unparalleled at YouTube, so the potential number of videos they will be able to advertise on and sell music downloads or ringtones from is huge. And apparently, they’ve recognized this. I received another one of those emails from YouTube today, and sure enough they are now profiting off the video … or more specifically the song. Nice, I thought.

But then I had another thought. Didn’t Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently Rick Roll the YouTube-viewing nation? Why yes, yes she did. So I wondered, is the official YouTube channel for the House of Representatives going to be sporting cheesy ringtone ads and download links now?

Nope.

So I guess my question is … is this monetary contribution by Sony and YouTube directed at Nancy’s campaign? Or is it some sort of currying for political favor? Maybe they donate in lieu of some kind of taxes, eh? Ahh, questions are fun.

Seriously, I do wonder. Will they put ads on Pelosi’s video or does she get a pass because she’s a famous Democrat? I wonder what they’d have done if it was Limbaugh or Eric Cantor who rick-rolled. I’m guessing they’d just yank the video.

Still, I can’t give up the YouTube’ing. I mean, for pete’s sake, what kind of life can you really have without stuff like this: