“Fake” Versus “True” Sharing

Joi Ito asks, Is YouTube ‘Web 2.0’?” as a follow-up to a post by Lawrence Lessig, “The Ethics of Web 2.0.” Lessig specifically differentiates between “true sharing” and “fake sharing.” For Lessig, YouTube is a “fake sharing” site because it does not allow users to download content; all traffic is directed back to YouTube, thus YouTube, not the users, essentially controls the content.