The larger Internet companies have come under increasing pressure to make their sites safer for children and friendlier to copyright holders, so start-ups …are pursuing their own slices of the market, often at the price of taste, ethics and perhaps even child safety. “Letting people do whatever they want is one way for these sites to differentiate themselves,” said Josh Bernoff, a Forrester Research analyst. “It is the race to the bottom.” Video-sharing sites in particular are filling niches abandoned by YouTube, which is now owned by Google and had more than 25 million visitors last month. Since its inception in 2005, YouTube has banned nudity and taken down copyrighted material when rights holders file specific complaints.
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