YouTube Now Gives You a Full 15 Minutes for Fame

YouTube previously limited its non-partners to just 10 minutes or under for video uploading, but now the Google-owned video service has increased that time to 15 minutes, giving users more control over the content they upload.

The ten-minute cap before was instituted in large part due to copyright concerns–YouTube and Google didn’t want users to upload a full TV show or movie and infringe upon the copyright holder’s rights to the film, but now that YouTube has implemented better safeguards, the company is moving the maximum upload length to 15 minutes. According to YouTube product manager Jshua Siegel, the Content ID system implemented helps identify content that may be protected: “Now, all of the major U.S. movie studios, music labels and over 1,000 other global partners use Content ID to manage their content on YouTube.”

To promote the change, YouTube is asking users to step into the limelight with their new-found 15 minutes of fame by creating a video of themselves. Siegel says, “Imagine that this video is all the world will ever know about you: what would you want to communicate? What will be the enduring stamp you’ve left on us all?” Users should upload their videos by August 4 with the tag “yt15minutes.” Winning videos will be featured on the front page.

As to past video uploads that had received error messages saying that the videos were too long, Siegel advises users to delete those videos from their account page and re-upload them.