Google’s YouTube site impressed us mightily by figuring out how to let record labels get paid when people infringe their copyrights, and now it’s casting its revenue net wider by asking the uploaders of hit videos whether they want to get paid.
It’s simple:
1) You upload a video.
2) Everyone and their mother watches it.
3) The resulting precipitous view-count increase tells YouTube to ask you to become a “Partner,” ostensibly in time to take advantage of most of the groundswell.
4) If you agree, YouTube starts placing ads on and/or around your video, paying you an undisclosed percentage of resulting revenue through a Google AdSense account. Google makes money too.
5) If you say no, the video stays on the site, racking up view counts and earning nothing for anyone.
The parents of the 16-million-view laughing Wii baby (video above, interview here) didn’t know they had a hit on their hands when they uploaded a clip of their kid laughing at his dad’s Nintendo golf swing; if this program had been around then, it might have bought them fresh diapers and then some.

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YouTube Invites Uploaders of Suddenly Popular Videos to Cash In | Epicenter | Wired.com