You Tube Awards - 2006 Awards

2006 Awards

Voting for the 2006 Awards took place from March 18, 2007 to March 23, 2007. The 2006 YouTube Awards came just a week after Viacom sued YouTube's parent company, Google, for more than $1 billion for copyright infringement of television shows owned by Viacom.

The Awards received criticism from New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan when first organized. She suggested that the Awards created too much of a formalized process on YouTube. YouTube, she argued, should not be about awards and individual recognition of merit. Rather, it should be a free place where one can post videos and express oneself free of judgment on quality. Caroline McCarthy of CNET News commented on the 2007 awards in agreement with Heffernan: she argued that YouTube "is a cultural hub rather than strictly a creative outpost." She also commented many of the most popular videos are not high quality, or original content.

Nominations for the 2006 Awards included noted YouTubers Peter Oakley (geriatric1927), lonelygirl15, Renetto and Chad Vader.