YouTube removes video length limits, will it open the floodgates?

In what we're sure will be music to many ears, YouTube has finally eliminated all time limits on their users' videos. That's right: you will soon be able to upload videos of hours in length, if you so desire.YouTube has gone through several stages of imposing limits on video length; at launch, the limit was ten minutes; in July 2010 this was extended to 15; and now the limit has gone completely. But is this a positive move? We're not so sure.Time is an incredibly important commodity to most of us, and these days we don't seem to have an awful lot of it. So if a video doesn't capture our attention in the first ten seconds, what does it matter if it's an hour long? It's a bit like Twitter's 140 character limit - any longer and you might be guilty of droning on.However, it does make sense for intentionally longer-form videos, such as short films or documentaries, allowing people to be more creative with the content they upload. While shorter is often sweeter, there are times when longer videos are not only better, but essential.So what protection methods does YouTube have in place, in preparation for the influx of longer videos? To check for privacy breaches they use Content ID: a state-of-the-art technology that scans any uploaded content through its archive of material to see if there is any breach of copyright. Once that's done, the video is ready for storage in their huge data center.The timing around the rollout of this feature is still unclear, but like any rollout nowadays YouTube will no doubt start with their established users and then move on to the masses.