Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley told attendees that in the coming months, users would start being able to share in advertising revenue from uploaded videos.  Much like Google's AdSense program does for print content publishers, YouTube's plans would share a percentage of advertising dollars made directly from a video with the user who uploaded the video.

The Australian reports that Hurley said the company had originally resisted the idea of paying members because they felt it wasn't the best way to create a community.  Hurley said notoriety, not money, should be the motivator to publish content on YouTube.  But since being acquired by Google last year, and gaining access to Google's massive user and advertiser base, YouTube has had a change of heart.

Little in the way of specifics were revealed:  the system will be rolled out in "within months" and no decision has been made yet as to the percentage of revenues that will be shared with content publishers.

The Australian also briefly mentions an audio finger-printing system being developed by YouTube that would identify songs and music in user content.  By identifying the copyrighted material of media companies, YouTube can make sure those companies also get paid for their contribution to the system.  Again, no real specifics were given.

This should all be interesting.  You can bet that the day YouTube starts paying people, more content will get uploaded.  And that could work out well… or it could destroy the system.

What do you think?  Will the monetization of YouTube content help or hurt the online video community?