[ShinzonRemus]

Nobody claim to be entitled to free video, just a reasonable amount of advertising. Which is not what I (for example) get when I go on YouTube.

Google already has a definitive solution: close down the free access under a registration+payment (reasonable one). Why they are still serving free content? Why they don't get the moneys from the viewers directly?

I think that the reason is that they are inflating the number of viewers to everyone (content creator, stakeholders, etc.). You can fake viewers, you can't fake revenue. So, Google wants us to get more advertising so that they can claim that the number of views in ads increased, to earn more.

[westurner]

Why are you/they trying to force YouTube to require login to view video?!

Isn't this about privacy!? How can free video plays have privacy if login is required to prevent freeloading hours of free service that others pay for?

That would be a significant pivot away from free video that democratizes video, and from video URLs that people share to walled garden video URLs.