Sketchy YouTube content brokers going belly up story, how common is this?

[cdev]

Reading this story on Verge about a YouTube content 'talent agency' stiffing content creators for lots of money I wonder how common this is in the YouTube world?

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/5/18125657/defy-media-youtube-logan-paul-ryland-adams-anthony-padillo-smosh-network

These kinds of scams were also very common in the late 90s at the end of the first Internet bubble, and I had several friends who got burned by shady 'startup' web employers.

After being pitched by a few of these fly-by-night Internet companies to provide proposals for web dev stuff I could see the handwriting on the wall and stopped even responding to most RFPs. My memory of that period was that some new companies just wanted freelance people to provide them with free ideas and free work.

[Wan Huang Luo]

Something about going to sleep with a dog and waking up with fleas?

[LapTop006]

Reading this story on Verge about a YouTube content 'talent agency' stiffing content creators for lots of money I wonder how common this is in the YouTube world?

...

These kinds of scams were also very common in the late 90s at the end of the first Internet bubble, and I had several friends who got burned by shady 'startup' web employers.

Not hugely different from record companies, and many other agency style markets.

[Stray Electron]

Not hugely different from record companies, and many other agency style markets.

  Exactly.   The fault here is that people turned over their videos, etc to these marketing companies without doing their due diligence and checking to see if these were legitimate and viable companies and with nothing more than a promise of future profits.  ANYONE can call themselves a marketing company and if you're foolish enough to sign over your property, including your intellectual property, to them without verifying their standing then you're most likely going to be disappointed with the outcome.

[cdev]

Not hugely different from record companies, and many other agency style markets.

  Exactly.   The fault here is that people turned over their videos, etc to these marketing companies without doing their due diligence and checking to see if these were legitimate and viable companies and with nothing more than a promise of future profits.  ANYONE can call themselves a marketing company and if you're foolish enough to sign over your property, including your intellectual property, to them without verifying their standing then you're most likely going to be disappointed with the outcome.

The cost of legal help in the US is so high that it is beyond the means of almost all artists who are starting out, except in the most minimal way. So all the defaults SHOULD default in their favor but unfortunately in almost all areas it seems likely that its the opposite of that. 

[Mr. Scram]

The cost of legal help in the US is so high that it is beyond the means of almost all artists who are starting out, except in the most minimal way. So all the defaults SHOULD default in their favor but unfortunately in almost all areas it seems likely that its the opposite of that.

These people were already making good money, which is what attracts these companies in the first place. They messed up, didn't do due diligence and got taken advantage of. That's business for you.