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You have a good point here. Would a grace period on name owner switch help?
I don't think that would make much of a difference. SEO is usually a long term strategy.
Alternatively, we could use immutable ID's as resource links for google, and only have the premium names as redirects.

I am no expert in SEO but I assume that would be a better solution. Of course the premium URL will per se have a better SEO because of the name but it would only be a marginal factor I guess when a link is using proper alt-atribution.

I agree that this is a problem as someone who has spent the last few years building a brand...I've had experiences on youtube with fake channels calling themselves "An American Homestead" uploading my videos and then had to prove I was the real one. We need permanent verification. I'm not worried. In fact, I'm very much encouraged as you have to start somewhere and discussions like this help make it better. Getting it up and operational was the first big step.

Can we yet upload vids larger than 100mb? Recording in 720p allows me only to talk for about 2 minutes before I'm over that limit.