This (requiring logging into a Google account to watch a YouTube video) is something that YouTube (owned by Google) has been rolling out for all of its videos over the past few months. At first, only viewers with IP addresses that have watched a lot of YouTube videos seemed to be affected; more recently, it seems to be required for almost all IP addresses. But this appears to have nothing to do with the content or channel of the YouTube videos - it seems to apply to all YouTube videos. I.e., it has *nothing* to do with the IETF. If the IETF is bothered by this, then it could instead (or also) upload its videos to some other platform that allows anonymous access (e.g., Vimeo). Ross.
