It might be time to give up your cable box (If you live in the US anyway). Two of the most popular shows on Comedy Central are coming to Hulu. Sure, you could already watch full length episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report at the Comedy Central web site, but we're big fans of one-stop shops around here. And as of today, you can find these programs along with episodes of The Office, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and Starsky & Hutch all in one place. What more could you need?
While Hulu started out as a partnership between Fox and NBC, the company has been steadily adding content partners over the last few months. While CBS, ABC and the CW are nowhere to be seen, you can find some popular TV shows and movies from networks including Sony, MGM, and Warner Brothers.
Hulu will also be adding PBS content later this month, with shows including Nova, Carrier, Scientific American Frontiers, and Wired Science.
What better company to get into the social network game than MTV? The Viacom owned property hits the perfect user base for social gatherings and has the backers on hand that can make a difference.
The idea came out of a youth survey in 2006, with the chief aim for the ThinkMTV network being to gather activists together and interact both on and offline. Topics will range from HIV, global epidemics, health and environmental concerns.
As for backing, numerous celebrities have lent their faces including Leo DiCaprio, Bono and John Mayer. With cash flowing in from The Case Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation.
Viacom was just the beginning. Sure, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central sued the bejesus out of YouTube for $1 billion in copyright infringement. But did you really think other entities would stay out of the action?
The Premiere League is ticked off at YouTube for the usual copyright infringing stuff. They say the video-sharing site is violating the league's distribution rights of soccer matches, and have set up a website to encourage other copyright holders to join their suit against YouTube's parent company Google.
As for Thailand, they're upset about video clips that made fun of the country's king. Thailand banned access to YouTube, and the site eventually agreed to block pages with the offensive videos from Thai users. While it seemed like that would be the end of the story, a Thai official now says the country plans to file a suit against Google.
Google has filed a response to Viacom's $1 billion dollar lawsuit over copyright infringement involving video sharing site YouTube. And that response is essentially, "I'm rubber, you're glue..."
In slightly more grownup language, Google claims that it's actions have been covered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and that Viacom's complaint would hold internet hosts responsible for the actions of their users, and "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news" and other forms of expression.
Google is seeking a jury trial, which may be a way of bullying Viacom into entering settlement negotiations. Or perhaps Google's willing to risk $1 billion plus legal costs to prove its point.
The EFF had filed its lawsuit on behalf of MoveOn.org, Civic Action, and Brave New Films. The video, called "Stop the Falsiness," was created using clips from The Colbert Report, but it was a parody of both Colbert's right-wing schtick and MoveOn.org.
At first Viacom denied sending a takedown notice over the video, but later the company admitted that it had sent the notice and that it had been a mistake to do so.
Viacom has agreed to set up a website and email address for users to contact the company to complain about improper takedown notices. Viacom also promises to respond to those complaints within one day.
Viacom's strategy of providing an immersive entertainment experience will now be monetized throughout their portfolio of properties with Yahoo's new Panama ad platform.
In this ad deal, Yahoo's newly launched search marketing platform will be the exclusive provider of all contextual and sponsored search ads for a first run of 33 Viacom sites, with the strong potential to expand to another 140 additional Viacom sites under a multi year deal.
The current site roster that will be participating in the partnership includes MTV.com, VH1.com, Nickelodeon.com, comedycentral.com and BET.com. Viacom is the number one online entertainment destination with over 90 million unique viewers in February 2007.
Yahoo's Panama ad platform has only just been released, but its growing strong. Viacom has just jumped on board as a huge partner, who could be the next one to steal valuable space away from Google?
Microsoft has decided to put a hold on its video sharing site, Soapbox, while it cleans up a little.
Even though it was just opened for business in a public beta just last month, Microsoft has decided to put a plug in new registrations on Soapbox while it implements some new technologies that will allow for the detection of videos that could have copyright restrictions. The pause in new accounts will allow Microsoft to sift through some 45,000 videos and conclude whether copyright issues might be present. No doubt this has something to do with Google's recent $1billion battle with Viacom. Microsoft will be using a product by Audible Magic that will filter videos, and block those under copyright.
Registered users will still be able to access and utilize the system. No word on how many videos will have to be removed from Soapbox as of yet due to potential copyright violations.
This is a pretty clear cut battle of corporate rights versus citizen rights. Viacom is playing the gotta break eggs to make an omlet defense, downplaying the chilling effect its indiscriminate use of the DMCA had on other legitimate copyright holders. What's flawed about that logic is this; If Viacom's copyrights are important, so are yours. We must seek to defend independent producers just as vigilantly as we aim to protect the Viacoms of the world.
We recently told you how network giant Viacom sent a flood of DMCA notices demanding thousands of video clips be removed from YouTube. They even went so far as to demand the removal of videos containing no Viacom content at all, and still countless other clips which clearly fall under fair use. Viacom's shotgun approach to removing potentially infringing video from YouTube has not only angered fair use advocates and a few innocent bystanders but, peeked piqued the interest of the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well.
The EFF is asking those caught in the mess created by Viacom's spamigation to step forward and let them know. The 1 minute video clip shown above does an excellent job of explaining this whole mess in a witty and irreverent tone. It's going to take sharp action from a body such as the EFF to make corporate giants think twice about indiscriminately sending DMCA notices before they're sure they've identified actual infringement.
Viacom has been trying to get through to YouTube, spending months of negotiating trying to take clips down from MTV, BET and Paramount. Now apparently Viacom has sent a letter to Google demanding that they take down over 100,000 videos immediately. Viacom is extremely upset that the apparent filtering tools that Google had promised are not doing that great of a job, and unauthorized videos are still getting through and posted live. Viacom is hoping that Google will support a fair and authorized distribution model that will allow consumers to enjoy popular content in the future. They are looking towards a deal like CBS and many music labels have recently reached with Google and YouTube to host content and profit share ad revenue among other initiatives. The situation between the two companies seemed to escalate when Google video began linking to YouTube content recently. Viacom saw this as another avenue where they were losing potential revenues. Maybe one day all of this YouTube drama will be settled with media companies. Until then, enjoy all the content YouTube currently provides, and cross your fingers that you'll soon be able to see all of your favorite clips through the service.
The Google team is out and knocking at the doors of traditional media outlets trying to get them to supply their content to YouTube in an effort to knock off lawsuits that could begin to sprout up surrounding copyright issues. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and other executives have met with CBS, Viacom, Time Warner, NBC Universal, and News Corp. amongst others talking about offering payments upwards of tens of millions for broadcasting rights for YouTube. With YouTube dishing out over 100 millions video clips per day, it is the main destination for video online. Only drawback? The many copyrighted materials that are getting uploaded and viewed daily. So what works best now for YouTube and the involved media companies? Take the copyrighted materials off and not only YouTube misses out on potentials visitors, but media outlets like Viacom and CBS miss out on advertising their content, and getting their messages out. YouTube allows for mass promotion and advertising. Becoming partners with Google and YouTube will be more beneficial to traditional medias bottom line, with the added bonus of reaching a vaster audience. Weighing things out, it only makes sense that partnering will make all parties, and their boards of directors involved extremely happy.
A few days after YouTube yanked a bunch of copyright-infringing clips at the request of Viacom-owned Comedy Central, Adweek reports that the two companies are getting chummy, and YouTube has reposted an unspecified number of the offending videos. Quoth a Viacom rep: "We want our audiences to be able to access our programming on every platform and we're interested in having it live on all forms of distribution in ways that protect our talented artists, our loyal customers and our passionate audiences." Viacom hasn't yet entered a licensing agreement with YouTube, as other companies including CBS, NBC, and a few major record companies have. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. As I've said before, video sharing (i.e. the kind people can embed in their web site or blog) is one of the most powerful promotional tools available to media companies right now, and ignoring that opportunity becomes more and more suicidal every day.
Last we checked in on Facebook it was reportedly in serious talks with Yahoo! for a billion-dollar buy-out. This week comes news that Viacom, long considered a prime candidate for ownership of Facebook after its "humiliating" loss to News Corp. in the battle for Myspace, has ruled out bidding for the booming social networking site. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone recently told Charlie Rose that though they considered a Facebook buy-out, they eventually decided that "the price is too high." Instead, Redstone said Viacom is looking at younger start-ups that are "on the cutting-edge of greatness and (where) we could make it grow." He also dodged questions about whether Viacom is after YouTube, calling it "a very good company."
Yahoo! and Facebook are back talking, and it looks like the deal is approaching the $1 billion mark. Facebook recently held discussions with Microsoft and Viacom about possible takeovers, and they both bombed out.
The 22 year old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has shied away from selling because he is focused on building the company for the long term. Viacom had offered $750 million earlier this year, which was shut down with a $2 billion counter offer. Mark is now apparently undecided about the Yahoo $900 million offer. He keeps tight control of the company backed by Greylock Partners, and models the simplicity and management style he has after Google, and Apples founders.
If this deal goes through, it could major pump up for Yahoo's declining younger market.
Viacom was just the beginning. Sure, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central sued the bejesus out of YouTube for $1 billion in copyright infringement. But did you really think other entities would stay out of the action?
Google has filed a response to Viacom's $1 billion dollar lawsuit over copyright infringement involving video sharing site YouTube. And that response is essentially, "I'm rubber, you're glue..."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is dropping its lawsuit against Viacom. The EFF had sued Viacom over a takedown notice the media company sent regarding a Stephen Colbert parody clip posted to YouTube.
Viacom's strategy of providing an immersive entertainment experience will now be monetized throughout their portfolio of properties with Yahoo's new Panama ad platform.
Microsoft has decided to put a hold on its video sharing site, Soapbox, while it cleans up a little.
Viacom has been trying to get through to YouTube, spending months of negotiating trying to take clips down from MTV, BET and Paramount. Now apparently Viacom has sent a letter to Google demanding that they take down over 100,000 videos immediately. Viacom is extremely upset that the apparent filtering tools that Google had promised are not doing that great of a job, and unauthorized videos are still getting through and posted live. Viacom is hoping that Google will support a fair and authorized distribution model that will allow consumers to enjoy popular content in the future. They are looking towards a deal like CBS and many music labels have recently reached with Google and YouTube to host content and profit share ad revenue among other initiatives. The situation between the two companies seemed to escalate when Google video began linking to YouTube content recently. Viacom saw this as another avenue where they were losing potential revenues. Maybe one day all of this YouTube drama will be settled with media companies. Until then, enjoy all the content YouTube currently provides, and cross your fingers that you'll soon be able to see all of your favorite clips through the service.
A few days after YouTube yanked a bunch of copyright-infringing clips at the request of Viacom-owned Comedy Central, Adweek reports that the two companies are getting chummy, and YouTube has reposted an unspecified number of the offending videos. Quoth a Viacom rep: "We want our audiences to be able to access our programming on every platform and we're interested in having it live on all forms of distribution in ways that protect our talented artists, our loyal customers and our passionate audiences." Viacom hasn't yet entered a licensing agreement with YouTube, as other companies including CBS, NBC, and a few major record companies have. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. As I've said before, video sharing (i.e. the kind people can embed in their web site or blog) is one of the most powerful promotional tools available to media companies right now, and ignoring that opportunity becomes more and more suicidal every day.
Last we checked in on Facebook it was reportedly in serious talks with Yahoo! for a billion-dollar buy-out. This week comes news that Viacom, long considered a prime candidate for ownership of Facebook after its "humiliating" loss to News Corp. in the battle for Myspace, has ruled out bidding for the booming social networking site. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone recently told Charlie Rose that though they considered a Facebook buy-out, they eventually decided that "the price is too high." Instead, Redstone said Viacom is looking at younger start-ups that are "on the cutting-edge of greatness and (where) we could make it grow." He also dodged questions about whether Viacom is after YouTube, calling it "a very good company."
Yahoo! and Facebook are back talking, and it looks like the deal is approaching the $1 billion mark. Facebook recently held discussions with Microsoft and Viacom about possible takeovers, and they both bombed out. 
