News: YouTube opened up 9 new foreign sites for Brazil, Japan, the U.K., France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. The sites will be tailored for each country, in the relevant language (but, I believe, draw from the same database of videos). “Over half the traffic we get is from outside the U.S.,” Steve Chen said at a Google press conference in Paris. “With the acquisition by Google, suddenly we have the resources to help us, the local offices to help us. By changing the site we hope to be reaching a new market.” (more)
News: Esmee Denters just went from her bedroom, posting videos on YouTube, to performing as the opening act for Justin Timberlake. This past weekend, she had her first performance in the Amsterdam Arena. A review can be found here.
News: Last week, I reported that YouTube removed Smosh‘s mega-popular Pokemon video after receiving a DMCA notice (for copyright infringement), notwithstanding a strong parody fair use claim for Smosh. Under the DMCA, a website has a greater chance of staying within the safe harbor (and avoiding copyright liability) if it expeditiously removes content identified by a copyright holder in a DMCA notice.
One of the fallouts of the take down is that Smosh lost over 24 million views to its tally, placing it back closer to lonelygirl15 — 56 million to 52 million. If you are not aware, Smosh and lonelygirl15 are No. 1 and No. 2 in total views on YouTube for amateur productions.
News: Esmee Denters’ video with Justin Timberlake, “What Goes Around,” just went over 4 million views in 14 days. That’s a torrid pace. That’s even 1 million more than Justin’s own video version with Scarlett Johansson.
As I’ve already mentioned, July 23rd will be an historic day, with YouTubers providing the questions via video for the first of the Democratic Party’s summer debates. Anderson Cooper will be moderating. Could you imagine having your video played in a presidential debate? Pretty wild.
News: YouTube has removed Smosh’s mega-popular “Pokemon” video after receiving a copyright DMCA notice from Shogakukan Production Co. Ltd. The Pokemon video was the 4th most watched video ever on YouTube, with over 24 million views. To my knowledge, this is the most popular video ever removed by YouTube under a DMCA notice. By the way, if you don’t know who “Smosh” is, it’s a pair of 20-year-olds Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. They are the No. 1 Most Subcribed Director on YouTube, and they have the Most Views All-Time on YouTube of any amateur or user-generated content. Smosh, in other words, is the top of the heap at YouTube.
Analysis: This is a close, perhaps questionable, call. The Smosh boys did use the “Pokemon” theme song for their video, but they seemed to me to be parodying the whole Pokemon character, with a pretty over-the-top lip synch and use of Pokemon stuffed animals.
A parody fair use is permitted under copyright law, the only question is whether too much of the copyrighted work is taken. Unfortunately, that question is determined on a case-by-case basis. And, in this case, YouTube appears not willing to risk falling outside the DMCA safe harbor, so it chose to follow the more expedient path under the DMCA of taking down the video.
If you want to see if the video should be considered a parody fair use, I believe a version is still up on Veoh and probably elsewhere on the Internet.
News: YouTube has a beta version out for viewing videos on YouTube. The player itself is slightly larger, so is the font. There’s no banner ad at the top, so everything fits close to one screen shot. Also, the video’s creator’s Channel is now viewable prominently on the right hand side over the “Related videos” feature. More thumbnails for each are viewable as well. Also, this might be unrelated, but now I’ve just noticed that there are only 5 pages of Recent Videos available (instead of 10).
Old look is here versus the new look (beta) here. I’ve put a reduced-sized screen shot of the new look below, compared to the old.
News: We’ve just heard from Steve Chen that YouTube may open a YouTube version for Taiwan. Now, there’s rumor that YouTube will be launching both a French and a German YouTube site this month. (More)
News: A tubing company in Ohio called Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Co. — which owns the domain name utube.com — sued YouTube on a host of claims including “reverse confusion” trademark infringement. Last week, the district court ruled on YouTube’s motion to dismiss the case — which is a pretty standard motion for any defendant to file. The court ruled in favor of YouTube on several claims, such as trespass to chattel, but allowed the case to proceed forward mostly on the trademark and unfair competition claims.
Eric Goldman has an excellent, detailed analysis on his blog.
News: Wall St. Journal has an interesting look at the effect YouTube has had on the presidential campaigns. The negative ad for “Hillary 1984″ accounted for 75% of all candidate-related videos on YT in March. John McCain joking about “Bomb Iran” also drew much attention to him. John Edwards drew the 3rd most viewers, largely in part of the negative ad making fun of his hair. The campaign videos prepared by the candidates themselves don’t generate nearly as many views.
Analysis: This confirms something that we probably already knew: “Swift boat” attack ads work, at least in terms of generating views. Negative ads are decried, but they still capture much attention. With YouTube, now anybody with a computer can make a negative ad. That’s probably not a good thing. Steve Bryant at the NewTeeVee blog has some insightful comments.
News: YouTube already has audio filtering in place from Audible Magic, to help identify unauthorized music files on clips. Yesterday, YouTube announced that it is developing its own filtering for video content. Next month, YT will be testing the beta version of the filtering program with Disney and Time Warner, who agreed to be a part of the testing. More here and here.
Analysis: The video fingerprinting technology would be a huge development if successful. A lot of people mistakenly believe that such technology already exists. It doesn’t, at least not in effective fashion. Audio files are much easier to track (esp. through Audible Magic). The visual video files are more difficult. If YouTube and Google are successful in developing this new technology, concerns about copyright liability against YouTube start to diminish. The allegations that somehow YT’s business plan is based on promoting copyright infringement on its site become even more hollow.
UPDATE: Terra Naomi’s single is now available on iTunes for 99 cents. You can get the full version and the acoustic version. You can listen to the entire song here. I’ve already purchased mine. Please consider supporting Terra!
As I’ve written already, we all can show the music industry that more amateurs from YouTube and the Internet deserve a chance. Terra’s done her part. Now, it’s our turn. 99 cents, that’s all it takes. You can help change the music industry forever — and for the better.
News: Four Eyed Monsters is the first full-length film on YouTube. Here’s one summary of the movie, a Sundance Channel award winner: “The movie is based on the relationship of its creators, Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, who met online in 2002 with the rule that neither of them would speak in person. Rather, they spent four months getting to know each other through drawings, videos and instant messaging (on top of the usual ways couples get to know each other). In 2004 the film was accepted into the SlamDance film festival and subsequently toured 20 other festivals, picking up awards and – apparently – a mountain of credit card debt.”
The film will be free here on YouTube until June 15. I haven’t had a chance to watch the flick yet, but it sounds interesting. I don’t know if it ever got a MPAA rating, but there’s some discussion of sex and dating, for what it’s worth.
News: July 23rd will mark the first of the Democratic Party’s presidential debates this summer. It’s co-sponsored by YouTube and CNN. It already is shaping up to be an historic event. YouTube users will be asked to send in video questions on YouTube before the debate, some of which apparently will be played during the debate. As CNN’s Anderson Cooper said, “I’m going to host it, but, basically, it is going to be your questions and your YouTube videos the candidates are going to have to sit through and watch. So make them creative.” (More)
Meanwhile, The New York Times blog discusses how the presidential candidates can “flood the zone” on YouTube and neutralize negative videos with a bunch of other videos. (More)
Analysis: The Democratic Party presidential debate should be interesting to watch, particularly with its use of YouTube videos. Sounds like an episode of Jeopardy. Getting a video may be Double Jeopardy.
News: Taiwanese American Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, spoke at a conference of tech leaders in Taiwan. Chen said YouTube will be on cellphones by year’s end, and he suggested the possibility of a Taiwanese YouTube. According to one report, Chen also spoke about Web 3.0: “Chen said the Internet was moving from the so-called Web 2.0 era — user-generated content in a user-oriented environment — to the Web. 3.0 era, in which users are no longer tied to their PCs, while enjoying much more personalized and individualized content and services on the go.”
UPDATE, Monday, June 11: This is not an ad. This is a request for support. Please consider supporting Terra Naomi, the first musician from YouTube to break through with a major label. She did it with her magical, uplifting song, “Say It’s Possible,” which goes on sale today. You can listen to the entire song here. The official video is below.
I think the song’s beauty speaks for itself. Let me just add this: the music industy is filled with dinosaurs who can be pretty settled in their ways. Because YouTube is new and different, some music industry reps still harbor some skepticism about signing amateur artists from YouTube. As one exec said, “Strong online popularity doesn’t necessarily translate to real sales.”
That’s where we come in. Terra Naomi has opened a door for other amateur artists by showing to the music industry there’s talent to be discovered on the Internet. Terra’s done her part. Now, it’s our turn. We have the power to break that door down, so the music industry cannot ignore all the unsigned talent out there any longer.
You can buy Terra’s single from Island Records here
(.79 English pound, which I think converts to $1.55 US dollar). There’s even a promotion where you can get the track for free if you register. The single is now available for 99 cents on iTunes (US site), in both full and acoustic versions.
News: I reported yesterday about YouTube’s new, sleek feature for videos embedded in blogs (such as this one) from YouTube. Well, today, YT shut down the new feature. I’m not sure the reason, but YouTube received numerous comments – many of them quite negative — about the new feature. Most of the complaints didn’t like the intrusiveness of related videos popping up on screen, and possibly containing something other than the “family-oriented” or wholesome video they wanted in their blog.
Analysis: We’ll see how this shakes out. Obviously, YT could just change the default back to the old way, but allow users like me to switch on the new feature. That, of course, would probably slow the propagation of YT videos on other sites, compared to what it would have been with the new feature.
UPDATE, June 9: YouTube has announced that it has changed the new feature to address the negative reaction posted by some very vocal users. Now, the new bubbly “related video” thumbnails don’t appear until the end of watching an embedded video in a blog, when the “menu” pops up and you have to select it. No more “mouseover” effect. I can’t fine the “menu” icon yet on my embedded videos, so maybe YT is still working out the kinks.
News: Another class action lawsuit has been filed against YouTube, this time by a country music publisher Cal IV, which owns rights to the songs by Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and others. (More)
Analysis: I’m not sure where the suit was filed, but it possibly may be in Tennessee where the publisher is located. At this point, it may be somewhat advantageous for YouTube to have multiple lawsuits going on in multiple jurisdictions. It increases the possibility that a court will agree with YouTube’s interpretation of the DMCA.
News: Esmee Denters’ video with Justin Timberlake singing “What Goes Around” just went over the 3 million mark in 9 days. You can see the video here. I wonder how long it can continue to generate more viewers at this torrid pace. You probably would guess not too much longer.
News: Every video embedded from YouTube now has a face-lift — a slick feature at the bottom of the screen that gives you thumbnail images of related videos, in the hip, bubbly digital look popular today. OK, if you want to see the new look, just hit play below on the video and hover over the screen with your cursor and look for the “magic” at the bottom. I love it! Forget about iPhone, this may be the coolest thing ever.
Terra Naomi, “Say It’s Possible,” on sale June 11
UPDATE June 8: Sorry, the new feature is not working right now on YouTube. I’m not sure what the problem is; hopefully, YouTube does.
News: The ceremony for the Webby Awards (the so-called Oscars of the Internet) was held in New York. YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen won the Person of the Year Award. Jessica Rose, who plays “lonelygirl15,” won for Best Actress. The Best Actor Award went to “Ask a Ninja” guys Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine. Obviously, YouTube did well this year! (More)
David Bowie also won a lifetime achievement award for his web visual art work on Bowieart.
The best part of the evening: all acceptance speeches must be 5 words or less! Chad and Steve said, “YouTubers, this is for you.” Jessica said, “Being traditional and saying thanks.” Ask a Ninja guys said, “Thanks mom. Thanks Internet fans.” David Bowie got to say more because he’s David Bowie and just won a lifetime achievement award: “I only get five words? Sh*t, that was five. Four more there. That’s three. Two.” (more)
News: The proposed class action copyright lawsuit against YouTube brought by an English soccer league and Bourne music publisher has found three potential members for its class (if certified by the court): The Federation Francaise de Tennis and Ligue de Football Professionnel, and New York-based Cherry Lane Music Publishing, which “owns more than 65,000 copyrights, including the publishing rights to music from Elvis, Quincy Jones, and the Black Eyed Peas.” (More)
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