YouTube Makes Deal For Old TV Shows
YouTube announced last week a deal with Digital Music Group to bring that company’s archive of old TV shows to YouTube. Digital owns over 40 hours of video content, including a bunch of old TV shows and movies, mostly from the 1960s, including “I Spy”, “Gumby” and “My Favorite Martian”. YouTube users will be able to watch the shows for free, as well as include music owned by the company in their own videos, in return for a portion of advertising revenue.
Here’s some other interesting stuff:
Here’s a video showing off “Google’s Master Plan”. It’s no EPIC, but still good:
Masteplan - video powered by Metacafe
I love what this guy’s doing, surrounding Google AdSense ads in Windows Vista Aero Glass. I’m pretty sure he isn’t violating any Terms of Service, so pretty cool decoration:
Take a look at Engadget’s photos of some new Lenovo Windows Mobile phones. Look closely, because there’s a Google button on those phones. Intriguing…
Slashdot has a dust-up over a YouTube account being deleted after the user uploaded a video critical of Islam. Problem is, there is no conspiracy, just a video that uses copyrighted background music and got caught doing it. Nothing to see here.
The record labels are putting the squeeze on non-YouTube video sites, just as predicted when YouTube got bought, forcing Bolt.com to sell itself to competitor GoFish in order to pay a legal settlement to Universal Music. This isn’t the first, or the last.
Check out this Dilbert, which I call, “What happens when your company switches the plan to Google”. (via Digg)
- Luckily, I didn’t find the video about Google particularly shocking. They’re a company abiding by local laws, and employ a huge amount of people I’d call intelligent. The only nasty thing about Google right now is that MY data appears to be stored in the United States. Now that’s scary, because I have zero faith in the leaders of the United States.
Download: http://www.ste.ag/google-dont-be-evil/
Other interesting movie: http://www.ste.ag/knife-party-what-barry-says/ (not saying I “agree” with it.)
Also recommended: http://www.knife-party.net/projects.html
ITsVista ads: he might not be violating any terms of service, but isn’t he breaching Microsoft’s copyirght on their user interface? Wikipedia only seems to allow low-resolution versions of screenshots and such, though I think they’re somewhat conservative in that aspect.
Slashdot: Wow! I had no idea. I already found the story a bit fishy, but it’s too bad this thing smudged Google’s name. I wish Matt Cutts would’ve mentioned this on his blog (then again, he’s not here this week, afaik).
non-YouTube-sites: It’s a huge shame that this is happening, but it was indeed predicted. It’s really looking more and more like an attempt to monopolize the online video market. I wish it didn’t sound so much like a conspiracy. I don’t like YouTube very much, meh. And I’m still uninstalling Flash
And thanks for the interesting post, Nathan
Comment by Tim | February 20, 2007
Wikipedia’s just paranoid. Microsoft hasn’t sued a huge number of websites that use Vista UI elements in their design, so I doubt ITsVista has anything to worry about.
Seems like Slashdot sees a conspiracy everywhere it goes.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | February 21, 2007
Oh, I don’t think ITsVista has anything to worry about either, although I’m not sure if they’re legally in the white area.
And yeah, Slashdot has been over-the-top a few times lately. I’m relatively new there (don’t think I ever commented there), so I’m not sure if that’s “the usual”.
Comment by Tim | February 22, 2007
Looks like Google is keeping an eye on your site. I got a ‘cease-and-desist’ from them today about the image I had around my ads, and they used the page you referenced as the example. I thought that was a pretty creative way of showing the ads, and since it wasn’t deceptive I thought it met the spirit of the TOC, but apparently not. Oh well, they gave me three days to change it (thank God they didn’t just pull the plug), which I’ve already done, time to come up with a new idea. Be careful, they’re watching you!
Comment by Joe | February 26, 2007
Of course - I didn’t even think of that yet.
Remember Google banning the “eye-catcher” images next to ads? At first, they were allowed, but when more people started to do it, they banned them. (They did appear to improve the click-through ratio.)
I guess that’s why they sent you a C&D as well, then. I just didn’t recognize this as such, because it looked so different.
Comment by Tim | February 27, 2007
Damn, Joe, sorry about getting you in trouble with the big G. I’m surprised they had a problem with it, and if you hear any more detailed reasons why they don’t like it, let me know. There’s been some discussion in the past about putting decorative borders around AdSense ads, but I’m not sure how that ended up.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | March 1, 2007
All I want is to see old episodes of the Greatest American Hero
Comment by Benjamin Feingold | May 18, 2007
Okay it there is a contest and the odds aren’t high, then please sign me up.
Comment by Benjamin Feingold | May 18, 2007