bitbol

Google is confident that they are protected by the law in the Google vs. Viacom lawsuit. Google says that they are protected by copyright law because they have done everything that was required of them. From the article:

Viacom said that by the time it filed the lawsuit, it had identified over 150,000 clips on YouTube that infringed its copyright and asked for them to be taken down. Viacom also argued that YouTube's reliance on rights-holders to notify it of cases of infringement places an unfair burden on them.

Wait! It's unfair to Viacom that they have to notify YouTube? It's unfair that YouTube is 100% responsible for monitoring the thousands of videos uploaded every day. It's not as if Google is a pain to work with; they remove all the clips that they are sent notices for. What are they complaining about?

Labels: Google, Internet, Legal, News, YouTube

Just as an FYI, I won't do a per-episode post as I did with the 2004 ExtremeTV series. I found that it doesn't add any value to the blog and just detracts from the original focus of the blog. Tomorrow I will simply posts links to the whole series, as well as the 2006 series as well. From then on, I will return to the posting that I did prior to the Gumball. Here are the two videos:

Labels: Cars, Google Video, Gumball 3000, Video, YouTube

This is the exact video that I was first exposed to that got me into the Gumball 3000 in the first place. In 2004, the Gumball rally covered Europe and also touched in Africa. The race started in Paris, traveled though France and Spain, ferried to Morocco, back to Spain and finished in Cannes (France).

While in Morocco, the prince personally invited the Gumball rally, which explains why the rally ventured to Africa. In videos that I will show later this week, you will see that because of this invitation, and general kindness of the Moroccan police, there were no tickets. In fact, some roads were closed to all other traffic so that the rally would not be obstructed.

France and Spain were not as welcoming, as the police targeted the Gumballers, impounding some cars and giving tickets to all they found. Here is some real driving:

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This post is part of a series. Continue following the rally by subscribing to the RSS feed, or bookmarking the label so you can easily find new posts. (Existing feed subscribers will already receive these posts.)

Labels: Cars, Gumball 3000, Video, YouTube

After the initial lawsuit against Google/Youtube, the dirt is out against Viacom. One of their own properties, iFilm, could potentially hamper their copyright lawsuit. The site in question, iFilm, also contains copyrighted material to which Viacom doesn't not own the rights.

This is turning into one of those sorts of things where the verdict is practically expected before any progress is made. In this case, Google is in the best position. Viacom is already looking like the antagonist because of their overly aggressive attack on the video-sharing site. Everything comes down the the media companies demanding the far-reaching control of everything.

Viacom admits that they want to "show our content in an environment we control" (read in TIME). TIME magazine makes a point that people enjoy the neutral platform that is YouTube. YouTube works with all operating systems, typically free of annoying ads, and lets you share them. Media companies don't want any of that. They don't wan to share.

Labels: Google, Internet, Legal, News, YouTube

Introducing Apple's newest products, the iRack and the iRan - a parody of Bush and his questionable war "tactics":

Labels: America, Apple, Video, YouTube

Viacom, a leader in TV broadcast, has sued YouTube/Google for copyright infringement. They should be happy the stuff is on YouTube. I don't watch TV (except select shows), so the internet is the only way I would see anything from them. They should make a deal with Youtube already. From the article:

Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws. In fact, YouTube's strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site, thus generating significant traffic and revenues for itself while shifting the entire burden - and high cost - of monitoring YouTube onto the victims of its infringement.

Viacom says that Google isn't doing anything to stop infringement, but that is false. Google has announced a plan to deal with this. The whole problem lies in the fact that no program can be 100% true, and not without false positives. It also doesn't recognize fair use. The media companies just need to make content available themselves if not through YouTube; that is what the consumers want.

Labels: Google, News, Technology, YouTube

I have hear that this is making national news:


This is why I hate many parents at school sports events. Back when I played soccer for my school, I became so angry at some of the parents for the things that they would do. Many parents will stand in the bleachers and yell at the referees for everything that they do. Many times I want to break their jaw so they will be quiet; I just want to watch the game.

Labels: Kids, News, People, Video, YouTube

Yes, feet. I can't always beat the game with hands and fingers:

[via engadget]

Labels: Nintendo, Oddities, People, Video, YouTube

This seems quite like something that Microsoft would do:

[via boingboing]

Labels: iPod, Microsoft, Video, YouTube

It has taken quite some time, but Google Reader has finally added support for YouTube videos. I have intermittently seen Google Reader support it in the past, but that was very limited, and often only worked on one site for a limited time. Now, I have noticed that YouTube videos work for multiple sites, meaning that it should be the real deal.

Labels: Google, Internet, YouTube

There is a moderately long clip on YouTube by a weather forecaster who was appalled by the way that she found kids were being taught. I recommend watching this clip if you have: been through such classes, or have kids in such classes. It is honestly ridiculous how they teach math now:

Labels: People, School, Video, YouTube

Google has just announced that they have finally merged Google Video with YouTube. I see this as a big annoyance, and something that really needs a lot of work.

For one, I have used YouTube for video viewing, but occasionally wander over Google Video to see if there is anything different. It doesn't help me to see the same videos listed at another site. What's worse is that I can find no way to limit the search to only Google Video. I tried -site:youtube.com and -youtube, but nothing will refine the search.

Google says that it wants a place "where you can search for the world's online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted." That idea doesn't work well if the basic search operators like site: don't work. At the very least, Google should support the site: operator, or set up another site like videosearch.google.com (like blogsearch) just for global video searches.

But, this week is the week of Google bashing:

• Blogger control panel fails
• Google maps gets confused
• Google image results become annoyingly simple
• Google error in place of my blog
• Blogger goes down, again
• Racial blunder in Google search results

For Google's sake, let's hope the list ends here, but I don't mind adding on if they continue.

Labels: Google, Google Video, Internet, YouTube

This person has just too much time on their hands:

Labels: Internet, Video, YouTube

Hopefully it was just a defunct one anyhow:

Labels: Apple, iPod, Oddities, Video, YouTube

It's a little like parkour, except closer to the ground and with a bike. I would like to be able to do this someday:

Labels: Biking, Video, YouTube

If Vista actually worked in this way, I might get it, I think they got a little off track and lost a little bit of that:

Labels: Computer, Microsoft, Video, YouTube

The Mario brothers find Vice City:

Labels: Video, YouTube

It appears that the first, publicly-notable lawsuit against Google/YouTube is not for copyright infringement.

The lawsuit alleges that YouTube is confusingly similar to Universal Tube's UTube.com, which sells tube, pipe and rollforming machinery. Universal Tube said its Web site traffic jumped from 1,500 users a month to more than 2 million, paralyzing the site.

I would assume they probably only have one server, and I bet two million will take down any server.

The lawsuit asks that YouTube stop using the youtube.com domain name or reimburse Universal Tube for the cost of establishing a new corporate identity.

I can only see one logical idea, and that would be for Google/YouTube to offer to host their website so that the no longer have to deal with the server issue. I really don't think that the lawsuit has any ground to stand on as there is any infringment or rights.

Labels: News, YouTube

This is a video of a kid who sings about having two fathers. It isn't in english, but it is subtitled so you can read the words. It is interesting to see how much more acceptable same-sex marriages are in Europe. It would take some real guts to sing this song in America:

Labels: Gay, Video, YouTube

I was set in my thinking that there is no way that Google could possibly want to buyout YouTube, but I was apparently wrong. The news says the deal was made at $1.65 billion.

What the hell was Google thinking. Sure, it will give them the advantage over others in terms of online video, but you know it is possible to not be the top in something. After this particular decision, I am starting to feel that Google is trying to do way too much, and that they may actually become their own demise. They have now just opened themselves to a slew of lawsuits. The only way they can get anywhere with YouTube is if the do a complete redo of the site, removing copyright infringement, which could quite possibly kill the popularity. This seems like a stupid decision.

Labels: Google, Google Video, News, YouTube