You Tube a video Napster? (and the biggest Windows error)

In today's IT Blogwatch, we look at You Tube a video Napster? Not to mention the biggest Windows error...

What red blooded member of the British Commonwealth (apologies to the rest of the world) wouldn't be interested in the cricket?   Another member of the Commonwealth, Om Malik advised us  "Between cleaning out my inbox, posting on the blog, and reporting for the magazine, it is no surprise that I missed out watching the India-Pakistan cricket series almost entirely ... Worried, that I missed on the games, I asked Wasim ... His response - why don’t you watch the highlights on the Internet. He pointed me to You Tube ... First reaction to Wasim’s recommendation: wow, You Tube is as big as Napster. In fact, much bigger, thanks to broadband penetration. Second reaction… eewww! It is like Napster ... my post from last month - Google, You Tube and Dark Side of Online Video. I had raised concerns about this then, and only this past week, I saw that NBC was issuing a cease and desist to You Tube over a SNL clip ... Stewart Butterfield in response to my previous post had pointed out that SNL clip was one of the biggest hits on You Tube, and perhaps 'it’s not in NBC’s interest to protest at this point: it probably helps drive interest in SNL, YouTube’s content is not really being monetized now, and NBC isn’t offering any alternative. But when either of those last two factors change, things could get harder.' ...  Now that SNL clips are being sold on iTunes for $1.99, NBC stands to lose money, which means a C&D. Unlike Napster, here is a direct correlation in lost sales. (India-Pakistan series in total would have cost me about $150.) NBC’s actions sparked off a healthy discussion ...  I wonder how many people actually visit You Tube to watch broadcast content online. Maybe that is one of the reasons why online video companies like Brightcove (on the front page of Wall Street Journal) have a much better future than You Tube."

» TDavid, MakeYouGoHmm:  "Jason Calacanis ... the guy who started the blogging network containing Engadget ...  doesn’t think YouTube is a real business ...  Before I weigh in with my own opinion, let me state up front that I don’t use, am not registered, and have spent only a few minutes at the YouTube site ...   I have tried Google Video which also lets you upload content, and despite having stringent policies against uploading copyrighted content, some DMCA violations are still getting through ... I’m sort of surprised that it took NBC so long to go after YouTube for the DMCA violation ... why didn’t YouTube take down this copyrighted content when they knew they had no permission to have it on their servers and display it to others? ...  official response on the YouTube blog (Feb 16, 2006) rings hollow to me ...  YouTube is a business, but it’s not a legitimate business model ... You don’t steal something and then give it back when the person you stole it from complains and say, sorry ... We cannot put all the blame on the users on this one nor more than the users should be blamed for the original Napster being a breeding ground for piracy ... This reminds me of the way some of these mashup sites that are scraping pages without permission. It happened with Craigslist and some of the pushback suggested that just because it was on the web meant it was freely available ... just because it’s on the web doesn’t mean it’s ok to scrape it and use it elsewhere ... I realize it takes manpower to police the actions of users, but it’s not impossible. If you setup a service that allows users to upload or copy/paste anything — pictures, videos, text — you have an inherent responsibility to police the content and make sure no DMCA violations occur ...  is time the internet as a whole takes off some of the wild wild west and grows up. Stealing somebody’s horse back then led to a stretched neck and boot hill. Stealing somebody’s work today should not be make one sheriff of the town. is time the internet as a whole takes off some of the wild wild west and grows up.Sorry YouTube fans, time to apply pressure on them to make the site legit or go away. Before the courts do the dirty work as they’ve done with the original Napster and Kazaa. These kinds of “businesses” are houses without foundations."

» chartreuse:  "A brief look back in time will show you how the music industry literally destroyed itself by going after Napster. Literally. What the music business never figured out was that you must charge for the enabling not for the content ... What video content owners need to do, (what major record companies refused to do and thus destroyed themselves) is come up with a blanket license which they charge to enablers like YouTube and Revver and let the consumer do whatever the [redacted] they want to the content.  They will anyway. "

» Mathew Ingram:  "As an example of the kind of “viral marketing” that the Internet can achieve with very little effort, ... video from Saturday Night Live is about as good as it gets ... The combination of the subject matter and the gangster-style rap made the video a huge hit over the Christmas holidays ... What great advertising for NBC and the show ... After all, the success of the video led to stories being written in the New York Times and elsewhere about both the writers and the show itself ... NBC’s argument, of course, is that this is a blatant copyright violation, and that viewers should be forced to go to NBC’s website to see the clip ...  What seems to have escaped the network’s mind is the fact that the video already aired on the program, and therefore has made as much revenue as any episode of the show normally does, not to mention the fact that the attention the video got could drive thousands more people to watch future shows. As usual, the network seems prepared to sacrifice all that free marketing for a little short-term profit. And that’s why it’s called “old” media."

» Matty short but sweet:  "Is it me, or has this video sharing platform just taken off like BEYOND any other video launch prior? Google Video, blah. Yahoo Launch? zzzzzzzzzzzz. You Tube. Huge."

Buffer overflow:

• Dratz: Abstraction Architectures...or, Why Everyone Should be thinking of BI.
• Vladimir Stojanovski: Mobile trends in Sales Force Automation
• Luis Suarez: 50 Million US & UK RSS Users Do Not Know They Use RSS -- How to Reach Them
• Eric Bangeman: Safari vulnerability worth taking note of
• James Kendrick: Mobile security will be a hot topic this year
• Techdirt: How Closely Is Copy Protection Tied To The DMCA?
• Bill Matherly: The Olympics Has Everything This Year: Sports, Medals and Hackers
• Matt McAlister: The actions of a few impact discovery for many
• Stowe Boyd: Technorati Adds Favorites
• Duncan Riley: SixApart to submit trackback as an Internet Standard
• Frank Hayes: Google, dirty pictures and the right to copy
• Martin McKeay: Vendor Meetings at RSA
• Ken Mingis: What's so special about Feb. 28?
• Mitch Betts: Why the global Dell/Philips desktop deal didn't work
• Global News Update: Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006
• Brian Babineau: Nexsan: The difference between hunters and farmers
• Shark Tank: Unclear on the Concept
• Douglas Schweitzer: What's good for the goose is good for the gander

And finally...  Biggest Windows error

Richi Jennings (is in another timezone, temporarily, so the antipodean is blogging today - and yesterday but I forgot to edit this para, apologies) is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean.