Japanese Groups 'Seriously Concerned' About YouTube
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Copyright holders send a letter requesting that the service be more proactive in identifying and removing protected material.
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Universal Music Group, the world's  biggest record company, is stepping up pressure against popular  online sites YouTube and MySpace, accusing them of infringing  the copyrights of its artists' music videos.
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A popular Internet video accusing Australians of opposing Japanese whaling because of racism while brutally killing animals such as kangaroos and dingoes drew sharp government criticism Monday.
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YouTube will start displaying a notice in Japanese on its Web site warning users against uploading copyright content, its two founders told representatives of a broad group of Japanese copyright holders on Tuesday in their firstÂ face-to-face meeting.
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YouTube has agreed to post warnings in Japanese against uploading copyrighted material onto its popular video-sharing Web site, a group of Japanese companies said Tuesday.
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YouTube makes its debut, and the mass hysteria of video sharing is off and running.
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Thailand's on-again off-again relationship with YouTube has taken another bad turn, as the government said it will go to court to have two videos blocked that it says were a threat to national security.
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A British copyright enforcement firm hired by Prince and the Village People says it can provide a solution for musical artists worried about songs appearing in YouTube videos.
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Japan's prime minister has begun posting English-language messages on the video-sharing Internet site YouTube in an apparent bid to raise his country's international profile
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Iran has blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com, and a media rights group warned Tuesday that Internet censorship in the Islamic state is on the rise.
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(InfoWorld) - On Friday, media conglomerate Viacom upbraided YouTube for continuing to host throngs of Viacom videos without permission and demanded that over 100,000 of its clips be removed from the popular video-sharing site owned by Google. Viacom, whose properties include MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures, ran out of patience after months of discussions with Google and YouTube, the company said in a statement. "It has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users," the statement reads. YouTube and Google have failed to deliver efficient filtering tools, allowingÂ "vast amounts" of unauthorized Viacom video to exist on the video-sharing site, the company said. YouTube acknowledged receiving a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) request from Viacom to remove the videos. "It's unfortunate that Viacom will no longer be able to benefit from YouTube's passionate audience, which has helped to promote many of Viacom's shows," YouTube said in a statement, adding that it will comply with the request. Viacom's move is the latest from copyright owners who are upset over the unauthorized uploading and streaming of their videos on YouTube, which is one of the most popular Web sites in the world. The copyright issue has long been a known liability for YouTube. Founded in early 2005, YouTube quickly became the world's most popular video-sharing site, beating established players including Yahoo, Microsoft's Internet unit, AOL, and Google. Impressed with that popularity, Google bought YouTube last November for $1.65 billion in an all-stock transaction, but it put 12.5 percent of the amount in an escrow account for one year to "secure certain indemnification obligations," it said. Since the acquisition, Google and YouTube have been busy negotiating with video content owners and developing technology to detect and remove copyrighted videos uploaded by users without permission. Beyond its attempts to strike deals with corporations, Google has recently also indicated its intent to share revenue with individual content owners. It has also begun integrating YouTube with the similar Google Video service. "We're pushing very, very hard for the success of YouTube as a brand. It has tremendous traction with the demographic that we care about. An awful lot of people are now using YouTube every day in their daily lives," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said this week duringÂ the company's quarterly earnings conference call. Schmidt said Google's primary focus with YouTube is user adoption, while it also experiments with advertising models. YouTube is growing its user base and advertising very fast, to the point that it's now clear to Google that the price it paid for YouTube is clearly justified, Schmidt said. In its statement, Viacom precisely complained that Google is benefitting from its content without providing Viacom with adequate compensation. "YouTube and Google retain all of the revenue generated from this practice without extending fair compensation to the people who have expended all of the effort and cost to create it," Viacom said.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has promised to give content makers control overÂ advertisements overlaid on video clipsÂ they post to its YouTube video sharing Web site. The company is seeking further feedback on the video advertising service as a rising number ofÂ YouTube users threaten to leave the siteÂ if the advertising feature is not improved. Only videos from content creators that have signed up for the advertising scheme, called InVideo, will host ads, leaving the majority of videos on YouTube free of the overlays, a Google spokesman said Friday. Advertisers will still be able to reach a large audience through YouTube videos even if the company only places ads in a small portion of videos. "And our users are not shy about telling us what they like and what they don't, so it behooves us to be careful," said Shashi Seth, YouTube Group Product Manager, in an e-mailed statement. YouTube launched the InVideo adsÂ on Wednesday. They start as an overlay on the bottom 20 percent of a video and people can click to watch the advertisement, or if not, the ad will simply disappear. Clicking on the overlay pauses the video, which resumes after the ad finishes. So far, responses to the new advertising system, posted on YouTube's blog, have been negative. People are passionate about the issue, with many threats to leave YouTube for other sites, such as Myspace.com or Break.com. "As a viewer of videos I don't want to see any of the content of the video covered up. I only had one video posted myself, which I have just removed. Bye!," writes user KPDover, in a comment. As of early Friday, the total number of comments had reached 669, with many repeats, but still a substantial increase to the 132 comments posted Thursday at around the same time. YouTube hopes it can change people's minds about InVideo ads, and sees them as a way to generate revenue for the site without being too intrusive. They are designed to interfere as little as possible with viewing and be relevant to the video. Warner Media, part of Time Warner, is one company that has signed up to allow overlays to be used on its music videos, and some of the ads are for other Warner music. Still, YouTube users complain that 20 percent is a huge amount of space on the small video screens, enough to detract from the viewing experience. YouTube plans to continue on with the InVideo overlays, and hopes "to make the ads an important part of the advertising model for online video," said Aaron Zamost, from Google corporate communications. The InVideo ads users are seeing on YouTube videos are the result of two months of testing. The company tried other methods of video advertising, including pre-roll video, but the in-video ads simply worked better. Videos that started with pre-roll advertisements were shut down 70 percent of the time, according to Google, while only 10 percent of in-video ads were abandoned. In addition, the number of people clicking to play an InVideo ad were 5 percent to 10 percent greater than the number of people clicking on a standard banner ad, the company says. The company uses software to match ads to videos, and can pinpoint an audience closely. For example, an advertiser could place an InVideo ad targeting 18-24 year old soccer fans in Los Angeles, to be played between 6pm to 11pm local time. The ads are placed by genre, demographic, time of day and geographic location. The technology behind YouTube's InVideo was all developed in house, but Zamost points out, the company never said it invented overlay technology. It did not. Time will tell if YouTube figures out a way to ensure its community grows accustomed to InVideo advertisements. Early on, YouTube rivals may have an opportunity to scoop up disaffected users. There are plenty of alternative video sharing Web sites on the Internet. But whether YouTube users like it or not, the company is committed to moving forward with InVideo ads. Â
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A YouTube video detailing how to manipulate foreigner hiring visas irks key senators. Giving the video a big down vote, they call for an investigation.
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Thailand is seeking to block clips on  video-sharing Web site YouTube, accusing the chief royal  adviser of being the mastermind of the bloodless coup last  year, a top Justice Ministry official said on Friday.
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Viacom expressed reservations today at the Web 2.0 Summit about Google's plan to enter YouTube content into a database and give owners the chance to remove it.
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(InfoWorld) - YouTube said it is ready to discuss copyright issues with some of Japan's largest producers of video content afterÂ they complainedÂ earlier this month about the amount of their material on the popular video Web site. A group of 23 Japanese entertainment industry associations and broadcasters sent a letter to YouTube management at the beginning of December demanding the site do more to stop users uploading copyrighted material. In the letter the groupÂ requested a reply by Dec. 15, and that arrived over the weekend. "They said they are considering visiting Japan to discuss the issue," said Satoshi Watanabe, manager of the transmission rights department at the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers. JASRAC sent the letter on behalf of the other companies and associations. The reply, which was signed by YouTube Chief Executive Officer Chad Hurley and Chief Technology Officer Steven Chen, also said YouTube is prepared to post a notice in Japanese to Japanese users of the site warning them against uploading copyrighted content, said Watanabe. At present YouTube presents a message in English only but the Japanese rights holders asked in their letter than a Japanese-language notice be posted on the site. YouTube also said it will improve its user authentication procedures, Watanabe said. He declined to provide a copy of the reply. JASRAC has sent the reply to the other 22 signatories of the original complaint. These include the Motion Picture Producers' Association of Japan Inc., the Japan Video Software Association, the Association of Japanese Animations, all of the major commercial TV broadcasters, the Japan Satellite Broadcasting Association, the Recording Industry Association of Japan and Yahoo Japan Corp. The group will likely hold a meeting later this week to discuss the reply and what to do next. The complaint was sent about two months afterÂ YouTube deleted almost 30,000 Japanese video clipsÂ on receipt of a complaint from rights holders in Japan. However almost immediately after the deletion new clips of TV shows, music videos and movies began appearing on YouTube. YouTube currently deals with copyright infringement issues by asking rights holders to send complaints in written form by postal mail, e-mail or fax with details of the clips said to infringe copyright, and other documents. The Japanese rights holders are calling for YouTube to create an alternative to this procedure that will utilize technology to identify infringing clips as they are uploaded or published. Â
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LOS ANGELES -- Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, contends the wildly popular Web sites YouTube and MySpace are violating copyright laws by allowing users to post music videos and other content involving Universal artists.