From its earliest days, YouTube was constructed on a foundation of three things — hilarious kittens, stupid teenagers and dancing babies. But now that YouTube plays host to the likes of Oprah, heaven forbid any of your videos have Sony music playing in the background, lest the copyright police come after you. [More]
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Old Spice's Brilliant Marketing Your Product Could Market Like
By 7.14.10
We at Consumerist mostly focus on when companies screw up, with some exceptions. We must give credit for brilliant marketing strategies when it is due, though, and yesterday’s personalized YouTube video blitz by Old Spice’s towel-wrapped spokesman, Isaiah “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” Mustafa, qualifies as brilliant. [More]
YouTube Beats Viacom In $1B Copyright Lawsuit
By 6.24.10
Sorry Viacom! A judge has handed YouTube a victory in the $1 billion copyright lawsuit that the entertainment company brought against Google/YouTube. Viacom’s position was that YouTube had the responsibility to immediately remove all copyrighted materials. YouTube said it only had to comply with takedown requests. [More]
What To Do When A Company Pulls Your Fair Use Video From YouTube
By 4.26.10
Last week Constantin Films got YouTube to pull almost all the Angry Hitler parody clips by using the website’s Content ID tracking system. The process is automatic, and YouTube immediately takes down a video once it’s been tagged. However, that also means you can use this system in reverse to get your clips back up, at least for as long as you’re in dispute with the copyright holder. Whether you do this or not will depend on how willing you are to risk a potential lawsuit later on. [More]
Google Making YouTube Video Download Tools Extinct
By 3.26.10
The IT Chronicle reports that Google-owned YouTube is shutting down tools that help users download and save its videos to their computers, starting with a popular TechCrunch program. [More]
YouTube: Viacom Uploaded Some Of The Videos They're Suing Us Over
By 3.19.10
It’s a showdown of new media and sorta-old media as YouTube defends itself against Viacom in the TV leviathan’s billion-dollar copyright infringement lawsuit against the site that showed the world that cats can indeed play the piano. [More]
Cablevision Produces New Bitchy Video Loop Aimed At ABC
By 3.4.10
New York City area cable provider and ISP Cablevision is in a contract renewal fight with yet another content provider. This time, it’s ABC’s flagship broadcast station WABC that wants more money, and Cablevision has raised the stakes in the passive-aggressive public service announcement wars. They’ve redirected customers’ cable boxes to a special channel where a looped announcement plays, and have started a YouTube channel to get the word out to any non-customers who might happen to care. [More]
YouTube To Rent Movies
By 1.21.10
Tomorrow, YouTube will start renting online movies at $4 for 48 hours. At launch, the selection will consist of five titles from the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, says the Associated Press, but Google hopes to get studios on board in the coming months. Studios will be able to set their own prices and rental periods, however, should they participate. [More]
YouTube Considers Charging Monthly Fee
By 12.17.09
Dexter, pictured, had better get his credit card ready, because if Google-owned YouTube enacts its diabolical master plan, he’ll have to start paying monthly to get his entertainment fix. The Business Insider reports YouTube is formulating a pricing strategy to comfort greed-mongering studios: [More]
Infamous Domino's Where Gross-Out Video Was Recorded Closes Doors
By 9.28.09
Remember that Domino’s Pizza, the one in North Carolina where Kristy and Michael recorded themselves doing gross things to the food? The Charlotte Observer has reported that the location has gone out of business, at least for now—”closed signs have been placed in the windows and the phone has been disconnected.”
Get Your Data Out Of Google
By 9.24.09
If you’re like the average Google user, you’ve now got a lot of personal data—emails, addresses, calendars, documents, photos and videos, maybe even health records—in their system. This is fine with them, because the Google Hive Mind needs all of this data to eventually become self aware and enslave us. However, if you ever want to get that information out of Google, the company has created something they call the Data Liberation Front to make it easier for you.
Video: Ditch Your Cell Phone Contract For Free
By 9.16.09
In this video, a blonde dame in glasses shows you how to escape your cellphone contract for free with several tried and true tips for defeating those $175 early termination fees.
Trend Watch: CEOs Apologizing Via YouTube
By 9.16.09
Want to see a bunch of corporate executives apologizing? Thanks to the magical internet, now you can!
Studio Turns High School Graduation Into Marketing Stunt, Nobody Cares
By 7.29.09
The Wall Street Journal looks at how an unfortunately named marketing agency called the Intelligence Group tried to promote recent bomb “I Love You, Beth Cooper” with a viral video on YouTube. (Can we just once and for all ban anyone who works in advertising from accessing YouTube?) They paid the valedictorian of a Los Angeles high school $1,800 to “spontaneously” blurt out a secret crush during her speech, and they hired someone to film the speech in a faux-homemade style to post online.
At Ease, Facebook, Twitter: Soldiers Can Access You On Base Now — MySpace? Not So Much
By 6.11.09
The Army’s network administrators have stopped blocking base access to social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, as well as personal e-mail accounts, Wired reports.
Mystery Solved? Using OpenDNS Results In Glacial YouTube Downloads For Qwest Customers
By 5.8.09
Earlier this week, we posted an email from a frustrated Qwest customer who said he couldn’t download YouTube and other online videos at a speed equivalent to the Qwest service he was paying for. Qwest wrote to us, and spoke to the customer, and swore they were not interfering with any download rates. Instead, it looks like the problem is with OpenDNS, a free service that usually speeds up downloading, but that seems to have an issue when it comes to certain video streams.
Former Domino's YouTube Gross Out Girl Can't Get A Job Now
By 5.6.09
Kristy Hammonds, the woman who filmed her friend Michael doing inappropriate things to the food they were supposed to be preparing, needs a job to feed her two kids. She says she’s been trying to get work at other fast food restaurants, though, which might be part of the problem.
Qwest Says It's Throttling Customer's Online Video Streaming, Then Says It's Not
By 5.4.09
Update: It turns out the problem is with OpenDNS, not Qwest. The original post is below.
