A little bit of interesting wrap-up on the YouTube front as well, based on some unfolding stories throughout the month. I was interested in the continuing fallout from the Viacom/Google lawsuit based around YouTube, as I've blogged about several times.
When I first wrote about the topic, I was concerned with the ways in which the community of YouTube was getting lost in the corporate structure for the business model as the lawsuit moved on, with no distinguishing between YouTube the group of users and YouTube the business. I wrote, "What's missing is the fact that YouTube is not the entity posting this content--it's the fans, fans who see quoting from these shows and sharing their favorite moments with each other as part of expressing their love for these programs." See more here, here, and here.
Stephen Colbert has been having fun with the fact that he has been added to the list of folks to depose for the case. See this post from Farhad Manjoo at Salon for more thoughts on the subject. Manjoo writes:
It's my dear hope that Colbert and Stewart are forced to come forward, though. I'd like to see them explain, under oath, their thoughts about how online video sharing has affected their shows' popularity [ . . . ] Stewart and Colbert humanize the trial. At the moment this is a fight between corporate giants over provisions of copyright law. But if these entertainers take part, millions of fans will pay attention -- and Viacom will be forced to consider whether prevailing in its interpretation of copyright law is worth angering them.
Meanwhile, YouTube is moving forward with monetizing strategies for its site, this time with new kinds of ads for its video, an overlay that cuts in 15 seconds after a video has started and stays on screen for 10 seconds. These ads will only run on content from corporate partners. More from Stephanie Robbins at TelevisionWeek here, and TVWeek's Daisy Whitney provides more thoughts on the subject. She searched to find the overlay ads, to no luck, concluding, "What's a girl gotta do to get marketed to???"
