This is a quick post about recent events on the videoblogging' yahoo list serve... This morning I woke up and had some time while drinking coffee to read some of the zillion posts that get posted there by the most active pioneers of what has become known as videoblogging. OK. let me back up for a second. I think I actually AM a videoblogger. I think I maybe became one when I joined the high-traffic list, and actually am taking time to follow the intense discussion there and think about how I might be able to contribute. But, I have been posting video on the web since 2000. Very early renditions of this very website (back in 2000) had small video clips embedded and I was posting videos of Whirl-Mart and other protest activities on Indymedia . But videoblogging involves a bit more of a grasp on rss technology and the capabilities of aggregation and syndication that the combination of blog software and internet TV plat forms make possible. SO - WHAT'S THE STORY HERE? Well. the big thread today on the afformentioned email list was myheavy.com and how they were aggregating videos from google and blip.tv and posting them on their site wrapped in pre-roll and post-roll advertising AND in a special embedded player that was surrounded by ads. The folks from Galacticast were maybe one of the first to point this out (i lost track), so i decided to search for the show I have been puting out for several months now, My Survival Kit . Sure nuff! there it was... clad in ads. Well this story is getting longer than it needs to be. There are a couple points to make, though:
- Creative Commons. If you are putting stuff out there on the internet, you probably know about 'CC', but if not, you should. Its a great way of licensing material to be used in different ways, such that the work can be redistributed according to the author's stipulations (such as, non-commercial use only), but, copyright is protected. On MyHeavy.com, there were ads, whch violated that clause... and there was also no mention of from whence the videos came (links back to the original blog). AND, AND, AND... they stuck a stupid myheavy bug on the corner of everyones video.
- Splogs: This is a term i learned today. it makes sense. this is the combination of 'spam' and 'blog' read more here
- The Good news: as of now they have shut off their aggregator, so that all the videos they were pulling in and cloaking in ads are no longer availble on the site. This is due to a barrage of negativefeedback from the online videobloggig community. yea! its good to see some direct e-action work now and again. (now, lets take the streets back)
- Some links... these are great posts from Aldon Hynes and Jay Dedman which came out early on and demonstrate the issues at hand better than this little post: Jay: Moment Showing | Aldon: Orient Lodge (check out the screenshot of Jay and Ryanne's engagement ring cloaked in ads!!! how frikin ironic.)
over & out kids.
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