Law X.0

The Challenges Corporate Media Face

ZDNet’s David Berlind has published Get ready for the 'Twitterization' of mainstream media. In addition to examining microblogging, Berlind summarizes the challenges facing corporate media as it is forced to compete with bloggers, podcasters and video podcasters. [JH]

New Video Content Portal Dedicated To Blogger Community

Podcasting News is reporting on VideoCafe, a new service launched by NewsMarket. From the post:

VideoCafé is designed to provide bloggers the same access to video content that television and large media sites have had in the past. Initial footage available for embedding into blogs comes from Google, Yahoo!, Intel, Nintendo, AOL, Dell, Dow Chemical and others. In effect, VideoCafé is trying to be a “Web 2.0″ style video press release service.

Unfortunately, VideoCafé requires bloggers to register and accept a lengthy user agreement in order to browse content and embed video. This will limit acceptance of VideoCafé’s offering, because bloggers are used to being able to go to video sharing sites and immediately grab an embed code, without any legal mumbo-jumbo.

During this initial Beta period, Video Café will be available on an invitation-only basis. There's plenty of other ways to obtain the same content so why bother... {JH]

Here's the Company's Press Release:

VideoCaf Brings Video Content from Google, Yahoo!, Intel and Others Directly to Bloggers
New Video Content Portal Dedicated To Blogger Community

August 8, 2007, New York, NY - The NewsMarket - the worlds leading online platform for raw video news content today launches a new service enabling bloggers to source and embed video from some of the worlds leading companies for use in their posts.

VideoCaf (accessed at www.thenewsmarket.com/vc) brings video content from major companies and international organizations to bloggers for use on their blog. In essence, bloggers will now have a similar opportunity as other media to acquire free video from the worlds major organizations. Initial footage available for embedding into blogs comes from Google, Yahoo!, Intel, Nintendo, AOL, Dell, Dow Chemical and others.

VideoCaf meets the rising demand for video from bloggers looking to increase their relevance and influence by providing multimedia content to their posts, says Shoba Purushothaman, CEO & Co-founder of The NewsMarket. As our video archive has grown, weve seen a sharp increase in requests from bloggers for access to the content. We now have new capabilities in our technical infrastructure designed to support the needs of bloggers who are keen to be able to link to and embed video within their posts.

Technorati estimates that there are about 15.5 million active blogs (ie. blogs updated regularly), and these blogs have about 1.5 million postings per day. About 8.3 billion video streams are viewed online in the US, reports comScore. And Pew/Internet recently reported that online video now reaches mainstream audiences - 57% of online adults have used the Internet to watch or download video, and nearly 20% do so on a typical day.

Bloggers can obtain the available video by either grabbing the video embed code for the content, which enables the VideoCaf player to play the content on their blog or by downloading the content using VideoCaf clip delivery system. During the initial beta period, video will be available on an invitation-only basis.

The NewsMarket fulfills about 30,000 requests per month for video clips from the global news media and expects to service at least as much demand from bloggers. Video clips are free to journalists and bloggers; revenue is generated from the organizations that want to ensure access to their content as part of their communications and marketing strategies.

Summer Clinical Students Blog on Montana Public Interest Law

The Summer Clinical Students at The University of Montana School of Law blogged for the general public on a variety of legal issues. Check out Montana Public Interest Law. [JH]

Pedophile Blogger Tiptoes Around Law

CNN is reporting on the activities of Jack McClellan who was arrested recently for allegedly violating a temporary restraining order requiring him to stay at least 30 feet from any child in California. McClellan openly talked about his attraction to little girls on his now off-line blog where he also posted pictures of children he had photographed in public places. "There is no law against someone making you feel uncomfortable," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and a Loyola Law School professor. "There's a line to cross and I don't think he has yet. He's tiptoeing around the law." [JH]

Wikipedia, Best Free Online Encyclopedia

Pandia Search Engine News reviews Wikipedia and the following competing free online encyclopedias:

• Columbia Encyclopedia (6th Edition)
• Encyclopedia Britannica Concise
• World Book Encyclopedia
• MSN Encarta
• Concise Hutchinson Encyclopedia

The article concludes that "Wikipedia has no serious competitor on the net as regards free encyclopedia. MSN’s Encarta is worth a try, also in its free version, but all the other online encyclopedias we have tested are not useful for serious analytical work." [JH]