You have to love WebProNews new video blog. It’s well done, with some slick video graphics that make it look like CNN!
My inner vanity would commit suicide if I didn’t at least point you to the video of me talking about reputation monitoring.
But don’t let that put you off, there’s plenty of other fine people interviewed there too!
This one of Rand, Lee and Todd, is one of my favorites. I feel for Lee – he spends the first 2 minutes waiting for Rand to take a breath! 
Now this is interesting. Italian prosecutors are investigating two Google Italy employees as part of an inquiry into how a violent video appeared on Google Video.
The two are being investigated for allegedly failing to check on the content of the video posted on the Internet search engine’s Web site.
As Reuters points out, the investigation doesn’t imply guilt, but it’s interesting that Italy appears to be holding the two Google employees accountable, as opposed to Google itself. It appears, Italy is investigating the event the same way it would investigate a journalist or TV reporter.
Italy’s Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni said the prosecutors had been right to apply to the Internet the same legislation that in Italy regulates what can be published in newspapers or broadcast on television.
The BBC conducted a survey of more than 2,000 people to learn more about their online video viewing habits. While the Reuters report suggests that nearly half of Brits are watching less traditional TV, the reality is a little different. Here’s what Reuters leads with…
The ICM poll of 2,070 people for the BBC found that some 43 percent of Britons who watch video from the Internet or on a mobile device at least once a week said they watched less traditional TV as a result.
Sounds like the beginning of the end for TV, doesn’t it? But wait…
Online video viewers are still a minority though, with just 9 percent saying they go online regularly to watch clips.
A French film producer is suing Google, claiming the company infringed on its copyright by allowing his movie, “The World According to Bush”, to be freely downloaded from Google Video France.
“We made estimates of the prejudice and its goes well beyond 500,000 euros ($648,700). The film has been downloaded about 50,000 times and it has certainly been copied afterwards,” Lepetit [the producer] said in a telephone interview.
Google has since removed the video, but this suit does nothing to dampen concerns that Google Video (and YouTube) will face an influx of law suits, unless they can figure out a way to monitor uploads for copyrighted content.
A couple of weeks ago, we reported how 80% of video viewers find video ads to be annoying. PodZinger, a video ad network, obviously has a lot to lose based on that report, so they commissioned their own.
According to ClickZ, PodZinger’s research revealed viewers will tolerate 10- to 15-second ads, as long as they are not bombarded with ads and the content is targeted.
Of course, that’s like Philip Morris telling us their study reveals most young smokers enjoy cigarettes. PodZinger has skin in the game, so I’ll sit on the fence until an independant study reveals the same findings.
Just last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt denied there was any truth to the rumors that the company would set aside $500 million from the YouTube deal, to protect against any copyright infringement suits.
Today, we get one more example of why you can never truly take what Google says at face value. While Schmidt didn’t lie, we learn he was very careful in his reply, as Google has in fact set aside $200+ million for such law suits.
I’ve said for many years that statements such as “we have no current plans” or “we do not intend” have no weight, when coming from Google.
Now, of course, every video publisher knows they can sue Google for copyright infringement, safe in the knowledge there’s a cool $200m to share.
by 
