Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 9, 2006 12:32:40 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] C-Span Sends Take-Downs to YouTube, Allows
Google (after $$$)
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Note: This item comes from reader Randall. DLH]
From: Randall <rvh40@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 9, 2006 9:24:02 AM PDT
To: Dave Farber <farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Dewayne Hendricks
<dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: C-Span Sends Take-Downs to YouTube, Allows Google (after $$$)
<http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=324288> (with links)
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 12:04 AM EDT
Stephen Colbert's performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner
nine days ago has already created a debate over politics, the press
and
humor. Now, a commercial rivalry has broken out over its rebroadcast.
Pool photo by Roger L. Wollenberg
Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner in
Washington.
On Wednesday, C-Span, the nonprofit network that first showed Mr.
Colbert's speech, wrote letters to the video sites YouTube.com and
ifilm.com, demanding that the clips of the speech be taken off
their Web
sites. The action was a first for C-Span, whose prime-time schedule
tends to feature events like Congressional hearings on auto fuel-
economy
standards.
"We have had other hot — I hate to use that word — videos that
generated
a lot of buzz," said Rob Kennedy, executive vice president of C-Span,
which was founded in 1979. "But this is the first time it has occurred
since the advent of the video clipping sites."
After the clips of Mr. Colbert's performance were ordered taken
down at
YouTube — where 41 clips of the speech had been viewed a total of 2.7
million times in less than 48 hours, according to the site — there
were
rumblings on left-wing sites that someone was trying to silence a man
who dared to speak truth to power.
But as became clear later in the week, this was a business
decision, not
a political one. Not only is the entire event available to be streamed
at C-Span's Web site, c-span.org, but the network is selling DVD's of
the event for $24.95, including speeches and a comedy routine by
President Bush with a President Bush imitator.
And C-Span gave permission to Google Videos to carry the Colbert
speech
beginning Friday. The arrangement, which came with the stipulation
that
Google Videos provide the entire event and a clip of Mr. Bush's entire
routine as well, is a one-time deal.
Peter Chane, senior product manager of Google Video, said "C-Span has
some very, very unique content," adding that "online is really great
distribution outlet."
But Julie Supan, senior director for marketing at YouTube, said
officials there were stung by C-Span's behavior, because, she said,
the
site had helped fuel momentum for the Colbert clip.
"This was an exciting moment for them in a viral, random way," she
said.
"To take it down from one site and uploading on another, it is
perplexing."
She also noted that YouTube had tried to make a similar deal for the
clip that Google Video eventually made. "Google will stop at
nothing to
try to win over the community," she said.
NOAM COHEN
<http://tinyurl.com/rsze3>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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