Standing in the way of control!

The International Olympic Committee announced Monday that YouTube would be offering online coverage of the Beijing Olympics in 77 territories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, only in areas without an exclusive digital online provider. The channel, which can be found at www.youtube.com/beijing2008 is not available in countries with existing online deals, such as the U.S. where all broadcast rights are owned by NBC. Here is some of the IOC’s press release:

From 6 August 2008, the IOC will broadcast a selection of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games clips as Video On Demand (VOD). The IOC’s Channel will be available on YouTubeTM, geo-blocked within each territory, at: www.youtube.com IOC’s Channel will be accessible in territories where digital VOD rights have not been sold or have been acquired on a non-exclusive basis.

Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the IOC, will produce regularly updated Olympic content. The package will include highlights, news and daily clips of the competitions, available throughout the 17-day period of the Games.

After online broadcast coverage was made available in a handful of territories for Athens 2004, and in 23 territories for Turin, Beijing 2008 marks the first time that digital media coverage will be freely available across the world provided by the rights-holding broadcasters and/or directly via the IOC’s Channel.

And here are the places in which Olympic content will be offered via YouTube:

Afghanistan	Madagascar
Angola	Malawi
Bahrain	Malaysia
Bangladesh	Maldives
Benin	Mali
Bhutan	Mauritania
Botswana	Mauritius
Brunei	Mongolia
Burkina Faso	Mozambique
Burundi	Myanmar
Cambodia	Namibia
Cameroon	Nepal
Cape Verde	Niger
Central African Republic	Nigeria
Chad	Oman
Comoros	Pakistan
Congo	Papua New Guinea
The Democratic Republic Of The Congo	Qatar
Ivory Coast	Republic of Korea
Djibouti	Rwanda
East Timor	Saudi Arabia
Equatorial Guinea	Senegal
Ethiopia	Seychelles
Gabon	Sierra Leone
Gambia	Singapore
Ghana	Somalia
Guinea	Sri Lanka
Guinea-Bissau	Sudan
India	Swaziland
Indonesia	Syrian Arab Republic
Iran Islamic Republic Of	United Republic Of Tanzania
Iraq	Thailand
Kenya	Togo
Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea	Uganda
Kuwait	United Arab Emirates
People’s Democratic Republic Lao	Vietnam
Lesotho	Yemen
Liberia	Zambia
	Zimbabwe

Read the full IOC press release here.

From Huffington Post

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I must confess that I am a huge Youtube addict. In fact it is one of the first sites I visit in the morning. One thing that I don’t get though is how people decide to watch certain videos and ignore others…Yes entertainment is of course one of the reasons to watch a video but let’s compare the following videos:

Chris Crocker:

and What The Buck Show:

The first video was released about three months ago and now has 4, 980 000 views while the second video which was released nearly a year ago only has 2, 533  000 views. Number two was also awarded the most entertaining video when the YouTube awards were dished out earlier on this year.

So, my question remains, why the vast difference in viewership?

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From Gizmodo:

..Seeing the video of a 20-floor building submerging into the asphalt as if it was liquid is something that belongs to a sci-fi movie. The stunning process–called daruma-otoshi–is not only almost surrealistic but it helps to reduce the environmental impact..

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In a recent ruling a Court has ordered Google to hand over the viewing habits of Youtube users. This spells trouble for internet privacy since many users’ identities might become known.

From Timesonline:

Google has been ordered to hand over details of YouTube users’ viewing habits by a judge presiding over a copyright infringement case against the site.

Viacom, the parent company of MTV, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the video-sharing site last March. It demanded that Google, which owns YouTube, should hand over data about how people use the site, arguing that the information would show that copyright-protected material was routinely posted and watched.

Judge Louis Stanton of the US District Court granted the request, ordering Google to divulge details of every video clip uploaded to the site, along with viewers’ YouTube usernames and IP addresses.

An IP address identifies individual computers connected to the internet but cannot be linked to a name or address without the help of an internet service provider. YouTube usernames may identify individuals if people have signed up using their own names..

See also: eff.org

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Recently Amy Winehouse, the dearly talented and troubled singer, released a disturbing video on youtube. It is sad and scary to see how drugged up both she and her cohort Pete Doherty appear with their wide open eyes like saucers and filthy nails. A cautionarylesson should be learnt here.

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Have a laugh!

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Ok, first post here and I think I’ll kick it off with one of my favourite guys on YouTube.

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