Video may be taking over the Internet but there are many people still unsure about Web video. Which is why this DVD could prove invaluable.

Although its hard for people who use Web video on a daily basis to believe, there are many Internet users who are completely in the dark about the power of Internet video and how to utilise it.

Learning The Ropes

While sites such as YouTube continue to grab viewers attention, the revolution that is Web video is still at quite an early stage and many Web users are still learning the ropes.

We’ve reviewed quite a few books intended to give a grounding for those people looking to move in to the world of Web video, and now we have a review of a DVD intended to do exactly the same thing.

Stephanie Lenz is a tough woman. Not content with merely getting Universal to retract its unnecessary takedown notice over a YouTube video she uploaded, she went ahead and sued the, for it too.

Last month saw Universal Music, which had issued the DMCA notice over 30 seconds of a Prince song playing in the background of a baby dancing, claim that “fair use is infringing”.

Now, as discussed here by Sherwin Siy of Public Knowledge, the judge in the case has refused to dismiss her lawsuit, essentially backing her claims that the clip was fair use, and should have been left alone.

Of Dancing Babies and Overzealous Takedowns: When “fair use is hard!” doesn’t cut it

Yesterday, a federal district court in San Jose refused to dismiss a suit brought against Universal Music for improperly demanding that YouTube remove a home video from its site.

In this case, Stephanie Lenz was sent a takedown notice for posting a home video on YouTube. Lenz had made a video of her toddler stumbling through her kitchen, then hearing and bobbing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy,” which was playing tinnily in the background on a countertop stereo. 

Despite the obvious fair use of the work, Universal sent a takedown notice to YouTube anyway. YouTube took the video down and notified Lenz that she had been accused of infringing copyright. After Lenz consulted a lawyer and issued a counter-notice, the video was put up again some six weeks later. After this, Lenz sued Universal.

NBC paid almost $1 billion to have the exclusive rights for television and video coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the U.S. But it seems that it is still losing the battle for viewers with Yahoo.

NBC spent the run-up to the Olympics in China talking up its extensive coverage of the Games.

And with over 2,200 hours of footage being made available online, it certainly had a right to brag.

Technical Issues Galore

Unfortunately, there have been technical limitations and issues surrounding the online coverage. This means viewers not only need to have Vista to watch any footage, but also have no firewall installed on their PC.

Broadcast delays to stop any loss of viewers and advertising from traditional TV have also affected Web viewer numbers, with many finding alternative (and often illegal) methods of watching their favourite event.

Even when viewers do get the chance to watch coverage of the Games on NBC’s site, they are often faced with footage without any kind of commentary, poor quality video, or even an event location but no action taking place.

What happens when the IOC runs to the authorities rather than approaching the pirates themselves? A round of pure and utter taunting, that’s what.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are currently taking place in China, as everyone but the most ignorant will be well aware. And this Olympics has seen more ways of watching coverage of the Games than ever before.

Many Ways Of Watching Olympic Coverage

As well as the licensed coverage on traditional television and officially sanctioned online coverage by the likes of the BBC and NBC, there are also plenty of less than legal ways of watching the highlights.

One of these is via torrents on sites such as The Pirate Bay, a site which hasn’t gone unnoticed by the IOC (International Olympic Committee), the organisation trying to ensure only those who are meant to sharing videos of events are doing so.

The extensive though ultimately flawed coverage of the Olympic Games on NBC could have opened the door to other sports looking to the Internet for viewers. Basketball is the latest subscriber to the power of Web video.

The NBA is looking to open up its Broadband rights for the coming 2008/2009 season, which begins in late October.

The biggest result of this decision is that games could now be streamed live online locally.

VOD & Streaming

Video streaming would go hand in hand with interactive TV and video on demand coverage, but it’s the one of the three services being launched by the League that would have the biggest impact.

According to Sports Business Journal, the plan would see each team having the right to cut a local deal. So Chicago Bulls fans would be able to watch matches on the Bulls.com website and/or the website of the regional sports networks.

Internet users from outside of the local area would be prevented from watching the matches online by the use of geo-blocking technology.

NBC may have embraced online video for this Olympic Games more than ever before, but its constricted online viewing regime, where certain events are “bottled up” for airing on traditional TV means many fans are being left disappointed.

The event that really showed this lack of respect for viewers was the 100 metres sprint final, a showcase event for as long as the Olympics has been running (a very long time).

Bottled Lightning

Usain ‘Lightning’ Bolt won convincingly, setting a new world record and still having time to celebrate his win in the last quarter of the race, looking left and right, and thumping his chest.

But people using NBCOlympics.com weren’t able to see this landmark event as it was one of the occasions, just like the opening ceremony, where coverage was held up and not shown online until hours later.

Could monetizing rather than removing copyrighted clips prove to be a solution to both the ‘Viacom issue’ and YouTube’s failure to earn the money that its traffic suggests should be possible.

The Viacom Lawsuit

The problem of copyrighted clips appearing on YouTube is a long-standing and controversial one. The problem so irritated Viacom that it launched a $1 billion lawsuit against the company.

Part of that lawsuit suggested that YouTube didn’t do enough to prevent copyrighted video from appearing on the site, and that once it did, not enough was done to remove it.

Video ID System

This lead YouTube to introduce the Video ID system last year which allowed content owners to quickly and easily check the digital fingerprints of their material with videos uploaded to YouTube.

If a company finds a match then it has the option to issue a DMCA takedown to have the offending video removed from the site. But there is another option, and it’s one that is growing in popularity amongst media companies.