I’m writing this on February 29, a day that only exists once every four years. It’s a leap year, which makes perfect timing to announce a second season of the show by that name. That’s a clever piece of marketing, Hiscox.

Original Web Series

Original Web series come in all different shapes and sizes. They can be purely amateur affairs uploaded to YouTube, or more professional efforts which are commissioned by and/or shown across online platforms.

Some of these shows have been highly successful, from the fake reality show LonelyGirl15, through Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and on to the cable-like shows Lilyhammer and House Of Cards.

The latter two are indiscernible from television shows, except they are exclusive to Netflix. Leap Year is another TV-like show, but this one isn’t exclusive to Netflix. Instead it’s available anywhere and everywhere, or so it seems.

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Wait, what? There’s a music label executive who thinks the Internet is a force for good? Wonders will never cease. Unfortunately his viewpoint will not enable German music fans to watch music videos on YouTube anytime soon.

GEMA

In Germany GEMA handles the rights of copyright owners. Unfortunately its monopoly position means it has pushed for higher rates per performance. With music videos on YouTube the group asked Google to pay 16 cents per stream, and music videos have consequently not been available in Germany since March 2009.

From what I gather this is a lot higher than the rate set by other performance rights organizations around the world. Many of which Google is happy to work with to ensure music videos are playable and that everyone gets paid fairly.

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The world is changing, and the Internet is playing a more-important role in our daily lives than ever before. That isn’t going to change, and the more forward-thinking websites are already looking to a future in which they can dominate.

YouTube Revenues

Up to this point YouTube has struggled to make ends meet. Google, which has owned YouTube since November 2006, has monetized the site with all kinds of different adverts, but the site has hefty costs associated with it which means it’s likely only breaking even. Despite racking up 4 billion views per day.

However, YouTube is now ubiquitous, to the point at which we all YouTube a video in the same way we Google a search term. And that gives YouTube incredible power as the world transitions from old media to Internet-powered new media.

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If you download movies from the Internet then there’s a small chance you’ll get caught. If you run a site offering the movies for download then the chances of being caught ramp up considerably. Especially if you’re the public face of said site.

NinjaVideo

Hana Amal Beshara, the co-founder of NinjaVideo [domain seized], a website which offered downloads of first-run movies, has been sentenced to 22 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. In addition she will complete 500 hours of community service and have to repay the $209,826.95 she is alleged to have earned from the site.

NinjaVideo was one of nine websites taken down in June 2010 as part of Operation In Our Sites. In the two years the site was running it brought in around $500,000. Beshara is one of five admins convicted over the site, all of whom have pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and copyright infringement.

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Believe it or not things aren’t as black and white as they may at first appear when it comes to copyright infringement laws.

Which means YouTube is awash with videos that could be legal or illegal, depending on who is arguing the case.

No Copyright Infringement

Andy Baio recently wrote a fascinating article discussing how a new generation see copyright infringement very differently than previous generations. Mainly thanks to YouTube.

His kicking off point was the pronouncement, “No copyright infringement. I only put this up as a project,” placed by the uploader on a video showing Pulp Fiction in chronological order. That’s the full Pulp Fiction movie, distributed by Miramax, with its scenes rearranged.

This video is far from alone, with hundreds of thousands having some sort of copyright disclaimer attached to it. Even though doing so makes no difference to whether a video is infringing or not. The problem is no one quite knows what is and isn’t infringing when it comes to YouTube videos.

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It’s OK to hate Louis C.K. I do. But you should love his latest comedy special.

Not for the content, necessarily, but for the way in which he has distributed it. Hammering another nail into the coffin of Internet-hating big media companies as he goes.

Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. isn’t for me. I’ve tried, I really have. But while everyone else seems to love the guy and thinks he’s hilarious, I can’t stand him. Because he just isn’t funny. In any way. To me, at least, because I understand comedy is subjective.

What is funny, however, is the way Louis C.K. has just got one over on big media. Funny, but also brilliant. And an important step along the road down by which the middle-men will be completely removed from the equation.

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What do you do when you see everyone renting your movies rather than buying them? Why, you offer buyers an advantage of renters. And some people with money burning a hole in their pockets will likely fall for it. Kerching!

Renting Vs. Buying

Hollywood knows the world, and the way the world consumes content, is changing. It also knows it is going to have to change with it if it’s going to not just survive in this new world order but actually flourish. Even though the actions of its lapdog the MPAA sometimes suggests otherwise.

Many of the biggest movie studios are actively seeking ways to get their content into the hands of consumers in new ways, and the digitization of Hollywood is under way. But that doesn’t mean the Hollywood giants of old haven’t got a few tricks up their sleeve to ensure they squeeze maximum profits out of us.

One way they can achieve this is by tempting us to buy rather than rent.

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