Must-See Katrina Video

‘Orgullosos de Estar Aqui’ [Spanish for “proud to be here”] is a ten-minute feature for Current TV on the Latino workforce in post-Katrina New Orleans and features interviews and footage of the ongoing racial tension in the continual rebuilding of the city.

I highly encourage you to watch this video and pass it along to friends as this is one hook on the Katrina story that the media has completely missed.

Warner to Send Videos Thru YouTube

woutube is warner plus youtubeIn a potentially groundbreaking move for the music / entertainment industry, Warner Music Group is set to announce an deal to distribute copyrighted content through the video upload/download/streaming megahub, YouTube.

Details are still emerging, but interesting provisions have already been leaked regarding the preemption of inevitable remixing and mashing. YouTube has apparently developed royalty-tracking software that promises to “detect when homemade videos are using copyrighted material.” Somehow, the technology will enable Warner to maintain ownership control and “review the video and decide whether it wants to approve or reject it.”

“Technology is changing entertainment, and Warner Music is embracing that innovation,” said Warner Music Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. “Consumer-empowering destinations like YouTube have created a two-way dialogue that will transform entertainment and media forever.”

An interesting twist to a weekend that began with Universal Music Group’s head, Doug Morris, flat-out cursing out YouTube and similar Web sites as “copyright infringers.”

Read the entire A.P. article (source).

MORE: TechCrunch, PaidContent. Buy the rumor, sell upon the news?

UPDATE: NYT’s article quotes Sonific CEO Gerd Leonhard:

“The record companies are realizing their game is completely lost in terms of controlling the market,” Mr. Leonhard said. “Digital sales aren’t picking up as they should. If they don’t play ball now, they’re going to sit by themselves while everyone else is using their content for nothing.”

PLUS: Peter Kafka in Forbes on the adolescence of YouTube.

The World (Cup) is a (Head) Butt

It was the lowest scoring World Cup since 1990, and the U.S. couldn’t even score by themselves. There is verifiable evidence that Americans now dislike soccer even more, and 1998 champs and ’06 runner up France is now the headbutt of all jokes.

I enjoy watching soccer and find it at times quite exhilirating. Penalty shot overtime shootouts, however — anticlimactic denouement of the first order. Anyway, it sure didn’t take long for the Zinedane Zidane online headbutting video game to go live. Play it here.

zinedine zidane headbutt

Drama at Rocketboom

Well, shame on me for not having had the 3-5 minutes to take out of my daily happenings to keep up on my once-favorite Rocketboom vlogcast. (And no, I never got any action out of my February cameo, since yr asking).

Alas, it seems I missed some serious drama late this week as host Amanda Congdon announced — or did she threaten — her departure.

Such big news this is, that as AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck points out:

On the Web site technorati.com, which monitors tens of millions of blogs, “rocketboom” was the top search ? globally ? both Thursday and Friday. (Kenneth Lay, the Enron Corp. founder who died Wednesday, was second.)

Somebody please, say ’tain’t so!

amanda congdon

UPDATE: while Amanda’s sob story is posted at her blog – apparently Andrew Baron, majority owner of Rocketboom, spilled his guts at CaseCamp in Toronto on Friday night. And it’s all here on YouTube. Anyway (and holy shit does HuffPo look weird)! Rachel Sklar says the new hostess is the possibly hotter but most probably less talented Joanna Colan. As the New York Times printed Friday, move over Star Jones Reynolds and Dan Rather!