On Sunday, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced by a North Korean court to 12 years of “reform through labour” for an unspecified “grave crime” and for allegedly entering the country illegally, according to Reporters Without Borders. The two journalists for Current TV were arrested in March, The Guardian reports, while filming […]

Last weekend, we cautioned you against speaking ill of others while using popular microblogging Twitter. Our cautionary tale featured rocker, actress, and famous-for-her-outbursts personality Courtney Love. She is being sued by Austin fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir (aka Boudoir Queen), for calling her “nasty lying hosebag thief” and a drug addict and a prostitute. Today’s sobering […]

Liz Gannes at New Tee Vee reports on another live streaming deathcasting incident: In a striking display of the power of live video, Abraham K. Biggs committed suicide on Wednesday while broadcasting himself on video site Justin.tv. As we understand it from various forum posts, the 19-year-old Floridian was apparently egged on by commenters on […]

Weddings aren’t all faith, love and happiness. There’s usually a bit of abject terror mixed in and something – be it the bridesmaid’s dresses, the flowers or the dj – from hell itself.  Case in point: A rivalry between two wedding podcasters has devolved into a battle to the death – at least for one […]

One of the coolest things about new media is that it lets anybody publish content to the Internet and put it in front of the world.  That’s empowering for individuals and indie content producers, but it’s also empowering for people like William Shatner – who’s using YouTube to talk directly to his fans and explain […]

Friday, we reported on Almerica Podcaster, a podcast client for the iPhone that Apple banned from the store because it duplicates features offered by the iPhone’s native software.  We said: Rejecting an app because it competes with Apple’s own software, though, sends the signal that people shouldn’t develop podcast-related applications for the iPhone. This is bad […]

Google’s got a big problem with YouTube – the melting-pot nature of user-generated media.

This, along with a billion-dollar lawsuit, courtesy of Viacom, is keeping Google from making money on 96% of its content.

It’s time for Google to settle with Viacom, and get on with building a business based on what makes YouTube unique – user-generated media.

Verizon has backed out of a deal with controversial video blogger Loren Feldman after just a week, after civil rights groups and bloggers protested Feldman’s work, which many consider racist. Feldman is no stranger to controversy, but his “Technigga” character, in particular, strikes many as bigoted. In a video entitled Where Are The Black Tech […]

Four-hour work week author and blogger Tim Ferris talked to Daniel Ellsberg about new FISA (Foreign Information and Surveillance Act) amendments that promise to let big telecommunications off the hook, retroactively, for giving the government access to spy on you without warrant, and to make this type of activity legal. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act […]

Viacom’s billion dollar lawsuit against Google is getting ugly. The federal court hearing the case has ordered (pdf) Google to provide Viacom with “all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website”. The ruling brings a new twist […]