Mark Cuban is at it again. He’s stirring things up on his blog. Today, he posted an admittedly un-fact-checked forum post from an anonymous but “trusted source” that outlines some evil-doing that may or may not have actually gone on prior to the announcement of the Goo-Tube deal. Who knows if any of this actually happened but we’re curious to see if any of these accusations are corroborated as details of the deal inevitably come out. Cuban’s post is lengthy but worth reading.

The anonymous author outlines the steps taken by YouTube to pacify media companies’ mounting complaints over copyright violations in order to secure the Google buy-out. How did they do it? With money, of course.

The media companies had their typical challenges. Specifically, how to get money from Youtube without being required to give any to the talent (musicians and actors)? If monies were received as part of a license to Youtube then they would contractually obligated to share a substantial portion of the proceeds with others. For example most record label contracts call for artists to get 50% of all license deals. It was decided the media companies would receive an equity position as an investor in Youtube which Google would buy from them. This shelters all the up front monies from any royalty demands by allowing them to classify it as gains from an investment position. A few savvy agents might complain about receiving nothing and get a token amount, but most will be unaware of what transpired.

Next, the big media companies were asked to keep quiet about copyright violations “for the next 6 months or so” while YouTube continues to grow.

The second request was to pile some lawsuits on competitors to slow them down and lock in Youtube’s position. As Google looked at it they bought a 6 month exclusive on widespread video copyright infringement. Universal obliged and sued two capable Youtube clones Bolt and Grouper. This has several effects. First, it puts enormous pressure on all the other video sites to clamp down on the laissez-faire content posting that is prevalent. If Google is agreeing to remove unauthorized content they want the rest of the industry doing the same thing. Secondly it shuts off the flow of venture capital investments into video firms. Without capital these firms can’t build the data centers and pay for the bandwidth required for these upside down businesses.

Wow. While we can’t confirm that this is actually how things went down, this post reveals some major issues that artists in this new medium need to look out for now that big media companies (including Google) are trying to make money from online video.

Sites that host “user-generated” content necessarily depend on their users for their success. The beauty of the social web is in its democracy. It’s up to the members of these communities to demand the respect they deserve. How do we do that? By using the only language large media companies and corporations understand. We need to choose services and websites with user-friendly terms of service and a strong commitment to Web 2.0 ideals. Rest assured, every time you add content to a community website, somone is making money from your content and your effort. The decision you make when you choose where to host your content makes a difference. Choose wisely.

Last week we featured the most-watched Halloween videos from the first Revver Film School Project, and what a blood-curdling group they were. Today we have some honorable mentions from that project, videos that either didn’t have quite enough views or were submitted after the due date. If the first batch was the Head of the Class, this group is the note-passing group of kids in the back that don’t pay attention in class but still got the smarts.

“A Very Tasteful Halloween” is exactly what it sounds like - a hilarious animated bit from the always-classy boys over at Very Tasteful.
_________________

“ZOMGies!!!” from Loading.Ready.Run is faux-vintage horror with a modern twist - the excess of dubious content on the internet is turning the world into literal zombies! Bladder-draining terror interspersed with winking net humor for the supernerds!
_________________

“The Merchant’s Pumpkin” is the tale of an adorable sentient pumpkin who makes a compassionate plea to end the butchering of pumpkins on Halloween. Brought to you by Roger Bindle of HEM Productions.
_________________

Happy Halloween everyone! Election Day is right around the corner, and Revver Film School’s next project is an Election Day-themed video to coincide with Election Day 2006. Tag your video “electionday06″ (no spaces) to submit it for class, and make note in your trapper-keeper that the deadline for this assignment is Thursday, Nov. 2.

Have you been curious about using the API to build your own site but don’t have the programming skills needed? This script might be just the thing.

We found this Revver video PHP script on scriptinstaller.net. A savvy developer built a script using our API that allows anyone to host their own Revver video site with no programming needed. Using the script, (it costs $46.00) you can create your own site and start earning money in just a few steps. All you have to do is insert your Revver affiliate ID and select the tags you want your site to syndicate. For instance, you can make an extreme sports video site by including all the Revver videos tagged sports, skateboarding, snowboarding, etc.

Here is a live demo of the type of site you can build.

We’re excited to see Revver members using the API to build their own businesses. Note: We haven’t installed or tested the script ourselves but the demo looks pretty darn cool. If anyone tries out the script, let us know how it works for you! Join the discussion.

We’ve touched briefly on the issue of Net Neutrality on this blog before. We don’t often talk politics but this issue is important to the online marketplace and culture we all know and love.

Mark Jeffrey, over at the Huffington Post, wrote an interesting article about Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality may seem a bit esoteric to most voters but Jeffrey’s blog entry does a great job of explaining why it’s so important to everyone. He provides a brief history of the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006 and explains that its passage will help ensure that “democracy can work its magic online — and off.”

You’ve probably seen the television commercials the telcos have released in the past few weeks: A ’silicon valley billionaire’ falls into a bed of money Scrooge McDuck-style, while a menacing voice-over informs us that Network Neutrality is actually an evil plot to make the consumer pay silicon valley more for internet services.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, not only is Network Neutrality cheaper for the consumer, it’s good for democracy itself. If the telecoms are allowed instead to assign priority to packets, then they will also have the ability to decide priority for information itself. Only those who can afford to pay will have a voice online.

…

[W]ithout Network Neutrality, this hive mind is hampered, censored, tiered. It ceases to function efficiently. And some information becomes more easily available than other information.

For example, take this very debate about Network Neutrality. If networks were not neutral, the telecoms could take a video podcast in favor of Network Neutrality and assign it a low priority, making it slow and jerky, or even effectively unavailable. They could conversely make sure the very ad mentioned in the beginning of this post is given the highest packet priority — after all, you want to make sure the propaganda that benefits you gets full play!

You see? If information is not all treated equally at the network level, it is possible to use your control of bits and bytes flowing by to unduly influence opinion. And that, my friends, is bad for democracy. Keep the bits and bytes neutral so democracy can work its magic online — and off.

So be sure to vote next Tuesday! Support candidates who support Net Neutrality. You can find other ways to get involved at SaveTheInternet.com and WeAreTheWeb.org.

Ever been engaged in an especially tawdry water cooler chit-chat and suddenly become fearfully aware that God (whatever that may mean for you) may be frowning down on you? Well fear not, apparently even God enjoys a tawdry water cooler convo from time to time. See more videos by Revver contributor “thatsfunny” here.

Share this video!

Lolla Lives launched this week with an awesome site that makes great customized use of the Revver flash player to build community by profiling the personalities that embody the Lollapalooza spirit. From the site:

LollaLives is a web series that focuses on the people and the bands that make up the Lolla lifestyle. In each webisode, Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell visits the featured guest in a place of their choosing. Perry and the guest then interact in any way that they please: sharing a meal, playing golf, surfing, painting, or just hanging out. Although they talk about whatever they feel like, inevitably the conversation turns to music, technology, art, the environment and Lollapalooza.

Stay tuned as the six profiles are each updated with a new webisode every week throughout November, resulting in an in depth and intimate look at each of the featured guests.

Want to see some scary videos? Want to meet your favorite video bloggers? Or are you just looking for a few free drinks to get you warmed up for the big Halloween weekend? Zadi and Steve from Jet Set Show have got you covered. They’ve organized quite the shindig in Los Angeles this weekend.

Join us at the Halloween Video Blog Festival tomorrow night.

UPDATE: The RSVP list for the Halloween Vlogfest is now closed. If you aren’t able to make it, you can watch all the videos and participate in the fun on the website.

Two of our favorite community members, Cute with Chris and Wallstrip, are currently being featured in the iTunes podcast store!

Do you have a video series or vlog? Want to podcast it on iTunes?

All you have to do is share the RSS feed of your collection.

Log into your Revver account, navigate to a collection, and click on “subscribe to this collection” to get the RSS feed. Anyone can subscribe to your videos as a podcast in iTunes by pasting this feed in the “subscribe” box under the advanced menu heading.

You may also want to check out the Democracy Player, where it’s just as easy to subscribe to your favorite Revver collections. It’s a super slick player and totally open source. We’re big fans.

Want your podcast included in the iTunes directory? You can get your show listed in the iTunes store by following the steps outlined here on the iTunes site. You’ll need to use a service like Feedburner to customize your feed to include artwork, a description, and tags. It looks complicated but it’s actually a pretty simple process.

Once your feed is ready, you can submit by clicking on the big “submit a podcast” button in the iTunes podcast page and following the directions.

Once you’ve submitted your feed/podcast, it will be reviewed by the iTunes team and, provided everything checks out, added to the directory. If you’re really lucky (and good) you might just get featured like Cute with Chris and Wallstrip. Some tips from the podcast tech specs page on being featured:

At iTunes, we’re constantly on the lookout for podcasts that are breaking new ground with this medium, have new or unusual content, or just capture our interest. When we find them, we like to feature them on the Podcasts home page. While there are no sure-fire ways to get your podcast featured (and no, we do not accept payments for promotion), there are some minimum requirements. To be featured by iTunes, podcasts must have:

1. An attractive, original image that does not include the iPod or other Apple-branded content. For image specs, see the iTunes Image section below.
2. A robust and accurate description.
3. Proper language, category, and explicit tagging.

In addition, featured podcasts must be regularly updated with new episodes. We occasionally feature a podcast after its first episode, but we generally like to see podcasts with at least 3 episodes, and we like to see that the most recent episode has been added in the past month. Ideally, the episodes should be released on a regular and predictable basis. More than 100 podcasts are submitted every day, so it is impossible to feature all of the good ones.

So go on, get podcasty! If you have any trouble, head over to the forums and help each other out!

Some of you may remember the Rooney contest we blogged about earlier this month. Well, the votes are in and they’ve chosen a winner. And what an adorable winner it is!!!

Using Revver’s tools to run a contest is a fun and easy way to engage your audience and allow fans to participate. The Rooney contest is over, but you can still check out the Rooney video contest page to see how it’s done.

Revver member Rasman has built a plugin for Wordpress, making it even easier for Wordpress users to share Revver videos on their blogs. Hold on, I’m going to do it right now on this very Wordpress blog.

Yep, just did it. Did you miss it? All I did was click on the little Revver icon in my Wordpress toolbar and then insert the video ID. It looks like this “revver(videoIDnumber)” to me but to you, it looks like an embedded flash video! And what a video it is. Sample Stool is from our very own Brandt Shandera. He is not a piece of crap.

If you host your own install of Wordpress (sorry, wordpress.com blogs don’t allow plugins), you too can have your very own Revver plugin! Then all you need to do to embed a Revver video is insert “revver(videoIDnumber)” in your post and it magically transforms into an embedded video player. Learn how here.

Note: To include your affiliate ID and earn money for sharing Revver videos on your blog, go to “Options” in your dashboard. Click on “Revver” and add your 5 digit affiliate ID.

Thanks, Rasman!