YouTube, Viacom Fight Gets Fiercer
March 19, 2010
Almost exactly three years ago, Viacom sued YouTube for copyright infringement, and since then, neither side has been able to say much in public. But today, 108 pages' worth of court documents were released, and YouTube also issued a more comprehensible, 865-word statement.
In the statement (which was posted on the YouTube Blog), Zahavah Levine, YouTube Chief Counsel, raised several interesting points. One group of claims made Viacom sound like an absolute villain, too.
Levine wrote, "For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately 'roughed up' the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom."
Sound far-fetched? Well, here's another accusation of Levin's, and this one has been verified. He wrote, "Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself."
Obviously, YouTube feels very strongly that it's in the right. If a judge decides otherwise (and it remains unknown when a ruling might come down), we remind you: Viacom asked for $1 billion when it first filed its lawsuit.
Yahoo Adds Facebook Contact Import Ability
March 5, 2010
Yahoo Mail users should find it considerably more convenient to get in touch with their friends and acquaintances from now on. Today, Yahoo and Facebook made it possible for those users to add their Facebook friends' email addresses to their Yahoo Contacts lists.
The benefits should be obvious. A post on the Yahoo Mail Blog pointed out, "So when you are on Yahoo! Sports and you want to email your old high school buddy that great article on the Winter Olympics, his email address is just a click away. Or maybe you want to forward your cousin your airplane reservations on Yahoo! Mail . . . . [n]ow you can type the first few letters of his name in Yahoo! Mail and - presto! - his email address from his Facebook profile will appear in your email."
The import process is extremely simple, too. Users just need to head to the "Import Contacts" page, click on Facebook's logo, enter their Facebook login info, and wait a few moments for all of the data to transfer.
Whether this development will be enough to make Gmail or Hotmail users give Yahoo Mail a chance is hard to say, but this at least represents a significant step forward in terms of user-friendliness for existing Yahoo Mail fans.
More tie-ups between Yahoo and Facebook are on the way, too, according to Andrew Molyneux, a program manager over Yahoo Mail.
Yahoo Adds Facebook Contact Import Ability
March 5, 2010
Yahoo Mail users should find it considerably more convenient to get in touch with their friends and acquaintances from now on. Today, Yahoo and Facebook made it possible for those users to add their Facebook friends' email addresses to their Yahoo Contacts lists.
The benefits should be obvious. A post on the Yahoo Mail Blog pointed out, "So when you are on Yahoo! Sports and you want to email your old high school buddy that great article on the Winter Olympics, his email address is just a click away. Or maybe you want to forward your cousin your airplane reservations on Yahoo! Mail . . . . [n]ow you can type the first few letters of his name in Yahoo! Mail and - presto! - his email address from his Facebook profile will appear in your email."
The import process is extremely simple, too. Users just need to head to the "Import Contacts" page, click on Facebook's logo, enter their Facebook login info, and wait a few moments for all of the data to transfer.
Whether this development will be enough to make Gmail or Hotmail users give Yahoo Mail a chance is hard to say, but this at least represents a significant step forward in terms of user-friendliness for existing Yahoo Mail fans.
More tie-ups between Yahoo and Facebook are on the way, too, according to Andrew Molyneux, a program manager over Yahoo Mail.
Delicious Launches New Features, More on the Way
January 30, 2010
Delicious has introduced some new features. These come in the categories of bookmark display options, tag options, and bookmark browsing.
Bookmark display options have been combined into one place - just to the right of the Tagbar, and just beneath the bookmark count. New features here include a privacy filter, a send recipients option, and an "open bookmarks in" option. The privacy filter allows users to filter bookmarks by "only private" or "only public." The send recipients option gives users the ability to either show or hide display info like @twitter and email addresses. Users can also hide the history of who they have sent bookmarks to. The "open bookmarks in" option gives users the option to open bookmarks in either the same window or a new one.
Delicious has moved the tag options out of the blue action box and into the sidebar where the tags are actually listed. The feature is the same as before, just in a new location.
A new feature called "Browse these bookmarks" comes in the form of a link in the action box that lets users open the first bookmark and display a small frame at the top of the page, where they can paginate forward through the bookmarks.
"We're still working on the feature and more functionality will be added over the coming months, but based on how useful we’ve found it, we wanted to give you a chance to start using it sooner rather than later," says Simon on the Delicious blog. "We'd love to get your feedback on this feature and suggestions for other features. We know what we want to add to it, but your responses will help us gauge what we should work on adding next."
Delicious has also improved the tag management functionality on its mobile site and fixed over 50 other minor bugs (which they do not specify). Delicious also promises more tweaks and new features by the end of March, but does not give any details.
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