Disney Deal More than Announced?

Riddle me this Batman...

Disney, one of the companies best known for vigilantly protecting copyrights and its closely held IP, just signed a long-awaited deal with YouTube. On its face, the deal is pretty mundane.

Dig deeper, though, and some interesting details start to emerge. First of all, unlike Hulu, YouTube is best known for user-uploads. From inception, much of the hullabaloo about this uploaded content was that it was so often copyrighted, like this classic three little pigs cartoon (which has been my daughter's favorite for months).



What many casual observers don't know is that when faced with the reality that their content has been detected on YouTube, the copyright holder has three options.

The first, and best-known option, is the "take-down."

This is when the copyright owner simply removes the content.

Second, the rights holder can simply "look the other way." They basically allow the content to stay up on YouTube, presumedly for the inherent promotional value of that many eyeballs, without taking any action.

Finally, there is the least-known "monetize" option. Essentially, YouTube (or content owner) can sell ads against the uploaded content and earn incremental revenue.

What the media companies cannot do, however, is claim ignorance that the clip exists online. The fact that the "Three Little Pigs" clip is among many Disney videos on YouTube, and that it was featured as "promoted" content, leads me to believe that specific elements of this Disney deal were in place long before today's announcement was confirmed.

It also leads me to believe that ultimately these copyright owners will smarten up and be in a position to profit from the engagement of their loyal fans, rather than work to have them persecuted.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, indeed.

March Madness

I started a twitter feed called BitterBill. I love it really. Allows me to get really pissed off and express it in 140 characters or less. I'll still be blogging here periodically, like what I've been doing wasn't already periodically.



But now, it's even more likely. When I'm so inspired, I can simply log on and post, "Why the fuck doesn't this $160 shirt just automatically fit me forever. Do I really need to outgrow it? I'm 36 goddamned years old. You'd think I'd be done growing. Apparently, I'm just starting though. Need to work out. Hate people that work out."


OK, apparently I'm just a fat load, and that's way more than 140 characters. But keep an eye out. My bitterness may dissipate in the Springtime, but it never disappears entirely.

Wondering how long I can keep this middle finger as my icon.

The TV is gelatin holding me fast

Saw an old friend this evening. Life goes on. He is working at a local wine store, but nevertheless has the old spirit he had when he ran a major operation. Used to cavort with the world's best known celebrities.

Couldn't care less anymore. Couldn't care more any less. Does it really matter? As long as he gets to live in the same house as his kid, he manages to cheer up. Might make you or me sad, but who are we to judge.

Phish puts their music out for free as Gene Simmons gets into fights with fucking bloggers. Phish is on tour, so life is good.

Here is the latest night. Peering out through your opacity...

Phish 3/8/09 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA Click below to preview tracks from this show DOWNLOAD THIS SHOW

Yet even this is only :30 second clips. Absolute bummer. Enjoy it while you can!

Fantasy Biggie Playlist

Mickey's Last Gasp

Hugging the mylar up to my body, smoothing the air out, it's like therapy. Extinguishing the final gasp of life from the symbol of all that is holy to a three-year old, amazed you still have the damned thing after two full months. New Years seems the perfect time to say goodbye.

She hasn't seen it in weeks, it's all my doing. But as I stand here still trying to figure out how long I'll keep it once its flattened, I realize how crazy I would look were my wife to walk in on me in my underwear, holding Mickey's head (outward I'd thought, but of course he's got a head and that damned tongue on either end, two-face bastard.

That worry dissipates soon, though, and I sit back to type, wondering if there is any more funny voice left in that helium. Knowing everyone is asleep, I threaten to wake them all. I figure, why the hell not?

So there you have it. Time to see, time to be free.





I truly can't believe that I inhaled the helium. More to the point, I can't believe that it worked. Sorry about the mictastrophe, I'm just figuring out how to use that thing -- HOT MIC! HOT MIC!

Anyway, next time will be better. For now, I leave you to ponder the fact that this, mind you, this isn't my first MM-related (OK, obsessed) post. Check this out from back in June, which never saw the light of day until now.

NOTE: As TMBG clearly hasn't worked out rights issues to make sure imeem users can post full songs to their blog, enjoy this legally cleared track in its entirety back at the main page.

There must have been some magic

Are you kidding me?  Amazing weekend, beautiful snowfall, time with the family, weekend before Christmas, good even for a Jew.  Opening night of Chanukah, 

My beautiful girl understands the power of video already.  Look at her improving her on-camera style, and ready to go in the blink of an eye.

Just days before, she was in the Lily Pond winter show, phenomenal performance, but clearly just a warm up for today.  Genius.  Pure Genius.

Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with ESPN.  Why do they currently have the Giants record at 11-3-1?  IDIOTS!!!  They are in the middle of Eli's presser talking about having just won the game, and an incredible game it was.  Homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.  I'm just glad it gave me something to be angry at, as I can often misdirect my anger.

Watch the second video above.  Scroll to about 0:15 in, and you'll see an idiot father forget that there are about thirty kids' parents behind him.  But I digress.

The pancho, for those of you familiar, is back!  And so am I.

 

Mind the Gap

So I've changed the title of my blog. It's still credited to Freehold Arts, but if you look closely you'll see that the name is now oficially "Mind the Gap."


Mind the Gap

It's a saying that's really rarely used anymore, more often "Watch" the gap, but more often "please use caution while exiting the train." Are you kidding me? Where's the beauty in that?

A Commuter's Guide to the Daily Grind

I wonder how long it will take me to be figured out. How long before someone on the 6:10 AM out of Woodcliff Lake understands why that weird skinny bald guy is hammering away at his keyboard. "He's the 'Mind the Gap' guy" they'll prod and poke.

Right.

I recently relocated to the East Coast from LA for reasons which, at the moment, escape me.

I'm angling down a hill in Woodcliff Lake, NJ bracing myself from the wind, truly frightened a misstep may cause me to bite it. I arrive at the station ten minutes early.

There's really nowhere to stand, so I pitch my umbrella up against a wall and stare numbly out at the sheets of rain. For the first time in a week I smile. I managed to make it all the way down the hill without wetting myself too badly.

My house, as you can tell, is a stone's throw form the Woodcliff Lake trian station. I can hear the whistle from my bedroom. This makes me, now, for better or worse, a commuter.

I don't like it. It takes me well over an hour every day to get to and from work. It's inhumane. Godless.

My father called me tonight and noted, "Days like this, I wonder how I did it." Then he laughed. "When you're young you do it because you have to."

It's that same crazy talk that guides these automatons through their stultifying days.

If I told you the horrors I see on these trains you'd never believe me.

But I'm going to try. & I'll do it in the first person of me.

A three word phrase of caution getting onto and off the train. I hear it, or some variation thereof, four times every single day

You see the beauty of Bergen County, is there is no direct line to NYC.

Who lives like this?

Like I said, me.

And this guy. Cock of the walk. No idea who he is, but he knows everything.

New train schedule before it comes out. Who's driving the train today? Who all the people at the stop are.

If anyone is going to out me to NJT, ultimately it's going to be this clod.

For now I lay low.

Half asleep with my paper and Treo, checking e-mail and scores.

Praying I go unnoticed. Noticing all the while.

Must go now. 5am wake-up call to do it all again.