GoogleTubes Legal Battle Begins
Google's takeover YouTube may look like a great business move. For the company's legal team, however, it may soon turn into a long and nasty nightmare. Here's the rub: Besides all the gorgeous and goofy home videos, YouTube (like other video websites) hosts plenty of pirated content. These copyrighted music and film clips have been uploaded by YouTube members who pilfered the content from television, CDs, DVDs and other websites. The aggrieved parties are not just the big guys, film studios like Fox or broadcasters like NBC and the BBC. Many of the rights are owned by thousands of small independent production companies, and by individuals who want to retain control over their own products and the revenues they might generate. Google and YouTube obviously don't' see themselves as content pirates. They argue that they act fully within the law, based on general "fair use" standards, and more importantly the safe harbour provisions in section 512 of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998.

More Colleges Getting Wireless
More than one-third of U.S. college campuses have Wi-Fi, giving their students blanket wireless broadband access at school. Survey finds 35.9% of colleges are totally wireless, compared with 29% last year. Also, 68.8% of participating campuses have a strategic plan for wireless, which is up from 64% in 2005. Also the study show 60.5% of colleges and universities increased their information technology budgets for wireless for the current school year.

Judge Rejects Challenges To MySpace Purchase
News Corp. said Los Angeles Superior Court rejected legal challenges to the media company's 2005 acquisition of MySpace.com parent Intermix Media Inc., ruling that the deal was lawful. Brad Greenspan, who served as Intermix's chairman and chief executive when it created MySpace, said last week he was seeking a federal investigation of the sale, claiming the $580 million deal defrauded shareholders by undervaluing the Internet's most popular social-networking site. Brad left Intermix in 2003 amid an informal SEC inquiry and accounting restatements. He retained an approximate 11% share of the company. Brad had bid against News Corp., New York, to purchase the rest of Intermix he didn't own, but lost after Intermix's board voted against his offer.

Brad's website makes some pretty interesting allegations against certain members of the Intermix management team. He alleges that Intermix managers Brett Brewer, Adam Goldenberg, and Thomas Flahie profited by selling stock before the AG’s investigation was announced. Further, he alleges that Vantage Point Partners, an investor in Intermix, sold stock as well during roughly the same period. Vantage Point is the employer of Intermix chairman David Carlick and board member Andrew Sheehan.

Hotel Phones, Deal or No Deal?

For hotels, a once-lucrative profit center is disappearing. The American Hotel & Lodging Association found that about 90% of 9,300 hotels that responded to its recent survey offer Internet access, a big jump from 50% in 2004. The survey also found that free local phone calls are becoming more common. Such a policy was in effect at 75% of the hotels. In a randomly chose a dozen hotels in 12 cities and requested their Internet and phone rates. Internet access charges were free at five hotels, all with inexpensive room rates. Internet rates ranged to $13 daily at the Sheraton Waikiki in Honolulu. Four of the hotels with free Internet access offer free local phone calls. The Waldorf-Astoria in New York has the highest local phone charge, $1.95 for up to 60 minutes, and a high long-distance rate, $9.99 for the first minute and 79 to 99 cents per additional minute. The Sheraton Waikiki charges $9.44 for the first minute and $1.50 per additional minute Guests at inexpensive hotels are usually on tight budgets and won't pay for the services. But hotels provide them to stay competitive.

Best tool for today - Google Browser Sync
I spend at least eight to ten hours a day in Firefox and without Google's Browser Sync for Firefox, it saves me hours a week. What could be worse than forgetting to bookmark the obscure page you found that maps out the perfect walking tour of Venice? Having bookmarked it on the computer sitting on your desk back at home, 6000 miles away, instead of on the laptop you brought along. Or how about the frustration of being on a new computer and not remembering your passwords because your browser on your old computer automatically filled them in for you? These sorts of frustrations inspired us to build a Firefox extension that keeps your browser settings for all your computers in sync. Google Browser Sync unifies your bookmarks, history, saved passwords, and persistent cookies across all the computers where you install it. It also remembers which tabs and windows you had open when you last closed any of your browsers and gives you a chance to reopen them. We think you'll enjoy how it handles sync conflicts and "just works," enabling you to bring your browser with you everywhere.

Almost a Near Perfect Remote
Logitech Harmony 880 is a mid-range universal remote that offers most of the functionality but less extras than its big brothers in the Harmony line. The 880 works with the Harmony 7.0 software to make setting up different devices a breeze, but has a monochrome LCD screen instead of the crazy 3.5-inch touchscreen of the Harmony 1000. However, this costs only $249, plus improves on the Harmony 670 by putting DVR functions in the middle of the remote where it's easier to reach.

Today's Site To Peek At:
In a bizarre amalgamation of virtual and physical business, the dying independent terrestrial turned internet radio station WOXY is being revived by online CD swapping service Lala. Lala is tangible evidence that online music doesn’t have to kill the CD industry. Lala users identify CDs they want mailed to them for $1 plus 75 cents shipping. Other users who have those CDs available for swapping are notified and put them in the mail. Lala keeps the dollar and donates a portion of it (as much as $50k in a month so far) to a Foundation that supports artists. Users can also chose to purchase CDs for immediate delivery. Now the company is taking over WOXY to allow users to create streaming radio stations that will in turn inspire CD swapping and purchases. Station listeners can click to request a swapped or purchased CD that a streaming track originates from. The music available for creating the radio stations is licensed from a third party. Lala plans to invest between $5 and $10 million into the station. The company received $9 million in funding from Bain and Ignition last year. It appears that Lala is quickly gaining traction with users. The company reports about 10,000 CD swapping transactions per month. Comments left on the site appear in numbers that many publishers would be envious of. The company says CD sales have been doubling monthly and hit gross margin profitability last month. Only 2% of CD swapping transactions result in complaint reports and users are rated in a karma system. Perhaps the strangest thing about Lala is a delusional if legally required request that participants delete digital copies of music from the CDs they mail away in swaps. I’d be curious to see how often that happens.

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