Song “Covers” Uploaded to YouTube Could Land You in Jail For Five Years

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82VtBxeJH3I

Beyonce lip-synching videos are in danger, people! Along with CathyMay15 s Boom Boom Boom and any other YouTube videos that could be contravening the law. If passed, US Senate bill 978 will make the internet a lot less fun.

It's obviously not the first time YouTube has come under fire for housing videos that flout copyright laws, but everyone's getting a little twitchy about this bill. Currently, it's only against the law to upload or reproduce (make a copy of) something copyrighted, like a TV show or a song, but if Congress amends the rulebook and includes performances, YouTube will have a lot of work on its hands, deleting contravening videos.

Website TruthOrTreason points out that the proposed bill also suggests punishment for those who distribute copyrighted performances. So if I were to post a video of CathyMay15 in this post, and more than 10 people view it, I personally could face five years in jail. Whoops.

No Internet? No Problem: YouTube Getting Ready to Let You Watch Videos Offline, on Your Phone.

YouTube streams more than six billion hours of video a month. Soon it will let people watch some of those videos even if they're not connected to the Web.

Next month, Google's video site will let viewers save clips on their phones and other mobile devices for up to 48 hours, so they can watch them when they're not online.

The videos will still be free, and Google will run ads on the clips, which will be available via its mobile apps.

That's a big change for the eight-year-old company, which has previously required a live Web connection to watch its videos (though there are plenty of workarounds).

YouTube announced the move in a blog post published late last night, and started telling its partners about its plans via email, as well; YouTube said it will allow uploaders to opt out of the offline option.

The practical benefit for YouTube viewers is that they'll be able to watch videos in places where they've previously been unable to do so, like planes or cars.* This should presumably boost overall viewing for the site, which already generates more than a quarter of its views - that's more than a billion views a day - via mobile.

If so, that may put more pressure on YouTube's ad rates by opening up more inventory.

Here's the text of YouTube's post announcing the move:

We're always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we'll launch a new feature on YouTube's mobile apps that will help you reach fans - even when they're not connected to the Internet.

This upcoming feature will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period when an Internet connection is unavailable. So your fans' ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute.

This is part of our ongoing updates to give people more opportunities to enjoy videos and channels on YouTube mobile. Check out the YouTube blog when this launches in November for more details on how this will work for viewers.

* I'll check, but I don't believe the move is relevant to Google's Chromecast gadget, which is designed to work in conjunction with mobile devices, but which relies on an Internet connection to play content on your TV. UPDATE: That's correct.

Sundar Pichai on the Difference Between Chromecast and Google TV (Interview)

Sundar Pichai

Google has two operating systems: Chrome and Android. And now it has two living-room devices: Chromecast and Google TV.

There's a good reason for that, argued Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps, in an interview after the event.

In fact, Pichai took over control of the Google TV project in March of this year. It had previously been the domain of YouTube head Salar Kamangar, but it was internally seen as better aligned with Android and Android partner relationships, sources said.

(Pichai, who has a reputation for being good at managing partnerships, gained a bunch of power at Google at that time, adding all of Andy Rubin's Android on top of his previous domain of Chrome and Apps.)

So why two different devices? The new Chromecast dongle will be a sort of lightweight way to stream video on a television. Google TV, you probably already know about - though you probably don't own as it's not super popular. Soon, "it will be a full-fledged Android for television," Pichai said, noting that he expects to announce many more partners at CES early next year.

The Chromecast costs $35 and has just 256k 512 megabytes of memory. But that doesn't mean it streams low-quality video; the default resolution is the industry-standard 1080p.

The new Google Chromecast

Where Google TV can provide "an immersive experience" that's appropriate for gaming, Chromecast will have too much latency for gaming, Pichai explained.

So why make a new device that doesn't do as much? To try to popularize the activity of watching Internet TV on a real living-room TV, said Pichai.

"It is shocking how much video is consumed on phones, tablets and laptops, but the TV usage just breaks off," he said. (During prepared remarks, Pichai cited Sandvine data showing that YouTube and Netflix account for an estimated 49.4 percent share of all peak downstream Internet traffic in the U.S.)

"Whereas TV is the most-used device at home, by far. People watch 4.5 hours of television per household in the U.S. So there is this gap, and you have to figure out a way to converge it." But simplicity is key, he said. "We should never set up expensive boxes and call someone to say how do I connect all this?"

Google's "Cast" protocol, which adds streaming options to apps while they are running on devices using the same Wi-Fi network as a Chromecast dongle, allows for playing video with no installation needed.

A Vizio Co-Star, one of the devices integrated with Google TV

"Effectively, the Chromecast is a Web media player," Pichai said. "Once you say, 'Play this YouTube video or Netflix video,' it is actually pinging YouTube or Netflix over Wi-Fi, going through the Internet backbone, and they are just sending it like they would send it to a browser."

Internally, Pichai said, his team calls this process "flinging" content. Flinging is intended for video and music apps, and outside developers are welcome to build in support for it.

Chromecast will also support a second behavior: "Mirroring" Web pages, though that will be in beta for the next few months. With mirroring, whatever you do on your phone, tablet or computer is synced up with the display on your TV. That way you can pull content from any website, not just supported apps - though you'll draw down the battery on the device that's being mirrored. My colleague Peter Kafka suspects that some TV companies will not be pleased.

These features aren't limited to the Chromecast device, Pichai said. Google TV will also support Google Cast, Pichai said today.

Google's two-pronged approach actually parallels competitors like Roku, which offers both boxes and streaming sticks for certain TVs. However, where Google might have an advantage on the works-like-a-browser front, Roku is ahead on the content deals. In addition to Netflix and YouTube, it has Amazon, Hulu, HBO Go and other channels. Chromecast doesn't yet.

"I fully expect more partners to join us, because it makes a lot of sense for their content to be seen on the television," Pichai said.

Correction, July 29: This article incorrectly reported the amount of memory that the Chromecast has; the correct number is 512MB.

Taking a Cue From "House of Cards," Machinima Releases Its Next "Mortal Kombat" Series All at Once on YouTube

If you're a gamer or a big YouTube video-viewer, you might have heard of "Mortal Kombat: Legacy," an online video series that aims to add modern story sensibilities to the classic fighting game.

The first season of the series was doled out in nine discrete episodes between April and July 2011. For the second season, the show's online distributor, Machinima, is today publishing the show in one go, a la Netflix, which has reported that that strategy is paying off for its original series like "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black."

Machinima CEO Allen DeBevoise said Machinima's target audience of 18-to-35-year-old men would enjoy "18 or 19 of the Top 20" shows that online viewers binge on, like "Breaking Bad," "Dexter" and "Game of Thrones."

"There's some outliers, like 'Downton Abbey,'" he said.

As online video studios wrestle with how to keep growing ad revenue on YouTube, Machinima has been looking for a "mega-round" of new investment to bolster a growing focus on original shows like "Mortal Kombat: Legacy." Just last week, however, the video network laid off 10 percent of its staff "in connection with" that growth plan.

Each of the "Mortal Kombat: Legacy" episodes is about 10 minutes long, but director Kevin Tancharoen said he'd like to see them get past the TV-drama-esque 45-minute mark in future seasons. The series started when Tancharoen, the director of films like "Fame" and "Glee 3D," released an eight-minute fan film, "Mortal Kombat: Rebirth," on YouTube:

Machinima and Warner Bros., which owns the rights to Mortal Kombat, took notice, and the first season of their resulting collaboration has racked up more than 60 million views on YouTube. While that first season was tied in with WB Interactive's game-series reboot of Mortal Kombat, the new season is about "keeping the Mortal Kombat name out there and keeping fans engaged," Tancharoen said.

"Mortal Kombat: Legacy" director Kevin Tancharoen, right, with Peter Kafka at D: Dive Into Media 2012.

To that end, Tancharoen is working on a movie based on the series, to be released theatrically in 2015 by Warner Bros., without Machinima's involvement. He said the stories of the ongoing "Legacy" series and the eventual movie will be kept separate, so that theatergoers don't have to watch dozens of YouTube videos before they buy their popcorn.

DeBevoise said Machinima does not pay Tancharoen directly. Rather, the online video company has a licensing deal with Warner Bros., which in turn pays Tancharoen. This is different from Machinima's other relationships with creatives under its brand - a partnership with Ridley Scott's production company RSA, for example, will grant ownership of the resulting short films to those directors as official partners to the video network.

Here's the trailer for the new series and the first episode. You can find the rest at the "Mortal Kombat: Legacy" YouTube channel:

Google+ Hangouts Can Now Be Initiated From YouTube

Google has quietly rolled out yet another feature of its Google+ social network, letting users click Share from any YouTube video, revealing an icon that suggests watching the video with friends in a Google+ hangout.

Google didn't formally announce this new feature, instead revealing it via product manager Brian Glick on - where else - Google+, where he casually mentioned it like so:

You can now start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video, directly from YouTube. Watch with your friends.

Just click on "Share" underneath any video, and then click on "Start a Google+ Hangout" in the bottom right-hand corner.

A few weeks ago, YouTube Live product manager Brandon Badge quietly mentioned the upcoming ability to enable hangouts from YouTube with live streaming video, and this must be the first stage of that initiative.

As we mentioned then, it's been possible to watch videos with friends since the beginning of Google+, through a more complicated manual process that must be initiated in Google+. But this new button allowing you to initiate hangouts from YouTube with a couple of clicks makes it considerably easier.

The Digital TV Endgame: 10-Year Transition to All Things IP

While Internet TV is already technically feasible, commercial challenges are keeping it from becoming a mass-market reality. Services like Hulu, YouTube and Netflix are helping turn online video into a viable substitute for broadcast television, but the Internet still has a long way to go. Industry insiders often talk about being four years into a 10-year transition, so what will the next six years look like as online distribution increasingly eats away at the broadcast TV market? Who will be the winners and losers in this new world? What technology needs to be invented, what deals need to be struck, and what existing commercial relationships need to be upended?

Then and Now

Everyone remembers how Napster sparked a collision between the music industry and the Internet that forever changed how people consume music. Buying a physical CD in-store quickly became a thing of the past, and today we stream music on-demand, over the air, from digital services like Spotify or Songza. A similar transition is happening in television. Platforms like Hulu and Roku are melding video with online distribution, disrupting traditional cable/broadcast consumption and making it faster and more convenient than ever before for viewers to watch their favorite shows. Most importantly, consumers are increasingly taking advantage of these new platforms. In the last 12 months, 1.8 million Americans have cut the cord and unsubscribed from cable TV, according to a recent study by research firm SNL Kagan. This represents a 3.1 percent drop in cable subscribers, and the trend continues to gain momentum despite the limited availability of premium sports or prime-time entertainment shows on digital platforms. As more of this content becomes available online, expect to see cable subscriber losses accelerate as consumers enjoy the benefits of a digital user experience combined with full access to their favorite shows and sports.

But it's not just a question of content availability. Online distribution actually represents a superior product from a user-experience standpoint. With content parity, there seems little doubt users would migrate to digital TV even faster. Traditionally, television has been a broadcast (one-to-many) medium. A station broadcasts a single show, at a specific time, with all viewers seeing the same content and ads simultaneously. By contrast, online video is a one-to-one medium. Each user connects individually; pulling in the specific content they want, where they want, when they want. Digital platforms enjoy far richer user interfaces, robust search, on-demand content accessibility and multi-device on-the-go access. As well as personalizing content, advertisers are also embracing this one-to-one relationship with viewers. This new, individualized experience enables ads to be delivered based on user preferences, search history and interests, enabling advertisers to reach consumers in a far more targeted (and hence relevant/effective) way. Eventually, this may even reduce the numbers of ads viewers are subjected to, as advertisers get more efficient at targeting only the most relevant audiences for their products. All this was impossible in the old broadcast world.

With so many benefits to Internet delivery, one would wonder why all TV isn't delivered this way. The challenge has far less to do with technology, and far more to do with existing business relationships and commercial interests. Existing broadcasters, cable companies and content producers enjoy the status quo ... the TV business is good, why rock the boat? Affiliate fees (the revenue share on viewer subscriptions paid by cable companies to the content owners) are a $32 billion income source, and are the primary revenue stream that funds TV content development. Thanks to bundling, content owners like Disney and Viacom are able to make more money than if consumers cherry-picked individual channels or shows. The TV industry, at all costs, wants to avoid a repeat of the iTunes model - one in which consumers can purchase individual songs a la carte, eliminating the need to purchase the full album.

Additionally, because of the scale of these relationships, it's almost impossible for new companies to enter the market with competing services. Each year, DirecTV pays the NFL $1 billion for exclusive rights needed for its NFL Sunday Ticket package. But, with more than 20 million subscribers and $30 billion of annual revenue, it's a price DirecTV can afford to keep its subscribers loyal. The fact that it also erects a substantial barrier to entry for any new digital-MSO competitor is a much-appreciated secondary consequence. Even if a startup could create a more intuitive, on-demand IP-based service, would subscribers migrate if the content they wanted were not available? A handful of digital-native companies have the deep pockets needed to take the plunge and buy the content rights needed, but they will face many years of substantial losses on content as they build their subscriber bases.

What Now?

The prize will be substantial for the company that can overcome these challenges and launch a successful IP television business. By combining the world's best content with an intuitive digital user experience, companies will bring television into the 21st century. In the last month alone, we've seen more than a dozen major steps taken by large media companies to fulfill this vision:

• Time Warner Cable just announced that over the next year it would be eliminating the need for its 15 million deployed set-top-boxes to move toward a software solution that can be licensed to third-party devices like Roku and Xbox.
• ESPN president John Skipper was quoted as being open to deals with IP video services - so long as they bought/paid for packages comparable to those offered by traditional MSOs.
• Companies like Intel, Apple and Google are actively working on connected-TV offerings, in addition to their current robust set-top boxes. These companies not only have the best resources to produce these smart devices, but also have the user base and, most importantly, the money to make exclusive partnerships happen.
• Dish recently announced Dish Digital, an IP-only subscription package, similar to Aereo, Netflix and Hulu, that essentially competes against its core business. A bold/risky yet perhaps insightful move in understanding how real this shift to digital consumption truly is.

Each week, there appears to be a new story hitting the press about the ways in which the Internet is reshaping the future of television; making it one of the most exciting, but potentially challenging, periods in the history of the TV industry. Unlike music and newspapers before it, the television industry has been able to benefit from the lessons learned by those who faced the Internet challenge. While those lessons from history may ease the transition, they don't lessen the deep impact that IP distribution is having. TV networks are faced with the challenge of adapting to new ways of distributing content to their consumers and building new, more direct relationships with their viewers; all without destroying strategic business relationships that provide the essential revenue they need to operate and invest in new content development. While this challenge is no doubt fraught with risk and complexity, the outcome at this point seems inevitable. Consumers want the benefit of access to content on demand anytime and anywhere, advertisers value the precision targeting and measurement of digital, and even MSOs are beginning to see the benefit of delivering more interactive, engaging experiences to their subscribers. The digital endgame has taken a long time to arrive, but it's now closer to a reality than ever before.

Mark Trefgarne is chief executive officer and co-founder of LiveRail.

Yahoo Video Head Erin McPherson Heads for Maker Studios, the Giant YouTube Network

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Entertainment

Erin McPherson, the Yahoo executive who has been in charge of the portal's video efforts, is leaving the company. She's going to Maker Studios, the giant YouTube network that's trying to build a business outside of the world's biggest video site.

People familiar with McPherson's plans said she is going to be Maker's "chief content officer," reporting to executive chairman Ynon Kreiz. I've asked Yahoo and Maker for comment. (Update: Maker has issued a press release announcing the hire.)

(Second update: Yahoo has now confirmed the hire. "We can confirm that Erin McPherson is leaving Yahoo," a company spokeswoman wrote in an email. "We thank Erin for her many contributions to Yahoo and wish her all the best.")

Maker represents a group of video makers - like PewDiePie, YouTube's biggest star (for now) - who generate four billion views a month. All of those views are generated on YouTube, but Maker, like other big YouTube players, is trying to build a business that also makes money from sources outside YouTube - like sites Maker owns and operates.

In September, Maker raised a $26 million round, which came less than a year after it raised $36 million from investors including Time Warner.

McPherson's move follows former Yahoo media head Mickie Rosen's departure this summer. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who has been wooing celebrities like Ryan Seacrest to join her rebuilding effort, has been looking for some time to hire a media executive with big credentials from the TV world.

Get Ready For TechCrunch TV's Tour Of The New Hollywood, Starting Next Week

Over the last several years, we've seen a new group of digital media companies emerge in Los Angeles, driven by the growth of YouTube as a platform for distribution of video content. What started out as a cottage industry built around YouTube is becoming a pretty massive business, with L.A. at the center of it all.

Companies like Machinima, Maker Studios, and Fullscreen were founded with the idea of helping creators to expand their audiences by improving their production value, collaborating with other YouTubers, and adopting a series of best practices.

That said, not all YouTube networks are created equal: While some focus on providing creators with tools for high-quality production, others have developed technical tools to help them succeed. Some are focused on specific verticals, like gaming or food, while others are built around aggregating channels with massive audiences and growing them through collaborations.

TechCrunch TV spent several days in L.A. meeting with a number of digital media companies, including Machinima, Fullscreen, Tastemade, ZEFR, Big Frame, Maker Studios, and Funny or Die. During those visits we met with executives and creators, toured production facilities, and got to know the people building this whole new ecosystem of video content. We also visited YouTube Space L.A., a huge facility filled with equipment for shooting, editing, and other post-production activities that is free and open to YouTube creators.

On Mondays and Wednesdays over the next four weeks, we'll be rolling out a series of videos showing off all the best from our meetings at those companies, giving you a better feel for what each has to offer and what creators can expect when they sign up for a multichannel network.

AllThingsD Week in Review: BlackBerry Is Just Resting, and YouTube Goes Mobile First

In case you missed anything, here's a quick roundup of some of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:

1. Amid great uncertainty, BlackBerry publicly pledged this week that it's not dead yet and, in fact, will rise again. Meanwhile, a new suitor for the once-dominant mobile company emerged: Lenovo is confidentially exploring BlackBerry's books as it mulls a potential bid.
2. Since April, Yahoo has made a big push around its Facebook-esque "stream ads" that show up within the scrolling feeds of the company's finance, sports and news pages. Sources this week said that it's an even bigger initiative than previously thought: CEO Marissa Mayer hopes stream ads will one day be Yahoo's greatest driver of new revenue.
3. This week, security outfit QuarksLab claimed that Apple's messaging service iMessage was not secure, and could be opened up by either curious Apple employees or by a government mandate. But on Friday, Apple vehemently denied that claim.
   
4. After a decent Q3 earnings report, Google showed a little bit more of its hand re video plans. CEO Larry Page announced new numbers that suggest mobile is more important to YouTube than ever.
5. Sources said Twitter plans to significantly update its direct-messaging product in the near future, bringing it to the forefront as rival messaging apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp continue to thrive.
6. Who wants an iPhone 5c? Apparently, about half the number of people who want the more expensive 5s. Make no mistake, it's still selling like an iPhone, but a growing chorus of supply-chain-trimming rumors suggest that Apple's expectations for the device might have been too high.
7. A long list of tech titans and well known companies are supporting the nonprofit Code.org as it tries to bring computer science to more schools. But two names in its first educational program might jump out more than others: Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who will be leading coding tutorials during Code.org's worldwide "Hour of Code."
8. After Apple CEO Tim Cook hired and then fired retail head John Browett last year, the question of who would replace him became hotly debated. Now, we finally have an answer: Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, who will join in the spring.
9. It's already possible to send cash to friends or relatives online through services like PayPal or Venmo, but this week, Square unveiled its entry in the field. In All Things Reviewed, Walt Mossberg reviewed Square Cash and found it to be "simpler and more private" than its established competitors.
10. IBM turned in disappointing earnings on Wednesday, and it's worse than a quarterly problem: The longtime No. 2 software-revenue company in the world, behind Microsoft, has now slipped in the rankings. Its replacement? A press-release-happy Oracle.

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Samsung Wants to Be a Media Giant. Meet the Guy in Charge of Getting Them There.

Apple used media — first music, then lots of other stuff — to help build its giant hardware business. Samsung already has a giant hardware business, and now David Eun is trying to help it with the other stuff.

Eun, who is EVP of Samsung's Open Innovation Center, gave us a sense of what he’s up to at our D: Dive Into Media conference last week, and you can watch the full interview below. He’s reluctant to talk about specifics, but there’s plenty to chew on. And if Samsung ended up launching, say, its own video portal, or advertising business, or both, you’ll be less surprised after watching this one.

Oh, and what about Apple and its ongoing fight/partnership with Samsung? Of course Kara Swisher asked him about that, too. And he answered!

[ See post to watch video ]