"Will Video for Food" is dedicated to helping video junkies make better viral videos, earn a side income on them, and stay current on the rapidly changing landscape of online video sites, tools and software.

"Interviews with people from all walks of life from all over the planet. Everyone has a story to tell. What’s yours?"

Cnet: "Suit accuses Google of profiting from child porn

Google has made child pornography an "obscenely profitable and integral part" of its business and must be stopped, a new lawsuit claims.

Jeffrey Toback, a Democratic representative in New York's Nassau County Legislature, charged in a complaint filed Thursday that Google has been taking in billions of dollars by allowing child pornography and "other obscene content" operators to advertise their sites through sponsored links, which are tailored to a user's search terms and automatically accompany search results."

"The nun who launched the Vatican's Web site is at work on a MySpace for Catholics

Deep inside the Vatican, a white-haired nun dressed in a brown habit opens the door to a room full of computers. The whirring machines hold some of the mysteries of the Holy See, including photographs of the Vatican Secret Archives and of ancient illustrated manuscripts. No, this isn't a movie trailer for The Da Vinci Code. (...) Sister Judith is creating a second Vatican Web site, set for launch in the fall, that is aimed at bringing together the faithful so they can interact. Think of it as MySpace.com (NWS ) for Catholics. There will be personal news updates, e-learning programs, and areas set aside for families, young people, and parishes. Collaboration is key, and that should differentiate the site from others in its genre."

Interesting story in The Business Week

"Pete Cashmore shows us how any old Joe, like Ask a Ninja, can build a global social media brand overnight with zero marketing dollars by utilizing all of the existing social networks.

I don't think a corporation could pull this off in the same way. However, the stars in the social media universe are ripe for product placement. The big question is will their fans accept it. I expect that we'll see products popping up in shows like Ask a Ninja and Rocketboom later this year as well as in popular podcasts and blogs too."

From Micro Persuasion

Excellent article at Slate.com: A Grand Unified Theory of YouTube and MySpace - Point-and-click sites that don't tell you what to do.

Urban Attention Seekers: Some kid is selling a "MySpace w/ OVER 37000 friends and 74000 profile views!!" on ebay

"Myspace/Fox can use ANYTHING of yours you post to your site [music, videos, photographs, art work, etc.]. This means they can alter it, edit it, sell it, etc. WITHOUT giving you credit.

(...)You can find the content that is quoted below by clicking “terms” on the myspace homepage and scrolling down a bit. I.e. its taken directly from the terms of use, it’s not some silly paranoid internet scare tactic."

Read this column on rinf.com

"Proprietary Rights in Content on MySpace.com. By displaying or publishing (”posting”) any Content, messages, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, profiles, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) on or through the Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com, a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services. This license will terminate at the time you remove such Content from the Services. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a back-up or residual copy of the Content posted by you may remain on the MySpace.com servers after you have removed the Content from the Services, and MySpace.com retains the rights to those copies. You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Services or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Content on or through the Services does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the Services."

Via del.icio.us

"To expand ad sales, especially to big brands, Mr. Levinsohn plans to supplement the MySpace staff with a second sales force linked to the Fox TV sales department. He wants to expand one of Mr. DeWolfe's advertising ideas — turning advertisers into members of the MySpace community, with their own profiles, like the teenagers' — so that the young people who often spend hours each day on MySpace can become "friends" with movies, cellphone companies and even deodorants. Young people can link to the profiles set up for these goods and services, as they would to real friends, and these commercial 'friends' can even send them messages — ads, really, but of a whole new kind."

Long story in the New York Times

"Newsflash reports that pressure group on Manila is trying to get the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie banned, and all copies of the book in the Philippines destroyed.

The Philippine Alliance Against Pornography (PAAP) also wants author Dan Brown, whom they compare to Adolf Hitler, to be declared persona non grata in the country."

More at Mediawatch

"Members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 34 to 22 against a Democratic sponsored Internet neutrality amendment that would have prevented congress from abolishing Network Neutrality. If the act is removed by congress, it would allow the formation of a tiered Internet on which service providers would be able to “tax” content providers for fast delivery of data to customers." (Shoutwire)

More at savetheinternet.com

"Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Many members of Congress take campaign contributions from these companies, and they don't think the public are paying attention to this issue. Let's show them we care - please sign this petition today. "

Move On

Why is America so scared of nudity?

"Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday." Cnet on Shoutwire

"The Blogosphere has erupted with accusations against Digg.com, claiming voting fraud and then censorship. Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, has responded, and so have others."

blogcritics.org

"A short Ilko Davidov animated promo bump for independent film production company BulletProof Film, Inc., which features an opening comment from Robert Williams and a closer from the mighty Jello Biafra."

Alternet: Rob Corddry, fake journalist on 'The Daily Show,' discusses improv, politics and starring in the hilarious new paintball mockumentary Blackballed.

"The leak of pre-war intelligence on Iraq sends the German media - lead by press agency dpa - on a frenzy of Bush bashing. According to dpa, President Bush approved the leak of Valerie Plame-Wilson's name to the press ("Bush genehmigte Enttarnung von CIA-Agentin").

Well, not quite.

In a remarkable interview, CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor sets the record straight"

Full story at Davids Medienkritik

Cheers! We-make-money-not-art.com has been nominated for a Webby award while moving its headquarters to jolly Berlin.

English blog with politically incorrect observations on reporting in the German media...

Interesting video: Lecture by Lawrence Lessig

"Disney will announce today that they are making 'much of its newest and most popular programming on ABC and other channels available free anytime on the Web.'" (Wall Street Journal)

"Citizen Journalism" and all that! Great column at the BBC

Here are two clips from that funny gamesite G4:

Bill Gates Runs Like A Girl!

Star Trek Karaoke 2.0

Check out Star Trek 2.0 premiering April 10th at 11PM only on G4

The latest vibe from digg, furl, del.icio.us, reddit, slashdot, flickr, youtube, newsvine etc. on one simple page.

Free photos for everyone!

"South Park is the less than respectful television animation series that has sustained its popularity for a decade because of its fearless satirising of anyone and everyone. It drew headlines early last week, however, when musician Isaac Hayes, who since 1997 has been the voice of Chef, suddenly upped and left in a huff.

Hayes declared that South Park, which follows the hell-raising of the four kids, had gone too far in its lampooning of religion. Specifically, he was cross about its recent mocking of the Church of Scientology. Hayes is a Scientologist. So is Cruise.

The departure of Hayes created some publicity for the show and its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. But now things are even more interesting. Comedy Central, the channel that broadcasts it in the US, was scheduled to air a repeat of the episode that had so upset Hayes on Wednesday night. But then, suddenly, it didn't.

South Park fans cried censorship. Why had Comedy Central yanked the episode? They now think they have the answer: Tom Cruise is the culprit. According to several Hollywood websites, he used his considerable Tinseltown influence to muzzle the show.

Parker and Stone are not taking this lying down. 'So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!' the two said in a statement that seemed to parody Scientology as science fiction. 'Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!'

But for the epic battle, Cruise has a secret weapon. It is alleged that he threatened to withdraw from any promotional activity for his next film, Mission: Impossible III, out on 5 May. The movie has been made by Paramount, which is owned by Viacom. And Viacom owns Comedy Central."

Quoted from "The Independent": South Park declares war on Tom Cruise

Cinematical: Will Viacom Keep Tom Cruise in the Closet?

Shoutwire: Tom Cruise is dangerous and irresponsible (American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2005)

An Illustrated History of Scientology PFD-Link (great!)

Here is the episode Tom Cruise hates so much. It's one of the best! The quality is pretty good for youtube...

If you don't have time for that: here are the two essential clips on youtube.com:

South Park-Great Secret Doctrine of Life Behind Scientology

Trapped in the closet

Tags: cartoons, comics, media, Medien, Propaganda, Zensur, censorship, Scientology, South Park, Tom Cruise, Isaac Hayes

"I'm the kind of author who likes to hang out in Adolf Hitler's home town with the High Priestess of Weird. (...) I like to imagine the future of computer games as being something like the Steve Jackson Games bust by the Secret Service, only in this case what they were busting wouldn't have been a mistake, it would have been something actually quite seriously inexplicable and possibly even a genuine cultural threat.... Something of the sort may come from virtual reality. I rather imagine something like an LSD backlash occuring there; something along the lines of: "Hey we have something here that can really seriously boost your imagination!" "Well, Mr Developer, I'm afraid we here in the Food Drug and Software Administration don't really approve of that." That could happen. I think there are some visionary computer police around who are seriously interested in that prospect, they see it as a very promising growing market for law enforcement, it's kind of their version of a golden vaporware."

RECOMMENDED READING: Bruce Sterling - Game conference speech: "The Wonderful Power of Storytelling" (Computer Game Developers Conference, March 1991, San Jose CA)

"Codger Rabbit and Booger the Horse connect their computer to satelite TV and watch Youtube while hangin'in the boonies...sort of."

"Crow Police, Lloyd and Cracker take back the streets of Los Angeles from scumbags... but not before they blow it up, shoot it down, kick it in the nuts, eat a donut and take a big bird crap...all in the name of CROW POLICE MF JUST"

More SPRANGLE.TV

MyToday, that fancy new RSS-Reader from India with all the special features and extra chairs has a good list of relevant blogs from India.

Freedom of speech, information wants to be free, social engineering, one world, bla-bla. Not in China. That doesn't stop the biggest internet-companies in the world, those with with the funny names and the happy-happy image. Yeah, keep smiling.

boingboing: China blocking Google.com; censored Google.cn to be only option?

The Nation: Yahoo's Dirty Secret: Quote: Yahoo! has a Chinese-language portal hosted inside China, with a search engine that filters out all websites and keywords deemed unacceptable by Chinese authorities," writes former CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon in a recent Nation online exclusive. "It does not inform users that the content is being censored in any way. Yahoo! also offers a Chinese-language e-mail service hosted on computer servers inside the People's Republic. Because the user data is under Chinese legal jurisdiction, Yahoo! is obligated to comply with Chinese police requests to hand over information. Such compliance over the past several years has led to the jailing of at least three dissidents."

They're really doing this..