Kony 2012

NEW VIDEO NOW!

Kony 2012...
and... New ways to preview videos!

Don't forget to comment and like!
Share the video!
(It'll make your Saturday sunnier!)

Whitney Houston Videos See Surge

The late Whitney Houston's videos are in high-demand on both YouTube and Vevo as her play count increased by 4,523% last week according to Next Big Sound. She went from 868,000 plays to 40.2 million in the week ending Feb. 20.

In turn, the diva -- who died on Feb. 12 -- moves from No. 12 to No. 2 on Billboard's Social 50 chart. The tally ranks the most popular artists on YouTube, Vevo, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and iLike, using a formula that blends weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with weekly artist page views and weekly song plays.

New Fred TV Show

In this episode of the YouTube News Network

FRED has a new TV show on Nickelodeon?

and... Whitney Houston videos see surge after singers tragic death

Don't forget to comment and like the video

(it really helps us out a lot!)

Have a great weekend!

Rick Santourm Blocked

Dear Viewers,

As a personal decision, I've decided to block ads from www.ricksantorum.com.  As a YouTube adsense enabled blogger I am given the option to choose what ads are displayed on my blog.  Rick Santourm is a biggot who holds no respect for the LGBT community and I wouldn't feel right supporting his campaign by displaying his ads, even if that means lost revenue for me.  Just felt the need to let you know.  Thanks, as always, for being a loyal follower.

Love, B.

p.s. it makes me feel powerful blocking a Presidential Candidate, take that!

Clint Eastwood Chrysler Ad Removed?

NEW VIDEO NOW

Clint Eastwood Chrysler Ad Removed?!

...and Charlie Bit My Finger Success!

Please remember to like and comment!

(It gives giraffes their spots)

Superbowl 46 Commercials!

NEW VIDEO NOW

Get Better Will!

Superbowl 46 Commercials!

And... who is RWJ?

Please remember to like and comment!

(It helps make the world go round)

New Google Privacy Policy

NEW VIDEO NOW!

New Google Privacy Policy

and... Obama answers your questions!

Please remember to comment and thumbs up!

(It makes us all happy inside)

Megaupload Shut Down

It was almost as if the thrums of digital artillery could be felt across millions of keyboards.

As some of the internet's biggest power players, including Google and Wikipedia, protested two fast-tracked anti-piracy bills going through Congress, theUS Justice Department launched an attack on one of the web's biggest alleged scofflaws, Megaupload, and, in a counterattack, the hacker group Anonymous temporarily blacked out DOJ's website.

Techno-pundits and mainstream observers quickly connected the dots between anti-piracy protests and the Megaupload arrests, notching the dustup as potentially the biggest salvo yet in the multi-billion dollar internet copyright wars pitting, in essence, Hollywood and its Washington lobbyists against internet free speech and its hacker protectors.

“This week has been the week of copyright warfare, but the decision to nuke the king copyright violator so spectacularly only goes to show how little the feds need bigger bombs,” writes Sam Biddle on the tech-scene site Gizmodo.

The Justice Department has not commented on the timing of its arrest of Kim Dotcom (also known as Kim Schmitz), the high-flying millionaire CEO of Megaupload, who is now in custody and being prepared for extradition to the United States from his home base of Auckland, New Zealand. The arrests came after a two year investigation.

Megaupload was perhaps the most brazen of dozens of file-sharing sites, offering cash for particularly lucrative uploads and partnering with some big-name rappers in its barely-concealed bid to dispense and disperse pirated music and film. The site has 150 million members and makes up 4 percent of all daily traffic on the web.

But the decision by the Justice Department to net such a big, obvious fish at this time raised eyebrows among the internet cognoscenti, who posited that it was meant as a retort to populist digital forces that amassed in protest of the fast-tracking of two anti-piracy bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Citing the protests, Congressional leaders forestalled the bills on Friday, saying they need more work.

Championed by the Motion Picture Association of America and the Chamber of Commerce, the anti-piracy bills would have broadened the Justice Department's justifications for seeking court orders against alleged copyright violators, prevented advertisers from doing business with such sites, banned search engines from listing them, and forced internet service providers to block the sites.

Hollywood and music moguls say the internet is killing their business, with Megaupload alone allegedly stealing $500 million worth of copyrighted merchandise. The fact that at least some of the digital material was stored in a server in Virginia gave the Justice Department jurisdiction to have Mr. Dotcom and several others arrested.

But opponents of the bills say expanding Justice's power over what's kosher and what's not on the web could chill free speech and innovation on the internet, resulting in both economic and societal costs over the long term.

Proponents of anti-piracy legislation say the new laws will only affect scofflaws, but the FBI's salvo against Megaupload indicated to some experts that current law already favors property rights over individual rights.

Some have already questioned how the government had the right to shut down Megaupload this week without first allowing the company to explain itself in court. The action may force legitimate file-sharing companies, including those who provide “cloud”-based file “lockers” for users to store and share material, to question their business models.

“They will wonder if they have done anything different from Megaupload, and does that mean the Feds will come through their door,” Eric Goldman, a professor of intellectual property law at Santa Clara University, told the Washington Post's Cecilia Kang.

In a Monitor commentary, VentureBeat's Ben Popper agreed that the FBI's takedown of Megaupload simply highlighted the efficacy of current laws to curb copyright violators on the web. "Advocates of the legislation have always said that piracy was costing America billions in jobs and endangering jobs," writes Mr. Popper. "Stronger laws were needed, they argued, even if they might pose risks of censorship, chill investment in tech and damage the fundamental architecture of the internet. But the DOJ was able to rely on ProIP, a law passed back in 2008, in order to shut down Megaupload."

But at the same time, Anonymous' subsequent denial-of-service attacks against the DOJ, the MPAA and several other websites in retaliation for the Megaupload arrests could serve to swing public opinion in favor of stronger legislation against online piracy.

“Anonymous' actions hurt the movement to kill SOPA/PIPA by highlighting online lawlessness,” writes the Houston Chronicle's tech blogger, Dwight Silverman, who called the hacker attack the digital version of a “full-scale riot.” He added, “Anonymous is fond of saying, 'We do not forgive. We do not forget.' The problem is, neither do the people who want to shut down online piracy, even at the cost of a less useful and vibrant internet.”

Stop SOPA/PIPA!

NEW VIDEO NOW!Stop SOPA/PIPA...
and VEVO is moving to Facebook?!


Please like and comment!
(It helps defeat SOPA!)


Thanks for Watching!
Have a Great Weekend!

Share your New Year’s resolutions for an #Awesome2012

Plan to run a marathon in 2012? Go back to school? Ask your secret crush on a date?

It’s easy to come up with a resolution and enter the new year with high hopes, but the hardest part is often sticking to it throughout the year. To help you stay with it, we’ve got an idea — put your resolution on YouTube and share it with your friends using the #awesome2012 hashtag.

We’ll also be looking for five of the most interesting videos to feature on our homepage in January. Follow the instructions below and your resolution could inspire millions of viewers.
Make a video sharing what you want to accomplish in 2012
Outline your strategy and describe the steps you’ll take to reach your goal
Upload it to YouTube by January 2 at Noon PT and tag it with #awesome2012

Need help getting started on your #awesome2012 action plan? One of our YouTube partners is here to help:

Cheers to an awesome #2012!