Microsoft recently launched their own viral video site, Soapbox, which allows users to upload and view videos thus demonstrating once again that Miscrosoft is on the cutting edge of technology. Oh, wait.

As more and more of these viral video services attempt to cash-in and emulate the success of YouTube, entertainment industry executives grow increasingly fearful of copyright infringement. Microsoft sent a memo to top entertainment executives to address their concerns over copyright violations so common to these viral video sites. The memo indicates that Soapbox delivers “what we believe content owners want and need: industry-leading notice and takedown … practices, including tools that enable our content partners to more easily find content that is rightfully theirs and give us prompt notice so we can respond even more efficiently and expeditiously.”

Seems that Microsoft is still developing these features. Check out this clip.

Video: Dave Chappelle spoofs the Mac ads

Although I suspect no one at Microsoft would mind Chappelle spoofing those Mac ads, this is a clear violation of Comedy Central’s copyrighted material.

The entertainment industry needs to change its paradigm. Instead of worrying so much about copyright violation, why not embrace technology and exploit it for their own benefit. YouTube’s partners channel is a perfect example of viral technology and the entertainment industry working together. It’s going to take that kind of synergy for our traditional entertainment media to stay relevant. It’s not hard to imagine a day and age when people turn to their computers for their entertainment and leave they cable boxes collecting dust on the shelf. Viral video puts entertainment in the hands of the users which makes it so powerful. We don’t need some stuffed-shirt executive to program what we watch. We can do that our damn selves.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Dumb Ass, News, The Future. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.