Youtube

With 125 million viewers watching more than 1 billion of its videos a month, Machinima may be the most-watched channel that's not on TV. The specialty channel devoted to video-game aficionados — which offers game walk-throughs, gaming news, exclusive trailers and original series — is the channel with the fourth most subscribers on YouTube, itself the world's third most popular website, according to online measurement firm ComScore Inc. ...

Google Inc.'s YouTube announced the launch of a new channel devoted to women in advance of a presentation to advertisers and brands, concluding a two-week-long series of marketing pitches by the leading distributors of online entertainment. "Black Swan" executive producer Jon Avnet and "Albert Nobs" director Rodrigo Garcia joined together to create WIGS, a YouTube channel of original scripted dramas and short films about women. Avnet and actress Virginia Madsen, who is best known for her role as Maya in the 2004 film "Sideways," were expected to take the stage Wednesday at New York's Beacon Theatre to tout the partnership with YouTube.

On some bright, parched morning back in the Old West, folks must have heard grumbling as a boy nailed a list of new town laws to the wall of the saloon. And when they saw the sheriff and his fresh-faced deputies looking on with a satisfied grin, that's probably when they knew the West wasn't going to be so wild anymore. A similar scene has been playing out digitally at YouTube, the Internet's video town square. In addition to its long-standing campaign to crack down on illegally copied material, in September the site outlawed videos depicting drug abuse and last week tightened its guidelines further to restrict profanity and sexually suggestive content.

NEW YORK - Yahoo Inc.staged its glitzy presentation for advertisers in a theater near Central Park, with appearances by Katie Couric, "CSI" creator Anthony E. Zuiker and, via video, Tom Hanks. AOL Inc.rented out a three-story production studio in the gentrified Meatpacking District, which it filled with pounding dance tracks as gym-sculpted servers carried trays of beverages and snacks. A series of celebrity-studded presentations concluded with 1970s TV star Marlo Thomas taking the stage as AOL awarded prizes, including a new Ford Mustang convertible.

A recent court ruling that found YouTube not liable for copyright infringement drew praise in a Times editorial, then was denounced in a Blowback by Rich Bengloff of the American Assn. of Independent Music. Here's my two cents. I make a living doing something that would have been unimaginable 10 years ago: I make videos for the Internet.  It all began as a creative release when I was a pre-med in college. Fast forward five years to today — I've just finished directing my first national commercial for McDonald's and Coca-Cola, and have been featured in the New Directors' Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival.

A Hungarian Roman Catholic priest has become a YouTube hit with his distinctive method of spreading the word on wheels. The Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on Hungary's border with Slovenia, believes skateboarding can open the way to God for young people. The video of him in action, Funny Priest Skateboarding, has so far attracted close to 170,000 hits and now also has a music version. Lendvai says he follows the ways of Saint John Bosco, an Italian priest and educator in the 19th century who dedicated his life to improving the lot of poor youngsters and used games as part of their education.

Talking computers are inherently creepy, so it should come as no surprise that a mini-spate of Siri-gone-mental films are making the rounds on YouTube. The Internet's favorite (for now) is Psycho Siri, a no-budget, 4-minute, 25-second video in which the actors are amateur in the very best way and the computer graphics are kind of unexpectedly awesome.   So far it has racked up almost 300,000 views thanks mostly to people tweeting and Facebooking it. The narrative is pretty basic: A young man finds an iPhone 4S outside his school and starts to try it out. Siri plays normal for about 10 seconds before she starts murdering people.

YouTube's effort to buy a New York producer of Web content would help the company cement its status as the Internet's start page for online videos as it faces an increasingly competitive environment. YouTube, a unit of Google Inc., is in talks to acquire Next New Networks, whose pithy Web flicks have garnered more than a billion views on YouTube and elsewhere, according to sources knowledgeable about the discussions. Possible terms weren't disclosed. The potential acquisition would give YouTube its first step into producing its own videos, signaling its seriousness in transforming itself from a site for amateur videos into a comprehensive destination for all online films, including professional works.

Forget Justin Bieber and Rihanna: This week the teenage crowd is obsessed with Joseph Kony, an African warlord responsible for vile acts against children in Uganda and surrounding countries. That's a shift. The reason? Kony 2012 -- a video produced by Invisible Children, a small San Diego-based nonprofit, that suggests that thanks to the power of social media, people right here in America (and around the world) have the power to stop Joseph Kony -- if only they are willing to spread the word through Facebook and Twitter.

Isay this every year around this time, and here I go again: I'm glad it was more than two decades ago that I applied to college. There are far fewer of us Gen-Xers than there are of the cohort that's now awaiting admissions letters (or e-mails or texts or however the youngsters do it now). That means that a lot people my age got into colleges that probably wouldn't so much as accept our Facebook friend request today. Moreover, the application package (transcript, test scores, essay, references, $50 fee)

In one of the more bizarre instances of auto advertising, a YouTube video that shows an elderly Florida woman crashing her 2004 Toyota Camry through a Publix supermarket, injuring 10 people, is sponsored by Toyota. The video of Saturday's incident was posted earlier this week by Russia Today.  As the Camry shatters the glass door and plows into a baby carriage and shoppers, an advertisement pops up saying, “The following presentation is brought to you by: Toyota moving forward”  with the distinctive Toyota logo inserted into the advertisement.

Google said it has removed a Toyota advertisement sponsoring a horrific YouTube video of an elderly Florida women losing control of her Camry and blowing through shoppers at a Publix supermarket, injuring 10 people. Through a quirk of Internet advertising that automatically links ads for companies to content about their products, a Toyota banner at the bottom of the video pitched the company and its Prius c hybrid. Crystal Dahlen, a Google spokeswoman, said the YouTube owner removed the advertisement after learning of the situation earlier today.  There is no longer any advertising on the video . The accident took place earlier this week and the video was posted on multiple news websites after it was released by the Florida Highway Patrol.

YouTube is pretty much the last place on Earth that you want to ask: Am I ugly? That's because there's no shortage of people who will tell you the truth -- and throw in a little cruelty for good measure. "Hot or not" videos have long been a staple online, but they surfaced as a subject of discussion in the mainstream media after Katie J.M. Baker of the website Jezebel wrote about the growing number of tweens and young teenagers engaging in the disturbing practice of posting videos of themselves online and asking strangers, "Am I ugly?"

WASHINGTON -- People who still haven't filed their income taxes probably shouldn't get distracted watching YouTube videos. But the Internal Revenue Service is pointing last-minute filers to the site for tips on how to avoid busting Tuesday night's filing deadline. The IRS said it has several videos on its YouTube channel to help people scrambling to file their taxes. One titled "Last-minute tax tips -- 2012," narrated by an IRS employee named Eric, calmly tells procrastinators, "Please, don't worry, you still have options.

A federal appeals court judge has revived a $1-billion copyright infringement lawsuit by Viacom Inc.against Google Inc.'sYouTube, reopening a high-profile clash between old and new media. The dispute - which began when established media conglomerates were struggling to cope with the disruption of online video - reflected a frantic effort by Viacom to halt unauthorized snippets of its TV shows from showing up online. Ironically, the ruling, which revives the 2007 legal conflict, comes in the same week that YouTube announced an online movie distribution agreement with Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures.

James Cameron, step aside. Your YouTube video is taking on a new dimension -- 3D. Yes, you, too, can make either "Avatar" or " Titanic 3D ," but shorter. In other words, whether you're shooting in 3D or in 2D (like the rest of us), your videos can become a beautiful blur of red and blue. YouTube just took its 3D conversion out of beta and rolled it out to across the site. With the click of a button, short-form high-definition videos uploaded in 1080p now offer the three-dimensional flavor as well.

The gig: Michael Palmer is co-founder and executive producer of Clevver Media, a nearly 6-year-old Hollywood company that has launched seven YouTube channels, including its flagship, ClevverTV, a teen version of TMZ or E! that provides entertainment and celebrity news for the "Twilight" generation. The intern: As a film production major at USC, Palmer interned for one of the most successful producers in Hollywood: Jerry Bruckheimer, whose credits include the popular "CSI" television series and "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie franchise.

Dear Amy: My 10-year-old son attended a classmate's birthday party held in a public venue. Afterward, food was served at the birthday boy's home. Video was taken of the children in both places, and the video was posted on YouTube. We don't know the family all that well, and we were surprised to see very clear images of our child on YouTube. I called the mom and politely expressed my unhappiness. Am I mistaken to believe that they took this a bit far without the parents' OK?

A federal appeals court has given Viacom a second chance to prove its copyright infringement claims against Google's YouTube, reviving a high-stakes battle between entertainment companies and Internet entrepreneurs over "user-generated content" sites. The decision Thursday by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals was a partial win for both sides, but it left a few important issues unsettled as it tried to strike the right balance between competing interests. Viacom — a giant entertainment conglomerate whose assets include Paramount Pictures and Comedy Central — alleged that YouTube made more than 60,000 snippets of its content available for free, damaging the market for its movies and TV shows.

Google Inc.'s YouTube has struck a movie-rental deal with a fifth major Hollywood studio, Paramount Pictures, adding 500 titles to its expanding online library. The addition of Paramount's films brings YouTube's rental library to nearly 9,000 titles, featuring such popular mainstream movies as Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning "Hugo" and director Michael Bay's action-packed "Transformers" and classics including "The Godfather. " The deal reflects YouTube's strategy to provide its millions of online viewers with a range of entertainment options, from its trademark user-created video and polished Web originals to professional long-form content.