Youtube Web Site

The YouTube video from Shorewood High School in Washington state looks normal when it starts. It's a lip dub -- a lip sync of a song done in a single take with numerous students taking part -- of the infectious Hall & Oates tune, "You Make My Dreams." There are numerous lip dubs online, and this one is pretty much like any other, beginning with an enthusiastic girl running through the halls of the school, mouthing the words. But there are some odd things going on. Some students around her are doing impossible-looking acrobatics as the camera passes by. Objects fly up from the floor.

OLD-TIME television is making a comeback. Not on television, though. Aided by the neutron star-like cultural gravity of Google's YouTube, an increasing number of vintage TV programs and early commercials are flying out of collectors' closets, ending half a century of exile from the small screen. For members of Generation X-Box, it's a chance to see what prehistoric television looked like, back when it was barely more than "radio with pictures."

The most popular site for watching video on the Internet may soon get Hollywood's most popular movies. Google Inc.'s YouTube is in talks with several major studios -- including Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate -- about streaming movies when the DVDs become available in rental stores and kiosks, according to sources familiar with the situation. The move represents a bold gambit for the entertainment giants, which have been cautious in embracing the Internet out of fear it would disrupt relationships with major retailers and undercut lucrative DVD sales.

Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt says he plans to aggressively fight a $1-billion lawsuit from entertainment company Viacom Inc., saying the technology company has been obeying the law with its YouTube video-sharing service. Viacom has claimed that YouTube is a massive center of copyright infringement because it allows users to upload video clips from Viacom properties such as Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

British Broadcasting Corp. has begun showing excerpts from its news and entertainment programs on the YouTube video-sharing website. In an agreement that analysts described as a key step for both the BBC and YouTube, the British broadcaster is offering three branded channels on the site, including one showing as many as 30 news clips a day. The deal gives the BBC access to millions more viewers and gives YouTube the credibility of the venerable British broadcaster.

Iran has blocked access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube.com. Internet users in Iran who try to call up the YouTube site are met with the message, "On the basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran laws, access to this website is not authorized." The message appears in place of many websites the government blocks.

Free-wheeling video questions from ordinary citizens put a fresh spark into the staid ritual of presidential debates this week, with everything from a talking snowman to a guy cradling a rifle he called "my baby." By remaking the debate format into something more akin to "American Idol" than "Meet the Press," Monday's CNN/YouTube presentation could inspire thousands who normally ignore such events to tune in to the many that lie ahead, Democratic and Republican.

Yahoo Inc. is reprogramming its online video service so it's more like YouTube.com, an Internet upstart that has amassed a large audience during the last year with a free Web service that encourages people to post and share homemade clips. Under the changes unveiled Wednesday, Yahoo will store homemade videos on its own site for the first time as it attempts to build a platform for people to browse and rate the clips.

Media mogul Sumner Redstone has had a love-hate affair with YouTube Inc. this week. No sooner had one company he controls, Viacom Inc., sued the online video site for $1 billion than CBS Inc., which he also controls, struck a major deal with it. Under an agreement announced Thursday, YouTube will show CBS clips from the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament.