YouTube Rules

A judge has ordered Google to give Viacom records of all videos ever watched on YouTube, including users’ names and IP addresses, Wired reports. Viacom is seeking the data to bolster its $1 billion lawsuit against Google for allowing copyrighted Viacom clips on YouTube. The media giant believes the data will show that copyrighted clips draw more views than user-created content. More »

When her doctor offered her a $100 discount to post her Lasek surgery on YouTube, Michelle Wilder was perplexed. “I was wondering, ‘Who wants to see my surgery?’” she says. But the money talked, and now you can see Wilder, and thousands of others, go under the knife online, the New York Times reports. More and more cosmetic surgeons are rewarding patients for such exhibitionism. More »

Fred Astaire he's not, but Matt Harding sure inspires the masses. The globetrotting former video-game designer, whose goofy dance set the Internet abuzz, is back at it. His latest video shows him dancing—OK, maybe flailing— with fans from Seattle to Fiji to Rwanda, and it's approaching 2 million hits on YouTube, Michelle Kung notes in the Wall Street Journal . More »

YouTube is testing some long-format videos for its site, anxious to increase the amount of ads they can display per view, CNN Money reports. The site has only a few videos longer than an hour, but is reaching out to independent directors at the Los Angeles Film festival this week. More »

You've seen it on hit YouTube videos, but now young researchers have unlocked the secret of the volcanic reaction that occurs when Mentos are dropped into Diet Coke, ABC News reports. Students at Appalachian State University say the rough, dimply surface of the sinking candy disrupts the water molecules in the soda to create powerful "bubble growth sites" that trigger geysers of foam that shoot upwards of 30 feet. More »

Bullied at school, a Long Island teenager posted an anti-violence video on YouTube that racked up more than 15,000 hits. The 7-minute montage by Patrick Kohlmann, 13, urges kids to stop fighting, but it didn't solve his problem. Now Patrick's parents are suing the school for failing to help him, ABC News reports. More »

The House of Lords is vaulting into the 21st century, hosting a YouTube channel dedicated to dispelling its upper-crust image. The appointed branch of Parliament rolled out several videos today, full of legislators explaining to clueless young people how the system works, the AP reports. "We hope that they will help to combat some of the outdated stereotypes of members of the upper house," said the Lord Speaker. More »

One Marine is being expelled and another punished for their roles in the YouTube video posted in March that showed a puppy being thrown off an Iraq cliff, reports the AP. Lance Cpl. David Motari is "being processed for separation" from the Marine Corps—he and the Marine accused of taping the puppy's death also received unspecified "non-judicial punishment." More »

YouTube videos showing three people popping corn with their cell phones have taken the Internet by storm, but apparently aren’t for real, Wired reports: A physics professor says the feat just isn’t possible. Instead, the videos look like a viral marketing campaign. The phones seem to be the same make and model, and two YouTube users posted French, Japanese and two American versions. More »

Republicans can't get no satisfaction—at least according to several anti-McCain videos set to air on YouTube by pro-Dem marketing group Truth Through Action. The premier video features a steamy bedroom romp that turns suddenly icy when a hot bar date discovers an autographed McCain photo in a nightstand. As if. More »

A judge has ordered two teens to create and post an apology video on YouTube as punishment for a vicious prank, Florida Today reports. The boys were convicted of battery and criminal mischief after posting video of one of them throwing a soda back at a drive-thru fast-food server after yelling, “Fire in the hole.” More »

A YouTube video assembled by a Ron Paul supporter is a “devastating” blast at the John McCain campaign, the Jed Report blog contends. The piece focuses on Iraq, playing and re-playing the Republican's suggestion that Baghdad has neighborhoods safe enough for generals to walk around unprotected—and juxtaposing them with stunned rebuttals from Wolf Blitzer and Pat Buchanan. More »

The MTV generation is pushing middle age, and its favored video-delivery system is falling victim to YouTube, the Independent reports. Younger audiences–those key 16- to 24-year-olds–turn to the Internet for the hottest new music, and MTV's attempts to reconnect have failed. They include stabs at social networking and user-generated content. More »

Formal ballet is one of the most rigid education systems in art—dancers spend years doing exercises before they are even allowed to purchase pointe shoes. But some students are abandoning the hierarchy and turning to a less-stringent, modern master—YouTube. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at aspiring ballerinas who record their home practices and critique each other’s videos online. More »

Now that 4 million people know intimate details of her marital problems—at least her side of the story— New York magazine sends Phoebe Eaton to size up the YouTube divorcée in person. Tricia Walsh-Smith, flamboyant actress, sometime playwright, and wife of a theater operator 25 years her senior, posted a series of videos skewering her husband, dishing about their sex life (or lack of same), and complaining about a miserly pre-nup. More »

John McCain is losing the YouTube election in a landslide, writes James Rainey in the LA Times. A search for Barack Obama turns up a "swoon fest" of videos showing him at his “uplifting best,” but querying McCain's name nets these winners: A debate miscue juxtaposed with a Miss Teen USA contestant’s infamous stumble on geography. More »

LA cops have finally busted a tagger they say is one of California's most prolific graffiti artists—with the help of videos of him posted on YouTube, the Los Angeles Times reports. The 24-year-old art-degree grad who goes by the moniker "Buket" is accused of causing $150,000 in damage. He became a YouTube sensation, particularly after a video featuring him in a daredevil tag high above a freeway. More »

In less than a week, Weezer's video for the new single "Pork and Beans" has attracted more than 3 million viewers to YouTube—partly by featuring nearly that many existing YouTube sensations. Miss Teen South Carolina, aka Caitlin "the Iraq" Upton, appears, happily lip-syncing the catchy ditty, as does the star of the "Leave Britney Alone!" video, looking slightly less sunny. More »

ESPN takes the measure of Kimbo Slice, streetfighting YouTube star and soon-to-be network TV darling, when mixed martial arts makes its broadcast TV debut Friday."Kimbo combines Mike Tyson's mystique and Mr. T's personality," Dan le Batard writes of the man who hit it big when a video of one of his street brawls racked up 2 million hits on a porn site. He loves to kick ass, but has never been a bully. More »

When YouTube videos get taken down, YouTomb is watching. The new site, the brainchild of a group of MIT students, tracks every video removed from YouTube, along with who requested its removal. YouTomb doesn’t archive the videos—“We’re not interested in bootlegged videos of Naruto, ” says co-creator Dean Jansen—it’s interested solely in watching for fair use abuses. More »