Cool Pic!

This is a great picture of some cool street art. It takes us through a few years of evolution in one swipe of the mouse.

Bye Bye 123flickr

Well after just a day of being online Stockphototalk reported that "Flickr revoked our Flickr API commercial key after 2 weeks of issuing it and within 24 hours of us going live with it," according to 123RF in an interview today. It was a nice try by 123RF but too bad as I thought it was a good idea but I imagine that Yahoo will try this in the near future.

Big News in Stock Photo Land

Big news out of Flickr today and 123RF media. Using a Flickr API, Inmagine's stock brand 123RF will now allow its users to license their photos to potential buyers. This is a giant move and big surprise. Ill be interested to see how Flickr members will use this service but i think it is step in the right direction for selling photos and eventually video in the future. This is a win win for the sellers and buyers. Yahoo owns Flickr fyi.

Congrats to Casttv.com

Today I read over at TechCrunch that CastTV raised 3.1mm in series A funding. This is hopefully a step in the right direction for video search. Best of luck to them and looking forward to seeing how the technology will work.

So Why Exactly Is Monetizing Video So Difficult?

Video search, detection and the tracking of associated royalties is a major dilemma for many video Web sites. The problem goes back to the (inevitable) question of monetizing video content and product while trying to walk a tricky tightrope, hoping during every interaction that one is able to track and pay the correct amount of royalties to the right person for the material at hand. Cutcaster is dedicated to solving this problem and has been working hard to find the easiest solutions for both sellers and buyers, ensuring that everyone is happy and protected at the end of the day. Below are some of the major headaches associated with searching and blocking copyrighted videos online -

1) Content that is removed from one site quickly migrates to other competing sites or, as is often the case, re-posted by a different user on the same site. Thus, it reaches a further audience and builds an even greater following, a cyber-nerd phenomenon known as the long tail effect. Action has to be taken to make sure sites can't use the DMCA as a shield while they attract a large audience and reap the benefits of someone else's content. The content producer must be paid and protected.

2) Video data is extremely complex to analyze. Massive quantities of information need to be recorded in a secure database for a valid digital fingerprint to be catalogued.

3) If a user crops or modifies the video, even slightly through different means of superimposing and other tricks, many copyrighting detection systems can be fooled into not recognizing the problem.

4) Content creators with their own content must register it with Audible Magic, Gracenote’s, or some other future service so that it can be recorded in one of the databases mentioned above. In most cases, this process is quite expensive and time consuming for the user. The technology is slowly catching up, but it still presents a logistical problem for both the site and user.

These are all challenges that Cutcaster must tackle in order to be able to offer and license content to its group of buyers. We have been logging many hours researching and developing ways to detect this type of illegally uploaded material to our site, and we pledge to continue doing so.

"I Can't Wait To Go To College"

The words above, so innocent and on this day so haunting, are from the Gus Van Sant film Elephant, the Palme D'Or-winning, stunningly beautiful and harrowing meditation on a school shooting loosely based on the Columbine massacre. I will never forget the first time I saw the film. From the moment the film's opening shot of an inscrutably blue-black Oregon sky, I realized I was about to witness the re-creation of the unimaginable.

We at Cutcaster, along with an entire nation, naturally mourn yet another re-creation of the unimaginable, this one, of course, not in a darkened movie theater amongst strangers, but on the campus of one of the finer Institutions of higher learning in America. Cutcaster's mission is and will remain one of building a strong, global community where video and images are bought, sold, advertised, requested and found. On this day, however, we must bow to the unbelievably sad reality that some footage and images are simply too horrific to grasp or bear to watch on TV. And while we share the ineffable sadness of a nation united, a nation with 300 million hearts aimed toward Blacksburg, Virginia, we pledge to maintain the ethical and focused job that lies at our feet. We will pause today in light of remembrance to those whose flames were snuffed out senselessly all too soon.

The Coming Earthquake!

The Digital Journalist posted a very interesting article on video becoming the main means of acquisition in photography. It's very interesting how news organizations can grab frames from the video they capture in the field to post in their print editions and then stream the video footage from their websites. It's another example of videos importance in the coming years and the opportunity for photojournalist.

Our Community

So you've made it this far. You are, at the very least, one extra-click-curious as to what we do. This blog, as it progresses through the the spring into the summer launch, will be THE source for anyone interested in following the exciting developments in the Cutcaster community. We are thrilled, in the immediate days and weeks to come, to welcome the registration of beta-testers for Cutcaster. Spreading the word about our site - its mission as an ethical and profitable force in online video media, its unique place as a crossroads of Getty Images and eBay - is why we get out of bed every morning. We hope both members of the Cutcaster community and visitors alike come to read this blog and contribute ideas to help us help you in the most efficient possible manner. Our venture is nothing less than an ADventure, properly taken, and our journey with you has only just begun. We delight in any and all input from a broad spectrum of voices, since the quintessence of Cutcaster is just such a diversity of voices, voices from all sectors of the emerging global online market.

Coming Soon Site

Very happy to have the "Coming Soon" site up and launched. If you haven't seen it yet check out here. There will be a lot more to come later this month. Please stay tuned.

Great Write-Up on Video Sites

Sorry for the being out of communication the last few days, everyone. Work has been overwhelming my time, and things are looking good. The more people I speak with about the project, the better I feel about its chances for success. Now it comes down to building the platform, which should start in the next week or so. Can't wait.

If you missed it, ReadWriteWeb did a great comparison write-up of the big video sites, minus CutCaster, which is coming soon. You can find it here.