'mad Men' Finale: Hopes...and Fears

Alan Wexelblat comment on the news that Nintendo has claimed "monetization rights" to fan videos on YouTube that feature tips on playing its games. Some of these videos are incredibly popular, and while their use of Nintendo's creations are often fair use, Nintendo gets to use YouTube's monetization system to advertise on all the videos: The basic idea is that if someone makes a video of themselves playing a Nintendo game and uploads it to YouTube any ads shown with that video will be of Nintendo's choosing and revenue from it will flow to Nintendo. Ads may appear beside the videos or actually be inserted before and after the video when people go to play it. The problem here is that "Let's Play" style videos are a pervasive form of information and sharing throughout the industry. I did a quick YouTube search for "let's play" for this blog post and got back over 9.1 million hits. People create these videos to show off their skills, to highlight interesting things they've seen such as game "easter eggs", to provide guides or walk-throughs, or just to share a bit of fun with friends. There are a few professional or semi-professional games writers who use this style of video to promote themselves or their channels, but they are a tiny minority of that nine million. Nintendo has positioned its action as a gentler approach; rather than trying to ban content related to Nintendo games, they just want to make money off it by changing the video that an individual uploaded. Yeah, um, guys that's not a whole lot better. It also comes across as cheap and lazy - rather than creating content for YouTube that fans and players would want to watch, Nintendo is just taking over other peoples' content. Nintendo Decides It Can Own Fans' YouTube Content     

BBC NewsDenmark's folksy ballad wins EurovisionChicago TribuneMALMO, Sweden (Reuters) - Denmark's Emmelie de Forest won Eurovision on Saturday before an international TV audience of around 125 million, securing the coveted crown of euro-pop with a folksy ballad backed by flutes and drums. The barefoot Denmark's de Forest wins Eurovision song contestHouston ChronicleEurovision Song Contest won by DenmarkBBC NewsEurovision Song Contest 2013: as it happenedTelegraph.co.ukCBC.ca -Entertainmentwise -Wall Street Journal (blog)all 551 news articles »

Review: Duets complemented orchestra’s artistry.

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLibertyFarhadi Premieres Latest Film In CannesRadioFreeEurope/RadioLibertyOscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has premiered his latest movie at the world's biggest film festival in the French Riviera. Farhadi drew enthusiastic applause after the screening at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17. "Le Passe" (The Past), shot in and more »