In Viacom's ongoing massive effort to takedown infringing videos on YouTube, it's no surprise that plenty of legitimate clips are "accidentally" caught in the dragnet. Of course, that doesn't make it legal. Demanding a takedown on non-infringing content goes against the DMCA. After being sued about a takedown on one such video, Viacom has promised to be much better about such "dolphins" (content accidentally caught). The EFF is noting that the super popular 10 Things I Hate About Commandments video was caught in the net. On the recommendation of the EFF, the creators of the video made use of the special "hotline" that Viacom set up and the video was put back online. Of course, that's still four full days with the video offline, despite being perfectly legal. Of course, almost exactly a year ago, Jim Harper was using this video as an example of why derivative works are great and shouldn't be outlawed. So, with that in mind, since the video is back up on YouTube, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

It seems to be the nature of highly random, hit-driven industries that they become overly infatuated with sequels. The film industry is the most obvious example of this, as every successful film is seen as a possible franchise to be exploited through endless iterations of the initial version. The other big industry that operates on this model is the pharmaceutical industry, which is analogous to Hollywood in several ways. In the 90s, the big pharmaceutical players soared on the backs of so-called lifestyle drugs (Viagra being the most well-known), and since then, these firms have tried to extend that success by doubling down on similar products. But the industry is facing a problem, as many of its most promising drugs have come under increasing FDA scrutiny due to complications and side effects. While the side effects in many of these cases seem rare, the FDA is taking a strict stance, because the underlying condition that's being treated is not seen as particularly serious. A drug that targets cancer or AIDS is given leeway in terms of negative side-effects that is not afforded to a drug targeting weight loss. But because these companies need blockbusters to keep justify their market caps, and because lifestyle drugs are seen as the most likely candidates to become blockbusters, the industry has cornered itself by investing in pills that have a very difficult time clearing regulatory hurdles. As in other industries, the more promising areas of the pharmaceutical space are in the "long tail", which is currently occupied by a multitude of niche biotechs. However, since these large firms feel that they can't maintain their size by selling drugs to narrow segments of the population, they're not at all position to take advantage of these opportunities.

Calls it a "public policy dialogue"

A week after Privacy International ranked the privacy practices of 23 major web companies and put Google at the very bottom of the list, the Mountain View-based search giant has launched a brand new blog where it will regularly address matters of Internet privacy and other public policy issues, including copyright and trademark protection, online safety for children, content regulation, and patent reform.

Filed under: Networking

Psst. You scouting a deal on DSL service? Apparently AT&T has exactly what you need, but it isn't apt to come right out and say it. After a bit of link hunting, we were able to confirm that AT&T (well, BellSouth) looks to be offering up its FastAccess DSL Lite service for a paltry $10 per month so long as you ink your name to a twelve month agreement. The service will purportedly provide maximum speeds of 768Kbps downstream and 128Kbps on the flipside, and even allows new customers to take advantage of the free modem promotion. Unfortunately, the deal is only valid for those who "have not previously subscribed to AT&T or BellSouth's high-speed internet" in the past, but for those searching for a cheap portal to the 'net, this looks to be as good as it (currently) gets.

[Thanks, ksadd]

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NASCAR prefers Nextel

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