Robert Tur, the photojournalist who was the first to sue YouTube for copyright violation, is planning to withdraw his suit and join a group that includes the English Premier League, music publisher Bourne & Co. and eight new parties. Tur is famous for capturing video of the attack on Reginald Denny during the 1992 L.A. Riots, and O.J. Simpson escaping in his white Ford Bronco in 1994. Other parties joining the EPL and Bourne & Co. suit include the National Music Publishers' Association, England's Rugby Football League, the Finnish Football League and author Daniel Quinn. The group claims …

There's an interesting email debate between Sab Kanaujia, vice president for digital product strategy at NBC Universal, and Steven Starr, co-founder and chairman of Revver, in which they discuss the future for online TV and mass media. Revver is a video-sharing site that compensates producers by sharing ad revenue. The rise of sites like Revver and competitors such as Metacafe and YouTube come at a time when NBC Universal and its traditional broadcasting cousins are searching for ways to incorporate social media into their online video offerings. Kanaujia, the traditional media guy, doesn't think there's much of a …

Yahoo, in conjunction with the Web publications Slate and the Huffington Post, said it would host the first Web-only U.S. presidential debate. Set for Sept. 12, the event will feature all eight of the Democratic Presidential candidates, and will be Webcast across each of the partners' sites. As with the CNN/YouTube debate, which was broadcast on CNN in addition to appearing on YouTube, Web users will submit video questions via the Web. As a Web-only event, it will be longer than the YouTube debate. Users also have the ability to slice and dice the online broadcast--they could watch only …

Yahoo needs a superstar executive. Apple has Steve Jobs, Google has Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Microsoft has Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie. Former CEO Terry Semel and former Chief Sales Officer Wenda Harris-Millard are gone, and the understated Jerry Yang lacks panache. Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz, vice president of advanced development, stands out. And advanced development is exactly what Yahoo needs--to be first in the Next Big Thing. With beer in hand, Horowitz recently presided over the company's annual "Hack Day," in which its programmers pitch original ideas. Horowitz is part muse, evangelist and …

Buy.com has thrown its hat in Facebook's ever-expanding ring of third-party applications and services with a new program called Garage Sale, which allows users to sell directly to their friends. Buy.com will charge a flat 5% commission on completed sales, which excludes PayPal and other fees. Garage Sale isn't the only Facebook app to facilitate ecommerce between friends; Mosoma is another one. Is a closed network a better way to sell items? Presumably, the people viewing your listing are friends you know and trust, thus eliminating the need for a feedback system like eBay's. But a report says …

David W. Kenny, chief executive of Digitas, the interactive unit of Publicis Groupe that cost the firm $1.3 billion late last year, tsays it's only a matter of time before all advertising is digital. Kenny is in charge of the most dramatic overhaul in the history of the ad holding giant, whose agencies include Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett and Starcom MediaVest Group. Global clients collectively include, P&G, Amex, HP, GM and more. The ad giant's plan is to create thousands of versions of ads using offshore labor and then, using a complex set of algorithms, let its internal …

Nothing says "long tail" like streaming video services. Indeed, as streaming technology gets faster and resolution gets sharper, audiences will be smaller and more narrowly defined, giving way to a long tail featuring everything from Jewish Television Network programming to independent films by R&B artists. We may be in the midst of a content explosion as users transition from watching analog cable television to Web-based video technologies. For consumers and content owners, streaming technology is the preferred method of video delivery because the content never resides on a user's computer, which is why video often cannot be …

To the chagrin of LinkedIn, Facebook is quickly becoming the preferred social media destination for business professionals. The former was designed specifically to help professionals forge and maintain contacts, while Facebook started out as a social network for college kids. And yet the masses are leaving LinkedIn for Facebook. Joining the site's business networks are those in the media, entertainment, communications and Internet fields. Why? LinkedIn was seen as flat and nonviral, and it provides a massive network of people many don't know. By contrast, Facebook proved to be great for business networking as well as socializing. For …

Corporate responsibility is great, but advertisers pulling ads from Facebook isn't what the site had in mind. Sure, it's appropriate for brands to stay away from videos of violent beatings and fights circulated on online video sites like YouTube, but to withdraw advertising from Facebook because it could end up on pages run by a right-wing British party is ridiculous. Fearing such an inappropriate brand association, Vodafone and First Direct, two major British advertisers, decided to take advertising off Facebook a few days ago. Virgin Media, the AA, Halifax and Prudential all followed. Regardless of their political affiliation, …

Now that Google has upped the mobile wireless ante, the world is wondering whether the company plans to release an actual Google phone. The answer is yes, but not anytime soon. Indeed, the company is investing hundreds of millions in all kinds of cell phone research and development, including handset prototypes, although insiders say the models aren't as impressive as Apple's iPhone. In the short-term, Google's more focused on developing ad-supported mobile applications and services--and making sure they come bundled with as many cell phone plans as possible. "We are partnering with almost all of the carriers and …