Not that long ago, Slate's Farhad Manjoo was criticizing YouTube's founders for what he calls "their apparent disregard for copyright law during the site's first few years of operation." But, now that a federal judge has thrown out Viacom's copyright infringement suit against YouTube, Manjoo is admitting he was wrong. The judge ruled that YouTube had complied with the "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- the statute that governs how Web companies must manage copyright claims. "This is where I was off the mark," Manjoo admits. "So what if YouTube knew some videos …

Bolstering its policy team, Facebook just hired Marne Levine, chief of staff of the Obama Administration's National Economic Council, as its new vice president of global public policy. "Levine will oversee the company's interaction with governments and non-governmental organizations around the globe," reports The Washington Post. Levine will be based in Washington, "Just as the firm builds its local policy and lobbying team to address growing interest by lawmakers and regulators on how the social networking giant is dealing with issues such as copyright, security of children online, and privacy," according to WaPo. Levine will also be …

Bing just added an update to its mobile web search at http://m.bing.com. Bing only recently became a search option on the iPhone, according to TechCrunch, "But it really wants to become your default mobile search engine." To make that more likely, a message box now pops up asking users, "Do you want to change your search engine to Bing?" A gushing TechCrunch says the new mobile Web site looks "gorgeous" in the iPhone's mobile Web browser, as well as on Android-powered phones, Palms, Windows phones, Kins, and Zunes. "It looks more like an app, with simplified …

Hulu could begin beta testing its subscription service, "Hulu Plus," as early as next week, unnamed sources tell MediaMemo. "One person familiar with the site, owned by a joint venture of broadcasters and Providence Equity Partners -- says the initial test could be limited to 10,000 people," writes The Wall Street Journal-owned blog. Hulu Plus is expected to cost $9.95 a month for access to a deeper catalog of shows, along with the ability to watch content on a wider range of devices, including the iPad. As MediaMemo notes, reports earlier this month indicated that the service …

Facebook has confirmed that "all Open Graph-enabled Web pages will show up in search when a user likes them," reports AllFacebook.com. Earlier this week, the blog wrote about the new Facebook SEO and its potential connection to Open Graph. "Now it's clear that this is the beginning of Facebook's Internet search strategy. The race is now on for publishers to optimize their sites for Facebook's search engine." While most sites are not being indexed by Facebook, All Facebook is guessing that publishers will soon be scrambling to optimize their sites. Some analysts see Facebook as replacing Google …

Having perhaps overestimated consumers' virtual demand, Linden Lab said Thursday that CEO Mark Kingdon is stepping down. Just weeks ago, the company said it was laying off 30% of its staff, and taking its virtual world SecondLife in a new direction. Company founder Philip Rosedale has been named interim CEO, while CFO Bob Komin has assumed the additional role of COO, TechCrunch reports. "The company did not give a reason for the reshuffling of the executive team but it's safe to assume that it reflects Linden Lab's new strategic direction," writes TechCrunch. Earlier this month, Linden Lab …

Twitter just flipped the switch on a new feature that is supposed to let users to find and follow their Facebook friends. "Satisfying a heavily requested feature, [Twitter] upgraded its Facebook application to show Twitter users what Facebook friends of theirs are on Twitter," reports eWeek. Users should be able to then save them to a Twitter List and post tweets to a Facebook profile and Facebook Pages. Last eWeek checked, however, the service wasn't running properly. Making matters worse, Twitter Product Manager Josh Elman initially blamed Facebook for the issue. "The Facebook app cannot currently access …

In a fit of whimsy, YouTube has added a Vuvuzela button to its new video player. A vuvuzela horn, as you must know by now, is the official noise-maker of the 2010 World Cup. "No, it's not April Fools and this isn't just some small prank YouTube is pulling," assures Softpedia. "The button is present on each and every YouTube video out there, football-related or not." Apart from the novelty factor, why would YouTube go to all this trouble? According to Softpedia, "YouTube has been trying to be more like TV in hopes of making people …

What impact does social networking have on a company's public image? Well, without getting too technical, "neuroeconomist" Paul Zak, aka "Dr. Love," has discovered that social media triggers the release of the generosity-trust chemical oxytocin in our brains. If you buy that, then it's not too much farther of a stretch to believe that a company's social efforts engender trust among consumers. Neuroeconomics, if you're not aware, is an emerging field that combines economics with biology, neuroscience, and psychology. "While best-selling behavioral economists such as Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational) and Steven D. Levitt (half of the Freakonomics duo) …

Seeing fit to toot its own horn, Microsoft says it has sold 150 million Windows 7 licenses, "reinforcing its position as the fastest selling operating system in the company's history," writes The Next Web. Microsoft has sold 150 million copies in just under 9 months, selling 7 copies of Windows 7 every second. Approximately 75% of companies are looking to evaluate or deploy Windows 7 for their organization, said Tami Reller, Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft, at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Technology Conference earlier in the month. "One of the …