YouTube has removed 29549 Japanese videos from it’s site following a complaint by Japanese rights holders. I was a bit confused by this statement at first until I remembered the tons of anime that’s on the site.

Some people are blamming google for this move but that’s hardly relevant. This has happened before as it has always been YouTube’s policy to remove videos when the copyright holders complain about it. This removal is just very large in scope.

YouTube’s policy on copyrighted material is simple. They make it very clear that users shouldn’t upload something they don’t have the copyright to and even restrict video length to a maximum of 10 minutes. That being said they can no more stop a person from putting something copyrighted up there than the post office can stop someone from sending a copyrighted game to their friend by mail. Copyright holders want YouTube to start policing the content themselves and be held accountable for any copyrighted material that makes it’s way onto the site. This doesn’t work with their current functionality due to the sheer volume of videos that go up on the site. That doesn’t change the simple fact that it’s better to have the multi million dollar company accountable than some 12 year old with a paper route who’s uploading Naruto episodes.

No worries about powet.tv’s videos. Any use of copyrighted characters or clips are covered by fair use as portions are used for review purposes and never used in a way that would cause a loss of profit to the copyright holder. We’re part of that small chunk of users who use YouTube for legitimate purposes along with all these girls who like to tape themselves shaking their booties to their favourite music. God bless every last one of them.

The future of YouTube is always a bit unknown due to it’s nature. Let’s hope the restriction of copyrighted material causes as little hinderance to legitimate users as possible. And if you’re part of that majority of people who go to YouTube solely for the copyrighted content you can cross your fingers all you want but there’s not much legal protection for what you want to do.

Breaking: Variety is reporting Fox and Universal are pulling out of the adaptation of Bungie’s massively successful Xbox game. Citing rising costs and Microsofts unwillingness to back down on their cut of the gross or their upfront payday, the two studios are cutting financing, leaving the software giant to find a new partner.

Bungie themselves have been eerily silent about the movie. They promised a big update on their site around the time Neal Blomkamp was announced as director, but still haven’t said anything to even acknowledge that much. Weekly updates do continue to note when Bungie staff go to New Zealand to meet with WETA for pre-production. Executive Producer Peter Jackson seems more dedicated than ever, even starting work on his own Halo game for the Xbox 360.

Pre-production is rolling on according to reports, but no formal statement has been made from Microsoft or Bungie. The guiding light and motto for this whole production has been “make a GOOD Halo movie or make NO Halo movie” and I’m inclined to say it looks like the latter right now.

This does however make me thinkg Halo will miss 2007 and possibly 2008 for release. Hey Microsoft: Pay for it yourself! Then just hire a distributor! It worked for George Lucas.

Big news about the PlayStation 3 comes to us from Gamespot. For a limited time the PS3 system will have an extra incentive to buyers with a free Blu-Ray version of the hit movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. While Sony seemed to be losing the race earlier in the year with it’s heavy price tag, weak showing at E3, lack of games, poor controllers, console that looked like a George Foreman grill, suicidal Blu-Ray support, ridiculously under produced number of systems for launch day, late start in Europe and laughable advertisement campain this move is sure to make up for these minor shortcoming.

This movie will truly make the most of the Blu-Ray high definition standard as it brings us breathtaking images of Hollywood hunks Will Ferrell and John C. Reiley like only 1080p high deffinition can!

So set aside a few dollars a week for a PlayStation 3 and high definition TV because mock Nascar never looked so good.

So let’s do the math!

Blu-Ray player: 999.95$
Talladega Nights Blu-Ray: 22.99$
PS3 + Talladega Night Blu-Ray: 599$

That’s a 421.94$ savings for the Blu-Ray player and disc alone! Let me break that down for you, the consumer. Sony is paying you over 400$ to buy a game system! And this thing even plays games!!!

Price of the Wii: 249$

Price of Wii – Net prices of PS3 = 249$ – (- 421.94$) = 670.94$

That’s right my friends! Buying a PS3 is actualy 670.94$ cheapers than buying a Wii AND you won’t have an additional cumbersome Blu-Ray disc player taking up valuable real estate in your home entertainment area this way.

Sorry Nintendo but Sony just won the console wars.

Dustin Diamond, known to all as Samuel “Screech” Powers from TV’s Saved by the Bell, is no longer trying to stop his sex tape from seeing the light of day according to imdb news. Instead he will try to profit from it.

This comes as no real surprise as the whole move seems like a blatant but terribly effective publicity stunt. Diamond claims that the threesome sex tape, in which he gives a girl a dirty sanchez, was something he did as a joke 4 years ago and never intended to get released to the public. Of course we’d expect him to say that.

In an interview with US Weekly Dustin added “Let’s just say, if I were a small man, it would be worse.” suggesting that he has a good sized penis. We’ll all be able to see if what he boasts is true next month when the 40 minute video will no doubt spread across the Internet like wild fire or at the very least like an unwanted case of herpes.

The official story, as propagated by the vampire controled media, is that actor Wesley Snipes is wanted for tax fraud in the amount of 12 million dollars. Snipes is still at large and should he not turn himself in he will surely be pursued by the authorities in time.

The real story is that Wesley Snipes can’t have broken the law because he doesn’t exist. Wesley Snipes is an alias of vampire Eric Brooks, known to those who fear him as “Blade” or “The Daywalker”. Eric uses the Snipes persona to hide among humans while his true purpose is to hunt vampires, the enemies of humanity.

Vampires and their familiars, uninfected humans who work for them, have infiltrated all levels of our society including the police, government and as we see here even the IRS. By fabricating these bogus charges against Snipes the world’s eyes will now be on him and the vampires will simply wait for him to be apprehended before killing Eric or even worse using him in one of their nefarious plans.

Should you see this man please don’t help our vampire oppressors by reporting his whereabouts to the police. Give him a sandwhich, a few bucks and something with 4 wheels and a tank of gas. It may be the only thing that stands between us and annihilation.

The good folks over at Overtime Comedy have posted the final installment of the Mario In Myspace series. I don’t know if its as funny as the first 2, but since I didn’t post either of those, check out all 3 after the jump.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Mike Dreese is the cofounder of Newbury Comics. If you live in New England, you more than likely have heard of this small chain of stores, if you don’t already buy all your cds there regularly. They’ve been around for a long time and are a boon to the local music scene. In the weekly Newbury Comics Newsletter, Mike has written a statement on the recent events concerning the liquidation of Tower Records and the impending closure of the massive Virgin MegaStore at BackBay in Boston.

Newbury Comics has separated itself by not just offering competitively priced music, but also comic books, magazines, toys and much more. They have carved out a niche in a very competitive market that now includes the likes of Best Buy and Wal-mart.

Support your local music stores, kids.

www.TransformersMovie.com is running a contest to vote on a single line of fan-submitted dialog to appear in the 2007 Transformers movie, to be spoken by Autobot Leader Optimus Prime.

Proving once again you can’t trust INTER-NET to do anything, here are some highlights from the list–

• “I can’t explain the flames, they’re just cool”
• “These pretzels are making me thirsty”
• “Do a barrel roll”
• “Its clobberin’ time”
• “I’ll be back”