Hulu Private Beta Goes Live Tonight; Will YouTube Blink?

The bastard child of News Corp. and NBC's love-hate relationship with GooTube, Hulu, is making its public debut this week, with the private beta going live tonight. The log-in form's already up, but those of us at Giz who've signed up for the beta haven't gotten our invites in the mail yet, so we haven't stuck our foot in the front door. Hulu's YouTube-killing voodoo is supposed be the fact that it's going to be awash in full-length episodes of TV shows, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Pretender to Heroes, along with movies (The Breakfast Club!) and content from Sony, MGM and others, lojacked with "25 percent as much advertising as broadcast norms." NewTeeVee has a thorough rundown laying out most of what you'd want to know before sending your email address into the corporate mystery chute. [GigaOM]

Viacom, Disney, Microsoft and Others Form Justice League of Copyright

A smorgasborg of media companies—Viacom, Disney, News Corp., NBC Universal, CBS, and others, including Microsoft—have formed a coalition laying out guidelines for protecting copyrights online. Their "principles" include using technology to wipe out copyright no-no content generated by users, as well as shutting it out before it hits the public intertubes. You'll notice GooTube isn't part of the list—they're not of the pre-emptive blockage philosophy, as of yet. However, some analysts think Google will have to play ball if their guidelines do become an actual standard. More »

YouTube Antipiracy Video Identification System Enters Beta Testing

The not-so hotly anticipated GooTube antipiracy system has jumped into beta. Creatively dubbed Video Identification, it's a digital fingerprint setup where uploaded clips are matched against a stock of legit clips provided by their owners—YouTube will then follow whatever course the copyright holder wants, be it leave it or pull it. We'll have a better idea of how well it works in coming weeks as companies sign up with the test and we watch vast swaths of video either die off or sit tight. Of course, the real question is: Just how long will this be in "beta"? [Google Blog via PC World, Flickr]

Viacom's Hypocrisy Could Defuse YouTube Lawsuit

Anyone checked out iFilm lately? Ars Technica did, and found several videos that were guilty of copyright infringement. Were any Viacom videos part of that roundup? Nope, because Viacom owns iFilm. Wait, what's that you say? Viacom couldn't possibly own a company that violates others' copyrights because right now they're suing YouTube for a billion dollars for doing just that? More »

BBC Bringing Crumpets, Three New Channels With Ads to YouTube

Apparently, YouTube's been quite busy behind the scenes, despite being shunned by Viacom. The NYT reports that they've managed to line up over 1,000 partnerships with content providers at a pace of 200 a quarter, most of them smaller, independent outlets. More »

More Execs Bring the Hate for YouTube

Fresh off the Viacom slap, NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker and News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch lined up to take their shots at GooTube. More »

Official: Google Buys YouTube

Apparently the rumor that Google was buying YouTube was less of a rumor than someone on the inside letting it slip out to the entire world. But now that Google's paid $1.65 billion in an all-stock acquisition—which is their most expensive purchase so far—all 67 of YouTube's employees are giving each other naked high fives and bathing in expensive champagne. More »