Ajax Girl

Top10Media, an active group of content companies (see coverage here), is launching a new copyright registration and management service for blogs called Lisensa on Monday.

Lisensa is not helping bloggers find splogs and other copyright infringers (see Copyscape and the upcoming Sentinel for help in that area). Rather, like BlogBurst, Lisensa will help bloggers syndicate out their content, with or without a fee, to third parties who would like to use it legally.

Lisensa makes it easy for bloggers to choose an appropriate Creative Commons license, and select specific terms for non-commercial and commercial use. Republishing fees can also be resent. Lisensa handles the license agreement and collection of payments. The basic service is free; Lisensa takes 10% of any fees generated.

The basic idea is a good one, although if the end-game is to generate an additional revenue stream for bloggers, I think BlogBurst is taking a better approach. BlogBurst isn’t about copyright management - rather they’ve created very good buyer tools to encourage use (content suitability review by humans, APIs for syndication, etc.), and have closed deals with prominent print publications (Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, etc.) who really need access to cheap content to fill out their publications. Ultimately, Lisensa needs to help enforce copyright laws against infringers as well as promote paid use to be of much use to bloggers.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/48577992/

Paris and Madrid based startup vpod.tv will open its doors in the next few hours. We covered Vpod.tv back in May at Zaragoza Innovate conference while it was still is closed beta.

vpod.tv is a new online video service, aiming to simplify the technical barriers to working with video online and to enable consumers and corporations to create their personal online and mobile TV channels. The service will open in the next hours in English Spanish and French.

The first release tomorrow will include mainly upload and publishing functions and the company will roll out progressively other features such as footage editing, playlist creation, mixing and broadcast features. Vpod’s service takes video from almost any source and, more importantly, transcodes for almost any device. All you have to do then, is pick your device and download the video.

As we already said, this is a massively competitive space but vpod.tv will take advantage from its European presence where it has a chance to become a local player in video publishing and editing. Other European online video services are already present (like Dailymotion or Sevenload) but with a focus on online video sharing. Vpod.tv approach is more comparable to what BrightCove is doing in the United States. Rodrigo Sepulveda, founder and CEO of vpod.tv precises however that his business model is closer to what Revver is doing when they share ad revenues with contributors.

In case this is not a good reason enough for you to try this video service, vpod.tv is organizing a sweepstake offering one Panasonic video camera every week, during the first 10 weeks. All you have to do is register. I hope this will not be the best reason they have to get new users

Vpod raised 5.1 million dollars from Innovacom and our previous screenshots are here . More on their blog.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/48576864/

We’ve been testing two new services, Fonpods and Podlinez, that allow users to listen to podcasts directly from any telephone. Unlike existing service VoiceIndigo, which requires users to listen to podcasts on a cell phone through downloaded software, both of these services require nothing more than the ability to call a telephone number and listen.

Podlinez

Podlinez is a dead simple service that launched a few days ago. Go to the site and search for a podcast. If it’s already there, you can look up a dedicated phone number for that podcast. If the podcast is not included, anyone can add it and a dedicated phone line is associated with the podcast. To listen to the most recent episode of TalkCrunch, for example, just dial +1 (831) 480-3920 and listen. I assume the company will ad advertising to the site and to recordings at some point to generate revenue.

Fonpods

Fonpods, which is currently a TechCrunch sponsor, launched at DEMO in September 2006. It is similar to Podlinez, but has a single phone number for accessing all podcasts, +1 (712) 432-3030. Users can call that phone number (no registration required) and listen to pre-selected content in a number of categories. Registered users can also subscribe to podcasts and access that specific content if they call in from a phone that they’ve registered with the service. Fonpods also has detailed information about each podcast (TalkCrunch information page is here, for example). These podcasts can be added to a user listening list with a single click.

Even though Podlinez and Fonpods are similar services, they are both useful for different things. Podlinez, with it’s dedicated phone number for each podcast, is a good way to “subscribe” to a single podcast and listen whenever new episodes are released. It requires no registration and has zero setup time. Just call the number and listen. Fonpods requires registration and basic setup to subscribe to favorite podcasts, but is a good solution for people who listen to a wide variety of podcasts and want access from a phone.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/48248306/