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Remixing News Video On The Fly

Posted by timothy on Sun Jul 18, 2004 07:44 PM
from the when-the-going-gets-absurd dept.
Media Television The Internet
slashdotbs writes "The New York Times writes that 'A handful of Web users are programming their own virtual TV newscasts and eclectic collections of video clips using a free media-sharing tool called Webjay. The site makes it easy to build, share and watch playlists of audio and video links culled from around the Internet.' Although the site was originally intended to be used for audio playlist creation, it turns out that it can also be used effectively for video. In addition, you can create "video mashups", where you blend audio and video together to present a new message. By using simple smil commands in a URL, a CBS news report can become a short clip of George Bush saying "I can't do my job" (the third track on this playlist)."
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  • How can we TRUST the big bully corporations to tell us the truth?

    After F9/11, I just don't trust anyone with $ any more.

    • Re:I don't believe the news anymore these days (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:08PM (#9734538)
      After F9/11, I just don't trust anyone with $ any more.

      Do you trust Michael Moore?

    • Re:I don't believe the news anymore these days (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      And by the same logic, if anybody can 'fabricate' a news program, why would you necessarily believe a small local shop?

      At least the big news companies can be sued for libel/slander if caught outright lying. Small indy shops can get away with fabricating things outright.

      Note I mean lying, not just major bias, like foxnews.

      • big news companies can be sued...Small indy shops can get away with fabricating

        What? When you're Fox-owned-by-billionaire-media-mogul-Rupert-Murdoc -News, you've got much greater latitude, because you've got the bux to throw at lawyers. When you're the little guy, you gotta watch your step, coz you don't got the big bux to mount a defense.
      • At least the big news companies can be sued for libel/slander if caught outright lying.

        Technically you wouldn't be able to sue over libel/slander unless they "fabricated" a news story about you. But regardless you're going to have a really hard time beating any major corporation in a law suit.

        These two reporters ( http://www.foxbghsuit.com [foxbghsuit.com] ) tried to sue Fox News over a falsified news story. They had a good case too, but Fox won in the end. How? The appeals court decided that "lying" in a news story, t

    • I don't believe the news anymore these days (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I don't believe slashdot anymore, especially with a cheapshot being thrown in every chance possible, or liberal bias flowing out of the ears. What ever happened to the good old tech talk? I want the old Slashdot back, Liberal free
      • "What ever happened to the good old tech talk? I want the old Slashdot back, Liberal free"

        I imagine you can thank people like George W., Rush and Bill O'Reilly for this. They've done something truly amazing. They took a nation that hasn't really cared about politics in 30 years and ignited passion about it in nearly every dusty corner including the geek denizens of Slashdot. Any place there is the remotest angle for political sparring people are taking it, lighting incendiary devices and running with th

    • Re:I don't believe the news anymore these days (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      *laugh* Michael Moore has benefited monetarily a huge amount, not only with the profits from this film, but for his future works as well.

      Not to mention the amount of money the film generated for any anti-Bush group as well as those voting *because of* the film, as they will be voting that which benefits them the most--a good part of that equation will include money.

      Fact of the matter is, the US is a rich country and a lot of people have money, even people you do not suspect. Pointedly selecting a few id

  • Already Common in Music (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dancingmad (128588) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:48PM (#9734446)
    This has already been done a lot in music. A lot of /.'ers might remember the DJ Dangermouse "Grey Album", which mashed Jay-Z's Black Album with The Beatles White Album.

    I remember getting the impression that after the press the Grey Album got mashups would become more popular in the music biz or either they are harder to make than it seems (Dangermouse is a talented guy - check out his Ghetto Pop Life CD for proof) or people are scared of getting sued.

    What's the legality of A/V mashups? Could people get in the same hot water Dangermouse did?

    • RTFA (Score:5, Informative)

      by SuperBanana (662181) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:56PM (#9734488)
      This has already been done a lot in music. A lot of /.'ers might remember the DJ Dangermouse "Grey Album", which mashed Jay-Z's Black Album with The Beatles White Album.

      RTFA. The site doesn't have the clips, it has metainfo files which contain references to audio and video segments.

      If Dangermouse had simply provided a script for an audio mixing program, he wouldn't have gotten in the least bit of trouble. Furthermore, Dangermouse's Grey album became the online equivalent of a best-seller, skyrocketing in popularity when people found out the music companies were dead against it and trying to remove it.

    • This has already been done a lot in music.

      This isn't exactly that... going into the studio and remixing rappahs over Beatles or what-have-you.

      Webjay seems to be about creating playlists from mp3s and video on the internet... some of them generally interesting. I've found a ton of free (e.g. given away by the bands/labels on their site) music via Webjay.

  • Playlist (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stevemm81 (203868) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:48PM (#9734450) Homepage
    I don't know how indicative that playlist is of the kinds of things produced in general, but I can't say it left me feeling overly impressed. A 5 second clip of Bush saying "I Can't Do My Job" doesn't seem very revolutionary...
    • A 5 second clip of Bush saying "I Can't Do My Job" doesn't seem very revolutionary... It was actually 1.5 seconds worth of bush. Enough for anyone surely.

      • Re:Playlist (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Saeed al-Sahaf (665390) on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:50PM (#9734682) Homepage
        A 5 second clip of Bush saying "I Can't Do My Job" doesn't seem very revolutionary... It was actually 1.5 seconds worth of bush.

        What's funny is the /. editors essentially ASK for posts like this by posting a story that says "By using simple smil commands in a URL, a CBS news report can become a short clip of George Bush saying "I can't do my job" (the third track on this playlist)".

        Then they mod everyone who points out the (obvious) funny "flamebait". More or less a trap that allows The Mods to feel superior.

    • The revolutionary thing about it is this time he didn't actaully say it.

      • Re:Playlist (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Repeat the steps after me!

        1. Make fun of President
        2. ???
        3. Profit!!!!

  • Better watch out (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nfras (313241) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:50PM (#9734453)
    The article says that Gonze thinks his site is legal because it transmits urls rather than files. A news feed is copyright, audio and visual and altering a copyrighted work is grounds for legal action (and TV companies tend to be litigious). IANAL but this seems like very shaky ground.
    • But you know, "fair use" blaw blaw blaw... Being generally anti IP rights here, there will be all sorts of "justifications" and when Super-Mega News decides to sue, we'll see that story here, too.
    • IANAL but copyright doesn't mean you have no right to use a work - you just have limits. For example, photocopying a page in a textbook is legal while photocopying the entire thing isn't.

      There are larger issues once you start redistributing any work though.
    • altering a copyrighted work

      RTFA. They aren't "altering" the work, to do that they'd have to be changing it, right?

      At worst, using five seconds from a copyrighted work easily falls under fair use [utsystem.edu], especially as there is a parody / criticism edge to some of what he appears to be doing.
    • whats altered dumbass?
      its like
      having a tv monitor on, muted, with the radio on

      i do that often.....tv images are good...commentary sucks
      • Whoa Tiger. Using just the images or just the sound may be a breach of copyright. Yes, there are exceptions, notably parody, but it is a big grey area. You may like to have the tv on with the sound down, but broadcasting like that is a different matter. At the moment this flies under the radar but if it takes off they may need to watch out for law suits. Not that I agree with that, just pointing out that it may happen.
    • The media data is served by someone else. If they are serving it without the copyright, they are violating the copyright. The pointer (URL) is not. It's debatable whether the requestor, who used the pointer to receive the copy, is violating the copyright. However, if the requestor does not know the copyright is violated, and the server does, then it seems the server is at least more responsible than the requestor. If the server has the copyright, then none has been violated.

  • pr0n (Score:4, Funny)

    by cloudkj (685320) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:51PM (#9734463)
    I can just see oh so many uses for this service... Ten thousand different pr0n playlists :)

  • Buffering issue (Score:3, Informative)

    by toetagger1 (795806) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:52PM (#9734471)
    I'm trying to watch some of those video playlists. Unfortunately, there is always this buffer time between videos. It would be a lot more enjoyable if it started buffering the next video while it showes the current one. Also, every time the clip changes, the player popos into the forgound, which is also annoying. Nontheless, a very neat way to epxress some ideas!

  • cnn/realone won't me happy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tisme (414989) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:54PM (#9734483)
    I think I can smell a new DRM version from Real coming out. The last time people started ripping "protected" content (the cnn footage is supposed to be subscription only) Real started suing and came out with new software. With Microsoft's Digital Rights Management quickly becoming popular amongst content publishers, I have a feeling Real corporate will want some heads to roll if this gets out of control.
    • CNN footage is protected, however CBS News video clips are in non-subscription streams that are left available for many months after being posted.

      One just has to post the meta-info referancing the clips without ripping them, and any user can have their computer recreate the actual content by downloading the same blocks out of the still-available streams. No need to actually rip anything...

  • Rating of the message clip... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Maljin Jolt (746064) on Sunday July 18 2004, @07:57PM (#9734490) Journal
    George Bush saying "I can't do my job"

    +-0 Redundant

  • Been done before (Score:5, Informative)

    by LeahofRivendell (797671) on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:04PM (#9734519) Journal
    By using simple smil commands in a URL, a CBS news report can become a short clip of George Bush saying "I can't do my job" (the third track on this playlist)
    There's a funnier version of this at http://www.ebaumsworld.com/presaddress2.shtml
    Unfair editing is a concept as old as speaking.

  • Call "The Onions" lawyers... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ranger5 (745804) on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:05PM (#9734521)
    How long until some small news agency in some small country reports one of these as an actual video clip or news snippet? I guess it could even be just a down on his luck, non-scoop having newspaper writer who doesn't do his research...

  • Finally, Douglas Engelbart's vision (Score:5, Informative)

    by michaelmalak (91262) <malak@acm.org> on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:14PM (#9734555) Homepage
    Douglas Engelbart, who prototyped the web hardware (including mouse) in 1966 [livinginternet.com], started bootstrap.org [bootstrap.org] in 1988 to pursue his vision of deep contextual hyperlinks:
    The [Open Hyperdocument System]'s initial design specifications are a result of 50 years of innovation and experimentation by Doug Engelbart and his team of researchers among a variety of user communities, including aerospace and software development. These requirements include fine-grained addressability of all types of documents and support for multiple ways of viewing and manipulating them. Some of these features have found their way into existing tools, such as the World Wide Web, while others are currently being explored. The purpose of the OHS is to serve as a standard framework for these features, so that different applications may interoperate with the DKR and with each other.
    As with the mouse, it seems someone else is going to popularize fine-grained hyperlinks.

  • what happens in a world where... (Score:3, Funny)

    by brandannnnnn (797648) on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:21PM (#9734595) Homepage
    politicians may unknowingly tell the truth?!

  • Can we rate articles? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:22PM (#9734599)
    By using simple smil commands in a URL, a CBS news report can become a short clip of George Bush saying "I can't do my job"

    I'd like to rate this one -1, Flamebait.
    • And I'd like to mod you -1, Flamebait, but I don't because some of us believe in freedom of expression sans the persecution. *Sorry* if the author of the clip has a different opinion of GW than you...
      • I'd like to rate this one -1, Flamebait.
        "And I'd like to mod you -1, Flamebait, but I don't because some of us believe in freedom of expression sans the persecution."
        And that makes you different from the parent somehow? Sounds like you want to do the same thing to his comment that he wanted to do to the post.

  • Future Pirate Broadcasts: Terrorism? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheTXLibra (781128) on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:44PM (#9734661) Homepage Journal
    Well, you can pirate broadcast frequencies over radio stations with IPods, you can now easily mash video streams together, remixing audio is already old-hat. Voice modulation software is now becoming available on the net. Give it another five-to-ten years, there will be an easy way to pirate broadcast into TV networks.

    Imagine the havoc one could create by doing a real professional looking and sounding Audio-Video mix to, say the 5 O'Clock News in your local area, then pirate the station it broadcasts on right at the time the program normally begins. So what happens if they decide it would be a real funny joke to have a video-hack of the President announcing nuclear war, followed by the newscastors reacting in turn? What kind of damage from panic would result? Something tells me this isn't too far off, and frankly, I'm a bit concerned.
    • The same part of the "Part 15 flea power" rules that allows transmitter that attaches to iPods to exist could be used to transmit TV as well. However, you're neglecting the fact that those only travel for a few feet.

      Somebody trying to jam a broadcast TV station's OTA tower would not create a watchable signal. They'd have to be transmitting at much, much, higher power than the original signal... otherwise the result would be the two signals interfering rendering neither watchable. On digital TV, the two sig

  • Audio Snip Remixing: Limbaugh being an example. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 18 2004, @08:45PM (#9734670)
    Posted anonymously to avoid karma whoring.

    The clip of video over near-single-frame video was pretty underwhelming... there's another form of remixing that has been done, and done well, before.

    Some of the folks over at the pop radio station in Atlanta managed to reassamble clips of words and phonetically created phrases of Rush Limbaugh singing "I'm a Nazi". It's pretty damn funny and well done.

    I only have a 64k mp3 of the song. Anyone actually have a higher quality copy of the track? Many 128k or 112k versions I've found online don't sound any better at all.

    http://66.113.208.149/misc/rushnazi.mp3 [66.113.208.149]

    The lyrics for those who don't want to download the mp3. (Keep in mind that every word Rush "sings" really is his voice.)

    (Lameness filter screwed up the formatting. Sorry.)

    Announcer: Ladies and gentleman... Rush Limbaugh!

    They say that I'm sleaze, An elitist, if you please
    Everybody disagrees with my rap (with his rap)
    I'm horrendous, I'm appalling, My ratings now are falling
    'Cause I'm so full of bull, so full of crap (full of crap)
    With condescending cries, Making money selling lies,
    You might say everybody hates my guts (hates his guts)
    I'm offensive, I'm a bigot, I'm a fraud - Can you dig it?
    I'm a sexist, racist, homophobic, fat, pathetic putz

    I'm a nazi (he's a nazi), That's right, I really am,
    'Cause I'm a nazi (he's a nazi), That's right, you're being scammed
    I'm a nazi (he's a nazi). I don't care about the middle class
    'Cause I'm a fat conservative butthead, With the face of a horse's ass
    (He's a fat conservative butthead) Hey!, (With the face of a horse's ass)

    I have a sub-human figure, a huge rear end, My brain? That's another story (it's quite another story)
    I have a face the size of a wash tub, And my ass is as big as Missouri - Yes!
    (This bastard is sick, he's a fat, pompous pig, and his ass is as big as Missouri) Yessiree, Bob!

    Manipulating statements, exaggerate the truth, I can't believe the hate my show inspires (the hate his show inspires)
    It's not just because I'm stupid (oh no), It's not just because I'm scum (uh huh)
    It's just because Republicans are liars (those dirty, filthy liars)
    I am heartless, I am vain, insensitive, insane, They say that I'm a national disgrace (disgrace)
    I am nasty (yes!), insulting (no!), basically revolting (uh huh), I'm a concentrated pile of human waste (he's human waste)

    I'm a nazi (he's a nazi), (Sieg heil!) I really am
    'Cause I'm a nazi (he's a nazi), That's right, you're being scammed
    I'm a nazi (he's a nazi), I don't care about the middle class
    'Cause I'm a sick Republican sleaze ball, With the face of a horse's ass
    (He's a sick Republican sleaze ball) Ho!, (With the face of a horse's ass)

    They say that this is not about my vanity, They doubt my sanity
    They think I'm nuts (so nuts), I am a cyst on the ass of humanity (eww!)
    New Republican slogan: "Read My Putz", (read his putz)
    From the bowels of Adolf Hitler, Comes the voice of Rush Limbaugh, heh heh

    In closing, let me say: that each and every day
    I'm an evil, rotten, egotistical snob (evil, rotten)
    I'm the cop of the cop of Joe McCarthy-like gestapo
    The right wing, foam-at-the-mouth, jackbooted slob
    The Democratic-trashing, years of liberal bashing
    With the equivalent compassion of a grommet (a grommet)
    With the I.Q. of a fig; I'm a fat, obnoxious pig
    And the truth of the matter is... I'm vomit (he's vomit)

    'Cause I'm a nazi (he's a nazi)
    (Sieg heil!) I really am
    'Cause I'm a nazi (he's a nazi)
    (Sieg heil!) You're being scammed
    I'm a nazi (he's a nazi)
    I don't care about the middle class
    'Cause I'm a fear mongering scum bag
    With the face of a horse's ass
    (He's a fat conservative butthead) Hey!
    (Sick Republican sleaze ball) Ha ha!
    (Fear mongering scum bag) Ho!
    (Egotistical ass wipe) Yes!
    (Mean-spirited, hog wallowing, fat, conservative putz)
    (With the face... of a horse's ass)

    Mega-dildos, Rush!
  • lots of discussion of George Bush and politics, but can someone tell me what an RTSP is and how i can get it to play. i use Opera and when i click on the one suggested ('Dubya Sez: I can't do my job!') it says 'address type is unknown or unsupported'. i did a search for RTSP and found this http://www.rtsp.org/2001/implementations.html but don't know where to go from there. sorry if i'm being stupid, i read the player troubleshooting on WebJay but that only covered M3U and SMIL. am i alone in not knowing wha

  • Old News - Babylon 5 "Illusion of Truth" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rm3friskerFTN (34339) on Monday July 19 2004, @12:10AM (#9735629) Journal
    By using simple smil commands in a URL, a CBS news report can become a short clip of George Bush saying "I can't do my job"
    The concept of "selective editing" (a la
    Mike Moore [moorewatch.com] ;-) was demonstrated very well in the Babylon 5 episode "Illusion of Truth".

    The B5 ISN news reporter Dan Randall edited the footage in an unethically truthful way just like Mike Moore [moorewatch.com]

    From
    "Illusion of Truth" [ic24.net] plot summary (spoiler warning)

    From a second "Illusion of Truth" [visi.com] plot summary (spoiler warning)

    From a third "Illusion of Truth" [sadgeezer.com] plot summary (spoiler warning)

    And finally a fourth "Illusion of Truth" [midwinter.com] plot summary (minor spoiler warning)

    BTW, this Babylon 5 espisode is available on DVD [amazon.com]

  • a better example of news remixing (Score:4, Informative)

    by lucas_gonze (94721) on Monday July 19 2004, @12:13AM (#9735646) Homepage Journal
    Speaking as the author of webjay here:

    On a technical level, what's original is that the remixing all happens on the client side. It's a *client side remix*, which is a new thing.

    Check out this playlist [webjay.org] for a fancier set of techniques, including clipping, multiple audio and video sources at the same time, and a good playlist in general. When you watch that the thing to realize is that the soundtrack is coming from one place, the picture from another, the video from another, and all of that is getting mashed together on *your* machine.

  • good use (Score:3, Funny)

    by XO (250276) <{blade.eric} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday July 19 2004, @07:46AM (#9736970) Homepage Journal
    One thing this is excellent for is testing your media players and plugins and such for Linux. I spent about 4 hours playing with my settings in Opera and Mplayer/Xine/Realplayer after hanging out on this site..

    of course, I still can't get more than 50% or so of the media to play without the associated program crashing and burning on it, but that's sort of what I expected from the crappy state of Linux media players...

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