Features
Gigs & Bytes: Video Is King
For the broadband-enabled Web user, there’s more video available on the Net. New video, old video, homemade video – no matter the source, netizens are probably watching almost as much video streamed from Web sites as their glazed-over eyes ever saw on television.
Chances are you’ve already bookmarked YouTube.com, the Web depository that features videos contributed by the site’s users. Although many of these videos may represent copyright problems, YouTube has had few hassles, mainly because videos are streamed to users and are not available for download. However, YouTube has removed certain videos when requested to do so by copyright holders, most notably when NBC contacted the Web site regarding a few “Saturday Night Live” sketches that appeared amidst its online inventory.
But while YouTube is a community-supported Web site, a more corporate video resource recently launched. It features full-length episodes of TV shows from days gone by.
AOL launched In2TV on March 15th with 30 old TV series such as “Growing Pains,” “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “Babylon 5 ” and “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.”
If you think you’ve spotted a trend, you’re correct. All the shows featured on In2TV so far belong to Warner Bros., which, along with AOL, is one of the major cogs of the corporate behemoth that is TimeWarner.
While it’s fun to watch old TV shows on the Web, probably one of the best features about the Net’s recent video explosion is that you can access free video content from wherever you may be, as long as you have a computer with a broadband connection.
Of course, you might want to be careful while watching at work. Some bosses might not understand why your job performance relies on watching old episodes of “Chico & The Man.” Go figure.