In today's offering, Allen and Mike discuss Microsoft's refinement of its policies regarding Spaces blog content that violate "local laws." This particular case involves a Chinese journalist whose blog was removed from MSN Spaces after complaints by the Chinese government officials.

I was excited to see that ESPN would be airing the World Baseball Classic games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Desportes. I am looking forward to my coverage of the WBC games (here in Arizona and in San Diego). I am not looking to encounter the wrath of Major League Baseball, Fidel Castro or the Treasury Department, so I will have no game footage. I will, however, have lots of pre-game action, events in and around the semis and finals in San Diego and whatever cool stuff related to the game happens to unfold in front of my lens.

In the past week, I have spoken to a few executives in the video hosting/community space, attempting to get deeper insight into the trends for 2006. Specifically, I am anxious to get a handle on what business models will be tried and what business models will likely work.

It’s clear (just look down the page) that I use vSocial as the host for my clips (although you also can download them from this blog). After talking to the execs from Revver yesterday, I decided to try out their model in which consumer creators get paid a percentage of ads that are viewed when surfers click through on their videos. So, I tried it. I added a Revver-hosted clip for an older video that’s popular (I know from Google video logs). So, I am here to report I made $1.20 yesterday on that video. Now, that’s one video—an older one at that. Am I tempted to try more? You betcha. Will the ad model that rewards consumer creators who offer up interesting clips work? Not sure, but it looks promising.

As 2006 becomes the year in which the monetization of digital media moves forward, here are two blows against the incumbent radio empire:

**Podtrac, a leader in connecting podcasters and advertisers, today announced the availability of the first on-line advertising auction to determine ad rates for the podcasting market.  Podtrac also announced that beginning today, advertisers and advertising agencies can buy advertisements in individual podcasts from Podtrac.  To facilitate ad sales, Podtrac offers customized podcast media plans, access to Podtrac Demographic Profiles and Podtrac Media Kits.  The combined ad offerings give the advertising industry, for the first time, the services they need to include podcasting in their advertising and media strategies.

**Google Inc. announced it has agreed to acquire dMarc Broadcasting, Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif.-based digital solutions provider for the radio broadcast industry.

dMarc connects advertisers directly to radio stations through its automated advertising platform. The platform simplifies the sales process, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio advertising, enabling advertisers to more efficiently purchase and track their campaigns. For broadcasters, dMarc's technology automatically schedules and places advertising, helping to increase revenue and decrease the costs associated with processing advertisements.

In the future, Google plans to integrate dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers.

Starbucks’ partnership with Lionsgate (see below) is just the start. At the outset, this might look like a cool affinity marketing deal, but Starbucks continues is drive to be on the edge of the digital media distribution revolution (what Mike and I call Media Titans). In addition to selling DVDs of the movies at their store, how long will it be before they over the air downloads of movies (and other related content) at their coffee bars?

A few thoughts for Starbucks: why not follow the Myspace lead and take advantage of the viral nature of “consumer as network” to create buzz on these movies? Create embedded players that allow bloggers to put movie trailers on their pages. Jazz up the Starbucks page to be a venue to allow movie fans to communicate with one another. Why not buy some Tv ads to be put on videoblogs and/or sponsor some Podcasts? Heck, why not make the coffee bars Podcasting and videoblogging centers…well, that’s a start.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) Entertainment announced today a truly transformative partnership with Lionsgate (NYSE and TSX: LGF) in which Starbucks will participate in all aspects of the marketing and distribution of Lionsgate and 2929 Entertainment’s new film, Akeelah and the Bee, which will release theatrically on April 28, 2006. With its national footprint of stores, strong trust from its huge and diverse customer base and proven track record with word-of-mouth marketing, Starbucks is in a unique position to help its customers discover this film.