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President Obama's first "virtual town hall" in 2009 took a legalize-pot detour. This afternoon, his first Google+ hangout with a handful of voters turned to a no less controversial topic: a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills.

In response to a question about whether the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act would levy "too much censorship on the Internet," the president stopped short of saying he opposes the legislation.

"I think that it's going to be possible for us" to find a workable approach, Obama said during the event broadcast on YouTube, … Read more

One of Google's hometown members of Congress is complaining that the search company isn't doing enough to protect its users' privacy.

Rep. Jackie Speier, a longtime Democrat whose district includes YouTube's San Bruno, Calif., headquarters, co-authored a letter (PDF) today asking the company to respond to a series of sternly worded questions about its plans to simplify privacy policies into one more-or-less standard one. Currently Google has more than 70 individual privacy policies.

"We believe that consumers should have the ability to opt-out of data collection when they are not comfortable with a company's terms … Read more

YouTurn is a simple and lightweight extension for Google's Chrome browser that will let you add the repeat function to any YouTube video. 

The extension adds a small icon in your omnibar which allows the feature to be toggled on and off.

Step 1: Open your Chrome browser and head to the extension page for YouTurn in the Chrome Web Store.

Step 2: Click the blue Add to Chrome button in the top right-hand corner. Then, click the Install button on the pop-up that follows.

Step 3: Locate your favorite video on … Read more

This is so cool. A group of musicians calling themselves The Piano Guys released a video of two Jedi playing the theme from "Star Wars" on dueling cellos.

"Why Star Wars Cello? Because of our unending admiration of George Lucas, John Williams, and the most EPIC movies and film score ever created," the guys stated on YouTube. They say they "like to put a new spin on classic stuff and a classic spin on new stuff. It's a must-see video for fans of the space opera.… Read more

BrightRoll, a San Francisco startup providing digital video advertising services, has raised $30 million in financing.

BrightRoll currently manages 2.25 billion video ads monthly, or nearly one out of every three video ads served in the United States, according to data from comScore and BrightRoll's internal reporting. The company reports it has reached more unique viewers than Hulu and the top four television network websites combined.

The company says its year-old mobile network currently generates about 250 million monthly pre-roll video impressions on 6,000 mobile apps and websites.

"We challenge the assumption that the networks who … Read more

On Day 2 of the Streaming Media West Conference, I got a chance to check out the brand-new, full-featured online video-editing platform called WeVideo. In short, I was very impressed.

WeVideo is basically a Final Cut Pro clone in the cloud. You don't have to install or buy anything to use it (the basic free account), and it performs in real time, with very little waiting for rendering.

Obviously, WeVideo's use of the cloud is a huge convenience that helps free up your hard drive. But more importantly, it enables what is perhaps WeVideo's biggest selling point: … Read more

Nearly seven years after its founding, YouTube employees still fiercely debate where to draw the line between titillating content that may or may not be acceptable.

Including videos of man boobs.

"Recently we had the issue of man boobs--do man boobs need to be age-restricted or not?" Victoria Grand, YouTube's director for global communications and policy, said today, referring to that unfortunate medical condition caused by abnormal development of male mammary glands.

Man boobs, also known as gynecomastia, is an unlikely but popular category on YouTube, in part because mischievous uploaders may imply the exposed bosoms are … Read more

Wondershare's Video Converter Ultimate is, as its name suggests, the ultimate video utility for Windows users. But more than just a file converter, the program is a DVD ripper, DVD burner, Web video downloader, 2D-to-3D converter, audio ripper, and even a bare-bones video editor.

It's interface is simple and straightforward, as it has all the major functions laid out as icons along the top of the window. All of the controls are intuitive, and it even lets you drag-and-drop video files.

For the most part, Video Converter Ultimate performs exceptionally well. Exactly as advertised, it lets you quickly … Read more

Among the many new features in iOS 5 for Apple's mobile devices, one seemingly small addition will make sharing your life in fewer than 140 characters much easier.

Integrated Twitter features are now an option in most of the main iOS apps, and on first use, you'll see just how easy it is to send tweets from your browser, photo app, YouTube, Contacts, or Maps. iOS 5 doesn't come standard with a complete Twitter experience that lets you browse tweets as well, but during your first setup you'll find a handy button for downloading Twitter's … Read more