Google has begun sharing advertising revenue with the makers of a popular video clip in a deal that could drive up the costs of competing in the fledgling video-sharing sector while rewarding successful vloggers.

The search company has agreed to turn over most advertising revenue generated by the latest video from Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, creators of “The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment,” according to Peter Chane, a senior product manager for Google Video.

In exchange, Grobe and Voltz, who saw their original offering–which shows a version of Vegas’ Bellagio Fountains made of 101 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 523 Mentos–catch fire with video-sharing fans last summer, have agreed to let Google host their latest video, “The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment II.”

via CNET News.com

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is fighting a controversial self-help group’s campaign to silence Internet critics.San Francisco-based Landmark Education, known for its Landmark Forum motivational workshops, is trying to suppress an investigative television news piece critical of its methods. Citing alleged copyright violation, Landmark subpoenaed three websites hosting the video — the Internet Archive, Google Video, and YouTube — seeking the identities of the anonymous uploaders.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows a content owner to issue a subpoena for the identity of an alleged infringer without first filing an actual lawsuit.

“This is a classic example of using a bogus copyright claim to squelch free speech,” said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. “To the extent that the documentary uses any Landmark material, that use is clearly non-infringing. Landmark is simply trying to use the streamlined DMCA subpoena process to obtain the identities of its critics.”

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The Halloween Videoblog Festival has a collection of Halloween-themed vlog episodes.

The site asked vloggers to submit short videos in the horror genre.

“Pick up that camera and make a scary flick. Film your roommate, your kids, your cat, film that ghost that just crossed your path.”

The results range from silly to truly creepy, with a surprising number of puppet hosts.

Metacafe has announced a program that will pay you $5 for every thousand views your video gets.

Payment starts when your video reaches 20,000 views and has a rating of 3.00 or higher - which tells us that the viewers like the video. The license to Metacafe is a non-exclusive deal - you retain ownership of your video.

Brightcove has launched a new free service, the Brightcove Network, that lets content owners of all sizes launch their own commercial Internet video channels at no cost and generate revenue through advertising and video download sales.

Brightcove has launched a new video advertising network and the ability to offer high-quality video downloads for purchase or rental. To help online video programmers reach new audiences, the company introduced the beta of a new consumer destination for discovering and interacting with Internet TV channels. In addition, Brightcove has partnered with AOL to give content owners the option to easily sell their pay-media downloads through the AOL Video portal using Brightcove.

“In the last six months we’ve seen explosive growth in the online video market, especially in consumer sharing, but this is only the beginning of the Internet TV era,” said Jeremy Allaire, chairman and chief executive officer of Brightcove. “Now content producers, from serious amateurs to major studios, are looking for an approach to Internet video that gives them commercial opportunities with their content as well as control over their distribution, and that’s exactly what we’re delivering with the launch of the Brightcove Network.”

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