It’s Latin – look it up
Last week rock’n’roll internet heroes OK GO debuted a new video for “This Too Shall Pass” on YouTube.  “Big deal” I hear you say.... OK GO regularly get 7 digit viewing numbers for their videos, the most widely recognised and mimicked being the famous Treadmill Video for Here it Goes Again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA

The new video is a bit of a watershed for performing rights, internet revenue streams and so on.... EMI, the band’s record label and other record producers put a block on allowing videos for their bands to be embedded.  It’s a very long story, but the band posted an open letter on their website explaining the situation... it’s definitely worth a read if you are remotely interested in social media, performing rights or the music industry in general.

http://okgo.forumsunlimited.com/index.php?showtopic=4169

Damien Kulash, the band’s front man also wrote a piece on the saga for the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/opinion/20kulash.html?ref=opinion

Anyway, to cut a long story short EMI relented and the video is now available in full embeddable glory and I’ve embedded it here just because I can.



So what does all this mean? If nothing else, it’s something of a minor victory for the little guy, but in my opinion this is a major step forward for the democratisation of the internet and potentially technology in general.  Socially oriented technologies such as Open Source and Web 2.0 have in the past not been fully embraced by big business largely I think because the ethoses behind those platforms are so contrasting to their own. But could this be the falling pebble that eventually causes an avalanche?

So getting to the point of this blog post: Conduce Group is getting ready to launch a Pro Bono (free) service to Registered Charities starting in April 2010.  The intention being that those who do work for the public good should get something back from the likes of us with a view to helping them get the most out of technology.  Watch this space for more details or contact us on probono@conduce.net