It may sound like a game show for accountants, but Claim Your Content is actually the name of YouTube’s new content monitoring tool. As near as we can figure, it’s an automated feature that accompanies every user-uploaded video. Content owners, including such publicly announced Claim Your Content charter members as the NHL and the NBA, will have the right to log in and yank any content that they feel is an infringement of copyright.
Now, we will be eager to see exactly how this yanking process works, and if there is any room in it for protest, deliberation or out-and-out legal confrontation. Frankly, an automated censoring product seems a little bit scary. What is clear at this point is that this is Google’s way of appeasing some of the angrier content owners who have already taken action. According to a wire report, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said today that the tool may at least help play down the allegation that YouTube encourages copyright infringement. “As that product rolls out, the issue becomes moot,” said Schmidt.
Sure, but then what’s to become of TIME’s Person of the Year??? – Wilson Rothman
We will confess, a little bit of Paul Shirley’s I’m A WRITER Who Happens To Play Basketball! schtick goes a long way. He’s mostly amusing, we guess, but he has a tendency to overwrite — like we can talk — and seems a little too proud of himself from time to time. That said, he’s entertaining, and we’re absolutely going to buy his book. And we can’t help but love his ESPN chat yesterday, in which he referred to Kobe Bryant as “the biggest douche I’ve ever met.”
Ted, The SLC: Paul, the chat isn’t even done yet and you’ve already been censored…your Kobe post has been removed from the chat. I’ll always remember it though. Nice to see someone speak his mind about a superstar.
SportsNation Paul Shirley: Fantastic. I wonder if it was the descriptor or the comment itself…
We’re gonna say it was a little bit of both. Obviously, ESPN censoring its chats is nothing new — they do it to Simmons all the time, acts that made him so furious that he signed on for another four years — but we think The Big Lead asks a legitimate question: Is “douche” a bad word? Sweet heavens, we hope not.
NBA referee Joey Crawford has been indefinitely suspended for improper conduct toward Tim Duncan during the San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks game on April 15, it was announced today by NBA Commissioner David Stern. The conduct included Crawford’s assessment of a second technical foul and ejection of Duncan following laughter by the player while he was seated on the bench, and inappropriate comments made to Duncan during the game. Crawford’s suspension will cover at least the remainder of the 2006-07 season, including the NBA Playoffs and Finals.
Commissioner David Stern said that the suspension was not just for the Duncan incident but also “in light of similar prior acts by this official.” The whole matter was rather ridiculous, but we weren’t aware that the NBA held referees accountable … that’s kind of the fun of it, isn’t it?
Here’s the image that the Times got when it hired Bob Kessel to illustrate an article about “kantoku shou,” the Japanese tradition of rewarding baseball players with gifts (including cash) for superior performance. It’s pretty good: Rising sun? Check! Bowing? Check! Slanty eyes? Check! In fact, the only bit we’re missing is a bowl of rice and a samurai sword. Nice! Click to enlarge. —balk
We are not experts in the field of sports memorabilia, so we have a difficult time gaging just how much a certain piece of game-used swag is supposed to be worth. A John Kruk jock strap? A Michael Barrett cup? Mike Vanderjagt’s shoulder pads? We have no idea.
That said, it does seem like this Morris Peterson headband, “a piece of The Toronto Raptors‘ History!” is a bit overpriced at 100 bucks. The selling fan grabbed it after MoPete threw it into the crowd, and to prove he was there, the fan displays not only his ticket stub but also “The Bingo Game played that night.” Screw the headband: How much for the bingo card?
We like MSNBC/ESPN Radio/NBC/whatever talking head Keith Olbermann, and not just because his presence reminds us of those halcyon days of yesteryear when we actually felt cool for watching “SportsCenter.” (God, that seems so strange now.)
Keith Olbermann will return to sports for the first time in six years to join Cris Collinsworth as co-host of the pregame show for NBC’s Sunday night NFL telecasts. Olbermann, who currently hosts a prime-time newscast and opinion show called Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, will join with host Bob Costas and analysts Jerome Bettis, Tiki Barber and Peter King on NBC’s “Football Night in America.”
OK, that highlight show is starting to become awfully crowded, and we anticipate many pissing contest between Costas and Olbermann as to who gets to play the role of “Moral Beacon Of The Sports World.” We think Olbermann could probably take him; Costas would win the smug points, but Olbermann’s at least a foot taller.
ESPN Video Games had him at 12-1 odds, but Nashville City Paper is reporting that Vince Young will be on the cover of Madden 2008. This is awful news for Titans fans, of course, who have had enough experience with the Madden Curse — Eddie George was Patient Zero of this little game — to be awfully wary.
Young will be announced as the cover boy on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tonight, where the host will corner him and basically be a sanctimonious ass about heel-snippers trying to take down world class celebrities like himself. While this is proof that the Wonderlic rating will never be a major factor on Madden, it’s also telling that Peyton Manning didn’t make the cover. No matter how many kids he pegs in the head with footballs, he’ll just never be hip enough to make it. Maybe, someday, he’ll make Kenny Chesney Guitar Hero.
So some of you might have seen the video of the infamous pizza-throwing incident at Fenway Park yesterday, but if you haven’t — and you haven’t heard Jerry Remy and Co’s hilarious commentary on NESN — it’s above. The NESN announcers didn’t have the ability to talk to the fans, though, so The Boston Herald takes care of that. It’s ultimately a tale of fans shit-talking each other and one beleaguered Boston girlfriend just trying to keep the peace while her drunken Red Sox boyfriend wants to fight. Boston ladies … this is pretty much what every day is like, right?
Basically, the guy who missed the ball and received the pizza toss had, earlier in the game, been mocking the pizza tosser for eating a pizza in the stands. So when he missed the foul ball, all was fair game.
“They had been giving us shit about it,” Madore said. “Next thing I know, there’s a fly ball to left field and it goes foul and my buddy says, ‘You want some pizza now?’ And he hits him right in the face. Hey, the guy wasn’t paying attention. When you’re in the stands you’ve got to be ready for anything - a foul ball, a flying slice of pizza, everything.”
It may sound like a game show for accountants, but Claim Your Content is actually the name of YouTube’s new content monitoring tool. As near as we can figure, it’s an automated feature that accompanies every user-uploaded video. Content owners, including such publicly announced Claim Your Content charter members as the NHL and the NBA, will have the right to log in and yank any content that they feel is an infringement of copyright.
We will confess, a little bit of 
Man, when you offend Tim Duncan, 
We are not experts in the field of sports memorabilia, so we have a difficult time gaging just how much a certain piece of game-used swag is supposed to be worth. A John Kruk jock strap? A Michael Barrett cup? Mike Vanderjagt’s shoulder pads? We have no idea.
We like MSNBC/ESPN Radio/NBC/whatever talking head 
ESPN Video Games had him 