Meet Colette Vogele, Founder of Vogele & Associates. Jeff Karnes, VP of Marketing and Products for VoloMedia, an ADM founding company, discusses the intellectual property law, including copyright, trademark, and privacy, and how it relates to new media and podcasting. Colette dives into topics such as the DMCA, Creative Commons, downloads vs. streaming, and legal considerations for podcasters.

Colette practices intellectual property law specializing in technology and new media. She represents a range of business, non-profit organizations and individual clients addressing copyright, trademark, privacy, reputation, and security issues. She speaks and writes regularly on issues related to intellectual property, on-line reputation, and the Internet. She holds a non-residential fellowship at Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society and has been featured on numerous on-line programs including the New York Times Tech Talk, CNET Live, and This Week In Law. She is an Editorial Advisory Board member of the Journal for Internet Law, the California Lawyer magazine, and The Conversations Network, and a Board member of INFORUM, a division of the Commonwealth Club of California. She is also a contributing author to the forthcoming 2009 Broadcasting Legal Guide published by the National Association of Broadcasters.

Jeff is the Vice President of Marketing and Products for VoloMedia, Inc, the leading provider of advertising and reporting solutions for downloadable media. Jeff is a digital media veteran with over a decade of experience delivering solutions within the enterprise and direct-to-consumer. Most recently, he held the position of Director for Multimedia Search and Products for Yahoo! where he led the company’s efforts in launching their video portal along with managing video search, audio search, image search, and a podcasting directory. Before then, he led the product and marketing efforts at Virage, a leader and pioneer in video indexing and search. And prior to that, he worked at Cinebase Software (renamed eMotion) leading the product efforts in the category of digital asset management. Jeff holds a BA in Economics and Sociology from Bucknell University and is a board member for the Cinequest Film Institute. 

When the iPhone exploded onto the market, it certainly turned the conversation back to mobile (in a good way) here in the US and even abroad where Europe and Asia are further ahead. It also shifted the focus from the carriers and the concept of ‘on-deck’ towards the devices, many of which are media-enabled and allow users to obtain content directly from whatever sources they choose. Mobile video, just like podcasting, has gone through many phases of interest, buzz, and market projections. Similar to how Napster fueled the online music movement (later won by Apple) and as YouTube propelled online video, it’s quite possible that the iPhone (or media enabled devices) combined with the resurgence of podcasting can push ad-supported, downloadable media into the mainstream. Especially given podcasting’s benefits (e.g. subscription, download, and device readiness), it seems reasonable that these two spaces are likely to enjoy some cross promotion. A terminology post would be useful at some point regarding the best category definition of the media whether it’s downloadable, portable, mobile, on-demand, or some other term.

In June last year, Nielsen published a report on mobile video. Some of the key findings included:

• As of Q1 2008, 91 million (36% of all mobile phone subscribers in the U.S.) owned a video-capable phone. As more subscribers upgrade to phones capable of receiving mobile video, subscription cost, promotion and network speeds will be the primary challenges to the growth of mobile video consumption.

• As of Q1 2008, there were already 13.9 million persons (6% of U.S. mobile subscribers) paying for a mobile video plan, up from 8.4 million (4% of all mobile subscribers) in Q1 2007.

• 4.4 million persons (2% of U.S. mobile subscribers or 31% of those who subscribe to mobile video) report that they watched mobile video with a mobile video subscription.

• In addition, 95 million persons (37% of U.S. mobile subscribers) subscribed to mobile Internet as part of their mobile data plan in Q1 2008, a significant platform for mobile video consumption.

As an industry, connecting podcasting into the mobile discussion can help accelerate the recent eMarketer audience numbers towards a more mainstream conversation (say over 60% of US Internet users as opposed to 17%). This combined with ADM driving the standards and awareness, should fuel a bigger and more efficient advertising market that benefits us all.

Jeff Karnes
VP Marketing and Products
VoloMedia, Inc.