If you want to watch the fun-looking Flavor Flav Roast on Comedy Central tomorrow (Sunday 8/12 @ 10PM), best to plan on catching it live on TV and not on YouTube in clips at a later time since the media giant that owns the cable station, Viacom, is doing everything in its power to stop clips from being broadcast on YouTube. And Viacom is not alone in their war on the Google owned YouTube. Earlier this week they were joined by several other TV broadcasters and publishing companies in a major copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular video file sharing website. These proceedings ultimately mean that we should most likely now begin the countdown to the final days of YouTube. One of those involved in the legal proceedings, The National Music Publishers' Association, said it is joining the lawsuit "out of concern that many songwriters aren't receiving proper compensation when their music appears on YouTube videos." Additionally, Viacom Inc. (which, besides Comedy Central, also owns MTV and other stations) and the Football Association Premier League are also part of the lawsuit against YouTube/Google. And while this lawsuit seems crazy for many reasons, including that most artists make no money off of past videos played on TV anyway -- never mind crummy quality dubs on YouTube, which most people only view and don't download (unlike with Napster in its famous lawsuit some years back) -- it certainly looks like it signals the final days of YouTube, at least as it exists today. So my advice: enjoy YouTube while you can.

#    TITLE                                  VIEWS:            Date Posted:

1) The Mountain Goats (Pt 1)                   388,617                      Sept 5, 2006
2) Rodrigo Y Gabriela plays...                     14,381                     Jan 27, 2007
3) Feist at Amoeba Mushaboom               14,127                      Jan 22, 2006
4) Jamie Lidell "A little bit more"                13,281                      Feb 23, 2007
5) Against Me! acoustic                             12,321                      Aug 2, 2006
6) The Blood Brothers                                   9,579                       Oct 10, 2006
7) DJ Cheb I Sabbah @ Berkeley               7,882                       Nov 4, 2006
8) And You Will Know Us...Dead               6,343                       Sept 2, 2006            
9) The Mountain Goats (Part 3)                    5,993                       Sept 19, 2006
10) The Mountain Goats (Part 2)                  5,691                      Sept 12, 2006          

It's a long time since her last big hit. Six weeks or even more -- a long time in this digital age -- when Obama Girl arrived via YouTube with her sexy video "I've Got A Crush On Obama" that, while not endorsed by Sentor Barack Obama's office, it wasn't unappreciated by any means. The pro-Obama video got 2.3 million YouTube hits. That's way more than any Billboard hit single sells these days! It's also some of the cheapest publicity a presidential candidate can get. The new video, which debuted on YouTube just yesterday has, as of noon today (7/17), received about 160,000 hits, and looks well set to gain as many viewers as its predecessor -- or likely even more. Especially since the new vid ups the ante both in content and controversy: this time taking on rival Rudy Giuliani. The new video, seen below, is entitled "Debate '08: Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl" and features model Adelna Kristina playing  Giuliani Girl part opposite Amber Lee Ettinger and her crew representing Obama.