Please see this disclosure related to me and Google (owner of YouTube).

While it is always nice to get a $1.6 billion payout for a company started only recently, as the explosive online video service did from Google, the future direction of the company is still uncertain.

Besides the $1 billion lawsuit being waged by media giant Viacom over alleged copyright infringement by YouTube, it must come up with a way to help prevent such illegal copying and also a lucrative way to serve ads.

Naturally, Walt prods the pair of founders on these and other issues.

By way of background, D: All Things Digital, the annual tech and media conference Walt Mossberg and I host, has been sold out with a long wait list every year we have put it on.

That has meant only a few hundred people can see the interviews and also demos we do live onstage with some of the tech and media industry’s most interesting and important players and products.

The lineups have included Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, as well as Eric Schmidt of Google, IAC’s Barry Diller, Meg Whitman of eBay, Cisco’s John Chambers and many others.

And we’ve demoed stuff like the Treo when it first came out, as well as digital toilets, Wi-Fi phones and much more.

We usually post the photos and videos of the interviews and demos six or more months after they take place on a separate conference site. This year, our Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski liveblogged D5 and also posted video highlights from all of the sessions immediately on our newly launched site here.

Now, we are posting videos of every session of the 2007 conference here, in full, and we have made all our photo galleries, hosted by SmugMug and mostly shot by our fabulous Asa Mathat, public too. You can also access our videos via the site’s master player here.

Every day, I am going to highlight a different interview or demo from the conference.

Here are Hurley and Chen:

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google (owner of YouTube).

I will admit it–I thought Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman would go over like a lead balloon with the D5 audience, given the media giant had just sued Google–the digital arena’s biggest power of late–for $1 billion for alleged copyright violations at its YouTube subsidiary.

While not everyone in the tech space is cheering for the search giant, no one likes the litigious tactics of the old-media entertainment industry either, which have in the past–witness the music industry versus Napster–centered on deploying legions of lawyers rather than finding ways to cope with digital realities.

But I thought Dauman, who was sandwiched between YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, made cogent arguments for his side (he is, after all, a lawyer by training, too), making the case for the need to stand up to the stealing of content online. At the same time, he also seemed ready to deal with the changes wrought by new technologies on Viacom’s business.

By way of background, D: All Things Digital, the annual tech and media conference Walt Mossberg and I host, has been sold out with a long wait list every year we have put it on.

That has meant only a few hundred people can see the interviews we do live onstage with some of the tech and media industry’s most interesting and important players.

The lineups have included Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, as well as Eric Schmidt of Google, IAC’s Barry Diller, Meg Whitman of eBay, Cisco’s John Chambers and many others.

We usually post the photos and videos of the interviews six or more months after they take place on a separate conference site. This year, our Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski liveblogged D5 and also posted video highlights from all of the sessions immediately on our newly launched site here.

Now, we are posting videos of every session of the 2007 conference here, in full, and we have made all our photo galleries, hosted by SmugMug and mostly shot by our fabulous Asa Mathat, public too. You can also access our videos via the site’s master player here.

Every day, I am going to highlight a different interview from the conference.

Today, we’re showcasing Dauman. As I said, a fine performance, helped too by a very funny intro video by Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central, made especially for D5.

Both are below:

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google (owner of YouTube).

I will refrain from making may-the-force-be-with- you puns here, except to say famed film director George Lucas has some pretty powerful things to say, as you will see in the video below.

D: All Things Digital, the annual tech and media conference Walt Mossberg and I host, has been sold out with a long wait list every year we have put it on.

That has meant only a few hundred people can see the interviews we do live onstage with some of the tech and media industry’s most interesting and important players.

The lineups have included Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, as well as Eric Schmidt of Google, IAC’s Barry Diller, Meg Whitman of eBay, Cisco’s John Chambers and many others.

We usually post the photos and videos of the interviews six or more months after they take place on a separate conference site. This year, our Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski liveblogged D5 and also posted video highlights from all of the sessions immediately on our newly launched site here.

Now, we are posting videos of every session of the 2007 conference here, in full, and we have made all our photo galleries, hosted by SmugMug and mostly shot by our fabulous Asa Mathat, public too. You can also access our videos via the site’s master player here.

Everyday, I am going to highlight a different interview from the conference. And, today, we bring you George Lucas, who describes Internet sites like YouTube as a circus (and not in a good way) and compared its content to throwing a puppy on a highway.

(Better still, Lucas had spent the night before at the opening party slapping around YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, which they seemed to enjoy coming from their icon.)

We also liked his advice to hedge-fund guys investing in Hollywood: “The last thing you want to do is invest in the film business. The hedge-fund guys want to, but they just want the producer credits and the girls. And there are cheaper ways of getting both.”

And there are also some very cool demos from Lucasfilm and his video game unit.

Here it is:

Starting Monday, we’ll be posting all of the interviews from D5 in their entirety. I will be posting and commenting on each interview here in this blog, but the videos will also reside in our video player.

While we have already posted the joint interview of Microsoft’s Bill Gates-Apple’s Steve Jobs, as well as a solo turn by Jobs and also one with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, now you can watch lively discussions with film legend George Lucas, YouTube’s Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, CBS CEO Les Moonves, Viacom chief Philippe Dauman and many more, as well as seeing our demos and other special video.

And you had no idea what you were going to watch in the midst of the summer doldrums. Now, let Cisco’s John Chambers liven up your day!

This time, the National Music Publishers Association is adding its name to an existing lawsuit over whether the video-sharing site–big surprise–violated copyright laws. The group owns copyrights to lyrics and melodies for songs, rather than the songs themselves, which are mostly owned by record labels.

And while the four big labels have struck their Faustian bargain with YouTube, betting perhaps that ad dollars are their future and convinced of the need for the marketing power on YouTube, the NMPA is not buying that story quite yet.

Naturally, Google, owner of YouTube, can’t believe anyone would refuse its kind offers of promotional help in exchange for putting up with some intellectual-property infringement.

You can just hear those techies from their nerd version of Willy Wonka’s factory in Mountain View, Calif.: Can you imagine, those ingrates–can’t they understand our big brains will get to their puny concerns when we are good and ready!

“Many song writers and music publishers view YouTube as a promising promotional platform for connecting with their fans,” Google said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “We are surprised and disappointed that the NMPA has elected to take this route.”

Well, the company should not be that surprised, given that YouTube has yet to roll out its video “fingerprinting” technology that could help identify suspect clips on the site.

Until then (a fall date has been mentioned), Google has been claiming it is not at fault, since it removes clips when content owners ask and it is following U.S. copyright law. Here is a great piece by the Journal’s Kevin Delaney today on efforts in this regard.

Still, many content owners are plenty unhappy with the cost and effort needed to police the giant service. The lawsuit the NMPA is joining includes other content owners. In addition, in another suit, Viacom has famously sued Google for $1 billion over similar allegations of copyright infringement.

To get you up to speed, below are the highlight videos (full interviews to be posted soon on this site) of interviews Walt and I did with three of the players in this debate at D5 in late May: YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen; Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman; and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.

We interviewed them onstage in that order right after each other, to underscore the copyright debate. But also, just because we’re puckish that way.

At the end, there is also a video related to Delaney’s copyright-police story.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

And that’s without what was clearly the blockbuster joint interview with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of Apple, which got a mountain of attention, as it deserves for both its historic implications (the two icons of tech in a rare analog appearance together) and its sheer drama (PC guy meets Mac guy, except in real life!).

While it was not the WrestleMania some would have preferred, I thought it was riveting to see two people with very little left to prove about anything in their professional careers and who will be in the history books willing to go out on a bit of a limb and talk from a more personal place.

In addition, watching these longtime rivals and also collaborators kibitz about their tech-war stories, each correcting the other’s memories, was really interesting. Here is a great comic strip from the Joy of Tech Web site about the interview that says it all.

But outside of the glare of the pairing, there were a lot of highlights and insights I gleaned from the other onstage interviews.

1. THE MSM FINALLY GETS IT: One of the things that struck me was how comfortable and easygoing all the traditional media executives interviewed were. CBS’s Les Moonves, Peter Chernin of News Corp., Ann Moore of Time Inc. and even suing-Google-for-a-billion Philippe Dauman of Viacom all seemed less fearful of the Web than ready and eager to use it for their benefit.

Of course, there are copyright issues for all, which was articulately explained by Dauman (who came off as reasonable in his case against Google’s YouTube), but all seemed to understand the need to find new business models and new distribution methods for their content.

They also had the funniest videos–here is Moore’s faux Geico ad with actor Mario Cantone and Viacom’s genius Stephen Colbert monologue.

2. DANCING WITH THE TECH STARS: On the flip side of that, both Google’s Eric Schmidt and YouTube’s Chad Hurley and Steve Chen need to at least be a bit more respectful in public about other peoples’ work and rights. It cannot and will not be, as much as I love the idea of empowerment of the consumer, just the “community” that decides what is OK to post.

And, as smart as they might be, it’s hard to rely simply on their assurances that their brainiac engineers will come up with a way soon to stop copyright theft. This is a delicate dance that Google must pull off without two left–and arrogant–feet.

Still, YouTube’s intro video was very sweet, especially Chen and Hurley scarfing donuts.

3. GEORGE LUCAS IS NOT SHY: While the legendary filmmaker has always been known as shy, Lucas had not even dropped his bags on the floor of the hotel lobby before he was deep in conversation and debate about the digital sector with a plethora of folks gathered round.

And he did not mind being pugnacious either, telling YouTube’s Hurley and Chen that they should endow a film school to make up for all the crappy video they had unleashed on the world.

Onstage, Lucas, no lover of Hollywood’s machinations either, gave a great label to some video on the Web, which he called “circus,” or, better still, “throwing puppies on a highway,” compared to “art” that endures.

4. SEN. JOHN MCCAIN IS ALSO NOT SHY: About sticking to his guns, so to speak, related to his stance to continue fighting in Iraq and also about the risks posed by the spread, if we withdraw too early, of Islamic Jihadism.

But Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Cisco’s John Chambers do look the part of cabinet members here. What about Steve Case, whose new businesses center around health, as surgeon general? Or Charles Simonyi, former Microsoft exec and recent space traveler, for head of NASA?

But, whatever your view about the war, I think we can all respectfully disagree with Sen. McCain’s contention that cellphone service in the U.S. is top-notch. Clearly, he has never been to the black hole of mobile coverage near Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road lately.

So here’s one of my movies to show you how we prepare for the annual conference, which is highlighted this year by a joint interview with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, the twin icons of the tech industry.

We’ll kick off the conference tomorrow night with an interview with Sen. John McCain, who is in the race to become the Republican nominee for president of the United States. We will talk to him about that, as well as the war in Iraq, but also hope to discuss a plethora of digital issues with him. McCain is one of the few politicians who knows a thing or two about the media, telecom and Web sectors.

Other interviewees on Wednesday and Thursday include: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; CBS CEO Les Moonves; News Corp. President Peter Chernin; Cisco CEO John Chambers; former AOL CEO Steve Case, who will talk about his new company, Revolution; famed director and producer George Lucas; Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore; Google CEO Eric Schmidt; YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley; Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom; and space tourist (and former Microsoft exec) Charles Simonyi.

We’ll also have demos from tech players like Palm legend Jeff Hawkins and others. And we are also excited to have singer/songwriter Jill Sobule, who will perform several times throughout.

We’ll have full coverage of D5 on our site, starting tomorrow night, including liveblogging by Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski, pictures, video excerpts and more.