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Video-sharing site Veoh, which is backed by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, is rumored to be looking for $40 million in new investments, according to Silicon Alley Insider. The company has hired Bear Stearns to raise the funds, which would give Veoh a valuation of $150 million, according to the report.

If it raises the cash, Veoh would have a war chest of more than $80 million to compete with video rivals YouTube and Joost, among others. Its investors include Goldman Sachs, Spark Capital, and Shelter Capital Partners. Other backers include Tom Freston and Jonathan Dolgen, former executives at Viacom, a content partner of Veoh.

A Veoh representative declined to comment.

Internet-based copyright infringement is pretty much the only way people can keep track of TV and movies from abroad in Beijing. It's hard to even find legal DVDs, and if there aren't even illegal DVDs to buy, it's often trivially easy to find entire movies on Youku or Tudou.

Yesterday, a Chinese public-security ministry official asked for international help in copyright enforcement, noting that many infringers use Web sites hosted outside Chinese jurisdiction.

"Copyright infringements, by their very nature, are international crimes. To effectively curb such activities, (we) need enhanced international cooperation on law enforcement," said Gao Feng, the official.

I don't doubt that international borders are a challenge for Chinese enforcers, but they certainly could do more here. The illegal streaming versions of movies and TV series from Chinese video sites are even fueling viewers in the United States, where DVDs are no minor investment. The only sacrifices for viewers are the need to wait for buffering and some loss in resolution.

Until legal DVDs or iTunes-like download or rental services are available to the Chinese market, however, I can't imagine that people will stop watching the free or cheap pirated versions.

YouTube is now an important teaching tool at UC Berkeley.

The school announced on Wednesday that it has begun posting entire course lectures on the Web's No.1 video-sharing site.

Berkeley officials claimed in a statement that the university is the first to make full course lectures available on YouTube. The school said that over 300 hours of videotaped courses will be available at youtube.com/ucberkeley.

Berkeley said it will continue to expand the offering. The topics of study found on YouTube included chemistry, physics, biology and even a lecture on search-engine technology given in 2005 by Google cofounder Sergey Brin.

"UC Berkeley on YouTube will provide a public window into university life, academics, events and athletics, which will build on our rich tradition of open educational content for the larger community," said Christina Maslach, UC Berkeley's vice provost for undergraduate education in a statement.

Revver, a video-sharing site trudging along in YouTube's shadow, announced Wednesday that the company paid $1 million to videographers over the past year.

Los Angeles-based Revver, among the first Web sites to share advertising revenue with video creators, paid the money to 25,000 people, the company said in a press release.

Because Revver splits ad money with creators, 50-50, Nick Gonzalez at TechCrunch figured that the company makes around $2 million to $2.5 million from advertisers.

He also suggested that the figure could be lower if Revver pays more to high-end video makers.

On Wednesday, CNET News.com checked in with Jeff Berman, MySpace.com's general manager of video operations, to hear more about the gargantuan social network's latest project: MySpace TV. The New York Times reported Tuesday that MySpace would be refurbishing its in-house video operations this week, creating a new video hub at myspacetv.com (site not yet active) to host a mix of amateur and professional media content. Berman filled us in on exactly what to expect.

"It's really just the next step in what has been a very busy few months for us on the video front," said Berman, who added that the beta version of MySpace TV will be active by the weekend, "and what will be an extremely busy and productive next few months as we roll out more products and feature enhancements."

When MySpace TV rolls out, the home page--accessible via a link from the main MySpace site--will feature a "hot video of the day," several featured clips and a "my videos" section where users can create their own personalized channels and playlists. With one click, they'll be able to embed a video in their MySpace profiles or post it as a "bulletin" for people on their friends lists.

Videos will be divided into 16 categories, many of which reflect the kinds of content that have proven most popular with the Web's viral-content crowd: animals, animation/CGI, automotive, comedy and humor, entertainment, "extreme" videos, instructional, music, news and politics, school and education, science and technology, video blogging, sports, travel and vacations, video games, and "weird stuff."

But despite the fact that many of those categories allude to popular niches of amateur video (animal antics, extreme-sports stunts, video blogs and the ilk), MySpace TV's content will be a melange of user-generated and professional. The service has had video deals in place with a number of partners, including National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times and fellow Fox brand IGN Entertainment. There will also be a music channel featuring music videos from some of the most popular artists with MySpace profiles.

"We're going to continue doing the same kinds of deals and promotions we've done in the past," Berman explained, stressing that Fox content will by no means be the only content on MySpace TV. "For example, right now, the Sony Minisodes are enormously popular. We've had hundreds of thousands of views in less than a week of some of those episodes."

MySpace TV will also be one of the hubs for content from the yet-to-launch joint video venture between parent company News Corp. and NBC.

The juiced-up MySpace TV's standalone portal and easier-to-navigate interface will undoubtedly help solidify it as a direct competitor to YouTube, which remains the household name in Web video despite persistent legal troubles. Berman pointed out that ComScore statistics for streaming video consumption in the U.S. indicate MySpace-hosted clips rank second to YouTube's and that MySpace is closing in: 15 million unique streamers added from January to April, as opposed to only 9 million new unique streamers for YouTube.

It seems like YouTube is squarely in MySpace's cross hairs now, but Berman said that third-party content on MySpace--including embedded YouTube videos--is not threatened. "We're an open platform and there are a lot of companies--YouTube, Photobucket, Slide, RockYou and others--that have built pretty big businesses through MySpace. What we're committed to at the core is creating the best user experience possible, and to do so the approach we've taken is to be an open platform and we're excited that third parties are coming in and adding value to our users," he explained.

"At the same time, we have our own product and feature pipeline," Berman added. "Obviously, video has been a big part of that...We've taken the cue from our users and we're building a friendlier and easier-to-navigate user interface that should work for even the most casual video surfer on the Internet or for an aspiring Steven Spielberg." Since MySpace has come under fire from some for its less-than-streamlined site structure and the occasional mass outage, a focus on user interface will be a welcome change for many users.

One of the upcoming highlights of MySpace TV, according to Berman, will be its integration with Flektor, the video-editing start-up that MySpace parent company Fox Interactive Media recently acquired. "We're still working out the details of the integration," Berman said, "but suffice it to say that we're really excited about it. I don't think that there's anything that begins to compare to it when it comes to online video editing."

"We think the applications are enormous," Berman continued. "They're enormously compelling, and it's a pretty sweet fit within the MySpace community."

Having a video platform, naturally, would also make it very easy for MySpace to syndicate original content--concert footage from sponsored shows, or even exclusive programming. In response to that, Berman simply said, "Stay tuned."

Video-sharing site Revver said Thursday that CEO Steven Starr has stepped down, in the company's second executive shakeup in the past six months.

One of the sector's pioneers in sharing revenue with videographers, Revver said in a statement that Kevin Wells, the company's chief operating officer takes over for Starr, who will now serve as Revver's chairman.

Revver competes in a crowded video-sharing market by billing itself as a friend to artists. But what many performers prize most is an audience. Revver's has never come close to the size of YouTube's, the sector's frontrunner.

Revver isn't alone. Nearly half of everyone who logged on at user-submitted video sites last year went to YouTube.

"I think we can all acknowledge that YouTube has won the big prize," said Thomas McInerney, shortly after he stepped down as CEO of video-sharing site Guba last December.

In the last few months, privately held Revver has seen the departure of much of its staff. Under Starr, the Los Angeles-based company also launched an effort to sign content-licensing deals with Hollywood studios but abruptly abandoned the plan after only a few months, according to former employees.

In December, Revver saw cofounders Ian Clarke and Oliver Luckett leave, as well as David Tenzer, a veteran Hollywood agent hired to help find licensing deals.