Video-sharing platform Portal Wants Each User to be a 'Mini-HBO'
*By Christian Smith*
New video-sharing platform Portal wants to help online video creators cash in on their content, says company founder Jonathan Swerdlin.
"Portal is the first video sharing platform that everyone can use that completely skips the ad model and introduces really easy ways for users to pay each other," Swerdlin said in an interview on Cheddar. "Everyone can be their own mini HBO."
Portal's "freemium" model allows content creators to decide whether to share their content for free or monetize it through subscriptions, paywalls, or tipping, at rates that can range from one cent to $100 per video. Swerdlin said that many content creators offer a few videos for free to hook users, and then require payment to view the rest of their content.
Swerdlin created the company, which counts Mark Cuban among its investors, with the intention of eliminating advertisers' control over digital content, which Swerdlin believes has broken the internet. Free speech is a key component to Portal's function, but Swerdlin notes there are some limitations.
"We have pretty clear guidelines around hate speech," Swerdlin said. "We're going to go on a case-by-case basis, but we're very committed to free speech."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-portal-is-giving-power-back-to-the-internets-video-creators).
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
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At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
