I happened to spend a lot of time digging through this just today, and my understanding is that "foreign source income" - that is, income earned by a nonresident alien, outside of the US - is generally not taxed, and not subject to withholding at all:

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Nonresident-Aliens---Source-of-Income
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Foreign-Source-Income---Form-1042-S-Reporting-Not-Required

I suppose big companies just go for the W-8BEN/E because, to them, it's easier than certifying your non-residency.

Personally, I hate videos. They can't really be viewed on the train or in parties and so on.

I did sign up for the course and joined the FB group and all though.

Yeah videos I can't speed up or read annoy me. I can't load a video in Pocket or Instapaper, and I have one less thing to look at when I'm at a party. But they post interactive transcripts with each one, which is great:

Here's lecture one.
And part two. The rest are out there somewhere.