Beastie Boys, from left, Adam Horovitz (Adrock), Adam Yauch and Mike Diamond (Mike D), shown in Toronto in June 2006, gave fans cameras to record their concert tour. (Aaron Harris/Canadian Press)

Beastie Boys, one of the longest surviving acts in hip hop, are to be honoured as Webby artists of the year for an innovative 2006 concert film put together with footage shot by dozens of audience members using handheld cameras.

The film, Awesome, I F***ing Shot That, foreshadows the coming trend to user-generated video.

When the New York-based trio wanted to create a movie about their tour, they gave 50 cameras to fans to shoot their concerts and then edited the content together to create the movie.

Beastie Boys are to be honoured alongside David Bowie, eBay's Meg Whitman, and YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen at the 11th Annual Webby Awards on June 5 in New York.

The awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and dubbed the "Oscars of the internet," are international awards for excellence in websites, interactive advertising, online film, and video and mobile content.

About 70 awards are to be given. They include lifetime achievement awards for Bowie, who operates a digital media company that works with artists such as the Rolling Stones, and Whitman, president and chief executive of eBay since 1998.

Hurley and Chen will be named people of the year.

Last.fm, How Stuff Works, Comedy Central's Honesty and EepyBird.com are among the other top winners.

The ceremony is unique in that it limits acceptance speeches to five words only.

Beastie Boys have been strong advocates of more flexible copyright rules to allow artists and fans to swap and remix music.

Their Licensed to Ill album was released by Def Jam in 1986, and their most recent album, The Mix-Up, came out this year.