Alongside the news that The Pirate Bay will sell shares on the Swedish stock market come some other significant changes. The site itself will decentralize and stop hosting and tracking torrents. Instead, The Pirate Bay will use a third party tracker and torrent hosting service to serve its users.
According to gaming company Global Gaming Factory X, it is in the the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m (SEK 60 million). The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by August and will see the site launch new business models to compensate content providers and copyright owners.
For years, the promise of online video advertising has been just that -- a promise. The reality has been a big disappointment: ads that look and feel like TV, and are repurposed from TV creative, only much more annoying.
But with the TV-upfront market frozen and advertisers looking for lower-cost means to reach consumers, a push is on to try formats that could finally realize some of the potential of online video with targeted ads that engage with real interactivity.
Read AdAge write-up of of some of the latest efforts to reinvent online video ads.
CBS, through its TV.com unit, is experimenting with a system that would allow users to earn credits by watching ads.
Tremor Media has rolled out a host of ad units called vChoice that bring interactivity into the player.
Hulu pioneered the choose-your-own pre-roll "ad selector" unit, which allows users to choose an ad, including a long-form movie trailer in exchange for an ad-free episode.
YouTube introduced its own variation on choose-your-own-ads just last week.
"Engagement" pricing models where the advertiser pays for a specific action, rather than an impression.
Last month, Google News began including videos from a variety of news organizations, such that some stories on the aggregator now include related videos from YouTube that are embedded side-by-side with links to news articles. Mashable reports.
Now, any news organization that is included in Google News can get their videos included by way of YouTube’s Partner Program. Considering there are now more than 25,000 sources contributing to Google News, this opens the door for both Google News and YouTube to become massive sources for video news.
Piracy watchdog Nexicon has found the ultimate way to turn piracy into profit for the fresh copyright holders added to their clientele. They offer alleged file-sharers the chance to settle for $10 per downloaded song or an equal amount for a pirated movie. If you decide not to settle, they promise to bankrupt you in court. TorrentFreak reports.
... Nexicon launched its Getamnesty program which offers copyright holders a chance to turn piracy into profit. They cleverly circumvent privacy protection laws by using ISPs to forward settlement requests for various copyright holders to alleged infringers.
YouTube is helping the enormous community of citizen reporters on YouTube with a new resource to help them learn more about how to report the news.
YouTube Reporters' Center features some of the nation's top journalists sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.
In their own words:
Learn how to prepare for an interview from CBS News' Katie Couric; how to be an investigative reporter from the legendary Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, or why it's important for citizens to participate in the news-gathering process from Arianna Huffington.
And definitely don't miss out on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's video on how to report from a crisis area without getting shot.
In addition, you can also learn practical and ethical tips, like how to fact check your stories, avoid breaking the law while reporting, and adhere to journalistic principles.
In Paris, London, Vienna and New York, hundreds gathered to pay homage to Michael Jackson. All theses videos on YouTube are titled Mass Moonwalk, but it's mostly music. In most videos the crowd is focusing their cameraphones on something we can't see, probably someone moonwalking.
The developers behind The Pirate Bay team have been developing a video streaming site called The Video Bay for the past two years, and an "extreme beta" version of the project is available.
Users can share video clips here without having to fear concerns they may be removed over copyright claims, as with the current dominant video-sharing service, YouTube.
The judge in the Pirate Bay case, Tomas Norström, was not biased, reports News.com.
That's the decision of the Swedish High Court of Justice, which investigated accusations made by the four defendants in the high-profile file-sharing case.
The accusations were based on Norström's membership in organizations such as the Swedish Copyright Association, which counts among its members lawyers who represented the plaintiffs during The Pirate Bay trial.
The court ascertained that such memberships do demonstrate a commitment to intellectual property issues, which could be considered by some to be in the interest of the plaintiffs. But it also pointed out that rights-holders' rights are protected by the Constitution, and so cannot be considered a conflict of interest if a judge endorses the principles behind copyright laws.
... On April 17, the four defendants were found guilty of having made 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal file-sharing via the Piratebay.org Web site and were sentenced to one year in jail.
They were also ordered to pay a total of 30 million Swedish kronor ($3.8 million) in damages to copyright holders, among them a number of American media giants.
One perk to watching TV shows online is that there are few commercials. On Hulu, you usually have to sit through only a handful of spots from a single sponsor in a 30-minute show. It's great for viewers, but it's another reason why the site isn't making any money. The LA Times reports.
That's one thing Comcast and Time Warner are hoping to change with their online venture TV Everywhere. The service, which will be tested next year with an eye toward a fourth quarter roll-out, wants to carry the same load of commercials shown on television.
... Once Comcast and Time Warner take the plunge, Hulu and other sites will likely feel they have a greenlight to jump on board as well. The reality is that the only way content online works economically for big media is either with a pay wall (good luck) or more ads. While it's true that some advertisers pay a premium to be a sole sponsor of a show online, that money alone is probably not significant enough to solve the problem of -- to overuse NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker's quote -- trading analog dollars for digital dimes.
CNN's iReport is the news service’s attempt to create its own user-generated news hub. It’s supposed be to be able attract eyeballs on its own and in some cases, feed the Web site and the cable channel with free content donated by viewers. Peter Kafka reports for All Things Digital.
CNN says it has been using the site heavily to augment its Iran coverage. From a press release it sent out earlier this week: “Since last week, we’ve received 4555 iReport submissions related to Iran–including more than 1600 this past Saturday and Sunday alone, and an additional 689 just yesterday.
To date, 150 of the Iran-related iReports have been vetted and verified by CNN producers for use on CNN air or online–something the likes of YouTube or Flickr just aren’t equipped to do given their lack of newsgathering infrastructure.” (Yesterday CNN told me it added another 399 Iran-related iReports, and that seven had made it onto air. Presumably those numbers are still increasing.)
CNN producers have contacted the people who sent in all of the Iran-related iReports it has featured on the network and at least verified that they are who they say they are. That in itself seems worthwhile, and maybe even worth bragging about.
YouTube reports that in the six days since the iPhone 3GS was released last week, the number of mobile uploads has increased by a whopping 400%. For a single phone model to have such a major impact on the site is simply phenomenal. [via TechCrunch]
Even without the iPhone, YouTube is seeing major growth across the entire mobile space — the site has seen uploads go up 1700% over the last six months. It’s not hard to guess why. Video-enabled smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, as are high speed data connections.
YouTube also attributes part of the growth to a streamlined upload flow (note how easy it is to upload a video from your iPhone to the site), as well as its improved sharing capabilities (you can now syndicate your videos to services like Facebook and Twitter).
It's one of the greatest losses," said Tommy Mottola, former president of Sony Music, which released Jackson's music for 16 years. "In pop history, there's a triumvirate of pop icons: Sinatra, Elvis and Michael, that define the whole culture. . . . His music bridged races and ages and absolutely defined the video age. Nothing that came before him or that has come after him will ever be as big as he was.
Several major cable networks and subscription-TV providers are readying systems that will let only paying subscribers watch cable shows on the Web, part of an effort to counter the growing amount of free TV shows available online. The WSJ reports.
Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and DirecTV Group Inc. plan trials of subscriber-only online services this summer, according to people familiar with the matter.
While limited, the new tests represent part of an industry-wide push to preserve and possibly expand the cable-TV business's lucrative subscription model in a digital world. The move also come as media companies are struggling to make money from online video.
... Cable operators have chafed as cable networks have posted some of their programming online. The new systems would allow networks to put more programming online without enticing viewers to cancel cable-TV subscriptions.
YouTube is appealing to your inner filmmaker in an effort to get the word out about certain charitable organizations. AppScout reports.
The Google-owned video site on Monday launched YouTube Video Volunteer, a "service 2.0" program that will partner YouTube users with nonprofit organizations that need help producing promotional videos.
Video Volunteers is YouTube's version of a new platform that Google has launched called All for Good, which helps match citizens with volunteer opportunities in their local communities.
Built in partnership with the White House, All for Good is sort of like a Craigslist for community service. But you don't just have to show up at your local soup kitchen or animal shelter to give back -- volunteering in the 21st century can be done entirely online.
U.S. TV series are giving French fiction programming a run for its money, having monopolized the Gallic small screen last year according to figures from French audiovisual promotion association the APA, released Monday.
French fictional programs took just 13 of the top 100 most-watched shows for 2008, while U.S. imports monopolized the list with 57 spots.
This marks a major shift from 2005 when French fiction took 56 of the same 100 spots and U.S. shows just four.
This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community.
Iran's regime has issued a ban on memorials for a young woman whose death has become the focal point of protests against the clerical regime. The Telegraph reports.
Neda Agha Soltan, 27, was dubbed the Angel of Freedom after a video which appeared to show her being shot by a government sniper was posted on the internet.
Graphic scenes show Neda – her name means "the call" – walking with her father among demonstrators, then separately when she was shot as well as attempts to save her life.
Some online posts speculated the image would rank alongside that of the unnamed man standing in front of a tank in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the summary execution of a Vietnamese Communist prisoner by Colonel Nugyen Ngoc Loan in 1968.
Footage was posted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and was viewed by tens of thousands. Messages of sympathy and outrage flooded the internet following the posting of the videos.
The Iranian authorities have now sent out a circular to mosques banning collective prayers for the woman.
Web site creation service Wetpaint has launched a measurement system that tracks fan interest in popular TV shows, reports Reuters.
Billed as the first measurement tool of its kind, TV Fandex tracks the level of "fan engagement" of popular programs on Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Webpaint's own network of 1.5 million user-created fan sites.
... There are existing ways to measure a brand's online popularity, including BuzzMetrics from Nielsen, the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter. Fandex is billed as the first system built specifically around providing an apples-to-apples comparison of TV series interest among social media networks.
Hide My Ass, another proxy and privacy tool to surf the Web anonymously, or in other words, watch Weeds and other favorite TV shows on YouTube even if you live outside the US.
Unlike HotSpot Shield, there is no client application to download, just type in a URL.
Thousands of Iran-related videos are being uploaded to YouTube every day, revealing first-hand accounts of the crisis to the world. Some are incredible, some are eye-opening, and other shock you to your very core. Mashable has included ten of these incredible videos, in a chronological order that helps provide context to the crisis in Iran. Be prepared, for these videos can evoke some very strong emotions.
A must read article from Andrew Rosen, for The Huffington Post on the asscending technological revolution happening in Iran.
In the past three months, the Administration has begun to pursue "YouTube Diplomacy" and has appeared to lay down three cornerstones to commit its policy here.
Excerpts would not do this piece justice. Read full article.
Google has announced that YouTube has gone live with a new blog to support its Citizentube video channel. Pocket-Lint reports.
Citizentube is described as a "special YouTube blog devoted to chronicling the way that people are using video to change the world".
In a blog post, YouTube says: "If you've followed news and politics on YouTube, you might have noticed that we started Citizentube as a video channel on the site a few years back, but we soon realized that keeping track of all the phenomenal uses of YouTube by posting our own videos just wasn't fast enough".
The blog will focus on two types of posts, the political and social uses of YouTube and its own programming initiatives and partnerships in the political, news, and nonprofit arenas.
Claiming to provide users with a "filter" that you can use to see "the way that video is changing our world", the blog can be found at www.citizentube.com and on Twitter too - Twitter.com/citizentube.
Dozens of subfans exist in China. They are voluntary and are translating a mix of media, from books and magazines to games, TV shows and movies. The translated products are for an audience whose primary means of accessing foreign entertainment is the Internet. CNN reports.
The members of these online translations groups participate out of a desire to improve their English. For many there is also a passionate interest in overseas content and a desire to make it accessible to other Chinese people.
Translation team members download TV shows through different methods: watching directly from a Web site or downloading from a translation group Web site. Clips can also be downloaded through BitTorrent -- file-sharing sites such as Xunlei. Through this method, groups post their "seeds" on these sites, and people can download them.
The translation teams acknowledge that what they are doing is less than legal and say they do worry that someday they may be forced to quit (so far there are no reports of a group being shut down).
"We are living in this grey zone," said Deping Wang, a former member of a team called 1000fr. "It is not legal, but at the same time, nobody can live without it. This is the dilemma."
Many international media companies are concerned the groups are eroding their potential profit margins in China by illegally making the content available for free. Some, however, see the translation groups' efforts as a conduit for cultivating a market that will be willing to buy content if it is allowed to be distributed through official avenues in the future.
-- Subfans - US TV series, uploaded onto video sharing sites right after their broadcast, are often translated into another language with subtitles within hours.
-- TF1 Vision: Yesterday on US TV, Today on TF1 Vision - In September 2007, French network TFI1, launched a special section on their website called TFI Vision, which enables French (only) viewers to purchase episodes of US TV series that aired just 24 hours before on American television.
-- Fansubbers Are Not Thieves, But Avid Consumers - Another prominent subbing community has closed its doors - and has launched a campaign to show the movie industry that they are not thieves, but avid consumers.
-- Anti-Piracy Action Closes Yet More Subfan Sites - Recent months have seen fresh efforts to silence sites that provide fan-created translations of movies and TV shows for their home countries. The latest targets for shutdown - Israel and France.
-- Subfans - Who are these people, who spend hours translating entire episodes for the benefit of others.
-- Subfans: the tools they use - Keskidi is a new tool for subfans - non US TV fans who translate entire episodes for the benefit of others - as well as anyone else who want their videos to reach an international audience.
According to TechRadar, beta testing has started on a new 'encrypted virtual private network', which will move some of the Pirate Bay's file-sharing shenanigans through closed doors.
The private network will allow Pirate Bay to separate some of its traffic from its original website and add in authentication.
Currently, the network is being tested by 3,000 people and according to the Register, a further 180,000 are waiting for the green-light to board the Pirate Bay's private file-sharing ship.
YouTube is testing a “choose your own” ad feature. Viewers will be able to pick between watching a single pre-roll ad (usually 30 seconds or longer) or up to four commercial breaks (at least 15 seconds each) within a given clip. If they go with the pre-roll, there’s also a choice between two different ads. paidContent.org reports.
Since it’s just a test, the option will only show up for certain viewers; the choose your own ads are also only running against premium, long-form content (like the pictured episode of Alf).
The idea may be new for YouTube, but Hulu has been testing self-selected ad units from the start. Video ad and tech firm Tremor Media also launched V-Choice, a user-selected ad option, earlier this month.
Despite Nielson and ComScore calculating much lower figures, Google has ‘fessed up that their YouTube service is the most popular its ever been, streaming an incredible one billion videos a day worldwide. Digital-Lifestyles reports.
... It’s a little unclear why Google has kept schtum about their success, although it’s been suggested that under reporting the viewing figures may YouTube Streaming One Billion Videos A Dayhave helped them in their various copyright infringement cases, or that they weren’t keen on analysts finding out too much about their costings.
Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups has written up JokeyPhone. It's fabulous, check it out!
JokeyPhone is a video site where users can submit their own re-tellings of jokes. The moment you land on the page, you are greeted by a random joke to watch. You’re able to browse these jokes and share them with friends. There are several features, however, that make the site unique.
The best one is Auto Play, which allows you to turn on the JokeyPhone player, lay back, and watch joke after joke without interruption. A new joke comes after five seconds, giving you enough time to save or replay a joke. Another great feature is U-Tell Joke. Have you ever heard a great joke just be ruined by someone fumbling on the delivery? Well, U-Tell Joke allows you to retelll someone’s joke. If you think you can do it better, then prove it.
Major UK Internet provider BT, one of the UK's largest ISPs says that the "free ride" is over for popular Web services like video streaming, which are building "very profitable business models" by using ISP pipes. In BT's view, it's time for streaming video to pay up for better service. ars technica reports.
BT appears to be saying that high-bandwidth video streaming, in particular, is just too expensive to offer without limits on its cheapest plan.
That plan, called "Option 1," offers 10GB/month of data transfer, imposes throttling on P2P connections during parts of the day, throttles anyone who's a "heavy user," and places a limit of 896Kbps on video streaming services between 5pm and midnight.
BT's own "fair usage policy" spells all this out, which makes the discrimination legal in the UK.
The French government said that it plans to go ahead with a graduated response law even after a censure from the Constitutional Council; a few tweaks and the program will be back in business. Others aren't so sure. ars technica reports.
In a statement issued yesterday, French Culture Minister Christine Albanel said that the ruling pleased her because "the principle of a pedagogical device to stop piracy was validated." Sure, there were some minor problems—like the fact that the whole setup violated the 1789 Rights of Man—but such defects can be corrected.
The Daily Show's segment on the decline of the New York Times ("reporting the news, making stuff up, getting us into war") is fantastic - and reaches its peak when Jason Jones asks an editor to describe the appeal of "aged news," and when the editor asks him to explain, he challenges the editor to find a single thing in the paper that happened that day.
For years, the promise of online video advertising has been just that -- a promise. The reality has been a big disappointment: ads that look and feel like TV, and are repurposed from TV creative, only much more annoying.
Last month, 
Piracy watchdog 
The judge in the Pirate Bay case, Tomas Norström, was not biased, reports 
CNN's 
Several major cable networks and subscription-TV providers are readying systems that will let only paying subscribers watch cable shows on the Web, part of an effort to counter the growing amount of free TV shows available online. The 
Web site creation service 
Dozens of subfans exist in China. They are voluntary and are translating a mix of media, from books and magazines to games, TV shows and movies. The translated products are for an audience whose primary means of accessing foreign entertainment is the Internet. 
Despite Nielson and ComScore calculating much lower figures, Google has ‘fessed up that their YouTube service is the most popular its ever been, streaming an incredible one billion videos a day worldwide. 
