UK. Net pirates' connection to be cut off

The UK government has been laying out some of the ways it intends to pursue persistent net pirates. The BBC reports.

Initially pirates could have download caps imposed or have their bandwidth restricted.

If that did not prove effective in reducing illegal file-sharing, the government will consider disconnecting them from the network.

... The crackdown will be aimed at people who regularly use technologies, such as BitTorrent, and websites, such as The Pirate Bay, to find and download files

NYC Election Documentary released on YouTube

Award-winning filmmaker Raul Barcelona is releasing his critically acclaimed film, The Promise of New York, on YouTube in hopes of inspiring New York City voters to participate in the upcoming general election on November 3rd.

The film can be seen in its entirety on the YouTube channel The Promise of New York beginning Tuesday, October 27th, 2009, exactly one week before Election Day. The film is also currently available on DVD from the film's website.

Press release.

Italian Politician Tries To File Charges Against 4,609 YouTube Commenters

Mike Masnick for TechDirt points to a post on boingboing about a story coming out of Italy, concerning what appears to be a former politician with a... colorful past who is filing charges against, get this, YouTube commentors.

Salvatore Cuffaro (he was apparently found guilty of helping the Mafia), who is upset about the comments on a YouTube video that involves himself, but which is from the early 90s. So, he's "laid charges" against all 4,609 commenters (since then, many more have commented).

Online Video Up to 27% of Internet Traffic

Streaming video and audio from the likes of YouTube and Hulu now account for roughly 27 percent of global Internet traffic, according to a new study, which surveyed the top 20 ISPs worldwide. This stat is up from 13 percent in 2008.

[via NewTeeVee]

facial recognition technology helps tvs save power

New facial recognition technology from Hitachi automatically detects when you’re actually watching your television, then shuts the display off whenever you’re not looking, to save energy.

[engadget via Technabob]

TEDTalk Tuesdays on CNN.com

Starting next week, CNN.com will show a TEDTalk on its homepage every Tuesday. It's part of a big redesign for CNN.com that puts video front-and-center, and makes room for opinion, commentary and partners like People magazine, EW.com, Oprah and TED.com.

Every Tuesday, a different TEDTalk will appear on the CNN.com homepage, along with a follow-up interview or an essay from the speaker on a dedicated TED.com page. It'll be a great chance to hear more from a speaker -- and to help great ideas connect with CNN's massive global audience.

TedBlog

French TV channel launches "I Kill A Friend" website

A totally immoral new show will launch on French TV Channel 13eme rue. Adverblog reports.

13ème rue is a French Tv channel specialized in thriller, action and supense. They just launched a provocative site titled Je tue un ami (I kill a friend ) rated 16+.

You start by hiring a professional killer to kill one of your friend ...

You give details and a picture of your target, and one of yourself. You will then be able to watch the violent execution, as the site allows a movie personalization, via a 3D integration of the picture.

Your victim receive a mail with a link to the site, and after he has watched the video, he is invited to investigate who is behind this crime, and can possibly release a new sequence.

Sick.

Court Orders The Pirate Bay To Delete Torrents

The Amsterdam court today ruled that The Pirate Bay must remove a list of copyrighted torrents from their website within three months. In addition they have to block Dutch users’ access to parts of the site where copyrighted torrent can be downloaded. If not, the three ‘operators’ will have to pay penalties of 5,000 euros ($7,500) per person, per day.

[via TorrentFreak]

Hulu May Start Charging for Online Content Next Year

According to Daily Tech, popular internet TV service Hulu may begin charging for content as early as next year.

Television — not the Internet — is responsible for worldwide social change

It's not Twitter or Facebook that's reinventing the planet. Eighty years after the first commercial broadcast crackled to life, television still rules our world. All those soap operas might be the ticket to a better future after all. Foreign Policy reports via TV Tattle.

... And it's not earnest educational programming that's reshaping the world on all those TV sets. The programs that so many dismiss as junk -- from song-and-dance shows to Desperate Housewives -- are being eagerly consumed by poor people everywhere who are just now getting access to television for the first time. That's a powerful force for spreading glitz and drama -- but also social change.

YouTube to Livestream U2 Gig

YouTube announced plans this week to livestream a concert by rock legends, U2. The gig is occurring on October 25th at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Users will be able to stream the concert in 16 different countries, including the US, UK, India, and Australia.

[via AppScout]

YouTube Launches Comment Search

Real-time comment search is now available on YouTube.

According to ReadWriteWeb,

There are some very real, potential use-cases crying out for a tool like this. Companies in particular are likely to want to know what people are saying about their names in the comments on YouTube. You name your topic, though: it's now available for real-time search across viewer discussion.

UK's Channel 4 on YouTube with full length TV shows

Channel 4 has become the first broadcaster worldwide to make full-length TV shows such as Skins, Hollyoaks and Peep Show available via a YouTube Channel, in a deal that highlights the shift in viewing habits from the television to the computer screen.

[via The Guardian]

Australia bans TV for under-twos

Children under the age of two should be banned from watching television, according to guidelines prepared for the Australian government, reports UK's Telegraph.

The guidelines warn that exposure to television at such an early age can delay language development, affect the ability of a child to concentrate and lead to obesity.

... The draft guidelines have been designed for childcare centres but also offer advice for parents.

Interesting: Australian statistics show that four-month-old infants watch an of average 44 minutes of television each day

Image from The SF Gate.

Joost UK goes into liquidation

According to NMA, the UK arm of online video company Joost has gone into liquidation.

The move marks the end of a turbulent journey for the UK arm of the start-up, which was launched by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström in 2007.

Free online TV streaming on UK iPhones

iPhone users can now watch live programs on the move through an online TV streaming service, reports The Daily Mail.

For the last year TVCatchup.com has allowed UK-based computer users to watch over 30 Freeview channels over the internet.

Now to mark its first anniversary the founders have created a Beta application for iPhone users.

iPhone and iPod Touch users simply log on to the TVCatchup website with their device to watch their channel of choice.

There are currently 11 channels available for testing purposes, including the five main channels, BBC Three and the Channel 4 spin-offs such as E4 and Film4.

The streams are optimised to work on both 3G and WiFi, although WiFi is more stable.

Read full article

Peer-to-Peer is being replaced by streaming

Peer-to-peer file sharing has been the bogeyman of the internet, but a new report suggests it’s destined become a fear of the past — replaced by cheap streaming video. Wired reports.

According a new report from Arbor Networks, peer-to-peer file sharing is falling out of favor so fast that the report declares that P2P is dead to ISPs.

In its place? Streaming video from sites like Hulu.com and YouTube, for one. And for downloads, sites like RapidShare and MegaUpload offer simple download hosting for files of all kinds, with premium and ad-supported accounts.

Read full article.

YouTube video claims government role in Russian hedge fund scam

Thousands of Russians are watching a YouTube video that accuses their government and officials of high corruption. The Guardian reports.

A Russian version of a video by Hermitage Capital, the London-based hedge fund claiming to be victim of a $230m scam, has attracted over 12,000 hits, and is the most viewed news clip on YouTube in Russia, the site shows. The English version has over 10,000 viewings as of this posting.

William Browder, head of Hermitage Capital, hopes the video's international impact will put pressure on the Russian authorities to listen to his claims of theft, gangsterism and government corruption.

Taliban open YouTube Channel

A little late to the game, the Taliban have just opened their very own official YouTube channel, Istiqlal Media.

While the group has used YouTube in an official capacity before, placing video of captured America soldier on the site, the use of embedded YouTube video on their site is a first, according to terrorist media expert and internet sleuth Evan Kohlman of Global Terror Alert and the NEFA Foundation.img alt="quotesmarksleft.jpg" src="http://www.textually.org/tex

[via Wired]

Anti-Pirates Scare Kids with Propagandistic Comic Book

The Motion Picture Association has sent one of its big shot lobbyists to New Zealand to advocate tougher anti-piracy legislation, and to promote a propagandistic comic book set be handed out to thousands of local kids. Torrentfreak reports.

Interestingly, the comic doesn’t touch the subject of copyright. Instead it uses false threats to scare children and parents about the dangers of file-sharing.

Titled “Escape From Terror Byte City” the book tells the story of two young boys who attempt to download the latest Transformers movie from a P2P website. Of course, when the two fire-up their file-sharing software all hell breaks loose.

... A scanned copy of the full comic book is available on Mininova. This one’s going to be a collectors item, for sure.

French President Sarkozy Accused of DVD Piracy

Known for his anti-piracy views and behind the recently approved Hadopi three strikes law, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has once again been accused of being the pot that called the kettle black. According to Huffington Post via Switched, a French newspaper is reporting that Sarkozy illegally made 400 copies of a DVD and gave them to diplomats at a conference.

The film in question is a 52-minute documentary on Sarkozy, himself, called 'A visage decouvert: Nicolas Sarkozy.' The distributor only gave the president 50 copies, which, apparently, just wasn't enough. Sarkozy burned a few hundred more, but didn't stop there, either. The President, or whoever actually made the copies, worked up a new DVD jacket and replaced manufacturer Galaxie Presse's logo with that of Sarkozy's own presidential 'AV Service.'

‘Where the Wild Things Are’ iPhone App

Warner Bros is offering a free application for the iPhone to promote the October 16 release of Where the Wild Things Are. You can go to the official website for more about it, or grab it from the App Store (if you live in the US) on your Apple device. News.in tried it out and gives it a review.

The features include scrolling through character posters of the wild things, beautiful stills from the Spike Jonze film, and viewing the two promotional trailers. You can also listen to select songs from the soundtrack by Karen O. from the Yeah, Yeah Yeahs, which will take you right to iTunes to purchase them.

In the app you can also interact with Carol, a wild thing voiced by James Gandolfini in the movie. You can provoke him with pokes to the belly, throw mud at him, or tip the device to throw him off balance. Beware, he’ll run up and smash your screen. Try turning out the lights to make him go to sleep, pushing the button to make him howl at the moon, or playing a song from your playlists to make him dance. Finally you can offer him your contacts or photos for Carol to smash or chomp away on.

YouTube videos viewed 1 billion times a day

According to YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley, YouTube videos are viewed 1 billion times a day. The Mercury News reports.

Three years after the acquisition, our platform and our business continue to grow and evolve," Hurley wrote Friday on YouTube's official blog. "We are still committed to the same principles that informed the site early on, but we know things have changed."

Hurley said short, user-created clips are still "voraciously consumed" on YouTube, but added, "As we've started to see demand for longer, full-length content, we've brought more shows and movies to the site."

Olympics Urged To Relinquish Exclusive Rights

The Olympic movement needs to learn from the likes of YouTube or risk losing young viewers for life, IOC members were told Monday. Top Tech News reports.

Communications guru Martin Sorrell advised global sports leaders to release their grip on exclusive broadcast rights and hand them over to a new generation of technology-savvy fans.

"If they are going online, you go online," Sorrell said in a keynote speech on digital media at the International Olympic Committee's Congress. "You have to let them play -- with your content Relevant Products/Services, your assets -- in their own way."

Nobel Prize Announcements: Watch Videos on YouTube

Today through October 12, Nobel Prizes will be announced on the Nobel Prize YouTube Channel in real time.

Watch the live web cast from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, on Tuesday, October 6, 11:45 a.m. CET, 09:45 a.m. GMT at the earliest. Following the announcement, an interview will be held with one of the Committee members about the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics.

[WebPro News]

Circumventing Geographic Restrictions

A large number of web services are geographically restricted, such as Hulu, Pandora and Spotify. The reasons are usually to do with content licensing restrictions, or because US visitors (or visitors from other advanced economies) are of a higher value from a monetization perspective. A web application can only guess at the location of a visitor based on an IP address and other information, such as browser language and regional settings. TechCrunch reports.

... The nature of the web means that geographically restricting web services is next to impossible, because those who are technically adept have known how to find and use proxy servers (both open and private) and VPN services to masquerade as being from another country.

The demand for such services has become so popular that more apps are being released that make this process almost as easy as installing any other application.

If you find yourself outside of the USA and wanting to watch Hulu, outside of the UK and wanting to checkout the BBC, or wanting to rig a web poll, check out tips from TechCrunch.

Related:

-- Hide My Ass gets around region-restricted videos

-- How to Watch Hulu Around the World

Entertainment Weely with video ad sells on eBay for $ 122

A copy of Entertainment Weekly's Sept 18th issue with a video insert that went out to subscribers in only two markets, was up for bidding on eBay and sold for $ 122.-

[via ADLab]

German Cinemas Must Warn Visitors Of ‘Anti-Pirate’ Goggles

Dozens of movie theaters worldwide have equipped their employees with night vision goggles to spy on customers, hoping to spot illegal recording devices. Following complaints alleging invasion of privacy, in Germany the local authorities ruled that theaters have to warn their customers if they use such equipment, rendering their piracy trap useless.

[via TorrentFreak]

Related:

-- US bill aims to jail film pirates

-- Military-style night-sights in cinemas for launch of "The Prisoner of Azkaban"

-- US cinema reward to stop piracy

-- Crackdown In Cinemas

-- Will You Be Arrested The Next Time You Bring Your Camera Phone To The Movies?

-- Five Years In Jail For Putting A Movie Online

-- Leave your picture phone outside the movie theater

-- Bag and body searches at screenings

Pirate Bay's Homepage Deleted From Google Search Results

Following a DMCA complaint filed with Google, the company's search index now doesn't feature the Pirate Bay's homepage anymore and the Pirate Bay's PageRank has been dropped to zero.

Read full article in ReadWriteWeb.

Update: According to Google, "the removal appears to be an internal error and not part of a DMCA request."

Firms issued TV licence warning

According to the BBC, businesses are being warned they could be breaking the law if staff watch live TV on their computers when the firm does not have a TV licence.

Shops, offices and other workplaces could be fined up to £1,000, the TV Licensing authority says.

The law covers live transmissions online and does not apply to catch-up services such as those on the iPlayer.

Read full article.