Antigua to legalize US movie and music piracy?
In an effort to get back at the US for its interference with the small country’s internet gambling operations, Antigua is threatening to make US movie and music piracy legal, unless its grievances are “properly addressed and losses compensated for.”
In 2003, Antigua initially claimed that the US “unlawfully prevented its online gambling operators from accessing American markets although the US allowed domestic online bets for sporting events like horse racing.” At the time the country claimed $3.4 billion USD in losses and made a case with the World Trade Organization. It won the case but was only awarded $21 million USD.
Out of retaliation, Antigua is now threatening to allow (make legal)“virtually everything from pharmaceuticals to music, anything with IP protection that can be duplicated,” added Mark E. Mendel, who represents Antigua in the affair.
“It is not our preferred option to punish the MPAA or others for the U.S. government’s intransigence, but the U.S. has refused to negotiate fairly,” he said.
Mendel added that Antigua has been trying to work out a deal that would allow online gambling between the nations but that the US is being unreasonable and “using every possible appeal, counterattack and side attack it could think of. We’ve been through five separate full-blown WTO proceedings on this and have won every step of the way.”
In December 2007, the WTO ruled that “Antigua could exact damages by ignoring IP agreements with the U.S. should a negotiated settlement fail.” The US has yet to respond to the dispute.
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BitTorrent site traffic sees impressive growth
According to TorrentFreak, torrent popularity and torrent site traffic continues to grow with every passing day despite heated efforts by anti-piracy groups such as the MPAA and IFPI to slow piracy.
Using data from the traffic Tracker Alexa, TF compiled a list of the 25 most popular torrent sites and found the amount of growth since December 2007 to be, in a word, explosive. Many saw 40 percent or higher growth. Some saw as high as 400 percent growth.
The list, compiled originally here is as follows and shows the Alexa rank for the sites for December 2007, March 2008, and the increase (or decrease).
Rank # Torrent Site Alexa Rank (Dec 07) Alexa Rank (Mar 08) Change (%)
1. mininova.org 63 53 + 19 %
2. ThePirateBay.org 182 130 + 40 %
3. isohunt.com 170 147 + 16 %
4. Torrentz.com 231 192 + 20 %
5. BtJunkie.org 689 469 + 47 %
6. torrentspy.com 376 585 - 36 %
7. TorrentReactor.net 909 616 + 48 %
8. GamesTorrents.com 942 641 + 47 %
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Toast 9 Titanium adds Blu-ray support
Roxio has announced the release of Toast 9 Titanium, the latest update in its popular disc burning software for Macs. Among the notable updates are Blu-ray support and remote Streaming.
The new Blu-ray support includes the ability “to copy both computer files and RAW Video across multiple discs” and a few of the notable compatible video sources include TiVos, EyeTVs and AVCHD camcorders. There is even the ability to burn HD video to standard DVDs. As an added promotion, the HD/BD plug-in support will be free until April 13th. After that it will cost an extra $20 USD.
The new remote streaming component, known as Streamer, allows users to “broadcast video from a Mac to any Internet-connected Mac or PC, or iPhones and iPod touches within Wi-Fi range.” Users can also Capture songs from Internet radio and the tracks are automatically tagged with Title, artist, and other information.
The software costs $80 USD online, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.
iTunes to give credits or refunds due to WGA strike
In an effort to give back to loyal customers, Apple has said that they will be offering credits or refunds to those with Season Passes to the iTunes Store that were affected by the Writer’s Guild of America strike.
Buyers of a season pass get access to a full season of a TV show at a discounted price but because of the strike many shows did not see a full season of episodes. Some shows were even canceled or stopped indefinitely.
As a way to compensate, the company will deliver all subsequent 2007-2008 season episodes when it is possible and issue prorated refunds for shows whose seasons were permanently truncated. Additionally, all season pass holders will be “given two free video credits, good for two TV episodes, music videos and/or short films on the iTunes Store.”
50% of all mobile phones will play music by 2011, says study
According to a study by MultiMedia Intelligence, 50 percent of all phones shipped worldwide will be music-capable by 2011. The report also estimates that the Cell phone market itself will remain flat in terms of growth with about 950 million phones being sold in 2011, same like estimates for 2008.
The mobile music business was $6 billion USD for 2008 and MMI chief researcher Frank Dickson says that music is one of the key drivers “behind future success for cellular carriers.”
The study comes at a point when carrier independent music stores are becoming more and more commonplace. Apple offers its iTunes store through the iPhone’s wireless and Nokia is introducing its Nokia Music Store worldwide.
Sony and Warner to make a MySpace music deal?
It appears that Sony BMG and Warner are close to signing a deal for the upcoming MySpace Music online store that would make their entire music catalogs available to the service.
The service is expected to offer individual pay-for MP3 downloads as well “as ad-subsidized free streams of music and videos.” MySpace Music online is also expected to have downloadable ringtones through Jamba.
The deal has a strange compensation format however. All labels that are part of the service will be paid “a share in the venture dictated by their existing marketshare outside of MySpace.” It is not clear whether sales success from the service will change the format of compensation however. Universal is expected to not make a deal for the time being because it has an ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit filed against the social networking site.
Sony, Warner and MySpace declined comment but the service is believed to be an attempt to dethrone the online market leader iTunes.
Plextor introduces dual format HD drives
Plextor made a surprising announcement today when it introduced two dual-format HD optical drives, the B920SA and B300SA, both of which can read Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.
Although the HD DVD format is now obsolete, the new drives gives owners a chance to watch their HD DVD titles on a computer while also allowing them to make way for Blu-ray.
The B920SA can burn 25GB BD discs at up to 4X speed and can write CDs and DVDs at 16x. The B300SA cannot write Blu-ray discs but can read at a relatively fast 6X speed. Both drives connect through Serial ATA and will ship in March for $450 USD and $600 USD respectively. Each drive comes bundled with movie playback, burning, and editing software for Windows systems.
Quanta and ooVoo team up for HD chat system for HDTVs
Quanta and ooVoo have announced that they have teamed up to “produce the first plug-and-play, real-time, high-definition video chat and messaging system” for HDTVs.
Citing the continuing growth in HDTV sales and the huge popularity of chat and instant message programs the companies say the product will “easily turn a laptop computer, HDTV or desktop PC into a high-definition chat screen.”
Quanta Research Institute, the research Center for the world’s largest laptop maker would develop the hardware, while it would be ooVoo’s job to work on the interface and any related software. In the end the two companies hope to develop technology that “would allow users to plug the product into an HDTV source and the Internet as easily as they would a webcam.”
The technology would utilize the H.264 codec for video Compression meaning that users would need at least “512kbps of Bandwidth for one-way 720p video feeds at 30 frames per second,” which should not be an issue for anyone with DSL or cable, or better.
South Park goes digital, and for free
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the hit show South Park have announced the launch of a website that streams every episode of South Park ever created, and for free.
The site, South Park Digital Studios will include every episode, 3,000 video clips and an avatar creator. There were also be a dozen “Flash, Shockwave and Java powered mini games” as well as a retail store and download section for wallpapers and the like.
The site, SouthParkStudios.com, comes as part of the creators latest contract with Comedy Central, the cable network which broadcasts the show. Stone and Parker agreed to write three more seasons and Comedy Central will financially back the site. Parker and Stone also have equal partnership in the new digital venture.
“Three more years of South Park will give us the opportunity to offend that many more people,” Stone announced in a prepared statement. “And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of South Park, we can offend people on their cellphones, game consoles, and computers too. It’s all very exciting for us.”
The episodes will each have 3 or 4 small advertisements throughout the show, but that is a small price to pay for free episodes whenever you want them.
China unblocks BBC site access?
The BBC has reported that its English-language Website seems to be available to Internet users in China after years of it being blocked in the country.
For the time being, the BBC says stories that would normally be blocked can be accessed and that even sensitive subjects such as the protests in Tibet are available. The Chinese-language site however, remains blocked.
The move, which comes amidst growing backlash against the Chinese government for its actions in Tibet and its censoring of news about the country, had to have been government approved or is just a temporary glitch.
Recently, China blocked access to the gigantic video sharing site YouTube after videos of the Tibetan protests surfaced and the government also announced it will be punishing other video sharing sites for similar reasons.
