Archive for the 'copyrights' Category

NBC Fox launch Hulu.com: If you can’t sue them, imitate them

Published on October 29, 2007 in copyrights, Fox, Google, hulu.com, media, NBC, Prison Break, The Simpsons, TV shows and YouTube. 0 Comments

huludotcomFrustrated by the efforts (or lack thereof) of YouTube to curb the blatant violations of copyrights held by media giants NBC and Fox, these companies decided to do it all by themselves.

Invitations started going out yesterday and there is still room for signing up as a beta user direct from hulu.com. Users will have access to Hulu’s content lineup that include hits such as The Office, Prison Break, The Simpsons and Heroes.

Hulu.com also promises to offer a large number of classic television series, including The A-Team, Arrested Development and Miami Vice. Now that is good TV!

“Claim Your Content”: Google’s New Filter for YouTube

Published on April 16, 2007 in Blogosphere, claim your content, copyrights, doubleclick, eric schmidt, ethics, fair competition, filter, Google, Google Inc., media, Microsoft, online videos, Web 2, Web 2.0, Web technology and YouTube. 0 Comments

copyrightsGoogle CEO, Eric Schmidt assures a new system called “Claim Your Content” which will automatically identify copyright material in an attempt to decrease the “massive intentional copyright infringement” allegations on the video-sharing site YouTube.

Microsoft recently asserted that Google’s pending acquisition of DoubleClick may be a threat to fair competition and Schmidt did not lose any opportunity to ridicule Microsoft and alleged that Microsoft made arguments only because it’s a competitor.

Are the ethical arguments by Microsoft made against Google justified or merely a fear of competition? Big or small, competition can be brutal.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Tools for Photo Authentication

Published on March 8, 2007 in Adobe, Adobe Photoshop, blog design, Clone tool detector, copyrights, CS3, eBay, images, Photo authentication, Photoshop and Truth dots. 5 Comments

adobe cs3 Adobe Systems’ Advanced Technology lab has developed two tools for image authentication. Clone Tool Detector, which determines whether a section in a picture, has been recopied from another part of the picture. It is difficult to predict if two images are cloned, but this tool will say if they are “improbably similar”.

Truth Dots, determines whether pixels are missing from a photo, a sign that the image has been cropped. This cannot be detected by the human eye by zooming the images.

These plugins could be added in the new version of Photoshop, called CS3, which will be announced at the end of March. If so, it would be great for sites like eBay where bidders/buyers can distinguish between real and copied/altered images or for image copyright issues proliferating on the internet!

The Simpsons on MySpace or The Simpsons on YouTube

Published on March 8, 2007 in 24, acquisitions, American Idol, Blogosphere, business planning, copyrights, digital media, Fox TV, media, Microsoft, MySpace, news, Prison Break, technology, The Simpsons, viral video, Web 2.0, Web technology, web traffic and YouTube. 1 Comment

simpsonsCurrently, News Corp. owned Fox shows, such as 24 and Prison Break, are available on the News Corp. owned social networking portal, MySpace. There is speculation that the media giant is planning collaboration with multiple media companies to establish an online video platform to compete with YouTube.

MySpace is the no.1 social networking site in the U.K. and Australia and successfully tapped many other international markets. News Corp. may soon allow members to embed Fox TV shows and Fox videos, on their home pages in order to monetize by rapid increase in online video distribution.

New’s Corp has a wider range and richer content as compared to other large traffic internet sites like Google and Yahoo. MySpace is growing faster than comparable sites like Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Time Warner, Microsoft and Ebay. Its unique monthly audience of 61.5 million was up 73% from January, 2006, according to comScore.

Although Fox TV served YouTube with a subpoena earlier in January demanding the Google-owned viral video site disclose the identity of a user who uploaded copies of entire recent episodes of primetime series 24 and The Simpsons, I doubt if much will change because a huge chunk of YouTube’s popularity is based on copyrighted videos viewers get to watch for free.

The choice is yours for now, would you watch News Corp. owned Fox TV shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Idol, etc. on News Corp. owned MySpace, or would you watch the same on YouTube?