Blog Profile / Bit Player
| URL : | http://opinion.latimes.com/bitplayer/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Technology | |
| Posts on Regator: | 219 | |
| Posts / Week: | 0.8 | |
| Archived Since: | March 9, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Verimatrix gives studios another reason to offer movies earlier to homes
On Tuesday, San Diego-based Verimatrix announced a watermarking technology that studios could use to help combat piracy on streamed movies, potentially encouraging them to offer more early-release films. The watermarks won't make the...Show More Summary
Bamboom takes over-the-air TV over the top
Bamboom Labs wants to help people cut their cable cords by putting local TV broadcasts online with all the digital trimmings -- that is, the ability to watch live or recorded shows in high definition on any device with a browser, anywhere a broadband connection is available.
Escaping the walled garden of connected TV
Upstarts at CES continued to announce products or technologies designed to bring the entire unfiltered Web to the TV screen.
Sezmi charts a new path to competition with cable
Sezmi stunned subscribers in Los Angeles Friday night by telling them it would no longer be offering a package of popular cable networks as part of its pay-TV service. But the company isn't scaling back, co-founder Phil Wiser said i...
Secondhand Serenade tries to break a single through SoundHound
With the Internet and digital technology vastly increasing the number of wannabe pop stars, recording artists have to go to greater and greater lengths to try to stand out in the crowd. The latest example: On Thursday morning, pop singer/guitarist...
Attributor: Stopping infringers without the courts' help?
While companies such as Righthaven try to protect journalists' copyrights by reflexively suing alleged infringers, online monitoring firm Attributor has pursued a different approach: reflexively trying to strike licensing deals, turning infringing websites into authorized, paying outlets for content. On...
Another win for the RIAA, this time over file-sharing company LimeWire
A federal judge ruled this week that the company behind the LimeWire file-sharing network was liable for infringing the major record companies' copyrights, exposing the company and its former CEO, Mark Gorton, to potentially enormous financial penalties. Show More Summary
Hollywood wins another lawsuit against a search engine
Chalk up another legal victory for the Motion Picture Assn. of America in its battle against websites that make it easier for people to find and download bootlegged Hollywood movies. Monday, a judge in London's High Court of JusticeShow More Summary
Sezmi makes it official
Sezmi, a low-cost rival to cable and satellite TV, is formally launching its service in Los Angeles and surrounding areas Thursday after a three-month trial run. The service comes in two tiers: $4.99 per month for dozens of local broadcast...Show More Summary
CES: Yahoo, still connecting TV widgets
Connected TVs are again one of the main stories at the Consumer Electronics Show, increasing the pace significantly from last year's gingerly steps. Yet one of the stars of the 2009 show, Yahoo's Connected TV initiative, has been outshone by the likes of Vudu and DivX. Show More Summary
Sezmi says hello to Los Angeles
Angelenos unhappy with the cable or satellite TV offerings in their neighborhoods will have a new, much less expensive option today: Sezmi, a novel combination of over-the-air broadcasting and broadband programming. The company is launching...Show More Summary
ZillionTV gets a new CEO
TV-over-the-Internet start-up ZillionTV changed its leadership today, bringing in a new chief executive to take over for Mitch Berman. The new guy is Jack Lawrence, formerly head of North American operations for Hong Kong toymaker Corgi International. Berman is staying on as executive chairman, he said in an interview.
Baseball comes to Roku
Major League Baseball has just added another way for fans to watch games: through Roku's $99 Digital Video Player. Like an earlier deal with Boxee, the agreement enables MLB.TV subscribers to move live webcasts from their PC screens to their television sets. Show More Summary
DivX lands two more Hollywood studios
Continuing its slow march to acceptance in Hollywood, DivX Inc. has persuaded two more studios -- Paramount and Lionsgate -- to use its compression and anti-piracy technologies on the movies they make available for downloading. DivXShow More Summary
Joel Tenenbaum joins the I-Owe-the-RIAA-My-Firstborn club
Given Joel Tenenbaum's admission on the stand that he had, in fact, downloaded and shared the songs at issue (because "art is meant to be shared," he says on his blog), his attorney was left imploring the jury to "send a message" to the copyright holders by awarding them 99 cents per song -- less than the statutory minimum of $750 per infringement. Show More Summary
Downloading service Zookz comes under more fire
A lawyer purportedly representing the Antiguan government just distributed a statement that punches a huge hole in Zookz's argument that its unlicensed movie and music downloading service is legal.
Zookz: A license to infringe?
Companies that offer downloadable movies and music online without licenses from the copyright holders typically wind up answering lawsuits from the Hollywood studios and the major labels. So it was odd to see a news release announcing...Show More Summary
Appiphilia: Remixing with Romplr
For all the hype about the "remix culture," I'm skeptical of the notion that the masses want to create their own music and video. Creating is hard, particularly when you're starting with a blank sheet of paper or an empty USB drive.Show More Summary
SuperFan, taking affinities further
Social networks are partly about broadcasting information to a far-flung audience, and partly about establishing your identity (or the one you'd like to have). Facebook users, for instance, can publicize lists of their friends, their favorite bands, their tastes in movies and their fealty to particular consumer brands. Show More Summary
The webcasting deal: What took so long?
If the numbers were so stark, why did it take a virtual eternity for webcasters and the music industry to agree on a model that seems sustainable? I'd blame four things.