Netflix: #1 in Digital Streaming and Downloads

March 16, 2011 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Downloads

NPD Group’s latest report shows Netflix as the leader on the movie/TV streaming and downloads market with no less than 61 percent market share followed remotely by Comcast with 8 percent share, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Apple each with 4 percent.

These figures are part of VideoWatch Digital tracking service, which NPD launched at the beginning of the year.

From the report:

Sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs still drive most home-video revenue, but VOD and other digital options are now beginning to make inroads with consumers. Overwhelmingly digital movie buyers do not believe physical discs are out of fashion, but their digital transactions were motivated by the immediate access and ease of acquisition provided by streaming and downloading digital video files.

According to the company, the digital video currently accounts for “one quarter of all video volume in the home.” They don’t call it the digital age for nothing, do they?

Tags: downloads, streaming

Go for It! The Halo: Reach Arrived on File-sharing

August 25, 2010 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Downloads, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games

The hackers managed to break the security on Xbox.com and stole the full game code meant for game reviewers only. It seams that already over ten different downloads are available.

Some of the blame for the leak lies with Microsoft, which decided to share the final code with developers just few weeks before the official launch. Microsoft has said that it is “aware of claims being made regarding a security exploit related to Halo Reach and are aggressively investigating the matter”.

That will probably not affect the popularity of the game, nor its sales figures, however. When Microsoft had decided to launch a beat preview version of the game, as many as 2.5 million Xbox gamers had participated, suggesting at future sales success.
It’s not uncommon for games to arrive on the internet ahead of their release date, but for Halo Reach to be leaked almost a month ahead of its September 14th release is disappointing new for both Microsoft and retailers.

Tags: downloads, file-sharing, games, halo

IsoHunt against Child Porn

July 1, 2010 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Downloads, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services

With the Attorney General’s help, isoHunt tries to prevent thousands of porn child images from spreading on BitTorrent. The search engine is the first foreign website to partner with New York Attorney General Cuomo in an effort to keep the Internet clean from child pornography.

To combat the distribution of child pornography on the Internet, New York Attorney General Cuomo has started a hash value database. Site owners can use the database to voluntarily prevent thousands of illegal files from being shared via links posted from their websites.

The database is in use by many large social networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster and MySpace and the Attorney General is continuously looking for new partners to join. One of the latest websites to be approached by the Attorney General’s office is the BitTorrent site isoHunt, whose owner immediately said yes to the invitation.

“Users of isoHunt have often notified us of illegal child content in the past. We are pleased to expand this effort in working with Attorney General Cuomo in a collaborative database in stopping such appalling files from being spread on BitTorrent,” commented isoHunt owner.

Canada-based IsoHunt is not only the first BitTorrent site to join the program, it is also the first website outside the United States to cooperate with the initiative.

“This is all about protecting kids, and the same way child pornographers use technology to distribute these disturbing images, we are using technology to shut off their digital pipeline”, said Cuomo as he welcomed isoHunt to the program.

IsoHunt’s collaboration with the Attorney General sheds an interesting light on the lawsuit against the MPAA its currently involved with. In this case, a court ordered isoHunt to implement a keyword filter based on film titles provided by the MPAA. IsoHunt appealed this decision, claiming that a keyword filter would result in too much collateral damage and instead suggesting that a filter based on unique and confirmed fingerprints (hashed) would be more effective.

Tags: BitTorrent, child pornography, downloads, file-sharing, torrents

New LimeWire Music Service

June 30, 2010 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Digital Media, Mobile Phones, P2P technology, Downloads, Entertainment Industry, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games

It may have lawsuits piling up against it, but P2P file-sharing firm LimeWire is still hoping to re-launch later this year with a brand-new music service.

LimeWire hopes to release the new, legal, service in “late 2010″ in what is described as a “post-lawsuit relaunch”. The new subscription-based service will incorporate both downloading and streaming and will be accessible from a range of platforms and devices including mobile, desktop and web-based clients.

Cloud-based storage will feature heavily, as will iTunes integration; users will reportedly be able to sync their iTunes library to the LimeWire cloud as well as sync newly-downloaded tracks back to iTunes and portable music devices.

According to a Digital Music News article, an unnamed LimeWire exec said:

Users will have complete and instant access to their entire library and catalog across their desktop, devices, and in the cloud … By syncing iTunes playlists and content to the cloud, users’ existing libraries are available to access and stream to a wide range of connected devices.

Before such a service could launch, LimeWire must first resolve its legal woes. With some in the music industry claiming that LimeWire could be liable for up to $1 billion, this might prove to be a tall order for the company.

However, LimeWire seem confident that a settlement can be reached that would allow the company to transition to provisioning a new, legal service. Despite the lawsuits, the company claims that music industry executives are enthusiastic about the planned new service.

Tags: digital music, downloads, file-sharing, free music downloads, iTunes, limewire

Contribute with the File-Sharing Survey

June 30, 2010 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Downloads, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services

An important part of the file-sharing and copyright law debate is making the opinions and attitudes of those they effect known so that lawmakers can legislate in a more holistic fashion.

Too often only copyright holders have their ear and we see this manifested in the form of draconian laws like the UK’s Digital Britain Act.

An undergraduate of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, is conducting the research on the attitudes of illegal file-sharing, the biggest part of which, he says, is a survey that he’s asking file-sharers to take.

“The purpose of the research is to discover whether there are differences in attitudes and status between the general population and those with a stake in the copyright law debate, as well as between those on different sides of that debate, other than the disagreement itself,” says the initiator.

The responses are completely anonymous lest anybody be concerned with being too honest about otherwise questionable behaviors.

Take the survey here!

Tags: downloads, file sharing applications, file-sharing, survey