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Viacom Gets Tough With YouTube
Media giants Viacom International have finally lost patience with YouTube and demanded that they remove more than 100,000 of their video clips that have been posted up without permission.
The company – whose holdings include Paramount Pictures, MTV Networks, DreamWorks and Comedy Central – have calculated that YouTube has served up over 1.2 billion streams of its copyrighted video content.
As a result, Viacom have got out their big pointy DMCA stick and accused Google-owned YouTube of knowingly profiting from material stolen from them, as well as repeatedly breaking promises to filter out copyrighted works.
In a statement, a clearly miffed Viacom said: “Virtually every other distributor has acknowledged the fair value of entertainment content and has taken deliberate steps to concluding agreements with content providers.”
“YouTube and Google retain all of the revenue generated from this practice, without extending fair compensation to the people who have expended all of the effort and cost to create it.”
Google have said that they’ll get the material down tout de suite, although not without adding a valedictory grumble, commenting, “It is unfortunate that Viacom will no longer be able to benefit from YouTube’s passionate audience which has helped to promote many of Viacom’s shows.”
Removing Viacom’s rich portfolio of popular clips may certainly result in loss of revenue for YouTube, but some media analysts reckon it could be a lose-lose situation all round, as both parties risk naffing off consumers.
Viacom has said that although it’s still down with the idea of distributing clips online via YouTube, it’ll only do so via, “a fair and authorised distribution model.”
6 February, 2007
Experiment: Ramping Alexa Ranking
Alexa ranking is something that some people judge their very existance by. They’re not concerned that their family is safe and secure around them, not that they’re in good health, or even take delight in how many friends they have close by. But how important Alexa tells them they to the Internet community – how much the Internet loves them.
They live and die by the rises and falls of their Alexa ranking.
It’s sad, but it’s true.
This leads to the perpetuation of Alexa-ranking watching, and feverish downloading of the Alexa Toolbar on to all and any machines that might be used.
You see, the way that Alexa finds out which Web sites are being visited, is by watching which sites are visited by people who have installed the Alexa Toolbar and reporting this information back to Alexa. Thus the virtuous circle is completed and the Alexa ranking created.
There are flaw with this method of judgement. The most fundamental being that the official Alexa toolbar is only available to run on Windows machines running ie6 and above.
Ramping the Ranking
Many have postulated that a site’s Alexa ranking can be manipulated simply by getting the world and his wife/partner to install the Alex toolbar on their machine and browser to the target site.
It’s understood that within certain Venture Capital firms employees being instructed to visit their client sites in an attempt to boost their Alexa ranking. Not doing so will lower the value of their investment.
We’ve even hear of people setting up farms of PC’s equipped with Alexa-plugedin Browsers automatically refreshing access to the target web site, again to pushing the ranking up.
The Challenge
We though it would be an interesting test to see if we and you, can affect the Alexa Ranking of Digital-Lifestyles.
If you’re up for a bit of unscientific fun, read on.
If you’re an Internet Explorer user, download the Alexa toolbar. Firefox users might get some joy from here. User of other browsers are going to miss out on the fun.
When it’s loaded, pop over to the Digital-Lifestyles site even more frequently than you normally do and let’s see what change we can make to our current 71,247 ranking.
Come on, it’ll be fun.
2 February, 2007
MP3Tunes Oboe: Now Unlimited Free Storage
Oboe, the MP3Tunes.com online music service is increasing its previous 1Gb of free music storage to unlimited storage to some of its registered users.
The bold move was signalled when we received an email notification today that our account had been given the magic blessing.
MP3Tunes takes a different approach to iTunes and other on-computer music management software. Rather than have all of your music stored on the machine you are listening to it on, the music is stored on the Internet.
To listen to the music you can either use their application; or plugins for Browsers (Firefox or ie); or media players (iTunes and Winamp). Access to the music is also free.
This brings the advantage that your music can be played by any Internet-attached computer or device that you might have to hand, including TiVo, Nokia 770 and Series 60 phones.
Uploading music is done using their Oboe Sync 2.0 software which runs on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP, Mac OSX and Linux.
They’re not sniffy about the music file formats either, with a comprehensive selection supported (MP3, MP4, M4A, M4P, AAC, WMA, OGG, AIF, AIFF, MIDI). Pointedly it is also stated that “Digitally Restricted Files may not play.”
The unlimited service, previously called Premium, used to cost $40/year. As with their previous offering, there may limits on the size of each file that you upload, but at time of going to press, this remains unclear.
A bit of history for you …
Mp3Tunes was started by Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com, the trail blazing music service that started in 1998 and eventually had to close after a concerted legal attack by the music business.
In 2000 mp3.com started my.mp3.com, a service very similar to the Oboe service offered now offered by MP3Tunes. We hope that their new service doesn’t suffer the same end.
Impact
We think this move to an unlimited service could just start to put a dent in the dominance of iTunes, particularly in Europe, where legal pressure is building on them.
Being able to access music collections from work as well as home, without having to physically carry them, is a big boost.
As far as sustaining the service, because clearly there’s a fair cost in offering something like this, we assume the income will arise from the sale of additional music to the people who embrace the service.p
1 February, 2007
Sky Anytime on TV Preview: Sky VOD
When is a 300Gb hard disc not a 300Gb hard disc? When it’s in a Sky box. The fruit of Sky’s much discussed drive partitioning was revealed today, with the announcement of a March launch for Sky Anytime on TV.
Sky Anytime on TV is a push video service that will populate users’ Sky HD (and some Sky+) PVRs with shows from the Sky network, plus Artsworld, National Geographic, Disney and the Biography and History channels. In a one-to-one briefing today, we got to sample the Anytime on TV service, not to be confused with Sky Anytime on PC or the yet to surface Sky Anytime on Mobile. For brevity, we’re going to call Sky Anytime on TV, SAoTV.
SAoTV consists of around 20 to 25 programmes, ranging from half-hour comedies to full length movies, chosen to represent the best of the weeks programming. In the wee hours of every night, a number of assets (between 1 to 6 hours of TV) will be pushed to the Sky box. At launch, every subscriber will receive identical content, although personalisation of SAoTV is ‘on the road map’, according to a spokesman.
Where it’s available, HD subscribers will receive their SAoTV content in High Definition and (in the first phase at least) all content is free from adverts, with the exception of an intro promo hat can be fast-forwarded through, like any Sky recording.
The SAoTV service enjoys its own instant access button – the red key – whose previous occupant (HD Channels) now receives its own menu entry. It’s presented in a similar way to the Planner screen, with the addition of a live video preview window showing a trailer of the highlighted show and some promotional text.
As new shows arrive nightly, older programmes are bumped down the SAoTV listings. Each programme has a clear expiration date, doing a Cinderella-style pumpkin vanishing act at midnight, seven days after its first appearance. If you want to keep a show permanently, you simply hit the Record button any time during that week to add it to your Planner.
The SAoTV service will initially be free and contain only programmes that have been previously broadcast, although Sky hasn’t ruled out charging for content or including exclusive previews in the future.
Sky Anytime on TV will be available to all HD subscribers, as well as owners of the most recent Sky+ boxes (those with partitioned hard drives): currently around 1 million households. Anyone who bought a Sky+ box within the last year should be able to use the service, although Sky will be writing to each subscriber to alert them.
Sky is also rolling out the Anytime brand to cover its Sky by broadband and Sky by mobile services.
Our take? The Sky Anytime on TV services is largely a win-win situation. Sky gets to promote high profile, expensive acquisitions like Lost, 24 and blockbuster movies – and we get to watch them free from adverts and without having to remember to set the timer (or rely on the occasionally erratic Series Link). Of course, it would be nice to see a wider range of channels on board (negotiations are on-going, but don’t expect to see the terrestrial broadcasters any time soon).
However, there will always be the argument that grown-up TV viewers should be free to populate their own hard drive as they see fit – which makes the timing of Sky Anytime on TV all the smarter. HD and Sky+ subscribers have had nearly a year to get to accustomed to their truncated storage space, making the Anytime service seem like less of an intrusion and more of a bonus.
31 January, 2007
YouTube To Share Ad Revenue With Uploaders
Filmmakers who upload their own movies on to the video-sharing website YouTube will soon be able to enjoy some financial rewards for their efforts.
In an interview with the BBC, YouTube founder Chad Hurley announced that the company was working on a revenue-sharing mechanism designed to “reward creativity”.
Set to start rolling out in a couple of months, the deal would raise revenue to reward creative camcorder types via a mixture of adverts and short clips slipped in at the beginning of a clip.

Only folks who own the full copyright of the videos can expect to receive a wedge of the moolah, with YouTube introducing the advertising technology incrementally.
Somerfield Staff Antics on YouTube
Elsewhere, UK supermarket chain Somerfield has launched an inquiry after video clips of their staff mucking about turned up on YouTube.
Various staff members are seen larking about while wearing the store’s uniform, including a break dancing shelf stacker, an “extreme floor cleaner” crashing into a wall and a nutter hurtling down a car park slope on a shopping trolley.

Somerfield has said that they are looking into the incidents, sternly adding that they will, “take any necessary action where appropriate.”
Of course, all they’ve really done is helped publicise the clips for everyone else to enjoy – and reminded us of our equally daft antics in previous crap jobs.
Somerfield YouTube videos
29 January, 2007
Walkit.com: Get Walking, Go Green And Lose Lard
Still in beta but already a big hit in the Digital Lifestyles office is the Walkit.com website, a mapping site designed for perambulating pedestrians keen to do their bit to fight global warming.
Currently covering a large chunk of London, the site helps walkers plot cross-town journeys in a similar fashion to London Transport’s Journey Planner.
Users simply type in the postcode or street name of their start and end points and a zoomable street map (based on Streetmap.com) is generated, with the walking route clearly marked in blue.
If the user hasn’t been specific enough with their addresses, the interface offers up a list of more precise locations, including road intersections.
Burning the lard
Once you’ve generated your walking map, an information strip tells you the total distance and how long it would take to complete the journey at slow/medium/fast walking rates.
Folks still battling a post-Christmas beast of a belly might find the column displaying how many calories you might expect to burn depending on fast you’re shuffling along useful.
According to their data, a fast walk from Brixton to Oxford Street would take 65 minutes and burn 347 calories – less than the calories in the two pints of Stella we’d need to drink to recover.
‘The Good Life’-loving, Tom and Barbara types can also feel extra smug checking out the ‘Co2 avoided’ column, which lists how much carbon dioxide the same journey would have created by car, taxi or bus instead.
Nearby tube and rail stations are also included onscreen as well as options to print the map, print or view written directions and email the route to a friend.
Clicking on the written directions automatically centres the map on that location, which is rather a nice touch.
Currently the system only produces the most direct route, rather than the ‘nicest’ route and the tech bods at walkit are looking into ways to include some pedestrian-only routes across parks, by rivers etc.
Another thing missing is the ability to plot routes involving multiple points: it would be great to plan an afternoon’s walking and have an instant readout of the miles walked and calories burned – and if there was a version that could be carried around on our Palm Treo, all the better!
Ken don’t care
Launched by a “tiny outfit” motivated by a desire to get more people walking, the walkit.com team deserve all the support you get, and with their much-publicised green agenda, you’d think ol’ Ken Livingstone, Transport for London and the Labour spin team would be scrambling to get onboard.
Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case with a faceless ‘Senior Customer Services Adviser’ at TfL only commenting that it would be, “counter-productive to invest public money in another journey planning tool specifically for walking”.
www.walkit.com
24 January, 2007
Skype: Calls To Landlines Go Flat Rate & Skype Pro Announced
Skype are on the move again, this time changing the way that they bill for calls to landlines.
As is their want, it will be brought to in Europe, then rest of world during 2007.
The new charging scheme does away with per-minute charges for SkypeOut calls to domestic landlines, replacing it with a connection fee. This fee changes depending on the currency, with Europe paying 3.9 Euro Cents and the UK being spanked 2.9 pence per call, against the current exchange rate equivalent of 2.56 pence. All of these prices exclude VAT.
After the first five seconds of a SkypeOut call, the connection fee will apply.
Some countries will be cheaper, running at 1.7 Euro Cents, these currently include … Czech Republic (including Prague), Guam, Hungary (including Budapest), Israel (including Jerusalem), Luxembourg, Malaysia (including Kuala Lumpur), Puerto Rico and both Alaska and Hawaii in the United States.
This shift around isn’t a bolt out of the blue. Back in December a Skype Executive talked about these connection rates that became effective from 13:00 CET today.
The Skype Unlimited Calling plan in the US and Canada and the Talk for Britain campaign in the UK do not include a connection fee for national calls. Skype to Skype calls continue to be free and calls to mobiles will continue to be charged on a per minute basis.
Setup fees are usually bad news for people who make short calls, as the cost is front loaded, with the nattering classes gaining the biggest benefit from the flat rate.
Skype Pro
To have the privilege of a Skype Pro account punters will have to pay €2 per month. The new Skype Pro accounts also come with free Skype Voicemail and €30 off a SkypeIn number.
Skype Pro
18 January, 2007
Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email now on Sony Ericsson M600 and P990
Nokia are extending their relationship with Sony Ericsson as they take their Intellisync Wireless Email to two more Sony Ericsson devices, the M600 and P990.
Nokia’s Intellisync Wireless Email is their counter to RIM’s Blackberry and Microsoft’s mobile email service, covering wireless email, synchronization for calendars, contacts, files, data and applications.
Where as the competition only works with their own devices, Nokia claims that theirs works with any device and any backend system. This extended deal with Sony Ericsson makes this real.
This solution is primarily aimed at business users, but as people become dependent on digital communications, it’s highly likely that every man (and woman) and his (or her) dog (or cat) will be wanting this kind of thing.
Around the Digital-Lifestyles office we are not big email fans, given that it’s laden with so much junk these days. We, like many others use IM to communicate.
16 January, 2007
Google On Course For Half Of The US Search Market
A new survey has seen Google continuing to exert its dominance on the US web search market, grabbing a huge 47.4 per cent of the sector, up 0.4 per cent during December.
Yahoo, ranked number two, also enjoyed an increase of 0.3 per cent over the same period, giving them a 28.5 per cent market share.
The figures from web audience measurement company comScore Networks revealed bad news for the third placed search engine, Microsoft, whose share dipped by 0.5 to give them just 10.5 per cent of US web searches.
Also heading downwards was InterActiveCorp’s Ask.com search engine, slipping 0.1 per cent to 5.4 per cent.
Google’s rise in the world’s largest internet market seems unstoppable, with the company notching up gains in 16 of the last 17 months.
With an estimated 6.7 billion searches by US web users in December – up one per cent from November – potential advertising revenues are immense, proving ample financial impetus for the search engine giants to embark on endless consumer-wooing feature updates for their services.
The overall US search market has ballooned by 30 per cent since December of 2005, with comScore reporting that consumers performed 3.2 billion searches on Google sites and 1.9 billion searches on Yahoo!
ComScore
[From Reuters]
16 January, 2007
Nokia N800 Internet Tablet Announced
Nokia has announced an update to their 770 Nseries widget in the shape of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, which comes decked out in a natty industrial chrome look.
Sporting a high resolution display, Nokia say that the tablet has been “optimised for enjoying the familiar Web experience anytime, anywhere,” and comes with support for internet calling, instant messaging and email.
Naturally, the thing’s stuffed full of multimedia gadgetry with stereo audio, media support and the ability to enjoy streamed content as you amble around your ~~Tower Hamlets bedsit~~ Hollywood-like mansion.
Boasting faster performance than its predecessor, the N800 comes with a full screen finger QWERTY keyboard (but not a proper pull-out hardware keyboard), easier connectivity via Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth phone, an integrated web camera packed up into a sleek new streamlined design.
Software wise, Nokia are claiming “Internet enhanced navigation” with Navicore, support for RealNetworks’ Rhapsody music service and a deal with Skype to let users make Internet calls from Nokia N800s. They added VoIP support to the 770 back in May last year. It was GTalk at the time.
“As the Internet becomes an ever more integral part of daily life, Nokia
N800 has been designed to offer quick and convenient access to your favourite Internet services regardless of location,” insisted Ari Virtanen, Vice President, Convergence Products, Multimedia, Nokia.
“The Nokia N800 takes our offering to the next level combining speed, performance and mobility into a stylish, compact design,” he added, nearly running out of superlatives.
The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet runs on Nokia’s desktop Linux based Operating System and should be available immediately in the US and Europe for around 399 EUR/USD (around 250 quid).
Nokia N800
8 January, 2007