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Streaming subscriptions overtook cable in 2018
Cable companies have been nervous about streaming services for a while, but now they have a particularly good reason to be jittery. An MPAA report citing IHS Markit data has shown that there were more subscriptions worldwide to online video services (613.3 million) than there were for cable (556 million) in 2018, reflecting a 27 percent jump in streaming over 2017. Cable subscriptions dropped two percent in that period. IP-based TV overtook satellite, too, indicating a larger overall shift to the digital realm.
Netflix joins the Motion Picture Association of America
Netflix announced today that it is joining the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), making it the first internet-based service to join the 97-year-old trade association. The move marks Netflix's intentions to be taken seriously in Hollywood circles, shifting from being just a technology service that hosts other studio's content to a full-blown production company with its own massive distribution platform.
Hollywood strikes back against illegal streaming Kodi add-ons
An anti-piracy alliance supported by many major US and UK movie studios, broadcasters and content providers has dealt a blow to the third-party Kodi add-on scene after it successfully forced a number of popular piracy-linked streaming tools offline. In what appears to be a coordinated crackdown, developers including jsergio123 and The_Alpha, who are responsible for the development and hosting of add-ons like urlresolver, metahandler, Bennu, DeathStreams and Sportie, confirmed that they will no longer maintain their Kodi creations and have immediately shut them down.
US internet providers stop sending piracy warnings
Remember the media industry's vaunted Copyright Alert System? It was supposed to spook pirates by having their internet providers send violation notices, with the threat of penalties like throttling. However, it hasn't exactly panned out. ISPs and media groups have dropped the alert system with an admission that it isn't up to the job. While the program was supposedly successful in "educating" the public on legal music and video options, the MPAA states that it just couldn't handle the "hard-core repeat infringer problem" -- there wasn't much to deter bootleggers.
Kim Dotcom could face extradition to the US
Kim Dotcom, essentially the Motion Picture Association of America and Digital Millennium Copyright Act's de facto prime target, and his colleagues actually can be extradited to the United States to face copyright charges according to a judicial ruling. However, don't expect the man behind Megaupload to appear stateside anytime soon.As The New Zealand Herald, Dotcom's local news publication, tells it, the internet mogul has 15 days to appeal or apply for a writ of habeas corpus (produce the body) and it looks like his legal defense team is already taking care of that. In addition to copyright infringement, he faces charges for racketeering and money laundering as well. The BBC reports that he owes domestic authorities somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million.
YIFY: The rise and fall of the world's most prolific movie pirate
It's never been hard to pirate movies, but for a long time, one collective has made it easier to watch the latest blockbusters than any other: YIFY. By focusing on speed, better quality rips and small file sizes, the group quickly grew to become the number one source for illegal movies, catering for the needs of millions of content pirates around the world. However, the YIFY name may soon fade into obscurity after it was revealed that its leader had been traced and named in a New Zealand lawsuit following a joint operation between the MPAA and its "international affiliates." While many believe that its releases won't be missed, YIFY's shutdown will leave a big hole in the piracy market and have a knock-on effect on streaming services like Popcorn Time -- at least until another group steps up.
MPAA filed lawsuits in Canada and NZ to shut down movie pirates
The MPAA can and will hunt pirates down wherever they are, it seems. According to TorrentFreak, the association sued three popcorntime.io developers in Canada earlier in October, accusing them of "various copyright infringing acts." Since then, it has successfully obtained an injunction, which ordered the website's shutdown. If you've never heard of the service before, it's a website that streams pirated movies, which even works with Chromecasts and AirPlay-enabled devices. It's not the only Popcorn Time version available on the internet, but it's the most popular fork of the original app that also shuttered because of the MPAA back in 2014.
Movie streaming service Popcorn Time blocked by UK court
Popcorn Time has painted a rather large target on its back with its movie-streaming service. Due to its questionable legality, movie studios have sought to block the service, but a shift to Bittorrent-based distribution has allowed it to continue operating while Hollywood scrambles a response. One place the studios have been able to deal a blow, however, is in the UK, where they've managed to restrict access to the original Popcorn Time client.
Studios asked Google to pull 345 million pirate links in 2014
Google may be bending over backwards to eliminate piracy in its search results, but it's clearer than ever that the internet giant is fighting an uphill battle. TorrentFreak has sifted through Google's weekly data to discover that the company fielded over 345 million copyright takedown requests in 2014, or a rate of nearly one million per day. As you might have guessed, most of these calls for action come from movie and music studios trying to pull links to bootleg copies of their work. The British Phonographic Industry is by far the most aggressive copyright holder -- it asked Google to yank more than 60 million music-related links.
Google lawsuit forces MPAA-backed attorney general to retreat
Remember that post Google put up this week that accused the MPAA of trying to resurrect the spirit of SOPA with the help of state prosecutors (that included evidence based on some of Sony Pictures' leaked emails)? It just turned into a lawsuit -- and it's already having an affect. The search giant has updated the page to explain that it's asking federal courts to dismiss a subpoena Attorney General Jim Hood sent to Google back in October. That 72-page document asserted that he believed that Google has violated the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act, and had failed to take actions to prevent crimes committed by using its services. Now that Google is suing, Hood made a statement via the New York Times, calling for a "time out" and saying he will call the company to "negotiate a peaceful resolution of the issues affecting consumers."
The MPAA is playing politics to help topple Google
Google sees itself as an unbiased index of the web, saying that it only removes results when lawmakers deem them to be illegal. Unfortunately, that's not an argument that holds much sway with the movie studios, still smarting after the heavy-handed Stop Online Piracy Act was shut down. If the New York Times is to be believed, it's prompted the Motion Picture Association of America to use politicians as its newest line of attack. It's a move that even Google has felt compelled to respond to.
HBO teams up with Tencent to sell its TV shows in China
China's strained relationship with the concept of intellectual property is one of the reasons that you can buy a local copy of a Range Rover Evoque for a third of the price. That's one of the reasons why western businesses are wary about selling their products in the nation, since it can often be time consuming and expensive. Still, it looks as if HBO is going to try and buck the trend after recruiting Tencent to distribute shows such as Game of Thrones, Rome and True Detective through the latter's Tencent Video streaming service.
Movie theaters ban Google Glass and other camera-toting wearables
Many individual American movie theaters are already hostile to guests who use wearables like Google Glass, and they've now made that opposition official on a national level. Both the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theater Owners have instituted a "zero-tolerance" rule that bans recording-capable wearables during showings. While the policy doesn't say exactly what qualifies, it's clearly targeted at Glass and other headgear. It could technically include camera-equipped smartwatches like the Gear 2, although you probably won't have to worry about stowing your timepiece.
Major movie studios finally file a lawsuit against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom
We're not sure what took so long, but the MPAA just announced that major movie studios (Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Columbia and Warner) have filed a civil lawsuit against former filesharing site Megaupload and the people who ran it. This comes over two years after federal investigators shut down the website, seized its files and filed criminal charges against founder Kim Dotcom aka Kim Schmitz. MPAA lawyer Steven Fabrizio (named its global general counsel late last year, he's won cases against Hotfile and IsoHunt) claims that at the time of its shutdown, Megaupload was "by all estimates the largest and most active infringing website targeting creative content in the world." Specifically targeting the site's Uploader Rewards program, the claim is that its business model was "designed to encourage theft." According to Dotcom, the rewards program was terminated six months prior to the site's shutdown, and Megaupload continued to grow without it.
Torrent front end Popcorn Time made streaming movies free and easy, so of course it's gone (update)
For about four days "Popcorn Time" lived, opening an easy-access door to streaming movies via torrents, but now it's gone. Aggregating info from APIs (YIFY for torrents, OpenSubtitles for subs and TheMovieDB for metadata) its developers quickly pushed out open source apps for Linux, OS X and Windows. The team explained that it's meant to be as easy as using Netflix, and insisted no legal problems were incoming because it didn't host any content locally or charge anything. Whether Hollywood studios agreed (doubtful) won't be known, as a "Goodbye" statement on the Popcorn Time website says the project is over "because we need to move on with our lives." If this sounds like a dream setup however, all is not lost -- TorrentFreak has heard from the YTS movie torrent site that it's picking up the baton and expects to release an installer "shortly." Update: As promised, the YIFY team has resurrected the Popcorn app as a living project, which can be found here. [Thanks, @MrsAngelD]
Google Glass wearer removed from AMC theater under suspicion of recording
Despite the many uses for Google Glass, this new class of wearable devices is inevitably meeting some growing pains (pictured above is 7'3" Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert, a Glass wearer who has experienced some growing pains) as the world gets used to them. One wearer successfully fought a traffic ticket recently and now another early adopter suffered the "embarrassing" experience of being removed from a movie theater for bringing the accessory. In a story originally posted on The Gadgeteer, the unnamed individual stopped by the AMC Easton 30 in Columbus to watch Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, wearing Google Glass attached to his prescription lenses, something he says he'd done before without any trouble. Where the story takes a twist however, is when officers moved in an hour into the movie, yanked the Glass from his face, and brought the man and his wife to separate interrogation rooms for over three hours. Apparently unfamiliar with the device and already on alert for piracy at that theater -- most pirates using this technique bring camouflaged hand-held cameras -- it took quite some time before they eventually (with the owner's permission/at the owner's insistence) plugged Glass into a computer, reviewed the stored images and determined he had not been recording the movie. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Khaalid Wells confirmed the January 18th incident calling it a "brief interview." AMC released a statement to Engadget (available in full after the break) which says theater owners contact the MPAA when suspected recording takes place, in this case prompting an investigation and resulting in contact with Homeland Security. AMC feels like wearing devices with recording capabilities "is not appropriate at the movie theatre," a position that will be hard to hold as movie viewers arrive with their Glass, Gear and other camera-equipped wearable tech, and sticks out here because they were attached to prescription lenses. The initial rollout of camera-equipped phones led to similar awkward interactions, although being arrested certainly takes things to another level. The wearer reports his Glass was returned, undamaged, but at last update he'd received only a few free movie passes for his troubles.
Time Warner Cable and Verizon plan to redirect, throttle internet users accused of piracy (video)
We've been wondering what major American internet providers would do to thwart supposed pirates beyond nag them senseless; other than leaks surrounding AT&T's reeducation process, we've mostly been left in the dark. There's a better picture of the consequences now that Time Warner Cable and Verizon have unveiled their strategies at an Internet Society conference. Verizon's approach is an attempt to straddle the line between angry media studios and the basic need to communicate: if copyright complaints reach the fifth or sixth notice, Verizon will throttle the connection for two to three days without instituting outright blocks. TWC's method may be tougher to ignore -- the cable provider will redirect claimed infringers to a custom page and restrict what they can visit. While it's not clear just how limited access will be, it's doubtful anyone will want to find out. Not surprisingly, critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation aren't happy with the restrictions as a whole, and point to the Center for Copyright Information allegedly going back on its vows of impartiality -- it notes that the anti-piracy initiative's reviewer is a previous RIAA lobbying firm, and that many of the real technical details are partially censored despite promises of transparency. The Center hasn't responded to those challenges, but we're somewhat comforted when it claims there won't be draconian attempts to catch everyone, at least not in the foreseeable future. We'd still be sure to lock down any WiFi hotspots to avoid false accusations; ignoring any ISP warnings could soon lead to more than just a sternly-worded message.
AT&T training document suggests ISPs are gearing up to beat piracy with internet restrictions
The fact that ISPs are working with the RIAA in a bid to squash piracy is far from new. A leaked document claiming to be AT&T training materials, however, suggests that the operator is about to stop talking, and start doing. According to TorrentFreak notifications will be sent out to customers on November 28th about the change in policy, with those suspected of illicit downloads receiving an email alerting them of the possible copyright infringement. We'd previously heard of a six-stage notification system, and this, too, is mentioned here with repeat offenders facing access to "many of the most frequently visited websites" restricted. Even stranger, is the talk of having to complete an online tutorial about copyright to get the restrictions lifted. As AT&T is part of the MPAA and RIAA-backed Center for Copyright Information, it's likely that the other members (Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision), will be prepping similar plans. We've asked AT&T for confirmation directly, but for now keep an eye on the mail.
Google to downrank sites hit by valid copyright claims
Google has been dogged by claims that it facilitates the piracy of content through its search results pretty much since day one. Starting next week, the web giant will be taking a much more aggressive approach to sites hosting pirated material by downranking frequent offenders. The new results algorithm will take into account the number of valid copyright notices received against a site and penalize them appropriately in the rankings. Google says that this will allow consumers to more readily find legitimate sources of content such as Hulu and Spotify, but it's hard not to see the move as one intended to appease studios, content producers and government officials that routinely threaten to hammer companies like Google with lawsuits and restrictive legislation. Mountain View was also quick to highlight how responsive it's been to industry concerns -- citing the fact that it receives and processes more copyright complaints in a day than it did in all of 2009 combined. For more details, hit up the source link. Update: The MPAA has issued the following statement from Michael O'Leary, Senior Executive Vice President for Global Policy and External Affairs, in response to Google's move: We are optimistic that Google's actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online, and away from the rogue cyberlockers, peer-to-peer sites, and other outlaw enterprises that steal the hard work of creators across the globe. We will be watching this development closely – the devil is always in the details – and look forward to Google taking further steps to ensure that its services favor legitimate businesses and creators, not thieves.
Congress to hold a hearing tomorrow on the Future of Video
If you're reading this, then you're probably always looking ahead at what technology might bring next. Tomorrow at 10AM ET, US Congress members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will be doing that too. The specific segment of the market being discussed is video and on the docket to testify is a who's who of the video business. The old guard, NCTA and the MPAA, is being represented by Michael Power -- yes, the previous Chairman of the FCC -- and Michael O'Leary, respectively. On the other side are representatives from Dish Network, Sky Angel, Netflix, Roku and Public Knowledge. So yeah, this could get interesting. The NCTA has already starting posturing on its blog, Cable Tech Talk, with a post highlighting all the wonderful changes in the video distribution industry in the past 20 years -- however, curiously, the upwardly creeping price of the average bill wasn't mentioned. Of course a subcommittee hearing is just the first of a very long process towards real change, and while we'd be shocked if any of our ideas are implemented anytime soon, it's good to see some movement in Washington on a topic we care about.
