Torrents and peer-to-peer file sharing is often associated with illegal piracy, the pirate copy of The Dark Knight being a prime example.

However, EZTV is aiming to use its torrent streaming technology as an open source distribution platform for major networks.

Forward thinking TV networks such as the BBC are already interested in this sort of technology. The BBC is currently working with the P2P-Next research project which aims to develop an open source media delivery platform that is perfectly legal.

Swarmplayer

That aim may have come a step closer with the news from TorrentFreak that EZTV is experimenting with TV torrent streaming using what they are calling a Swarmplayer.

An interesting legal case is developing in Italy which could result in YouTube being forced to moderate all videos uploaded to the site (that’s about 200,000 videos a day).

At the moment, YouTube’s policy is to accept every video as respecting the rules and regulations, and let them appear live on the site. Only when someone complains about the nature of a video, be it due to copyright issues, or decency issues related to violence or sex, does the video get removed from the site.

However, with four Google executives being taken to court in Italy over a video showing mental abuse, I can foresee this policy being changed in the future.

The Dark Knight is breaking all box office records but it’s not all good news for its distributer Warner Bros.

The popular Torrent site, The Pirate Bay, has jumped in to taunt the movie industry over its ability to provide the movie for free.

The hype surrounding this film, the sequel to Batman Begins, has been incredible, with people of all ages soaking up the brilliant reviews and then going to see what all the fuss is about.

Not everyone will visit the cinema to see it though, preferring instead to find an illegal copy of the movie on the Internet, probably in the form of a torrent. Even those that watch it at the cinema may still download a pirated copy to re-watch the movie at home rather than waiting for a DVD release.

The Pirate Bay Fosters Publicity

The Pirate Bay, the largest BitTorrent site on the Web, knows the potential of this movie and is using the hype surrounding the release of The Dark Knight to foster some publicity.

Redlasso, a video site that allowed bloggers to take snippets of TV shows to embed on their sites, has shut down this side of the business due to pressure from the Fox, CBS, and NBC television networks.

The trio sent cease and desist letters to the company back in May demanding an immediate ceasing of all copyright infringements. When this was ignored, a lawsuit was filed, and Redlasso has now backed down afraid to fight over issues of the service being legal under ‘fair use‘.

Blockbuster, the company once synonymous with movie rentals, has been strangely absent from the digital download business. It’s been left to companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix to build a movie rental/download business online.

But now, almost a year after acquiring movie download service Movielink, Blockbuster finally looks set to enter the fray. Although it remains a mystery why it took Blockbuster so long to do this after buying an out-of-the-box business designed for the job.

Blockbuster Movielink In Testing

According to The Dallas Morning News, Movielink has now been integrated in to the Blockbuster website, and 500 specially invited Total Access members are currently testing the service, this hints that existing members of BlockBuster’s DVD rental service will soon have access to video downloads too.

The biggest challenge facing both video hosting sites such as YouTube, and video producers themselves, is how best to make money from the amount of views these videos gain.

The issue isn’t as cut and dried as just sticking some ads on and hoping for the best, for a variety of different reasons. In fact, the whole business is so complicated, many people just accept they aren’t ever going to make any money out of it.

Copyright Violations

First of all, you have the different advertising methods, with video ads, pre-roll post-roll etc, or text ads on the video page amongst the many choices on offer to you. Then there is the fact that YouTube won’t even advertise on UGC unless it’s checked for copyright violations.

The latter rule, in place to prevent YouTube getting sued… again, means that only an estimated 3% of video on the site can actually have adverts running alongside them.

Last year, Stephanie Lenz uploaded a video of her toddler dancing and jiggling about, with a Prince song playing in the background. The clip was only 29-seconds long, and the music was barely audible.

However, that didn’t stop Universal Music from issuing YouTube with a DMCA takedown notice, which alleged that the use of the track by Prince (a Universal artist) infringed on its copyright.

Court Case Followed

Lenz refused to just take this issue lying down, and managed to get Universal to retract the takedown notice after claiming the use of the song was fair use, and not at all detrimental to the artist’s rights.

Not content with this, she then got in touch with the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and took Universal to court for issuing the notice in the first place.

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