Watch out, Netflix, you have (more) competition. And this time it’s in the shape of Amazon. Offering streaming video as part of a package is one thing, but what if it were to offer it as a standalone product?

Amazon Prime Instant Video

Amazon Prime is a service costing $79-per-year. For that price Amazon customers not only get free two-day shipping on all products but also access to an all-you-can-eat buffet of streaming video goodness.

Amazon has this week added Viacom to the list of companies providing content for Prime Instant Video. That brings MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon into the mix, amongst others. It also means Amazon Prime Instant Video has broken the 15,000 shows and movies threshold.

Continue Reading…

MegaUpload is no more, at least in its former capacity. We can now look forward to a long and expensive legal battle, and no difference whatsoever being made to how content is shared over the Internet.

MegaUpload Goes Down

One of the biggest websites in the world, and the most-trafficked cyberlocker services on the Web, MegaUpload, has been taken offline. Furthermore, several of the company’s key employees, including founder Kim Dotcom, have been arrested and charged.

The takedown and arrests were the culmination of a two-year investigation into the site and its alleged breaching of copyright infringement laws. 20 search warrants were executed in at least seven countries.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that those involved with the company made millions of dollars by turning a blind eye to the file-sharing of copyrighted content that was happening on MegaUpload’s servers. This despite MegaUpload complying with DMCA notices from media companies.

Continue Reading…

If you download movies from the Internet then there’s a small chance you’ll get caught. If you run a site offering the movies for download then the chances of being caught ramp up considerably. Especially if you’re the public face of said site.

NinjaVideo

Hana Amal Beshara, the co-founder of NinjaVideo [domain seized], a website which offered downloads of first-run movies, has been sentenced to 22 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. In addition she will complete 500 hours of community service and have to repay the $209,826.95 she is alleged to have earned from the site.

NinjaVideo was one of nine websites taken down in June 2010 as part of Operation In Our Sites. In the two years the site was running it brought in around $500,000. Beshara is one of five admins convicted over the site, all of whom have pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and copyright infringement.

Continue Reading…

It’s OK to hate Louis C.K. I do. But you should love his latest comedy special.

Not for the content, necessarily, but for the way in which he has distributed it. Hammering another nail into the coffin of Internet-hating big media companies as he goes.

Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. isn’t for me. I’ve tried, I really have. But while everyone else seems to love the guy and thinks he’s hilarious, I can’t stand him. Because he just isn’t funny. In any way. To me, at least, because I understand comedy is subjective.

What is funny, however, is the way Louis C.K. has just got one over on big media. Funny, but also brilliant. And an important step along the road down by which the middle-men will be completely removed from the equation.

Continue Reading…

What do you do when you see everyone renting your movies rather than buying them? Why, you offer buyers an advantage of renters. And some people with money burning a hole in their pockets will likely fall for it. Kerching!

Renting Vs. Buying

Hollywood knows the world, and the way the world consumes content, is changing. It also knows it is going to have to change with it if it’s going to not just survive in this new world order but actually flourish. Even though the actions of its lapdog the MPAA sometimes suggests otherwise.

Many of the biggest movie studios are actively seeking ways to get their content into the hands of consumers in new ways, and the digitization of Hollywood is under way. But that doesn’t mean the Hollywood giants of old haven’t got a few tricks up their sleeve to ensure they squeeze maximum profits out of us.

One way they can achieve this is by tempting us to buy rather than rent.

Continue Reading…

British PS3 owners can now enjoy a range of U.S. television shows that have been added to the U.K. PSN Store. But the range of content is lacking, the lack of a rental option bizarre, and the cost of buying excessive.

PS3 TV Streaming

Games consoles are rapidly becoming the living room devices by which people are consuming digital content. With always-on access to the Internet and a range of apps, widgets, and Web browsers providing a smörgåsbord of choices to the switched-on gamer, home games consoles are doing much more than playing games these days.

Hit U.S. TV shows including 24, Arrested Development (soon to be a Netflix-produced show), Breaking Bad, South Park, and Two and a Half Men are now available to watch on the Playstation Network in the U.K. If you can get your head and your wallet around the obvious issues at hand.

Continue Reading…

They way we consume media, be it television, movies, music, games, or news is changing. Rapidly. All thanks to the Internet. But the old media dinosaurs are hanging on by their fingertips, despite attempts to get them to freefall into this new era.

Sony TV

Sony is reportedly considering setting up an online TV offering to rival cable. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony would deliver TV channels over the Internet to connected Sony devices such as games consoles, television sets, and Blu-ray players.

The Japanese technology giant has already approached the likes of NBC Universal, Discovery Communications, and News Corp. Sony wants to challenge the might of the cable companies by undercutting them on price and offering much more flexibility with channel choices.

This strikes right at the heart of many people’s problems with cable right now: it’s too expensive, and the channel packages forced upon you are ludicrous.

Continue Reading…