Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA by Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.  The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html 12/19)

A group of 15 episodic comedy writers including WGA West president Patric Verrone (Futurama) and Bill Oakley (The Simpsons) are working on creating original shows for gaming-themed video sharing site Machinima.com. (Machinima (Machine + Cinema) is the name for the genre of online video consisting of stories old using video game characters.) 15 pilots are currently underway and seeking sponsorship. The Machinima Comedy Lab Network shows will also be distributed on Machinima.com’s popular YouTube channel. (Cynopsis 12/19)

Yahoo upped the ante in the battle to win the hearts and minds of customers concerned with their online privacy. The company announced a new data retention policy promising to hold customer search engine data for only 90 days to help protect the privacy of its 500 million worldwide users. The move comes a week after Microsoft announced its support for the 6-month deadline legislated earlier this year by the European Union. Google, which facilitates about 75% of the world’s searches, said in September it would cut its search retention period in half from 18 months to 9 months. (Cynopsis 12/19)

The MPAA filed suit against three U.S.-based movie download sites on Wednesday alleging copyright infringement – campusist.com, movies-on-demand.tv and sswarez.com, per Wired. The studio group has filed a total of 13 lawsuits against P2P download sites since 2007. (Cynopsis 12/19)

ActiveVideo Networks plans to introduce a platform to “seamlessly” deliver both traditional and Web-based programming at next month’s 2009 Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. “For Web-infused television to succeed on a macro level, it needs to be as accessible to consumers as the television programming they already enjoy,” said Jeff Miller, the company’s president and CEO. TVNewsday (12/18)

Hulu jumped to the #3 spot in total video streams for October according Nielsen Online‘s most recent VideoCensus numbers, increasing an amazing 45% from 142k streams in September. NBC Universal also broke into the top 10 in October, replacing Disney Online. (Cynopsis 12/19)

Top Online Brands ranked by Video Streams for October 2008
Brand                                Total Streams (000)     Unique Viewers (000)
YouTube                                   5,077,720                   82,553
Fox Interactive Media                    244,216                   18,481
Hulu                                           206,068                     9,069
MSN/Windows Live                       183,858                     13,394
Nickelodeon Kids and Family           181,084                       6,565
NBC Universal                              175,183                       9,649
Yahoo!                                       169,331                      18,826
ESPN                                         134,337                        7,775
CNN Digital Network                      133,643                       8,263
MTV Networks Music                       99,787                       4,417
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.

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