The NBC Olympics website “has served up over 744 million page views, up from a mere 160 million during the Beijing games four years ago,” reports Wired. “The site has also streamed over 75 million video feeds to viewers around the globe, according to NBC.”
The network has faced criticism of its delayed TV coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games, but Wired suggests online coverage is now a viable alternative. “If you don’t like NBC’s TV coverage, just stick with your browser,” the article says.
NBC reports that five of the events it has live-streamed were watched by over a million online viewers.
“Hundreds of millions of users doesn’t necessarily qualify NBC for a medal in traffic management,” notes the article. “But it still deserves some praise.”
In a related post from Mashable, the popular #NBCFail trend may actually be overstated, according to a new report from Pew Research.
“According to the survey of just over a thousand adults, 76 percent of Olympic fans say say the NBC is doing an excellent (29 percent) or good (47 percent) job covering the Summer Games. Just 18 percent rate the coverage as fair (13 percent) or poor (5 percent),” notes the post.
Of the people surveyed who were following the Olympics online or via social media, 70 percent said the coverage was excellent or good. TV viewers were even more generous with 77 percent giving positive reviews.
“The Pew survey, though — coupled with strong ratings for NBC’s primetime coverage — indicates that Twitter carpers may simply be a peanut gallery the network can afford to ignore,” Mashable concludes.
Microsoft’s Justin Rao and Google’s David Reiley worked together to determine the societal cost of spam compared with the benefits spammers receive. Their findings: Spam brings in $200 million and society pays $20 billion.
Even though spammers are earning relatively small amounts compared to the societal cost, it still proliferates because the cost to send spam is so small. Rao and Reiley’s report found that for spam to be worthwhile, it only needs 1 in 25,000 people to buy something through its advertising.
Rao and Reiley also offer a solution: raise the cost of business for spammers.
“We advocate supplementing current technological anti-spam efforts with lower-level economic interventions at key choke points in the spam supply chain, such as legal intervention in payment processing or even spam-the-spammers tactics,” the report states.
“By raising spam merchants’ operating costs,” adds the report, “such countermeasures could cause many campaigns no longer to be profitable at the current marginal price of $20-50 per million emails.”
“Thinking we safeguard our phones by physically keeping close tabs on them is way off, according to researchers, because millions of us already provide mobile data to marketers, business analysts, and law enforcement every day,” reports Mobiledia.
The post provides details regarding five ways smartphones are giving away personal information:
1) Carriers “generate a lot of information from consumers’ cell phone use, and make personal information anonymous, sell it to advertisers or hand it over to FBI and police officers,” notes the post, adding that tracking programs also aggregate other information.
2) Smartphones have big bulls-eyes. The big data trend targets personal data including contact lists and Google search words to provide insight into Internet-user behavior.
3) Law enforcement isn’t required to obtain a warrant to search smartphones and “in some places, if law enforcement officials can guess a password and unlock a confiscated device, they can impersonate the phone’s owner by sending texts,” explains the post.
4) Phones with apps that transmit user’s geolocation can make them vulnerable to robbers or burglars who know they aren’t home.
5) While it is known that posting on social media is public to some extent, “consuming content and ‘just browsing,’ was always assumed to be private, anonymous even, but this is also being threatened,” Mobiledia writes.
A federal appeals court has rejected a legal theory that would make it illegal to embed third-party videos on websites.
Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that video bookmarking site myVidster is not liable for embedded copies of videos shared by users on its site.
“Judge Posner’s reasoning is interesting,” notes Ars Technica. “He argues that when you view an infringing video on a site such as YouTube, no one — not you, not YouTube, and not the guy who uploaded the infringing video — is violating copyright’s reproduction or distribution rights. And since simply viewing an infringing copy of a video isn’t copyright infringement, he says, myVidster can’t be secondarily liable for that infringement.”
There may be a violation regarding copyright’s public performance right, but the current law is murky in that area. “The judge called on Congress to help clarify exactly how copyright law should apply in the age of Internet video,” notes the article.
Judge Posner ruled that embedding is not direct copyright infringement. He also ruled that viewing (without copying) is not a violation, since the Copyright Act specifically protects against reproducing and distributing copies.
“In Posner’s view, no matter how many people view a video on a video sharing site, there’s only one violation of the reproduction and distribution right: the original uploading of the video,” reports Ars Technica.
Where it becomes murky is in the legal distinction between “downloading” and “streaming” a video. Additionally, the public performance definition within the Copyright Act is ambiguous and open to interpretation.
“Legislative clarification of the public-performance provision of the Copyright Act would be most welcome,” wrote Posner.
Companies are pushing to reinvent the way viewers discover and share TV programs via new integration with social networking outlets.
“App developers are updating the traditional channel guide to show viewers programs that are uniquely relevant to them based on their social circles,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
TV viewers not only have a virtual water cooler at their disposal for discussing their favorite shows, but now mobile apps help share programs that their friends like based on their preferences.
“We can help people discover what to watch in a fundamentally new way,” says Alex Iskold, chief exec of AdaptiveBlue, maker of social TV app GetGlue. “When you sit down on the couch, you’re wondering, ‘What do I watch?’ These kinds of guides are going to become pretty ubiquitous.”
The apps hope to extend a broader shift for social TV, going beyond the original check-in approach for friends to share information (the article suggests the check-in never achieved a critical mass necessary to launch a viable social community).
“In coming weeks, GetGlue plans to relaunch its app as a social TV guide that will show a scrolling calendar with the shows, movies and sports that users’ might like,” notes WSJ. “It will show whether friends who use the app are watching the same show.”
The GetGlue guide will interact with Facebook’s Connect feature in order to “pull in data from friends, so that the guide becomes fully educated on what people like and watch.”
The companies behind the free apps “are trying to offer complimentary advertising on smartphones and tablets to make money,” explains the article. “For example, if someone is watching a pizza commercial, the app could offer a coupon for the pizza shop on the user’s smart device.”
The article also describes similar social TV apps from companies such as Peel Technologies, Dijit Media and TVGuide.com.
Intel, Cisco and Verizon are investing $3.3 million in R&D at five universities in an effort to improve video delivery over wireless networks.
“The first goal of the Video Aware Wireless Networks (VAWN) program? Find a good way to measure mobile video quality,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
Evaluating subjective video quality in quantitative terms is a challenge, one that involves perceptual issues and technical concerns.
“Because viewers perceive quality differently depending on what they’re watching — sports versus talking heads, for example — quality isn’t about throughput but experience, explained Jeff Foerster, principal engineer and wireless researcher at Intel Labs. That’s why VAWN researchers partnered with psychology departments to better understand how the brain comprehends different kinds of video on various devices,” notes the article.
Video stream algorithms, data compression, caching, network management and data storage are some of the considerations in designing systems that will ideally meet the needs of the most people.
Cooperation between packets of data in a network is also a consideration. “Not all packets need to be treated the same,” says Foerster. “Some packets are more important than others to maximizing perceived video quality.”
To further complicate matters, the video measurements will vary by device. Also, different video formats have different requirements.
Increasing efficiency and quality is a pressing matter, suggests the post: “In 5 years an estimated 90 percent of Net traffic will be video, and 66 percent of mobile traffic will be video. Video traffic is expected to grow 66 times based on the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI), but carriers simply can’t afford to spend 66 times the cost to boost network capacity.”
The project is in year two of its three-year plan and includes research conducted by the University of Texas at Austin, Cornell, University of California San Diego, University of Southern California and Moscow State University.
Even with millions of global viewers, NASA successfully streamed live footage of the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars, and not once did their servers fail. By contrast, the team’s attempt to upload a clip of the event to YouTube had less luck.
Within minutes of the “NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain” video being posted, it was blocked by Scripps Local News on copyright grounds, highlighting some innate issues with YouTube’s automated copyright monitor, Content ID.
“The good thing about automation is that you don’t have to involve real people to make decisions. The bad thing about automation is that you don’t have to involve real people to make decisions,” said Bob Jacobs, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for communication, who added that these type of claims happen once a month.
Content ID scans the 72 hours of content uploaded each minute on YouTube, looking for videos that violate terms of service and for content that matches copyrighted material.
YouTube also enables copyright owners to submit requests for pirated video to be censored. Unfortunately, the site favors accusers, making it extremely difficult for the accused to reinstate their videos.
“YouTube’s policy requires the alleged violator to submit a signed counter-claim, under penalty of perjury, then awaits a response from the original supposed owner before possibly restoring the video,” Motherboard explains. “YouTube forwards the claim to the supposed copyright owner and waits ten days for a response. ‘If we do not receive such notification, we may reinstate the material,’ says YouTube.”
Jacobs argues there should be consequences for people who make false copyright claims.
Variety writer David S. Cohen says today’s 3D wave is not the same 18-month fad the industry experienced in the 1950s. Even so, he remains skeptical about its future based on filmmakers’ mindsets.
“Release my movie in 3D if you must — but don’t make me change one single thing I’m used to doing” is the attitude of many in the industry, Cohen writes.
The pricing also plays into 3D’s future. “I think the 3D upcharge is proving both a blessing and a curse,” he notes. “We’re getting movies with enough 3D to collect the upcharge, but not enough to deliver the premium experience the audience is paying for.”
3D has developed a bad reputation, which Cohen attributes to the “cynical content creation on the one hand and poor projection on the other,” both of which reflect a philosophy of collecting the upcharge with minimal effort.
“But if filmmakers don’t embrace 3D and make it a plus in their storytelling, and if exhibs won’t do the extra work and spend the extra money to show 3D beautifully, eventually auds might decide that aside from the work of a few people who have publicly promoted the format, Hollywood’s 3D is just a cynical cash-grab. And the sad part is, they might be right,” Cohen concludes.
Since Facebook has been striving to monetize its mobile efforts, the social giant took some heat earlier this year when big retailers such as Gamestop, Nordstrom and JC Penney shut down their Facebook stores.
Working with Ecwid, the second largest store-building application on Facebook, VentureBeat finds that Facebook store commerce is in fact working, but mostly for small- to medium-sized businesses.
“We started pulling data from the over 40,000 Ecwid accounts globally that have active stores on both a website and on Facebook,” the post explains. “For the second quarter of this year, we found that 22.1 percent of those orders came from the Facebook store. That’s up from 17.3 percent in Q1. These are impressive figures, especially when you consider they’ve grown from 15 percent in 2011 when we first started tracking this.”
Smaller businesses seem to have a better understanding of how social networks work, according to the analysis. These companies can convey a more personal tone in social conversations, be more flexible to incorporate new store-building technologies and build up their community — rather than just “product hawking.”
“[Small- to medium- businesses] more effectively integrate their stores into the flow of the conversation,” the post adds. “Dropping a store into a social news stream has to be done carefully. The purpose of social networks is to connect people, so an ill-timed sales offer can be a turnoff.”
The bigger companies could learn a thing or two from the smaller businesses. “Since the rules of this game are still being written, it’s important to pay attention to who’s figuring it out first,” suggests VentureBeat.
“A source close to Google tells us that the company has put a stop to all acquisitions related to Google+, at least until the end of this year,” reports TechCrunch.
“This source also tells us that Google is wary of both growing the Google+ team right now and providing the product with any additional resources until January,” adds the post.
However, the traditional Google+ Hawaii offsite meeting is reportedly still on the schedule. It is also worth noting that Google+ has already made significant acquisitions this year including the $100 million Meebo purchase.
Google also acquired automatic friends sorter Katango and social media analytics service SocialGrapple last year.
“The Google+ project itself is not on hold but, if this rumor is indeed correct and Google is cutting back on expanding the team’s resources, this could be an indication that Google+ isn’t doing quite as well as the company’s glowing public comments would indicate,” suggests TechCrunch.
San Francisco area eBay users can now register for the beta release of the company’s new same-day shipping service called eBay Now.
“An iOS app, eBay Now’s beta will let SF residents get $5 same-day shipping on products from local stores,” reports TechCrunch.
To start, the service is restricted to purchases over $25. Early partners include Macy’s, Toys R Us, Target and Best Buy.
“Startups like TaskRabbit and Uber have given consumers a taste of instant gratification, and now it seems eBay wants to deliver the same satisfaction,” notes the post. “We are witnessing the rise of convenience tech.”
The move could provide some competition for Amazon, which recently announced it is planning new warehouses in major cities in order to provide same-day shipping to certain regions.
“If I’m in a big city surrounded by brick-and-mortar stores and want something immediately, why wait days by going with ecommerce unless there’s a super-speedy shipping option?” asks the author. “Yes, so you never have to leave your cave. But eBay Now could turn your briefest impulse into products at your door just hours later.”
Removing the built-in entertainment systems common on airplanes today could save some airlines around 14 gallons of jet fuel per hour by taking tons off the plane’s weight. And on those long flights, this change can equate to hundreds of dollars saved per flight.
On average, in-flight entertainment systems weigh in around 13 pounds per seat. Offering iPads instead could drastically cut down this weight and even reduce costs of replacing or maintaining IFE systems.
“In addition, airlines have to provide tablets only to actual passengers who didn’t already bring their own, and some passengers might not want to watch movies and so would decline the device. Empty seats don’t get them, either, saving even more weight and expense,” notes ReadWriteWeb. “In classic airline fashion, they’ll likely yield management analysis to precisely calculate how many tablets they’ll need for each flight.”
Those opposed to the change claim tablets take up space on trays and are inconvenient for lie-flat seats. However, new IFE platforms could let passengers “connect their own devices to the on-board entertainment or connect their tablet’s content to the seat-back screen,” the post states.
“Eventually, with the increase of broadband availability on flights, airlines may not even bother to provide proprietary content at all: passengers will bring their own, or surf online to find their own entertainment,” the article continues. “And as tablet penetration continues to increase, more and more passengers will likely tote their own tablets onto the plane.”
Customers will ultimately have the last say as they choose with their wallets, ReadWriteWeb suggests.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is getting an update in light of the expanding social media scene, extensive ad networks and new tracking technology.
The rules apply to third party advertising networks and developers of apps or plug-ins when dealing with a child-oriented website or service. If a site and/or service directly targets children under 13 as their main audience, it is required to treat all visitors as underaged. The rules do not, however, affect information collection required for maintaining a network or offering a service.
The new rules allow sites/services to “age-screen all visitors in order to provide COPPA’s protections only to users under age 13,” the FTC states.
According to the FTC, “an operator of a child-directed site or service that chooses to integrate the services of others that collect personal information from its visitors should itself be considered a covered ‘operator’ under the Rule.”
The update also expands the meaning of personal information to include geolocation data and “‘persistent identifiers’ that recognize a user over a period of time which are used for purposes other than ‘support for internal operations,'” according to the FTC.
“This rule is aimed squarely at tracking cookies that are capable of not only delivering advertising within a site but can also be used to track people across sites to deliver targeted information,” notes SafeKids.com.
Despite good intentions, the COPPA revision still has some setbacks like its potential impact on small businesses. Also, “…it discourages companies from offering services to people under 13 or even allowing pre-teens to use services that could benefit them,” SafeKids.com writes. “Because COPPA doesn’t apply to people 13 and over, there are a lot of great services aimed at teens and adults but since kids do want to use many of these services, they wind up lying about their age, often with parental consent or involvement.”
Despite the cries against an Internet crackdown, the MPAA says it is not trying to control the Web in its case against Richard O’Dwyer.
UK resident O’Dwyer could be extradited to the United States for copyright infringement regarding his site TVShack.net, which provided links to possibly illegal content. O’Dwyer may not have violated UK laws and he is in the process of appealing the decision.
According to a supposed leaked MPAA memo: “Being 24, posing for newspaper photo shoots in a cartoon sweatshirt, and having your mother and Jimmy Wales speak for you, does not mean you are incapable for [sic] breaking the law.”
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales sees O’Dwyer’s prosecution as an affront to Internet freedom. He has initiated a petition that has since gotten a quarter million signatures.
The MPAA is trying to curb these concerns. “This case isn’t about Internet freedom,” the association states. “It’s about a man profiting from theft. However, we do welcome a larger discussion about how best to protect intellectual property online while ensuring an Internet that works for everyone.”
“Stopping online piracy is like playing the world’s largest game of Whac-A-Mole,” suggests The New York Times. “Hit one, countless others appear. Quickly. And the mallet is heavy and slow.”
The article cites workarounds to several attempts of copyright protection to illustrate how battling piracy is often futile.
For example, when YouTube launched Content ID for movie studios and TV networks to legitimately upload copyrighted clips, YouTube users placed the videos inside a still photo of a cat that fooled the Content ID algorithm.
When authorities blocked access to BitTorrent site Pirate Bay earlier this year, whacking one big mole led to hundreds of smaller ones.
“In retaliation, the Pirate Bay wrapped up the code that runs its entire Web site, and offered it as a free downloadable file for anyone to copy and install on their own servers,” explains NYT. “People began setting up hundreds of new versions of the site, and the piracy continues unabated.”
Ernesto Van Der Sar, editor of Torrent Freak, says piracy will not go away and recommends that rather than attempting to combat it, companies should be experimenting with new content distribution models.
“There’s a clearly established relationship between the legal availability of material online and copyright infringement; it’s an inverse relationship,” says Holmes Wilson, co-director of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing piracy laws from disrupting the Internet. “The most downloaded television shows on the Pirate Bay are the ones that are not legally available online.”
“If every TV show was offered at a fair price to everyone in the world, there would definitely be much less copyright infringement,” he adds. “But because of the monopoly power of the cable companies and content creators, they might actually make less money.”