Fox Seeks YouTube User’s Identity

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The Hollywood Reporter says that 20th Century Fox served YouTube with a subpoena seeking the identity of a user that uploaded episodes of 24 and The Simpsons.

The subpoena, which first came to light on the blog Google Watch, was granted by a judge in U.S. District Court in San Francisco after being filed Jan. 18 by the News Corp.-owned studio. It is not yet known whether YouTube has complied with the request.
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Either he was too ignorant to know what he was doing, or he didn't care. He'll certainly care pretty soon.

I knew Google wouldn't comply to the government's request for internet porn search information, but this is a matter of copyright infringement, which can become quite serious. Be interesting to see if they protect the user or not.

Plus there's always the RIAA and MPAA to have a say. I'd use '$.02' but it's more like $2 billion.
 
If all the copyrighted info is removed from YouTube, the place would be a ghost-town !
 
I wonder whats the diffrence from torrent sites? Just because youtube is popular?
 
you tube has made people much more relaxed to copyright infringement.. theres always been a huge amount of copyrighted material on youtube, people think its not a big deal anymore.. well until the copyright holders start to get pissed and take action
 
I love YouTube, I can always count on someone uploading the big UFC fights so I can rewatch the PPV event with my friends.

+1 for the proxy.
 
so fox would rather NOT investigate something that could be the biggest revenue stream they could ever imagine? typical. i mean they canceled family guy, and futurama.
 
Martyr said:
typical. i mean they canceled family guy, and futurama.
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And they need to bring back Futurama. Why put that above Family Guy? Tons of people loved Futurama (me included). Seth has created three shows now. The Simpsons isn't quite as funny as it used to be, and Futurama was fresh, original, and cleverly funny.

Bring back Futurama! Put it in place of American Dad. It's funny but I wouldn't miss it.
 
GJSNeptune said:
And they need to bring back Futurama. Why put that above Family Guy? Tons of people loved Futurama (me included). Seth has created three shows now. The Simpsons isn't quite as funny as it used to be, and Futurama was fresh, original, and cleverly funny.

Bring back Futurama! Put it in place of American Dad. It's funny but I wouldn't miss it.
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You can still catch Futurama on [Adult Swim] if you have cable/dish. :)
 
GJSNeptune said:
And they need to bring back Futurama. Why put that above Family Guy? Tons of people loved Futurama (me included). Seth has created three shows now. The Simpsons isn't quite as funny as it used to be, and Futurama was fresh, original, and cleverly funny.
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They are, the dude who played Fry admitted to it in an interview.
 
Fox could beat all these pirates out there by doing one simple thing.


Release HD content themselfs... and put commercials in it. People would be too lazy to torrent it and too lazy to take the commercials out.... besides it would be in a better quality too.


There, they got thier money and people got thier videos. I don't know if these guys haven't realized it yet, these shows are free on tv, secondly, not everyone can tune in at that exact hour to watch these shows.
 
Ockie said:
Fox could beat all these pirates out there by doing one simple thing.


Release HD content themselfs... and put commercials in it. People would be too lazy to torrent it and too lazy to take the commercials out.... besides it would be in a better quality too.


There, they got thier money and people got thier videos. I don't know if these guys haven't realized it yet, these shows are free on tv, secondly, not everyone can tune in at that exact hour to watch these shows.
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its kinda of like how some stations will let you watch prime time shows on the web with a few commercial breaks. I watch Grey's Anatomy online and with only about a minute total of verizon commercials its all good :D. No reason why shouldn't do it but I guess they make more profit selling dvds/hddvds/blueray than they would with commercials.
 
Leon2ky said:
They are, the dude who played Fry admitted to it in an interview.
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:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

(emoticon abuse?)

Best news I've read in ages! Got a link? YouTube video? Anything tangible I can obsess over?

Wonder what slot FOX has in mind. I only have the first season on DVD, and my girlfriend I think is getting me season two for my birthday. Anyone wanna buy me three and four? :D
 
I don't think putting TV shows on the net for free is as effective as they'd planned. I've watched one or two of LOST with RoadRunner and the streaming was interrupted countless times. Plus the video size is quite small.

If they increase the quality of the streaming, maybe pirating will go down, but people are still drawn to watching it on a large screen, with no commercials, and without interruption.

Of course, some people are still on dial-up, and have old computers, so if they even bother trying to watch episodes online, they wouldn't be able to handle better streaming quality.



If they put commercials on the DVDs, no one would buy them.
 
Plus, if there are commercials on the DVDs, they better be free. No reason to buy a DVD for $15+ when the ads have (likely) more than paid for the production and distribution costs.

I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't free, though.
 
Maybe FOX found out who did it and, it was someone they dont want to charge. The only way you could have up-loaded the show was if you worked there.
 
GJSNeptune said:
I don't think putting TV shows on the net for free is as effective as they'd planned. I've watched one or two of LOST with RoadRunner and the streaming was interrupted countless times. Plus the video size is quite small.

If they increase the quality of the streaming, maybe pirating will go down, but people are still drawn to watching it on a large screen, with no commercials, and without interruption.

Of course, some people are still on dial-up, and have old computers, so if they even bother trying to watch episodes online, they wouldn't be able to handle better streaming quality.



If they put commercials on the DVDs, no one would buy them.
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I think you read me wrong. I said offer full downloads of dvd quality with commercials in them for free... not a dvd disk with commercials. This way pirates wont bother to rip the video feed to post it online as users would just simply live with the commercials and have a better overall quality.
 
I'm not saying streaming it either, I'm saying full download as to keep.
 
Ockie said:
I'm not saying streaming it either, I'm saying full download as to keep.
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Commercials are the reason people pirate in the first place. That's why we buy DVDs so we don't have to watch them. If FOX offers free 24 episodes laced with commercials for our downloading pleasure, people will still buy the DVDs and pirate them. I guarantee it.

Your idea only works for shows that people would only want to watch once, and that's if they like them enough to watch commercials.

And if we can download episodes, why won't we be able to skip through commercials like we've recorded the show on VHS/DVR? Oh, they'll offer the episodes with special software disabling skip-ahead? Yeah, that'll decrease pirating.
 
GJSNeptune said:
I don't think putting TV shows on the net for free is as effective as they'd planned. I've watched one or two of LOST with RoadRunner and the streaming was interrupted countless times. Plus the video size is quite small.
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blame the broadband companies. cross either pond and you would have 50 meg down/ 10 meg up for about what you are paying now.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Commercials are the reason people pirate in the first place. That's why we buy DVDs so we don't have to watch them. If FOX offers free 24 episodes laced with commercials for our downloading pleasure, people will still buy the DVDs and pirate them. I guarantee it.

Your idea only works for shows that people would only want to watch once, and that's if they like them enough to watch commercials.

And if we can download episodes, why won't we be able to skip through commercials like we've recorded the show on VHS/DVR? Oh, they'll offer the episodes with special software disabling skip-ahead? Yeah, that'll decrease pirating.
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Wrong. Pirates don't pirate to skip commercials, LOL. I have some news for them then, they can buy a TiVo...

Pirates pirate so they do not have to wait for their tv show time to come around, they also pirate so they don't have to BUY the DVD of all the seasons.

Why would somone pirate a freely availible DVD that you can download in a better quality and content too and at a much faster speed without the need of programs? That absolutley makes no sense.

TiVo is availible for TV anyways right now, so what if they skipped commercials?... little Johnny is not going to know how to be able to do that with software... so he will just download it at the most convenient place. Go to a elementary school, ask them where they can see videos, they will start listing pirated places or places offering pirated content (youtube)....

The people who would want to skip the comercials vs actually just watching the show are few and far between. People pirate for the reason of availibility, challange, convenience, and market. You would kill availibility as you would be the premier source, convenience as you would have it easily accessable, challange as there would be no reward, and market as people would turn to your video download site to download for free.


Now if you want to get technical, let me ask you this... if you are looking for say a Millitary video, where would you go... would you go to a p2p network software site and search? would you go to the movie store to quickly pirate one? or would you go to a simple site like youtube, ogrish, or millitaryvideos.net? Quite an easy awnser isn't it... same concept applies.
 
Ockie said:
Wrong. Pirates don't pirate to skip commercials, LOL. I have some news for them then, they can buy a TiVo...
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Wrong. There's still the whole TiVo costs money thing. Pirates aim to avoid that step, remember?

Ockie said:
Pirates pirate so they do not have to wait for their tv show time to come around, they also pirate so they don't have to BUY the DVD of all the seasons.
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Do you spend half of every day in a hole? I highly doubt people who pirate care about show times. They do it because they're getting stuff for free. They're beating the system.

Ockie said:
Why would somone pirate a freely availible DVD that you can download in a better quality and content too and at a much faster speed without the need of programs? That absolutley makes no sense.
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Because if you download it, it isn't a DVD, now is it? Plus you said there would be commercials in these downloads. You don't seem to think through what you type. And what programs are you talking about? I mentioned programs to view the content, not download it or whatever it is you seem to mean.

Ockie said:
TiVo is availible for TV anyways right now, so what if they skipped commercials?... little Johnny is not going to know how to be able to do that with software... so he will just download it at the most convenient place. Go to a elementary school, ask them where they can see videos, they will start listing pirated places or places offering pirated content (youtube)....
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And again, TiVo costs money. Pirates, I'm sure, tend to be the opposite of wealthy. Then again, many wealthy people are more stingy than poorer people.

What software are you talking about? If a TV company offered downloads of episodes, I highly doubt it'll be in some common format. They'll package it with special software, much like the applet you use on the websites. Otherwise you'll just use WMP, PowerDVD, Winamp, etc. and use the Forward feature.[/quote]

Ockie said:
Now if you want to get technical, let me ask you this... if you are looking for say a Millitary video, where would you go... would you go to a p2p network software site and search? would you go to the movie store to quickly pirate one? or would you go to a simple site like youtube, ogrish, or millitaryvideos.net? Quite an easy awnser isn't it... same concept applies.
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If the answer is so easy, why even ask it? I thought we were talking about copyrighted material. Do you mean a military movie, or a video some soldier took overseas? I don't know why you would go to a store and buy a DVD just to pirate it out to others. Those people are either obliviously philanthropic, or they're just stupid. I would think that people who provide illegal content somehow obtained it for free as well.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Do you spend half of every day in a hole? I highly doubt people who pirate care about show times. They do it because they're getting stuff for free. They're beating the system.
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You might call it a hole, I call it a home :p Anyways, so you say they are to beat the system... well whats there to beat if the system isn't playing the game?

GJSNeptune said:
Because if you download it, it isn't a DVD, now is it? Plus you said there would be commercials in these downloads. You don't seem to think through what you type. And what programs are you talking about? I mentioned programs to view the content, not download it or whatever it is you seem to mean.
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I gurantee you that the quality that they can offer directly would be superior to any dvd ripper wannabe uploading it to youtube or some pirate site.

Programs to view the content, thats what I was talking about. How many people do you know would be experienced enough to go through tools and hacks to hack out the commercials instead of fast forwarding?

Not many. Convenience is the reason why people download pirated crap, it's also financial reasons (don't want to spend the $$$).

GJSNeptune said:
And again, TiVo costs money. Pirates, I'm sure, tend to be the opposite of wealthy. Then again, many wealthy people are more stingy than poorer people.
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I think we can agree that the public fuels pirates right? So if you cut a huge portion of them out I don't think they'd find it to be so rewarding.

GJSNeptune said:
What software are you talking about? If a TV company offered downloads of episodes, I highly doubt it'll be in some common format. They'll package it with special software, much like the applet you use on the websites. Otherwise you'll just use WMP, PowerDVD, Winamp, etc. and use the Forward feature.
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Exactly what I'm talking about, offer it in a normal standard format. People wouldn't bother to download pirated things... it would simply be too easy to just download it and forward through the commercials (some wont even bother to forward).... kinda like tivo these days.


GJSNeptune said:
If the answer is so easy, why even ask it? I thought we were talking about copyrighted material.
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It's easy because the common people tend to hunt down the easiest method. If I asked you to grab me nvidia drivers, where would you go? To a torrent site or nvidia.com?


GJSNeptune said:
I don't know why you would go to a store and buy a DVD just to pirate it out to others. Those people are either obliviously philanthropic, or they're just stupid. I would think that people who provide illegal content somehow obtained it for free as well.
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Ahh yes, thats my entire point. People obtain these things to set records, to be the best, to be known, to be...infamous. Thats why they do it... fame, challange, rewards... thats why they do it. This method of mine would be cuthoat and beat them at their own business... effectivley shutting them down and still maintaining your revenue.
 
Ockie said:
well whats there to beat if the system isn't playing the game?
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The 'system' is not a game, and no one is playing one. Let's just say it's a game of spending money, and you win if you don't. Good?

Ockie said:
I gurantee you that the quality that they can offer directly would be superior to any dvd ripper wannabe uploading it to youtube or some pirate site.
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Doubtful. No company is going to spend the money for the extra bandwidth and server space. These episode files would be GIGANTIC. It would also cut into TV ratings, since these downloads would be more convenient than watching the show. These episodes are free because they're offered in a bandwidth-friendly fashion.

Ockie said:
Programs to view the content, thats what I was talking about. How many people do you know would be experienced enough to go through tools and hacks to hack out the commercials instead of fast forwarding?
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It only takes one person to do it and upload the commercial-free content. What do you mean "instead of fast forwarding?" It wouldn't be a possibility in this case. It'd be possible if they downloaded a ripped DVD. Isn't that enticing?

Ockie said:
it's also financial reasons (don't want to spend the $$$).
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No shit. I've been saying this the whole time, and I've used it to argue against you.

Ockie said:
I think we can agree that the public fuels pirates right? So if you cut a huge portion of them out I don't think they'd find it to be so rewarding.
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No, we cannot. What does that even mean? People who pirate are also in the public. Do they comission each other to pirate stuff? Why are you separating people who pirate from the public? Maybe you mean online public? And a lot of people pirate obliviously.

Ockie said:
Exactly what I'm talking about, offer it in a normal standard format. People wouldn't bother to download pirated things... it would simply be too easy to just download it and forward through the commercials (some wont even bother to forward).... kinda like tivo these days.
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Now we're getting somewhere, but, again, companies are not going to host or have another site host the large files of episodes.

Bottom line, they make enough from DVD sales because of the high prices. To spend lots of money cracking down on pirating would just cancel out the profits.

Ockie said:
It's easy because the common people tend to hunt down the easiest method. If I asked you to grab me nvidia drivers, where would you go? To a torrent site or nvidia.com?
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Only a moron would search for drivers on a torrent site. That just makes for a bad analogy.

Ockie said:
Ahh yes, thats my entire point. People obtain these things to set records, to be the best, to be known, to be...infamous. Thats why they do it... fame, challange, rewards... thats why they do it. This method of mine would be cuthoat and beat them at their own business... effectivley shutting them down and still maintaining your revenue.
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To set records? What? Your method is full of holes and isn't at all financially practical.
 
Can somone get this man some straws? I'm out. You are just beating around the bush without any solutions to the problem with the exception to hack peoples concepts and ideas of making both parties happy.
 
Ockie said:
Can somone get this man some straws? I'm out. You are just beating around the bush without any solutions to the problem with the exception to hack peoples concepts and ideas of making both parties happy.
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Straws for what? It isn't up to us to offer a solution. Your solution needed debated, and would be far from making both parties happy. You realize 'both parties' includes pirates? You want to make them happy?

I have to beat around the bush because your arguments are circles.



You want a solution? Keep things the same. TV companies will someday realize that the money they spend suing others for preventing potential revenue is counter-productive. I know people who download music and go out and buy the songs if they like them. That's one of the biggest positive side effects of file sharing. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've seen some articles online saying how music downloads have been increasing, or something to that nature.

Until you're an executive at one of these companies, I say keep on doing whatever you're doing and let them fend for themselves. And keep hating the RIAA and MPAA, the PETAs of intellectual property. :p
 
GJSNeptune said:
I've watched one or two of LOST with RoadRunner and the streaming was interrupted countless times. Plus the video size is quite small.
.
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I watch Heroes and Prison Break online in fullscreen HD without any problem. What's your connection speed?
 
Aratech said:
I watch Heroes and Prison Break online in fullscreen HD without any problem. What's your connection speed?
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doubful. streaming hd requires a very fast connection, and also, a very uncongested path
 
Aratech said:
I watch Heroes and Prison Break online in fullscreen HD without any problem. What's your connection speed?
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Different networks though ;)

It isn't bad but it isn't the best. I think our ISP was a little slow that week, but it could easily have been abc.com. I haven't tried it again since then, and this was a couple months ago.
 
BTW, typical HD broadcast bandwidth is 11-15Mbps.

How many of you have a connection that fast?
 
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