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DIGITAL DIGEST  | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 238

20 February, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

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1. Introduction

• Game Consoles – January 2011 NPD Sales Figure Analysis 

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Another week, another WNR, but not before I do my usual promotion of the January NPD US video game sales analysis post, apologise for still not writing the 2010 NPD year-in-review that I promised a month ago, and then blame it all on some game I've been wasting my time on (finished Fallout New Vegas BTW, now moved onto the new iteration of the classic timewaster, Civilization V, and also finally completing some unfinished business/achievements in Dead Rising). Anyway, regarding the January NPD figures, I mentioned that the Xbox 360's success (most popular console again) is now largely to do with Kinect, but some other commentators have rightly pointed out that Microsoft spent half a billion dollars promoting the 360 and Kinect, so the small sales increase compared to last year has come at a high price, literally. However, it's useful to point that that total retail spending on the Xbox 360 in January reached $551 million, so Microsoft can easily afford to splash the cash to promote Kinect.

Alright, let's get to the news roundup, I've got the Americans civilization to destroy afterwards, having spent the last 20 years surrounding their territory with Giant Death Robots.

Starting with copyright news, isoHunt is the target of yet another lawsuit, this time by the record industry as it seeks $4m in damages, and the closure of the BitTorrent indexer.

BitTorrent indexers are an interesting category of websites. On one hand, they're basically search engines, like Google or Bing. On the other hand, they mostly allow you to search for pirated content, and so while they do not host pirated content, they do provide the tools to be able to find and start downloading pirated content. And most of the torrents on these indexers are piracy related, that's a fact that can't really be denied. So it's quite easy to see why the MPAA and RIAA like to go after indexer, and because isoHunt is located in a country that isn't so far from the HQs of these two industry lobbies (it's closer than Sweden, anyway), it becomes a natural target.

Indexers are really the last centralized system for piracy left, with everything else decentralized in an attempt to avoid being shutdown (magnet links, DHT …). The only thing left now is to make indexing decentralized too, and it's only a matter of time before all the major torrent downloaders incorporate something this feature. An open sourced BitTorrent client with decentralized indexing like Tribler is something the MPAA and RIAA should be very afraid of because it will be almost impossible to shut down, but it's exactly what their actions are driving users towards. But I think it will be good if we get to a point where Internet piracy cannot be stopped, because perhaps finally, the industry will wake up and find better ways to combat online piracy than lawsuit after lawsuit and government intervention.

Looking at a country where online piracy already seems impossible to stop, Spain, the government's attempts to stop people downloading pirated content is meeting with heavy resistance since piracy has become mainstream. And even famous actors like Javier Bardem, who came out to support the government's initiative, wasn't spared from the public's anger. Bardem was booed and had eggs thrown at him for supporting the government. But even some in the Spanish film industry are against the government's plans to introduce tougher penalties for downloaders, including the president of the Spanish Film Academy, Álex de la Iglesia. Well former president, since he resigned his post to protest against the government's actions. Iglesia says that innovation, not litigation or legislation, is key to fighting piracy. And that viewers, even those viewing pirated content, should be respected because they're the only reason the film industry even exists. I think piracy being accepted as something mainstream isn't actually a very good development, because I still believe creators should profit from their creations. And this is why innovation must come before other countries face the same fate as Spain, and I believe innovation can save the film industry.

And litigation may become a lot harder as courts start to question the very basis of copyright lawsuits that are based on IP address evidence. Former copyright law firm ACS:Law, who tried desperately to avoid having to go to court, is in court and the judge is asking all the wrong questions, from ACS:Law's perspectives anyway. The questions being asked relate to the IP address, and whether this single piece of evidence is really enough for a copyright lawsuit. Finally, we have judge that appreciates the technical subtleties between an IP address and an actual unique identifier of a person, because as the judge rightly states, an IP address at best identifies the account holder of the Internet connection, not the actual downloader. There's also the issue of IP addresses being spoofed, or more commonly, connections being used without authorization. The judge then asks about an unauthorized access to the ISP account, or even authorized access but unauthorized usage, and whether this falls under the authorization clause of copyright law. If you lend your car to someone who says he's using it to go the store to get a few things, and then he goes and robs the store, are you an accomplice? The copyright lobby and law firms say so, the judge is not so sure.

And an update on a story reported here back in December, Matt Drudge of Drudge Report has settled with Righthaven over the unauthorized use a photo on the website. Righthaven had requested $150,000 in damages plus the seizure of Drudge's domain names for the extremely naughty use of a single photograph on the website. No detail of the settlement has emerged, so it's an unknown how much Drudge had to pay, or even if any payment was involved. My personal opinion is that Drudge should have put up much more of a fight, because the lawsuit is unreasonable in asking so much for a single photo. Had Drudge put up the same amount of resistance as fellow political website Democratic Underground, then perhaps the settlement wouldn't have been necessary – Righthaven has tried to extract itself from the Democratic Underground lawsuit, fearing that they may actually have to go to court and face the same kind of questions that ACS:Law in the UK is facing (not to mention the extra cost, which goes against the business model).

Not much happening on the HD/3D front this week, so we'll skip straight to the gaming section, which is good because all of the gaming stories are copyright related anyway.

The first news I posted for this last week was the Crysis 2 leak scandal. What happened was that someone, probably someone on the development team, leaked a pre-release version of the eagerly awaited Crysis 2 game, and of course, hours later, millions of people were trying to download it.

EA, the game's publisher, took the unusual step to address this issue in their blog, blaming it all on online piracy and pirates as you would expect them to do. But that's like blaming the people who are reading the Wikileak leaks, as well as the people who published the leak cables, and not the actual person that leaked it. For me, this isn't an issue about piracy at all, this is an issue about not protecting your products properly, and the fault lies with Crytek and EA. A lot of those that downloaded the pre-release version would still buy the game, and those that had already planned to buy or ordered, would still download just because it's kind of cool to be able to get the pre-release version.

Despite EA's blame game, PC piracy is actually decreasing, says the new president of the PC Gaming Alliance, Matt Ployhar. Ployhar says that it's mostly due to new game design, where MMO games like WoW means that piracy really isn't possible, and also value-added content and services. Steam is the example that I always go to, and it's a good example of how innovation can work. I mean, this is a company that got into the PC game sales business when everyone was saying it was doomed, and they have flourished thanks to the very Internet that publishers were blaming for the industry's demise. Things like showing off your list of games to friends, your achievements, the social aspect of gaming, value-added and exclusive content and features, and of course, reasonable pricing, all counts in the end. As for DRM? Ployhar is on the sidelines when it comes to whether publishers should deploy strong DRM or not. But he does say that many legitimate users do break DRM to get a better gaming experience, something I can personally attest to having used cracks to escape the need to insert the game DVD every time (which is why I now prefer Steam games, since you can get the same thing legally – plus the in-game browsing is a big plus point, considering how crap I am at most games and how much help I need during play).

And finally, an update on the PS3 Jailbreak situation. Sony has, as expected, started to ban those with hacked firmware on PSN. Harsh, perhaps, but hardly unexpected. I'm just surprised Sony didn't insert a virus into hacked PS3s that make them blow up, because you know that was probably their first choice of action until their lawyers talked them out of it. With the PS3 coming last in console sales in the US yet again, Sony can ill afford to take the focus away from their upcoming games, and onto this legal mess. Although with that said, none of this is new. Microsoft went through this, so have Nintendo with all of their consoles, and Sony are really lucky that it hasn't happened to them until now. What they shouldn't do is to overreact, which let's be honest, is something Sony are famous for. Unfortunately, launching the lawsuits and trying to sue those that even watched the hacking video on YouTube does seem like a typical Sony overreaction (although the hack itself is unprecedented, in its totality and completeness, but that's Sony's own fault for having crap security).

Alright, that's another WNR done with. Back to Civ 5 and blowing the smithereens out of the American cities with my stealth bombers equipped carriers (yes, it is possible to have stealth bombers to be stationed on a carrier despite the game not allowing you to do it direct. Simply build a plain old bomber first, base it on a carrier, and then upgrade to a stealth bomber).

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

February 20, 2011	ffdshow Rev. 3760 (generic/x64) Freeware
February 20, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1965 Freeware
February 20, 2011	VideoSpec 0.8.5 Freeware
February 19, 2011	K-Lite Codec Pack 6.9.5 Update Freeware
February 19, 2011	PlayOn 3.2.1.1570
February 19, 2011	x264 r1913 Freeware
February 19, 2011	ProgDVB 6.60.2 Freeware
February 19, 2011	XviD4PSP 6.02 Beta (19 Feb) Freeware
February 18, 2011	LameXP 4.00 RC3 (Build #320) Freeware
February 18, 2011	TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5.0.3.29
February 18, 2011	BDFix (Free Edition) 1.6.9 Freeware
February 18, 2011	Windows 7 Codec Pack 2.9.0 Freeware
February 18, 2011	eXtreme Movie Manager 7.1.1.1
February 18, 2011	Comskip 0.80.041
February 18, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26923 Beta Freeware
February 18, 2011	SPlayer 3.6 Build 1794 Freeware
February 17, 2011	Cole2k Media - Codec Pack 7.9.4 Freeware
February 17, 2011	Media Player Classic HomeCinema Edition 1.5.1.2935 Beta Freeware
February 17, 2011	MediaCoder 2011 RC2 5033 Freeware
February 17, 2011	EncodeHD 1.2.234.0 Freeware
February 17, 2011	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.5 Freeware
February 17, 2011	BD Rebuilder 0.37.05 Beta Freeware
February 17, 2011	3D Subtitler 2.6.0.1 Freeware
February 16, 2011	All My Movies 6.3 build 1308
February 16, 2011	Advanced X Video Converter 6.0.5
February 16, 2011	Lagarith Lossless Video Codec 1.3.22 Freeware
February 16, 2011	AoA DVD Creator 2.5.0
February 16, 2011	DVDStyler 1.8.3 beta 1 Freeware
February 16, 2011	EMDB 1.24 Freeware
February 16, 2011	PS3Muxer 1.30 Freeware
February 15, 2011	BluffTitler 8.1.0.4
February 15, 2011	Vista Codec Package 5.9.1 Freeware
February 15, 2011	MKV2AC3 1.03.03 Freeware
February 14, 2011	OpenShot Video Editor 1.3.0 Freeware
February 14, 2011	Freemake Video Converter 2.1.0.1 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

• New Members 2

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DIGITAL DIGEST  | LiveUpdate Newsletter - Issue 237

13 February, 2011

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INDEX:

1. Introduction

2. Weekly News Roundup

3. Weekly Software Roundup

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1. Introduction

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2. Weekly News Roundup

Sorry for the slightly late edition of the WNR, couldn't be helped unfortunately. Luckily, there weren't too many news stories this week, especially if you really count the whole PS3 jailbreak saga as just one story, so hopefully we can get through this rather quickly.

And don't forget our Facebook/Twitter competition where anyone who likes/follows will enter into the draw to win some $20 Amazon gift cards. The more likes/follows, the more prizes (up to 15 GCs – I have to save the rest of the website earnings  for food), and from the current count, I should be handing out something like 7 or 8 of these GCs. So get clicking, and good luck!

Let's start with the copyright news. Last week. I talked about how increasing access to content reduces piracy, and if you take the same principle and use it for the other side, then decreasing access should lead to more piracy.

Which is exactly what experts are warning now that the UK has a new subscription channel that has made a lot of shows, previ0usly available on free-to-air TV, a channel exclusive. It means that for popular shows like Boardwalk Empire, the only way to actually watch these shows is to sign up to Sky Atlantic, or wait until the show hits DVDs/Blu-rays. Legally, that is. Illegally, well, you won't really have to wait more than 2 hours after the original US airing date to find torrents posted everywhere for that particular episode. In fact, I bet that the torrent release schedule probably beats the airing schedule of Sky Atlantic, probably even by days or even weeks. So release windows, exclusive broadcasts, and no legal free option will only really drive people to pursue less than legal options. Those more adventurous (and technical minded) will go for torrents, while there are still plenty of file sharing and streaming sites that offer the rest the ability to watch the shows without the associated legal risk (since most of the legal focus is on BitTorrent downloads these days). Now, somebody will benefit financially from exclusivity and release delays, but it all seems very short term to me, and the reason why TV piracy is on the up. It's more understandable for US cable based shows, that were never really on free-to-air anyway, but for shows that air in the US on the big networks, there's no reason why these shows shouldn't be shown simultaneously around the world (taking into account time zone differences). Do that, and I think piracy rates will be lowered by quite a bit. Yes, pirated shows don't have ads, which is a big draw card, but with PVR/DVRs and a little bit of fast forwarding, it's probably worth the pain to avoid the risk of receiving a letter from an opportunist law firm.

Speaking of file sharing sites like Hotfile, Hotfile has just been sued by the MPAA and five movie studios it represents. Now, I don't think anyone can deny that there are lots of pirated files on Hotfile, but it is an upload service, and it's the users that populate their servers. Like how people upload pirated Viacom clips to YouTube, and look how that turned out for Viacom, in the court room. The MPAA claims that Hotfile rewards users for uploading pirated movies and TV shows, because Hotfile has an affiliate program where you can earn movie depending on how popular your downloads are and how many of your downloaders sign up for the premium service. Now, I think it's also fair to admit that many pirates are probably making money this way, but then again, in my line of work, I see a lot of software publishers that also use Hotfile and other file hosting services to save money on file hosting, as well as make a couple of bucks back. So Hotfile's affiliate program really is just about growing their business and rewarding their customers, whomever they may be, and can you really blame a business for trying to do this? As for the ratio of legal to illegal downloads? I have no idea. But what can a company like Hotfile do to fight piracy, other than not exist (which is the MPAA's preferred option – in fact, I think they'd rather the Internet not exist either, the same opinion also held by quite a few dictators around the world right now). They can try and filter based on file names, but all users will do is to name their downloads sdkj3489sd.zip or something similar, and piracy will continue. They can actively scan downloads, but pirates can then simply password protect and/or encrypt files (if they're not doing it already), and piracy will continue. Hotfile can put in a system where copyright holders can submit removal requests, but they already have such a system which the MPAA studios appears to be not very fond of (mainly because it means they will actually have to do a bit of work themselves). So what's a digital file locker hosting website to do? What can they do? They can get sued, apparently. And the likes of RapidShare and MegaUpload are surely not immune from similar lawsuits, although it's understandable why the MPAA chose a lower profile website like Hotfile to sue, since it's like RapidShare, which already has a lot of experience in the courts, will put up a much stronger fight.

6,500 people have been added to the "The Expendables" mass lawsuit. Nothing really surprising there, because as long as you have producers who don't care about public opinion and a negative backlash, law firms like the US Copyright Group will continue to have clients.

The PS3 jailbreak stuff will be posted under the Gaming section as per usual.

In HD/3D news, again, not a lot happening. I did catch a few 3D Blu-ray titles on sales at Amazon and elsewhere online recently, and so even without Fox/Panasonic's mean-hearted/short-sighted-ness in making Avatar 3D an exclusive (now selling for a little bit less on eBay, around $150).

The one I was tempted to buy was Piranha 3D. I loved the original Piranha movies, and this latest edition of the latest remake has both the 2D version, as well as the anaglyph version (red/blue glasses version), in addition to the 3D Blu-ray version, so it's a good introductory package for 3D (because you can always go back to the 2D version in case 3D is not for you, or if you don't have a 3D Blu-ray system right now, you can still enjoy the old fuzzy, washed out colours, style 3D with the cheap paper glasses).

While neither HD or 3D related, I did post a news item about publishers moving away from Apple's iTunes towards Android and other more open marketplaces. While software restrictions are the real issue right now, it also I guess applies to movies, and some of these movies might be HD (I'm really stretching here, aren't I). Basically, you have Apple who wants to control everything and then some, and it may be their right since they did produce the excellent iDevices in question, and most of their income is derived from having so much control. And there's also the issue of quality control too. But being able to play any movie you want simply by using a USB cable to copying it, like you would do with any USB storage device, means that Android phones appeal to those who simply cannot stand iTunes or the idea of being locked to the software. And for publishers, it means they can publish without having to hand over 30% for every transaction, or to have to abide by Apple's stupid licensing restrictions, which requires even free software have use Apple's DRM (hence the whole VLC player for iOS debacle).

And finally in gaming, most of the news as you may have guessed relates to Sony's legal action against the security researchers who uncovered the major security hole within Sony's own security infrastructure, and famous/infamous PS3 hacker George Hotz, who did the awful thing is re-enabling homebrew on the PS3 (but not piracy).

The week started with Sony attempting to get the likes of YouTube and Twitter to hand over user information in relation to anyone remotely related to the PS3 hack, even those who simply watched the hacking video on YouTube. Their intention was to expand the case to include anyone who releases or distributes custom firmware and other security hacks. Basically, a fishing expedition. But one that was ultimately denied by the judge for the case.

I might have some sympathy for Sony if they only went after those that release firmware that included the ability to play copied games. But to go after fail0verflow, basically just a security research team, and also geohot, who has time and time again denounced piracy and went out of his way to ensure his custom firmware cannot play pirated games, it seems Sony have chosen the wrong targets really. And then to try and go after Linux hackers like Graf_Chokolo, whose sole aim was only to bring Linux back to the PS3, a feature that Sony once fully supported, it just seems unnecessary.

And then Linux community responded by fooling fake PS3 VP and twitter personality Kevin Butler into re-tweeting a hacked PS3 security code. Embarrassing, and even Xbox 360's Major Nelson poked fun at the incident, but what's more worrying for Sony is that all of these are taking attention away from the console and the great games that they will have out this year, and that's something they can't really afford at the moment, not when the race with the Xbox 360 is so close and with the threat from Kinect hanging around.

And speaking of Kinect, the PlayStation Move's creator (Dr. Richard Marks) seems a bit jealous of the attention Kinect has gotten with the PC community, and wants something similar for the Move, except to make it even more accessible. I suppose this means that instead of having access to just the raw data, some of the software and processing algorithms may be opened up too, if Dr. Marks is able to overrule Sony's "we don't like anyone poking their heads under the hood" stance. Of course, what most interested the programmers was the potential of Kinect, and how different it was to any consumer tech on the market (something like this would otherwise be thousands and thousands of dollars, for the professionals market). The Move, while somewhat innovative, is really just a more accurate Wii, and programmers have already had their fun with hacking the Wii-mote when it first came out. If anything, the PlayStation Eye is a more interesting device, but one that still can't compare to the Kinect in terms of innovation.

And so, we come to the end of another edition of the Weekly News Roundup. Enjoy your week!

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3. Weekly Software Roundup

February 13, 2011	AvsPmod 2.0.6 Freeware
February 13, 2011	VideoReDo TVSuite with H.264 4.20.6.614 Beta
February 13, 2011	SUPER v2011.build.46 Freeware
February 13, 2011	LameXP 4.00 Beta RC1 (Build #301) Freeware
February 13, 2011	MeGUI 0.3.5 build 1938 Freeware
February 12, 2011	Vista Codec x64 Components 2.7.9 Freeware
February 12, 2011	EncodeHD 12.233.0 Freeware
February 12, 2011	ProgDVB 6.60 Freeware
February 11, 2011	LAV Filters 0.14 Freeware
February 11, 2011	Fraps 3.2.9
February 11, 2011	Cinematize for Mac 3.0
February 11, 2011	VideoCacheView 1.86 Freeware
February 11, 2011	Orb 3.05.0029 Freeware
February 11, 2011	PlayOn 3.1.27.1540
February 11, 2011	Subtitle Edit 3.1 RC2 Freeware
February 11, 2011	BDFix 1.6.7
February 11, 2011	Cinematize for Windows 3.0
February 10, 2011	MediaCoder 2011 RC2 5025 Freeware
February 10, 2011	ffdshow Rev. 3757 (generic/x64) Freeware
February 10, 2011	Windows 7 Codecs 2.7.4 Freeware
February 9, 2011	J. River Media Center 15.0.174
February 9, 2011	PotPlayer 1.5.26758 Beta Freeware
February 8, 2011	MediaLink 2.14
February 8, 2011	Smart Cutter Ps/Ts 1.3.6
February 8, 2011	BurnAware Free Edition 3.1.3 Freeware
February 8, 2011	BD Rebuilder 0.37.04 Beta Freeware
February 7, 2011	x264 r1900 Freeware
February 7, 2011	D2MP 4.31 Freeware
February 6, 2011	DVD Profiler 3.7.2
February 6, 2011	PopCorn MKV AudioConverter 1.84.0 Freeware

======END OF LIVEUPDATE NEWSLETTER======

• New Members 2