Will today's infrastructure support tommorrow's High-Definition Video?  Peter Svensson, a Technology Writer for the Associated Press writes:

Most home Internet use is in brief bursts — an e-mail here, a Web page there. If people start watching streaming video like they watch TV — for hours at a time — that puts a strain on the Internet that it wasn't designed for, ISPs say, and beefing up the Internet's capacity to prevent that will be expensive.

To offset that cost, ISPs want to start charging content providers to ensure delivery of large video files, for example.

Internet activists and consumer groups are vehemently against those plans, saying they amount to tilting the Internet's level playing field, one of the things that encourages innovation. They want legislation to guarantee a "neutral" Internet, but prospects appear slim.

At the heart of the debate is a key question: How much would it really cost the Internet carriers to provide a couple of hours of prime-time TV over their networks every day?

The carriers are playing their cards fairly close to their chest, but there are ways to get close to an answer.

One data point: As a rough estimate, an always-on, 1 megabit-per-second tap into the Internet backbone in downtown Atlanta, bought wholesale, costs an ISP $10 to $20 a month, according to the research firm TeleGeography Inc. An ISP's business is carrying data from that tap to the customer.

One megabit per second doesn't sound like that much, but ISPs spread that bandwidth out over their subscribers. Analysts estimate that ISPs sell around 30 times more bandwidth to their end users than they can connect simultaneously to the Internet (the figure probably varies widely from provider to provider).

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Found this one on Slashdot this morning, martinmarv writes:

The BBC is reporting that Warner Bros. is to sell movies over BitTorrent. Disappointingly, the pricing is set to be about the same as the DVD, even though the download will only become available at the same time as the DVD release, and can only play on one machine. In distributing films via download, Warner will join the ranks of MovieLink and CinemaNow. Perhaps they should wait to see how their $1.50 experiment works out first?." From the article: "Other Hollywood studios are now likely to launch similar services. They believe movie fans will prefer to pay a reasonable price for a legal downloaded movie rather than risk illegally swapping a computer file that could contain viruses or be a poor quality copy of a film.

One of our families favorite DVD's is a copy of the 1980's version of Flash Gordon, the film is 26 years old but the kids adore it.   As a consumer, I really dont care what format my video comes in as long as the quality is good and I have the ability to play it now, five years from now, and in the case above 26 years from now.  

A revised class-action settlement involving online DVD rental service Netflix has been approved six months after an original settlement was proposed. Netflix had been sued for promising "one day delivery" and "unlimited" rentals after it disclosed it delayed DVDs to frequent renters.

 

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Thomas Mellon Jr. had taken issue with a number of points in the initial settlement, including a payout of $2.5 million to lawyers involved in the case. The FTC voiced its opposition in January saying, "the settlement would serve more as a promotional vehicle for Netflix."

 

Netflix users will now receive a one-month service level upgrade free of charge. This means that Netflix users subscribed to the 3 DVDs at-a-time program will be upgraded to 4 DVDs at-a-time for one month. Former subscribers can also apply to receive one month of free service.

 

Lawyers for both sides had originally crafted the proposal to allow Netflix to automatically bill customers after the free month. That option has been stricken from the new settlement, and the two primary lawyers in the case, Adam Gutride and Seth Safier, will now only receive $1.3 million.

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that proposed legislation now making its way through the Senate might put an end to music webcasts that use MP3 or other non-protected streaming formats. Services like Live365, Shoutcast, and smaller radio stations would be affected, and may be forced to use DRM technogy.

It would also mean an end to the streaming radio stations in iTunes as well. The iTunes stations also use DRM-less formats, the EFF said.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and majority leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Introduced the provision as part of a larger bill Wednesday aimed at ensuring that copyright holders are compensated as satellite radio allows its users to save programming.

"I believe our laws must strike the proper balance between fostering new businesses and technology and protecting the property rights of the artists whose music is being played," Feinstein said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue Wednesday.

Called the PERFORM Act, short for the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006," the bill would force satellite providers to compensate the record industry for songs saved on receivers. Industry executives say such a law is necessary so that there are no loopholes in regulations governing downloadable music."   

I wondered when this would get pushed through, BetaNews reports:

RealNetworks said Monday that it had been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office surrounding its media technology. The patent covers methods used when consumers click on links to stream content from Web browsers and media players, the company said.

Called "click-to-stream," the technology patented covers how streaming media is allowed to play before the entire file is downloaded to the computer. The patent specifically references media that is initiated from a Web browser, multimedia advertising, and network-enabled software media players.

The patent is backdated to November 1994, four months before the first version of RealAudio was released. RealNetworks will add the patent to its Helix Community program, an offering by the company that licenses out key Real technologies.

Currently, Real holds over 35 patents relating to multimedia streaming, with applications for about 100 more. The Helix program currently counts some 50 companies as licensees, including phone manufacturers Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, as well as Novell, Red Hat, and Sun.

"This fundamental new patent recognizes our breakthrough innovation, and provides Real with an exciting opportunity to expand the Helix Community's role as the centerpiece of the digital media marketplace," RealNetworks chairman and CEO Rob Glaser said.  |  more...

I found this depressing little gem on Yahoo! News this afternoon.  May Wong for the Associated Press writes:

In this era of easy ad skipping with TiVo-like video recorders, could television viewers one day be forced to watch commercials with a system that prevents channel switching?

Yes, according to Royal Philips Electronics. A patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says researchers of the Netherland-based consumer electronics company have created a technology that could let broadcasters freeze a channel during a commercial, so viewers wouldn't be able to avoid it.

The pending patent, published on March 30, says the feature would be implemented on a program-by-program basis. Devices that could carry the technology would be a television or a set-top-box.

Philips acknowledged, however, that the anti-channel changing technology might not sit well with consumers and suggested in its patent filing that consumers be allowed to avoid the feature if they paid broadcasters a fee.

On Wednesday, company officials issued a statement that noted the technology also enables the opposite: allowing viewers to watch television without advertising. The intention was never to force viewers to watch ads against their will, the company said of the technology.

"We developed a system where the viewer can choose, at the beginning of a movie, to either watch the movie without ads, or watch the movie with ads," the company stated. "It is up to the viewer to take this decision, and up to the broadcaster to offer the various services."

The company also said it had no plans to use the technology in any of its products.

Philips wanted to provide the technology and seek the patent only as part of the broader developments within the industry, Philips spokesman Andre Manning said."

State legislatures and tax officials, eager to find new ways to boost government spending and curb budget shortfalls, are eyeing the burgeoning market for digital downloads as a potentially lucrative source of revenue.

A CNET News.com analysis shows that 15 states and the District of Columbia now tax downloads of music, movies and electronic books. Some high-tax states such as California do not levy the same charge on iTunes downloads, but that could soon change.

"More states are beginning to tax downloaded products," said Steve Krantz of the Council on State Taxation, which represents companies that do business in many states. "Some are doing it through specific legislation. Others are doing it through the interpretation of previous law."

This means that more Americans will be obligated to pay more every April 15 because of a concept known as the use tax. If your home state taxes digital downloads, those levies are generally collected either when purchases are made or on tax day, depending on the location of the Internet retailer.

One reason that music and movie downloads have largely escaped the notice of tax collectors is that, until recently, the market was relatively small. But the dizzying success of iTunes and such rivals as Yahoo Music Unlimited and eMusic.com has exposed a rich vein of untapped revenue. Hollywood studios raised the stakes even higher this month by announcing plans to sell movies over the Internet that buyers can keep." 

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ArsTechnica reports that Disney Co. plans to make its more popular programming on ABC and other channels available for free anytime on the web as of April 30th 2006:

As TV audiences have shrunk over the past few years, networks have begun scrambling for ways to keep their programming in front of as many eyeballs as possible. The latest move comes from ABC, which will make a number of its most popular programs available online at no cost. Beginning April 30, a redesigned ABC.com website will allow web surfers to watch full episodes of programs such as Lost, Desperate Housewives, and others starting the morning after they air on ABC. In addition, programming from other Disney-owned networks will be made available online over the next couple of months. The first will by Soapnet, which will begin programming on April 17, followed by the Disney Channel in June, and ABC Family at an unspecified point in the future.

All programs will be shown in their entirety, including commercials which cannot be avoided. That's a smart move on ABC's part, as it ensures that advertisers will get another shot at hawking their wares to an audience that might otherwise change channels during commercial breaks or fast-forward through them if recorded. Aside from being unable to avoid commercials, watching the programs will be similar to watching timeshifted content in that viewers will be able to pause, fast forward, and rewind.

Brooks Barnes for the Wall Street Journal Online writes:

On April 30, ABC will unveil a revamped Web site that will include a "theater" where people with broadband connections can watch free episodes of "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and other hit shows on their computers. Episodes will be available the morning after they air and will be archived so people can eventually view a whole season. A Disney Channel version with five shows will start in June, and an ABC Family version is also planned. Disney's Soapnet cable channel will start offering programs free on its Web site, Soapnetic, on April 17.

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Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, agreed to pay RealNetworks Inc. $761 million in a settlement that removes the last major antitrust lawsuit brought by a Microsoft competitor.

RealNetworks shares surged as much as 48 percent after Microsoft said it will pay $460 million in cash and provide services worth $301 million to promote RealNetworks' Rhapsody online music service and digital games, the companies said today.

The agreement silences one of the most vocal critics of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which has agreed to pay more than $4 billion to settle antitrust cases. RealNetworks's Rhapsody site will be featured on MSN's home page, giving both companies more ammunition to compete with companies including Apple Computer Inc., operator of iTunes.   |  more...