According to Mercury News, Google is going to start filtering YouTube videos for copyrighted materials, as a first substantial step towards curbing the rampant piracy on the site. Google will using technology from Los Gatos-based Audible Magic; technology that has previously garnered mention in Supreme Court’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios vs. Grokster ruling as evidence that it is possible for file-sharing services to keep illegally obtained or shared files off their networks.

While this move will please many industry folk and possibly help Google sign licensing deals with major studios, it will not sit well with a large part of YouTube’s audience.

YouTube is “definitely going to lose popularity,” said Jesse Drew, acting director of the technocultural studies program at University of California-Davis. “These things become popular because they are underground and free and accessible.”

Originally posted on February 23, 2007 @ 10:04 am

Redmond based uber-company Microsoft is on the move again following the rather large anti-climax of Windows Vista, with news that it’s expanding into the Medical Search and Warship Operating System markets.

On the triage front, Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Medstory Inc., a California based startup with search software that applies artificial intelligence to searches of medical and health information in medical journals, government documents and on the Internet.

Peter Neupert, vice president for health strategy at Microsoft told the NY Times that the purchase of Medstory was a first step in a broader company strategy to assemble technologies that will “improve the consumer experience in health care.”

“Clearly,” Mr. Neupert said, “search is a critical part of that better end-to-end experience for consumers.”

Obviously using Windows Live search wasn’t an option for Microsoft…could you imagine the results you’d get if you were in a life threatening situation?

Meanwhile in the Atlantic Ocean, Her Majesties Royal Navy will be upgrading their previously ancient computer equipment that includes 24-bit, 1MHz machines each with about 25KB of RAM, to new computers running Windows for Warships.

Windows for Warships comes to us from Microsoft in conjunction with BAE Systems subsidiary Insyte, the UK’s only provider of warship command systems, and is based on Windows 2000 code.

Type 45 destroyers currently being launched will include Windows for Warships, followed by retrofits on the British Submarine fleet, including the V Class that carries multi-tipped ICBMs.

I’m sure the people of the United Kingdom will sleep much more comfortably in their beds tonight knowing that their first line of defense is running Windows.

Originally posted on February 26, 2007 @ 6:48 pm

Partnering with Hollywood, the BitTorrent Entertainment Network has opened a store to distribute more than 5,000 titles from movies, TV shows, and games.

It is going head-on against iTunes but boasts of allies such as 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate, and MGM Studios. BitTorrent agreed to deploy digital rights management (DRM) on content it sells ot rents.

“Our partners require DRM protection for their titles,” BitTorrent President Ashwin Navin said. “They are being cautious with a new distribution model. As the demand goes up, our partners will probably explore DRM-free options.”

Estimates show that there are 125 million BitTorrent users trading more than a million movies each day.

Originally posted on February 26, 2007 @ 5:58 am