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The Internet Entertainment

The Video Bay, Now In Beta 107

Posted by timothy from the morally-neutral dept.
poundhard writes "Some two years ago, it was mentioned on TorrentFreak and Slashdot that The Pirate Bay team were working on a YouTube competitor. At the oral proceedings of the Spectrial, I believe it was Peter Sunde, aka Brokep, who said to the prosecutor that it was one of those side projects that failed. A few days ago though, he appeared over Skype at the Open Video Conference in New York, and apparently said that they were about to launch something new. It has been speculated in Norway that it will be the IPREDator. But I checked out The Video Bay, and hey, it is about to go live! This is what they write: 'To stay in the spirit on which TPB was founded and using the Latest Technology, TVB aims to use the new HTML5 features, more specifically the <video> and <audio> tags with the ogg/theora video and audio formats. This site will be an experimental playground and as such subjected to both live and drunk (en)coding, so please don't bug us too much if the site ain't working properly.'"
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The Video Bay, Now In Beta More

The Video Bay, Now In Beta

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  • Wooo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by sys.stdout.write ( 1551563 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @03:38PM (#28497437)
    Now they can get sued by the MPAA as well as the RIAA!

    Good for them, though.

  • I have to ask... (Score:5, Funny)

    by 1zenerdiode ( 777004 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @03:39PM (#28497445)
    Can VHS be far behind?

  • Private, Beta and Useless (Score:5, Insightful)

    by basementman ( 1475159 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @03:40PM (#28497463) Homepage
    So now private beta websites that don't really do anything new get to the front page of slashdot? The only thing I can see is the front page, everything else requires a username and password. Let me know when they do something notable.
    • That site is fricken lame.
    • The whole idea is that you can't get in, but certain people can. What's the use of having access to a private closed beta unless you can tell the world? There's not much point in having the privilege unless others are denied it...hence the link to a login-only page. It's not for you, but it's OK if you still lust after it.

    • TVB aims to use the new HTML5 features, more specificly the and tags with the ogg/theora video and audio formats.

      Youtube's html5 test page didn't use ogg, last I checked, and Wikimedia's content has limited entertainment value.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Radhruin ( 875377 )
      Well, there is a sample video [thevideobay.org] that you can access without a password, but yeah, not much content here.

  • Awesome stuff (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Daemonax ( 1204296 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @03:53PM (#28497583)
    This is great. I was looking for somewhere that I could make videos in Ogg Theora format and upload them. I had tried a combination of archive.org and theorasea.org but it was quite terrible really.

    Hopefully this will help to increase support for Ogg Theora. I'd like to see wikipedia start using Ogg Theora too, they used to have some videos on articles like the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk which was a neat little addition, but they seem to have disappeared.

    • Re:Awesome stuff (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27, 2009 @04:12PM (#28497787)
      Wikipedia does use Ogg Theora [wikipedia.org] and <video> for videos.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by larry bagina ( 561269 )
        Wikipedia is no longer accepting movies of dudes jacking off.
        • While technically your post contains information that is news to many, and is therefore informative, I worry about the person who felt it was important enough information to merit this moderation.

      • But you must first get into their elite cult circle of demigods, passing trough several levels of introduction tests and approvals, to be able to upload everything.
        (Wait for this to be true for every page on that site too. Partially it already is true right now.)

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Jello B. ( 950817 )
      I've uploaded tons of stuff to YouTube that was Ogg Theora. You're not looking hard enough.

      • Re:Awesome stuff (Score:4, Informative)

        by Daemonax ( 1204296 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @04:35PM (#28497969)
        I know that you can upload it to youtube and it'll convert it... But to watch it you need flash, or to use a script to download the video files or something other things... I want to avoid using a site that requires you to use non-free software for it to work properly.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by pejyel ( 1275304 )

        I've uploaded tons of stuff to YouTube that was Ogg Theora. You're not looking hard enough.

        You can upload Ogg Theora videos on Youtube, but they will be automatically transcoded to FLV and viewable only as such.

        The OP obviously looks for a site that allows viewing of ogg theora videos, thus getting rid of Flash lameness.

      • It transcodes to H.263/H.264.

    • I was looking for somewhere that I could make videos in Ogg Theora format and upload them. I had tried a combination of archive.org and theorasea.org but it was quite terrible really

      http://v2v.cc/ [v2v.cc] ?

      Your own web host, perhaps?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by doublec ( 891422 )
      Have you tried using tinyvid.tv [tinyvid.tv]. It uses Ogg Theora, using HTML 5 video, will fallback to the Java Cortado applet to play the video if the browser doesn't support HTML5.

  • Helpin out (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AakashPatel ( 1586679 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @04:15PM (#28497819)
    Eh...the helpin out email address on their page gives me a relay access denied bounce back...great way to help out lol
    • If anyone figures out what the helping out email address, please post it. haha come on videobay!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bertoelcon ( 1557907 )
      It says "(Don't expect anything to work at all)", maybe that applies to the email server too?

  • There is a fundamental difference between Youtube and something like The Pirate Bay or The Video Bay. Youtube isn't about piracy, the initial purpose of it was social networking and it continues to try to strive for that. People may use it to upload movies, etc. and split them into parts to get around it, but Youtube does what it can to remove copyrighted material so its not at fault.

    So when they say that they are trying to make a competitor to Youtube, I can see that they are very misguided.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jork ( 1330913 )
      yes, but a large percentage of people who view videos in Youtube have no interest in the social media elements.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Belial6 ( 794905 )
      Social networking between people that are not content creators (most people) inherently includes massive use of other peoples creations. Saying that a social networking video site is not the same thing as a pirate site is pretty much semantics.

      • inherently includes massive use of other peoples creations.

        That doesn't mean they don't have the right to use it, which is really what piracy is about.

        Sure, in practice, that's not much of the stuff that's on youtube, but "Social networking video site" only means "pirate site" in practice ;-)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Dude, have you actually been on Youtube recently?
      More than half of it is illegal content. And a good deal of it is private and shared amongst closed groups, so probably even more.

      People don't even care much for the social aspects of it.
      Most people register just to leave comments, or at least keep track of favorite videos.

      TVB is a DIRECT competitor to Youtube, considering most people WANT to upload content that is copyrighted! (well, not now, but when it does come out)
      The people in

      People may use it to upload movies

      is actually quite a sign

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gilgongo ( 57446 )

      Youtube isn't about piracy, the initial purpose of it was social networking and it continues to try to strive for that.

      Er, it may not have been about piracy initially, but anyone other than a casual observer today will see that YouTube hosts a lot of illegal (as in not copyright cleared) material. In fact I'd estimate that perhaps half the content is pirated in some form (either video or audio).

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by selven ( 1556643 )
      Wait, youtube has social features?

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by nyctopterus ( 717502 )

        Yeah, it's where people (or "ppl") go to tell each other ("ur") that they are homosexual ("fags"), and that this sucks ("blows"), and that they are most amused at their own witticisms ("lolz").

  • Peter Sunde of TPB meets the Brazilian President (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ezel ( 249772 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @04:22PM (#28497889)

    Some related news:
    Peter Sunde, one of the convicted(and appealing) men behind The Pirate Bay is right now at 'Fórum Internacional Software Livre' in Brazil where he among other things got to meet the brazilian president Lula. Here [trezentos.blog.br] is a picture of the meeting.
    Peter Sunde himself talks a bit about it in his blog [brokep.com].

    So what now Joe Biden? Time to invade Brazil for fraternizing with the enemy?

  • 401 (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    A username and password are being requested by http://thevideobay.org. The site says: "The Vidoe Bay"

    That's a great idea. Make a 401 website that looks interesting, and collect passwords. Get it on slashdot -> Jackpot!

  • So now they're going to start hosting . . . (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    . . . copyrighted content on their own servers? The whole "but they only host torrent files and links" defense will be useless.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by jack2000 ( 1178961 )
      They can still have an eula that basically declares whatever you do is your own fault...
    • Streaming torrents over HTTP sounds interesting right now...

  • Off topic, but interesting (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Some of you may find it interesting to learn what that "It has been speculated in Norway"-link actually means... well, NRK beta is the new technologies-playground of the STATE BROADCASTER (NRK). It sure is a healthy sign that they report on such things (Google translation [google.com]) in a favorable manner.

  • iphone (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27, 2009 @04:53PM (#28498119)

    If this works on the iPhone, it's going to force youtube to adopt HTML5.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by node 3 ( 115640 )

      Why? YouTube already works on the iPhone.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mdwh2 ( 535323 )

      Incredible - is there anything the IPHONE can't do?

      (Although the question of whether it works on the Iphone will likely be "No, because that's just featurism, you don't need that feature. We'll only do it when most other phones have done it first, and then claim credit for being 'first'".)

  • Ahma's gr88-st opportunity (Score:4, Interesting)

    by scorilo ( 654174 ) <zam0lx1s@yahEULERoo.com minus math_god> on Saturday June 27, 2009 @05:19PM (#28498317) Homepage

    The one smart PR move that renegade countries like Iran, Zimbabwe or North Korea don't ever make is hosting other renegades, from the other side of the pond (like tpb or tvb). They'd score a major coup by showing that there are excesses and abuses perpetrated by their critics as well, and rather than having to perform the filtering and censorship themselves, they'd be forcing the West to do it for them, allowing themselves to be painted as the good guys.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by kasot ( 1274250 )
      The folks behind TPB wouldn't host their sites in a regime even if they were paid for it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Darkness404 ( 1287218 )
      ....But they won't do it. In case you hadn't seen it a few days ago TPB changed their logo to be "The Iran Bay" with links to materials helping protesters get their message out. The idea was even used in an April Fools gag a while back on their site about moving to North Korea.

      About all that will go to these countries would be shady porn sites or for-profit warez groups. The rest will simply refuse because they care more about these issues than being "legal".
    • Renegades don't get along with each other very well. Imagine TVB in Iran - what happens when I post a video critical of Muslims?

  • Legitimacy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gehrehmee ( 16338 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @05:41PM (#28498477) Homepage

    Legitimate videos == legitimate ads.

    If this is going to get mainstream use with any kind of revenue stream, they'll need ads, and they'll need ads that aren't too offensive. Many of TPB's ads are for shady porn sites.... that'll have to go if this will be the sort of place I tell my family view my videos at.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mdwh2 ( 535323 )

      Pr0n sites? You mean that these hundreds of girls being advertised who just happen to live in the same town as me aren't really looking for someone to date? :(

      (Well, you learn something new everyday - I never realised my town had such a porn industry.)

      • You mean that these hundreds of girls being advertised who just happen to live in the same town as me aren't really looking for someone to date? :(

        I love those ads! They are hilarious!

        Try surfing through a South Korean proxy. They'll magically teleport to something-something Province. It's spectacular.

    • Many of TPB's ads are for shady porn sites.... that'll have to go if this will be the sort of place I tell my family view my videos at.

      Considering a lot of TPB's content is porn... Not that I know anything about that... It would make sense to have adult ads.

      Though one wonders if you were going to TBP to download free porn would you spend money on porn advertisers?

      Unless maybe they are aiming for the Adobe downloader crowd?

  • I'm glad I didn't expect anything to work...

  • Good luck with that... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheRon6 ( 929989 ) on Saturday June 27, 2009 @05:50PM (#28498559)

    They're trying to compete with Youtube?... Compete for what? The privilege of losing $1.65 million per day [slashdot.org]? If the MPAA was smart they would help The Pirate Bay set this up!

    • Firefox plugin that hacks the video element to allow distributed streaming?

      If TPB was providing all the download bandwidth for its illegal downloads, they wouldn't have made a dime. I don't see why they'd want to start now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sznupi ( 719324 )

        Not likely (and luckily), IMHO, seeing how many other browsers they suggest .

        OTOH all of those browser also got nice Javascript speedups lately...perhaps enough to implement something "bittorrent-like" there?

        • Javascript's same origin policy [wikipedia.org] would prevent such a thing from happening. On the other hand, I see no reason why browsers could not support magnet: URIs [wikipedia.org] for <video> sources on p2p, possibly passing them off to an external program to download.
          • And XSS attacks are just figments of my imagination?
            • I should have known someone would point that out. Yes, the same origin policy isn't perfect. There's a reason why I used a Wikipedia link for that: the article discusses flaws and links to info about XSS attacks. That said, I would be quite impressed if someone managed to write a p2p client in Javascript based on XSS attacks.
      • Well, me personally - wouldn't that be the natural development of web browsers in general? Integrated file-sharing for objects larger than 100 MB, including streaming. Now that would be an interesting step in the piracy debate!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by patro ( 104336 )

      They're trying to compete with Youtube?... Compete for what? The privilege of losing $1.65 million per day [slashdot.org]?

      Well, it's a great privilege. Not everyone can do that.

    • Well, at least they have enough cash to cover it for a couple of days now.

  • What are we replacing it with this week? Silverlight or something else? Maybe realplayer? Hah. This is a semi-legitimate question on my end as I really don't keep up with this.

  • I have to ask: What is the point of the video> tag, when there is a perfectly good and very flexible tag?
    I used that thing back in 2004, to allow me to play back anything that I throw at it, as long as the browser supports it. It worked nicely.
    The only thing missing, was that the browser could not overlay HTML over it. Just as with form fields. Which was a bug, and should be fixed.

    So those new tags are really pointless.

    The only reason I can think of, is to follow the general philosophy of HTML5 (vs. XHT

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hkmwbz ( 531650 )
      There are good reasons to add a video tag, but considering the way you revel in your own ignorance, I can't really be bothered to tell you about it. I'll just let you know that there are good reasons, and you can use that as a starting point to educate yourself instead of posting knee-jerk nonsense, if you really are interested.

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