![\"Copyright\"](\"http:\/\/www.digital-digest.com\/blog\/DVDGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/copyright.gif\" "\\"Copyright\\"")
<\/p>\nHappy Birthday to me! Yesterday was my birthday, and so today, I’m already\u00a00.00273972602 into my new\u00a0age. Actually, it’s\u00a00.00273224044 years older because 2016 is a leap year I believe. Nerd!<\/p>\n
Quite a bit to get through this week, so let’s get started.<\/p>\n
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![\"Counterfeit](\"http:\/\/www.digital-digest.com\/blog\/DVDGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Counterfeit_drugs.jpg\")
<\/a>Yes, this is exactly the same as downloading The Walking Dead. Can’t you tell?<\/p><\/div>\n
Counterfeit drugs that could harm your health or even cause death is the exact same thing as downloading Game of Thrones, according to the\u00a0U.S. trade office.\u00a0The USTR wants domain registrars to start cracking down and seizing domain names<\/a>, all without due process. The USTR even went as far as listing domain registrar Tucows in its “notorious market” list for failing to shut down domain names after receiving information that these domain names were being used to offer\u00a0content and products that infringe\u00a0copyright or trademarks. Except these “notifications” have no legal merit or basis, and somehow Tucows is just supposed to take the word of whomever sent these notices and suspend the domain names. I wonder how easy it would be to have mpaa.com suspended, I’m sure they infringe on somebody’s rights if you look closely enough.<\/p>\n The worst part is that the USTR continues to use the same shtick, or rather, it continues to parrot the same line of argument of linking “rat poison filled” counterfeit drugs to movie downloads, both of which are technically copyright or trademark infringement. Show me how you can download\u00a0rat poison filled counterfeit drugs from The Pirate Bay, and I’ll totally support your plan to allow private companies to suspend\u00a0any domain name they want just because they\u00a0want to.<\/p>\n ——<\/p>\n Here’s an innovative way to cut down on movie piracy – stop releasing movies<\/a>! That’s the latest plan from\u00a0India’s Tamil Film Producer\u2019s Council, which hopes that movie pirates will go out of business if there are no new movies to release. That may\u00a0very well happen, but what’s stop new movie pirates from starting again once\u00a0the release of new movies restart? Maybe they haven’t thought this through enough …<\/p>\n Australian pirates have moved beyond having to actually pay for pirated discs and whatnot, preferring to download freely (both as in freedom and in price). The industry-led\u00a0push to toughen anti-piracy measures here in Australia<\/a>\u00a0has certainly had a major positive impact – for VPN providers<\/a>! Australians are flocking to VPN services in order to\u00a0escape anti-piracy monitors.\u00a0Well at least somebody well be benefiting financially from these\u00a0anti-piracy measures – it won’t be the rights holders, that’s for sure!<\/p>\n In this week’s Digital Video\/HD news section, we have two new ways to\u00a0stream movies and TV shows, and one\u00a0new way which is blocked for Comcast customers.<\/p>\n HBO Now is coming in April, but will you cancel your cable subscription if you sign up?<\/p><\/div>\n Starting with the official announcement\u00a0that HBO’s standalone over-the-top streaming product will now be known as HBO Now, and will be\u00a0available from\u00a0April for $14.99 per month<\/a>.\u00a0Most of this is not news (other than the April release date), but slightly disappointing will be the fact that for the first three month at least, HBO Now will only be available on Apple devices, no doubt due to “business decisions” made at the highest level (more on\u00a0these kind of “business decisions” later).<\/p>\n With no international expansion plans for the service yet, it will be interesting to see how hard\/easy it would be for people overseas to get access to the service. The VPN\/smart DNS<\/a> thing might not be where the problem is, neither will be getting the app on Apple devices (it’s easy to create a U.S. iTunes account<\/a>) as it’s the\u00a0payment method that could get tricky.\u00a0HBO could easily do a Netflix and allow overseas credit cards without looking too closely (funny how so many people live in the 90210 ZIP\u00a0code), but they could also be harsh and only accept valid US credit cards. Time will tell.<\/p>\n Even harsher is the fact that\u00a0PS4 owners using Comcast won’t be able to stream HBO Go despite the release of the app on the game console, due to “business decisions” made by Comcast. Apparently, Comcast and Sony have yet to come to an agreement on the issue, which leaves PS4 HBO subscribers out in the cold.\u00a0If you ever want a real world example of how\u00a0the Internet could be ruined by the lack of Net Neutrality, this is it – ISPs having the power to deny you access to something just because they haven’t been paid.<\/p>\n So while HBO Go isn’t available on the latest PS4 consoles, how about Netflix coming to\u00a0an oldie, but goodie, gaming console?\u00a0If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to watch Netflix on the NES, wonder no more<\/a>. Just plug the NES cartridge in, select the episode of House of Cards you’d like to watch, and off you go in\u00a0all of its 8-bit glory (and don’t let the fact that\u00a0due to\u00a0the NES obviously not\u00a0have Internet access, that everything you see in this video<\/a>\u00a0was just a rigged demo, ruin the fun for you). HBO should have a Hack Day as well to make a hack that doesn’t let mass media corporations from telling you how and where you can\u00a0watch your shows!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a>