Internet & Media- Page 1175

AOL appoints new chief for Bebo

AOL has promoted Stephane Panier to the role of president at social network Bebo, which it acquired last year for $850 million.

Panier, who joined AOL in January after six years at Google, had previously been serving as chief operating officer of Bebo.

Joanna Shields, who was CEO of Bebo when it was acquired, left AOL in May. Before she left, Shields was head of "People Networks," a new AOL division devoted to social networks. Last week, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced that People Networks would be nixed in a restructuring.

Bebo has been placed in a new division called AOL Ventures, … Read more

AOL revenue slides 24 percent in 2nd quarter

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Time Warner's AOL, which is set to be spun off "around the end of the year," had a rocky second quarter as revenue fell 24 percent from a year ago amid a weak advertising market.

According to Time Warner's second-quarter release, AOL saw revenue skid 24 percent to $804 million for the three months ended June 30. Operating income fell 28 percent to $165 million. AOL and Time Warner filed documents detailing the spin-off plans on Monday.

By the numbers:

AOL's subscription revenue fell 27 … Read more

Pirate Bay co-founder denies MPAA allegations

Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, a Pirate Bay co-founder who has long been the service's spokesman, reacted to the latest lawsuit filed by the movie industry in his typically defiant way.

He called it "bull****."

On Tuesday, the Motion Picture Association of America filed legal papers in a Swedish court that alleged the three operators: Kolmisoppi, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg continue to help millions of people commit copyright infringement, even after being sentenced to jail and ordered to pay $3.6 million in damages. In their legal filing, the studios have asked authorities to stop the trio. … Read more

Joel Tenenbaum follows in Jammie Thomas' footsteps

Joel Tenenbaum just wanted to hear music and his illegal downloading and sharing of of songs caused little damage to the music industry, his attorney argued in court Tuesday.

Tenenbaum, a graduate student at Boston University, has been accused by the Recording Industry Association of America of copyright violations and the court fight is now underway. Like Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota woman accused of illegal file sharing, Tenenbaum has decided to take on the major music labels in court rather than to settle the case.

Tenenbaum shares more in common with Thomas-Rasset than just initials. He is only the second … Read more

Overall time spent online remains static

The amount of time people spend online has not increased since last year, according to a report released by Forrester on Monday. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the reason for the trend: people's online behavior has changed.

"Engagement with the online channel has deepened," writes Forrester analyst Jackie Anderson. "Web users are becoming savvier and are better multi-taskers. Many know exactly where they want to go when they log in."

The report, titled "Consumer Behavior Online: A 2009 Deep Dive," shows that overall time spent on the Internet has remained at 12 hours … Read more

Former Grokster exec pulls out of Pirate Bay acquisition

Wayne Rosso, the former president of Grokster, has walked away from Global Gaming Factory because of "strong doubts" the Swedish company has enough funds to acquire The Pirate Bay.

Global Gaming, a Swedish software company, made big news last month by announcing plans to acquire The Pirate Bay for $7.8 million. Hans Pandeya, Global Gaming's CEO, then hired Rosso to negotiate legal music and film licensing deals on the company's behalf.

Rosso had spoken to executives from the top four major labels as well the music industry's worldwide trade group about The Pirate Bay, … Read more

Greenpeace wars with HP

Editors' note: This article was updated at 2:50 p.m. PDT with HP's statement.

It's war on hazardous chemicals that Greenpeace single-handedly provoked Tuesday.

After rating Hewlett-Packard low on its Green Meter did little to convince the company to change its ways, the organization decided to resort to trespassing.

It sent activists to HP's global headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., where they climbed on top of the building and painted a gigantic message announcing "Hazardous Products," using nontoxic children's finger paint. The message covered more than 11,500 square feet, which is about … Read more

Blip.tv channels new deals with YouTube and others

NEW YORK--Online video start-up Blip.tv on Tuesday unveiled an wide range of infrastructure and partnership announcements that, according to chief operating officer Dina Kaplan, explains why "for the past year we have been very quiet."

Part of Tuesday's announcement, made in conjunction with a breakfast event at Blip.tv's downtown offices here, was a new set of syndication partnerships with hosting platforms YouTube and Vimeo, local TV station NBC Local Media New York (which acquired video production company LX.TV last year), and set-top box manufacturer Roku. It's also expanded existing partnerships with TiVo, … Read more

Samsung's debut e-book reader arrives

For its first e-book reader, Samsung Electronics has crumpled up and cast aside its catchy codename and gone downright bureaucratic.

Formerly known by the working label of Papyrus, the new SNE-50K reader will initially be sold only in South Korea, starting Wednesday. But the device may reach other markets across the world sometime next year, said a Samsung spokesperson.

Unlike larger readers such as Amazon's Kindle, the SNE-50K was designed by Samsung to be compact, sporting a 5-inch screen and weighing 6.5 ounces. The device will come with 512MB of memory and offer a resolution of 600x800 pixels.

Borrowing some features from a PDA, the SNE-50K will support handwriting recognition, so users can write and store memos, manage schedules, and view calendar appointments. The device will also let people read text files, PDFs, and Microsoft Office documents by converting those files into a viewable BMP graphic format.

The reader will sell for 339,000 Korean won, or about $270.… Read more