Internet & Media

Immediately following the enactment of a new Swedish antipiracy law on April 1, Internet traffic in Sweden plummeted--and it has yet to return to prior levels.

According to Netnod, an organization that measures Internet traffic on access points between Swedish and international networks, traffic went down from average data speeds of about 160 gigabits per second to about 90Gbps and has remained so since the day the new law went into effect.

Netnod has declined to make the connection between the new antipiracy law and the traffic drop since it only measures traffic without identifying what sort of activity is … Read more

Online video service CinemaNow and Best Buy are planning to launch a movie download service this summer, according to a published report.

Variety, a film industry trade magazine, quoted unnamed sources in its report about how Best Buy is talking to CinemaNow, as well as other Web movie services, about offering film downloads.

The magazine noted that Best Buy is advertising job openings for digital-movie executive positions on such sites as PaidContent.org.

Why Best Buy would partner with CinemaNow is still unclear. The service was eclipsed by much more influential services, such as those of Apple's iTunes and … Read more

Blu-ray detractors and backers, here's the latest status report on the format:

According to Adams Media Research, about 9 million Blu-ray discs sold in the U.S. from January through March--up from 4.8 million units sold in the first quarter of last year.

As Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits says, those numbers are particularly good considering the ongoing recession and the relatively weak title slate early in the year. He adds that the overall rollout for the format is slightly behind DVD "due to the recession," but ahead of VHS.

Adams is also reporting … Read more

At New York City's world-renowned Carnegie Hall, the music of the ages was played with a modern twist this week.

In a first-of-its-kind concert, famed American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas offered a new answer to the old humorous question: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

"Upload, upload, upload" is Thomas' response.

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra originated with the click of a mouse.

In December, 3,000 hopefuls began posting auditions online. YouTube surfers helped determine which 96 musicians would make the final cut.

Among those selected were Owain Williams, a tympanist studying at London'… Read more

When it comes to offering full-length content on the Web, YouTube isn't ready to yield to Hulu.

On Thursday, the San Bruno, Calif.-based video site of Google announced that it had reached agreement with notable entertainment companies, including Sony Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS (publisher of CNET News) to offer visitors full-length TV shows and feature films.

What this means is that YouTube wants to become a one-stop shop for everything video.

The strategy seems obvious. YouTube already has more than 100 million people visiting every month to watch a mixture of short clips created by amateurs … Read more

The verdict has been handed down in the Pirate Bay file-sharing case, but the legal actions are far from done.

"The prosecutor leads 1-0 after the first round, but this will of course be appealed," said Per E. Samuelsson, defense lawyer for Carl Lundström, one of the four individuals sentenced in the Pirate Bay trial, according to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Samuelsson calls the verdict a scandal. He also claims that his client will have to pay the damages ruled by the court--a total of $3.6 million--because the other three sentenced lack economic resources.… Read more

Update, 8:44 a.m. PDT: Added comments from U.S. copyright owners.

Both copyright holders and some Pirate Bay supporters see opportunities to promote their causes as a result of the verdict handed down Friday in the Pirate Bay file-sharing case.

The large penalty--$3.6 million in damages to be paid to the copyright holders--will likely discourage illegal file sharers, according to those in the music business. In addition, each of the four defendants, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Carl Lundstrom, were sentenced to a year in jail.

Reaction in the United States from those … Read more

This story has been updated. See below for details.

A Swedish court on Friday found the four defendants in the high-profile Pirate Bay case guilty, sentencing each to a year in jail. The defendants were also ordered to pay a total of 30 million Swedish kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to copyright holders, among them a number of American media giants.

The four men--Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundström--were found guilty of having made 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal file sharing via the Piratebay.org Web site.

"The crime has been … Read more

It took awhile, but the recession has definitely sunk its teeth into Google's financial performance.

"No company is recession-proof. Google is absolutely feeling the impact," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a conference call Thursday after reporting first-quarter financial results.

The company, as is customary, reported results that most business only dream of, recession or not. Its net income grew 8 percent to $1.42 billion and its revenue, excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, grew 10 percent to $4.07 billion. It generated free cash flow of $2 billion for the quarter, the vast majority of … Read more