Consumer content

2nd Update 10:10 a.m. Saturday: To include an updated statement from Boxee.

Update 4:30 p.m. To include quote from Boxee blog post.

Less than a day after Boxee made adjustments to again access Hulu's content, the video portal responded Friday by again blocking Boxee. But on Saturday morning, Boxee presumably made more changes and the service was back to accessing Hulu (who can keep up?).

Boxee is a startup that streams Web video to television set-top boxes. Dave Mathews, who works as an evangelist and adviser to the company, expressed frustration Friday at what has … Read more

Swedish police on Friday reported making a major Internet piracy bust.

Authorities said they seized computer equipment belonging to a Stockholm-area man whom they suspected of violating local copyright law. The police, who carried out the raid on February 9, only disclosed the news Friday.

"We made a bust. A server and computers have been taken and are being analyzed now," said Mats Johansson, a precinct commander in Stockholm, told CNET News in an interview.

Johansson said the man, whose identity was not disclosed, was questioned and subsequently released. He is now the target of an investigation by … Read more

LaidOffCamp, held during daylight hours this week at the Temple night club in downtown San Francisco, brought together more than 600 unemployed and self-employed people seeking to share ideas about finding work amid the recession.

Volunteers, speakers, and sponsors came together to plug networking, information exchange, social media, and interconnected community as ways to find support and, hopefully, an income. Among the crowd, there were also entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and recruiters.

Another 16 such events are preliminarily scheduled across the nation, with the next one set for Friday in Dallas. But, not surprisingly, San Francisco was the first to play … Read more

Updated at 8:20 a.m. PST with comment from Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble has acquired e-book seller Fictionwise.com for $15.7 million, as it makes another attempt at running an e-book store.

The cash deal, announced Thursday, is part of Barnes & Noble's plans to launch its own e-book store later this year, despite its lack of success with a previous attempt years ago.

Back in 2000, Barnes & Noble teamed up with Microsoft to launch an e-book store with the help of Microsoft Reader software. But three years after its launch and investing at least $20 million into the project, … Read more

Media-center start-up Boxee, which aggregates Web video for television set-top boxes, has launched a new version that restores access to video hub Hulu. The NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture had pulled its content from Boxee after content partners took issue with it.

But it's not really the same: Boxee has brought back Hulu by extending its support for RSS feeds, and is pulling the video content in that way.

"Like IE, Firefox, or Google Reader, the RSS reader supports Google Video, Yahoo, YouTube and feeds from many other websites," a post on the Boxee blog by CEO … Read more

Update 7 p.m. on Friday: Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster issued a statement. You can read the story here.

Catherine is a 35-year-old sex worker in San Francisco who relies on Craigslist to reduce the physical risks often faced by a woman in her line of work.

"Craigslist is important to helping us avoid violence," says the woman, who is originally from Europe. "Craigslist is a way to filter out that kind of person...and with Craigslist there is no need for pimps."

For people in her trade, she adds in a thick accent, "Craigslist … Read more

In its bid to broaden the appeal of Windows Media Center, Microsoft is launching a new sports channel that will offer a range of sports coverage, including replays of NCAA basketball tournament games.

WMC has yet to go mainstream and is still primarily used by hardcore techies. Microsoft is out to change that by making the WMC easier to use, as well as acquiring rights to premium video content.

Microsoft has licensed the rights to sports content from Fox Sports, CBSSports.com (owned by CBS, parent company of CNET News), and MSNBC.com.

The new sports channel goes live Thursday … Read more

Updated March 5 at 10 a.m. to clarify link policy, and at 12:20 p.m. to address privacy concerns.

Google Health has introduced a new feature that lets people share their online health records with designated doctors, friends, and family members.

Google said the move is in response to people's concerns that caregivers and loved ones might not be up-to-date on all the details of a patient's health situation, especially in the event of an emergency.

Sameer Samat, director of product management at Google, explained his personal impetus behind the new feature in a company blog … Read more

Universal Music Group, the nation's largest recording company, and YouTube are closing in on a final agreement to create a new premium music video Web site, according to sources close to the negotiations.

The sources said that the proposed service, which is tentatively named Vevo, would be a destination site closely linked to YouTube. Should an agreement be reached, Vevo would likely be the largest music-oriented site on the Web. Talks are ongoing, but a deal could be reached as early as the next few weeks, sources said.

A YouTube spokesman said: "We are always working with our … Read more