Local Internet TV Takes Off In Austria

Cyrus writes "The BBC reports on an Austrian village that is testing technology which could represent the future of television. The pilot has been so successful that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other projects elsewhere." From the article: "The hardware and software to turn video footage into edited programmes has been provided by Telekom Austria but this equipment, following training, has been turned over to the villagers. Any video programme created by the villagers is uploaded to a Buntes Fernsehen portal that lets people browse and download what they want to watch. "

Comments

Select titles:

[Capt'n Hector]

• Betty Milks her calf... naked.
• Village Girls Gone Wild! Volume XII
• Down Under.

Re:Select titles:

[aussie_a]

Down Under.

Austria! Not Australia. Sheeesh. Having said that, I was excited until I realised it was Austria :(

Re:Select titles:

[Capt'n Hector]

Oh god damn it. I even read the entire article too. *Covers eyes* Ok, do it. Mod me down to oblivion. Just get it over with!

Re:Select titles:

[jayhawk88]

No no no, in a situation like this you yell "Joke" and insult the posters sense of humor.

Re:Select titles:

[cpt kangarooski]

The only difference between Austria and Australia is that the latter has an 'al' in it. And frankly, I'm not sure I want to watch a public access show called 'Down Under' that features someone named Al.

Re:Select titles:

[Frankie70]

Austria! Not Australia. Sheeesh.


Potato Patato

Re:Select titles:

[FidelCatsro]

I met an austrian who was obsesed with Australia last year
"Hallo , wie gehts MATE. Sollen wir zu haus gehen und eine COPPERS haben,,, BONZA(which he said as in , Bont'ts'h'aa"
The fully capitalised words represent when he would put on an awfull Aussie accent. well atleast he got the Aussie beer right .

Re:Select titles:

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like television mit Iodine.

Re:Select titles:

[Anonymous Coward]

Betty Milks her calf... naked.

So, who was naked, Betty or the calf?

If this stuff is being streamed over the Net, I bet it'll get more viewers if it's the calf, well, at least in some Usenet newsgroups.

Re:Select titles:

[identity0]

Telekom Austria? Buntes Fernsehen?

Ja, ve Äusträlians spêäk die English fünéy, büt vat määde deine tink ve spøôke it dat bääd? Do nut confüse üs vit den Æüstrian fréiks, das ist Verbøten.

Krêikey.

Re:Select titles:

[Anonymous Coward]

Down Under and Kangarooski??? It's Austria NOT Australia!!!

Been there done that

[sahonen]

It's called public access television in the US, only we don't put it on the internet.

Re:Been there done that

[LokieLizzy]

" It's called public access television in the US, only we don't put it on the internet."

Err...if we haven't put it on the internet, then I'm not sure how you can declare we've "been there, done that." That would be like making fun of someone who managed to build a car powered by cold-fusion, and stating, "we (America)'ve been there, done that, only our cars run on gas."

Re:Been there done that

[sahonen]

How many places can you think of where you can check out a broadcast video camera, use a fully equipped and lit television studio, or edit on an Avid, along with being trained in the operation of each for free? Television is much more than how you receive it, there's an entire process behind it. This operation in Austria is not just about doing television over the internet, it's about empowering the community to create mass media, which public access is already doing in the United States.

Re:Been there done that

[Ohreally_factor]

It's basically the same as Public Access, but with more advanced technology. You seem to be quite taken with the phrase, "on the internet." Would you be interested in providing some mezzanine financing to my start up? We need a new mezzanine. =)

However, dismissing this as "been there, done that" is kind of lame. It's attitudes like that that stunt curiosity, and seem so typical of too many people. You're totally right, we should be interested in how they're doing it.

And about that mezzanine. I was thinking something rococo, but not too overdone.

Re:Been there done that

[sahonen]

PBS != Public access. PBS is publicly funded television. Public access is publicly *created* television, as in, any member of the community can go in, learn how to use the equipment, and make their own television program.

Re:Been there done that

[Frankie70]

Err...if we haven't put it on the internet, then I'm not sure how you can declare we've "been there, done that.


Well, if you can have a world series without inviting any other country to play in it, rest assured that you can declare anything you want.

Re:Been there done that

[sahonen]

I didn't say that what they're doing in Austria is a bad thing, I'm just saying that it's not unique. We're already doing it in the States.

Re:Been there done that

[Ohreally_factor]

OK, I didn't get that. Sorry to criticize you for being blase and cynical if you're not.

Re:Been there done that

[MoOsEb0y]

and who actually watches public access TV?

Re:Been there done that

[sahonen]

Pretty much nobody, though the coverage of high school sports is a pretty good draw for parents and athletes.

Re:Been there done that

[FidelCatsro]

Most of europe has this crap on cable TV . we have generaly one chan relegated for local intrest storys by members of the community , there is hardly ever anything on them and when there is , it is ussualy utter tripe ,Though i admit i havn't owned a TV cappable of reciving Broadcasts for 2 years now , i doubt its changed much .
Ok perhaps im generalisng saying all of europe , but ive seen this in a fair few places and several difrent countrys here ,but i can not say every country and every place therein .
It does exist here though and it has done for a fair few years .
I dont know how bad it is over in the USA , but i know for a fact that its really quite a load of rubbish o'er here

Re:Been there done that

[sahonen]

Most public access in the US is pretty bad. You're talking about asking people who don't do video for a living being asked to make a television show. While the facility will teach you how to run the equipment, actually making good television is another thing altogether. Either you have it or you don't, and most people who have it are doing it for a living already.

The only thing really worthwhile is sports coverage, if you're interested in high school sports for some reason. Even then, production values aren't anywhere close to what you'll see on broadcast TV. Where painting a computer-generated line on a football field in real time is fairly commonplace in broadcast TV, public access thinks it's pretty cool just to be able to get remaining yardage into a graphic on every play. I apologize for my ameri-centricism here, if you don't follow our football.

There is a show called "Nate on Drums" which started on public access and was actually so good it was put on broadcast television. But that sort of thing is rare.

Re:Been there done that

[Ryeng]

"and who actually watches public access TV?"

Well the villagers in Austria apparently. But seriously; if they make interesting shows people will watch it, I would at least. Just because a show is on a major channel doesn't automatically mean its any good. And just because it's on public access doesn't automatically mean that it sucks. Though the larger networks have bigger budgets and their shows are more polished, in my opinion many of those shows are soulless. I would rather watch a low quality show that's interesting, then a high quality show that's boring. Anyway, that's just my point of view.

What I want to know is how they decided what's suited and what's unsuited for these shows. What kind of regulation do they have concerning profanity, sex and violence?

Re:Been there done that

[FidelCatsro]

ah thats ok then ,You completly did lose me on the American football stuff Though i did used to play rugby in school so its probably similar .
I suppose people cant be expected to do it right , when 99% of those who do it for a living dont know how to do it properly .
I am in germany right now in a village , so i dont even get cable here , even if i wanted to have it , I can see some use to this internet personal broadcasting(i dont like the sudo-word podcasting , so im calling it Iperbocasting or iperbo for short , itjust as silly and dosn'T sound like a plants mating ritual) ,I would be intrested in having this here perhaps get some information on local herritage in a live action form , as restoration work does intrested me , and there is plenty to do around these parts .

Re:Been there done that

[Anonymous Coward]

Public Access tv doesn't allow you to produce your own show, dummy!

This allows just about anyone to create a show which is the novelty.

Re:Been there done that

[sahonen]

The station I work at does. You callin' me a liar?

Like a another poster, you might be confusing public access with public television. Different things, public television is publicly funded and they leave programming up to the professionals. This is where you watch Sesame Street and Nova. Public access is where you get to see such gems as The Psycholuna Network and Wayne's World. Yes, I know Wayne's World is fictional.

Re:Been there done that

[sebi]

Well, if you can have a world series without inviting any other country to play in it, rest assured that you can declare anything you want.

Not sure the Blue Jays would agree with you there. The Toronto Blue Jays, to be precise. I really wish I had more to contribute to that discussion than nitpicking about baseball, especially since I am Austrian, but I never heard about that project before now. I also still hold a grudge against Telekom Austria from the time when they were a state owned monopoly .

I can see the benefit... no wait....

[sveiki_neliels]

I can see the benefits possible with on-demand television. Downloading what you want to watch and watching it. The idea has been proposed before and is not really new.

What seems to be new here is the local production and upload of television programmes. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I don't see this being adopted worldwide. Consider something like this being implemented in a large city. Not only would you possibly now have thousands of options to download in varying degrees of insanely crappy quality, but I'm sure you'd also fill up these "portals" with tons of crap uploaded by people thinking they are doing a public service.

Unfortunately, if this kind of idea takes off, we wouldn't be able to just limit it to places that need it, like rural areas that otherwise don't have their own coverage. I'm no fan of the news media industry, but there is a reason people go to school for journalism and don't become newscasters simply by living in an area where news is made.

Re:I can see the benefit... no wait....

[aussie_a]

Downloading what you want to watch and watching it. The idea has been proposed before and is not really new.

What's new is the fact it's being done. Had they said "this is old stuff, it's been suggested before" about landing on the moon, no-one would have been excited when America did it. Yes, America was the first to do it, but they weren't the first to suggest it.

Re:I can see the benefit... no wait....

[Anonymous Coward]

"There is a reason people go to school for journalism and don't become newscasters simply by living in an area where news is made."

As a former journalist, editor I can tell you this: going to school of journalism does not make you a journalist. I helped several talented people to become journalists, although they did not take any formal education in that field. It's more like writers, actors, painters, singers: you are either gifted or not. Obviously, being gifted is just the beginning, you need to learn a lot on your way to become a recognized journalist, but none of my "personal picks" failed. Mind you, they came from all walk of life, most of them highly educated in other fields. Journalism is actually a teamwork: journalists are only one part, equally are important editors, who most of the times serve as mentors. They together can become each others inspiration, healthy critics and able to create great journalism.
I do believe that there are plenty of undiscovered, true journalists, editors around the world - many more than the big, visible media outlets can absorb.

Obviously, a project like this would create tons of fairly useless reports, it would attract tons of wanna-be journalists. Talented editors would still be needed to separate the gifted ones from the rest.
It would be extremely interesting, though... it would allow local colours to go global... It would allow a much broader point of view what you can see currently in the media industry.
It could provide a much better public participation than the current, sickeningly manipulative radio "talk shows" deliver.
It could help to "compete" with media oultlets, which beat their competitons only by being better funded and able to afford to send journalists to more hot spots than others.
Now we see wars and "international events" as a CNN (and a few other media giant) reporter reports it to us. It would be extremely interesting though to see the same event from a truly local prospective at the same time. At least it would help us to understand the world better.

Re:I can see the benefit... no wait....

[j14ast]

there is a reason people go to school for journalism
exibit A Slashdot Editors.

Just kidding. This is why Moderation would be key. See, there about a million other people who have said stuff like this about other mediums (photography, written news, etc). Given, Video is HARD, but so was photgraphy until about 1970. Will it replace ALL Pro's? Obviously not. But if the tech is there people will do it as a hobby. (see news people with degrees working for shit jobs at crapy local stations for next to no money, in the hopes of getting moved to a job worth doing, thats the people who would do it part time for free if they could get the exposure)

Re:I can see the benefit... no wait....

[interiot]

Are you trolling, or not?

It seems obvious that there are very direct analogies to the current text/audio portions of the internet. Yes, anybody can put up a crappy site or post inane babble on their blog. However, if you post good stuff all the time, a lot of people will watch you often. If you post good stuff once in a while, then the top-dog people will link to your best stuff, and people will still be interested in what you do.

Also, while there are professional journalists, who write stuff on websites that have millions invested in them, there are still a decent percentage of urban people who realize that this means there's a much smaller pool of talent to draw from, and it's beholden to advertising interests, and so sometimes people even actually PREFER the grass-roots stuff over professional/mainstream journalism.

Re:I can see the benefit... no wait....

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps, but Austria still has serious pan-German nationalistic groups so moderation would require supervision still to regulate what those dedicated few would do to abuse the system for their benefit and to give illusions of popularity to their views. Note the campaign by the US Republicans beginning roughly 1976 and apply greater nationalism and one familiar with it will more thoroughly understand what would result otherwise on consideration of current events and of history.

It'll never work in the U.S.

[Anonymous Coward]

This will be outlawed in the US faster than you can imagine. The Republicans and the Democrats have already been bought out by the various conglomerates (**COUGH** Disney **COUGH**) for copyright extention, I can't imaging them allowing something like this to flourish. They'll say it smacks of Communism or something.

Re:It'll never work in the U.S.

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah and Disney is Fascism

Re:It'll never work in the U.S.

[Anonymous Coward]

More like anarcho-syndicalism.

Re:It'll never work in the U.S.

[aussie_a]

This will be outlawed in the US faster than you can imagine.

FYI: It's currently possible to upload video to the internet. Hasn't been outlawed yet. All that's different is a company is helping people out with it and limiting the subject matter.

Re:It'll never work in the U.S.

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny thing is the same government requires cable companies to have a free channel available to local programming. Remember the Wayne's World setting, the public access channel? Same thing, just on the net. Not all that different from any low budget filmmaker releasing their stuff on the internet, really.

Besides, if you ever watch any of the public access junk you'll know why the big companies aren't afraid of it at all. Although I am looking forward to Star Wrek 6: In the Pirkinning.

Re:It'll never work in the U.S.

[Ohreally_factor]

Correct. It's only illegal to stream video on the internet without a license from Acacia Technologies.

Re:It'll never work in the U.S.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know if they would outlaw it in the US. This sounds similar to community access TV in some parts of the US, which broadcasts everything from white power boneheads to UFO kooks.

Hey this could be fun!

[Com2Kid]

Take a valid indie video stream, encode pirated data stream inside of it, hey, instant government sponsered w@rez trading!

granted the large file sizes would make this somewhat problamatic, but hey, the servers are paid for, and I assume the server's bandwidth is too, and over modern broadband (500KB/s to 1MB/s), downloading even a 1gb release for 500 or so MB of data isn't too bad if you save time by not having to crawl all over the internet trying to find the file in the first place!

Re:Hey this could be fun!

[BaatZ]

Yeah, but if it's really local... You could just walk to your neighbor and ask burn a copy... Costs you five minutes and maybe he'll give u a beer ;)

Re:Hey this could be fun!

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming you mean 500Kbps or 1Mbps, otherwise most people don't...

Re:Hey this could be fun!

[Anonymous Coward]

What is wrong with you? Here is an example of people working for a little decentralization of their media, perhaps in an effort to lessen their reliance on a bloated, politically and economically motivated old guard, and all you can think of is a trading channel for Warez? Get some perspective, man!

Re:Hey this could be fun!

[aussie_a]

all you can think of is a trading channel for Warez? Get some perspective, man!

Exactly! They could encode some pron into it instead. "No honey, I'm not downloading porn. I'm just downloading the 6:00 news."

Re:Hey this could be fun!

[Com2Kid]

• Assuming you mean 500Kbps or 1Mbps, otherwise most people don't...

No, those speeds suck ass.

500KB/s is better, but still a bit slow for downloading an entire CD. (AAARG! Thirty whole minutes! NOOOO!)

1MB/s is rather nice, but that is mostly the domain of college campuses.

Austria! Well, then..

[Anonymous Coward]

G'day, mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!

Re:Austria! Well, then..

[Anonymous Coward]

hurrah another american without an atlas ;)

Re:Austria! Well, then..

[Anonymous Coward]

HA-HA you truly suck.

Re:Austria! Well, then..

[Anonymous Coward]

And...Another "furiner" without a VCR that played Dumb and Dumber the Jim Carey movie.

Re:Austria! Well, then..

[Anonymous Coward]

hurrah another american without an atlas ;)

Why do you assume it's an American? I've seen people all over Europe who mistake Austria for Australia.

Re:Austria! Well, then..

[Anonymous Coward]

The line between 'flamebait' and 'funny' is so fine, especially if you've never seen the movie Dumb and Dumber (of course, I couldn't hold that against you).

Did you notice?

[LokieLizzy]

There wasn't a mention of BitTorrent anywhere in the article. Despite the naysayers, it *is* possible to synergize television and the internet (and the subsequent distributions of tv programs) *without* using BT. I found that rather interesting.

Re:Did you notice?

[behemot]

Yes, it is possible for a village of 8,000 to broadcast TV on demand to everyone worrying much about the distribution infrastructure.

Just wait until their little village TV server gets Slashdotted.

Re:Did you notice?

[radarsat1]

that's not to say that it wouldn't be more efficient using it.

Re:Did you notice?

[interiot]

1) Don't say "synergize", it makes geeks cringe. 2) Yes, it's possible, by funding a huge amount of unicast bandwidth. However, that seems easier for this project because they're all in a small geographic area (a town of 8000), and the project in general has a lot of funding for professional video equipment and such, so some of those funds are undoubtedly going for bandwidth as well.

Re:Did you notice?

[interiot]

Also, it may be pay-for-play as well, which is an obvious and uninteresting/undesirable alternative to BitTorrent:

• The Engerwitzdorf scheme is an outgrowth of Telekom Austria's online TV channel Aon which lets people watch programmes on their PC.

• Aon ... has a pay-for-download section that lets people watch what they want when they want to watch it.

Re:Did you notice?

[LokieLizzy]

Haha. Yeah, I didn't want to say Synergize either (believe me, I've read the Dilberts and I've seen Office Space), but, ironically, it was the only word I could think of when I made the post :^)

Re:Did you notice?

[Kuraz]

You can only watch it from one ISP, so i wouldn't call it being 'on the internet'

Re:Did you notice?

[Frodo Crockett]

Despite the naysayers, it *is* possible to synergize television and the internet (and the subsequent distributions of tv programs) *without* using BT.

Yeah, but consider the bandwidth required as the number of viewers increases. Consider a situtation with ten thousand simultaneous downloads. That's a situation that could easily occur if you were distributing a new episode of a popular television program. Without BT, your poor server(s) must distribute 10,000 copies of a single file. Let's say it's an hour-long show that's been compressed to 250MB. That means that you'll have to pay for 2.5 terrabytes of transfer. And to finish all those downloads in a reasonable amount of time (let's say four hours is reasonable), you'd need just short of 1,400 megabits per second of bandwidth. (Yes, that's 1.4 gigabits per second.) This could get expensive.

Now let's look at Bittorrent. Assume most of your viewers have broadband with uploads limited to 384 kilobits per second. (This is what my crappy DSL is limited to.) Doing the math (384 kb/s * 10,000 / 1,000 kb/mb), we see that using BT gives us a potential maximum throughput of 3,840 megabits per second. That's more than twice what we'd need to get everyone's download done in four hours. Of course, it will take a while to reach that kind of throughput, but consider your choices: upload 10,000 copies of the file (2.5 terrabytes) or upload 500 copies of the file (125 gigabytes) and let the viewers' spare bandwidth take care of the rest.

Lastly, remember that this is a TV show. You're gonna be releasing a new episode once a week for at least eight weeks!

Disclaimer: It's three in the morning. I'm tired. I'm only a student. Some of these numbers are made up. Mod me down if I've made some gross mistakes, but please take the time to point them out afterwards.

Uh, sure...

[Anonymous Coward]

from the has-to-be-better-than-fox dept.

Uh, yeah, Zonk -- that Fox network with shows that no one would ever watch, like The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy. I'm looking forward to Obligatory Austrian Village Sitcom quotes appearing here imminently.

So Essentially...

[BuddyJesus]

they've just made Public Access Television: Internet Edition
What good is it? Face it, because it's made by a local village, and unless said village is home to TV broadcast crews, it's essentially PAT on the internet. I don't see why anyone would care.

I don't get it...

[op00to]

Who wants to see TV shows about Wallabys and Kangaroos?

Re:I don't get it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats AUSTRIA not Australia

Re:I don't get it...

[Anonymous Coward]

wrong hemisphere

Re:I don't get it...

[LokieLizzy]

Will you look at that...

"Thats AUSTRIA not Australia"

" wrong hemisphere"

Redundant Anonymous Cowards :^)

Re:I don't get it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Exaclty that's why! You may not remain uneducated, ignorant asshole - who considers himself the world's best... without knowing much about the rest of the world.

Re:I don't get it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Aren't we karma whoring today?!

Re:I don't get it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhmm - been to public school huh?

That gawdawful old movie with Julie Andrews singing in the Alps - that is Austria.

Re:I don't get it...

[op00to]

Alps is some sort of dog food, you idiot. You obviously have no concept of geogramaphy.

Re:I don't get it...

[jratcliffe]

Assuming that you are being funny, this is actually an issue. Every Xmas, my mom has to watch the postal clerk like a hawk to ensure that the gifts for my relatives in Innsbruck (AUSTRIA) don't end up headed for the land of Fosters and British deportees.

Re:I don't get it...

[Stankatz]

how many people noticed it being austria instead of australia?

the catch.

[virtualone]

there is a big problem with this whole issue: under their current pricing scheme, it it impossible to watch more than 1 hour of tv per month.
they charge about 5 cent per MB for downloads above their limit of 1 GB/month.
if they would introduce a fair pricing scheme, some people would be able to use broadband technology is a meaningful way.
in austria, alternative providers are only slowly gaining ground.

Re:the catch.

[Anonymous Coward]

in austria, alternative providers are only slowly gaining ground.

Not quite true. I've been using chello (in Innsbruck/Austria) for nearly 5 years now, and transmit between 20 and 100 GB per month (don't ask ;)). So, viable alternative providers have been around for a long time, at least in the "bigger" cities.

Re:the catch.

[pafrusurewa]

in austria, alternative providers are only slowly gaining ground.

What he means is that in really small towns and rural areas there's no alternative to Telekom Austria if you want *broadband* access. Many places do, of course, have one or several alternative broadband ISPs.

Re:the catch.

[danimrich]

I suppose Telekom Austria will eventually exempt traffic for their web TV services from the monthly limit, as it is within their network. They could distribute it to a number of servers across the country first and then distribute it locally to clients. I read that this has been done by webfreetv.com during the dotcom bubble (they were producing web TV for the masses, but are now pursuing a different business model).

happy easter!

Re:the catch.

[timeOday]

I suppose Telekom Austria will eventually exempt traffic for their web TV services from the monthly limit, as it is within their network.

This does make perfect sense, since Telekom Austria's measly bandwidth allowance is probably related to their costs for trans-Atlantic bandwidth.

But on the other hand, this would amount to charging "long distance" on the Internet - one rate for local connections, and a higher rate for everywhere else. Is that a can of worms we want to open?

Re:the catch.

[danimrich]

If you like to compare it to the phone system...
I think it would rather be like charging nothing for calls to the phone provider's hotline than "long distance" versus local. It would certainly put Aon TV at an advantage over other web TV services. I don't know where they meter the traffic-maybe it is even easier not to charge for web TV content if it is distributed in the way I outlined.

I can't say whether the costly bottleneck is the transatlantic connection or the regional connections. If they run a reasonably successful web TV service, I think they cannot afford serving everyone over regional connections, but must think about (transparently) mirroring the content locally.

Re:the catch.

[1110110001]

(Disclaimer I work on Buntes Fernsehen - whow saying that on slashdot feels nice =)

The download from aon.tv and buntesfernsehen.tv don't add to the trafic count. So you can watch as much Buntes Fernsehen as you like ... if you like seeing the people you see every day for hours at home. And now there isn't even a monthly fee for Buntes Fernsehen itself.

b4n

Re:A great idea but...

[Anonymous Coward]

DRM protects the wealth and prosperity of our great nation against European and other arabic IP-terrorists.

It is of utter importance not to underestimate the dangers of uncontrolled music- and movie-distribution over so-called "P2P"-hardware. "P2P" is an acronym for "Penis to Penis", indicating that the participants are, among other psychological deficiencies, of a deeply-rooted homosexual persuasion. Among them, there is a non-trivial number of people who practice "Linux", a sexual practice that both shocks and disgusts the unsuspecting casual caucasian heterosexual.

"How do we stop it then?", I hear you ask.

Well, I suggest we all should synergize our efforts into one big, solidary circle-jerk.

Re:A great idea but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you mean misunderestimate?

Adverts

[rescendent]

Do they come with adverts as well or are they an optional add in? Perhaps you could even choose the type of ads you want to interupt your programs...

A lot of crap but sortable

[SuperKendall]

Sure there would be a huge amount of drek produced. But that's whay reviews and ratings are for, because you know there are thousands of people that really DO have the time to scan through every single crappy show ever made on such a system to rate them.

Re:A lot of crap but sortable

[sveiki_neliels]

there are thousands of people that really DO have the time to scan through every single crappy show ever made on such a system to rate them.

The only problem with that is... I really don't think I'd fully trust ratings made by people who have nothing better to do all day long but sift through the inane drivel that our society would produce if given free rein.

I don't think one could live through it with a sense of taste (among other things) intact.

You have that exactly backwards

[SuperKendall]

Outlawed? That can't be since the very laws that protect Disney also apply to whatever third-rate TV communitied can put together.

Basically what needs to happen in regards to copyright extenstion is a end-run that cuts of Disney's oxygen - and it's already happening. They've run out of old stories to steal from and even very old stuff is still under copyright, thanks to them, and thus very expensive to get rights for. So they shut of the source of much creativity and are slowly strangling on what is left.

New media companies need to spring up that realize the value in letting people download and actualy own digital copies of media. I think perahps one of the online movie stores may go that way someday. It's basically the only thing that will self-regulate the pressure from overly long copyright extention.

Re:You have that exactly backwards

[Creepy Crawler]

Its becoming slowly obvious as your point....

Recently, Disney has been rehashing stories they've made. Rehashing rehashes..

That sounds desperate. Very desperate.

Aside from the fact....

[Anonymous Coward]

that many Porn, Pot, Politics shows that are created for Public Access are put on the net by interested 1st through 3rd parties, I'm not sure that we can. But your ignorance of the state of affairs isn't an indication of their actual state. And I suppose we'll have to be satisfied with that.

No you idiot

[nxtr]

It's about sausages, beer, sauerkraut and leederhosen.

Re:No you idiot

[cranos]

See this is why people get confused, take away the saurkraut and lederhosen and it could still be about Australia

Advertising eh?

[stefanmi]

Even if it isn't on DVD yet, sales of TV series on DVD are absolutely huge, to the point of outstripping movie sales. A good thing, given that advertising dollars are drying up (thanks to the fast-forwarding in Tivo-type devices). I wish they'd find a way to solve their problems without being outwardly hostile to the Internet, computer users, and/or their customers.

community owned tv content?

[Comsn]

awesome.

This actually leaves opportunity...

[Khyber]

If other companies would follow this example, perhaps WKNO (Public US Broadcast station) would start offering their content for immediate online review or download, and perhaps start forcing other megaconglomerate companies to start offering some other similar-in-quality shows for their dedicated people. And if it's offered for download, for free, at anytime, technically (Please correct me if I am wrong) But once offered for public consumption, it should remain in public domain, correct? Can't sue me for having and re-distributing something you're offering for free to the general internet public, right?

Wow... 3 mentions of the country in the summary...

[Anonymous Coward]

And /.'ers are cracking Aussie jokes, we've sunk to a new low. RTFS people.

OH GOD THEY'RE LIKE VIDEO BLOGS

[Anonymous Coward]

HAVE MERCY ON US ALL!!!

goooood morning Austria!

[Anonymous Coward]

(ok, so it's 08:35 here in Austria (we just switched to that awful DST some hours ago), we celebrated the fact that some cool guy who was dead suddenly left his grave, and I'm really tired, so excuse me if what I say doesn't make much sense.)

Things you should know, before cheering about this "empowerment of the public" et c.:

"Telekom Austria" is our telecommunication monopolist. Since about 10 years there are competitors, but they don't stand a chance. The dinosaur "Terrorkom" has much more money for ads, and still owns most of the cables (and charges too much for competitors who want to rent them).
So it's _not_ a "good" company. They don't do things because of some leftist empowerment-shit, they want to make more money.

Second: Sounds like that thing only works with their own DSL-solution, which is the crappiest available in Austria (crappy as in "slow, unstable, too low traffic limit, too expensive").

Maybe this'll give you an idea: http://www.aon.at/
(yeah, that's news about Britaney getting divorced. Other questions?)

--
douglas at karanet dot at

Re:goooood morning Austria!

[1110110001]

The Aon stuff is not part of the monopoly. Many other offer broadband access.

It's the job of every corporation to make money. So that can't be used as a defintion for good or bad.

Yes the news aren't the best. But as you can't spell the name you aren't reading it anyway.

b4n

Not much use to me, I mean...

[NewToNix]

How is this going to be much use in the USA... Won't the pictures be upside down?

This is the sig of sig's - so go ahead and crucify it.... please.

Re:Not much use to me, I mean...

[Anonymous Coward]

[ ] you know where Austria is? Please don't be shocked if I tell u that Salzburg is NOT a country, neither Germany, its a simple town in Austria.

By the way, the screen would be not upside down, but on the backside of your display. More or less.

Re:Not much use to me, I mean...

[NewToNix]

Now you they should mod up.

Pointing out my error and explaining about the back of the screen....

I guess from the front it would just be reversed left to right.

Your post is much better then mine was...

Both +1 informative, and another +1 funny (and should be an automatic +5, for getting me to laugh at myself...)

Thanks for both the info and the chuckle.

A Uk version is available....

[Insipid Trunculance]

called HomeChoice.They provide Delayed TV and Movies on Demand.

However the real thing will be Aunty Beeb's program download service which may launch end of this year.