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The Video Bay, Now In Beta

poundhard writes "Some two years ago, it was mentioned on TorrentFreak and Slashdot that The Pirate Bay team were working on a YouTube competitor. At the oral proceedings of the Spectrial, I believe it was Peter Sunde, aka Brokep, who said to the prosecutor that it was one of those side projects that failed. A few days ago though, he appeared over Skype at the Open Video Conference in New York, and apparently said that they were about to launch something new. It has been speculated in Norway that it will be the IPREDator. But I checked out The Video Bay, and hey, it is about to go live! This is what they write: 'To stay in the spirit on which TPB was founded and using the Latest Technology, TVB aims to use the new HTML5 features, more specifically the <video> and <audio> tags with the ogg/theora video and audio formats. This site will be an experimental playground and as such subjected to both live and drunk (en)coding, so please don't bug us too much if the site ain't working properly.'"

33 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Wooo! by sys.stdout.write · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now they can get sued by the MPAA as well as the RIAA!

    Good for them, though.

  2. I have to ask... by 1zenerdiode · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can VHS be far behind?

  3. Private, Beta and Useless by basementman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So now private beta websites that don't really do anything new get to the front page of slashdot? The only thing I can see is the front page, everything else requires a username and password. Let me know when they do something notable.

    1. Re:Private, Beta and Useless by Radhruin · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, there is a sample video that you can access without a password, but yeah, not much content here.

  4. Awesome stuff by Daemonax · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is great. I was looking for somewhere that I could make videos in Ogg Theora format and upload them. I had tried a combination of archive.org and theorasea.org but it was quite terrible really.

    Hopefully this will help to increase support for Ogg Theora. I'd like to see wikipedia start using Ogg Theora too, they used to have some videos on articles like the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk which was a neat little addition, but they seem to have disappeared.

    1. Re:Awesome stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wikipedia does use Ogg Theora and <video> for videos.

    2. Re:Awesome stuff by Jello+B. · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've uploaded tons of stuff to YouTube that was Ogg Theora. You're not looking hard enough.

    3. Re:Awesome stuff by Daemonax · · Score: 3, Informative

      I know that you can upload it to youtube and it'll convert it... But to watch it you need flash, or to use a script to download the video files or something other things... I want to avoid using a site that requires you to use non-free software for it to work properly.

    4. Re:Awesome stuff by pejyel · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've uploaded tons of stuff to YouTube that was Ogg Theora. You're not looking hard enough.

      You can upload Ogg Theora videos on Youtube, but they will be automatically transcoded to FLV and viewable only as such.

      The OP obviously looks for a site that allows viewing of ogg theora videos, thus getting rid of Flash lameness.

    5. Re:Awesome stuff by larry+bagina · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wikipedia is no longer accepting movies of dudes jacking off.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    6. Re:Awesome stuff by doublec · · Score: 2, Informative

      Have you tried using tinyvid.tv. It uses Ogg Theora, using HTML 5 video, will fallback to the Java Cortado applet to play the video if the browser doesn't support HTML5.

    7. Re:Awesome stuff by Daemonax · · Score: 2, Informative

      It is not free software. Free software has a very specific meaning. When it is spoken on, especially in a community such as slashdot it refers to software that you have freedom with. So software under the GPL, BSD, MIT, etc licenses. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

  5. Helpin out by AakashPatel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Eh...the helpin out email address on their page gives me a relay access denied bounce back...great way to help out lol

    1. Re:Helpin out by bertoelcon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It says "(Don't expect anything to work at all)", maybe that applies to the email server too?

      --
      Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
  6. Peter Sunde of TPB meets the Brazilian President by Ezel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some related news:
    Peter Sunde, one of the convicted(and appealing) men behind The Pirate Bay is right now at 'Fórum Internacional Software Livre' in Brazil where he among other things got to meet the brazilian president Lula. Here is a picture of the meeting.
    Peter Sunde himself talks a bit about it in his blog.

    So what now Joe Biden? Time to invade Brazil for fraternizing with the enemy?

    --
    Prosp long and liver.
  7. 401 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    A username and password are being requested by http://thevideobay.org. The site says: "The Vidoe Bay"

    That's a great idea. Make a 401 website that looks interesting, and collect passwords. Get it on slashdot -> Jackpot!

  8. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by jork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    yes, but a large percentage of people who view videos in Youtube have no interest in the social media elements.

  9. So now they're going to start hosting . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    . . . copyrighted content on their own servers? The whole "but they only host torrent files and links" defense will be useless.

    1. Re:So now they're going to start hosting . . . by jack2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They can still have an eula that basically declares whatever you do is your own fault...

    2. Re:So now they're going to start hosting . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The "linking defense will not work" in my original message wasn't limited to a particular country (or law, even). It is the entire argument that somehow Google are the Pirate Bay are the same things in that they only provide links. That they never did anything wrong or broken the law since they are not the ones uploading the actual files. That is that the users are the ones responsible, not TPB/TVB. Now that they will be hosting this, the pro-TPB crowd will kill their own defenses in IP debates, be it ethical or ethical debates.

  10. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by Belial6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Social networking between people that are not content creators (most people) inherently includes massive use of other peoples creations. Saying that a social networking video site is not the same thing as a pirate site is pretty much semantics.

  11. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dude, have you actually been on Youtube recently?
    More than half of it is illegal content. And a good deal of it is private and shared amongst closed groups, so probably even more.

    People don't even care much for the social aspects of it.
    Most people register just to leave comments, or at least keep track of favorite videos.

    TVB is a DIRECT competitor to Youtube, considering most people WANT to upload content that is copyrighted! (well, not now, but when it does come out)
    The people in

    People may use it to upload movies

    is actually quite a significant amount of people, more than you seem to think.

  12. iphone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If this works on the iPhone, it's going to force youtube to adopt HTML5.

  13. Ahma's gr88-st opportunity by scorilo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The one smart PR move that renegade countries like Iran, Zimbabwe or North Korea don't ever make is hosting other renegades, from the other side of the pond (like tpb or tvb). They'd score a major coup by showing that there are excesses and abuses perpetrated by their critics as well, and rather than having to perform the filtering and censorship themselves, they'd be forcing the West to do it for them, allowing themselves to be painted as the good guys.

    --
    "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that ones work is terribly important." -BRussell
    1. Re:Ahma's gr88-st opportunity by kasot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The folks behind TPB wouldn't host their sites in a regime even if they were paid for it.

    2. Re:Ahma's gr88-st opportunity by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ....But they won't do it. In case you hadn't seen it a few days ago TPB changed their logo to be "The Iran Bay" with links to materials helping protesters get their message out. The idea was even used in an April Fools gag a while back on their site about moving to North Korea.

      About all that will go to these countries would be shady porn sites or for-profit warez groups. The rest will simply refuse because they care more about these issues than being "legal".

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  14. Legitimacy by gehrehmee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Legitimate videos == legitimate ads.

    If this is going to get mainstream use with any kind of revenue stream, they'll need ads, and they'll need ads that aren't too offensive. Many of TPB's ads are for shady porn sites.... that'll have to go if this will be the sort of place I tell my family view my videos at.

    --
    "You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
  15. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by gilgongo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Youtube isn't about piracy, the initial purpose of it was social networking and it continues to try to strive for that.

    Er, it may not have been about piracy initially, but anyone other than a casual observer today will see that YouTube hosts a lot of illegal (as in not copyright cleared) material. In fact I'd estimate that perhaps half the content is pirated in some form (either video or audio).

    --
    "And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
  16. Good luck with that... by TheRon6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're trying to compete with Youtube?... Compete for what? The privilege of losing $1.65 million per day? If the MPAA was smart they would help The Pirate Bay set this up!

    --
    Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?
  17. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by selven · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wait, youtube has social features?

  18. Re:So Flashsucks...but... by Laxori666 · · Score: 2, Informative

    no, with HTML5, which is an open standard that any browser could implement without the need of a proprietary plug-in.

  19. Re:They just don't get it, do they? by nyctopterus · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, it's where people (or "ppl") go to tell each other ("ur") that they are homosexual ("fags"), and that this sucks ("blows"), and that they are most amused at their own witticisms ("lolz").

  20. Re:So Flashsucks...but... by six · · Score: 2, Informative

    various software patents owned by various entities.

    theora is 100% patent free