NBC is cool

In reaction to their viral videos constantly being posted to sites like YouTube, NBC has made one of the coolest moves any media company has made toward new technology in recent knowledge: they are offering shorts like "Lazy Sunday" and the new "Natalie Raps" for FREE on a new section of their site, nbc.com/Video!

From the site:
"Now, instead of searching the web for "borrowed" NBC highlights, you can go to the source! We've taken your viral favorites and gathered them into one convenient location. Watch. React. Tell a friend."

The videos are higher quality than was available on YouTube, and surprisingly it is completely ad-free. Heck, I wouldn't even mind a short ad if it meant I could watch an episode of Conan for free.


The most interesting thing in this whole situation is the fact that they still sell some of these clips in the iTunes Music Store for $1.99!

Someone at Apple is pretty pissed right now...

8 Mar 06 | +Permalink+ | Comments (2)

The Matrix and The Terminator are from one book

I know in the past I vocalized the possibility of The Matrix picking up where The Terminator left off.. well it turns out they are actually both essentially ripped off from a book entitled The Third Eye copyrighted in 1981.

After seeing the Matrix, the author of The Third Eye noticed the uncanny similarity to her book, and sued the Wachowskis, Joe Silver, and Warner. Some of the similarities are cited by the author in this interview.

Late last year, after years of heavy investigation by the FBI, she won her case (story [use marvarticle@dodgeit.com if it asks to verify identity]) and will receive "one of the biggest payoffs in the history of hollywood".

On a side note, it is my personal theory that the second and third Matrix and Terminator movies branch off into their own directions because they are not directly taken from The Third Eye. Some could speculate this is why they are not as groundbreaking and original in their concepts.

Edit: Apparently The Globe added a little note to the end of the article, available in the printer-friendly version of the article. Thanks to reader Ed for pointing this out.

"CORRECTION REGARDING PREVIOUS STORY

In reference to the recent article entitled "Mother of the Matrix Victorious," some information has been deemed misleading. Ms. Sophia Stewart has not yet won her case against Joel Silver, Time Warner and the Wachowski Bros. The decision on October 4th enabled Ms. Stewart to proceed with her case, as all attempts to have it dismissed were unsuccessful. Ms. Stewart's case will proceed through the Central District Court of California.

Thanks,
The Globe Staff"

4 Jun 05 | +Permalink+ | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Unlimited movie downloads for 14 days, no tricks

Like movies? Like the napster all-you-can-eat subscription model? This is not a "hack".

STARZ! Ticket on Real Movies

RealNetworks has teamed up with the STARZ! movie channel to bring us the best internet movie delivery service to date. STARZ! Ticket is a subscription based movie service that gives you unlimited access to all of the movies in their library. Watch them as many times as you want, watch as many as you want, for the length of your subscription. Find a movie you want to watch, click "Download Now", and in less than a minute, it will have downloaded enough of your movie for you to start watching it as it downloads.

When I saw this, I figured there was no way movies delivered this fast with so few restrictions could be very high quality. I've tried this service out for about a week and the quality blows me away! It easily beats DiVX in my book, but you can decide for yourself with the 14 day trial.

This service is not for you if you're not on a broadband connection, or if you have a problem with watching movies on your computer screen and you can't hook your computer to your TV.

The videos you get from the service are protected by Helix DRM, Real's digital rights management technology that has yet to be circumvented. But with the amount of rights they give you with their movies, that's hardly worth whining over. Check it out!

16 Mar 05 | +Permalink+ | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)