OnlinePhim.net Blog

You know you reach some kind of milestone in popularity when you get one of these. We’re not that big and we don’t have that many fans (or fanatics, like certain sites), so it was quite a surprise when we got one of these letters in the mail. We do get them once in awhile from fan groups, fanatics, and others - shall we say … “enthusiastic” individuals - but this is the first from a producer.

From: 9301, TVBLEGAL <tvblegal@tvb.com.hk>
Date: 2008/8/28
Subject: Copyright Infringement

Dear Sirs,
 
Re: Copyright Infringement
 
We are a well known television broadcast company in Hong Kong and the copyright owner of various television programmes produced by us.
 
It has recently come to our notice that one of you have been using your website http://www.onlinephim.net (”Website”) to provide streaming of our television programmes for public’s viewing without our authorization.
 
Details of your uploaded files which contain our copyrighted works can be found on the Website by accessing the following links:-
 
1.          Our copyrighted work name in English and Chinese: 
Unnatural Born Killer (十三密殺令)
Links of files containing infringed materials:-
http://www.onlinephim.net/1548.vid
 
2.          Our copyrighted work name in English and Chinese: 
A Change of Destiny (天機算)
Links of files containing infringed materials:-
http://www.onlinephim.net/624.vid
http://www.onlinephim.net/696.vid

and the list goes on for quite a bit. It was too long that it got cut off in the mail when we got it. They had to email it twice. Appearently, someone had spent some time going through our listings. Do they have interns in HK? Anyway, about 15 minutes later, we received another email. It simply states:

From: 9301, TVBLEGAL <tvblegal@tvb.com.hk>
Date: 2008/8/28
Subject: Recall: Copyright Infringement

9301, TVBLEGAL would like to recall the message, “Copyright Infringement”.

Umm. OK. You had us worried for a few minutes there. We have more than a handful of reasons why their claim is without merit. We have no idea which one they used, we’re just glad that someone checked again. They should have double-checked before they send out the letter in the first place, but we have to give them credit for a quick recall. An apology would be nice, but we doubt that they’re that nice. Well, it’s a good thing that we didn’t have to go through all the legal paperworks because it was a little pass 3am and our lawyer was happily chasing sheeps and counting butterflies.

Starting June 7th, there won’t be any more update to OnlineDrama site until at least July 7th. The reason for the month long hiatus? I’m going on vacation. OnlinePhim should continue to get regular updates as it’s not part of my responsibilities. Only OnlineDrama will affected. It’s unfortunate, but since noone else is interested in helping, there’s not much that I can do about it.

I won’t be checking the emails, so if you have a problem … post them in the forums, blog …etc … so that other staffs will see them and respond. I will be answering any question (and providing support) up until June 6th.

As if the 5-min previews and the popup ads in the videos didn’t annoy people enough (especially if you watch anime or drama with subtitles), here’s another pin for the cushion … Veoh recently decided to block countries that didn’t fit into its business plan. There are already over 160 countries named by users, and the list is growing. You can view the user-generated list here. Yes, Vietnam is on the listed. I’ve test it with a Vietnam IP and veoh does indeed block access.

Unfortunately Veoh will be ending service in your country due to a low concentration of users. Veoh is maintaining markets when we have the highest concentration of viewers.

So what does it actually means? Absolutely nothing. Why? Simple. What Veoh says never is the real story. The 5-min preview is never about the bandwidth or resources (otherwise why is there a veohtv? it still stream the whole thing in flash … it would take the same amout of bandwidth). What they are claiming, according to the above, is that since there not that many people from these country, they might as well block them. Umm .. ok .. :/

Truth is NOT that they don’t have enough users in other countries…. is that they tried block other countries because they tend to post movies and content that cannot be controlled by US laws (being outside US and all). Recently, Viacom (who owns Paramont, CBS, MTV among others) sued Youtube for allowing people posted video contents that Viacom claimed is their properties. Viacom had entered partnership with Veoh and allowing Veoh to post their content but some people post a full length movie that really tick this big corporation off so no one can watch anything full length unless you pay for it. Basically, they want to control to have less people watch their content for free. If you want to watch their content (say a full length show or a movie), you have to pay for it.

The above statement made by a user at Yahoo Answers does raise a good point. Profit is always the center of any business. There’s no point in letting user using your resources if you can’t monetizing that traffic. There are several theories floating around the interweb … dig around if you’re interested in the matter.

Once again, webmasters who using Veoh’s embedding player are scrambling to find alternative solutions. Yes, not just the main site that blocking the users .. the embedding player also block them. Why do you think they pushed out the new player right before the block? Without going into much details, here is a quick list of questions and my answers. Read the rest of this entry »