Netflix studies piracy downloads

16 September 2013 Last updated at 08:30 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Netflix has revealed that it tracks piracy sites to help decide which TV series and films it should add to its online streaming service.

The US firm gave Prison Break as an example of one programme it had bought as a consequence of using the strategy.

Media companies have traditionally seen copyright infringement as a threat to their business.

However, some programme-makers acknowledge there can be benefits.

Netflix's vice president of content acquisition disclosed its use of the technique to Tweakers, a Dutch news site covering the firm's launch in the Netherlands.

"With the purchase of series, we look at what does well on piracy sites," said Kelly Merryman.

"Prison Break is exceptionally popular on piracy sites.

"But there are many programmes that we will not buy, such as The Voice. Such live programmes are better suited for live TV."

Netflix's chief executive, Reed Hastings, had previously told the site that he believed his video-on-demand product might discourage people from using BitTorrent piracy sites because it was easier to use.

However, he admitted that it would not dissuade everyone.

"In Canada BitTorrent is down by 50% since Netflix launched three years ago," he said. "But there's still a lot of people who torrent."

Word of mouth

The comments come a fortnight after the creator of the US series Breaking Bad said that piracy had helped his show survive, allowing it to find an audience after "very low viewership" of legal broadcasts of its first episodes.

"Piracy is certainly a double-edged sword," Vince Gilligan told entertainment news site Digital Spy.

"It does disincentivise companies from making their products if they feel they can't earn an honest living off of them, but on the other hand there was an upside to the piracy, because it got the word out in regards to Breaking Bad."

The chief executive of US media firm Time Warner also recently signalled that piracy may have worked in the favour of its HBO show, Game of Thrones.

"It's a tremendous word-of-mouth thing," he said in answer to a question about the subject by a bank analyst.

"Basically we've been dealing with this issue for years at HBO, where, literally... people have always been running wires down the back of apartment buildings and sharing with their neighbours.

"Our experience is, it all leads to more penetration, more paying [subscriptions] and more health for HBO, less reliance on having to do paid advertising.

"I think you're right, that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world. Now that's better than an Emmy."

However, not everyone is so relaxed about the idea.

"Seemingly innocent viewing of TV shows via pirate websites can have consequences," Eddy Leviten, a spokesman for the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) told the BBC.

"The more people who watch via illegal means, the less likely it is for a UK broadcaster to buy the show which in turn reduces the revenues for the programme makers.

"This makes it harder to justify further investment in exciting new shows or the next series of hit shows and will ultimately reduce the choice available to viewers worldwide."

Emmy Awards

Netflix itself has begun to invest in its own original content.

On Sunday it won two Emmy awards for its political thriller House of Cards - Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series and Outstanding Cinematography for a Single Camera Series.

It was the first time the US Academy of Television Arts and Sciences had given an online series such a prize.

The programme has also been nominated for further Emmys to be announced at an award ceremony on 22 September.

Netflix has previously said it had taken measures to combat piracy of the show.

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UK pirates face copyright crackdown

13 September 2013 Last updated at 10:28 ET

Criminals making money from copyright theft are facing a crackdown in the UK.

The City of London Police launched a unit on Friday dedicated to pursuing serious intellectual property crime.

Detectives arrested two men suspected of importing £40,000 worth of counterfeit DVD boxsets in Birmingham on Friday morning.

Police will liaise with international agencies to tackle digital copyright infringement in the physical production and sale of counterfeit goods.

The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (Pipcu) will receive £2.56m funding over two years from the UK government body the Intellectual Property Office.

"Our focus will be the professional criminals using intellectual property crime to generate illicit gains," Det Ch Supt Oliver Shaw told the BBC.

The police will use links at national and international level to pursue suspects, building on existing contacts at agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in the US.

Officers trained in online investigations will act on tip-offs from industry groups to identify UK suspects, and will proactively seek out websites offering illegal goods and downloads.

Website control

The 19-strong unit will have the power to seize goods and assets, and will push internet service providers to take down websites selling spurious products.

Legitimate advertisers unwittingly running ads on illegal websites will be informed to stop advertising payments and disrupt revenue to crime gangs.

The team will also investigate the physical production and sale of counterfeit goods, for example, by pursuing criminals making faked brands of car tyres, said Det Ch Supt Shaw.

The two men arrested in Birmingham were suspected of importing and selling thousands of illegally produced DVD boxsets, the Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.

UK efforts to counter serious copyright crime include the appointment of an intellectual property adviser by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Conservative MP Mike Weatherley, who will advise the prime minister on enforcement, was appointed on Thursday.

Regulator Ofcom published a report on Wednesday that said almost a quarter of UK downloads infringe copyright.

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Wave power pistons bag Dyson award

12 September 2013 Last updated at 17:02 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

A wave power generator that can harvest energy no matter which way the sea is running has won the UK round of James Dyson's engineering award.

The Renewable Wave Power generator seeks to overcome the limitations of some current wave power technologies.

These work best when struck by waves travelling in one direction and are less efficient in more turbulent seas.

The generator uses loosely coupled pistons to reap power from tidal waters that flow unpredictably.

British sea power

The win means that Sam Etherington, who created the generator, gets £2,000 to create a bigger prototype that will undergo tests in water tanks to prove its efficacy.

The engineering graduate studied mechanical design at Brunel University in London, and now lives in the Lake District.

Mr Etherington said some of the inspiration for the design came when he was kite surfing off the coast of Cumbria in seas where waves rarely travelled in a predictable fashion.

To harness the energy that abounds in such restless waters, Mr Etherington came up with a design that uses a long chain of loosely linked enclosed pistons. Energy is generated as the chain of generators flexes in the peaks and troughs of each wave.

"The ocean is a harsh and unpredictable environment," said Mr Etherington. "It is better to work with the forces than to repel them."

He added that the hard part of the development work was finding ways to replicate the chaotic seas that the generator can make best use of. Data taken from buoys moored in the Orkney Islands was used to make waves in a water tank at Lancaster University and prove the prototypes could generate power in such conditions.

Dr David Forehand from the Institute for Energy Systems at Edinburgh said existing tidal and wave power systems used different methods to cope with the ways water can move.

Systems sited in shallow waters benefitted from the fact that waves "refract" as they approached the shore, he said. This meant the wave crests tended to line up parallel to the shore before they break, making it straightforward to harvest some of their energy.

Expensive

By contrast deeper water systems, such as the Pelamis pipe generators, tended to be "loosely moored" so they can swing into the direction of dominant waves.

He added that seas can sometimes have a number of dominant wave directions and Mr Etherington's multi-axis device might be good for such situations.

"The real test for a device is its cost of energy," Dr Forehand said, adding that the complexity of the multi-axis device and its ability to withstand large seas might make it an expensive way to generate power.

The cash award will allow Mr Etherington to conduct more tests and enrol his device in European trials for fledgling tidal power systems.

Mr Etherington's project was one of 63 in the UK selected by the judges on the James Dyson panel to compete for the UK prize.

His project now goes through to the international final where a cash prize of £30,000 is up for grabs.

For this year's competition, engineers in 18 countries have submitted more than 650 entries.

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Twitter plans stock market listing

13 September 2013 Last updated at 06:34 ET

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Rory Cellan-Jones reports on Twitters rise to the stock market

Twitter says it plans to join the stock market in the most hotly anticipated flotation since Facebook's last year.

Referring to the official paperwork needed to join the market, the company tweeted: "We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned [initial public offering]."

Investors value Twitter, founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, at more than $10bn (£6.3bn).

Twitter gave no further details as to the timing or price of the offering.

The microblogging service is on track to post $583m in revenue in 2013, according to advertising consultancy eMarketer, up from $288m in 2012.

Most of Twitter's funding comes from advertising, with companies paying for "promoted tweets" that appear in users' Twitter feeds.

Advertisers are keen to target Twitter's 200 million active users, who send more than 500 million tweets a day.

Mobile first

Continue reading the main story

Leo Kelion Technology reporter

---

Twitter's flotation was long expected, but is only likely to increase scrutiny of the company.

In recent months, it has faced criticism for not doing enough to tackle rape threats against prominent women, as well as for not having enough security measures to prevent media accounts from being hijacked. In parts of the Middle East, leaders have also accused it of being a "scourge" and a "threat to national unity" for its role in opposition protests.

The firm will be mindful of the extra scrutiny Facebook endured after its flotation. Twitter users will also be on guard against the idea that pressure from investors could see them made subject to more adverts.

Investors, meanwhile, may be concerned about churn - the idea that people join and then drop out. Innovation may be the answer to that, with Twitter's new music discovery service and ways of viewing conversations with others being possible solutions.

But some analysts believe the risk for Twitter post-flotation is that if the drive for greater advertising revenue leads to increased numbers of adverts in and around the site, they could become intrusive and unpopular with users.

"There's a few issues [such as] how many revenue streams can be developed beyond just advertising, the impact of more people accessing the service via smartphones," said Colin Gillis, a New York-based technology specialist at BGC Partners.

Nearly two-thirds of users access Twitter via mobile devices that have traditionally been difficult for advertisers to reach.

This is one reason why Twitter has acquired MoPub, a mobile-focused advertising exchange, for a reported $350m.

"Twitter was more or less a mobile-first platform from the start and so the company built its experience to work relatively well across devices," Clark Fredriksen of eMarketer told the BBC.

"Ultimately, they did a good job of monetising their mobile user base."

Learning from Facebook

"Twitter is one of the last of the major developed social networks to file [for an initial public offering or IPO] - we've already had Facebook and LinkedIn," said Mr Gillis.

Facebook listed on the stock market in May last year. Although it initially created excitement among investors, its share price performed poorly, before recovering this summer.

The timing of the IPO is likely to be related to renewed activity in stock market flotations. There have been 131 IPOs priced so far in 2013, according to IPO tracking firm Renaissance Capital - a 44% increase on the same period last year.

Activity is climbing back towards the pre-financial crisis levels of 2007, says Renaissance.

Andrew Frank, social media expert at technology research company Gartner, said: "[The IPO] gives its investors a way to get some of the money back that they put into the company at the beginning.

"It gives the employees a similar kind of event to reward them for the success they've had so far. And it gives Twitter itself extra funds to invest in new projects and innovation."

Mr Gillis said it was impossible to say how great the demand for Twitter shares would be until the company released a valuation.

Analysts say Twitter must continue to innovate under the scrutiny of public ownership.

"One of the things they will have to focus on is making sure that they keep their users very actively engaged," Nate Elliott, an analyst at the tech consultancy Forrester, told the BBC.

"One of the things Facebook has done very successfully over the past year-and-a-half has been to show that not only is the number of users growing, but that those users are becoming more active."

'This tweet is going public?'

Twitter's tweet announcing its filing immediately went viral - it was re-tweeted more than 8,000 times within an hour of its posting.

For many users, it seemed apt that the company would use its own platform to announce the news.

"Naturally Twitter announces its IPO via Twitter. What other way?" one read.

Twitter later sent a follow-up tweet, which read simply: "Now, back to work."

Once a company has filed paperwork with US regulators for a planned IPO, it enters a so-called "quiet period" when it is not allowed to speak to the media.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission's website, a company can file a confidential prospectus for a public share sale if it is classified as an "emerging growth company" with revenue of less than $1bn.

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Google Street View car in 'accident'

13 September 2013 Last updated at 08:47 ET By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

A Google Street View car hit two public transport buses and a truck in the city of Bogor, Indonesia.

Police said the car driver hit the first bus, appeared to "panic" when the bus driver responded angrily, and tried to drive off.

But in doing so the vehicle hit a second bus and then the truck, according to local media reports.

It is unclear whether anybody was hurt at the scene. Google has confirmed that an incident has taken place.

"We take incidents like this very seriously. We're working closely with local authorities to address the situation," Vishnu Mahmud, head of communications for Google in Indonesia, told news agency AFP.

Pictures of the incident were posted to an Indonesian website by an eyewitness.

Donkey

The tech giant has been taking photos of the region for its mapping service since November 2012.

Earlier this year Google denied reports that one of its Street View cars had run over a donkey in Botswana.

Street View photos appeared to show the animal walking by the roadside in one shot and then lying on its side behind the car in another.

"Because of the way our 360-degree imagery is put together, it looked to some that our car had been involved in an unseemly hit-and-run, leaving the humble beast stranded in the road," wrote Kei Kawai, Group Product Manager, Google Maps in a blog post at the time.

"The donkey was lying in the path - perhaps enjoying a dust bath - before moving safely aside as our car drove past.

"I'm pleased to confirm the donkey is alive and well," he added.

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Argentine teenage 'superhacker' held

13 September 2013 Last updated at 19:33 ET

Police in Argentina have arrested a 19-year-old man accused of heading a gang of hackers who targeted international money transfer and gambling websites.

Dubbed "the superhacker", the teenager was making $50,000 (£31,500) a month, working from his bedroom in Buenos Aires, police say.

The arrest operation shut down the power to the entire neighbourhood to prevent the deletion of sensitive data.

Police say it took them a year to close in on the teenager.

The young man lived with his father, a computer expert, in Buenos Aires.

In the teenager's room, officials found high-capacity computers.

The hackers allegedly used malware attacks to build up a network of thousands of zombie computers, which were then used to illegally divert money from accounts leaving virtually no trace behind.

The police operation included five raids in the capital and the city of Rosario, about 300km (190 miles) north.

The young man is being accused of three crimes, and if convicted of all, could be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

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Microsoft offers $200 for used iPads

13 September 2013 Last updated at 13:32 ET

Microsoft has launched a US marketing offer for people to exchange "gently used" iPads for Microsoft products such as Surface tablets.

The company is offering at least a $200 token to go towards products such as the Surface RT and the Surface Pro.

Microsoft is far behind Apple in terms of global tablet sales and market share.

One US-based analyst expressed doubts that many people would swap their iPad for a Microsoft product.

"Do I think that many people will take [Microsoft] up on this offer? In a word, no," said Gartner mobile device analyst Van Baker. "The app ecosystem is the problem for Microsoft and this offer doesn't fix that problem."

There was a far greater range of mobile apps available for iPads than for Windows devices, giving Apple a competitive edge, said Mr Baker.

Microsoft has been engaged in an aggressive US marketing campaign to try to tempt Apple iPad users to buy Windows-based tablets.

In May, Microsoft launched an iPad v Windows comparison website, coupled with head-to-head advertising campaigns.

Microsoft has experienced problems trying to sell Surface devices.

In the first quarter of this year, Apple shipped 19.5 million iPads, compared with 900,000 Microsoft tablets.

In the second quarter, Microsoft shipped only 300,000 Surface devices, technology publication CiteWorld said.

Although Microsoft announced a revenue of $853 million on Surface sales in its latest financial regulatory filing, the company took a $900 million loss after failing to shift Surface RT devices.

Microsoft's $200 (£150) gift certificate offer is valid in its bricks and mortar stores. A Surface RT tablet costs $349, and a Surface Pro retails at $799.

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Music site chatbot wins AI contest

16 September 2013 Last updated at 07:21 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

A chatbot called Mitsuku has won an annual contest to see if computers can convincingly imitate humans.

The chatbot took top prize in the Loebner contest that puts the artificially intelligent programs through their paces.

The contest involves the programs trying to convince judges they are human by answering questions put to them via an instant message system.

Briton Steve Worswick who wrote Mitsuku won $4,000 (£2,500) for his creation.

World knowledge

Created by US businessman Hugh Loebner, the annual competition is an attempt to stage a real-world test of a question posed by mathematician Alan Turing in the 1950s.

Turing suggested that if the responses a computer gave to a series of questions were as convincing as those from a human it could reasonably be said to be thinking.

Mr Loebner has offered a prize of $100,000 (£62,000) for the computer program that meets Turing's standard for artificial intelligence but in the 22 years the competition has been running that cash has gone unclaimed.

The four finalists in the 2013 contest went through a series of rounds which saw them chat via text with the competition judges. After four rounds of questioning the Mitsuku chatbot was declared to be the most convincing.

Mr Worswick said he started programming chatbots as a way to engage visitors to a website that showcased his dance music.

The first iteration of his home-grown chatbot was a teddy bear, he told the BBC.

"Eventually I found that visitors were wanting to talk to the teddy bear rather than listen to the music," he said.

His work on chatbots got a bigger boost in 2004 when he was commissioned by a games company to write one called Mitsuku. This also lived on a website and the many conversations it has had with visitors has helped Mr Worswick refine its conversational abilities.

That helped during the final, he said, because some of the questions the chatbots get asked are designed to catch them out.

Tricky questions include: "How many plums can I fit in a shoe?" and "Which is bigger, a big lion or a small mountain?"

Answering those involves writing a program that does much more than just grab canned responses from a long list of possible answers, said Mr Worswick.

"The difficulty is trying to teach these things about the world because they have no sensory input," he said. Mitsuku has been built upon the Pandora bot pen source chatbot code and tools.

Although he has entered the Loebner contest before, 2013 was the first year he made it to the final. Winning, he said, was a big surprise.

"I was thinking I'd use this year as a learning experience to prepare for a win next year. I thought I'd probably come second or third," he said. "Winning is a dream come true."

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Huge tidal energy project approved

16 September 2013 Last updated at 08:06 ET

Work is to begin on the largest tidal turbine energy project in Europe after the Scottish government approved it.

MeyGen is to install the tidal array in stages in the Pentland Firth, between Orkney and the Scottish mainland.

It will begin with a 9MW demonstration project of up to six turbines, with construction expected to take place on a phased basis until 2020.

When fully operational, the 86MW array could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 42,000 homes.

That is the equivalent of 40% of homes in the Highlands, the Scottish government said.

MeyGen hopes a second phase would eventually see up to 400 submerged turbines at the site, generating some 398MW.

It will be the first commercial deployment of tidal turbines in Scottish waters.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This is a major step forward for Scotland's marine renewable energy industry"

End Quote Fergus Ewing Scottish energy minister

Scottish-registered company MeyGen is a joint venture between investment bank Morgan Stanley, independent power generator International Power and tidal technology provider Atlantis Resources Corporation.

Its tidal energy project is located in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth off the north coast of Caithness.

The firm has agreed a 25-year lease with the Crown Estate for an area encompassing about 1.4 square miles (3.5 square kilometres) of fast flowing water between the island of Stroma and the north easterly tip of the Scottish mainland.

Its AR1000 turbine is claimed to be the world's most powerful single-rotor tidal device.

Each of the devices, which stand 22.5m (73ft) tall, weigh 1,500 tonnes and have a rotor diameter of 18m (59ft), could generate up to 1MW of power.

'Climate change'

Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "Today we have granted consent to MeyGen Limited to develop the largest tidal turbine array in Europe and the first commercial project off these shores.

"This is a major step forward for Scotland's marine renewable energy industry.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

With careful planning we can harness Scotland's huge wave and tidal energy to help cut our climate emissions, while safeguarding the nation's tremendous marine environment"

End Quote Lang Banks WWF Scotland

"This exciting development in the waters around Orkney is just the first phase for a site that could eventually yield up to 398MW."

Speaking before the Scottish Renewables Marine Conference got under way in Inverness, Mr Ewing also announced that developers Aquamarine Power Limited and Pelamis Wave Power are to share a slice of a £13m wave "first array" support programme.

The award is part of the Scottish government's Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund.

Mr Ewing said the tide was turning for the wave sector.

He added: "We must tackle climate change. We need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels through better and more efficient uses of energy.

"Marine energy - a home-grown technology with huge potential - is part of the solution."

Michael Rieley, policy manager for industry body Scottish Renewables, said: "Scotland has just been given another reason to be proud of its burgeoning marine energy industry now that Europe's largest tidal energy project will be calling Scotland home.

"This is by far one of the most important milestones for the tidal energy sector to meet.

"This latest announcement to come from the marine industry is further proof that all the hard work to win the global energy race is paying off. Not only will new projects like this mean a step further towards meeting our renewable energy targets, but it will also lead to further jobs being created, increased investment, and a significant contribution towards tackling climate change."

The announcement was also welcomed by environmental group WWF Scotland.

'Fraught with difficulty'

Director Lang Banks said: "This is a significant announcement and a major boost for the marine renewable industry in Scotland.

"However, as there is little point in generating huge amounts of marine renewable energy on Scotland's islands if it cannot also be got to the mainland, we now need UK and Scottish ministers to find a way forward that enables us to harness the full potential of this clean energy source.

"Alongside energy saving measures, marine renewables will have a critical role to play in helping Scotland reduce climate emissions as we phase out polluting fossil fuels and nuclear power.

"With careful planning we can harness Scotland's huge wave and tidal energy to help cut our climate emissions, while safeguarding the nation's tremendous marine environment."

The Carbon Trust has estimated that wave and tidal resources could provide 20% of the UK's electricity if fully developed.

And the Scottish government believes the country's technological expertise in marine energy makes it extremely well placed to capitalise on domestic and overseas markets.

Scotland has been described as a Saudi Arabia of renewable energy potential, but developing power from offshore tidal streams is fraught with difficulty.

The harsh environment and extreme weather conditions make building, deploying and managing a fleet of tidal machines a treacherous challenge, as the BBC discovered when reporting on the emerging industry last year.

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Grand Theft Auto 5 embargo broken

16 September 2013 Last updated at 08:31 ET

Amazon.co.uk has delivered copies of the eagerly awaited Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) video game ahead of the official launch on Tuesday, breaching a strict embargo set by the games maker.

The many customers who had pre-ordered the title began receiving it on Saturday, and some have been quick to announce the fact via social media.

Rockstar North, the title's Scottish creator, is reportedly investigating but has yet to comment publicly.

Amazon was unavailable for comment.

Will Guyatt, spokesman for video and entertainment site IGN.com, told the BBC: "I got an early copy on Saturday, which I paid for myself, and was delighted on a personal level. But it's obviously going to cause problems for Rockstar.

"There are about 2,000 shops stocking the game ready for launch on Tuesday, so the number of people posting spoilers online is a bit sad", he said.

Mr Guyatt said he had ordered his copy of the 18-rated violent crime game in March, but others in his office who had ordered it at a later date had not yet received their copies.

"This kind of thing has always happened in the games industry, but with the rise of social media a lot more people know about it now", Mr Guyatt said.

"I can't see what Rockstar can do about it."

Some retailers, such as Cex, have been selling pre-release copies of the game for up to £75, the BBC has learned, nearly double what other stores are planning to charge.

One Cex employee confirmed that there were 13 copies of the game available in a north London outlet, and 25 available in an east London store.

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Flashback: How Rory Cellan-Jones reported the first GTA game in May 1996

This is not the first pre-launch leak the games maker has had to cope with.

In August, Sony apologised to Rockstar after audio from the forthcoming title was leaked online.

Customers who had pre-ordered the game were allowed to download a "locked" version, but some were able to extract audio that revealed some of the plot lines.

The latest version of the best-selling video game replaces version 4, first released in 2008, with all the titles in the series selling more than 135 million copies.

A report in the Scotsman newspaper suggests the development costs for GTA5 could be in the region of £170m ($265m; 203m euros), making it one of the most expensive video games ever made.

The report anticipates that GTA5 could rake in £1bn in sales over its lifetime.

Such speculation has helped push the share price of Rockstar's US owner, Take-Two Interactive Software, up by 65% over the past year.

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