IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 20 August
20-08-2009
by Sylvia Leatham
Eircom to block Pirate Bay access | Video ad to appear in print
The Irish Times reports that Eircom is to block internet customers from accessing the Pirate Bay website from 1 September, even as other internet service providers (ISPs) refuse a similar request. Under an out-of-court agreement with EMI Records, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner in January, Eircom agreed to cut off customers found to be repeatedly downloading music illegally. The deal also required Eircom to cut off access to Piratebay.org, a Swedish website that provides links to where copyrighted material can be downloaded for free, if requested to do so. Cable TV operator UPC has announced it would not comply with a request to block access to Pirate Bay, as reported by ENN, and BT Ireland has also confirmed that it has refused a request from the music industry to block access to the site.
The Irish Independent says that telecoms experts are trying to determine if camera phone images relating to an alleged sex act involving infants were ever transmitted. It emerged earlier this week that Gardai are investigating allegations that two 12-year-old boys intimidated a four-year-old and five-year-old into performing sex acts and filmed it using their mobile phones. The handsets have been sent to Dublin where Garda forensic experts will try to recover any deleted images from the phone memories.
The paper also reports that social network Bebo is launching an online fashion TV show called 'The Closet'. The show will go live on 25 August and run once a week for just over four months. It will include regular features on makeovers, style guides, fashion-insider interviews and celebrity closet rummages. Bebo members will participate by sharing shopping tips, uploading photos of their 'best buys' of the week and voting in polls.
The Irish Examiner says that Apple is to investigate claims that some of its iPods and iPhones have been exploding, as reported by ENN on Wednesday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, MySpace has confirmed it is acquiring online music service iLike. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a source said it was valued at nearly USD20 million. iLike lets users on social networking sites share music. The acquisition serves MySpace's "need to create new social experience in music and beyond," said MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta. He added that MySpace plans to extend iLike's technologies beyond music to other features on the site, so that users can share entertainment content such as video and games.
The paper also says that Google is aggressively pushing new ad formats for its video-sharing site YouTube and ramping up deals with media companies. YouTube has added larger ad formats, shown a greater variety of ads against user-uploaded content and is promoting videos that draw higher ad rates. YouTube said it will distribute a range of short clips from Time Warner properties such as CNN and the Cartoon Network. The agreement follows similar deals struck with Walt Disney's ABC and ESPN and a number of Hollywood studios earlier this year.
In other advertising news, the Financial Times says that some readers of Entertainment Weekly magazine will next month encounter ads on a wafer-thin video screen built into the page. The marketing experiment -- which is being conducted by CBS, the US broadcaster, and Pepsi, the soft drinks maker -- works much like a singing greetings card, with the video ad starting once a reader turns to the appropriate page. The cost of the full-motion video ad was not disclosed, but it will be far more expensive than traditional print ads, according to sources. The video will appear in copies of the magazine sent to subscribers in the New York and Los Angeles areas.
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