Mininova Gutted — and Another Chance to Monetize BitTorrent Blown
The popular torrent-indexing site Mininova.org late yesterday took the drastic step of removing all but a few torrents in response to a copyright infringement lawsuit. Dutch rights group BREIN went to court against Mininova in June, and later that summer, the site was ordered to remove any links to infringing content and prevent any further uploads of s

An 8-Year-Old’s-Eye View on Jaroo.com’s Kid-Friendly Content
Thanksgiving isn’t just a feasting holiday, it’s also about spending time with your family, so this week I’ve been spending time with my second cousin Kristina, who is eight years old. Her favorite TV shows are Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place, which she watches on DisneyChannel.com when she can’t see them on TV, but she also watches animated series like the Cartoon Network series Teen Titans, unauthorized uploads of which are available on YouTube. So today Kristina and I checked out the site Ja

Penny Arcade Launches Online Reality Show
You have to hand it to the guys behind Penny Arcade. What started out as a web comic a decade ago has since exploded to become a full-blown phenomenon that encompasses merchandising, video games and a convention (that tens of thousands of people attend) dedicated to all things “nerd.” You can potentially add reality TV stars to that list as Penny Arcade launched its own web series earlier this week to give fans a sneak peek behind their curtain.

Dumb Idea: Waking Up at 4 AM to Shop for Deals
My hunt for a cheap, 32″ LCD TV via one of Black Friday’s so-called “door-busting” sales is over. And it ended in frustration, anger and tears. OK, just anger and frustration. Like

The NYT, NBC Universal Digital and Questions We Wish We Could Ask
Stuart Elliott, who’s been the advertising columnist at The New York Times since 1991, recently wrote a piece entitled “Shows Online, Brought to You by …”. In it, he discusses a couple of upcoming web series that have partnered with advertisers excited about this emerging platform for reaching audiences. Unfortunately, while Elliott looks to a rosy future of series featuring Jennie Garth and Candace Bushnell, he also alleges that: “Almost all such Web series are being created specifically for advertisers, borrowing a strategy from the early days of rad