New York representative Edolphus Towns announced that he plans to introduce a bill to ban file sharing networks on government computers. The goal is to eliminate peer-to-peer networks, which are easily hackable, from networks and computers connected to the government infrastructure. Towns noted that "at its worst, it isn't peer-to-peer; it's predator-to-prey."
The Pew Internet & American Life Project says online video is more popular than social networking. The research center says that 62% of US Internet users watch online video, while only 46% use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. More notably, Pew also reported that 35% of US web users also enjoyed television shows and Hollywood films on the web, up over 16% from 2007.
Microsoft is set to integrate social networks into its XBox 360 gaming platform. The company noted that both Facebook and Twitter will be available via XBox 360 in time for the Holiday season. The move comes as Microsoft hopes to make XBox an entertainment portal capable of pulling in third-party advertisers.
Time Warner reported a 34% decrease in second quarter profits, year over year. CEO Jeff Bewkes noted that the media company was hurt by DVD sales and sluggish ad spending. Despite the decrease, TW hopes the second half of 2009 will benefit from the $400 million box office earnings of the latest Harry Potter film, as well as from spinning off its AOL franchise.
Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV. Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net For information about Get Digital Classes, visit www.shellypalmer.com/seminars