MPA suing website for film piracy

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) in Hollywood is seeking about US$1 million from a popular Chinese website in a film piracy lawsuit. The MPA accuses the Xunlei Networking Technology Co. of permitting users of its file-sharing service to download hundreds of movies from other websites, despite 78 warnings sent to the company by MPA lawyers. The organization accuses the Chinese government of fuelling movie piracy by limiting the release of foreign films in China. This is not the first MPA suit involving a Chinese company; in November the association sued Jeboo.com, accusing the site of providing pirated copies of 13 Hollywood films to a Shanghai Internet café. The MPA represents Hollywood studios Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios and Warner Bros.

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BroadRamp appoints Canadian GM

San Antonio-based multimedia delivery and Internet services provider BroadRamp Inc. has named Marc Kronewitt GM of BroadRamp Canada LP. Kronewitt was formerly CEO and co-founder of RAMP Management Group Inc., an international sports and entertainment management company with clients from four continents and including athletes from professional hockey, basketball, football, soccer, action sports and the Olympics.

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BroadRamp establishes office in Edmonton

San Antonio-based multimedia delivery and Internet services provider BroadRamp Inc. has established an office Edmonton AB and is licensing its technology for secure, high-definition transmission of virtually any content to browser-enabled devices. "By making our technology available in Canada, we are offering Canadian content producers the means to deliver their products at HD quality, far more economically than other streaming content providers can," said Greg Nakagawa, BroadRamp CEO. BroadRamp CDS compresses video up to 90% so HDTV-quality content can be delivered over cable, DSL and broadband using only about 1 Mbps of bandwidth where most other providers require more than 10 Mbps. The company is looking to attract anyone who wants to use the Internet to publish multimedia content.

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Comment: CRTC policy hinders HD adoption

If the CRTC is looking for ways to spur the conversion to high-definition television, it should look no further than its own policies, which discourage actual HD adoption by allowing BDUs to pass off up-converted standard definition programming as true HD.

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Canadian firms make big announcements at Mobile World Congress

Mobile World Congress is always an event where key stakeholders in the wireless communications ecosystem come to make big announcements and unveil revolutionary technologies, services or applications. This year was no different with some Canadian firms introducing new products.

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Telecom complaints body appealed by founding members

Some founding members of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services‘ (CCTS) have appealed a CRTC ruling that officially sanctioned the telecom complaints body. In two separate Part VII applications filed on February 4, the telcos and cablecos claim the commission erred when it set the scope and mandate of the CCTS.

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Ottawa company launches video-commerce platform

Ottawa-headquartered interactive media company Overlay.TV has launched a video-commerce platform that will enable video publishers to personalize and monetize the billions of videos currently posted on the Internet. The Overlay.TV platform allows publishers to overlay pictures, words and graphics on top of video and link to products or information on external websites. At the time of launch, more than 600 marketing affiliates have agreed to accept click-throughs from Overlay.TV, including Amazon.com, iTunes and Wal-Mart. "By linking publishers, viewers of online video and marketers, Overlay.TV is transforming user-generated video content from a passive vehicle for entertainment or education, into an interactive vehicle for commerce," said Rob Lane, President and CEO of Overlay.TV.

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$1 billion shortfall spells long future for Canadian program subsidies

Advertising, BDU fees and export sales are not enough to cover the over $1 billion in losses Canadian companies continue to absorb for producing home-grown television shows. As such, expect subsidies to be a permanent fixture on the Canadian broadcasting scene, concludes a recent study from Nordicity Group Ltd.

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Virgin Mobile Canada unveils post-paid plans

After months of anticipation regarding how Virgin Mobile Canada was going to approach the post-paid wireless market, the company unveiled its new pricing plans this morning. One of the more interesting pricing innovations from Virgin Canada is its myTime packages, which allow the user to pick the time when their unlimited calling clock begins. This unlimited calling clock runs for a six-hour period and is priced at $45 per month which gives an additional 400 anytime minutes, and $60 per month with 600 anytime minutes. For those with less than unlimited needs can get 1,000 minutes for as little as $25 per month, which includes an extra 100 anytime minutes.

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Canada ranks among world’s top copyright offenders, reports IP watchdog

Canada is not only one of the world’s biggest copyright offenders, it is also the wealthiest country among the 12 nations singled out in an international report this week to the US Trade Representative.

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