As part of the grand opening of the Interactive Media building at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg spoke on a panel regarding the future of entertainment. During the discussion, the inevitable landscape of entertainment media was characterized as grim for the majors with rising movie ticket prices and theatrical releases becoming a niche market, as content continues its vast migration to online video-on-demand. Continue reading Industry Vets See Big Future for VOD, Problems for Studios

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “Entertainment & Media Outlook 2013-2017” report, consumer spending on mobile Internet access will surpass spending on home broadband connections this year. Combined spending is projected to grow from $91 billion in 2012 to $153.3 billion in 2017. The report also predicts that 87 percent of the U.S. population (286.7 million people) will have mobile Internet devices within four years. Continue reading Mobile Net Spending to Exceed Home Broadband for First Time

It’s that time of year again. Internet analyst Mary Meeker, general partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, presented her annual Internet Trends report in California yesterday. Speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Meeker noted there are now 2.4 billion worldwide Internet users. Mobile usage is rapidly expanding, while the Internet is becoming more social and content rich. In the future we should anticipate wearable computing devices, connected cars, drones and other new platforms. Continue reading D11 Conference: Mary Meeker Presents Internet Trends Report

According to Cisco’s new Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast, online video is growing faster than any other type of consumer service, and within four years online video services will be more popular than social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The report predicts that by 2017 there will be 3.6 billion global Internet users and 19 billion global networked devices. Additionally, the average broadband speed will increase by a factor of 3.5 to 39 Mbps. Continue reading Cisco Says Online Video to Outpace Social Networks by 2017

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Monday that would subject online shoppers to state sales taxes. The 69 to 27 vote drew support from both sides of the aisle, but it is expected to face a greater challenge in the House from conservatives who view it as a tax increase. President Obama has expressed his support for the bill, which does not include businesses with less than $1 million in online sales. Current law stipulates that states can only require online retailers to collect sales tax on goods sold if the store has a physical presence in the state requiring the tax. Continue reading New Internet Tax Bill Passes in Senate, Moves to House

Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland is one of the world’s most-cited computer scientists and was also named one of the world’s seven most powerful data scientists by Forbes. As a pioneer in Big Data, he discusses his distinctive view of the field, revealing his belief in the power of Big Data to inform about people’s behavior rather than just about their beliefs. Pentland is also interested in how that concept relates to business. Continue reading Big Data Pioneer Excited About Reinventing Human Society

Some senators argued that implementing an Internet sales tax would be harmful to taxpayers, would be anti-business and would create a “bureaucratic nightmare.” Nonetheless, endorsement of Internet sales taxes onto a Democratic budget bill passed easily in the Senate last week by a 75 to 24 margin. The adopted amendment allows states to “collect taxes on remote sales,” ushering in the first national Internet sales tax. Continue reading U.S. Senate Votes in Favor of Levying Internet Sales Taxes

A federal court in New York has sided with the Associated Press and The New York Times in a case involving a company that “scraped” news content from the Internet without paying for it. This case was closely watched because of its possible implications for what counts as “fair use” under copyright law in the online media world and how it may impact the future of content producers and free speech. Continue reading Fair Use Case: Court Rules in Favor of Associated Press

During a presentation at last week’s GigaOM Structure:Data conference in New York, Ira “Gus” Hunt, the CIA’s chief technology officer, detailed the Agency’s vision for collecting and analyzing information people put on the Internet. The presentation came just two days after it was reported that the CIA is about to sign a cloud computing contract with Amazon worth up to $600 million over 10 years. Continue reading CIA Discusses Plans for Collecting and Analyzing Big Data

Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies may be built into the next generation of core Web standards. A proposal called Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) is currently before the World Wide Web Consortium’s HTML5 Working Group. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is fighting to keep DRM out of W3C standards, suggests: “Its adoption would be a calamitous development, and must be stopped.” Continue reading DRM Tech Could Be Built into Next-Gen Core Web Standards

Apple, much like Google and Amazon, delivers Web services to hundreds of millions of people, from servers based in enormous data centers. Apple’s iCloud currently serves more than 250 million people, which is beginning to require new hardware and software that are more efficient than what is available in those data centers. Apple and Facebook, among others, have turned to flash-based options from Fusion-io. Continue reading Modern Data Centers Turn to Flash Solutions from Fusion-io

The chief of the military’s new Cyber Command spoke to Congress on Tuesday, explaining that he is establishing 13 teams of programmers and computer experts that could potentially carry out offensive cyberattacks on foreign nations if the U.S. were hit with a major attack on its networks. This marks the first time the Obama administration publicly admitted to developing such a strategy. Continue reading Cyber Command Outlines Strategy for Protecting Networks

After the the $99 Android-powered TV game console Ouya attracted more than 63,000 Kickstarter backers last year, many independent game developers are creating games for the device, including mobile developers who want to make the jump to televisions. The system will ship to initial backers on March 28, ahead of the public launch in June, and many developers are preparing to see their games on TVs for the first time. Continue reading New Ouya Game Console Attracts Independent Developers

Some cybersecurity experts say that Chinese hackers have invaded Hollywood’s computers, much like they did to the systems of Facebook, Apple, The New York Times and many others. The root of the problem, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is China’s contempt for intellectual property. In a country where most video and software is pirated, the culture of copying runs deep. Continue reading China Hacking Hollywood Computers, Say Security Experts

At TED 2013 last week, Danny Hillis, an early Internet user who registered the third domain name ever (Think.com), spoke on the vulnerability of the expanding Internet. While standing on stage for his talk, he held up a one-inch-thick notebook, which listed every person — including name, address and phone number — who had an Internet address in 1982. By his estimates, that book would be 25 miles tall in today’s world. Continue reading Danny Hillis Asks: What Happens if the Internet Goes Down?