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Microsoft Temporarily Closes Video Site Soapbox

Posted by Zonk on Fri Mar 23, 2007 03:55 PM
from the nice-while-it-lasted dept.
Microsoft Media The Internet
Weather Storm writes "CNET News.com reports that Microsoft will be closing its video-sharing site, Soapbox, to new users for up to two months so it can create better safeguards against pirated content. Since the test version of Soapbox was launched last month to distribute movies and TV shows for big media companies, the site has filled up with unauthorized clips. 'No new subscribers will be accepted, but anyone who has already signed up for Soapbox can continue to access the site, said Adam Sohn, a director in Microsoft's online-services group.'"
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  • Phew!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2007, @03:57PM (#18464645)
    Phew... Now YouTube is safe!
    • Re:Phew!! by jcr (Score:2) Friday March 23 2007, @04:08PM
      • Re:Phew!! by tddoog (Score:2) Friday March 23 2007, @05:18PM
        • Re:Phew!! by itlurksbeneath (Score:2) Friday March 23 2007, @06:38PM
    • Re:Phew!! by Idbar (Score:1) Friday March 23 2007, @06:49PM
    • Re:Phew!! by elrous0 (Score:2) Monday March 26 2007, @04:12PM
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

  • So visit Soapbox, but don't plan on logging in... (Score:4, Funny)

    by vslashg (209560) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:00PM (#18464703)
    (Last Journal: Thursday May 22 2003, @08:06PM)
    ...because, remember:

    So much to do at Cartmanland, but you can't come!

  • Good thing they're allowing existing users to stay (Score:5, Funny)

    by kbob88 (951258) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:00PM (#18464705)

    anyone who has already signed up for Soapbox can continue to access the site

    Because the existing users have obviously been paragons of virtue when it comes respecting copyright law...

    the site has filled up with unauthorized clips

    Oh, wait a minute

  • Re: the site has filled up with unauthorized clips (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23 2007, @04:01PM (#18464721)
    What else did they expect? Private videos of people showing their houses and family and children and inviting the rest of the internet to dinner for pedos and sicko's?

    People want entertainment. And if they don't get it at Soapbox because their lawyers are too lazy defending MPAA then the people will go elsewhere.

  • I bet it's all a publicity stunt. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Xner (96363) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:11PM (#18464873)
    (http://siliconcarne.org/)
    I know I didn't know they even *had* a video site until now.
    With this announcement they can appear to be good concerned corporate citizens (after all, pirated content finances terrorism!) and gain exposure in one fell publicity swoop.

  • ironic...? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mhokie (988228) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:13PM (#18464903)
    Soapbox: A temporary platform used while making an impromptu or nonofficial public speech.

    Does anyone else find it ironic that a service with this name is aiming, "to distribute movies and TV shows for big media companies"? What about the common users trying to voice "impromptu ... speech"?

    • Re:ironic...? by SleepyHappyDoc (Score:3) Friday March 23 2007, @06:00PM

  • ya? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mastershake_phd (1050150) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:16PM (#18464921)
    (http://freedomsforums.com/)
    Microsoft will be closing its video-sharing site, Soapbox, to new users for up to two months so it can create better safeguards against pirated content.
     
    They are going to solve the problem of people uploading copyrighted video in 2 months? I cant wait.
     
    What are they worried about anyway? A Billion Dollar lawsuit is nothing to them.
    • Re:ya? by Shatrat (Score:1) Friday March 23 2007, @06:58PM

  • Pirating Almost Seems Inevitable (Score:1)

    by dont_drop_tha_f-bomb (1079085) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:16PM (#18464927)
    Yes, it is a good idea to keep new users from the website, pirating will not be able to be stopped. Microsoft needs some kind of intense proxy to keep the smarter hackers out. The inevitable is that someone is going to figure out a way to steal some of their swag. And that's the truth.
  • What a seemingly random move! I wonder what would prompt them to suddenly hop out of video sharing?

    Maybe Microsoft doesn't yet want to try to wrestle Google out of the "Getting Sued for a Billion Dollars" market. They have pretty solid domination at this point.

  • Better Safeguards? (Score:2)

    by nurb432 (527695) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:26PM (#18465019)
    (http://slashdot.org/~nurb432/ | Last Journal: Friday August 27 2004, @03:24PM)
    You mean like mandatory watermarking and file system level DRM?
  • ... to get soapbox shutdown permanently?

    Just say the word.

    And by word I mean; Thunderbird.

    "What's the word? Thunderbird. What's the price? .40 twice."

  • In a perfect world ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by postmortem (906676) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:43PM (#18465193)
    (Last Journal: Sunday March 18 2007, @04:53PM)
    ... people would use Microsoft products to pirate & distribute Microsoft products.

  • Microsoft's objective (Score:4, Interesting)

    by troll -1 (956834) on Friday March 23 2007, @04:57PM (#18465385)
    Microsoft is under no more obligation than youtube to safegaurd against "pirated content".

    Microsoft is extending DRM way beyond anything required by the DMCA.

    Microsoft perhaps has a theory that if they can protect content providers, those providers will be more willing to distribute through Microsoft. When Vista has a certain critical mass, look for deal with a major provider to distribute their content through Microsoft. This is likely to come in the form of DVDs playable on a Windows-only hard-ware DRMed platform.

    Vista will probably be the most hacked OS ever. The content providers are going to find out their content is no more protected from unauthorized access than an average computer is against spyware and consumers are going to encounter all kinds of problems watching legitimate content.

    But probably, what's more likely to happen over the next few years, given the history of Napster-->Gnutella-->BitTorrent, is that the whole landscape will change. And Vista's 'secure' content will likely seem irrelevant.

    Some wise media folks already know it's better make money by selling content than suing people. We're already starting to see freely distributed content, funded by embedded advertising. There's a lot of opportunity out there, but people need to abandon the old ways of the last century and start being a bit more creative. That includes Microsoft.

  • What kind of box? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Forrest Kyle (955623) on Friday March 23 2007, @05:13PM (#18465531)
    (http://www.forrestkyle.com/)
    "Soapbox was launched last month to distribute movies and TV shows for big media companies,"

    Don't big media companies have enough of a Soapbox by virtue of being big media companies?
  • unauthorized content... ...is to take the file name and run a GOOGLE search!

    Bwahahahahahah!!!

  • Meanwhile... (Score:3, Funny)

    by A_Non_Moose (413034) on Friday March 23 2007, @05:42PM (#18465833)
    (http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Saturday January 05 2002, @01:42AM)
    the dozens of users of Soapbox go back to Youtube for two months...and eventually forget that Soapbox exists.

    Sounds like a movie: Soapbox: the Cleansing.

    (jaded mode on) lemme guess? WMV only? (jaded mode off)

  • Huh? (Score:2)

    by johkir (716957) <jokirby@EINSTEIN ... minus physicist> on Friday March 23 2007, @05:47PM (#18465895)
    Microsoft had a video sharing site?
    • Re:Huh? by sanso999 (Score:1) Friday March 23 2007, @08:31PM
      • Re:Huh? by pandrijeczko (Score:2) Saturday March 24 2007, @05:33AM
    • Re:Huh? by I'm Don Giovanni (Score:1) Saturday March 24 2007, @12:28AM

  • direct attack (Score:1)

    by danme (144941) on Friday March 23 2007, @08:51PM (#18467247)
    This is a direct attack against the competition from youtube owned by Google. I don't think Microsoft mind at all if there are any videos at all uploaded to soapbox. All that matters is causing bigger legal troubles for Google by "showing a better way to handle content covered by copyright".

  • Microsoft's loyalties (Score:2)

    by RareButSeriousSideEf (968810) on Friday March 23 2007, @11:42PM (#18468047)
    (http://tooi.org/ | Last Journal: Monday July 24 2006, @08:50AM)
    What a perfectly vivid illustration of where Microsoft's loyalties lie. Not only will they let content producers cripple their media products way beyond any of their competitors', but they'll also even close the registration process on a high-profile, branded service trying to sate that beast. One commitment is paramount, that being the one to thwart anyone trying to get a leg up on the content providers.

    What remains to be seen is (a) what kind of anti-piracy heuristics they can actually put into production in two weeks (pity the project staff here), and (b) how many users bother with Soapbox anymore once the new chaperone-on-crack features go live.

  • Nonsense-driven design (Score:1)

    by noiseusse (868442) on Friday March 23 2007, @11:43PM (#18468059)
    "Something's wrong. We just aren't keeping up with our competitors."
    "..."
    "Wait, I've got it. Let's shut everything down for a couple of months while we cripple the software we've worked so hard on and then relaunch with a cool new design so no one notices that the site is less useful."
    "Freakin' brilliant!"

  • maybe they know (Score:1)

    by matthekc (1079583) on Saturday March 24 2007, @12:36AM (#18468289)
    about our little plan and they a putting safegaurds in place http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=389933 [ubuntuforums.org] "hi guys i don't know if your interested but i have a little project going. basically the goal is to push linux vids to the front of video hosts youtube, google, aol's,ect... popularity lists for a few days using blogs on digg like sites to direct people to video sites. we already have a tentative time frame and some ideas. i'm going to try to get the big 4 disto's on this and who ever else wants to contribute. i'm going to have links to the other threads to keep them together."

  • Re:friday night again (Score:2)

    by rucs_hack (784150) on Friday March 23 2007, @05:55PM (#18466001)
    (http://code.google.com/p/nmod/)
    No No No!!!

    It's not interesting! Off Topic I tell you!

    Oh the injustice! [insert other things that require exclamation marks]

    Slashdotters are so cruel.....

    (that I would do the same thing is entirely beside the point)

    [ Parent ]
  • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

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