It’s like an open source Tivo on your computer. It’s sharing Bittorrent files without worrying about the legal hoop-la because it’s all actually legal! It’s new and it’s online and you’ll love it because it’s what so many people love; television. Using the power of P2P, this new application allows users to subscribe to video feeds that can automatically download, via the Bittorrent ‘swarm’ protocol, the newest and most current television or video content.
This isn’t meant to be network television, such as would be the case for the new RSS subscriber Tv Tad but for legal content. The idea is to spread citizen journalism, publicly owned content and free content that users are interested in, rather than the highly publicised and promoted content that media networks own. This isn’t about tv episodes as Digg.com described TV Tad, but free video content.
The creators of this software, the Participatory Culture Foundation have created alliances with publishers of video content who would like to have their content distributed to the masses via the internet. They create ‘channels’ for the content from these allies, one of which is called ‘telemusicvision’:
A new music video channel [that] plans to use DTV to broadcast videos exclusively from independent music groups.
This is great news for me because they include music videos from some of my favorite artists of the moment, like the Postal Service and Azure Ray. Alternative music’s use of P2P downloading has been found to increase significantly the fanbase and sales of small and independent artists, while marginally decreasing the sales of the most popular mainstream bands. This is a great example of the alternative viewpoint getting a voice.
Other examples of DTV friends include Current TV, the new network started by former US Vice-President Al Gore, and Pancake Mountain, a educational film provider.
It’s not available on Windows yet and the the Mac OS X version is currently in beta, version 0.7. However, the group expect Windows support soon and the Linux version is anticipated in the next weeks. For anyone with a Mac, check it out.
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You useless smudge, don’t you realize the whole edifice of Western Civilization will come crashing down if people stop watching Chrysler, Coke and McDonald’s ads on TV?
I feel guilty. My patronage of poorly executed, overmarketed, greedy-capitalist brands is waning. My heart bleeds.