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Microsoft Media The Internet

Microsoft Temporarily Closes Video Site Soapbox 55

Posted by Zonk from the nice-while-it-lasted dept.
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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Microsoft Temporarily Closes Video Site Soapbox More

Microsoft Temporarily Closes Video Site Soapbox

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  • Phew!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 23, 2007 @04:57PM (#18464645)
    Phew... Now YouTube is safe!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by tddoog ( 900095 )
        Maybe Microsoft is trying to help Viacom's case against Google, by at least trying to implement a copyright protection scheme. Now Google can't say, no one else is trying to do it. It is a conspiracy theory but what the hell.
        • You're conspiracy theory will be proved correct when, in two or three months, Microsoft re-opens the site with the announcement: "Well, we looked at how to do it and we can't figure it out, so we're just going to reopen the site."

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Idbar ( 1034346 )
      Amazingly with all these recent news about video sites, is that I found they were there. I thought there was only Google Video and Youtube.

      What a lucky coincidence that just when you know about a page, they cut the access to it. However, I tried, and apparently if you have a hotmail account (which I bet many have) you are fine. I've never been there, and it just let me login with no problem. So... when is this going to happen? Or is marketing strategy from this site?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
      Now if we can just get them to take the Zune off the market so the folks over at Apple can relax too.

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

    by vslashg ( 209560 ) on Friday March 23, 2007 @05:00PM (#18464703)
    ...because, remember:

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

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by HomelessInLaJolla ( 1026842 ) *
      It must be a PR stunt. Can anyone seriously believe that project managers at MS didn't see this coming the moment the first person suggested opening such a site?

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

    by kbob88 ( 951258 ) on Friday March 23, 2007 @05:00PM (#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 @05:01PM (#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 @05:11PM (#18464873) Homepage
    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.

    • Re:I bet it's all a publicity stunt. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Vexorian ( 959249 ) on Friday March 23, 2007 @06:00PM (#18465411)

      It sounds as if they are trying "be the model citizen". Check it, SoapBox is not exactly a success, it is definitely not a popular site, and you can say for sure that the success of this site doesn't really matter at all for MS.

      On the other hand, if they can exploit this failure and give an argument to viacom in such an strong law suit against google... ..."google is not showing the same concern of their competitors in fighting piracy infringement blah blah blah"

    • I didn't know either, and I rather like this whole video site thing.

      For one thing, it brought about http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ [tv-links.co.uk] which is somewhat more convenient then torrents.

      Its rather sad that Microsoft have yet again only come up with a service because other people thought of it first, and they are so concerned with retaining their conjugal rights with the media companies that they are willing to kill it.

      Turning it off is just a PR move anyway, I'd be willing to bet they only started it so they could do

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )
        A dud site costs a lot of money to maintain even though nobody goes there. You have accommodation, staff as well as the servers themselves, although being a typical failed M$ site, the transmission costs were certainly negligible.

        Rather than say they closed the site due to lack of interest they came up with the a rather pathetic yarn.

        Honestly does anyone believe the members of the RIAA or the MPAA will pay M$ for anything. Others might have given M$ their business with out thinking but mass media corpor

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by no1nose ( 993082 )
        Thanks for the link! That is awesome.

  • ironic...? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mhokie ( 988228 )
    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"?

  • ya? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mastershake_phd ( 1050150 ) on Friday March 23, 2007 @05:16PM (#18464921) Homepage
    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: (Score:1)

      by Shatrat ( 855151 )
      They wouldn't want to win a lawsuit like that, because it would only be setting a precedent for people who can do online content delivery better than they can.
      Google for example, but basically anybody but Microsoft is going to beat Microsoft at this.
      I think their actions here are probably trying to set a precedent in the other direction, "Look, this is wrong and we are trying to stop it but Google isn't; Ban them from the internets!"
  • 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.

  • I wonder what prompted this. (Score:4, Funny)

    by malevolentjelly ( 1057140 ) on Friday March 23, 2007 @05:19PM (#18464949) Journal
    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.
  • 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."

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by triso ( 67491 )

      ... 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."
      Bums like you wine too much: see for the details [bumwine.com].

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

    by postmortem ( 906676 ) on Friday March 23, 2007 @05:43PM (#18465193) Journal
    ... 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 @05:57PM (#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.
  • "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 @06:42PM (#18465833) Homepage Journal
    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 )
    Microsoft had a video sharing site?
    • Indeed. If a both a Ramones video and a Bloc Party video have had less than 30 views in over a month then this is unknown territory. The Shakira fans have been trying a little harder, I admit. So I favourited a random bunch, just to see how long they last. This was one of the best "Slashdot causes me to waste 2 hours" days so far!
    • Yeah, they've had it at soapbox.msn.com, but it's only been in beta stage.

      Actually, MSN is one of the clients with the new NBC/Universal video thingamagig, so I wonder how that will work with soapbox. And there's already video.msn.com. Of course, Google has both Google Video and YouTube, so I guess having multiple sites is fine.
  • 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".
  • 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
  • "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!"
  • 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 t

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