The creators of the popular BitTorrent search engine The Pirate Bay have turned their sights on a new market: streaming video. The Video Bay aims to take on sites like YouTube and Hulu by offering pirated TV shows and movies through a web browser.

Right now the site is in a pre-launch test phase, and the creators warn that the site may not function at all. Indeed in our own tests we were unable to play any videos. However, if these folks are successful in getting the site off the ground, it could turn the entire industry on its head.

As it stands now, the content providers control how and where you view their content, and technological barriers prevent many from using pirated content. Simply put, the maze of compression and conversion tools, players, and file types are often too complicated for the average consumer.

The Video Bay would make all that unnecessary. All the user would need is a web browser — obtaining pirated material would be as easy as viewing a video on YouTube. That has to scare the entertainment industry.

Of course, the entertainment industry has already been working hard to stop The Pirate Bay, winning a $3.8 million judgement against its creators in April of this  year. It remains to be seen whether that may stop the group, but so far they remain defiant.

 
2 Comments


Read more: Streaming Media, The Pirate Bay