A new peer-to-peer startup allowing independent filmmakers, public television broadcasters, and others to distribute video content over the Internet aims to keep adult entertainment out of its loop.
Though intended to help broaden the audience for both amateur and professional video and audio producers, Open Media Network – the brainchild of Netscape veterans Mike Homer and Mark Andreessen – will not permit pornographic content to be offered as part of its services. "The policy is that [we] are not allowing any sort of pornographic material on the network,” Open Media press contact Alison Williams told AVNOnline.com yesterday.
Public TV stations such as WGBH of Boston, KQED of San Francisco, and KWSU of Washington State University already offer video programs on the network, which pledges to cultivate a following for “cutting-edge” clips specifically created for online sharing. The network is currently being offered in a free “beta” testing version.
Clips can be played on desktop computers, laptops, and iPod music players, and the software should work on some televisions and cell phones come summer.
Duplication, sharing, and viewing will be limited by a built-in digital-rights management (DRM) system to limit sharing, duplication, and viewing, while programs that violate copyright or are “unsuitable” for viewing will be removed by the network’s facilitators. “It's a self-policing network,” Williams said, “which means that people who use the network can request that things are taken down that they deem inappropriate. And most adult content would fall into that."
