Justin.tv Shutting Down - Live Video Streaming Pioneer Halting Operations

As one of the original pioneers into the live video streaming arena, Justin.tv has definitaly had an impact on live video streaming and the internet as a whole. The site has come a long way from being a sole stream of one of the founders' daily life captured with a webcam attached to his baseball cap and broadcast to the internet via a makeshift rig in his backpack. In fact hundreds of thousands of viewers regularly visit and stream content from the Justin.tv website. That is, until today of course. If you try to visit the website now you aren't greeted by the familiar homepage listing many of the top streams at the moment. No, there is just a single page that announces the end of the Justin.tv website and apps.

In recent years, the site has sort of become a wild west of streaming video channels, full of pirated copyright material broadcast to anybody on the internet free of charge. The channels were not operated by Justin.tv, all channels are created and run by the users. This means that there were tons of streams that the various copyright holders would not approve of, including channels with streams of popular TV shows and movies. This was a good chunk of the appeal of the site, but not all of it. If I want to watch something on my computer I can find it online and download it in a matter of seconds. In this sense, Justin.tv was nothing new or revolutionary. But the site was much more than just a breeding ground for pirated material. There were tons of streams that were legitimate and attracted hundreds and even thousands of viewers at any given time. Among them were people broadcasting their daily lives just like the founder did 7 years ago, radio stations broadcasting their own live video stream of the studio, and much more. The site was also an online community in its own right, offering chat rooms for each channel and other social networking features, allowing users to communicate and share ideas and voice their opinions with other like minded individuals. This, I think, is the feature that is going to be missed the most.

There is a silver lining of some sort, though. Twitch.tv, Justin.tv's video gaming counterpart is still going to remain active. Apparently this is the most popular (read: profitable) part of their business and has no become their main focus. In order to keep growing the Twitch.tv brand, they must halt operations at Justin.tv (or so they say) so that they can focus all their efforts and resources (read: bandwidth) on the one site.

What do you think about this announcement? Did you see it coming? Or are you as devastated as I am? Are there any good alternatives to Justin.tv? What site will you visit now to stream videos? Leave your comments below, I would love to know what everyone else has to say.

Why The Fuck Can't I Say Fuck On TV? - Why Are Certain Words Banned On TV and Radio?

I understand that parents don't want their kids to see or hear certain things: violence, nudity, cursing - all the standard stuff that is banned or censored on TV. But why do they have to ban certain words just because they are on a certain list of seven dirty words?

They have all kinds of horrible things on TV all the time, including the nightly news. Every night the news shows people dying and talk about rape, murder, and many more worse acts. Even some children's show worse things than simple words like shit or ass. So what is so bad about the words shit, fuck, piss, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits? Why did they decide on these words anyways? Why not words like mekrob? I'd rather wolf down a whole bucket full of shit before I had another plate of mekrob again. If you ask me mekrob is a whole lot more offensive than getting your cock sucked or getting killed or something like that. The FCC is a government agency that was set up to monitor the communications systems that operate in this country. They are supposed to regulate things like bandwidth and frequencies to make sure that companies are operating within their assigned spectrums and things like that. Censorship has ruined cultures in the past, and I don't like what it is doing to our country. I think that censoring words and ideas can only lead to bad things. People and TV networks can censor themselves if they think that kids might see something that they shouldn't. It's not like they are going to show live sex acts during daytime TV where kids will see it. And besides, if kids want to see certain things they can see pretty much anything and everything on the internet. If kids can watch 'Two Girls, One Cup' on the internet, there is a lot more to worry about than what they can see or hear on TV or in movies. So I think that self censorship is the best. When a government tells it's people what they can or can't say then that is the loss of freedom. Especially in a country such as the USA where we are supposed to have free speech. The 1st ammendment guarentees every person in this country can say anything they want. Just because one word might be on some stupid list that means that we can't say it on TV. We can't ban words just because some people don't like them. If we do then what stops the government from banning all speech? What stops them from banning anything they don't want people to hear? Many other countries with a lot less freedom can say or do anything on TV that they want, so why can't we do so in the US? The internet allows people to talk about anything they want, using whatever language they want. So be sure to voice your opinion no matter what words you use. Otherwise soon your freedom of speech may soon not be there.