Periscope

Periscope

"Periscope" Periscope Type Video Streaming Launch Date 26 March 2015 Status Active Product Line Mobile Applcation Platform iOS, tvOS, Android Website Periscope

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eriscope is a phone application that allows your device to stream a live video feed for viewers. It is on both ios and Android app stores and was created by developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein. Twitter acquired Periscope in March of 2015 for an undisclosed amount that has been rumored to be around $75-$100 million. Joe Bernstein is the central founder and he thought of the application idea while he was traveling. He wanted to share his experiences with people in real time and thats when Periscope was born. . Periscope was officially started in February of 2014 under their previous name, Bounty. . Later in 2014 they received funding from several investors including Stanford - Startx, Scott Belsky and Google Ventures and several others. . Periscope was officially launched on March 26, 2015 and four months later it had 10 million users signed up. .

Using Periscope

A user who is live streaming from their phones has the option to stream a private feed or open it up to anyone with public viewing. Users have the option to disables comments on the feed and users can also block other users whenever they wish. If you are watching a video stream you may see a heart appear at the bottom of the screen and that is because users can choose to give the video a "heart". The user who is streaming the video can receive up to 500 hearts per session and can see on their screen when users choose to give their stream a heart or a comment. To allow for this live stream video viewing to come to television Periscope developed an AppleTV app that is currently available for download..

A demonstration of what Periscope broadcasts look like to users

Legal Issues

Periscope has come under a lot of fire for copyright related issues. Individuals have been live streaming events, shows, concerts, movies, sporting events and that is where it has been accused of video piracy. The specific event that made light of this issue was an HBO boxing match between the undefeated Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. the underdog Manny Pacquiao, It was pay per view on HBO for $90 and was on May 2, 2015. Instead of purchasing the pay per view access people turned to Periscope to watch attendees of the fight stream it live for free. (yahoo) Similar issues have arose several times, which has caused some discussion about the policies and legality of the app. .

Ethical Implications

Periscope is a powerful application that causes some ethical dilemmas to surface. Users of Periscope can stream whatever they wish, but sometimes what they wish to stream is not always legal. In addition, people that are streaming other people from their phones don't always have the permission of that person. When attending sporting events staff can do their best to stop people from streaming from their phones, but at the end of the day it is too difficult to tell if someone is taking a video, picture or live streaming so it is really up to the users morals. .

Mayweather - Pacquiao Fight

After generating more than 4.4 million Pay-Per-View buys, the Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight was boxing's highest selling fight in history. This wasn't the only fight that was going on that night, though, as Periscope fought to keep illegal streams off of their site. Periscope confirmed that they had to take down more than 30 illegal streams of the fight. Though Periscope may act in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, they cannot always ensure that all of their users will. They note in their terms of service that they do not support copyright infringement, but they rely on their own users to report these instances. HBO and ShowTIme were able to file lawsuits against traditional piracy websites that were set up solely for that purpose, but were not able to take legal action against Periscope.

Game of Thrones

Periscope once again came into the spotlight during the Game of Thrones Season 5 Premier. There were multiple reports of Periscope users streaming the exclusively HBO show. HBO responded by sending takedown notices to Periscope. After the issue came up, an HBO spokeswoman said "In general, we feel developers should have tools which proactively prevent mass copyright infringement from occurring on their apps and not be solely reliant upon notifications." in regards to their terms of service, and way of dealing with copyright infringement.