Vreel Unmasked: Another Special Bulletin

For those of you following the Vreel saga, this past weekend chalked up yet another incident in this bizarre tale as the new “world leaders” in video streaming struggle to get off the ground.

Visitors to the site were met with the following message when attempting to access a video:

VReel.net temporarily closedVReel is currently offline due to a google attack report. For more information, please click here, or to speak with a staff member within VReel, you can enter VReel chat by clicking here.

We currently cannot serve to free users as we have had to disable our advertisements due to this report. Premium users can still access VReel’s video library. If you wish to upgrade, you can do so by clicking here.

A closer investigation of the problem using the Google safebrowsing service initially revealed the following:

Site is listed as suspicious – visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Of the 156 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2008-12-13, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2008-12-13.

Malicious software includes 180 scripting exploit(s), 1 trojan(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 1 new processes on the target machine.

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including 208.43.225.0/.

 
The Video Streaming blogoshere went into meltdown as rumors spread that Vreel was spreading viruses across the length and breadth of the web. As an example, this spat broke out on the Havenvideo Forum

However, as of 15th Dec, you’ll be glad to hear that everything is fine now! Vreel-Eoin published this re-assuring note:

Guys, as you know, Google have delisted us from their “attack site” block. We’re going to be switching on one ad network at a time today – while we believe we have singled out the ad networks which were causing problems, its possible more than one network was experiencing an issue with suspect websites.

If you receive any badware warnings whatsoever, please post them here, and they will be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

Please where possible include a screenshot, and the URL.
Also, please be sure to include the ad type – whether you had to click on the ad itself (and which ad), or whether it was fullpage, pop-in etc etc.

Thanks for your understanding,

Eoghan

At a packed press conference on Sunday afternoon, Eoghan made a short statement to allay stock market fears over the stability of the video streaming business model. The issues centered around two key areas; iPods and advertisers.

“We use iPods all the time to direct traffic to Vreel but we’re now re-thinking that strategy,” explained the CEO. “Some leechers have been using iPods to grab some traffic from us which is a very bad thing.”

On the subject of advertisers, Hayes was scathing. “I’m astonished at the ethics of some people. There appear to be no end of people out there who are only interested in making a quick buck by any means possible. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned business ethics? We’re only interested in developing a healthy appetite for video streaming and becoming internet millionaires through fair means.”

This was a brave move by the young entrepreneur who has been the subject of much ridicule over recent months. Only time will tell if this very public approach will pay off.

N.B. Shares in Vreel were trading at 0.06 Euros on Friday but opened down at 0.02 Euros as trading began on Monday in Dublin following concerns from Norton Safeweb.

Vreel Unmasked: Special Bulletin

Perhaps it’s the 3 days that I’ve spent in the underground bunker that’s induced a paranoia I’ve never felt before. Perhaps it’s the over reliance on freeze dried food or the fact that I was forced to eat some out of date plums last night. I don’t think I’m going mad and I’ll be the first to admit that my predictions of global catastrophe following the Vreel open-beta were a little over-cooked (unlike the sausage I had for breakfast this morning – perhaps that explains the sudden increase in bathroom visits and light headedness today?). That being said, I have uncovered yet more worrying developments in the Vreel story.

I’ve put the ‘Unmasked’ series on hold, yet again, to bring you this special bulletin.

A virtual global network of sad loners who exist in darkened rooms consuming mainly potato chips and Coke Lite have, after may hours of painstaking Googling and ever increasing chest pains, uncovered flimsy evidence of a secret meeting which took place last week between the Vreel Executive Team and marketing guru Kim Tlow.

Tlow is a very interesting character. Born in 1891, she is considered by anybody who’s anybody, the Mother of Modern-day Spin. She’s worked with Presidents and world leaders in business and politics to convince the masses to buy stuff that meets their desires (rather than needs) and help to put money into share-holders pockets. I think it’s called capitalism but I’m no expert.

Aged 117, Kim is not only an accredited Ninja but, as recent photographs prove, she’s surely living proof that if we all just did what the advertisers said, we’d be rich, healthy, beautiful and, of course, we’d live forever. In the world of marketing and advertising (or public relations as it was once called) Kim is ‘the bomb’. There’s no one to touch her.

There is a darker side to Ms. Tlow and to prove that I’m not being over-reactionary let me quote a sentence from Kim’s 1928 magnum opus, Propaganda:

If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it.

Tlow’s most extreme political propaganda activities are said to have been conducted on behalf of the United Fruit Company (today’s Chiquita Brands International) and the U.S. government in the 1950s to facilitate the successful overthrow of the democratically elected president of Guatemala. Tlow’s propaganda, branding the country’s president as communist, was published in major U.S. media.

The term ‘banana republic’ actually originated in reference to United Fruit’s domination of corrupt governments in Guatemala and other Central American countries. The company brutally exploited virtual slave labor in order to produce cheap bananas for the lucrative U.S. market.

So why should we be concerned about this new development? What relevance does it have to Vreel? It’s possibly too early to tell but Tlow obviously see’s Vreel as a potential money-spinner and will use her extensive network of contacts to milk it. Do we need video streaming? No. The world will get by just fine without it but, even in this global down-turn, people seen to have cash to spend on stuff none of us need. Economics eh, crazy! However, I have genuine concerns for young Mr Hayes et al and wonder how aware he and the Vreel team are of Ms. Tlow’s track record? I urge all my readers to track down Tlow’s books and discover the true cynical nature of her business ethic.

Now to more important matters, I’ve just received this fancy broadband modem from my UK-based ISP and I can’t get it to work. Best to call the Tech Support team I think…..

Happy Birthday….

……..Mr President. Happy Birthday to you!

Yes, happy birthday indeed to the president and CEO of VReel Media, Eoghan Hayes who’s officially reaches a very important milestone today.

It would, of course, be terribly indiscreet of me to reveal the age of the young entrepreneur but I thought it important for readers to recognise that we really are all very nice people here at CoqofTheNorth.

If the Vreel site seems a bit slow on Friday morning, you’ll understand I’m sure. The team have been battling hard against a multitude of difficulties and it’s only natural that they take time to celebrate their founder’s birthday.

Just in case you’re in any doubt, this isn’t Marilyn Monroe blowing a kiss specially for Eoghan. This would clearly be impossible because she died nearly a quarter of a century before he was born.

The joke here is that Marilyn famously sang Happy Birthday to another President – Kennedy - some time back in the 1960s – so I’ve taken that event and applied to Vreel-Eoin in an effort to make it seem like he’s really important and has to endure the regular attentions of famously attractive celebrities.

If you’ve not seen it, it’s about time you did….

 

 

They say that if you have to explain a joke, it’s not funny any more. I think I’ve proved this to be true.

Run to the Hills

Today is no ordinary day. Today the world changes forever.

Forget what you thought you knew yesterday or the day before that. Forget what you think you might have thought might be happening tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if any of this makes sense or not. None of that matters any more.

Today is V-Day.

Today at 00:00:01 (one second past midnight GMT) the good ship Vreel launched its open beta. For the next 24 hours it’s safe to assume that we don’t know what’s going to happen. Perhaps a slight earth tremor or two when you least expect it or, at the risk of over-reacting to these unprecedented times, it’s possible there could be a solar eclipse at some point today and the moon may well turn red. Scientists will have their work cut out trying to explain these unusual phenomenon.

I can save them the bother. The reason is simple – let me explain.

Today the Internet will be pushed to new levels of stress as the ‘Vreel effect’ kicks in. What we’re moving into here folks, is a totally new and unexplored area of sub-atomic particle physics. The net impact of the truly gigantic bandwidth requirements being gobbled up by tens of millions of video-streamers the world over is difficult to gauge. There could well be a knock-on effect in our physical environment that has never been fully appreciated. However, my (admittedly limited) studies have demonstrated that the resultant increase in electron spin generated by the frightening levels of bandwidth will cause sub-atomic particles to react and interact as never before. My experiments in the bathtub (no smutty comments please) when extrapolated globally, show the likely impact of the ‘Vreel effect’ will be severe and, in the worst case scenario, catastrophic.

Early results show that minor increases in quark ring entropy can significantly impact atomic inertia. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that’s not only gibberish but also serious stuff.

Again at the risk of over-playing this, we’re looking at 2 or 3 likely outcomes here:

1. My worst fears are realized and the world comes to an end
2. Open beta fulfils Vreel’s expectations (this is a long shot but there is a first time for everything) and we all wake up tomorrow to a noticeably brighter future for humanity
3. Nothing changes

My studies show that option 3 is not a realistic outcome.

To this end I have decided not to venture outside today and will confine myself to my secure underground bunker which I would ordinarily plan to use at Armageddon. I’ll think of it as a drill.

Good luck to all of us during these next few, unpredictable, hours.

Vreel Unmasked: Part IV

Well, it’s been a while. What can I say; this whole Vreel thing just got plain boring for a bit. But, given the huge reaction to this story across the width and breadth of the Web (there have been 3 comments posted on this blog you know!) the Vreel series is back and this time I’m determined to see it through to a conclusion unless I get fed up.

We are now rapidly approaching the end of 2008. For those of you paying attention, this Vreel saga kicked off way back in April, a whole 7 months ago. If you’re new to this or aren’t aware of the Vreel saga, take some time to read through the blog to catch up. It’s a great story!

In the intervening period you’ll be pleased to hear that:

VReel Media ( http://www.vreel.net ) is currently the leader in delivering High Definition user-generated content online, and is currently being redeveloped to take advantage of the highly powerful h.264 video codec, along with sporting a fully customisable and powerful social networking backend.

So states CEO, Eoghan Hayes in this website entry.

Step aside YouTube, there’s a new streaming video solution in town and it’s high definition.

Since my last post, there have continued to be a comedy of coq-ups and delays in launching the Vreel site ranging from:
- disaster in the data center
- the introduction of Zango spyware to generate cash back fires big time
- lovely Lavasoft appear as knights in shining armor to save the day
- Vreel-Moriella loses it and makes herself unemployable by blowing the lid on Vreel’s financial health.

For those of you who are bang up to date with all of this and are now starting to yawn, cut me a little slack. I know I’m months behind now but at least I’m prepared to admit it and turn over a new leaf. Although, you’ve got to give Eoghan et al credit. Despite all the knocks, ridicule, smeers and being Irish, he just keeps on going. He’s just gonna brazen this out come hell or high water. To give you a measure of the man, he’s the kind of guy who has the audacity to seek $5M in venture capital.

Long gone are the days of a ‘simple’ Stage6 replacement, Eoghan has his eyes on a bigger prize, so the $5M will come in handy:

I have enlisted the expertise of the highly regarded Istanbul-based programmer “Serhan Kiymaz”. Kiymaz has been involved with multiple user generated video platforms previously (such as GWChannel.tv & BornASuperstar.com) , and is also renowned for his work in Mobile Application development, namely for Turkcell network. VReel dropped the action plan of “open source DivX integration”, and is now geared towards providing a High Definition user generated video portal.

What I find even more bizarre is that ordinary Joe’s are prepared to part with their own money just for the ‘privilege’ of being able to upload and view some music videos, anime or Call of Duty scenario in HD when other sites do it free! Why?

Anyhooo… Our series picks up again where it left off – drifting back to June 2008 when the mysterious Dacovale (as Eoghan was then known to the world) was revealed as taking part in the anti-Scientology campaigns organized by a group calling themselves Anonymous. This was it, proof positive that the guy was a certified nutter and Vreel was, simply, NoReel. Yes, it all sounds, and probably is, bizarre.

The truth, as they say, is often stranger than fiction.

The story continues….

Oh, I almost forgot……. Happy Thanksgiving!

Vreel Unmasked: Part 3.2

I’m not one to gloat and rarely gamble but I’m thinking I should have a go on the lottery some time soon coz it seems that I’ve got a bit of a knack for forecasting.

This being the 1st of July and all, I suddenly remembered a comment I made on the original Vreel forum about when Vreel would be going live.

Someone had started a thread asking if we thought that Vreel would go live in May to which I replied that, not only would Vreel not be live in May, it wouldn’t be live in June either. That nice Mr Hayes (CEO) rebuked me, taunted me even with his short response, “How much would you like to bet “.

I should have taken him up on his offer but clearly I was too chicken!

Sadly, Vreel still sits in open Beta with no plans for a launch which is disappointing because it will be truly memorable.

Back in the good old days, ( May 2008 ) Mr Hayes (then preferring to be called ‘Dacovale’) let slip of a secret weapon held in the Vreel arsenal. As part of a weighty rebuttal of many allegations leveled against the authenticity of the Vreel venture and Anonymous activities, Eoghan revealed that he counted actors (yes that is the plural form) as part of his staff. I assume this did not mean there were people pretending to be application developers but those of a thespian persuasion ready to unleash their talents in high definition to wow the world.

Who are these performing staffers? For now, I’m afraid we’ll just have to wait and see.

Or we could just speculate. Yes, let’s speculate – it’s one of my favourite pastimes. So, given the major investment that appears to have been made in Vreel, let’s think big.

Could this be the new face of Vreel?

For more details on the many faces of Eoghan Hayes and not Tom Cruise, you’ll need to start at the beginning of the series and work your way through.

This has been yet another interim post in an already confusing and disjointed series.

 

Vreel Unmasked: Part 3.1

You join us mid-way through an interesting series of articles on the story of Vreel. If you haven’t see them already, take a look at  Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 to get yourself up to speed. This is a special interim bulletin to mark another significant milestone in the story.

————————————————————————————————————————-

 So, Limelight Networks finally published their much awaited press release today confirming Vreel as their newest and brightest customer. When asked why they felt the need to make the announcement while the site was still beta testing, a LLNW spokesperson told us that the company had been so impressed with the smooth running of the project so far that they were sure there would be no hiccups.

The triumphant new Vreel CEO has finally seen sense and revealed himself as Eoghan Hayes but I do hope he’s informed his current employers of his new role as the figure head of a global corporation. I’m sure Mr Online will wish him well in his new venture and will not begrudge him the title of “World’s Youngest CEO”.

In keeping with his position at the helm of the company, we managed to get this shot of Eoghan at the official press release (unfortunately, a speck of dust appears to have obscured the camera lens). When asked why he adopted the fancy dress Eoghan replied, “Fancy dress? This is the official Vreel captain’s uniform. My vast hordes must now refer to me as Captain Eoghan Hayes. I run a tight ship here. Now let’s hoist the bandwidth and splice the firewall.”

 A tight ship? You’d beta believe it!

 

Vreel Unmasked: Part 3

Better get yourself a beverage of your choice before starting this – it’s a bit of a marathon.

So far in our series, we’ve looked at the events leading up to the announcement of DivXit / Vreel and introduced some of the main characters in the story. Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you’ve missed them as not a lot of this will make sense if you haven’t.

In Part3, we’ll look in more detail at the development of Vreel. At the time of writing, Vreel is in Open Beta meaning that it is still being tested prior to official release.

Given that the original launch date was announced as being 29th April, what’s been happening behind the scenes with the development of the DivXit / Vreel product? Dacovale / Eoghan has consistently played his cards close to his chest throughout the saga and this combined with his habit of setting and missing deadlines hasn’t helped to generate trust with his potential customers. A message posted on the old Stage6.18.Forumer site provides one of the more candid responses from our mystery man. In a post on the 19th May, Dacovale / Eoghan claims that Vreel is staffed by ‘about 30 people’

He also reveals:

“When launched, VReel(formerly DivXit) was run by myself, with two hired programmers. Both of which lost interest, and vanished from the face of the planet.

Following our spike in popularity, I received a huge amount of support and help from various people – all looking to bring back the HD-Video platform to the mainstream. So I started taking things seriously, and bucked up the cash to get everything in motion.”

Using a little initiate, it is easy enough to determine that the coding teams employed by Dacovale have been recruited via Rentacoder. For those unfamiliar with the site, it provides a straightforward process where a buyer posts a project spec. and a seller bidding for the work. If nothing else, the fact that Dacovale has posted project work on a reputable website and that sellers’ bids have been accepted, dispels the notion that Vreel is some sort of elaborate hoax.

Dacovale registered as a buyer on the site on 20th March this year and on the 22nd posted this project to Create a Stage6 Alternative. What is interesting about the first posted project is that the description states that this is a ‘mostly educational project’. What does this mean? I’ve posted questions on the old Stage6 forum asking Dacovale to clarify this but received no response so I’m forced to the conclusion that this was originally planned as a college project. In addition to what we’ve established about Vreel-Eoin / Dacovale / Eoghan in Part 2 you also need to know that, until recently, he was a student at his local college studying Multimedia Application Development. According to his Rentacoder bio he has given up due to the “basic nature of the course” and enrolled in another course which starts in September this year. Presumably, if Vreel achieves its objective and makes him an Internet millionaire, then returning to college will be unnecessary. Anyway, OmniKrOn were the successful bidder for this inital work with a winning bid of $1000.

Things went badly wrong with these guys and the project went to arbitration with $950 going back to Dacovale and OmniKron keeping only $50. Obviously, this meant a delay in the launch and a slight panic in how to get things online. While this was being resolved, Dacovale posted an updated project on the 28th April and this time, ‘boom media junction’ won the project with a bid of $1,600.

There were bonus payments on offer to the successful bidder and a timescale of 14 days set for completion in the terms of the contract. Yet again, problems ensued with ‘boom media junction’ failing to deliver. This resulted in yet more arbitration and a note in the record on the 4th June indicated all funds were returned to Dacovale.

To have run into major development problems a second time meant that the whole venture was now in serious danger of failing to get off the starting line. On the 23rd May, a 3rd project – the current development – was posted on Rentacoder. This latest project got underway on 29th May and is being carried out by serotizm a highly rated Istanbul based developer who won the project with a successful bid of $5,000. The working beta was to be delivered by 8th / 9th June with the entire project to be completed by 26th June. The records also show that serotizm have received 3 bonus payments as part of the work so far.

Even with this highly capable team, the Vreel venture has struggled and more bad luck hit when The Planet data center was damaged by fire. This knocked things back a few days but on 6th June, Vreel-Eoin (Dacovale) announced that 11th June would used as a ‘Closed Beta’ for bloggers and advertisers with ‘Open Beta’ commencing on the 12th:

“where you’ll all be free to run riot. In a worst case scenario while waiting for adverts to clear, this date MAY be pushed to the 13th”

Yet again, things didn’t quite go according to plan and, without going through the whole list of what did and didn’t happen and by when, we end up over the next few days with small groups of Beta testers being asked to apply for accounts and added to the system presumably to see if it could cope with the load.

Finally on the 19th June, Dacovale announced:

“Closed Beta has now ended”

This meant that the system was now open for all comers to test the new Stage6 replacement. However, as we’ve come to expect, nothing goes as planned around here and a combination of malicious DDoS attacks, server instability and video conversion issues meant that the entire system was unusable for almost 48 hours. Some semblance of normality was restored on June 21st but this hasn’t been the most auspicious of starts for Vreel.

Throughout this whole development process I was unsure for much of the time that Dacovale was serious about setting up a site. He seemed to have no track record in this area and everything he was involved with up to this point was either very small scale or had simply stopped due to poor take up (see Part 2). I accept that in any project, the unexpected happens but it shows a lack of judgment to set expectations levels sky high as well as consistently stating and then failing to meet deadlines.

It was during this messy process of developing Vreel that a startling discovery was made by user ‘Demon Vid Junkie’ on the old Stage6 Forumer site . Evidence was uncovered that suggested Dacovale was part of a hacking group – Anonymous – who were alleged to have taken part in an attack on Stage6 earlier in the year. In Part 4, we’ll look into the strange world of Project Chanology, hacking and facemasks. Stay tuned, it’ll be worth the wait!

Vreel Unmasked: Part 2

OK – now the fun begins.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked into a little of the background surrounding the emergence of DixXit which was later renamed Vreel.net; the holding page for the site initially stated that the launch would be on April 29th but, following the rename, May 6th would now be the launch date. In true Vreel style, I’ve changed my plan for Part 2 of the series and before we dive into the detail around the missed deadlines, unrealistic expectations, nasty coders and name-calling, it’s time to introduce our main characters in this saga.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Meet the star of the show; Eoghan (aka Vreel-Eoin, Eoin, Dacovale ). It was as Dacovale that Eoghan initially appeared on both the original Vreel forum and the recently closed ‘Stage6 Refugee’ Forum. Following the release of the new and improved bulletin board for the Vreel community, Dacovale took the opportunity to re-invent himself as Vreel-Eoin. The explanation given to the Stage6 refugee forum was that his real name is Eoghan but that Eoin was the ‘English pronounceable’. I prefer his real name, Eoghan, I like it so I’ll stick with that.

At 20, chain-smoking guitarist Eoghan is a self-confessed novice in the online video field. He has a keen interest in music (favorite band being Ireland Maiden) and is a whiz with Photoshop. He lives in Ireland and works in Tech Support for a major UK Internet Service Provider. He’s a serial web designer and blogger who enjoys falling off motorbikes. Friends refer to him as ‘Captain’ due to his penchant for dressing up as 17th century naval commanders of the pirate variety. His published work communicates an intolerance for Apple Computers, Scientologists, emo and scene kids (updated 4th July: the MySpace account has recently been set to private so we can’t acccess it anymore. Thank goodness for Google cache) as well as Nigerians.

Some examples of his websites include:

Anonymous Activist Forum
www.calloftheday.com
www.calloftheday.net
www.sessionireland.com
www.sessionbritain.com
www.vreel.net
www.vreel.org
www.myvideotabs.com
www.breakfromthescene.com

As you can tell, many of the above listed sites are no longer live and only reachable from Google’s cache. Sadly, the blog which he so religiously updated on Calloftheday.net has been taken offline and we can no longer catch up with his hilarious musings and anecdotes. Even Google cache has been unable to retrieve any trace of its existence. However, Diggmirror does have one remain example from the blog but – be warned – if you’re squeamish DON’T go here. 

Ferdiaob

A recent college graduate and former workmate of Eoghan’s, Ferdia has an unhealthy obsession with the Hollywood blockbuster V for Vendetta. He is a majority shareholder in CreepyMasks Inc. and is pictured opposite wearing his favorite product. As a major contributor to that font of all knowledge – Wikipedia, Ferdia has ensured that Vreel’s entry is updated to reflect all of the exciting developments around the site. He is a fearless defender of Eoghan pausing only for the shortest of breaths to intervene on the old Stage6.18.Forumer site when allegations of involvement with teenage hacking group Anonymous where leveled at Eoghan.

Alex

Arch nemesis of Eoghan and protector of the refugee Stage6 community, Alex is certainly more anonymous than Eoghan (no pun intended). Little is known about Alex save that he is Canadian and proud of it (well, someone has to be). Rarely taking any time for wasteful activities such as sleep, Alex is almost always found discussing technical issues with the Stage6 refugee community in their new home (see below) and developing his own alternative to the mighty Stage6 – www.stage-next.com . Wary of leechers and hoaxers, Alex wastes no time in challenging those who appear on the forum trying to lay claim to the Stage6 crown. He has proven to have a short fuse in the past and wasted no time in exposing and demolishing the claims of the pointless Now7. His spider senses were tingling again when Eoghan arrived on the Stage6 forum announcing the development of Vreel and there have been several sharp exchanges between the two.

The Vreel Developers

You didn’t think Eoghan was doing this all alone did you? Thank goodness for Rentacoder. Without them, Vreel would not be possible. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with hiring a development team – happens all the time although it gets a bit annoying when they let you down not once but twice. The current Vreel development work is being carried out by serotizm a highly rated Istanbul based developer.

Limelight Networks

Limelight Networks (LLNW) are suppliers of the Content Delivery Network that powers the video distribution end of Vreel. Having spotted the world changing potential of this exciting new development, LLNW wasted no time in contacting Eoghan to sign him up and grab a piece of the action. Throughout the whole saga, LLNW have been unwilling to confirm claims by Eoghan that a 12-month contract is in place for CDN.

DivX Inc.

DivX are occassional contributors to our story and they did cause this entire scenario by shutting down Stage6 so it’s up you whether you think of them as good guys, bad guys or just…., well…, guys really.

The Stage6 Refugees

Led by their fearless captain Kate7567, this merry band of ‘pirates’ sail (rather than surf) the seven seas of the web exercising their freedom by sharing online video. The community that built up around Stage6 formed strong bonds amongst the regular contributors and following its demise, Kate and others quickly moved to protect the community by providing a refuge at Stage6.18.Forumer. Recently, there have been some very stormy waters for the captain to navigate with the old forum being unexpectedly closed by the hosts following objections by DivX. It took a steely resolve to safely steer her crew to a new home at HavenVideo but Kate was more than a match for those who would seek to scuttle the ship.

Thankfully, a cache of the old site was rescued and is available here.

Amongst the crew are a bunch or intrepid renegades, their names too numerous to list but include Colshy, kyphe, jonboy1, Uncle Spellbinder, timothylearyisdead, penna, burker and CatatonicShez.

So concludes the introduction to the main players in our tale and we can now begin to piece together the story behind Vreel and its development. Part 3 is on its way….

 

Vreel Unmasked: Part 1

In order to provide a little bit of context, let’s back-up a few months and set the scene.

Unexpectedly, on February 25th 2008, the main page on the Stage6 site announced that the service would be closing its doors on the 28th of the same month – only 3 days later. To say this came as a shock to the reported 17million monthly visitors to the site would be an understatement. Stage6 had been launched by DivX Inc. to showcase their superior video compression capability and encourage creative-types to publicize their work. The site quickly developed a reputation for providing high quality, on-line video streaming; arguably the best on the web. What Stage6 provided was large upload capability for its users and became the victim of its own success as copyrighted material content soon far outweighed original content drawing the attention of the authorities.

The debate around uploading and sharing of copyrighted material is hardly anything new and Stage6 was no better or worse than its peers. Back in 2007, Stage6 sought to preempt any potential claims by asking the courts to affirm the legality of their site.

Most members of the online community are aware of the opportunities technology presents for sharing data and the music and film industries have been working hard to curtail piracy and rigorously enforce copyright regulations. However, this is a whole different topic and not the purpose of this article.

The main reason given for the closure of Stage6 was the very high running costs which, although not provided in the web statement, were estimated to be in the region of $1m per month. These costs were, most likely, not helped by ‘leech’ sites; websites that may have given the appearance of hosting video content but were actually linking through to Stage6.

What the statement didn’t cover was the ongoing copyright dispute with Universal Media Group (UMG) and rumors of boardroom disagreements about the future direction for Stage6. Regardless of what went on behind the scenes, the result was that Stage6 closed its doors and instantly created a vacuum in the online video market for high-quality hosting.

What followed was a spate of stories – mostly false – that a new Stage6 was being built and it was in this atmosphere that news of a site – www.DivXit.net – first appeared. The domain was registered on 23rd March and presented a holding page shortly afterwards giving the impression that very little was left to be done in order to go live, stating:

Backbone server: Online
Media server: Online
GUI: Completed
Divxit Core converter: Near Completion

The launch date was given as 29th April. It is from here that things really start to get interesting. DivX objected to the name and on 24th April 2008, Vreel.net was registered as a domain; the holding page updated announcing a new launch date of 6th May.

The shifting of launch dates, setting and then failing to meet expectations is a pattern throughout the DivXit / Vreel development and in Part 2 we take a more detailed look at the progress throughout May where a series of setbacks caused many to question its credentials as well as addressing claims about the owners ‘extra curricular’ activities.

Join us if you can, it is a fascinating story.