In a mailer from advocacy group Free Press they ask the question we have all been asking ourselves for months: Why is the media ignoring the Stop Online Piracy Act? The short answer is that various broadcast and cable networks may have been muzzled by their parent companies. The only network that has mentioned it so far has been Bloomberg, and that coverage consisted of ten minutes - and only because Reddit's CEO brought the issue up on air.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says that he sees an "arms race" in the streaming entertainment sector that his company currently dominates, and the biggest competition they face is Time Warner's HBO Go.

"The competitor we fear most is HBO Go,” Hastings said this week at the UBS media conference in New York. "HBO is becoming more Netflix-like and we’re becoming more HBO-like. The two of us will compete for a very long time."

So imagine for a moment that you are an executive of a company that has a partnership with NBC and you get an email in your inbox telling you to take a position on several bills before congress. And when we say "telling," we mean "telling." Suppliers that want their content or media on NBC's family of networks were told that they'd better support the PROTECT-IP/SOPA bills that are currently before both legislative branches of the U.S. government.

If you are expecting to see HBO's original programming on Netflix anytime soon, you can just forget about that. HBO Co-President Eric Kessler told a gathering of industry executives in New York City that there was "no chance" his company will make its shows available to digital non-subscribers. The industry calls these people "cord cutters," - people who have shifted from cable TV to streaming online services like Netflix.

EPIX, the premium entertainment service that is a joint venture of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM, will soon be on some pretty familiar devices. The premium programming is already available on a number of platforms including Android and the iPhone. Emil Rensing, Chief Digital Officer for the company, says that the service will be available next month on Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Apple's iPad.

Sledgehammer game is finding itself on the business end of internet hate after one of its developers encouraged fans to manipulate the user ratings for Modern Warfare 3 over at Metacritc.com. Sledgehammer Games lead Glen Schofield tweeted to fans asking them to bring the game's paltry 1.7/10 score up. Critics have been generally kind to the game, giving it an average score of 8.9/10.

Games Media Awards organizer Intent Media is embarrassed and ashamed of retailer Grangier Games' conduct during the awards ceremony last night in London and is apologizing publicly today.

Netflix has confirmed earlier rumors that it would launch its popular streaming entertainment service in the United Kingdom and Ireland in "early 2012."

Netflix said further details about the UK service, including the important stuff like pricing, content and supported devices, will be announced at a later date closer to launch. Back in July rumors began to circulate about the company's plan to enter into the lucrative European market. At the time Netflix had no comment.

MCV reports that Future Publishing has hinted in its latest pre-close trading update that the sales of its U.S. operations are a possibility, even as the company shifts towards a digital model for moving its various game-related magazines. The company also predicted a six percent drop in its total revenue for the fiscal year ending September 30, with the UK operations expected to post a two percent drop.

In a new Adweek/Harris poll released yesterday, parents indicate that their children consume significantly more media during the summer than during the school year. In other news, today is a day that ends with a "y"…

While it is probably only a short-term problem, Sony Pictures and Netflix are in negotiations to continue their relationship related to various movies and television shows. Unfortunately, while they sort out their "temporary contract issue" Netflix subscribers won't be able to stream any of the company's content. Subscribers that have Sony Pictures DVD-based content in their queues will not be affected. The content was pulled last Friday and affects much of the Starz content on Netflix.

Netflix said the situation is a "temporary contract issue" between Sony and Liberty Media Corp.'s pay-TV distributor Starz. Starz has been negotiating with Netflix over a renewal of its digital distribution deal with Sony, which runs through early 2012. Starz said in a statement that "all parties are working diligently to resolve the issue."

A bill that proposes a felony charge to anyone that "illegally streams copyrighted content online" has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee today and will head to the full Senate for a vote. The bill, S. 978 (or "Commercial Felony Streaming Act"), brings the penalties for illegal streaming in line with the penalties for illegal downloading. What used to be a misdemeanor will now become a serious crime if the law gets passed. In other words, illegal streaming could get you a five year sentence in jail. Websites that offer illegally streams of copyrighted content 10 or more times during an 180-day period can be prosecuted if the bill becomes law, although it is unclear how the bill deals with individual streamers.

According to a VentureBeat report Viacom may be pulling its content from Netflix. This would eliminate a lot of content from the popular streaming entertainment service that users enjoy on just about every gaming system on the planet. That would mean no more TV content from such channels as Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and more. The speculation comes from expiration dates on a large amount of Viacom content on various services including website Instant Watcher, Xbox Live and Google TV. Those services list May 22 as the expiration date.

VentureBeat further speculates that a new deal inked with Hulu might be part of that problem.

While this isn't the first time streaming content has expired on Netflix only to return days or weeks later, it could mean - at a minimum - an interruption in your favorite content. Worst case scenario is that it disappears for a long time.

Streaming media service Hulu has decided to compensate PlayStation Network Hulu Plus users with one-week credits via email today. The company said in a letter to customers that the credit can be redeemed any time over the next two weeks and pointed out that "no personal Hulu Plus account information was compromised as part of the Sony intrusion." The letter:

Hulu also mentioned the obvious: Hulu Plus users can use other devices to view media content. No doubt many subscribers had no choice over the last 6 - 8 days. On a related note, later this week Hulu Plus subscribers will have another out to watch content on: Xbox Live. Hulu Plus goes live on Xbox Live April 29.

The letter being sent to customers below:

A list called "Government Waste: 20 Of The Craziest Things That The U.S. Government Is Spending Money On" finds several projects funded by the government related to video games. Of course lists that are considered "waste" by some groups actually have a deeper purpose than what is listed in the descriptions, but the people that put this particular list together (I hope) would know that.

Game Informer Magazine is apparently the seventh most popular magazine in the United States, hanging out with such brand name rags as Time and Cosmopolitan. This is according to data gathered by media research firm BurrellesLuce, who found that GI had a circulation of 4,364,170, up 800,000 from 3,564,170 in 2009.

The secret formula for the magazine's success is pretty obvious: GameStop. A 12-month subscription to GI is given away when making purchases with a GameStop card. Still, bought, given away, or jammed under a hotel door like a pamphlet on Jesus, GI is out there.

Source: BurrellesLuce by way of GI.biz

The Call of Duty: Black Ops ad that has inflamed columnists and moronic sports writers alike is also generating a split reaction from the general public.

Ace Metrix, a company that measures the effectiveness of television advertising, reports that the Black Ops ad scored high with male viewers, but offended older female viewers.

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show served up a segment last night offering correspondent John Hodgman’s take on the Supreme Court, Schwarzenegger vs. EMA and banning the sale of violent games to minors in California.

Hodgman, when asked by host Jon Stewart if the Supreme Court should ban violent videogames for children, responded, “No, that’s absurd John.”

He continued, tongue firmly in cheek, “Videogames are a form of expression. They are the novels of the next-generation."

While there’s no doubt Electronic Arts totally succumbed to pressure when it removed the Taliban (in name only) from the upcoming Medal of Honor videogame, a letter written to the Colorado Retail Council (CRC) by a former Congressman and ex-Air Force General shows the type of opponents EA was assembling as media hysteria about the game spread.

In a letter dated September 30, just a day before EA announced its change to Medal of Honor, former Colorado Republican Congressman Scott McInnis and Bentley Rayburn (pictured left and right respectively), a retired U.S. Air Force General, affixed their names to a letter urging the CRC to denounce the Medal of Honor game.

As seen on the Colorado Springs Independent website, the pair argued their case to CRC President Christopher Howes, calling the ability to play as the Taliban a “complete disgrace” and adding that “out of respect to our troops no retailer in Colorado should sell it.”

The duo continued:

Earlier this summer the UK’s Daily Star fabricated a story claiming that the next entry in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series would be based on the July 2010 crime spree committed by ex-con Raoul Moat (pictured)across the NorthEast section of the UK and that the game would be named GTA Rothbury.

While the paper later apologized for the incident, and the piece’s author insulted gamers, calling them “grown (?!?) men who sit around all day playing computer games with one another,” the paper has been ordered to pay undisclosed damages to Rockstar and Take Two Interactive. According to the Guardian, Rockstar has accepted “substantial” libel damages as awarded by a High Court.

In delivering a presentation on the threats modern media poses to youngsters, a retired Maine police officer said about the entertainment industry, “They don’t care what happens to your child.”

Dan Frazell (pictured) now travels extensively giving similar presentations on the subject of “How the Media is Killing Our Children,” which is also the MIA-like URL of his personal website. According to the Chronicle Herald, Frazell uses his talks to warn about the perils (for kids) of social media sites like Facebook and MySpace, lists websites that show users how to beat drug tests or evade police searches and shows sexually-charged and/or violent scenes from shows like South Park and various music videos.

Chinese online game operator and developer Shanda Games is apparently enjoying the fruits of operating in a near recession proof industry, as it has snatched up a Korean developer and entered into an alliance with China Network Television (CNTV).

Shanda announced its intention to gobble up Eyedentity Games for around $95 million U.S. Eyedentity was described as “a private developer of online games with over 100 game developers.” Its latest game, Dragon’s Nest, was released around the world and  billed as being “one of the most successful new online games in China this year.”

Shanda said that the deal would strengthen its international presence.

Kotaku points us towards an interesting Ted Talk in which David McCandless, a self-proclaimed “data journalist” discusses overcoming information overload by visualizing and designing information so we can focus on what’s important.

After showing a graph a “landscape of the world’s fears”, or a chart showing off popular scares over the last decade, which included Swine Flu, Bird Flu, SARS, the Millennium Bug, Asteroid Collisions and Killer Wasps, McCandless pulled up a slide charting the landscape of violent videogames.

Stephen Yang, a SUNY Cortland Professor and Games for Health advocate, appeared on Good Morning America earlier this month to discuss the impact games are having on the health field.

Yang demonstrated games such as the Wii-based Just Dance, billing it as chance to “imitate and have fun,” adding, “It’s for exercise, enjoyment, socialization… that’s the whole point of games, it brings us all together.”

Yang then showed off a prototype game from Red Hill Studios that's designed to (hopefully) improve the balance of Parkinson's sufferers.

Nothing really new, but always nice to see games championed in the media and the spotlight put on great initiatives like Games for Health.

Yesterday we told you about a nasty rape and murder that occured in South Hill Puyallup, Washington, in which an 18-year old man raped and murdered a 16-year old disabled/developmentally challenged girl. The story mentioned that the man had returned home after the murder to play Dungeons and Dragons Online in order to try and “forget” the crime.

However in a new story published yesterday on The Seattle Post Intelligencer website, detectives in the case (or the author of the piece) appear to be playing up the videogame angle even more, as evidenced by the headline, “Murder Motive May Have Been Video Game Fantasy.”

While public and private interest groups alike have skewered Google’s apparent Net Neutrality pact with Verizon, now the search giant has fallen victim to an attack by Comedy Central’s The Daily Show

To sum up Jon Stewart’s take on the matter, Google has gone from stating that “Net Neutrality will allow new Googles and Amazons to form,” to “NET NEUTRALITY WILL ALLOW NEW GOOGLES AND AMAZONS TO FORM!”

More form Stewart, “Google doesn’t get to write laws! They just photograph and post where everybody lives and republish every book ever written and negotiate with the Chinese government while building floating data centers in the ocean.”

Stewart also has a little fun with the protestors who lined up at Google's headquarters to make their voice heard.

Still a little strange to see a former media darling get bashed in the press.

In this increasingly connected electronic world, boys are increasingly turning to media that provides sensory entertainment, which, in turn, acts as an immediate and gratifying substitute for happiness, according to an article penned by a clinical psychologist.

In an article written for the New Atlantis, author Adam J. Cox argues that boredom provides an “availability of mental space” that “goes hand in hand with a civil mind.” Today’s kids, he writes, are enthralled for hours on end by electronica, such as games, phones and computers, leading to:

The adolescent mind is nowadays so hyper-stimulated that the absence of stimulation — boredom — is unsettling, while the chaos of constant connection is soothingly familiar. A languishing teenager feels irritable and instinctively knows how to rev up: go online, turn on the TV, call someone, text.

 

Continuous stimulation and communication comprise the new normal.

Musician and record producer Mike Stock lashed out against the current state of pop music, stating that the “industry has gone too far” as it serves up “soft pornography” to children.

Stock, perhaps best-known as one member of a trio of songwriters and producers known as Stock Aitken Waterman, which produced and wrote songs for an impressive list of musical acts ranging from Elton John to Judas Priest to Bananarama, saved some of his blame for videogames, stating:

Before children even step into school, they have all these images. The pop videos and computer games like Grand Theft Auto confronting them, and the parents can't control it. Talking to mothers' groups, they were saying that even they have lost faith in brands like Disney.

Spencer Halpin’s Moral Kombat, the 2007 documentary that focuses on the subject of violence in videogames, is now available for free viewing on Hulu.

The documentary features a wide assortment of game industry luminaries, pundits and critics weighing in on the topic of violence in games, including Lorne Lanning, Dean Takahashi, American McGee, Doug Lowenstein, Jason Della Rocca, Jack Thompson, Hal Halpin and Henry Jenkins.

It can also still be viewed on Amazon’s OnDemand Service, Babelgum, iTunes and Netflix.

Halpin offered:

Game Industry TV has launched a new video game show and online magazine, "Game Theory with Scott Steinberg." New episodes and articles are now available at www.gametheoryonline.com. The site and show promise to provide game developers, executives and journalists with an "enlightened forum" to publicly discuss and debate the industry's most pressing issues and offer readers "more informed industry analysis in a language that all can understand."

The first season opens with a multi-part documentary exploring the evolution of the games business, from social games and motion controls to cloud computing and 3D gaming. Hosted by Scott Steinberg, the features appearances by industry leaders including Will Wright, Sid Meier, Trip Hawkins, Peter Molyneux, Cliff Bleszinski and others. The website will offer a blend of commentary, features and analysis with editorials from the likes of hi5 president Alex St. John, futurist Jane McGonigal, ECA president Hal Halpin and others.

For more information on the show and website, visit www.gameindustrytv.com.