Last week, I strolled through a fish market in Tokyo. White plastic bins of edible sea life filled the walkway as the shouts of vendors echoed through the hall.
The next day, I watched the sunrise over a church dome in Milan, the orange rays streaking across cobblestone paths as the city came to life.
During the weekend, I caught the U2 concert in Denver, heard The Offspring sing “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” from Kansas City and listened to Taylor Swift serenade the crowd in South Carolina. Saturday, I sat three rows from the glass as the Blackhawks took on the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final, and last night I was courtside as Golden State fell to the Cavs in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
No, I haven’t become a well-to-do world traveler. I downloaded Periscope.
The mobile app allows users to live-stream video from their phones to their Twitter followers with the click of a button. As the company puts it, “It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation.” You can explore the world through someone else’s eyes; first stop is the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace.
Seeing the potential, Twitter Inc. purchased the company in early March and relaunched the service under its brand on March 26. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, insiders peg the price tag at roughly $100 million.
Still in its infancy, Periscope, and similar service Meerkat, are duking it out as the next social media darling. According to online newspaper The Daily Dot, Facebook has 745 million daily active users on mobile alone and Instagram tallies 70 million picture postings a day. By comparison, the estimated 50,000 Periscope users are small potatoes.
Though they may be small in number, they are mighty. With less than three months on the market, Periscope already has drawn the ire of such companies as HBO: Users are freely stream shows. Cueing “Game of Thrones.” The popular fantasy show based on the books of George R.R. Martin took the crown of most illegally downloaded TV show for the third consecutive year in 2014, with more than 8 million downloads of last year’s season finale via BitTorrent.
When I checked Periscope Sunday night, sure enough, there was the face of character Jon Snow staring back at me. Had I not just watched it, the whole GoT episode was streaming right on my phone if I wanted it.
“We are aware of Periscope and have sent takedown notices,” an HBO spokeswoman said in a statement. “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.”
Periscope’s terms of service specifies rebroadcasting copyrighted content is a violation and can result in suspending or banning the offending account. However, Periscope currently relies on reports from users alerting the company to the infringement.
“We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect Periscope users to do the same,” the service terms say. “We will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable law and are properly provided to us.”
That policy isn’t working, and Periscope officials know it.
Last month’s much anticipated Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight cost $100 to watch on TV. Or you could watch it on Periscope for free. And many did. So much so, it led Twitter CEO Dick Costolo – @dickc – to tweet following the fight: And the winner is … @periscopeco.
But unlike its older brother Twitter, Periscope lives in the here and now. End your broadcast, and there’s no record of the offense. By the time anybody from Twitter is able to bust a user for piracy via the traditional takedown notice, the damage already is done.
This app can be something special. It has endless opportunity and we’ve already started to brainstorm its use in our newsroom. But piracy – both peer-to-peer streaming and file sharing – can’t be tolerated. It’s a minor offense with big societal consequences.
Periscope may be in its infancy, but it will take real adults to harness its true potential.
Springfield Business Journal Features Editor Emily Letterman can be reached at eletterman@sbj.net.
