Skip to Content

Need a little good news today? We've got plenty!
Holidash Blog
AOL Tech

Filed under: Internet, Video, Web services

Move over OPENhulu, here comes TVparadise

by Brad Linder Dec 17th 2007

TV Paradise
It looks like the folks at OPENhulu aren't the only ones taking advantage of the Hulu's embed-friendliness to create a clone of the NBC/FOX online video site. While OPENhulu continues to add Hulu videos to its site, TV Paradise seems to host pretty much every Hulu video available. There are a couple of other things that make TV Paradise more attractive than OPEhulu at the moment:
  • You can watch videos in full screen mode without opening a pop-up ad first
  • The embed code for each video is listed right below the video (although you can also grab the code by clicking the menu button inside the video window)
  • So far there are no ads at all on TV Paradise (we kind of expect that to change)
TV Paradise is new enough that the site doesn't even have a logo, let alone a business model. The site looks slightly more Hulu-like than OPENhulu does, except for a short disclaimer at the bottom of the page which points out that the site is not affiliated in any way with Hulu.

The biggest problem with both of these sites is that they're both going to become useless the moment Hulu sheds its invitation-only beta status and opens its doors to the public. There's no reason to go to a Hulu-clone when you could just go to Hulu.
As for the larger question of whether these sites are legal, we haven't heard anything from Hulu yet. But after Digg banned a user for submitting a link to OPENhulu, the site's founder had a conversation with someone at Digg about Hulu's terms of use. The end result: Digg, at least believes that OPENhulu is not violating any laws. Not that Digg has any real authority in the matter.

But there is at least one reason why Hulu, NBC, and News Corp honestly might not care about these clones: each video includes advertising no matter where you watch it. And since the embedded videos are all still hosted on Hulu's servers, the company can easily count the the number of hits each video gets and charge the appropriate advertising rates.

Tags: hulu, openhulu, tv-paradise

Relevant Posts

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
SXSWi 2008 Schwag Unboxing
SXSWi 2008 Day 1
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Most Commented On (7 days)

Recent Comments

BloggingStocks Tech Coverage

More Tech Coverage

Weblogs, Inc. Network