January 20 was a day to remember for 2 reasons: inauguration of Barack Obama and the release of Ustream iPhone app to watch that historic moment. The app was more than great… it was groundbreaking as the first popular video streaming app for iPhone.
Fast forward one week later, new version was released. For other apps, an update would mean to iron out kinks and pimp up features.
Not this app.
Ustream 1.1 was more like a downgrade. Now, you no longer have the access to live streams other than “approved” featured and popular shows. Even worse? I found out that some live shows won’t even show up on the “popular” list! For example, the bottom of the “popular” list has the show with less that 10 viewers yet I couldn’t find the show with 20+ viewers on the list!
So, what’s on the “popular” list instead of the shows I want to watch?
Puppies and kittties. FUCKING PUPPIES AND KITTIES!
Of course it makes sense that Ustream would prefer to limit only those show on the list. Face it… there’s no way puppies cam would break the copyright! No songs, no videos, no unauthorized usage of licensed materials.
Too bad you can’t copyright dog breed!
The app itself has limitless potential. It’s the perfect platform for broadcasting historical moments to the mass. We did it with the inauguration with 100k of live viewers. Yet, we may not be able to repeat the same massive feat with Super Bowl because of potential copyright infringement.
We’ve come so far from the age of stick and stone, and to be defeated by our own greed is a step backward for us.
Let us watch what we want!