TV Watch: Harper's Island

So a quick side story here, The Girl and I jumped on this show via Netflix Instant thinking it was a show that had already aired and passed, but it turns out this is part of Netflix's program to air recent material, and Instant gets the episodes after they air on television.

Most of the season is done with only what appears to be the two episode conclusion to air this weekend. Instant is a great way to catch up on the show to date, especially if you can grab the HD stream (say on your Roku).

The show itself is a pretty by the numbers murder mystery, feeling a bit like a good beach read. And it is good, don't let that factor in as much of a negative opinion. There's a great backstory that the show allows to breath and by the middle act there is quite a lot of fun to be had in trying to guess the various parts of the mystery.

Island is also relatively violent for a network show, so this doesn't feel like a sanitized made for TV affair, but manages to actually offer up some scenes with real teeth to them.

Highly recommended, and we're looking forward to seeing the ending.

Pirate Bay Going Legit

Well known and recently battled in court torrent site The Pirate Bay is being bought and going legitimate:

Pirate Bay Acquired, Will Compensate Content Providers
by Kris Graft
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June 30, 2009

Pirate Bay Acquired, Will Compensate Content Providers
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Embattled file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has been acquired by game networking company Global Gaming Factory for $7.8 million, and will turn the website into a legitimate operation that compensates content providers.

"We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site, " said GGF CEO Hans Pandeya in a statement. The acquisition is slated to close in August.

Pandeya said that Sweden-based The Pirate Bay is one of the "top 100 most visited internet sites in the world." He added, "However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary. Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers need faster downloads and better quality."

It will be interesting to see what changes this will cause, if the kind of content is radically different or if the legal issues will be handled by the new company or what.