Founded in June 2007, Pro Vs GI Joe hosts live gaming tournaments in venues like NFL stadiums; the events pit U.S. servicemen and women against celebrity guests and athletes in various video games. Founder Greg Zinone said he chose to expand the scope with GGL because of the gaming company’s technology: GGL’s platform pulls in game-play stats from across consoles, on PCs, and even mobile, bundling in content like game-industry news and reviews, as well as social networking tools. Soldiers stationed on USOs (United Service Organizations—geared toward troop recreation and fun) will be able to compete in the tournaments or just play together online on their own, private network.

This isn’t like the Olympics, where NBC has—and as Jeff Zucker stressed to me recently, will continue—to time shift key events to prime evening hours to maintain traffic and ad dollars for an incredibly expensive event. This is a marquee event that NBC will show in time-shifted waves across the U.S. during the day because it can, not for the sake of preserving its audience. (Richard Sandomir did a great job of explaining this.) ESPN (NYSE: DIS) is more than willing to show the match live but can’t either on air or ESPN360.com because of the Byzantine broadcast contracts. NBC will show its broadband stream when it airs the tape-delayed match. It’s all a slap in the face to fans—and to its own crew working hard to produce great tennis coverage.

It’s as though NBC is double-dog-daring people to skip TV. Just a sampling of the tweets here suggests some irked fans will do just that. They’ll be back for the finals this weekend, which are supposed to really be live but that sour taste won’t disappear.

I’m especially frustrated because I experienced Wimbledon in person this year for a few hours. I was at Centre Court when the roof was closed for the first time but I spent much of my time at the Broadcast Centre (on a pass arranged by ESPN) so I could get a better sense of the broadband operations across the networks. I’ll have more on that but for now I need to go back to Twitter or Radio Wimbledon or the like in search of the latest update on the battle of the Andys.

Update: Just to show how absurd this all is, at 1:39 ET, we’re in the third set on broadband as NBC simulcasts its main broadcast feed, but in central time, where I am now, the broadcast is still in the first set—and out west, it’s not close to starting. Meanwhile, at Wimbledon it’s a fourth set tie-break with Roddick ahead two sets to one. No, actually, thanks to everyone but NBC,  we now know that’s a winner for Andy Roddick as Murray’s hopes of playing in front of the Queen Sunday are dashed.

The aim? Make the Bay nothing less than “the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) of the file-sharing world”. Pandeya isn’t putting an exact figure on what he could earn from each revenue stream - but, from online ads alone, “we’re talking $40 million” a month…

—Selling networked storage: Just like distributed processing power helps science researchers, Pandeya wants to leverage the hard disc space of his network users: “If you have a hard disk with 100Gb of space, you might only be using half that and we can take just 1Gb. Together, the community creates a gigantic storage space.” Nice idea, but there may be some hurdles… First, cloud storage and server farm prices are rapidly decreasing, so why would corporate clients host content on an unreliable, fragmented community server? Second, will users really be willing? Third, consenting users may be implicated if any illegal material remains hosted.

—Offering ISPs cheaper bandwidth: “File-sharing technology is outdated—the next generation of file-sharing is available and it solves the problem of content providers being paid,” Pandeya claims. He says he can reduce P2P traffic costs for ISPs by ensuring P2P users would download files only from nearby users, rather than half way around the world. Still, this would seem to assume that ISPs are comfortable with P2P traffic in the first place - any effort by ISPs to save money on P2P costs implicitly suggests they’re accommodating to the protocol when, in fact, recent industry agreements show they are increasingly discouraging their customers use of P2P.

—Leechers will have to pay: Pandeya says the company is aware it can’t erect a pay wall around the Bay, but downloaders who don’t contribute either files or their disc space (such is the spirit and nature of many Bit Torrent protocol users) will have to pay something, or choose to become a “good file-sharer”. Pandeya predicts the “super-filesharers”, the subject of countless personal lawsuits across the world, will become “big revenue generators, the big winners”, in the new system. The Pirate Bay revealed this week “many people” asked to have the user account removed, so spooked are file-sharing enthusiasts by possible lawsuits. “The important thing for file-sharers is that nothing changes,” he says. “If we start changing things… they will just go to the next site.”

—Striking content deals to pay rights holders: “Behind the scenes, we’re ensuring the costs are being paid to the content providers.” Unsurprisingly given the litigious relationship with content industry, Pandeya admits there will be doubts among executives about the new model, but he hopes the site can sign legal content deals with all the big entertainment companies, just iTunes, Spotify, Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) have. There could even be a form of DRM to protect files from illegal use, but Pandeya says that “copyright is not the problem” and that when the companies are compensated properly, they won’t be as worried about protecting their content. He says the reaction from top entertainment execs displayed “a sense of humour” about the Bay’s imminent turnaround but he claims to have had “tremendous interest” from the UK, USA and Russia.

—Courtroom drama: The Pirate Bay trial in March found its four founders guilty of assisting copyright infringement and sentenced them to hefty fines and one year in jail. They vowed to appeal the judgement, but Pandeya says he’s buying the Pirate Bay domain, but not the Pirate Bay company which which will still be owned by its founders—and if they want to continue their appeal to the Swedish Supreme Court, that’s up to them. “We’re just simple businessmen, we’re not interested in that,” says Pandeya, who has no interest in spending years in court and will leave legal problems to the founders. But GGF is a listed company and must stay on the right side of the law and it will be an awkward situation if the founders go to court to defend activities which most content companies consider illegal and morally wrong.

As for paying for the deal—the Bay founders are getting SEK30 million in cash and SEK30 million in new GFF shares—Pandeya says the company is raising the cash through a rights issue in which three key investors have expressed an interest and “have the funds ready”. The deal goes before GFF shareholders in four weeks’ time.

Our take: There’s still a huge amount of uncertainty over Global Gaming Factory’s big ambitions can be met. Its claims for legitimising the Bay and making massive new revenues - all while ensuring “nothing changes” for file sharers - would require a kind of online alchemy we’ve rarely seen. The music industry is slowly moving towards models where music is free at the point of use whether streaming or legal downloads—but that’s just one part of a far larger piracy picture that includes film, games, software and audiobooks: all industries that have a long way to go in accepting alternate business models, let alone a legal P2P network.

—“Hulu is offering British broadcasters equity stakes in Hulu UK plus a share of online advertising,” says Kate Bulkley in Broadcast. “It is offering significant minimum guarantees in exchange for a good line-up of shows immediately after transmission on TV.”

—ITV (LSE: ITV) online director Ben McOwen Wilson: “As you’d expect post-Kangaroo, we are looking at a number of possibilities for our archive content. We do think an aggregator in the UK has a role to play.” Via Broadcast.

—The SVP, Johannes Larcher, reckons the “UK is very ready for a product like Hulu ... Project Kangaroo has opened up certain opportunities we would like to exploit.” Via Telegraph.co.uk.

According to a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) spokesperson, quoted by LAT, “The Department of Justice and several state attorneys general have contacted us to learn more about the impact of the settlement, and we are happy to answer their questions…It’s important to note that this agreement is non-exclusive and if approved by the court, stands to expand access to millions of books in the U.S.”

The Authors Guild, meanwhile, says this is just a procedural move by the Dept, and the agreement, while may need some tweaking, will withstand the inquiry.

In October last year, Google finally thought it had put the long-standing class action lawsuit with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers over its Google Book Search behind it. Under the terms of the settlement, Google has the right to display the books online and sell access to individual works. For example, Google could offer paid subscriptions to its entire collection to libraries and other institutions.

While Google agreed to share the revenues with the publishers and authors, libraries, some consumer rights groups and other parties are worried that Google would have solitary and overwhelming control over access to “orphan books”—titles whose authors and rights-holders have essentially abandoned. Since there’s no other online entity with access to these abandoned books, Google could effectively raise prices for access to the collection and libraries and other online repositories would have nowhere else to go for them.

Just last month, Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos expressed his concerns with the deal. He said at a conference that the agreement “needs to be revisited…It doesn’t seem right that you should do something—kind of get a prize for violating a large series of copyrights. You just can’t believe that’s the way it actually works.”

He replaces the company’s interim head, Ian Brotherston, who in turn stepped in for Mark Zaleski in April. Zaleski was moved over to the role of non-executive chairman and was charged with heading up international operations. With Tournay’s at the helm, Brotherston, a former BT (NYSE: BT) and AOL (NYSE: TWX) exec, will now manage Dailymotion’s EVP International Strategy. Dailymotion has raised a big $34 million round in late 2007, to expand into U.S., but things haven’t gone well for the site stateside, mirroring the woes of the online video industry. According to a French newsletter Stratégies, Dailymotion’s 2008 revenue at €12.5 million ($16.2 million)—that’s big in France, I hear—and reports have suggested it is looking to raise more money.

»  Deconstructing Malcolm Gladwell: “We hate most in others that which we fail to see in ourselves.” Anil, I love you, man. [Anil Dash]

»  MySpace and other such web services not liable for assaults. Could help Craigslist as well. [Reuters]

»  Online video startups raised about $64 million in Q209. Better than most related categories. [Videonuze]

»  Access Intelligence, publisher of Min media industry newsletter, reorgs; lays off 20 people. [Folio]

»  Shock and horror in Twittersphere: followers can be bought. [BBC]

»  MJ’s funeral could be streamed live online. At least on Hulu. [NTV]

»  Facebook’s revenue breakdown: an informed guesstimate [SAI]

What Ads Do People Ignore?

—46% Internet banner ads
—17% Internet search engine ads
—13% Television ads
—9% Radio ads
—6% Newspaper Ads

What Ads Are Most Helpful?

—37% TV ads
—17% Newspaper ads
—14% Internet search ads
—3% Radio ads
—1% Internet banner ads

He says none of the factors that Borrell thought would cut into sales in 2009—including small businesses pulling all their online spending and high churn rates—have been as prevalent as the firm believed. “Phenomenal as it may seem, we’re getting data indicating triple-digit growth for some companies selling interactive advertising,” he says. In a comment on the Screenwerk blog, he adds that “wild enthusiasm over fantastic results” is not driving the new spending. Instead, he attributes it to “market pressure,” noting that small advertisers are receiving lots of sales pitches. Certainly, the growth rate will still be down, considering that the market jumped by 47 percent in 2008. Still, the continued relative strength in the local online ad market likely explains why major internet companies including AOL (NYSE: TWX) and MySpace are doubling down with new local efforts.

Streefland told Adweek that the RFP process led to discussions about whether the company had a solid “strategic direction” in place; the executive team decided to put the agency search on hold until the details were hashed out, and plans to update the agencies that pitched within “a few weeks.” Meanwhile, Kretchmer’s departure was described as “mutually amicable;” he’s headed to a venture-backed startup.

IDG News Service reports (via MacWorld) that AT&T (NYSE: T), in particular, has been sued by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, asserting that ringtones qualify “as a public performance under the Copyright Act.” The group wants mobile operators to pay royalties, not individual consumers.

The fight is playing out in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In the operator’s defense the Electronic Frontier Foundation, joined by The Center for Democracy and Technology and Public Knowledge, argued that copyright law exempts performances that are conducted without a commercial purpose, such as ringtones in a restaurant. The EFF said in a blog post: “These wrongheaded legal claims cast a shadow over innovators who are building gadgets that help consumers get the most from their copyright privileges.” The ASCAP said ringtones don’t fall under the exemption because these so-called “performances” can still infringe even if there is no commercial gain.

Possibly, this argument may have had more support back when ringtones were in their heyday, but now with decreasing interest, it seems artists would be happy enough to have someone purchase a ringtone, let alone play it in public since it can be considered publicity for an upcoming album.

Poster: Raj Kapoor

Blog name: the vc in me ...

Company: Mayfield Fund

Backstory: Kapoor, a managing director at Mayfield Fund and co-founder of online photo-sharing service Snapfish (sold to Hewlett-Packard) argues that non-profits are on the upswing online. He cites several non-profits that have disrupted for-profit businesses, including Wikipedia, Firefox and Openstreetmap, and says he expects non-profit sites to take over other areas on the web soon.

Blog post: Why do these entities take off? “The-not-for-profit structure innocently makes it VERY hard to compete with them,” Kapoor writes. “They have such a low cost infrastructure (most of these orgs have less than 40 employees at scale and many volunteers), and the marginal cost of delivery of their service is so low, that they can offer much of it for free or very low cost without worry of profit maximization. This brings in more users, which strengthens the content or application, which then provides even more value—a virtuous cycle hard to break (the ‘network effect’), even when the resources of large companies are turned on these areas.” He also notes that eventually many of these entities (notably Firefox developer Mozilla and Craigslist) do begin to make money.

Post-script: We asked Kapoor what online categories are ripe for the next non-profit takeover. He said maps/geodata: “It’s a universally used data type, has limitless layers since there are so many data types you could put on a map (peoples, places, reviews, stories, etc.), and will have explosive use given the mobile internet and app growth.”

Please e-mail suggestions for future editions of the Inside Word to joe@paidcontent.org.

Entertainment magnate Sumner Redstone kicked off the saga in late November by selling his 87 percent stake in Midway (including $70 million worth of debt) to Thomas, who gets a $5 million payment as part of the Warner Bros. sale. Left out of the deal are a San Diego studio (which develops the mixed martial arts title TNA) and one in Newcastle, U.K.—both of which will be shut down within 10 days if another buyer isn’t found (per Joystiq).

This is part of the reorg of the service, as John Foley, who used to run Evite a while back (from 2002-2005) but now runs sister IAC-company Pronto, is taking Evite under his wings, though they will continue to be separate businesses. Hans Woolley, a co-founder of Pronto, has been named President of Evite and will report to Foley. An IAC PR rep told me they have some new ideas about Evite as a product and will be implementing those going ahead. This follows a similar reorg earlier this year where Gifts.com was brought under Pronto’s management, and Gifts.com CEO Jason Rapp left the company. .

IAC doesn’t break out Evite as separate category in its earnings—it is part of the Media & Advertising group—but Diller said in the Q109 earnings call that display advertising on Evite, its main source of revenue, has been hurt due to the downturn. A lot of more social-media friendly events sites have also come up in the last few years, including MyPunchbowl, Socializr, Zvents, Eventful, and a new contender Cocodot (which we wrote about here), and of course, biggies in social networking Facebook and MySpace.

In an interview, Pointroll CEO Jason Tafler told us that the unit has done some hiring in Q2, though he didn’t say how many staffers were added. The rich-media provider has been working with Gannett since the publisher acquired the remaining stake in Pointroll last March for $4.6 million.

The McLean, Va.-based Gannett eliminated 10,000 jobs in 2007 and 2008; 3,000 positions at its local papers were axed in October. While the 1,400 number is considerably less than the 4,500 cut that an unidentified source tipped GannettBlog’s Jim Hopkins to last week, Hopkins’ running tally of how many and which divisions the layoffs are hitting can be found here. As of last night, Hopkins reported about 105 jobs already lost in this current round.

—At News Corp (NYSE: NWS). newly appointed COO and president Chase Carey could earn as much as $43.1 million in his first year, in salary and bonuses, according to an SEC filing today, picked up by WSJ. Carey rejoined News Corp, officially starting today. His five year contract includes a base annual salary of $8.1 million and a $10 million signing bonus. Besides cash, he is also eligible for an annual bonus and restricted stock units ranging from zero to $25 million, depending on News Corp.‘s profits. He will also be eligible for other grants of stock, stock options and other equity. This is a huge jump for Carey, from his previous position as CEO of DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), where his base salary was $2.3 million, and he earned a bonus last year of $3.5 million, according to LAT. Also, if he’s fired in the next 12 months, he will get a severance amount of $10 million.

This is roughly equivalent to what Carey’s predecessor in the position Peter Chernin got. Chernin officially vacated his position yesterday, but will still be involved with News Corp via his first-look deal for his new move and TV production company. Besides some more payments on his stock in news Corp, Chernin will also have the right to the “use of a corporate jet, a corporate car, screening room and personal secretarial services,” a separate SEC filing disclosed today.

—Meanwhile, at XM Sirius (NSDQ: SIRI), CEO Mel Karmazin’s employment contract, set to expire in November this year, has now been extended until Dec. 31, 2012. The company has also increased his salary from a base of $1.25 million to $1.5 million annually going ahead. He also has an option to purchase 120 million shares at an exercise price of 43 cents a share, the closing price for the company’s shares Tuesday. This comes as the company is still unprofitable, but Karmazin helped see the merger of XM and Sirius, and also managed to rescue the company from a potential bankruptcy when Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA) struck a deal to invest $530 million in the company. More in the SEC filing here.

The IAB, and the fellow ad industry trade groups that partnered on the proposals face an uphill battle. A House subcommittee focused on behavioral targeting last month appeared pretty eager to enact legislation by the fall. And Congress could be leaning more towards rules that require websites to have users “opt-in” to being served targeted ads. Since most users tend to go out of their way to avoid advertising, many publishers and advertisers are rightly concerned that this could devastate the business even more than the economy has.

The IAB’s recommended practices also call for educating consumers, clearer disclosure forms, data security, such as spelling out what sort of information is collected on websites, especially ones visited by kids. Lastly, the trade groups, which include the 4A’s, ANA, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and Direct Marketing Association, would set up a review and compliance division to self-govern digital advertising. Under the groups’ plan, the division would be run by The Better Business Bureau and the Direct Marketing Association starting early next year.