video broadcasts for everyone registration optional available in various owner twitch interactive called justin.tv inc until february 2014 1 launched march 19 2007 ; 9 years ago 2007 03 19 current status defunct ; as of august 5 2014 justin.tv was a website created by justin kan emmett shear michael seibel and kyle vogt in 2007 to allow anyone to broadcast video online . justin.tv user accounts were called channels like those on youtube and users were encouraged to broadcast a wide variety of user generated live video content called broadcasts . the company was an internet startup based in san francisco california with seed funding from paul graham of seed capital firm y combinator 2 and series a funding with alsop louie partners and draper associates . 3 the original justin.tv was a single channel featuring founder justin kan who broadcast his life 24 7 and popularized the term lifecasting . in 2007 justin kan stopped broadcasting and justin.tv relaunched into its later form as a network of thousands of various channels . 4 users were permitted to broadcast to an unlimited number of people for free and watching broadcasts did not require user registration . broadcasts that were considered to contain potentially offensive content were available only to registered users over the age of 18 . broadcasts containing defamation pornography or copyright violations or encouraging criminal conduct were prohibited by justin.tv s terms of service . 5 on february 10 2014 twitch.tv s and justin.tv s parent company was rebranded as twitch interactive . 1 on august 5 2014 justin.tv was officially shut down so that the company could focus on twitch . 6 7 8 contents 1 company history 1.1 lifecasting origins 1.2 expansion into platform 2 technology 3 content accessibility 4 localization 5 criticisms 5.1 suicide broadcast 6 see also 7 references 8 external links company history edit lifecasting origins edit this section needs expansion with what was he broadcasting . you can help by adding to it . december 2012 justin kan speaking at gnomedex in 2007 the original justin.tv was a single channel featuring justin kan. wearing a webcam attached to a baseball cap and streamed online via a laptop backpack system designed by co founder kyle vogt 9 kan decided he would wear the camera 24 7 and he began streaming continuous live video and audio at midnight march 19 2007 . 10 the novelty of the concept attracted media attention and kan interviewed with ann curry on the today show april 2 2007 tom merritt on the first episode of cnet live nightline april 6 2007 and world news tonight april 8 2007 . his lifecasting project has been compared to edtv being john malkovich and the truman show . 11 expansion into platform edit in the summer of 2007 justin.tv became a platform for more than 60 different channels . 12 the directory at the top of each channel showed which channels were live and which were not broadcasting . depending on the entry time a visitor might have seen only a small selection of the available channels . by august 2007 channels were being added at an average rate of two a day with content covering both lifecasters and event streaming . the international locations range from australia brazil the united kingdom and france to the netherlands and sweden . in some cases a lifecaster might travel from one country to another as was the case when lisa batey traveled from brooklyn to tokyo and kyoto in 2007 and 2008 . not all the participants have mobile equipment however and most simply transmit an image of themselves sitting at their computer . during this same time frame singer songwriter jody marie gnant and others began lifecasting on other websites such as ustream stickam livestream or began lifecasting independent of any major website . on october 2 2007 justin.tv became an open network allowing members of the public to register and broadcast . 13 by april 10 2008 kan stated in an interview with tom merritt that justin.tv had signed 30 000 broadcasting accounts . 14 on march 14 2008 justin.tv added selectable categories for broadcasters including featured people & lifecasting sports music & radio gaming news & tech animals entertainment divas & dudes . 15 on friday june 27 2008 justin.tv added networks to the site in which the user could make their own network with a forum and officers that would act as moderators for the network . 16 on thursday march 25 2010 these networks were removed from the site . 17 on monday october 27 2008 justin.tv added headlines which allows users to make reports on other broadcasters doing interesting things on the site which then becomes edited and published for all users on the website to read and comment . 18 for ease of use a simplified redesign was introduced july 14 2009 . 19 on monday april 5 2010 justin.tv changed the design of their archive page renaming them to past broadcasts . essentially all past broadcasts are saved as a clip and deleted after 7 days . from the past broadcast you can highlight for permanent save . 20 in june 2011 justin.tv separated its gaming section to a new site called twitch.tv . 21 on february 10 2014 twitch s and justin.tv s parent company was rebranded as twitch interactive . 1 technology edit justin.tv s broadcasting and viewing was based on adobe flash . users can broadcast directly from the site with justin.tv using flash to auto detect and stream from an attached webcam . justin.tv also supported broadcasting using other third party software most notably quicktime broadcaster camtwist d3dgear broadcaster flash media encoder wirecast open broadcaster software ffsplit broadcaster xsplit broadcaster and vlc to allow broadcasters to add effects or stream higher quality video . 22 23 justin.tv had no default video quality setting ; instead it set bitrate on a case by case basis by testing the broadcaster s available bandwidth . the broadcaster could also manually adjust the bitrate before going live . while broadcasting from the browser the maximum quality settings were 1000 kbit s for video and 44 khz for audio . as a comparison youtube high quality video at the time 400 500 kbit s and 720p high definition video is approximately 2000 kbit s. 24 25 the 1000 kbit s limit could be exceeded by using alternate broadcasting methods such as flash media encoder and quicktime broadcaster and 720p video in h. 264 had been broadcast by some users . following the justin.tv re design in july 2009 the default channel video size changed from a standard aspect ratio of 468 x 353 pixels to a widescreen 630 x 353 pixels . content accessibility edit like youtube and other static video sites justin.tv allowed each channel to be accompanied with an html snippet which allows users to embed video onto pages outside the justin.tv site . 26 another snippet is given to embed the associated chatbox as well thus allowing users to recreate the basic justin.tv functionality on another page . broadcasters have the option of disabling embedding for their specific channel . following the release of the api in august 2009 justin.tv released flash swf files that allows developers to include justin.tv video in flash projects . 27 localization edit while the primary justin.tv site was in english there was support for users to translate the site into other languages . two languages catalan and spanish have been translated completely and an additional 17 were over 50 % translated . 28 criticisms edit although justin.tv attempted to align its policies with the digital millennium copyright act 29 it had been criticized for failing to ensure that its users respect copyright law . 30 in august 2009 justin.tv announced a deal with fox to actively filter streams in real time . 31 justin.tv used a filtering system from vobile to detect and filter out any infringing content and remove the channel from the website . 32 during the period when justin.tv consisted solely of justin kan lifecasting justin became the target of several pranks . a viewer spoofed justin s caller id publicly available on the site using an ip relay service . on march 21 2007 the spoofer called the san francisco police department and filed a false report about a stabbing in the apartment . the following day someone reported a fire at the apartment . the san francisco emergency services then put justin.tv s number on a list which requires a confirmation call before responding to any emergencies . 33 kan changed his number and kept the new one private . in july 2008 thedefaced.org a computer security group released a non malicious cross site scripting xss worm onto the justin.tv site . after successfully propagating the virus thedefaced.org contacted justin.tv programmers and worked with them to fix the vulnerability . 34 in 2011 the american sports promotion company zuffa sued justin.tv for its users using the streaming service to watch pay per view matches of the ufc violating certain trademark and copyright laws . 35 as of march 2012 the lawsuit is still on going and justin.tv has had some of the charges dismissed partially because the site itself can not be entirely held responsible for the particular uploads under scrutiny . 36 suicide broadcast edit on november 19 2008 19 year old abraham k. biggs committed suicide while broadcasting to a room full of viewers on his justin.tv channel by ingesting an overdose of opiates and benzodiazepines . he was also struggling with bipolar disorder . 37 38 biggs posted his suicide note online as noted in the new york times . 39 the man s father abraham biggs sr. says those who watched share some blame in his son s death . 40 justin.tv ceo michael seibel stated we regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time . we have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content and our community monitors the site accordingly . this content was flagged by our community reviewed and removed according to our terms of service . see also edit blogtv dacast niconico fora.tv tinychat vokle streamup twitch.tv references edit a b c twitch parent company rebrands as twitch interactive . mike rose . retrieved 2014 02 10 . live from san francisco it s justin kan s life . npr.org . 2007 04 11 . retrieved 2009 07 30 . about us . justin.tv . retrieved 2009 09 02 . gonzalez nick 2007 10 02 . justin.tv teams up with on2 and opens network . techcrunch . retrieved 2007 10 05 . justin.tv terms of service . justin.tv . retrieved 2009 09 02 . goodbye from justin.tv . justin.tv . 2014 08 05 . retrieved 2014 08 16 . machovech sam 2014 08 05 . streaming video site justin.tv announces closure effective immediately . arstechnica . popper ben 2014 08 05 . justin.tv the live video pioneer that birthed twitch officially shuts down . the verge . kyle vogt . justin.tv . 2007 05 22 . retrieved 2009 07 30 . a conversation with justin kan of justin.tv . 10zenmonkeys . org . 2007 06 06 . retrieved 2009 09 30 . yang jeff . asian pop man with a cam san francisco chronicle march 27 2007 . guynn jessica 2007 05 29 . can t get enough justin you can watch justine natural star ready to take on leading role in the latest around the clock web show . san francisco chronicle . retrieved 2007 08 24 . gonzalez nick 2007 10 02 . justin.tv teams up with on2 and opens network . techcrunch . retrieved 2007 10 05 . merritt tom . cnet live . 1 april 10 2008 . kan justin . justin.tv blog . 2 march 14 2008 . justin.tv blog biggest release ever . blog.justin.tv