"If creating a video and publishing it to the web seems like a challenge, we think you'll find that Jumpcut makes it easy and fun. If you've been wondering what to do with the video you shoot with your snazzy new camera (or your phone), Jumpcut is the perfect place for you to be creative. If video isn't your thing just yet and you just want to make cool slideshows with your pictures, Jumpcut is still the best place. Finally, a free online location where you can use all your media, create great looking movies and publish to anyone you choose. There's nothing else like it."

We're seeing all sorts of software moving online, shifting from a locally installed program to a Web service, and jumpcut is the latest in this trend. It looks like it's a Yahoo company, because they use Yahoo's sign in service, but I think they made a mistaken in making this a video sharing service - looking through the videos that have been uploaded, it's your typical mix of pseudo-porn spam and promotional "make $6000 a week" videos. In fact, this is one of the worst moderated video sites I've seen. So from a video community aspect, skip it. But if you want to upload and edit videos, this is an interesting service. Too bad it's tainted by a lack of moderation...

According to TorrentFreak, The Dark Knight was the most pirated movie of 2008. Ummm, hooray? Somehow I doubt Warner Bros. will include that stat on the DVD packaging. The movie’s been on and off the list of top BitTorrented films throughout the summer as people took video camera footage of the film in theaters or ripped it from screeners.

Over at TV by the Numbers‘ breakdown of the most DVRed broadcast TV shows, McDreamy and crew still dominate the list with 4.089 million viewers via DVRs for the week of Oct. 17-Nov. 2. As TVbtN points out, Obama’s infomercial ran during this week but does not appear on this list because of missing data.

It looks like High School Musical clips helped propel John4210 to the top spot on Video Breakouts’ Cool 100 list, followed closely by Chinese TV programming from New Tang Dynasty TV.

NOTE: TorrentFreak data is based on http downloads of .torrent files from various BitTorrent sites. The data is collected by TorrentFreak and is for informational and educational reference only. Currently both DVDrips, DVD Screeners and R5 rips are counted. The “back” designation means that the title was in the list before and has reappeared, possibly in a new format.

The Video Breakouts Cool 100 offers a weekly snapshot of the most-viewed Internet video authors and producers. Click any author in the list to see their Author Summary Report. All Video Breakouts lists and statistics are gathered through selective discovery and tracking. Where available, Video Breakouts uses video site Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to retrieve statistics. For sites that do not publish APIs, the company analyzes their HTML web pages to discover assets and track statistics.

Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
19-year-old Commits Suicide on Justin.tv  —  In a striking display of the power of live video, Abraham K. Biggs committed suicide on Wednesday while broadcasting himself on video site Justin.tv.  As we understand it from various forum posts, the 19-year-old Floridian was apparently egged …

In a striking display of the power of live video, Abraham K. Biggs committed suicide on Wednesday while broadcasting himself on video site Justin.tv. As we understand it from various forum posts, the 19-year-old Floridian was apparently egged on by commenters on Justin.tv and fellow forum users on bodybuilding.com. Biggs overdosed on pills while on camera and appeared to be breathing for hours until watchers realized he might be serious, at which point they alerted the police. The video kept running until police and EMTs broke Biggs’ door down and blocked the camera’s view.

We confirmed Biggs’ death with the Broward County medical examiner. The Justin.tv video and many of the forum posts have been taken down.

When asked about the broadcast via email, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said:

We won’t post the disturbing content here, but much of it is still online. Images of the broadcast have been posted here and here, and there’s also a suicide note from Biggs, who went by the screenname CandyJunkie. An account of forum users watching the broadcast and calling the police is here. There are also rest-in-peace comments on what appears to be Biggs’ MySpace page. The Justin.tv broadcast used to be here.

The contention that filming and uploading (and even hosting video of) a crime is a crime as well might not be valid, but given the very nature of live broadcasts, the issue becomes more complicated.

And it’s not as if technology enabled the taking of a life, or as if this hasn’t happened before. A British man hung himself last year after allegedly being goaded on by fellow users on Paltalk, another live video site. There was even a widely distributed movie on the topic of live-streamed killings released earlier this year called Untraceable. But last night’s incident raises a thought-provoking question regarding free hosting of live broadcasts — what could sites like Justin.tv possibly do to prevent live-streamed snuff films?

Justin.tv has already come under fire for another problem with live broadcasts — copyright infringement. The Premier League is reportedly threatening legal action against the site over unauthorized broadcasts of soccer games. Justin.tv, which is a free service, has maintained it complies with takedown requests according to the law — but with live broadcasts, the key event often ends before lawyers can get involved. Or in Biggs’ case, before people who care about him could get through.