Amazon has announced its first deal with a major TV network to stream content through its subscription service, a move that ratchets up competition with Netflix and Hulu.

The world's biggest online retailer has announced an agreement with CBS to allow its Amazon Prime members to stream 2,000 episodes of 18 shows owned by CBS, including "Medium," "Star Trek" and "Cheers." Further details of the agreement weren't revealed, except that it is nonexclusive; CBS has already struck a similar deal with Netflix.

The announcement comes at a seemingly opportune time for the Seattle-based company. Hulu, partly owned by Comcast, Disney and News Corp., is being shopped around for new owners, a move that raises questions about the long-term future of its many licensing deals with those same companies.

Meanwhile, Netflix recently announced a 60-percent spike in its subscription price, sparking customers' ire and leading some analysts to question whether there will be an exodus of subscribers, currently some 24-million strong, to an alternative service such as Amazon Prime, or to movie rental sites such as Apple TV or Google's YouTube.

At $80 a year, Amazon Prime subscribers, who also get discounted, expedited shipping from the merchant, pay less than subscribers to Netflix, which costs a minimum of $96 a year. (Hulu Plus also costs $96 a year.) Netflix does boast a far larger library, however, with an estimated 20,000 titles. But with the additional CBS heft, Amazon Prime is slowly catching up and will now offer more than 8,000 movies and TV shows.

Amazon's deal with CBS also makes the idea of buying Hulu less attractive to the company. Hulu's pre-existing deals with TV networks was considered the key reason Amazon was initially cited among the dozen prospective suitors, which include Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and AT&T.

Additionally, the move is a further sign that networks value the Internet as another medium for showing content. ABC recently announced plans to license "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" for new episodes online, after it stops broadcasting the soap operas in the coming months. The network hasn't announced whether the soaps will be distributed to viewers directly or through a subscription service such as Netflix -- or Amazon Prime.

Story and Picture via iTvedia

A decade ago, marijuana advocates filed a petition with the DEA to lower the drug classification of marijuana from schedule I (the highest) to III, IV, or V. They finally got around to ruling, and it isn't good. Flying in the face of extensive research to the contrary, the DEA ruled about how you would expect from an organization whose very existence hinges on marijuana's illegality. Read on to find out something that will make you angry--if you didn't know about it already.


The DEA ruled “that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision.

An acceptable level of safety?! What?! Even the most paranoid weed smokers I know can identify it's pretty safe, simply on the premise that paranoia breeds safety first behavior. And that's the paranoid ones!

16 States plus the District of Columbia have instituted medical marijuana legislation, and rather than rising crime rates in those states, crime has decreased!!!!

That same week, from Americans for Safe Access:

The denial also comes the same week as the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) is holding its 21st annual symposium in St. Charles, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. The symposium is sponsored in part by an array of pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and ElSohly Laboratories, Inc., the federal government’s only licensed source of research-grade cannabis (marijuana) used in therapeutic studies. Currently, several pharmaceutical companies are asking the government to reschedule organically produced THC, the primary compound found in the marijuana plant, so they can sell a generic version of Marinol, which is now made synthetically.

“The government cannot have it both ways, marijuana is either a medicine or it’s not,” said ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer. “If the government is going to sponsor a conference on medical marijuana, it should show the same deference to the millions of patients across America who simply want access to it.” ASA and its grassroots patient base has been urging President Obama since he took office to develop a comprehensive federal policy that would address medical marijuana as a public health issue.

I'm writing about this late, but really, you've probably already heard, and the hypocrisy and corruption in the DEA, and the federal legislation in place makes me want to give Obama a slide-show presentation, and probably smack some of the conservatives that are legislating on this topic while their teenage kids are smoking herb on the regular, and other kids are dieing from speed production in the Midwest.

A Zach De La Rocha KRS-One Black Emperor song comes to mind, which does a better job explaining why this pisses me and many others off. Fuck you DEA!

[care2; Americans for Safe Access; pic via HempNow] Story via HMJ

Japan's hottest game right now is not made in Japan, which doesn't happen often. Maybe more surprising is that four of the top 10 games on the country's bestseller list weren't made in Japan either.

Rockstar Games and Team Bondi's L.A. Noire enjoyed first place distinction in this week's software chart, with more than 70,000 copies of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game sold overseas. Team Bondi's detective adventure was followed by Sucker Punch's Infamous 2 and Vicious Cycle's Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, the latter of which was previously handled by Japanese developer Sandlot.

One new Wii game charted, the Wii MotionPlus powered Wii Play Motion with another Wii game, the also not made in Japan Goldeneye 007 hanging tough in the top ten.

For the rest of the bestselling games in Japan for the week of July 4 to July 10, courtesy of sales tracker Media Create, visit the source article at Kotaku.