Stage6 to Shut Down on February 28
NOTE: I’m reposting the same message I put up this morning to open the blog back up for comments. Rest assured, we are reading what you write and appreciate the outpouring.

I’m Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc., the company behind the service. I’m writing this message today to inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you’ll be able to view and download videos until Thursday.

I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I’d like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision.

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it’s possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC.

So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it’s really as simple as that.

Now, why didn’t we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the first place, you may ask? That’s a good question. When we first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true high quality video experience online because other video destinations on the Internet simply weren’t providing that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.

As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an explosion of other sites delivering high quality video), it became clear that operating the service as a part of the larger DivX business no longer made sense. We couldn’t continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down.

I won’t (and can’t, really) go into too much detail on those first two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.

So that’s where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to deliver high quality video to a wide audience, and we’ll continue to offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the DivX format.

It’s been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6 everything that it was.

–Tom

Stage6 is a great website I ever see .But money has become the biggest problem for most of the website!

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Edison Chen finally come out to face the pubic and this scandal . He said he will exit hongkong showbiz

Here is the Video From Youtube

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Below is the Chinese version:
整个事件非常的难过，我很抱歉，大家必须不得不经历这一切，我也想谢谢你们给我这个机会，来吐尽心中藏着的话。
我希望今天之后，能够得到你们的宽恕，在这个事件以及这个事件所引发的一切，我真的非常抱歉。我希望你们所有人都接受我的道歉。
在过去的几周，我和我的母亲，和我的家人，亲属在一起，他们给我真诚的帮助，他们 一直都支持和帮助我。我承认大部分照片都是我拍摄的，但是这些照片是非常隐私的，我从来没有想把这些照片向人展示，这些照片是非法的，是从我这里偷窃的。 同时，也没有经过我的同意就流传出去，毫无疑问，那些获取这些照片的人在网上是一种恶意的传播，这个事件已经恶化到使整个社会受到影响，从这方面来讲我非 常遗憾。

我现在想道歉，向所有的人为他们所受到的伤害而道歉，我同时向所有的相关的女 士和他们的亲属，为他们受到的任何的伤害进行道歉，我很抱歉，同时我也想向我的父母道歉，因为我为他们带来了伤痛。最重要的是，我想向所有香港人民道歉， 我向你们诚恳地道歉，毫无保留，衷心的向你们道歉。

我知道香港很多年轻人都崇拜这个社会的偶像，在这方面我没有成为一个榜样，但 是，我希望这个事件能够教育每一个人，尤其是我们社会的年轻人，我想我所做的并不是你们学习的榜样，在我离开的这段时间，我做出了很重要的决定，我将全心 地履行我所有的承诺，在这个之后，我将完全的退出香港的娱乐圈，我做出这样的决定是想给自己一个教训，来治愈自己的伤口和自己的灵魂，我将用一些时间来做 慈善工作。

我一直在帮助警方，从照片流传出来之后就一直在协助。在记者会之后，我有责任来帮助他们进行调查，我也希望这个案件能够很快结束，我想每一个人都这样希望能够尽快的结束，我想利用这个机会来谢谢警方，谢谢他们在这个案件中的辛勤劳动，谢谢！

我相信，每个人的当务之急，也包括我个人是来停止所有的伤痛，我们应该保护所有的无辜人和年轻人不受这个事件的伤害，从这方面来讲，我要求我的律师在法律允许的范围内，来尽最大的可能帮助这个事件的受害者。

最后，我想谢谢今天各位在现场来听我的解释，我也想再次地道歉，向所有受事件影响的女士，还有他们的亲属，还包括我的家属，以及所有香港，还有整个社会的人进行道歉。
I will working out the english version as soon as possible

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