As Fortune senior writer Michael V. Copeland reports, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist once described Netflix as an "ice cube in the sun." But he said that what that venture capitalist got wrong, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has right, is that digital downloads are not going to wipe out DVDs anytime soon, no matter what Steve Jobs and his iTunes team would have you believe.

Netflix is doing great both on Wall Street and by its customers, who continue to swear by the service. The simple fact is that DVDs still look better and work better than any of the online video services. They're also portable—while they have copy protection, all you have to do is bring the DVD to another room to watch it there. And despite the fact that some online services like Vongo and the iTunes Store let you watch movies on mobile and portable devices, it remains difficult to do, with a very limited selection—mainly due to restrictive licensing and distribution agreements with the major movie studios.

Netflix does have its Watch Now online service. So they're still preparing for the future, albeit one appear that's as far away as ever.

The Motion Picture Association of America, which is already known for exaggerating piracy claims, on Thursday sued Pullmylink.com, a Web site featuring links to free—and allegedly pirated—movies and TV shows, Reuters reports. The MPAA claims that the site promotes and profits from copyright infringement.

The report said that the campaign against sites that link to, but do not host, illegal content has raised some eyebrows with critics, who ask why the association doesn't go after the host sites such as YouTube.

"Is the message that it's less criminal to host illegal content on YouTube than it is to link to it from a site such as TV Links?" Guardian technology columnist Jack Schofield wrote in the wake of the MPAA-directed raid on TV Links in October, according to the report. "In future, do I risk being thrown in the slammer for linking directly to a YouTube video?"

Omnicom Media Group Digital has signed on as the first strategic partner for the newly created NBC Universal Digital Studio, according to MediaPost. The studio will develop and produce branded content for NBC digital properties.

"This is the first time that programming with the distribution potential of NBC Universal will be centered from the start around advertisers," said Matt Spiegel, CEO of OMG Digital, in the report.

Sony Pictures Television and Electric Farm Entertainment are producing the first two shows, with NBC Universal holding the distribution rights. The digital studio is first launching "Gemini Division," a sci-fi series starring Rosario Dawson and Justin Hartley, which is being developed around Intel, Microsoft, UPS and Acura TSX. Slated for 50 short-form episodes, it will premiere online this summer, according to the report. After that, OMG Digital and the NBC Universal Digital Studio will release "Woke Up Dead," which the article said is a comedy about a college student who turns into a zombie.

Once both of these shows are rolling, "plans also call for destination sites, online games, character blogs and mobile components."

ComScore released data Wednesday showing that U.S. Internet users viewed more than 10 billion online videos during February 2008, according to PC Magazine. Meanwhile, monthly viewership was 66 percent higher over the same period a year ago. Some more stats quoted from the report:

- Google Sites once again ranked at the top, with 3.6 billion videos viewed, 96 percent of which were on YouTube.

- Fox Interactive Media came in a distant second with 586 million videos, with "honorable mentions for Yahoo! Sites, Microsoft Sites and Viacom Digital."

- 135 million U.S. Internet users spent an average of 204 minutes per person viewing online video during the shortest month of the year.

- More than 72 percent of all Internet users viewed some kind of online video during the month of February, with an average video length of 2.7 minutes. Coincidentally, that's just about how long cell phone clips are, too.

Which brings us to the wireless industry, and the fact that every single one of those 10 billion online videos are technically viewable on cell phones—that is, if carriers, handset manufacturers, content distributors, studios, and advertisers would all work together and agree on things.

Struggling online video service ROO Group has adopted a new name and corporate image. To better reflect its focus on helping consumer brands and content owners make the most out of their online assets, ROO has become KIT digital. In the company's own words, KIT digital represents its "operational platform and focus on 'Knowledge, Imagination and Technology' to provide its clients with the strategies and tools necessary to harness the significant potential of Internet video."

Last month, ROO added mobile networks to its strategy through a content distribution agreement and plans to purchase Kamera Content, a Swedish company whose solutions let companies such as Vodafone, MSN and China Mobile deliver IPTV to their customers via both mobile and online networks.

MediaPost reports that the total number of online videos viewed in January was down slightly from the more than 10.1 billion viewed during a record-breaking December 2007, according to the comScore Video Metrix service. This could be just a blip—or it could signify that online video is reaching a plateau, which could eventually impact video distribution and advertising across both desktop and mobile platforms.

Some more statistics quoted from the U.S.-based report:

- YouTube.com (listed as part of "Google Sites" in the study) accounted for one-third of the 9.8 billion videos viewed online in January.

- Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 584 million (6%).

- Yahoo! Sites placed third with 315 million (3.2%), while Microsoft Sites placed fourth with 199 million (2%).

CNET's News.com reports that ailing video-sharing site Revver is looking to sell itself. Sources close to Revver reportedly told News.com that the current asking price is in the $300,000-$500,000 range plus the assumption of Revver's roughly $1 million in debt.

Revver hoped to gain prominence in the YouTube-dominated online video world by paying the folks who posted videos on the site a share of the ad revenues generated from their postings. Contributors could choose to have their videos available online, on mobile devices and on television. Something must have gone wrong with its business plan because it managed to burn through more than $12 million in venture funding in its short life.

When approached by News.com regarding the rumors, a Revver executive declined to comment.

This isn't mobile media-related just yet, but it's still worth reporting: Time Warner Inc.'s HBO will launch a trial of an online video service on Tuesday called HBO on Broadband, according to today's Online Media Daily.

The service will be available to Time Warner Cable high-speed Internet customers in Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a free add-on to HBO and HBO on Demand, the report said.

This trial is one to watch because it's a traditional cable channel dipping its toe in live broadcasting over the Internet, which is something that could have profound implications for the cable industry over time. It's also something that could eventually work its way over to mobile devices, or at least affect the way content is distributed on them. AT&T Wireless already has an exclusive with HBO to provide mobile clips of shows such as The Sopranos.

The company has no timeline for when HBO on Broadband will be available to all U.S. subscribers, according to the report.

Time Warner To Test HBO On Broadband [MediaPost]