Like another commenter mentioned, this style is commonly used in headlines. It's referred to as historical present tense. Here are a few resources for more information:
"Is" combined with "released" does sound odd, but it's not too unusual, like in this sentence: "Heat is released into the atmosphere by cars." (From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/release)
If Google is influencing this decision, might it prefer to have recorded video stored on YouTube? The blog post mentioned that Twitch removed the 2-hour limit for exporting VODs to YouTube.
I've been looking for the same thing as well. Depending on whether anonymity is your goal, I'm curious if a cheap dedicated server might work as a high-bandwidth VPN.
It's quite likely. I was at a presentation by Kevin Mitnick recently where he pulled members of the audience on stage, and, using only their name, found their SSN and history of residence. They're not very private, unfortunately.
I'll admit to only having read the first few chapters, but it came across as an approachable intro to the math.