Peer-to-Peer for Grown-Ups
Laplink's subscription-based ShareDirect service permits safe file sharing outside secure networks.
Mary Landesman
Laplink's new ShareDirect offers a secure way for you to share files with coworkers-whether they are across the room or across the ocean.
ShareDirect is a combination application and service that offers a simple, Windows Explorer-based peer-to-peer method for sharing files between PCs running Windows 2000 or XP. By default, ShareDirect attempts to establish a direct client-to-client connection between the systems involved. Sharing occurs by invitation and applies only to the designated folder. You can create multiple shared folders, each with its own managed membership of sharers.
If the app can't establish a direct connection (for example, if a system is protected by a firewall), ShareDirect's Premium data- transfer service transports files via Laplink's relay servers. Whatever the type of transfer, ShareDirect encrypts all data to protect it from prying eyes.
I tested a shipping version of ShareDirect (version 1.0.61). Installation was fast and painless, and in moments I was securely transferring my files.
ShareDirect's subscription-based pricing is tied to how much data per month you plan to transfer to your PC from other members' PCs via Premium service; options range from 50MB ($40 per year) to 3GB ($250 per year). The $100 Personal Network Edition I tested offers three licenses, each with 400MB of Premium data transfers per month, and antivirus scanning of all files.
In a market dominated by insecure and anonymous P2P networks rife with malicious code, Laplink's ShareDirect offers safe, authenticated sharing between select users.
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...,118678,00.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lowdown On Downloads
Load up on pros, cons of some music services
Malcolm X Abram
The music industry is changing. Reluctantly.
After spending the last several years confused and confounded by the proliferation of music online, both legal and otherwise, the Recording Industry Association of America and the labels have accepted that downloading is the future of music, and the future is now.
It seems that every new month brings a new online music service, using a variety of business models. Microsoft is in the beta testing stage of its new store, and Virgin Digital, a subsidiary of the company that brought us Virgin Megastores, recently opened an online storefront.
Apple's iPods are being handed out to incoming students at some colleges. Other services are partnering with retail stores such as Best Buy and offering free trials, to ensure maximum exposure in what is becoming an increasingly crowded and very competitive market.
There's peer-to-peer file sharing, streaming content over high-speed connections and simple pay-per-song downloading. So far, song selection is the great equalizer, and the size of an online music service's catalog definitely matters. Pricing is also obviously important, but 99 cents per song looks to be the standard, with prices for full albums being a competitive variant.
There is no standard, but as always when new ways of generating googobs of money are discovered, a few companies have figured out how to do it right and have risen to the top of the food chain. We've test-driven four of the biggest and best-established services available, and tell you about them here with a minimum of technospeak.
ITUNES
iTunes is arguably the blueprint for the future of music distribution. Recently, it announced its 150 millionth download (Beth Santisteven of Ignacio, Colo., bought "Ex-Factor" by Lauryn Hill, in case you were wondering) and also opened shop in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Once again, Apple was on the cutting edge of something big (and profitable). With its track record, it was able to forge relationships with all of the major labels, back when the record industry was still scrambling to adapt to the new technology and making examples out of 12-year-olds with massive, though mostly symbolic, lawsuits.
As makers of the iPods, the most popular digital music players, Apple has a virtual lock on the market. Being the biggest distributor of both the music and machine means that it is easily able to set up security measures that limit users' ability to freely spread their purchased music. That's a very big attraction for the labels and a major reason that iTunes Music Store gets many exclusive tracks, including U2's new single, Vertigo, and the first new song in 14 years by indie rock legends the Pixies. It boasts a library of more than 1 million tracks, including 5,000 audiobooks, as well as links to movie trailers and music videos.
Ease of use: Like most Internet storefronts, iTunes is a bit cluttered, with new releases, top 10 lists and other effluvia, such as celebrity playlists. But it's well organized and pretty easy to navigate. The search function allows you to quickly find what you're looking for and once you pick an album/song, the layout simplifies.
Setup: After downloading and installing the software, it pretty much takes care of itself. When you run the program, the iTunes storefront opens immediately.
Pricing: Single songs are 99 cents and the cost of full albums is largely based on that price. Some recent releases can be had at discount — The Black Keys' latest, "Rubber Factory," is $9.99. Some older albums are only available in total and are priced accordingly.
The software is free. It comes prepackaged on all new Macs; the Windows version is available on the site.
Restrictions: iTunes uses a format called m4p or "protected AAC," which means users can listen to purchased music only through the iTunes software or on an iPod, not on other players. The obvious if inconvenient workaround for folks without iPods is to have iTunes burn a CD, then rip the contents back onto the computer in your desired format to download onto your player.
iTunes says users can share their music with unlimited iPods and up to five "authorized" computers if you have a network in your home.
REALNETWORKS
RealNetworks has been around since the days of Windows 95, and its free RealPlayer is pretty much a standard component of any store-bought desktop PC.
The RealPlayer music store claims a healthy 763,303 tracks, including a very good jazz selection from the usual suspects, such as Miles Davis, to avant folks like Sun Ra and saxophonist Archie Shepp. It simply can't match iTunes in terms of overall selection, but if you're not desperate for the latest thing or hot exclusives (it has some, but they aren't very impressive) Real's music store is a worthy contender.
Ease of use: The storefront's layout is simpler than iTunes, using a nice calming black background, fewer bells and whistles and a nice help section that includes a "getting started" and a list of compatible devices, which includes the iPod. Each artist is given a mini homepage with a list of available albums, and most have extremely brief biographical information.
Setup: Chances are you already have RealPlayer, but you may need to upgrade to version 10. Then you'll have to set up an account, which is a quick and easy process.
Pricing: If RealNetworks has one big advantage over iTunes, it's in the pricing department. Most albums are priced below $12, with many new releases (Usher, Nelly, Le Tigre) priced at $9.99. The RealPlayer program is free.
It also offers RealRhapsody, a music streaming service allowing users to listen to anything in the catalog for $9.95 a month, a pretty good deal. But those without at least a DSL connection shouldn't bother, because the load times will be interminable. Also, if your PC doesn't have a decent set of speakers or a hookup to your home stereo, it would be best to stick to the music store.
Restrictions: Real Networks has its own proprietary format called RealAudio, but there aren't too many PC media players that can't play the format, and the company uses its wider compatibility and lack of restrictions on purchased music as a selling point.
What's not a good selling point is the annoying fact that some albums are incomplete, with one or two songs simply not available (alone or with purchase of the album), and some albums are only available on a track-by-track basis. Consequently, hot rapper/producer Kanye West's 21-track "The College Dropout" carries a hefty $20.79 price tag.
NAPSTER
If you ask the music industry, the original Napster was the evil bogeyman that ruined the record business, the first big peer-to-peer network that connected the digital music collections of millions of folks.
The industry blamed Napster for ending its 15-year streak of bathing in the cash generated by music fans replacing their old records and tapes with CDs. Napster's popularity turned Metallica's Lars Ulrich into an activist, made many copyright lawyers wealthy and demonized founder Shawn Fanning.
Napster v.2 is a completely legal service owned by Roxio, makers of various digital media software, including programs people use to rip CDs. Napster has agreements with the big major labels and claims 700,000 tracks in its catalog.
Napster tries to foster a sense of community by giving users the option of viewing, in real time, what other connected users are listening to and browsing users' collections. Its selection is decent, leaning on recent materials, but it has a genre devoted to indie labels, such as Sub Pop, K7 and outre jazz champions ESP-Disk.
Ease of use: Napster follows the basic storefront blueprint. Subscribers get an extra "now playing" window where they see what they are listening to, but otherwise it's easy to navigate.
Considering the number of tracks, the search function isn't quite as exacting as it ought to be. A search for electronica artist Squarepusher returned the Scorpions, Skrape and the Zagreb Festival Orchestra with Michael Halasz, but no Squarepusher, and not even any artists with a "Q" in their names.
Setup: A reasonably sized 11 MB download for the full Napster and a quick three-step registration process will have you up and running in about 10 minutes.
Pricing: Most tracks are 99 cents apiece and most single-disc albums are priced from $9.95 to $12.95.
Napster comes in two forms. The full Napster is a subscription service similar to RealRhapsody; for $9.95 a month, users can stream music to their computers. The free Napster is basically a storefront, where users can purchase music.
Restrictions: The streaming service doesn't apply to the entire catalog, with many songs/albums tagged as "buy only." Members with the full service can download albums to their hard drives in a protected wmv format that allows infinite playback, but prevents burning and/or downloading to a portable player unless purchased. Like Rhapsody, Napster boasts compatibility with several digital devices (excluding the iPod).
KAZAA
Kazaa appeared on the heels of the original Napster and sticks with the peer-to-peer (p2p) system, which means that when you start the program, your computer becomes part of a network of users. A recent court ruling determined that p2p software is legal, so users need not worry about the RIAA suing them or their children.
Because the content depends on the users online at any given time, the number of tracks available is hard to determine. Obviously, for the whole shebang to work, users must be willing to share their own content, for which Kazaa rewards you with a participation level of high, medium or low.
It also requires considerable trust and honesty from users. We downloaded a file identifying itself as a DJ Shadow remix of NWA's classic (and unprintably titled) anti-police anthem, only to discover it was the familiar album version.
Ease of use: Kazaa is the least intuitive of the services listed here; it also uses a different system that takes some getting used to. The interface is cluttered and if you don't purchase Kazaa Plus, you will have to suffer a constant barrage of advertisements. The toolbar is customizable, so you can simplify it a bit.
There is a basic search function and a Search Agent, which will search the network every 30 minutes for 24 hours. You can have as many as 24 different searches going at the same time. But this means the program must constantly run in the background, sucking up system resources.
Setup: Fairly easy, but pay careful attention to the install process. It asks you to install several programs — some needed (the adware), but others, such as the Peer Points manager, which offers prizes for sharing files, are an unnecessary drain on the computer.
Price: Songs you get from other users are free. Kazaa has premium content that includes games and video as well as music. Single songs we found were 99 cents. But with time and patience, whatever you seek will probably be uploaded by a member eventually.
The basic software is free, but if you think you'll use Kazaa often, it's worth $29.95 for the Plus software just to remove all the annoying adware and the potential trouble it brings.
Restrictions: The biggest restriction is a lack of a Mac OS X version of Kazaa. Also, the adware version will drive any virus or anti-pop-up software you have absolutely batty, and may even cause the program to crash, so you'll have to disable them while using Kazaa.
Both versions of Kazaa software come with built-in virus protection, but in July PCWorld reported a security hole allowing malicious users to take over vulnerable PCs, and a worm was found in August.
The songs' formats don't have any proprietary restrictions, because Kazaa is just the means of distribution. As long as a file is compatible with your player, you're home free.
http://www.roanoke.com/entertainment...out/14719.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Japan
Man Gets Jail Term for Using Net File-Sharing Software
Kyodo News
Yoshihiro Inoue used the Winny program at his home in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, Japan on September 24 and 25 last year and enabled general computer users to download the Hollywood film "A Beautiful Mind" and another movie on the Internet, the ruling said.
The Kyoto District Court sentenced a 42-year-old man today to one year in prison, suspended for three years, for making films available on the Internet using file-sharing software developed by a Japanese inventor.
Yoshihiro Inoue, a shop employee, violated the Copyright Law by using the peer-to-peer file- sharing program, called Winny, which facilitated Internet piracy, the ruling said.
Granting Access
"The crime effectively negated the hard work of copyright holders and was malicious in the context of intellectual property right protection," Presiding Judge Yasuhide Narazaki said in the ruling.
Inoue used the Winny program at his home in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, on September 24 and 25 last year and enabled general computer users to download the Hollywood film "A Beautiful Mind" and another movie on the Internet, the ruling said.
Winny Creator Charged
In September this year, the creator of Winny, Isamu Kaneko, pleaded not guilty at the same court to a charge of developing the software knowing it would facilitate Internet piracy.
Kaneko, 34, an assistant at the graduate school of the University of Tokyo, is standing trial for allegedly facilitating breaches of the law.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/eb...pan-38509.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BitTorrent Servers Under Attack
Robert Lemos
A flood of data has hammered several of the tracking servers for BitTorrent downloads, according to LokiTorrent, a Torrent network hub.
The attacks apparently targeted the central BitTorrent directories used by people to find movies, music and other content on the file-swapping network, according to information posted Wednesday on LokiTorrent, a BitTorrent tracking Web site.
"We had a massive DDoS attack lasting almost 10 hours today," said the posting on the site. "It seems we were not alone in this attack, as many other torrent sites also fell victim to them. Us being up again does not mean these attacks may not happen again, but at least it means we had taken steps to prevent further attacks."
BitTorrent technology lets people download files from several member computers in a peer-to-peer network. Once a fragment of a file is cached on a PC, that machine then makes it available to other users, to speed downloads. Though distribution is shared, the technology still relies on central tracking servers to direct a downloader's software to different pieces of a file, which could be hosted on several users' PCs.
The distributed nature of BitTorrent makes the technology somewhat harder to attack but also makes defending the tracking servers that much more important.
This is not the first time online attackers have focused on distributed technologies. Web site caching service Akamai was hit by a massive data attack earlier this year.
It is unknown how widely the BitTorrent attack affected other networks. Neither a representative of LokiTorrent nor the creator of BitTorrent, Bram Cohen, could immediately be reached for comment.
http://news.com.com/BitTorrent+serve...3-5473754.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In brief
The Darker Side Of P2P File Sharing Review
Posted by LSDsmurf
Some P2P file sharing programs offer "pro" versions of their free software. But again, their basic service is free to the public. I want you to fully understand this, because paying a P2P scam site money can not only make your wallet a bit lighter, it can also make your computer vulnerable to dangerous spyware.
Free - Music Downloads
19 Billion Songs, No Download Fees 100% Legal - Find Any Song Fast !
ezMP3s.com
Free Music Downloads
12 Billion Songs, No Download Fees 100% Legal - Find Any Song Fast !
iMusicSearch.com
Free - Music Downloads
19 Billion Songs, No Download Fees 100% Free & Legal Music Downloads !
FreeMusicReviews.com
File Sharing Program
Unlimited Movies, Music, Software, Games and More. Get Access Now!
http://www.dvhardware.net/review/5351
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sour Note: Couple Fights Downloaded Music Bill
Chad Swiatecki and James L. Smith
A national record company says John and Kim Harless owe $4,500 for music their two teenage children illegally downloaded from the Internet.
The Harlesses said they didn't know their children were doing anything illegal, and are determined not to pay.
The couple, both 42, were surprised when they received a FedEx package from Internet provider Charter Communications telling them that songs that had been illegally downloaded were on the family computer.
"I was dumbfounded," Kim said.
Kim knew their children, son John Wayne Harless III, 14, a Dryden High School freshman, and daughter Danielle, 17, a Dryden High School senior, listened to music on the computer.
But they said they thought it was legal to download music to a computer as long as the user did not burn a CD of it.
She said the Web site where her son got the music,
www.KaZaA.com, encourages music file swapping and she believed that what her son was doing was legal as long as he kept the music on the computer.
A link on KaZaA's Web site warns users that it is illegal to use its software to pirate copyrighted works and users are responsible for making sure they obey the law.
Company spokesman Richard Chernela said in an e-mail the Recording Industry Association of America would be better off pursuing technological solutions to downloading rather than threatening its customers.
The suits are made possible because industry executives can monitor downloading traffic and trace it to the user's Internet service provider - Charter Communications in the Harless family's case.
From there, a complaint is made in federal court and the user's identity is subpoenaed from the Internet provider allowing the industry to alert the user that they could wind up in court.
Local Charter officials claimed not to know anything about the Harlesses' letter. But a few days later, a letter arrived from a Los Angeles attorney representing Capitol Records demanding the couple call Dennis Gerber, a mediator.
Kim Harless said Gerber told her a search of their computer showed 584 songs had been downloaded. The Charter letter indicated that 115 songs had been identified.
"(Gerber) told me I had to pay $4,500," Kim Harless said.
"I offered to mail him $100 and told him I was sorry that what my child did was wrong. He laughed and said 'make it $2,500 and put it on your credit card.' My husband said they can do whatever they want, we're not paying it."
Gerber declined to comment.
When she asked Gerber why they didn't go after KaZaA instead of teenagers, he told her they legally couldn't, Kim Harless said.
The RIAA began suing individual file sharers last fall, after federal courts ruled that file-sharing services such as KaZaA, Morpheus and Grokster, have legitimate data-sharing use and aren't responsible for their users' illegal actions.
More than 7,000 users nationwide have been sued since then, with about 1,300 settlements for far below the federal copyright infringement penalties of up to $150,000 per song.
RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said file sharing is likely the biggest culprit behind a four-year sales decline that erased nearly one quarter of the music industry's sales
"We tried educating people on the effects that this has, but we learned that there needs to be a consequence for breaking the law," Lamy said.
"(Suing customers) is no one's preferred course of action, but the problem was only worsening and if it kept up there wouldn't have been a music industry to argue about anymore."
Lamy said most offenders choose to settle after the first warning.
But Kim Harless said that won't happen and has avoided what's likely a follow-up package waiting for her at the post office in Dryden.
Gerber offered Kim Harless a 10-day cooling-off period to decide how she was going to pay for the music, but she hasn't heard from him again since she told him that he would be contacted by a lawyer.
"We've been told not to pay anything," Kim said.
For all the trouble, Kim's husband wants to throw the computer in the pond.
"Had I known it was illegal, I would not have allowed my children to keep the songs on the computer," Kim said.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=...TF-8&scoring=d
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glickman: Piracy Is Theft
MPAA chief, speaking to college students, defends industry lawsuits
Lisa Friedman
Motion picture industry chief Dan Glickman predicted an "ominous" future for Hollywood despite a report Wednesday showing a record $64 billion in revenue during 2003.
Speaking before a group of George Washington University students, Glickman defended lawsuits that the Motion Picture Association of America filed recently against people it believes have illegally copied and shared movies online.
Piracy, he said, threatens to decimate Hollywood.
"The future is ominous," Glickman said. "We want to deal with this before it becomes catastrophic."
The entertainment lobby filed more than 200 lawsuits last month, and more are expected.
Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that movie and home video revenues hit an all-time high last year, increasing 6 percent over 2002.
Combined motion picture and sound recording revenues reached $78 billion, a 5 percent increase over 2002.
The figures were based on an annual company survey and included box-office totals, post-production services, film and video distribution as well as food and beverage sales at theaters.
In March, the Motion Picture Association of America announced $9.5 billion in domestic box-office totals, the second-largest in the history of the movies.
The Census Bureau figures on Wednesday showed even higher returns of $12 billion, with feature film exhibitions making up $8 billion of box office estimates.
Jack Kyser, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.'s chief economist, called the numbers good news for the Southland. He said the entertainment industry has grown over the past year from a $31 billion to a $36 billion industry in Los Angeles County alone.
"This is significant, and this is why efforts to try to retain production are important. It's the dollar numbers, it's the tax revenue generated, and, of course, it's the jobs," he said.
Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which advocates on behalf of file-sharers, ridiculed what he called Hollywood's double-speak.
"It's amazing to me how one moment they can be talking about their record results and the next moment they can be poor-mouthing about how they're going to go bankrupt," von Lohmann said.
"There is no question that they are enjoying their most profitable years in history. For them to argue that file-sharing is hurting their business is simply at odds with the facts," he said.
The MPAA estimates piracy costs the industry $3.5 billion annually in lost sales. That figure, however, comes strictly from traditional bootlegs of DVDs and videos, Glickman acknowledged.
He said the industry currently does not have any estimate of how much peer-to-peer networks -- which are the focus of the industry lawsuits -- actually impact sales.
But Glickman also noted that even bootlegged movies sold on street corners in the U.S. and overseas sometimes start with optical disc piracy. The problems of Internet piracy and bootlegging, he said, are intertwined.
"I think we have to take strong action now, before online piracy hurts the economic basis of the movie business," he said.
Glickman also faced questions from students who noted that piracy hasn't hurt box office profits or the wallets of Hollywood stars and executives.
"The people in Hollywood are making so much money as it is, how is my $20 going to make a difference?" one student asked.
Glickman acknowledged the MPAA faces a public relations battle in convincing people, particularly students, that file-sharing also robs lower-wage workers like makeup artists, grips and caterers.
But the bottom line, he said, is that piracy is simple theft.
"General Motors is filled with rich executives," Glickman said. "Does that mean you don't pay for the cars?"
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1...70274,00.html#
General Motors was sued for copying Jeep’s grill. Jeep lost. – Jack
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yale Lobbyists Focus On Issues, Not On 'Earmarks'
Success of lobbying efforts often depends on national agenda; issues include federal funding, aid
Raymond Pacia
The visa-reform issue has topped Yale President Richard Levin's agenda this past year, drawing publicity during a visit from Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in October. But Yale's lobbying efforts also extend to other areas such as federal funding for science research, appropriations for student aid and intellectual property law, continuing the University's push for favorable policies.
The University's federal relations office coordinates its agenda with individuals at Yale, Connecticut's Congressional delegation and national educational organizations. But the issues most of concern to the University, including tightened federal spending, proposals in Congress to curb peer-to-peer file sharing and restrictions on foreign visitors to the United States implemented by the Bush Administration after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, often follow the events in Washington. The success of University lobbying campaigns is often determined by the nation's domestic and international agendas.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=27584
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Better put it on the ‘net
Editors Say Yale Free Press Stolen
Sarah Mishkin
The entire run of the November issue of the Yale Free Press, a conservative student publication, was stolen over the Thanksgiving break, with no apparent suspects, YFP Editor in Chief Diana Feygin '06 said.
Approximately 2,400 issues, costing $600, were discarded, Feygin said. The magazine, which had been distributed to all 11 residential colleges and Swing Space, was stolen from all 12 locations. While YFP staff members first discovered the theft Nov. 19, the October issue of the YFP also disappeared from Silliman College the day after staff distributed it. Feygin said she is confident, but not completely positive, it too was stolen.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=27532
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Survey Finds CDs Will Stay Format Of Choice For Years
Evan Pondel
Digital music may be popular, but CDs are still the format of choice, and will be for at least another five years, according to a survey released Wednesday by JupiterResearch.
Digital music sales are poised to represent 12 percent of consumer music spending in 2009, with only 4 percent of listeners 25 and over partaking in file sharing these days, the survey found.
"The CD is not quite replaceable. It represents an $11 billion market, and many people still prefer the quality of the sound," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at JupiterResearch in New Jersey.
Among the advances likely to curb CD sales: automobiles that come equipped with digital music players. "But who knows how long it will take for cars to have some kind of audio device other than a CD player -- maybe 10 years?" said Ali Partovi, chief executive officer of San Francisco-based GarageBand.com, a place where artists can post their music online. "Until an alternate route becomes mainstream, people will still prefer physical music."
Despite the longevity of CDs, digital music subscription services are likely to outpace a la carte downloads in the next several years. Gartenberg said music listeners are more interested in gaining access to an entire library, as opposed to purchasing a track per download.
According to the survey, 16 percent of adults 25 and over are interested in downloading a 99-cent single, while 17 percent are tempted by subscription services. At the same time, approximately 30 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are in favor of subscription services.
Partovi said subscription services would garner more popularity if certain downloading restrictions were eliminated. That means allowing people to keep their digital music, even if they are no longer subscribers. "But that would be hard for record labels to stomach. Hopefully, over time they will have more flexibility," he said.
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1...70340,00.html#
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Distribution big concern
Studios Taking Sides In Fight For Successor To The DVD
Three top Hollywood studios Monday threw their considerable weight behind one of two competing formats for the next generation of high-definition DVDs, citing in part the need to stem rampant piracy.
Paramount Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., which includes New Line Cinema and HBO, said Monday they would start releasing films in the HD-DVD format in time for holiday, 2005.
The announcement, while non-exclusive, escalates the battle between HD-DVD, developed by Japanese electronics makers Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp., and Blu-Ray, backed by Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes the Panasonic brand, and Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands.
HD-DVD already has the backing of the DVD Forum, an international association of electronics makers and movie studios.
Blu-Ray can store more digital programming than HD-DVD, but proponents of HD-DVD say it will be cheaper for manufacturers because it is uses technology that more closely resembles that used in current DVDs.
``We think HD-DVD has a clear advantage in cost of manufacturing, ease of manufacturing and it will offer the consumer a great quality product,'' Rob Friedman, chief operating officer, Paramount Pictures, said in an interview Monday.
Blu-Ray has the support of Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which was recently purchased by a group led by Sony.
Blu-Ray also has wide support among consumer electronics makers and computer giant Hewlett-Packard, which said it will start selling PCs with Blu-Ray disc drives late next year.
Blu-Ray supporters said they did not see Monday's announcement as a setback.
``We're fairly early on in the time frame of these formats,'' said Andy Parsons, senior vice president of advanced product development at Pioneer, a major Blu-Ray backer. ``We have discussions with studios on a regular basis.''
News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox is a member of both the DVD Forum and the Blu-Ray Disc Association and has not said which format it would support. Neither has The Walt Disney Co.
Both formats promise increased storage capacity and movie resolution superior enough to get the most out of high-definition TV sets. And both would contain stronger anti- piracy protection, a key factor in the studio's anxiousness to adopt a new format.
Now, the software protecting DVD is easily circumvented and DVD piracy is an enormous problem for the industry.
Monday's announcements are non-exclusive and the companies said they will keep an eye on the market and may produce DVDs in both formats if consumers demand it.
But privately, entertainment industry executives say they cannot afford a format war and do not want a repeat of the confusion that slowed the early adoption of videocassette recorders when consumers were faced with choosing between Betamax and VHS.
Earlier this year, Bob Chapek, president of Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment, compared the format war to a train wreck and wondered whether both sides could find an option that would avoid a ``disastrous collision.''
Analysts say Monday's announcement could force a compromise between the two groups, perhaps resulting in machines that can play both formats.
``The studios should be pushing for compromise between Blue-Ray and HD-DVD and forget about trying to trump each other,'' said Harold Vogel, CEO of Vogel Capital Management in New York. ``For sure the consumer is going to be very confused. It's a disaster for retailers if they have to carry two different formats.''
Toshiba plans to start selling its first HD-DVD products, a player and a recorder, and a laptop with a built-in HD-DVD drive in late 2005.
Yoshihide Fujii, corporate senior vice president overseeing the digital media business, said Toshiba is targeting annual HD-DVD-related sales of $49 million in 2005, and expects that to climb to $3 billion by 2010.
Fujii said the spread of flat TVs is boosting the demand for high-quality digital movies and other content. But Monday's backing by studios to release such expected blockbusters as next year's ``Batman'' and ``Superman'' movies from Warner Bros. is critical to success.
``Even if we come out with the hardware, without content, it's just a box,'' he told reporters at a Tokyo hotel.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/10295209.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Study: Subscription Services To Drive Digital Music
Dinesh C. Sharma
Subscription-based music services are becoming popular among young adults and will eventually outgrow a la carte song downloads, a new study predicts.
While 16 percent of online adults currently enjoy downloading 99-cent singles, 17 percent have been wooed by subscription services such as Napster and RealNetworks' Rhapsody--and that number is expected to grow, according to a survey released Wednesday by JupiterResearch.
The survey showed that the number of people interested in subscription services increased with age--19 percent of 13- to 17 year olds used the services, compared with 31 percent of 18- to 24 year olds. That number reached 37 percent for "music addicts," defined by Jupiter as those who have spent more than $45 on music in the past three months.
The study was based on a survey of more than 2,300 online adults. Jupiter also compared the results with a survey of more than 2,100 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17.
Jupiter said the survey also showed that CDs won't be replaced by digital music in the next five years. Even in 2009, digital music sales will represent just 12 percent of consumer music spending, the research firm said. Nearly 51 percent of online adults think physical music is more valuable than digital.
"CDs offer higher sound fidelity, aren't burdened with awkward copy protection and are compatible with pretty much every way people listen to music," JupiterResearch senior analyst David Card said in a statement. "MP3 players and portable rentals could turn around that value perception, but it will take time."
The survey found that 41 percent of young adults between ages 18 and 24 burn CDs and 31 percent use file sharing. That compares with 14 percent of people over the age of 25 who burn discs and 4 percent who swap files.
http://news.com.com/Study+Subscripti...3-5473153.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canadians Get iTunes On The Cheap
Ina Fried
Although Canadians had to wait awhile to get access to the iTunes Music Store, they are getting a comparative bargain.
Apple Computer, which opened the virtual doors on the Canadian store late Wednesday, is selling songs for 99 Canadian cents, which translates to about 83 U.S. cents, 16 percent less than those in the United States pay for their iTunes.
Americans looking for a bargain will have to do more than just profess their love of hockey or their distaste for President Bush. Because the Canadian store requires a local billing address, Americans will have to get a home in Saskatoon or Thunder Bay to get in on the lower pricing.
http://news.com.com/Canadians+get+iT...l?tag=nefd.top
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I Want My Moscow TV
Seth Schiesel
KEN SCHAFFER doesn't like blind spots. Never has.
On Oct. 19, 1957, days after Sputnik became Earth's first manmade satellite, Mr. Schaffer, the son of a Bronx truck driver, received a Heathkit radio for his 10th birthday. Inspired by the chirping from space, he soon became a world-class ham-radio operator, adept at Morse code.
"It was compelling that I could just go beep-beep-beep, the smallest possible muscle group movement, and I could send a signal that goes to China," he recalled recently. "I would never answer people from New Jersey or Long Island or anything. I wanted Mongolia."
Years later, in 1981, after detouring to invent a wireless microphone, travel with the Rolling Stones and make guitars for John Lennon, Mr. Schaffer installed a satellite dish atop his Midtown Manhattan apartment building and was soon pulling in broadcasts from the Soviet Union.
"I wasn't interested in HBO and free Showtime," he said. "It was not interesting to me. I was watching Russian feeds from Moscow to Cuba - and what they used to do after they finished the feed is, the Russians would send porno to Havana, or American films. And this was before Gorbachev and all that kind of stuff."
Inspired by the potential of satellites to open up communication, Mr. Schaffer soon built a satellite telephone operation connecting the Soviet Union with the West, a venture that he sold for millions in 1995.
Now, Mr. Schaffer, 57, is trying to abolish yet another blind spot. In short, he has devised a way to make home TV reception portable - with high-quality pictures to be watched, and channels to be changed, from anywhere in the world that the Internet can reach.
So far, he has put his PC-based innovation into the hands of a few dozen others willing to pay several thousand dollars. But he aims to reduce the price to less than $1,000 within a year.
"Kenny is not your everyday eccentric," said Jonathan Sanders, a consultant to CBS News in Moscow who has known Mr. Schaffer for more than 20 years. "Kenny is an explosion of genius wrapped in a very unconventional package that is bursting with energy. This is somebody who is doing the kinds of things that you read about at one time only in science fiction, things that no one else thinks are possible but that he is able to pull off."
So much was clear one Tuesday afternoon last month.
"So this is like the Russian version of a cross between 'E.R.' and 'Law and Order,' " Mr. Schaffer said. He was sitting at a desk in the apartment next to the Plaza Hotel where he has lived, at least part time, since 1968. Spread before him were computer monitors. On one was a live cable television feed from the apartment he keeps in Moscow. On another, a live London feed was displaying a somewhat risqué commercial for a British cellphone carrier.
The quality of the full-screen images bore no resemblance to what the rest of the world thinks of as streaming Internet video. It was not quite real television, but there was very little of the pixilation and none of the incessant stuttering familiar to anyone who has watched live video over the Internet. The main character appeared on the Russian medical drama, and Mr. Schaffer jerked back a bit. "Arrgh! That's my ex-wife!" he said, pointing at the actress, Alla Kliouka.
Mr. Schaffer popped out of full-screen mode, clicked, and switched the channel to MTV Russia.
In fact, Mr. Schaffer was controlling a dedicated computer terminal back in Moscow that was simultaneously connected to his Moscow cable box and a D.S.L. data line. The terminal, which Mr. Schaffer calls TV2Me, uses a small infrared emitter to tell the cable box which channel to display. Inside TV2Me are special computer cards that allow the unit to send high-quality video over a routine broadband data connection.
In his bedroom is a huge Sony plasma flat-panel television. He puts up the same Moscow channels that were on the laptop in the living room. Even on the big screen, the images are fluid and clear.
It was an impressive demonstration, but a somewhat ironic one as well. Sony, it turns out, has just developed a similar product, called LocationFree TV. Both TV2Me and LocationFree TV allow a user to view their home television from anywhere in the world that has a high-speed Internet link, even a Wi-Fi connection outdoors. The Sony unit is cheaper. The home base station of the Sony unit is smaller. Sony's user interface is slicker. But for all that, Mr. Schaffer's unit transmits a clearer picture over the Internet.
For now, he has sold only a few dozen TV2Me units, at prices ranging from $4,800 to more than $6,000. Many of his clients so far are well-heeled sports fanatics who simply must get their games when on the road. One client is a University of Oklahoma football fan. Another, a British rock star, needs his soccer.
Within a year, Mr. Schaffer hopes to reduce the price to less than $1,000. Right now, the product is based on a high-powered Pentium 4 PC running Windows, but by building special chips that can focus on only the tasks required for TV2Me, such a product can be made lighter, smaller and cheaper. The use of such chips is a big reason Sony's product is so much less expensive than TV2Me.
In fact, Mr. Schaffer says he may end up selling his entire technology. "I'd like to see this go to a company," he said, indicating that he already has buyers in mind. Mr. Schaffer is keenly aware of the copyright and other legal issues potentially posed by his technology, which does, after all, retransmit cable or satellite television signals over the Internet. He insists that each customer put his systems only to personal use.
"I want to stay absolutely within the law," he said. "On a personal level, I paid for this cable." What separates him from other cable subscribers, he said, is simply that "I have a long extension cord."
But he said he had turned down overseas sports bar owners who want to show American football to attract expatriate customers. And he has built roadblocks into his system meant to prevent users from sharing their video feeds with others.
For now, he says he has not heard from any unhappy networks or satellite or cable television operators. A spokesman for Time Warner Cable, the main cable carrier in Manhattan, declined to comment on either TV2Me or Sony's LocationFree TV.
But just as television companies at first largely ignored digital video recorders like TiVo, only to wake up later, devices like TV2Me may offer new challenges and opportunities to the entertainment industry sooner than expected. TiVo users sometimes refer to their practice as "time shifting," that is, watching television on their own time.
Mr. Schaffer refers to the use of his product as "space shifting," as in watching television in one's own space. (His Web site is www .spaceshift.net.)
More broadly, Mr. Schaffer hopes that his life of eliminating blind spots has done just a bit to make humanity safer. "I think the more that you eliminate borders between countries, people, ideas, the more likely it is that we're going to make it another couple of hundred years," he said. "That's what my motivation is."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/02/te...ts/02inve.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Antispam Screensaver Downs Two Sites In China
Dan Ilett
Lycos Europe's "Make love not spam" campaign has killed access to some of the Web sites of its target alleged spammers, Netcraft has found.
According to the Internet traffic monitoring company, Lycos Europe has successfully taken two Web sites hosted in China offline. The sites are bokwhdok.com and printmediaprofits.biz, according to a posting on Netcraft's Web site, dated this week.
"A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack launched by users of Lycos Europe's MakeLoveNotSpam.com screensaver has succeeded in crippling several spammer sites, but some of the targeted sites remain available," the posting said.
Lycos Europe was unavailable for comment on the matter, but the company said on Tuesday it was not carrying out DDoS attacks, just slowing the bandwidth of its targets. It added that it had no intention of taking Web sites offline.
"I have to be very clear that it's not a denial-of-service attack," Malte Pollmann, director of communications services for Lycos, said on Tuesday. "We slow the remaining bandwidth to 5 percent. It wouldn't be in our interests to (carry out DDoS attacks). It is to increase the cost of spamming. We have an interest to make this, economically, unattractive."
Lycos Europe is a separate company from the Web portal that bears the Lycos name in the United States. It claims that it maintains roughly 40 million e-mail accounts in eight European countries.
The "Make love not spam" screensaver site appeared to have been taken down by its operators on Wednesday. It now shows a graphic and the words "Stay tuned."
On Tuesday, the Web portal denied claims that it had been hit by hacker attacks, saying a reported defacement of the "Make love not spam" Web site was a hoax. But Netcraft, among others, reported that the Web site was unavailable at several intervals that day.
Lycos Europe launched its antispam campaign earlier this week, offering users a screensaver that uses the idle processing power of their computers to slow down bandwidth that connects to spammers' Web sites.
Steve Linford, director of international spam-fighting organization Spamhaus, said on Tuesday that by attacking spammers' bandwidth, the portal could be attacking innocent users' bandwidth.
http://news.com.com/Antispam+screens...3-5474963.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your Rights Online: NOAA Adopts New Net Policy
Posted by samzenpus
from the you-can't-handle-the-weather dept.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has adopted a new policy which applies to provision of all National Weather Service environmental information, including forecasts, warnings, and observations. In June, /. reported that NOAA was taking comments on the proposed policy. Hundreds of Slashdotters responded. And it made a difference: NOAA will make its data and products available in internet- accessible, vendor-neutral form and will use other dissemination technologies, e.g. satellite broadcast, NOAA Weather Radio, and wireless, as appropriate. Congrats to the Slash community for making a difference and helping to set US Govt policy.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/12/02...tid=103&tid=17
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grrrl gets paid to rrrip
Using iPod Savvy To Mine A Niche
Cyrus Farivar
The signature white earbuds of the iPod seem to be sprouting everywhere. So inevitably, perhaps, a service industry is close behind.
For those who lack the time or the know-how to transfer their record collections to their iPods, an entrepreneur has created a service that will do the trick. The service, HungryPod, converts CDs to MP3 format and loads them into an iPod or any other digital music player.
Catherine Keane, 23, is the founder and sole employee of HungryPod, a company she started at the end of September. For prices starting at $1.50 per CD (and a $15 delivery fee, which is waived for more than 100 CDs), Keane will go to a customer's home or office, pick up CDs and take them back to her office on Seventh Avenue near Penn Station in New York.
Keane's service is one of a few enterprises formed to serve iPod owners. Another New York company, RipDigital, started offering its services nationwide late last year to convert music libraries to MP3. RipDigital does not load music onto iPods directly, but burns it to DVD; for an additional fee it will load an external hard drive with music.
Keane said she got the idea for her business from a friend of a friend who offered $500 for someone to load up her iPod. It was then, Keane said, that she realized that there might be a market for such services.
"That was a lot of money for something that was fairly simple," she said.
Paying to play that funky music
In addition, Keane is a music consultant. For a $50 fee, she will recommend similar artists based on a customer's current tastes. After that, customers can pay Keane to purchase CDs from an online music service, like Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store. (For that service she charges $25 an hour, plus the cost of the songs, at 99 cents each.)
Her tastes range from indie rock to Bob Marley to Michael Jackson, but she acknowledges that she is still learning. "My edge is not that I'm an expert," she said. "It's more that it's my job, and I'm willing to do whatever research it takes."
Keane says most of her customers are in their 20s and 30s and work in the financial sector--people who are very busy and have disposable income. She has ripped CDs for nearly 30 customers and provided consulting services for about eight.
So far, her marketing has been done through word of mouth and free online advertising at Craigslist.org. One customer, Joanna Lisi, 24, who works in sales for Gucci and found Keane through a mutual friend, said she had been very happy with HungryPod--so much so that two weeks ago she spent $750 on Keane's services, which included music recommendations and song purchasing from iTunes.
Keane uses an off-the-shelf PC with two CD drives to convert music from CDs to MP3, a process that can take a few days depending on the size of the collection. She loaded Lisi's 15GB iPod with 1,064 new songs in about 25 hours.
"Every day I find a new song on there that I didn't know was on there that I love," Lisi said.
Keane, who graduated in 2003 from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., with a degree in English, lives with her parents in Stuyvesant Town on Manhattan's East Side. She makes enough money to rent office space alongside her father, a self-employed financial consultant.
She arrives at the office at around 9:30 a.m. and stays until nearly 7 p.m., and moonlights four days a week as an assistant varsity basketball coach at Marymount School, her high school alma mater.
Keane currently serves Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn, and she plans to expand. "I try to think about it in baby steps," she said. Her next goal is to engage a Web designer to work on her site to accommodate e-commerce, a move toward offering the service more widely.
In business, of course, nothing is guaranteed, and Ms. Keane is philosophical.
"The reason I chose this is because it's been fun," she said. "I don't have any regrets, even if tomorrow it tanked."
http://news.com.com/Using+iPod+savvy...3-5473938.html
Until next week,
-
js.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Current Week In Review
Recent WiRs -
November 27th,
November 20th,
November 13th,
November 6th
Jack Spratt's Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts (at) lycos (dot) com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.
"The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public." - Hugo Black