[JackSpratts]

School sux, occasionally

Congress Considers Illegal File Sharing In Dorms
Alexandra Aaron

Tougher measures against illegal file sharing are on their way to college campuses, according to speakers at a September congressional hearing on movie and music piracy.

The hearings, which included representatives from the University of Florida, the University of Texas and the Motion Picture Association of America, discussed new technology that could enable colleges to control how students share copyrighted material.

"College campuses today harbor some of the swiftest computer networks in the country and that, unfortunately, has led to a situation where a significant level of piracy is taking place around the clock at our nation's campuses," said Richard Taylor, senior vice president of Motion Picture Association of America, in a statement to the House courts, Internet and intellectual property subcommittee.

The University of Florida's "Icarus" program is among the technologies being discussed. The program limits the size of files students can share and prohibits use of unapproved file-sharing applications in university dormitories.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said he is pleased with the University of Florida's answer to the piracy issue.

"The recent hearing was an opportunity to learn why some universities have clearly stepped up to the plate of educating their students, while others have not. The Subcommittee will continue to hold hearings on [illegal file sharing] to monitor progress and to update Congress on what still needs to be done," he said.

But many students are not thrilled with the sudden move to curb free music and movie downloads.

"It's ridiculous to ban [file sharing]," said New York University sophomore Jessica Bhargava. "I'm paying $45,000 a year to go to college and I'm a struggling artist, so if there's free music or movies out there, I'm going to take it."

Sales of compact discs have dropped over the last three years because of both legal and illegal downloading of music, according to the Web site of the Recording Industry Association of America.

George Washington University senior Adam Conner said that music companies are driving away remaining customers with measures designed to prevent illegal file sharing.

"I bought a couple of CDs for the first time in months, and when I tried to put them on my iPod I was told that the CD security prohibited it," he said.

The music and film industry trade groups have been pushing Congress to pass a bill that would permit the Federal Communications Commission to mandate copy protection in digital music and video players. Congress has not introduced a bill on the issue yet.

As for file sharing, the controversy has just begun. Smith said he supports the passage of anti-piracy legislation.

"I am in full support of peer-to-peer technology for the sharing of non-copyrighted materials. But I think the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials should be stopped," Smith said.

"Universities are where peer-to-peer piracy flourishes. I am pleased to see progress in combating such piracy," said the representative in a statement.
http://www.dailycollegian.com/vnews/.../434b1be941601





File-Sharing Student Faces The Music


JAY TAYLOR/daily bruin senior staff


After settling RIAA suit, Li warns others to play it safe
Shaun Bishop

She's a self-described music lover.

A fifth-year electrical engineering student, she has been a member of Random Voices, an all-female a cappella group, for three years. She plays the piano.

At one time, she downloaded music on the Internet.

But this summer, Diana Li found out she was being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for sharing copyrighted music online.

"You don't think it really happens until it happens to someone you know," Li said.

"I just think I'm an average person ... which I am," she laughed. "I don't think I'm a lawbreaker."

Li was one of five UCLA students sued by the RIAA in a round of lawsuits filed May 26 against users of i2hub, a file-sharing program which uses the high- speed Internet2 on many college campuses.

A round of lawsuits filed Sept. 29 by the RIAA also targeted one UCLA user of i2hub.

All lawsuits against those using UCLA's network have been "John Doe" suits, meaning the RIAA refers only to the IP address of the alleged infringer and must ask the university, via a subpoena, to reveal the person's name.

That anonymity was shattered for Li when a Federal Express package arrived at her quiet apartment on Veteran Avenue in late July. Enclosed was a letter from UCLA notifying her of the lawsuit.

That was the most frightening time of the whole scenario, she said.

"It slowly started sinking in. ... What did I do? What does this mean?" Li said. "It was scariest when I didn't know what they were going to do."

After discussing her options with some friends, Li decided to tell her parents about the suit. She said her family came to her rescue and quickly hired a patent lawyer, who negotiated a settlement by late August.

Counting the settlement and lawyer fees, the incident cost around $4,000, she said.

She saw few options at the time, and with a sense of relief in her voice, said those first few days were "very emotionlly draining."

"There's no way to fight it. ... They know everything," she said.

It could have been worse, Li said – federal copyright law provides for damages as high as $150,000 per infringement – but still she is not completely satisfied with how the situation unfolded or the penalty.

While she won't ever share copyrighted music online again – "no, definitely not, no," – Li believes in the concept of being able to trade music online, and buys CDs more often than most of her friends.

She also believes the consequences were disproportionately severe. She said she was sharing a few hundred files, far fewer than some of her friends.

The industry has said in previous statements that those being sued are among the most egregious sharers of copyrighted music.

Jenni Engebretsen, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the association does not comment on specific cases, but reiterated the recording industry's position that "this is theft, you can be caught, and there are consequences for those actions."

Some time after the settlement, Li's friend James Szeto suggested she make a Web site to ask for donations to help her recoup some of the financial losses.

He helped her create it, and the site has generated $1,000 to date from a few dozen donors, according to the site's counter.

"I just wanted to help her in any way I could," said Szeto, a fourth-year computer science student.

Li also recorded an original song written by a friend from Random Voices, called "Weakness," with her singing and playing the piano, as an offering to those who visit the donation page.

Szeto helped Li record the song and said they thought it would be appropriate to offer a free, legal, non-copyrighted song for those who donate.

The song's opening lines seem appropriate to the context in which it was recorded.

"Sometimes I wish I had just turned away ..." Li begins.

She admits the RIAA's legal campaign to curb illegal file sharing is effective, if harsh.

"It's working, but at the great expense of me and my family," she said, adding that most of her friends have since stopped sharing files online.

Li said she was not disciplined by UCLA for file sharing and that after the initial letter, the university had little to do with the process.

Judy Lin, a UCLA spokeswoman, said that because of privacy rules, the university could not comment on whether students had been disciplined by the university for illegal file sharing. Breaking local, state or federal laws is a violation of the student code of conduct.

Li's warning to others who share copyrighted files is a predictable one: It can happen to you, too.

"Everyone kind of knows, but we still fileshare anyway. It's just something you do in college," she said. "I just didn't know how dangerous it was. I just wanted to download music just like everyone else."
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/...s.asp?id=34426





Upside Download

Has file-sharing doomed the music business?
Corey Levitan

The best-selling CD in the world is blank. And so may be the future of the music business.

At least 10 billion songs are downloaded for free each year, through illegal Peer-to- Peer (P2P) services. At the same time, worldwide CD sales have been in free-fall since 1999, the year file-sharing began to take hold. They now represent 70 percent of what they did then.

"People are getting more free music on mp3s than they're getting on CDs," said Eric Garland, CEO of the music-tracking firm Big Champagne Online Media Measurement. "And nearly all those mp3s are illegally downloaded."

Much has been written recently about the proliferation of legal downloading services, which charge consumers to download (either by the month or by the song), then pay a portion of the fee to copyright holders. Companies with names such as Rhapsody, Peer Impact and Mashboxx have joined established names such as Wal-Mart, AOL and Yahoo in the enterprise.

None of these services is remotely as popular as Apple's iTunes, however, which in turn isn't remotely as popular as illegal downloading. In its four-year history, iTunes has sold a cumulative 500 million downloads.

In other words, the number of songs illegally downloaded last year alone is about 20 times the number of songs ever downloaded through iTunes.

"And 10 billion songs per year is a very conservative estimate," Garland added.

The last time consumers demanded a new music format, in 1989, the record industry made a killing because everybody replaced their old vinyl and cassettes with CDs. Now the CD is the format getting killed -- by an entire generation of kids entering adulthood without entering a record store.

"As an industry, you can live with a low-grade fever, but you cannot live with a cancer - - and that's the level that we're currently at," said Jenni Engebretsen, spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, the Washington-based lobbying arm of the American record industry.

The problem is a change in lifestyle as well as in music format. Too many people in music's traditional age demographic, 18-to-24, associate obtaining computer files with not paying for them.

"It's just [because of] money," said an El Camino College student who admitted packing her iPod with music files she downloaded from the free P2P service LimeWire.

"I'm a full-time student and I don't have a job," she explained.

That student, who asked that her name not be used, was one of a dozen young adults wandering the South Bay college campus on a recent weekday, telltale white Apple iPod headphone wires dangling from their ears.

"Most people, most of the time, get their music free," Garland said. "And that's not a marketplace. In fact, it directly threatens the concept of the music marketplace."

Extent of the damage

Just how deep the damage goes depends on the answer to the following question: Are consumers downloading songs because it's free and easy and they wouldn't otherwise have an interest -- or because they no longer want to pay for their music?

A recent Harvard study suggested the former, a University of Texas study the latter.

"It's an existential question," Garland said. "To answer it, you'd have to get between the ears of everyone who downloads for free, every time they download something."

Three El Camino College iPod-toters interviewed admitted illegally downloading tunes they would never purchase as well as ones they probably would have (but now don't need to). And all three described their music purchases (CDs and legal downloading) as down from a few years ago.

Back when her music occupied a CD book in her high-school locker, the El Camino College student who prefers to remain anonymous found enough money to buy a dozen new albums a year. This year, the only CD she purchased was "Lullabies to Paralyze" by Queens of the Stone Age, which was released in March.

And why did she buy that CD?

"I don't know," she said. "It was irrational. I just bought it. I was walking around Target and bought it."

Since any CD she bought would be transferred to her iPod anyway, she said that saving a step, not to mention $20, is simply too tempting.

"And I don't really have the dollar to buy each song," she added, referring to iTunes' 99-cents-per-pop price tag.

This is bad news for an industry that survives on profit generated by successful CDs, most of which goes to cover the millions of dollars funneled into developing, recording and marketing unsuccessful ones. (Although the cost of manufacturing a CD is mere pennies, more than 5,000 CDs are released by major labels in the U.S. every year, and only a couple hundred turn a profit.)

The results already are being felt by the "Big Five" record labels (Universal, EMI, BMG, Warner and Sony). They've been firing staffs and consolidating to such an extent, they're now the Big Four. (Sony and BMG merged last year, and rumor has Warner and EMI following suit).

But the pinch is also being felt by your favorite musicians.

First-week U.S. sales of Pennywise's 2003 album, "From the Ashes" were 18,000, according to Nielsen's Soundscan service. For the band's "The Fuse," released in August, that figure was 14,000.

Of course, sales figures don't prove anything. Maybe Pennywise fans didn't like the band's new album as much. Maybe their record company didn't do as good a job promoting it. Maybe punk fans just don't have as much discretionary income as they did two years ago.

Nevertheless, those who still think illegal downloading cuts only negligibly into profits are about as rare as those who still think global warming isn't real.

"People are like, 'I've got eight Pennywise records,' " said Jim Lindberg, singer for the popular Hermosa Beach punk band. " 'Why do I need to go out and buy the packaging when I can just download it?' "

Lindberg acknowledges that file-sharing is good for small bands.

"They just want exposure," he said. "They're like, 'Please, download my songs.' And the Metallicas and the big bands, they've already sold 12 million and they're still selling that. But it's really tough for a band like us."

Putting on the brakes

The RIAA maintains that the music industry can curtail the downloading and save itself.

"It's not our goal to wipe out piracy entirely," Engebretsen said. "It is our goal to bring it to a level of manageable control -- just as our industry has lived with physical piracy on the street for a number of years."

Unsympathetic to the plight of music-hungry college students on limited budgets, Engebretsen's organization has been suing file-sharers for copyright infringement since September 2003. (That's undoubtedly why only three of a dozen El Camino College students wished to go public with their downloading habits, and those three requesting anonymity.)

More than 12,000 file-sharers have been sued so far, for up to $150,000 per song -- although most settle for around $3,500 in total. No case has yet gone to trial.

"Theft is theft," Engebretsen said. "When you log onto an illegal service and download music for free without compensation to the artists, the songwriters, the publishers, the musicians -- all those thousands of individuals whose hard work and great talent has gone into making that music possible -- there is no difference between that and walking into a Wal-Mart and shoplifting a CD."

So far, courts worldwide echo that view. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that users of Grokster and Morpheus are liable for copyright infringement -- as are the companies themselves. (The RIAA has since fired off cease-and-desist letters to LimeWire, EDonkey, BearShare and four other P2P companies.)

And Australia's top court followed with a decision that bankrupted the owners of Kazaa, which took over from the shuttered Napster as the biggest P2P service in 2001. (Napster came back, as a legitimate though comparably unpopular enterprise, two years later.)

Not so clear cut?

But not everyone sees the case so clearly -- not even all record executives.

"If something's that exciting, we should go towards that epicenter rather than sue it," said Daniel Glass, president and CEO of Artemis Records, the New York-based independent label whose roster includes Steve Earle, the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Sugarcult.

"I think mistakes are made when we don't embrace technology centers, like Napster wasn't embraced," Glass said. "I think if you just negotiate with people, you can do something constructive, because I think the intent [of P2P] is to create an exciting village of people sharing music from all over the world. And I think it sets up an artist's career and gets you in bed with a fan base."

Artemis actually is supporting illegal P2P companies by contributing to the only income stream they have: advertising.

"We're going on the front pages of these sites and featuring Artemis music," Glass said. "We're not advocating stealing. But I think the traffic is there, there's a fascination and a rock 'n' roll element to it. And I find that people respect it. They say, 'You know what? OK, I'll pay.' "

Glass reports his ads generate "a couple of thousand" dollars a month.

"It's not great," he said, "but it's still money."

The RIAA still prefers the notion of beating 'em to joining 'em. It claims its lawsuits have a significant deterrent effect.

"Growth in the illegal marketplace is just minimal in comparison [to the legal marketplace]," Engebretsen said. "And I think what that indicates is that our efforts have helped."

However, Garland, of the media-tracking firm Big Champagne, said that comparing growth rates for legal versus illegal downloading is deceptive because legal started from next-to-zero at the same time illegal hovered around the broadband saturation level. Big Champagne's data -- the most widely accepted, being the Beverly Hills company is hired by the record industry to compile it -- shows twice as many Americans illegally trading copyrighted songs at any given time in April 2005 (8.6 million) as in September 2003, when the RIAA lawsuits began.

"And I think lawsuits, antagonizing and threats are not the way to embrace the youth," Glass added. "I have three kids. And I know when you yell at them and turn their television off, they're gonna sneak into their room at 2 a.m. and they're gonna wind up watching that show."

The El Camino College student said she's concerned about getting caught, yet still plans to continue downloading for free. She also dismissed the RIAA's moral argument.

"I don't think that would really be a good incentive for me to want to go out and buy more CDs -- 'Oh, they're not getting paid enough,' " she said.

A recent poll on the Spin magazine Web site, spin.com, suggests just how permanently entrenched file-sharing is. Visitors were given three choices to describe their reaction to a new pay-per-download record label being launched by the Warner Music Group. Here's how 1,600 respondents voted:

A great way for young bands to get exposure (28 percent).

Another way the major labels are too controlling of music downloads (32 percent).

Futile, because I'm still file-sharing anyway (40 percent).

And download-hungry consumers will always have a place to share their files with one another. That's because, unlike Napster, which was a Web site that could be (and was) shut down, today's illegal P2P servers are merely software applications. Clicking on your computer's Kazaa icon will forever put you in touch with every other Kazaa user browsing the Internet at that particular time.

"It's just like if Sony went out of business," Garland said. "Your Sony television would still function."

Uniform licensing fee

One novel solution is offered by music journalist David Adelson, who recently taught a UCLA course called Tracking the Decline of the Current Music Business. He suggests a uniform licensing fee on hardware manufacturers and Internet Service Providers.

Adelson's fee would be added to everyone's Internet bill (and mp3 player cost) and distributed to copyright holders in the same manner that performance-rights organizations (ASCAP and BMI) administer radio royalties -- on an estimated per-play basis.

"Doesn't it make sense to try and figure out a way to legally license them to do what they're already doing?" Adelson asked.

Half of Adelson's solution, an iPod tax, is already about to become law in the Netherlands. (The greater the mp3 player's hard drive, the greater the tax.) And a British Internet Service Provider called Play Louder is trying to secure licenses to allow their customers to swap music freely.

But the RIAA won't even entertain such a notion for America -- at least not yet.

"I guess I would respond by saying that in June, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the uploading and downloading of songs, in violation of copyright, is illegal," Engebretsen said. "And, I think, against that backdrop, it's quite straightforward."

Even if the music industry continues its downward spiral, the business of music is likely to continue -- albeit with different players on a different field.

"There's always going to be a need for gatekeepers who perform the service that record labels do now," Garland said. "Otherwise, it's just noise, pure cacophony. Most people who are not A&R (Artist & Repertoire) executives don't want to sort through tens of thousands of contenders to find 50 things that sound great."

And it's on this new field that musicians will still be able to earn a living -- a lot less of a living than Bruce Springsteen and Madonna earned from their music, but it's not like they'll be working at the Starbucks that once sold their CDs.

"Clearly, they're going to have to concentrate on building a solid touring base and creating a community of loyal fans who would like to participate," Adelson said. "They'll have to create fan clubs and offer their customers extra value on the Internet.

"What did the railroad industry do when the automobile came?" Adelson asked. "It became a different business."
http://www.dailybreeze.com/rave/articles/1783036.html



Free Music Only Way To Rock
Zach Wingerter

If a movement was made to shut down libraries for sharing books for free, it would be looked at as preposterous. The file sharing issue is the same thing: music is made to be listened to, just as books are made to be read.

The Recording Industry Association of America casts a bad light on file sharing even though it has been known to help artists. During my freshman year, a friend of mine sent me his band's EP via AOL Instant Messenger and asked me to leave a peer-to-peer program online with his songs in my upload folder. He and other members of the band asked more friends to do the same.

The files were downloaded hundreds of times from my computer alone. Three years later, that band - The Junior Varsity - is on a national tour and signed to Victory Records, the nation's second-largest indie record label.

Contrary to what the RIAA preaches, every download is not a lost sale. I have not purchased a CD in the last three years without having an MP3 of the artist on my computer beforehand, whether it be from legally downloading the file from a Web site such as www.purevolume.com, receiving the song from a friend via instant messenger or by other means.

I had Green Day's "American Idiot" one week before its release last September. I was excited about its leak onto the Internet and listened to it for that whole week, fell in love with it and promptly bought the album the day it came out.

Since then, I've spent over $250 on Green Day concert tickets and tour merchandise for my girlfriend and me, and that's all because I was able to preview the album before heading to the record store and pocketing the original $15 in fear of purchasing an album I may not have liked.

Being given the chance to preview a CD is beneficial to artists. I've never gone to a band's show without first downloading its music. Any time I try out a new band and like it, I do my best to get its CD or T-shirt or see it live.

File sharing gives potential consumers a chance to enjoy something they may never have spent money on.

Peer-to-peer networks are being singled out as wrong, but there are many extremely similar legal alternatives to file sharing that are ignored. Yahoo! has a music Web site, www.launch.com, which has thousands of music videos available to anyone who has a free Yahoo! account.

Anyone who wants to see a video or hear a song by an artist just has to type in the artist's name, click on the video they want to see and sit through a 30-second commercial before the chosen video appears. If used correctly, this Web site is essentially a huge iTunes library - many unpurchased videos and songs are available for free and the artists are getting no kickback for consumer use of the Web site.

Furthermore, anyone using any free Internet radio can easily make homemade MP3s if they use a sound recording device and record the computer's .wav output. Anything from the Yahoo! Web site or PureVolume can become a free MP3 as well. Targeting and fining file sharers won't stop anything from happening.

Artists already make bundles of money from concert ticket sales and merchandise sales at places such as Hot Topic, so how much does file sharing really hurt them? The RIAA and artists supporting the organization are simply wrong on this issue.
http://www.westerncourier.com/media/...-1017915.shtml





Review

Share Your Office Desktop: We Review Four P2P File-Sharing Applications
Robert Vamosi

In the past, if you needed remote access to a sales document or a presentation or if you were collaborating with a coworker in another office, you had three options: send the file via snail mail or e-mail; open a temporary FTP site from which you could obtain the file; or maintain a permanent VPN--with the latter two requiring the services of an IT department. With the rise of peer-to-peer file sharing, however, there's yet another option.

Groove Virtual Office, Laplink ShareDirect, FolderShare, and BeInSync are online services that allow you to open a folder or a series of folders and share the contents with others. Groove offers built-in virtual meeting tools and many customization options. ShareDirect provides the strongest encryption and, like Groove, offers built-in virus protection. FolderShare works with either Windows or Mac and can transfer large files easily. BeInSync works only with Windows and allows you to share with groups of up to nine others simultaneously.

Con’t.





Groove Mobile Scores Another Mobile Music First: The Only Service Included in the Official UK Charts
Press Release

Artists Now Benefit From Purchases on the Groove Mobile Network With Improved Chart Positions

Groove Mobile, the world's leading mobile music service, today announced that over-the-air downloads direct to mobile phones on the Groove Mobile network are the first and only mobile data contributing to the UK's "Combined Official Singles Chart" compiled by The Official Charts Company.

"The mobile music business is a growth area for music sales," said Paul Want, Operations Director for the Official UK Charts Company. "It is important that the Official Charts accurately reflect the music purchased each week, and including the purchases of mobile music lovers using the Groove Mobile platform is a welcome addition to the charts."

Downloads on the Groove Mobile network, which powers Orange's Music Player, are now included on the "Combined Official Singles Chart." Groove Mobile, which currently supplies its data to the "Digital Download Chart," is now the only mobile download service in the UK whose sales have a direct impact on artists' ranking on the "Combined Chart" released each Sunday.

"A top chart position in the UK can literally make an artist's career," said Adam Sexton, Groove Mobile Vice President, Marketing and Product Management. "Since every song purchased on Groove Mobile's platform now counts in the 'Combined Official Singles Charts,' Groove Mobile will quickly become a core part of marketing the hottest new songs and increasing their sales. We look forward to adding other labels to our service, so their artists can also enjoy improved chart positions when fans purchase their songs."
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...4166190&EDATE=





File-Sharing: How the Net Was Won
Thomas Mennecke

For millions of years, the universe existed in relative stasis. Although several million years appears to be an eternity to Earth’s human inhabitants, it reflects a mere nanosecond in the universe’s apparently endless span of existence. During this eternity, significant events would alter the history of the cosmic plane; the big bang, the formation of complex proteins, and the great rupture of the time-space continuum.

The first two events had an ever-lasting effect on today's world. The Big-Bang, one of the leading theories on the formation of the universe, contends that all of the current matter that exists was at one point confined to an area no larger than the head of a pin. How long this matter was contained in this space is unclear, however at some point – perhaps as much as 15 billion years ago – this matter was expelled and created the universe we know today.

Over the course of several more billion years, the ensuing chaos that developed would later become more organized. Galaxies, stars and planets would soon form, giving rise to another important event; the rise of life.

We can only speak of what we know, and so far life as we know it only exists on Earth. Space exploration so far has yielded some hope that we are not alone in the universe. Various missions to Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn hold some promise we might find evidence of past – and perhaps present – life in the form of single celled organisms.

While the Big Bang and the advent of life are significant events whose impact is only realized over the course of billions of years; the great rupture of the time-space continuum impacted the universe in significantly less time.

2.5 million years ago, an event happened that would alter the course of history. A dying star known only from its remnant light signature collapsed upon itself and thus created a black hole. The massive gravitational pull caused surrounding solar systems – stars, planets, asteroids, and comets – to be drawn in. Over the course of several thousand years, hundreds of star systems were drawn into this hellish cataclysm. However this event did not occur alone.

If the universe is a winding string floating through space, as String Theory suggests, and several other strings run parallel, this event occurred in at least one other dimensional universe. For the intentions of this article, we will assume there is only one parallel universe.

As the black hole expanded, time-space became so distorted on both planes that for a millionth of a second, matter from an alternate universe was ejected into our own. Once the two black holes interacted, the resultant force canceled the gravitational pull of the other, thereby restoring normal time-space in both parallel universes.

Yet the expelled matter was now in our own universe. The expelled matter was the remnant of a world rich in organic molecules, obliterated by the gravitational pull of the black hole. The remnant matter; which consisted of a complex network of adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, was now adrift and was being pulled by another gravitational pull – this time caused by a medium sized planet that would later be called Earth.

During this period of the Earth’s history, modern man had not yet evolved. Instead, a proto human called Australopithecus Africanus was the dominant humanoid specie. While fairly smart, this proto human had little in the way of great intellect, as they could not use fire or express themselves through art or mathematics. The greatest use of technology was perhaps through some primitive flint tools.

The network of organic molecules was now pulled into Earth’s orbit. Because of the highly advanced nature of this organic network, it was able to create an electromagnetic energy shield, protecting it during reentry. However, the network of organic molecules was not able to sustain itself, and deteriorated over southern Africa.

The remnants of the network, now only independent strands of adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, found its way into the Australopithecus Africanus specie. These organic molecules, the foundations of DNA, radically altered the destiny of this specie. What appeared to be a hopeless experiment in evolution suddenly erupted into the founding of a new genre of hominid – the “homo” or “handy man.” In perhaps one of the greatest extra-terrestrial influences to life and evolution (since the theory life on Earth came from Mars), the organic network brought about radical changes in human evolution that would lead mankind to where it is today.

Millions of years later, this network would resurface – this time a manifestation of humanities inexplicable desire to once again reconnect through computers within a great community of organic beings.
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=952





Declaration of InDRMpendence
David Berlind

Is your anti-virus or anti-spyware technology warning you about the Digital Rights Management software on your computer? If not, it should be. It's a Trojan horse of the worst kind.

Earlier today, after describing to a close friend the rock and the hard place that I'm between since I can't easily play the 99 cent songs I buy through Apple's iTunes music store on my $20,000 whole home entertainment setup, he said "Dave… check out Sonos' solution. It'll solve your problem for about $500 per room."

Not that I have another $500 per room to spend, but I checked into it and the solution is indeed very cool. The units that you put into each room wirelessly form a self-organized mesh and just one of them needs access to your music library on a computer or network attached storage (NAS) device. Unfortunately, if I buy Sonos' gear, it appears as though I'll run in the same problem that I'm already having. According to a technical specifications page on Sonos Web site, "DRM-encrypted and Apple or WMA Lossless formats not currently supported." In other words, songs purchased through iTunes that are wrapped in Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) envelope won't work. Neither will songs you buy from stores based on Microsoft's DRM technology found in content purchased through PlaysForSure-logoed merchants (eg: Napster-to-Go). While I hate to be the breaker of bad news, I sent him an e-mail explaining the situation.

But now that DRM is coming up on my radar every day, and the more I read about it (on the Web, in our TalkBacks, and in my e-mail), the angrier I get. To vent, I've decided to start regularly ranting about DRM. Dating back to cassette tapes (which came before VCRs) and probably something before that, the entertainment industry has never liked the idea of people copying its content. To Hollywood, the digital age is a double edged sword. On one edge exists a highly scalable infrastructure that can ruin the profit potential of any single piece of content in a matter of hours. On other edge is the scalable control that Hollywood can finally retake over the duplication of its content through DRM technologies.

What you need to know is that DRM can be, and has proven to be, a Trojan horse. In a back and forth thread of e-mails, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's John Gilmore described to me how DRM technology basically allows those who sit at the controls of it to arbitrarily change the rules. For example, one day, with Apple's iTunes, we were able to burn the same playlist as many as ten times. A day later, it was seven. Unlike before, when we could take our vinyl records and CDs and do pretty much anything we wanted with them (to facilitate our personal use) or even sell them (or will them to family members), the "R" in DRM is much less about what we have the right to do and more about the Restrictions that can be arbitrarily and remotely asserted over something we paid good money for. So far, the best suggestion I've heard to dodge the CRM bullet is seek used CDs. It may not be a la carte song buying. But it's not a premium price for a bunch of music you may not want anyway.

Microsoft and Apple couldn't have asked for a better gift horse (Hollywood) to come their way, seeking a solution that ultimately gives back to it what it has for so long wanted. Both companies had a razor (the DRM playback technology) and all they needed were some blades (the music). Today, with every individual DRM-wrapped piece of content that gets sold, we are securing the futures of the DRM licensors (mostly Apple and Microsoft). That content will forever be useless unless you have something that includes their playback technologies.

The fact that you have 1000 iTunes store-bought songs means that you will be paying Apple to use that music for the rest of your life (directly for devices like iPods or indirectly through licensee's products like Motorola iTunes phones). With Microsoft aggressively licensing its DRM technology to multiple device manufacturers (for both audio and video) and multiple online content merchants, I've already said that its DRM technology is positioned to follow in Windows' footsteps as the next dominant technology monoculture even though Apple's players continue to sell like hot cakes. By continuing to buy DRM-wrapped content, we as consumers are actually unwittingly co-conspiring with Hollywood to give Microsoft and Apple the keys to the kingdom.

Go ahead. Ask your favorite iPod owner if he or she knows that by buying songs from the iTunes store, they're actually assuring Apple's legacy. Apple could sell the songs at its cost and it would still be fantastically profitable forever while having unprecedented control over Hollywood. It's no wonder Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. is threatening to put his foot down now. He sees control over his business — for example, who sets the price of the music he sells — slipping away to the tech titans. Perhaps he's just now realizing that his company (and his industry) may have sold its soul (no pun intended) to the devil.

The aforementioned Sonos anecdote represents the perfect opportunity to inspire this first rant because the first time I saw Sonos' gear was at a previous MIT Emerging Technologies Conference and, yesterday, while attending the most recent of that series of conferences, I had a chance to ask Motorola CEO Ed Zander one question while he was on stage discussing his vision of the wireless world. Motorola is the only company besides Apple itself that sells a device (the recently announced iTunes phone) that can play FairPlay-wrapped music. That's because Apple licensed the technology to Motorola for usage in that phone.

I asked Zander if, in his role as a licensee that's thrusting DRM- enabled products into the market, he didn't think that we were on the verge of anointing another technology monoculture. The reason I asked this is that the number of handsets greatly outnumbers the number of computers and if everyone of them has either Apple or Microsoft's DRM technology on it, the market penetration of a major proprietary infrastructure control point will make the Windows monopoly look paltry by comparison. As I said earlier in this blog, Microsoft is aggressively licensing its multimedia and DRM technologies — a phenomenon that I've been documenting in this blog's Media Juggernaut category.

Zander never did answer the question. He did however mention that he's licensing DRM technologies from both companies for separate phones (Motorola has a Windows Mobile-enabled phone as well). He also said that he'd like to see a single standard emerge. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt by saying he probably meant "open standard" (one where neither he nor Hollywood would be beholden to Microsoft or Apple). But in replaying my question and his answer in his mind, I now wish I came back with a second question which would have been "Don't you think it kind of stinks that your selling two products that are incompatible with each other?" In other words, if I decide to move to the Windows Mobile-based phone from the iTunes phone, none of the music I have stored on the iTunes phone can be transferred. Imagine, for example, if the phone numbers you had for your friends worked on one phone, but not the other. Wouldn't that royally suck?

The EFF's Gilmore has admonished me in e-mail for not being absolutely clear about my position on DRM. When I omitted the qualifier "open" in my first discussion of why we'd be better off with a single standard that everyone complied with, Gilmore was quick to say "Be careful what you ask for." PlaysForSure or FairPlay could easily become the de facto standard (a.k.a. monopoly). I should have said "open standard." Even so, I'm not sure that I even favor an open standard at this point. Not if it's going to be used for Digital Restriction Management.

You shouldn't take any of this to mean that I don't believe in compensating content copyright holders with whatever royalties they're due (DRM's other role is to assure such compensation to some extent). But as long as DRM technology stands in the way of legitimate use of the content that I've paid for, I as an informed buyer will vote with my dollars by going elsewhere for my content (for example, sites where the artists offer their music for free). You should too. That's my Declaration of InDRMpendence. Don't let this plague spread beyond the epidemic level that it has already reached. Just say no to DRM (stop buying DRM-wrapped content before it's way too late and oppose any DRM-related laws under consideration by any legislative body).

I know it's not the most corporate IT-esque of topics (our charter here), but this issue has really got me steamed. And, believe it or not, to the extent that it could lead to another monoculture, there are corporate implications. So, stay tuned for more regular rants about my DRM-free campaign. And, if you have a good name for that campaign or want to submit some artwork for its logo, let me know at david.berlind@cnet.com. If you just want to show your support by being a co-signer of this Declaration, please just enter a message below in our comments section (and a co-signer you will become!).
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=1952





The Shape of Things to Come: Morphology Database Going Global

A Florida State University researcher who specializes in the evolutionary history of wasps is now creating a buzz about a new way for scientists to store, share and study plant and animal images.

Fredrik Ronquist, a professor in the School of Computational Sciences, is one of the founders of MorphBank, an international Web database that contains thousands of high-resolution photographs and other images of plant and animal specimens. Now he is leading an interdisciplinary team of FSU scientists to expand the database, thanks to a $2.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

"It used to be that there was a limited body of knowledge of plant and animal specimens - a scientist could read all the books and papers," Ronquist said. "Now, our body of knowledge is so vast, we need the help of machines."

Researchers from across the globe can deposit images documenting animal or plant specimens in MorphBank and retrieve images deposited by their colleagues. The NSF grant will allow the FSU team to develop commercial quality software to make the system more user friendly and offer more advanced search techniques, according to project manager David Gaitros of the computer science department. Scientists also will be able to add comments to the images and search comments made by other scientists - a quick and efficient way to communicate research results.

"We're hoping to achieve a change in the way scientists work when they do research," Ronquist said. "That's one of the biggest challenges - changing habits. We need to convince scientists that this is a better way of working with their material and presenting their research. It's a matter of having a system that works well with lots of interesting images. That will go a long way to change people's attitudes."

Because journals often do not publish all the images that illustrate an article, researchers now must go to a museum or depository to view the specimens or arrange for a loan. Ronquist envisions a system in which authors would deposit images into MorphBank, and journals could point readers to the database to view them.

Considering that only 1 million of the 10 million species on Earth are known or named, Ronquist said a vast database would be the only way to manage information as more discoveries are made. MorphBank currently contains about 40,000 images and is expected to increase to more than 1 million images in the next few years.

The NSF grant also will provide funds for the FSU team to protect the database by setting up a network of MorphBank "mirrors" around the world. Distributing the images on several machines ensures there are backup copies and can reduce both the amount of disk space on each machine and the cost to any one institution.

Although scientists will be the only ones to have access to the system to deposit, retrieve or comment on items, the system is free and may be viewed by anyone.

"Everyone from kindergartners to the top researchers in the world, when they want to see or examine a specimen, they can go to MorphBank to find it," Gaitros said. "They'll see the image, the organism's scientific name, common name, who found it and where, what publications it has been in and related species. Any and all relevant information we put in MorphBank."

In the future, it may be possible to take a photo of a plant or an animal, send the image to the database and get back a reliable species identification, Gaitros said.

Ronquist was working in Sweden in 1998 when he and insect specialists from the United States and Spain started MorphBank as a way to share the more than 1,000 microscopic photos they had taken in their comprehensive study of a group of parasitic wasps. The name of the database refers to the term morphology, which is the study of the shape and structure of plants and animals.

Ronquist brought the project to FSU in 2003 when he was hired here. Besides him and Gaitros, the team includes Austin Mast and Greg Erickson of biology; Robert van Engelen of computer science; Greg Riccardi, Corinne Jorgensen and Peter Jorgensen of the College of Information; Gordon Erlebacher of mathematics; and Anuj Srivastava of statistics.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/515273/





Squaring Cubicles With Reality

Companies are rethinking how they look at office space
Mike Drummond

The cubicle is undergoing a makeover.

And even some cubicle manufacturers concede it's about time.

The ubiquitous workstation has served companies for more than four decades. Despite its blandness, businesses embraced the cube's simple functionality and relative cost-savings. No need to blow out walls and remodel when you could plant a cubicle farm.

But knowledge- and service-based industries that put a premium on collaboration increasingly view the cubicle as a barrier to interaction and productivity. And a new breed of workers, weaned on peer-to-peer computer file sharing, always-on wireless hot spots and instant access to information, has pushed companies to rethink cubicles, design consultants and others say.

For many, the conventional cubicle is a quaint, even contradictory anachronism. How can you think outside the box when you're working inside one?

The modern cubicleless floor plan started gaining traction even as cubicle production and sales reached their heights during the late 1990s dot-com era. Although cubicles allow for quick accommodation of personnel, some companies were taking a dim view of the cube by 2000.

Muzak, the Fort Mill, S.C., company that pipes music to retail and other workplaces, was among them. It deployed a blend of shared, artsy workstations and glass offices when it moved into its warehouse headquarters in 2000.

The company "created a city in a box," based on the Italian piazza model, said Muzak's marketing-campaign coordinator Karen Vigeland. That city grew over the last year, when the company added more than 100 employees and converted more warehouse space — without using conventional cubicles. The result is a complex of transparent offices and shared workstations set along boulevardlike aisles, all spilling into open areas.

In September, the Charlotte design firm that helped configure Muzak's digs embarked on its own makeover. Little Diversified Architectural Consulting will knock out walls to create a mix of low-wall cubicles, see-through offices and communal work tables, similar to another part of its building. The move reflects a broader trend away from installing cubicles to accommodate head count.

"The idea is to move people, not walls," said James Thompson, the firm's interior design director.

The standard cubicle environment is a language that signals "all the bad working behaviors," said Christopher Budd of Studios Architecture in Washington. Those include isolation, false "entitlement to privacy" and individual over collective achievement, he said.

His idyllic workplace borrows from a European model, where wireless laptops allow employees to work where needed — kind of a hipper version of the precubicle office, without the rows of assigned desks and gray in-boxes.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...siness/3392204





Internet Carried On Power Lines

Firm finishes hooking up manassas
Yuki Noguchi

The Washington area is a major hub for technology that transmits high-speed Internet connections over power lines, and yesterday the city of Manassas celebrated becoming one of the first communities in which the service is commercially available.

Chantilly-based Communication Technologies Inc. announced it had completed citywide installation of the technology and will step up marketing it to Manassas's 12,500 households.

"This is an achievement of a major national milestone," said Joseph E. Fergus, founder and chief executive of Communication Technologies, or Comtek, which so far has 700 paying residential customers in Manassas. He said the technology "will be deployed within two years to scores of communities across the U.S."

Comtek charges $38.95 a month for the service and shares revenue with the city, which provided access to municipal power and fiber-optic networks. It has been testing the service there since 2001.

Germantown-based Current Communications Group LLC has a similar trial in Potomac and launched a commercial version of its service in Cincinnati last year. The Cincinnati network reaches 50,000 homes, and Current has thousands of paying customers.

For years, broadband-over-power-line technology, which allows access to the Internet through any electrical socket in the home or office, has been touted as a potential alternative to service from cable and phone companies. The technology still has its skeptics, who note that PPL Corp. announced earlier this week that it would end its trial in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania because it could not get enough customers to generate a profit.

"The technology works, but the business model is still up in the air," said Scott Cleland, chief executive of the Precursor Group, a research firm.

Companies such as Comtek and Current say they have a key advantage over the competition because they tap into an infrastructure that already exists. They partner with power companies to tap the electric grid and the network of power lines that already run into the home, so communities can hook up to another source of the Internet without having to dig up trenches to lay new cables in the streets.

The technology is far less expensive than deploying fiber-optic cable, or even deploying digital subscriber line service, said Jay Birnbaum, president of Current, which in July received financial backing from Google Inc. and investment firm Goldman Sachs & Co. The company is conducting six trials, including in Los Angeles and Honolulu.

Comtek is in discussions to deploy its technology in nine additional communities, Fergus said. Comtek installs its equipment on power lines, which transmit the Internet connection over a high-frequency signal that does not interfere with power transmission. At home or in the office, users have a modem that adapts the signal to computers. Fergus said he hopes that over time, Comtek also will be able to offer Internet telephony service over those lines.

Christine Williamson, a Manassas resident, said she was among the first 13 testers of the Comtek service. Williamson, who also subscribes to Comcast Corp.'s cable modem service, said she may eventually rely solely on her power-line Internet service because it goes out less frequently than the cable service and is comparably fast and costs less.

"It's not competition yet, but . . . it may turn out to be yet another way in which people are competing with us," said Eric Rabe, a spokesman for Verizon Communications Inc., the main phone and DSL high-speed Internet provider in the Washington area.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100501982.html





ILN News Letter
Michael Geist

Israel Cracks Down On Internet Music And Film Sharing

The Haifa District Court in Israel has ruled against music file-sharing Web sites, including Shift, Lala, Lionetwork, and Subcenter. The lawsuit was filed by 27 music recording companies. The petitioners claimed that the sites were violating their copyright. The sites' operators were ordered to pay an interim sum of NIS 500,000 until damages to the petitioners are assessed.
http://tinyurl.com/d4ce3


JBoss Denies Trademark Claims

A man who claims to be a co-founder of Jboss claims that JBoss' trademark policy contradicts the open-source ideology. The company insists that it is merely protecting its brand.
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5893015.html





Apple Unveils Video iPod, ABC TV Deal
Duncan Martell

Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday introduced a version of its market-leading iPod that also plays videos and unveiled a deal with Walt Disney Co. to sell television shows like "Desperate Housewives" after their first broadcast.

Apple has long aimed to make its devices the hub for digital entertainment inside and outside the home, and Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the ABC deal was a turning point in bringing television to the Web.

"I think this is really pretty big and I think it's just the beginning," Jobs said in an interview.

The video iPod -- a long-rumored product that could further spark sales of the popular brand -- has a 2.5-inch screen and comes with 30 or 60 gigabytes of memory. The sleeker, thinner version will sell for $299 and $399, respectively, and holds up to 150 hours of video.

As part of its deal with Disney's ABC network, iPod users will be able to download five shows including ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." Current-season episodes of the series will be made available at the iTunes music store the day after broadcast.

The entire first season of "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" will be available immediately. The television shows are only available in the United States and cost $1.99 per episode, without commercials.

Media companies and computer companies have traditionally been at odds over bringing entertainment to the Web, given rampant piracy of music online, and Disney and Apple said their deal was a watershed.

"This is the first giant step in terms of making content available to more people in more places," said Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger. "This is just the beginning of what we believe will be a long and prosperous relationship between Apple and Disney."

Both the deal with Disney and the new products -- which also include an iMac with a remote control that acts as a home entertainment hub -- give Apple a chance to forge a leading position in online media, said Cross Research technology analyst Shannon Cross.

"They are positioning themselves as the company that will connect video content to the end users and control your living room," Cross said.

The company also plans to offer music videos for $1.99 each at its iTunes online music store. It will also offer short films from Pixar Animation Studios Inc., which is also led by Jobs.

But Nitin Gupta, an analyst at Yankee Group, questioned how much the video iPod would boost sales of the devices, saying it will be hard to sell shoppers on the idea of watching "on-the- go" video on a little screen.

"The market is likely small for people who want to watch a portable video on a little screen," he said. "That will not be the main reason people buy the iPod. It is just an enhancement."

Apple has already sold more than 28 million iPods since their introduction in October 2001 and now has about 75 percent of the market for digital music players, representing a booming business that has helped the company's stock triple in the past year.

The company has also refreshed the iPod line-up many times since its introduction. Apple on September 7 unveiled the iPod nano, a pencil-thin device that uses memory chips instead of hard disk drives to store songs.

The new iMac computer, which the company said would stand as an entertainment hub for DVDs, music and photos, will also compete directly with Microsoft Corp.'s Media Center.

The new products come after Apple on Tuesday reported a fiscal fourth-quarter profit that quadrupled from a year ago as revenue rose 56 percent and unit sales of iPods more than tripled.

But the company's stock fell as sales of the iPod -- 6.5 million in the quarter -- were less than some analysts' estimates, which were as high as 8 million.

Apple shares fell $2.32, or 4.5 percent, to $49.27 in late afternoon on Wednesday on Nasdaq.
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsAr...PUTER-IMAC.xml





NetFlix for Free . . . Plus a DVD-Copying Tip
David Battino

Man, are public libraries a fantastic resource! In addition to the expected books and magazines, my local library has a surprisingly good collection of CDs and DVDs. Because the discs are in such great demand, though, finding ones I wanted to try had been an exercise in serendipity.

Then I discovered that by entering my library card number and PIN on the library’s site, I could search for and reserve materials from the entire county library system. The items I request are shipped to my local library, which sends me an e-mail when they arrive. I then have a week to pick them up. It’s like getting NetFlix or Amazon for free, although you have to return the materials after three weeks. (Actually, in many cases, you can renew the materials online as well, so you get more time.)

Today, I checked the site to see when my books and discs were due, and discovered that two DVDs I’d borrowed last week had already expired. Apparently they’re so popular that they only lend for seven days. Because you can’t renew overdue materials and I didn’t know when they’d show up again, I decided to copy them to my Mac. That will save the library the time and expense of reshipping and storing the discs for me. It will also allow other library patrons to see the discs sooner.

After I watch the movies, I’ll delete the copied files; I have no interest in piracy, just time-shifting. As Matthew Russell pointed out in “How Intellectual Property Laws Can Drain Your Battery's Juice,” watching a DVD from your laptop hard drive saves energy as well.

Copying the commercial DVD was free and simple. I fired up MacTheRipper, selected “RCE 1” from the RCE Region menu, and hit Go. (Even though the program creates files that will play in any region, you need to specify the disc’s native region if it exists already.) Fifty-seven minutes later, the DVD and all its bonus features were converted to files in a 4.36GB folder called VIDEO_TS on my hard drive.

Those files were unplayable, so I used another freeware program, DVD Imager, to package them as a disk image. When I subsequently double-clicked the disk image, Apple DVD Player launched and played the movie. Had I wanted, I could have burned the image to a blank DVD-R, but as I said, I wasn’t interested in pirating the disc, just watching it once at a convenient time. However, I’m sure I’ll be using this simple two-step system to make backup copies of my own discs. Many of the library DVDs I check out are so scratched they’re barely playable.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/wlg/8050





Yahoo Tunes Into Podcasting With New Search Tools

Hoping to tune into the latest craze in digital media, Yahoo Inc. is introducing tools for finding, organizing and rating ``podcasts'' -- the audio programs designed to be played on Apple Inc.'s iPod and many other portable music players.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, which operates the world's most visited Web site, plans to begin testing the new service Monday at http://podcasts.yahoo.com.

Although it can do several things, the free service focuses on making it easier for people to sift through the tens of thousands of podcasts currently available on the Web to find the programming best suited to their personal interests.

``We intend to be the most comprehensive source for podcast content,'' said Geoff Ralston, Yahoo's chief product officer.

Yahoo isn't the first Web site to search podcasts. Specialty Web sites such as Odeo.com and Podcast.net already do the same thing.

But Yahoo is the first Internet heavyweight to tackle the task. ``We feel like we are really getting ahead of the curve with this,'' Ralston said.

It's only a matter of time before Yahoo's rivals, including online search engine leader Google Inc., introduce similar podcasting features, predicted Phil Leigh, an analyst for Inside Digital Media in Tampa, Fla.

``Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the future of search is in audio and video. Searching through text on the Internet has really reached a maturity point,'' he said. ``If you look 10 years down the road, everyone is going to be searching for podcasts.''

All the major search engines are adding more bells and whistles in an effort to retain and attract visitors. The traffic is crucial because the search engines need a substantial audience to continue generating the ad sales that account for most of their profits.

Yahoo estimates that up to 5 million people currently listen to podcasts, which run a gamut of topics. Everything from the president's weekly address to ordinary citizens ranting about their pet peeves are available on podcasts.

The potential market is much larger. Apple so far has sold more than 20 million iPods, accounting for about three-fourths of the MP3 players in the United States.

But the podcasting phenomenon remains a mystery to most of the country -- something that Yahoo believes it can change by delivering more comprehensive search results and enabling users to store the podcasts in their computer's music players, including Apple's iTunes and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Player in addition to Yahoo's.

That way, people can listen to the podcasts at their convenience, even if they don't have an iPod or another portable device that plays MP3 audio files.

Besides the iPod, Yahoo's service also is compatible with the iRiver player, Dell Inc.'s DJ and Creative Technology Ltd.'s Zen.

Yahoo's service is built strictly for listeners. Unlike Odeo's site, Yahoo isn't providing any tools for creating podcasts, although there are plans to do so eventually, said Joe Hayashi, Yahoo's director of product management.

``This is all about discovery for now,'' Hayashi said. ``Step One is all about growing the ecosystem.''
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/12865848.htm





Panel: E-voting Vulnerable
Anne Broache

Overlooked bugs and malicious code pose a plausible threat to software on electronic voting machines, a panel of election experts said Friday.

At a conference held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Commerce Department, election officials, computer scientists and academics weighed in on steps that should be taken before, during and after elections to protect the voting systems against software- related problems. Voting has gone increasingly electronic during the past couple of election cycles, but the devices remain without national, uniform security standards.

Keeping electronics systems safe is not just about fending off hackers, members of the panel said.

"All of you running voting systems now are assuredly running software that has bugs in it--presumably in most cases not malicious--but software is buggy," Ron Rivest, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the audience, composed largely of election officials from various parts of the country.

It's those bugs, the panel suggested, that are probably most likely to blame for irregularities in election outcomes. The problem can be quelled to an extent, the panel said, by insisting on a meticulous, higher-quality approach to software development, by certifying all products, and by openly disclosing the source code used.

The openness of voting systems is fundamental to a democratic system, said Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor who has been a longtime election equipment certifier for Pennsylvania.

"If you spend three hours with a voting system, you can figure out how it works and you can replicate it yourself," Shamos said. "I think we need disclosure."

But the idea of exposing the code to outside eyes--not a new one--has spawned criticism from software industry groups such as the Information Technology Association of America, which say they worry it could breed election fraud.

Being able to account for the software's point of origin is also critically important, said Paul Craft, chief of voting systems certification for the state of Florida. He and others said problems have arisen when election workers didn't install the appropriate certified software on the machines in the first place.

The question that remained was just how realistic a threat malicious, deliberate attacks are--and how difficult they'd be to detect.

Shamos of Carnegie Mellon said he, for one, would bet money that no one, even an "omniscient hacker," could create software that "alters the outcome of an election, but does it in such a clever way that no amount of testing either before, after or during the election can reveal it."

He suggested that a tactic known as "parallel testing" could help detect irregularities. Using that method, select voting machines are discreetly "cordoned off" on election day and used only by a special team of people who pose as normal voters. The testers know in advance what the vote totals are supposed to be for those test machines, and the mock voters' behavior is videotaped, so if the ballot numbers don't match up, the testers know there's something wrong with the software.

Others disagreed with Shamos' reasoning. "It's another fence an adversary would have to jump over, but if he knew about it ahead of time, he could use measures to defeat parallel testing," Rivest said.

Some panelists imagined scenarios in which attackers posing as voters could slip corrupted "smart cards" into electronic voting machines that rely on such media or use a "signal"--say, a series of touch screen presses--that would trigger the software to swap votes to another candidate.

They also expressed concern that, if voting machines were hooked up to wireless signals, someone could sit outside the warehouse where the machines were stored--or simply use a PDA inside the polling place--to transmit malicious software to the voting machines.

The solution? Design the systems with as few additional frills as possible.

"I don't know if I'm going out on a limb on this, but wireless and voting do not mix," Shamos said, drawing applause from the audience.
http://news.com.com/Panel+E-voting+v...3-5891237.html





The War Of WinMX Is On - Intrigue, Backstabbing, And More
Posted by napho

From one of the producers of WinMX caches
Dont Let Vladd Take Your WinMX

Below you will see our petition to stop Vladd from taking over your WinMX. This is a statement from WinMX World on behalf of the real owners of WinMX, the users. Please note that the quotes below are taken from a document of a meeting of Operation PIE.


Vladd
We petition you to take a greater look at your actions. Please think of the good of WinMX and not the glory of yourself. We petition you to stop allowing the planning of attacks on the ws2_32.dll or any other means KM releases that allows users to connect. We petition you to also stop the planing of this take over of WinMX to change it into your personal p2p ie: PieMX. Its in the interest of WinMX that you reconsider your actions and take a look at your motives. This program doesnt belong to you, or any ONE individual. WinMX belongs to the users. Your actions and lack of actions would give way for users to think that your intentions are to take somthing that does not belong to you, and to destroy any one that doesnt fit into your PIE Patch agenda, and team. It is the position of WinMX World that you have no rights to take WinMX and make decisions that effect the entire user base with out their consent or knowledge. Control of WinMX no more belongs to Vladd44.com or Operation PIE then it does to WinMX World or WinMX Group.


[15:06] Vladd44: our end of the line date for everything being ready on the push is oct 31st, i want to start pushing b4 then, but thats when everything must be in full effect

[15:06] Nobby: yes Sabre, i do agree i have discussed begining some press releases with Vladd, but we will need to be assured the peer caches can take any increased demand first
[15:07] Vladd44: if we push the numbers and we cant handle them, we are in trouble, and will never recover
[15:07] Gemini777: agreed
[15:07] Jimmy: or a hit from the .dll servers too
[15:07] Vladd44: so we have to be ready when it happens
[15:07] Nobby: perhaps Sabre can update us as to where we are, i for one would like to ear him have the floor for a min or 2?
[15:07] Ranma?: i'm working on udp validation. if we manage to get it working we should be able to handle more queries
[15:07] Nobby: hear*
[15:07] Vladd44: which also means getting that dll off of more peoples comps

[15:08] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): we need to put on V's site to tell ppl to remove the dll patch
[15:09] Vladd44: almost 10,000 people downloaded piepatch 2.6 from me at days end yesterday
[15:09] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): but implications of that?
[15:09] Vladd44: so in 24 hours another 10,000 people got it from site

[15:09] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): ppl r using pie patch fine ... they all get the info and many look in for updates
[15:10] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): but the official word needs to go out to stop using KM's patch
[15:10] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): like on the front page

[15:10] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): but seriously like what Matt said we need to get KM's patch off his site or something as drastic as that to stop ppl from using it.

[15:14] Vladd44: if in doubt, and they cant host a peer cache send them to research
[15:15] Vladd44: bc thats the 2 things we need in place to bury this
[15:15] Vladd44: we need more people running peer caches
[15:15] Vladd44: and we need more places to post about JesusMX :P

[15:25] Vladd44: thats after the 30 day period of recovery
[15:25] Vladd44: we have to keep enough of a userbase to make a built in migration

[15:28] Nobby: this will help me and other team members work out how the fuck to reach 8 million ppl
[15:28] Nobby: i do ofc understand the tech guys must be prepared for this first

[15:28] Nobby: i have ideas, but we need more
[15:29] Nobby: this is bigger than most of u could imagine
[15:29] Nobby: no disrespect indended

[15:48] SABre'911: (sorry, gathering thoughts, lost them)
[15:48] SABre'911: I have asked hollow, who I think is overloaded at present, for a Search and Destory of ws2_32.dll to be added to the next installer.
[15:48] Vladd44: yes
[15:49] Vladd44: it needs to go

[15:49] SABre'911: The 2.7 version of the host file well have at least 1 or 2 new caches in it, and probably remove KM's caches.

[15:50] Vladd44: i have mixed views about pulling all of his servers out
[15:50] SABre'911: I dont.
[15:50] Vladd44: lol
[15:50] Vladd44: i was speaking from political terms
[15:50] SABre'911: It was already stated ``I didnt do it the winmx way''.

[15:52] Vladd44: people will go to where they know
[15:52] Vladd44: and a lot of people know v44
[15:52] Vladd44: and love is building a rep on help
[15:52] Vladd44: but we need to get more involved in helping
[15:52] Vladd44: thats the key
[15:53] Vladd44: i will start trying to crack a whip

[16:07] Vladd44: no reason to argue battles that breaking even is winning
[16:07] Vladd44: its pointless
[16:07] Vladd44: not on the forum
[16:07] Vladd44: in a channel
[16:07] Vladd44: on a street corner
[16:07] Vladd44: so i implore everyone to abstain
[16:07] Vladd44: simply ignore it
[16:07] Vladd44: if someone is wrong it will bear out
[16:07] Vladd44: you dont need to prove them wrong
[16:08] Vladd44: its lose lose
[16:08] Jimmy: do not boot them
[16:08] Camille Le On: or ban
[16:08] Vladd44: that would be admitting you heard them
[16:08] Jimmy: we have a plan
[16:08] Vladd44: people do not talk to walls
[16:08] SABre'911: lmfao some do
[16:08] Vladd44: lol true
[16:08] Jimmy: thier plan is to disturb our plan

[16:08] Jimmy: that's all they have
[16:08] Vladd44: just go forward
[16:09] Vladd44: look to the agenda you have
[16:09] Vladd44: the reasons you are doing this
[16:09] Vladd44: each of us is doing this for their own set of reasons, most of us are just to stubborn to walk away
[16:09] SABre'911: ``I must hijack winmx'' Oh, wait, already done... next!
[16:09] Vladd44: dont get sidetracked by someone else

[16:10] Sable: whats wrong with hijacking winmx ?
[16:10] Sable: freon hijacked TSC and i dit LVHC lol
[16:10] Nobby: how far are u prepared to go with that Vladd, i cant allow too much bad PR to the ppl, as i said earlier

[16:13] Nobby: this is more important than a name, its almost a corporate identity, excuse the phrase, but from a pr point of view, its crucial
[16:13] Gemini777: lol
[16:13] Sable: i vote for sabmx )
[16:14] Sable: piemx
[16:14] Vladd44: nah
[16:14] Vladd44: not piemx
[16:14] Vladd44: MXpie
[16:14] Sable:
[16:14] Nobby: we already have an identity, go with it, it will score with public support
[16:14] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): it must start with winmx or mx
[16:14] SABre'911: Carefull of trademark
[16:14] Nobby: im with MXpie
[16:14] Subhuman_Bob: if we change the name, then why are we trying to save WinMX? We may as well start over from scratch, whcih is what a name change would be. People use WinMX because they've heard of it.
[16:14] Sable: PieMX
[16:15] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): I like it ... MXPie or MXpie?
[16:15] K?I???'?.: hijackMX
[16:15] Sable: lol
[16:15] *** JIM-921 has left the conversation.
[16:15] Vladd44: if there is a clone, or update bob, it cant be named winmx
[16:15] Nobby: because Bob, we ae now our own entity
[16:15] Vladd44: ok
[16:15] Vladd44: well i like MXpie
[16:15] Vladd44: but thats just me
[16:15] Vladd44: or MXPie
[16:15] Nobby: MXpie, is my vote
[16:15] Vladd44: i wasnt taking a vote :P

[16:16] K?I???'?.: i vote with the majority
[16:17] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): hey we get them to use it first ... THEN we tell them the origin of it
[16:17] Nobby: thats 6, 1 more
[16:17] Camille Le On: you got to get them to trust it first
[16:17] Camille Le On: users are like sheep
[16:17] Camille Le On: they stick to what they know

[16:36] * Vladd44 seriously any objects to this being available?
[16:36] SABre'911: Nope
[16:36] Vladd44: its going to be available anyway
[16:36] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): mass distribute it
[16:36] SABre'911: we should not be able to be branded as working behind closed doors.
[16:36] love005_2004@yahoo.com (E-mail Address Not Verified): more ppl need to know what we r doing.
[16:36] Vladd44: agreed sabre
[16:36] Gemini777: agreed sabre
[16:36] Subhuman_Bob: I don't think anything was said that people shouldn't hear
[16:36] Camille Le On: true
[16:36] Camille Le On: so share it
[16:36] Nobby: 100%
[16:36] Camille Le On: let them see it
[16:37] Vladd44: ok
[16:37] Subhuman_Bob: if people want to accuse us of hiding things, they'll just claim the logs were edited before they were posted.
[16:37] Vladd44: then i am done

I hope that all of the readers here see exactly what your trying to do, and realize that no one group should be in control of WinMX, proven by your own words here. For anyone that wants to read this entire text document or feels we may have taken the above quotes out of context I invite you to download the document itself, made public at
Transcript
Incase they had second thoughts about editing this document its been also uploaded to here:
Transcript
Feel free to compare the creation dates to verify we have not edited this. Feel free to ask Vladd yourself, we did and he states that this tracscript is correct.
Please send your opinions of this to vladd44@vladd44.com and help us tell him he can not have mx for himself. Or post your views here:
Open Letter To Vladd


©2005 WinMXWorld.com. All rights reserved. Page last updated Thu Oct 13 2005
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...ad.php?t=22064





New AT&T Comcast Information Raises Concerns About Future of the Internet
Mark Wahl

Comcast and AT&T refuse to reveal terms of AOL ISP agreement

In an article released 9/16 in Electronic Media magazine, Diane Mermigas raises new concerns about the AOL agreement with AT&T Comcast to gain access to its high-speed Internet network. At stake now is not only the Internet service provider's ability to create a relationship with its subscribers, but to offer the very services that distinguish broadband from dial-up Internet access. A dangerous precedent is being set that will have negative implications for the future of the Internet and the public interest.

Several weeks ago, Comcast and AT&T announced an agreement with AOL Time Warner to settle issues of control over Time Warner Entertainment as a part of the review process for the impending AT&T Comcast merger. In this settlement, AOL was to gain access to a portion of the merged company's subscribers to offer high-speed Internet service. CDD, the Media Access Project, Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America have already voiced significant concerns about the agreement, noting that AOL's competitive position would be hampered by its inability to create direct relationships with consumers, as well as by unfavorable revenue sharing terms.

But Mermigas' article reveals a much more insidious set of terms with broad implications for the future of the Internet. Citing "well-placed industry sources," she reports that the agreement prohibits AOL broadband from offering any services that "would directly compete with AT&T-Comcast's digital cable content, such as streaming video." In short, AT&T Comcast will eliminate AOL's ability to compete in offering the bandwidth-intensive content and services that drive residential broadband adoption. These terms set AT&T Comcast up to be the exclusive and unassailable provider of broadband Internet service on its networks.

This news comes as Comcast and AT&T continue to refuse to submit for FCC review the terms of their carriage agreement with AOL. As a part of the merger review process, these companies are required to make available all relevant documents describing the terms of the merger to the FCC. Yet they have refused to do so in the case of the AOL ISP agreement, and 9/13 filed a rebuttal of CDD and the other consumer group's request to have these terms entered into the record.

In their filing, Comcast and AT&T argue that the AOL ISP agreement is a "market-driven, commercially- negotiated solution" to ISP access, and as such has "no place in this proceeding." Yet this statement only emphasizes how out-of-touch the companies are with the history of the Internet as an open and diverse medium. The ISP agreement reveals not only their heavy-handed vision for the future of high-speed communications, but also their strategic power to implement that vision to the disadvantage of competing ISPs and the public interest.

The prospect of AOL being forced to agree to a non-compete clause in order to gain access to a portion of the AT&T Comcast network should set off alarm bells not only with competing ISPs, but with anyone who cherishes the Internet as a place for openness and diversity. Not only should the FCC demand to review the AT&T Comcast/AOL ISP agreement, but it should also launch an immediate investigation into the potential anticompetitive issues raised by the market power that the merging companies already appear to be wielding. So should the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice and Congress. The future of the Internet and the public interest demands it.
http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/...TTComcast.html





Spyware Threat Escalating, Expert Warns
Will Sturgeon

Spyware is becoming increasingly pernicious and sophisticated, according to security experts who are warning that users are still failing to take basic steps to protect themselves against the threat.

It's a problem that should scare big businesses as they face up to the fact that important data could be leaking out of their organizations daily. And yet too many organizations are failing to properly educate or protect their employees, one expert says.

"You'd be surprised at the amount of data these things collect," said Eric Chien, a senior researcher at Symantec.

Chien said techniques such as screen capture, key logging, behavioral analysis and common word recognition are all methods employed by spyware applications to build a profile of a user. Presenting at the Virus Bulletin conference in Dublin, Ireland, Chien also detailed the ways in which spyware can get onto a machine.

"At their most basic, they will be able to find your name, your gender, your age, the amount of time you spend online, what you search for, what you buy and what Web sites you visit," he said.

Chien proved this point by showing the detailed data relayed by one piece of common spyware.

Such applications won't discriminate between personal and corporate data, though the latter tends to be of far higher value.

Chien also showed conference delegates a more advanced spyware application that is programmed to kick in when any one of hundreds of Web sites are visited and certain words encountered on the page.

Such an application, for example, was able to take and relay screenshots whenever the user was on particular retailers' Web sites where the word "confirm" appeared.

"If you're hitting 'confirm,' then what information is going to be visible on that Web page? Credit card number, name, expiry date, billing address, shipping address." Chien said.

Tracking the users
And it gets far more worrying for users. The application is also programmed to start sending screenshots whenever users are on any page of certain banks' Web sites.

Chien said users shouldn't put too much faith in perceptions of security as presented in 'https' style URLs.

"Some of these applications can read all https traffic," said Chien, though the danger exists only when accessing such sites from an infected machine.

In fact, the only way users can be protected against such threats is to ensure spyware doesn't exist on their computers.

That requires a balance of technical and educational approaches.

Companies should all have anti-spyware protection in place on all machines, but users must also realize the threat posed by activities such as installing non-essential software and clicking on pop-ups from unknown or untrustworthy sources.

According to research out today from another security vendor, Trend Micro, around a quarter of employees in the U.S. in both the small business and enterprise sector have fallen victim to spyware while at work.

In total, 87 percent of respondents said they are aware of a threat posed by spyware while 57 percent said they want more education on the threat and 40 percent believe their IT department could be doing more to protect them.
http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-5893267.html





Governor Signs Bill On Violent Games

Renting, selling them to minors becomes illegal
Dean Takahashi

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Friday that makes it illegal to sell or rent violent video games to minors in California.

The signing of the bill, written by Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee, shows how far the video game industry has fallen out of political favor in a few short months. California joins Illinois and Michigan in passing an anti-violent video game bill in the past year alone, and similar bills have been proposed in just about every state, even though the courts have found prior prohibitions unconstitutional.

The law takes effect Jan. 1, although the video-game industry is already vowing to challenge it in court.

The governor said in a statement, ``Today I signed legislation to ensure parent involvement in determining which video games are appropriate for their children. The bill I signed will require that violent video games be clearly labeled and not be sold to children under 18 years old. Many of these games are made for adults, and choosing games that are appropriate for kids should be a decision made by their parents.''

Yee's bill stalled last year and again in the spring in the Assembly, but it passed easily this time. Yee said in an interview that many legislators were ready to sign on the heels of the video game industry's worst public relations gaffe: Hidden sex scenes were uncovered this summer in ``Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,'' causing the game's maker to pull the game from stores.

`Terminator' safe

Until now, California stores have had only a voluntary obligation to restrict the sale of games rated for adults, and kids can walk into some stores and buy whatever they want.

The new law doesn't use the game industry's own rating system, which labels games as ``mature'' or ``adults only'' for those 17 and up. Yee said that courts have held that states can't endorse a private industry rating system.

Instead, the bill bans the sale or rental of ``violent video games'' to minors, where such games are defined as those that include killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being. The bill says the game's sale to minors would be banned if a ``reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, would find appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors.''

The law also classifies a game as subject to the ban if the violence in it is ``patently offensive,'' ``cruel,'' ``depraved,'' or ``heinous.''

Opponents said this will lead to confusion about which games are affected and will lead to case-by-case decisions by juries. But Yee said that retailers themselves won't be held responsible for categorizing games. The burden, he said, falls on the game publishers or their distributors to put 2-inch-high ``18'' labels on the games that have such violent images in them.

Asked if the ban would cover the games based on the governor's own movies, such as the ``Terminator'' games rated ``teen'' for ages 13 and up, Yee said he didn't expect that teen games would wind up being banned under the new law's categorization.

Based on studies that show that violent games make children more aggressive, various teacher, medical, psychological and youth groups supported the legislation. But the game industry cites studies that suggest there's no harm from playing violent games.

The law will lead to legal challenges from the game industry's trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, which notes that no such ban applies to violent movies or racy music.

``We are disappointed that politicians of both parties chose to toss overboard the First Amendment and free artistic and creative expression in favor of political expediency,'' Doug Lowenstein, president of the ESA, said in a statement. ``The ESA intends to file a lawsuit to strike this law down and we are confident that we will prevail.''

Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, the biggest independent publisher of video games with headquarters in Redwood City, said in a statement, ``The certainty of a constitutional challenge makes this a hollow gesture. Several courts have affirmed that games enjoy the same constitutional protections as movies, books and television and I expect they will come to the same conclusion in California.''

Sledgehammer effect

But one observer said the new law would have impact.

``I think the reality of the California video game law will hit the video game business like a sledgehammer,'' said Dennis McCauley, editor of the Web site www.game politics.com. ``I mean, this is California, the heart of the game industry.''

Industry representatives on Friday were critical of the governor as well as the legislation.

``It's kind of ironic he's protecting kids from himself,'' said Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association. ``It's an interesting public relations move where he bunches together all these things to protect children. We are seeing continuing ignorance on the part of politicians and critics on the games industry.''
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/12851768.htm





Buried Clause Could Tag Films, TV Shows As Porn
Brooks Boliek

Tucked deep inside a massive bill designed to track sex offenders and prevent children from being victimized by sex crimes is language that could put many Hollywood movies in the same category as hard-core, X-rated films.

The provision added to the Children's Safety Act of 2005 would require any film, TV show or digital image that contains a sex scene to come under the same government filing requirements that adult films must meet.

Currently, any filmed sexual activity requires an affidavit that lists the names and ages of the actors who engage in the act. The film is required to have a video label that claims compliance with the law and lists where the custodian of the records can be found. The record-keeping requirement is known as Section 2257, for its citation in federal law. Violators could spend five years in jail.

Under the provision inserted into the Children's Safety Act, the definition of sexual activity is expanded to include simulated sex acts like those that appear in many movies and TV shows.

"It's a significant and unprecedented expansion of the scope of the law," one industry executive said. "I don't think the studios would like being grouped in with the hard-core porn industry."

The provision, written by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., could have ramifications beyond simply requiring someone to ensure that the names and ages of actors who partake in pretend lovemaking as compliance with Section 2257 in effect defines a movie or TV show as a pornographic work under federal law. Industry sources say the provision was included in the bill at the behest of the Justice Department. Calls to Pence's office and the Justice Department went unreturned Tuesday.

On Pence's Web site, the congressman contends that the provision is meant to crack down on "so-called 'home pornographers' that use downloading on the Internet and digital and Polaroid photography to essentially create an at-home cottage industry for child pornography."

Industry officials contend that the way the provision is written, a sex scene could trigger the provision even if the actors were clothed. While the language is designed to capture "lascivious exhibition of the genitals," other legal decisions have said that "lascivious exhibition" could occur when the genitals are covered.

The bill, with the Section 2257 provision included, already has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and is waiting consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Industry executives worry that the provision, which is retroactive to 1995, will have a chilling effect on filmmakers. Faced with the choice of filing a 2257 certificate or editing out a scene, a filmmaker might decide it's not worth getting entangled with the federal government and let the scene fall to the cutting-room floor, the executives said.

"From the creative side of the street, there's concern that the government of federal law enforcement would get involved in what you were doing," one industry source said. "At some point, people would be faced with the decision: 'Do I include the scene and register a 2257 or leave it out?' "

In 1988, a similar provision was ruled unconstitutional by the federal court here. Congress later rewrote it so that it included only actual sex acts, not the pretend acts in movies and TV shows.

The 2257 provision also has ramifications beyond the artistic as a federal tax provision designed to stem runaway production is unavailable to anyone required to register a 2257. Many state incentives designed to entice filmmakers to shoot on location also contain similar language.

Industry officials contend that the law is unnecessary. California laws and industry practices protecting children from harm are among the most stringent.

"The California law goes from soup to nuts," one industry executive said. "There's not one shadow of any evidence that the movie industry doesn't protect children."

While the provision is designed to ensure that children aren't abused, its critics say it will do little to stem child sex abuse.

"Guys who are making this stuff don't care about reporting requirements," one source said. "When they're caught, they're looking at 30 years in prison. There's no indication they're going to fill out the paperwork."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...LM-PORN-DC.XML





Playboy's Strip Tease

Playboy appears to scale back, but it's actually going in for some augmentation surgery.
Rick Aristotle Munarriz

In yet another publishing-industry retrenchment, Playboy has announced that it will scale back on its base rate. Going from a circulation of 3.15 million monthly issues to 3 million may not seem like much, but it's the company's first step back in 10 years.

Then again, it's not fair to call this a retreat. The company's advertising rates are going up by 8%, and its namesake magazine's cover price will be going up by a buck starting with the January issue. So let's not fall for the lower base rate here. Like many of its photogenic centerfolds, the company is looking to accomplish more with less.

In fact, it will go from 18 different international Playboy editions to 20 once it adds Argentina and Ukraine to the mix. In yesterday's filing, Playboy also announced a video-on-demand deal with Comcast.

Reining in the base rate makes sense, given that the company began to offer its popular magazine online just last month. Playboy has been a dot-com institution for ages, but this is the first time that the actual magazine will be available on the Internet in its entirety.

Some may argue that Playboy is late in migrating its entire publication online, but the adult-entertainment giant's timing is actually pretty good. A lot of the press surrounding the recent closings of popular peer-to-peer file sharing networks has been dedicated to its impact on the music industry. Sure, the move is a positive for major record labels such as Warner Music Group and Vivendi's Universal, but a lot of smut was also being swapped through these now-darkened gateways. That may help the online purveyors of hardcore pornography such as New Frontier Media or the website arm of Rick's Cabaret more than a company like Playboy, which favors the softer side of adult entertainment. But it should still be a favorable influence for the company that Hugh Hefner built.

So, sure, let the headlines have you believe that Playboy is actually scaling back. We all know that it's got more than a few appointments lined up for augmentation surgery on its business model.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9671844/





Iraq-Corpse Web Site Operator Held For Obscenity

The American operator of a Web site which posted grisly pictures of people killed in the Iraq and Afghan conflicts (WiR 10-8) was arrested on obscenity charges unrelated to the war photos, police officials in Florida said.

The Polk County sheriff's office said Christopher Michael Wilson was arrested on Friday and faces one count of wholesale distribution of obscene material and 300 misdemeanor charges relating to the Web site and pornographic photos.

The charges were unrelated to the photos of corpses from Iraq and Afghanistan, which the site states were provided by U.S. troops in exchange for free access to pornographic material.

Several of the graphic pictures showed men wearing what looked like U.S. military uniforms, standing over charred corpses, mutilated bodies and severed body parts.

Many were accompanied by captions making light of the corpses. One photo of a charred body was dubbed "Cooked Iraqi."

The Pentagon has said it found no evidence any of the photos were posted by soldiers.

Wilson was being held in jail under a $151,000 bond, the Polk County sheriff's office said.

"In my 33 years of law enforcement experience, this is one of the most horrific examples of filthy, obscene materials we have ever seized," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. He did not elaborate.

Judd said the investigation was continuing and any pertinent information would be shared with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division.

Judd told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper his investigation was not spurred by federal authorities.

Wilson lives in Lakeland, Florida, but hosts the site out of Amsterdam, Netherlands, according to an article last month in the Online Journalism Review of the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California.

The controversy sparked by the photographs of war dead followed the publication a year and a half ago of photos showing U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail. That scandal prompted international condemnation of the United States.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...Michael+Wilson


















Until next week,

- js.


















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