Swappers Sprint To Cloak Identities
No way to stay hidden, some say.
Dawn C. Chmielewski
The response was predictable. The major file-swapping services are rushing to shield users' identities within weeks of the recording industry announcing plans to sue individuals who trade copyrighted music online.
Blubster, an upstart service in Madrid, Spain, was the first to claim to cloak users from the prying eyes of detection software. And it certainly isn't alone. Established file-swapping services such as Morpheus and iMesh say they'll implement new software to protect users' privacy -- some as soon as next week. Others are likely to follow.
Technologists working for the entertainment industry say these services are offering users a false sense of security. That there's no way to remain anonymous when exchanging data -- otherwise, like a letter without a postal address, the digital package would never arrive.
``If you are trading files on the Internet, we will find you,'' said Mark Ishikawa, chief executive of BayTSP.com, an Internet detective agency in Campbell that does work for major film studios, record labels and software companies.
The race for anonymity is only the latest move in the ongoing technological chess match between the technologists whose software enables an estimated 57 million people worldwide to exchange songs, movies and software, and the entertainment industry that's trying to stop it.
The entertainment industry has tried flooding file-sharing networks with millions of bogus or ``spoofed'' files and is developing more aggressive countermeasures that would freeze a user's computer or scour the hard drive for pirated files, then attempt to delete them. The peer-to-peer companies responded with new versions of software to sniff out phony files and to blacklist certain computers thought to be spewing phony files or snooping.
The record industry's latest anti-piracy initiative is intended to strike fear in the hearts of those who use file-swapping services to download music. The Recording Industry Association of America said it would spend the summer gathering dossiers on individuals who trade bootlegged songs over the Internet. And it plans to file hundreds -- and possibly thousands -- of lawsuits to scare people away from peer-to-peer networks.
There's no shortage of those within the file-swapping community who dismiss the RIAA announcement as a hollow threat. But the services are nonetheless acting quickly to shield users from detection.
Blubster uses an Internet protocol that allows computer users to trade data without directly connecting to one another. ``When you send a packet, you will never know what happened with that packet,'' said Pablo Soto, the 23-year-old creator of the underlying software. ``It's like throwing a bottle into the ocean with a message that may or may not go to somewhere else.''
A Blubster user tosses out a request for a file into an ocean of computer users -- at a rate of 15,000 computers a second -- and receives minute portions of the file flowing back from many users, not one identifiable source. Its technology is attracting interest from more established file-swapping services, such as Grokster, with its 10 million users.
Morpheus next week will begin directing users to a network of public proxy servers that act as a stand-in between the computer user requesting a file and the one offering it for download, effectively cloaking their identities.
IMesh, borrowing a page from the recording industry, plans to plant decoy computers from fake locations that trade non-existent files.
``It's the virus vs. the anti-virus software. The firewall vs. the hacker,'' said Elan Oren, chief executive of iMesh in Tel Aviv, Israel. ``They're going to come with a measure, we're going to come with a counter measure. At the end of the day, it serves nobody.''
Oren and other chief executives within the peer-to-peer community realize that they're just buying time. The services continue to evolve -- as much to skirt lawsuits as to improve the speed and reliability of downloads. But such mutations are only short-term solutions.
The file-swapping sites need access to licensed music and movies -- not just bootlegs, Oren said in a telephone interview. Despite discussions with record labels dating back to Napster's heyday in 2000 and continuing today -- those licenses are not coming.
``We had meetings with Sony Music, Universal Music with Warner Music. We had meetings with Bertelsmann,'' Oren said. ``They told us we're just not going to get our music. `Shut this service down, then we will talk . . .' I'm not going to shut this service down.''
The recording industry's intransigence is so complete it has prompted the competing file-swapping services to cooperate to counter efforts to shut them down. Seven major services have formed a consortium, called Peer-to-Peer United, to begin lobbying Congress to compel the record labels and movie studios to license their content. Their initiative is expected to begin this fall.
``We think the voices of 60 million Americans need to be heard,'' said Michael Weiss, chief executive of StreamCast Networks, the corporate parent of Morpheus. ``Up until now the debate's been one-sided, with the record industry painting file-sharing software as illegal. A federal judge said it's not. They're painting their customers as pirates, when they're not. Congress needs to know the right name for their customers. They're not pirates. They're voters.''
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...ss/6299172.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spanish Shawn Fanning Is Hot
Whiz's software may pop up in U.S.
Dawn C. Chmielewski
Pablo Soto has been hailed as the Spanish Shawn Fanning: a 23-year-old kid with a knack for coding, a passion for music and a certain brashness in his willingness to take on the record industry.
At least for now, Soto is better known in Europe, where two file-swapping services, Blubster and Piolet, are powered by the MP2P software he created. But he may gain a higher profile in the United States if established services, such as Grokster and iMesh, adopt his unique version of peer-to-peer software.
``I cannot say much,'' Soto said in an interview from his parents' home in Spain. ``But I will say that if you go to the rankings of the most downloaded peer-to-peer programs -- if you take from the second to the seventh, all of them are talking with me.''
Like Fanning, who started Napster and almost single-handedly launched the online music revolution, Soto is largely a self-taught geek who has been toying with computers since age 8. He has always professed a love of music -- and even did a brief stint as the front-man for a Spanish rock group.
It was the Napster revolution that captured his imagination. Soto left his job and retreated to his childhood room, where he began experimenting with Gnutella, open-source file-sharing software in which developers license the core onto which they add their own code. He relied, not on formal instruction, but on books and a virtual support group available through Internet chat sites such as P2Pchat.net.
``The problem was the Internet in Spain was terribly expensive. The only way to connect was through international calls,'' he said. His mother pulled the phone line from his room after he ran up astronomical phone bills. ``But even then, I still managed to connect,'' he said.
Soto began crafting his own file-swapping architecture, using a different file transfer protocol called UDP to move files, instead of the traditional Internet TCP protocol. It is a ``connectionless'' protocol that doesn't reveal the individual addresses of each computer connected to the network, affording users a certain degree of anonymity.
He calls his software MP2P. And he created Blubster, a file-swapping service created, and since sold, as a proof of concept. It has been downloaded 3.5 million times on CNet's download.com Web site -- and attracted the notice of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the European affiliate of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Soto seems unafraid of being hauled into court. He said he expects to be threatened. Indeed, he is almost defiant.
``Sooner or later, I'll have to defend myself in court,'' Soto said. ``But whatever. I am a developer. And nobody's going to stop me from writing code or, with my pen and paper, drawing little circles like ISPs and lines like connections,'' he added, referring to popular schematics showing how peer-to-peer architectures work.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/mer...ss/6299169.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ogg Vorbis Card Ready
Press Release
Achieved competitive 12MHz operation, targeting portable music player.
FineArch, Inc., Tokyo Japan based semiconductor LSI design company, developed the system IP to decode the next generation digital music compression format, Ogg Vorbis(
http://www. vorbis.com). FineArch successfully completed the Ogg vorbis sytstem IP to run at 12 Mhz. This is about 1/6 of the clock speed required to decode Ogg Vorbis with a single CPU system. This ultra low power IP fits well with the today’s portable music player market where battery life is critical factor.
Ogg Vorbis is attracting much attention to the digital music world as a "license and royalty free" compression format. Ogg Vorbis is also known as its higher quality, higher compression ratio compared to MP3, current standard of the compression music format. Encoding and decoding process of Ogg Vorbis is more CPU intensive task than those of MP3. Hardware implementation of Ogg Vorbis has been
scarce. FineArch.Inc fully noted the potential of the Ogg Vorbis, developed the Ogg Vorbis playback System IP.
This "System IP" consisted of Hardwared IP and Software IP which needed to build a portable music player. It has all the necessary components to build a standard portable music player.
"Hardware IP" includes "MultiCore Architecture"; CPU and DSP, Memory card interface, External memory interface, LCD controller, and Key input function. Only external memory and audio D/A converter is needed to build a complete portable player system.
"Software IP" includes DSP firmware to decode Ogg vorbis and the CPU firmware for overall system control. Fully utilizing the advantage of MultiCore architecture system sofware stacks are carefully distributed to CPU and DSP, achieving 12 MHz. This is the lowest system clock speed in the industry known today.
This "System IP" will be licensed to any customers looking for the royalty free, high quality digital music decoding capabilities on their system. Such system includes the portable music player, the game console, PDA, and the portable music entertainment system. FineArch also has the FPGA evaluation kit, which can be ordered directly.
http://www.finearch.com/english/news...r_20030715.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Techno-Posturing Kicks Off Over Ultrawideband
David Minto
Much techno-posturing is reportedly being exhibited over competing standards for ultrawideband, the wireless networking spectrum anticipated to eventually replace almost all forms of cabling between devices with the domestic home.
The proverbial cat was put among the pigeons after Texas Instruments, one of the chipmakers that has real potential to be a heavyweight in UWB standards discussions, and Intel put forward an updated standards proposal on behalf of the Multiband OFDAM Alliance (MBOA), a group that argues for splitting UWB into separate bands. In the other corner of the ring, however, stand Motorola and XtremeSpectrum, advocates of continuous spectrum. The referee for the bout is to be the 802.15.3a working group, which must define the physical aspect for UWB personal networking before August.
Fight!
Defining the best standard for UWB is of no small importance, since the technology, which will have an ability to carry high resolution video at half-a-gigabit speeds, is expected to be at the centre of the networked home digital media revolution – should such a revolution actually ever get round to occuring.
Both groups, of course, argue that their specification is the more sensible. According to ZDNet UK, MBOA says its solution will be more scalable and could more easily handle temporary interruptions to streaming. Meanwhile, Motorola et al claim their standard more adequately meets the stringent limits placed on ultrawideband, UWB being unique in that it reuses ‘taken’ spectrum and hence overlays existing services.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=17069
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Swappers Lay Claim To 'Harry Potter'
Amy Harmon
JC, a 36-year-old Harry Potter fan in Kansas City, Mo., decided he was too old to go chasing after the fifth book in the popular series when it came out last month. Instead, he downloaded the book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" from the Internet, conveniently avoiding both bookstore crowds and the $29.99 cover price.
"I thought it was a little slow until the second half, then it got much better," said JC, who insisted on being identified only by the online nickname because he thinks that what he did was illegal. He said he still intended to buy the book to read to his 8-year-old son.
So far, authors and publishers have mainly stood on the sidelines of the Internet file-swapping frenzy that has shaken the music industry and aroused fear among makers of motion pictures. But the publishing phenomenon around the young wizard appears to be forging a new chapter in the digital copyright wars: Harry Potter and the Internet pirates.
A growing number of Potter devotees around the world seem to be embracing the prospect of reading the voluminous new book (766 pages in the British edition; 870 in the American version) on the screen. And at least some of them are assisting in the cumbersome process of scanning, typing in or translating the book, which its author, J. K. Rowling, has not authorized for publication in any of the existing commercial e-book formats.
Last week, enthusiastic readers put unofficially translated portions of "Order of the Phoenix" on the Web in German and Czech, only to remove them after the publishers that own the rights in their respective countries threatened legal action.
English-language copies of the book — along with fan-written stories masquerading as the real thing — are available on all the major file-sharing networks in a variety of file formats.
The choices include Adobe's ubiquitous PDF and text files that can be opened in a word-processing program. There is also Microsoft's fancier LIT format — which requires use of its free e-book reader software and opens in a narrow window that looks a lot like a book, although with hyperlinks to each chapter and the ability to search for terms like Quidditch.
"What is unusual for us as people who deal with piracy of books is that these are people who are not directly making money for having put them on the Internet," said Ian Taylor, international director of the Publishers Association in Britain. "That is obviously what's been happening with peer-to-peer music, but it's not something we've had to deal with before."
Neil Blair, business manager at Christopher Little, Ms. Rowling's literary agency, said the firm was aware of several unauthorized copies of the book on the Web and was contacting Internet service providers to ask that they be removed.
"E-book rights are reserved to J. K. Rowling," Mr. Blair said. "so any Harry Potter novels on the Net are unauthorized. We also have an obligation to protect the children who might believe they are reading the official work."
Mr. Blair said he did not expect the illicit e-books to have an impact on sales of the printed book. More than 200 million copies of the first four books have been sold in 55 languages. And the fifth book, released at midnight on June 20 and published in Britain by Bloomsbury and in this country by Scholastic, is ranked No. 1 on children's books best-seller lists.
A spokeswoman for Scholastic said no one was available to comment. A spokeswoman at Bloomsbury did not return calls last week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/14/te...ne r=USERLAND
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What's Holding Back Online Music?
Knowledge@Wharton
The music industry believes that it loses $3.5 billion a year to pirating through sites like the now-shuttered Napster and its successors, such as Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster. Music sales have fallen 25 percent since Napster was launched four years ago, and the industry has had three responses: erecting technological barriers to downloading; filing lawsuits against downloaders and their enablers; and creating legal, alternative sites that charge downloading fees that flow to record companies and artists.
But according to Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader, who studies online businesses, another promising approach is getting too little attention.
When Napster was shut down in July 2001, just two years after it was launched, the music industry came to think legal challenges might stem online piracy, says Lee Black, a senior analyst covering music and media for Jupiter Media, the Internet data firm. Napster was vulnerable because it stored on its own servers records of the tracks its members were willing to share.
This spring, however, Apple Computer has enjoyed a breakthrough with its iTunes Music Store service, which offers about 200,000 tracks. Customers pay 99 cents to download each song. After that, it's almost like buying music on a CD, LP or tape. The customer can play it on a computer, burn it to a CD that can be played on any device, or transfer it to an MP3 player. The only restriction is an embedded signal designed to prevent the downloaded songs from winding up on Internet file-sharing services. "The significant thing is that Apple is the first one to come out and say, 'Look, you buy it, you can burn it, you own it," says Black. "I think that's really given the market a huge awakening."
Fader and Black say it's far too soon to say that Apple has found the best music model.
According to them, streaming services get around the problems that confront the legal downloading services like iTunes. Quality of the subscription-based services like Rhapsody is excellent. Consumers can hear what they want immediately. There are no annoying pop-up ads as on the pirating sites, and people don't have to worry about viruses or that they are giving hackers access to their computers--a major concern with file-sharing networks.
Most important, says Fader, selections are extensive, because the music companies don't have to worry about illegal copies. "With no downloading, you have access to a much larger selection of songs," he notes. "I think that's a very important point...Streaming is a much more sensible business model from the industry's perspective."
For $10 a month, an iTunes user would get 10 songs, while a Rhapsody customer could listen to hundreds. The flat fee approach allows people to listen to unfamiliar music without worry about cost, and Rhapsody offers a wide selection of commercial-free, radio station-like channels specializing in various genres. The streaming service involves considerably more interaction between the person and the service than the downloading model does, allowing for many additional features. By studying the person's choices and those of others with similar tastes, the service can recommend other music selections to the user, much the way Amazon recommends books.
Pressplay provides "lots of very cool value-added stuff," including Billboard charts and biographical information on artists," Fader says. "You can basically find out about other people who have tastes similar to your own. There are all kinds of things like that." Moreover, the interface--the steps for finding songs and listening to them--"is much nicer than using any of the illegal services," he adds.
And yet, streaming services have two shortcomings. First, people do not own the music they hear. If all the music they want is available all of the time, practically for free, this should not matter. But pride of ownership is an old habit that many music lovers may resist breaking. "Behavioral change is required for people to learn you don't need to own the music," Fader says. "Clearly," notes Black, "for these services to compete with free (sites) they are going to have to allow more ownership."
Even more important, streaming audio can only be heard via an Internet-linked computer. While the computer can be hooked up to the stereo system, streaming is no good for listeners who want to take their collections in their cars or download them to portable devices. But it won't be long before the spread of wireless Internet hot spots makes this less of a problem, Fader says. People will be able to log on while they are on the go, perhaps with small portable devices.
One thing is fairly certain, Black says: The CD will continue to lose ground to online music delivery systems of one type or another. "Downloading will become very pervasive. You will be able to get downloads just about anywhere...I don't think you're ever going to return to the glory of the CD." He expects downloading to attract more individual users than streaming, but adds: "I think your heaviest spenders, your biggest music lovers, will come with the subscription services."
Indeed, at the end of June, AOL Time Warner announced it is working on plans for a service to rival iTunes. Amazon.com, Microsoft and Yahoo are also reported to be preparing services. Some experts believe competition will quickly cut downloading charges in half, to less than 50 cents a track. At some point, legal services may charge little enough that they can truly compete with peer-to-peer networks, especially if sound quality is top-notch, the purchasing process is simple and the add-on features are captivating. "I think you will always have a free (pirating) market," Black says. "What you have to do is make the legitimate market much easier to use than the free market."
http://news.com.com/2030-1086-1025006.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buy.com To Open Digital Music Mart
John Borland and Sandeep Junnarkar
Buy.com plans to launch a digital music download site that would compete with Apple Computer's successful iTunes music store, according to music industry insiders.
The move, first reported in the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday, marks the start of what is likely to be several moves by large e-commerce companies into the digital music market.
The service is being well-received by record industry insiders, who said Buy.com, a discount e-commerce Web site, is aiming to become "iTunes for Windows."
A Buy.com spokeswoman declined to comment on the impending release, but she said the company was planning a major announcement on July 22.
A flood of iTunes clones has been expected since April, when Apple Computer launched what was widely seen as the most attractive pay-per-song music download service yet to hit the Internet. Observers have been impressed by its ease of use and by the fast sales it generated--five million songs in its first eight weeks of operation. Rival music companies quickly intensified discussions with music labels seeking rights to offer similar services.
By launching the service quickly, even in the midst of a summer season when many computer users are on vacation, Buy.com may be able to get the jump on rivals. That includes Apple, which has said it won't release a Windows version of iTunes until the end of 2003 at the earliest. People familiar with the service said Buy.com has been able to use some technology previously built in-house, speeding its time to market.
Any music store moving into the Windows world will have a steeper hill to climb than iTunes had with Macintosh, however. Apple had the advantage of controlling the delivery technology all the way down to the iPod, the only portable music device that works with songs purchased from the company's online music store.
That made the job of integrating delivery, music format and anti-piracy encryption with hardware and software easier than in the Windows environment, where different brands of MP3 players and digital audio devices support varying music formats and digital rights management technologies.
Analysts said Buy.com is likely to pursue a broadly similar strategy to Apple's, offering cheap and easy music downloads in hopes of selling other goods with higher profit margins. In Apple's case, analysts said selling more iPod music players was an indirect goal for the music store. Similarly, Buy.com is likely attempting to lure visitors to its Web site, where they might also buy anything from computers to backpacks.
"For them, music would be kind of a loss leader," Jupiter Research analyst Lee Black said. "The download space isn't really profitable on its own, but it makes sense in conjunction with other things you do."
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-1026067.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Congress Closer To Reversing Media Rules
Demetri Sevastopulo
The US Congress on Wednesday moved a step closer to overturning controversial media ownership rules when a key House committee unexpectedly voted to lower the Federal Communications Commission's new national television cap.
Last month the FCC voted to raise the cap - which had restricted networks from reaching more than 35 per cent of the national audience - to 45 per cent.
But on Wednesday, with Republican support, the House appropriations committee voted 40-25 to approve legislation that would reinstate the old cap.
The development represents the latest in a series of Congressional moves aimed at rolling back some or all of the FCC's new rules.
On Tuesday Senator Byron Dorgan the North Dakota Democrat, introduced a rarely used congressional veto resolution that would reinstate the old cap with bipartisan support. The Senate commerce committee has also endorsed a bill, sponsored by Ted Stevens, chair of the Senate appropriations committee, and Ernest Hollings, ranking Democrat on the commerce committee, to roll the cap back to 35 per cent. It would also overturn the FCC decision to eliminate a ban on cross-ownership of newspapers and television stations.
Tuesday's vote by the House appropriations committee, which saw 11 Republicans break rank, surprised many industry observers. Billy Tauzin, chairman of the powerful commerce and energy committee, has expressed strong support for Michael Powell, FCC chairman, and the new rules. But including the measure in a must-pass spending bill enabled critics of the FCC rules to bypass Mr Tauzin, who is not a member of the appropriations committee.
The White House has also told congressional leaders that the president's advisers would recommend that he veto any attempt to overturn the FCC rules.
http://www.mediareform.net/news.php?id=662
Until next week,
-
js.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Current Week In Review.
Recent WIRs -
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=16893 July 12th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=16830 July 5th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=16759 June 28th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=16705 June 21st
The Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts at lycos.com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.