Music thieves: Here's a way out
Derek Lomas
I was shocked by the recent actions of the Recording Industry Association of America, which call for damages exceeding $150 billion in a lawsuit against four college students for operating search engines on their university networks. The crime of the students: building an indexing tool that allowed members of the university to search through the contents of shared folders that were already available on the network. The RIAA is claiming damages of $150,000 for each of the copyrighted songs (around a million) found by the search engine, perhaps in the hope of setting an example to scare off similar infractions. But however disgraceful the actions of this widely despised and irresponsible organization, this lawsuit makes one point abundantly clear -- this University community needs a legal alternative to file-sharing.
College students represent the majority of copyright violators for a simple reason -- they are in a learning environment, and they legitimately want to know about musical culture. However, in order to have any academic understanding of modern music (beyond the homogenized pulp available on the ClearChannel radio monopoly), one must be very wealthy -- or willing to break the law. Students of lesser means are severely disadvantaged by this system. The fact is that most students at Yale are very familiar with breaking copyright law, because they are not willing to give up learning about music just because they can't afford the $15 cost of each CD. These students are not looking for porn or video games -- they are looking for music, which we consider to be a vital part of a liberal education. Why is the University not providing a legal alternative? I believe that the alternative, a competitive digital library system, hasn't been technically feasible or easily affordable -- until now.
For starters, we need to acknowledge the legitimacy of the intellectual desire held by Yale students to become knowledgeable about music, in particular modern music. Then we need to acknowledge the fact that at a place like Yale we should not limit this kind of knowledge to those capable of paying for it. Like books, we need to offer this information through our library system. Unfortunately, the central music library is barely capable of keeping up with classical music. The solution, surprisingly, is in the modernization of the currently defunct system of residential college libraries.
The residential college masters should revitalize the residential college libraries by enabling these institutions to become repositories and legal distributors of digital media. Music and other forms of intellectual media can be made accessible through the establishment of residential college streaming media libraries, which would virtually eliminate the need for students to engage in copyright violations. Cost: Less than $10,000 per college, taking into account the $8,000 price tag of a server. Streaming media libraries would allow students in a college to access an entire library of digital music over their computers, offering a reasonable, feasible and legal alternative to the convenience of illegal file-sharing. Streaming technology, developed by Yale alum Rob Glaser (founder of RealNetworks), does not involve illegal copying in order to listen to music, very much unlike the downloading of music that occurs with illegal file-sharing. Streaming libraries would allow educational institutions to bring their students almost any kind of copyrighted academic information legally -- because that is exactly what libraries do.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=22610
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Plan Would Use Software, Not Devices, to Fight Piracy
John Markoff
Prominent computer security researcher has proposed a technical solution aimed at forging a middle ground in the increasingly bitter battle by Hollywood and Silicon Valley over the best way to protect digital content from consumer piracy.
Cryptography Research has begun circulating its proposal, which it calls Self-Protecting Digital Content, among entertainment companies. It plans to make it available publicly this week, in an effort to break the impasse over the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which Congress passed in 1998 with strong lobbying support from Hollywood and other creators of intellectual property.
Cryptography Research's proposal would shift the location of copy-protection code from the consumer products that play music and movies and run software to the content files produced by entertainment companies and software developers. The plan aims to help avoid the immense costs of building piracy protection into personal computers, video game players, satellite receivers and other devices produced by technology manufacturers. While it would not eliminate the possibility of digital theft, its advocates said it would drastically curb piracy while easing the burden on the technology industry.
They say the plan would also avoid invading the privacy of consumers who do not engage in piracy and make it easier and less costly for content owners to recover if a copy-protection system is broken.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/te...gy/15CRYP.html
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Activists assail antipiracy proposal
Say civil rights would be violated under Massachusettes Law
Hiawatha Bray
A plan to enact tough digital antipiracy legislation in Massachusetts has run into fierce opposition from technologists and civil libertarians who say the new law would violate civil rights and ban some common computer security techniques.
The Massachusetts bill, sponsored by state Representative A. Stephen Tobin, Democrat of Quincy, is based on a proposal drawn up by the Motion Picture Association of America, the trade group representing the major Hollywood studios. The association has lobbied legislators in all 50 states to pass similar laws, to give the movie companies a powerful tool to use against people who steal video signals from cable and satellite television providers. Already several US states have enacted such laws, but technology activists nationwide have begun to organize against the proposal.
Dozens of opponents attended a recent State House hearing on the bill, and Tobin has been bombarded with angry phone calls and e-mails. ''There's been a lot of shouting, a lot of accusations,'' Tobin said. As a result, the Motion Picture Association says it will modify the language of the bill to address the concerns of the critics.
The legislation is intended to outlaw the production, use, or sale of devices that enable the theft of telecommunication services, particularly cable and satellite TV signals. Violators would be subject to fines of up to $3,000 and prison sentences of up to 2 1/2 years.
But critics contend the legislation goes too far. Sarah Deutsch, associate general counsel for Verizon Communications, says the law covers much of the same ground as the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But that law has an explicit provision exempting Internet providers from liability if customers use them to exchange illegally obtained digital files. The Massachusetts law doesn't have this exemption, said Deutsch. As a result, she said, ''we could be liable if one of our customers did something that violated the act.''
Edward Felten, a computer science professor at Princeton University, said the law contains language that forbids Internet users from employing technologies that conceal their identity and location. This would outlaw services such as ''anonymous remailers'' that are designed to let people send e-mail anonymously to protect their privacy. Felten said it would also ban a variety of common security measures, such as firewalls that conceal the locations of particular computers in a corporate data network.
In addition, Felten said, the law would expose computer users to liability for using any device that could be used to crack a cable TV system, even if the device was not obtained for this purpose. ''If the device is even capable of an illegal use, it would be banned,'' said Felten.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/10...roposal+.shtml
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Cryptographers sound warnings on Microsoft security plan
Rick Merritt
Just three weeks before Microsoft Corp. publicly details plans to create a secure operating mode for Windows PCs, two top cryptographers have raised concerns about Microsoft's approach.
Whitfield Diffie, a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems Laboratories, said an integrated security scheme for computers is inevitable, but the Microsoft approach is flawed because it fails to give users control over their security keys. Ronald Rivest, an MIT professor and founder of RSA Security, called for a broad public debate about the Microsoft move.
Microsoft first tipped its plans, formerly code-named Palladium, about a year ago. Since then some details have emerged about the concepts for what Microsoft now calls the next-generation secure computing base (NGSCB, pronounced "enscub").
Microsoft has detailed its plans to as many as 30 partners under non-disclosure agreements. The company plans to unveil the full technical details and partnerships behind its plans at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in early May.
The Microsoft approach “lends itself to market domination, lock out, and not really owning your own computer. That's going to create a fight that dwarfs the debates of the 1990's,” said Diffie as part of a broad panel discussion on cryptography at the RSA Conference here Monday (April 14).
“To risk sloganeering, I say you need to hold the keys to your own computer,” added Diffie to strong applause for the audience of several hundred security specialists.
“We should be watching this to make sure there are the proper levels of support we really do want,” said Rivest.
“The right way to look at this is you are putting a virtual set-top box inside your PC. You are essentially renting out part of your PC to people you may not trust,” said Rivest in an interview after the panel.
“We need to understand the full implications of this architecture. This stuff may slip quietly on to people's desktops, but I suspect it will be more a case of a lot of debate,” he added.
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030415S0013
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Sonicblue sells ReplayTV, Rio to Denon parent
Franklin Paul
Reuters
Bankrupt consumer electronics maker Sonicblue Inc. (Other OTC:SBLUQ.PK - News) on Wednesday sold its ReplayTV service and Rio portable music systems to Japan's D&M Holding, effectively ending its run as a digital audio pioneer and its threat to major media companies.
Japan's D&M Holdings Inc. (Tokyo:6735.T - News), parent of high-end audio equipment makers Denon Ltd. and Marantz Japan Inc., won a bankruptcy court auction to acquire Sonicblue's ReplayTV television recording service and Rio portable audio unit for about $36.2 million.
Under the agreement, which is expected to become final in about 10 days, D&M bought inventory, intellectual property and capital equipment, and will assume some contractual relationships and liabilities.
On the surface, the price was cheaper than an original deal set in March under which D&M said it would pay $40 million, as well as the assumption of some $5 million in liabilities. The deal was part of Sonicblue's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the northern district of California in San Jose.
That pact with D&M fell through, which left the assets of Santa Clara, California-based Sonicblue up for auction.
A D&M spokeswoman said the company does not plan to interrupt subscribers' connection to ReplayTV, the personal digital recorder service that allows users to save television programming to a hard drive and play it back when they choose.
However, she said the company has not yet determined if it will continue to offer all of ReplayTV's features, which include the ability to skip commercials as programs are recorded, and to send some saved programs over the Internet.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030416/tech_sonicblue_3.html
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Copyright’s Digital Reformulation
Brodi Kemp
Digital technologies permit the wide distribution of perfect copies at virtually no marginal cost. Evidently this poses a problem for content providers: how could they make money if their product is freely available after its first sale?
As we all know, reframing the copyright laws has become the answer. Notably, these revisions were an integrated international policy campaign, not distinct national fights. The newly extended control, based on legally reinforced digital “containers” and trade law, arguably permits those who sell content effectively to “enclose” the public domain, to insulate their business models, and to define technological development.
In this article, I will argue that content providers are “recreating the bottle” around their intellectual property, using digital technologies to reinforce their business models and supplant copyright. The content industries have successfully driven political fights, dramatically strengthening their control of content in the digital era.
Secondly, I will show that the new policies adopted have undermined the traditional balance in intellectual property law between creator compensation and limits on the creator’s exclusive rights.
Finally, I will argue that the particular resolution of the copyright debate arguably has powerful implications beyond the content industries or the balance of intellectual property. It could influence the trajectory of technological innovation, indeed shaping the network’s architecture itself and the business models that harness its capacities. Consider as only one example that many contend that network expansion is driven not by content distribution, but by the expansion of point-to-point communications. Yet, the intellectual property rules concocted for content will powerfully shape the architecture of the network. Will the network itself, as a result, evolve differently and even more slowly than would otherwise be the case?
Furthermore, it appears that the major firms in the content industries have the power to insulate themselves against competitive pressures that would force change in their strategies and business models. Rather than being forced to adapt and innovate, they have entrenched their position and set the stage for its reinforcement, the continuous expansion of intellectual property rights. At the moment it appears that the walls around the content industry incumbents are very powerful -- are there holes through which newcomers can enter? Would such entrants break the mold; for example, could peer-to-peer unravel the existing deals? Will affirmative policy action be required to assure ongoing innovation in business models and technology?
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/yjo...l%20Edit_2.doc
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Prior Restraint
At Blackboard's Request, Judge Prevents Students From Discussing Security of Debit-Card System
Andrea Foster
Two college students who were set to discuss security weaknesses in a popular college debit- and identification-card system last weekend were prevented from revealing their findings after a Georgia judge issued a temporary restraining order.
The students -- Billy Hoffman, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Virgil Griffith, of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa -- received the order on Saturday as they were preparing to talk about the system at an Interz0ne computer conference, in Atlanta. A hearing on whether they should be permanently prevented from discussing the system is scheduled for today in Georgia Superior Court.
Blackboard has sold the electronic-card system, called the Blackboard Transaction System, to about 223 colleges. In seeking the restraining order, the company argued that it faced "imminent risk of irreparable harm" from the students' presentation.
The company's complaint said the students' findings, if disseminated, "could facilitate massive fraud, security breaches, and other harms, threatening both the physical and financial security of college students, and harming the universities, their vendors, and Blackboard itself."
Blackboard cited federal and Georgia anti-hacking laws, as well as federal and Georgia trade-secret laws, to justify its request for the restraining order. The complaint made no mention of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but a lawyer for Blackboard sent the conference organizers a cease-and-desist letter that said the students' presentation could violate that law as well.
The conference, which had a free-speech theme, was open to "all technology addicts, digerati, security professionals, hackers, phreakers, geeks, and the general public," according to its Web site. Many of the presenters are listed by online aliases, such as "V1rus" ("Lockpicking and Forensics: A Real World Case") and "timball" ("Coding Don'ts"). Mr. Hoffman is listed as "Acidus."
http://chronicle.com/free/2003/04/2003041601t.htm
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WSJ: Microsoft Courted by Vivendi to Buy Music Unit
Reuters
Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O is among companies approached by Vivendi Universal Music Group V.N EAUG.PA executives in their bid to find buyers for the unit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The report comes a day after a Paris-based source told Reuters that talks between Vivendi Universal and Apple Computer Inc. AAPL.O had entered a crucial phase which could make or brake a deal for the world's largest record company.
The Reuters source played down speculation the sale of Universal Music to the firm run by California computer guru Steve Jobs -- for up to $6 billion as first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Friday -- was a done deal.
On Monday, citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said Universal Music bosses, including Chairman Doug Morris and Interscope Geffen A&M label chief Jimmy Iovine, had put out feelers for possible buyers or investors, but they now appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach.
Approaches to Microsoft were in the hope of finding a friendly investor to take over Universal Music, perhaps as part of a management-led buyout, the Journal reported.
Apple and Microsoft officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment early on Monday, and a Vivendi official in Paris declined comment.
The Journal said people close to Jobs insisted he was only interested in accessing music for Apple's new service, not in buying a record company. Universal's roster includes Eminem, U2, and Shania Twain.
Apple was aided by investment bank Morgan Stanley MWD.N in early talks, and Jobs is believed to have spoken at least once by phone with Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou about the idea, the Journal added.
Separately, the Journal reported that Apple would be launching its own music service in coming weeks, with songs from all five major record labels.
Citing people with knowledge of the matter, the newspaper said the service was more consumer-friendly than most other legitimate online- music services, with a simplicity that makes it easy for consumers to purchase a song and move it to the popular Apple iPod devices.
Even so, it will only be available to Mac users, who comprise only about five percent of the global market. Currently, most other online music services -- including the record-label backed services pressplay and MusicNet, as well as closely held Listen.com Inc.'s Rhapsody service - - do not support Apple's Macintosh software.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=2562475
Steve Jobs Thinks 'Different' and Many Marvel
Buying Universal Music could put Apple in a position to determine digital music's future.
Joseph Menn
If Apple Computer Inc. winds up with a blockbuster deal to purchase Universal Music Group, it will be because Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs believes he has discovered the secret to selling music online -- something that has eluded the sharpest minds in the music and technology industries for years and ruined many entrepreneurs before him.
Illicit song-swapping services such as Napster and Gnutella have lured tens of millions of users into downloading songs free; meanwhile, licensed distributors of music have managed only tens of thousands of customers, and several firms have gone under.
With piracy eroding compact disc sales for three straight years, it looks to some skeptical observers like a bad time for Apple to think about spending up to $6 billion to get into the music business.
But plenty of technology firms, including software powerhouse Microsoft Corp., have been negotiating deals on a number of fronts with record labels and movie studios, peaceably enhancing copyright protections while convincing more record executives that legitimate online distribution is their only way out of a downward spiral.
"There are going to be some new relationships," said computer industry analyst Roger Kay of market research firm IDC. "Microsoft and even Dell [Computer Corp.] have been sniffing around Southern California trying to find the right combination to that lock."
Other technology companies have considered buying a label in the last few years, according to executives in both camps. Those explorations foundered in part on concerns about merging very different corporate cultures and mastering the arcane financial structures of the record business.
"Unlike two years ago, when content looked like a black hole, we're on the cusp of being able to build digital music businesses," said Sean Ryan, CEO of Listen.com Inc., which offers a subscription service for digital songs. "Over a period of time," he said, digital music "could be larger than traditional music businesses."
Last month, Jupiter Research predicted that consumer spending on digital content -- including music -- would grow from $1.6 billion in 2002 to $2 billion in 2003.
With its share of the worldwide desktop computer market stuck below 3%, Jobs has been trying to transform Apple into something more than just a computer maker.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...2Dtec hnology
Profits at Apple Computer Are Down 65% in Quarter
Laurie Flynn
Citing the sluggish economy and declining sales in some of its core markets, Apple Computer Inc. reported lower profits yesterday, but the results still exceeded analysts' expectations by 2 cents a share.
The company reported a net profit of $14 million for the fiscal second quarter ended March 29, or 4 cents a share, down 65 percent from $40 million, or 11 cents a share, in the quarter a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter was $1.48 billion, down 1 percent from last year, when revenue was $1.5 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had predicted revenue of $1.46 billion for the quarter, and a profit of 2 cents a share in the quarter. The company, based in Cupertino, Calif., announced its earnings after the close of the market's regular trading hours. Apple's stock closed down 1.1 percent at $13.24 in the regular session but rose as high as $13.28 in after-hours trading.
"Our performance was solid in a very difficult environment," said Apple's chief financial officer, Fred Anderson.
Apple's earnings news yesterday came in the midst of persistent rumors that the company was in talks to acquire the Universal Music Group, the world's largest recording company, from Vivendi Universal of France. According to published reports, Apple is considering offering $6 billion for the music company. It has had success in the market for MP3 portable music devices and is expected to roll out an online music service soon.
Earlier in the day, Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, issued a statement denying that Apple had made an offer for the Universal music group. That followed a statement by Claude Bebear, a Vivendi Universal board member, denying that he said he expected Apple to offer about $6 billion for the company. During a conference call with analysts, Mr. Anderson declined to discuss the matter.
Wall Street is clearly skeptical that the two companies would be a good fit. Apple's stock fell last week on rumors of a possible deal, reflecting the market's doubts that a merger would be a good idea.
"What's holding up Apple's stock has been its cash," Mr. Wolf said. "This would burn right through it."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/17/business/17APPL.html
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Taiwan's copyright pirates less brazen
But Business Still Booming
Alice Hung
Reuters
TAIPEI, Taiwan - At a crowded night market in Taipei, vendors blare techno music or yell at the top of their lungs to draw attention to goods ranging
from oyster omelet to clothes to furry puppies.
But at one stand, a rich collection of pirated Hollywood blockbusters, Hong Kong pop music and Japanese soap operas lies unattended on a wooden table.
No vendor is in sight. A handwritten note asks buyers to drop their money in a white plastic box. A counterfeit disc costs as little as US$1.50, compared with $9 for a copyrighted one.
Taiwan's CD pirates are slipping into the shadows, no longer daring to man their stalls, fearful of getting caught as pressure from the United States forces authorities to step up their anti-piracy campaign.
``The government has finally recognized that this is a serious problem, but drastic and speedy measures must be taken to solve it,'' said Hank Kwuo of the Taiwan Anti-Piracy Coalition.
The United States will decide in coming months if the island should stay on its ``priority watch list'' of the world's worst copyright offenders for a third year in a row.
A decision against Taiwan could lead to trade retaliation from its second biggest export market.
That danger does not worry the pirates, although the threat of prosecution has made them much less brazen than they used to be about selling their wares.
And the more careful strategy is working.
Exasperated prosecutors say to make a case, pirates must be caught red-handed and even then crafty vendors, many of whom have links with crime gangs, often escape the law.
``A man caught selling fake CDs in a night market managed to persuade all the other vendors on his street to testify in court that he was only a fruit seller,'' said one prosecutor who declined to be identified.
``He was freed. It's very frustrating.''
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...ss/5629437.htm
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Sydney firm to protect 3G content
DRM for the phone
Nathan Cochrane
A small Sydney maker of copyright enforcement technology has beaten Microsoft for the coveted crown of protecting content consumed by the next generation of multimedia mobile phones.
IPR Systems' Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) version 1.1 has been adopted by mobile makers such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson, operators including Vodafone and open- standards-setting body the Open Mobile Alliance to safeguard copyrighted content distributed over third-generation (3G) networks.
ODRL gives content creators the power to determine exactly how their material is to be used, including how many times it can be consumed, for how long it can be consumed before it expires and how many times it can be forwarded, if at all.
IPR's four engineers built the Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) language in about two years before version 1 was commercially adopted by Nokia and others in preference to Microsoft's XrML standard, in part due to political reasons, says chief scientist Renato Iannella.
"ODRL is more concise and this is a critical factor for network bandwidth for the telcos,'' Iannella says. "There were probably political reasons as well: the Everybody-Else-But-Microsoft syndrome."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...172523035.html
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Xbox Modder
Testing Microsoft and the DMCA
David Becker
Taking a break from working on his doctoral thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate student Andrew "Bunnie" Huang decided that it might be fun to poke around the security systems protecting Microsoft's Xbox game console.
With a little creative tinkering and a measure of precision soldering, Huang quickly isolated the main public security keys. Although legally prevented from sharing the keys with the world, he described his methods in detail in a widely distributed research paper, helping spur a wave of Xbox-hacking that has led to the development of Xbox versions of Linux and other homemade software.
Q: What have you learned to do with the Xbox since your research paper was published?
A: I did a lot of work but if I talked about it I'd get in a lot of trouble. I did some work with a few people who were trying to figure out alternate methods to get to the Xbox hardware without necessarily involving the copyrighted code Microsoft has--basically finding backdoors in the initialization and boot sequence.
I helped out one guy in particular who was critical in figuring out the method that's used by everyone today. It is basically a flaw in the system initializer that lets you put code anywhere in the system that you want it.
From there, I backed off and got kind of quiet. Things were starting to heat up, and a lot of people were starting to move into piracy and other very controversial issues. I sort of became a fly on the wall and gave people advice in some key areas.
And then Wiley approached you about writing a book?
Yeah--Wiley has the "Dummies" series, and wanted to create a similar line of introductory hacking guides: hacking TiVo, hacking the Xbox, hacking your DVD player. The book overall is an education book. I try to teach people as much as possible how to do hacks on their own and try to avoid as much as possible the really cookie-cutter, boring stuff.
Has the ISOnews.com case had a chilling effect beyond your work?
I think that it's had a major chilling effect. Maybe the reason that companies started (backing out of such publishing deals) this is that the DMCA has become such a hot topic. A lot of companies aren't willing to really push their content directly through a public trial. The whole idea of taking a person and making an example of him seems to have backfired. They tried that with a few guys and it didn't work.
I think a lot of companies are starting to take more indirect attacks. To use a really bad analogy, instead of going for the mafia boss, you take out the guys in the street, the little mod chip vendors. They're trying other techniques within the word of the law to put a damper on this activity without
I want to put a stake in the ground and say, "Hey, I strongly believe what I'm doing is legal.
getting bad press.
If they were to go ahead and take any Xbox-Linux guys and crucify them for running Linux on the Xbox, they'd have the whole open- source crowd really up in arms. There'd be a really big negative mark on the Xbox.
So even though Microsoft has said, "You guys can't run Linux on the Xbox," they're not going to really do anything about it in the short term. It's not hurting their revenue enough to have them fight a battle on principle.
Are you afraid personally of the possible consequences of publishing the book?
Oh yeah. Lately it's been really day-to-day. I get a lot of e-mail from a lot of people, and sometimes you see the subject line and freeze for a moment, thinking, "This is it, they're coming to get me." And then it just turns out to be an innocent question. But the fact that Americart felt it had to reject my book shows how jittery people are.
So how are you going to sell the book now?
There's always PayPal, I guess...Although someone pointed out to me that PayPal has an explicit clause that says you can't use the service to sell mod chips. Even though this isn't a mod chip per se, it might be construed as a technology or a tool under the wording of the DMCA.
The big question that I had when I published my paper at MIT was whether this would be considered a copyright circumvention tool under the DMCA. I think it's wildly unrealistic to think that a court would agree with such an expansive interpretation of a tool. But to a limited degree, they might go along with it.
Beyond the question of what's a tool, there are still a lot of questions about whether mod chips are copyright circumvention devices at all, since they do other, legitimate things. Would it be useful to have a court opinion on that?
It would be. I think that part of the reason I decided to go ahead with the book is that I'm really tired of hearing, "Well, there's three cases that never went to court, but here's the direction in which they kind of leaned." There's no real stakes in the ground about this.
There's a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt. And the longer the people who want to enforce these laws can cast the shadow of fear without ever having to bring something to court, the more effective they are. This type of publishing is kept underground and under control.
I want to put a stake in the ground and say, "Hey, I strongly believe what I'm doing is legal and it's beneficial for people to know about this stuff." If we don't know about it, then the bad guys are going to figure it out and they're going to take our lunch. Maybe I'm being a fool by saying this, but if someone wants to challenge me on this, I think it's something we need to talk about in a court of law. I don't know where I'd find the resources to defend myself. If I am taken to court, then I'll figure it out.
http://news.com.com/2008-1082-996787.html
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New music rules are needed
Fred von Lohmann
Suing college students. Forcing ISPs to rat out customers. Petitioning Congress for unprecedented vigilante powers. Deploying armies of lawyers to sue technology companies. Threatening universities and corporations. Demanding that ISPs disconnect tens of thousands of Internet users. Hiring electronic enforcers to monitor computer users.
None of these efforts by the recording industry has put a single nickel into the pockets of a musician. And none of these efforts has slowed the spread of peer-to-peer ("P2P") file sharing. More Americans have used file-sharing software than voted for the President.
But we are paying a price. Responding to pressure from the entertainment industry, the University of Wyoming is now monitoring and recording all university Internet traffic. One hundred Naval Academy cadets have been disciplined for file-sharing. Investment in innovative P2P companies has dried up. Some members of Congress, addled by a steady diet of propaganda and campaign contributions from the entertainment industries, have suggested that the answer might be to expel, or even jail, college students. Music fans are frustrated and alienated from the musicians they love.
The hysteria over P2P has gotten out of hand. While protecting copyright is a worthwhile endeavor, suing college students will not get artists a penny more in royalties. Conscripting cash-strapped universities to act as muscle for the entertainment industries is absurd. Putting entire universities under constant surveillance is simply unacceptable.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/arc...ion/7930.shtml
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The Copyright End Game
Brendan Scott, Esq
Ultimately the argument for or against copyright will not be won in the legislature or in courts of law but, rather, in the court of public opinion. No matter how many malcontents there are in the world, their actions will be nothing if they are lacking the tacit support of the general populous. Conversely, no matter how much the forces of right and good are on the side of the holders and creators of copyright they are unlikely to prevail against broad based consumer complicity in copyright infringement. Legislatures around the world have sought to increase the certainty and security for the holders of copyright by expanding upon the rights that those holders enjoy. The TRIPS Agreement marks perhaps the most significant of these attempts.
Far from enhancing or securing the position of copyright holders, these moves by the legislatures may have only further soured an already cynical consumer population. What the MP3.com and Napster phenomena have proven is that the average consumer regards the legislative monopoly that is copyright largely with contempt - at least in the absolute form in which it has been expressed in copyright legislation. However, what these phenomena have also shown - for example through the subscription and payment initiatives proposed in the Napster-BMG merger - is that the average consumer is willing to pay (what they consider to be) a fair price for having access to music. However, they want to be provided with a fair rate for an "all you can eat" service rather than to be presented with differential pricing for separate options with premium rates being tacked on on top. The moves by legislatures around the world have not made the acts of infringers any more illegal, although they have created a situation where the same facts may give rise to multiple infringements greatly extending the protection provided to the information industry. Rather, they have mainly served to compound the cynicism that consumers already hold for the copyright law.
The holders of copyright monopolies have not helped their case by the manner of publicising their "losses". In the 1980s copyright monopoly holders advanced their claims for increased protection by reference to ridiculously exaggerated claims in relation to their piracy losses and did so with great success. Seeking to exploit an obviously successful technique, in the 1990s they continued this trend, but have failed to note the shift in consumer tolerance for such claims with the coming of the new millennium. Admittedly, it is a very difficult to properly assess the loss suffered and such figures are manufactured to serve different purposes, but methodologies which simply take the number of illegal copies and multiply them by the recommended retail price have begun to be regarded by consumers as deception, if not outright lying and seriously undermine the credibility of copyright monopoly holders which promote them. Not only do these methodologies largely ignore the price elasticity of demand, it does not take too much thought to argue that such figures do not take into account the costs of production, marketing, distribution and administration that would be involved in the sale of those copies (and which are not incurred in the infringer's case) and which cannot therefore be considered a loss. Further, where those copies are in the hands of a person who simply would not have had the means to pay for them it is hard to see how to sustain an argument that those copies actually represent a lost sale (1). Unfortunately the holders of copyright monopolies appear to have been beguiled by their own marketing, for they seem unable to comprehend how their aggressive advocacy is poisoning the opinions of consumers against legitimate initiatives.
http://www.mediainstitute.org/colloq...9/article.html
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Eminem, Dre in Copyright Spat
Josh Grossberg
Eminem and Dr. Dre are about to lose themselves...in litigation.
A London-based music publisher has filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against the rap megastar and his mentor for allegedly sampling a song sans permission.
Minder Music Ltd. claims a 1980 tune called "Backstrokin'" is the backbone for Dre's 1999 hit "Let's Get High," according to a report in Billboard.
The suit, originally filed in July of 2000 in Los Angeles District Court, was amended last week. The company is seeking more than $3.5 million in damages against the hip-hopsters, accusing them of unfairly profiting from its song by ripping it for Dre's biggest single off his 1999 multiplatinum release, 2001. Minder claims the Dre track's throbbing bass riff is lifted from "Backstrokin'."
"Let's Get High," cowritten by Dre and Slim Shady, features such guest rappers as Kurupt, Hittman and Ms. Roq and helped to propel the album past the six million mark in sales.
With all that money floating around, according to Dre's lawyer, Howard King, it's no surprise Minder's moving to get a piece of the action.
King told Billboard that "Let's Get High" uses a bass line common to many songs, and Minder was essentially fishing for a case.
Also named in the suit is Dre's label and its corporate parent, Interscope Records and Universal Music and Video Distribution.
Neither Em nor Dre's attorney nor reps for the record labels could be reached for comment.
Speaking of copyright infringement, this isn't the first time Eminem has gotten into trouble for purportedly swiping other people's tunes for his own work.
The trash-talking Detroit rapper and newly minted Oscar winner was sued two years ago by a French jazz composer accusing him of stealing parts of the song "Pulsion" for his song "Kill You," Em's violent rant where he jokes about raping his mother, off his Grammy-winning 2000 album, The Marshall Mathers LP.
Coincidentally, Dr. Dre was behind the production of that album, too.
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,11611,00.html
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Dell picking Washington allies, issues strategically
Tech companies learning how to exert their influence in the Capitol
Amy Schatz
In the fight over digital piracy, the battleground is shifting to Hollywood, and tech companies such as Dell Computer Corp. aren't taking any chances.
In late January, they formed a lobbying group called the Alliance for Digital Progress to fight government mandated anti-piracy technologies. It was a response to legislation filed last year that would have required anti-copying devices to be added to computers, DVD players and other consumer electronics.
Similar legislation hasn't been introduced so far this year. It might never be filed, if Hollywood and high-tech companies can reach an agreement to work on anti-piracy efforts and head off government intervention.
For the most part, the tech industry hasn't been a big lobbying force in Washington. But the industry is recognizing an increasing need to play offense, as the looming battle over anti-copying controls shows.
Dell is part of that trend. Historically, the world's second-largest personal computer maker hasn't spent much money or energy on lobbying.
But that's slowly changing. Last year, the company spent a record $780,000 on lobbying. Founder Michael Dell has become one of the tech industry's largest campaign contributors to the Republican Party. And the company has launched DellPac, a political action committee.
"As we're growing, we're starting to see more of an importance to be here and active in the public policy arena," said Becca Gould, Dell's director of government relations in Washington.
http://www.statesman.com/default/con...usiness_2.html
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Madonna To Pirates: 'What the F--- Do You Think You're Doing?'
Gil Kaufman
File traders, Madonna has a question for you: "What the f--- do you think you're doing?"
That's the message you're likely to get if you try to download songs from the singer's upcoming American Life, due April 22, on peer-to-peer networks such as Limewire or KaZaA.
The spoofed file — a planted fake meant to thwart illegal downloading — recently began flooding P2P networks. Madonna's spokesperson could not be reached for comment. Other spoofed files containing Madonna's salty tirade appeared on KaZaA in versions of the new songs "Nobody Knows Me" and "X-Static Process."
If you don't get the foul-mouthed message from Madonna, you will more than likely find a phony file that's been circulating for several weeks, a four-minute loop of the chorus from the album's title track and first single.
As with many new releases, the Madonna album has been kept under tight wraps to avoid piracy, with promotional copies being held back from journalists until just before the official release.
Similar security measures preceded the release of Linkin Park's Meteora, with numerous spoofed tracks from that album blanketing P2P networks, many consisting of looped interview quotes from the band's members or repeated sections of songs. Both Linkin Park and Madonna are on Warner Bros. Records. (An AOL company - Jack)
Though they are reluctant to divulge their client list, a number of companies have been working with labels to create spoofed files in an effort to make illegal downloading frustrating and to steer consumers toward such legal download sites as Pressplay, MusicNet and Rhapsody.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/147...headlines=true
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AOL fights IM fade-out
Jim Hu and Paul Festa
America Online is warming up to instant messaging video features that it once dismissed as irrelevant, in the latest sign that the company is playing catch-up to rivals in a key communications technology that it pioneered.
AOL on Monday confirmed that it has begun testing a feature that lets subscribers swap video clips over its instant messaging software. The feature, dubbed "record and forward," lets people record video through a Webcam and send the file to another AOL IM user via a peer-to-peer connection. Recipients play back the video as a downloaded file, not as a live stream.
"What we are seeking to do with this record and forward video feature is to test its adoption and popularity with our audience and determine its potential as a possible feature within a future AOL client," AOL spokesman Derrick Mains said in an e-mail. "Although video over IM has yet to take off with a mass-market audience, we have seen it begin to catch on among early adopters as other services offer it as a feature."
The decision to explore new features for IM comes amid broad disarray at AOL Time Warner's AOL division, which is seeking to revamp its service to stem defections to high-speed Net providers and lower-priced dial-up services while fending off investigations of its accounting practices. The effects are being felt even in its IM business, where the company's ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) services have dominated for years.
AOL's test marks a significant reversal for the company on the IM development front. Until recently, AOL executives discredited video IM's consumer appeal and prided themselves on keeping IM free from the bells and whistles adopted by competitors such as Yahoo.
AOL far outstrips competitors in sheer number of IM users, but its market share appears to be slipping, according to data provided by Internet traffic measurement company ComScore Media Metrix. Combined users accessing AOL's network from the Web and its proprietary online service hit 59.7 million in March, with an additional 6.2 million users on its ICQ network, ComScore reported. Those numbers are down from January, when 62 million unique users accessed AOL's Web- based and proprietary AIM services, and 8 million logged on to ICQ.
Over the same period, Microsoft's MSN Messenger climbed from 22 million to 23 million combined unique users and Web site visitations, ComScore said. Yahoo slipped from 20 million to 19.5 million.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-996837.html
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Pocket tracker monitors children
BBC
Worried parents will soon be able to keep an eye on their children at all times via a wearable tracking device and a website that maps where they go. The wearable device will have a panic button that, when pressed, instantly alerts parents via phone that something is wrong. Through the website parents will be able to pinpoint the location of their children in real time as well as replay where they have been over the last few hours.
SOS Response, creators of the service, says testing of the tracking system is due to begin soon. To track people the system uses a radio network operated by QuikTrak that has towers dotted around the greater London area. The QuikTrak technology is similar to that used by some mobile phone systems but needs one-tenth the number of radio towers to cover the same area. Signals from the tracking device are picked up by several towers and help QuikTrak triangulate and pinpoint the position of any device. Information about the movements of devices is logged and can be viewed via a website that plots their whereabouts.
Australian firm QuikTrak operates a similar network in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that is heavily used by delivery companies and taxi firms to monitor movements of their staff and vehicles. However, Michelle Riddy, head of SOS Response, said she believed that many UK parents would welcome the chance to keep an eye on where their children have been. Many parents of young children and teenagers would like to ease their fears for their offspring by regularly checking where they were and that everything was fine.
"You can now let your children out again because you can find out where they are," she said.
Ms Riddy said SOS Response was working on putting the gadget into watches, calculators and toys and even belts to give children more than one reason to carry it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2946183.stm
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Webcasters Take Note:
Digital radio 'shuns' the blind
Ian Macrae.
Digits matter a lot to visually impaired people. The ones attached to our hands, as well as those which carry crystal clear radio to our ears. Some of us use them for reading. Many of us use them for exploring what's around us. Even more of us, perhaps even enough of us to make the stereotype valid, use our digits for twiddling radio dials.
But when it comes to the other sort, or rather to the people who design and manufacture the equipment for receiving DAB, (Digital Audio Broadcasting), they seem to have forgotten that the stereotype of the visually impaired radio fanatic even exists.
They have come very close to designing something which is unusable, or at least very difficult for us, perhaps the most avid, hungry and, let's face it, needy group of radio listeners.
Take, for a start, what used to be called in my day cruising the dial. For some this might be the riches and adventure of short-wave offering the chance to pick up something you could barely hear, broadcasting in a language you didn't speak. It is impossible to read which stations you are passing through as you twist the tuning knob For others, it was the easier pickings on FM and the relative clarity of your favourite local or national station. Whatever, the process was quite simple. You gripped the dial gently but firmly between thumb and forefinger and slowly twisted it until youhit something which sooner or later you would identify or else know from memory what it was.
But now on many sets, including the Videologic hi-fi tuners, the Pure Evoke model and the Ministry Of Sound new personal DAB receiver, finding and tuning stations has been turned into a complete lottery if you cannot see the visual display on the unit.
Even if you have some sight, as many visually impaired people do, the print is so small on the displays and the contrast so poor that it is impossible to read which stations you are passing through as you twist the tuning knob.
Even on some of those stations which continue to offer gainful employment to presenters, it is noticeable that record titles are much less frequently announced or back announced, because the assumption is that anyone wanting to know can get that info from the screen.
That is an assumption which is not just wrong, it is nonsensical. We are talking about a medium here where people are meant to talk to each other, where information is meant to be imparted and exchanged.
After all, the logical conclusion to all of this is an edition of the Five Live phone-in 606 passing off in total silence with people simply texting and e-mailing the gifted Jonathan Pierce whose vocal talents go completely to waste as he texts and e-mails back.
I am just a humble blind listener. It is not up to me to come up with solutions. This revolution is presumably being driven by some of the most brilliant technical minds in the radio business.
What I am saying to them is that maybe they should start thinking about solutions, or at least start remembering that, if radio belongs to everyone, it belongs at least as much to those of us who need and prefer to listen to rather than look at it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2938239.stm
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Potter DVD breaks record
The DVD of the second moviein the Harry Potter series has become the fastest-selling in the UK to date, following its release on Friday.
Fans bought 1,012,000 copies of The Chamber of Secrets DVD in two days, according to a spokesman for distributors Warner Home Video.
The previous record for the fastest-selling DVD was held by the first Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
The Chamber of Secrets was an instant box-office hit when released in cinemas last November, making £18.8m in its first weekend in the UK and Ireland.
Neil McEwan, managing director of Warner Home Video, said the DVD's success was "phenomenal".
"Expectations were high but we are amazed to see that these have been exceeded," Mr McEwan added.More than half a million advance copies of the DVD were sold.
Some retailers opened overnight on Thursday to satisfy predicted demand.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...lm/2945667.stm
Top 10 D/Ls - Singles
BigChampagne
Everest Internet Café Opens
Nancy Gohring
TSERING GYALTSEN was devastated when a partner advised him over a month ago to give up on his dream of building a cybercafe this year at Mount Everest's base camp in Nepal because the bureaucracy was even more daunting than the technology.
But while Mr. Gyaltsen was taken aback, he was not deterred. On Monday, with the climbing season under way, he and his team finished building a cybercafe at 17,500 feet. "I feel great," he wrote in one of the first e-mail messages sent from the cafe.
The cafe consists of a 10-by-20-foot tent that sits in subzero temperatures on a moving glacier. To connect to the Internet, laptops there communicate wirelessly with a satellite link.
Members of an Everest climbing expedition must pay $2,500 to use the four laptops and the Internet connection during their stay at base camp, which can stretch to six weeks. Other climbers and trekkers can use the Internet service for $1 a minute or pay $4 a minute for voice calls.
So far, Mr. Gyaltsen said, no expedition team has signed up for the bulk rate, but the cafe has had a steady stream of walk-in customers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/17/te...ts/17ever.html
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Technology
Before Lightning Can Strike, a Sky Watcher Pulls the Plug
Anne Eisenberg
SUMMER thunderstorms will be here soon, and with them the inevitable lightning that can fry a modem, PC or home entertainment system.
The classic household guardians against damage from power spikes are surge protectors, typically inexpensive power strips, usually with five or six outlets, equipped to absorb some of the surplus electricity. But these devices offer limited protection, particularly against the substantial power surges that occur, for instance, when lightning strikes a nearby power line.
Now a small start-up company in Savannah, Ga., Storm Shelter Electronics, hopes to help customers prevent that kind of damage by offering surge protection with a wireless twist.
The company's new device has a pager that receives alerts from a lightning detection network. When the network pages the device that lightning is nearby, the device disconnects computers, televisions and other electronic devices and switches them to a battery backup. When the pager receives an all-clear from the lightning network, the device can restore the original connection.
"Essentially you protect your equipment by removing AC power and letting it run off the battery until the thunderstorm passes," said Dr. Ken Cummins, head of research at the Tucson, Ariz., office of Vaisala Inc., which operates the National Lightning Detection Network, a private network of lightning sensors. The network will provide data for the Storm Shelter device.
A wireless hookup like this that unites a household surge protector and a service that monitors lightning is unusual, said Tim Minnehan, sales manager at Vaisala. Services that provide national lightning monitoring are traditionally used by large businesses like airports, golf courses and utilities that need constant bulletins, he said. "Now, people have more invested in electronics in their homes and small businesses," he said, "and they want to protect their assets."
Storm Shelter expects to introduce its device this summer, at a cost of about $495, plus a monthly subscription fee of $9.95, said Dennis Page, founder and president of the company. The device, about the size of a breadbox, is equipped with six outlets, a phone jack and a 12-volt DC battery that can provide 45 minutes of backup to be shared by up to three appliances.
When the lightning service sends an alert, a solenoid-driven switch pulls apart a connection in the wiring, creating a gap of three-quarters of an inch that an electrical surge of up to 35,000 volts cannot cross, Mr. Page said. Standard surge protectors typically handle spikes of no more than several hundred volts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/17/te...ts/17next.html
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QnA with the Copyright Doc
Princeton CS Prof Edward W. Felten (Almost) Live
Posted by Roblimo
Some legal issues, some technical issues, a little personal insight... This is what Professor Felten gives us here. Some excellent questions rose to the top in this interview, and the answers are similarly thoughtful. Major thanks go out to Professor Felten, also to the many Slashdot people who submitted great questions!
1) From your discussions with them...
by burgburgburg
...do you perceive that legislators are aware of the extraordinarily broad negative implications of these new telecommunications laws that are being proposed/enacted?
Also, if you are aware of it, have the hardware/software manufacturers who will be affected joined together to fight these laws, or has it flown under their radar?
Prof. Felten:
Let me take the second part of the question first. Yes, various manufacturers have opposed the bills. The Consumer Electronics Association, for example, has opposed them. The MPAA has now changed the bills in an attempt to make some of the big manufacturers happier.
As to the first part of the question:
No, I don't think the legislators who support these bills really understand the harm they would do. In my experience, if you can explain to them what the problem is, they will want to do the right thing. (They may not kill a bad bill entirely, but they will at least try to amend it to fix problems.) The hard part is to get their attention, and then to explain the problem in a manner that non-geeks can understand.
The underlying problem, I think, is that geeks think about technology in a different way than non-geeks do. The differences have sunk deeply into the basic worldviews of the two communities, so that their consequences seem to be a matter of common sense to each group. This is why it often looks to each group as if members of the other group are idiots.
Here's an example. Geeks think of networks as being like the Internet: composed of semi-independent interoperating parts, and built in layers. Non-geeks tend to think of networks as being like the old-time telephone monopoly: centrally organized and managed, non-layered, and provided by a single company. It's not that they don't know that the world has changed -- if you ask them what the Internet is like, they'll say that it's decentralized and layered. But the *implications* of those changes haven't sunk deeply into their brains, so they tend not to see problems that are obvious to geeks.
Geeks will look at proposed network regulation and immediately ask "How will this affect interoperability?" or "Is this consistent with the end-to-end principle?" but non-geeks will look at the same proposal and think of different questions. They know what interoperability is, but it's just not at the front of their minds.
2) What sort of positive legislation?
by Viperion
Dr. Felten, do you have a suggestion as to what sort of legislation could be introduced that would soothe the minds of reactionary lawmakers while preserving the rights that we currently enjoy?
Prof. Felten:
Intellectual property policy is in a crisis right now, caused by widespread infringement and the excesses of the legal backlash against it. The biggest problem is hasty legislation that makes the crisis worse by overregulating legitimate behavior without preventing infringement. Obviously, it would be a positive step to repeal some of the bad laws that are already on the books. Part of the problem is a mindset that no matter what the problem is, the solution must be legislative.
But you asked about positive legislative steps, which is a harder question. The holy grail here is a non- harmful proposal that reassures legislators about the continued viability of the music and movie industries
http://interviews.slashdot.org/inter...id=153&tid=123
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Interception: How the Cops Will Surf Your PC
* Lawful Intercept (LI) MUST be undetectable by the intercept subject.
* Mechanisms MUST be in place to limit unauthorized personnel from performing or knowing about lawfully authorized intercepts.
* If multiple Law Enforcement Agencies are intercepting the same subject, they MUST NOT be aware of each other.
* There is often a requirement (especially for telecommunications services) to provide intercept related information (IRI) separately from the actual Internet Protocol (IP) traffic (or content) of interest (Note: some authorizations may be restricted to IRI).
* If IRI is delivered separately from content, there MUST be some means to correlate the IRI and the content with each other.
* If the information being intercepted is encrypted by the service provider and the service provider has access to the keys, then the information MUST be decrypted before delivery to the LEA or the encryption keys MUST be passed to the Law Enforcement Agency to allow them to decrypt the information.
* If the information being intercepted is encrypted by the intercept subject and its associate and the service provider has access to the keys, then the service provider MAY deliver the keys to the LEA.
http://cryptome.org/cisco-vile.txt
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iMesh 4.0 Released
From the site
iMesh is proud to announce the release of version 4.0 with a completely new design and powerful built-in features!
· Advanced Search for all types of media files (Audio, Video, Games, Software, Photos and more).
· Multi-lingual support.
· Very fast downloads from multiple users simultaneously.
· Automatic resume feature that assures the completion of all your requested downloads.
· Ability to access and view your friends’ shared files.
· A Media Player with play lists and full-screen preview mode.
· Enhanced Media Manager ideally designed for organizing all your PC’s media files.
· Links to your favorite Songs, Lyrics, Movies, Radio Stations, CD Covers and weekly Featured Artists.
· Advanced media filter that prevents access to offensive files and viruses.
· Ability to chat with your friends while downloading.
· The most friendly and intuitive user interface.
· Bandwidth control.
http://www.imesh.com/
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Kazaa Lite K++ 2.1.0 build 2 Now Out
What's New in Kazaa Lite K++ 2.1.0 build 2:
· Added chat link to the start page
· Added advanced navigation bar to the start page, which can open webpages and use search engines
· Added supernode localisation feature
· Added F1 as shortcut to the help file
· Added K-Sig 1.1.0 as a replacement for Sig2Dat and DkSigTool
· Added K-Dat 1.0 as a replacement for Dat View
· Added KaZuperNodes 1.4.0
· Added option in the installer for directly sending QuickLinks to Kazaa Lite
· Updated KL Extensions to 0.43
· Included AVI Preview 0.21a
· Modified Speed Up 2.0.1 a bit to make it smaller
· Installing for multiple users should be more foolproof now thanks to a User Configuration Wizard
· Fixed a problem that some people had with K++
· UPXed some of the tools to reduce their size
· Made components selection a bit clearer
· Removed Kazap and pTrack from the installer
http://www.geeknewz.com/comments.php?id=4324&catid=33
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Digital audio turns up the volume
Market set for explosive growth, predict industry experts
Robert Jaques
According to analyst firm In-Stat/MDR, prospects for the sector are improving as online subscription services gain momentum, portable devices become more appealing and consumers become more interested in home jukeboxes and receivers.
The high-tech market research, Turning Up the Volume for Online Services, MP3 Players, and Digital Audio for the Home, predicted that worldwide portable digital music player unit shipments (including solid state, HDD, CD/ MP3 and NetMD products) will rocket by about 500 per cent, from 6.8 million in 2002 to over 36 million in 2007.
Hard disk drive-based players are expected to experience the highest growth rate, but CD/MP3 players will have the highest volume of sales. The research predicts that they will account for around 22 per cent of all portable CD players incorporating MP3 technology in 2003.
But Cindy Wolf, analyst with In-Stat/MDR, said that there were still barriers to be overcome before this market reaches its potential.
"Although subscription services are offering some of what consumers are asking for [streaming, downloading, burning], issues related to service bundling, pricing and regulations remain," she said.
"These services will need to attract more subscribers in the coming year in order to continue to be a viable option for consumers."
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1140294
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Plextor Unviels New Drive technology
Press Release
Controls Boost Disc Capacity 40%
Plextor Corp, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance CD-related equipment and software, today announced the availability of the PlexWriter™ Premium CD-R/RW drive. The high-speed 3-in-1 drive features 52X CD-Write, 32X CD-Rewrite, and 52X-max CD-Read. Available as an internal 5.25-inch half-height drive with an ATA/ATAPI-5 interface, the new PlexWriter Premium is designed for users who require the highest levels of performance, reliability, and functionality.
PlexWriter Premium includes PlexTools® Professional software to enable a unique combination of user- controllable recording features, including:
· SecuRec™ offers password protection for discs
· GigaRec™ allows high capacity storage up to 1 GB on a 700 MB disc
· Q-Check™ checks and graphs the results of written disc quality - C1/C2 errors, track and focus errors, and beta/jitter errors
· Silent Mode™ enables users to vary tray load/unload speed, spin up/down speed and write/read speeds.
· PoweRec™ allows for superior quality and stable recording at maximum speed.
· VariRec™ allows adjustment of the laser power to produce the highest quality audio recording possible
"The new PlexWriter Premium gives our customers an unparalleled level of granular control over the CD-recording process," said Howard Wing, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. "SecuRec, for instance, was specifically designed to respond to the needs of financial, legal, security, and government institutions who can't afford to have their data compromised. This user-controllable feature was developed by Plextor when customers expressed interest in creating CDs that can be read only with some form of security intervention."
http://www.plextor.com/english/news/...r04142003.html
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Intersil Adds "Burst Mode" To 802.11g
Mark Hachman
Intersil has adapted part of the 802.11g draft standard to allow up to three times more throughput in 802.11g networks, the company said Tuesday.
The company's Prism "Nitro" technology works with the company's line of Duette and GT components, which have been adopted by companies like Netgear and D-Link. The software is shipping now, although end users will need to contact the OEM for the updated software.
Intersil's software works best in crowded networks, where multiple 802.11b and 802.11g access points and cards are competing for bandwidth. Using a technique called "protection" which was built into the 7.1 draft standard of 802.11g, the Nitro technology asks other 802.11b devices to stop transmitting for a brief time, then shoots its own information out into the network in a burst.
"One of the foundations of Intersil's design strategy is complete industry standards compliance," said Nick Sargologos, product marketing manager of the wireless networking product group at Intersil. "For a given 802.11x—802.1a, 802,11b, or 802.11g—we are compliant with the proper implementation."
As other vendors have, Intersil is assuming that its compliance with the draft standard of 802.11g will translate into a product which will end up in compliance with the final specification, due to be ratified in June or July. However, the company claims that interoperability won't be an issue.
"Nitro will work with everybody that's 'g' compliant," Sargologos said.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1026287,00.asp
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41m broadband homes in Western Europe by 2005, report
86m homes will be connected to broadband worldwide by the end of 2003, according to eMarketer in its new report ‘Broadband Worldwide’.
The report predicts that home broadband penetration will grow from 57m in 2002 to 154m in 2005. Newmedizero quotes Ben Macklin, eMarketer’s senior analyst, as saying 'The countries and companies that realise the full potential of widespread broadband will surge ahead in the next decade.'
With 22 per cent of US homes expected to have broadband by the end of the year, Western Europe lags a little behind. 19.5m Western European households are expected to benefit from broadband connections by the end of year, though eMarketer predicts this figure to rise to 41m by 2005.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15883
Europe most expensive market in the world for DSL
Europe is still the most expensive region of the world for DSL, the broadband internet access service over the telephone network, according to new research published by analyst company Point Topic.
The research indicates that service providers in North America and Asia Pacific continue to be cheaper than those in Europe, as they have been for the past three years. Point Topic focused their study on average residential tariffs for the first year (including any one-off equipment, installation and activation charges) levied by the larger operators, choosing services closest to the 500kbps standard.
Illustrating the trend, Point Topic give the example of first year cost for Bell Canada's 1mbps service which has consistently been around E28 (US30) per month since March 2001. Compare this with costs in France of between E40 (US43) and E64 (US69) for the same period, or between E56 (US60) and E74 (US80) in the UK.
Costs in some other countries have changed quite sharply. Japan, now one of the fastest growing DSL markets in the world, also now has DSL services at around the E28 (US30) per month level. In 2000, before regulatory intervention to kick-start the market, the Japanese had the highest costs of any DSL market, at around E84 (US90) per month. South Korea has the highest levels of broadband penetration in the world whilst Taiwan has the cheapest prices.
"DSL costs less in Seoul or San Francisco than in Sheffield or Seville. We would expect to see prices gradually converge, as they have over the last three years, but for European consumers it will not be happening fast enough," concluded John Bosnell, Editor at Point Topic.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15906
First Czechs take up ADSL services
Over 900 Czechs have signed up for broadband internet access via asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology since the service was first launched some six weeks ago, according to a Cesky Telecom spokesperson.
Interest in the service is growing and Cesky Telecom has received a further 3670 orders for the service, which will take 21 days to implement. ADSL access is provided over Cesky Telecom's lines, with the operator signing a number of wholesale agreements to offer ADSL services with alternative operators and internet service providers (ISPs).
A number of the new providers have also begun to offer high-speed internet services, including most recently Tiscali, which is to offer high-speed access via ADSL, satellite and Wi-fi technology.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15956
Steep rise in Dutch ADSL internet connections
Internet users in the Netherlands went for broadband in a big way in 2002, and ADSL was their preferred
connection-technology, according to the results of a survey by market analysts, Heliview.
The Heliview survey, which covers the Dutch internet situation in 2002, investigates the deployment (where market share is expressed as a percentage of the total number of households connected to the internet in the Netherlands) of various communication technologies.
According to the report, service providers of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) - a digital technology designed to increase the bandwidth available over standard copper telephone wires - were the biggest beneficiaries of the broadband trend, with a market-share rise from three to nine per cent.
Cable connections grew from 21 to 24 per cent, bringing the total broadband market share to 33 per cent and confirming previous findings of the fast-growing popularity of high-speed internet connections.
Completing the internet communications market picture in the country, the number of ISDN connections stood at 12 per cent at the end of 2002, but analogue connections (deploying normal dial-up telephone lines) still led the pack at 55 per cent.
Finally, internet usage in the Netherlands is forecast to grow to 57 per cent of all Dutch households in the next 12 months (quite surprising when you consider that internet penetration has levelled off in some countries, such as neighbouring Belgium) - to the obvious delight of telephone operators, cable companies and ISPs all.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15915
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US resents premium streaming but pays up anyway
Recent surveys in the US have found that even though Americans still resent having to pay for online streaming
content, many are beginning to cough up.
A survey for RampRate found that 68 per cent of the 1,383 internet users polled disliked paying for content, with only 2.5 per cent of respondents saying that they would pay willingly. Only 4 per cent said they would be more willing to pay if content were better.
However, a report by the Online Publishers Association found that the American spend on online content rose 95 per cent in 2002 over 2001, totalling E1.2bn (USD1.3bn). Jupiter Research predict the paid online content market will grow 20 per cent year-on-year up to 2007. AccuStream iMedia Research, meanwhile, confirm that the number of video streams served in 2002, whether paid for or not, was up 52 per cent from the 2001 figure, reaching a total of 3.9bn.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15880
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US broadcasters accused of currying favour over deregulation
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is coming under intense pressure from broadcasters to relax media regulation at a time when pro-democracy groups and media watchdogs have expressed concern over possible conflicts of interests reflected in the complicity of the US media with the Bush Administration’s waging of the Iraq war.
The Centre for Digital Democracy (CDD), a non-profit agency aimed at promoting media diversity, believes that news organisations have a “serious conflict of interests” reporting on the Bush Adminisatrion, because of their desire to encourage media deregulation. Relaxing strict laws preventing a single broadcaster from reaching more than 35 per cent of the national audience or owning more than one network in the same market would be likely to see the major players make major financial gains.
With the FCC’s review of media regulation currently on-going, lobbying from the broadcasters has been intense. In a recent article, Jeffrey Chester, the executive director of the CDD, said “It is likely that decisions about how to cover the war on Iraq - especially on television - may be tempered by a concern not alienate the White House."
The vehement support of the Iraq conflict from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network has come under particular suspicion of attempting to curry favour, with Murdoch waiting to see whether his bid for DirecTV will win regulatory approval.
Concern over the situation is further exacerbated by the George Bush’s appointment of Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, as chairman of the FCC.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15891
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Post-war carve-up to benefit CDMA standard, record industry
Hilary Rosen to rewrite Iraq’s Intellectual Property laws!
Perhaps it’s not quite so juicy a tale of blatant war-profiteering as the more widely reported contract awarded to US Vice-President Dick Cheney’s company, Halliburton, to clean up and secure dynamited Iraqi oil wells - but there is still something a little Berlusconian about the move by the victors in the recent war to establish CDMA as the new mobile telephony standard in post-Saddam Iraq.
As the bombs began to fall on Baghdad, Californian Republican congressman Darrel Issa sent a letter to US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld demanding that in any US-occupied Iraq, there be a CDMA standard cellular phone network built, the standard used in the United States.
The letter, francophobically-headed "Parlez-vous francais?", claimed that the mobile standard most commonly used in the Middle East (and the rest of Asia and Europe), GSM, would only benefit perfidious "French and European sources, not US patent holders," because GSM stands for Groupe Systeme Mobile.
(It doesn’t. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communications. D’uh).
What is more disturbing than his remarkable acronymal ignorance, is that Congressman Issa neglects to point out is that the patent holder of the CDMA standard, Qualcomm, is one of Issa’s most generous donors.
A few days later, Issa introduced a bill along the same lines, and already a number of his fellow congressmembers have expressed support for an American mobile phone network in Iraq, despite the fact that GSM has a roughly 70 per cent global market share, compared to CDMA’s 12 per cent.
Meanwhile and furthermore, naturally it follows that in a world where Dick Cheney’s company is contracted to perform oil-related janitorial services in southern Iraq, among the people chosen to rewrite the country’s intellectual property laws would be the delightful Hilary Rosen, the retiring chairwoman of the Recording Industry Association of America and arch-nemesis of mp3-downloading college students everywhere, according to a UK- based investigative reporter.
"Who’s really going to win this war? It looks like Madonna," said BBC Newsnight’s Greg Palast in an interview on the subject with US radio show Democracy Now, "because there’s a whole team of people re-writing Iraq’s laws for them, in particular Hilary Rosen – who is the lobbyist for the Recording Industry Association of America. They are re-writing Iraq’s intellectual property laws for them. So that where before, they feared Saddam Hussein, now they have to fear Sony Records will chop off their hands if they bootleg a Madonna album."
So it looks like the anti-war protesters were wrong, the war wasn’t about oil - the post-war carve-up of Iraq shows that it was about mobile phones and mp3s too.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15965
The RIAA has denied any involvement of Hilary Rosen in the rebuilding of Iraq. See first peice - Jack.
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Holy Hi-Fi Batman!
Little rig grabs BIG sound
Back in November of 2002, we announced that we're working on a replacement for portable DAT recorders. Over the last few months we've gradually released information about this exciting product. We're pleased to offer more information today.
PDAudio -- A Recording System For PDA, Laptop and Desktop
Rather than being a single piece of hardware, PDAudio is a system of inexpensive hardware and software components you can select among to assemble a very compact recorder that meets your needs.
The centerpiece of the system is PDAudio-CF, a Type I (extended) Compact Flash S/PDIF interface with optical and coaxial inputs. PDAudio-CF can be mounted in PDA hosts that run Windows CE/Pocket PC 2002 or Linux (such as HP/Compaq's iPAQ), or used with laptop and desktop computers running Linux, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
The PDA-based PDAudio will operate on rechargeable batteries for more than enough time to record a concert, and be able to quickly transfer audio data to a laptop/desktop computer (PC or Mac) via removable solid-state memory cards (currently available in sizes up to 4 GB from Lexar), removable PC Card (currently up to 5 GB from Toshiba) and CF Card (currently 1 GB and up to 4 GB from Hitachi/IBM come Fall '03) hard disk drives, high capacity 2.5" hard drives (40 GB or more) using the PC Card interface, and via wired and wireless local area networks.
The PDA, PDAudio-CF interface, CF storage cards all fit together in one compact package, using a dual CF (or PC Card) expansion pack.
Here's a picture of an HP iPAQ, a dual CF card expansion pack, a PDAudio-CF interface and a CF memory card, running an early version of our PDAudio Recorder (Linux) software:
It fits comfortably in one hand and slips easily into a shirt pocket.
A full-featured recorder will retail for well under $1k, and, depending on what you already own, under $400. It will be available in a few different hardware and software configurations.
More pictures will be posted in the next few days.
http://www.core-sound.com/HighResRecorderNews.html#NEWS
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Intel, Nokia, Proxim, Others Launch WiMax
Intel, Nokia, Proxim, and a host of other companies yesterday launched WiMax, a non-profit group formed to certify and promote the developing wireless broadband standard 802.16. Other WiMax members include Airspan Networks, Alvarion, Aperto Networks, Ensemble Communications, and Wi-LAN.
The standard -- which the IEEE modified in January -- is a wireless MAN technology that will connect 802.11 hot-spots to the Internet and provide a wireless extension to cable and DSL for last mile broadband access. 802.16 provides up to 31 miles of linear service area range and allows users connectivity without a direct line of sight to a base station. The technology also provides shared data rates up to 70Mbps, which, according to WiMax, is enough bandwidth to simultaneously support more than 60 businesses with T1-type connectivity and hundreds of homes.
Many insiders argue that WiMax could pose a real threat to 3G and other wide area cellular data technologies. They claim that WiMax-powered hot spots could cheaply offer wireless broadband access to citywide areas, bringing Wi-Fi closer to cellular network levels of ubiquity.
http://www.tmcnet.com/enews/041103i.htm
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Cornice Unveils 1-In. HDD Priced Less Than US$100
Cornice Inc of the United States revealed a 1-inch hard disk drive (HDD) designed for consumer electronics for an OEM price of less than US$100.
Cornice will launch mass production of the Cornice Personal Storage, the 1-inch HDD with a recording capacity of 1.5GB some time before the second quarter of 2003.
According to the company's estimate, the retail price of music player accommodating this HDD will be US$199 at volume production.
Taking this estimate under consideration, Nikkei Electronics assumes that the OEM price of "Cornice Personal Storage" is expected to be below US$100. This price is much lower than the 1GB Microdrive, provided by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc of the US, whose OEM price ranges US$170 to US$210. Cornice reduced the number of parts largely to cut price. To reduce the number of parts, it substantially changed HDD's architecture.
Cornice Personal Storage is not a removable type, or not designed to be used for a slot with CompactFlash memory cards, but is designed to be embedded inside the device. The company has already done an operation check.
Many HDD makers see that Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd of Korea employed the HDD for its video camera that was exhibited at "CES 2003" in January 2003.
"It is not a downsized HDD of the existing HDD, but is designed from scratch based on the specific purpose that its usage is specified to portable devices and it is used as an embedded device," said an official at Cornice. It does not employ common interfaces such as CompactFlash and ATA to connect a HDD and a host device, but uses a simple and original interface. Furthermore, a part of electronic circuitry is separately designed from the body of the HDD for shared use with a memory and microcomputer of a host device. As a result, the company could reduce electronic parts and ICs to 40 and three, while the existing Microdrive required 110 and six, respectively, according to Cornice.
http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?...bt/news/237219
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Pass the oxygen
Homeland Security Dept. Fills Privacy Post With Double Click Exec!
Brian Krebs
The former privacy officer of Internet advertising giant DoubleClick will be the Department of Homeland Security's first privacy czar, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced today.
Nuala O'Connor Kelly, 34, will be responsible for vetting proposals or programs that involve collecting and using U.S. citizens' personal information. She currently serves as a Commerce Department attorney.
The privacy rights community generally views O'Connor Kelly as a consensus builder, but it is too soon to say how much influence she will have in protecting Americans' privacy rights, said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
"One of the things we liked (about her job) at DoubleClick was that she worked hard to build relationships with the privacy community and to vet their new policies with these groups," Schwartz said. "There is still some question as to what level of access will she have, and whether she will be able to speak her mind internally and publicly on privacy issues or will she simply be giving the agency line on everything."
O'Connor Kelly is well acquainted with the often bitter debate over balancing privacy rights with other interests. She joined DoubleClick in February 2000 after the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into complaints that the company was improperly storing and sharing private user data. DoubleClick also was embroiled in similar investigations by 12 state attorneys general and several class-action lawsuits.
DoubleClick settled most of those lawsuits, and created a division specializing in privacy compliance, which O'Connor Kelly ran.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Apr16.html
Until next week,
-
js.
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Recent WIRs -
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15843 April 5th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15729 March 29thth
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15623 March 22ndth
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15526 March 15th
The Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts@lycos.com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.