[JackSpratts]

Quote of the week: “By 2008, experts say 15-terabyte [home] systems will be common. That's enough to hold every song ever recorded -- about 5 million tracks -- using today's MP3 format.” - Keith Girard



Volume II, Issue Number 1


First Anniversary Issue




A Dozen Or So Stories Would Do It

I hit the “send” button one afternoon at what was then Napsterites and uploaded a little collection of news items I felt might be of interest to the P2P community. It was a particularly inauspicious moment. The “collection” as it were contained just eight items even though I uploaded an update a few hours later. But I was happy with the result. A few people stopped by to have a look, and one person even left a comment (positive) and with that the Week In Review was born. Although it wouldn’t get its nick for a few more issues the basic format I started with a year ago has remained essentially unchanged since that day on November 22nd, 2002.

At the time I was posting a lot of news items, too many really for a bulletin board, but not enough to cover the dizzying array of technical developments, political and legal issues swirling inside the peer-to-peer orbits. I was amazed at the polarization created by file sharing, from those who felt it would change the world (it will) to those who threatened it would destroy it (it won’t). The tension existed because the two sides were a fairly even match. The file sharers having sheer numbers and wild eyed ambition and the media companies though suffering from typical end stage capitalistic cynicism had big time establishment heavyweights in their pockets, and the real power those types can toss around. Neither side gave an inch because each recognized that decisions made in haste would have repercussions for decades. FM radio was hobbled by the monopoly telephone system in the 1950’s and still suffers from that shortsighted technical compromise 45 years later - even though the phone company has been dismantled and long out of any business allegedly threatened by FM’s clear retransmissions. It’s no exaggeration that many, if not most new developments that threaten existing franchises are not allowed their rightful opportunities to succeed. Many are even crushed into oblivion by powerful interests determined to hold at all costs a way of doing business beneficial only to themselves. In that small sense peer-to-peer is no different, it’s just a lot more visible.

There was an awful lot going on last year and I felt a little one or two page digest would go a small way toward helping people get the information they needed quicker and more conveniently than they could by themselves. I thought a dozen or so stories would do it. How little I knew…

Even combing the web was no guarantee I’d find the relevant stories in time for the post date, so sometimes I did my own reporting and wrote them myself, like the one I did on ES5 (the most hits ever) or any of a dozen others that covered mostly political issues. Usually the byline was Jack Spratts, but occasionally I wrote them under the name I was born with, if for no other reason than I found it difficult enough getting politicians and RIAA execs to return my calls without sounding like a nursery rhyme. But whatever name I choose to put over a story I always covered the issue as objectively as possible. The selection of the stories you read each week may indeed reflect a point of view but the stories themselves are taken directly as written, and if edited at all done so exclusively for space requirements - not to change the authors meaning or intent, even if that point of view conflicts with my own, which it often does. There have been many anti P2P articles appearing in WiR over the last year and they’ve been presented without comment or rancor. And while there were those that were not particularly well thought or especially fair to their subject I published them “as is” and uncritically, if for no other reason that I’ve felt it important readers remain acutely aware of how the press covers peer-to-peer, and how biased that coverage often is.

More often than not, but not always, readers will see a story at the top of the Week in Review with no byline or author. That’s mine of course, and it’s an opinion piece about something of interest to me that caught my attention. I’m fortunate that I can take whatever room I need to write about the things I feel are important to the future of file sharing and the Internet. There are so many paid and powerful voices lined up against P2P, blasting out of movie theaters, radios, TVs, magazines and newspapers that anytime one gets a chance to debunk those manipulative myths and talk about the positive aspects of file sharing one should exercise the option with vigor - while the option is still available. That’s the reservation for Jack’s POV, and I try not to stray out of it.

And Now A Word From Our Future

While changeable and flexible, the basic principals laid out that gave rise to IRC and the original Napster and the myriad other protocols used to create sharing clients like AIM, MSN, Groove, Limewire, Soulseek, Blubster, Waste, WinMx, KaZaA and any of the literally scores of applications and systems, will continue to exist and improve regardless of law or technology, because the movement is not about either, although it is influenced greatly by both. Neither is it about getting bits for free although again, the ability to do so plays a part in its present popularity. Peer-to-peer will survive because it fulfills in a pivotal way a basic and fundamental need that individuals have during an all too brief time on earth; the need for connections. As long as there is more than one person on this planet, that need will never vanish. P2P allows me, and you, to join in a way that has never been possible before. Quickly, easily, privately - or in public spaces on grand scales. Whether screaming out at the top of our lungs or sharing something intimate in a quiet corner of a darkened room, whenever two or more people have to merge by proxy Peer-to-peer will allow the moment to pass undisturbed and unseen by corporate, institutional or Governmental interference. The need for such connections and freedom from scrutiny is as much a part of our makeup as the very bones that define us and the skin that contains and protects us, but that separates us permanently from one another throughout our lives. That we can now recreate ourselves as symbolic forms - our thoughts and dreams and our stories and desires, and instantly transpose to others our bits no matter how far apart we may be, makes P2P indispensable and non-negotiable. As long as it fulfills that primary human need for connections across divides peer-to-peer will continue to flourish in whatever form it acquires and will remain as unstoppable as the life forces flowing through the billions of dedicated souls who give it voice.

It’s been a good year.

Thanks for reading,



Jack.









As of 11/20/03 ~

Most hits – 892

Least hits – 80

Most replies – 10

Smallest Issue: 1,770 words

Largest Issue: 52,927 words

Superlative - Holds a funny record here at NU: Thread with the most hits without a reply - 293

DoB: On November 22nd , 2003 at 3:41 in the afternoon

Issues to Date: 53









Enjoy.









DMCA Takes a Hit

Garage gadget wins digital copyright case.
Mike Robinson

In a closely watched technology lawsuit, a federal judge has ruled that a garage-door opener designed as a replacement for a model made by a rival manufacturer does not violate the nation's digital copyright law.

"Consumers have a reasonable expectation that they can replace the original product with a competing universal product without violating federal law," Judge Rebecca M. Pallmeyer said.

Pallmeyer's 10-page opinion came Thursday in a lawsuit filed by Chamberlain Group Inc., with offices in suburban Elmhurst, Ill., against Skylink Technologies Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario.

Chamberlain claimed Skylink garage-door openers that can interact with Chamberlain's digital security technology violated the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.


The dispute has been closely watched because there have been few court decisions to date that outline the limits of protections the digital copyright law affords manufacturers, said Gwen Hinze, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"This is one of the first cases that has actually looked at the language of authority" given to the manufacturer by the law to prevent consumers from using a so-called aftermarket product, she said.

Andrea B. Greene, attorney for privately held Skylink, said a ruling in favor of Chamberlain "would have had serious consequences for all kinds of consumer products."

"This was an attempt to expand the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to where it had never gone before," she said. She called the ruling "very good news for consumers." She said she did not know if Chamberlain would appeal.

Chamberlain attorney Karl R. Fink did not return a message left at his office.

Pallmeyer likened garage-door openers to television remote controls.

"Consumers of both products might have to replace them at some point due to damage or loss, and may program them to work with other devices manufactured by different companies," she said.

Attorneys said the other federal court major case being watched for clues as to the limits of the digital copyright law is an effort by Lexmark International Inc. (LXK) of Lexington, Ky., to bar Static Control Components Inc. of Sanford, N.C., from selling computer chips that match remanufactured toner cartridges to Lexmark International printers.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D7URT3TG0.html


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DMCA Again Used To Muzzle Consumer Voices

Message from the FatWallet, inc.

At approximately 11PM CST on 11/14/03, We became aware of a D.M.C.A. notification and subpoena from what appears to be the legal firm representing Best Buy Enterprise Services, Inc. (The email appears to have been sent at 5:20PM)

Due to the late hour and legal counsel not being immediately available, we are taking the action to remove the content we believe the notification is referring to. We ask that FatWallet members do not post further information regarding this matter or links to third party sites containing the information. Under the terms of the D.M.C.A., we will have an obligation to remove such information as we become aware of it.

We will follow up with legal counsel and take further action as appropriate.

Thank you in advance for your patience, cooperation and understanding.

Tim Storm
President
FatWallet, inc
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=240555


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Kazaa: 'Hooray for Bollywood'

Sharman Networks, makers of the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer software, is to sell a feature-length Bollywood movie through its service.

The Bollywood thriller Supari will be offered for sale at $2.99 a pop after a deal was struck between Sharman Networks partner Altnet Networks, a peer-to-peer content provider, and Bollywood film maker Aum Creates.

The movie was promoted through Kazaa prior to its release in India. According to the film's director, Padam Kumar, P2P is a suitable way of distributing a low budget feature to a wide audience.

Kumar said in a statement: "Kazaa has already managed to create widespread awareness for Supari. Selling the full movie is a logical next step, and with a relatively low budget movie, it is a very cost effective way to reach the masses."

Sharman Networks chief executive, Nikki Hemming, said the very nature of P2P technology makes mass distribution of large files, such as movies, feasible.

"The Bollywood movie market is growing at twice the rate of Hollywood, in terms of production and revenue," said Hemming in a statement. "Selling large, high quality files online, such as feature films, at low cost to a massive audience across the globe quite simply cannot be done efficiently using traditional websites."
http://www.silicon.com/networks/webwatch/ 0,39024667,39116879,00.htm


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Senators Ask P2P Companies To Police Themselves
John Borland

A group of Washington lawmakers called on Friday for file-swapping companies to help stop distribution of copyrighted materials and pornography on their networks.

In a letter sent to the heads of several leading companies--including Grokster, BearShare, Blubster, eDonkey2000, LimeWire and Streamcast Networks--a group of six senators called for self-regulation of peer-to-peer software companies.

"Purveyors of peer-to-peer technology have a legal and moral obligation to conform to copyright laws, and end the pornographic trade over these networks," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., said in a statement. "These programs expose our children to sexually explicit materials and provide an anonymous venue for child pornographers to hide behind the veil of technology."

It's not the first time lawmakers have railed against the unregulated sprawl of file-trading communities. In previous salvos, legislators have called for criminal penalties for people trading copyrighted works online, and blasted file-swapping networks as facilitators of child pornography distribution.

Most recently, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D.-Calif.,--who also signed Graham's letter--introduced legislation that would impose criminal penalties on anyone who distributed a movie before the studios released it to the public. These prereleases often happen online, and the films often find their way to file-trading networks quickly.

The senators signing the letter asked the companies to do several things, including:

• Provide clear and conspicuous warnings to users about the legal risks of P2P software;

• Add filters for copyrighted material and pornography to their software; and

• Change the default setting in file-swapping software programs so that users must actively choose to share material with others.

"We strongly believe that voluntarily taking these three common-sense steps would go a long way toward educating and protecting consumers," the group wrote in its letter. "It also would clearly indicate your companies' desire to become responsible corporate citizens."

Several file-swapping companies have formed a Washington, D.C., trade association called P2P United, partly in the hope of improving their image with skeptical lawmakers. They've created a "code of conduct" that includes features such as ensuring that it's clear exactly what users are choosing to share with other people on a file-swapping network.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5110785.html


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Review: Oritron NPD3117 Networked DVD Player
atkulp

I tried a computer-based setup and found that my wife and younger children had trouble figuring it all out. At that point I decided I needed to wait for a hardware-based solution that would work well without requiring a clunky computer near the TV.

Enter the Oritron

Having decided that nothing was available yet, you can imagine my excitement when I saw a networked DVD player in early October. This was the Oritron NPD3117 Networked DVD Player, also known as their On Media DVD player. This unit plays many audio and video formats -- even photo/JPEG discs. Where it really shines, though, is in its ability to play streaming content over the local network. It can switch between DVD and network content with the click of a button, and is very flexible in supported formats.

What does it do?

But what can this device actually play? Through the disc slot it plays DVD/+-R/+RW, audio CD/-R/-RW, VCD, SVCD, and CDs full of JPEG images or MP3/WMA music. Over the network, it plays MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, JPEG/TIFF/BMP, MP3/WMA, and most AVI files (DivX and XviD for starters). Yes, that's right, it plays DivX over the network! You may ask why it plays AVI-based files only over the network. This is due to the interesting way that the device handles video: any format that is not handled natively is transcoded on the fly on the PC-side. This is why there is a system requirement of 1.2GHz for the PC (though one of my On Media server boxes runs just fine with a 1GHz Athlon). When an AVI file is selected, it converts it to television resolution on-the-fly. No need to pre-convert your files. This means you can watch full-quality on your laptop and desktop (with the higher monitor resolutions), and TV-quality through the unit from the same file. It will not stream DVD's (encrypted or not). It also won't stream a VCD/SVCD per se, but will stream the actual MPEG streams that are encoded for VCD/SVCD when named properly. No proprietary video formats such as Real, QuickTime, or Windows Media Video will play. I do wonder though, if someone were to write appropriate AVI-style codecs for them, if it could be managed somehow ...

Pros:

· Well laid out remote with hotkeys to jump to music/video/pictures
· All the A/V in/out connectors (composite, S-Video, component, digital and 6-channel audio)
· Wide range of streaming content with smart choice of transcoding
· Easy network setup for wired or wireless environments
· Great quality of all supported media - you wouldn't know it's streamed!

Cons

· Would be nice to play even more content types (Ogg Vorbis, Real/QuickTime/WMV)
· Remote feels too light, makes you wonder how tough it is
· Server could be more flexible with scheduling options.

How does it work?

The unit needs to be plugged into your LAN. Instead of providing a CAT5 outlet on the back, it has a PCMCIA slot for a 16-bit wired or wireless 802.11b card. This is not the same as CardBus, which is 32-bit. You must get a 16-bit PC Card and it must be one on the company's approved list. This includes D-Link, Orinoco, Linksys, NetGear, and Microsoft products, so it's not too difficult to find. Best Buy had both the wired and wireless version of the LinkSys cards and may well have had other offerings as well. I was glad they chose this route rather than custom-branded cards at high prices.
http://features.slashdot.org/feature...id=186&tid=188


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Board Box

Soulseek Follies:

"To hell with it. It's just not worth the irritation of being banned for 12 to 24 hours everytime the damn server hiccups or I have to reboot. IMHO, the anti-flood measures have only served to put off good users. I was sharing over 10 thousand files (no - no boy bands or britany shit), but I am voting with my money (yes I was privileged but couldn't connect for shit) and going elsewhere with my files. And I'm betting a lot more users are going too.

Good bye soulseek. It was fun while it lasted, but it isn't fun any more, so hasta lavista." - Anubis2

* * *

"you're doing someone else a favour now. . that someone can now log in

bye bye" - roanfa

* * *

“I don't see how my leaving opens a spot for someone else since I could never log on to start with.” - Anubis2
http://slskboard.savagenews.com/inde...ic=11003&st=15

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Pearl Jam, on Its Own, Seizes the Moment and Sells CD on the Web
Chris Nelson

hen Pearl Jam's contract with Sony Music Entertainment's Epic Records expired earlier this year, how the iconoclastic band would exploit its new freedom quickly became a topic of great interest to music industry executives.

The band's manager, Kelly Curtis, assumed that he had until next year to decide how the band would distribute its work now that it controlled its own master recordings. But the future arrived earlier than Mr. Curtis had expected when the band came up with a new song called "Man of the Hour." Mr. Curtis and the band had to figure out how to get the song to fans.

Two days after the band's Web site, pearljam.com, began accepting orders on Nov. 10, almost 4,800 CD's had been sold, Mr. Curtis said. By way of comparison, the top-selling single for the two weeks ended Nov. 9 has been the Christian band MercyMe's "I Can Only Imagine," which sold more than 7,000 copies both weeks, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"Man of the Hour" was also made available for streamed listening on RealNetworks' music Web site (music.real.com) and immediately became the most popular free track on the site, a company spokesman, Matt Graves, said. The single will be available for purchase tomorrow as a download through Apple Computer's iTunes.

"The song kind of happened super-quick, kind of out of nowhere," Mr. Curtis said. In late September, the director Tim Burton asked Pearl Jam to contribute a tune to his film "Big Fish," which will be released in New York and Los Angeles next month.

Pearl Jam is known for raging against the music industry machine with endeavors like taking antitrust action against Ticketmaster in 1994 and releasing scores of live albums from each of its last two tours.

Rather than signing with a single worldwide entertainment corporation, Mr. Curtis said last summer that he would explore an assemblage of deals that could involve major labels in some countries, independents in others and self-releases in the United States.

Making 50,000 copies of "Man of the Hour" and issuing the song for streaming and downloading is an initial step to determine what the band is capable of on its own, Mr. Curtis said. "It's a way for us to get our feet wet and see what works for us and where we need help."

Pearl Jam made its deal for the movie directly with Sony Pictures Entertainment. The song will also be available on the film's soundtrack, which will be released next month - by Epic Records.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/17/technology/17jam.html


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RealNetworks Says Windows Works Without Media Player
Paul Meller

RealNetworks Inc., one of the participants in an antitrust hearing last week concerning the Microsoft Corporation, disproved claims by Microsoft that its Windows operating system depended on the inclusion of its Media Player.

In a demonstration before European competition regulators on Friday, RealNetworks, maker of a music- and video-playing computer program called Real One, showed how a little-known version of Windows - Windows XP Embedded, which is licensed only for industrial use - can work without Microsoft Media Player attached, three people at the closed-door hearing said.

Microsoft has argued that removing Media Player would harm the way Windows works. No one from Microsoft was available on Sunday to comment about the demonstration.

The European Commission told Microsoft in a statement in August that the software company was abusing the dominance it had with Windows. The commission also said that to restore fair competition among music and video players - like Media Player, Real One and Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime - Microsoft must either extract Media Player from the operating system and sell it as a stand-alone product or insert a rival player into Windows to sit alongside its own player.

On Friday, using a laptop hooked up to three giant monitors, RealNetworks demonstrated in front of more than 100 people how easily XP Embedded runs without Media Player. It also showed how Real One, its own media player, worked on the system.

"It was a 'gotcha' moment," said one person present, adding, "Everyone was impressed."

Microsoft's lawyers mentioned RealNetworks' demonstration in summing up at the end of the three-day hearing, another person present said. Someone on the Microsoft team "dismissed the demonstration as false, but they still acknowledged it as one of the more important points made during the hearing," he said.

Settlement talks between Microsoft and the commission are likely to begin in earnest this week. The commission is expected to push Microsoft toward offering to license two types of operating systems to European PC manufacturers: one with Media Player and one without.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/17/te...gy/17soft.html


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New Cellphone Offers Big Shots Eavesdrop - Proof Call

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A German company launched a new mobile handset on Tuesday targeted at business executives that secures lines are free from eavesdroppers, sparking criticism that it could also make criminals harder to catch.

Berlin-based Cryptophone, a unit of privately held GSMK, developed the phone by inserting an encryption software inside a standard handheld computer phone. This ensures that calls can only be decoded by a similar handset or a computer running the software.

But the phone is seen as a mixed blessing in some European countries. While the benefits for business managers exchanging sensitive information are obvious, such a device could potentially have the side effect of helping criminals.

Security specialists in the Netherlands said the device could threaten criminal investigation by the Dutch police, which is one of the world's most active phone tappers, listening in to 12,000 phone numbers every year.

But privacy lobbyists say the new handset is a ``freedomphone'' much more than a ``terrorphone.''

``It's a tremendous step forward, because the level of surveillance by authorities is breathtaking,'' said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International in Britain. Cryptophone says unlike rivals such as Sweden's Sectra, Swiss Crypto AG and Germany's Rohde & Schwarz, it has no ties to national security and defense organizations and that there is no back door for government agencies.

``We allow everyone to check the security for themselves, because we're the only ones who publish the source code,'' said Rop Gonggrijp at Amsterdam-based NAH6. Gonggrijp, who helped develop the software, owns a stake in Germany's GSMK.

The Microsoft-based XDA handheld computer phone made by Taiwan's High Tech Computer is selling for 3,499 euros per two handsets.

At that price it is targeting executives, lawyers and bankers who regularly swap market sensitive information on mergers and lawsuits, and for whom privacy is worth paying for.

Eavesdropping equipment, available for around 100,000 euros, is officially only available to government agencies, but suspected criminals have also been able to obtain it, Gonggrijp said.

The strong encryption standards used by Cryptophone can already be applied in e-mails and other computer applications. The advent of more powerful handheld devices such as the Microsoft-based handheld computer phones has allowed Cryptophone to offer the same level of security on mobile phones.

But the high price of the device means few will be able to buy it.

``Not many average consumers will pay that kind of money. The people who will be using it are in businesses,'' said Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research in Britain.

If the high security phones become popular, however, governments could well clamp down on them, Privacy International's Davies said. ``I would not trust governments to leave it alone.''

Cryptophone says on its Web Sitethat exports of the device were unlimited within Europe and to several large economies around the world, but that customer credentials would be checked for a criminal records.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/techn...-security.html


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CMJ Journal

Indie-Structable Rock Scene Smashes Major Labels
Mike Hess

NEW YORK — If Internet downloads, piracy and bootlegging are the blasts that are shaking the very foundation major music labels stand on, indie rock is the cockroach emerging from beneath the rubble —unharmed and even thriving on the surrounding disaster.

It’s quite the ironic twist on the current state of tunes: Major labels hacking jobs and budgets just to stay afloat while tiny independent labels and artists with pea-sized bankrolls are seeing increased sales, exposure and critical recognition.

Granted, this success isn't what most dreamed of while air-guitaring atop their childhood beds. There are no million-dollar tour buses, no lavish after-show parties and no massive pyro or lighting displays. There's just pure, straightforward music.

But in a faltering business, this formula seems to be the adrenaline injection into music's aorta.

"Bands are looking to make a good, solid album that you want to buy rather than an album with two singles and the rest is filler," said Andrew Katchen, a music writer for the Boston Globe. "There's less of an expectation and money funneled into an indie record, as opposed to say a Nelly album that has to sell millions of copies just to recoup marketing costs."

Another reason the independent music world is seemingly bulletproof is because of the relationship between the artist and the fan, which weaves a closely-knit community.

"There's such a sense of community between the fans and the band — you know who the artist is, even though you may not know the musician personally," said Katchen. "After the show they'll go to their own merch table and sell their own disc and you can talk to them, so you know you're supporting them more than the record company."

But why not go directly to the horse's mouth?

Fox News was able to speak with two burgeoning indie rock bands that have seen newfound success during 2003. Both bands recently played headlining shows at the CMJ Music Marathon (search) in New York City — a four-day musical onslaught featuring more than 900 bands at 50 venues spread all over the five boroughs and New Jersey.
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_frien...103194,00.html


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Vision of Personal Computers as Heart of Home Entertainment
John Markoff

If Intel and Microsoft have their way, the personal computer will soon be moving out of the office and den into the living room, kitchen and bedroom.

The two companies have been thwarted for more than a decade by Hollywood, as well as the cable and satellite television industries, in their efforts to put a wired PC at the center of home entertainment. But now, competing directly against many companies in the consumer electronics industry, Intel and Microsoft are mounting a new charge to try to make the personal computer the hearth of the information age.

That vision is on display here in a faux teenager's bedroom just off the lobby at Intel's headquarters, where the sleek all-in-one PC has become part television tuner, part video game machine, part stereo jukebox, part DVD player, part digital photo archive - and the great hope of the nation's computer makers, who are looking for a bright Christmas sales rebound to help lead them to a longer revival.

"This is not your grandma's PC," said Louis J. Burns, the executive in charge of Intel's desktop computer division.

The arrival of the more flexible personal computers, Silicon Valley executives argue, is aimed at permitting the industry to make big inroads into the consumer market as digital television replaces conventional analog TV, a move that is expected to lead Americans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years on things like new big-screen displays and home-theater-in-a-box sets.

"It will define a whole new category," said Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, a maker of PC video cards also based here. "In five years it will absolutely reshape the consumer electronics industry."

Leading the computer industry's invasion is a new device known as the Media Center PC, with a processor designed by Intel and software created by Microsoft. It was introduced last year, and new and improved versions are being marketed this season by personal computer giants like Gateway, Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard and Sony.

Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, in a speech prepared for delivery on Sunday evening at the annual Comdex computer show in Las Vegas, underscores the company's Media Center strategy; Mr. Gates describes the idea of "seamless computing,'' emphasizing the importance of software to tie together different consumer and office systems.

The new machines are not just the biggest hope for a computer industry that has been plagued by flat sales and eroding profit margins. They are also the standard bearers for an all-digital crusade the PC industry is waging to break open the satellite and cable industries, undermine powerful consumer electronic giants and restructure both Hollywood and the recording industry.

But consumer electronics makers question whether the PC industry's grand vision is one that many Americans will want to embrace. Even family-friendly personal computers are still far more complex than today's home electronics devices, they argue.

Others challenge the PC makers' centralized "mainframe in the home" vision of the personal computer as a hub for controlling all of the data expected to be flowing into houses to provide information, entertainment and other digital services in the years ahead. Instead, they say that wireless networking will level the playing field by letting any electronic device communicate with any other, allowing the current cable and satellite providers of television signals to control not just how movies are viewed in the home but also to some extent how video games and music are played.

"The seminal change in the home hi-fi market is not whether the console will be replaced by the PC," said Andrew Lippman, associate director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory. "The real change will be a home wireless network that will make it possible to put computer intelligence in every device."

And not surprisingly, many consumer electronics companies have a very different vision than Microsoft's and Intel's PC-at-the-center world view.

"PC's come in all sizes these days,'' said Rob Fish, director of the Panasonic information and networking technologies laboratory in Princeton, N.J. "The view that every application in the home will rely on one box, it seems, does not really match the way most people live their lives."

The new computers have yet to win widespread endorsement from digital content providers. Despite extensive additional copy protection features in the machines, Hollywood studios remain worried that the systems, because they are connected openly to the Internet, could lead to widespread pirating of movies and songs.

The campaign is also exposing fault lines within the industry and highlighting differences in strategy between Microsoft and Intel. Both companies, long joined at the hip in a symbiotic "Wintel'' relationship, are jockeying for the upper hand.

Microsoft recently ended its dependence on Intel to provide processor chips for its Xbox video game machine, entering into an alliance with I.B.M. instead. "The Intel- Microsoft marriage has plenty of cracks in it because they both want to be king," said a Silicon Valley chief executive who has done business with both companies.

Until recently, Microsoft's efforts to enter the home entertainment market have gone nowhere, in part because the products proved disappointing and in part because its prospective allies have rebuffed Microsoft's advances for fear of falling prey to the tactics that established its monopoly control over PC software.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/17/te...l?pagewanted=2


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Hot Sounds From a Cold Trumpet? Cryogenic Theory Falls Flat
Terry Schwadron

Without, er, fanfare, two Tufts University engineering researchers announced results of a study last week rebutting a popular myth among some trumpet players that deep-freezing the instruments will change the sound for the better.

Rather, they told the Acoustical Society of America meeting in Austin, Tex., that scientific testing of cryogenically freezing 10 trumpets showed minimal differences when the instruments were thawed and played by six musicians. After two years of research, Dr. Chris Rogers, an engineering professor, said that he and colleagues determined that freezing trumpets did not make them sound better.

"One of the great things about studying musical instruments, though, is if the player believes it will make a difference, he or she will play better, so it acts as a sort of placebo," Dr. Rogers said.

There has been growing interest among musicians in these treatments for brass instruments of all kind. In experiments, the instruments were cooled with liquid nitrogen to minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit, and then slowly warmed, all in the belief that they would become easier to play. A major flute manufacturer uses the process, and small storefront businesses have popped up for the sole purpose of freezing the instruments.

Chip Jones, a Tufts graduate student involved in the research, said he had recruited six trumpeters ranging in skill from a former high school musician to a New England Conservatory player to member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

They played the same sequence on trumpets that had been frozen and those that had not, and then rated the instruments. They were also asked to identify which trumpet matched the sound that "people say is brighter, freer-blowing or that had more `presence,' " Mr. Jones said.

Differences in the answers, he said, were statistically insignificant. "There was more difference from trumpet to trumpet and from player to player than in the results from treatment of the instruments," Mr. Jones said.

The research was requested by Selmer Musical Instruments, a wind instrument manufacturer, which was considering whether to offer the cryogenic treatments for new instruments sold from the Vincent Bach Stradivarius trumpet line. As a result of the tests, the company has decided to forgo the deep-freeze.

But others who have tried the deep-freeze say there is a difference in ease of playing and in the range of "color" in the tone.

In Arlington Heights, Ill., Wayne Tanabe, owner of the Brass Bow music repair shop, said his advertising was by word of mouth. "Otherwise, people think you're talking about voodoo," he said.

He has a tub-size cryogenics tank where he can fit a tuba and several trumpets. His freeze technique costs about $200 and takes 35 to 50 hours. As Mr. Tanabe explained it, cryogenics accelerates what seems to happen to brass instruments as they age. Sound quality improves because resonance is clearer, he said.

Mr. Jones said studies had shown that while steel, for example, did undergo change through freezing, brass did not. Heating, by contrast, does soften metal, potentially changing its acoustics.

The trumpet research is part a musical instrument engineering program at Tufts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/science/18TRUM.html


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In Utah, Public Works Project in Digital


Salt Lake City and 17 other cities in Utah are planning to construct the largest ultrahigh-speed data network
in the country, using fiber optic cables, at a cost of $470 million.
Photo: Tom Smart for The New York Times

Matt Richtel

When it comes to the Internet, residents of Utah are taking matters into their own hands.

In a 21st-century twist on Roosevelt-era public works projects, Salt Lake City and 17 other Utah cities are planning to build the largest ultrahigh-speed digital network in the country.

Construction on the project is scheduled to start next spring - if the cities can raise the money to pull it off. The network would be capable of delivering data over the Internet to homes and businesses at speeds 100 times faster than current commercial residential offerings. It would also offer digital television and telephone services through the Internet.

With a $470 million price tag, the project is considered one of the most ambitious efforts in the world to deploy fiber optic cables, which carry data in bursts of light over glass fibers. Though it has not received much attention outside the area, the project has raised questions here about the role of government, particularly from telecommunications companies, which are starting to complain about the prospect of competing against a publicly sponsored digital network.

The cities involved argue that reliable access to high-speed data is so important to their goals of improving education and advancing economic growth that the project should be seen as no more controversial than the traditional public role in building roads, bridges, sewers and schools - as well as electric power systems, which are often municipally owned in the Western United States.

Data infrastructure "is not a nicety,'' said Paul T. Morris, executive director for the project, which he has named Utopia, a stylized acronym for the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency. "It's an essential economic growth issue," he added. "The best network in the U.S. will be in Utah - not in New York, not in Chicago, not in Los Angeles."

Its advocates say that Utopia will give participating cities a leg up in attracting sophisticated companies and highly educated, technology-minded individuals. The network is expected to be available to 723,000 residents in 248,000 households and 34,500 businesses. Prices would vary considerably depending on the service, though basic high- speed Internet access is expected to cost about $28 a month.

Depending on the kind of equipment used, fiber can deliver data at speeds of 100 megabits a second - even as much as 1,000 megabits under some circumstances - enabling the lines to be used simultaneously to send voice, video, Internet and other data traffic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/17/te.../17utopia.html


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P2P Set To Cause 3G Meltdown
Robert Jaques

"The potential for problems is enormous should the technology continue to develop in this area."

Peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic that consumes as much bandwidth as is available, resulting in saturated networks and poor quality of service, has the potential to devastate future third-generation (3G) networks, industry watchers have warned.

The warning comes as a song-swapping service that allows music lovers to download songs directly onto their mobile phones is unveiled.

Although the creator of the technology behind the offering, Beep Science AS, has conceded that its service is more suited to higher bandwidth, 3G environments, the company says it currently allows MMS phones to send and receive music using a restricted P2P network.

But with network capacity limited, 3G operators may well not be able to deal with the potential glut of P2P traffic downloads, cautioned Bryn Teasdale, director EMEA at IP service control firm P-Cube.

"The potential for problems is enormous should the technology continue to develop in this area," he said.

"As 3G operators broaden their services to include messaging, browsing, gaming and now P2P applications, it is vitally important they plan ahead, investing in the ability to manage and control IP services on a per-application basis.

"This will enable them to extract maximum revenues for P2P traffic while managing and shaping bandwidth to safeguard the quality of service for standard voice and more profitable premium content services."
http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/22706.html


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KaZaA to P2Pers: Speak Up!
Charles Farrar

KaZaA's parent company is urging peer-to-peer file swappers, its own and others, to lobby music companies and film studios to knock off the animosity toward KaZaA and other popular file-swap services.

"It's a call to action," said Sharman Networks chief executive officer Nikki Hemming to CNET, unwrapping a new print ad campaign aimed for major newspapers and Rolling Stone magazine this week. "We want to cut through the clutter, put our money where our mouth is and remind everybody of the opportunity being missed here."

CNET said this is the first major ad campaign from Sharman since they opened KaZaA for business two years ago, with the ads also aiming for college campus newspapers in the U.S., Great Britain, and Australia, as well as on Yahoo and other Websites. Sharman has been trying to convince the music and film industriies to distribute their authorized versions of their works through KaZaA by way of new technology from Altnet, CNET said.

No major such company has agreed to such a partnership so far, while several are suing Sharman for copyright infringement. "Altnet and Sharman have experienced deafness on the part of the industry for way too long, and there's a point where you have to take action," Hemming told CNET.

One of the ads in the campaign is an open letter to media leaders saying the music and film companies are making a big mistake trying to close the P2P services. "Sixty million people have embraced this technology as a new and better way to get their entertainment," says the ad, as described by CNET. "They are not pirates. They are your customers."

CNET said the ad campaign may have partial funding through a deal between Sharman and eUniverse, which revealed last week they agreed to give Sharman $2.3 million in nonrefundable advances in a co-marketing deal.
http://www.avnonline.com/issues/2003...111703_8.shtml


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File-Sharing Goes To The Next Level
Jefferson Graham

Michael Halm, a senior research programmer with Penn State University, admits that file-sharing among students has gotten out of hand. Yet that hasn't stopped his school from co-developing a new academic peer-to-peer, or P2P, sharing system.

"We don't even use the P2P word because it has such a bad connotation," he says. "We're trying to create legitimate applications that enhance the way people work. And that's P2P. It's faster than a Web site or internal network and puts control into the hands of people who want to collaborate."

P2P has come a long way since 1999 when then-18-year-old Shawn Fanning invented Napster in his dorm room as a tool to find music MP3 files. Now music, movies, games and other huge — and usually copyrighted — files that once were impossible to trade between users flow freely among millions of powerful PCs being linked together.

Halm would like to replicate that ease of use with academic data. That's why Penn State is working with MIT and British Columbia's Simon Fraser University on developing LionShare, an exchange of academic materials, using P2P for faster and more reliable sharing.

"Many people think P2P is equivalent to downloading MP3 files, but that's not all it's about," says Niklas Zennstrom, creator of Kazaa, the world's most-downloaded (nearly 300 million copies) P2P software. Zennstrom's new company, Skype, offers free phone calls over the Internet via P2P. Some banks already are using internal P2P to transfer data to branches.

Eric Garland of BigChampagne, a market research firm, predicts P2P will become the "go-to platform, a way to share proprietary information for banking, insurance, all industries. It's so efficient and robust, it will be applied to all types of online information."

Marty Lafferty, CEO of the newly formed Distributed Computing Industry Association, calls P2P "an incredible form of super distribution, not just for entertainment, but in ways to benefit humanity."

Hype or reality? Some examples:

•Data distribution. Companies including Contiki and Akamai use P2P technology to help companies deliver sales presentations and multimedia content.

•Grid computing. By linking a host of computers together to solve a problem, "You break the data into 1,000 pieces and solve the problem in a few days," says Andy Oram, an editor at computer book publisher O'Reilly & Associates. (Story, 7E.)

•Distributed file systems. The files on a company network are broken into pieces and put into the P2P system, so if the server does go down, everyone's computers can work together to reassemble the files.

•Collaboration software. BadBlue allows home users to set up their own P2P networks starting at $29.95 per user, $59.95 for businesses. Groove Networks is similar, targeted to business. Its software starts at $149.95. "With a Web server, anyone who needs a piece of data has to contact one particular machine," says Adam Allison of BigChampagne. "With P2P, the media goes on multiple locations and can be accessed more quickly and efficiently."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/te...14-peer_x.htm#


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Think Tank Wants Public's Help in 'Spyware' Fight
Brian Krebs

A Washington-based technology think tank wants Internet users to join its crusade against invasive "spyware" programs that let their authors eavesdrop on people's online activities.

The Center for Democracy and Technology today urged Americans to submit details about their encounters with spyware, which often comes packaged as an unwanted addition to popular downloads like software for trading music files. The group said it will compile those experiences and submit them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as part of its campaign to spur the federal government to take action against businesses that do not clearly tell people that they are opening their personal online lives to strangers.

"We have read many stories about consumers who did not know that these programs were on their computer and then, when they went to delete them, found that they just wouldn't go away," said CDT Associate Director Ari Schwartz. "We are asking computer users to tell us the problems they have encountered and we'll test the programs ourselves and file complaints where warranted."

Hijacking an Internet connection or intercepting online communications is a federal crime but people often unwittingly install spyware on their computers when they download other kinds of useful software applications without reading the legal disclosures usually buried deep in the user agreement, the CDT report said.

Once people find the programs on their computers, they discover that it's almost impossible to delete them without a high level of technical expertise.

Spyware can cause sluggish PC performance and system instability, and can unleash a barrage of pop-up ads and unsolicited bulk e-mail, popularly known as spam. In the most egregious cases, spyware can be extremely invasive -- it can track what Web sites people visit and the keywords they enter in search engines. It also can hijack their Internet connections.

Some well known spyware programs often show up in peer-to-peer (P2P) file-swapping software that people download to trade digital music and video files on the Internet. P2P software often contains programs like Bonzi Buddy and Gator, which collect data on users' surfing and shopping habits and send it to a third party that develops profiles for targeted pop-up ads.

In April 2002, privacy experts discovered that Kazaa -- the most popular file-sharing software -- is bundled with a program called "Altnet."

Sharman Networks, Kazaa's parent company, said it would use Altnet to harness small amounts of the processing power on Kazaa users' computers which it would then sell to other Altnet customers that need the power. Computer users would not be compensated. Sharman said the network is not active and that users can disable the program.

The FTC has investigated reports of spyware privacy violations but has not found anything illegal, said spokeswoman Claudia Bourne-Farrell.

"Allegations about spyware are troubling, and we look forward to reviewing the CDT report," she said. "We'll continue to review this issue and pursue law enforcement where it's appropriate."

Several U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation during the past two years to control the distribution of spyware, but Congress has failed to pass any bills.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Nov18.html


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Electronic Voting Debacle
Scott Granneman

Grave concerns over the security of electronic voting machines in the United States means the heart of American democracy is at risk, writes SecurityFocus columnist Scott Granneman.

My grandmother, Ruth Scott, was passionately interested in politics her entire life. She never missed an election (an attitude she instilled in her descendents), she followed political debates with great fervor, and, in perhaps her most selfless action, she worked for decades as an Election Judge on election day. These were long days for her, as she had to be there before the polls opened and stay until they closed and the votes had been counted. I'm sure she would have appreciated any tool that made her job easier and enabled her to get home sooner. It seems that such a tool may now be gaining traction all over America: the electronic voting machine. But is it really a good thing for our country and our electoral system?

After the 2000 election debacle in Florida (and actually in plenty of other locations around the U.S.), with its hanging chads and pregnant chads and other punch-card problems, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002. One of the functions of the new law was to provide $4 billion for states to use in updating their often antiquated voting equipment. With federal money available, and the cautionary story of Florida as a warning, states began turning in droves to electronic voting machines.

Georgia uses voting machines made by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems throughout the state. Maryland signed a $55.6 million deal with Diebold in July to supply the state with 11,000 voting machines. Other states using machines made by Diebold include Ohio, Texas, and California. Overall, there are more than 55,000 Diebold machines in use around the country.

A Litany of Problems

An election held in Houston just a few days ago was marred when election judges incorrectly set up twelve eSlate voting machines, resulting in a malfunction. The paper ballots that were supposed to be present were not, so judges gave voters pieces of paper torn in half and told them to write their votes down. Other voters simply left without casting their ballot. Some voters were told that they should come back later in the day, when the machines would be working, thereby casting their ballots twice.

The Oakland Tribune reported last week that several thousand voters in Alameda County used electronic voting machines made by Diebold that were never certified for use by state and county voting officials. Diebold altered the software running on the machines prior to the election, but never bothered to submit the software for testing or even notify the state that the software update had been made.

Another election last week also displayed troubling irregularities. After Rita Thompson, a school board member who lost a close race in Fairfax County, Virginia, complained, tests were performed on a WINvote machine made by Advanced Voting Solutions of Texas. Lo and behold, one out of every hundred votes for Thompson actually resulted in a subtracted vote for the candidate. But there's more. Ten machines broke down during the day, so they were brought to the county government center, repaired, and sent back to be used by voters ... with no oversight. But there's still more. At 7 p.m., most of the 223 precincts in the county attempted to report tallies. At the same time. The system, overworked, crashed. "Fiasco" is not a word I would disagree with in describing this situation.

In Georgia during the 2002 elections, some voters using Diebold machines tried to vote for one candidate, but the machine would instead register a vote for the opponent. It got weirder in Georgia in 2002. There were six electoral upsets in that election, including one in which the incumbent senator, who was far ahead in the polls, lost by 11 points. Diebold had changed the software used by the voting machines seven or eight times, without anyone examining it, and then after the election the company immediately overwrote the flash memory of all the cards used by those machines, so it is now impossible to know what the vote counts really were.

Also during the 2002 elections, machines made by Omaha-based Election Systems & Software erroneously reported that no one in several large Florida precincts had voted for governor. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Problems abound. But it's actually much, much worse.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34051.html


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Cisco, Others Plan To Ban Insecure PCs
Robert Lemos

Cisco Systems has teamed up with three top antivirus companies in a security initiative intended to ban insecure mobile devices from corporate networks.

The initiative, dubbed the Network Admission Control program, would allow companies to set their network devices to refuse connections from any mobile PCs or devices that fail to meet corporate security policies, such as not having the latest software patches and antivirus updates. Antivirus companies Network Associates, Symantec and Trend Micro joined Cisco in making the announcement Tuesday.

The plan is meant to combat one of the common weaknesses of company networks: workers who log on from outside a company using
insecure PCs or who bring those computers inside the company and connect to the network.

"Currently, no check is made to see if the PC is compliant with corporate security policies," Charlie Giancarlo, senior vice president of product development for Cisco, said on a conference call Tuesday. "The user might become infected at home or through a hotel Internet connection...(and) immediately spread a worm throughout a corporate networks."

The move by the companies is a reaction to recent computer worms and virus epidemics that have managed to spread into businesses due in large part to the insecure PCs mobile workers use. Both the Slammer worm in January and the MSBlast worm in August were able to get past corporate defenses by hitching rides on the laptops of mobile workers who were lax with security.

"The explosion of wireless, mobile devices and pagers has made the corporation much more vulnerable to attack through the devices," said George Samenuk, CEO of Network Associates.

Other companies have reacted to the problems the worms have highlighted. Microsoft announced in October that it would augment its focus on securing its software through patching, because the earlier system of updates hasn't been able to stem the epidemics. Other companies, including Internet service providers, have blocked certain types of traffic for weeks at a time to stop threats.

Putting agents in place
Cisco's Network Admission Control program would enable companies to install on every PC and mobile device a client, called the Cisco Trust Agent, which could attest to certain levels of security, such as whether the device has been recently patched or has the latest virus recognition files. Antivirus software makers would modify their products to provide information to the software that could be used by companies to determine how secure the PC might be.

Giancarlo stressed that completely locking out mobile users is not an answer. "Clearly, the solution is not to eliminate one of the most important aspects of these devices: their mobility," he said.

The secure connections that allow employees to connect to the internal corporate network from home, virtual private networks, are also seen as a major threat to businesses' security.

Cisco has already focused on delivering such connectivity in its products. Earlier this month, the company announced an upgrade to the Cisco VPN 3000 Concentrator to add secure network functionality, dubbed WebVPN, based on the Secure Sockets Layer protocol browsers widely use.

Cisco's concentrators are network devices that act as central connection points for virtual private networks and, as such, are an ideal place to put in additional network defenses.

However, the technology won't work unless security software can tell the Trusted Agent application the current state of security on the computer or mobile device.

"This important problem can't be addressed individually," said John Thompson, CEO of Symantec. "Collaboration is a must."

The technology might also spur sales of PCs and devices that use trusted-computing hardware--controversial technology that uses encryption, special memory and security software to lock away secrets on a PC from prying eyes. Adding further protections to the system that attests to the security of a computer owned by a company is a reasonable use of the system, said Bob Gleichauf, chief technology officer for the Network Admission Control program at Cisco.

"We need a trust boundary between the network and these devices, and the system needs hardware and software to do that," he said.

Cisco plans to introduce the technology in the middle of 2004.
http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5108883.html


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Billy Bragg

This Machine Kills Fascists
Juan Aboites

There is a Billy Bragg song titled "Valentines Day Is Over" off of the album Workers Playtime, which contains the lyric, "That brutality and the economy are related; now I understand." Bragg, ever the politically charged folk-punk troubadour, has, throughout his career, loudly rattled the collective chains of the status quo. But from organizing the successful implementation of tactical voting to unseat conservatives in his native England, or to his newest project, the "Tell us the Truth Tour" (with Lester Chambers, Tom Morello, and Steve Earle), Bragg has essentially been saying the same thing; he has underscored the intrinsic overlap of the political and the artistic; the political and the personal. "I just write about the world the way I see it," he said.

Unlike Bragg, many musicians today operate in a distinctly apolitical realm, and it is no secret that the general majority cleaves toward apathy (think new FCC regulations, biodefense labs). The reason? According to Bragg, it's because even value judgments have become increasingly depersonalized; they are, more often than not, the product of the undifferentiated nature of consolidated media. Expressions of how people feel have less to do with those feelings than what is actually saleable. In his typically curt style, Bragg vied away from my initial skepticism: "I don't think monopolies are good for the whole idea of what capitalism is. I once went to a place where they had one radio station and one record company; it was called the Soviet Union."

But forget free market capitalism. The recent RIAA/Peer 2 Peer debacle lends itself to the same idea. Ostensibly, the need for unconsolidated media reflects itself in the need for unconsolidated musical taste.

"I think the record industry needs to look at other reasons why it's losing money," Bragg said. "I think one of those problems is the lack of diversity. Not just a diverse record company, but a diverse media that can handle different opinions and different styles of music in a way that doesn't force us all to conform to a particular stereotype, whether it's a video stereotype or glamour stereotype. There are different values out there in the wide world; it's not all about booty."

But what sets Bragg apart from most is his unwillingness to compromise. Throughout a 20-year career, he continues, as the need presents itself, to offer the alternative perspective. And it is in this way that the title of his newly released compilation discloses the work that underlies its content: Must I Paint You a Picture? You must, Billy. Indeed you must.

You've credited Joe Strummer with infecting punk music with political consciousness. Do you think that that has worn off at all?

It's not worn off on me, mate. I mean, my last album was called England Half-English, and it addressed the issue of the politics of identity as a way of dealing with racists and xenophobes of which we have a serious problem here in the UK, and in Europe. The first political thing I ever did was, when I was 19 years old, go to see The Clash at a rock against racism march. So that's where I came into all this. I am now making albums that try and deal with that issue by looking at it through the prism of identity, so I'm still doing what I came here to do.

I assume, then, that you have a general faith in people. That once they understand an alternative viewpoint, they will act on it.

In the end you have to engage them, mate. 'Cause what's the alternative? You know, you just give up and become a fuckin' cynic. So the level of our participation is really, like, the same as your level. It's engaging. Whether or not the perspective that we offer makes a huge difference is hard to judge, and I really don't care. My point is to engage and do as much as I can and not sit around and be a cynical bastard about it. So I do it, through producing songs and talking to your readers and you do it by writing up interviews and by reviewing records and reviewing shows. It's the same thing, trying to offer a different perspective. I don't go out on this tour, or any tour, or any album that I make and think it's going to change the fuckin' world, man. I just think to myself, "OK, I've done the best I can here to articulate how I feel about the issue. Now we'll see how it goes and how it chimes with other people." But the important thing about that is keeping your feet on the ground, and realizing that it's up to the audience to change the world.
http://www.weeklydig.com/dig/content/5132.aspx


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CNET To Buy, Retune MP3.com
Matt Hines and John Borland

Internet media company CNET Networks announced Friday that it is acquiring the assets of online music distributor MP3.com.

San Francisco-based CNET Networks said it has signed a definitive agreement with Vivendi Universal Net USA to acquire the assets of MP3.com, with the deal scheduled to close in December. Terms of the transaction were not released. CNET Networks operates an array of technology-oriented Web sites including CNET.com, Builder.com, GameSpot, mySimon.com, News.com and ZDNet.

News of the deal first surfaced in an e-mail sent by MP3.com to its customers and posted to its site late Thursday. In the e-mail, MP3.com informed users that its Web site would no longer be accessible in its current form and that CNET Networks plans to reintroduce the music site with new features and services. MP3.com said that after the site's removal, all of the online content on its servers will be deleted and promised that previously submitted musical works in its possession will be destroyed.

MP3.com was once the standard-bearer for digital visionaries looking to the Internet to undermine the power of the traditional music business. By offering free online storage space and access to any band, signed or not, the company and founder Michael Robertson hoped to create a new distribution mechanism that would expand how people got music and what kind of music they listened to.

Robertson did succeed in winning the enmity of the major record labels, who sued the company for tens of millions of dollars when he launched a service that allowed people online access to music they owned. But the rise of Napster and file- swapping did as much to eclipse MP3.com's star.

With free access to major label and other music available through Napster, people flocked to it and other trading networks instead. Robertson ultimately sold the MP3.com property to Vivendi Universal, which maintained the unsigned artist database but used the company's technology to launch Pressplay, the digital music subscription service co-owned with Sony Music Entertainment.

After a corporate shakeup, and the realization of mounting debt, Vivendi lost interest in maintaining money-losing digital assets. It sold Pressplay to Roxio to let it run Roxio's new Napster service. MP3.com is one of the last music assets to go, following the sale of digital music company Emusic to a New York investment firm last month.

CNET Networks representatives said the company aims to augment its position as a provider of interactive content through the acquisition, with plans to enter the online music market through MP3.com. However, a company representative said the revamped site would not compete with music download services such as Napster. Instead, the company plans to turn MP3.com into a source of information for digital music.

CNET Networks believes MP3.com can attract an audience similar to visitors of its GameSpot Web site, which features video game reviews and downloads. The company did not announce a timeframe for its planned relaunch of MP3.com but said it is interested in connecting with artists and record companies that have previously distributed their music via the site.

CNET Networks is the publisher of News.com.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5107696.html


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''These Are Your Movies On Piracy''
Posted by Steven Wu

A few days ago Lawmeme posted a story on pre-movie advertisements meant to counteract the perception of piracy as a victimless crime (or, at least, a crime whose victims were all fat cats anyway). The New York Times now has an article (editorial?) on those advertisements.

"The piracy issue," Mr. Goldstein says in the spot, "I don't think will affect the producers. I mean it does affect them, but it's minuscule to the way it affects me, the guy working on construction, the lighting guy, the sound guy, because we're not million-dollar employees." According to the respect- copyright Web site, if you download a movie illegally, "you're threatening the livelihood of thousands." . . .

[T]he thrust of this campaign is not to address a present crisis but, somewhat remarkably, to attack the cultural roots of one that looms just over the horizon. The easy exchange of sounds and pictures makes it easy to forget that someone--a lot of people--made them, and that someone (else) owns them, and that taking them without paying is a kind of stealing.

The article doesn't really make a novel argument, but I think it's missing at least two points. First, it's disingenuous to believe that the MPAA (and the RIAA) cares so much about copyright because of the impact piracy has on the ordinary guys working in the industry, although that's what the advertisements would like you to believe. At least part of my reaction to these advertisements is a feeling that ordinary people are being used to mask the real interests behind the anti-piracy campaign .

Second, the editorial mis-characterizes the nature of the movement against the MPAA and the RIAA. It's not just that people want to pirate movies, though there are those out there; rather, I like to think that most people are resentful of the incredibly unfair and rent-seeking copyright laws as a whole, and piracy is one way of protesting the system. Piracy may hurt the people who work on movies and music, but it also hurts industries who care nothing about crippling the public domain. Maybe the Eldred people should start putting out counter-advertisements about how existing copyright law hurts us, the larger public, by keeping intellectual property out of our reach and within the pockets of corporations and collectives.
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/mod...ticle&sid=1278


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China moves from DVD to EVD

Government-backed firm unveils Enhanced Versatile Disc to bring more innovation to the country.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, the world's biggest maker of DVD players, moved Tuesday to create its next-generation rival -- the EVD -- the first step toward creating a possible new national industry standard.

Beijing E-world Technology Co. Ltd., the corporate entity of a government-backed consortium of businessmen and academics, and two DVD manufacturers unveiled the indigenous, higher-definition Enhanced Versatile Disc.

"It's not a question of whether we walk the EVD path. It's a question of how fast or slow we go," Hao Chieh, president of E-world Technology which designed the new standard, told Reuters.

But analysts doubt that EVDs would be widely adopted in the rest of the world even if China were to adopt it.

The move aims to reduce the drain of what domestic DVD makers consider exorbitant patent royalties they must pay to a group of mostly Japanese electronics conglomerates.

It also aims to avoid over-reliance on foreign technology and could transform China from a mere copier and global factory to an innovator in audio visual technology.

Hao is convinced domestic DVD makers will switch to EVD because royalty payments totaling 2.7 billion yuan, or $325.3 million, have eaten into their profits.

Talks also are under way between domestic DVD makers and the foreign conglomerates to pay royalty for DVDs sold in China.

But EVD may not knock DVD from its leading position just yet.

The Ministry of Information Industry will set up a task force this month to deliberate whether to adopt EVD as the new national industry standard, a ministry spokesman said. There was no timetable for a decision.

DVD is the current unofficial national standard. More than 100 domestic DVD makers produced about 30 million players last year, almost double the 2001 figure, state media said.

China exported 20 million players in 2002, accounting for up to 70 percent of the global DVD market.

Reigning TV maker Sichuan Changhong is in the process of developing its own format and still considering whether to shift production to EVDs, company spokesman Liu Haizhong said.

Only five of China's more than 100 DVD makers have signed up to make EVDs. SVA Electronics, one of China's biggest DVD makers with annual output of about five million, has started mass production, a company spokesman said.

Up to 1.8 million EVD players will be manufactured in 2004, Hao said. Production will be boosted to three million in 2005 and nine million in 2006.

An EVD player costs up to 1,900 yuan, or $230, compared with an average of 800 yuan for a DVD player.

The government contributed 10 million yuan, or one quarter of R&D costs, in 1999 after nine big electronics makers, including Sony Corp and Toshiba Corp., pressured Chinese DVD makers to pay $9 in retroactive royalties for each player exported.

"The DVD dispute makes our enterprises truly understand the implications of possessing our own intellectual property rights," Vice Minister of Information Industry Lou Qinjian said at the unveiling ceremony.

The consortium charges 500,000 yuan in licensing fees and $2 in royalties for each player manufactured.

"Even if China were to adopt EVD, it seems unlikely that it would be widely adopted in the rest of the world," said Helen Davis Jayalath, a senior analyst with the London- based Screen Digest, a market research journal on audio visual media.

"For this to happen the Hollywood studios, which drive the world video software business, would have to release their titles on EVD," she said.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/11/18/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes


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Musicians Back Copyright Change In Australia
ILA

A survey conducted by music industry services firm Immedia, at its Australasian Music Business Conference, says most musicians and other music professionals believe Australian copyright laws are too harsh. The survey found that 81 per cent of the 200 respondents felt that the Copyright Act should be changed to allow the copying of a user's own legally purchased CDs, but not borrowed or downloaded music.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...E%5Enbv%5E1530


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FCC Rule Could Harm Tech Innovation
Zoe Lofgren

The Federal Communications Commission recently gave itself unprecedented powers to keep new television sets, digital video recorders, handheld devices, third-generation cell phones and even computers out of the hands of American consumers.

How? The FCC issued new rules on the so-called ``broadcast flag,'' a proposal first put forth by the Motion Picture Association of America purportedly to encourage broadcasters to offer more digital programming.

The broadcast flag is a single bit of data added to the digital television shows beamed out across the country. By itself, the bit does nothing. Instead, the meat of the new rule requires every future device capable of playing these shows to recognize the flag and include built-in technologies that prevent them from being pirated.

But here's the kicker. Under the new rules, the FCC gets to decide if a particular technology provides sufficient protection. If you're not on the FCC's pre- approved list, you can't sell your product.

So what does this mean to you and me? It could mean that future consumer electronics and computing products will never come to market. In our digital world, the FCC is not only targeting television sets. Computers, DVRs and handheld devices can handle flagged content. Indeed, any future device capable of handling digital content could potentially be covered.

Do we want the FCC wielding veto power over a new Apple computer, Palm handheld or Motorola cell phone? Of course not. This country's technological leadership is rooted in our ability to quickly adapt and innovate, words that are not often used to describe the federal government.

The FCC's plan sounds a little like the old Soviet Union. And we know how well centralized state control worked for them. That's why Congress never gave the FCC the power to dictate the design of new computers or consumer electronics devices.

In fact, in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Congress specifically disavowed such mandates. Apparently, the FCC never got the message. Instead, the FCC believes that its ancillary authority over broadcasting extends to every product that brushes up against digital television. To justify their absurd conclusion, the commissioners even argue that they have the authority to regulate these industries because Congress never said they couldn't.

The main problem with this or any other government mandate is that they are rooted in the present. It is impossible to predict where American ingenuity will take us. We should do everything we can to foster this ingenuity, not put up roadblocks that will only place our inventors at a competitive disadvantage.

The FCC's attempt to become the self-anointed gatekeeper to future innovation will undoubtedly benefit the small consortium of companies with approved technologies. But it will also diminish the incentive to bring new technologies to market, hurt consumers who have bought pre-flag devices, and set a dangerous precedent for government mandates on technology.

That's not to say that the broadcast flag proposal should not be discussed. If Congress, not the FCC, decides that the broadcast flag is necessary, then it should examine ways to implement the flag without stifling innovation and competition. For example, voluntary, non-proprietary standards that preserve interoperability could be set by international non-governmental bodies.

The real goal should not be to slow down innovation, but to find ways for broadcasters to get paid when they deserve payment.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/7281987.htm


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Microsoft Eyes Music Service In 2004

Report: Microsoft in talks with music companies; could undercut price of Apple, Napster services.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Software company Microsoft Corp. plans to roll out a song-downloading service next year that will rival offerings from Apple Computer and Roxio Inc.'s Napster.

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed to the Wall Street Journal, in an article published Monday, that Microsoft's MSN Web site will have such a service in 2004, but she declined to provide more detail.

Citing a person familiar with the matter, the newspaper said Microsoft has been in close contact with major music companies to discuss plans for a service.

The story noted that Microsoft might be able to undercut the per-song price of competitors, and that its dominant Windows operating system gives the company a strong position from which to expand into new markets.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/11/17/tech...ft_music.reut/


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Compact Disc ‘Too Big’

Bands 'urged to cut album tracks'
BBC

Record labels are urging artists to put fewer tracks on albums because fans are put off by too many average songs, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

"There's been a tendency to overload CDs because the technology permits it," Sony US president Don Ienner said. CD sales are competing with websites that give fans songs cheaply or free.

On Monday, Microsoft unveiled its online music service plans while free site Kazaa launched a campaign to fight the music industry's anti-piracy drive. Record labels are urging the clampdown on album tracks as a way of reversing a three-year-long slump in album sales. "The final choice will always be the artist's, but I feel - and consumer research bears it out - that the public thinks albums have too much filler," Mr Ienner told the paper.

"We all should be concerned about giving music buyers good value, whether they're getting eight, 10 or 20 songs." Digital technology mean CDs can fit twice as much music - 80 minutes - as vinyl albums..

The LA Times said changes would mean a "shake-up" in the music industry, which was structured around albums of up to 16 tracks selling for $12 (£7.50). The article compared Bruce Springsteen's 1975 album Born to Run - which had only eight tracks - against the recent chart-topping album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which had 34 songs. Some record company executives are now saying albums should have 10 or fewer songs, the paper reported.

Meanwhile, Microsoft unveiled plans to launch a downloadable music service to rival legal online music sources such as Apple's iTunes and Napster, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Analysts said the company's Windows operating system - installed on millions of PCs - could give it an advantage. The service could also be adapted to run through Microsoft's Windows Media player, which allows people to play music and video files, which is loaded on many computers. The service will be run through Microsoft's MSN website, but further details were not provided.

And free file-sharing network Kazaa launched a campaign urging its 60 million users to help it "fight back" against efforts to stop "piracy" on popular networks. Kazaa, which allows people to swap songs through their computers, has been one of the services accused of letting fans make unauthorised copies of songs. Nikki Hemming, chief executive of Sharman Networks, which owns Kazaa, said: "It's a call to action. We want to pump up the volume." The $1m (£640,000) campaign, which features on the internet and in magazines, includes an ad that argues music executives are "missing the opportunity to capture an enormous market".

"The world of entertainment is changing," it said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3280429.stm


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A Fair User's Manual

Know Your Rights Before The Copyright Cops Read Them To You
Brendan I. Koerner

The story's always the same: A media giant slaps a small fry with a cease-and-desist order, citing copyright infringement. In defense, the small fry yelps, "Fair use!" But what does that really mean? Ask a hundred lawyers and you'll get a hundred different answers - fair use can be as malleable as obscenity. Crossing the line could earn you a $150,000 fine, no matter how funny that Family Guy WAV file on your homepage is. Thanks to the 1976 US Copyright Act, federal judges decide whether your use of someone else's material is fair or foul. The courts ask four key questions:

1. Is the use transformative? The court considers how the material has changed, if at all. A blogger who annotates a Dick Cheney quote is in the clear; one who merely reprints a news article is not. Parody is also protected. 2 Live Crew's "Pretty Woman" borrows the opening riff from the Roy Orbison tune. In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that the rap song didn't infringe on Orbison - it poked fun, and the borrowed element was only enough to "conjure up" the source. Parody also let Al Franken incorporate Fox News' motto into the title of his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

2. What's the nature of the copyrighted work? Facts can't be copyrighted, so a Web site can probably get away with reprinting an account of, say, the diet of a minke whale. If the account hasn't made its way into a journal or other fact-heavy tome, though, that use may not be fair; courts reason that the use of unpublished material kills its creator's chances of ever making a dime. Same with educational versus commercial uses. Nonprofit educational uses are OK, but when Kinko's starts to make a killing off photocopying fees, courts start to wonder. As for online course packets, nobody's really figured that out.

3. How much did you change? The teensier the content chunk, the more likely its use is kosher. That's the de minimis defense, a popular tactic that says a sliver is too small to qualify as infringement. But size doesn't matter if a court finds that the excerpt is the "heart" of the original. A few pilfered notes can land a sample-happy producer in hot water if a judge believes those notes are the essence of a song (and the new version isn't a parody, natch). In 2000, Lucasfilm sued Dr. Dre for filching the THX sound check; the suit was settled, and Dre hired a musicologist to avoid any future entanglements.

4. What's the effect on the market? Diminish demand for the original work and you're asking to be sued. An unauthorized fan book about a sitcom may seem innocuous, yet courts have ruled that such works adversely affect the market for authorized material. But proving economic harm is tough. Earlier this year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a photographer who objected to thumbnails of his pictures showing up in a search engine's results. The photographer's potential customers were unlikely to settle for tiny JPEGs, it said. And in 1984's famous Betamax decision, the Supreme Court held that video recording primarily time- shifted TV programs, which didn't mess with Hollywood's profits. The decision helped launch the VCR revolution, and it's still Citation Number One when Big Media tries to put the kibosh on newfangled recording devices.

Even if the answers tip in favor of the accused, a favorable verdict isn't guaranteed. Courts ask an unofficial fifth question: Is the defendant a good guy or a bad guy? "It's called the slimeball factor," says Thomas Field of the Franklin Pierce Law Center. "You've got to account for the judge having his finger on the scales to nail the slimeball and help the little old widow." Or the big media conglomerate.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...rt.html?pg=13/


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Major Music Industry Survey Reveals Stats On Music Use & Legalities

A major survey compiled from 200 music business professionals at all levels who responded to a set of 30 questions on their use of music technology, purchases of CDs and online music, downloading & CD burning habits as well as the need for legislation changes to better serve music consumers has just been released with surprising results. The survey, titled "Music--The Business, Law & Technology Report" was taken at the 6th AustralAsian Music Business Conference August 14-16 and the results compiled by IMMEDIA!--leading music industry service company and publisher of the AustralAsian Music Industry Directory.

Compiled results-in graphic form, percentages & outcomes-are online at Australian music business portal site, TheMusic.com.au at http:// www.themusic.com.au/stats & also posted on IMMEDIA!'s corporate site at http://www.immedia.com.au/stats. The details include all questions asked with numbers of respondents answering, bar graphs of the results showing percentile ranking of replies. Interviews with music analyst Phil Tripp are also available.

Of the 200 professionals responding who anonymously answered the questions on the paper survey--from 600 attendees of the three day music industry conference--42% were musicians or songwriters, 16% were artist or band managers, 14% music business students, 6% record company staff, 6% music media, with 14% falling in the ëother' category including music publishers, agents, lawyers, producers, engineers and copyright association staff.

Some sample results from music professionals' technology use include:

1. Of the 76% who play music through their computers-47% listen to CDs, 19% to MP3s, 10% via streaming media websites including online radio and 24% listen to all the above.

2. 77% have a CD burner, 11% use someone else's and only 5% have never used one.
3. Even though it's illegal in Australia, 48% burn music from their own purchased CDs, 21% from borrowed CDs, 6% from downloaded songs while 25% burn CDs from all the above.
4. In the past year, 47% burned fewer than 5 CDs, 25% 5-10 CDs, 14% 10-20 CDs, 7% 20-50 CDs, 3% 50-100 CDs & 4% of music professionals burned more than 100 or more a year.
5. Of 45% who download music, 50% take free music only, 18% pay for it, 31% do both.

Purchasing of CDs and music/DVD/vinyl ownership habits were also polled:
1. 25 % purchased 10-20 CDs this year, 24% 0-5 CDs, 21% 20- 50 CDs & 4% over 100 CDs.
2. Only 14% had purchased CDs online this year. Top sites are Chaos, Amazon & HMV.
3. CD ownership was high-32% had 200-500CDs, 24% 100- 200CDs, 16% owned 50-100 while 8% had collected 500-1000 and 8% admitted to owning more than 1000 CDs.
4. DVD ownership is not as high-32% had 0-5 DVDs, 25% had 10-20 & only 6% had 50+.
5. Vinyl owners numbers 68% and 24% of those had 100-500LPs, 26% less than 20 LPs.
6. Surprising result-21% sample music via P2P before buying, 33% do not.Ý

But the attitudes of music industry pros toward CD burning, file sharing and copying your own music CD elicited a response that ARIA & record companies probably don't want to hear. It's time to change the law to allow consumers to copy their own music they say!

1. 55% considered it an inequity that it's against the law to make a copy of your own bought CDs, make a personal use compilation (CD or tape) or copying them to a digital device.
2. A whopping 81% believe the Copyright Act should be changed to allow personal copying of purchased CDs (but not other peoples borrowed or downloaded music).
3. 57% considered burning CDs stealing from artists, 29% from labels and 14% did not.
4. 48% regarded downloading free music theft from artists, 25% from labels, 27% did not.
5. Yet 54% admitted they illegally copied computer software. 26% copied games illegally.
http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=59371