[JackSpratts]

Quotes Of The Week

"Both common sense and the 1st Amendment dictate that a trade secret that isn't secret anymore just isn't protectable." – Alan Levy, attorney.

"Once labels figure out how to deal with the new realities, I suspect there will be more gain than harm." Geoff Mayfield, Billboard Magazine.





Hold Everything

News of a little item with some seriously big potential came across my desk this week. It was one of those moments in information technology that’s both ho hum and holy smokes at the same time. I read a press release about a new hard drive. Nothing groundbreaking there at first glance. As we all know, drive capacities keep getting larger. It’s not uncommon now to see computers for sale with 120 gigabyte hard drives offered on routine systems. Retailers sell many drives with capacities of 250, even 300 gigabytes. Though these sizes would have been unheard of a few years ago, like everything else, we’ve grown accustomed to the achievements and for the most part take them for granted. We may think “wow that’s cool” for a second or two, but then move our attention elsewhere to something really important, like what’s for dinner. Well something happened recently that should give us all pause, consumers, producers, artists, listeners, legislators, actors and activists. It’s food for thought and should be for longer than it takes the food to cool. For the first time ever a company has released an outboard consumer hard drive capable of holding a Terabyte of data. That’s one thousand gigabytes. While the price is a bit on the high side, at $1199.00/list it’s competitive with lower capacity discs in a standard 5 ¼ inch package on a cost per gigabyte basis ($1.20). For those into person-to-person drive-sharing (P2P Live) it’s an inspiring development. For instance, this drive will hold 1000 movies ripped at an excellent 1 gig per film, or 500 ripped at a fat 2 gigs, which movie downloaders know means seriously high quality picture and sound. Or you can put one hundred and eighty thousand songs on it using excellent 192k OGG, MP3, ACC and WMA encodes. That’s about 15,000 CD quality albums by the way, in something smaller than a VHS videotape. Or - and you readers will love this - it can hold ONE MILLION BOOKS. The U.S. Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. It contains one quarter of all the known books in the world. It’s been said that a person can’t read in a lifetime the books the Library receives in a single day and I don’t doubt it. Impossible or not, the Library has an awful lot of them, but even so it’s “only” 26 million volumes in all. We can now put every one of them on just 26 drives taking up space the size of a suitcase. We can do this today. Not in ten years. Not in a year. Today. Next year, we’ll do it in a space nearly half that size. The year after will see the space shrink even more.

A few weeks ago I wrote about a drive that would “hold it all”. I’m calling it the “UltraDrive.” My definition of the UltraDrive is simple: It holds everything you want. You can’t put anything else in it because there isn’t anything left, you’ve already transferred every possible bit of info there is to load. Every book, every movie, every sound recording, TV and radio show, magazine, newspaper, piece of software, journal article, photograph - anything in other words you could possibly want that you could think of that’s reducible to ones and zeros. Family pictures, home movies, all of your phone messages, Valentine’s day cards, the kids’ school lunch menus, scrap book items, medical texts, your social club’s minutes, emails, recordings, scanned letters, bills, receipts, proclamations, traffic citations, cereal box labels, Bazooka Joe comics, illuminated manuscripts - you name it - in other words the sum total of all the word’s desired knowledge and information - with all of your own fleeting minutiae tossed in for good measure. All of these things and more preserved forever, archived and instantly accessible regardless of bandwidth or circumstance.

Remember those unimaginably endless stacks of shelves fading foggily into the infinite in the last scenes of Raiders of The Lost Arc? That government warehouse couldn’t hold a tenth of what an UltraDrive will. Get ready, the infinite is fast approaching. We now have something very similar, but very real. A much more attainable and matter-of-fact example of how information technology is changing the balance of power again. The space required for an UltraDrive is probably on the order of one Petabyte. Perhaps less. Certainly not more. That’s one thousand terabytes, or 1000 of these new discs. If you just wanted all the movies, all the music and all the books plus all of your own personal stuff then 400 discs would do the job with room to spare. That’s it. Throw in a few more drives to accommodate future collecting for good measure and you’re covered all the way around. They’ll easily fit in your average sized room and for less than the cost of the average sized East Coast house. You can do this in April when the drive ships. In a year the price, and the size, could drop in half. By the end of the decade it would not surprise me to see the same capacity contained in as little as half a dozen such discs or less, with the holy grail of the UltraDrive tantalizingly close.

As I said a few weeks ago, when that day arrives we will break the ties that bind us to the world’s media monopolists.

All it will take is a walk around the block, UltraDrive in hand, sharing what we have with the neighbors. In a moment or two we will all of us be equal in possessions, rich in arts and information. The bonus? As we’re beginning to see, much of it will be made ourselves.












Enjoy,

Jack












Half of US Internet Users Post Content

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly half of U.S. Internet users have built Web pages, posted photos, written comments or otherwise added to the enormous variety of material available online, according to a report.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that about 44 percent of the country's Internet users have created content for others to enjoy online.

Posting photos and allowing others to download music or video files were the most popular activities, the nonprofit research group found. Other users said they posted written material on Web sites or newsgroups, created their own Web sites, or set up "Web cams" to allow others to see live pictures.

While only 2 percent of U.S. Internet users said they had created "blogs," or online diaries, 11 percent said they read the blogs of others.

Younger Internet users were most likely to set up blogs, the report said, while older users were more likely to have built their own Web sites. Most who maintained Web sites said they did not update them more than once every few weeks.

The group based its report on a survey of 2,515 adults conducted in March and April 2003.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040229/80/enaja.html

Report PDF


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U.S. Takes Side Of Recording Industry In Charter Case
Peter Shinkle

The administration of President George W. Bush has entered the fray about music copying, siding with the recording industry in its efforts to force Internet service providers to release information about suspected copyright violators.

The Justice Department filed papers in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, arguing that federal law permits record companies to use subpoenas to obtain such information.

The department's "friend of the court" brief, filed last month, supports arguments made by the Recording Industry Association of America against Charter Communications Inc. of Town and Country, a cable operator and Internet service provider. Charter is asking the Court of Appeals to block the recording industry's subpoenas.

Meanwhile, 22 groups that oppose the industry's subpoenas - including privacy-rights groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union - have filed "friend of the court" pleadings that support Charter.

In December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in a case brought by telecommunications giant Verizon that federal law doesn't permit RIAA to use such subpoenas.

While RIAA seeks a rehearing in that court, the focus of the legal dispute has shifted, at least temporarily, to the Charter case in the Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

In its campaign, the RIAA has relied on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to ask courts for subpoenas requiring Internet service providers such as Charter to surrender identifying information about suspected music downloaders, who then could be sued.

Last year, the RIAA used the law to subpoena information about hundreds of Charter customers without filing a lawsuit to make any formal claims against Charter.

Charter challenged the RIAA's actions, alleging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act unconstitutionally invades its customers' privacy. Charter also claims that the law allows RIAA to subpoena information only from companies that store digital information, not companies that, like Charter, primarily are conduits.

U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson dismissed Charter's objections in November, and Charter appealed to the 8th Circuit.

After Jackson ruled, Charter provided identifying information on about 200 of its customers. As part of its appeal, however, Charter wants that information returned.

The Justice Department, joined by the Copyright Office, contend in their friend-of-the-court brief that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies to conduits.

Giving Internet service providers immunity from subpoenas would undermine the law's purpose of protecting copyright holders, the government's lawyers contended.

In passing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Congress freed Internet service providers from liability for copyright violations, but required in exchange that they provide information about suspected infringers, the lawyers said.

The groups backing Charter say the cable operator's customers have a right to anonymity that is protected by the First Amendment.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/bus...256E4B0021DA6E


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Advocacy Groups Look To Protect File Swappers

Music industry seen as threat to privacy rights
The Canadian Press

Two online advocacy groups will put Canadian copyright and privacy laws to the test in a hearing later this month where the Canadian music industry will try to force Internet service providers to turn over customer information.

The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic and Electronic Frontier Canada have asked Judge Konrad von Finckenstein to include them in a case involving the Canadian Recording Industry Association and Canadian ISPs such as Rogers Cable, Telus Corp. and Shaw Cable.

The judge will allow the groups to make submissions on four points, including due process rights and Canadian copyright laws.

Howard Knopf, an Ottawa lawyer at Macera & Jarzyna, which is representing the CIPPIC, said the organization decided to become involved because it feared the privacy rights of Internet users could be violated.

"The focus of our submission is that it is now or never for the defendants," said Knopf. "I cannot conceive of how a person could defend themselves against multibillion-dollar recording companies. It would be unimaginatively costly to get to trial in order for someone to establish their innocence."

CRIA, which represents Canada's music industry, has gone to court in an attempt to gain access to the names of Internet users they allege have violated copyrights by uploading music files. CRIA claims the free transfer of music files has cost the industry about $400 million.

At a hearing last month, Canadian Internet companies said they needed time to notify their customers and address privacy issues. A further hearing is scheduled for March 12.

More than 500 lawsuits launched in the U.S. against file swappers over the past year typically resulted in settlements of between $1,000 US and $2,000 US.

Philippa Lawson, executive director of CIPPIC, said her organization will raise issues about the legality of file sharing and whether Canadian laws are being violated.
http://www.canada.com/technology/sto...1-E107F9D47F07


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Napster Founder Pulls A Sno Job
CMJ

The music business and the internet have become just like pro wrestling where bad guys turn good and good guys turn bad. Sean Fanning, the upstart who record labels cursed last millennium for creating Napster, the once extremely un-legal now legal file-sharing service, is being praised for the focus of his new project. Fanning and partners have been stealthily tooling away at a service called Snocap, which is aimed at deterring piracy by allowing labels to see where, when and how their copyrighted files are being traded
http://www.cmj.com/articles/display_....php?id=545489


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P2P In License Plea To Congress
Grant Gross

Peer-to-peer (P2P) software vendors have asked the US Congress to force the entertainment industry to license content to them, if music and movie companies won't do so voluntarily.

P2P industry representatives also asked the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to put copy protection on music CDs and to ask hardware vendors to include copy protection measures on their products instead of suing file traders and P2P vendors. But a RIAA vice president fired back during a P2P forum yesterday, saying vendors need to take responsibility for their software facilitating unauthorized file trading. The RIAA and P2P vendors debated the legitimacy of P2P services at a Council on Competitiveness forum in Washington.

"It's everybody's responsibility except you guys to do something," said David Sutphen, the RIAA's vice president for government relations, in response to the suggest that RIAA members copy-protect CDs.

"It's our responsibility to protect our stuff by putting a DRM (digital rights management) on it, it's IT's responsibly to put something in their software, it's (consumer electronics companies') responsibility to put something in devices, but you guys don't have any responsibility. I just think that's fundamentally wrong."

Sutphen was responding to a question from Philip Corwin, a lobbyist for Kazaa distributor Sharman Networks, who asked why the RIAA was suing P2P distributors and asking them to filter content traded by people using their software when the RIAA wasn't pressuring computer makers to include copy protection technologies and RIAA companies were still distributing CDs without copy protection installed.

While Sutphen called for P2P providers to filter out copyrighted content, Adam Eisgrau, executive director of the P2P United coalition of P2P vendors, and Joe Stewart, a senior security researcher at LURHQ Corp., questioned if content filtering would work on decentralized P2P networks. File traders could encrypt music files to defeat filtering technology, Stewart said, leading to a technological "arms race."

Instead of filtering, Eisgrau called for a collective licensing agreement between music companies and P2P vendors with an agreed price paid to musicians for each song traded. A licensing agreement would work in much the same way that artists get paid for music played on the radio, Eisgrau said, and Congress could step in if music companies don't agree on their own. Several examples of compulsory licensing of copyrighted content already exist, including royalties for webcasting music, Eisgrau said.

"The idea that voluntary or compulsory collected licensing is somehow an alien concept, that it's a politically dead-on-arrival issue, is not only unjustifiable, it's a dangerous idea," Eisgrau added.

Several problems exist with compulsory licenses, Sutphen replied. Compulsory licenses wouldn't guarantee P2P users would stop downloading free music, and a US-only compulsory license would force US residents to subsidize free downloading overseas, he said. "A much better solution is a technology solution to a technology problem," he said, while calling for P2P vendors to filter content.

If P2P vendors were serious about stopping the trading of copyrighted files, they would consider filtering technologies, Sutphen added. "If P2P United's members wanted to become legitimate music download services, they could tomorrow," he said. "They've all been running businesses for the last four years that have done nothing to get artists recompensed."

Eisgrau also objected to past attempts by some in Congress and the RIAA to paint P2P networks as full of pornography, including child pornography, when the Internet as a whole also has the same problems.

"When we talk about P2P policy and all the good things and the bad things it can be used for, what we're really talking about is what can the Internet do?" he said. "When we're talking about regulating peer-to-peer, what we're really talking about, if we want to be consistent and honest about it at all, is regulating the Internet much more broadly."

BSenator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican and co-chairman of Council on Competitiveness' Forum on Innovation and Technology, said legitimate concerns exist about spyware, viruses and pornography distributed over P2P services. Pornography is "rampant" on P2P services, but he agreed with Eisgrau that it's all over the Web as well.

"Let's not kid ourselves, pornography is the driving force of the Internet," Ensign said.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_...fm?NewsID=8026


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P2P Makes its Business Case
Jim Wagner

Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology is slowly finding its way back into corporate networks. But instead of being used to download the latest Britney Spears single or pirated DVD, it's zipping bulky data and rich-media files on the cheap.

In its purest sense, P2P is the transfer of data files from one Internet- or LAN-connected computer to another, bypassing the centralized server and treating each "peer" equally. This is atypical of the normal client-server setup of most business networks.

Software development firms are pitching businesses on the value of P2P. One is Onion Networks, a P2P content delivery software maker. Onion says its products provide 70 percent to 80 percent savings for video-on-demand (VOD) delivery over current multi-casting and caching server technology.

"There are obviously significant efficiency benefits," founder Justin Chapweske told internetnews.com. "If you look at Napster and the bandwidth costs when that first came out, some analysts said they were saving something like $7 million a month on the cost it would take to distribute that much content (traditionally)."

Unfortunately for Napster, it was doomed when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the courts restricted illegal file transfers. Not quite P2P, Napster's central database was the linchpin of the operation, where users conducted the actual search for music files at the firm's database.

Since then, scores of P2P applications have popped up -- Gnutella, KaZaa, BearShare and LimeWire, to name a few. This new generation doesn't rely on a central server, instead the software on a users PC acts as both client and server, broadcasting and collecting files.

Ironically, the business case is modeled on the Napster template, where there's some measure of centralized control. It's often confused with another shared resource technology -- grid, or utility, computing (define), which takes unused computing cycles and bandwidth and puts them in places that need the assets. Like Napster, however, a central server directs traffic.

Mike Gotta, a META Group analyst, said P2P goes beyond the mere collaboration that is found in many software products today, where co-workers send project updates via e-mail or through a corporate portal. The danger, however, is taking P2P too far within a company that has to adhere to Sarbanes-Oxley and other reporting requirements.

"The question is how much of that pure interaction needs to have some touch-point with centralized servers," Gotta said. "I just haven't seen any groundswell for pure P2P without some centralized touch-point."

It's hard to keep track of the money trail, from a network administrator's point of view, when people in the network aren't using a central server. But how can you have ad hoc computing if it still needs to go through a central server? It's a question that needs an answer before businesses will pick up the technology en masse.

Mike Ellsworth, an emerging technologies consultant with StratVantage, said there's middle ground to be found between decentralized and centralized networks.

"I think the real key is, it's a different way of approaching machine communications," he said. "Instead of having a gatekeeper that has to modulate all the classic stuff like a Web server, you can harness all this power and get a best-effort thing and have it be just as reliable."

Onion Networks' Chapweske thinks he's on the right track with P2P technology that gives customers the speed efficiencies of P2P combined with a comprehensive central command component.

While a pure P2P brings benefits, vendors must look at the needs of the customers. When pitching his product to potential customers, he doesn't mention the technology but his product, and invariably gets the response, "oh, that's P2P."

It's a response software vendors have to deal with, but Chapweske said focusing on the centralized server component of the technology reassures customers.

"In the sense of the administration and control aspects, our technology is very much centralized," he said. "We understand and leverage the benefits of P2P while avoiding the negative aspects of it. That's the most important thing for the business environment."
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news...le.php/3319021


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That's the Weather, and Now, Let's Go to the Cellphone for the Traffic
John Markoff

The peer-to-peer world of the Internet is taking a step onto the nation's freeways in a cellphone application that aims to offer up-to- the-second traffic information.

Until now peer-to-peer networks have conjured up file-sharing systems like Napster and Kazaa or social networking organizations like Friendster, Orkut and Linked-in.

But Zipdash, a start-up in Palo Alto, Calif., hopes to take advantage of the growing number of mobile telephones with global positioning satellite receivers to gather the travel speeds of thousands or tens of thousands of drivers, displaying highway conditions as maps on cellphone screens.

The Zipdash application displays a map of traffic speeds as green, yellow and red arrows, graphically representing traffic jams and bottlenecks. The company plans to add features, including route planning and accident alerts. The service will be free to cellphone users and Zipdash is planning to create a business by selling accurate traffic information to Web sites and other publishers.

The system is available in the Bay Area and is expected to be extended nationally in the coming months.

"The demand for traffic data is very real," said Rich Miller, a wireless industry consultant at Breo Consulting in Palo Alto. "The guys who crack the code are going to make a lot of money eventually, but a lot of people will be working on this idea."

Currently in many states, highway departments offer some traffic information drawn from sensor networks embedded in freeways that report speeds and fixed cameras that monitor different choke points. By contrast, the Zipdash system uses both traffic data gathered from individual travelers as well as additional information from taxi and trucking and shuttle fleets. That allows a much finer picture of traffic patterns than what is available with sensor data.

The company said the new system did not raise privacy issues because no data about individuals was gathered from the wireless carriers, only location, direction and speed information.

The G.P.S. receivers are being added to cellphones in response to regulations issued by the Federal Communications Commission requiring wireless carriers to provide location information accurate to within 50 to 100 meters.

Nextel is the first major cellphone service provider to make commercial applications like Zipdash's available. Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, plans to begin offering commercial location information capabilities later this year.

Zipdash is the brainchild of three entrepreneurs with backgrounds in a variety of Silicon Valley start-ups and technology firms.

Two, Mark Crady and Michael Chu, are electrical engineers who have worked at Intel and Palm and have consulted for wireless carriers. The third, Diprenda Nigram, has been a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and worked at AOL in business development.

The initial Zipdash idea was sparked by the possibility of using the wireless Internet to make travel more efficient in terms of time and energy, said Mr. Crady, who is the nephew of Andrew S. Grove, Intel's chairman and co-founder.

Having precise information, Mr. Crady said, about traffic conditions on freeways changes the entire experience of driving in crowded urban areas.

"Maybe I have more traffic angst than the next guy," he said, "but I think this information is a real value.''

The system is one of the first examples of wireless location-specific information. Using cellphones to deliver information and advertising to users in specific locations has long been seen by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs as one of the areas ripe for commercial development. But it has been slow to develop because of concerns about privacy and the ownership of information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/technology/01zip.html


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Americans Love File Sharing
p2pnet.net

More than 53 million American adults - 44% of Internet users - have gone online to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available, says a new report.

And 21% allow others to download files from their computer, including music and video files.

"Surprisingly, Content Creators are less likely to say they download music than other Internet users," say the results of a national phone survey conducted between March 12 and May 20 last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

"And ... two-thirds of these filesharers do not care about the copyright status of the files they share."

The most eager and productive content creators break into three distinct groups, says Pew.

Power creators - Internet users who are most enthusiastic about content-creating activities. They're young - average age 25 - and more likely than other kinds of creators do things like use instant messaging, play games, and download music. And they are the most likely group to be blogging.

Older creators - have an average age of 58 and are experienced Internet users. They're highly educated, like sharing pictures and are the most likely of the creator groups to have built their own Web sites. They're also the most likely to have used the Internet for genealogical research.

Content omnivores - are among the heaviest overall users of the Internet. Most are employed. Most log on frequently and spend considerable time online doing a variety of activities. They're likely to have broadband connections at home. The average age of this group is 40.

Breakdowns include:

· 21% of Internet users say they have posted photographs to Web sites.
· 20% say they have allowed others to download music or video files from their computers.
· 17% have posted written material on Web sites.
· 13% maintain their own Web sites.
· 10% have posted comments to an online newsgroup. A small fraction of them have posted files to a newsgroup such as video, audio, or photo files.
· 8% have contributed material to Web sites run by their businesses.
· 7% have contributed material to Web sites run by organizations to which they belong such as church or professional groups.
· 7% have Web cams running on their computers that allow other Internet users to see live pictures of them and their surroundings.
· 6% have posted artwork on Web sites.
· 5% have contributed audio files to Web sites.
· 4% have contributed material to Web sites created for their families.
· 3% have contributed video files to Web sites.
· 2% maintain Web diaries or Web blogs, according to respondents to this phone survey.

In other phone surveys prior to this one, and one more recently fielded in early 2004, we have heard that between 2% and 7% of adult Internet users have created diaries or blogs. In this survey we found that 11% of Internet users have read the blogs or diaries of other Internet users. About a third of these blog visitors have posted material to the blog.

"Most of those who do contribute material are not constantly updating or freshening content," adds the survey.

"Rather, they occasionally add to the material they have posted, created, or shared. For instance, more than two thirds of those who have their own Web sites add new content only every few weeks or less often than that. There is a similar story related to the small proportion of Americans who have blogs."
http://p2pnet.net/story/872


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File Sharing Vulnerability Discovered in Mac OS X
Daniel Drew Turner

A security issue that could result in stolen passwords and data on Friday was revealed for Apple Computer Inc.'s Apple Filing Protocol, a component of Mac OS X 10.3.2, a k a Panther. The file protocol allows Macintosh users to access files on remote systems.

An alert on the vulnerability was posted to the Security Focus BUGTRAQ Alert Service.

In Mac OS X 10.2, Apple updated Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) to permit secure connections over SSH (Secure Shell) protocol. However, Chris Adams, a system administrator in San Diego, Calif., noted that while users could request secure connections, the system will not issue any alert or indication if an SSH connection is unavailable and then defaults to a non-secure connection. He noted that the only indication was a negative one—users must be aware that an alert "Opening Secure Connection" did not appear.

According to Adams, this could result in users sending unencrypted passwords over an insecure connection.

"Login credentials may be sent in cleartext or protected with one of several different hashed exchanges or Kerberos. There does not appear to have been any serious third-party security review of Apple's client or server implementations," Adams wrote in his report on the vulnerability.

Speaking with eWEEK.com, Adams said that any such activity would only come as the result of an active attack. "OS X does warn you before using unencrypted passwords and AFP does prevent passive password collection by encrypting the log-in process to protect the password on its way to the server. This problem allows you to trick it into sending the unencrypted password to you instead of the intended server," he said.

Adams pointed out that this sort of problem was not unique to Mac OS X.

"As with Microsoft's Windows file sharing, AFP was designed for trusted LANs and some of the basic assumptions change when these systems are placed on the public Internet. Users on a secured LAN face relatively little risk; the most exposed are those using AFP over the Internet without a VPN," he said.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1540557,00.asp


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On campus, fears grow about file-sharing.

Hoax Shuts Down Popular Program, Feeds Paranoia About Downloading
Justin Fenton

On the University of Maryland campus in College Park this month, senior Pavel Beresnev was a hunted man.

Threats and hate mail came his way. Fliers were posted in dining halls and traded online listing his address, phone number, e-mail address and Instant Messenger screen

name, along with a clear message: "Can't get on Direct Connect? Say thanks to Pavel Beresnev."

Students hoping to download a catchy song they heard on the way to campus were caught by surprise earlier this month when their link to Direct Connect, a popular online file-sharing program, was suddenly shut down. More alarming was the explanation they heard for why that had happened: Beresnev, one of their own, had turned them in for violating copyright laws.

Students were shocked - and angry. Why would Beresnev - who himself was trading a huge number of files daily on Direct Connect, a program that allows users to easily share everything from the latest music to class notes - alert authorities ready to prosecute students for downloading copyrighted material?

The truth is, he didn't.

Beresnev would not comment directly for this article. But he told friends that, as a prank, he'd sent out a fake e-mail indicating he'd tipped off authorities at the Recording Industry Association of America, which offers up to $10,000 for such information. Spooked by the e-mail, the student who had been operating the College Park Direct Connect site shut it down.

In the days since the mid-February incident, the phony tipster has recanted, and Direct Connect is up and running again on campus. But the reaction to the hoax reveals just how strongly students feel about their ability to download material off the Internet - and the fears they have about the increasingly tough stance being taken both by copyright holders and colleges and universities.

"It's just becoming too dangerous - people are getting scared," said Adam Kidwell, a junior meteorology major from Bethesda who was recently served with a warning from campus officials for obtaining copyrighted software online. "I thought everybody else was doing it, it's not that big of a deal. But when the [Direct Connect] network went down, that's when I got cautious. It made me think twice about what I'm going to be doing on my computer."

Protection is limited

Less than a week before the Direct Connect shutdown, university Provost William W. Destler and Chief Information Officer Mark Henderson had sent an e-mail to all Maryland students, staff and faculty warning of the increasing risks associated with file-sharing.

Back in December, administrators had installed software on university computer systems to restrict how many of the most commonly swapped file types could be accessed, something Destler says has shown "remarkable results" in a short period of time.

"What we want to do is communicate with students the risk they put themselves in with this sort of file downloading, and make it as difficult as possible to [do that]," he said.

The university does not prowl the Internet in search of file swappers; instead, an office it has set up called Project NEThics fields complaints from movie, music and software companies and passes along warnings to offenders. If those offenders don't delete illicit files by the next day, they risk having their access to the school's network cut off.

Once a copyright holder decides to pursue legal action, though, the university will not protect the student, Destler said.

"Once you begin to assume any responsibility like that, you're responsible for assuring [that] the behavior of all students is appropriate, and we simply can't do that," he said.

Project NEThics, which operates out of the university's Office of Information Technology, follows up every complaint, and no student has faced legal action yet. But the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the music industry, sent a message to college students nationwide last April when it sued four of them for operating private computer networks that are used to swap popular music files.

'Not anonymous'

The students - from Princeton, Rensselaer and Michigan Tech - were alleged to be offering users access to between 27,000 and 1 million copyrighted songs. The RIAA sought judgments of $150,000 per song, which could have equaled $150 billion in penalties for the worst offender. All the defendants settled their cases, however, paying between $12,000 and $17,000 in fines.

Over the past two months, the RIAA has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against anonymous "John Doe" defendants - alleged violators identified only by their IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. A judge then orders those users' Internet service providers to turn over their names to the RIAA. Among those that the organization has prosecuted are a 12-year-old girl and a grandmother.

"No matter whether it's using an intra-school connection or a peer-to-peer network, file sharers should understand that they're not anonymous," RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said from his office in Washington. "When you are sharing music files with thousands or millions of other people on a public network, you can be identified."

As a result, some schools are moving away from education and prevention and turning to legal alternatives - such as Napster II, a file-sharing site which provides free access to a database of 500,000 songs that can be downloaded for 99 cents each. Penn State was the first to sign on to the service last fall; the University of Rochester followed this month. Provost Destler said College Park has set up a task force to look into the benefits of joining such a program.

Junior Joe Barrett, though, maintains the legitimacy of Direct Connect, online software that that be downloaded to allow people with similar interests to group themselves into so-called "hubs," where they can search other users' files and transfer data at very fast speeds.

It was Barrett's Direct Connect hub that was serving the College Park community when Beresnev's hoax caused him to shut it down. On the hub, users traded songs and movies, but also class notes and digital pictures, and had access to a chat room.

"Sharing files is what makes the community so great. People come to the hub to catch up on an episode of their favorite show that they couldn't be home for," Barrett wrote in a posting on an online message board. "Interest groups such as the RIAA would have file-sharing stop altogether, but we urge people to learn which of their files are copywritten, and make their best effort to share those which are not."

New hubs launched

Despite all the clamor and angry threats - which caused Beresnev to file an assault complaint with university police - Direct Connect is now back up and running on campus. At least three have students launched new hubs; one had attracted nearly 650 users in just a few days. Beresnev himself appears to be among the new users.

Amy Ginther, a policy and development coordinator for Project NEThics, says the Direct Connect program itself is not in violation of any campus policies.

"That a technology or software mechanism is operating on campus isn't significant unless it is violating a policy," she said.

Oxen Wexler, a junior from Hyattsville, believes file-sharing will continue, but that students need to be more careful.

"I don't think it's going to affect more regular, avid users of file-sharing software as much, but I think it is more than just a blip on the radar screen," Wexler said.

The RIAA's Lamy acknowledges as much.

"It's not a transition that's going to occur overnight, but we're making real progress."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/technolo...logy-headlines


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Who Owns the Sky?

Reviving the Commons
David Bollier

Former Interior Secretary Walter Hickel once explained: “If you steal $10 from a man’s wallet, you’re likely to get into a fight. But if you steal billions from the commons, co-owned by him and his descendants, he may not even notice.”

Not since the Gilded Age of the 1890s has so much public wealth been shoveled into private hands with such brazen efficiency. Timber companies, corporate ranchers and foreign mining companies with cheap access to public lands are plundering our national patrimony. Congress obligingly turns a blind eye to the accompanying pollution, soil depletion and habitat destruction. Companies are rushing to patent our genes, privatize agricultural seeds and stake private claims on plots of the ocean. Broadcasters— who for decades enjoyed free use of the public’s airwaves, a subsidy worth hundreds of billions of dollars—are attempting to exploit an equivalent amount of electromagnetic spectrum for digital TV. We the taxpayers pay billions of dollars to sponsor risky path- breaking federal drug research, research that too often is given away to pharmaceutical companies for a song. Then we pay a second time—as consumers, at exorbitant prices— for the same drugs.

And so on.

The privatization of public resources is not a new story, to be sure, but the current rapacity is truly stunning. Much of the immediate blame must go to the Bush administration, which has rewarded corporate contributors with one of the most sweeping waves of privatization and deregulation in our history. But while Republicans are the most aggressive cheerleaders for privatization, many Democrats equally enthuse about the “free market” as an engine of progress and deride strong government stewardship of resources.

This bipartisan support is why fighting privatization is so difficult. American political culture has a strong faith in the efficacy of markets and skepticism in the competence of government. Critics bravely cite individual episodes of privatization gone bad, but there is no compelling philosophical response or alternative grand narrative to the logic of privatization.

A new framework rises

An embryonic force to counter the push to privatize is gaining momentum, however: the concept of “the commons.” The language is still rudimentary and people who rely upon the country’s multiple commons have not yet built a shared philosophy, but even so a remarkably broad groundswell of activism is emerging.

The commons describes the many resources we collectively own that are being mismanaged by government or siphoned away by corporations. Some commons are physical assets, such as the global atmosphere, ecosystems, clean water, wildlife and the human genome. Some commons are public institutions such as libraries, museums, schools and government agencies. Still other commons are social communities, such as the “gift economies” of people who contribute their time and expertise to create valuable resources. Examples include scientific disciplines and Internet communities, both of which depend on the open exchange of information.

The point of talking about the commons is to reassert a basic truth: Power does not reside in government and markets alone. It also belongs to “we the people.” This is not just a rhetorical point. The commons has its own moral authority, social effectiveness and political power—which is why leaders of government and corporations routinely invoke the concept. Power in a democracy must constantly justify its moral and political legitimacy by associating itself with “the people.”
http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=631_0_1_0_C


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DSL Catches Global Attention
Jack Kapica

Competition between cable companies and digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet providers kicked up another notch Tuesday with the DSL side claiming a more than 78 per cent growth in global subscriptions in late 2003.

Some 63.8 million people around the world are now connected to the Internet via DSL, reports DSL Forum, based in Fremont, Calif., a consortium of companies promoting use of the standard. The figures show that DSL attracted 28 million new subscribers during that year.

The study was prepared Point Topic, an on-line analyst company specializing in broadband usage, for the DSL Forum.

DSL Forum president Tom Starr said that the 16.9-per-cent growth in the last three months of 2003 — nine million additional customers — "is a level of performance any other sector would have been glad to achieve in a full year. Our DSL market delivered that in just three months."

U.S. DSL growth in the last six months of 2003 resulted in 1.9 million homes and businesses signing up. Canada had more than 440,000 new DSL subscribers in the year, making it the eleventh-largest growth country in the world in DSL.

In terms of penetration, South Korea, with 27.7 DSL connections per 100 phone lines, led the world. Next was Taiwan, with 21.4 connections per 100 phone lines, Japan with 14.4, and Canada with 10.9. The United States has 4.8 DSL connections per 100 phone lines.

In total connections, China ranked first in the world in DSL connections, with more than 10.9 million subscribers, followed closely by Japan, with 10.2 million and the United States, with 9.1 million. Canada was in ninth place, with 2.1-million subscribers.

Tim Johnson, an analyst with Point Topic, said that his own prediction for 2003 was exceeded by almost two-million subscribers.

"China is storming ahead and now has the largest DSL population in the world at 10.95 million, even excluding Hong Kong," he said.

At a 10.9-per-cent penetration of phone lines, DSL services in Canada are halfway to the DSL Forum's mass-market target of 20 per cent by year- end 2005. The United States reached almost 5 per cent phone-line penetration at the end of 2003.

"We are confident that the industry is well on the way to achieving the DSL Forum's global target of 200-million DSL subscribers — 20 per cent of all phone lines — by the end of 2005," Mr. Starr said.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...ry/Technology/


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Cinergy to Use Power Lines for Web Access
AP

A division of utility Cinergy Corp. plans to offer high-speed Internet service over its power lines, letting customers connect by simply plugging a computer modem into existing electrical outlets.

The idea of broadband service over power lines, or BPL, has been around for some time, but this appears to be the first large-scale rollout of the technology by a major utility.

"There have been several utilities working on this quietly and doing pilot programs," said Alan Shark, president of the Power Line Communications Assn., an industry trade group.

"Everyone has been very cautious in deploying this technology, but I think the demand will be incredible."
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...nes-technology


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Web Sites Focus On Managing Consumers' Photos
Jefferson Graham

With consumers expected to snap up nearly 60 million digital cameras this year, Web sites that help shutterbugs share their photos electronically are proliferating.

For the past few years, the dominant places to store and share pictures have been sites set up to sell reprints, such as Kodak's Ofoto and independents Webshots and Shutterfly. Webshots drew 32 million registered users in January — 10 million more than a year ago — making it the top visited photo site, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Newer entrants such as Smugmug and PhotoSite charge for usage (from $29.99 to $99.99 yearly, depending on the plan). They don't carry advertising, and they offer more options for presenting images. Users get personalized Web addresses, like john.smugmug.com or mary.photosite.com. The companies say that adds a degree of privacy for users.

At Smugmug, users also can download pictures at full resolution to print at home. You can't do that now at Ofoto, although that will change later this year.

John Pettitt, staff photographer for former Vermont governor Howard Dean's failed presidential bid, was posting pictures daily on Ofoto, but switched to Smugmug because he could design the page the way he wanted it.

Smugmug, which started last year, has 7,000 subscribers paying an average $60 yearly. "We're growing slowly, but steadily," founder Chris MacAskill says.

New programs also are emerging to help consumers send photos to other PCs faster.

Most digital shutterbugs now share pictures by attaching them to e-mail. But photo files are huge and getting bigger all the time, as new cameras have greater resolution. Sending them can be time- consuming, and many recipients don't like getting photo e-mail because it clogs their in-box.

Some firms are copying the music-swap model, connecting PCs in a Napster-like way to zap pictures from computer to computer.

With the click of a button, software programs such as Adobe Photoshop Elements or Picasa can resize a photo to make receiving it less cumbersome.

Sharing sites like Ofoto say they have the answer to photo-sharing hassles in a Web-based site that sends simple links in e-mails to friends and family. Users can easily navigate to the images.

But transferring a large collection to the Web can take up to an hour or more. And that's with a high-speed connection.

With Picasa's software add-on Hello and a fast connection, 10 pictures a minute can be sent directly to another PC. "That would be impossible to do in an e-mail," says Lars Perkins, CEO of the Pasadena, Calif., firm.

Hello uses the same technology that made Napster a household word: peer-to-peer. Images are transmitted in an instant-message-like chat window, where users can also discuss what they're seeing. To participate, you need to download the program and get friends and family to do the same.

Once Hello is up and running, users can simulate the experience of looking at a photo album around a coffee table, instead of a static view on a Web page. "I send off pictures to my mom. I'd like to know what she thinks," Perkins says. "In the chat window, we can have a conversation and look at the same time."

Since it began operating last fall, Hello has attracted 175,000 users.

Technology like Hello "makes perfect sense for photography," says Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, which measures peer-to-peer traffic for music companies. "It removes bottlenecks and distributes content in an elegant way."

Other new peer-to-peer photo programs are:

• MSN Premium, a $10 monthly subscription that Microsoft updated in January. It has a "Photo Swap" feature within the MSN Messenger IM program to send and discuss pictures.

• ShareALot, free for now. It transmits pictures from PC to PC, sending the images into specially selected folders.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguid...otoshare_x.htm


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Netflix's DVD Rental Pioneer Has A Blockbuster Plan
Michael Liedtke



AP photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez


It would be easy to cast Netflix founder Reed Hastings as simply a dot-com rebel whose online DVD subscription service empowers consumers by letting them keep video rentals indefinitely without facing late fees.

But Hastings, a former Peace Corps volunteer who once taught math in Swaziland, says he is pursuing a far nobler cause.

Hastings sees himself as a DVD evangelist, with Netflix a bully pulpit for his mission to deepen the world's passion for movies and find an audience for every film.

"I would like Netflix to transform the movie business," Hastings says without the slightest trace of bombast. "We want to become a Top 10 media company."

It sounds like a like a far-fetched ambition for an industry upstart that started this year with a 3% share of the $9.9 billion video rental market, and stiffer competition from retail giants Blockbuster Entertainment and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. looming ahead.

Hastings, 43, isn't backing down, perhaps because he has already defied conventional thinking.

"He's the kind of guy you would back in a heartbeat because he is such a brilliant strategic thinker," said Jay Hoag, whose venture capital firm, Technology Crossover Ventures, was among Netflix's early backers.

Skepticism has been shadowing Hastings since his 1999 launch of Netflix, which charges an all-you-can-watch monthly fee of $19.95 to receive up to three DVDs at a time through the mail.

Critics quickly panned Hastings' smorgasbord approach as another dot-com blunder. The service instead struck a nerve with tech-savvy movie lovers fed up with video late fees — a cash cow that industry leader Blockbuster Entertainment milked for about 15% of its revenue before Netflix came along.

Now Los Gatos-based Netflix is thriving, its audience rapidly approaching 2 million subscribers as the service attracts about 125,000 new customers each month, helped by software that personalizes movie recommendations based on customers' viewing histories and their feedback on films they've seen.

The company's accelerating growth has helped its stock more than quadruple in less than two years despite persistent doubts about Netflix's ability to survive tougher competition and a long-anticipated shift to video-on-demand.

Meanwhile, consumers are renting fewer movies from Blockbuster, a trend that recently prompted majority owner Viacom Inc. to seek a buyer for its 81% stake in the 8,900-store video rental chain.

Even before Netflix, Hastings established himself as a shrewd entrepreneur.

In the early 1990s, he started a business software maker, Pure Atria, that he wound up selling to Rational Software for $752 million in stock. Hastings then came up with the idea for Netflix when he returned a rented copy of the movie "Apollo 13" more than a week late and got slapped with a $39 penalty.

It may turn out to be the best money Hastings ever spent, considering his personal stake in Netflix is worth nearly $150 million.

Hastings isn't driven entirely by money. In 2000, former California Gov. Gray Davis appointed Hastings as president of the state's Board of Education — a non-paid position that he is lobbying to keep under California's new governor. "We have all of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies at Netflix," Hastings says, with a laugh.

Netflix's library of 18,000 DVD titles also includes many little-noticed movies — the kinds of films for which Hastings hopes to build larger audience. He aims to assemble the world's most diverse selection of DVDs and then draw upon Netflix's ability to analyze each customer's film tastes to "find the right movie for the right person."

It's a cause that Hastings hopes will help differentiate Netflix from mounting competition.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, launched a similar online rental service last year that undercuts Netflix by about a buck a month. Blockbuster already owns a Netflix copycat, FilmCaddy.com, and plans to introduce an online service that will deliver DVDs under its own brand name later this year.

"We should not only be able to compete in the online business, but have a substantial edge over the existing competition," Blockbuster CEO John Antioco recently assured analysts.

But Netflix already is gaining a reputation as the place to go for independent films, foreign movies and documentaries that are tough to find in Blockbuster and other traditional rental stores.

Leyl Master Black is among the legion of subscribers who love to pluck eclectic movies from Netflix's recommendation list. Because she's paying a flat fee, Black, 33, feels more comfortable checking out an obscure DVD from Netflix than gambling on an offbeat rental during her increasingly infrequent trips to a Blockbuster store.

"I have seen so many movies from Netflix that I would never be able to find at a video store," said Black, who splits her time between homes in San Francisco and Seattle. "Using something like Netflix takes a little more advanced planning, but it's definitely worth it."

Netflix doesn't impress all its customers. About 5% drop the service each month. The defections, known as customer "churn," have been declining as Netflix has set up 23 distribution centers around the country to get DVDs to customers more quickly.

Controlling churn is vital to Netflix's success because the company loses money on new customers during the first four months. Based on its current churn rate, Netflix estimates the average subscriber keeps the rental service for 21 months, up from 16 months at the end of 2002.

The formula has paid off so far.

Netflix's revenue nearly doubled last year, producing a $6.5 million profit on subscriptions totaling $270 million, enough to encourage Hastings to expand the service into Canada and the United Kingdom.

Hastings believes Netflix could earn more than $20 million for all of 2004, with revenue reaching as high as $475 million. Within five years, he predicts, the company will boast more than $1 billion in annual revenue and 100,000 film titles, widening its advantages over traditional rental chains.

"Reed has established a beachhead in something that looked like nothing more than a toehold just a couple years ago," said entertainment industry analyst Dennis McAlpine. "It's not going to be easy to get rid of him now."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinv...tm?POE=TECISVA


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Computer Q&A: Gracefully, Gates Dances Around Downloading
David Radin

It had all the makings of another shoot-out at the OK Corral. Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and
chief technology officer, standing in front of hundreds of college students at Carnegie Mellon University. Would he dare to speak about peer-to-peer file sharing and illegal downloads?

After an hour on stage, he hadn't brought up the legal issues, but he had touched on how technology would continue to make strides in multimedia and elsewhere -- and he even showed the crowd a prototype device that he called the Portable Media Center.

The device is a handheld appliance with a built-in LCD screen that could hook up to your PC to download your favorite movies and songs. He proudly announced that you'll be seeing such devices this fall in the $300 to $500 range. That's barely more than many MP3 recording devices that provide audio only.

I heard a couple of hushed "oohs" and "ahs" in the crowd. Perhaps a couple of people even pulled out their Personal Digital Assistants to check their bank accounts to make sure they would have enough money to plunk down on this new technology. It's still cool to be the first owner on your block.

But the real test came in the question-and-answer session after Gates' main presentation. Brian, an information systems major, stepped to the microphone to ask, "What plans do you have about peer-to-peer file sharing, and do you have any plans to hold that back?"

Some members of the crowd braced for a battle. The question was asked politely, but the undercurrent still seemed to be one of, "Please don't take my free downloads away.'' Peer-to-peer file sharing, which led to hundreds of lawsuits by the music industry against ordinary citizens who used file-sharing networks to download music illegally, has been criticized for letting individuals get something for free that should require payment.

One might have expected the Microsoft chairman to be somewhat uneasy about addressing the question. But he was not.

With barely a second thought, Gates talked about the great legitimate uses of peer-to-peer file sharing, and stated unequivocally that Microsoft will be working and contributing to those uses.

He didn't specify the extent to which his company is furthering the causes of electronic copyright protection known as digital rights management (DRM), but he said he believes the incentive structure that pays artists works well.

Nor did he mention that his company (and almost every software company) has a vested interest in developing digital rights management solutions -- because DRM can prevent copyright theft of software programs as well as movies and music.

"Our position is: How do we allow people to very easily license things and yet have the flexibility that digital networks should provide to them."

He did slap the hands of music executives by suggesting they should have been among the first to create simple licensing models, thereby pre-emptively creating habits in which listeners pay small amounts for music instead of bootlegging their favorite selections. Gates also told the crowd that the movie industry must move to make its titles available so people don't go to unlicensed sources first.

In short, Bill Gates made it clear that Microsoft would participate in the protection of copyrighted works as well as in the development of ways to get them into people's hands easily and inexpensively.

There was no uproar from the mostly student crowd. They understood. Perhaps they even agreed. After all, many of them would soon be making their livings in software development, and would have much to gain from copyright protection.

But just as much, this non-fight should be seen as a significant accomplishment of the university's administrators, who have been clear about their policies related to peer-to-peer downloads and copyright infringement. I hope the mood is similar on other college campuses.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04057/277596.stm


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Report Raises Questions About Fighting Online Piracy
John Schwartz

The entertainment industry's pursuit of tough new laws to protect copyrighted materials from online piracy is bad for business and for the economy, according to a report being released today by the Committee for Economic Development, a Washington policy group that has its roots in the business world.

Record companies and movie and television studios have fought copyright infringement on many fronts, hoping to find ways to prevent their products from being distributed free on the Internet. But critics warn that many of the new restrictions that the entertainment industry proposes - like enforcing technological requirements for digital television programming that would prevent it from being transmitted online - would upset the balance between the rights of the content creators and the rights of the public.

"We are sympathetic to the problems confronting the content distribution industry," said the report, "Promoting Innovation and Economic Growth: The Special Problem of Digital Intellectual Property." "But these problems - perfect copies of high-value digital works being transmitted instantly around the world at almost no cost - require clear, concentrated thinking, rather than quick legislative or regulatory action."

Until recently, those who opposed strong copyright protections have been characterized by the entertainment industry as a leftist fringe with no respect for the value of intellectual property.

"The ideas of copy-left, or of a more liberal regime of copyright, are receiving wider and wider support," said Debora L. Spar, a professor at Harvard Business School. "It's no longer a wacky idea cloistered in the ivory tower; it's become a more mainstream idea that we need a different kind of copyright regime to support the wide range of activities in cyberspace."

Susan Crawford, a professor at the Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University and an author of the report said that a growing number of business leaders are worried that the trend toward "equating intellectual property with physical property" might be hampering innovation.

"Bits are not the same as atoms," she argued, contending that the distinction is being blurred by Hollywood. "We need to reframe the legal discussion to treat the differences of bits and atoms in a more thoughtful way."

The chief author of the report, Elliot Maxwell, a former adviser to the secretary of commerce on the digital economy during the Clinton administration, said that middle ground was hard to find in the many conflicts over intellectual property. The report, he said, was an attempt "to find a way through this thicket."

The entry of the Committee for Economic Development into the copyright wars, some say, is surprising given its long history as a policy-setter in the world of economics and business. The 60-year-old organization left its intellectual mark on initiatives like the Marshall Plan and the Bretton Woods agreement, which created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In more recent years, the committee's policy papers have had a measure of influence on issues like campaign finance reform and the movement to set standards for public schools through testing.

Ms. Spar, however, warned against reading too much social change into the committee's new stance. It shows that the ideas are "gaining legitimacy," she said. "It does not mean that we're about to throw out the copyright system any time soon."

The report was written by an offshoot of the committee, and in an introduction to the report, the members of the parent group said that for largely technical reasons, the report is "not an official C.E.D. policy statement." But they underscored the group's support, saying that it "welcomes this report and recommends it to readers as an excellent analysis of the issue of balancing intellectual property rights and the incentives for long-term growth in the digital age."

One of the most prominent critics of attempts to increase control over copyrighted material applauded the new report. "I think it's exciting," said the critic, Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. "The points they are making are obviously right," he said, "but the only way people will get it is if more credible, mainstream organizations begin to utter it."

Jane C. Ginsburg, a law professor at Columbia University and a copyright expert, had a more mixed view of the report. The recommendations are "very thoughtful and sensible," she said, noting that she agreed with the report's conclusion that government mandates are a bad idea. But she said in an e-mail message responding to questions about the report that it "makes unsubstantiated, misleading, or misinformed statements about copyright law." In fact, she said, "A little less preaching to the technologist 'choir' might have made this a better 'sell' to copyright owners and, perhaps, to lawmakers."

Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said that he had not yet seen the report but was strongly critical of the view that his industry was trying to place unfair burdens on consumers. "They say it will stifle innovation - that's malarkey," he said. "If all of this digital property is free, who is going to invest 50 to 60 million dollars to make a movie?" he asked.

The report addresses that point by calling on the entertainment industries to come up with new ways of doing business that can accommodate and even profit from digital distribution. It cited the success of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store as one online business that offered consumers an easy-to-use alternative to free music services.

"In the music business, 'cheap and great' is likely to be at least as attractive to consumers as 'free and crummy,' " the report said.

The report also endorsed the private use of so-called digital rights management systems to place some restrictions on copying, so long as they are not required by government and do not impose too great a burden on consumers. The group also recommended finding economic tools that could encourage copyright holders to allow their works to enter the public domain somewhat earlier than the law allows.

The group called for a two-year moratorium on changes to copyright laws and regulations to allow for more public debate. "Our first concern should be to 'do no harm,' " the report said.

Cary H. Sherman, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America, said that "there isn't a lot here to disagree with" from his industry's perspective, since the recording industry signed an agreement with technology companies a year ago stating that it would not push for government-mandated technology solutions for its copyright problems.

"I certainly agree that there shouldn't be any rush to judgment where new technologies and intellectual property issues are in conflict," he said, "but one should also not assume that one could wait forever."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/te.../01rights.html


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Got a Book in You? More Companies Than Ever Are Willing to Get It Out
Gayle Feldman

Since September, the nation's second-largest bookseller, Borders Group, has quietly been conducting an experiment in six Philadelphia-area stores, not as a bookseller, but as a publisher.

"It's easy to publish your own book!" the "Borders Personal Publishing" leaflets proclaim. Pay $4.99. Take home a kit. Send in your manuscript and $199. A month or so later, presto. Ten paperback copies of your novel, memoir or cookbook arrive.

Fork over $499, and you can get the upscale "Professional Publication" option. Your book gets an International Standard Book Number, publishing's equivalent of an ID number and is made available on Borders.com, and the Philadelphia store makes space on its shelves for five copies.

Borders is the latest traditional bookseller or publisher to branch into self-publishing using print-on-demand or P.O.D. technology. P.O.D., inheritor of the vanity press and survivor of the dot-com implosion, makes it feasible - technologically and economically - to produce one copy of a book.

Unlike e-books, which also appeared in the late 1990's, P.O.D. self-publishing has developed into a real business, attracting involvement from the likes of Random House, Barnes & Noble and now Borders.

"We wanted to learn about the market," said Phil Ollila, Borders's vice president for book marketing, in explaining the chain's experiment. The company approached Xlibris, based in Philadelphia, one of the big three of P.O.D. self-publishing, together with 1stBooks and iUniverse, all formed in the late 1990's. Xlibris is 49 percent owned by Random House Ventures; 1stBooks, based in Bloomington, Ind., is privately held. Barnes & Noble owns 25 percent of iUniverse, based in Lincoln, Neb., and Warburg Pincus holds the other 75 percent.

These more established publishing businesses decided to invest in P.O.D. to diversify and expand their role. "There was the farm team idea - could we find authors?" said Richard Sarnoff, the president of Random House Ventures. "As niches get smaller, is it a model for the future?"

Steve Riggio, the chief executive of Barnes & Noble, said, "Self-publishing, previously viewed as a means of last resort, is increasingly seen as a first step."

Thoughts of the future aside, there is the matter of the current market. The three companies combined have produced more than 45,000 titles so far, at a cost to authors of from $459 to $1,900. (Some Borders packages are more limited, and thus cheaper.)

The real challenge is not to produce books, it is to achieve all the goals of publishing - to get the books edited, distributed, noticed and, above all, bought. That is no easy feat: in the United States, 150,000-160,000 new titles were published last year, according to R.R. Bowker's Books in Print. On average, the P.O.D. titles sell just 150 to 175 copies, the companies say. Many authors are happy to pay for 50 or 100 copies of their magnum opus to give or sell to family, friends and business contacts. Others, though, confuse production with publication and end up disillusioned.

To address that problem, all three companies emphasize marketing, promotion and publicity options, either bundled into the packages or sold separately as add-ons.

The majority of sales of self-published books occurs online. According to Susan Driscoll, iUniverse chief executive, 40 percent are sold directly to authors and the other 60 percent move through retail channels. John Feldcamp, the chief executive of Xlibris, like his colleagues, maintains that book sales "are colossally important; they are more profitable than the services." But the add-ons generate cash and pull in authors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/technology/01pod.html


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Microsoft, Amid Dwindling Interest, Talks Up Computing as a Career
Steve Lohr

Bill Gates went on a campaign tour last week, trying to reinvigorate his base, as they say in politics.

The number of students majoring in computer science is falling, even at the elite universities. So Mr. Gates went stumping at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, M.I.T. and Harvard, telling students that they could still make a good living in America, even as the nation's industry is sending some jobs, like software programming, abroad.

"Will this create more competition? It will," he told students at M.I.T. on Thursday. "It means the U.S. will have to keep its edge in skills."

Later, noting fears of widespread job losses, he said in an interview, "But people are way overreacting."

Mr. Gates urged the students to stay in the game, no matter where they worked - for Microsoft, a rival, a start-up, a research lab.

Matthew Notowidigdo, who came to M.I.T. five years ago and will receive his master's degree in computer science in May, has chosen not to. The head of the department said Mr. Notowidigdo, a 22-year-old native of Columbus, Ohio, was one of his brightest students, who would be welcomed at any computer science Ph.D. program in the country.

But Mr. Notowidigdo has decided not to be a software engineer. Instead, he plans to head to Wall Street this spring to join the bond trading desk at Lehman Brothers, where he will work on research and analyzing fixed-income securities. While he may pursue a Ph.D. someday, he says it will be in economics rather than computer science.

Enrollments are down at the best computer science schools, where the potential stars of technology's future are groomed. Professors say there is less enthusiasm for the discipline among students, and they worry it may be more than a lingering disenchantment after the dot-com bubble burst.

In an effort to counter the trend, Mr. Gates, who personifies technological optimism and the potential payoff, sought to reassure students that their futures were no less bright in an era of outsourcing. The effect of computer technology, he told them, is just beginning and opportunity abounds. Computing, he added, is an ideal field for fine minds to make a difference in society.

"We need your excitement," he told students at Harvard. "Most of these jobs are very interesting and very social - you work with lots of smart people. I'm excited about the future of computing, and I'm excited to see how each of you can contribute to it."

But Mr. Notowidigdo's expertise in software design and programming are also valuable tools on Wall Street, as sophisticated computer programs and models are increasingly used to sniff out profit-making opportunities in the financial markets.

And he said his summer job last year, doing programming work for a New York investment bank, also influenced his plans for the future. The bank's technology department was outsourcing some software work to India, and as part of the project, programmers from Wipro, a large India outsourcing firm, were brought to New York. Mr. Notowidigdo was impressed at the level of their skills.

The outsourcing trend, Mr. Notowidigdo explained, "factors into my thinking about what I want to pursue as a career."

His current path as a technologically adept investment banker, he decided, gives him "a broader set of skills and is less risky than software engineering."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/te...gy/01bill.html


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Report: Feds Should Stay Out of DRM Issues
Roy Mark

The solution to digital piracy is new business models, not legal action and regulatory mandates, a new report by the Committee for Economic Development (CED) concludes.

The prestigious organization of business leaders and university presidents said "hastily enacted" laws and regulations could have unintended consequences and slow the pace of innovation and economic growth.

Congress is currently monitoring industry efforts to curb online copyright infringement, particularly over peer-to-peer networks. Lawmakers prefer private sector solutions to federal mandates for protecting digital intellectual property, tracking its usage and collecting payments and fees.

But a frustrated Congress hasn't seen much progress and bills have been introduced ranging from banning P2P software to allowing electronic interdiction for copyright owners. The music industry has primarily focused on filing lawsuits against the P2P networks and the individual users of the software.

"There can be no question that prosecuting those who break the law is both valid and important, but many anti-piracy proposals go much further that," the CED report states. "Many of the proposals would require consumers to add hardware or software to their computing devices that would add to cost and reduce interoperability regardless of the machine's use."

The CED report, Digital Economy: Promoting Competition, Innovation and Opportunity, recommends experimentation with digital rights management (DRM) systems while refraining from government mandates to include specific technologies.

"Logical and fair solutions to the intellectual property rights challenges presented by the digital world are needed to ensure that this issue does not severely hamper economic growth," CED President Charles Kolb said in a statement.

The CED, a Washington nonprofit, notes previous technological breakthroughs also caused consternation and upheaval between producers of content, distributors of that content and the content users.

"Introduction of the phonograph, radio, television and videocassettes recorders all led to fundamental changes in content markets," the report says.

In each transition, the report states, copyright law maintained "its basic bargain: Society should provide incentives to creators and prevent wholesale appropriation of their work, while at the same time ensuring both that subsequent creators can build upon a creator's work and that the public as a whole can have access to the creation."

Without that structure, the CED says "under-protection of works may inhibit initial creation, while over-protection may inhibit follow-on innovation by the millions who come after the initial creator."

The CED recommends dedicating the next two years to building consensus about the appropriate role in the digital age for traditional "legal safety valves" to balance the exclusive rights of creators with users' rights.

"We recognize the need for digital rights management systems that will allow creators to be rewarded for their efforts," the report states.

The CED adds, however, it is skeptical of government-mandated copy protection technologies.

"DRM systems provide a useful 'speed bump' for consumers by inhibiting unauthorized uses of materials," the report says. "Consumers should play a substantial role in evaluating and approving mandated technological protection systems."
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news...le.php/3320001


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Optisoft CEO Wayne Rosso on File-Sharing Frontiers
Jay Lyman

"The RIAA has been repeating the same lies over and over so much that the media begins to blindly repeat them," Optisoft CEO Wayne Rosso told TechNewsWorld. "The RIAA is constantly referring to P2P companies as 'illegitimate' or 'illegal.' They want to ignore the fact that every judge in the world has declared us legal."

Touting findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project and other Internet use researchers, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has credited its controversial strategy of suing individual file-sharers with cutting the number of illegal trades in half.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking providers, meanwhile, point to courtroom affirmations that their services -- Kazaa, BearShare, Blubster and others -- are not illegal and say file-sharing is alive, well and doing just fine. They also insist they are improving P2P technology to the point that it will be the basis for much more than swapping songs, at the same time making file-sharers themselves as anonymous as possible.

TechNewsWorld talked with Optisoft chief executive officer Wayne Rosso, whose P2P application, Blubster, is among those dreaded and sometimes persecuted by the recording industry. Rosso talked about the RIAA's aggressive strategy, the alternatives to litigation and the enduring potential of P2P networks.

TechNewsWorld: You've been critical of the RIAA campaign, but there is some agreement that it has effectively cut the use of P2P services and illegal trading of copyrighted material. Do you believe it has?

Wayne Rosso: I personally haven't seen much evidence to support those claims, although my evidence is strictly anecdotal. According to companies like Big Champagne, who somehow monitor P2P traffic, usage is actually up. I think what has happened is that the RIAA has succeeded in making people paranoid about admitting in telephone surveys that they do file share. It's now like admitting to a stranger that you like porn.

TNW: In your opinion, what could the RIAA and other intellectual-property owners do that would better serve their own interests?

Rosso: That's very simple. A blanket collective compulsory license is the only logical solution to the issue. And there are many well- conceived and thorough proposals in existence that can be implemented fairly quickly and reasonably. Most notable among these proposals is one authored by Neil Weinstock Netanel of the University of Texas, which was published last fall in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, and more recently a proposal put forth by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Most reasonable people believe that a collective licensing plan would actually grow the music business and expand their markets, something they apparently would rather avoid in favor of mass litigation. Ultimately, they have to have a little respect for their customers. The truth of the matter is that they treat their customers with contempt since they really don't know who buys their products. They think that their customers are Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) , Best Buy and Target.

And that lack of respect for the customer just blows my mind. Americans were raised with the adage "the customer's always right." These people are jaded and cynical and have forgotten who really pays their mortgages.

TNW: Do you believe that P2P use and growth is being hampered by the RIAA strategy?

Rosso: No. Actually, this strategy is serving as a catalyst for developers to become even more aggressive in their efforts to build file-sharing clients that are more anonymous, faster and more secure than the current generation. In reality, the RIAA strategy is spurring the growth of P2P.

And when you think about it, they've done a great job of marketing our products for us. By suing the P2P operators, they ended up making us bigger and bigger. For people who take themselves so seriously, I find them to be endlessly amusing and entertaining. Oh, and let's not forget brazen.

TNW: What about the image of companies such as Optisoft and Sharman Networks (maker of Kazaa)? Has the image of these companies been hurt by the RIAA efforts?

Rosso: I really don't think so. Firstly, Optisoft has not been sued, yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if that changes on a moment's notice, as the RIAA isn't too fond of my outspokenness. They tend to take things very personally, as does most of the record industry, which is rife with insecure, self-important people with very fragile egos.

The RIAA has been repeating the same lies over and over so much that the media begins to blindly repeat them. The RIAA is constantly referring to P2P companies as "illegitimate" or "illegal." They want to ignore the fact that every judge in the world has declared us legal. And out of sheer laziness the media keeps parroting these statements without regard to their true accuracy.

The RIAA has been conducting an out-and-out smear campaign, and they don't care who they lie to or what they misrepresent. They want everyone to believe that P2P equals piracy. It doesn't. No more than coaxial cable or Xerox machines do. In fact, P2P represents their best shot at survival and growth in the digital world. They're just too stubborn, stupid -- or both -- to admit it. In any case, they continue to perpetuate a big lie.

TNW: What is your response to the criticisms that even if an actual P2P service or network is not a violation of the law, it enables violations, such as the illegal trading of copyrighted music?

Rosso: Here again, what seems to have been forgotten is that the law clearly states -- and has been repeatedly affirmed -- that our technology is no different from a VCR, dual cassette machine, CD burner, scanner or photocopier. Those devices are clearly capable of infringing copyrights and commonly are. And let's not forget that e-mail and instant messaging software are also technologies that enable copyright infringement, yet no one is suing AOL or Yahoo or Microsoft for contributory infringement.

The fact is that anyone who produces a technology that is capable of noncopyright-infringing use is not liable for how people utilize that technology. That's the law. If any technologies are copyright-infringement enablers, it's CD burners and easy-to-use ripping software made by companies like Roxio.

Without those two tools, there wouldn't be the rampant physical piracy that exists -- which is far more problematic for the record industry than file sharing -- let alone files to be shared. They are the real culprits. And who's one of the biggest manufacturers of CD burners in the world? Sony.

TNW: What do you see as the biggest opportunity for file-sharing technology in the coming two to three years?

Rosso: I think that when major content owners wake up and realize that P2P technology can save their companies and shareholders billions of dollars, the new marketplace will finally arrive. What content owners don't understand is that the Internet does not know the difference between music files, video files or image files. It's all bits and bytes. Data.

They can't seem to wrap their brains around the concept that they are now in the business of delivering data as quickly and efficiently as possible. P2P technology can provide them with the best form of distribution that they ever imagined. For the first time, content owners will be able to have an ongoing direct relationship with the customer, something they have never had before.

Marketing costs will significantly decrease. Distribution costs will significantly decrease. And customers will have true choice. So, clearly, I feel that content delivery is a big opportunity. Another huge opportunity is in the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business. Companies are already making real progress in this area as well. It could be an 800-pound gorilla.

TNW: What do you see as the different roles of P2P technology for enterprise users and consumers?

Rosso: When we move into the ultra broadband wireless world where the Internet is ubiquitous, content will have to be transferred efficiently and economically across networks and devices. I see P2P technology being the main distribution driver for content owners. The BBC just announced that they will be using P2P technology to distribute their archives online.

The technology can also benefit retailers. In a world where Apple iTunes is selling 99-cent singles, all of the profit is being eaten up by infrastructure and transaction fees. Clearly, large corporations could save billions on IT costs by migrating from costly LANs to P2P. The military even used P2P technology on the ground in Iraq. Colleges and universities also play a role in the evolution of P2P, as recently illustrated by the Berklee School of Music, which is using P2P technology to put their curriculum online.

Consumers have sent a loud and clear message that P2P is the way that they like to get their content. They are comfortable with it and know how to use it. You've got to realize that a whole generation of consumers has grown up with peer-to-peer. I know that it only has been about four years or so, but that's a lifetime in the marketplace. Certainly a lot longer than the career of your average rock band.

Consumers know the technology and think it's really cool. And it is. And it's only going to get better and provide an even richer user experience.

TNW: Which do you see as the most significant market for P2P technology, going forward?

Rosso: Some P2Ps think that they're in the content business. I don't. Let's face it, the only people who make money from content are the content owners. Personally, I think that we're in the pipe business. I'm providing the back-end technology for people who want to get their content out there.

TNW: What do you think about concerns that heavy P2P use is driving up ISP costs and will lead to different and more expensive rate schemes for users?

Rosso: Not really. ISPs can't have it both ways. They use P2P to help sell their broadband products and then complain that it sucks up their bandwidth. The bottom line is that people want broadband so that they can have fast downloads. Period. Bandwidth is getting cheaper and cheaper. And ISPs have to work hard to acquire and keep their customers. Churn rates are deadly. So I think that competition will help keep rates reasonable.
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/33004.html


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Clickshare Joins Distributed Computing Industry Association, Demonstrates P2P Exchange Solution at Digital Music Forum
Press Release

Clickshare Service Corp. (www.Clickshare.com) today announced that it has joined the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), the non-profit trade association pursuing consensus in working toward the paid and legal distribution of music and other digital content.

Clickshare is a commerce platform for Internet payment aggregation, an ideal environment for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) exchange of digital content. It enables single-bill, multi-site payments for digital content and commerce, with relationship management and privacy-enhancing features.

DCIA is engaged in developing standards and practices to advance innovative consumer-based distribution system. Representing all sectors of the distributed computing industry, DCIA membership comprises platform companies, content providers, and peer-to-peer operators.

The announcement was made today at the Digital Music Forum, where Clickshare demonstrated its solution in collaboration with BlueMaze Entertainment, DCide, Digital Containers, and INTENT MediaWorks. Digital Media Forum, at The French Institute (59th Street and Park Avenue) included five panels and three keynote addresses focused on the role of digital technology in the future of music.

"Clearly P2P is a growing technology with massive potential benefits for creators and consumers alike," said DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty. "Already progressive artists and labels are adopting P2P for distributing their music. Clickshare delivers content owners a safe, secure, and profitable affinity payment system for digital products, and we are delighted to have them as our newest member."
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...ewID=news_view


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Publishers Steamed By US Ban

Scientists from embargoed nations can't be edited by US citizens, but changes may be afoot
John Dudley Miller

A Treasury Department ruling that a well known scientific society can't publish articles in its journals from authors in trade-embargoed countries if their manuscripts require any copy or style editing has other scientific associations and American publishers up in arms. The prohibition applies to authors in Iran, Cuba, Sudan, and Libya, but not to submissions from Iraq, North Korea, Zimbabwe, the Balkans, or Liberia, where embargoes are more limited.

Most scientific societies are defying or ignoring the rule, which applies to all US publications. Theoretically, their refusal exposes their editors and officers to fines of up to $50,000 and 10 years or more in jail, should the government decide to prosecute, which so far it has not done. A number of technical and general publishers are considering suing to overturn the long-overlooked federal regulation behind the ruling, and many scientific groups are considering donating substantially to that cause. But a Treasury Department official in the center of the fracas told The Scientist that he favors a new reinterpretation that would please all sides.

The controversy stems from a ruling last September in which the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) decided that the 360,000-member Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) could no longer publish scientific papers from Iranian authors in any of its 100+ journals if those articles need to be edited prior to publication.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), who wrote the informational exemption to the 1988 embargo, called the ruling “totally absurd and ludicrous.” Berman told The Scientist that he plans to write OFAC's director today (March 2) demanding he reconsider the ruling. “We're going to come on quite strong about why this does not comply with the law and undermines a coherent foreign policy interest” as well as the free dissemination of ideas to and from people in closed, authoritarian societies, he said.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040302/04


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A Second Bite Of The Apple
Paul Sexton

During Chris Gorog's visit to Britain this week, he will find no shortage of people familiar with his company's brand. Napster, after all, became one of the best-known names on the internet, deified in its previous pirate life by consumers hungry for unlicensed, illicit downloads and demonised by the record business.

But, having been killed off in its illicit form by US court actions, Napster, invented by Shawn Fanning, a teenager, has undergone a rebirth in the US as a legitimate downloading service. And part of Mr Gorog's purpose in coming to London to speak at the Financial Times' New Media and Broadcasting conference on Wednesday is to herald Napster's return to Europe, this time on the right side of the law.

"The UK will be our first entry point," says the Los Angeles-based Mr Gorog. And with his chief rival in the US, Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, straining to beat Napster to British shores, insiders suggest Napster aims to be in operation in the UK by the end of the summer.

"The sooner the better as far as we're concerned," says Mr Gorog. "The issue is, we're still working with labels and publishers to get all the rights sorted out. Unfortunately, it's just part of the gut-wrenching birthing process of the online music industry."

Mr Gorog says he expects Napster to develop its service in Europe "country by country". "It's our goal to have localised programming in each region. That really suggests that they will not all roll out on the same day."

The legitimate digital music business is, he believes, making vast strides. "Two years ago, online music was considered a science project, a novelty act," he says. Now, one forecast suggests it will be a global business worth $4.5bn by 2008.

Last week, Napster 2.0 became the first personal computer-only service to sell more than 5m downloads in the US. It reached the total less than six months after the relaunch last October of what was once the world's favourite way to steal music.

Napster's reappearance as a legitimate service is the lastest phase in an extraordinary history. Mr Fanning, its original figurehead, became notorious after the original Napster software was released on to the internet. It allowed those who downloaded it to swap music tracks stored on their computer hard disc with other members. Music was passed from "peer to peer" without the companies that owned it seeing a penny.

The music industry's leaders reacted with a barrage of litigation that shut the original service down in 2001. But as this legal campaign was under way, Thomas Middelhoff, one of their number, the former head of Bertelsmann, stunned his peers by agreeing in 2000 that BMG, the German media group's music business, would help fund Napster if it went legitimate. Mr Middelhoff's time at the top of Bertelsmann ended as the dotcom bubble deflated and efforts to harness the power of the Napster brand to a legitimate business had to begin again.

Enter Mr Gorog. The bankrupt Napster's assets were bought in late 2002 for $5.3m by Silicon Valley software company Roxio, which Mr Gorog had joined as chief executive in 2000.

Over the past nine months, Roxio has completed two PIPE offerings (Private Investment in Public Equity) for Napster in the US, raising about $45m "really quite easily", says Mr Gorog. "The electronic infrastructure created for Napster is an investment in the neighbourhood of $100m and a lot of that is electronic accounting.

"But that investment is now in the ground and is highly leverageable, so when we talk about going into the UK, France and Germany and Spain and Italy, it's all additional growth we can put on to that investment we've already made. It's a very scalable model and I think it will be highly profitable."

Five million downloads may seem small potatoes compared with the 60m users a day estimated to be clicking on Napster's familiar cat logo at its illegal peak. The iTunes Music Store, launched in the US last April, sold its 25-millionth download before Christmas. Napster 2.0 has attracted more than 1.5m basic and premium members and expects to generate at least $20m in music sales by the end of its first year.

"I think the industry right now is at a mature stage of early adoption. We clearly have not crossed the chasm into mass adoption yet," says Mr Gorog. One reason, he argues, is that the "value proposition of àla carte downloading" such as iTunes offers - where users pay individually for each track they buy - is not strong enough.

While Napster 2.0 has an àla carte service similar to iTunes, Mr Gorog stresses what he sees as the far greater virtues of Napster's subscription model. That includes prepaid download cards, access to a catalogue of 500,000 songs, pre-programmed radio stations and the ability to e-mail songs to fellow subscribers, recalling the peer- to-peer model of the original site.

"The àla carte model is a great catalyst for the online industry because it's simple to understand," says Mr Gorog. "But it's also limiting. Right now, for example, in the US, with iTunes if you spend $9.95 you can listen to 10 songs. With Napster, if you spend $9.95 a month you can listen to half a million.

"We think that's the model of the future, and we also think for us it's the model with greater financial reward, because of the margins."

The thorny subject of compatibility between competing formats is one on which he believes there will be compromise. But the balance of power will have to shift to the point where Apple feels the necessity to compromise.

With the iTunes model firmly designed to encourage sales of the iPod music player, the only current way to listen to an iTunes track on a rival device, or indeed to load a song from Napster or elsewhere on to the Apple iPod, is to burn the song from one system on to a compact disc, put it in the computer and load it back into the other system.

"We'd love to be able to have iPod users work with the Napster service," says Mr Gorog, "but Apple's made the decision not to be Windows Media Audio-compliant. The cloistered Apple experience is good right now in the early stages of development but I think quickly consumers will see the serious limitations."

As the spending habits of music consumers are summarily reshaped, Mr Gorog will not be drawn on when Napster will become profitable.

"It won't be next quarter, that's for sure. I think most of our investors recognise this is absolutely a long-term investment.

"We do definitely see a light at the end of the tunnel [but] we've not gone public yet about when we will hit cash flow break-even, primarily because it would be too easy to be wrong. Because of the ultimate size of this opportunity, there's plenty of room for a handful of strong players."
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentSe...=1077690829178


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Digital and analog RCA outputs connect Squeezebox to your home theater, stereo receiver, or amplified speakers. And when you install multiple players, they can play independently or in sync for whole-house audio.
http://www.slimdevices.com/


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SCO To Sling a Lawsuit at a User
Erika Morphy

Public perception is not as significant an issue as the potential payday SCO could win if it prevails. Then there is the matter of principle. Despite the anger SCO's move has engendered, the company clearly thinks it is in the right. The courts, of course, will determine whether that is so.

No one can claim that the SCO Group does not follow through on its promises. The company is getting set to file a lawsuit against a Linux user Tuesday afternoon, according to spokesperson Blake Stowell. News of the impending suit became public on Monday during CEO Darryl McBride's speech at the Software 2004 conference in San Francisco.

The lawsuit -- which centers on alleged violations of the SCO Group's intellectual property -- was all but inevitable, given the hardened stances the two sides have taken in this saga. It began with SCO filing suit against IBM in March 2003, alleging that it misappropriated SCO's Unix source code and incorporated it into Linux. Later, SCO threatened to sue any Linux-using company that did not have a SCO license.

Venomous Threats

For the most part, the industry has been defiant against SCO's claims -- downright ugly, in many instances. (Anonymous death threats against McBride are the most notable example of out-of-control ire.)

Some companies, though, appear to be taking SCO seriously. On Monday, SCO announced that it had signed an intellectual-property licensing agreement with EV1Servers.Net, a dedicated hosting division of Houston-based Everyones Internet. It appears that Everyones Internet needed to assure its customers that there was not a SCO lawsuit hovering in the landscape, ready to disrupt operations.

"The SCO agreement eliminates uncertainty from our clients' hosting infrastructure," says Robert Marsh, head surfer and CEO of Everyones Internet. "Our current and future users now enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that their Web sites and data are hosted on a SCO IP- compliant platform."

Who Will Buy?

It is unclear how many other firms have purchased a SCO IP license, which initially was offered to Fortune 1000 companies in August and made available to all companies this January.

"We haven't publicly disclosed the specific number, but I can say that a handful of Fortune 1000 companies have taken out a SCO IP license," Stowell told NewsFactor. "Also, a handful of small and medium-sized businesses have purchased the license as well," he noted.

SCO is pleased, thus far, with the level of acceptance the license has received, Stowell said. Of course, not all companies SCO has contacted have chosen to take out a license, he added, "which is why we have decided to file a lawsuit."

While SCO is not revealing too much of its legal strategy, it is obvious that it is going to use all of the options available to it, including suing potential customers. "SCO is being very aggressive about protecting what it perceives as its legal rights to the copyright," Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio told NewsFactor.

Following RIAA

It is a play borrowed directly from the RIAA, which has become notorious for the lawsuits filed against people who have been using peer-to-peer networks to download music illegally. Before filing the suits, the RIAA -- like SCO -- notified users and the public in general that it was going to file suit.

It is debatable whether that strategy is working for the RIAA. However, one thing is clear: Its legal tactics are not winning over any new friends. Not that being liked is SCO's main worry; indeed, the Utah-based firm probably stands as the most-hated organization in the tech industry these days, topping even Microsoft -- which is no small feat.

Unlike the RIAA, though, the public perception of SCO is not as significant an issue as the potential payday it could win if it prevails. Then there is the matter of principle. Despite the anger SCO's move has engendered, it is clear that the company thinks it is in the right. The courts, of course, will determine whether that is so.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtm...o ry_id=23277


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Snell & Wilcox to Release Free MXF Software Developer Kit and Desktop Player at NAB 2004
Press Release

New offering designed to ease broadcast IT transition

Snell & Wilcox announced today that it will release at no charge at NAB 2004 (Booth #C6421) a comprehensive set of software developer tools -- called MXF Express -- designed to help broadcasters and equipment vendors ensure interoperability among file-sharing products and systems through the MXF file format. The company will also freely release MXF Desktop, a software-based MXF file player that will bring MXF compatibility to any Windows PC desktop.

MXF (Material eXchange Format) is a major new building block for IT-based broadcast and post-production environments offering a unique combination of several essential key features: Platform independence including compression, network protocol and operating systems Extensive support for metadata and improved workflows Packetized and streaming file-based capability An open industry format with broad-based support from industry vendors Interoperability tested between industry vendors Extensible for future source formats, metadata schemes etc.

Snell & Wilcox engineers played a critical role in the definition and standardization of MXF. As part of their standardization work, the company’s research engineers developed over several years -- through hundreds of man hours of R&D -- a package of software tools that enable users to create products that conform to the MXF specification. Those tools are included in the free releases of MXF Express and MXF Desktop.

Major global broadcasters such as CNN, CBS, BBC, and Channel 4 have announced support in their facilities for MXF. Top broadcast technology vendors including Sony, Avid, Thomson, JVC, Leitch, Da Vinci, Matrox, Cisco, SGI, Quantel, and Seachange have joined Snell & Wilcox in supporting the MXF format in their products. The broadcast industry has demanded total interoperability between all vendor implementations of the MXF standard and Snell & Wilcox’s MXF Express is designed to help ensure that all manufacturers meet that goal with all first generation products.
http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2..._snell_mxf.htm