[JackSpratts]

"There is no question. Google would tell you that going into China is about making money, not bringing democracy." – John Palfrey


































Masters of Light

What makes an image resonate with the public? Is it context, content, asymmetry? Why do some become classic while others elicit no more than a quick look? The aesthetic value must trigger an emotional response but how much of that response is shaped by events outside the frame? Perhaps a lot after all. This week we’ve been given an astonishing image from the Nation’s Capital that at first glance is nothing more than two girls with lowered eyes and a man at a podium. That the girls are wearing simple clothes while the man is draped in what befits the powerful, and that the girls are out of focus while the man is at the center of light and attention adds weight to the drama, for though the man is commanding, even demanding respect, the girls have their backs turned to him in a most deliberate way, and whatever he’s doing he has clearly lost the approval of these two. This is plain without context, but the story behind the image makes it remarkable.

The man happens to be the attorney general of the United States and the girls are law students at Georgetown University. The AG is telling the students that warrantless spying on American citizens is a justifiable expansion of presidential powers and the students are having none of it. Not with shouts or smoke bombs or other disruptive behaviors do they signal their contempt, but by an age old and socially devastating maneuver: they are shunning him, and it is this the picture clearly transmits.

Already the image and the story are stirring strong emotions across the country, and whether this becomes like other legendary pictures something that fosters great change remains to be seen but make no mistake; the power of an image combined with the ability to instantly and widely distribute it has altered political discourse in a profound sense and changed the way we view ourselves. It has become part of the very fabric we use to create our sense of self.

That it happens free of the constraints of the traditional big media news channels controlled by a handful of companies in league with an establishment that brokers no change except that which feeds its’ ever growing gluttony leaves us with hope for a future that has increasingly seemed bleak.

It is a future shifting in other ways as well. This week Canada saw a legislator brought down by her alliance with that same big media. When pressed, the voters choose ejection over capitulation, ousting pro-industry shill Sam Bulte from a seat she thought secure enough that she contemptuously used it in a series of strident and bizarre campaign speeches that bolstered foreign recording conglomerates while demonizing some mysterious "pro-user zealots" and her own local community of voters.

Perhaps all it really takes is a little light to sway such a voter. Law professor and copyright blogger Michael Geist, whose capsules and links have appeared in the Week in Review for years, did exemplary work illuminating Bulte’s shadowy connections to the industry, which she herself clumsily amplified when her increasingly shrill denials of professional compromise arrived simultaneously with speeches she plagiarized from the very record companies she was claiming independence from.

The light that burned Sam Bulte can shine just as hotly here, or anywhere for that matter where exists a democracy endangered by this devilish pact between corporations buying and lawmakers selling out their constituents, which incredibly seems to be just about everywhere now.

Canada becomes the place that at last provides us with the evidence we need to show that unholy allegiances to media conglomerates lead directly to failure in office and loss at the polls. This is powerful ammunition for the global "pro-user zealots" community and deserves a fitting celebration. If we can’t see the fireworks yet it’s only because they’re so big it’s taking longer to hoist them aloft, but when they do explode their impact and their brilliance will be that much more amazing.
















Enjoy,

Jack.
















January 28th, ‘06





Goodbye Sam Bulte
p2pnet

And that says it all, for Canada at least.

Yesterday saw the Liberals tossed out and the Conservatives eased in as Canada's latest election closed with another minority government slated to take power.

The elections also saw the NDP's Peggy Nash trounce entertainment cartel hopeful Hollywood Sam Bulte, a Liberal with designs on taking the Parkdale-High Park riding – with a little help from her friends in show biz.

Bulte was selected by the movie and music industries to represent them in the new parliament. But thanks largely to the Net and bloggers, with Ottawa law professor Michael Geist to the fore, Canadians clearly showed they didn't want another vested interest candidate in Ottawa.

Cartel favourite Liza Frulla, the Liberal heritage minister, also lost her seat. She's replaced by the Bloc's Thierry St-Cyr.

Not at all incidentally, Geist suggests it's time for all Canadian MPs to take the pledge – the Copyright Pledge.

No Member of Parliament who has accepted financial contributions or other benefits from (i) a copyright lobby group, (ii) its corporate members, or (iii) senior executives as well as (iv) a copyright collective shall serve as Minister of Canadian Heritage or as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, nor sit on any legislative committee (parliamentary or standing committees) conducting hearings or deliberations on copyright matters.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/7706





British Parliament Attacked Using WMF Exploit
Tom Espiner

The British Parliament was attacked late last year by hackers who tried to exploit a recent serious Microsoft Windows flaw, security experts confirmed on Friday.

MessageLabs, the e-mail-filtering provider for the U.K. government, told ZDNet UK that targeted e-mails were sent to various individuals within government departments in an attempt to take control of their computers. The e-mails harbored an exploit for the Windows Meta File vulnerability.

The attack occurred over the Christmas period and came from China, said Mark Toshack, manager of antivirus operations at MessageLabs, who added that the e-mails were intercepted before they reached the government's systems.

"The attack definitely came from China--we know that because we log the IP addresses. The U.K. Government was targeted but none (of the e- mails) got through. No one was affected. They were attacked, but they (the government) didn't know about it until we told them," Toshack said.

The vulnerability with the way that WMF images are handled by Windows was discovered in November 2005. In a WMF attack, exploit code is hidden within a seemingly normal image that can be spread via e-mail or instant messages.

The first exploit code targeting the flaw was detected on Dec. 29, but Microsoft did not issue a patch until Jan. 5, after a security researcher released his own unofficial patch.

The British parliament attack occurred on the morning of Jan. 2, before Microsoft's official patch was available. The hackers tried to send e-mails that used a social-engineering technique to lure people into opening an attachment containing the WMF/Setabortproc Trojan horse.

The Trojan, had it been downloaded, would have allowed the attackers to view files on the PC. The hackers may also have been able to install keylogging malicious software, said Toshack, enabling attackers to see classified government passwords.

The attack was individually tailored and sent to 70 people in the government, MessageLabs said. It played on people's natural curiosity by purporting to come from a government security organization. The Trojan was hidden as an attachment called "map.wmf".

The body text of one of the e-mails read:

"Attached is the digital map for you. You should meet that man at those points separately. Delete the map thereafter. Good luck. Tommy"

The hackers could have been successful if the e-mails had reached their destinations, said Toshack. "It's like something you get from 'Spooks'--you can think 'I'm suddenly an MI5 agent.' You can see how it could work--it plays on people's romanticism about spies," Toshack suggested.

Speaking last November, Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute, claimed that the Chinese government was employing malicious hackers.

"Of course it's the government. Governments will pay anything for control of other governments' computers. All governments will pay anything. It's so much better than tapping a phone," Paller said.

Toshack could not confirm whether the Chinese government had been involved. "It is a Chinese hacker gang. I don't know if it is the Chinese government, and I don't know if it's the Chinese government paying a hacker gang," he said.

According to a Home Office source, the U.K. government is concerned about the threat posed by Trojan attacks. A Home Office representative would not confirm or deny that an attack took place over Christmas.

"We do not comment on security matters, but have had discussions with many governments and computer emergency response teams from around the world on the matter of targeted Trojan attacks," the Home Office representative told ZDNet UK.

The attempted attack on Parliament was first reported by The Guardian last week.
http://news.com.com/British+parliame...3-6029691.html





MPAA Finds Itself Accused Of Piracy
John Horn

The Motion Picture Assn. of America, the leader in the global fight against movie piracy, is being accused of unlawfully making a bootleg copy of a documentary that takes a critical look at the MPAA's film ratings system.

The MPAA admitted Monday that it had duplicated "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" without the filmmaker's permission after director Kirby Dick submitted his movie in November for an MPAA rating. The Hollywood trade organization said that it did not break copyright law, insisting that the dispute is part of a Dick-orchestrated "publicity stunt" to boost the film's profile.

Scheduled to debut at the Sundance Film Festival on Wednesday night, "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" examines what Dick believes are the MPAA's stricter standards for rating explicit depictions of sex than for gruesome violence. Dick also explores whether independent films are rated more harshly than studio films, whether scenes of gay sex are restricted more than scenes of straight sex, and why the 10 members of the MPAA's ratings board operate without any public accountability.

Michael Donaldson, a lawyer representing Dick, has written the MPAA demanding that it "immediately return all copies" of the film in its possession, and explain who approved the making of the copy and who within the MPAA has looked at the reproduction.

Dick said he was "very upset and troubled" to discover during a recent conversation with an MPAA lawyer that the MPAA had copied the film from a digital version he submitted Nov. 29 for a rating. ("This Film Is Not Yet Rated" was rated NC-17 for "some graphic sexual content," a rating upheld after Dick appealed.) The MPAA's copy of Dick's film was viewed by Dan Glickman, the MPAA's new president, the MPAA said.

The filmmaker said that when he asked MPAA lawyer Greg Goeckner what right his organization had to make the copy, Goeckner told him that Dick and his crew had potentially invaded the privacy of the MPAA's movie raters.

"We made a copy of Kirby's movie because it had implications for our employees," said Kori Bernards, the MPAA's vice president for corporate communications. She said Dick spied on the members of the MPAA's Classification and Rating Administration, including going through their garbage and following them as they drove their children to school.

"We were concerned about the raters and their families," Bernards said. She said the MPAA's copy of "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" is "locked away," and is not being copied or distributed.

The standard the MPAA is using for itself appears to be at odds with what the organization sets out for others: "Manufacturing, selling, distributing or making copies of motion pictures without the consent of the copyright owners is illegal," the MPAA's website says. "Movie pirates are thieves, plain and simple…. ALL forms of piracy are illegal and carry serious legal consequences."

Donaldson said in an interview that the MPAA previously had promised in writing that it would not copy the film, but an e-mail exchange does not completely support that claim.

Donaldson added that while he is not planning at this time to sue the MPAA for copyright infringement, he reserved the possibility of filing a lawsuit later. "It's my practice and style to wait and see what they do, go over all of our options, and then make a decision," he said.

Dick, who was nominated for an Academy Award for 2004's documentary feature "Twist of Faith," said in an interview that his film crew acted appropriately in tracking down and identifying the anonymous members of the movie ratings board. But even if he didn't "follow all the rules," Dick said, "I don't know how that allows somebody else to break the law."

Bernards said the MPAA has made copies of other films submitted for ratings, but did not identify any by name.

When Dick submitted his film for a rating, he asked in an e-mail for assurances that "no copies would be made of any part or all of the film," according to a copy of the e-mail exchange.

In a reply e-mail, an MPAA representative did not specifically say the organization wouldn't copy the film, but did say "the confidentiality of your film ... is our first priority. Please feel assure (sic) that your film is in good hands."

The MPAA's Bernards, who said Glickman was unavailable for comment, said the organization was operating lawfully when it copied Dick's movie without his or his producer's authorization. "The courts recognize that parties are entitled to make a copy of a work for use as evidence in possible future proceedings," she said.

The MPAA has not brought any legal actions against Dick, but did call the police when the movie raters complained about being stalked and were worried about their safety. The raters had no idea they were being followed as part of a documentary.

Donaldson said he was unaware of any legal cases that supported the MPAA's position.

One expert on intellectual property and copyright law said that while he was unfamiliar with any cases specifically addressing the issue, the MPAA's argument might work.

"You can't make a copy as a general matter, but you can if you meet several tests," said Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School. It helps the MPAA, Lemley said, that it is not selling the copy of "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" for commercial gain.

Dick "is right to say you can't make a single copy unless you have a legitimate defense," Lemley said. "But it seems that in this case, [the MPAA] may have a legitimate defense."
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedi...83,print.story





Seven Admit Copying Star Wars DVD

Seven Star Wars fans have admitted copying Revenge of the Sith a week before its cinema release.

They admitted piracy charges after copying and passing a DVD copy of the movie among them last May.

The six US men and one woman also pleaded guilty to criminal conduct in allowing an eighth person to obtain the film and upload it onto the internet.

They each face a maximum penalty of a $100,000 (£56,000) fine and one year in jail when sentenced on 12 April.

Copyright law

Prosecutors said 28-year-old Albert Valente took a copy of George Lucas's final Star Wars movie from a post-production facility in Los Angeles last May.

It was then passed to Jessie Lumada, 28, Ramon Valdez, 30, Michael Fousse, 42, Dwight Wayne Sityar, 27, Stephani Gima, 25, and Joel De Sagun Dimaano, 33. All seven are from Los Angeles County.

Mr Dimaano then passed a copy to work colleague Marc Hoaglin, 28, from Huntington Beach, who last month admitted putting a copy on the internet.

New US laws make uploading a film before its DVD release a federal crime. Mr Hoaglin is due to be sentenced in March.

Hollywood studios said movie piracy cost the film industry $3.5bn (£1.95bn) per year.

"We are glad to see the Star Wars thieves brought to justice," the Motion Picture Association of America said in a statement.

"Stealing copyrights is a serious problem, and the theft and illegal distribution of Revenge of the Sith was a glaring example of how the actions of dishonest people can cheat the movie-watching experience."

Revenge of the Sith went on to take $848.5m (£474.6m) at the global box office.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...nt/4650956.stm





Analog Hole Bill Would Impose a Secret Law
Ed Felten

If you’ve been reading here lately, you know that I’m no fan of the Sensenbrenner/Conyers analog hole bill. The bill would require almost all analog video devices to implement two technologies called CGMS-A and VEIL. CGMS-A is reasonably well known, but the VEIL content protection technology is relatively new. I wanted to learn more about it.

So I emailed the company that sells VEIL and asked for a copy of the specification. I figured I would be able to get it. After all, the bill would make compliance with the VEIL spec mandatory — the spec would in effect be part of the law. Surely, I thought, they’re not proposing passing a secret law. Surely they’re not going to say that the citizenry isn’t allowed to know what’s in the law that Congress is considering. We’re talking about television here, not national security.

After some discussion, the company helpfully explained that I could get the spec, if I first signed their license agreement. The agreement requires me (a) to pay them $10,000, and (b) to promise not to talk to anybody about what is in the spec. In other words, I can know the contents of the bill Congress is debating, but only if I pay $10k to a private party, and only if I promise not to tell anybody what is in the bill or engage in public debate about it.

Worse yet, this license covers only half of the technology: the VEIL decoder, which detects VEIL signals. There is no way you or I can find out about the encoder technology that puts VEIL signals into video.

The details of this technology are important for evaluating this bill. How much would the proposed law increase the cost of televisions? How much would it limit the future development of TV technology? How likely is the technology to mistakenly block authorized copying? How adaptable is the technology to the future? All of these questions are important in debating the bill. And none of them can be answered if the technology part of the bill is secret.

Which brings us to the most interesting question of all: Are the members of Congress themselves, and their staffers, allowed to see the spec and talk about it openly? Are they allowed to consult experts for advice? Or are the full contents of this bill secret even from the lawmakers who are considering it?
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=958





Major Piracy Bust Against Top Providers
Thomas Mennecke

In the ongoing effort against movie piracy, top providers have become gleaming target. Largely responsible for introducing highly sought after material, top providers are a highly competitive entity that prioritize public recognition over associated risks. Earlier this morning, several top warez providers found themselves shut down at the hands of local police and the entertainment industry.

At approximately 10 AM, local police in a wide spread coordinated effort raided over 300 homes and offices associated with top warez providers. The raids took place in Germany, Austria, Holland, Poland and the Czech Republic. According to GVU (translated to German Federation Against Copyright Theft), over 30 individuals were arrested in the raids.

The raids also yielded over 20 servers, which provided FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to individuals belonging to the release groups. GVU claims the warez groups were responsible for the proliferation "of illegal copies of films, computer games, music and user software." The enforcement raids were the culmination of the GVU's investigative efforts, with legal follow-through provided by the prosecutor's offices in Duesseldorf and Frankfurt.

Rumors of the bust began circulating online today, as members attempted to warn each other. According to warning notices online, the following top providers have, for all intents and purposes, been eliminated; RELOADED, KNIGHTS, TFCiSO, Cinemaniacs, German-Friend, ParadieseBeach and Klapsmuehle. In addition, the leader of RELOADED was reported as arrested during the raids. The GVU confirmed the following release groups were eliminated; Unreality, DRAGON, Laboratory, Heaven, code talk, GTR, ECP, TRCD, AOS, MRM, SITH, GWL, Cine VCD, AHE, Cinemaniacs.

The pursuit of top providers is a primary concern to the entertainment industry, as the proliferation of pirated material often begins with these organizations. From these FTP sources, pirated material (especially movies) trickle down to the Newsgroups, IRC, BitTorrent and finally P2P networks. Initially, these raids may place a damper on spread of pirated material, however the allure of public recognition is simply too great for many to avoid. With time, their role in the online warez community will most likely be replaced.
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1065





Blackberry Blackout Threat Leaves CEOs Aghast
Carmel Crimmins

It's not the sub-zero temperatures that have the corporate kingpins shivering in Davos this year but the prospect of life without their "Blackberry."

After Angelina Jolie, the wireless portable e-mail device is the thing every business leader wants by his side at the annual World Economic Forum, where hundreds of chief executives, dozens of heads of state and the odd celebrity couple gather to discuss world woes and corporate trends.

The hi-tech gadgets are an essential tool for staying in touch with the office and the world while negotiating the waves of interviews and meetings held during the five-day jamboree.

But the chance of a Blackberry-less future at next year's Davos summit loomed large this week when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a major patent infringement ruling against maker Research In Motion Ltd.

Now, a federal judge could issue an injunction to block RIM's U.S. business.

"It's just nuts. The idea that someone is just going to switch it off in three or four weeks, even if it's only in the United States, is crazy," Peter Levene, chairman of the Lloyd's of London insurance market, told Reuters.

"Everybody has adapted their working habits to it. If you close it off at a stroke the damage could be colossal."

William Parrett, chief executive officer of Deloitte, USA, agreed that the Blackberry, nicknamed the "Crackberry" for its addictive allure, was a vital business tool, particularly for keeping communications and business lines open during a disaster.

"It would be a significant blow. We made sure all our people had handheld devices at the time of 9/11 because it was the only communications tool we had," Parrett told Reuters.

The legal battle over Blackberry goes back to 2002 when NTP successfully sued RIM for using its patents.

Most Blackberry users are hoping RIM will pay what some say could be as much as a billion dollars to settle with patent-holding company NTP Inc or else develop alternative technology.

"There is too much money at stake. At some point, somebody will blink and work out a compromise," David Rubenstein, founder of private equity firm The Carlyle Group, told Reuters.

"If not, there will be plenty of competitors to Blackberry to fill the lacuna."

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler)
http://today.reuters.com/business/ne...CKBERRY-DC.XML





Microsoft To Open Windows To Please EU
Aoife White

Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it will license its Windows source code to comply with a European Union antitrust ruling.

The source code provides the building blocks of the operating system that competitors need to make products compatible with Windows.

The company's chief counsel Brad Smith said called the move "a bold stroke."

Microsoft has refused to license the source code in the past. Software developers still will have to pay for the code, which open source advocates will not be allowed to "publish for free," Smith cautioned. The company had "just started to provide this information on both sides on the Atlantic" and regulators "want to see all the details," Smith added.

In March 2004, the EU executive levied a record euro497 million ($613 million) fine against Microsoft, ordered it to share code with rivals and offer an unbundled version of Windows without the Media Player software for what the court saw as an abuse of the company's dominant position in the industry.

Last month, the European Commission threatened to fine Microsoft up to euro2 million ($2.36 million) a day backdated to Dec. 15 for failing to obey, saying the software giant was proving intransigent about sharing data with competitors.

Microsoft has launched a legal challenge that will be heard by the European Court of First Instance on April 24-28. The court - the second-highest in the European Union - stressed that the dates for the hearing were provisional and could still be changed.

Smith told a news conference he was "confident" of winning the case.

Earlier, the EU had repeated its complaints that Microsoft was not complying with its demands.

"Microsoft is not disclosing complete and accurate interface information to allow non-Microsoft workgroup servers to receive full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers," said EU spokesman Jonathan Todd.

He said EU regulators took note that the U.S. Department of Justice was also claiming that Microsoft was failing to provide the technical information asked for in a DOJ settlement.

In December, Microsoft said the EU Commission was trying to undermine its Windows operating system with ever-more-drastic demands for technological transparency, and that it would contest the measure under EU law.

Todd said this was untrue. "We are not moving the goalposts as has been suggested," he said. "We are not changing our demands."

"The Commission's position is that Microsoft is obliged to comply with the remedies imposed in the Commission's March 2004 decision - nothing more, nothing less."

Todd stressed that the final word on whether Microsoft is meeting the terms of the EU antitrust order "rests in the first place with the Commission and not Microsoft."

Microsoft claims the EU demands on opening up its software specifications would also open the door to the cloning of the company's core product, the ubiquitous Windows operating system.

The company has until Feb. 15 to formally answer the complaint. It planned to make a statement to reporters later Tuesday.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT





Bad day for Beijing

Google: China Decision Painful But Right
Ben Hirschler

Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin said his company's decision to self-censor its Chinese search system followed a change of heart over how best to foster the free flow of information.

Google said on Tuesday it will block politically sensitive terms on its new China search site and not offer e-mail, chat and blog publishing services, which authorities fear can become flashpoints for social or political protest. Those actions go further than many of its biggest rivals in China.

"I didn't think I would come to this conclusion -- but eventually I came to the conclusion that more information is better, even if it is not as full as we would like to see," Brin told Reuters in an interview in Switzerland.

Google, whose high-minded corporate motto is "Don't be evil," had previously refused to comply with Internet censorship demands by Chinese authorities, rules that must be met in order to locate business operations inside China -- the world's No. 2 Internet market.

"I know a lot of people are upset by our decision but it is something we have deliberated for a number of years," Brin said from the sidelines of the World Economic Forum conference.

At least for now, Google will offer just four of its core services in China -- Web site and image search, Google News and local search.

The voluntary concessions laid out on Tuesday by Google parallel some of the self-censorship already practised there by global rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft, as well as domestic sites.

"There is no question. Google would tell you that going into China is about making money, not bringing democracy," John Palfrey, author of a study on Chinese Internet censorship and a law professor at Harvard Law School, on Google's action.

"The practical matter is that over the last couple of years Google in China was censored -- not by us but by the government, via the 'Great Firewall,'" said Brin. "It's not something I enjoy but I think it was a reasonable decision."

In different political circumstances, Google already notifies users of its German and French search services when it blocks access to material such as banned Nazi sites in Europe.

"France and Germany require censorship for Nazi sites, and the U.S. requires censorship based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). These various countries also have laws on child pornography," he said.

The DCMA law requires U.S. Internet service providers to block access to Web sites violating copyrights on materials such as music or movies.

"I totally understand that people are upset about it and I think that is a reasonable point of view to take," Brin said of Google's compromise in China.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco)
http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/News...-INTERVIEW.XML





In Case About Google's Secrets, Yours Are Safe
Adam Liptak

The Justice Department went to court last week to try to force Google, by far the world's largest Internet search engine, to turn over an entire week's worth of searches. The move, which Google is fighting, has alarmed its users, enraged privacy advocates, changed some people's Internet search habits and set off a debate about how much privacy one can expect on the Web.

But the case itself, according to people involved in it and scholars who are following it, has almost nothing to do with privacy. It will turn, instead, on serious but relatively routine questions about trade secrets and civil procedure.

The privacy debate prompted by the case may thus be an instance of the right answer to the wrong question. As recently demonstrated by disclosures of surveillance by the National Security Agency and secret inquiries under the USA Patriot Act, the government is aggressively collecting information to combat terror. And even in ordinary criminal prosecutions and in civil lawsuits, Internet companies including Google routinely turn over authentically private information in response to focused warrants and subpoenas from prosecutors and litigants.

But "this particular subpoena does not raise serious privacy issues," said Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia. "These records are completely disconnected. They're just strings of words."

In its only extended discussion of its reasons for fighting the subpoena, a Google lawyer told the Justice Department in October that complying would be bad for business. "Google objects," the lawyer, Ashok Ramani, wrote, "because to comply with the request could endanger its crown-jewel trade secrets."

Mr. Ramani's five-page letter mentioned privacy only once, at the bottom of the fourth page, and then primarily in the context of perception rather than reality.

"Google's acceding to the request would suggest that it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services," he wrote. "This is not a perception that Google can accept."

Even Google's allies are shying away from legal arguments based on privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, said it planned to file papers supporting Google. But not on privacy grounds. "We will probably not be making that argument," said Aden J. Fine, a lawyer with the civil liberties union.

The issues raised by the new subpoena, while substantial, are fairly technical, according to Professor Wu. "The legal point here is what is the relevancy standard for subpoenas?" he said. "That is interesting to procedure scholars but to no one else."

Other Internet search engine companies, including Yahoo, America Online and MSN, have complied with the same Justice Department subpoena, which also sought a random sample of a million Web addresses. The companies all said there were no privacy issues involved.

A Justice Department spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, agreed. "We specifically stated in our requests," he said, "that we did not want the names, or any other information, regarding the users of Google."

None of this is to say that subpoenas for search records linked to individuals are inconceivable. Google maintains information that could be used that way, and a subpoena could ask for it. But the recent subpoena does not.

The problem with the subpoena, Mr. Fine said, is more general. "This is another instance of government overreaching," he said.

The government says it needs Google's information to defend a challenge from the civil liberties union to a 1998 law, the Child Online Protection Act, which makes it a crime to make "material that is harmful to minors" commercially available on the Web. The law was enjoined by a federal court in Philadelphia before it became effective, and it has never been enforced.

In 2004, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the injunction, ruling that filtering devices may work as well or better than criminal prosecutions in achieving the law's aims of keeping some offensive materials away from children, and it sent the case back for a trial to explore that question.

At a trial scheduled to start in October, the government will try to prove that filters are ineffective. Philip B. Stark, an expert retained by the government and a statistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a court filing that the Web addresses and search terms sought from Google and other Internet companies would help him "to measure the effectiveness of content filters."

The government apparently wants to show that real-world searches will pull up offensive materials that filters will not catch. Why it needs Google to do that is unclear, and Professor Stark declined a request for an interview, citing the pending litigation.

Google has not yet filed a response in court, and it has not discussed the case publicly beyond a brief statement citing government overreaching. Its fullest explanation of its position was in Mr. Ramani's letter in October.

Google objected, Mr. Ramani said, because the fit between what the government seeks and what it seeks to prove is poor. He also said that collecting and providing the information was burdensome and that the government could find it elsewhere.

Mr. Ramani did say that "one could envision scenarios" where Internet searches alone could reveal private information, but he provided no examples. But Google's main argument was that its "highly proprietary" trade secrets could be jeopardized.

Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group that has frequently been critical of Google, said the trade- secrets argument was a serious one.

In other contexts, Google and other Internet companies say they are serious about protecting privacy. But their privacy policies acknowledge that they will comply with valid requests from the government and private litigants. Google's policy, for instance, says it may share users' personal information if it has "a good faith belief" that disclosure "is reasonably necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable government request." Nicole Wong, Google's associate general counsel, said in an interview that the company "complies with valid legal process."

According to a 2004 decision of a federal court in Virginia, America Online alone responds to about 1,000 criminal warrants each month. AOL, Google and other Internet companies also receive subpoenas in divorce, libel, fraud and other types of civil cases. With limited exceptions, they are required by law to comply.

Ms. Wong said Google tried to notify users so they could object in court before the company turned over information about them. But the law forbids such notification in some criminal cases.

Even notification can be small comfort. It means a user must quickly and often at considerable expense find a lawyer and try to persuade a court to quash the subpoena. But the law often offers very limited protection for personal information held by third parties.

That approach no longer makes sense, said Daniel J. Solove, a law professor at George Washington University. "In the information age," he said, "so much of our information is in the hands of third parties."

Mr. Rotenberg said Internet search records, if collected and linked to individuals, could give rise to a particularly profound invasion of privacy. "It's kind of the shadow of the thoughts within your head — your interests, your desires, your hobbies, your fears," he said.

The situation is more complicated outside the United States. Internet companies have complied with local laws, as they must to do business abroad. Yahoo, for instance, provided information that helped China send a journalist there to prison for 10 years on charges of leaking state secrets to a foreign Web site.

Still, the current subpoena to Google, legal experts said, has given rise to an important debate, whether the facts of the case are apt or not.

"It allows us to have a national dialogue about whether current privacy protections are adequate," said Susan P. Crawford, a specialist in Internet law at the Cardozo Law School. Even if the Justice Department is not seeking private information now, she said, "the next subpoena could ask for that kind of data."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/te...rtner=homepage





Paper Closes Reader Comments on Blog, Citing Vitriol
Katharine Q. Seelye

The Washington Post stopped accepting reader comments on one of its blogs yesterday, saying it had drawn too many personal attacks, profanity and hate mail directed at the paper's ombudsman.

The closing was the second time in recent months that a major newspaper has stopped accepting feedback from readers in a Web forum. An experiment in allowing the public to edit editorials in The Los Angeles Times lasted just two days in June before it was shut because pornographic material was being posted on the site.

The Post's blog, which had accepted comments from readers on its entries since it was first published on Nov. 21, stopped doing so indefinitely yesterday afternoon with a notice from Jim Brady, executive editor of www.washingtonpost.com.

Mr. Brady wrote that he had expected criticism of The Post on the site, but that the public had violated rules against personal attacks and profanity.

"Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we've decided not to allow comments for the time being," Mr. Brady wrote. "Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it's a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about."

In an interview, Mr. Brady said the site had been overwhelmed with what he described as vicious personal attacks against Deborah Howell, the newspaper's ombudsman.

She wrote a column about Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and said that several Democrats "have gotten Abramoff campaign money," apparently intending to say that they received campaign money from Mr. Abramoff's clients.

Her column generated complaints, and after saying she thought her views were being misrepresented, she was attacked again, prompting her to say she would not post any more replies.

The complaints escalated into what Mr. Brady said were unprintable comments that started "sucking up the time of two people" to keep them from appearing on the blog.

"We were taking them out by the hundreds," he said. "It was just too much to handle."

He added that he believed that the problem was "more issue-based than site-based," noting that The Post has more than two dozen other blogs where no such thing occurs. "This particular issue has inflamed the far left, and it seems to be something they've decided they'll fight," he said.

Joan Walsh, editor in chief of Salon.com, an online newsmagazine that allows open comment from the public, said that The Post had probably drawn such attacks to its site in part because it represents the mainstream media.

"While we're an established news organization, we're not 'the establishment,' " she wrote in an e-mail message, noting that Salon has had to take down only a handful of comments since its blog went live three months ago. In both the Post and Los Angeles Times cases, she wrote, "there was an element of novelty and rebellion and being able to talk back to 'the man.' "

Still, she said, "I think it's a shame that neither organization saw it through, because I think the more obnoxious comments would have died down, and they'd have ultimately gotten the kind of debate they wanted."

Mr. Brady said he expected to reopen the comments at some point, but he needed to figure out how to patrol the site better and "keep it clean."

Mr. Brady held an online question-and-answer session on Friday to address reader concerns about the incident. Many participants complained that The Post was practicing censorship and silencing its critics. Mr. Brady responded that the Post was doing no such thing, pointing to the online discussion and the fact that of 30 blogs maintained by The Post, only one was shut off from outside comment.

"We don't have an obligation to keep every one of those avenues open if we run into problems like we did yesterday," Mr. Brady wrote.

Mr. Brady said that Ms. Howell would address the Abramoff matter in her Sunday column, prompting some participants to complain that she should be thinking more about the online audience rather than adhering to a print schedule.

Others asked how Mr. Brady intended to proceed. He said he was considering prescreening of comments, but he did not like that option.

"Real-time debate about the issues of the day is exciting, and what the Web can provide," he wrote. "Any prescreening makes that harder, but in certain subject areas, it may be the way we have to go."

He also said that The Post was planning to introduce an online debate next week between bloggers and journalists "to start getting to some of the tough questions this issue has raised, specifically how to make sure the dialogue between the media and its consumers can flourish online."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/bu...ia/20blog.html





German Wikipedia Back Up Amid Lawsuit
Matt Moore

The German version of Wikipedia returned to the Internet on Friday after three days offline, a blackout prompted by a lawsuit in which the parents of a dead hacker objected to the site's use of his real name.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the collaborative Web encyclopedia, reached a temporary settlement with a Berlin court that will let users access the German-language version of Wikipedia at http://de.wikipedia.org , hosted in the United States, instead of its usual http://www.wikipedia.de .

The site also remained available by going to http://www.wikipedia.org , and clicking on the German language link.

The Berlin court had issued an injunction taking down Wikipedia's German site Tuesday. But on Friday, the court declared the injunction unenforceable until a final decision is made, noting it was not proper to block access to all of the encyclopedia's entries because of concern about just one.

The case began when the family of the German hacker known as "Tron," who was found hanged in a park in 1998, sued to stop Wikipedia from including the man's real name, citing German privacy law.

A decision is expected in two weeks.

Ultimately, analysts said, it will be difficult to keep the name private, particularly on a site renowned for its open access policy that lets readers modify and edit its 3.7 million articles - a format that has inspired recent scrutiny over Wikipedia's accuracy.

"One can understand that they may not want their late son to be remembered in this way, so one can feel some sympathy toward their point of view," said Graham Cluley of Sophos, a London-based consulting firm. "But in the age of the Internet it doesn't make much difference closing down a Web page which redirects to the Wikipedia Web site, when the information is freely available via other routes."

Another result is that the family may have drawn more attention to the listing than it got before.

"Sadly for the family, getting a court order against http:// www.wikipedia.de will not be the solution they are looking for. I find it unlikely that they will ever be satisfied in this issue, and disrupting http://www.wikipedia.de has only probably drawn more attention to the hacker's short life," Cluley said.

Wikipedia, which boasts articles in 200 languages, is the 37th most visited Web site on the Internet, according to the research service Alexa.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS





No Raised Cancer Risk From Mobile Phones: Study
Patricia Reaney

Using a mobile phone does not increase the risk of developing the most common type of brain tumor, according to a study on Friday.

After a four-year survey, scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London and three British universities found no link between regular, long-term use of cell phones and glioma.

"Overall, we found no raised risk of glioma associated with regular mobile phone use and no association with time since first use, lifetime years of use, cumulative hours of use, or number of calls," said Professor Patricia McKinney, of the University of Leeds, in a report in the British Medical Journal.

She added that the results were consistent with the findings of most studies done in the United States and Europe.

Anthony Swerdlow, a co-author of the report, from the Institute of Cancer Research, said the survey is larger than any of the other published studies and part of a collaboration involving 13 countries.

During the past two decades, the use of mobile phones has risen rapidly worldwide but there has been no hard evidence to substantiate fears that the technology causes health problems ranging from headaches to brain tumors.

More than 4,000 new cases of brain tumors in Britain and about 20,000 in the United States are diagnosed each year.

Last year, Swedish scientists said mobile phones could pose a higher health risk to people living in rural areas because they emit more intense signals in the countryside.

But the researchers on Friday said they did not find any increased health threats for rural dwellers.

Earlier mobile phones used analog signals which emitted higher power signals than the later digital models. If there were health dangers from mobiles phones, they would be more likely to result from the earlier models but the scientists found no evidence of it.

They questioned 966 people with glioma brain tumors and 1,716 healthy volunteers about how long they had used mobile phones, the make and model, how many calls they made and how long the calls lasted.

McKinney, Swerdlow and scientists from the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham said that among cancer sufferers the tumors were likely to be reported on the side of the head used with a mobile phone.

But Swerdlow said it could be due to over-reporting of patients.

"People have a tendency to remember and/or embellish or falsely remember those things that they think might be relevant," he said in an interview.

McKinney said there is a lack of convincing and consistent evidence of any effect of exposure to radiofrequency fields on the risk of cancer.

"Overall, our findings are consistent with this and with most studies on mobile phone use," she added.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...US-MOBILES.xml





Global Mobile Subscriptions To Grow 20 Pct In 2006: Analyst

Global growth of subscriptions for wireless services will slow to 20 percent in 2006 from 23 percent last year, with the biggest gains in emerging markets, especially some African countries, according to a Strategy Analytics report released on Thursday.

The research firm said that much of the growth will come from areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as more established wireless markets have fewer people left who have yet to buy their first cellphone.

By the end of 2006 there will be 2.5 billion mobile subscribers, up from 2.1 billion at the end of 2005, the report said. This includes about 400 million people with two phones or a separate subscription for laptop data services.

Global wireless service revenue is expected to rise 11 percent to $623.9 billion, according to the report.

While countries such as Russia, India and Indonesia were among the fastest growing in 2005 at 40 percent to 50 percent, African countries such as Nigeria and Algeria could lead the growth in 2006, the report said.

The global wireless service industry is expected to generate $800 billion in revenue in 2010, with emerging markets accounting for about 42 percent of the total.

As the number of potential new subscribers dwindles in well established markets, wireless service providers have been beefing up their networks to boost revenue with services such as music and video downloads.

Subscribers to services on high-speed networks should double in 2006, according to Strategy Analytics. It estimates that by the end of last year, 49 million high-speed wireless customers used services based on the W-CDMA standard, which is popular in Europe.

There were about 26 million subscribers for services based on another high-speed wireless technology EV-DO, which is offered in parts of Asia and by some U.S. service providers, the report said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...archived=False





Global Digital Music Sales Triple
Ray Bennett

Global sales of digital music tripled to $1.1 billion in 2005 and the popularity of recordings on iPods and mobile phones will result in digital music generating 25% of worldwide music revenues by 2010, a music industry trade group said Thursday.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's (IFPI) Digital Music Report 2006, consumers last year downloaded 420 million tracks legally, comprising 6% of global revenues. Record companies doubled the number of tracks available to 2 million as subscription services boasted 2.8 million subscribers in 2005 compared with 1.5 million the year before.

IFPI said that Apple iTunes leads the pack, operating in 21 countries and selling more than 850 million downloads since launching in 2003. Music for mobile phones now accounts for 40% of digital music revenues, the report said.

Speaking at a news conference to launch the report, IFPI chairman and CEO John Kennedy said that legal downloading in the U.K. and Germany from such sites as iTunes, Musicload and MSN exceeds that from illegal file sharing. "Predictions are always dodgy, but I do believe that by 2010, digital music will comprise 25% of global revenues," Kennedy said.

"This is great news for the digital music market and the wider digital economy. Record companies are licensing their music prolifically and diversely. A new wave of digital commerce, from mobile to broadband, is rolling out across the world," Kennedy said.

The report said the number of online music services grew to more than 335, up from about 50 two years ago. Illegal file sharing remains a problem, however, and the trade body said it has now filed close to 20,000 lawsuits against individuals.

Kennedy said that he will be speaking to Internet service providers at next week's MIDEM international music mart in Cannes about the need for Internet service providers to share in the fight against piracy.

"The challenges we now face are far too big for complacency. In particular, we need more cooperation from service providers and music distributors to help protect intellectual property and contain piracy," Kennedy said. "It is not enough that they share in the success of the digital music business, they need to take on their share of the responsibilities as well."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...archived=False





Apple Computer Alters iTunes Software

Apple Computer Inc. has altered its iTunes software after users raised privacy concerns over a new spy-like song-recommendation feature in the music jukebox program.

The company on Tuesday switched the so-called "MiniStore" feature to give users the choice of turning it on, rather than having it automatically activate with its new version update of iTunes.

The company introduced the recommendation feature last week. The MiniStore window pane with music or video suggestions pops up as users play songs from their libraries.

The feature requires that the information on the songs being played be sent to Apple, which in turn churns out related music titles. It's a type of customization that an increasing number of digital services are adopting.

This differs, however, from, say Amazon.com Inc., where product recommendations emerge as users shop the site, and they presumably understand that whatever data they are inputting online is being sent to Amazon.

With the MiniStore, that exchange of information occurs in the background while users may not even be connected to Apple's iTunes online music store.

The new feature raised some fears over whether Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple was collecting information about a user's private listening session. Apple says it was not storing any of the user data, but posted that point along with the software changes a week later.

"We've listened to our users and made access to the MiniStore an opt-in feature," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said Thursday.

In the note to new users, the company clearly states, "As you select items in your library, information about that item is sent to Apple and the MiniStore will show you related songs or videos. Apple does not keep any information related to the contents of your music library."

Digital video recording provider TiVo Inc. faced similar privacy concerns years ago when it was among the first to introduce an automated recommendation service based on a user's viewing pattern. TiVo users must agree to opt in for the service if they choose to use it.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS





iPods Pre-Loaded With Video Tread Legal Gray Zone
Chris Marlowe

A tiny Massachusetts company named TVMyPod is selling iPods that come with movies and TV programs already loaded on them, a practice that raises questions of legality as it addresses consumer demand for convenience and portability.

Customers choose any content currently available on a DVD and which iPod they want. TVMyPod then puts the content on the player and ships the original DVDs along with the iPod restored to its original packaging.

TVMyPod co-founder Vijay Raghavan said most people don't have the time or the technology to convert DVDs into the iPod's required format, which is what gave him and his business partner the idea to start the service.

DVDs have copy protection on them, however, and under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act it is illegal to bypass that technology. Raghavan said his company's process does not involve decryption.

He added that moving the content onto the device is a one-way transfer, which since the purchaser gets both the original and the copy is legal under the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act.

"It's kind of an obsolete law since Congress was not taking into consideration portability," Raghavan said. "These players are exploding on the market, but the legality of it can sometimes be in a gray area."

TVMyPod is not charging for its services yet, so customers pay only the actual cost of the iPod and whatever the price is on Amazon.com for their chosen DVDs.

Raghavan said TVMyPod will set prices when it rolls out its next offerings, which will include consumers sending in their own iPod and possibly a subscription service to keep the content refreshed.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...MEDIA-IPOD.xml





Disney To Acquire Pixar

Long-time Creative Partners Form New Worldwide Leader in Quality Family Entertainment
Press Release

Ed Catmull Named President of the Combined Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and John Lasseter Named Chief Creative Officer; Steve Jobs to Join Disney's Board of Directors

Disney Increases Stock Repurchase Authorization

Burbank, CA and Emeryville, CA (January 24, 2006) – Furthering its strategy of delivering outstanding creative content, Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), announced today that Disney has agreed to acquire computer animation leader Pixar (NASDAQ: PIXR) in an all-stock transaction, expected to be completed by this summer. Under terms of the agreement, 2.3 Disney shares will be issued for each Pixar share. Based on Pixar's fully diluted shares outstanding, the transaction value is $7.4 billion ($6.3 billion net of Pixar's cash of just over $1 billion).*

This acquisition combines Pixar's preeminent creative and technological resources with Disney's unparalleled portfolio of world-class family entertainment, characters, theme parks and other franchises, resulting in vast potential for new landmark creative output and technological innovation that can fuel future growth across Disney's businesses. Garnering an impressive 20 Academy Awards, Pixar's creative team and global box office success have made it a leader in quality family entertainment through incomparable storytelling abilities, creative vision and innovative technical artistry.

"With this transaction, we welcome and embrace Pixar's unique culture, which for two decades, has fostered some of the most innovative and successful films in history. The talented Pixar team has delivered outstanding animation coupled with compelling stories and enduring characters that have captivated audiences of all ages worldwide and redefined the genre by setting a new standard of excellence," Iger said. "The addition of Pixar significantly enhances Disney animation, which is a critical creative engine for driving growth across our businesses. This investment significantly advances our strategic priorities, which include - first and foremost - delivering high-quality, compelling creative content to consumers, the application of new technology and global expansion to drive long-term shareholder value."

Pixar President Ed Catmull will serve as President of the new Pixar and Disney animation studios, reporting to Iger and Dick Cook, Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. In addition, Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter will be Chief Creative Officer of the animation studios, as well as Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he will provide his expertise in the design of new attractions for Disney theme parks around the world, reporting directly to Iger. Pixar Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs will be appointed to Disney's Board of Directors as a non-independent member. With the addition of Jobs, 11 of Disney's 14 directors will be independent. Both Disney and Pixar animation units will retain their current operations and locations.

"Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders," said Jobs. "Now, everyone can focus on what is most important, creating innovative stories, characters and films that delight millions of people around the world."

"Pixar's culture of collaboration and innovation has its roots in Disney Animation. Our story and production processes are derivatives of the Walt Disney 'school' of animated filmmaking," said Dr. Catmull. "Just like the Disney classics, Pixar's films are made for family audiences the world over and, most importantly, for the child in everyone. We can think of nothing better for us than to continue to make great movies with Disney."

The acquisition brings to Disney the talented creative teams behind the tremendously popular original Pixar blockbusters, who will now be involved in the nurturing and future development of these properties, including potential feature animation sequels. Pixar's 20-year unrivaled creative track record includes the hits Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Disney will also have increased ability to fully capitalize on Pixar-created characters and franchises on high-growth digital platforms such as video games, broadband and wireless, as well as traditional media outlets, including theme parks, consumer products and live stage plays.

"For many of us at Pixar, it was the magic of Disney that influenced us to pursue our dreams of becoming animators, artists, storytellers and filmmakers," said Lasseter. "For 20 years we have created our films in the manner inspired by Walt Disney and the great Disney animators - great stories and characters in an environment made richer by technical advances. It is exciting to continue in this tradition with Disney, the studio that started it all."

"The wonderfully productive 15-year partnership that exists between Disney and Pixar provides a strong foundation that embodies our collective spirit of creativity and imagination," said Cook. "Under this new, strengthened animation unit, we expect to continue to grow and flourish."

Disney first entered into a feature film agreement with Pixar in 1991, resulting in the release of Toy Story, which was hailed as an instant classic upon its release in November 1995. In 1997, Disney extended its relationship with Pixar by entering into a co-production agreement, under which Pixar agreed to produce on an exclusive basis five original computer-animated feature films for distribution by Disney. Pixar is currently in production on the final film under that agreement, Cars, to be distributed by Disney on June 9.

The Boards of Directors of Disney and Pixar have approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antritrust Improvements Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, and other customary closing conditions. The agreement will require the approval of Pixar's shareholders. Jobs, who owns approximately 50.6% of the outstanding Pixar shares, has agreed to vote a number of shares equal to 40% of the outstanding shares in favor of the transaction.

The Disney Board was advised by Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Bear, Stearns & Co. The Pixar Board was advised by Credit Suisse.

Separately, the Disney Board approved the repurchase of approximately 225 million additional shares, bringing the Company's total available authorization to 400 million shares. Since August 2004 through the end of December 2005, Disney has invested nearly $4 billion to purchase nearly 155 million shares. Disney anticipates further significant share repurchases going forward, reflecting Disney's continued commitment to returning value to shareholders over time.

* Based on Disney's closing share price of $25.52 as of 1/23/06.

http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/...124_pixar.html





Konica Minolta Pulls Plug on Camera, Film Business
Nathan Layne

Japan's Konica Minolta Holdings Inc.said on Thursday it would withdraw from the camera and color film businesses, marking the end to one of the best known brands in the photography world.

As part of the surprise move, Konica Minolta said it would sell a portion of its digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera assets to Sony Corp. for an undisclosed sum and cease production of compact cameras by March.

The company said it would stop making photographic film and color paper by March 2007, pulling out of a market shrinking more than 20 percent a year due to the spread of digital cameras, which don't use film to store images.

The world's third-largest maker of camera film after Eastman Kodak and Fuji Photo Film Co. had said in November that it would slash its loss-making camera and film operations, but not completely shut them down.

"I wanted to put a clear end to the matter," Konica Minolta President Fumio Iwai said at a press conference, where the company also announced that Iwai would be replaced by Vice President Yoshikatsu Ota on April 1.

Konica Minolta said in November it expected to post a group net loss of 47 billion yen ($407.9 million) in the year to March as it took a charge of 90 billion yen to rationalise production, write down assets and cut jobs in its camera and film division.

But the decision to completely pull the plug on the business caught analysts and archrival Fuji Photo off guard.

Konica Minolta, created in August 2003 through the merger of Konica Corp. and Minolta Co., has a long history in the camera and film markets, producing Japan's first photographic paper in 1903 and the country's first color film in 1940.

Following the news, Fuji Photo issued a press release saying it would continue making traditional camera film, although analysts said Fuji could be pressured to downsize its business.

"Konica Minolta's move is a positive surprise and I was also not expecting Iwai to step down. This is a bold move rare among Japanese firms," said JP Morgan analyst Hisashi Moriyama.

"I think the stock will go up. The traditional camera and film businesses were seen as a barrier to earnings growth and now it will be completely gone."

Prior to the announcement, shares in Konica Minolta closed up 3.1 percent at 1,278 yen, while Sony rose 0.8 percent to 4,900 yen and the Nikkei average closed up 2.3 percent.

Boon For Fuji Film?

Konica Minolta also said it would stop production of minilabs, machines installed in photo shops and retailers for developing and printing photos, by March. Other makers include Fuji Photo, Kodak and Noritsu Koki Co.. Noritsu will take over maintenance and service of Konica Minolta's minilabs.

By ditching its unprofitable operations, Iwai said the company could focus resources on more promising areas such as color office copiers, liquid crystal display materials, medical equipment and optical devices.

Sony and Konica Minolta formed an agreement in July to jointly develop digital SLR cameras, which are generally more expensive and offer better performance than point-and-shoot compact models, and typically use interchangeable lenses.

Konica Minolta said it would continue to produce digital SLR camera bodies and lenses for Sony based on its Maxxum/Dynax mount system and owners of those lenses will be able to use them on new digital SLR models to be developed by Sony.

But the Konica Minolta brand will disappear, ending a legacy that started when a predecessor of Konica introduced its first camera in 1903. The first Minolta brand camera came in 1933, followed by Konica in 1948.

JP Morgan's Moriyama said Konica Minolta's exit would be a positive for other camera makers such as Canon Inc. and Nikon Corp. as there would one less competitor in a market marked by fierce competition and sharp price falls.

Konica Minolta's camera business lost 7.3 billion yen on an operating basis in the 2004/05 business year, struggling in large part because it doesn't make its own image sensor chips, a key factor in determining camera performance and cost, Iwai said.

Makoto Kurosawa, an analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said Konica Minolta departure from film could be seen as a short-term positive for Kodak and Fuji Photo as it would ease supply, but that the outlook for the film market remains tough.

Belgian company Agfa-Gevaert sold its traditional film business in 2004 and Kodak has been downsizing its operations. Fuji Photo has been implementing reform incrementally but has stated clearly its intention to stick with film.

"It's not as if demand will disappear overnight so in the short-term this is a positive as competition will decrease," Kurosawa said. "But over the long term the pressure will be on Fuji Photo to find a strategy for continuing the business without spilling red ink."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...RS&srch=konica





Sony Eyes Big Push Into High - End Digital Cameras

Sony Corp. said on Friday it would aim for a quarter of the digital single lens reflexcamera market after acquiring assets for a push into that market from Konica Minolta Holdings Inc..

Konica Minolta announced on Thursday that it would sell a portion of its SLR camera business to Sony for an undisclosed sum, part of its move to pull completely out of the business of selling cameras and photographic film.

The deal was not a total surprise as the two agreed last July to jointly develop digital SLR cameras, which are generally more expensive and offer better performance than simple point-and-shoot compact models, and typically use interchangeable lenses.

Sony is the world's No. 2 digital camera maker behind Canon Inc. but it currently has no presence in the potentially lucrative digital SLR market, having lacked the history selling interchangeable lenses for film SLRs to warrant a push.

The digital SLR market is currently dominated by a handful of traditional camera makers that sold millions of interchangeable lenses during the film era. This is seen as key factor because many of those lenses can also be used on digital SLRs.

Canon and Nikon Corp. control the lion's share of the digital SLR market, but Pentax Corp and Olympus Corp. have recently formed alliances with electronics makers in a bid to boost their sales.

Yutaka Nakagawa, president of Sony's digital imaging business group, told reporters the company would aim for 20-25 percent of the fast-growing digital SLR market by focusing on relatively inexpensive models that could achieve mass-market appeal.

``But because there are few players in this market, I would like to grab an even bigger share than that,'' he said.

Nakagawa said Sony would have several advantages in the market including its ability to produce image sensor chips, displays and batteries in-house, as well as leveraging its strong audiovisual technology used in its electronics products.

Sony plans to launch its first model this summer based on Konica Minolta's Maxxum/Dynax mount system, meaning that existing owners of those lenses -- Konica Minolta sold about 16 million lenses over the years -- will be able to use them on Sony's SLR.

Nakagawa reiterated Sony's target of selling 13.5 million digital cameras this business year to March, seeing little impact from the recent sales suspension of some models in China that local officials said did not meet quality requirements.

``Even if we are affected by China, sales in other countries are strong. We are on track,'' he said.

Nakagawa said he thought digital SLRs would eventually account for 20 percent of Sony's overall camera sales, but he did not expect that to happen anytime soon.

``I don't think it will happen in one year. I don't expect a such a big contribution to profit in the first year.''

Shares of Sony closed up 2.5 percent at 5,020 yen, outperforming the benchmark Nikkei average, which was flat on the day.
http://news.com.com/Sony+eyes+push+i...3-6029190.html





Google Video: Trash Mixed With Treasure
David Pogue

BY now, everybody knows that anything audio is eventually followed by something video. Radio first, then TV. Audio tape, then videotape. CD, then DVD. Music iPod, then video iPod.

And then, of course, there's Apple's iTunes Music Store. The day it began selling videos, too, was the first time that cowering TV executives ever climbed down off of their kitchen tables and allowed somebody to use "TV show" and "Internet" in the same sentence. It was a small, timid test - only five TV series from one network at first, only in the United States, at low resolution and with copy protection - but it was a spectacular success. TV fans bought about eight million videos in the first three months of the service.

You don't sell that much of anything without attracting the attention of your rivals. At the Consumer Electronics Show two weeks ago, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and Google all announced new variations on the "download for a fee TV show" formula.

Only one of those ventures has already opened for business: Google Video (http://video.google.com).

Google's video store is a far less controlled experiment than Apple's. In fact, Google doesn't even call it a video store; it prefers "the first open video marketplace." Its big, Google-esque, democratic idea is that anyone, from the biggest TV network to the most talent-free camera-phone owner, is allowed to post videos for all the world to see - and to buy.

If it sounds a bit chaotic, you're right; Google Video's hallmark is its wild inconsistency. On iTunes, you always know what the price will be: $2 an episode. Every show is downloadable and transferable to an iPod. And you know the quality you're going to get: great color and clarity, professional production values, no ads.

AT Google's video emporium, on the other hand, anything goes. Some videos are copy-protected, others not. Some can be downloaded, others viewed only online. The resolution and production quality vary widely. Some have ads. Some offer a three-minute preview, others only 10 seconds. Some videos are free, some cost money. (The price can be anything, although the sell-your-own-video feature won't go live for a couple of weeks. Google keeps 30 percent.) This sort of anarchy isn't necessarily a bad thing. For example, it's empowering to think that you can post home movies of your baby or sophomoric "Star Wars" spoofs right alongside episodes of CBS shows and basketball reruns from the N.B.A.

But it's not necessarily a good thing, either. With inconsistency comes disappointment and frustration. Why is it that you can download a Charlie Rose talk show to have and to hold forever, but a "CSI" episode self-destructs after 24 hours?

The offerings break down into three basic categories. First, there's the commercial-TV stuff. CBS offers a strange assortment of 12 past and present series, including "Survivor: Guatemala" (15 episodes), "Star Trek: Voyager" (5), "MacGyver" (3) and "I Love Lucy" (15). The N.B.A. makes all its games available online 24 hours after they are played, for $4 each. Sony BMG offers 52 music videos for $2 each. (At the moment, an American credit card is required to buy videos.)

The second category is what you might call pseudo-commercial: third-tier, no-name, late-night, channel 900 stuff. You can buy movies like "Somewhere in Indiana"; how-to videos like "Rocki's Prenatal Yoga: Labor Preparation 2"; 38-minute movies, like "Adrenaline Rush," that were originally shown in Imax theaters; and concert videos like "Bacon Brothers: Live" (all $15 each).

Frankly, you'd have to be pretty desperate to shell out $15 to watch filler like this play in a window no bigger than a stretched-out Post-it Note (480 by 360 pixels), but there you are.

The final category is the amateur user-submitted material. A huge majority of it is unwatchable trash: home movies, homemade animations and that old Internet standby, the "making fun of incompetent dancers" video.

Yet among this tidal wave of junk, you'll also find some amazing, free, jaw-dropping caught-on-tape moments, those funny Web videos that are passed around by e-mail and eventually attain mythic status; Google Video keeps them in a category called Popular.

It's the same stuff you'll find on sites like youtube.com and stupidvideos.com: hilarious TV commercials that are too racy to show in the United States, clips that would fit right in with "America's Funniest Home Videos," and favorite snippets from network shows.

There is, in all of this, the seed of a great idea: a bustling marketplace, a chance for ordinary people with great ideas, luck or timing to make a little money from their video, while Google handles all the technical server gruntwork. Indeed, submitting a movie is very easy: you download a little uploading program (for Mac or Windows), choose the videos to send (there's no limit on length or size), and specify a price and whether or not you want your video to be copy-protected. Then, providing there's no nudity or sex, Google's human and software-based screeners will look over your video and, eventually, post it.

According to Google, the current Google Video is a beta test, a dry run intended to solicit feedback and suggestions for improvement. That's fortunate, because at the moment, the site is appallingly half-baked. Quarter-baked, in fact.

You want suggestions, Google? Here are a few to get you started.

GIVE US A GOOGLE-WORTHY DESIGN Everyone loves Google's clean, uncluttered design philosophy. But this site has no design at all.

At the top of the home page, Google offers its sole browsing tool: a pop-up menu called Video Store. But it lists only stuff for sale ("Basketball Games," "MacGyver," and so on). Everything else, all the free stuff, is utterly uncategorized. There's no way to browse it except by paging through thousands of pages one at a time, 15 thumbnails per page. (There's a Search box, too, but it's no help unless you already know what you're looking for. And there's a list view, but it's available only for the commercial TV stuff, and not the free and amateur stuff.)

Why is the pop-up menu only on the home screen? Once you've moved to a different page, it's no longer available unless you Back-button your way all the way to the home page.

BUILD UP THE CATALOG Google offers only 10 episodes of "Deep Space Nine," 5 of "The Twilight Zone," and a single episode of "CSI." At least iTunes, when it opened for business, offered all seasons' worth of its TV titles.

MAC VERSION, PLEASE Google Video's TV shows, movies and other copy-protected offerings play back only in a special Google video player - which requires Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

FILL IN THE WHITE SPACE The infant Google Video is incredibly bare-bones and empty-looking. How about some ratings, categories, parental controls, recommendations or customer comments, a description of the resolution or quality, date of first broadcast or a sense of community?

FIX THE BUGS The Web site itself is quirky and inconsistent. It doesn't inspire much trust, for example, to see the thumbnails of only three "MacGyver" episodes - with a legend above it saying "1-5 of about 5."

Google is surely aware of these limitations and has plans to address them. One aspect of Google Video, however, will not be so easily changed: its copy-protection scheme, a new one that Google wrote itself. You can't burn the shows to a CD or DVD, and can't play them back on portable players like iPods. In fact, most of the TV shows don't play back at all without an active Internet connection, which, for most people, also rules out laptop playback on planes, trains and automobiles. This is sickening news for anyone who thought that two incompatible copy-protection schemes - Apple's and Microsoft's - were complex and sticky enough already. And compared with the ABC and NBC shows available on the iTunes store, the value of the CBS shows looks even worse.

Even if you give Google every benefit of every doubt, this video store doesn't live up to Google's usual standards of excellence. This, after all, is the company whose unofficial motto is "Don't be evil." In the case of Google Video, the company's fans might have settled for "Don't be mediocre."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/te...s/19pogue.html





Satellite TV to Offer Family-Fare Packages

DirecTV Group and EchoStar Communications, the nation's largest satellite television providers, said yesterday that they would offer packages of family-oriented channels, joining cable companies that took similar steps after pressure from regulators.

DirecTV's $34.99-a-month package of 40 channels includes Toon Disney and CSpan. It will begin in April, the company said. EchoStar's chief executive, Charles W. Ergen, will discuss the move today at a Congressional hearing in Washington.

The satellite companies are following the two largest cable companies, Comcast and Time Warner, in offering packages of channels intended to weed out programming that might be inappropriate for family viewing. The pay TV companies are under pressure from Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who has called for voluntary curbs on sexually explicit programming.

"Much of the intent here is to satisfy political pressure," said Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Janco Partners, who rates DirecTV shares as buy and EchoStar as hold. "At the same time, the companies don't want to lose much revenue."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/bu...ia/19tele.html





Clear Channel Launches First Multicast Stations
Gina Keating

Clear Channel Communications Inc on Thursday will launch its first digital multicast channels in New York and San Francisco in an effort to modernize terrestrial radio amid rising competition with satellite radio.

By splitting the frequencies of its radio stations into high-definition (HD) niches, Clear Channel and other terrestrial radio broadcasters can reach broader audiences by providing a more varied menu of content.

In addition to the 10 multicast channels launched on Thursday, the company plans to roll out multicast channels on 15 more stations in Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Los Angeles in the next five days.

The formats of the new channels, which initially will be commercial free, include disco, Hispanic, gospel, "urban oldies," country and traditional jazz.

John Hogan, president and chief executive of Clear Channel Radio, said one of the biggest challenges facing the new HD stations is finding an audience.

"Right now for the high-end audio market, (digital receivers) tend to be expensive and hard to find," Hogan told Reuters. "We are working with consumer electronics folks ... to convince them that this is a reality for us."

Clear Channel has converted 200 stations to broadcast digitally -- about 75 of those can multicast what is referred to as the "HD2" tier of channels.

The multicast channels will be streamed over the Internet. Hogan said the company plans to promote the multicast channels to 100 million listeners who tune into Clear Channel's analog stations weekly, he said.

"Consumers want choice and, while radio has a long history of having created great brands and giving people the information and entertainment and companionship that they have grown to love, we have been limited because analog stations can only broadcast one signal," Hogan told Reuters.

Clear Channel has not disclosed the cost of creating the new programming, but Hogan said the company drew on personnel from existing stations nationwide to set programming for the multicast channels.

The company does not expect to earn any money from multicasting in the short term, and Hogan said the commercial model for the HD2 tier will likely include fewer commercials than the current revenue model.

"Revenue associated with this is a little further down the list of priorities for us," Hogan said. "We see this as a great technological opportunity for us. We know it will take time, effort and energy to create demand...and as we get more consumers listening to HD we will have greater opportunity to monetize it."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...archived=False





Europe Overtakes US As Top PC Market: Survey

Global shipments of personal computers rose 15.3 percent in 2005 with Dell <DELL.O> extending its lead over Hewlett-Packard and Europe overtaking the United States as the largest market, a survey showed on Thursday.

Worldwide sales of personal computers (PCs) rose to 218.5 million units in 2005 from 189.5 million in 2004, according to preliminary data from market research group Gartner.

Shipments in Europe, Middle East and Africa grew 17.1 percent to 72.7 million units, overtaking the United States which grew 7.5 percent to 67 million. In 2004, the United States still slightly exceeded Europe, both regions taking about 62 million units.

The fastest growth in 2005 was in Asia Pacific and Latin America where units sales increased 26 percent to 42.8 million and 14.7 million respectively.

Dell continued to grow more than the industry average, as its worldwide PC shipments grew 18.6 percent in 2005. Its global market share ended at 16.8 percent, up from 16.4 percent.

"However, Dell's worldwide growth rate started to slow down in the second half of 2005. During the fourth quarter, Dell's growth slightly exceeded the worldwide average, and it gained more from overseas markets," Gartner said in a statement.

Global number two Hewlett-Packard lost a little bit of ground to its closest rivals as its market share slipped to 14.5 percent in 2005 from 14.6 percent in 2004.

Third placed Lenovo from China, which took over IBM's <IBM.N> PC operations, increased its market share to 6.9 percent from 6.8 percent, and Acer from Taiwan expanded to 4.6 percent market share from 3.4 percent in 2004.

Fujitsu and Fujitsu-Siemens remained steady at 3.8 percent, and were overtaken by Acer.

In the United States, fourth-quarter results confirmed that the U.S. professional market replacement cycle has peaked. "Both small and midsize business and enterprise markets showed softness in demand," Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa said.

In general, shipments of portable computers were growing fast and desktop computers were not, and Gartner said many shipped PCs were still sitting in warehouses.

"Concerns over inventory continue to exist. With the exception of Hewlett-Packard, all the vendors increased their average days of inventory over 2004, rising for some of them by more than a third," it said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...archived=False





Ripcord Says Buh-Bye to USB Cables in 2007

Whaaaaaaaat? No more USB cables? Is this a dream? Not if Staccato Communications has anything to do with it. The company has just announced the introduction of its Ripcord family at CES which is based on the WiMedia’s Alliance UWB common radio platform as well as the Certified Wireless USB specification. The Ripcord is simply a USB key that will wirelessly transmit from any external hard drive. Set by Maxtor, Western Digital and Seagate to be integrated into all if their next generation hard drives, computer makers will also incorporate this technology into their laptops in 2007. That means USB cables will be a thing of the past. Really. Truly.

The transfer rate is a very respectable 480 mbps and most companies who choose to use this technology will only need an external antenna for a complete node based on Certified Wireless USB node.
http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/ri...007-146488.php





Big Content Would Like To Outlaw Things No One Has Even Thought Of Yet
Hannibal

The EFF's Deeplinks section has a pretty alarming post about the RIAA and MPAA's attempts to freeze the progress of consumer electronics technology and then start turning back the clock on all of us. Fair use, meet your successor: "customary historic use."

The post points to broadcast flag draft legislation sponsored by Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) that contains provisions which appear to limit digital broadcast media reception devices to "customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law and that prevents redistribution of copyrighted content over digital networks." In other words, if it does anything heretofore unheard of with the digital content that it receives, then it's illegal. And if it does anything "customary" that could also possibly lead to unauthorized redistribution, then it's also illegal. So all the bases are covered!

Can it really be that bad? We already knew that the proposed HD radio provisions are just awful and absurdly draconian, but can Big Content really be trying to put a blanket freeze on innovation and outlaw any possible novel use at all of copyrighted digital broadcast content? I downloaded the PDF and read through it, and it does indeed look that way. There are a few relevant sections, so let's take a look at them.

Here's the first major section in which the phrase "customary historic use" is used:

(2) CRITERIA FOR CONTENT OF REGULATIONS – In achieving the goal of preventing the indiscriminate unauthorized copying and redistribution of certain digital audio content over digital networks, any proposed regulations to govern digital audio broadcast transmissions and digital audio receiving devices shall –

(a) require Commission licensees that transmit digital audio broadcast signals or that manufacture digital audio receiving devices to implement a Broadcast Flag technology to protect digital audio content;

(b) permit customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law;

(c) not interfere with the deployment and spread of digital audio broadcasting to the maximum extent possible; and,

(d) to the extent that such regulations cover devices, cover only devices that are capable, without any hardware alterations or additions, of receiving digital audio signals when such devices are sold by a manufacturer.

(e) not interfere with the monitoring of or gaining access to musical works contained in broadcasts by performing rights organizations for the purpose of collecting or distributing royalties.

This sounds vaguely ominous, but not truly earth-shattering, mostly because it's phrased positively. Unfortunately, by the time you're done with the document you understand that it's worse than it looks at first.

At issue in the legislation are two types of implementation-agnostic "technologies": 1) a "broadcast flag" technology that's embedded in the digital signal by the sender and that tells the receiver what it can and cannot do with the digital content; and 2) a "secure moving technology" that the draft legislation defines as follows:

(b) "Secure Moving Technology" is a technology that permits content covered by the Broadcast Flag to be transferred from a broadcast receiver to another device for rendering in accordance with customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law and that prevents redistribution of copyrighted content over digital networks."

There's the nub of it. The broadcast flag alone isn't enough, because what happens when you want to actually listen to the audio that the device has received? Unless you've got headphones attached directly to your digital radio, you're going to want to move the signal from the digital radio to a stereo receiver (for "rendering" as the draft puts it), even if you're not necessarily planning on ripping the music and uploading it to eDonkey. This where the "secure moving technology" kicks in.

The "secure moving technology" ensures that whatever you do with the signal that leaves the digital broadcast receiver, it definitely won't be anything you can't already do right now. Furthermore, even some things that you can currently do will be outlawed if those things could facilitate piracy. This probably means that such devices won't have much in the way of hi-fi analog outs.

After you read the above definition of "secure moving technology" and then go further back and look at the first section that I quoted above, that first "customary historic use" passage starts to make more sense and to look more insidious. From reading the whole draft, it appears that the "customary historic use" stipulation governs playback on any device, whether it's an attached device or the receiver itself. The broadcast flag is embedded in the signal like a special tag that defines the content's terms of use, while the secure moving technology acts as a sort of DRM wrapper/sandbox for the content that ensures that any (compliant) playback device not only respects the restrictions dictated by the broadcast flag but also does absolutely nothing novel or unexpected with the content that the broadcast flag's terms did not or could not anticipate.

So, if you were planning to launch a startup and make millions off the coming digital broadcast media revolution by inventing the next iPod or by combining digital radio with Web 2.0 and VoIP and Skype and RSS and WiFi mesh networks, then forget about it. When digital broadcast nirvana finally arrives, the only people who'll be legally authorized to make money off of music and movies are the middlemen at the RIAA and the MPAA.

But I hate to end a post on a sour note, so here's a thought to cheer you up. This "customary historic use" thing reminds me of something I once read in a history of Japan that I picked up on sale at Borders. (I'd give the title, but I'm not at home so I don't have the book handy. It wasn't very good anyway.) At the height of their cultural power, the samurai were authorized to kill peasants for an insane number of reasons, including "acting in an other than expected manner." So look on the bright side: at least we don't live in feudal Japan... yet.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060121-6025.html





Mistakes Found In 98% of US Patents
OUT-LAW.com

Almost every US patent contains at least one mistake, according to new research. The vast majority are trivial errors, most of them the fault of the USPTO; but two per cent of the patents examined were found to contain serious mistakes that weakened the core claims.

The findings come from Intellevate, a firm that offers support services to intellectual property lawyers, such as prior art searching and patent proofreading, from facilities in Minneapolis and India.

Proofreading is an important last step in the process of obtaining a patent because it can identify errors that can affect the patent’s enforceability. Intellevate announced last Friday that its Indian office has just proofread its 5,000th issued patent.

According to Leon Steinberg, Intellevate’s CEO: "We find errors in every issued patent we review. Many of the errors are unimportant, but others, such as missing claim, can impair the enforceability of the patent. We identify the errors so that our clients can decide if they want to file a Certificate of Correction."

Intellevate reported that Certificates of Correction were filed for an estimated 34 per cent of the proofread patents.

Most law firms consider proofreading as a necessary step to reduce their malpractice exposure. Sophisticated corporations view proofreading as the final step in controlling the quality of their patents and ensuring enforceability. However, proofreading is time-consuming and can be expensive. It involves checking the issued patent, which can be hundreds of pages long, against the filed application and all amendments.

In addition to being time consuming and usually costly, it is often a lacklustre task that many law firms and legal departments would rather not have to take on. For this reason, Intellevate says proofreading is the perfect activity to perform off-shore.

"Intellevate has developed proprietary tools that automate part of the proofreading process and has built a team of legal assistants in India who are thoroughly trained and specialise in proofreading services," said Steinberg. "These capabilities, combined with the lower wage rates in India, allow Intellevate to provide clients a vastly superior work product at a fraction of the cost of proofreading on-shore."
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/01/20/ proofreading_errors_in_software_patents/





Chatter

Re:Software Piracy Rate?
Sique

If they wouldn't pirate Photoshop, they would use GIMP, and complain about missing features, some of them would start scratching the itch and bringing GIMP on par with Photoshop, KPT would be recoded from scratch for GIMP, and finally even professional graphic shops would switch to GIMP and save the $700. So in the end no one would ever buy Photoshop, and the coders of Photoshop would be out of work and unpaid. Basicly piracy is the last thing that keeps Free Software from world domination.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=170827&cid=14230408


How to Save Music
Tarmle

I've been reading about so much data-loss-woe this Christmas, so many people suffering catastrophic storage failure with no reasonable chance of reclamation. One of the things often lost in such situations is the digital music collection. A victim may have spent years accumulating and editing that massive chunk of data and it's just heartbreaking to think of them having to start over with a music folder containing nothing but Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Highway Blues. But there is a solution that I think might prove both simple and popular:

What you should do is back up all of your MP3s (and other portable music formats) to CDR or DVDR and give this backup to a friend. In the case of your house burning down with your hard drive and your entire collection of source CDs inside you will at least be able to reclaim the digital equivalent from the chosen custodian. In return for this security your friend will have complete access to all your music - an adequate reward, I think, for holding onto a handful of CDRs. And, of course you should encourage your friend to give you a complete copy of their music collection for safekeeping. In fact, it would be wise to exchange copies of music libraries with as many people as possible over the largest geographical area you can, just in case it's the whole town that burns down.

Safe to say, if enough people are doing this, it will make us all so much more secure, and very happy.
http://tarmle.livejournal.com/





From last November

US Man Seeks Movie Plotline Patent

Audacious plan for zombie script
OUT-LAW.com

Moviemakers could sleepwalk into patent infringement if the US Patent Office grants an application that it published yesterday for a “storyline patent.” It is a groundbreaking attempt to protect a fictional storyline with a patent, rather than relying on copyright protection.

Andrew Knight, a rocket engine inventor and registered patent agent, filed the test application in November 2003, the first of its kind, arguing that fictional plots are patentable under the US system.

Knight's story, The Zombie Stare, tells of an ambitious high school kid, consumed by the anticipation of college admission. He prays one night to remain unconscious until he gets the good news from MIT. The letter arrives - 30 years later, due to a postal error - and he wakes up. He soon discovers that, to all external observers, he has lived a normal life. Thus he endeavours to regain 30 years’ worth of memories, lost as an unconscious, philosophical zombie.

His Patent Office application is drafted more widely than this synopsis, to protect his rights, should they be granted, against a range of potential Hollywood adaptations. According to the abstract of his 14-page application:

A process of relaying a story having a timeline and a unique plot involving characters comprises: indicating a character's desire at a first time in the timeline for at least one of the following: a) to remain asleep or unconscious until a particular event occurs; and b) to forget or be substantially unable to recall substantially all events during the time period from the first time until a particular event occurs; indicating the character's substantial inability at a time after the occurrence of the particular event to recall substantially all events during the time period from the first time to the occurrence of the particular event; and indicating that during the time period the character was an active participant in a plurality of events.

Knight has confirmed that he will assert publication-based provisional patent rights against anyone whose activities may fall within the scope of these published claims, including all major motion picture manufacturers and distributors, book publishers and distributors, television studios and broadcasters, and movie theatres.

Until now, rights in plot lines have been governed by copyright, which can cover the expression of an idea. But there can be many different expressions of the same sort of idea, which is why many stories, films and plays have the same underlying themes, expressed in varying styles and methods.

Patents, however, give exclusive rights to an underlying idea. They may be granted to anyone who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvements thereof”, provided that certain conditions are met.

These conditions relate to utility, novelty and non-obviousness.

Knight suggests on his website that the plots of several films - including Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, The Matrix, The Truman Show, Minority Report, The Village and Groundhog Day - may have been eligible for patent protection. But presumably he doesn't see anything in the memory loss genre as prior art that could damage his own prospects of winning a monopoly right.

He points to a November, 2004 article in the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society, A Potentially New IP: Storyline Patents to support his case. He says that the article argued that binding case law strongly suggests that methods of performing and displaying fictional plots, whether found in motion pictures, novels, television shows, or commercials, are statutory subject matter, like computer software and business methods.

Regarding the utility requirement, he quotes the advice of Jay Thomas, Professor of Law at Georgetown University:

“The case law of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has established that virtually any subject matter is potentially patentable,” explained Thomas.

He also quotes Charles Berman, Co-Chair of the Patent Prosecution Practice at Greenberg Traurig LLP: “Due to the broad scope of patentable subject matter, novel storylines may fall within the [utility requirement].”

Berman concluded that non-obviousness probably presents the biggest challenge to patentability: minor variations on a central theme may generate many different storylines.

Nevertheless, Knight asserts that his claimed storyline meets all statutory requirements, including non-obviousness.

According to Knight, the US Patent Office will publish subsequent storyline patent applications, also invented by Knight, on 17 November and 8 and 22 December.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11...otline_patent/





Missed It in the Theater Today? See It on DVD Tonight
Sharon Waxman

Hollywood will inch further toward making movies simultaneously available in theaters, on DVD and on home television screens at the Sundance Film Festival this week, as IFC Entertainment unveils a plan to release 24 films in theaters and on cable at the same time this year.

Beginning in March, the initiative, which the company is calling First Take, will place films in independent theaters while also making them available over a new video-on- demand service that will be carried by all the major cable companies, said Jonathan Sehring, IFC Entertainment's president. The company, which includes a film production and distribution arm, is expected to make the announcement at a news conference on Monday.

"So much great film has fallen by the wayside," Mr. Sehring said. "The studios are collapsing the window between the theatrical release and the DVD. We're taking that one step further."

The company named six films it had scheduled for simultaneous release, including "CSA: The Confederate States of America," a dark, faux documentary that envisions the United States if the South had won the Civil War; "I Am a Sex Addict," a semiautobiographical comedy about a young man who becomes addicted to prostitutes; and "American Gun," a series of stories about the proliferation of weapons across the country, starring Donald Sutherland and Forest Whitaker.

The simultaneous release in several distribution modes, called "day and date" release in Hollywood, has been the subject of intense debate in the industry, as movie attendance in theaters has dropped for three years in a row while cellphones and iPods have become the improbable new hosts for filmed entertainment.

The first big test of the new strategy will be on Friday with the release of Steven Soderbergh's small, cinéma vérité-style film "Bubble," a murder mystery with stars who have not acted before, in Parkersburg, W.Va.

Financed by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, two former Internet entrepreneurs, "Bubble" will open in Mr. Cuban's chain, Landmark Theaters, as well as on his HDNet high-definition network. Even so, the DVD will not be available until the following Tuesday.

In many ways, the independent film world is best suited for experimenting with these new distribution strategies, because of the large number of films that are not widely seen, and because the low budgets make them a less risky proposition.

IFC's initiative will involve more films and almost certainly more viewers. Because the films will be made available on cable, far more subscribers will have access to the video-on-demand service than now receive the HDNet network. Mr. Sehring said IFC's research showed that DVD sales were not affected by the date of release, and decided to hold off there.

The main idea, Mr. Sehring said, was to respond to the pent-up demand for art house-style films that are usually shown only in a few theaters in major cities, and even then only for a week or two.

"Foreign films are not being released," he said, "aside from Sony Classics. And low-budget American films - they're nonexistent. It's left to the really small companies, and they can't afford to take on a lot of films and get them played outside of New York and L.A."

The rise of specialty divisions at major studios like Fox Searchlight and Focus Features has reduced the opportunities for art-house films, he said, because they now specialize in medium-budget, serious films for adults, once the purview of their parent studios.

The IFC service will ramp up to making 10 to 15 films available a month, including some from other distributors, at a cost of $6.95 a month for subscribers or $5.95 per film.

Mr. Sehring said the films would be released in about 10 theaters initially, including IFC's three screens in New York, and in independent chains like Mr. Cuban's Landmark theaters.

How quickly other companies will jump in remains to be seen. Many pointed out that the initiative made sense for IFC's parent, Rainbow Media, which owns the Independent Film Channel, and for Mr. Cuban's company, which owns HDNet. It may make less sense for other film companies without those kinds of pipelines.

And some said that those who move toward day-and-date releases are going to have trouble finding theaters.

David Dinerstein, an experienced industry executive who recently ran Paramount Classics, said: "It's absolutely imperative to the film business as we know it to not have windows that are day and date. I think they'll meet with resistance from exhibitors along the way, with the exception of the independent chains."

But the producer Steve Tisch said he considered the shift inevitable, especially since young moviegoers do not distinguish between different distribution modes. "I think the industry will resist and resist some more, and then slowly embrace it," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/bu...dependent.html





Like This? You'll Hate That.

(Not All Web Recommendations Are Welcome.)
Laurie J. Flynn

On Amazon.com, a customer interested in buying the novel "The Life of Pi" is also shown "The Kite Runner" because other Amazon customers - presumably with similar tastes - also purchased that book. That's just one approach among many in the science of recommendation software.

Web technology capable of compiling vast amounts of customer data now makes it possible for online stores to recommend items tailored to a specific shopper's interests. Companies are finding that getting those personalized recommendations right - or even close - can mean significantly higher sales.

For consumers, a recommendation system can either represent a vaguely annoying invasion of privacy or a big help in bringing order to a sea of choices.

"It's like if your music is in Tower Records and no one knows it, you're nowhere," said Tim Westergren, a founder of Pandora, an online music site, and of the Music Genome Project. "On the Internet, it's that times 100."

But spewing out recommendations is not entirely without risk. Earlier this month, Walmart.com issued a public apology and took down its entire cross-selling recommendation system when customers who looked at a boxed set of movies that included "Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream" and "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson" were told they might also appreciate a "Planet of the Apes" DVD collection, as well as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" and other irrelevant titles.

The company said that the problem was created last year when the Web site set out to promote African-American films for Martin Luther King's Birthday. It linked a set of four African-American films to a group of 263 popular movies also boxed into sets, hoping that the links would give the four films more exposure.

"Unfortunately," said Mona Williams, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, in a statement, "some of the inadvertent combinations were very offensive."

Wal-Mart's trouble stemmed not from the aggressive use of advanced cross-selling technology, but from the near lack of it. Companies with more nuanced strategies have avoided embarrassing linkages.

At NetFlix, the online DVD rental company, for example, roughly two-thirds of the films rented were recommended to subscribers by the site - movies the customers might never have thought to consider otherwise, the company says. As a result, between 70 and 80 percent of NetFlix rentals come from the company's back catalog of 38,000 films rather than recent releases.

"The movies we recommend generate more satisfaction than the ones they choose from the new releases page," said Neil Hunt, NetFlix's chief product officer. "It increases customer loyalty to the site."

Mr. Hunt said NetFlix's recommendation system collected more than two million ratings forms from subscribers daily to add to its huge database of users' likes and dislikes. The system assigns different ratings to a movie depending on a particular subscriber's tastes. For example, "Pretty Woman" might get a four- or five-star rating if other people who share a customer's taste in movies rated it highly, while the same film might not appear on another customer's screen at all, presumably because other viewers with that customer's tastes did not rate it highly.

"The most reliable prediction for how much a customer will like a movie is what they thought of other movies," Mr. Hunt said. The company credits the system's ability to make automated yet accurate recommendations as a major factor in its growth from 600,000 subscribers in 2002 to nearly 4 million today.

Similarly, Apple's iTunes online music store features a system of recommending new music as a way of increasing customers' attachment to the site and, presumably, their purchases. Recommendation engines, which grew out of the technology used to serve up personalized ads on Web sites, now typically involve some level of "collaborative filtering" to tailor data automatically to individuals or groups of users.

Some engines use information provided directly by the shopper, while others rely more on assumptions, like offering a matching shirt to a shopper interested in purchasing a tie. And some sites are now taking personalization to another level by improving not only the collection of data but the presentation of it.

Liveplasma.com, an online site for music and, more recently, movies, graphically "maps" shoppers' potential interests. A search for music by Coldplay, for example, brings up a graphical representation of what previous customers of Coldplay music have purchased, presented in clusters of circles of various sizes.

The bigger the circle, the greater the popularity of that band. The circles are clustered into orbits representing groups of customers with similar preferences.

"This is a way of showing recommendations that are vastly more useful than textual links," said Whit Andrews, a research vice president at Gartner Inc., a market research company in Stamford, Conn.

Another development under way is matching customer tastes across Web businesses, using knowledge of a customer's tastes in music to try to sell them books, for example. "To date, that's been largely uncharted territory," Mr. Andrews said, though not for lack of trying. Web sites have long tried to develop systems for cross- selling among companies that protect customer privacy but also allow sharing of data.

While large online stores are having success through recommendations, smaller Web sites are having a more difficult time using the technology to their advantage. Developing a system for cross-selling is expensive, and perhaps most important, requires amassing a huge amount of customer data to be effective, said Patty Freeman Evans, a Jupiter Research analyst.

As a result, according to Ms. Evans, fewer than one-quarter of online shoppers make unplanned purchases when they are online, a far smaller percentage than customers at actual stores.

Walmart.com's DVD sales site now has no automated recommendation system at all. The music section of Walmart.com, however, uses a system closer to that of Amazon, where customers are given recommendations based on music they've purchased in the past. The company is also looking at using that technology for the DVD section, along with movie reviews and guides that are automatically linked to customer searches.

Carter Cast, president of Walmart.com, says personalized recommendations are one of the company's "important priorities" for its Web store. "It's convenient and helpful for customers, and it does help generate sales," Mr. Cast said, referring to the personalization feature on Walmart.com's music section.

Certainly, Apple's iTunes store has benefited from its ability to recommend songs and artists. In fact, its newest feature, called MiniStore, is able to make recommendations based on songs in users' playlists, no matter where they came from.

When someone is using the MiniStore and selects a song on the playlist, Apple will automatically collect that information. The feature, however, has been criticized by privacy advocates who say it allows Apple to snoop on customers. Under pressure, Apple decided last week to make the feature an option that customers get only on request.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/te...recommend.html





Move Over, HD-TV. Now There's HD Radio, Too.
Eric A. Taub

Traditional broadcast radio, the last bastion of analog entertainment technology, sees a bright future for itself. Its strategy for success is to become more like one of its main competitors, satellite radio.

More channels and music formats, and less-intrusive advertising are critical to its growth, industry executives say.

Last week, Clear Channel Radio and CBS Radio began carrying out that strategy by broadcasting advertising-free digital side channels - complementary music and talk programs - in a combined 43 markets. Digital radio technology allows a broadcaster to offer up to three additional FM channels in the space formerly occupied by one.

The radio industry, like broadcast television before it, is switching to digital technology. With digital technology, AM stations sound like FM, and FM stations approach CD's in sound quality. A retrofit to HD Radio, or high-definition radio, costs about $100,000 per station.

The industry once believed its future would be secure simply by switching to digital technology, but the popularity of satellite radio, MP3 players and Internet radio has changed the game plan.

"Before the iPod and before satellite radio, broadcasters said, 'We already have 40 stations per market. Why cut up the ad pie?' " said Robert J. Struble, president of the iBiquity Digital Corporation, of Columbia, Md., the developer of the HD Radio digital technology. "But the industry recognizes that broader choices and niche formats do make a difference."

Joel Hollander, chairman and chief executive of CBS Radio, said, "The radio industry is healthy. It's just not growing fast enough for Wall Street. More options and more programming will allow us to grow faster; this is a three- to eight-year process."

The new side channels being offered by CBS, Clear Channel and other station groups seek to fill in the programming gaps in various markets. In New York, WCBS- FM is now offering an oldies music channel, and WKTU-FM is programming a country music channel. Beasley Broadcast Group is multicasting in 5 of the 17 markets where it has introduced digital broadcasts. The company, based in Naples, Fla., owns 41 stations, and expects to convert all to digital by the end of 2007. Its side channels include country and disco stations.

"HD Radio is the future," said B. Caroline Beasley, the company's chief financial officer. "We have to respond to the emerging competitive technologies."

By the end of 2005, 622 stations were offering digital simulcasts, allowing 80 percent of the United States population to receive a digital signal. That number should jump to 1,200 stations by the end of 2006, according to Mr. Struble.

Few listeners are able to hear the new offerings, however. Digital radio requires the purchase of HD receivers, which remain expensive, although prices are falling rapidly. HD radios for the home are now available for $500. "Tabletop digital radios will be $199 before the end of the year," Mr. Struble said.

As with satellite radio, the HD Radio industry hopes to persuade carmakers to offer digital broadcast radios as factory-installed units. BMW now offers digital receivers in two of its models, as a $500 option.

Digital radio home receivers are available now from Boston Acoustics and Radiosophy; car units are available from a variety of manufacturers.

By the end of last year, about 85,000 digital broadcast radio receivers had been sold, according to Stephanie Guza, an industry analyst with In-Stat, a market research firm. That number should climb to 500,000 by the end of this year, Ms. Guza said.

As the traditional broadcast stations offer new digital side-channel formats, an industry group, the HD Digital Radio Alliance, will oversee the effort to ensure that no two stations offer competing formats in the same market.

Member stations have agreed to keep the side channels free of advertising for at least the next 18 months. Once advertising is introduced, it will not be the same. The saturation of radio advertising is said to be one reason that satellite subscription radio from Sirius and XM has attracted more than nine million subscribers to date.

"We will look at different types of ads," said John Hogan, president and chief executive of Clear Channel Radio. "There's a need to do it differently. Radio is reinventing itself by taking advantage of and embracing new technologies."

The HD Radio technology was devised to be able to offer new types of ads. According to Peter Ferrara, president of the HD Digital Radio Alliance, new advertising formats could include text streaming across the unit's digital display, a push-to-buy button when a consumer hears about a product, or the sponsorship of a block of programming.

Mr. Hogan of Clear Channel expects to see episodic commercials, 15-second spots that follow each other to tell a story.

Broadcast radio executives believe that they continue to hold a trump card that their competition can never match: the local nature of free radio.

"People live in communities and they want to connect in their homes, to see if their schools are open," Mr. Ferrara said.

To encourage listeners to move to the new technology, the nation's major radio station groups have agreed to commit advertising valued at $200 million to promote digital radio.

The promotional campaign will begin this quarter and will tie ads for the technology with promotions for digital radio receivers and radio retailers.

The moves by the industry are expected to breathe new life into a trusted and traditional technology. "AM and FM are still very popular media," said Susan Kevorkian, a program manager for consumer markets at the IDC research firm. "Radio is still familiar and it's free. It's hard to compete with free."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/te...y/23radio.html





Adult Film Maker Digital Playground Picks Blu-Ray
Lisa Baertlein

U.S. adult film maker Digital Playground on Thursday said it will throw its support behind Sony Corp.'s high definition Blu-ray format, adding spice to the multibillion-dollar standards war raging in Hollywood.

"We feel that of the two formats, it's the one that's more future-proofed," said Digital Playground's president and founder, who identifies himself as "Joone."

Sony's Blu-ray competes with the HD DVD format championed by Toshiba Corp. and appears to have amassed more allies in the next-generation DVD format war -- including Apple Computer Inc. Panasonic and the majority of movie studios.

Digital Playground is the company behind the movie "Pirates," which has won honors from the porn industry that calls Southern California's San Fernando Valley home and is estimated to have had 2005 sales of $12.6 billion, according to Adult Video News.

But while Digital Playground, known as an innovator for bringing porn to personal computers, is endorsing Blu-ray, it has not yet found a company prepared to mass- produce its films in the new high-definition format.

Joone said companies who replicate DVDs are hesitant about embracing the porn industry and are committed in putting mainstream Hollywood's movies onto the new discs.

Nevertheless, a spokesman for Blu-ray said the endorsement underscored the format's wide appeal.

"It shows that Blu-ray is appealing to film genres of many types," said Andy Parsons, a spokesman for Blu-ray and a senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics, a unit of Pioneer Corp.

Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research, also called Digital Playground's decision a "vote of confidence in the format."

Failure of the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps to reach a unified standard has set the stage for a war akin to the VHS vs. Betamax battle of the 1980s. Each side hopes to reignite the sagging $24 billion home video market with new players and discs that offer greater capacity and interactive features.

But analysts said the adult film vote does not appear to have as much impact now as it had in past format matches.

Aditya Kishore, director of the media practice at the Yankee Group, said adult content providers in the past played a big role in boosting new video technology -- particularly the adoption of video tape and online content distribution.

"The adult industry tends to be open to new technology standards," said Kishore, but noted that mainstream entertainment this time will likely play a bigger role in determining the winner of the standards war.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...011902785.html





Party Capital of the Year: Tallinn, Estonia
Seth Sherwood

WHEN the British guidebook author Laurence Shorter was sent to research Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, a couple of years ago, he knew little about it and had no idea what to expect. "I have to admit," he recalled recently, "I didn't really know where it was."

Six weeks later, Mr. Shorter emerged with a vastly improved sense of the city's location (on the Baltic Sea) and a newfound appreciation of its "full-time party culture," as he described the local vibe in the fruit of his adventure: a slick, hardbound directory of decadent addresses called "A Hedonist's Guide to Tallinn."

The 2004 guide - which lists pubs with handcuff-carrying waitresses, nightclubs with scantily clad dancers, and stylish restaurants representing every corner of the globe - has become a minor bible for the rapidly growing ranks of "time-poor, cash-rich 30-something partiers" heading to Tallinn, as Mr. Shorter described his audience.

How did a city smaller than Fresno, Calif., (population about 400,000) in a former Soviet backwater explode into a hot spot whose "Hedonist Guide" companions include the likes of Madrid and Miami?

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Estonia's integration into the European Union in 2004 have done much to open the nation of 1.4 million. So have budget- airline flights connecting Tallinn with Western European capitals.

But simple geography plays the main role. Just 50 miles across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki, Tallinn gets a whopping injection of cash and conviviality from the more than half-million Finns who head across every year - frequently on multiple daily "booze cruises" - to exploit Tallinn's significantly cheaper alcohol.

Pockets filled with kroons (about 13 of them equal a dollar), motivated pleasure-seekers can smoke Cuban cigars at La Casa del Habano, watch rugby over a pint at Scotland Yard, sip cocktails in the Scandi-chic interiors of R.I.F.F., boogie at the huge Club Hollywood or elite Club Prive, watch women lose their clothes at the Soho strip club, and then lose their own shirts at Bally's Casino.

But Finns are increasingly quaffing alongside a new crowd: British bachelor-partyers. Take a summer stroll in the Old Town - the city's medieval center - and you're likely to find a host of Mr. Shorter's besotted countrymen weaving over the cobblestones and into myriad pubs and beer cellars. Many are sent by Tallinn Pissup, a three-year-old travel agency whose sole mission is to send bachelor parties to slosh through the various forms of decadence in the Estonian capital. (It has sister companies for Prague, Budapest and Bratislava.)

"It's quite exciting, because the local populations, especially there in Tallinn, have a great imagination for different activities," says Neil Smith, a founder and marketing manager of Tallinn Pissup. These include parachute jumping, demolition derbies, Doctor Death's Military Academy (machine-gun training) and a "Medieval Lesbian Stripper Show" in an Old Town cellar.

When the effects of all that late-night partying wears off, drinkers' eyes can take advantage of the Old Town's fairy-tale sights, including Middle Ages' houses merchants' guilds, chapels, monasteries and the soaring needlelike spire of St. Olaf's church. Better yet, they can hit the rustic Town Hall Square and its famous 15th-century pharmacy, which still offers relief from ye olde hangover.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/travel/22tallinn.html





Publishing

Before the Fame, a Million Little Skeptics
Tom Zeller Jr.

THERE were signs, years ago, that something was amiss. Like the lengthy Minneapolis Star Tribune article that raised questions about some of the more outlandish vignettes in James Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," shortly after its release in April 2003.

Or the few mainstream critics - the precious few - who expressed gentle skepticism at the B-movie flourishes in the book's tale of drug abuse, crime and recovery. Janet Maslin, in this newspaper, for instance, winkingly noted that a well-meaning fan, writing a "customer review" at Amazon.com, inadvertently extolled Mr. Frey as "a new voice in fiction."

And what was unknowingly foreshadowed in this final passage of a profile of another troubled writer, in The New York Observer of May 21, 2003, struggling with truth and addiction?

"On the nearby coffee table was a copy of 'A Million Little Pieces,' the memoir by the self-rehabilitated drug addict, James Frey. Sticking from it was a business card, which he took out. It said: Jayson Blair, Reporter. Then: The New York Times.

"Jayson Blair looked at it. 'This is my new bookmark,' he said."

Mr. Frey has not disputed the allegations of myriad embellishments in his book, made by the Smoking Gun Web site two weeks ago. Chief among these is his three- month stint in jail, which apparently never happened.

This is not important, Mr. Frey told Larry King, because he has written a "memoir," and it is the book's "essential truth" that matters.

Never mind that over the last three years, as "A Million Little Pieces" was heralded as a masterpiece and questions about his truth-telling were at a low boil, he had professed the exact opposite.

"The only things I changed were aspects of people that might reveal their identity," he told The Cleveland Plain Dealer in July 2003. "Otherwise, it's all true."

Based on such assertions (and with a generous push last fall from Oprah Winfrey, who recommended the book to her club), at least 3.5 million readers laid down good money for the book, and at times it seemed that nearly all of them were chattering about it, with utter devotion, online.

But the truly interesting artifacts in this whole affair are the few, sometimes anonymous, Internet leavings of readers, many with substance abuse histories of their own, who sensed something was wrong long before there was a Smoking Gun exposé.

Certainly, by late last year, with the scrutiny brought on by Ms. Winfrey's endorsement, the skeptical voices had grown diverse and authoritative. And more than Mr. Frey's criminal record was being questioned.

"Having been through treatment," wrote Carol Colleran at Amazon.com in November, "and four other members of my family being through treatment at the facility he so clearly describes, I am offended and angry at him and this book."

Ms. Colleran is a renowned expert on drug and alcohol abuse and a co-author of "Aging and Addiction," a guidebook published in 2002 by the very rehab facility in Minnesota, Hazelden, that Mr. Frey depicts in his memoir.

"There is nothing in the book that is accurate or even remotely true," she wrote.

But who might have been the skeptical soul who left this review at Amazon.com nearly three years ago, just a few weeks after the book's debut?

Date: June 7, 2003

From: A reader

"As an ex-drug abuser and as a writer, I've never been so offended or enraged by a book. ... Notice that the author, though supposedly downing quarts of booze, fistfuls of crack, and incredibly, glue and gasoline, manages to graduate from college, spend a year abroad, keep his friends and support himself. ... I hope some of his 'classmates' at Hazelden decide to blab - or someone chooses to look deeper into the story."

Shortly afterward at the same site, Dr. Larkin Breed, a radiologist from Pleasant Hill, Calif., expressed similar doubts about the infamous scene in which Mr. Frey is forced to undergo a root canal procedure without drugs of any kind.

Date: Aug. 5, 2003

From: lbreed

"I quit reading this book when the author began to describe having his teeth worked on, early in recovery, without analgesia. This would never have happened for a number of reasons. This lowered the author's general credibility to near zero."

Indeed, even as the marketing machinery behind Mr. Frey's book intensified - Amazon.com named it the top pick for 2003 - and a legion of blogs and discussion boards admired its "raw" and "visceral" prose with "ya gotta read this" links to an Amazon or Barnes & Noble shopping cart, an undercurrent of critical analysis was forming.

"The joke is that tens of millions of sobby idiots bought and believed every one of Frey's self-indulgent lies, and accepted his parody of Hemingway laconic narration as high art," wrote John Dolan, an editor of The Exile, an English-language newspaper and Web site based in Moscow, in late 2003.

Just over a year ago, at Amazon, J. North wrote, "I can't believe they tried to pass this off as nonfiction." And in October, a reader from Michigan added that "anyone who has gone through treatment at a center, or works at one, knows that James Frey's description of treatment is largely fictionalized."

Another reader, Lisa Lias, wrote in November, "Maybe this guy did go to Hazelden. But this book is fiction."

Asked recently why she thought so, Ms. Lias, an actor, wrote in an e-mail message, "For my work I have to read a lot of scripts. I know bad dialogue when I see it."

At SmartRecovery.infopop.cc, a discussion site for recovering addicts, a user called jakatak was asked about the book. "Well, if you enjoy a good piece of fiction, I suppose you might like it," he wrote in December. "A national airline allows a person, unattended, to fly with four teeth missing, a hole in the side of his cheek, and blood and vomit on his shirt? Ya, right!"

Mr. Frey has his defenders, including his publishers and Ms. Winfrey. And millions of fans believe his ends justify his means.

But as Mr. Frey retreats into his multimillion-dollar loft and flashes his poetic license, he might do well to take a tour of some of the more confused dialogue now unfolding at some recovery and substance abuse message boards online, if only to solidify the public commitment he has made to never write about himself again.

"I think it upsets me because here's someone who's 13, 10, 8 - or however many years - sober, who has been deceitful, by continuing to tout inaccuracies in his book as factual," wrote a user called Autumn at SoberRecovery.com, a clearinghouse of substance abuse information.

"That, to me, is not a person who comes anywhere close to being what I might have considered a model of recovery at one time," she continued. "And I think the same might hold true for most, if not all, regulars who hang out here. Recovery is important to us."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/te...gy/23link.html