[JackSpratts]

Take this job and shove it.

Hollywood Can’t Fill Jack Valenti’s $1M Job; Help Wanted
Albert Eisele, Jeff Dufour

It’s one of the most prestigious and powerful lobbying positions in the nation’s capital.

It comes with a seven-figure salary and a fistful of perks, including a limousine and driver. You get to hang out with movie stars and Hollywood celeb-rities, present Oscars at the Academy Awards, and wine and dine top politicians while they view first-run feature films at your office two blocks from the White House.

The K Street crowd is wondering who will succeed Jack Valenti.

So why doesn’t anybody want Jack Valenti’s job as the chief lobbyist for the movie industry?

That’s the question the K Street crowd is asking these days after several top political figures turned down offers to succeed the 82-year-old former aide to President Johnson, who has held the job of chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for almost 34 years.

Valenti, who made what he hopes will be his last appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony last weekend, has thrown up his hands and taken himself out of the picture as far as picking his successor goes after Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) turned down the chance to succeed him.

Valenti announced this week that the MPAA has retained an executive search firm, Spencer Stuart, to develop a short list of candidates for the position that has been held by only three people since the MPAA was established in 1922.

Sources in the movie industry and the D.C. lobbying community say the job, for all its glitzy appeal, has become much more difficult as the film industry faces many new challenges, including fighting off tighter government regulation and censorship, competing with cable TV and broadcast networks, and combating the threat of digital piracy of films.

“The structure of the industry has changed greatly in recent years,” a Washington lawyer and confidant of Valenti said. “It has an international dimension to it, along with all the other new problems the industry faces.”

He added, “Jack’s successor has to be somebody who not only understands how legislation is enacted, but it has to be somebody who can deal on a peer level with powerful studio executives” like Harvey Weinstein. “It’s a job with a lot of high-powered and demanding bosses.”

Although some industry moguls would like to hire an existing Hollywood executive, that could cause friction with rival studios. That’s why two names have surfaced in recent weeks as potential leading candidates.

One is 12th-term Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), the chairman of the Rules Committee who headed the successful gubernatorial campaign of movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and has been romantically linked to several movie actresses.

The other is even better known: White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who perhaps not so coincidentally was given a warm introduction at a Valentine’s Day party last month hosted by Bill Cohen, the former defense secretary and Republican senator from Maine.
http://www.hillnews.com/under_dome/030404.aspx


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MSN Messenger Flaw Allows Hard-Drive Access
Michael Kanellos

Microsoft has revealed three new vulnerabilities in its software, including the first to affect MSN Messenger 6.0, and is urging customers to patch their systems now.

Two of the vulnerabilities are considered medium-level risks, while the third presents a medium- to low-level risk, according to security software specialist Symantec and others. Three separate patches to repair the flaws--which affect different pieces of software--have been released and are available for download. The identification of the vulnerabilities came Wednesday as part of Microsoft's regular security bulletin process.

Later, the software giant will also send notices about the Messenger patch through MSN Messenger itself, said Stephen Toulouse, security program manager for the Microsoft Security Response Center.

The vulnerability in MSN Messenger versions 6.0 and 6.1 could let an attacker view the contents of a victim's hard drive during a chat session with the victim.

Attackers "could view files through MSN Messenger on their computer," Toulouse said. "They can do it, and you are not necessarily aware of what they are doing."

Users who do not block anonymous callers are most vulnerable to the exploit. If anonymous callers are blocked, the attacker has to be identified on the victim's address list. To obtain particular information, such as credit card numbers, attackers have to troll the hard drive, said Toulouse.

Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager for Symantec's security response team, said that victims don't actually have to be in conversation with the attacker. As long as the user permits anonymous callers to send messages, an attacker could come in and peruse Quicken files or other identifiable files that could likely contain sensitive data. However, most people block that function, so random attacks will likely be rare, he said.

The second medium-level risk could allow a hacker to take over a system by executing Internet Explorer code through a flaw in Outlook 2002.

A computer has to be configured in a particular manner, though, said Toulouse. The user has to set "Outlook Today" as the Outlook home page.

"If you go to Outlook through your in-box, you are protected," he said.

The third flaw allows attackers to instigate a denial-of-service attack against servers running Windows Media Services 4.1. The vulnerability exists because of the way Windows Media Station Service and Windows Media Monitor Service, components of Windows Media Services, handle TCP/IP connections. If an attacker sent a particular sequence of packets to a server running Media Services 4.1, it could interrupt any video streams.
http://news.com.com/2100-1002-5171898.html


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Court Puts DVD-Copying Decision On Hold

A New York federal judge has temporarily put on hold a ruling against 321 Studios, which makes DVD-copying software, pending a hearing next week. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen ruled last week that 321 Studios' software violated copyright laws and that the company must stop selling its DVD products.

Owen's ruling on Friday has little practical effect, however, since a similar ban, instituted by San Francisco federal Judge Susan Illston, is in effect. The company is still seeking a stay of Illston's order, and has said it would appeal both judgments.
http://news.com.com/2009-1014_3-5103...l?tag=nefd_top


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Universal Access to All Human Knowledge
Steven Garrity

A link found from Matt Haughey's a.wholelottanothing.org lead me to a talk by Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive. His organization is working a variety of projects to make public domain content available in an "internet library". Among these projects is the WayBack Machine, which archives the web.

The talk is part of a series at the Library of Congress and runs 1 hour and 26 minutes in RealVideo format. It is worth watching: Brewster Kahle: Public Access to Digital Materials (1hr 26min RealVideo).

Kahle's basic idea is universal access to all human knowledge. Every book, speech, TV show, website, concert, etc. should be available to all of us. He looks at three main questions:

· Should we? Yes!
· Can we? Is it logistically possible from a technical and financial perspective? His answer: Yes.
· May we? Will we be allowed to make all knowledge available under law? His answer: Yes.
· Will we? He leaves this as an open question.

His numbers on the cost to digitize (scanning, etc.), store (disk space), and make available (bandwidth) all human knowledge are fascinating. According to Kahle, the hardware and labour costs required to make all book and all television and all music ever created available are not that difficult (within the hundreds of millions of dollars).

Taking books for example:

There are roughly 100,000,000 books ever created
The Library of Congress has about 26,000,000 books (I was impressed and amazed that the Library of Congress has 26% of all books ever created)
A book costs between $10 and $100 to acquire and digitize
A book takes up about 1Mb of space
26,000,000 books would take 26 TeraBytes.
1 TeraByte costs about $60,000
The entire Library of Congress could be stored for about $1.5 million dollars
Books can be printed, cut, and bound for $1/book from a mobile book printer (~$15,000)

If anyone has the right to make these claims - it would be Kahle - who's organization is storing massive amounts of data as part of their WayBack project and other projects.
http://www.actsofvolition.com/archiv...niversalaccess


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And a place to put it all.

Hitachi To Unveil 400GB Drive
Ed Frauenheim

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies plans to announce this week a massive hard drive designed to store corporate data or record about 400 hours of video for consumers.

The new drive has a capacity of 400GB, spins at 7,200 revolutions per minute, and uses ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) interface technology, according to a source close to Hitachi. The drive can come with either the parallel ATA interface long used in desktop computers or the newer Serial ATA interface. Dubbed the Deskstar 7K400, the drive is being tested by manufacturers and could be in digital video recorder products available to consumers later this year, the source said.

Hitachi's product continues a push by hard drive makers to play a larger role in the consumer electronics industry, which is using drives for devices including digital video recorders and personal music players like the iPod and iPod Mini.

The company is billing the Deskstar 7K400 as the largest- capacity ATA drive with 3.5-inch platters. Currently, the largest 3.5-inch ATA drive is a 320GB product from Maxtor, according to John Monroe, an analyst at research firm Gartner. That drive, though, spins at 5,400rpm, which translates into slower performance than a 7,200rpm drive, Monroe said. He said 3.5-inch ATA drives running at 7,200rpm top out at 250GB.

Hitachi hopes its whopper of a drive gets the attention of manufacturers in both the consumer and corporate markets.

In the latter, the drive is targeted at disk-based data storage gear called "nearline." That class of equipment has lower performance and is less reliable than systems with drives using the SCSI (small computer system interface) or Fibre Channel interfaces, but it's faster for data recoveries than magnetic tape storage.

Hitachi recently announced a large-capacity 300GB drive designed for high-end storage devices, as well as a prototype of a small-size 2.5-inch drive for corporate customers.

The Deskstar 7K400 also aims to find a place in digital video recorders (DVRs), which are devices that can record broadcasts as well as temporarily pause live programming. Hitachi already makes a 250GB drive that appears in DVRs. The roomier new drive is designed to store about 400 hours of standard broadcasts, or 45 hours of high- definition television, according to the source close to Hitachi.

DVRs are growing more powerful and popular. Monroe expects hard drives to play an increasing role in TV watching. "Every TV in the next five years will have a rotating magnetic device in it, on it or near it," he said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1015-5171944.html?tag=nefd_hed


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Sears To Rid Shelves Of PCs, Film Cameras
Michael Kanellos

Sears, Roebuck and Co. will remove PCs and film cameras from its store shelves in the third quarter to make room for TVs, DVDs and other consumer electronics devices.

The retailing giant, which has carried computers from Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Dell, Sony and others at various times, is winding down PC sales, after results failed to meet expectations, said Toni Duboise, an analyst at ARS. Film cameras will concurrently vanish from Sears shelves, she added.

"They didn't get the response they wanted," Duboise said. "When you think of Sears, you think of tools and dishwashers."

A Sears spokesman confirmed the company's plans to stop selling PCs and film cameras in the third quarter. "We're expanding the assortment of high-traffic items such as DVDs and software," the spokesman said. "(The PC) has been a small slice of family entertainment revenue."

Although never a giant in PCs, Sears definitely put some elbow grease into its attempt to sell them, crafting distribution deals with a number of manufacturers. Dell agreed to set up kiosks inside Sears stores but cancelled the effort after only opening a few kiosks. Sears didn't confine itself to the low end of the market but sold a wide variety of configurations.

The extra shelf space will be dedicated to TVs, DVD players and digital imaging products like cameras, Duboise said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1042-5171078.html


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WiMax Firm Raises $20 Million
Richard Shim

Aperto Networks raised $20 million in a series D round of funding, bringing its total financing to $77 million. The Milpitas, Calif.-based company said earlier this week that JK&B Capital, along with Canaan Partners, Alliance Ventures, Innovacom, Tyco Ventures, Labrador Ventures and Satwik Ventures, pumped cash into Aperto.P>

The WiMax product maker will use the money to expand its sales efforts and further develop its technology portfolio. WiMax networks are expected to have a range of up to about 30 miles, with data transfer speeds of up to 70 megabits per second. WiMax is viewed as a cheaper alternative to digital subscriber lines and cable broadband access, because the installation costs of wireless infrastructure are minimal when compared with the wired versions.
http://news.com.com/2110-1039-5171956.html


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Is Coke Really It For Digital Music Or Will It Fall Flat?
Jonathan Briggs

The cola wars have begun in the digital music market. As Coca-Cola gives mycokemusic.com to consumers in the UK and US, Pepsi is giving away 100 million tracks through Apple's iTunes.

But, is Coke really interested in becoming a music distributor or is it just a branding exercise? Mycokemusic has been greeted with some criticism since it launched on 12 January. It certainly suffered some early technical glitches, but most have been ironed out.

With a broadband connection, the site loaded fast and I was able to browse music, listen to previews, set up an account and buy tracks for 99p. But I did find a couple of technical gremlins. It took three attempts to charge my credit card and I haven't been able to download single-play songs for 1p. The credit gets deducted from my account, but there's no song.

The site has been well branded with the Coke image and there is an impressive 250,000 available music tracks. Navigation is generally straightforward and integration with Windows Media Player is slick. I like the 30-second track previews that slide in at the bottom of the screen, but I was disappointed that there is little engagement with music fans. Suggesting similar artists, inviting comments or helping users to explore genres, such as Jazz, would be good. Just having an alphabetical list of artists is insufficient.

Some internet users may be put off by the requirement to upgrade your Windows Media Player with a new licence key. This provides copy-protection for each downloaded track, linking them to your computer and, in effect, preventing you passing them on to friends.

I can, however, question the complete lack of consideration for accessibility. Surely, as we head towards the deadline for compliance with the Disabilities Discrimination Act in October, it is unacceptable for a big brand to ignore its blind and partially-sighted customers to such an extent, particularly when music and soft drinks are enjoyed by this audience.

And that leads me on to the question of why it has created the site at all. It looks very Coke, but only until I buy and download the tracks. Then, it is simply Windows Media Player and my association with the brand ends. Tracks bought on mycokemusic simply join the music I have already bought from other sites. Is this planned as a revenue stream for Coke, rather than a promotion, or will we see linked sales drives for the soft drink to drive people to the site? We've seen Coke move into clothing, but running a music retailer seems a bigger proposition.

It will be interesting to see if it provides further music content over the next few months, and if both the technical and accessibility problems are ironed out.

Downloading music presents a choice: do you do it legally from sites like mycokemusic or use a file-sharing peer-to-peer network, which could be illegal. Recent moves by Apple, Microsoft and brands like Coke will make most of us go legal, especially if the price of digital music falls.

I looked at Kazaa (www.kazaa.com), Grokster (www.grokster.com) and Napster (www.nap ster.com) on my PC and Acquisition (www.acquisitionx.com) on my Mac. Three of these are file-sharing operations. Napster has gone legal, but I couldn't do anything other than download the Napster software as there is no available music in the UK.

Grokster, Kazaa and Acquisition provide software for searching other people's computers to find stored tracks. PC software generally comes in two versions: a free one, supported by ads, and a paid-for version without pop-ups. These ads definitely set the tone for the experience and I suspect few FMCG brands will rush to advertise alongside internet casinos, spyware software and health products.

The experience is like a car-boot sale. Searching for 'Kylie' produces results that are definitely not tracks from her latest album. Less common tracks took ages to download and a few of the popular ones were corrupt. The only advantage is that the music, like radio, is free.

Mycokemusic is one of a family of web sites powered by Peter Gabriel's company, On Demand Distribution (OD2), (www.on demanddistribution.com). HMV, MSN, Freeserve, Tiscali, Ministry of Sound and Virgin Megastores use the same underlying store with different graphics and content. These sites work with Windows Media Player (WMP) and you can listen to all the music you buy on one player. I can also burn CDs from my downloaded music. Track pricing is generally similar, though some sites are experimenting with a mix of subscription and a lower per-track price. There is a chance for more brands to get involved in innovative offers linked to these sites.

This is the route Pepsi (www.pepsi.com) has taken in the US with Apple in launching a 100-million track giveaway. Customers have a one-in-three chance of finding a token on a bottle of Pepsi. Entering it into Apple's iTunes Music Store (www.itunes.com) will allow the track to be downloaded free. This offer, like the Music Store itself, is unavailable in the UK for now, but, unlike Napster, I can preview all of iTunes' tracks. ITunes works identically on PCs and Macs, although the music format it uses, AAC, is not inter-changeable with Microsoft's. iTunes also has the advantage of being the power behind iPod and this, together with support from companies like Pepsi, give it a real chance against WMP.

The contrast between Coke and Pepsi is interesting. Pepsi is definitely using music to encourage consumption of their drinks, while Coke may have a longer term interest.

This is an area of new media that is very much in its infancy, but it's clear that music distribution online will eventually replace CDs, at least in the retail channel. It's good to see firms experimenting with technology and pricing. Most people will want to buy music that's cheap, convenient and reliable.

I'm a big fan of radio as a distribution medium and look forward to online subscription and pricing models that let me listen to a track without having to buy.


Top Five Digital Music Sites

Rank Web address Visits Bookmarks
(% relative market share) (%)
1 www.kazaa.com 33.06 0.97
2 www.mycokemusic.com 13.22 2.28
3 www.musicmatch.com 13.06 0.85
4 www.blubster.net 11.07 0
5 www.grokster.com 9.09 0


Rank Web address Pages Bookmarks
(% relative market share) (%)
1 www.kazaa.com 32.48 0.97
2 www.mycokemusic.com 23.66 2.28
3 www.musicmatch.com 13.23 0.85
4 www.grokster.com 8.42 0
5= www.blubster.net 6.82 0
5= www.apple.com/itunes 6.82 0


Rank Web address Session time Bookmarks
(minutes) (%)
1 www.musicmatch.com 4:39 0.85
2 www.mp3.com 4:03 1.06
3 www.grokster.com 3:44 0
4 www.kazaa.com 3:12 0.97
5 www.apple.com/itunes 2:25 0

Source: Hitwise. Figures for week ending 31 January 2004
http://www.brandrepublic.com/dmbulle...gin=DM09032004


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1394 Trade Association Creates Latest Home Entertainment Network for Demonstrations at EH Expo in Orlando March 10-13, Booth 1539

Electronic House Expo Spring 2004
Press Release

The 1394 Trade Association will feature the latest and most advanced home entertainment network, moving video and audio at up to 800 Megabits/second over CAT-5 and plastic optical fiber, at the Electronic House Expo in Orlando March 10-13.

Populated with the latest in HDTV, Digital VHS, computer, storage, and audio equipment from industry leaders worldwide, the home entertainment network demo will showcase how FireWire can connect a wide range of different devices over distances up to 80 meters at significant speeds.

"We are focused on the 1394 standard's excellence in overcoming the challenge of linking many diverse consumer and computer devices on the network, easily and reliably," said James Snider, executive director of the 1394 Trade Association. "We are making significant strides in wired and wireless networking, and FireWire is pre-eminent in delivering audio and video in a peer-to-peer environment where every device on the network can act as a client or server."

In the network demo, high definition video originates in a pair of D-VHS systems provided by Mitsubishi and JVC, and is delivered over CAT- 5 cabling through a master network hub developed by USTec, a leader in advanced home wiring systems. From there, it moves to a Mitsubishi HD5000 for display on a plasma or flat panel display, and to a Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC. The demonstration also includes file sharing between Sony VAIO and Media Center computers, as well as a shared Internet connection between them. It also incorporates whole house audio, using a Pioneer DVD player.

1394b Hub Anchors the Network

At the center of the demo is USTec's TP-FH4 FireWire five-port 1394b hub. It is designed to connect four 1394b wall plates using CAT-5 or better cables. The wall plates are powered via the CAT-5 from the hub. The fifth hub port is a bilingual jack used to connect to 1394-enabled equipment located in the cabinet, or to connect two TP-FH4 hubs together to work as an eight-port system.

POF Added to Network Demo, Delivered by Firecomms Corp.

For the first time, Plastic Optical Fiber has been added to the home entertainment network demonstration, illustrating how easy it is to install and use. Fibers are inserted into basic 1394 connectors, then snapped into place.

POF can carry over 250Mbps over 50 meters, and is much smaller and lighter than copper cabling POF also is not subject to noise from radiated emissions (EMI).

The 1394 Trade Association is a worldwide organization dedicated to the enhancement and advancement of the 1394/FireWire standard. For more information and a complete list of all products with IEEE 1394, visit www.1394ta.org.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...&newsLang =en


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Internet Providers Sue Hundreds for Unsolicited E-mail
AP
Some of the nation's largest Internet providers, in an unusual joint effort, said Wednesday they filed six lawsuits against hundreds of people who were accused of sending millions of unwanted e-mails in violation of the new U.S. law against ``spam.''

The legal actions by Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc., Earthlink Inc. and Yahoo! Inc., represent the first major industry actions under the ``can spam'' legislation that went into effect Jan. 1. The lawsuits, filed in federal courts in California, Georgia, Virginia and Washington state, were announced at a news conference.

The companies said the defendants include some of the nation's most notorious large-scale spammers. The Internet providers -- collectively with tens of millions of subscribers -- said they shared information, resources and investigative information to identify some of the defendants.

``Congress gave us the necessary tools to pursue spammers with stiff penalties, and we in the industry didn't waste a moment moving with speed and resolve to take advantage of the new law,'' said Randall Boe, AOL's top lawyer and executive vice president.

Dozens of those named in the lawsuits, however, were identified only as ``John Doe'' defendants who were accused of e-mailing unwanted pitches for prescription drugs, herbal potions and weight loss plans.

Among the named defendants were Davis Wolfgang Hawke of Medfield, Mass., whom AOL lawyers said also is known as Dave Bridger, and Braden Bournival of Manchester, N.H. They and others were accused of sending millions of e-mails offering weight loss supplements, handheld devices called ``personal lie detectors'' and other products.

The ``can spam'' legislation requires unsolicited e-mails to include a mechanism so recipients could indicate they did not want future mass mailings.

The law also prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from disguising their identity by using a false return address or misleading subject line, and it prohibits senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/tech...t-Spam.html?hp


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“We are talking about some serious brain capacity here.”

The Ultimate Grid
TankGirl

Scientists and other specialists have been working for some time to design and set up a new computing and communication platform called ‘the scientific grid’. Their idea is to hook together a number of powerful supercomputers from around the planet with dedicated high-speed lines. With proper control hardware and software this grid of supercomputers can be configured to act as a single virtual ‘hypercomputer’ with horsepower far exceeding that of any of its components. The researchers can then use their new number crunching beast to tackle the very hardest jobs on fields like astronomy, biology, chemistry and physics.

Besides the scientific grid, there is also another grid - even more exciting and interesting - in the making. This grid is also a computing and communication platform but of a different architecture and composition. Instead of supercomputers it will be powered by consumer level workstations, and instead of dedicated lines it will use mere domestic broadband connections over public Internet. Its strength does not come from raw power or raw speed but from big numbers. By binding together millions and millions of computers it will be a powerful beast on its own.

There’s a fundamental difference between how the scientific grid and the ‘domestic’ grid are designed and built. The scientific grid is managed in a systematic, organized and professional fashion by the participating organizations and nominated persons - just as you would expect from any important international co- operative project. The domestic grid, in comparison, evolves in a wild and uncontrolled, almost organic fashion. It does not have any committees or organizations to steer its growth; there is rather a Darwinian battle for best solutions. Who builds it? Anybody who decides to join. Who provides the software? Anybody who is willing and up to the job. Who decides what solutions and protocols will prevail? Anybody and everybody by their own choices and selections in their own sphere of influence. So instead of being built and organized, the domestic grid rather builds itself and organizes itself - just like living systems tend to do.

The greatest difference between the two grids, however, comes from a special computing device attached to each computer in the domestic grid. This gadget, even if literally ancient in its design and circuitry, is nevertheless sophisticated and powerful enough to give the domestic grid all sorts of fancy capabilities that the scientific grid can not have by its design. The attached device is nothing less than the human brain, kindly made available by the living human intelligence residing in it.

More

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Click The Vote Launches Petition in Support of Legal File Sharing

Petition calls for an equitable, balanced and reasonable system for legal file sharing that promotes learning and rewards creators.
Press Release

Click The Vote today announced the launch of a petition in support of legal file sharing. The petition is now available online for people to sign at the ClickTheVote.org website. http://www.ClickTheVote.org

"Millions and millions of people cannot be felons," said Click The Vote founder John Parres, "and this petition gives everyone a way to express support for legal file sharing that rewards creators. People should not have to live in fear of lawsuits and bankruptcy for sharing their collective culture."

The petition calls upon the world's creators, entertainment executives, peer-to-peer sharing software programmers and Internet Service Providers to create fair, equitable and reasonable systems for legal P2P sharing. If those parties can't do it on their own, the petition then calls upon the world's elected representatives to enact new laws that conform to the abilities and limitations of technology so that creators will be compensated and music fans will be free from abusive law suits and unwarranted criminal charges.

"Famous singer-songwriter Don Henley testified before the U.S. Senate recommending a system that legalizes P2P file sharing. Advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation and respected professors at Harvard University and UCLA have proposed systems," Parres said. "Signing this petition is a way for people to urge the consideration of these serious proposals while also signaling to the U.S. Congress and European Parliament that laws needs to keep pace with advances in technology."

Click The Vote will collect signatures throughout the year for later presentation to members of Congress and Parliament.

ABOUT CLICK THE VOTE

Click The Vote is an independent grassroots non-profit 501(c)(4) public benefit corporation organized to promote the rights of new technology users. ClickTheVote.org provides a variety of services for its members including a tools-driven website designed to educate and focus activism that influences candidates, legislators, and legislation.
http://www.clickthevote.org/newsview...a7ea41e0dd792b


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When Worlds Collide
Mark Hollands

The more technology changes, the more we stay the same. Up to a point.

Too often technology convergence is spruiked lavishly as if the melding of technologies into one device is a true meaning of life that escapes most of us until it is too late.

Visions of a single machine that embraces equally phone, e-mail, calendar, music and photography are still not fulfilled. Sure, there are machines the size of your hand that can do all this and more, but each design lends a distinct preference for a particularly technology. Multi-purpose gizmos made by phone companies are best at handling voice, while the likes of HP or Dell create their converged nirvana around e-mail and multimedia messaging.

For some companies, convergence means collision. Products, management and culture can be so wrapped up in their old technologies that their very existence inevitably meets the wall of oblivion at G-force. Traditional camera companies know this only too well. Some have committed old technologies to ritual suicide, knowing their future can never be a repeat of their past. Eastman Kodak’s recent decision to stop making point-and-click APS cameras and focus only on digital photography has been seen as a watershed decision for its industry.

This is a company trying to embrace, not collide, with convergence.

It is a painful journey. Sales in the last quarter of 2003 were down 20 per cent on the previous 12 weeks and demand for film dropped 11 per cent. It has responded by announcing 15,000 lay-offs, on top of the 22,000 jobs that have disappeared since 1998, and committing itself to new technologies to fight off new competitors.

Phone manufacturers, consumer electronics specialists, such as Sony and Samsung, and even film companies like Fuji and Konica, have changed their business models already and they — not Kodak — hold the advantage in this converged world.

Eastman Kodak is not the only company in this unpleasant position. Investors who play roulette at the Nikkei table of the Japanese Stock Exchange have been sending south the shares of Nikon and Pentax in recent times. The once Herculean hold of those companies on the photographic market is gone. And it shows in their most recent six-monthly sales and profit statements to the market. Their industry has changed beyond recognition in the space of three years and they have been caught like rabbits in the headlights.

The experts say, however, that despite all the gadgets captured in one plastic chassis, we are far from the perfect convergence. Gartner’s Ken Dulaney said recently: “There will never be a converged device that suits everyone. You can read your e-mail on a camera but that is not optimal.”

Double Trouble

Convergence doesn’t only spell trouble for those companies that refuse to change, or are incapable of reacting sufficiently quickly and appropriately.

As a rule, convergence is not greeted with gleeful anticipation inside IT departments. So much of the change is consumer driven that imposing corporate rules on what staff can or cannot use often proves futile. IT staff observe bitterly that cameras on phones results in resources being taken up by users storing photos of family and friends on the system.

Trouble often comes from the most senior executive level, which discovers a bright shiny piece of technology and then demands it is supported by the technology department. Issues such as security are conveniently forgotten in their satisfaction of possessing a new toy. Network Associates’ Allan Bell says many of the viruses that squirm their way on to a corporate network now come from the synchronization of calendars between mobile phones and PCs, bypassing the standard safety measures.

The situation will get tougher for IT managers because convergence is an irresistible force. Research houses Meta Group and Gartner predict that within the next five years at least 50 per cent of computers used for business will not be desktop computers but a variety of converged devices.

Gartner’s Dulaney, an American, reckons it will be the Yanks driving this change through their demand for e-mail on the move, having completely missed the SMS boat. “The American enterprise market is demanding e-mail rather than SMS on their wireless mobile devices,” he says. “This could result in a leap in productivity of US workers by 2005 as they process business messages more efficiently. Australia should move more quickly than Europe in this area.”

Motivation for this user-driven change to the corporate IT environment is more to do with lifestyle than business. Photography is not the only industry dealing with the ramifications of convergence. Music is a more powerful catalyst. This industry faces great challenges because of its battles in the press and courtrooms with the young and old who are accused of breaking copyright by downloading songs using sites’ peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, such as Kazaa and Morpheus.

But there is another agent of change in the form of the converged device.

Music companies are frantically renegotiating contracts with groups and songwriters to take advantage of the advances in mobile technology that will soon render the CD player as irrelevant as the turntable. Industry executives are convinced the mobile phone will be our next personal stereo. And as a result, Web sites run by global brands such as Coca-Cola, Telstra, Nokia or Microsoft will be our local music store.

Within five years most kids will not wander shopping malls for music but dial it up and pull down favourite tracks to their phone. When they’re ready, they will transfer the music to a home theatre system. No boxes, no CD covers. No hunting for treasure in a grungy record store down some back street of Melbourne. No romance. Just technology and convenience.

Music players, such as the famed iPod and a plethora of copycats, already give us more than 30,000 tracks in our pocket, providing on-tap tunes in numbers unthinkable 18 months ago. The success of iTunes, the Apple music site that has quickly gained legendary status in the music industry, was built around the company’s iPod. Without a portable digital player to download to, iTunes would have been just another failed online music site.

But the iPod has a limited lifespan, too. And at some future point it will yield to the converged device offering not only entertainment but communications.

The new business models this creates for musicians are fascinating. Korea Telecom has built a $90 million revenue stream in 12 months by offering music as a ringtone with a difference. Each time you call your spouse, instead of them hearing a tone they have chosen, they hear your selection for them. Koreans and Japanese are using their 2.5G devices to select particular songs for wives, husbands, children and friends. It has become a craze that will arrive here eventually.

The manager of rock group INXS, David Edwards, says his band is one of the few home-grown acts that understands what is happening. “I’m currently negotiating with Nokia to use our music for polyphonic and true-tone ringtones,” he says. “It’s a new way to sell our music, and we’ll be experimenting and seeing what happens.”

And so will the public.
http://www.cio.com.au/index.php?seci...&id=1499283073


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Internet File-Sharing Firm Ordered To Face Music On Copyright Case

Australian-based Internet file-sharing network Kazaa failed to delay a copyright case brought against it by major recording labels.

The Federal Court told Kazaa's owner in Australia, Sharman Networks, that it would not grant a request to delay proceedings until a similar case in the United States was finalised. Universal, Festival Mushroom Records, EMI Music, Sony Music, Warner Music Australia and BMG Australia allege Sharman Networks breached Australian copyright laws. Federal Court Justice Murray Wilcox ruled that the action against Sharman Networks should go ahead as planned. Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), which gathers information on file-sharing for the record companies, said the ruling was a victory for the music industry. "This represents a massive victory for the copyright owners," MIPI general manager Michael Speck said outside the court. "It's time for Kazaa to stop using delaying tactics and face the music." Speck said the Australian record industry was confident it would win the case, despite the Dutch Supreme Court ruling last December that Kazaa was a legal operation and did not violate copyright. "It's an entirely different situation (to that in the Netherlands)," he said. "This is a case about Australian copyright infringements being committed by Australians in Australia." The Kazaa file-sharing software, which allows users to swap digital music files, was costing both the record industry and music creators billions of dollars in lost royalties each year, Speck said. Kazaa was founded in the Netherlands, but the service was sold two years ago to Sharman Networks. Since then, several lawsuits have been brought in the US against companies offering Kazaa software. Internet experts say Kazaa is different from Napster, the service which largely spawned music file-sharing in the late 1990s. Napster, banned in 2002 by a US judge, based its activities on a central server, while Kazaa facilitates a connection between users on a peer-to-peer basis. The case will return to court on March 23, when a hearing date will be set.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040304/323/enn57.html


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Canadian Supreme Court Takes Strong User Rights Stand
ILN

Canada's Supreme Court this morning released its decision in the Law Society of Upper Canada v. CCH Limited case. The court reversed an earlier decision that favored the publishers, finding that a large and liberal interpretation of the research branch of fair dealing should be used to ensure that users' rights are not unduly constrained. In a discussion that could impact digital copyright issues, the court also notably held that the LSUC did not infringe copyright by providing self-service copiers, ruling that a person does not authorize infringement by authorizing the mere use of equipment that could be used to infringe copyright.

Decision at http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-sc...cc013.wpd.html


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Ringtones: 10 Per Cent Of The Market For Music
Tyler Hamilton

It defies logic. A 15-year-old is reluctant to pay 99 cents to download a favourite song from the Internet. On the other hand, this same teenager won't think twice about spending $1.50, sometimes more, to get a 15-second snippet of the same song - inferior touchtone blips and beeps, really - as a ringer for a mobile phone.

As the music industry grapples with online music piracy and the resulting plunge in CD sales, it's also coming to the realization that "ringtones" for mobile phones are proving a significant source of future revenues. Lucky for them the wireless industry has done much of the early legwork.

"We've actually had to evangelize it a little bit," says John Boynton, vice-president of consumer marketing at Rogers Wireless Inc. Rogers, Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility and Fido each have areas on their Web sites that let customers download a growing selection of ringtones - everything from 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake to the Hockey Night in Canada theme and voiceovers from Mickey Mouse. Pretty soon, you could have Tie Domi, the scrappy Maple Leafs right winger, ordering you to pick up your damn phone. The content varies from site to site. Some have even arranged exclusive deals. Rogers, for example, has done ringtone promotions with Shaggy, Remy Shand and Nickelback. The phone has to be compliant, mind you, but newer handsets can generally handle the job. I'm testing out the Samsung SPH-A600 camera phone from Bell Mobility and, after a few minutes of sifting through the ringtones on Bell's Web site, I decided to download Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim. I selected the ringtone and within a few seconds the file was sent to my mobile phone. A half-dozen clicks and less than a minute later I was annoying my newsroom colleagues with a polyphonic symphony.

"The ease of use, and the cool content, is what has driven the success of this," says Julia Quinton, a spokesperson for Telus Mobility. "It has to be intuitive." Canadian wireless companies don't have specific numbers on the growth of the market, saying only that demand is robust. Boynton says the number of ringtones downloaded every month through Rogers is "in the six digits" and that nearly half of those customers are buying more than two ringtones each month. The worldwide ringtone market was worth $3.5 billion (U.S.) last year, up 40 per cent from 2002 and representing about 10 per cent of the global music market, according to estimates from U.K.-based research firm ARC Group. Most of those sales have taken place in Europe and Asia, where mobile phone markets are more mature. ARC predicts global sales will surpass $5.2 billion by 2008. Closer to home, ringtones are gaining momentum. Technology research firm International Data Corp. estimates that by 2007 ringtones will be a $1 billion market in the United States.

What explains this phenomenon? "To me, one of the beauties of ringtones is the personalization," says Roma Khanna, vice-president of CHUM Television Interactive. CHUM's MuchMusic opened an online store in January that lets Rogers, Bell and Telus mobile phone customers download ringtones and have them charged to their wireless bill. It's being touted as the first third-party ringtone store in Canada. New ringtones are added weekly and more than 1,000 are already in the archives. Khanna says mobile phones are more than just a utility. They've become a fashion accessory that defines the person using it. Ringtones, like screensavers and other accessories that come in different colours and shapes, are a means of personal expression and a reflection of individuality. When your phone rings, you know it's your phone. She describes the familiar situation of being in a crowded room and watching everyone reach for their mobile phone when a ringer goes off. "I don't reach anymore. Unless it's Depeche Mode or Blur, it's not my phone," says Khanna. The ability to assign certain ringtones to certain phone numbers means you also know who's calling.

It all began with monophonic ringtones - essentially a series of beeps that sound remotely like a song. These ringtones were more novelty than anything, freely available, and generally playable on any mobile phone. More popular today are advanced polyphonic ringtones, which sound like your phone is playing an electronic synthesizer. Most new handsets have this capability and, because a number of instrument sounds can be played at the same time, the songs are much closer to the originals. Polyphonic ringtones generally sell for between 50 cents and $2.50. The fact that these tiny programs only work on certain phones and must be transmitted over the wireless networks has so far protected the market from the kind of rampant piracy that has gutted CD sales. The next phase after polyphonic ringtones is "mastertones" or "truetones" - or what some call "ringtunes." These are MP3-like song clips that play the actual song on your phone when it rings. A few mobile phones, such as the Nokia 3300, already do this. As the ringtone market has grown, so too has interest from the music industry. Already, music publishers are collecting royalties on polyphonic versions. With the move to true mastertones, the record labels are lining up to collect their share of the pot. "I know that the Canadian labels are speaking to individual carriers about licensing to their stores," says Khanna. "I think the labels are excited about this." The MuchMusic store, which sold more ringtones in the last week than it did in its first month, is also working on licensing deals with the labels. It hopes to become the premier ringtone aggregator in Canada.

Many in the industry call it a fad, and believe it's only a matter of time before the novelty wears off. Khanna says the ringtone opportunity will certainly change as the market evolves, but she doesn't see it going away. "Is the ringtone around forever? On some level, yes. Will it evolve? Of course it will. It will step back out of the limelight when the next thing comes along and will just become part of the mix."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=969048863851


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Sounds That Surround You Make It Onto Your Playlist
Ivan Berger

The air is full of sounds that are not filed on your digital music player: new recordings and live performances on FM radio, not to mention the ambient music of the world around you. The JMTek MelodiBox MP3 lets you add them to your collection on the fly.

A built-in tuner with 20 station presets picks up FM signals, and a built-in microphone picks up your voice and other sounds, enabling you to add them to the MP3 and WMA music files on the MelodiBox's hard drive. Input jacks let you encode audio from external sources as MP3 files, too, and an equalizer with one user-defined and five preset curves lets you shape the sounds.

Available at www.usbmall.com for $250, the MelodiBox has a 20-gigabyte hard drive that can also store and carry files of any kind; text files can be read out on the built- in display. Tech-savvy users can increase capacity to as much as 137 gigabytes by replacing the 2.5-inch drive. The battery supplied allows 10 hours of playback per charge.

But capturing a world full of sound does not mean a pocketful of MelodiBox: the unit measures less than 3.2 by 1 by 5.2 inches and weighs only 9.1 ounces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/te...ts/04tune.html


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As if.

EU: Keep Your Hands Off The Net
Reuters

Granting governments full powers to set Internet policies would be a "gigantic mistake," a European politician said Thursday, in the European Union's strongest statement yet in favor of preserving the medium's free-market commercial structure.

The Internet's growth as a marketplace of more than 750 million users over the past decade has been helped by the decision to allow it to grow at its own pace with little interference from government, Lucio Stanca, Italian minister for innovation and technologies, told reporters via a conference call.

This existing regime should not be tinkered with, he said in summing up the position of the 15-nation European Union bloc.

"Government must be involved only when public policy issues are at stake, but it is not the role of government to manage the Internet or to interfere in its free development," Stanca said.

His comments, made at a meeting of technology officials in Rome for Internet industry group the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), comes at one of most fractious times for the Internet since the communications network was turned over to the private sector a decade ago.

A host of governments in the developing world recently challenged the pro-business nature of the Internet, saying it is aggravating a "digital divide" where the world's poor remain unconnected to modern Internet and telecommunications innovations.

A United Nations task force was formed in December to investigate the matter and determine whether government officials should step in and set Internet policy in an effort to speed up the bridging of the technology gap.

But with so many governments in the developed world eager to promote relatively environmentally friendly Internet businesses and their so-called e-government initiatives, the richer nations of the world have urged a preservation of the status quo.

"One of the most important reasons for the Internet's success is that no single entity controls it," Stanca said.

The United Nations task force is currently discussing with ICANN ways to tackle the digital divide, plus stamp out spam, cybercrime and the preservation of freedom of expression and rights to privacy.

Both groups agree a clampdown on some of the unsavory aspects of the Internet--ranging from child pornography to computer hack attacks--is a worthwhile objective that may require international treaties. Neither side has offered a clear idea of how to tackle the problem, however.

The more urgent matter is the question of which group will lead the medium into the next decade: the 5-year-old ICANN or the UN-sanctioned telecommunications standards-setting body the International Telecommunication Union?

Stanca made it clear Europe stands behind ICANN. "We see ICANN as an asset. It should play a major role in the future," he said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5169866.html


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What Copy Rights?

Courts continue to halt traditionally legal duplication in digital world; congress must step in with legislation.
Mercury News Editorial

A record of 0-3 in the courts is not heartening; for copyright reformers, it's a signal to turn up the heat in Washington. If the courts won't uphold consumers' rights, then Congress, which created the problem by passing a bad copyright law, must.

Three times in the past three years, federal courts have banned the distribution of technologies that let consumers make copies of the digital works that they own. In the latest case, a U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco ordered a Missouri company to stop producing software that evades anti-piracy protections on DVDs.

Judge Susan Illston acted at the request of the major Hollywood studios. Software made by 321 Studios evades Contents Scramble System, or CSS, the principal encryption technology used to protect movies.

The software company argued that its products were legal; under the copyright law's fair-use exemption, people have a right to make backup copies of copyrighted works they buy. If your child damages your DVD of ``Mystic River,'' you don't have to buy it again, if you've made a copy.

But Illston found that in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Congress unambiguously made it illegal to make and sell products that circumvent copyright protection technologies. The technology is at issue, she wrote, not the uses to which the copyrighted material may be put.

Two years ago, in a San Jose case, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte reached a similar finding. He ruled against a Russian firm, Elcom Ltd., whose product let readers thwart encryption on Adobe's Acrobat eBook Reader.

In both cases, the judges upheld the law but provoked a bigger question: What can consumers do when copyright holders deny them basic rights, like making personal copies, that they have had in the non-digital world with videotapes, records and books? Apparently not much.

Sure, you can hold a video camera up to the TV and make a poor-quality duplicate of a DVD. Or, with an eBook, write out a copy longhand. To the judges, that would satisfy fair use: There's no constitutional guarantee, they said, to make perfect duplicate copies. Such a narrow view, while pleasing copyright holders, denies consumers huge benefits of digital technologies. Movie studies and recording companies can write software protections that permit personal copies and other fair uses; they simply choose not to, and Congress, by banning circumvention technologies, has let them get away with it.

Last year, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose introduced a bill that would explicitly allow purchasers of digital works to use them in the same ways that courts have said they could use videotapes and records. The latest court decision should prod Congress to get off the dime and pass it.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...printstory.jsp


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End of ropee karaoke

Recording Companies Launch Copyright Campaign Against Chinese Karaoke Bars

Recording companies including Time Warner and EMI are launching a campaign to force thousands of Chinese karaoke bars to start paying for the tunes their patrons croon to, a lawyer for the companies said Wednesday.

The move by 49 foreign and Chinese firms marks the start of a new battle over rampant piracy in China of movies, designer fashions and other intellectual property.

Lawyers have sent letters to ``several thousand'' karaoke parlors throughout China demanding they pay copyright fees, said Guo Chunfei of the Beijing Tianwei Law Firm.

``As far as I know, no karaoke parlor here in China pays fees. That's why it is urgent to resolve this,'' Guo said. She said the companies hope to reach agreements without going to court.

Karaoke is hugely popular in China, where bars, hotels, restaurants and some homes are equipped with karaoke rooms. In bigger cities, karaoke parlors are neon-lit, multistory entertainment palaces with bars, private lounges and space for hundreds of patrons. Karaoke bars can be found in the tiniest provincial towns.

The music often comes from illegally duplicated recordings, with no fees paid to copyright holders.

In most countries, licensing organizations collect fees from karaoke operators or companies that manufacture music discs.

In the United States, karaoke bars are supposed to get a license from groups like the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, said Jim Steinblatt, an ASCAP spokesman. The license is an all-in-one agreement that gives companies permission to use all of ASCAP's properties.

Guo said the scale of the recording companies' effort to secure copyright fees in China is so huge that her firm has retained 40 other Chinese firms to help pursue violators.

Companies involved in the campaign range from global giants Universal, Time Warner and EMI to Hong Kong's Emperor Entertainment Group and smaller Chinese firms, Guo said.

The lawyer said she didn't know how much money would be involved.

But the official Xinhua News Agency, citing an unnamed industry consultant, said fees would vary by the size of the karaoke bar and could run as high as $12,000.

That would mean the total for overdue copyright fees could run into the tens of millions of dollars.

Despite repeated promises by the government to crack down, China's piracy industry continues to copy everything from Ralph Lauren shirts to Microsoft software. Copies of new Hollywood movies are readily available for as little as 50 cents on the streets of Beijing.

International trade groups say Chinese piracy costs Western companies an estimated $16 billion in lost sales each year.

A spokesman for the Taiwan-based Cashbox Karaoke Group, which operates a well-known chain of karaoke bars in China, said it already was paying music fees through the China Music Copyright Association.

``We heard about the demand by the law firms,'' spokesman Zhou Gang said by telephone from Taipei. ``But we haven't received any letters.''
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...al/8096891.htm


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Too much information

China Bans New Internet Cafes Near Schools

BEIJING (AP) - Claiming that ``harmful cultural information'' online was hurting children, China said Thursday that Internet cafes may not open within 660 feet of schools.

The official China News Service did not say whether those already operating would be affected.

Although Chinese leaders encourage Internet use for business and education, they have expressed growing alarm that it is exposing young people to pornography and influences the government deems harmful. Officials also worry that students spend too much time playing video games.

``Currently some online services such as Internet bars are breaking the rules, using the Internet to spread harmful cultural information and seriously hurting the mental and physical health of young people,'' the report said.

The government already limits when and how long minors can use Internet cafes. The announcement threatened to punish efforts to ``clandestinely set up an online service'' by disguising it as a computer school.

The government says China had 79.5 million Internet users at the end of 2003 -- the world's second biggest population online after the United States.

According to official figures, the number of Chinese people playing games online last year grew to 13.8 million. Many are children and teenagers.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...al/8106359.htm


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ISPs Left In The Dark Over Internet Copyright Law
Selina Mitchell and Kate Mackenzie

INTERNET service providers cannot expect quick resolution of concerns surrounding the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

In side letters to the FTA released last week, Australia agreed to the US "takedown notice" regime, where copyright owners can force an ISP to remove material such as music, video or text files by serving written notice.

The Government has promised more discussion before any new system is enforced.

ISPs, copyright lawyers and the Internet Industry Association are concerned that "draconian" US copyright protection laws will be transplanted here, forcing ISPs to shut down sites displaying content suspected of being illegal, without first ensuring there has been an infringement.

There is also concern that ISPs will be forced into mass handovers of personal information on suspected copyright violators.

WHile detail of the FTA was released last week, both the US and Australian governments must seek approval for the deal before it is enforced.

In Australia, approval will require legislation.

"Our concern is that the agreement is taking us far closer to the way the US manages copyright," Internet Industry Association head Peter Coroneos said.

"We have a different approach to privacy, and a much less litigious culture, and we would be concerned if that was jeopardised through US rights holders gaining the upper hand."

Mr Coroneos said he would prefer a co-regulatory approach to the FTA, rather than legislation, which would be less flexible.

ISPs and web hosts supported Mr Coroneos's comments, and said they were awaiting the outcome of the FTA measures.

"We look forward to working with the Government on the issue," a spokeswoman for number-two ISP OptusNet said.

Lloyd Ernst, chief executive of Australia's largest web host, WebCentral, said he was concerned at any measures that could disadvantage Australian hosting providers, who competed in a global market, even for local customers.

As it appeared in the Australia-US papers, the new procedure could increase the burden on ISPs, he said.

"It's absolutely vital that we get the FTA right, and we are going to be working with the various industry bodies to express our concerns to the Government and provide some solutions that address those concerns," Mr Ernst said.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Communications, IT and the Arts Daryl Williams confirmed that the FTA did not contain detail on how ISP liability provisions were to be applied.

"The Government will be coming up with Australian solutions to implement the FTA and will consider the views of stakeholders," she said.

"A co-regulatory regime to address certain aspects of the ISP liability provisions is one option the Government will consider."

It is unclear whether ISPs will be given the same immunity from court action over copyright that their counterparts receive in the US.

"Australia has a different regime and we are not required to import US laws into Australia as a result of the FTA," she said.

"ISPs will be able to avoid paying damages if they satisfy certain conditions designed to assist copyright owners in combatting online piracy.

"Currently, under Australian copyright law, more general authorisation liability provisions apply.

"A system to carry out the FTA's obligations is currently being developed and the views of stakeholders will be taken into account."

Australian Digital Alliance executive officer Miranda Lee said the depth of concern about the FTA would depend on the detail of legislation, and how it was interpreted by the courts, but it was a "worrying addition" to the copyright regime.

In the US, copyright owners give notice of a suspected breach and if ISPs take down the content immediately they limit, or even eliminate, their liability.

Because the ISPs are keen to avoid litigation, they often take down the material without investigation.

This led to rights by assertion, rather than proof, and unilaterally gave copyright owners the power to take down material, Ms Lee said.

In some instances, takedown notices, or server closures, had caused chaos, lawyers said.

In the US and Canada the recording industry is gathering personal information on alleged copyright infringers from ISPs.

It is unclear whether Australian ISPs would be required to pass on similar private information, Ms Lee said.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...-15319,00.html


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Rights Groups Target Antipiracy Directive
Matthew Broersma

Civil liberties groups are engaging in a last-minute attempt to alter a controversial intellectual-property law that they claim will lead to a flood of frivolous lawsuits against consumers and small businesses.

The Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, which passed through the European Parliament's judicial affairs committee last month, is scheduled for a parliamentary debate on Monday. The parliament is set to vote on the directive Tuesday, in the last chance for members of the European Parliament to introduce amendments before ministers vote on the directive Thursday. If approved, member states would have two years to incorporate the directive's provisions into national laws.

The directive is primarily aimed at cracking down on organized piracy and counterfeiting in the EU, which is a growing problem. Critics, however, say the directive's scope has been broadened to cover not just piracy for commercial purposes, but also involuntary acts or those committed by individuals without commercial intent or impact.

According to U.K. civil rights group the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), the law would also allow large companies to use draconian legal measures to threaten and harass smaller competitors, for example, by raiding their premises, seizing evidence and freezing bank accounts in highly technical patent infringement cases.

A coalition of citizen- and consumer-rights groups, including FIPR, is calling for parliament members to support a collection of amendments that it asserts will place appropriate limitations on the directive. More than 100 parliament members have already pledged to support the amendments.

Ian Brown, FIPR's director of the coalition, said the directive must be limited in order to serve the interests of EU citizens and rights holders. "Otherwise it will lead to a flood of lawsuits against small businesses and consumers that will discredit European law in this area," he said in a statement.

A representative for the Business Software Alliance, which has been fighting to broaden the directive's scope and penalties, recently said stronger enforcement was needed to curb the activities of criminal gangs. The alliance cited research that 37 percent of the software in use in Western European businesses is illegal. Reducing the United Kingdom's software piracy rate from 25 percent to 15 percent would add $18.5 billion (10 billion pounds) to the country's gross domestic product, $4.6 billion in tax revenue and 40,000 IT jobs, according to IDC figures quoted by the Business Software Alliance.

The European recording industry association has criticized the directive as not going far enough to crack down on piracy because its measures are not as harsh as those in some member states.
http://news.com.com/2100-1014-5171387.html


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Have a cigar.

Army to Gates: Halt The Free Software
Ina Fried

Microsoft has been mailing free copies of its pricey Office productivity software to government employees, but CNET News.com has learned that at least two federal agencies are warning recipients to return the gifts or risk violating federal ethics policies.

Since the launch of Office 2003 last year, Microsoft has given out tens of thousands of free copies of its flagship software, which retails for about $500, to workers at its biggest customers. The giveaway was expanded to government workers this year, but ethics offices at the Department of the Interior and Department of Defense have said the offers constitute unauthorized gifts and must be returned.

The Department of the Army went a step further, calling on Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to stop sending the software to Army personnel.

"We ask that you cease immediately the mailing of free software, and other types of gifts, to the Department of the Army personnel," Deputy General Counsel Matt Reres said in a Feb. 19 letter seen by CNET News.com. "Your offer of free software places our employees and soldiers in jeopardy of unknowingly committing a violation of the ethics rules and regulations to which they have taken an oath to uphold."

The issue comes up as many governments are looking at open-source alternatives for Office and the Windows operating system. The British government has been evaluating a switch to the Linux OS, while open-source software is also being eyed in Korea, China, India and even at some local agencies in the United States.

Microsoft's giveaway also comes as the company faces ongoing oversight by the Justice Department as part of its settlement of antitrust allegations.

A Microsoft representative said giving away the software is a way to let some customers experience new features. "The goal of the program was to give customers a taste of the software and allow them to learn how it might be of use to their organizations in a positive way," Microsoft spokesman Keith Hodson said.

Although Office has captured more than 90 percent of the market for productivity software, convincing customers to upgrade to the latest versions of Office has become a growing challenge for the company. And upgrades are essential to Microsoft: Office and Windows produce substantially all the company's profits.

To address ethical concerns, Microsoft includes a note with copies of the software letting government workers know that they can send the software back to Microsoft without charge if receiving such a gift violates their agency's rules.

"Government Entities: Microsoft intends that this product be used in accordance with applicable laws and regulations for the evaluation, use and benefit of your government agency only," Microsoft states in the note. "You may, at your discretion, return this product package to Microsoft at its expense."

Hodson said the company hoped such language would allow any agency that did not appreciate the offer to easily send back the software.

"Not every government organization, as we're learning, finds it to be a valuable program," Hodson said. "We would like to think that there will be a variety of government organizations that will find value in the program."

For now, Microsoft said it will continue the strategy but will stop sending software to any particular agency that requests the company do so. The software maker did not say how many copies of the program have been sent to government employees.

According to the Department of Defense, delivery of the software was preceded by a card explaining that Office would be arriving "in the coming weeks" and that the software was being sent "without obligation."

The Defense Department's Standards of Conduct Office was among the first to take action, warning its workers in a Feb. 13 advisory not to accept the software.

"These items have been determined to be gifts from a prohibited source, and may not be accepted by (Defense Department) employees," the agency said in its advisory. "If received, the items should be returned to Microsoft."

The ethics office of the Department of the Interior said it had not heard reports of its employees receiving the software, but decided last month to warn its 65,000 workers after hearing about the Department of Defense's reaction.

"We looked at it as a marketing gambit," said Arthur Gary, deputy director of the Interior Department's ethics office. "We just wanted to apply the gift rules to it."

The department, which oversees national parks and other federal lands, concluded last month that the software constituted an unacceptable gift--one valued at more than $20 and from a party with whom the department does business or whom it regulates. Since issuing the memo, Gary said, the agency has heard of at least one employee receiving the software.

"We just kind of wanted to spread the word," Gary said. "We want to head off any problems."

If the response of those two government agencies is any indication of how other departments will respond, Microsoft may back away from the program.

"Based on an overall response we receive from governments," Hodson said, "we may look at doing things differently the next time."
http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5171976.html


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Coming to a monitor near you

Osama And Afghan Cinema: An Interview With Siddiq Barmak
Maggie Loescher, Maryam Maruf

Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban feature film, a bleak yet lyrical story of a young girl forced to ‘pass’ as a boy in order to support her widowed mother, is provoking worldwide interest in the country’s cinematic heritage and future. As Siddiq Barmak presents the film in open-air screenings around Kabul, Maryam Maruf of openDemocracy and Maggie Loescher talk to the acclaimed director.

openDemocracy: Osama is a very beautiful and poignant film, but also extremely sad.

Siddiq Barmak: Yes, I’m very sorry about that! All my friends have been telling me that I must make a comedy next time.

openDemocracy: You also wrote the screenplay for Osama. When did the idea come to you for this film?

Siddiq Barmak: When I was in Pakistan I was searching within the Afghan community for a good story. I heard a lot of stories from children working on the streets. But in fact, the film’s story came from Saha, a Pashtun-language Afghan newspaper published in Peshawar.

The newspaper article described a little girl who went to school during the Taliban period, something that was forbidden according to Taliban – not Islamic – beliefs. She decided to cut her beautiful hair and dress like a boy, and she went to the school, which was a hidden, underground one. But this secret school was exposed, its principal arrested by the Amr bil-Ma’aruf – the Taliban’s religious police – and executed. The girl’s true identity was revealed.

It was a very short story but I was shocked that the girl wanted to change her sex under pressure. It seemed like a kind of fascism. I really wanted to make this the subject of my film. Then, when I started to write the script, I started to collect some other true stories and it became not so short.

For example, when I returned to Kabul from Peshawar I saw that the priority for people in Kabul was to feed themselves and their family. I made the mission of the little girl in the film to get a job rather than to go to school. The story was not completely changed, but I introduced different things.

There were also things I filmed which I left out. There was a scene where the little girl, who ends up being the mullah’s wife, escapes from the house with all the other women. They go on a long journey over a very beautiful landscape. The final scene is a shot of them crossing the rainbow. It was very beautiful, and it was my dream that they should reach this freedom. But it was not very true. It felt like lying, it wasn’t part of myself. That’s why I decided to take it out.

openDemocracy: While you were in Pakistan, the Taliban destroyed many of your films. Can they be restored? What’s happening about that?

Siddiq Barmak: Not only my films but the work of other filmmakers was destroyed. They searched my house and destroyed my 8mm cameras, photos, projectors. The Taliban not only blew up the Buddha statues in Bamiyan; the Taliban leader Mullah Omar also gave orders to destroy the National Gallery, the National Film Archive, the radio and studio archive.

They actually started with the film archives. Fortunately, some very bravehearted radio colleagues came to the main building of the Afghan Film Institute, closed the door and started to hide all the original films – everywhere! Under the floorboards, in the dark rooms, on the roof, behind the screens – everywhere they could. They also cut the electricity, so it was completely dark, just like a film studio.

The Taliban didn’t know the structure of the building, so they couldn’t find these hidden things. But they did find some copies of these films outside the building. There were a lot of wonderful films from Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, USA, even two or three from Britain. The Taliban burnt them all – around 2,600 films – in the very place we wanted to raise a new building to house this archive. It was a catastrophe, actually.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates...-1-67-1769.jsp


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George Michael Shuns Music Industry
BBC

Pop star George Michael is abandoning the music business to release his songs online for free instead.

The multi-millionaire singer said he will never make another album for sale in record shops because he does not need the cash and does not enjoy fame.

Fans will be given the option to make donations online in exchange for downloading the tracks, and the proceeds will be given to charity.

He is promoting his latest album, Patience, which he said is his last.

The 40-year-old star made his announcement during an interview with Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1.

Speaking about his decision, he said: "I'm sure it's unprecedented, it's definitely unprecedented for someone who still sells records.

"I've been very well remunerated for my talents over the years so I really don't need the public's money."

He added that he hoped people downloading his music would donate to his favourite charities.

'All the negativity'

Explaining his decision, the former Wham! frontman said: "It does two things - it takes the pressure off to have a collection of songs every so many years, which is what nearly killed me.

"I'm not pretending I won't be famous any more, but in the modern world if you take yourself out of the financial aspect of things, you're not making anybody any money, you're not losing anybody any money.

"Believe me, I'll be of very little interest to the press in a certain number of years.

"I'll hopefully be a happier man, giving my music and also doing something really positive with my music if people are generous enough to donate to the site. I'll remove myself from all that negativity."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...nt/3499534.stm


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Napster, IBM Promise Cache Savings
Matt Hines

Napster on Wednesday launched a digital media delivery system based on IBM blade server technology that's meant to aid universities and businesses in conserving bandwidth while offering downloads.

Delivered via IBM eServer BladeCenter systems running on Linux software, the Super Peer application is designed around the idea of active cache-management, which allows for improved bandwidth provisioning.

Napster claims the tool will help free-up valued network space for universities, Internet service providers and other organizations with networks used for downloading content.

The Los Angeles-based digital music service, re-launched by Roxio in October 2003, is increasingly marketing its services to colleges and universities, which are seen as key contributors to digital music-swapping networks. University administrators have been actively seeking ways to ameliorate legal risk and stress on their own networks as digital file sharing remains popular with students and as the recording industry pursues lawsuits against file swappers.

The new system offers universities and other customers the ability to cache digital media in on-site servers managed by Napster and IBM. Traditional peer-to-peer computing technology, which helped music services such as Napster attain wide popularity, does not account for bandwidth management. It has caused headaches for schools and other providers as waves of end users eat up network resources downloading tunes.

Super Peer is designed to save customers bandwidth and money by letting them to keep frequently accessed digital media files in their cache systems so users can download the files without leaving their networks. Napster estimates that in a typical university or ISP setting, such a system could save as much as $50,000 per year in bandwidth-related expenses.

"The reason we called (the system) Super Peer is because we think it represents the best aspects of peer-to-peer computing, but puts the caches in the right places and adds network security," said Bill Pence, Napster's chief technology officer. "In a typical peer-to-peer network there are usually only a few content sources distributed randomly; this brings the content much closer to the users."

The Penn State test drive
Among the first institutions to pilot Super Peer will be Pennsylvania State University, which was also the first school to sign-on for Napster's university program. Last November, PSU reached a deal with Napster to give students access to music funded by student fees, in an attempt to replace campus file swapping with legal listening alternatives.

Since launching its download system in January, Penn State students have accounted for a staggering average of 100,000 file streams and downloads per day. That number appears even more impressive when considering that the program has only 10,000 registered users. According to Pence, these figures only validate Napster's strategy to actively court universities as customers.

"If you look at file sharing in the university setting, most of the problems were caused by the legal issues and network traffic," Pence said. "When we relaunched Napster we helped reduce the liabilities of file sharing; here we're addressing problems related to bandwidth purchasing fees."

Pence said Super Peer also increases universities' network security by eliminating the potential presence of hidden programs such as spyware and spoofed files, since Napster and IBM actively manage the systems and monitor them for unauthorized content.

In addition to supporting the Napster application on its server systems, IBM is offering installation, support and managed-services packages for the system, including several payment options.

Napster is making Super Peer immediately available to institutions already providing its services to end-users.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5172046.html


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Commercial P2P Networks Gaining Ground
John Borland

While peer-to-peer piracy continues to grab the entertainment industry's attention, a few technology companies are gaining headwind, using almost identical means to distribute legal downloads.

After several years in the shadows, Red Swoosh--a company founded by veterans of Scour, one of the first file-swapping services Hollywood shut down–-emerged Tuesday with the seeds of a healthy content distribution business. While prominent peer-to-peer companies such as Kontiki and Groove Networks have focused on business applications, Red Swoosh has kept its eyes on entertainment and consumers.

In part, that's why the company's CEO is now reaching out to the broad community of people using BitTorrent, an underground file-trading application using similar technology that has exploded in popularity among people distributing or downloading video and software programs.

Red Swoosh CEO Travis Kalanick said he wants to tap that energy. He's offering free use of Red Swoosh's content distribution services to noncommercial filmmakers, game developers or other publishers.

"I don't want to fight BitTorrent," Kalanick said. "I want to have a relationship with that community. That's not just about cutting a deal; you have give to that community."

The peer-to-peer technology world has been proceeding on two tracks almost since the emergence of Napster, despite similarities on the technological front. Underground networks like BitTorrent and Kazaa have flourished, while companies like Red Swoosh that have taken the copyright-friendly track are now just beginning to see their efforts bear fruit.

Red Swoosh and rival Kontiki, along with a handful of other companies, say peer-to-peer technology allows content distributors to pass off much of their distribution costs--largely in the form of Net bandwidth charges--to their customers. For companies distributing large files to many people, such as gaming or video publishers, that can be a huge benefit, they say.

As with more familiar networks, like the defunct Napster or Kazaa, people interested in specific files download them and store them on their hard drives. With Kontiki or Red Swoosh, they also download the peer-to-peer company's sharing application, which then lets other people interested in the same files download from them instead of from the original publisher.

Kontiki counts GameSpot, a game site News.com publisher CNET Networks owns, among its clients--though it now focuses more on internal corporate communications. Red Swoosh has signed GameSpot rival IGN Entertainment, as well as Net video site IFilm. Largely as a result of those two customers, the company's network has peaked at transmitting 7 terabytes of data in a single day, Kalanick said.

IGN Chief Technology Officer Ken Keller said Red Swoosh's services have saved the company considerable amounts of money, including about $36,000 on the distribution of more than 18 terabytes of data last month.

Some analysts remain skeptical of peer-to-peer companies' ability to play a large role in entertainment distribution, however.

"Large companies I've talked to didn't seem to want to adopt it because (of) a lot of the uncertainties around it," said Lawrence Orans, a Gartner analyst. He noted that people uploading content could be violating some Internet service providers' terms of service or even exceeding monthly bandwidth limitations, in some cases.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5172564.html


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Groove Spreads Collaboration to Remote Users
Dennis Callaghan

Groove Networks Inc. is launching an upgrade to its flagship peer-to-peer collaboration platform designed to make it easier for enterprises to add a collaborative element to their business tasks.

The company on Thursday will release a public beta of Groove 3.0, which has enhancements geared toward teams of workers spread out at different locations.

The upgrade represents Beverly, Mass.- based Groove Networks' first ever public beta.

Chief among the new features in this version is a new forms tool, which company officials said enables users to design their own lightweight applications for project and business process management. The forms tool supports the generation of scripts or macros using JavaScript or VBScript as well as a Web services API to import data from enterprise applications.

The overall user interface in Groove has been improved as well, particularly in the area of file management. In this version, Windows Explorer on a user's PC becomes a Groove workspace and can be synchronized across other users' PCs, lessening reliance on e-mail for file transfer.

Groove user Jeff Tucker said he liked this new file sharing capability.

"It's the perfect solution for people who are working remotely or mobile and have to collaborate across different networks," said Tucker, assistant vice president for information systems at Marlborough Savings Bank, which is using Groove 2.5 now for secure IM and for exchanging information in collaborative workspaces.

Other new interface improvements in Version 3.0 include Groove LaunchPad, a new starting point for managing workspaces, contacts, and presence and awareness; Workspace Explorer, a new interface for working within Groove Workspaces; and new visual and audible alerts of user presence activities.

Interface improvements should help as well, as usability is key to the software's success in any environment, Tucker said.

"You can spend a lot of money on software like this, but if your users don't understand it, you're sunk," said Tucker, in Marlboro, Mass.

Groove Networks, whose technology has a hybrid model of peer-to-peer clients tied to a server backbone, is also releasing a new Enterprise Management Server designed to improve security and identity management of the technology within an enterprise. The Enterprise Management Server includes native support for an organization's public key infrastructure for identity authentication, plus centralized usage and data auditing and improved directory integration, company officials said.

Groove 3.0 also added new .Net Web services APIs to its Enterprise Integration Server, which also supports Windows Server 2003.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1547185,00.asp


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FSC Students Download Music Despite Threat Of Lawsuits
Lindsey Gardner, Ashley Thomo and Justin Murphy

I think downloading music is a great way to get free songs, and it is just too easy to do, said a Framingham State College junior who wished to remain anonymous. She added, I wouldn't consider it stealing, but it probably isn't right.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has begun a nationwide investigation against file-sharing users on the premise that downloading music is illegal.

According to the RIAA Web site, the goal of the association is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world.

According to a Dec. 3, 2003 article by the Collegiate Presswire, the RIAA has filed 41 new lawsuits and sent out 90 lawsuit notifications, in addition to the 341 lawsuits that have been filed since September.

Massachusetts' college students are just some of the estimated 60 million people who download music and have already received subpoenas. Boston University, Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are some of the local colleges where students have been targeted.

WDJM disc jockey Bill Marsh disagrees with the action that the RIAA is taking against music downloaders. He said, I think it's ridiculous that the record companies point to [downloading] as a major reason for the decline in record sales, and then think that a logical response to that is to sue their customers.?

An unscientific survey conducted in the fall of 2003 showed that a large number of Framingham State College students download music. Three hundred and fifty-four out of 400 students surveyed have downloaded music off the Internet at some point.

Senior Jen Vito said the survey numbers were accurate. Everyone I know downloads music.

The RIAA claims to lose approximately $4.2 billion each year due to online piracy. The RIAA defines piracy as the illegal duplication and distribution of sound recordings.

Junior Hanna Herrman believes that the RIAA is being melodramatic. She said, I think it'w a big deal about nothing and a waste of people's time. . .corporations being bitter over stupid things. It seems to me that they're not really losing money.

The four types of piracy that the RIAA deems as illegal are:

Pirate Recordings - the unauthorized duplication of only the sound of legitimate recordings. This includes mixed tapes and compilation CDs.
Counterfeit Recordings - the unauthorized recordings of the prerecorded sounds as well as the unauthorized duplication of original artwork.
Bootleg Recordings (or underground recordings) - the unauthorized recordings of live concerts, or musical broadcasts on radio or television.
Online Piracy - the unauthorized uploading of a copyrighted sound recording and making it available to the public, or downloading a sound recording from an Internet site, even if the recording isn't resold.

Amanda Madden, a junior and DJ at WDJM, believes musicians need to understand the importance of having access to downloading music. She said, I believe that while musicians have a right to be upset about a loss in their profit, they don't have the right to put us down for using alternative sources. I think everyone should take a step back and musicians should realize their fans want one thing: to listen to their music.

FSC students have not been targeted yet, but the survey showed that students are continuing to download.

In regard to handling the FSC downloading issue, President Helen Heineman said, We have tried to limit that type of activity [file-sharing] during the academic hours so that we can make sure that people who need to use the computers for classes can use them.

FSC is currently blocking the ability to access music servers in the residence halls. However, they have not stopped students from downloading music on their own. By stopping students from file-sharing, the FSC administration hopes to demonstrate their disapproval and their attempts to stop music downloading.

Senior Jessi Walsh no longer downloads music due to the blocking. I stopped because everything I used got shut down. I miss it because I want to download all of these new songs that have come out, but I can't!

Cynthia Forrest, former dean of student services, said, I think if they [the students] do get caught, it would be their problem. If they do get caught, the college would take action if we knew about it.

Patrick Laughran, chief information technology officer at FSC, agreed. We can't protect anyone from being sued.

He added, [It's the] good faith on our part to demonstrate our trying to stop [it]. We're trying to do more through education and awareness. Our focus is service and quality.?

At FSC, downloading music is not monitored. Administrators see the problem more on a macro-level than on an individual level. There is technology to monitor this; however, it does not seem necessary at this point, according to Laughran.
http://www.thegatepost.com/archives/s04/s04_080.html


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Sad News…

ShareReactor Down Indefinitely
Thomas Mennecke

ShareReactor has become one of the most popular link sites for the eDonkey2000/Overnet community. This site made the "search" feature irrelevant by using hash codes to directly link an individual with a file. Hash links have proven to be invaluable in the fight against corrupt or false files.

However, after approximately three years as the top link site for eDonkey2000/ Overnet, its future is drawn into great question. The site has been down for several days, with little in the way of an explanation. The little information that has surfaced has been confined to the ShareReactor chatroom and a few forum posts. The ShareReactor IRC chat room topic states the following:

"MAINPAGE & FORUM WILL MOST LIKELY NOT BE BACK UP, PLEASE DO NOT ASK WHY, WE WILL TELL YOU WHEN WE KNOW MORE!"

In addition, a post on FileHeaven.org by ShareReactor admin "BadM" states that the exact details of the site closure remain unclear. The site administrator, Simon Moon, has been unreachable since the site closure.

Here are the two statements from FileHaven.org. Please keep in mind that this is a fluid situation, and these statements may be continuously updated:

OFFICIAL STATEMENT (or as official as it gets at the time)

As of now you probably noticed that the main page (www.sharereactor.com) and the forums (forum.sharereactor.com) is offline. However our IRC server is still running, although you CANNOT connect to it through the DNS, so use 217.160.142.238 instead, and feel free to join #ShareReactor if you want too…

Now enough of this babbling…. Why is ShareReactor down? You’re all asking. The truth is, none of us knows. However it’s seems to be DNS problems, since jigle.com and a few other sites is online which is running on the same line as ShareReactor is/ was. SimonMoon has been offline for almost 2 days at the time you are reading this, so nothing can and have been confirmed, so please don’t jump to any conclusions.

Now you all probably wonder when ShareReactor will be back up. Again none of us knows, however the core and some of the users still hang around at IRC, and when the page gets back online, that’s the first place it will be announced.

If you wish to contact anyone from the crew and are unable to get on IRC, you can use the mail addresses at the bottom of this post. If the person you seek is not listed, send the mail to someone else and tell him/her to pass it on

- The ShareReactor Crew

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official Statement regarding ShareReactor.com

As of now, 8 pm on friday March 12, 2004, ShareReactor is dead.

We from the SR crew don't know what happened, but we do know SR is dead, at least for the coming weeks, and maybe forever.
It was great while it lasted but now it is over.

Thanks to everyone who supported SR, we wish you all the best!

Goodbye,

The ShareReactor Crew

http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=424












Until next week,

- js.











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