Hatchet Job
The fallout continues from senator Orrin Hatch’s disturbing comments regarding his intention to destroy the computers of file sharers. If he was trying to assist the copyright industry he failed thoroughly. He succeeded only in angering people, some of whom were initially sympathetic to the record industry, but are now incensed that the RIAA and Hatch would try to justify taking the ax to private property, particularly their own, without granting them their rights of self defense. The last straw had to be the reports that Hatch himself was a copyright violator who used without payment the product of a small software company. It’s one thing to stand on principal, but it’s quite another to wallow in hypocrisy.
Baby, It’s Hot Outside
After a very wet and exceptionally cold spring, the mercury started its relentless climb here in Connecticut, and while we’re seeing the heat index numbers exceed triple digits it’s nothing to how hot the RIAA is going to feel when the first of what promises to be hundreds – if not thousands of lawsuits are delivered to regular folks sharing files on the peers. It’s a fools errand, these lawsuits, and sure to provoke outrage and provide endless bad press when challenged in courts across the land. The very fact these lawsuits are aimed at what the RIAA sneeringly refers to as “distributors” shows the true nature of their strategy; a thinly veiled attempt to correlate file sharing with unsavory activities such as drug dealing and organized crime in order to marginalize the behavior of those involved and eliminate public sympathy before the trials even begin. It may work in congress and the conglomerate controlled Big Media (isn’t that the same thing now?), especially those companies with record and film subsidiaries, but it’s not going to work with the public, the record buyers or the voters; not when granny and junior are getting dragged in front of hostile judges. Oh the humanity!
The simple fact is that for Kazaa, Winmx, Blubster, BearShare etc it is technically impossible for a user to actively distribute anything at all. They just don’t work that way. They never have. It doesn’t matter how big a “distributor” they say you are,
you just can’t send anybody anything. Your files sit there passively. The most you can do is watch someone “take” what you have, if you happen to be looking, but in no way can you actively distribute so much as a byte. If as the record companies are fond of saying, “file sharing is like shoplifting” - then these latest lawsuits are the equivalent of suing the stores. The concept alone’s absurd. Shock and awe, that’s what they’re up too, not win and collect.
There are now probably 80 million active file sharers in the U.S. and if they wanted to get under the RIAA's radar they could each reduce their shares to a measly 10 files. That means that in the aggregate even if 90 percent of those files are identical the networks will have a potential pool of 80 million unique files on the systems, which is probably enough to satisfy even the most enthusiastic of file sharing aficionados. As for those big “distributors” in places like Europe and certain other foreign ports of call, people in countries I find myself connected to more than half the time, well they can keep right on parking stuff in the pipes for their poor American cousins. These bad faith lawsuits won’t affect them at all.
Enjoy,
Jack.
Recording Industry to Sue Internet Song Swappers
Andy Sullivan
A recording-industry trade group said on Wednesday it plans to sue hundreds of individuals who illegally distribute copyrighted songs over the Internet, expanding its anti-piracy fight into millions of homes.
The Recording Industry Association of America said it hopes to curb illegal song downloading by tracking down the heaviest users of popular "peer to peer" services like Kazaa and suing them for thousands of dollars in damages.
"We're going to begin taking names and preparing lawsuits against peer-to-peer network users who are illegally making available a substantial number of music files to millions of other computer users," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a conference call.
The RIAA believes the popular peer-to-peer services, which allow users to copy music, movies and other files from each others' hard drives, are partly responsible for a decline in CD sales, and has aggressively sought to shut them down.
RIAA members include AOL Time Warner Inc AOL.N . Vivendi Universal V.N , Sony Corp 6758.T ., Bertelsmann AG BERT.UL , and EMI Group Plc EMI.L .
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle....toryID=2988703
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Radiohead Sales Stronger After New CD Leaked On P2P
Radiohead's latest effort for Capitol, "Hail to the Thief," enters at No. 3 with sales of 300,000 copies. This bests the first-week sales totals of 2000's "Kid A" and 2001's "Amnesiac," despite the fact that "Hail to the Thief" was illegally available online 10 weeks prior to hitting stores. "Kid A" entered at No. 1 with 207,000 copies, and "Amnesiac" arrived at No. 2 with 231,000 copies.
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/ar...ent_id=1916718
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Hollywood wants to hack your PC. Don’t like it? Well your congressman says “Drop dead”.
Hollywood Hacking Bill Hits House
Declan McCullagh
WASHINGTON--Copyright owners would be able to legally hack into peer-to-peer networks, according to a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Thursday. As previously reported by CNET News.com, the measure would dramatically rewrite federal law to permit nearly unchecked electronic disruptions if a copyright holder has a "reasonable basis" to believe that piracy is occurring.
Text of bill as introduced:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/berm...nal.072502.pdf
Section-by-section analysis, prepared by Rep. Berman and friends:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/berm...is.072502.html
Berman's statement:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/berm...nt.072502.html
Compare and contrast to draft of bill circulated in the last week (no major changes):
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/berm...aft.072402.pdf (warning:
1+ MB file)
Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03793.html
http://politechbot.com/p-03795.html
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iTunes Sharing Returns
Jim Heid
iTunes 4 Internet Sharing Returns. First it's here, then it's gone. Now it's back again: you can share your iTunes library over the Internet, even if you've upgraded to iTunes 4.0.1.
And you can thank James Speth, who gave us Internet-sharing features for iTunes before Apple did. Last year, Speth released iCommune, a free program that made it possible to share an iTunes library over a network or the Internet.
Speth promptly received some iCommunication from Apple's legal department, which claimed he violated the terms of a software licensing agreement. iCommune was shut down. iCommune has since returned in a version 2 update -- Speth rewrote the software to bypass Apple's legal complaint.
But what brings Internet sharing back to iTunes 4.0.1 isn't iCommune -- it's another James Speth production called 401(ok).
According to the 401(ok) documentation, the program operates as an "application-level proxy for the iTunes sharing protocol. The proxy allows your iTunes applications to communicate just as though they were sitting next to each other on a [network]."
The documentation also admits that the current version is "inefficient, ugly, and poorly written." I tried it, and it is indeed flakey. But by and large, it does work: I was able to access a remote music library using iTunes 4.0.1.
Before you music pirates start to drool, you should know that 401(ok) is not a getaway car for music theft. It doesn't, for example, enable you to access the shared libraries of people who haven't upgraded to version 4.0.1.
But if Speth refines the program, 401(ok) may be a good solution for honest folks who simply want to listen to their home-based music library while at work.
http://www.macilife.com/index.html
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Heritage Committee To Conduct Study On Copyright
For Immediate Release:
Ottawa, June 18, 2003 – The House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage announced today that it hopes to launch its statutory review of the Copyright Act, as mandated by section 92 of that Act, in the fall of 2003.
Section 92 further requires the Committee to complete its review and report back to Parliament within one year of the Minister’s report, unless an extension is granted. The Minister’s report, Supporting Culture and Innovation: Report on the Provisions and Operation of the Copyright Act, was released by the Government of Canada in October 2002.
Since the Committee was prevented by other business from commencing its review before next fall, it is clear that the October 2003 deadline will not be met. The Committee will therefore be seeking an extension to June 2004.
In order to assist the Committee in planning its review, individuals and groups interested in presenting briefs and/or appearing before the Committee are requested to forward a summary of their submissions to the Clerk of the Committee by no later than September 15, 2003. If possible, this summary should be provided in electronic form and forwarded to the following address: [heri@parl.gc.ca].
http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/37/...HERIPR03-e.htm
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Online Piracy Spurs High-Tech Arms Race
Brian Krebs
Sharing illegal copies of songs and movies on the Internet is a common practice, with the risks of getting caught slim. But even as the entertainment industry steps up its push to rid the online world of piracy, tech-savvy file sharers are devising new ways to avoid getting caught.
Swapping files online, by all accounts, is more popular than ever. In the past six months alone, no fewer than 50 new versions of "peer-to-peer," or P2P file-trading software programs have emerged on the Internet. Unlike some of the most popular services like Kazaa and Grokster, many of them try to shield the identities of their users with password-protected networks, encryption and other tools.
People who prefer downloading illegally copied files are jumping ship from the big-name networks in favor of these tightly knit communities, said Jorge Gonzalez, co-founder of Zeropaid.com, a Web forum for P2P enthusiasts.
Many leave because they don't want to get busted by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which yesterday announced a series of upcoming lawsuits against "major distributors" of illegal downloads. Once those lawsuits start making headlines, Gonzalez said, "I think there is going to be a natural recession where people will find other, more secure networks where they feel more comfortable, and there are lots that are ready and willing to take them in."
One new P2P network, called "WASTE," allows users to stake out small private networks to trade files and instant messages among trusted groups of friends. The system keeps unauthorized Internet users out of the system with encryption and authentication technology. It was created in the heart of the nation's largest Internet service provider, America Online, by programmer Justin Frankel -- best known as the author of the Gntuella software that later formed the core of several popular file-sharing services.
AOL quickly pulled WASTE from the Web site of Frankel's business unit after discovering what the program was used for. Copies, however, remain available for downloading at many other Web sites.
Another popular tool is "Peer Guardian," which lets users block Internet addresses that music companies and other copyright owners often use to troll P2P networks for illegal downloading.
File traders are looking at ways not just to make their activity harder to detect, but also to make it easier to do.
One of the most interesting is "swarming technology," which addresses the reality that downloading high-quality digital copies of feature films can take several hours to accomplish, even for people with high-speed broadband Internet access.
Swarming allows users to chop up big files into manageable chunks that are stored on numerous systems throughout the P2P provider's network. When a user requests a file, it gets routed in pieces through multiple systems, downloading it to the computer much more quickly. The technology also makes it more difficult to track the source and destination of the file.
Swarming networks are thought to be responsible for an enormous upsurge in illegal movie downloads. Eminem's debut film, "8 Mile," was downloaded 19,000 times in March, reported Los Gatos, Calif.-based BayTSP, a firm that searches the Internet for unauthorized trading of copyrighted files. May's most popular purloined movie was "Bulletproof Monk" with Chow Yun-Fat, which was downloaded more than 104,000 times.
The entertainment companies are not wasting time in battling new technologies. Some have enlisted firms that specialize in confounding file-sharing networks and in tracking copyright violations as they happen, even on closed networks.
"There is no lock that can't be picked, which is exactly why companies offering digital copy protection technologies are having such a hard time getting their products deployed," said Mark Ishikawa, chief executive officer of BayTSP.
Those "digital rights management" technologies will continue to frustrate the industry's efforts to attract file sharers from the free networks, said Mike McGuire, research director for San Jose, Calif.-based GartnerG2.
"With the Internet and especially high-speed connections, we now have a set of tools that can change how information flows, but many in the industry seem a little more interested in hanging on to the status quo," he said. "As long as the entertainment industry keeps trying to exert control through technology, that's going to continue to backfire."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Jun26.html
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Rob Glaser - The Sound of Stolen Thunder
Peter Rojas
In April, streaming media pioneer RealNetworks bought Listen.com to the tune of $36 million - in a grab for Rhapsody, the dotcom's music subscription service. A week later, Apple launched iTunes Music Store, letting Mac users pay 99 cents a pop to download songs onto their iPods. Rhapsody, which charges $9.95 per month for unlimited streaming, is still deciding which MP3 devices to support in the huge PC market. We asked Real CEO Rob Glaser for the download.
WIRED: Why buy Listen.com now?
GLASER: Digital music has reached a tipping point. The major labels finally have made enough content available with sufficient flexibility for a consumer service to be workable.
Didn't Apple steal your spotlight with its new iTunes Music Store?
It's hard to design a better scenario for us than what Apple did. Apple serves only 5 percent of the market, and it doesn't offer an all- you-can-eat service, just downloads. One of our challenges is teaching consumers about digital music. It's great having Steve Jobs get the word out, since we have the best service for the 95 percent of people who don't use a Mac.
But with Rhapsody, all-you-can-eat applies only to streaming, and users can't load files onto their MP3 players like with Apple's service.
Rhapsody offers à la carte downloading - anyone can burn any song to a CD for 49 cents. As for MP3, we have a full set of alternatives to implement that securely. With so many different players out, the PC world borders on chaos. It's not like with Macintosh, where there's only the iPod to worry about. We'll pick a couple of popular devices and build out support for those.
Will Rhapsody be absorbed into your existing subscription service, RealOne?
We'll keep Rhapsody as a stand-alone service but also integrate it into RealOne. If all you care about is music and you want access to a library, then you'll go with Rhapsody. If you want a fully integrated experience - news, sports, and live entertainment as well as music - you'll go with RealOne.
Any buyer's remorse?
No, actually, quite the contrary. We're getting one of the best teams in the business with the best product, and a technology foundation that cost $100 million to build for $36 million. That's just 36 cents on the dollar.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/view_pr.html
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“More bloat”, say critics “and more things that only benefit Sharman.”
Sharman Networks Launches Kazaa V2.5
New Version Introduces 'Channels' and Rewards for Sharing More Licensed Content
Excerpts from the press release:
Sharman Networks Limited today launched a new version of Kazaa Media Desktop, the world's most popular file sharing software. Kazaa v2.5 adds a host of new features, including licensed content channels, a rewards program for sharing licensed content, and upgraded security.
"The evolution of Kazaa Media Desktop reflects our commitment to Sharman's long term goals”, said Nikki Hemming, CEO of Sharman Networks Limited.
New in version 2.5 is the Altnet Peer Points Manager, a global loyalty and incentive application that rewards users for sharing licensed content.
The core functions of Kazaa Media Desktop are improved in v2.5 with tabs for previous search results and improved advanced search. Based on their participation level, users can search up to five times more in 2.5 than previous versions.
"We've worked hard to create the most compelling licensed content distribution application possible," said Hemming. "Kazaa 2.5 takes significant steps towards our business goal of monetizing digital distribution of licensed content using peer-to-peer technology."
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...2003,+06:02+AM
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Streamwaves Aims to Get Kazaa Users to Pay
Jon Healey
Like an ice salesman setting up shop in Anchorage, an online music service plans to start recruiting paying subscribers today on the leading outlet for free music on the Internet.
Dallas-based Streamwaves is the first music service backed by the major record companies to cozy up to Kazaa, an online file- sharing network that attracts at least 4 million users at any given moment.
In addition to running advertisements on Kazaa software, Streamwaves plans to use Altnet, a subsidiary of Woodland Hills- based Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc., to deliver 30-second samples of the songs on its service to Kazaa users.
"Our main goal is to generate as many subscribers paying for music as possible," said Jeff Tribble, Streamwaves' chief executive.
And why should Kazaa users pay Streamwaves as much as $15 a month for music they could download free, albeit illegally? "At a low price point," Tribble said, "they're willing to pay for convenience."
Several record company executives welcomed Streamwaves' move, saying it could help lead some listeners away from illegal file sharing. The labels blame rampant piracy on Kazaa and other online networks for the prolonged slump in CD sales.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,6083342.story
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McCain Promises Review of DMCA Subpoena Power
Roy Mark
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee had a busy tech day Thursday, passing measures aimed at slowing spam, funding nanotechnology research and rolling back the cross-media ownership rules recently approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
As if that weren't enough, Commerce Chairman John McCain (R.-Ariz.) promised to get his committee involved in the digital rights legal dispute between Verizon and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the principal trade group of the music publishing industry.
The RIAA recently won a court decision forcing Verizon to reveal the names of two subscribers the RIAA suspects of illegally downloading copyrighted songs.
The case involves not whether file swapping is legal, but, rather, an ISP's responsibilities under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Verizon's position is that the RIAA is unfairly using the subpoena power provision of the DMCA. Under the DMCA, subpoenas can be issued without a judge's signature.
At Thursday's hearing, Sen. Sam Brownback (R.-Kan.) moved to add an amendment to a Federal Trade Commission reauthorization bill requiring DMCA subpoenas be used only after a copyright holder has filed a civil lawsuit or other court action. Brownback withdrew the amendment after McCain said he would hold a hearing on the matter.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled in January Verizon must comply with the RIAA subpoena, but the telecom giant appealed the decision. The RIAA, though, insisted that Verizon immediately turn over the names of the alleged infringers. Verizon then sought a stay for revealing the names while the appeal of Bates' ruling was pending.
Verizon lost the stay decision and turned over the names to the RIAA.
The case originally began last August when the RIAA became the first to invoke the subpoena power provision of the DMCA. Verizon refused to comply with the subpoena, arguing it didn't think the subpoena request met the circumstances that the DMCA allows for in compelling information in order to protect against piracy. Verizon contended the subpoena related to material transmitted over Verizon's network, but not stored on it, and thus fell outside the scope of the subpoena power authorized in the DMCA.
Verizon also expanded the legal defense to a constitutional review of the DMCA, particularly the subpoena power provision of the DMCA. Unlike a usual subpoena, which requires some underlying claim of a crime and must be signed by a judge or magistrate, under the DMCA a subpoena can be issued by a court clerk without presenting evidence of a crime being committed.
In ruling in the RIAA's favor, the court concluded, "that the subpoena power ... applies to all Internet service providers within the scope of the DMCA, not just to those service providers storing information on a system or network at the direction of a user."
dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2225131
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Senator's 'Extreme' Cure For Piracy Is Unconstitutional
Dwight Silverman
A powerful U.S. senator has a dream, and there's a chance that half of all Internet users are in it. Actually, it's more like a nightmare, and it goes something like this:
You hop online to download some of the new Steely Dan CD, Everything Must Go.Your reasons may vary, from wanting to hear more of a song you caught on the radio, to sampling the music before you buy, to, yes, maybe even getting the tunes without paying for them. The last few times you did this, you received pop-up warnings from someone that your computer would be damaged if you continue to download copyright works. Because it's the Internet, you can't be sure just who's sending those messages, so you ignored them. You find the song you want, and you start downloading. Suddenly, an error message appears, but before you can read it, your computer locks up and -- if you're lucky enough to be a Windows user -- you get the Blue Screen of Death. You try to restart your system, but when it comes to the point where you'd hope to see the Windows startup screen, you are presented with the ominous phrase, "Operating system not found."
Welcome to a scenario envisioned this week by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a hearing on copyright issues in Washington.
According to the Associated Press, Hatch -- himself a musician with several albums of inspirational and patriotic music to his credit -- asked witness Randy Saaf about what could damage computers involved in illegally trading music.
Saaf, president of MediaDefender, a company that tries to disrupt file-sharing networks on behalf of copyright holders, replied that "no one is interested in destroying anyone's computer."
"I'm interested," the news service quoted Hatch as responding. Hatch mused that such action "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights."
He went on to describe a technology that would warn users twice about downloading, then "destroy their computer."
"If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we'd be interested in hearing about that," he said.
"If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize" the seriousness of their actions. Net denizens reacted with astonishment, then fury.
Laurence Simon, an unemployed Houston system administrator, checked the source code on Hatch's official Web site at
www.senate.gov/~hatch/ and discovered it was using unlicensed software. Cries of hypocrisy echoed across message boards Netwide.
In the face of outrage, Hatch backpedaled a bit, saying in a news release he was really trying to get the music and technology industries to come up with "moderate remedies" to the file-sharing problem.
But, he added, "I do not favor extreme remedies -- unless no moderate remedies can be found."
Hatch's original statement could be dismissed as that of a crackpot if it were not for one thing: He's the head of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, and thus one of the nation's most powerful lawmakers.
(Not that there aren't any crackpots in Congress, mind you. To quote Mark Twain: "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.")
What makes it even more ominous is that there actually has been proposed legislation that would exempt copyright holders from the laws banning the destruction of computer data or the machines themselves by hackers. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., told CNet's News.com that he plans to introduce such a bill soon.
Of course, there are all kinds of problems with this notion, not the least of which is destruction of private property without due process of law. The act of handing copyright holders -- i.e., corporations -- the right to destroy a user's computer connected via a public network would hopefully be quickly struck down as unconstitutional.
The idea is also naive at this point, because there are many more than "a few hundred thousand" users of peer-to-peer networks.
In fact, the NPD Group, a market research firm, earlier this month released a study that indicated half of all those who connected to the Internet in the month of May use file-sharing networks to grab some music, the New York Times reported. That is about 43 million people.
Also consider that the file-sharing software Kazaa is now the most-downloaded application on the Internet, bypassing the instant-messaging program ICQ, which had long been No. 1. As of Thursday morning, it had been snagged more than 238 million times from Download.com.
And that same morning, more than 4.3 million were logged on to Kazaa's network, sharing more than 892 million songs.
The picture is clear: File-sharing is no longer the hobby of a few college kids with dorm-room Ethernet connections and not enough money to buy overpriced CDs. It has become a cultural phenomenon, a socially acceptable practice across all walks of society.
It's been likened to speeding -- an illegal act -- but also one routinely practiced by most drivers and sporadically enforced at best. One critic of Hatch said his solution would be similar to having cars explode if they travel over the posted limit.
Although he's not thought of as a friend of the Internet -- he was a staunch supporter of the wrongheaded and unconstitutional Communications Decency Act -- Hatch generally is not considered to be as stupid as his comment would indicate.
Then again, to offer another quote attributed to Twain: "It is better to sit in silence and appear ignorant than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...siness/1961689
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Taps for Music Retailers?
Discounters -- and online music -- make it tough to survive
Louise Lee in San Mateo, Calif., with Kerry Capell in London
In late April, Madonna gave a rare in-store concert before 400 fans to plug her new American Life album. Outside the event, which took place at Tower Records in New York's Greenwich Village, another
2,000-plus fans thronged. For years, Tower has harnessed such star power to burnish its credentials as a purveyor of hipness. "It was the buzz around town," boasts store manager David Montes of the Madonna love-in. But the splashy appearance obscured a harsh backstage truth: Tower Records is in such deep trouble that its parent, privately held MTS Inc. in West Sacramento, has put the company on the block.
Tower is not the only music retailer singing the blues these days. Declining CD sales, the hit from online downloads, and growing competition from the likes of Amazon.com (AMZN ), as well as discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target (TGT ) are pushing specialty music retailers to the wall. In the past 15 months alone, Best Buy has put its Musicland unit up for sale, Wherehouse Entertainment has filed for bankruptcy, and Britain's HMV has closed two of its nine U.S. stores. The continuing drumbeat of bad news has some predicting that the traditional music store will soon go the way of the eight-track player. "The [specialty music] industry is dying," says Jerry R. Goolsby, a professor of music industry studies at Loyola University New Orleans. "No one knows what to do about it."
It's not as though the music retailers didn't see this coming. In the mid-1990s, two seismic shifts shook the industry: Big discounters started pushing CDs far more aggressively, and a slew of music stores popped up on the Web. Taking aim at the latter threat, Tower, Music-land's Sam Goody unit, and others launched e-tail operations of their own. But they were no match for the likes of Amazon.com Inc., which often undercuts them on price, or for eBay (EBAY ) Inc.'s half.com site, where buyers can find new and used CDs, sometimes for a fraction of the retail price. As a result, none of the record stores has been able to use the Web to boost total revenues or compensate for falling store sales.
Nor have they done any better against the general merchandisers. Discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ) Inc. and category killers such as Circuit City Stores (CC ) Inc. stock cut-price CDs to entice shoppers into their stores. The strategy clearly works: Today, says Goolsby, 42% of the recorded music sold in America comes from the discounters and category killers, up from some 25% in 1992.
Another problem is consumers' growing appetite for grabbing music online. Downloading, legal or otherwise, has already hit CD sales hard: Since 1999, annual retail music sales have slid 15%, to $8.9 billion in 2002. And the tempo is likely to pick up as more companies, including Apple Computer (AAPL ) Inc. and RealNetworks (RNWK ) Inc., get better at selling music online.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...5/b3838044.htm
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Jesse Jordan v. the RIAA: It Ain’t Over Till Whenever
I have posted my Order of Dismissal (settlement) to the lawsuit filed against me by the RIAA. As stated in the settlement, I settled solely to avoid the costs of litigation. There is a very long story behind my settlement.
I am truly appalled by the RIAA's unprofessional conduct in dealing with my case. A very well-known top lawyer at the RIAA, while making threats of further legal actions, referred to himself as a "dentist" that I would not want to "have another visit with". I will not be intimidated by the RIAA - they're just going to have to put up with me.
The RIAA started yelling and tried to rescind my order of dismissal after they signed it because of comments that I made on CNN. Despite the $12,000 figure in my settlement, the other terms of the settlement were carefully negotiated over the course of several weeks.
"My fundamental view is that people should not be able to walk away from a deal they've made.", says RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen in response to California issues over artist contracts. It would seem to follow that the RIAA should understand the concept of a legally binding agreement. If an artist signs a contract and then later decides that they don't like the terms of that contract, the labels should understand now because that is exactly what they did with my dismissal (my dismissal is a legally binding agreement).
It is time to call the RIAA to task on their clear hypocrisy on many issues. I am legally allowed to run my search engine - it is not forbidden by my dismissal. I have a first amendment right to free speech. On the surface, the RIAA claims to support the right to free speech - but only when it benefits their bottom line. When their victim speaks out against them, they step up the intimidation.
They were so desperate to undo my dismissal that they were resorting to blatant lies. I have even been accused of tricking the RIAA into signing my dismissal.
Unfortunately for the RIAA, their basis for undoing the dismissal was so ridiculous that the judge didn't even take up my offer to mediate with the RIAA over their issues with the dismissal - he decided to enter the agreement.
A number of documents surrounding this issue will soon be published. For now, read my order of dismissal.
http://jessej.chewplastic.com/dismissal.pdf
http://www.chewplastic.com/
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DVD-Piracy Paranoia Proves Counterproductive
Rob Pegoraro
A little program called DeCSS caused a lot of commotion when it surfaced on the Internet four years ago. DeCSS does only one task: Remove the encryption on a DVD movie, allowing the video files on the disc to be used at will -- played back off the disc, copied to the computer's hard drive or burned to a second DVD.
Its author, a Norwegian teenager named Jon Lech Johansen, said he wrote DeCSS because he wanted to be able to watch DVDs on his Linux computer and no authorized playback software was available.
The movie industry preferred to describe DeCSS as a lock-picking tool, useful only for piracy. It successfully filed suit to prevent the posting of DeCSS to Web sites from the United States.
The entertainment industry's legal campaign against the DeCSS code (its name refers to the Content Scramble System used to regulate playback) has continued ever since. At the end of May, for example, the California Supreme Court opened hearings on a suit by the DVD Copy Control Association, the licensing body behind CSS, that argues posting DeCSS online violates the state's trade-secret laws.
Programmers continued to rework DVD-unlocking software, eventually writing new, more effective code. That, in turn, has given birth to a surprising variety of applications.
These unauthorized DVD programs handle a variety of useful tasks. They allow you to jump past the FBI warning that licensed playback software must display before showing the movie. They let you breeze by the otherwise unskippable commercials that some movie studios are fond of shoving into their DVDs. They can ignore the "region controls" that prevent you from watching the movie you bought in Paris on the player you picked up here.
For example, VideoLAN Client (
www.videolan.org) allows DVD playback, independent of region-coding restrictions, on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and other operating systems. It can even stream a DVD over the Internet, if sufficient bandwidth is available. Like most software in this category, it's an open-source release, free for anybody to download or improve on.
It can, however, be a little clumsy at opening a DVD sometimes -- there's no guarantee that it will be able to play every title you throw at it.
Other software specializes in copying DVDs to disk. DVD Decrypter, a free download for Windows (
www.dvddecrypter.com), makes copying DVDs to disk as easy as, if not easier than, copying songs off a CD. Load a DVD, fire up this program and just click the big DVD-to-hard-disk icon to have it do its thing.
In about 20 minutes, it had the latest Bond flick stored on my laptop's hard drive and had even automatically removed the region coding and the Macrovision analog copy prevention that stops you from duplicating a DVD to videotape.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?nav=hptoc_tn
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4.1 - Gramofile- A Vinyl Record Ripping Tool
John Murray
Mention ripping tools to most people and they'll assume you're talking about apps that copy tracks from audio CDs. But for crusty old farts like myself, it can have a slightly different meaning - ripping from vinyl. Like many others of my era, I've got a collection of vinyl LPs that pre-date the compact disk - though it's interesting to note that even now some indie bands (notably the White Stripes with their recent Elephant album) are still releasing stuff on vinyl.
The trouble with vinyl, of course, is that while the sound quality can be excellent, wear and tear reduces that quality with each successive playing. As well, vinyl is susceptible to damage from poor handling or storage - though I wouldn't be surprised if carefully stored LPs outlasted CDR media... Yet another problem is portability; playing an LP in a walkman or car player isn't all that easy...
Back in the old days, everyone would tape-record their LPs onto cassettes to overcome these problems, and somehow the recording industry survived the rampant piracy. Now, of course, they claim that the jillions of spotty-faced kids swapping Avril Lavigne mp3s have brought them to the brink of bankruptcy....
Since burning CDRs is now such a trivial job, there's really no reason why you can't enjoy those old records, many of which may no longer be available in any format. And this is where Gramofile comes in: it's designed to make the job of transferring music from vinyl to CD easier. Tools that can take the audio output from a turntable and record it as a .wav file are common, and are often installed by default with many distros. You may have something like the sox package, for example, already installed. Gramofile differs from these general purpose programs by including a tool that allows you to split a file into individual tracks, as well as filters to reduce the ticking and crackling. It's available as either source or binaries, and is quite a small download (about 76kB for an RPM package). The interface is curses based (think Midnight Commander), and runs from an Xterm or console. The advantages of this are low memory requirements and a lack of dependency hassles (it doesn't even need X); the downside is a plain (if not ugly) interface. Navigation is easy, and simply entails using the tab and arrow keys to move around the various options. It includes a couple of tools named brecord and bplay for recording to and playing .wav files, as well as the track splitting and filtering functions mentioned above.
Upon startup, Gramofile displays a splash screen briefly, then a menu giving the options of:
Record Audio to a Sound File
Locate Tracks
Process The Audio Signal
Play a Sound File
The recording option is pretty straight forward; just plug a pre-amped turntable into your soundcards' line-in jack and away you go. My initial recording was a bit on the quiet side, so I had to bump up the line-in level using aumix.
The Locate Tracks option is meant to allow an entire side to be recorded to a single file and then have the start/end points for each track detected automatically. Gramofile does this by looking for intervals when the volume falls below a set level for a certain period of time. This works quite well for most records, but it can become confused by others - tracks with quiet intervals and live recordings in particular. It's important to note that the sound file isn't actually split at this stage, Gramofile just writes a simple text file containing what it thinks is the number of tracks and their start/end times. If you disagree with its findings, it's a simple matter to fast-forward through the file with XMMS or whatever, noting the start/end times and editing the tracks file accordingly. You can also adjust the criteria gramofile uses to determine the track info; I played with this for a while but in the end I decided it was easier to just find the times manually with XMMS and edit the tracks file. Of course, you could also record each track individually, but this is a bit of a pain. For most of the LPs I recorded, Gramofile detected the tracks by itself; there were only a few tricky ones that required intervention.
Once you are happy with the track times, you can go to the next step, processing the audio signal. Here the file will be run through a filter, or series of filters, and if you select the Split Tracks box, it will be split into individual files for each track. I experimented with a few of the available filters, and eventually went back to the default (the Conditional Median Filter II), which seemed to do a reasonable job of clearing up the smaller pops and crackles. If you are serious about sound quality, or have scratchy records, you might want to spend some time playing with these filters in order to get the best possible result. The various filters can be used in whatever order you want, or even repeatedly, in a single pass.
I should also mention that the original source file remains unchanged during the splitting/processing steps, so if you somehow stuff things up you can simply delete the processed files and try again, without having to re-record.
The final option, Play Sound File, allows you to start or finish playing from any point in the file, though I never use this one as I find tools like XMMS simpler to use.
The included documentation is brief but quite good, though it's probably rarely needed for such a simple program. There's also a variety of patches or add-ons available from the website to add functions such as normalizing.
So, is it any good? Well, that depends on what you want from it. Serious audiophiles will probably want to use something more sophisticated, like Audacity for example. But for more casual users like myself, who just want a quick and easy way of ripping from vinyl, Gramofile does the job nicely.
Gramofiles' HomePage is
here
http://www.linmagau.org/modules.php?...tid=153&page=1
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Legislation Doing Little To Stop Illegal Copying
Lisa Friedman
Congress has failed to find a way to effectively stop the illegal downloading of copyrighted movies and music that rob the entertainment industry of $3.5 billion each year, leading crusaders against Internet piracy say.
In recent interviews and testimony on Capitol Hill, advocates of anti-piracy legislation have come to the conclusion that strict federal regulation is all but useless in reining in the illegal uses of file-sharing software like Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster.
"We haven't come up with a legislative solution," admitted Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles.
Added California Sen. Dianne Feinstein: "I'm not sure what we can do at this stage."
Asked if she saw any legislative answers, Democrat Feinstein, who testified along with Waxman before the Senate Judiciary Committee a few days ago on the dangers of "peer-to-peer" networks, said, "Not so far."
Only Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has proffered a solution -- technology that would destroy the computer files of anyone who, once warned, continued to attempt a download of copyrighted material.
"Those laws are there to protect our artists and novelists. If we can find some way of doing this short of destroying their computers, I'm interested. But if that's the only way, I'm all for that," said Hatch, a musician who holds several copyrights himself.
But he later quickly retreated from those inflammatory comments, issuing a statement that said: "I do not favor extreme remedies, unless no moderate remedies can be found. I asked the industry to help us find those moderate remedies."
Peer-to-peer file sharing networks let users rummage through each other's hard drives for music and other files through a decentralized network. The entertainment industry in particular has targeted P2P because the shared files often are illegally downloaded songs and even first-run movies that are protected by copyright.
Recent testimony before Congress, however, has shown an even more dangerous side to the software. Users often unwittingly expose their entire hard drives so that anyone else with the same software can tap into that person's resume, tax returns or any other personal document saved on the system.
Even more disturbing to some officials, an anti-piracy company recently found more than 500 users of file-sharing software at Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA and the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval War Systems Command.
"We are aware of it, and we are dealing with it," said NASA spokesman Brian Dunbar, who declined to comment on whether sensitive data was exposed.
The Navy declined to comment on the matter. Los Alamos spokesman James Rickman issued a statement saying the nuclear weapons lab's classified computing system is not connected to the Internet, so no classified documents can be stolen through the use of P2P networks.
"While we are aware that peer-to-peer software crops up on a small number of computers from time to time, it is not a widespread problem at Los Alamos National Laboratory and does not present a threat to classified information or national security," he said.
Los Angeles-based MediaDefender Inc. found Kazaa operating on 155 Los Alamos computers, 138 NASA computers and 236 Space and Naval War Systems Command computers.
Lawmakers appear eager to fix the problem but confused as to how.
Just this month, Reps. Dianne Watson, D-Los Angeles, and Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, launched separate caucuses devoted to focusing legislative attention on intellectual property matters. But neither of them has introduced legislation addressing the problems, and neither plans to.
"It's time to look at new business models," Bono said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., co-founder of the Intellectual Property Rights Caucus, said: "There's no single quiver. ... By the time you legislate, you're often obsolete."
Motion Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti, in a briefing to Watson's congressional entertainment industry caucus this month, lambasted P2P networks like Kazaa as "thieves" but did not propose any regulations or new federal policies.
Instead, Valenti focused on education and security standards that technology companies and copyright owners are hammering out together to prevent unauthorized reproduction and distribution.
Chris Murray, legislative counsel for Consumers Union, agreed that better awareness and better technology, not new policies, are the best tools for solving piracy and protecting personal documents.
"Any time we try to regulate peer-to-peer ... we're also talking about regulation of the Internet in general," he warned.
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1...71539,00.html#
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'Harry' and 'Hulk' Available On Net
John Powell
The Hulk breaks loose from a top secret United States military containment center in a scene from the new film "Hulk" based on the popular comic book character. (Photo: ILM/Universal Studios handout).
An emerald comic book behemoth and a wondrous literary wizard were not just all the rage at movie theatres and bookstores over the weekend but also on the Internet as well where downloaders were swapping illegal copies of the newly released "Hulk" film and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on various file-sharing services.
Reportedly, the illicit copy of Universal Pictures' blockbuster "Hulk" has not been made by someone covertly filming in a movie theatre. Instead, it appears to be a post-production version minus some of the sounds effects. Distributed by the TMD (The Movie Depot) movie-pirating group, an identifying code of some sort on the copy has been blacked out in an attempt to conceal where the source tape came from.
When contacted by CNEWS, Universal Pictures Canada had no comment about the leak although the situation is being investigated by the company. "Hulk" had the highest gross ever for a June opening over the weekend bringing in $62.6 million U.S. surpassing "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" which hauled in $54.9 million U.S.
It is commonly believed that the majority of pirated films originate at various post-production companies in Asia or more commonly are converted from screener or preview tapes made available to journalists and industry professionals by the film companies themselves. In order to trace any illegal copies that might be created, the motion picture companies usually place special identifying codes or warnings on the screeners. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has stated that they believe Malaysia is the largest source of pirated films.
In the case of the latest in the popular 'Harry Potter' series, pirates have taken the time and trouble to convert the book into a multitude of Microsoft Word documents with each file containing two or three chapters. It is reported that "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" set records around the world this weekend with its release as well.
A few weeks ago, United States Senator Orrin Hatch sparked controversy when he suggested as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that illegal downloaders should be warned twice about their actions and if they attempt a third download he would favor technology which would remotely destroy their computers. American legal experts have denounced Hatch's suggestion saying it would infringe upon anti- hacking laws. Hatch himself is a composer who earned approximately $18,000 last year in royalties.
In a poll published on CANOE concerning Hatch's proposition, 82 per cent of 13554 respondents opposed Hatch's approach while 9 per cent agreed with it.
In April, a federal judge in the United States ruled that peer-to-peer software companies are not liable for copyright infringements by users of their software. In response, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began using the instant messaging component of many peer-to-peer software programs to warn downloaders that they are breaking the law when they swap copyrighted files.
http://www.canoe.com/CNEWS/TechNews/...23/118026.html
Will The Average Downloader Get Sued?
John Farmer
Until recently, the music industry hasn't sued users of music file-sharing services such as KaZaA, with the exception of four college students. Those students were sued after they made massive quantities of copyrighted songs available for download.
Beware that the music industry might not forebear much longer.
The music industry desperately needs to reduce online music piracy. Music CD sales have declined since 2000. They previously had risen every year since 1980, when Nielsen Soundscan began keeping score.
The industry's trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America, is mum about possible future legal action against individual music downloaders. Mitch Glazier, the RIAA's senior vice president for government relations, says "nothing is off the table."
Until recently, the RIAA focused its legal efforts on trying to unplug online file-sharing services. Recent litigation results and technological reality now force it to turn its legal attention to downloaders.
The RIAA lost a case against the operators of Morpheus and Grokster. The court held the way that these file-sharing networks function prevent the operators of them from controlling or even knowing (in real time) of copyright infringement activity, so they can't be liable for the rampant copyright infringement conducted using them.
While the recording industry will appeal, this ruling is a reasonable application of copyright law and may stand. But even if it's reversed and such companies are shut down, illegal downloading won't be stopped as a result. Peer-to-peer file-sharing networks aren't centralized, so the massive installed base of users can't be disabled at any single point.
At almost the same time, the RIAA won a more important legal battle. It persuaded a court that the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act enables it to subpoena the identities of people engaging in illegal music swapping without having to first file "John Doe" lawsuits against the infringers. Verizon, the subpoenaed Internet service provider, vows to appeal but has little chance of success.
The RIAA victory against Verizon raises the financial feasibility of taking legal action against individual downloaders. It could be prohibitively slow and expensive to file numerous "John Doe" lawsuits against music swappers and then go through the ordinary subpoena process to try to identify the culprits. Now the RIAA doesn't have to do so.
Internet service providers will fight the RIAA's pre-lawsuit subpoena initiative vigorously. The ISPs profess to be fighting to preserve the privacy of their subscribers, although they have no financial incentive to do so. Yet, if these pre-lawsuit subpoenas proliferate, fear of copyright infringement liability could force ISPs to drop vast numbers of customers identified as engaging in online music piracy.
So what will the RIAA do with the identities of individual music pirates? Although one can only speculate, the RIAA probably will send notices threatening legal action and sue some music uploaders.
Many casual users don't realize that all major file-sharing software programs (such as Morpheus, KaZaA and Grokster) permit you to disable the ability of others to download files from your computer. The default setting in such software permits others to download files from your computer (KaZaA's motto is "I share, therefore we are"), but you can change this setting and block such downloading (to learn how, visit MusicUnited.net).
If you disable the ability of others to download files from you, you won't be legal, but you will have a better chance of avoiding the legal wrath of the RIAA. A small number of folks who make files available for download ("uploaders") supply the vast majority of files downloaded, and the RIAA should have such uploaders at the top of its legal target list.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/frontpage/MGB2IG875HD.html
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P2PNews - Updated Daily: http://www.fasttrackmovies.com/forum...p?FORUM_ID=23. Registration required.
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P2P hackmeister Berman pulls out all the stops
House Bill Would Cast FBI As Copyright Pinkertons
Thomas C Greene
International terrorists will be able to sleep easier if US Representatives Lamar Smith (Republican, Texas) and Howard Berman (Democrat, California) have their way. A new bill Smith and Berman are sponsoring on behalf of their entertainment-industry patrons will divert limited FBI investigative resources from solving serious crimes and preventing terror attacks to waging a new War against File Sharing.
The FBI has long served as an unofficial 'copyright 911' organ at the pleasure of the media plutocracy, but to date it has fallen largely to the RIAA and MPAA to perform the legwork in discovering copyright miscreants. Berman's bill would ease that burden, saddling the FBI with responsibility to patrol the Internet, monitor P2P networks and root out evidence of copyright improprieties on its own.
According to the bill, "The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall (1) develop a program to deter members of the public from committing acts of copyright infringement by (A) offering on the Internet copies of copyrighted works, or (B) making copies of copyrighted works from the Internet without the authorization of the copyright owners; and (2) facilitate the sharing among law enforcement agencies, Internet service providers, and copyright owners of information concerning activities described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (1)."
While it's true that the Feds customarily involve themselves in cases of serious piracy, this legislation is calculated to bring them in on petty infractions that would normally be handled in the civil courts, like the recent $60K judgment against four university students who did nothing worse than index music files.
There's great economic wisdom in this: by criminalizing such minor misbehavior, the RIAA taps public funds to bankroll its petty squabbles. We should all be so lucky.
In addition to the FBI's new enforcement regimen, the DoJ will be burdened with its own Stalinist mandate to 'educate' the populace about the sacred nature of copyright:
"There shall be established within the Office of the Associate Attorney General of the United States an Internet Use Education Program. The purpose of the Internet Use Education Program shall be to (1) educate the general public concerning the value of copyrighted works and the effects of the theft of such works on those who create them; (2) educate the general public concerning the privacy, security, and other risks of using the Internet to obtain unauthorized copies of copyrighted works; (3) coordinate and consult with the Department of Education on compliance by educational institutions with applicable copyright laws involving Internet use; and (4) coordinate and consult with the Department of Commerce on compliance by corporations with applicable copyright laws involving Internet use."
Tellingly, there's no mandate for DoJ to educate the public about their rights to duplicate copyrighted works according to the doctrine of fair use. No confusing distinctions are to be made between copying legally-purchased media, which is a privilege granted by court precedents, and piracy, which is a crime. Indeed, 'making copies of copyrighted works from the Internet without the authorization of the copyright owners' is to be understood as a crime hands down.
Only the problem here is, fair use is not and never has been authorized by the copyright owners. It's authorized instead by the US Supreme Court. Berman is trying to do a legislative end-run around the Sony decision on behalf of his greedy Hollywood owners.
Speaking of which, RIAA President Cary Sherman gushed about the Smith/Berman bill in a recent press release:
"The Smith/Berman legislation will strengthen the hand of the FBI and other federal law enforcement officials to address the rampant copyright infringement occurring on peer-to-peer networks. This common-sense, bipartisan bill will help ensure that federal prosecutors across the country have the resources and expertise to fully enforce the copyright laws on the books -- especially against those who illegally distribute massive quantities of copyrighted music online," Sherman trilled.
Berman made himself famous last year by trying to legislate an exception to computer misuse laws for copyright owners wishing to hack P2P networks. Then, only last week, Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah) did him one better, recommending that copyright owners be granted an exception allowing them to destroy the computers of file traders.
But now Berman's back on top, turning the Federal Police into virtual Pinkertons bound in service of a cartel. We expect this of little third- world dictatorships rich in gem stones and tribal warlords, but it's always a bit startling to encounter it in a modern, industrialized nation.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31374.html
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How to avoid Contact Rot and Improve ROI
Tony Farrow
To combat the costly aspect of data cleansing, more and more software solutions are emerging in the marketplace. Email solutions are proving to be an effective method to update contact information and unlike intrusive phone calls, email puts updating capabilities in the hands of the user. In addition, emails solutions are now available that allow for a "peer-to-peer" approach, which allows computers to communicate with one another and exchange information depending on access rules set up by the user.
In addition to fully understanding the available methods that are out there to update contact information, it is important that any solution you choose includes the following key aspects:
Automated - While services such as phone verification and information provided by data vendors is a strong starting place for data cleansing, it is advantageous to develop an automated system that can produce up-to-the-minute updates and prompt you to conduct an outbound inquiry of your contact information. Time constraints are one of the leading causes of incomplete or inaccurate data so it is necessary to develop a systems that can be automated so that you do not need to set aside time to conduct updates to your existing contacts.
Customizable - Not every company or individual is looking for the same information in its contact database. Some put a stronger emphasis on phone numbers while other companies simply need email addresses. It is important to develop a cleansing and updating system that can be customized to your company or individual needs.
Privacy Protected - In today's world of unsolicited phone calls and spam email it is important that whichever method you choose to update and cleanse your contact list, you choose one that will adhere to a strict privacy policy. In doing so, not only will you not alienate people in your contact list, but the response rate will be lower if people perceive your requests for updated contact information to be unsolicited. There are several companies out there that will house your contact information in a third-party server, but it is important to understand if those companies will sell your data to an additional party. Any vendor should explicitly explain its privacy policy and you should be familiar with it before signing on for their services.
Easy to Use - A final piece to better contact management solutions is often one of the most overlooked. No matter what method of contact management you choose, the process should be very easy for the user. Effective contact management is an ongoing process and the easier you make it for users, the more likely they will actually use the system. The bottom line is that if the solution is difficult, then it simply will not be utilized to its full capacity.
http://www.realmarket.com/experts/experts062303.html
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Net2Printer Provides Inexpensive Networking Solutions for Business & Government
Press Release
The revolutionary Net2Printer software, which allows users to print documents from their computer to any PC- connected peripheral printer in the world via the Internet, also has a peer- to-peer file transfer feature that allows businesses of all sizes to develop inexpensive intra-company document delivery and file transfer networks. Net2Printer uses peer-to-peer technology to implement its immediate delivery of printed documents and/or files from one Net2Printer user to another Net2Printer user. Because Net2Printer represents a software-only solution to Internet printing, and file transfer, the cost of implementing a company-wide Net2Printer network is minimal. Any business with an Internet connection can create a Net2Printer network utilizing the business' existing computing infrastructure without the need for additional hardware, printer drivers or networking expenditures. Additionally, companies using Net2Printer can establish direct print/file transfer communications with its vendors and customers that can transform the manner in which they conduct business. The following are examples of how business and government can integrate Net2Printer technology into daily operations:
- Eliminate the cost of dedicated phone lines and long distance charges for facsimile. Replace faxes with original-quality printing. Replace courier and overnight delivery of documents with immediate document delivery using Net2Printer, saving both time and money.
- Utilize Net2Printer's peer-to-peer file transfer capabilities to send large files and e-mail file attachments. More and more file transfers are being blocked and rejected by e-mail servers due to size limitations and e-mail filters. Net2Printer eliminates all file transfer issues providing companies with an opportunity to create corporate-wide document and file delivery networks with the availability of 128-bit encryption, including Digital Certificates, for secure transmission and authentication.
- Net2Printer works with firewalls, proxy servers and within VPN networks.
- Streamline order procedures and print communications with vendors and suppliers.
- Use Net2Printer for direct print communication to distribute the company's sales and marketing message to existing and potential customers without the need to install printer drivers or print servers.
- Salesmen and managers in the field, or away from their office, can use Net2Printer for print and file transfer communications from their laptops without needing to connect to their corporate networks.
Virtually every business-to-business and business-to-consumer transaction involving a printed document can take advantage of Net2Printer's technology thereby creating a new universe of business applications. Net2Printer's technology will fundamentally redefine how companies conduct business. Net2Printer networks the world's printers in a manner that has never been done before and heralds a new paradigm in both personal and business printing technology. The Vanguard Version of the Net2Printer software is free-of-charge and is available for download from the company's website
http://www.Net2Printer.com.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...2003,+07:50+AM
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Groove Workspace Software Enhances Higher Education Classroom & Distance Learning
Press Release
New pricing options allow faculty, administrators & students to improve learning practices with "virtual classroom" software
Groove Networks Inc., a leading provider of desktop collaboration software, today announced its Groove U program, designed to cost-effectively equip higher education institutions with Groove Workspace desktop collaboration software. Uniquely suited for distance-learning and classroom courses, and for project-based learning, Groove Workspace provides a persistent, "virtual classroom" environment that supports secure, two-way professor-to-student and student-to-student interaction and collaboration.
Interested higher education institutions can find more information about the Groove U program on the Groove Networks website at
http:// www.groove.net/products/education/, or by contacting a Groove education sales representative at
sales@groove.net. Academic discounting for individual students is also available by contacting a Groove education sales representative.
"We are one of the first academic institutions to use Groove Workspace on a broad scale," says Dr. Alex Bordetsky from the Naval Postgraduate School in San Diego, CA. "Groove has a well-refined balance between asynchronous and synchronous collaboration capabilities, and provides an unmatched level of shared awareness for both my classroom and remote students -- something they need desperately when they transfer collaborative work out of the physical classroom to the virtual classroom. The flexibility of the Groove U program will allow us to gradually introduce Groove Workspace into the delivery of all courses."
"My Groove-based virtual classrooms either take the place of, or augment, my physical classroom environments," said Dr. Rick Lillie, California State University at San Bernardino. "Groove software's peer-to-peer, desktop environment is far superior to Web-based learning management systems for supporting direct communication, collaboration, and coursework administration. The students who use Groove Workspace in my courses are beginning to introduce it to their peers in other courses."
"Much of the sharing of ideas and interaction among students and with professors traditionally happens outside the few hours a week of classroom time," said David Fowler, Groove Networks' vice president of marketing. "Groove extends the interactive nature of the learning process from the physical classroom to the virtual classroom."
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/...m&footer_file=
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Issues With Instant Messaging Security
Nary a day goes by that a new press release does not sing the praises instant messaging. Driven by a younger workforce, there is growing corporate acceptance of instant messaging as an "official" form of office communication. Readers of this site will no doubt have an interest in "secure" instant messaging. While we are buried in press releases about innovative new secure IM solutions, few providers have done much besides layering their IM protocol atop anonymous SSL. Some solution providers haven't even done that and are still claiming to be a "secure" product. Here then is a brief listing of features that would be really nice to see implemented.
It would be nice if we could use a strong authentication technique for identifying other parties in a communication session. Recent US federal government guidelines indicate that if there is a product that supports strong authentication, it should be used to the exclusion of other products that do not provide cryptographic authentication.
If you were going to provide strong authentication, you should use PKCS#11 or PC/SC to allow users to carry their authenticators around with them as a smart card or USB token. This would allow users of the system to use different machines when participating in an IM session. In theory, it should also provide enhanced protection for the private keys authenticating the user.
Being able to specify different "modes," and then adding peer's identities to different modes will help out when trying to segregate different aspects of your life. For instance, I might want to create a "work" group and place my coworker's digital identities into that mode. Then I would have a "personal" group that includes friends and family. Based on the mode I have selected (either work or personal,) the system would use a different set of encryption keys to secure IM messages.
Peer to Peer capabilities.
Some IM services insert a man in the middle. If they support encryption, messages are encrypted between clients and a central server. This is reminiscent of the "WAP Gap." When having a secure conversation, there should be no third party involved (with the possible exception of the situation where both parties are behind different NATted firewalls.) Even if there is a third party, it should not handle decrypted messages, only encrypted ones.
Scrubbing of "dirty words".
Many government products that involve moving messages between security domains support he concept of message scrubbing. This is where a message is scanned for "dirty words." In the government space, these dirty words might be the names of operatives, countries, dates, etc. In the corporate community, dirty words might be names of competitors, project codenames, etc. It would be very interesting if there was a capability where IM in a multi-level security environment would integrate some scrubbing capabilities.
Forward secrecy is what you get when all messages are protected even if a single message is decrypted. Another way of saying this is that decrypting a single message should not provide an attacker with information useful for encrypting other messages.
http://www.cryptonomicon.net/modules...=print&sid=386
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Piracy an Old Problem for Hollywood
Digital rights debate focuses on tighter laws, tougher technology.
Frank Thorsberg
Technology is outpacing laws, the entertainment industry insists: As consumers take advantage of the capability to record broadcasts, the industry fears it cannot afford to generate new material--so it stops.
Didn't hear about this lockdown? Don't worry, it's not imminent--it happened in the 1930s, when consumers first exploited the capability to tape radio broadcasts. The entertainment industry's simple but flawed answer was to briefly stop producing new shows.
Today Hollywood is facing an update of the same problem: the opportunity of digital distribution and the threat of digital piracy. Could we see the same result?
"How do we go backwards and lock things down today?" asked Douglas Olin, an intellectual property rights protection lawyer with Lerwick Partners. "I don't think you can do that."
This issue and many others regarding digital rights were debated at the recent Digital Studio Summit here. Plenty of questions--but few answers--were raised at the two-day conference focusing on the impact of digital technology on filmmaking and TV production.
Hollywood is struggling to straddle a line: After spending gobs of cash to make and market blockbusters, it wants moviegoers to fill theaters and then buy DVDs for home entertainment--but it doesn't want them to siphon its profits by making copies.
Moviemakers point to the music world as an act they fear that they'll follow. The number of pirated audio recordings has grown, due to global file-sharing networks like Napster that operate right under the noses of the recording industry. The Recording Industry Association of America is striking back, with its recent suit against four college students who set up their own peer-to-peer sites. Such efforts may have slowed the bleeding, but the industry still blames illegal recordings for a steep decline in new music sales.
One potential solution is the creation of new laws, but relying on lawmakers to solve the problem raises several concerns--one being the long delay in turning a bill into law.
"I also worry about preferences for particular companies and particular vendors," Olin said. "I don't want the government picking winners and losers."
Meanwhile, the pace of technological change moves furiously ahead. Technology bottlenecks--such as limited storage space on hard drives, and dial-up modems that make it impractical to download songs, let alone movies--have a way of disappearing, entertainment industry representatives noted. Though downloading feature-length movies, even with broadband connections, is a serious time commitment, that speed bump won't stand forever.
"We tend to very frequently look at what happened to the music industry and say that this is what is going to happen to the movie industry, but it's not necessarily so," Olin said.
"I don't think we want to criminalize everyone who made a copy of their DVD," said William Marks, director of business development for Disney Worldwide Services, who was on the panel with Olin.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111288,00.asp
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From the Booby Hatch
George Smith
Senator Orrin Hatch says he wants to destroy music swappers' computers, but what he really means is that kids today have no respect for their elders, says SecurityFocus columnist George Smith.
"Powerful Senator Endorses Destroying Computers of Illegal Music Downloaders!" trumpeted the Associated Press last week.
What a tremendous headline! Orrin Hatch wants to smash the PCs of pirates.
Such opportunities present only occasionally in a journalism career. Impossible to predict, who would have guessed an old but very important poop would be so willing to go apoplectic and voice a desire for revenge on the scofflaw young.
Naturally, assorted minders immediately made excuses for the guy.
The senator was speaking metaphorically, he didn't really mean it, or -- best of all -- "we all take [his] views very seriously."
Yeah, yeah. What Hatch really meant was that kids have no respect for their elders and the RIAA, plus they don't pay for things. I hate kids -- they need to be taught a lesson. Whatsa matter with kids, today?
In the short term, I say cast Orrin Hatch in a remake of "Bye Bye Birdie."
But that might not happen, so someone should brief the Utah senator or his staffers on ways that computers could be destroyed remotely. These would all be mostly fabrications, but what's the harm in pandering to such an illustrious fool? Arming Senator Hatch with a raft of silly stories that satisfy his impulse to be a scourge of digital freeloaders seems right. It would give him more rope, maybe just enough to really hang himself the next time he pops off.
First up would be to resurrect the old canard that viruses or software acting remotely can manipulate PC power supplies. If they can do that, maybe they can start a fire or melt something critical! While this has never been done there's no reason a senator could not be convinced that new techniques make it possible. If computer programmers can make peer-to-peer networks, surely they can brew up malicious software to short circuit the PC permanently.
The "Toaster" virus was supposed to cause a high velocity ejection of a diskette.
There is no excuse for the violation of copyright, according to Senator Orrin, and if there's no way to convince kids to stop stealing music, then a hundred thousand computers must die.
The man's thinking like a computer vandal and to approach those numbers a new flavor of the CIH virus could be one tool.
CIH's payload included a routine to write a byte of data to the flash- writable BIOS. This made the machine unbootable until the BIOS chip was reprogrammed at the shop or replaced.
The CIH virus was real. But if it doesn't sound like a sure enough thing, the Senate's pirate punishment committee could be appraised of the more fantastic Blitzkrieg server.
The Blitzkrieg server, according to the trade magazine that originally hyped it, was "a new virus that automatically launches a lethal counter offensive against hackers... the digital equivalent of Star Wars technology" capable of knocking out the computer on the other end of the line by destroying its hardware and software.
That made it "a significant Internet breakthrough that could enhance electronic commerce" and protect data.
Although the Blitzkrieg server never lived up to its initial press, it's a story to warm the heart of those looking for ways to strike back at music-stealing children.
Another option is to escalate the attack to the physical well-being of the music pirate.
For this, Hatch could look into the technology of the Russian Virus 666. First mentioned in an article called "The Mind Has No Firewall" which appeared in the U.S. Army War College's scholarly magazine Parameters, virus 666 was said to be able to cause heart irregularities. It did this by altering every 25th frame of the visual display, putting the user into a trance that results in damage to the heart.
Since the senator claimed to be interested in more moderate solutions, the trance state could be shortened so that the user only was made nauseous.
And if even that seems too strong a measure, "Toaster" virus technology could be tried. The "Toaster" virus was supposed to cause a high velocity ejection of a diskette. While it would be a long shot, such a thing just might inflict a bruise on the pirate.
That would teach those kids -- with their awful clothes and rock 'n' roll -- some respect.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31361.html
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Centerspan Likely To Face Delisting
Aliza Earnshaw
CenterSpan Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: CSCC) announced last week that it expects its stock will be delisted from the Nasdaq National Market.
The Hillsboro software company had announced on May 14 that it would appeal Nasdaq's decision to delist CenterSpan, but on June 18, CenterSpan withdrew its appeal.
CenterSpan has recently gone into "hibernation"--that is, the company has essentially ceased operations without actually shutting down--in order to conserve cash while the company seeks either a buyer or another major investor.
CenterSpan's product, known as C-Star, is a secure peer-to-peer system for delivering large digital files over the internet at what the company says is significantly lower cost than traditional client-server systems. C-Star has not won more than a single paying customer since CenterSpan first began marketing the system in 2001, and that customer paid CenterSpan just $7,000 in the first quarter of this year.
http://portland.bizjournals.com/port...23/daily4.html
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Piracy On The Big Screen
Michael Goldstein
The film "Pirates of the Caribbean" will open in theaters later this summer. Yet a much scarier feature — "Pirates of the Internet" — is playing right now, on a computer screen near you.
Take "The Hulk." Apparently, some pirates did just that, taking a pre-release copy of the 'workprint' and slapping it on the Internet in early June, weeks before its opening last Friday.
The posting received an avalanche of publicity — all bad — around the world. Many fans who saw the pirated version were unimpressed, at least in part because the studio hadn't put in computer graphics that bring the Hulk to life.
"Gumby on steroids" and "Shrek," Internet viewers groaned.
At fan site aintitcool.com, one amateur critic wrote, "I saw the workprint of 'The Hulk' and it sucks! Bad CGI, bad acting, bad sound, bad script, bad casting choices…" Another predicted "Marvel's second biggest comic-to-film bomb to date," trailing only the infamous "Howard the Duck."
Universal, the company releasing the $150 million movie, freaked out.
"We are aware that an unfinished and incomplete version of our film, 'The Hulk' is available for illegal downloading on the Internet. We are conducting a thorough investigation to determine how this occurred, and those responsible will face serious consequences," the studio said.
Suddenly, the big film studios are coming face-to-face with the nightmare that's haunted music giants for years — an Internet that's a double-edged sword.
For years, studios have used the Internet to promote films on Websites, news and entertainment sites, and by word-of-mouth through fan communities.
But lately, as capacity and speed of computers and digital pipelines have grown, the Web's also become a place, as one spokesperson put it, where people like to steal and spread their theft around the world.
The fear is that there's a generation of kids who don't expect to pay for music, thanks to Internet filesharing, and eventually, won't pay for movies either. As radio shock jock Howard Stern said about The Hulk on June 11, "Nobody's going to see the movie if it's readily available."
"Internet filesharing is a problem that today has decimated the music industry, and tomorrow, if not stopped, might do the same thing to the movie industry," said intellectual property attorney Ian C. Ballon, a partner at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips.
While moviegoers spent $9.3 billion at the box office in 2002, the Motion Picture Association of America estimates the movie industry loses $3.5 billion per year in potential revenue from pirates.
But unlike commercial pirates who sell DVDs of current films on New York street corners, Internet pirates 'share' with each other, using networks like Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster and Gnutella — Napsters with pictures.
Kazaa's software has been downloaded more than 230 million times. Unlike the shut-down Napster, these networks have withstood legal challenges from the music and movie industry since they're acting only as a conduit.
One judge found file sharers like Grokster "are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders … which can be used to infringe copyrights" but have "substantial non-infringing uses."
Still, thousands of people use the networks to post and download — "share" — copyrighted material. The Hulk isn't the first film shared over the Net. Despite tight security, "Finding Nemo," "X-Men 2," "The Matrix Reloaded," "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones," "Lord of the Rings" and "Spider-Man" have all found their way to the Internet.
Such piracy is increasing rapidly, said Tom Temple, the Motion Picture Association's director of Internet enforcement.
"Last year we found 163,000 different sites offering movies for sale or download — a three-fold increase over 2001's 54,000," said Temple, who added that 65% of Internet piracy takes place in the U.S. and Canada. And it's spreading.
"We're not going to wait until everyone has broadband," said Temple. "We're taking action now."
Still, intellectual property lawyer Ballon observed, "It's hard to convince a jury that someone should be taken away from their family and locked in prison over filesharing copyrighted files."
And prosecution may be too late for the hapless Hulk. The film made just barely respectable numbers for a would-be blockbuster — $63 million in ticket sales on its first weekend. So while sharing the blame with doggy reviews and poor buzz, the studio's ultimate verdict could be "Pirates Sink Hulk."
But not everyone buys the movie industry's accounting.
"Show me the money," said Cory Doctorow, a spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit technology and civil liberties organization. "Did 'X-Men 2' ($153 million in its first week) get hurt at the box office? They're crying all the way to the bank. The idea that peer to peer poses a threat to movie studios is outrageous. These are the same companies that cried wolf about the VCR."
Tom Temple of the MPAA is unmoved.
Using the same language the music industry has been using for years, Temple said, "The movie industry is not opposed to technology. We are opposed to people stealing from us."
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/...9p-85864c.html