Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - Feb. 1st, '03

[JackSpratts]

Some of us here in Connecticut are experiencing the 17th consecutive day of temperatures stuck at or below the freezing mark and since the all-time record for such a frigid event is 19 days straight we’re not that far off from a new one and that’s a bit of a bummer. Tuesday when the temp was exactly 11.1 Fahrenheit I punched up the memory on the digital thermometer and saw that the low had been exactly 0.0. Hmm, something mathematically interesting going on there I thought. Course it’s hard to square my direct observational experience with what the experts tell me, I mean how can it be so cold – if it’s getting so warm? Seems a reasonable question. The convoluted answers go nowhere in keeping my skin from tightening when I’m hit by these icy New England blasts. For the record climatologists say that “some areas will indeed get colder” even as the planet “gets warmer”, so to me that makes it “local warming”, not global, but I digress. My main problem is keeping enough pistachio nuts laid in for the evening “chewing episodes” that seem to increase in frequency in direct proportion to the dropping digits. Towards that end I’ve made a kind of a Spratts Pantsometor - I can judge the temp by how tight my pants fit. If they’re tight, it’s cold. Well, they’re tight and getting tighter.

Stayed inside last weekend playing scavenger hunt with the Napsterites. Came in a respectable 4th which isn’t too bad considering I was writing all the time. Members can revisit the hunt thread and see the zany posts.

One of the things that’s irritating me about the whole copyright situation is how damn shortsighted everyone is who’s supporting these draconian laws. Felonious conduct for DMCA violations, felonious conduct for file sharing, felonious conduct for CD swapping – it’s gotten unreal. Penalties for sharing a record with a few friends are higher than rape and manslaughter and that’s wrong. But the shortsighted part is what really gets me going. The internet doesn’t understand borders and neither does technology. While the West is busy jailing people to satisfy Valenti and Rosen, the rest of the planet is moving ahead to reinvent everything. It won’t be stopped. It can’t be stopped. We’ll wake up one day, and soon, and find the best new stuff will be owned and patented by other people from other countries who’ll be more than happy to lease it back to us on their terms and under their control. Stuff we could have, would have and should have invented ourselves – but didn’t - because our leaders deliberately wrote bills to keep us from doing so (won’t they hate their IP laws then). Will it happen? It’s likely. History is littered with great civilizations that atrophied and died when progress was stifled. When established institutions were favored over younger ones. When spring was outlawed and winter locked in. They probably didn’t think it would come to pass, but it did. And forever. Record cold ahead.

Enjoy,

Jack.








Who decides who's a digital criminal?
Bill Thompson

Sitting on a shelf in my flat are some videos of television programmes and movies that were recorded off-air by friends of mine and then given to me.

Next to my computer you will find a selection of copied CDs, and on the hard drive of the same computer are hundreds of MP3 files, many containing music ripped from CDs I do not own.

The copy of Microsoft Word on the laptop I am using to write this column is the same as the one installed on my desktop computer, and on occasion my daughter will be using one while I am using the other. I scanned my son's school photograph and sent a digital copy to my sister.

Some - or perhaps all - of this puts me on the wrong side of UK copyright law. Not only that, but I don't care.

Even where I am clearly infringing someone's rights I do not think I am doing them any real damage. After all, I am never going to buy a Norah Jones album, and listening to the ripped version a few times only served to convince me of this.

Fortunately the programme makers, music publishers, photographers and software developers whose intellectual property I have used (or abused) would find it very hard to track me down.

Indeed, if the makers of the James Bond movies which we have been assiduously taping tried going to court for a warrant to search my flat they would find it difficult to convince a judge.

Of course, if I were caught selling bootleg videos on Cambridge market then they would be on much stronger legal ground, because it would be obvious what I was up to.

But what if I send MP3s over the internet, or e-mail copyright material to friends? Am I in public or in private here?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2691977.stm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright decision scores against music performers
Shulgold:

The United States Supreme Court recently made it official: Music written 95 years ago remains under copyright protection. That's good news for living composers and the families of 20th-century music-makers no longer with us.

And not-so-good news for cash-strapped schools, conductors and musicians who pay royalties to perform those works.

"Hey, we just go on," said a disappointed Lawrence Golan, conductor of the orchestra at the University of Denver.

Despite the ruling in Eldred v. Ashcroft, which let stand copyright extensions that protect a work 95 years after its publication, the conductor remains the lead plaintiff in a similar copyright case, Golan v. Ashcroft, to be heard by the Colorado Supreme Court.

His case is slightly different, he said, while admitting that the precedent has clearly been set by the Eldred decision. The result of that ruling requires that performance royalties for score rentals (and other creations outside public domain) must be paid for works dating back to 1908.

"We'll just continue to play music we can afford to play," Golan said. Trouble is, he has an annual score-rental budget of $1,000 - which doesn't go very far.

"The publishers do give discounts," he said, "but even those are sometimes not enough. We recently did Ives' Symphony No. 2, and the cost of renting the score was $650. Normally, it's $1,000."

On the other side of the issue, music publishers such as the New York-based Boosey & Hawkes are not complaining. "We were very pleased with the (court's) ruling," said Caroline Calett, director of business affairs at B&H.

"Naturally, it's difficult for us to be unprejudiced about the decision," she noted. "For years, we have worked to develop composers, and not just the last work they wrote. That may be true in the pop world, but we are anxious to promote and protect composers who are gone - to keep their work before the public."

While B&H deals with major orchestras and performing organizations with healthy artistic budgets, the company is mindful of the smaller coffers of universities and lower-echelon groups, she said. "Our rates are scaled to the particular company and size of the venue," Calett explained, declining to quote prices.

The ruling won't change much, she said, noting that "orchestras know our parameters. We're not an unreasonable company."

Publishers understand the needs of artists and ensembles with small budgets. On the other hand, "We still have to bring in income to keep our (rental) scores in good shape. It can cost $20,000 to print up a full score with (orchestral) parts."

Calett insisted that current economic problems are having a larger impact on spending decisions of performing groups than the Eldred ruling.

For Golan and other musicians, the court's upholding of the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act (which added 20 years to the period of protection from public domain) cannot change their mission to perform music of the past century.

"At each orchestral concert, I always do one short piece by a living composer. Those I work with directly usually charge me $200 to $300. We hope to continue that."

Though he must stand by the court's decision - while gearing for a possible similar result in his case before the state supreme court - Golan was intrigued by one comment that came out of the Eldred decision.

"Justice (Ruth) Ginsberg said that the court was intent on judging the constitutionality of the (Bono) law, not its wisdom. And I realize that's true. But it does make you wonder about her opinion of the original legislation."
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...695471,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anti-Copying Process Now For Macs
Peter Cohen

SunnComm Technologies Inc. has noted that its audio CD copy protection technology MediaMax CD-3 is now compatible with Macs. The technology is already working on Windows-based PCs. MediaMax CD-3 was officially unveiled earlier this month during a presentation by Microsoft Corp. at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, France.

SunnComm has positioned MediaMax CD-3 as a copy protection scheme suitable for audio CDs. The technology prevents users from uploading and copying protected music through peer-to-peer file sharing services. SunnComm offers a system it's coined "PLAY*MOVE*SHARE" to allow buyers of MediaMax CD-3 protected discs to use the discs themselves and to make authorized copies on their computer, as well as transport them on portable music players. SunnComm claims that MediaMax CD-3 works with all known CD and DVD players, too.

Apparently the first public showing of the MediaMax CD-3 technology is a forthcoming Sterling Entertainment release, Ike & Tina Turner's "The Early Sessions," expected to be released this quarter.

SunnComm CTO Eric Vandewater said that the Mac development of MediaMax CD-3 was "one of the last major pieces" to complete their audio CD protection puzzle. "The overall dependability and functionality of MediaMax CD-3 will now allow CD buyers to make authorized copies of music on their computer for their own personal use," he added.
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/...3.mediamax.php

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liquid Audio Gets a Buyer for Its Assets
Laura Holson

In a move that could make it easier for record companies to sell and promote songs online, the music distributor for Wal-Mart has agreed to buy some of the assets of Liquid Audio, the troubled digital music pioneer.

Anderson Merchandisers, a privately owned company that is also the largest magazine wholesaler in the United States, is buying Liquid Audio's technology as well as other assets, including computers, for an undisclosed sum, according to company executives. Liquid Audio was at the forefront in developing technology to deliver music securely online but has been in financial straits recently and has suffered through a nasty boardroom fight. The new company, which has not been named, will be run by a Liquid Audio founder, Gerry Kearby, who said the company had licenses to distribute over 350,000 songs.

The acquisition, which is expected to be announced on Friday, signals that recording companies, distributors and retailers are taking the first steps toward working together to come up with ways to combat declining compact disc sales, which have been hurt by free online music-swapping. Anderson, based in Knoxville, Tenn., hopes to distribute music downloads through the Web sites of retailers, including Wal-Mart, though no deal has been worked out yet, an Anderson executive said.

Of course any new online music venture, like many that have preceded it, seems more like a gamble than a sure bet these days. Bertelsmann, the parent of one of the major record companies, invested in Napster several years ago with the hope that it might be a paid service one day. That effort failed. And the music companies' own online efforts have gotten less than rave reviews so far.

Still, Charlie Anderson, the company's chief executive, said, "This will strategically position retailers to participate in the industry's legitimate downloading future."

The company has relationships with all the major record companies largely because its job is to make sure that Wal-Mart shelves are stocked with music. The new venture is supported by the Universal Music Group, the world's No. 1 music company, which is aggressively trying to sell more of its music online through major retailers, like Best Buy and Circuit City. So far, 60,000 Universal songs are available.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/te...gy/24MUSI.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CORNING LOSS WIDENS TO $709 MILLION
Bloomberg News

The largest maker of optical fiber for carrying telephone calls and data, Corning Inc., said yesterday that its fourth- quarter loss widened to $709 million as sales fell 20 percent and it had costs for cutting jobs. The net loss was 60 cents a share in the period, which ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $655 million, or 69 cents, in the quarter a year earlier, a Corning spokeswoman, Monica Ott, said. Sales fell to $736 million from $917 million. The company has eliminated 18,800 jobs, or 44 percent of its work force, and is scaling back units like its fiber optic parts business. Plummeting demand for optical fiber, cable and gear has resulted in more than $6 billion in losses since June 2001. The shares fell to $4 in after-hours trading after the earnings announcement. They rose 29 cents, to $4.36, in regular trading. In the fourth quarter, Corning had $1.07 billion in after-tax expenses related to cutting jobs, shutting operations and the declining value of assets, the company said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/te...y/24TBRF1.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JDS SALES DROP BUT LOSS NARROWS
Reuters

The JDS Uniphase Corporation said yesterday that sales of its fiber optic equipment dropped for the eighth consecutive period in its second quarter, but its loss shrank as the company continued to squeeze costs. JDS, a supplier of fiber optic parts, reported a loss of $215 million, or 15 cents a share, in its second quarter, which ended Dec. 31. That is an improvement from a net loss of $2.1 billion, or $1.60 a share, in the period last year. Excluding one- time items, JDS posted a loss of $185 million, or 13 cents a share. The results included about $92 million in restructuring charges. On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had expected an adjusted loss of 5 cents a share. The mean revenue estimate from 13 analysts was $152.5 million. Sales fell to $157 million from $193 million in its first quarter and from $286 million in the quarter a year ago. The company said it would cut its current work force of 7,000 even further.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/topnews/24TBRF4.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GATHERING ON NET TAXES
NYT

Lawmakers and tax officials from more than 30 states have gathered in Tampa, Fla., in an effort to create a groundwork for setting taxes on Internet sales and services. R. Bruce Johnson, head of the tax commission in Utah, said officials intended to try to define, in legal terms, how digital products like downloadable music, movies and software and other Internet services could be fairly taxed while the Web continued to evolve. States would have to update their tax codes to accommodate e-commerce, and Congress and the White House would have to approve legislation before a plan to tax online sales could be carried out. Internet retailers have opposed such taxation plans. Congress passed a ban on Internet taxes in 1998, and legislation is pending in the House and Senate to extend indefinitely a moratorium on such taxes. Governors and state officials argue, though, that millions of dollars are lost in taxes every year to online shopping.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/te...y/24TBRF3.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sony
They Sold 36 Billion Dollars worth of hardware but didn't make a penny

Buying a movie studio was supposed to set them free. Instead the entertainment units have hobbled this once scrappy hardware powerhouse to the point where today, the hottest portable gadgets like the Archer and the iPod are coming out of other companies dream rooms - while Sony slowly "studies" the market.

An in depth Wired article points out just how much the company has changed and how much more they hope to.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/sony.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The 'New' Music Industry - according to Miles Copeland
Eric de Fontenay

I have to admit that I didn't quite know what to expect from Miles Copeland's keynote speech at January's Noorderslag seminar in the Netherlands. I know that I didn't see eye-to-eye with him on the 7 Year Statute and was always uncomfortable with his claim that music piracy was Osama Ben Laden's latest weapon in his war against western civilization. But this time, I believe he was right on target and the news is GOOD (the only part he never realized).

According to Miles, the music industry is in a state of utter shock, much like the victim of a violet car accident, and everybody is finally coming to the realization that the rules of the game have fundamentally changed. So what was the nature of the crash that woke everyone up?
http://www.p2pnet.net/running/issues.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music industry makes war plans
Reuters

Music industry officials on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday vowed to keep up the fight against online music swapping, piling pressure on Internet service providers (ISPs) to police their networks.

The issue of whether Internet and technology companies should be compelled to assist the major music labels in the fight against piracy, which is blamed for slumping CD sales, was headline news this week at the music industry's annual confab in the French resort town of Cannes.

At the conference, Internet executives reacted sharply to comments made by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chief Executive Hilary Rosen who said ISPs should be held more accountable in monitoring illicit song-trading.

On Friday, Rosen said the RIAA would continue to work with lawmakers and the industry to root out song traders.

She said the trade body has no plans to develop compulsory licensing arrangements or impose fees on ISPs to recoup sales lost to file-trading. "That would be a dramatic departure (from the RIAA's strategy)," she said.

In Europe, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global trade organization, has been waging a war of its own, battling to push forward the Copyright Directive, EU legislation that has stalled at the state level.

If passed, the Copyright Directive would require Internet service providers to play a more vigilant role in the protection of copyright-protected materials. The ISPs have challenged the directive on ground that it puts them in the costly role of having to police their customers.

Only two of 15 EU member countries have ratified the directive. ISPs, telecommunications companies and now manufacturers of hardware devices such as CD-burners, have sought to have protections afforded by the directive limited, to the chagrin of the music industry.

"This directive was the subject of a hard-fought compromise at the EU level between all the players. It is really bad faith that certain parties are trying to renegotiate this directive at the national level," said Frances Moore, European regional director for the IFPI.

The IFPI said it faces the biggest opposition in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands.

The recording industry believes it has little time to spare. CD sales are expected to fall again this year, the fourth consecutive year, as the popularity of so-called peer-to- peer (P2P) trading networks such as Kazaa and Grokster grows.

A study released on Friday by U.S. software firm Websense said file-sharing sites continue to proliferate with more than 130 unique P2P applications and 89,000 Web pages dedicated to file-sharing, representing a 300 percent rise from a year ago.

The industry did win a major victory in the United States this week when a federal court judge said telecoms giant Verizon Communications must identify a prolific song downloader, an individual who pulled more than 600 songs per day off file-sharing sites.

In Europe, the IFPI intends to step up pressure on state and EU lawmakers so that national laws are strengthened to curtail downloading practices.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/interne...c.online.reut/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Survey says!
”Don't let Hollywood make the rules”
Jon Newton

"If allowed to make the rules, the entertainment industry will treat us all like criminals in their attempt to crack down on piracy" new survey.

And instead of worrying about online piracy, the US Congress' top priority should be protecting consumers fair use right to access, copy and enjoy content they acquire legally, said 60% of people who responded.

"More than 53 percent fear that Congressional mandates intended to limit piracy would only end up making an already complicated problem worse," said Scott Sutherland of marketing communications firm SutherlandGold, which conducted the survey.

Entertainment companies that argue the technology industry should do more to crack down on piracy get little support from consumers, said Sutherland, continuing that 54% also believe Congressional mandates might have the unintended consequence of stifling technological innovation and restricting law-abiding consumers access to entertainment content on the Internet.

"Much has been made of Hollywood's powerful lobbying voice in the Digital Rights Management debate," said Sutherland. "This survey shows that the technology community could greatly benefit from waking the real sleeping giant in this debate: consumers," said Lesley Gold.
http://www.p2pnet.net/running/study.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Network protocol, queing and social improvements
Frontcode Says WinMx Upgrades On The Way
Thomas Mennecke

WinMX has always been at the forefront of P2P technology. In the earlier stages of its life, WinMX was simply an OpenNap client. However, once OpenNap collapsed at the hands of the RIAA, WinMX was a client without a network. In response, FrontCode Technologies introduced their own decentralized P2P network. Since that time, the success of this network has been second only to FastTrack.

The last update from WinMX was back in October 2002, and little news has been heard since. Although things have been quite, WinMX development continues to forge ahead full steam. This time around, we didn't conduct a traditional Q&A interview, rather got right to the point about the current status and future of WinMX. We would like to thank Kevin Hearn, President of Frontcode Technologies, who took the time to respond to our questions.

Considering the long wait between releases, we first questioned when we could expect the next version of WinMX.

"We're working on some really exciting things for upcoming versions of WinMX, but progress is a bit slower than I expected. I expect the next release (v3.32 probably) to be within the next 6 weeks, possibly as soon as 2 weeks."

WinMX has always done an excellent job in finding high quality bitrate songs and provides tons of search results. However, one of the more vocal complaints stems from its long queues. The upcoming version hopes to lessen this problem.

"The most noticeable change in the next version will be the removal of the 'Auto Find Sources' and the 'Auto Enter Queue' features. We have replaced them with a much more intelligent version of the old 'Auto Complete' feature, which will do a much better job."
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2003/winmx.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Audio players get thinner
Winston Chai

Japanese electronics manufacturer Seagrand has upped the ante in the race to develop compact digital devices by introducing one of the thinnest audio players in the world. The business card-size Ravemetal CardRec audio player measures 77mm by 54mm and is 9.8mm thick. The device comes with three memory options--128MB, 192MB and 256MB.

For file transfers, the CardRec connects to Windows-based PCs through a USB (universal serial bus) connection and supports common music formats such as MP3 and Microsoft's Windows Media Audio. The gadget also sports a built-in microphone and functions as a digital voice recorder. The audio player will be launched in Japan next week, but availability for other regions is unclear. Details on pricing have yet to be confirmed.
http://news.com.com/2110-1040-982034.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DVD Player works with DivX files
Watch P2P downloads on the Living room TV

It took almost three years for the arrival of a standalone player that could show videos and movies in DivX (MPEG-4) format. Based on the REALmagic EM8500 chip, which essentially handles the MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding functions, the KiSS DP-450 is the first player in the world that fits into this category. This means that along with well-known media like DVD video, S-video CD and video CD, movies with DivX coding (MPEG-4) can be shown, too.

The same market development occurred with the MP3 audio standard. Anyone who has bought a DVD player without a DivX feature will probably be kicking himself. Here's why: a huge variety of feature films is already available on the Internet and through file sharing tools. One can only hope that many manufacturers will soon go with the encoder chip from REALmagic.

KiSS Technologies is showing real courage vis-à-vis the Hollywood film industry. When the popular MP3 codec for audio was introduced, the recording industry shackled the first manufacturers with legal action. But in the end, it was all in vain: MP3 made it on a broad front. The same thing will most likely occur with MPEG-4/ DivX, because customer demand will open up new markets.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/consume...124/index.html

Edgereview forum (reading all the way down tells a good story of the bugs and the upgrades):
http://www.edgereview.com/ataglance....y=Video&ID=390

Toshiba drive mod:
http://www.firmware-flash.com/~hijacker/kiss/#Download

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buyers Outpace Renters
Tim Race

The DVD continues to transform the home video market. In 2002, for the first time, annual sales of home videos in the United States surpassed money spent on rentals, according to the market research firm Alexander & Associates. And overall consumer spending on prerecorded home videos — whether in the DVD or VHS format, including sales and rentals — set a record in 2002, at $28.5 billion. That total was up 15 percent from a year earlier.

Bob Alexander, president of the research firm, credits the tremendous popularity of DVD players and the industry’s relatively low pricing of DVD’s, for both the booming growth of the home video market and the trend that has put purchases ahead of rentals.

The best-selling DVD title in 2002, according to Mr. Alexander’s preliminary estimates, was “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” with 9.8 million units sold, followed by “Monsters Inc.,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Spider-Man” and “Shrek.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Streaming Video Continues to Make Web Inroads
Saul Hansell

One powerful network that intends to push the limit of Internet distribution is the Starz Encore Group, the cable movie service of John Malone's Liberty Media. This spring, it will offer a service, in conjunction with RealNetworks, that will let users watch full-length movies through their computers. To have sufficient quality, users will have to download the movie in advance, which can take a half-hour or more. But the result, Starz says, will be a picture that is as good as cable television, if not quite as good as a DVD's. For $6 to $10 a month, users will be able to watch any or all of 100 movies each month.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/27/te...gy/27STRE.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Race to Kill Kazaa
The servers are in Denmark. The software is in Estonia. The domain is registered Down Under, the corporation on a tiny island in the South Pacific. The users - 60 million of them - are everywhere around the world. The next Napster? Think bigger. And pity the poor copyright cops trying to pull the plug.
Todd Woody

On October 2, 2001, the weight of the global entertainment industry came crashing down on Niklas Zennström, cofounder of Kazaa, the wildly popular file-sharing service. That was the day every major American music label and movie studio filed suit against his company. Their goal was to shutter the service and shut down the tens of millions of people sharing billions of copyrighted music, video, and software files. Only problem: Stopping Napster, which indexed songs on its servers, was easy - the recording industry took the company to court for copyright infringement, and a judge pulled the plug. With Kazaa, users trade files through thousands of anonymous "supernodes." There is no plug to pull.

Nor, as attorneys would soon discover, was there even a single outfit to shut down. That's because on a January morning three months after the suit was filed, Amsterdam-based Kazaa.com went dark and Zennström vanished. Days later, the company was reborn with a structure as decentralized as Kazaa's peer-to-peer service itself. Zennström, a Swedish citizen, transferred control of the software's code to Blastoise, a strangely crafted company with operations off the coast of Britain - on a remote island renowned as a tax haven - and in Estonia, a notorious safe harbor for intellectual property pirates. And that was just the start.

Ownership of the Kazaa interface went to Sharman Networks, a business formed days earlier in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, another tax haven. Sharman, which runs its servers in Denmark, obtained a license for Zennström's technology, FastTrack. The Kazaa.com domain, on the other hand, was registered to an Australian firm called LEF Interactive - for the French revolutionary slogan, liberté, égalité, fraternité.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/kazaa.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The new jailbird jingle
Declan McCullagh

If you've ever used a peer-to-peer network and swapped copyrighted files, chances are pretty good you're guilty of a federal felony.

It doesn't matter if you've forsworn Napster, uninstalled Kazaa and now are eagerly padding the record industry's bottom line by snapping up $15.99 CDs by the cartload.

Be warned--you're what prosecutors like to think of as an unindicted federal felon.

I'm not joking. A obscure law called the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act that former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed in 1997 makes peer-to-peer (P2P) pirates liable for $250,000 in fines and subject to prison terms of up to three years. (You may want to read it, since you'll likely be hearing more about it soon.)

That's a long time to spend cooling your heels in Club Fed.

Yet something strange is going on here. So far the Justice Department has made precisely zero prosecutions of peer-to-peer users under the NET Act.

This odd delay is not because peer-to-peer piracy is legal. It's not. The NET Act covers people who willfully participate in the "reproduction or distribution" of copyrighted works without permission, when that activity is not covered by fair use rights.

The law even grants copyright holders the right to hand a "victim impact statement" to the judge at your trial, meaning you can expect an appearance from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) or the Business Software Alliance (BSA), depending on what kind of files were on your hard drive. You'll no longer have it, of course, because it'll have been seized by the FBI, and you'll be in jail.

Fretting that not enough peer-to-peer pirates are already there, a band of congressmen asked Attorney General John Ashcroft last July to begin some NET Act prosecutions, pronto. Their letter complained of "a staggering increase in the amount of intellectual property pirated over the Internet through peer-to-peer systems." The 19 politicos--including Sen. Joseph Biden, D- Del., Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.--urged Ashcroft "to prosecute individuals who intentionally allow mass copying from their computer over peer-to-peer neworks."

It didn't take long for the Justice Department to respond.
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-982121.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Company Addresses Network Congestion
Press Release

Enterprise IT managers need help identifying bandwidth and application performance hogs and the tools to control and allocate network resources to match business objectives

Allot Communications, a premier provider of policy-based networking solutions, today announced two new entry-level NetEnforcer(R) models designed to help enterprise information technology (IT) professionals manage problems associated with increasing network congestion as a result of the popularity of peer-to-peer (P2P) applications and streaming video files.

Today's businesses are running business-critical and time-sensitive applications that require guaranteed bandwidth allocation and performance. Simply buying more wide area network (WAN) bandwidth does not solve the problem of network congestion. Without the traffic shaping functions offered by the NetEnforcer or other policy-based networking devices, latency-sensitive applications, such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), video conferencing and business-critical client-server systems such as Citrix, ERP and CRM would still have to compete for bandwidth resources with non-critical applications such as file transfers and P2P.

"Enterprise IT professionals need solutions that will help them understand how different application behave and that can let them set policies that reflect their business needs," said Azi Ronen, executive vice president of marketing, Allot Communications. "Allot's NetEnforcer policy-based networking devices allow them to monitor network applications, users and servers and to define policies that will guarantee the performance of business-critical applications in private networks, Internet connections and VPNs."

The new NetEnforcer AC-102 and AC-202 models make it practical for corporations to deploy policy-based quality of service (QoS) devices across the enterprise, even to their small remote offices.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/...270216&ticker=

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Faster, Smaller, Opera. 7’s Up http://www.opera.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jordan's minister of IT and communications says project will facilitate peer-to-peer communications framework.
State Sponsored P2P Underway In Jordan, Elsewhere

Eight Arab and foreign countries have agreed to take part in a Jordanian initiative to set up an information technology (IT) network to bolster their economies, the Jordan Times reported Monday.

Bahrain, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Ireland, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates rallied to the Jordanian initiative on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum underway in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, the daily said.

A declaration to formalise the so-called Information Technology in Emerging Markets (ITEM) initiative is expected to be signed in Amman within the next few months, the newspaper added.

"The main goal of the ITEM is to enable countries with unique similarities to benefit from each other's experience by opening channels of communications among them," Jordan's minister of information technology and communications said.

Fawaz Zohbi was quoted as telling a working group in Davos that the project will "facilitate a peer-to-peer communications framework, enabling easy and timely access to IT" as well as help expand businesses.

Jordan launched in 1999 a five-year IT strategy dubbed REACH aimed at putting the kingdom on the IT world map.

But late last year, officials said their ambitious goal of creating 30,000 IT-related jobs and attracting 500 million dollars in annual IT and software exports by 2004 was too optimistic and that targets would be lowered.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=4136

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now you can festoon your own home with cables
DIY broadband via television
Competition for customers is starting to cut the cost of connecting up to broadband internet services.

Cable firm Telewest has announced a self- install package for its Blueyonder broadband service that costs only £12.50. The self-install pack does away with the need to buy a separate cable modem as it uses a television set-top box as the connecting point for the high-speed service. Eventually Telewest said it will provide wireless links to make it easy to link up home computers with its network.

Many of the set-top boxes that people use to watch cable TV have a modem inside that can be used to connect up to the high-speed services offered by Telewest and NTL. Telewest's self-install package does away with the need for a visit by one of the company's engineers and lets existing customers swiftly switch on a broadband service. Currently Telewest offers two broadband services. By itself the 512mbps service costs £29.99, but customers of other Telewest services get it for £25 a month. The higher speed 1mbps service is £39.99 for broadband only and £35 per month when combined with other Telewest services. Before now both have needed a visit by technicians to wire up homes and get domestic computers authorised to use to Telewest network.

Telewest's network currently passes 4.9 million homes and it currently has 1.76 million households as customers.

Cable firm NTL already offers a broadband service via its set-top boxes.

Existing customers will be able to get the service working quickly though new customers will still require a visit to connect them up. The installation fee costs up to £50.

The numbers of people signing up for high- speed services via phone lines leapt when BT made a self-install package available.

The self-install package uses wires to link set top box with the computers in customers' home, but eventually Telewest said it will provide wireless connectors to make installation even easier.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2698041.stm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Intel chief puts faith in wireless
Alfred Hermida

The head of the world's largest chip maker, Intel's Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett, has bleak news for the technology industry. He has said that he can not yet see a way out of the economic troubles that have hit the tech sector. "The last two years have been the toughest two years the hi-tech industry has seen overall," he told BBC News Online. "The two-year recession has been very difficult for the industry and I don't think anyone clearly sees what the results are going to be for the next 12 months." The company is now investing in wireless technology which it hopes will help boost sales.

Mr Barrett has faced a tough task leading Intel since he took over as CEO in 1998. Faced with declining demand for computers and competition from other chip makers, he has steered the company beyond the desktop with an aggressive move into the communications market. "Intel is focusing on both the computing sector and the communications sector and that includes everything from telecoms infrastructure to handheld devices like cellphones and Pocket PC devices," he said. The company has invested $9bn in building up a communications business during possibly the worst period in the history of the telecoms industry.

But Mr Barrett is still optimistic that the future lies in communications. He is now putting his money on wi-fi technology that allows machines to talk to each other without wires. The wireless home networking market has been growing rapidly, and analysts expect sales of wi-fi equipment to reach 33 million by 2006.

Intel's next-generation chip, called Centrino, comes with a wireless module built-in to take advantage of the boom in mobile computing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2691411.stm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UK users flocking to broadband

Record numbers of UK households and businesses are signing up for broadband Internet services, telecoms regulator Oftel has announced. Industry figures show almost 30,000 subscribers a week are switching to broadband, taking the total number in the UK to more than 1.4 million.

When Oftel announced the number of homes and businesses with broadband had reached 500,000 last May, new subscriptions were running at around 20,000 a week. Separate research conducted by Oftel found a big rise in the number of people aware of the benefits of broadband.

Last February, 32% of people already connected to the Internet - but not with a broadband connection - knew about the new technology. In the same survey of just over 2,300 users last November the figure had risen to 70%.

Around 42% of UK households are connected to the Internet, either with a standard or broadband connection.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm...ews.technology

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Retailers form digital music venture
AP

Six retail record store chains - hurting from competition from CD burning, on-line music and large discount stores - are teaming up to offer consumers digital music downloads in their stores and over the Internet.

The stores have formed a joint venture called Echo that will provide technology and allow them to offer individual tracks for downloading to portable devices and computers.

The stores are Best Buy, Tower Records, Virgin Entertainment Group, Wherehouse Music, Hastings Entertainment Inc. and Trans World Entertainment Corp., operator of FYE, Strawberries and Coconuts stores.

"We're trying to make digital music work in a mass market way, for millions of people," said Dan Hart, chief executive officer of Echo. "That hasn't happened yet."

Mr. Hart said he believes the Echo model can work where the recording industry-sponsored services have not.

"I think consumers will pay, but you have to provide the greater level of value," he said. "We're the traditional trading partner of the labels. We understand marketing and how to provide value to consumers."

Others, however, think retailers may have come too late to the game.

"So many consumers are now thinking about Internet music in terms of an Internet destination site than in terms of a terrestrial brand transplanted to the Internet," said Phil Leigh, digital music analyst with Raymond James Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla.
http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/se...nology/techBN/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Broadband Pow Wow In Ottawa
Allison Dunfield

The federal government has committed $2.4-million toward projects aimed at introducing high-speed Internet service to First Nations, rural and Northern communities.

Each of 89 applicants, representing 1149 communities, will receive up to $30,000 to develop business plans outlining how each community would use the broadband service.

"Broadband access has the potential to enhance the quality of life for all Canadians — especially for rural, Aboriginal and northern residents," Industry Minister Allan Rock said in a statement Friday.

"This phase of the Broadband Pilot Program is a significant step forward in our commitment to delivering broadband services to all Canadian communities by 2005."

Mr. Rock took over the broadband initiative begun by his predecessor, Brian Tobin. Mr. Tobin, who resigned from politics last January, lobbied hard for the program, one of his pet projects.

Mr. Tobin's vision was to have see every Canadian hooked up to the Internet by 2004. But his $1-billion plan was shut out of the last budget by former finance minister Paul Martin.

This latest $105-million pilot program, announced on Sept. 5 by Mr. Rock, is aimed specifically at allowing those living in native and rural communities to use the Internet.
http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/se...nology/techBN/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over & Out. Overnet connects to eDonkey. New beta is out. http://www.edonkey2000.com/index.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Supreme Court Rejects Mattel Appeal on Barbie Song
Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an appeal by Mattel Inc. over its lawsuit against MCA Records Inc. claiming the 1997 pop hit "Barbie Girl" had infringed on the toy maker's doll trademark.

Without comment, the justices let stand a federal appeals court ruling dismissing the lawsuit on the ground the song by the Danish band "Aqua" was parody and social commentary covered by the U.S. Constitution's free-speech protections.

Mattel, the world's largest toy maker which has made the doll since 1959, sued MCA Records, its parent and other units of Universal Music, a subsidiary of French media giant Vivendi Universal . MCA produced, marketed and sold "Barbie Girl."

The song featured a doll-like female voice impersonating Barbie, calling herself a "blonde bimbo girl" and saying "life in plastic, it's fantastic." A male singer, who called himself Ken, exhorted Barbie to "go party."

Mattel, based in El Segundo, California, argued the song, which sold more than 1.4 million copies in the United States, could confuse consumers and dilute the power of the Barbie brand.

MCA defended the song as "social commentary," saying the album "Aquarium" that included the song also featured a disclaimer noting the song was not sanctioned by the maker of Barbie dolls.

Mattel appealed to the Supreme Court. It said the appeals court cast aside the command of Congress in the Lanham Act to protect consumers against unauthorized use of trademarks in ways likely to cause confusion.

MCA replied that the appeal should be denied, saying it had "put out a classic form of parody in a light-hearted pop song that poked fun at one of the most famous and ubiquitous 'cultural icons' in the world."

The appeals court and a federal judge in California determined the song's title was not misleading and that consumers would not be confused, MCA told the justices.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=2116906

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lindows tackles DVD, music
David Becker

Linux software maker Lindows took another crack at Microsoft on Tuesday with a package intended to mimic the software giant's Windows XP Media Center.

Idot, a small PC maker specializing in direct online sales, will sell a Lindows Media Computer model that incorporates some home entertainment functions such as DVD and digital music playback. The company plans to begin selling the PCs early next month, with prices starting at $330 without a monitor.

The goal is to offer a low-cost PC that can take the place of several home entertainment appliances, Lindows CEO Michael Robertson said in a statement. "For under $350 retail, consumers can have a DVD player, CD player and personal computer in every room of the house or office," he said.

The media PCs appear to be a scaled-back response to Microsoft's heavily touted Windows XP Media Center, a version of the operating system that focuses on digital entertainment functions. The Lindows PCs lack several basic functions found in the Windows version, such as the ability to record TV programs and a remote control.

The Idot PCs are based on budget processors from Via Technologies and are similar to low-cost Lindows PCs sold by Wal-Mart, with the addition of a DVD drive and accompanying software. Lindows uses software maker Elegent's etDVD program to enable DVD playback.

Linux has had a contentious history with DVDs. The lawsuit-plagued DeCSS software, which government and movie-industry figures have attacked as a tool for illegally copying DVDs, originally was created as a way for Linux users to be able to play DVDs on their PCs.

Robertson, founder of MP3.com, started Lindows two years ago with the aim of offering a simplified, consumer-oriented version of the open-source Linux operating system. The company was promptly sued by Microsoft for allegedly misappropriating the Windows trademark.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-982468.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BearShare 4.2.0 Released. Magnet links and more. http://www.bearshare.com/help/whatsnew.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Connect, They Say, Only Connect
Emily Eakin

The whiteboard in Duncan J. Watts's office at Columbia University was a thicket of squiggly blue lines, circles and calculus equations. Mr. Watts, an associate professor of sociology, had just begun a passionate disquisition on the virtues and liabilities of scale-free networks when the telephone rang. It was Alfred Berkeley, the vice chairman of Nasdaq, hoping to chat about the exchange's design.

Mr. Watts, 31, is a network theorist. And these days that means fielding frequent calls from powerful admirers like Mr. Berkeley — Wall Street moguls and government officials eager to tap into a nascent academic science that few understand but that many think may hold the key to everything from predicting fashion trends to preventing terrorism, stock market meltdowns and the spread of HIV.

Never mind that Mr. Watts's new book on the subject, "Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age," which will be published by W. W. Norton next month, is littered with the arcana of theoretical physics as well as charts and graphs that appear to require an advanced degree in math in order to decipher. Network theory is hot. Two other recent books on networks, "Linked: The New Science of Networks" (Perseus, 2002) by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi and "Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks" (W. W. Norton) by Mark Buchanan, have already sold tens of thousands of copies.

And that's not counting sales in the burgeoning genre of consumer studies, where network science terms and concepts are invoked with near religious fervor. From Malcolm Gladwell's three-year-old best seller, "The Tipping Point," to just-published analyses like "The Influentials" and "Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers," the shelves at Barnes & Noble are laden with books alternately applauding and deploring the importance of things like hubs, connectors, mavens and influencer teens for creating fads, cementing brand loyalty and swelling profits.

"Network theory has become a bit of a fad," Mr. Watts conceded after hanging up the phone. "I spend half my time telling people I think it's relevant to a lot of problems people care about and half my time trying to tone down the hype."

Network scientists study networks: collections of people or objects connected to each other in some way. Think of the 1.5 million Manhattan residents or the 30,000 genes inside a human cell. Such networks, scientists argue, behave in ways that can't be understood solely in terms of their component parts. Without knowing what every single person or object within the network is doing, they say, it's nevertheless possible to know something about how the network as a whole behaves.

Stated that way it sounds simple. But as an intellectual approach, network theory is the latest symptom of a fundamental shift in scientific thinking, away from a focus on individual components — particles and subparticles — and toward a novel conception of the group. As Mr. Barabasi, a professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, put it: "In biology, we've had great success stories — the human genome, the mouse genome. But what is not talked about is that we have the pieces but don't have a clue as to how the system works. Increasingly, we think the answer is in networks."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/25/arts/25WATT.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time to Dump the DMCA
Anne Chen

It's only January and already, there's been enough activity surrounding the notorious Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to last a lifetime. Just this week, Verizon Inc. was ordered to give-up the identity of a customer who reportedly used its network to make unauthorized copies of several hundred songs available online.

Then there's the Chamberlain Group, an Elmhurst, Ill., automatic garage door opener manufacturer, which is trying to use a provision of the DMCA to force Skylink Technologies to stop distribution of a universal garage door remote. Chamberlain claims Skylink is circumventing a security code system that controls access to the software in its products.

Is there anyone or anything untouchable by the DMCA?

Congress has at least two good chances to right this wrong. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) announced intentions earlier this month to reintroduce the Digital Choice and Freedom Act of 2002. The bill would allow consumers to bypass technological copy protections built in to copyrighted work if the intent is to make a copy for personal use. And, on January 7, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) reintroduced the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, which he is co-sponsoring with Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), Patrick Kennedy (D- RI), and Spencer Bachus (R-AL).

Reps. Lofgren and Boucher aren't the only ones taking a stand. Last week, advocacy groups and technology giants including Microsoft Corp., Dell Computer Corp., and Motorola Inc., announced the Alliance for Digital Progress, a new lobbying organization formed to combat Hollywood in its attempts to control all digital media. The organization's take is that requiring anti-copying technology in digital entertainment devices will crimp product innovation. Naturally, consumer rights are what these companies are fighting for. Keeping product sales up has nothing to do with it.

It's too early to place bets on what other wild misuses of the DMCA companies will come up with. But I'm not expecting that computer and consumer electronics companies find a way to handle the distribution of online and physical media that protects the rights of both the copyright holder and consumer anytime soon. What I do hope, though, is that all parties will realize that violating online privacy by forcing the release of customer information is not the answer.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,844563,00.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recording industry shows some cunning
Hiawatha Bray

It's an article of faith among the digital elite that the entertainment business is run by morons. After all, the recording industry and the movie studios still think that they can somehow prevent us from copying and swapping our favorite digital amusements, without compensation or permission. Dream on, the enlightened ones say.

Surely the enlightened ones are right. So far, no one has conceived a practical strategy against digital piracy. And yet, you can hardly blame the entertainment companies for trying. Piracy is costing them billions; they must at least try to slow it down.

Besides, the events of the last couple of weeks should dispose of any illusions that the amusement moguls are just a pack of fools. The Recording Industry Association of America has shown itself a cunning strategist, able to learn from its errors. And a court ruling last week has put it in a position to do some real damage to those who steal recorded music.

Just under two weeks ago, the RIAA did a deal with a group representing eight of the nation's top computer companies. Included in the deal was a pledge to oppose mandatory anti-copying hardware for personal computers.

You'll remember that Congress briefly considered such legislation last year. RIAA never embraced it, possibly because it recalls a time when the organization really did behave stupidly. In 1998, it asked a federal court to ban the first portable MP3 digital music player. Luckily the RIAA lost, and we can all listen to our Apple iPods in peace.

The RIAA seems to have taken the hint. By opposing the anti-piracy hardware plan, it went some way toward draining the reservoir of bitterness it's built up among the tech crowd.

Just as well, because a few days later RIAA won a court victory that'll bring the company a whole new set of enemies. A judge in Washington ruled that the Internet service provider Verizon Communications must provide the RIAA with the identity of a customer who used the network to swap illegal music files.

Unless a higher court overturns the ruling, music companies need only present the most minimal evidence of a violation to a court, which will automatically issue a subpoena. An Internet provider must then hand over the customer's name and address, tearing away his shield of privacy and exposing him to the tender mercies of an enraged multinational corporation.

Of course, millions of Americans swap illegal files. Will AOL Time Warner or Sony sue them all?

They won't have to. Nailing a few dozen or a few hundred will chill many of the others. Let a few of them be fined, at up to $150,000 for each offense, and you'll likely see many casual swappers fall away.

Still, that leaves many thousands of perps out there, and even Sony can't go after them all. Jonathan Zittrain, assistant professor at the Harvard Law School and co-director of the Berkman Center on Internet and Society, thinks Sony doesn't want to and won't have to. It'll hand off the job to the Internet providers.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/02...cunning+.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ad-aware 6 released. Pro ver$ion now, free version to follow. http://lavasoft3.element5.com/support/download/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After high court ruling, erosion in public domain feared
Anick Jesdanun

Playwright Wayne Frank's show can't go on.

After failing to obtain stage rights to "The Sun Also Rises" beyond Milwaukee, Frank thought he only had to wait a few more years, when the book by Ernest Hemingway was to have entered the public domain.

Instead, Congress extended copyright terms for another 20 years, a decision affirmed this month by the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, Frank laments that the public will be denied his reinterpretation of an American classic first published in 1926.

"Why should the publishers have exclusive rights to this almost forever?" Frank said. "For (an) author to be compensated while he or she is alive is legitimate but to extend this down to their great- grandchildren is a fraud."

Elsewhere, music directors worry they won't have ready access to the songs of Irving Berlin and other composers. Also dashed are Internet publishers' hopes for making many more works accessible through online libraries.

Many critics believe the high court's decision hinders access to knowledge for the economically disadvantaged -- especially as more literature, music and images go digital.

"The technology is all dressed up right now with no place to go," said Jonathan Zittrain, who co- directs an Internet law center at Harvard University.

All in all, the copyright extension could freeze for the foreseeable future the intellectual commons from which artists can draw inspiration and raw materials for new creations.

"Imagine the kid who wants to take a chunk out of `Schindler's List,' put it in a report on the Holocaust and post it on the Internet," said Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor behind the Supreme Court challenge.

Using the video in such a multimedia report, he said, would be a copyright infringement, as would a museum's setting up an online exhibit with 1930s images, sound and text on the New Deal.

Content providers don't deny that the Supreme Court decision will hurt the public domain. What they dispute is its wider impact.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topsto...2_BC_Copyright'sVictims&&news&newsflash-topstory

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright gets sweeter for big business
Happy Birthday song rights belong to AOL Time Warner Canadian laws are not yet as restictive as in the United States
Judy

At York University's film school, students making their 8-mm short films are cautioned not to create any birthday party scenes in which participants sing "Happy Birthday To You." They may substitute "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow," since that is not under copyright in the United States. "I try to alert our students to copyright issues because they might be considering entering their work in student film festivals in the U.S.," says Jim Fisher, who teaches film production at York. It's just a small example of how the near-perpetual copyrights granted by U.S. law affect Canadian creators, be they filmmakers, authors, composers or visual artists, who naturally want to bust out of the relatively small Canadian market. (Copyright laws differ here, protecting work for 50 years after the creator's death.) Many of the most lucrative U.S. copyrights on works of the imagination are held not by creative people or their descendents but by giant entertainment conglomerates waging a war to protect their properties. Last week, Big Entertainment won a major victory when the U.S. Supreme Court essentially ruled that Congress has the right to extend copyrights as often as it sees fit (there have been 11 extensions in the past 40 years), even though the country's Founding Fathers foresaw copyright as lasting for only 28 years. The ubiquitous "Happy Birthday," whose tune was composed by Mildred Hill, a kindergarten teacher in Louisville, in 1893, was copyrighted in 1934 by her sister Jessica Hill, after the ditty with new lyrics attached appeared in the Broadway musical The Bank Wagon and had been used by Western Union for its singing telegram. Rights to the song changed hands several times and today they are owned by Summy-Birchard Music, which in turn is owned by AOL Time Warner, for which it earns $2 million a year in royalties for public usage. (Don't worry about singing it around your dining table; AOL Time Warner has not figured out how to collect on that yet.) "Happy Birthday" was due to come into the public domain after 75 years in 2010 until Congress — having been heavily lobbied by the Disney Corp. — passed what's satirically referred to as the Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act in 1998, adding another 20 years to all existing copyrights for works created between 1923 and '63. (After 1963, the U.S. copyright regime for future work changed so that it's dependent on the date of death of its creator, as in Canada, not the date of its creation.) The song now won't be in the public domain till 2030, while Mickey Mouse, created in 1928, is protected until 2024. According to a recent story in Fortune magazine, Mickey earns his parent company $1 billion (U.S.) in annual revenues, as does Winnie the Pooh, to which Disney also holds the merchandising rights. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, rejoiced after the ruling: "The law has long recognized that copyright, whose aim it is to provide incentive for the creation and preservation of creative works, is in the public interest," he said in a press release. The situation is replete with irony, since Walt Disney himself borrowed from a Buster Keaton silent film called Steamboat Bill, Jr. as well as from the conventions of minstrel shows to dream up his white-gloved black rodent.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=969483191630

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Effort to Protect Recordings Begins
Elizabeth Olson

The Library of Congress, in its first step to preserve American sound recordings that span the last century, said today that it had selected 50 recordings to start a national registry.

Choosing only 50 was a difficult task and is not meant to be "another Grammy Awards or `best of' list," said James W. Billington, the librarian of Congress. Among the familiar choices are "Stars and Stripes Forever" from 1897, the first recording of John Philip Sousa's march; ragtime music that Scott Joplin played in the early 1900's for piano roll sales; and Franklin D. Roosevelt's radio "Fireside Chats" from 1933 to 1944.

The recordings, chosen from public submissions and internal recommendations, include jazz from Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, as well as recordings from Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan. There is also a rap track, "The Message," a 1982 hit by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

While rap is not a favorite of Dr. Billington — unlike Enrico Caruso's popular 1907 recording of the aria "Vesti la giubba," which is also on the list — he said it was part of the American cultural heritage.

The registry was mandated by Congress in the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 and is modeled on the Library of Congress film project to preserve important American movies. At least half the recordings on wax cylinders between 1888 and 1920 have been lost, Dr. Billington said.

"You can't clean off the mold and hear the recording," said Dr. Billington, holding up a decrepit cylinder. "The wax has eaten through," causing treasures like 1890 recordings by Mark Twain to be irretrievable.

A foundation to be headed by William Ivey, past president of the National Endowment for the Arts, will try to find the best recordings of the 50 selections and copy the original master. The library, which has 2.6 million recordings, is converting to a digital preservation system.

More information can be found at www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/28/arts/28SOUN.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The 'Appliancizing' of Technology
Assistant Professor Jonathan Zittrain '95, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, discusses technology, the law and automatic dog washers.
Harvard Law Today

How did your interest in technology and the law develop?
It crystallized when I was 12 or 13. I got a 300-baud modem and logged into CompuServe, which was a proprietary information service--one paid $6 or $12 or $24 an hour depending on the time of day--and loved it. What I loved most about it was the ability to connect with other people whom one normally would not meet at all. As the service grew and the population of users became more heterogeneous, more diverse viewpoints emerged. [Debates about] how to have a dispute over something, the role of those who run the communities in setting up rules for what's in bounds and what's out of bounds, were just innately fascinating. It's a question of how to govern ourselves, and that's a question asked in almost every civil procedure class.

Do you think laws currently do enough to protect our electronic privacy?
People naturally tend to place physical security above all. These days one often hears a paraphrase of Justice Jackson's protest that the Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact--that a concern for civil liberties must ultimately yield to national or maybe even individual survival. The terrorist attacks have been a serious and politically uniting spur to make a quantum leap in the use of technology in law enforcement and national security surveillance. It's reminiscent of the space race. We honed 1960s technology to land on the moon, and we haven't revisited it much since. So the state of technology for lunar landings is not even 1980s, much less 21st century. That's been the state of overall government surveillance as well--last booming in the '50s and '60s during the Cold War, then penned in by Watergate-era worries about government abuse of a panopticon. Other than trying to maintain the status quo of government power to surveil in the face of new private technologies to cloak, there hasn't been intensive effort to deploy massively integrated databases to form a comprehensive surveillance regime. That's now changed. As it's happening, I fear we're not properly considering and building in protections so that it can't readily be abused. The point of law is to make sure that it's not just at some government official's indulgence or good grace that we're not being wronged.

Is there any way to stop the proliferation of electronic trading of protected intellectual property?
The publishing industry has by no means given up, and they still hold some strong cards. As we move to an appliance model of computing, something like a TiVo [digital video recorder] can become the place to store one's digital data--rather than a PC, which from a consumer point of view gets sick with viruses all the time, is in an inconvenient location in the house and is constantly going obsolete. As we go to an appliance model, it's much, much easier to control users' behaviors. I think we may look back and see the PC as an anomaly--how strange to run anything ending in ".exe." You don't normally get to write your own software for your coffeemaker or for your refrigerator or your lamp or your television or your VCR. So as we go to an appliance model that gives people more stability and predictability and longevity, I think we're going to lose the anarchic quality currently associated with PCs and the Internet.

And do you think that would be a loss?
Yes. So much of the staggering innovation that's taken place in the past 15 years has been thanks to generic computing platforms that anyone can write software for. The big innovation over the past 15 years has not been that we went from Word 3 to Word 6. It's that Gnutella happened and instant messenger happened and the Web happened. If we close that [innovation] off--either by having more gatekeepers within the network or by appliancizing the PC so that you need to be an accredited software developer to generate code--all that innovation vanishes, and we'll merely be going from Word 6 to Word 9.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/toda...5zittrain.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow. Only commercial piracy is criminal under European Commission proposal
Joris Evers

The European Commission has presented a draft directive that punishes copyright infringement for commercial purposes, but leaves the home music downloader untouched, infuriating the entertainment industry.

The proposed directive is meant to harmonize intellectual property rights enforcement laws in the 15-nation European Union (EU). It aims to strike "a fair balance" between interests of right holders and the opportunities the Internet offers to consumers, according to Commission documents.

Criminal sanctions apply only when copyright infringement is carried out intentionally and for commercial purposes, the Commission said.

A consortium of industry groups, including representatives of the tech industry as well as music companies, declared the proposal "inadequate."

They still have time to lobby for tougher sanctions. The Commission's draft directive has to pass the European Parliament and the European Union's Council of Ministers before it is officially adopted.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109148,00.asp