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Peer to Peer The 3rd millenium technology! |
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,024
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![]() ![]() ![]() "I have serious doubts whether today's copyright laws bring any increased benefits for the society at all." – Karl-Henrik Pettersson "We must break various rules of law in acquiring all the information we achieve for you." – Touch Tone Information Inc. "You shouldn't be worried about being spied on by your government. These days you can't go anywhere without a camera watching you whether you're in a grocery store or walking down the street." – Sid Heal "1984 has finally arrived. I can't believe this is happening in a liberal place like Washington." – Todd Boutte "The potential for abuse is enormous." – Former U.S. senior counterterrorism official "I wrote a paragraph of text and there it was. You write all these pages for college and no one ever sees it, and you write for Wikipedia and the whole world sees it, instantly." – Kathleen Walsh "Hollywood's overall business rose for the fifth-straight weekend." – David Germain "I used to joke with him, 'You'd never get me in a "Star Trek" uniform, even on Halloween, it's not going to happen.' Next thing I know, I'm wearing a uniform." – Mike Bednar "I’d say this is a dream come true." – Paul Reubens "We are a signpost that there's a new approach that could drive the cost of the client device to nothing. This could change the world." – Stephen A. Dukker "People are going to be having sex with robots within five years." – Henrik Christensen File Sharing Does Not "Defy The Laws Of Nature" Dan Glickman is a tool. There. It needed to be said. An educated man I suppose, he obviously knows better. So when he says giving away product for free and being more successful "defies the laws of nature" he says it as a paid collaborator and lobbyist for his media mogul masters and we see it for what it is: self-serving nonsense from the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, just like the previous drivel from Jack Valenti and Hilary Rosen before him. Where to begin…Ok, Nature does lots of things for "free" of course. Ever savored a cherry? How does that work? Well, trees "give them away." For free! Not that I care to assign intent, but essentially they hope to entice animals like us to spread their seeds, and naturally, we're happy to oblige. But we are not obligated, and there is a difference. Plants have been found on islands far from their origins, carried by birds hundreds of miles over water, all because they were smart enough to offer something for free. This natural system of free distribution is perhaps the world’s oldest profession, and nothing works better. Ah Mr. Glickman, if anything defies the laws of nature it is so-called copy controls. Nature is hell-bent in using any means at her disposal to make more and more of herself, not less. It’s a good thing too - our very existence depends on it. No, I’m afraid nature is the last thing media company monopolists care to emulate. Their operating principals are the very antitheses of it. Hell if Glickman and the assorted media thugs now stealing our cultural future were such naturalists, they’d quit the MPAA and start new P2P programs! And file-sharing would be a bowl of cherries. Enjoy, Jack ![]() June 24th, ’06 ![]() For Real? p2pnet With Big Four Organized Music member EMI trying to cosy up to YouTube, the RIAA, owned by EMI, Warner Music, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, has been firing off Cease & Desist letters to YouTubers. Seemingly, the C&D's are, "demanding that they take down videos of kids singing along and dancing to their favorite songs," as Cory Doctorow points out on Boing Boing, going on, "This is pretty crazy, of course - as Battelle says, 'Wake up. This is how we use music in the real world. Get over yourselves'." "But, Doctorow continues, "that's just the beginning of the story. Last July, RPG Films got a takedown notice from someone who claimed to be the RIAA. RPGFilms hosts videos of people's video-game characters dancing to music - rock-videos made with games. They shut down and there was a terrible stink about it, and the RIAA actually contacted us to tell us that they hadn't sent the notice - it was a fake. "We reported that, and I asked RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) Director of Communications Jenni Engebretsen some followup questions." Q: Are forgeries like this common occurrences? A: I can't really say - I'd have to speak to our folks to see if this happens with any frequency. As I stated in my email, we haven't initiated any legal action of any kind. Q: Do you plan to pursue the forgers who sent out the bogus takedown in your name? A: I need to check into that, that's all the information I have at this point. Q: Will you pursue a claim against RPG Films for the use of your member-companies' copyright music in the films they host? A: We have not initiated any communication or legal action against them. Forecasting future actions is not something we do. Q: Do you have an institutional policy on the use of your member companies' music in noncommercial fan-films made from video-games? A: I need to check on that. Q: That's great, thanks. I'll post this and update the post when you get back to me. However, says the Boing Boing post, that was all she wrote or, rather, said. "In fact, I couldn't get her on the phone at all," says Doctorow. "I'd ring her from my home number and mobile phone and no one picked up, and I never received a response to my emails. Eventually, I called her from a different number while travelling in the US and she answered. I asked her about all those 'I need to check on that' and 'I'll get back to you' answers. "She said, 'Yeah, we don't have any comment on those questions'. "So now we've got the RIAA (?) sending takedown notices to YouTube over kids who rock out to the songs they love. You have to wonder -- if this is a forgery, has the RIAA decided to do something about it? If it's not, does that mean that they now have a policy about fan-films made with music? "If Ms Engebretsen is reading this, I'd be glad to hear any comment you'd care to make on those questions now." http://www.p2pnet.net/story/9090 ![]() Next Action: Freedom Rings at the RIAA PeterB Freedom Rings at the RIAA Update: June 23rd, 9:30am Eastern -As of last night, over 3,600 people have joined this campaign to stand up for freedom and against DRM. Join today and give a piece of mind to executives at the IFPI (Germany), BPI (UK), SNEP (France), CRIA (Canada) and the RIAA (US). The action has begun and will continue until late tonight. When you sign up below, you will be given a page that provides information on executives at the these orgs, their phone numbers, and results from our calls! June 21 - In the last 3 weeks nearly 3000 people have signed up at DefectiveByDesign.org to take action. We have gotten emails from all over the world; people want to step up, take action and proclaim their support of digital freedoms by opposing DRM. On Friday, June 23rd, we will coordinate a day of action, and this time it doesn't involve yellow hazmat suits. You don't even have to leave your desk. We will provide contact numbers for executives at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and similar organizations around the world. We're asking you to proclaim your support for digital freedoms by calling the RIAA and telling them what you think of DRM and what you think of them! Spread the word about this call-in by asking your friends to register today! When you log in on Friday we'll give you a special number to call. After you've made your call, you can let us know how it went. The more people that take part, the more fun this will be. With just 480 calls at one minute each, we can let the industry hear our voices all through the workday. The RIAA pushes DRM on us; it's time to push back! http://defectivebydesign.org/node/138 ![]() "We must break various rules of law in acquiring all the information we achieve for you." Police Bypass Courts for Telephone Records Get data from shadowy world of information brokers Ted Bridis and John Solomon Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers. These brokers, many of whom advertise aggressively on the Internet, have gotten into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and even acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents gathered by congressional investigators and provided to The Associated Press. The law enforcement agencies include offices in the Homeland Security Department and Justice Department - including the FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service - and municipal police departments in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services. "We are requesting any and all information you have regarding the above cell phone account and the account holder ... including account activity and the account holder's address," Ana Bueno, a police investigator in Redwood City, Calif., wrote in October to PDJ Investigations of Granbury, Texas. An agent in Denver for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Anna Wells, sent a similar request on March 31 on Homeland Security stationery: "I am looking for all available subscriber information for the following phone number," Wells wrote to a corporate alias used by PDJ. Congressional investigators estimated the U.S. government spent $30 million last year buying personal data from private brokers. But that number likely understates the breadth of transactions, since brokers said they rarely charge law enforcement agencies any price. PDJ said it always provided help to police for free. "Agencies from all across the country took advantage of it," said PDJ's lawyer, Larry Slade of Los Angeles. A lawmaker who has investigated the industry said Monday he was concerned by the practices of data brokers. "We know law enforcement has used this because it is easily obtained and you can gather a lot of information very quickly," said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., head of the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee. The panel expects to conduct hearings this week. Whitfield said data companies will relentlessly pursue a target's personal information. "They will impersonate and use everything available that they have to convince the person who has the information to share it with them, and it's shocking how successful they are," Whitfield said. "They can basically obtain any information about anybody on any subject." The congressman said laws on the subject are vague: "There's a good chance there are some laws being broken, but it's not really clear precisely which laws." James Bearden, a Texas lawyer who represents four such data brokers, compared the companies' activities to the National Security Agency, which reportedly compiles the phone records of ordinary Americans. "The government is doing exactly what these people are accused of doing," Bearden said. "These people are being demonized. These are people who are partners with law enforcement on a regular basis." The police agencies told AP they used the data brokers because it was quicker and easier than subpoenas, and their lawyers believe their actions were lawful. Some agencies, such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, instructed agents to stop the practice after congressional inquiries. The U.S. Marshal's Service told AP it was examining its policies but compared services offered by data brokers to Web sites providing public telephone numbers nationally. None of the police agencies interviewed by AP said they researched these data brokers to determine how they secretly gather sensitive information like names associated with unlisted numbers, records of phone calls, e-mail aliases - even tracing a person's location using their cellular phone signal. "If it's on the Internet and it's been commended to us, we wouldn't do a full-scale investigation," Marshal's Service spokesman David Turner said. "We don't knowingly go into any source that would be illegal. We were not aware, I'm fairly certain, what technique was used by these subscriber services." At Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spokesman Dean Boyd said agents did not pay for phone records and sought approval from U.S. prosecutors before making requests. Their goal was "to more quickly identify and filter out phone numbers that were unrelated to their investigations," Boyd said. Targets of the police interest include alleged marijuana smugglers, car thieves, armed thugs and others. The data services also are enormously popular among banks and other lenders, private detectives and suspicious spouses. Customers included: -A U.S. Labor Department employee who used her government e-mail address and phone number to buy two months of personal cellular phone records of a woman in New Jersey. -A buyer who received credit card information about the father of murder victim Jon Benet Ramsey. -A buyer who obtained 20 printed pages of phone calls by pro basketball player Damon Jones of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The athlete was "shocked to learn somebody had obtained this information," said Mark Termini, his lawyer and agent in Cleveland. "When a person or agency is able to obtain by fraudulent means a person's personal information, that is something that should be prohibited by law." PDJ's lawyer said no one at the company violated laws, but he acknowledged, "I'm not sure that every law enforcement agency in the country would agree with that analysis." Many of the executives summoned to testify before Congress this week were expected to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and to decline to answer questions. Slade said no one at PDJ impersonated customers to steal personal information, a practice known within the industry as pretexting. "This was farmed out to private investigators," Slade said. "They had written agreements with their vendors, making sure the vendors were acquiring the information in legal ways." Privacy advocates bristled over data brokers gathering records for police without subpoenas. "This is pernicious, an end run around the Fourth Amendment," said Marc Rotenberg, head of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, a leading privacy group that has sought tougher federal regulation of data brokers. "The government is encouraging unlawful conduct; it's not smart on the law enforcement side to be making use of information obtained improperly." A federal agent who ordered phone records without subpoenas about a half-dozen times recently said he learned about the service from FBI investigators and was told this was a method to obtain phone subscriber information quicker than with a subpoena. The agent, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak with reporters, said he and colleagues use data brokers "when he have the need to act fairly quickly" because getting a subpoena can involve lengthy waits. Waiting for a phone company's response to a subpoena can take several days or up to 45 days, said police supervisor Eric Stasiak of Redwood City, Calif. In some cases, a request to a data broker yields answers in just a few hours, Stasiak said. Legal experts said law enforcement agencies would be permitted to use illegally obtained information from private parties without violating the Fourth Amendment's protection against unlawful search and seizure, as long as police did not encourage any crimes to be committed. "If law enforcement is encouraging people in the private sector to commit a crime in getting these records that would be problematic," said Mark Levin, a former top Justice Department official under President Reagan. "If, on the other hand, they are asking data brokers if they have any public information on any given phone numbers that should be fine." Levin said he nonetheless would have advised federal agents to use the practice only when it was a matter of urgency or national security and otherwise to stick to a legally bulletproof method like subpoenas for everyday cases. Congress subpoenaed thousands of documents from data brokers describing how they collected telephone records by impersonating customers. "I was shot down four times," Michele Yontef complained in an e-mail in July 2005 to a colleague. "I keep getting northwestern call center and they just must have had an operator meeting about pretext as every operator is clued in." Yontef, who relayed another request for phone call records as early as February, was among those ordered to appear at this week's hearing. Another company years ago even acknowledged breaking the law. "We must break various rules of law in acquiring all the information we achieve for you," Touch Tone Information Inc. of Denver wrote to a law firm in 1998 that was seeking records of calls made on a calling card. The FBI's top lawyers told agents as early as 2001 they can gather private information about Americans from data brokers, even information gleaned from mortgage applications and credit reports, which normally would be off-limits to the government under the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act. FBI lawyers rationalized that even though data brokers may have obtained financial information, agents could still use the information because brokers were not acting as a consumer-reporting agency but rather as a data warehouse. The FBI said it relies only on well-respected data brokers and expects agents to abide by the law. "The FBI can only collect and retain data available from commercial databases in strict compliance with applicable federal law," spokesman Mike Kortan said Monday. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT ![]() File-Sharing Police 'Need Better Training' Those who investigate copyright crimes should go back to school for a crash course in how to better deal with illegal file sharing, the Swedish Police and prosecutors have recommended. Such investigations should also be concentrated to those international prosecutors in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö, as well as police with similar capabilities in the same locations, the recommendation said. The National Criminal Investigation Department suggests coordinating reports of crime, as well as assisting other police agencies in investigating. Certain prosecutors would get a 10 day class. The head of the Pirate Party, a group advocating file sharing in Sweden, said the class period was much too short to learn so much technical information. Investigators are recommending a five-week-long class as part of police training. Sweden became the focus of a file-sharing controversy after police shut down the popular Pirate Bay Web site. Last year the county passed a law banning the sharing of copyrighted material on the Internet without payment of royalties, in a bid to crack down on free downloading of music, films and computer games. Violators can face a two-year prison sentence. http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?I...&date=20060616 ![]() Sweden And Finland Leading Direct Connect Countries TankGirl Sweden is the leading country in the world when it comes to Direct Connect hubs. With its estimated 1,300 hubs Sweden has a clear lead, although Finland with its 1,100 hubs is also a major DC nation. Countries like US, UK and Holland come way behind, each having 400-600 hubs. These interesting estimates come from security consulting company Gothia Protection Group located in Göthenburg, Sweden, and they were reported today by Sweden's largest informtion technology news site IDG. Among the customers of Gothia is the MPAA who used company's intelligence services to chart Pirate Bay activities earlier on. As for the users of DC hubs, Gothia's measurements give Sweden a similarly convincing lead. An estimated average of 180,000 Swedes are connected to the various DC hubs at any given time. Also on user counts Finland has the second place with its 80,000 concurrently connected users. When asked for possible reasons for Sweden's world dominance on Direct Connect, Hans Bornsjö from Gothia considered the main reason to be the high broadband penetration in the country. The highly competitive broadband infrastructure has been built partially on Swedish state's subsidies. Another factor Bornsjö considers important is the extremely liberal attitudes of the Swedes regarding availibility of information. For example, the Swedish laws require almost all official information to be publicly available. As the filesharing technology has advanced, the public's expectations for the free availibility of information have moved over to the filesharing scene to apply also to all copyrighted material like music and movies. http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...ad.php?t=22805 ![]() Politicians Smell Votes In Sweden's File-Sharing Debate Ivar Ekman The Jolly Roger-waving, pro-piracy demonstrators are no longer in the streets here, but the police raid in late May on the popular file- sharing Web site, The Pirate Bay, is still making waves, increasing pressure on politicians to change Sweden's copyright laws. The Swedish debate ties into events in France over the past few months, where an effort to legalize peer-to-peer sharing of films and music, charging downloaders a global fee, was recently voted down in the French Parliament. "The process for change has now begun in Sweden, but it's clear that this problem cannot be solved by one country alone," said Lars Ilshammar, an information-technology historian who recently suggested that Sweden impose a fee similar to the one proposed in France. "More countries have to come out of the closet." The fallout from the May 31 raid on The Pirate Bay has made clear just how widespread and deeply entrenched file-sharing has become in Sweden. Online forums have been filled with protests against the raid, and a pro-piracy demonstration in early June drew close to 1,000 people. A poll published in early June showed that three out of four Swedes between 18 and 21 supported file-sharing, even if it was illegal. With parliamentary elections coming in September, five of the seven major Swedish political parties have in recent weeks expressed a will to take a new look at the Swedish copyright laws, which, in accordance with an EU directive from 2001, makes unauthorized downloading or uploading of copyright-protected files illegal. "We're talking about as many as one million potential voters that the political parties now have discovered," Ilshammar said. "Suddenly they feel they need to treat them with some care." Even the justice minister, Thomas Bodstrom - who was recently called a "lackey to the American record industry" by Anna Sjodin, the chairwoman of the youth wing of his own party, the Social Democrats - has expressed a will to listen to "new suggestions" on the issue. "As a country at the forefront of information technology, we also have to be at the forefront of how we legislate the issue," Bodstrom said in an interview by telephone. "Above all, we have to say yes to technological development, and encourage people to use computers and to download." The idea of a levy, which would be collected in a manner similar to the television license fee that many European countries require citizens to pay, has for some time been part of the wider debate over how to handle intellectual property in the digital age. What is new, with the events in Sweden and France, is that the idea is now gaining political momentum. But the global fee concept is highly controversial on both sides of the piracy debate. The record and film industries have repeatedly said that legalizing unauthorized file sharing would effectively end copyright protection as we know it, while a general levy would be both insufficient and unfair as compensation for the artists. The pro-piracy forces, on the other hand, complain about how such a system would be unmanageable and unfair. "This is an idea that they've thrown out there in a panic," said Rickard Falkvinge, the chairman of Piratpartiet, a pro-file-sharing Swedish political party that has more than tripled its membership, to 7,000, since the raid on The Pirate Bay. "It creates more problems than it solves." The European Commission, which, as part of the Lisbon Agenda of economic goals, is striving to harmonize European copyright legislation, wholeheartedly agrees. In a recent consultation document, the commission warned against the proliferation of levies in recent years. Across Europe, various levies are imposed on blank CD and DVD disks, hard disks, disk drives, computers, printers and cellphones, among other things. Additional levies, like one on broadband, would carry "a serious risk of a backlash" according to the document. Instead, the commission prefers the continued spread of digital rights management and other content-protection technologies. But the recent events indicate that momentum for change is building. Besides the Pirate Bay hullabaloo in Sweden and the debate over levies in France, the past few weeks have also seen increased attacks on the "walled garden" digital rights management approach of Apple's popular iTunes music store. Once again, France has been the vanguard, coming close to passing a law that would have required Apple to make iTunes songs compatible with all portable music devices. This week, Norway, Denmark and Sweden followed the French example, with government consumer protection agencies in the three countries saying that iTunes breaches Scandinavian consumer laws, and that Apple will have to lift restrictions on playing music from iTunes on rivals' devices. On Wednesday, Apple was given an extended deadline, until Aug. 1, to respond to the agencies' accusations. Many experts say that, in the end, an alternative to current copyright legislation will have to be created, and that a global fee is one likely solution. "The way it works now, it is a little as if you give the consumer a lollipop, and then smack them over their heads, saying that they can't use what they've bought," said Uma Suthersanen, a professor of international copyright law at Queen Mary, a college at the University of London. "The industry and the politicians will simply have to sort it out." http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/...ess/levies.php ![]() Stalking, MPAAs New(?) modus operandi Anakata For those of you who haven't followed the Swedish news, a quite funny (or tragic) thing has surfaced: Apparently, on several different occasions, MPAAs Swedish lawyers hired a private eye to stalk me! This must've been very entertaining for the poor Tex Murphy clone doing the actual groundwork, as my daily activites can basically be summed up as "eat, sleep, work" (often on very odd hours). It kind of flattens me to get this level of attention from my dear pals at MPAA, and it really adds nicely to the image of them being raving lunatics (the Swedish Antipiratbyrån are calm, rational and fair in comparision!). Because they started it, I'm going to do some stalking of my own! Hah! As a starter, I'll just note that MPAAs Swedish lawyer has forgotten to pay her bills on time on several occasions, mostly parking tickets (despite earning over $100k/year)... http://thepiratebay.org/blog.php?id=30 ![]() MP3 Search Engine is Illegal According to Dutch Court The Dutch court ruled that the MP3 search engine “zoekmp3.nl” is infringing copyright. This is a remarkable ruling, since none of the files that the search engine is linking to are actually hosted at zoekmp3’s servers. Initially the lower court decided that it was not illegal to link to illegal files, however, the appeal court did not agree. It is not hard to find copyrighted MP3’s on the internet, a simple search for Radiohead on google returns a list full of copyrighted material. However, according to the Dutch court, zoekmp3 was structurally and knowingly linking to infringing content, and having a disclaimer that the search results might infringe copyright is not sufficient in this case. Tim Kuik from the Dutch anti-piracy organization “Brein”, the initiator of the case, was delighted to hear the news and stated: Finally some clarity, you cannot use a website to facilitate the piracy needs of your visitors. The ruling could possible have negative consequences for the large number of bittorrent sites that are hosted in The Netherlands. MP3’s and torrents are obviously not the same, and the present ruling will therefore not apply to the bittorrent search engines and trackers in The Netherlands. However, it is a step in the wrong direction. http://torrentfreak.com/mp3-search-e...o-dutch-court/ ![]() 3 years in le slammer France Softens iTunes Law, but Apple Is Still Disgruntled AP Leading French lawmakers voted Thursday to water down a draft copyright law that could force Apple Computer to make its iPod music player and iTunes online store compatible with rivals' offerings. But the changes did not appear to go far enough to satisfy Apple, which dropped the strongest hint yet that it might withdraw from the French downloading market rather than comply. Currently, music bought on Apple iTunes can be played only on iPods, and an iPod cannot play songs bought from rival stores, like the Sony store Connect. Critics have called the restrictions anticompetitive and anticonsumer. The National Assembly, France's lower house, voted in March to force companies like Apple and Sony to hand over exclusive copy-protection technologies to any rival that wanted to offer compatible music players and online stores. While the compromise adopted Thursday still asserts that companies should share the technical data essential to such "interoperability," it tones down many of the tougher measures backed by the lower house. It also maintains a loophole introduced last month by senators, which could allow Apple and others to dodge data-sharing demands by striking new deals with record labels and artists. Apple, which had condemned the lower house proposals as "state-sponsored piracy," nevertheless hinted that the new draft law could affect its presence in France. "We are awaiting the final result of France's legislative process, and hope they let the extremely competitive marketplace driven by customer choice decide which music players and online music stores are offered to consumers," the company said in a statement after the vote. A spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris, said Apple had "nothing further to add," when pressed on whether the company was threatening withdrawal — a move that could leave hundreds of thousands of French iPod users unable to purchase new music from iTunes. The compromise text, approved by a joint committee of Senate and Assembly members, is subject to a final vote this month in the two chambers, both controlled by the governing Union for a Popular Movement. Only the government can introduce further amendments. The bill will establish a regulatory authority that can order companies to license their exclusive file formats to rivals — but only if the restrictions they impose are "additional to, or independent of, those explicitly decided by the copyright holders." Lawyers say this means Apple and Sony could avoid sharing their FairPlay and ATRAC3 formats, provided they obtained permission from the artists whose music they sell. Consumer organizations argue that musicians confronted with the market power of iTunes — Apple claims 80 percent of legal United States downloads but publishes no figures for individual European markets — would be unable to refuse such a condition. The French draft law also introduces penalties for a range of online piracy offenses — up to a maximum three-year jail term and a 300,000-euro ($380,000) fine for knowingly offering or advertising a download service for pirated music or video. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/te...gy/23ipod.html ![]() Busted!: Critic Caught Selling Screeners Martha Fischer If you review movies for long enough, you end up with a lot of screeners around the house. Me? Because I'm terrified of both the law and distributors, I put them under my mattress and don't show them to even my closest friends. (They actually think I detail cars for a living.) Others, however, sell them, which pisses off the people who are missing out on profit because of that illegal distribution. And, every once in a while, the offendeding critics get their asses busted by the man. Case in point: Paul Sherman, a freelancer who will never, ever get another screener in the mail. Paul, your name is mud. Variety reported this morning that Sherman has been busted for selling over 100 screeners to warez groups, organizations that distribute software (and, obviously, movies) for download. From what I can gather, these groups are incredibly organized, and do business less for profit than to make things available to their users (warez users, feel free to help us out in the comments -- I'm basically going on the wikipedia entry). Over a few years, Sherman was paid a grand total of $4714 for 117 discs. And, now that he's been caught, he could be fined up to $250,000 and spend three years in prison. Uh huh. And this is worth the risk why, again? http://www.cinematical.com/2006/06/2...ing-screeners/ ![]() Torrentspy Names Alleged MPAA Hacker Greg Sandoval A month after accusing the Motion Picture Association of America of conspiring to commit data theft, the operators of a file search engine presented more details regarding the alleged relationship between the MPAA and a man who admits hacking the small company's network. Valence Media, the parent company of Torrentspy.com, charges that the MPAA paid the Canadian resident $15,000 for information on Torrentspy and its executives, according to documents filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. "I contacted (the MPAA) and offered to provide it information regarding (Torrentspy.com founder) Justin Bunnell and Torrentspy," according to a signed statement by Robert Anderson, the man identified elsewhere in the filing as a "hacker." Among the claims by Valence Media is that as part of its attempt to gather information on Torrentspy, the MPAA hired private investigators to comb the trash cans of Torrentspy executives. Valence Media obtained this information from Anderson, who for undisclosed reasons has agreed to help the company against the Hollywood industry group, according to copy of the suit obtained by CNET News.com. Valence Media has asked a judge to order the MPAA to turn over the information taken by Anderson and to identify anyone that the association may have shared it with. This is the latest volley in a legal battle that began in February, when the MPAA sued Torrentspy and other directories that it accuses of contributing to the theft of copyright movies. Some file sharers use search engines, such as Torrentspy, to locate downloadable movies. The movie industry group has aggressively pursued those accused of distributing copyright material, as well as directories that the MPAA says are abetting piracy. An MPAA spokeswoman did not immediately return phone calls, but the association issued a broad denial to Torrentspy's initial charges. Valence Media charged in its suit that on June 10, 2005, MPAA executives met with Anderson, a resident of Vancouver, Canada. Dean Garfield, the MPAA's director of legal affairs, was among the association's representatives who agreed to pay Anderson $15,000 to obtain private e-mails, financial and technology information, according to the court documents. Garfield could not be immediately reached for comment. An MPAA executive told Anderson: "We don't care how you get it," Valence Media alleges in the court documents. Anderson, who could not be immediately reached for comment, was successful at breaching Torrentspy's computer system, Valence Media alleges. By rigging Torrentspy's e-mail system, Anderson received copies of company e-mail as soon as they were sent or received, as well as important login information, according to the suit. This allowed him broad access to company data, Valence Media claims. The company's suit said Anderson managed to pilfer a spreadsheet of company earnings and expenses, indexes of file architecture, screen shots of proprietary search functions and even a utility bill belonging to one Torrentspy executive. In July 2005, the MPAA reviewed Anderson's work and wired $15,000 to a Toronto-based bank account, according to the court documents. Sometime after, Anderson had a change of heart, according to a signed statement by Anderson that was included in the court filing. In fact, Anderson was actually acquainted with Bunnell. He had done some marketing work for another company associated with Bunnell, Anderson said in his statement, but his relationship with the Torrentspy founder apparently ended acrimoniously in April 2005. "After our business relationship ended, I was upset with Justin Bunnell," Anderson said in the statement. He then contacted the MPAA and offered to retrieve information on Torrentspy executives including Bunnell, as well as other Torrent file search engines. Anderson has provided a written agreement signed by an MPAA executive and other documentation related to Anderson being hired to gather information on Torrentspy and its executives, said Ira Rothken, Valence Media's attorney. Also included in the filing is a copy of the alleged contract that was signed by Anderson and MPAA executives. Some of the information filed with the court was obscured, including names. Rothken said the names of Anderson and MPAA executives can be found on the original contract. The purported contract includes a paragraph calling for the gathering of information on other peer-to-peer companies and torrent directories at odds with the MPAA, including The Pirate Bay, eXeem and Mininova. Importantly, the contract specifies that the MPAA expected information to be obtained through legal means. Such statements won't save the MPAA from liability in this case, argued Rothken. "There's an irony that they could put a clause into a contact and that would allow them to turn a blind eye to hiring a hacker," Rothken said. "There's no magical term that lets them off the hook." Valence Media's latest filing, which asks for unspecified damages, comes after the company and the MPAA met over a 10-day period to discuss turning over whatever Anderson had provided the trade association, according to the lawsuit. The talks were unsuccessful, Rothken said. It's unclear what prompted Anderson to cooperate with Torrentspy and risk possible criminal prosecution. "The only person that would know the precise answer to that is him," Rothken said. "We believe that he broke the law in a serious manner...we're encouraged that after making a big mistake he's now mitigating his wrongdoing by providing information about things he did so we can take remedial action against the MPAA." http://news.com.com/Torrentspy+names...3-6087146.html ![]() The Pirates Hold a Party Eli Milchman A fledgling new political movement calling itself The Pirate Party of the United States has emerged from the dust of last month's police raid on The Pirate Bay in Sweden. Six days after the May 31 seizure of BitTorrent servers, the new organization's website, was up and running. Organizers claim the newly launched site drew over 100,000 hits in a little over a week. The group patterns itself after Piratpartiet, the Swedish political party associated with The Pirate Bay, and says it wants to reform intellectual property and privacy laws. Piratpartiet was launched January 1, and by the end of that first day had gathered the 1,500 signatures it needed to participate in Sweden's upcoming parliamentary elections in September. Wired News interviewed the founder of The Pirate Party of the United States, Brent Allison, 30, a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia, and his provisional co-chair David Segal, 20, a computer science major at the University of California Santa Barbara. They shared their thoughts on the stormy seas ahead. WN: When did the party start, and who started it? Allison: The party started on June 6, 2006 with two members, myself and my friend Alex English. A couple of days later, I received around 300 e-mails from people I didn't know expressing interest in joining and helping out. This was thanks to publicity from the original Swedish party, Piratpartiet, who found out about it when I edited their Wikipedia entry to include mention of the U.S. version I founded. On June 9, faced with not being able to finish a dissertation, hold down a job and lead a rapidly growing party at the same time, I handed control of the party to Joshua Cowles and he appointed David Sigal as co-chairman. WN: What sparked you to form the U.S. version of the Pirate Party, or in David's case, to get involved? Allison: I have always been concerned that trends in intellectual property policies have been going too far in favor of entertainment conglomerates and major pharmaceutical firms at the expense of ordinary citizens and patients. The passage of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) in 1998 first awakened me to this trend. The RIAA's and MPAA's interference in P2P-sharing networks, through lawsuits, political lobbying and flooding them with bogus files, seemed to threaten one of the most democratic institutions in the digital sphere. A friend of mine on LiveJournal had talked about the Swedish Piratpartiet in a journal entries on June 2. I had heard about the raid on The Pirate Bay earlier, but hearing that not only was a political party's server affected by the raid, but that this party addressed these issues that I cared about made me ask, "Why don't we have a party like that here?" I was frustrated that no third party in the United States, let alone the Democrats or Republicans, was making file sharing, medical patents and overextensions of law enforcement's power top agenda items. So, I thought it was time that a party here actually did that, and if I had to be the one who started it, so be it. Sigal: It started when Slashdot covered the raid on the Pirate Party. I got into contact with the founders … every point they made I found myself agreeing with. Then I took a step back -- we needed something not quite like the Swedish party, but something along those lines. WN: What do you hope to accomplish? Allison: Now that I'm no longer in a leadership position, I can't speak for the Pirate Party U.S. as a whole. However, I started the party so it could nominate candidates for public office that would get people thinking about intellectual property and privacy, and confront other candidates head-on about these issues. Iintellectual property is such an esoteric topic that lawyers, academics and lobbyists have had dominion over it, even though it intimately affects all of us. The public should be informed about and have concrete ideas about IP. Other political parties and public officials should take active stances on intellectual property so voters can associate (the position) with them as they do with taxes and foreign policy. This party is all about raising awareness of issues that only geeks and lawyers have cared about until now. With enough hard work, we can not only put these issues on the table, but, dare I say it, even win positions in public office for ourselves or other candidates sympathetic to our causes. Sigal: We're basically trying to take control of the internet. Net neutrality was rejected in the house and there's no one to speak out -- they're trying to make laws about it, when they have no experience in that culture. WN: What kind of challenges are you faced with? Sigal: The biggest one facing us right now is getting everything formed.... There's so much support, and everyone wants to go in different directions. Also, getting support from organizations such as the EFF, and getting someone elected into office -- that's going to prove difficult too, but we're up for the challenge. WN: Is that significantly different from what the Swedish version of the party faced? Allison: Sweden's political culture is much more hostile to companies trying to smear pro-consumer initiatives as "anti-business," which I expect intellectual property-dependent conglomerates will try to do here against us. While most Americans don't want the NSA to snoop on their telephone calls, their overall lack of awareness of copyright and patent-dependent businesses entrenching themselves in political circles puts us at a disadvantage on that front. Nevertheless, if we don't try to at least organize and make these issues known, we'll continue to suffer unacceptable indignities online, in the doctor's office and at the hands of overzealous law enforcers. WN: What kind of response have you received so far? Allison: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Many have asked me why a party like this hasn't existed by now. Others are worried about naming ourselves the "Pirate" Party, because file sharing has been demonized as piracy in the press. More people than I ever thought possible have offered help, including expertise in public relations, programming and organization on the ground. There's a lot of excitement in the air that these concerns that have rarely gone outside of the geek community will go straight into the political arena. WN: How did the raid in Sweden affect you? Sigal: I think the raid is what brought this whole thing to my attention, and to the attention of people around the world. The raid in Sweden could turn out to be the best thing that happened to the internet community. I think it backfired on the MPAA. They wanted to take down a site they thought was illegal, but everyone noticed that the MPAA is terrorizing the people. WN: Do you believe that artists should be paid for their work? Allison: Indeed I do, and it would be nice if the conglomerates that make up the RIAA would actually pay most of their contract artists what they're worth. Artists should really welcome file sharing as a method to promote their work and their touring events, and to escape the clutches of Big Music that they sign away their lives to. No one has ever gone broke and homeless or ever will because of file sharing, but the RIAA has not been averse to suing penniless 12-year-olds living in public housing for sharing files. WN: Do you currently download software illegally? Sigal: I'm not going to answer that one. But I support the downloading of music, movies and software for trial use, or to gain knowledge in the pursuit of development. Allison: No. Not at all. WN: Are you worried about the RIAA and MPAA deploying resources against you? Allison: For now, the Pirate Party U.S. is a small undertaking that will probably exist under the MPAA's and RIAA's radar for some time. When they do notice us, I doubt they'll openly confront the party itself. Plus, they can't dismiss us as scofflaws like they do the people they sue since we want to change the laws rather than break them. So if they confront us openly, it rightfully puts their own motives to keep the status quo into question. Therefore, I expect they'll attack us through a proxy, perhaps through funding a pseudo-activist group or by influencing election officials to keep us off the ballot. Sigal: Worried? Not at all. These fear tactics and scare tactics are doing the exact opposite -- yeah, they've busted a lot of people, good for them. But you've also seen a huge increase in the amount of illegal downloads. I think it's hurting them. The RIAA and MPAA need to wake up and see that they're doing something wrong and we're doing something right. WN: What about RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol's statement last week that "we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business and file-trading is flat?" Allison: Bainwol should talk to Weird Al Yankovic about that. On the same day Bainwol said that, The Digital Music Weblog posted an article where Al said he gets more money from CD sales than from downloads, ironically enough. Getting his music sold through iTunes, the most well-recognized music download business, Al actually faces an 85 percent reduction in income compared to CD sales. The savings from not having to produce a CD or open up a brick-and-mortar record store are passed to Al's RIAA-affiliated label and Apple, not to Al himself. Therefore, the companies that make up Bainwol's RIAA and Apple are benefiting from a "growing, thriving business," but not the artists. Big surprise, given this industry's history. File-sharing, on the other hand, allows an artist to professionally record from their own studio, get their music out there to a wider audience by using the fans' bandwidth rather than their own, and reap financial benefits through touring and selling physical property that music lovers want in the form of a CD in a jewel case with liner notes, as well as related merchandise -- all without the RIAA siphoning off their hard-earned money via one-sided recording contracts, be it through CD sales or iTunes. Sigal: I don't think that they've contained anything, and BitTorrent is all the proof you need. It sounds to me like they're conceding but they're just trying to do it politely. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0...=wn_politics_1 ![]() News From The North The TankGirl Diaries ![]() 19.6.2006 Pirate Fleet Organizing For The Battle Ahead The Swedish parliamentary election is only three months ahead, and the Pirates are tuning up their field organization - or rather their fleet organization - for the crucial political battle ahead. Rather than using the dry conventional terms like 'region', 'electroral district' etc. the Pirates have decided to use in their election work marine terminology fitting better to the pirate theme. So for the Pirates, Sweden is divided into five 'fleets', each having several 'squadrons' (electoral districts), and each squadron in turn consisting of a number of 'ships' (local voting districts). The membership of Pirate Party has now exceeded 7000 members, and the statistics are already starting to favor the party's aspirations for a parliamentary breakthrough. In previous parliamentary elections a registered party member in Sweden has statistically been worth of 30-34 votes in the election. To reach the 4 % voting thresold the Pirates will need each of their present members to be able to generate about 30.3 votes. The structurally most comparable party is the Green Party who managed to generate 30.8 votes per registered member in the previous election in 2002. 20.6.2006 Swedish Economist: "Time To Get Rid Of Copyright Law" "It is time to get rid of copyright law", writes Karl-Henrik Pettersson, an economist and author, in Swedish newspaper Expressen. "The thought of not having a copyright law may sound unrealistic. But it is not. A copyright law that is already ignored by millions of young people is in practice already half-gone. And it may very well be in society's best interest to get rid of the law also formally." He goes on to clarify the difference between stealing and copyright infringement, demanding that the right to make copies is legally clearly separated from the ownership of the artists to their works. "Making this distinction between ownership right and copyright leads to an important insight - that the ownership can remain even if the copyright is taken away. For example, as a creator of music I would always have ownership to my works so I could keep on selling them to companies just like today, and they could keep selling them to the market just like today. There would only be this one important difference: copyrights being removed, the company could not set limits to how many copies of the work are being made, how it is further distributed etc." He emphasizes common good as the correct basis for legislation. "Naturally we cannot let only media industry and their economical interests to determine whether we should have copyrights or not. An increased benefit for the society must be the basis for a copyright law, just like it is the basis for other laws. Why should we maintain laws that do not give citizens back real value for what they are paying for. I have serious doubts whether today's copyright laws bring any increased benefits for the society at all." The public debate on filesharing is active in Sweden - and it will probably just heat up as the September election gets closer - with many authors, artists and culture workers coming out with their opinions. The overall response of the Swedish culture community to the filesharing issue favors legalization as proposed by the Pirate Party in its election agenda. There are naturally opposing voices as well but they seem to be in clear minority among artists and culture workers. Many artists express their economical worries about the changes ahead but at the same they time give their support to the legalization as the sensible thing to do. On the political front only Christian Democrats have taken a definite anti-p2p position while all other parties have either bent to support legal filesharing or at least keep a door open for negotiations. 20.6.2006 Swedish Publisher Joins The Debate: "Share More Files!" Johan Ehrenberg, an author of eight books and the CEO of Swedish culture magazine ETC, joins the filesharing debate in newspaper Kristianstadsbladet with a suggestion for filesharers to share even more files. "So we got broadband into our country. What was impossible just a few years ago is suddenly possible today. The same old funny copper wires and weather-beaten telephone poles carry now a flow of information from the entire world to our computers. But how shall we use these 6 megabits per second? To share information of course. Music, including our own music, movies, books, thoughts... think what fantastic freedom this actually implies. What I am reading, you can read too, and we can discuss about it, even if we are located on different sides of the globe. There is only one problem. This new freedom is being obstructed and opposed by a strange club whose membership consists of multinational media companies, Swedish officials and restless culture workers. These are the forces that fight against free downloading of books, texts, music and movies. That the police is following the laws made by politicians is one thing. Worse is that those laws were shaped according to the wishes of large companies. As a result, the laws are all about the profits of those corporations, and nothing else. The artists, writers, musicians, photographers are all fooled by something called 'copyright'. There is this dream that you can write a hugely popular song and live the rest of your life on its profits. This is insane because the overwhelming majority of Swedish culture workers will never get paid for what they are doing. Take for example an author. When you buy a 200 kr (20 USD) book, the author will get about 20 kr (2 USD) from it. If it is a paperback, the author will get maybe 2-3 kr (20-30 cents). The big money will land on companies and on bookshop chains. As the books in Sweden typically sell under 2,000 copies, you understand easily that almost no authors live on their work but instead on paid presentations, grants, second jobs. Same with the musicians. Copyrights simply do not protect the poor. They protect only the rich." Ehrenberg goes on to describe how filesharing has effectively created a gigantic digital library. The politicians and media corporations oppose the library idea fiercely as it would diminish a large part of their present power over what is distributed and to whom. "But naturally you should keep downloading more with your broadband during the summer", he concludes. "In the election we can demand that the parties organize a simple compensation system to those who have done the work. The fine thing about Internet is that we can easily establish counting methods for how many times various books and songs are being downloaded. It is the will to do so that has been missing. Both from the media corporations and - so far - also from the politicians." 20.6.2006 Wikinews has published today this extensive interview with Rickard Falkvinge, the leader of the Swedish Pirate Party. A couple of samples from the interview: Quote:
Quote:
Swedish TV to Present Today Proof Of US Pressure Behind Pirate Bay Raid According to advance information the Swedish Television will present today proof of government-level US threats behind the May 31 Pirate Bay raid. According to available information US threatened Sweden with WIPO sanctions unless they shut down Pirate Bay. In an earlier TV interview following the raid Justice Minister Thomas Bodström denied strongly any foreign influences behind the raid, so the Swedes will get today public proof of his lying in that interview. This will be politically potentially very explosive information and may lead to an another big backslash against both the Justice Minister himself and the political forces behind him. The Swedes as a proudly independent nation despise the idea of foreign powers being able to influence their justice officials and police forces. The filesharing debate is bound to get even more publicity in the Swedish media after tonight's revelations, to be aired in Rapport program an hour from now. 21.6.2006 US Threats Revealed By Swedish TV Make Headlines As soon as Swedish TV's Rapport program had revealed that the US government had threatened Sweden with WTO sanctions unless they shut down Pirate Bay website, the news made it to the top headlines of several major Swedish newspapers. "US threatened Sweden with commerce sanctions", captions Svenska Dagbladet. "US threat behind filesharing raid", shouts Aftonbladet's front page with big letters; Dagens Nyheter uses precisely same wording. "US threatened with sanctions", puts Sydsvenskan it. And so on. That every headline mentions words 'US' and 'threat' together is descriptive of the response of the Swedish press. The press is taking a clear national stand, treating the officials that allowed the MPAA and the US government to have an influence on the Swedish Police as traitors. US has not enjoyed much public sympathy in Sweden in recent years, and particularly the Iraq War has damaged its public image seriously in the eyes of the Swedes. So the press does not hesitate to put even more pressure on Swedish Justice Minister Thomas Bodström and his right hand man, state secretary Dan Eliasson, both pointed out by the Swedish TV program as key persons in causing the raid to happen. This may well be the beginning of a second major backslash to the MPAA in Sweden, with some collateral damage to the Swedish-US political relations as well. The actions of Justice Minister Bodström will be subjected to a special parliamentary inquiry demanded by several parliament members. The Swedish law is strict about not allowing ministers and other public officials to intervene into the specifics of any particular law enforcement operations. Should the inquiry find that Bodström had overstepped his limits and pressured the Swedish Police to particularly attack Pirate Bay in its general copyright law enforcement work, he might be forced to leave his job. The inquiry will take place after the September election though, so until that Bodström can hold his seat. 22.6.2006 Dagens Nyheter: "First Step: Cancel The New Copyright Law!" Dagens Nyheter, one of the major Swedish newspapers, joins the hot Swedish filesharing debate with a critical editorial where they demand a thorough re-evaluation of copyright laws on several grounds. "Much too long the question of copyrights has been left to the side lines of the political debate. What we need now is a proper time-out to discuss whether there exists other and better ways to protect intellectual creations." For starters, the newspaper proposes shorter rather than longer protection times for copyrighted works and warns of the privatization of the common culture. Further they demand that the needs and interests of libraries, universities, archives and museums are secured in copyright legislation. These institutions are created to spread culture effectively to the people, so copyright laws should help rather than hinder their work. The editorial also points out the important differences between material products built of limited material resources and intellectual property built of virtually unlimited resources. "To try to stop the technical development with dragonic copyright is a wrong way. As a first corrective step Sweden should go back to the copyright law we had before 1. July 2005", concludes Dagens Nyheter. 22.6.2006 Dagens Nyheter: "Bodström Becoming A Risk For Social Democrats" The growing popularity of the Pirates is not the only thing that worries established political parties in Sweden with 86 days to the election. Dagens Nyheter reports how Social Democrats - by far the largest party in Sweden - are worried about their Justice Minister Thomas Bodström, once a popular political figure, becoming a risk to party's success in the September election. "The debate on filesharing has raised onto a new level with the revelation of US threatening Sweden with trade sanctions. It will hardly be a vote winner in the election to be perceived as a lap-dog to George Bush and Hollywood's entertainment industry." Pirate Party: "Chasing of Filesharers Corrupts The Justice System" In its recent press release the Pirate Party blasts hard criticism on the Swedish officials in the light of Swedish Television's revelations. One of the hottest pieces of evidence published in the Rapport program was a message from state prosecutor Håkan Roswall where he states how "it causes particular irritation among copyright holders how the persons behind website Pirate Bay openly propagate free filesharing and how they have set up a political organization Piratbyrån to spread the idea that we should get rid of copyright laws." Piratbyrån's own server was also taken down in the May 31 raid and is still being held by the Swedish police. Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge comments: "The Swedish government has made an active effort to disturb political opinion forming in Sweden following a request from a foreign power. This is a scandal of major proportions. It means that not only Thomas Bodström has lied about the American pressure, but also the police and the prosecutor have lied about it. Corruption goes both wide and deep. Therefore I don't believe that the inquiries by Justice Ombudsman and Constitutional Committee will be enough. More than ever we need a parliamentary party that can drive through laws that are in line with the sense of justice of the Swedish citizens." Swedish TV's Revelations on YouTube Swedish TV's politically explosive Rapport program revealing US pressure behind the Pirate Bay raid is now available with English subs on YouTube: SVT1 Rapport video 23.6.2006 Prosecutor: "Charges Against Pirate Bay Operators Earliest Next Summer" Sydsvenskan reports that possible charges against Pirate Bay operators based on material captured in the May 31 raid will be delayed at least to next summer, according to Håkan Roswall, the prosecutor in the case. In the police strike against Pirate Bay and its service provider PRQ the police confiscated 186 servers. The raid hit also a number of innocent third party businesses who had rented server space from PRQ. Of the 186 seized servers so far only 45 have been returned, "as they contain no relevant information to the inquiry". The police still holds 140 servers and claims that mere copying of information from these servers for further investigations will take 3-4 months. The three Pirate Bay activists who were briefly arrested during the raid might be later charged for copyright crimes, hints prosecutor Roswell. Pirate Bay Servers Not In Sweden? Sydsvenskan's story also brings up an interesting piece of technical information. The Swedish police has seemingly gone and checked Pirate Bays present server arrangements and they have found out that the site has only a single computer running at their Swedish host, apparently acting as a proxy to the real operational servers located totally elsewhere. The police does not have any idea where the servers might really be located, and they suspect Pirate Bay playing hide-and-seek game with them, trying to lure them into another raid that would cause yet another PR backslash for both the police and the Justice Ministery. Peter Sunde, one of the activists behind Pirate Bay, admits Roswall being partly right. "That's also what we have. But we really have several different solutions for the site. We are setting up a number of different systems to have more alternatives." 23.6.2006 New Insurance For Filesharers The Swedish Net War took yet another curious turn yesterday. Aftonbladet reports how a new insurance service has been launched by Magnus Bråth from Uppsala to protect Swedish filesharers from possible fines in case they get caught. By paying 140 Swedish crowns (about 1,5 USD) to Magnus, he will pay your fines in case you run out of luck in your online culture sharing activities. "So far the fines from filesharing verdicts have been around 18,000 crowns (1,800 USD). With some 1,000 paying customers this will work fine", says 29-year old Magnus who operates his insurance company under name tankafritt.nu (translating to 'ThinkFreely.Now'). "I got worried when I realized that record and film companies can dictate our laws. This is my contribution to the debate." The insurance will cover only the fines passed by Swedish courts - should movie or record companies demand extra compensations for their economical losses, those will not be covered. Insurances against fines are not a new idea in Sweden. So far there have been similar services available for drivers to insure against possible speeding tickets and also for people using public transport services for free to cover for 'control payments' should they get caught for freeriding. The existing insurances have worked well so far, and many students and other low-income citizens have opted to pay a small annual insurance fee instead of paying repeatedly for the fairly expensive bus, train and metro tickets. Whenever they get caught in a random ticket check, they will routinely mail the control payment ticket to the insurance company and forget about it. Antipiracy organization Antipiratbyrån's lawyer Henrik Pontén is perhaps surprisingly supporting the new insurance idea. "We welcome the idea. One of our big problems so far has been that those being punished for filesharing have not had the money to pay their fines. Hopefully this will bring a change to that. I don't see though how this would cover the filesharers against the much bigger compensation costs set by courts." The new insurance company does not intend to expand its coverage beyond fines. Magnus Bråth consulted lawyers before starting the operation and found out that the company's business model is legal in Sweden. He himself is not a filesharer but sympathizes filesharers enough to protect them with his service. So far four Swedes have been sentenced to fines for filesharing; none of them has so far had to pay any extra compensations to the content industry. http://reflectionsonp2p.blogspot.com/ http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...959#post246959 ![]() MP3 Player Sales Risk Copyright Breach Richard Scott MP3 players, such as iPods, have enjoyed huge success in recent years. The ability to condense an entire record collection into a player you can hold in the palm of your hand has proved a big attraction. But as they become more widespread, the inevitable second-hand market grows too - and that could cause a problem. A trawl of online auction sites reveals thousands of players for sale. Many are second-hand, and many come still loaded with the current owner's music collection. Lawbreaking And that is where the trouble starts. The record industry is warning people selling their MP3 players that they could be unwittingly breaking the law by leaving their music on the player. Some listings on the auction websites actually advertise the fact that the player comes with hundreds, or even thousands, of songs. The industry says this could mean that members of the public are - intentionally or otherwise - entering the world of commercial music piracy. Different rules The difficulty lies with the music's copyright. It is perfectly legal to sell on a CD with which you've become bored and which you just do not want any more, But doing the same with downloaded music is against the law - even if you've bought it legitimately. The law in the UK and the US gives greater protection to the music rights owner in the case of a music download than in the case of CDs or old vinyl. Online auction sites, such as eBay, say they know about the problem and want people or companies to tell them about auctions that break the law. But the record industry wants more to be done to educate people before there's a problem. People today might be innocently selling their players full of music without getting prosecuted. But over time that could change, as the players become more popular and the issue becomes more serious. The advice for now is to play it safe - and delete the music first. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ss/5083790.stm ![]() Weekly Digital Music Sales in Decline Thomas Mennecke RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol delivered several powerful statements quoted by USA Today on Monday. Mr. Bainwol declared victory over piracy, stating the problem had been “contained.” Furthermore, Mr. Bainwol credited digital downloads as reinvigorating the music industry and stunting the growth of file-sharing. "The problem has not been eliminated…But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat." Both these contentions are now under attack. A recent publication by P2P tracking firm Big Champagne found the P2P population had increased by 12.4% from May 2005 to May 2006. This brings the current P2P population to just over 9.7 million simultaneous individuals (this number does not include the ~3-6 million BitTorrent users.) Additionally, a new study published by Pali Capital with statistics provided by Neilson/Soundscan has found that weekly digital music sales are, for the first time, in decline and below the yearly average. Already six weeks into the second quarter, if digital sales continue their current slide it will be the first time the music industry doesn’t see a least an 8% growth over the previous quarter. Neilson/Soundscan and Billboard.com have found that digital music sales have grown at least this rate for the last nine quarters. It seems this rapid pace of growth has become tempered. While it’s true that digital sales have doubled and grown expansively over last year, the market may have hit a brick wall – lessening the significance of rapid digital sales. Without the same explosive rate of growth as witnessed in 2005, the offset digital sales provide the music industry may not carry over to 2006 or 2007. Neilson/Soundscan’s calculations partially validate the music industry’s argument for variable pricing. With a flat rate of growth or even a moderate decline in sales, the music industry will have to find additional ways to pick up the slack. Unless it’s willing to adopt a more liberal “AllofMp3” type policy, variable pricing may once again find traction in an effort to inflate revenue. This may only provide a band-aid approach however, as it does little to encourage new customers. According to Neilson/Soundscan’s statistics, in January ’06, 17.56 million tracks were sold. This number fell to 16.68 million in April. Although this decline is modest, it’s a direction few in the music industry want to see. By comparing the trend lines of digital sales in 2005 and 2006, the two appear precariously destined to collide in early 2007. The study suggests the digital market has reached a “glass ceiling”, while the buzz and hype surrounding it has “run its course.” Demand for digital music however, remains stronger than ever. So where have all the cowboy’s gone? With millions of tracks (whether from iTunes, iPod, P2P, or CD) already adrift in the global population, the need to download additional music for the authorized customer has abated. A recent study found that iPod users fill their MP3 players by various methods, including play list swapping, iTunes, CD ripping and traditional P2P. It’s an unrealistic expectation to assume iPod owners will spend many thousands of dollars to fill a 30 gig hard drive with digital purchases – perhaps explaining why the populace is placing less emphasis on authorized music. Authorized digital sales faced a similar condition last year; however sales were more flat during mid-2005 rather than the current ominous decline. The industry revived itself during the winter months, as Tunes gift cards and iPod MP3 players found themselves perfect gifts for the holiday season. Whether or not the authorized music industry can replicate last year’s good fortune – or more importantly continue to make up for lost physical sales – remains to be seen. http://slyck.com/news.php?story=1222 ![]() Coke to Close UK Music Download Site Coca-Cola says it will close its British online music service mycokemusic.com on July 31, after losing market share to Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store. Mycokemusic launched in Britain in January 2004 and quickly became the biggest online music download service there in brand recognition and sales. But it was overtaken later in the year by iTunes, which launched a dedicated UK site in June 2004. Mycokemusic posted notice of the closure on its Web site. Mycokemusic also sent e-mails to music fans who had registered with the site. Coca-Cola had positioned the site as a mix of brand promotion and music store. "In 2004, the digital music scene was just developing and the only way for Coke to offer access to music downloads was to open our own store. That's not true today and there is no need for Coke to continue to run a store," said the statement. Officials at mycokemusic were not immediately available for comment. According to data from UK market research company XTN, iTunes held a 54 per cent share of the British online music market in November 2005. Mycokemusic was in fourth place with a six per cent share, behind Napster and Wippit.com. Mycokemusic is powered by digital music technology company Loudeye's European unit OD2, a company co-founded by rock star Peter Gabriel in the late 1990s. The concept was to let fans use credits, gained via Coke promotions or bought with their credit cards, to purchase songs online from a wide range of artists from both major and independent record labels. The majority of the songs on the service are in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio file format, which is not compatible with the most popular digital music player, Apple's iPod. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=107721 ![]() P2P Population Continues Climb Thomas Mennecke The online copyright war has expanded over the years to cover much more than suppressing P2P or file-sharing networks. It’s also become a war or words, where both sides use the media to influence public opinion. Although the entertainment industry’s public relations capabilities exceeded P2P’s influence several years back, the rapidly changing face of mass media has altered this notion. This change is largely due to the empowerment of the Internet. It has allowed individuals with minimal resources to reach a maximum audience. Smaller news organizations such as TorrentFreak.com can easily rival the mass media ability of large organization such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America.) News aggregators such as Digg.com or SlashDot.org also help reach this end, which often times help smaller sites achieve their wide scale publication potential. Especially noteworthy is the mass media capability of The Pirate Bay, which completely undermined the entertainment industry’s public relations attempts earlier this month. Smaller online news organizations often provide an alternative perspective compared to more traditional or mainstream publications. In the P2P news community, often dissenting opinion to the entertainment industry’s public relations campaign has gained traction and credence, and indeed has tempered the mainstream media’s rush to republish press releases. The latest media canon from the RIAA’s CEO Mitch Bainwol provides the latest example. The USAToday published an article Monday quoting Mr. Bainwol as stating that online piracy has been “contained.” "The problem has not been eliminated," says association CEO Mitch Bainwol. "But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat." Perhaps several years back, such an assertion would have been accepted more easily. However the substantial logistical infrastructure that accommodates P2P and file-sharing, such as various forums, blogs, news sites, etc., is of such magnitude that alternative viewpoints are no longer ignored. Reflecting this change in mass media, virtually every publication that published an article on Mr. Bainwol’s decree was met with varying degrees of skepticism, including some of outright ridicule. It’s possible the RIAA had little choice but to make a public statement in support of their lawsuit and anti-piracy campaign. Their efforts recently received a black eye from two unexpected sources – Sony America vice president of Digital Media Technology Strategy, Albhy Galuten and ex-RIAA chairperson Hilary Rosen. Albhy Galuten’s take on the online copyright conflict is the polar opposite of Mr. Bainwols, stating the music industry is not "winning the battle against pirating.” The statement was made last Wednesday at the Digital Media Summit in Los Angeles. It didn’t help the RIAA’s case either when ex-chairwoman Hilary Rosen criticized the idea of suing alleged P2P pirates, and the entire concept of DRM (Digital Rights Management.) In an article published on the liberal blog site The Huffington Post, Mrs. Rosen shared her skepticism of the RIAA’s current legal strategy. “But for the record, I do share a concern that the lawsuits have outlived most of their usefulness and that the record companies need to work harder to implement a strategy that legitimizes more p2p sites and expands the download and subscription pool by working harder with the tech community to get devices and music services to work better together. That is how their business will expand most quickly. The iPod is still too small a part of the overall potential of the market and its proprietary DRM just bugs me. Speaking of DRM, it is time to rethink that strategy as well.” The latest statistics from P2P tracking firm Big Champagne further diminishes the RIAA’s contention. According to Big Champagne’s latest figures, the P2P population has continued its overall climb. At 9,735,661 in May 2006, the P2P population is at its second highest, down slightly from its peak of 9,992,298 in March. There was an increase of 138,253 from the month of April however. The May 2006 statistic represents a population increase of 12.4% over May 2005, or an increase of 1,070,342 individuals. The most significant aspect of these calculations is they do not represent the entire file-sharing picture – primary that of the BitTorrent community. Because of BitTorrent’s decentralized protocol, it is difficult to obtain an exact number of participants. What is known however is the massive amount of bandwidth this protocol consumes, which greatly outweighs all other P2P networks combined. If we were to only judge BitTorrent on the amount of unique individuals traveling The Pirate Bay, there would be an addition of at least 1 million individuals. Some estimates are much greater, and easily double the number published by Big Champagne. So has piracy and unauthorized file-sharing been contained? We’ll know for sure if another next round of lawsuits is announced. http://slyck.com/news.php?story=1220 ![]() Fahrenheit -451 Researchers Say New Chip Breaks Speed Record Laurie J. Flynn Researchers at I.B.M. and the Georgia Institute of Technology are set to announce today that they have broken the speed record for silicon-based chips with a semiconductor that operates 250 times faster than chips commonly used today. The achievement is a major step in the evolution of computer semiconductor technology that could eventually lead to faster networks and more powerful electronics at lower prices, said Bernard Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist in I.B.M.'s systems and technology group. He said developments like this one typically found their way into commercial products in 12 to 24 months. The researchers, using a cryogenic test station, achieved the speed milestone by "freezing" the chip to 451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, using liquid helium. That temperature, normally found only in outer space, is just nine degrees above absolute zero, or the temperature at which all movement is thought to cease. At 500 gigahertz, the technology is 250 times faster than chips in today's cellphones, which operate at 2 gigahertz. At room temperature, the chips operate at 350 gigahertz, far faster than other chips in commercial use today. Mr. Meyerson compared the achievement to the development of the chips used in Wi-Fi networks. It was not until the semiconductor technology used in those networks was produced with silicon that wireless networking become affordable for consumer applications. Dan Olds, a principal at the Gabriel Consulting Group, a technology consulting firm in Portland, Ore., said the development was significant because it showed that the chip industry had not yet reached its upper limits. "There's been talk that we've started to hit the physical limitations of chip performance," he said. "The news here is that we're not coming anywhere near the end in what processors are capable of." Mr. Olds cautioned, however, that the technology was far from finding its way into commercial products any time soon, considering the performance leap it represents. Today's performance-hungry computer buyers, for example, are buying machines operating at about three gigahertz, he said. John D. Cressler, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a researcher at the Georgia Electronic Design Center, said the work "redefines the upper bounds of what is possible" using silicon-germanium. The research group included students from Georgia Tech and Korea University in South Korea, and researchers from I.B.M. Microelectronics. The results will be reported in the July issue of the technical journal IEEE Electron Device Letters. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/te...gy/20chip.html ![]() Major Web Browsers Getting Facelifts Anick Jesdanun The major Web browsers are getting facelifts as they increasingly become the focal point for handling business transactions and running programs over the Internet rather than simply displaying Web sites. The upgrades are the latest skirmish in the browser war that started in the mid-1990s and led to Microsoft's triumph over Netscape. The battles reignited in 2004, when Mozilla's Firefox launched and revealed new avenues of development. On Tuesday, Opera Software ASA is releasing its Opera 9 browser, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Firefox are in line for major overhauls later this year. The most anticipated update comes from Microsoft Corp., whose 5-year-old, market-leading Internet Explorer 6 browser, or IE6, shows signs of aging. The software company, which has seen IE slowly losing market share to Firefox, hopes version 7 will bring the browser to parity with its rivals, while adding features to thwart "phishing" scams and make browsing more secure. "IE6 was easily the best browser available in 2001," said Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's general manager for IE. "The challenge is people use the Web a lot of differently now. Search engine usage, there's a lot more of that now. Safety, there's a lot more malicious intent on the Web right now." Today, e-mail, maps, word processing and other traditionally standalone applications are migrating online. Major Internet companies such as Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and even Microsoft are devoting tremendous resources developing these Web applications - and browser developers want them to run well. Opera 9 sports "widgets" - Web-based applications that run off its browser but appear detached as standalone tools. Anyone knowing Web coding can develop widgets for Opera to check weather, soccer results or the status of eBay Inc. auctions; others can download existing ones. "Most end-user applications being developed today have at least part of their functionality running on the browser, which is completely different from the way it used to be 10 or 15 years ago," said Christen Krogh, Opera's vice president of engineering. "In the old days, browsers were like printing presses" - displays for static pages. The new Opera, making its debut in Seattle to invoke images of Opera Chief Executive Jon S. von Tetzchner landing in Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft's backyard, also formally supports a file-sharing mechanism called BitTorrent and lets users customize preferences - such as whether to allow JavaScript - on a site-by-site basis. With version 7, IE will have its first search box in which users could type queries without visiting a search engine's home page. Firefox and Opera have long had that feature in response to the growing use of search engines to find Web sites. IE7 also will join its rivals in supporting domain names that use non-English characters. And it will play catch-up by sporting tabbed browsing - the ability to open several Web pages at once without creating separate windows. Although Opera and Firefox have had it for years, Hachamovitch said IE7 will go further with Quick Tabs, in which users can view small, thumbnail versions of all open pages at a glance. Hachamovitch also said IE, a frequent target of hackers, will in version 7 go beyond the security enhancements IE6 received in 2004 as part of the Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrade. A version shipping with Vista computers, due out for consumers early next year, will come with parental controls and a "protected mode" so hackers can't easily to gain access to the rest of the machine even if the browser is hit. The regular version, scheduled to leave the "beta" test phase in the second half of the year, will block or warn about scam sites, while its address bar will turn green when an e-commerce site has gone through additional background checks to receive a so-called high-assurance digital certificate. Firefox 2, a "beta" version for which is planned this summer and a full version by September, will also include anti-phishing features, along with tools to automatically restore Web pages should the browser suddenly crash or require a restart. Other features in the Mozilla browser include a search box that can suggest queries as users type. And Mozilla already has its sights on Firefox 3 next year, with plans to let users run online applications even when there is no live Internet connection. Meanwhile, Flock Inc. released last week a test version of its Firefox-based Flock browser. Tapping into the recent wave of sites that encourage users to share content, Flock makes it easy to drag and drop images to MySpace.com and automatically notifies users when friends add items to selected photo sites. IE7 will require later versions of Windows, including Service Pack 2 of XP, while Opera, Firefox and Flock will run on Macintosh, Linux and older Windows machines as well. Already, IE has seen its U.S. market share on Windows computers drop to 90 percent from 97 percent two years ago, according to tracking by WebSideStory. Firefox's share has steadily increased to 9 percent, with Opera's negligible despite its innovations. WebSideStory analyst Geoff Johnston said Firefox must continue to improve just to maintain its share. Because IE automatically ships with Windows, he said, users satisfied with IE7 may not find enough reasons to download and install Firefox when they buy a new computer. "It takes a lot of energy to switch technology," Johnston said. "You really have to care. It comes down to the `If it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality." http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT Opera users, please visit the forums before attempting an install over 8. – Jack ![]() Maxthon: China's Hip Browser Stefanie Olsen Web surfers in China frustrated by censorship in search engines are increasingly turning to a little-known Internet browser with a big following in the Middle Kingdom. Maxthon, a browser made by a tiny Beijing company of the same name, has attracted millions of users in China for functionality that can funnel traffic through a Web proxy and circumvent government controls on information in search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Baidu.com and other popular sites or Internet service providers in that country. From China, the browser has caught on in Europe, and now somewhat in the United States thanks to an appearance with Microsoft at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year--though it's still largely unknown stateside. So far, about 60 million people have downloaded the browser since its launch in 2003. According to Maxthon research, about 14 percent of the Chinese Web population has used the browser and 17 percent employs it for Web search. "It's exploding there," said Netanel Jacobsson, a Maxthon senior vice president and partner who's based in Israel. Of course, Maxthon does not promote the proxy feature openly--it's merely a shortcut that has spread virally among Chinese Web surfers. People who download the browser must be fairly technically savvy to activate it, but according to Jacobsson, various bulletin boards in Chinese instruct people how to do it. "The capability is there for people who know," Jacobsson said in a recent interview with CNET News.com. In fact, Maxthon executives and investors downplay the feature for obvious reasons. Web censorship in China has become a hot-button issue as U.S companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have entered the market and complied with the communist regime's standards to restrict thousands of Web sites from public access. Yahoo has even turned over information on dissidents to the Chinese government. The search giants' practices in the country have come under fire by everyone from free-speech advocates to the U.S. government. Still, Maxthon has a grassroots following for other reasons. It includes filters to zap all Web ads, including pop-ups--a valuable feature for the typically cluttered environments of Chinese Web pages. It's highly customizable with hundreds of "skins," and it includes tabbed browsing, baked-in RSS detection and readers, and remote-file access in partnership with software company Avvenu. It also has a development platform for plug-ins that inspires hundreds of techies to create add-ons for the browser. Maxthon gaining fans fast This summer, Maxthon will release a new version, Maxthon 2.0, that will include parallel browsing, similar to the picture-in-picture feature on TVs, in which surfers can browse several sites in parallel. They'll also be able to copy and paste text from one page to another without switching screens. The future of Maxthon is allowing people to customize it into their own information portal, Jacobsson said. Maxthon's millions of fans and rising popularity point to the fact--yet again--that innovation in the Web browser market is not dead, nor is it ignored, despite a seeming end long ago to the browser wars, said analysts. Though Microsoft's Internet Explorer has close to 60 percent share in the United States browser market, according to Forrester Research, and as much as 85 percent globally, according to various estimates, there's still plenty of fight left in the browser market. As Michael Gartenberg, a veteran browser analyst and vice president of research at Jupiter Media, put it: "It's the most important space that no one really cares about." In the last year, Firefox, Netscape's legacy, made inroads on IE's dominance, drawing more than 130 million downloads in less than two years. Opera, Netscape, Flock and Apple Computer's Safari have lured strong followings of their own, but none enough to overthrow IE. Firefox's threat and popularity has spurred a recommitment from Microsoft, however, with its introduction of IE 7. "The browser wars continue, yet these days they're more border skirmishes than global conflict because there's just no money to be made selling the browser," Gartenberg said. Some tech investors say people shouldn't forget that the browser is fundamental to the future of the Internet, giving people better access to information on the Web and the desktop if done right. "The advent of broadband, and technologies like AJAX and RSS are redefining the role of the browser from a dumb reader to a single point of customization for users," said William Tai, a venture capitalist with Charles River Ventures and an investor in Maxthon. "The first click is the browser, it's the instrument panel to the Web," he added. Still, most of the money to be made on Web browsers today is through search advertisements. Firefox, for example, makes money on fees from search ads from Google, which is its default search engine. Within China, Maxthon's default search function is served by Baidu, one of the biggest services in that country. Outside of China, Yahoo and Ask.com power its search features. Maxthon turned a profit beginning in 2004. Roughly 80 percent of its revenue comes from search-related ads, collected from partners. Despite not seeking funding, the company took on an investor, Charles River Ventures, in recent months. That deal was largely because of great interest on the part of Tai, according to both Tai and Jacobsson. The investment adds to early funding from Morten Lund, a seed investor in Skype. The company plans to use venture funding to add to its development team of about 15 in Beijing. Still, a plus and minus for Maxthon is its rendering engine, which is actually Internet Explorer. Maxthon is built on top of the IE engine, removing it from direct competition with the software giant. Executives say that lets it add value to the browser through features like tabbed and parallel browsing. But that can be a double-edged sword, too, turning off people who dislike Microsoft. "We make them look good," he said. He added that Maxthon has tweaked IE to make it faster, and people can choose to render Maxthon with Gecko, Mozilla's original underlying engine. "Browsers are very much like a car," said Jacobsson. "Most people don't care what engine is inside, (they) choose which type fits, with the right shape and color." http://news.com.com/Maxthon+Chinas+h...3-6086632.html ![]() Click for rock-hard abs Personal Trainers Available by the Download Bob Tedeschi WHY hire a personal fitness trainer to bark at you for $50 an hour when you can download one online for a fraction of the price — and spare yourself the embarrassment of having someone watch as you never quite get in shape? That is the question an increasing number of would-be fitness buffs are asking, as more trainers package their services in audio or video files that can be downloaded into an iPod or P.D.A. for a quick trip to the gym. The idea dovetails with the suddenly voracious appetite for downloadable media among online consumers and the long success the fitness industry has enjoyed in selling home video products like workout tapes. And while this trend is too nascent to be judged a success (there are no Tae Bo sessions for the iPod yet), it does hold great potential for the personal training business, which has historically been marginalized by high prices. "Downloaded workouts are absolutely here to stay," said John Spencer Ellis, president of the National Exercise and Sports Trainers Association, an industry group serving fitness professionals. "For trainers, it's becoming a new way to acquire customers or generate money 24/7, or both." Mr. Ellis said that since the start of the year, he had seen a sharp rise in the number of trainers who had posted audio clips online of recorded workouts with clients or studio productions replicating those workouts. On clips sold on the trainers' own Web sites, or on sites like Podfitness.com, iTrain.com, and iAmplify.com, trainers coax listeners through a multitude of workouts. When not reminding runners to breathe deeply and relax their arms, for instance, trainers also guide listeners through weight-training routines or Pilates exercises. For cardiovascular exercises like running or aerobics, trainers say, video is of little use. But for weight-training, yoga and other routines, visual cues can be much more helpful. Four months ago, Kimberly Fowler, who owns the YAS Yoga and Spinning Studio in Venice, Calif., uploaded a 53-minute workout video to iAmplify.com, the first of what she said would be a video series that could be viewed online or on devices like iPods. "It's hard to just listen to a yoga class or a fitness class," Ms. Fowler said. "Sometimes you need to see it, and some people are just very visual anyway." "And yes, my voice is one thing," Ms. Fowler added. "But with video they get to see you and they get more involved with you, so it's a more personal connection." Better connection with remote clients, Ms. Fowler said, leads to better workout results and more repeat sales. "I get, quote, 'a lot of money' for private sessions, but there are only so many hours in a day to do them," she said. "I'm trying to make money while I sleep." Ms. Fowler sells downloads of her video for $20, compared with $25 for the DVD, and although she would not give specific sales figures, she said the downloadable format was going well, particularly in cultivating foreign audiences. "Shipping a DVD to Japan costs more than the DVD itself," Ms. Fowler said. "This can be a huge avenue for me." Perhaps it will eventually. But industry executives and analysts noted that while there are hundreds of millions of digital audio players in the hands of consumers, video iPods and other potentially workout-friendly devices have only recently begun to penetrate the mass market. "Video is much newer, but it's a transition that will definitely happen," said Murray Hidary, chief executive of iAmplify, which is based in New York. Mr. Hidary's business arose from the idea that personal trainers would need an easy way to offer and sell workout clips online, but the site has since expanded to include self-help advice, walking tours narrated by celebrities and poker tutorials, among other topics. The company currently recruits specialists from various categories to star in the clips, but Mr. Hidary said he might expand the service in the future to allow anyone to upload videos or audio files and start charging subscriptions or fees for individual downloads. (iAmplify keeps at least half the revenue from each sale on the site.) As Web sites catering to the online fitness category wait for a significant market to materialize, some are taking small steps to help insure profitability in the short term. ITrain, for one, is relying on a so-called micropayments company to help it sell downloads for around $1, without having credit card processing companies eat too much of the revenue from each sale. The company, Peppercoin, processes iTrain's payments in batches, according to Sebastien Reant, iTrain's chief executive. "So I end up keeping 50 percent of what I would give up through the other process," Mr. Reant said. "With small payments, that's a huge savings." Web sites like iTrain and others may need to watch their pennies in the future, because health clubs could start competing heavily with independent fitness trainers. According to Pamela Kufahl, editor of Club Industry's Fitness Business Pro, a trade publication, in-house personal trainers generate more income for clubs than any other add-on service. Clubs could distribute multimedia workout clips as a way to keep members from straying to the online workout sites, Ms. Kufahl said, or they could see online workout clips as an opportunity to get more people interested in their services. Just 14 percent of the United States population belongs to a club, she said. "A lot of people could be turning to these iPod workouts because clubs seem intimidating," Ms. Kufahl said. "But once people purchased a video and became familiar with the personal trainer, maybe they'd come in. It's probably still too new for a lot of clubs to be doing, but it's something they're going to have to look at in the near future." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/te...gy/19ecom.html ![]() iTunes Protesters Crank Up the Volume Arik Hesseldahl It remains to be seen whether concerns over Apple's technology are strong enough to result in much, if any, uproar in the U.S. They appear to be on the rise on the other side of the Atlantic, however. Regulators in Norway and Britain are renewing calls for Apple to revise the rules that consumers agree to when they begin using the iTunes store. Dismay over how Apple Computer sells music downloads is deepening. Consumer regulators in Europe say the company places too many restrictions on consumers who buy songs from the online iTunes store -- and the consternation is spreading west. A group called the Free Software Foundation carried out protests on June 10 at seven Apple retail stores in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. The foundation is focusing its ire on so-called digital rights management technology (DRM). Used in an array of digital entertainment products including Apple's iTunes, DRM limits what consumers can do with purchased content. 'Eliminate DRM' The "Defective by Design" protests are not aimed at Apple in particular, but at what the Free Software Foundation sees as a growing trend toward legal restrictions that bind digital content to particular playing devices. "This isn't intended to attack Apple and its innovations, but really to draw attention to the existence of DRM technologies, and how they restrict what consumers can do with their music," says Ted Teah, who maintains a directory of free software for the Free Software Foundation in Cambridge Mass. In San Francisco, about 10 people dressed in neon yellow biohazard suits descended upon Apple's high-profile store on Stockton St. They carried signs that read "Eliminate DRM" and other placards that mocked Apple's stylized iPod ads, with the profile of a person whose wrists have been tied by white iPod earphone cords against a colored background. In a 30-minute flurry of activitiy, they handed out pamphlets to people passing by, and sought to talk to people going into the store. Forging Links Another five people not wearing biohazard suits handed out leaflets quoting Apple CEO Steve Jobs as saying, "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own" -- attempting to portray that statement as hypocritical in light of Apple's use of DRM technology. Similar protests were carried out at Apple stores in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Cambridge, Mass., and in Plano, Texas, among others. Henri Poole, an organizer of the San Francisco event, said the Defective by Design group has only existed three weeks but has already garnered the support of 2,000 people. He said the group has been in talks to cooperate with other activist organizations like the Electronic Freedom Foundation. He also said more protests like this are planned, but he declined to elaborate. Too Many Targets Sony BMG's use of DRM sparked a firestorm last year after the company programmed CDs with a hidden code that secretly installed itself on users' hard drives, relayed information back to Sony, and left computers vulnerable to viruses. That episode resulted in the recall of some 5 million CDs, and customer boycotts and class action lawsuits. The content protection technology used by Apple and other companies isn't nearly as invasive, nor has it elicited as much outcry. Over time, however, Teah says those restrictions may become more onerous. They may be used as a springboard for legal attacks against consumers by such organizations as the Recording Industry Association of America , which has sued consumers found to have downloaded pirated songs from the Internet. Says Teah: "A teenage girl making a mix tape for a boy she has a crush on could become a target for an expensive lawsuit in the future." JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg dismisses concerns that the iTunes DRM system is overly restrictive. "It's fairly innocuous," he says. "You can easily get around the restrictions by burning your songs to a CD, and then reimporting them as an MP3 or any other format you wish." Foreign Frenzy He says other services, such at MTV's Urge online music download service, created by Viacom's MTV Networks in partnership with Microsoft and the privately held MusicNet, sells song downloads for 99 US cents per track, similar to Apple. "They're following what Apple does because the market has shown that it works," Gartenberg says. Apple isn't the only company targeted by the organizers of Defective By Design. In May, the group staged a surprise protest at a speech by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at Microsoft's WinHEC conference in Seattle. Protesters wore hazardous material protection suits at the entrance to the venue where Gates was set to demonstrate Windows Vista, the next version of Microsoft's PC operating system. An Apple spokesperson said the company would have no comment on the upcoming protests. It remains to be seen whether concerns over Apple's technology are strong enough to result in much, if any, uproar in the U.S. They appear to be on the rise on the other side of the Atlantic, however. Regulators in Norway and Britain are renewing calls for Apple to revise the rules that consumers agree to when they begin using the iTunes store. The Fights Continue Norway's Consumer Ombudsman, at the request of the country's Consumer Council, ruled that certain provisions of Apple's usage agreement violate Norwegian law. The company has been given until June 21 to amend the rules. It also has been asked to defend its DRM scheme known as "Fairplay," which restricts songs purchased from the iTunes store from being played on portable players other than the iPod. Similar calls are coming from regulators in Sweden and Denmark. Additionally, in England, a recording trade association has told legislators that iTunes music should be made compatible with other portable players. This follows inquiries by European Union regulators into Apple's pricing structure for songs sold on iTunes in Britain, where users are charged 79 pence, or about $1.45, vs. 99 euro cents (about $1.25) in other European countries. The latest flurry of activity follows a row between Apple and French legislators allied with a consumer advocacy group. This group wanted the company to make the music sold through its online music store compatible with portable players other than its popular iPod device. At the time, Apple branded the effort "state-sponsored piracy," and suggested that it was more likely to shut down the French outpost of its iTunes store than comply with the legislation. http://www.technewsworld.com/story/51158.html ![]() Apple Eyes Labor Conditions at iPod Plant Elaine Kurtenbach Apple Computer Inc. is investigating claims of poor working conditions at a Chinese iPod factory, the company said Friday, vowing not to tolerate any labor violations. The company was responding to a report by a British newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, that alleged workers at an unnamed iPod factory were paid as little as $50 to work 15-hour shifts making the devices. The Mail's report did not provide many details about the location or ownership of the factory, but its allegations provoked a vigorous response from Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif. "Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible," said a statement from Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman. "We are currently investigating the allegations regarding working conditions in the iPod manufacturing plant in China. We do not tolerate any violations of our supplier code of conduct," it said. Apple's iconic iPod players are made abroad, mainly in China. The company has sold more than 50 million iPods since its debut in 2001. Staff at Foxconn, a Taiwanese company that reportedly assembles the iPods and products of many other major manufacturers in China, refused comment when contacted Friday at the company's China headquarters in Shenzhen, a city bordering Hong Kong. Foxconn is the trade name for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which claims many big name customers including Intel Corp., Dell Inc. and Sony Corp. In a report in the state-run newspaper Beijing Times, a company spokeswoman, identified only by the surname He, denied there were any labor violations at its factories. "The labor department can come to our factory and investigate," He was quoted as saying. Apple adopted a code of conduct for its suppliers last November, saying it was modeled after the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct and other labor standards. The code bans child labor and sets a maximum of 60-hour work weeks, including overtime. The provisions also require suppliers to comply with applicable laws on minimum wages and to keep worker dormitories clean and safe. Allegations of poor working conditions are rife in China and workers often are housed in rudimentary dormitories, fed poorly and subjected to poor pay, unsafe working conditions and other maltreatment. Although $50 monthly would be relatively low pay, wages can run even lower for some jobs. However, the official minimum wage in Shenzhen, where Foxconn has some of its factories, is about twice that amount. ___ AP Technology Writer May Wong in San Jose, Calif. contributed to this report. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616/...MwBHNlYwM3Mzg- ![]() Apple plants seeds for pic downloads iTunes Going To The Movies Ben Fritz After conquering the digital music biz and taking the lead with TV shows online, Apple is looking to feature films. The computer company is in active negotiations with most major studios to add movies to its iTunes Music Store, most likely by the end of the year, numerous sources confirm. The main sticking point is price. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has been personally involved in the talks, initially proposed selling all films at a flat price of $9.99 -- an offer the studios flatly rejected. "We can't be put in a position where we lose the ability to price our most popular content higher than less popular stuff," said a studio exec close to the negotiations. Apple has traditionally sold digital content at a single price: 99¢ for songs, $1.99 for TV shows and musicvideos. It has recently experimented with some longer video content, however, selling the Disney Channel telepic "High School Musical" for $9.99 and the "Battlestar Galactica" miniseries for $14.99. Apple gives TV and music companies a 70% wholesale rate and is offering the same to film providers. When it came to songs and TV shows, Apple was largely defining a new market, as they hadn't been sold individually before. But feature films already are sold on DVD at varying wholesale prices depending on whether they're new releases or library titles. While the homevideo market is slumping -- leading many studios to focus on the Internet as the next growth market -- it still generated $23 billion in the U.S. last year, and studios don't want to risk angering major retailers like Wal-Mart or Best Buy by giving better terms to Apple. Online retailers Movielink and CinemaNow are paying DVD wholesale prices to get digital copies. There are signs Apple may bend, insiders say, and allow price points ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 in order to differentiate older titles from new releases. During negotiations to extend their deal with Apple last year, music labels tried to persuade Jobs to allow variable pricing for songs. But thanks to iTunes' 80%-plus market share in U.S. digital music, he had the leverage to stand his ground. When TV shows were added to iTunes last year, ABC/Disney was the only provider, with others such as NBC Universal and MTV Networks coming later. But sources at most major studios confirmed they are in some stage of negotiations with Apple, indicating pics from numerous providers could debut together. Studio sources expect an iTunes moviestore to debut by the end of the year at the latest. ITunes was the first etailer to start selling songs and TV shows online, but when it adds movies, it will enter a competitive market. Movielink and CinemaNow already sell permanent downloads of films. BitTorrent has a deal in place with Warner Bros. and is in talks with other studios. Amazon.com also will start selling movies online soon, possibly through its IMDb Web site. But a deal with Apple is key for many studios hoping to grow the digital distribution biz because of the huge iTunes install base and the popularity of video iPods. Apple has sold more than 22.5 million iPods since the video version launched in October. (It's unclear how many are video iPods and how many are the smaller Nano or Shuffle.) Since Apple does not license its antipiracy software, other online retailers can't sell music or video that works on an iPod, and other manufacturers can't make players that work with iTunes content. "Every studio wants to have broad distribution in digital, and we all know that having Apple as part of that is very, very important," a studio exec said. Many predict feature films will bow on iTunes at the same time the video iPod with a bigger screen more appropriate for films is launched. But Apple is remaining tight-lipped, not even telling potential studio partners about its hardware plans. A rep for Apple declined to comment. Company typically doesn't announce any initiatives until the day they launch. http://www.variety.com/VR1117945507.html ![]() A Coming Attraction: Movies on iTunes Laura M. Holson and Eduardo Porter Consumers have been willing to spend 99 cents to buy Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" or $1.99 for an episode of "Desperate Housewives" from iTunes. Now Steven P. Jobs is betting they will also pay $9.99 to download "The Godfather" to play on their iPods. For weeks, Apple Computer has been talking with executives at all the major studios — including the Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers and Universal Studios — about adding movies to its popular iTunes music store, several people involved in the negotiations said. Mr. Jobs, who is Apple's chief executive, has been participating in the negotiations and telling studio executives in Los Angeles that he wants to have a deal in place by the fall, people involved in the negotiations said. Disney, which was the first studio to put some TV shows (like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives") on iTunes, is also expected to be the first to put some movies on Apple's online service, the people involved in the talks said. Moreover, Mr. Jobs will attend his first Disney board meeting later this month. He became a director when the company acquired Pixar Animation Studios, where he had been a founder and chief executive. An Apple spokeswoman said that the company would not comment on what she called rumors. The individuals asked not to be identified because the negotiations were confidential. News of a possible deal was reported yesterday in Daily Variety. It is not the first time the studios and Mr. Jobs have discussed selling movies online. But the recent talks are more serious. While Mr. Jobs is getting resistance from some studios, they are more open to the idea since most now offer their television shows on iTunes. "Steve wants to get this done, and the studios want to reach an agreement, too," said one person apprised of the negotiations. But people involved in the negotiations said there were several potential snags, including fears about piracy and Mr. Jobs's proposal to charge a flat price of $9.99 for movies already sold on DVD. Studios are concerned about preserving relationships with traditional partners, including theaters and retailers. In particular, one person involved said, a price of $9.99 for a movie would undercut the price Wal-Mart charges for DVD's. Under Mr. Jobs's proposed plan, there will be several prices for movies, depending on when they have their debut on iTunes. The prices have not yet been determined, but some studios are worried about releasing movies too close to their theatrical release dates. The current window for a DVD release is four months after a movie hits theaters. "Everyone is pushing back on this," said another person apprised of the talks. The reports of Apple's discussions with movie studios have renewed speculation that Apple is preparing to offer a living room-oriented entertainment device later this year, in time for the Christmas season. The TV programs and music videos sold on iTunes are low-resolution videos appropriate for viewing on the iPod. But they offer inadequate display quality when viewed on a Macintosh computer. Apple has also introduced several hardware and software features over the past year, like an Apple hand-held remote control and a television-oriented on-screen control system called Front Row. The current Apple video system, which competes with Microsoft's Media Center PC software, is now oriented toward Apple's computers. There has been extensive industry speculation during the last year that Mr. Jobs is planning to use the Internet to deliver high-definition video directly to consumers on flat-screen televisions. John Markoff contributed reporting for this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/te...y/20apple.html ![]() Friend or foe? Film Exex Want To Tap Into Jobs' Savvy But Worry About His Growing Clout Ben Fritz Five years ago, when Steve Jobs was in negotiations to sell songs on iTunes, he gave music execs a choice: Either work with me or get left in the dust. They worked with him. But even though the deals may have helped save their business from piracy, many in the music industry now call it a devil's bargain. Apple now commands more than 80% of the growing digital music market and has a huge influence on how much such music will cost. It's that type of clout that makes many in the film industry nervous as Jobs and Apple negotiate to extend iTunes to feature-length films, a natural step after the store added TV shows last fall. Film moguls are eager to get access to the huge base of customers, especially as an antidote to piracy. But Jobs' reputation as a brilliant yet arrogant executive used to getting what he wants has left many in Hollywood wondering whether the new-media titan will prove a friend or foe. It's an odd place for Jobs to be in, given that 30 years ago, he co-founded a computer company in a garage with a childhood friend. But thanks to business savvy and fortuitous circumstances, Jobs now finds himself one of the most powerful people in the media business, especially as it moves into the digital age. His clout comes, in large part, from the ascendance of Pixar to a position of such dominance in the animation business that it was acquired by Disney this year for $7.4 billion. The deal made him the Mouse House's largest single shareholder, with about $4 billion worth of stock, and gave him a seat on its board. He will undoubtedly be a key ally in CEO Bob Iger's push of the conglom into the digital age. But Apple, which he heads as CEO, also has extended Jobs' influence in Hollywood. Since 2001, when Apple introduced the iPod digital music player and iTunes software, followed by the iTunes Music Store, the company has undergone a radical transformation. In just five years, it has sold 1 billion songs, and since last October, 15 million TV shows and music- videos. For the holiday quarter, Apple made $3.4 billion in iPod and iTunes revenue, compared with just over $2 billion from PCs and software. In other words, it is now a digital media company that sells PCs and software on the side, a dramatic reversal from the company's first 25 years. The question is how much Hollywood will be willing to adjust to his style and his terms. The industry is famous for not tolerating brash outsiders, no matter how successful or astute their plans. "He came in with a lot of bravado and said, 'We set our mind to what we were going to do in the music business and revolutionized it, and now we want to do the same thing with film," recalls one studio person close to the talks for movie downloads. In many ways, Jobs stumbled into the entertainment business. The iPod was pitched to Apple by an outsider, Tony Fadell, currently senior VP of the iPod division. Even when Jobs bought Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1985, the small computer graphics unit was focused on selling its technology and creating special effects. The short films created by former Disney animator John Lasseter in the late '80s were made more to show off Pixar technology than to draw the attention of the entertainment industry. But an Oscar for 1989 short "Tin Toy" ultimately led to "Toy Story" and a revolution in the animation business. As both companies grew and led Jobs into more frequent contact with media moguls, however, insiders say he took the opportunity to learn more about the entertainment business. At one meeting with top execs at a major conglom hoping to distribute Pixar films when it looked like the Disney deal would fall apart, he spent much of the meeting curiously asking about other parts of the company's business. To those who know him through Apple, Jobs is famous for being hands-on, short-tempered and harsh. "He grades people," says one former employee. "After you make a presentation -- pitching a book, a film, hardware or a software program -- he will give you a grade: a B-plus, C-minus, a D, whatever. "Steve is always the smartest guy in the room and he knows it," he added. For those who cross Jobs, it's not a pleasant experience. He often has reduced people to tears with verbal abuse, says the former worker. "But he's not doing it for fun. He's doing it because he wants things better. He cares intensely and 95% of his comments are right." Those who worked at Pixar describe a somewhat different Jobs: very involved in negotiations with Disney, but relatively hands-off when it came to filmmaking. "We had all heard about this tyrant, but we never once saw that person at Pixar," recalls one longtime employee. "He was the guiding light in business affairs, but he had such confidence in John and seemed so amazed by the success we were having that he never did more than put his two cents in at meetings," says former Pixar animator Jorgen Klubien, who is now directing his own toon for Laika Entertainment. Recently treated for pancreatic cancer, co-workers say that the 51-year-old Jobs seems to have mellowed. "Though a 'mellowed Steve' is still a sight to behold," says one. "At every meeting, you are on pins and needles because someone will get their head handed to them, every time, and you just pray it is not you. It's like playing Russian roulette." Despite his immense wealth, estimated by Forbes at $4.4 billion, Jobs leads a relatively modest life, especially by Hollywood standards. Though he did take a Gulfstream jet from Apple, he draws a salary of just $1, the same he took at Pixar, and relies mainly on the value of his stock. Although he guards his privacy, his personal life often has drifted into the public realm. His sister Mona Simpson's novel "A Regular Guy" is loosely based on him. His Palo Alto house is modest by mogul standards, and he always appears in his trademark uniform of jeans and a black turtleneck. When it comes to his businesses, however, Jobs is obsessed with aesthetics and the consumer experience. When the first Apple stores were ready to open, he reportedly disliked the maple floors and had them ripped up and new floors installed. Though Jobs didn't come up with the idea of the iPod, it was he who insisted that engineers design the interface so that it would take no more than three clicks to get to a song. It reflects his approach in designing many products: Define what consumers will respond to, then task others to make that happen. That was why his insistence was so great that iTunes sell songs for 99¢ each. Recalls Phil Wiser, who was then chief technology officer of Sony Music: "Steve Jobs came to us and said, 'iTunes is going to be 99¢ per song. We'd really love for you to be part of it. Take it or leave it.' " With a dominant share of the digital music business, Jobs refused to budge from the flat 99¢-per-song fee in recent renegotiations with the diskeries. As for adding movies to iTunes, Jobs personally heads up most negotiations, although VP Eddie Cue has taken up some of the slack as competing studios are wary of doing business with a member of Disney's board. Studios have resisted Jobs' initial insistence that feature films be priced at the easy-to-remember $9.99. After all, library titles are typically sold to Wal-Mart and Best Buy significantly cheaper than new releases. Studios now are trying to convince Apple to sell similar content at multiple price points, something the company has never done. Also complicating the deals: The studios are working out terms with a host of other distributors, including Amazon, Movielink and BitTorrent, in part to make sure that one company does not dominate. It seems that none of the studios wants to be first in making a deal with Apple. Disney would be the logical leader, but even they are cautious, fearing it will look like in-house synergy rather than a business decision. Jobs would not comment, nor would an Apple spokesman on the status of the negotiations. But then, Pixar and Apple are tight-lipped when it comes to the press, making announcements only on their own terms and refusing to let their executives speak to the press in most cases, even on background. When he returned to Apple as CEO in 1997, Jobs clamped down on leaks, to the point that those who work on new projects reportedly are not even allowed to tell their own families. "Now they're more secretive than a government agency," says Wired News editor Leander Kahney. Journalists who try to work around that wall often face retaliation. When Web site ThinkSecret broke news about a new Apple product in 2004, the company filed suit, alleging that it stole trade secrets. When Daily Variety broke the news that Pixar had hired writers for the pitch that became the 2007 release "Ratatouille," Jobs tracked the reporter down at the Sundance Film Festival, demanding to know her sources and threatening to fire the film's writers. He called her on the private line of a rented condo -- a number she had not given out to anyone. She still doesn't know how he found it. What remains to be seen is if such a closed-mouth policy can survive in a town that is run on rumors, leaks and emails. But then, much of the way Steve Jobs does business likely will be put to the test in Hollywood. Or will much of the way Hollywood does business be put to the test by Steve Jobs? http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=s...117945470&c=13 ![]() Netflix thinks inside the box Netco to Introduce Set-Top Box With Internet Connection Jennifer Netherby Netflix VP of original programming Eric Besner revealed on Friday some of the online rental service's thinking on the movie download biz, saying Netflix is planning to introduce a proprietary set-top box with an Internet connection that can download movies overnight. Speaking at an Independent Film & Television Alliance production conference in Beverly Hills, Besner said the business model is still being worked out, but the download service likely would be offered in return for the subscription fee members pay for conventional DVD rentals. Service could launch as early as this year. Users would add movies they want to watch to their rental queue online as they do now, and those movies would then be downloaded to the boxes overnight rather than shipped through the mail. He said the set-top box is just one of the Internet plans Netflix is working on. Entertainment Studios chairman-CEO Byron Allen keynoted the half-day conference, telling indie producers that the shift to digital distribution is giving producers the upper hand for the first time because of the need for content and the ability to connect directly and immediately with viewers. "This tool of broadband is unlike anything ever before," said Allen, who has created broadband channels for all of the TV shows he advertises on TV to drive traffic. Larry Gerbrandt, senior VP and general manager of Nielsen Analytics, said during a panel that iTunes downloads of ABC TV shows have so far added to the audience for those shows rather than stealing viewers away. On a separate panel, Disney senior VP-general manager of pay TV Dan Cohen said the company clocked 11 million streams in May of the four ABC shows it put online for free as part of a two-month experiment. Users had to watch short commercials while viewing the ABC shows, but they also could pause and rewind through episodes, something that could give digital a bigger advantage in the coming years from an advertising perspective, Gerbrandt said. http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=s...117945486&c=18 ![]() Movie and Record Industry Piracy Figures Incendiary, But Not Fact. Richard Menta I caught this little item from the Washinton Post today quoting losses from online file sharing. "The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate U.S. companies lose as much as $250 billion per year to Internet pirates, who swap digital copies of 'The DaVinci Code,' Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free." The 30GB iPod Video is available on Amazon $250 billion per year is a big number. It is also a fictional one.. Last year, the total worldwide box office revenues for the movie industry were $23 billion, of which the US generated 40% of that amount. Revenues were slightly down from the previous year, which is understandable since the movie industry had been setting box office records an unprecedented dozen or so years in a row. The record industry last year generated a total of $33.6 billion worldwide, down 2% from the previous year. That's a total of $56.6 billion. So how do these industries lose $250 billion per year when combined they only generated $56.6 billion last year? Even if you take these industries all time annual revenue records, $250 billion per year is almost five time more that they ever earned combined. The answer is simple. The $250 billion figure was simply made up. Why deliver such a fictional number? Because the bigger the number, the more incendiary it is. The more incendiary the number the more press it generates. In this case the Washington Post, a heralded paper if there ever was one, printed the number as if it were a fact. While we are at it why not print that 5,000 lives are lost each year to file sharing? How about file sharing leads to drug use or terrorist activity? Wait, the Department of Justice already used the one on terrorist activity. To accurately quote losses you need to isolate all of the potential causes, something that at times can be very difficult. For example, how can you truly measure the effects of bad PR acurately? If CD sales drop worldwide 2%, can you honestly say none of that loss came from sources other than file sharing? Even if you could prove it was all file sharing, 2% of $33.6 billion is still only $660 million. Throw in the 7.9% movie industry drop and you have another 1.8 billion for a total of almost $2.5 billion. But to quote five times these industries combined total worth? That's silly. The software industry did earn $189 billion last year, setting another record? Maybe they are throwing that figure in just for good measure? Even if they are, so what? Adding up total industry revenue and saying that is how much you lost is simply faulty judgement. Ask anyone on Wall Street. And you can't blame this all on the media lobbies. Their job is spin, spin that gets attention and spin motivates action in a direction that suits them. The Washington Post knows this. The paper should have done its homework. One more note, I originally titled this article "File Sharing Takes 5000 Lives Every Year", then decided not to. I was concerned someone might actually reprint it as a fact. http://www.p2pconsortium.com/index.php?showtopic=9677 ![]() Widespread Piracy Suspected At China-Related Web Sites Motoki Yotsukura A copyright-protection group said it plans to file criminal complaints against three Web sites geared for Chinese residents in Japan that offer the largest amount of pirated material seen in this country. Members of these Web sites, which are apparently operated in Tokyo, can freely watch movies on the Internet or download them for a charge. One of the sites boasts a collection of 3,000 titles, including new releases such as "The Da Vinci Code." According to the Japan and International Motion Picture Copyright Association (JIMCA), this is the largest case of suspected piracy so far in Japan. JIMCA said copyright-holders of movies rarely allow Web site operators to offer unlimited access to such films, and that the three Web sites in question are likely using pirated versions. "All the cases are no doubt illegal," said Masami Hagino, public relations officer of JIMCA. The managers' contact addresses and phone numbers are in Tokyo. The Internet Protocols for the sites also point to operations in the capital. One of the sites is run by an international telephone service company that offers discounts to Chinese living in Japan. Another is operated by a company that sells second--hand computers. They both have connections to companies in China. The other site is run by a Net shop that sells daily goods to Chinese residents in Japan. The Web site operators said they were unfamiliar with copyright issues, and that if violations were made, they would correct the problem. The three sites own thousands of movies and dramas produced in Europe, the United States, China, Japan and South Korea. The movies are all either dubbed in Chinese or contain subtitles. The Japanese works include Hayao Miyazaki's animated features, as well as episodes from the "Urutoraman (Ultra man)" series. One of the sites offered free viewings of "The Da Vinci Code" five days after it hit movie theaters. The site removed the movie from its list on June 14 after The Asahi Shimbun made an inquiry. The second-hand computer store in Tokyo's Sumida Ward runs three retail shops in Tokyo and Yokohama that sell membership cards for its site. The Net shop provides the same type of service. For a monthly fee of 2,500 yen, the member can access the Web site and watch or download movies after entering a number and a password printed on the card. "We started the company two years ago. Since then, we have been receiving video distribution from a Chinese company with which we have a contract," a Japanese employee of the computer store said. He said he wasn't aware the company was doing anything wrong. "We might have lacked a full understanding about copyrights," the employee said. The Chinese president of a company in Tokyo's Toshima Ward that allows users to watch movies for free also said he was not knowledgeable about copyright laws. "I don't know much about copyrights because I entrust the management of the site to a subsidiary in China," the president said. "But if it's a problem, I'll stop the operation." JIMCA plans to lodge criminal complaints against the managers of the sites and seek compensation. KDDI Corp. and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corp. also have connections to the Web sites in question. Two of the Web site operators are franchised dealers of the telecoms. One of those dealers and a Net shop have expanded their sales through an NTT affiliate's fee-settlement service that uses convenience store chains. The carriers both said they were unaware the dealers may have been engaged in piracy. "It's very disappointing that big companies like KDDI Corp. and NTT East have turned out to be lending a hand to the piracy business," JIMCA's Hagino said. "I demand they check on all their franchised dealers." Mo Bangfu, a Chinese journalist who has covered Chinese society in Japan, said: "In China, there has been a black market of pirated movies for several years. It has now landed in Japan." He said awareness of copyright issues is limited in China, and crackdowns by the authorities can't catch up with the bootleggers and pirates. "The need among the Chinese in Japan for Chinese-language versions remains high," he said. "From now on, such services might go underground and spread, which would make it difficult to grasp the true picture of the market." http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-...606170147.html ![]() China Piracy Costs Film Industry $2.7 Bln In 2005 Piracy in China cost film makers $2.7 billion last year, with domestic firms shouldering more than half those losses, according to a study commissioned by a trade group representing the major Hollywood studios. China's film industry lost about $1.5 billion in revenue to piracy last year, while the major U.S. studios lost $565 million, according to data released on Monday by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), whose members include the studio units of Time Warner, Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc.. The study was the first for China done by a third party, LEK Consulting, for the MPA, which previously did a similar annual study itself. The 2005 losses to U.S. studios were well above the MPA's own previous estimate of $178 million lost to piracy in 2003. Some 93 percent of all movie sales in China were of pirated versions of films, according to the latest study. "In terms of who's losing the most here in China, it's not the MPAs member companies. It's the local industry," said Mike Ellis, who heads the MPA's Asia Pacific division. The study also found that the Internet is becoming a growing source of piracy in China, though pirated discs still accounted for the majority of lost sales last year. According to the report, illegally downloaded films cost the industry $1.04 billion in China last year, while pirated video discs accounted for $1.63 billion in lost revenue. The MPA released its latest report along with another first-ever study on the impact of movie piracy on China's economy, which was also commissioned by the MPA and done by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. That study said that growth in China's box office slowed by nearly half to 30 percent last year, when the industry generated $247 million in receipts, from 58 percent in 2004. Piracy is a rampant problem in China, where bootleg versions of major films often appear on the street just days after their theatrical release. The MPA and its members also complain of highly restricted access to the market, with only 20 foreign films allowed into China each year on a revenue-sharing basis. Even when they are allowed in, films are often restricted in their runs. http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsAr...NA-FILM-DC.XML ![]() This Column May Be Illegal Danny Westneat The first casualty in the state's war on Internet gambling is a local Web site where nobody was actually doing any gambling. What a Bellingham man did on his site was write about online gambling. He reviewed Internet casinos. He had links to them, and ran ads by them. He fancied himself a guide to an uncharted frontier, even compiling a list of "rogue casinos" that had bilked gamblers. All that, says the state — the ads, the linking, even the discussing — violates a new state law barring online wagering or using the Internet to transmit "gambling information." "It's what the feds would call 'aiding and abetting,' " says the director of the state's gambling commission, Rick Day. "Telling people how to gamble online, where to do it, giving a link to it — that's all obviously enabling something that is illegal." Uh-oh. This is starting to get a little creepy. I hadn't been all worked up about the state's crusade against Internet gambling, including the new law that makes most online betting a felony. Yes, it's insincere. This is the same state that's happy to enable your online wagering if you're playing the ponies. But mostly it seemed the law was unenforceable. And passé. A society steeped in televised Texas Hold'em and Indian casinos is suddenly supposed to recoil at the idea of placing bets with a mouse? I figured the law was a bluff. Then I heard about Todd Boutte. He's a former Wal-Mart worker in Bellingham who started a casino review called IntegrityCasinoGuide.com. He worried about the new law but figured he'd be OK because his site has no actual gambling. Not so, said the state. Writing about online gambling in a way that seems promotional can earn a cease-and-desist order, and potentially, a criminal charge. Boutte learned this when a Bellingham Herald article featured state officials saying his site was illegal. He later shut it down and is trying to sell it out of state. "1984 has finally arrived," Boutte says. "I can't believe this is happening in a liberal place like Washington." More may be on the way. The state plans to hire an investigator to enforce the new law. Gambling officials told me The Seattle Times may be afoul of the law because we print a poker how-to column, "Card Shark," by gambler Daniel Negreanu. He sometimes tells readers to hone their skills at online casinos. And at the end of each column is a Web address, fullcontactpoker.com, where readers can comment. If you type in that address, you whiz off to Negreanu's digital casino based in the Antilles. It's a tangled Web, isn't it? The state says we'd best do our part to untangle it. "My suggestion to you is to remove from your paper any advice about online gambling and any links to illegal sites," Day said. So even this column could be illegal? The state's gone from trying to control gambling, which is legit, to trying to control people speaking about gambling. It's hard to take coming from a state that bombards us with pitches for the biggest sucker's bet of all. You know, the one they call the lottery. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...6_danny15.html ![]() Patching WinMX Thomas Mennecke The battle against “false files” or flooding P2P networks with bogus material is a long and attritionous fight. In fact, it’s been fought with such ferocity that people are willing to protect long abandoned networks such as WinMX. In addition to no longer being developed and its population reduced, WinMX diehards continue to inflate the value of this P2P relic. WinMX’s day came to a screeching halt soon after the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) delivered ‘cease and desist’ letters to several leading commercial P2P developers in September of 2005. As a recipient of one of these letters, Frontcode Technologies, the talent behind WinMX, decided to abandon the project. The abandonment of this client also eliminated the WinMX.com domain, which hosted several network gateways. Network gateways, or cache servers, maintain the IP addresses of thousands of individuals connected to the WinMX network. The WinMX client communicates with this server during initial startup, obtaining and connecting to IP addresses of network members. Remove these servers and the network comes crumbling down. The collapse of the WinMX network proved temporary, as within days, fans of the network resurrected it by establishing rudimentary cache servers. Groups such as WinMXworld.com and Vladd44.com soon became more sophisticated with their resurrection techniques, and life on WinMX seemed whole again. Yet an old nemesis soon reared itself, as corrupt files once again began infiltrating the WinMX network. The flood of corrupt files threatened the resurrection effort, and indeed began driving participants away. Developers of subsequent WinMX patches incorporated blocking features to thwart some of the most prolific of flooders. WinMX patch developer “King Macro” of WinMxGroup.com told Slyck.com that Macrovision and its Hawkeye technology are especially notorious in this respect. “There are several methods we use for detecting them but the simplest way to spot most of them (at least for now) is that within WinMX all search results contain the IP address of the origin user that is sharing the file - so it is relatively simple to spot that if the same IP address is sending out hundreds of copies of the same file under many different usernames then it is a flooder.” Once the IP address is obtained, it’s a simple matter of tracing the address’ origins. “Smokeblower is of course a subsidiary of Macrovision - some of the ranges used are actually allocated under the name Macrovision but most is done under the Smokeblower name.” Although blocking Macrovision and similar organizations from the WinMX network is an important goal for developers, there are limitations. In response, “King Macro” has taken the additional step of preventing such bogus files from appearing on the WinMX client in the first place. Since WinMX readily identifies the IP address of file-sharers – including flooders – the new patch blocks corrupt files from ever being displayed from WinMX. Considering Frontcode dismantled WinMX without releasing the source code, the patch plays an important intermediary between the network and the client. If the source were released, the changes could be made to the WinMX code itself; however patch developers were not afforded this benefit “By manipulating the calls to Winsock the patch is able to receive data instead of WinMX, and then pass along only the data that it chooses to,” King Macro tells Slyck.com. “That way it receives the search results before WinMX, and is able to then only send "good" search results to WinMX (and of course any other non search data gets passed on to WinMX as well.)” The blocking feature is dependent on the maintenance of known “bad” IP addresses – or IP addresses from known contaminators of the network. In the ongoing file-sharing technological arms race, it’s a near certainty organizations that actively flood networks with corrupt files will adapt to this new technique. In the mean time however, public reaction to this updated WinMX patch has been positive. The most immediate and visible effect of this patch is the reduction of bogus files. This in turn leads to fewer downloads of such files, and the subsequent decline in their proliferation. http://slyck.com/news.php?story=1214 ![]() Louisiana Violent Game Bill Signed Into Law According to a new report from website GamePolitics.com, Democratic Representative Roy Burrell's HB1381 bill, covering violent video games, has been signed in law by Governor Kathleen Blanco, and takes effect immediately. The measure proposed by HB 1381, which was drafted with the help of controversial Florida attorney and anti-game activist Jack Thompson, allows a judge to rule on whether or not a video game meets established criteria for being inappropriate for minors and be subsequently pulled from store shelves. A person found guilty of selling such a game to a minor would face fines ranging from $100 to $2,000, plus a prison term of up to one year. In a statement released by Jack Thompson when the Louisiana Senate passed the bill, the lawyer commented: "The corrupted and corrupting video game industry will, of course, challenge this law once it is signed by Governor Blanco. The reason is that this industry, through the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), its developers' lobbyist, the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), and the retailers' lobbyist, IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) are involved in ongoing fraudulent conduct in marketing video games that contain adult material to children." Also at that time, ESA president Doug Lowenstein commented of the bill: "We oppose HB 1381, which would add video games containing violent content to the State's 'Harmful to Minors' statute, and is no different from other laws already stricken by the courts." Now that the bill is passed, it is extremely likely that the ESA will announce a legal challenge to the Louisiana bill in the near future - Gamasutra will update this story if and when such a statement occurs. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...php?story=9745 ![]() Judge Blocks Louisiana Violent Games Law No sooner than the ESA and EMA decided to file suit against Louisiana over the violent games law did the court halt the legislation. A temporary injunction has been issued, barring enforcement of the law, and a hearing for a permanent injunction is expected next week. A Baton Rouge federal judge has today issued a temporary injunction against Louisiana's violent games law that Governor Kathleen Blanco just signed last week. According to local newspaper The Advocate, U.S. District Judge James Brady issued the injunction just hours after the Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Merchants Association filed the lawsuit in Louisiana. Unlike similar violent games legislation, the Louisiana law was to have taken effect immediately, but now authorities are barred from enforcing it. Another hearing for a permanent injunction against the law has been set for June 27. As with other violent games bills, the video game industry believes HB1381, which was drafted by anti-game lawyer Jack Thompson, is "unconstitutionally vague." According to New Orleans attorney James A. Brown, the Louisiana law could lead to "arbitrary and discriminatory" enforcement. "Video games contain extensive storylines and character development, comparable to that of books and movies," he says in the lawsuit. "Like the best of literature, the storylines often involve familiar themes such as good versus evil, triumph over adversity, struggle against corrupt governments and rulers and/or quest for adventure. "How would a person assess whether a particular video game appeals to a minor's 'morbid interest in violence'? And what constitutes a 'patently offensive' depiction of violence? Persons of ordinary intelligence are forced to guess at the meaning and scope of the act." http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/fe...id=13012&rp=49 ![]() Video Game Makers Are Battling Sinking Stock Prices Matt Richtel The video game industry has been taking a beating. While air has seeped steadily from the stock market, it has poured from the four major publicly traded game publishers. Since May 1, they have lost a collective $6 billion in market capitalization, about a 25 percent drop, compared to declines of 8.3 percent for the Nasdaq and 4.2 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. The sharp decline reflects a realization by investors that the game industry will recover considerably more slowly than expected from the transition to a new generation of consoles, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. So, too, analysts said, the game publishing industry is being disrupted by the growing cost of development, as well as uncertainty and opportunity created by the growing popularity of online game play. "There are more industry concerns than ever, and that's what you're seeing in the stock prices," said Justin Post, an industry analyst with Merrill Lynch. And yet, underscoring the complexities of assessing the industry, Mr. Post has a buy rating on shares of two of the major publishers, Electronic Arts and Activision. Like many stock analysts, he argues that given long-term trends, the game business is destined to boom, and that the only question is when. Evidence of trouble started growing last November after Microsoft introduced the Xbox 360, marking the transition to a new generation of game consoles more powerful and graphics-rich than previous models. Production delays left Microsoft unable to meet demand, leaving some customers unable to buy an Xbox and, in turn, the publishers' games. Highlighting the troubles, Electronic Arts said in early May that its 2007 fiscal earnings could be as much as 70 percent lower than analysts had projected. Several days later, the industry convened in Los Angeles for its annual convention, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, a neon-lighted extravaganza of self-promotion. But rather than providing momentum, it seemed only to complicate matters. Sony said it would release its own next-generation console, the PlayStation 3, in November and sell it for $499, the highest price ever for a console. Since January, Wall Street analysts have dropped their estimates of the industry's total revenues for 2006 by 60 percent, said Daniel Ernst, an analyst with Soleil-Hudson Square Research. Many analysts now say that publishers will not see significant growth until well into 2007. Mr. Ernst said the most optimistic view is that by the end of this year, consumers will own 15 million consoles of the new generation — 12 million Xbox 360 consoles and the rest PlayStation 3 and Wii machines. There are about 150 million machines of the preceding generation. Past transitions have been painful, too; consumers, awaiting new systems, tend to hold off on purchases of games for the old systems. The video game industry is highly unusual in that every three or four years, in sync with new consoles, publishers hit a trough of earnings but one historically followed by a boom. That is what the game executives are expecting this time. "More people are playing games than ever before," said Bobby Kotick, chief executive of Activision, whose franchises have included Doom, Quake and Tony Hawk. "People who were in their teens in the 80's are now playing games with their kids. When I look at the next 10 years as compared to the past 10 years, I just see better prospects." He said that the powerful new consoles and richer games would attract consumers, that publishers had a chance to profit by making games for a range of different machines (not just consoles, but also hand-held devices, like the Sony PSP), and that a consolidation of smaller publishers in recent years could leave greater shares for those remaining. But Mr. Kotick acknowledged that there were challenges, including a growing need to produce games more efficiently. He said the industry would probably also focus more narrowly on games with hit potential (selling several million copies) as opposed to a scattershot approach of creating numerous games that sell one million copies or less. What is becoming clear to analysts, they said, is that this transition includes some particular facets complicating how soon the industry rebounds and how far. One aggravating factor is a 30 percent to 50 percent increase in the cost of making top-tier games — now $10 million to $15 million to make games for the new consoles and their more powerful processors. The expense is expected to cut into profit margins, which may have hit their peak at some companies, notably at Electronic Arts, analysts said. A potentially counterbalancing force is the emergence of revenue from gamers playing over the Internet — which the Xbox 360 allows and the PlayStation 3 is also expected to allow — and using the consoles to download games. If so, that could allow publishers to markedly cut the cost of distribution. On the other hand, that prospect may be one reason for the fall in the share price of GameStop, a game retailer, analysts said. Since early May its stock has fallen to $39.43, from above $48. Mr. Kotick, for one, says he does not think that players will be routinely downloading games any time soon, given bandwidth and hard-drive limitations. "The idea of full downloadable games is so far in the future that it's almost incomprehensible as an opportunity," Mr. Kotick said. But he added that there were more immediately plausible revenue opportunities from selling downloads of supplemental game levels or "characters, new weapons, new missions, or auctioning off places" in a virtual world. The wariness of game industry investors is heightened by concerns that inflation will drive up interest rates, cutting into consumer spending. "People go to Wal-Mart less, and fewer video games are sold," said Evan Wilson, a video game industry analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. "There's a pall cast over every stock that touches consumer spending." But Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, says that a retrenchment in consumer spending could assist game makers if people abandon higher-cost entertainment in favor of stay-at-home entertainment. "A bad economy is good for video games," he said. Over the long term, analysts said they were bullish, citing the increasing popularity of games and the growing ranks of adults who have been playing video games for years. "I would be buying these stocks with both hands," Mr. Wilson said. Within the industry, he ranks Activision and THQ as the better current opportunities, seeing them as having a chance of winning market share away from rivals like Take-Two Interactive and Electronic Arts. To be sure, the analysts see these stocks as a group only to a point, advising that investors look at the long-term prospects for each company. Since May, Electronic Arts' shares have fallen to $42.30, from $56.80; Activision to $11.58, from $14.19; THQ to $21.49, from $25.63; and Take-Two to $13.10, from $17.05. Particularly rough news came two weeks ago for Take-Two, which announced that in its second quarter it had losses of $50 million, compared with a loss of $8 million in the same period a year earlier. Mr. Pachter of Wedbush Morgan said some analysts continued to be skeptical of the company as possibly a "one-hit wonder" supported by its wildly successful Grand Theft Auto franchise. The publishers' stocks were up slightly on Thursday and Friday, but analysts did not see the beginnings of a turnaround. "The move the last two days doesn't do anything to offset the material decline of the stocks," Mr. Wilson said. "Relative to the total move that's happened since the beginning of May, it's not that big." Mr. Ernst, from Soleil-Hudson, said there might be one upside to continued investor disappointment this year. "If 2006 stinks, 2007 on a comparable basis is going to look pretty incredible," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/te...gy/19game.html ![]() Now, Free Ways to Do Desktop Work on the Web Damon Darlin The biggest expense in buying a new computer is not always the computer. After all, you can buy a new Dell desktop, and a good one at that, for $300 and get a monitor in the bargain. The software to make a PC do anything useful can cost you as much as the computer. To accomplish even the most basic functions on the computer, like writing, you could pay $400 for the standard edition of Microsoft's Office suite that includes Word for word processing, Excel for spreadsheets, Outlook for e-mail and PowerPoint for boring everyone with slideshow presentations. You can find software that is cheaper. Yet a stripped-down student and teacher edition of Word still costs $150 and even Microsoft Works 8.0, a really basic version of Word and Excel, is $50. There is another way to do almost everything these programs can do — some would say you can actually do more — and you can do it free. A number of smart programmers have developed word processing, spreadsheet, calendar and other software that you operate while in a Web browser. No one is saying they are a direct substitute for Word or Excel, but they do have a distinct advantage. The programs can be used by several people at different computers to collaborate on a document. "It's solving an actual real problem," said Sam Schillace, a founder of Upstartle, which makes the Writely software for word processing. Google bought the company for that software this year. Google is the biggest and best-financed company putting such software online. It is gradually opening to the public the Spreadsheets program it announced last week, and it plans to release a version of a word processing program soon. A number of smaller software companies are doing similar things. Where is Microsoft, the software giant, in all this? Interesting question. It is expected that Microsoft will offer a similar product via its Net-centric Office Live and Windows Live initiatives, which convert the desktop to the Web top. It may be a tough choice for the company, because it faces the dilemma of cannibalizing its own products or letting someone else take a bite out of them. Microsoft, which carved a near monopoly in word processing and spreadsheet software, has up to now been able to protect its high prices. But a monopoly, a few laissez-faire economists argue, will eventually succumb to competition. This could become a textbook example: innovators are attracted by the profit pool and undermine the monopoly with something different. You have always had the ability to edit a document in a browser, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer, by opening the file in HTML format. You can still do that in a pinch, but no one recommends it because that method is pretty bare-bones. You can not automatically check the spelling or easily change to unusual fonts, for example. The new programs take word processing a step further. If you have already been using a free e-mail program like Yahoo Mail or Google Gmail, you have some experience with substituting tools on the Web for programs residing on the hard drive of your computer. Of course, to take advantage of them, you have to get over two hurdles. One, you can use them only if you are connected to the Internet. And you must be comfortable with the idea that your addresses, your correspondence and your documents don't reside on your hard drive in your computer in your home. They are stored at sites controlled by a giant company. The new online applications add functions to that basic browser ability by using a set of software tools known among developers as Ajax. These tools enable a host of so-called Web 2.0, or Web services, applications like Google maps posted in Web sites or photos displayed on Flickr.com. Google Spreadsheets is a good example. (You can find the program at Google Labs, labs.google.com, but to use it you have to sign up for a Google account first. No one said free meant easy.) An alternative is Jotspot (www.jot.com), though its products are aimed more at business users. Google Spreadsheets has many of the features you use in Excel, like the ability to sort, change typefaces or color and insert a variety of set formulas. The developers plan to add other features like auto fill. You can save the document to your hard drive or to the Google servers. Once it is there, you can access the spreadsheet from any computer, which means you no longer have to load it onto a disk or flash drive to carry it home or to another office, or send it there by e-mail. Because the document is stored on the Google servers, you can give permission for other people with Google accounts to open and work on it. A team can work on it together to make changes. The file can also be opened in Excel. Jonathan Rochelle, product manager for Spreadsheets, said people were using it to create lists and share them with groups, like a soccer team or fellow students. Wedding planning becomes a little easier as couples use the multiple pages of the spreadsheet to track guests, accommodations and menu selection. He used it himself to help his father with a budget while the two were in different cities. Google's word processing software will work the same way. It has not been released yet, but an early version of the browser tool had every necessary function of Word except auto correct, where misspellings are changed on the fly. That feature is coming, Mr. Schillace said. "We haven't been able to do it smoothly." He said one early tester of Writely was the daughter of a divorced couple who have joint custody. The father told Mr. Schillace that she had been able to do her homework at either house and never had to worry about forgetting an assignment at one house or the other. If you don't want to wait for Google, a similar browser application is already available called Zoho Writer at www.zohowriter.com. (I wrote most of this article on Zoho with as much ease as writing with Microsoft Word.) Writeboard (www.writeboard.com) is a competitor. Another program, called Ajax Write (www.ajaxwrite.com), lacks the spell checking and word count functions that Word has taught us to rely upon. But you need not stop there. Applications for coordinating calendars among friends and family is another popular application that replaces some of the functions of Microsoft's Outlook program. Yahoo and Google have some, but there are others, including one from a start-up named 30Boxes (www.30boxes.com) that is very easy to use. Microsoft is also beginning to offer collaborative Web tools. If you like the idea of making your Web browser do more work, you might also download the Firefox browser, made by another competitor nipping at Microsoft's heels (at www.mozilla.com/firefox). Then you can start using any of the hundreds of add-ons, called extensions, that independent programmers have created to add functions to the browser, for example, the ability to synchronize bookmarks between computers, block ads or download video faster. Google Labs offers some of them. One of the most useful is Notebook. It puts a little button on the frame of your browser that organizes snippets of information you find on the Web into folders that are then accessible from any computer. When you are on a Web site and you see something you want to save, you highlight it, right-click your mouse, click on "Note this" in the dropdown menu, and your search is saved. Clipmarks (www.clipmarks.com) adds an element of the social networking that you find on Facebook or MySpace. A more fully featured alternative to Google Notebook is coming soon from Plum Ventures, a small start-up company based in San Francisco. You can join the waiting list at www.plum.com. With the application you can collect information, whether Web sites, photos, music or text files, and then annotate it and share it with others. You can also make your lists public, to share with strangers. A founder, Hans Peter Brondmo, said, "People like to watch what others are doing." He calls this "info-voyeurism." That you can do it free only makes it better. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/te...y/17money.html ![]() Microsoft Confirms Excel Zero-Day Attack Under Way Ryan Naraine Microsoft June 15 confirmed that a new, undocumented flaw in its widely used Excel spreadsheet program was being used in an attack against an unnamed target. The company's warning comes less than a month after a code-execution hole in Microsoft Word was exploited in what is described as a "super, super targeted attack" against business interests overseas. The back-to-back zero-day attacks closely resemble each other and suggest that well-organized criminals are conducting corporate espionage using critical flaws purchased from underground hackers. In an entry posted to the MSRC (Microsoft Security Response Center) blog, Microsoft Operations Manager Mike Reavey said the company is investigating "a single report from a customer being impacted" by the latest attack. "Here's what we know: In order for this attack to be carried out, a user must first open a malicious Excel document that is sent as an email attachment or otherwise provided to them by an attacker," Reavey said. "Remember remember to be very careful opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources," he added. Microsoft has activated its security response process, which means a formal security advisory will be issued within 24 hours to suggest mitigation guidance and possible pre-patch workarounds. "We've got the Office team engaged of course, and they are hard at work investigating the vulnerability," Reavey said. According to security alerts aggregator Secunia, the Excel flaw has been confirmed on a fully updated Windows XP SP (Service Pack) 2 system with Microsoft Excel 2003 SP2. Anti-virus vendor Symantec said Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT and Windows 2000 computers are also at risk. Symantec was the first to raise a red flag about the attack, which includes the use of a Trojan horse program called Trojan.Mdropper.J. The Trojan arrives as a Microsoft Excel file attachment to a spoofed e-mail with the following name: "okN.xls." When the Trojan is executed, it exploits the Excel flaw to drop and execute a second piece of malware called Downloader.Booli.A. It then silently closes Microsoft Excel, much like that way the Microsoft Word attack worked. Downloader.Booli.A attempts to run Internet Explorer and inject its code into the browser to bypass firewalls. It then connects to a remote Web site hosted in Hong Kong to download another unknown file. Symantec, McAfee and others have added signature detections to remove malicious software that attempts to exploit the vulnerability. Microsoft's Windows Live Safety Center has also been updated, but security experts say the attack can easily be modified to bypass signatures. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1977588,00.asp ![]() Office Hit By Another Security Problem Joris Evers A weakness in how Office applications handle Macromedia Flash files exposes Microsoft customers to cyberattacks, experts have warned. Flash files embedded in Office documents could run and execute code without any warning, Symantec said in an alert sent to customers on Thursday. The security issue is the third problem reported within a week that affects Microsoft Office users. "A successful attack may allow attackers to access sensitive information and potentially execute malicious commands on a vulnerable computer," Symantec said in the alert, which was sent to users of its DeepSight security intelligence. The vulnerability was reported by researcher Debasis Mohanty. The issue relates to the ability to load ActiveX controls in an Office document and is not a vulnerability but an Office feature, a Microsoft representative said. "This behavior is by design and by itself does not represent a security risk to customers," he said. An ActiveX control is a small application typically used to make Web sites more interactive. However, Microsoft acknowledged, this functionality could be abused by an attacker to automatically load an ActiveX control on a user's system through an Office document. Currently, Microsoft is not aware of any ActiveX controls that could allow an attacker to hijack a vulnerable PC in this way, the representative said. "Microsoft will continue to investigate the public reports to help provide additional guidance for customers as necessary," he said. If any vulnerable ActiveX controls are found, it is possible to prevent execution in recent versions of Office by setting a so-called "killbit" for these controls, according to Microsoft. The ActiveX issue is the third security problem related to Office to surface within in a week. On Tuesday, Microsoft confirmed that a flaw related to a Windows component called "hlink.dll" could be exploited by crafting a malicious Excel file. Late last week, Microsoft said a flaw in Excel was being exploited in at least one targeted cyberattack. To exploit either one of the new security issues, an attacker would need to craft a malicious file and host that file on a Web site, send it via e-mail, or otherwise provide it to the intended victim. The attempt can be successful only if the file is opened on a vulnerable PC. The problems come on the heels of Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday" batch of security updates. Last week, Microsoft released 12 patches that addressed 21 vulnerabilities in various products, including Office applications. The company has said it is working on a patch for the first new Excel flaw. http://news.com.com/Office+hit+by+an...3-6087161.html ![]() Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office Press Release Microsoft and Creative Commons have teamed up to release the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office, a copyright licensing tool that enables the easy addition of Creative Commons licenses to works created in popular Microsoft Office applications. The software is available free of charge at Microsoft Office Online and will enable the 400 million users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint to easily select Creative Commons licenses from directly within the application they are working in. The first document to be CC-licensed using this tool is the text of Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil's iSummit keynote speech in English and Portugese. http://creativecommons.org/ ![]() Microsoft Antipiracy Tool Still Irks Users Elizabeth Montalbano Microsoft's program for testing whether a PC is running a genuine copy of Windows, Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), has drawn considerable fire from users since it was launched last July. This week Microsoft gave users another reason to complain when the company confirmed the version of the program it is delivering as a "high priority" automatic update for Windows PCs is a test version. Usually, Microsoft distributes test versions of software separately from updates and users are given the opportunity to sign up for the software before test versions are downloaded. Microsoft said users still can opt out of downloading the update, called WGA Notifications, and that its user license makes it clear it is pre-release software. However, many users don't read an entire license agreement, which can be lengthy, before they download software to their computers. And some download all Windows updates without looking too hard at the fine print. Microsoft has mounted an aggressive program to eliminate counterfeit and pirated versions of Windows, and WGA is a part of that. The program was first distributed not as an automatic update but to users of Microsoft's download services who wanted to install add-on software, excluding security releases, for Windows. Since WGA's release, users have complained of bugs in the program. Problems Persist One of those problems, in which the software identifies a genuine copy of Windows as pirated or counterfeit, apparently persists, according to comments sent by e-mail to IDG News Service from one Windows user. "I bought my PC with a legitimate XP license, which I have registered, and now my machine keeps telling me I have pirated software," said Windows XP user Doug Fleming. "I paid good money for legitimate software and now my PC locks up whenever I get a message telling me my software isn't genuine. To make matters worse, there is no contact information to get the problem rectified." According to Microsoft, validation failure is "almost always caused by the use of a non-genuine Windows license." "In many cases, customers don't know they have received a counterfeit copy," the company said in an e-mail statement through its public relations firm Waggener Edstrom. Another Windows user said in an e-mail that the WGA Notifications service, which has to send information about a user's PC over the Internet back to Microsoft, could pose a security risk. Microsoft last week defended itself against charges that this aspect of the program was acting like spyware, which is software that gathers users' information through their Internet connection without users' knowledge. "The process seems to open a door for hackers to exploit," Windows user James Slotter said in an e-mail. "It might also open a door for another vendor to provide a more secure set of programs than Microsoft is willing to provide." "We understand customers? concern about installing a program that could possibly impact their systems," Microsoft said in a statement through Waggener Edstrom. "WGA Notifications has gone through a thorough testing period. We are confident that the software can be installed and used safely." WGA Notifications will be rolled out worldwide by the end of the year, Microsoft said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/2006...hkBHNlYwMxNjk1 ![]() Microsoft Lieutenants Look Ahead, Hoping to Avoid Other Companies' Mistakes John Markoff Microsoft stands astride the computing world much as another corporate giant, I.B.M., once did. Now its task is to avoid repeating I.B.M.'s mistakes. As the PC era wanes and the Internet era gathers force, Microsoft's revenues have never been higher and its quarterly profits remain in the billions. But it has yet to find profitability in an array of businesses that it has entered beyond those it has dominated, operating systems and office applications. Finding the company's way in the new era will largely fall to the successors to Bill Gates, who announced on Thursday that he would leave his day-to-day role at Microsoft in two years. But in an interview on Friday in his office on the Microsoft campus, Mr. Gates said he was confident that the company was positioning itself for success in its fourth decade and beyond. "I don't think there's any period that's not a transitional period in computing," he said. "Somebody's always driving change." Referring to the relentless increase in computing power, he added, "When you have Moore's Law creating these exponentially new capabilities, we're always in a time of utter change, maybe even accelerating change." And he insisted that Microsoft was closely focused on adapting to that change — and learning from the legacy of companies that failed to do so. "We're all students of why didn't Wang make the change," Mr. Gates said. "Why didn't Digital Equipment, which was my favorite company, make the change?" A more fitting lesson may come from I.B.M., which dominated the mainframe computing era just as Microsoft has ruled the PC age. I.B.M. remained highly profitable in the 1980's even after the advent of the PC produced a growing array of challengers. But by the early 1990's, the eclipse of the mainframe and I.B.M.'s inability to find its way in the PC era forced the company to go through a sweeping makeover in management and culture; it has never regained its previous influence. Now it is the age of high-speed Internet connections and new digital devices that threaten the formula that established Microsoft's primacy. But Mr. Gates argued that the rapidly increasing availability of computing power, which undid his competitors, will ultimately save Microsoft. As the cost of computing falls, giving rise to new uses and appliances, Microsoft will find new markets and grow, he said. In that sense, technical advances have a different impact on computing than on other businesses, increasing rather than decreasing demand. "When they invented radial tires, they should have shot the guy," he said. "The whole industry went through a crisis, because it took nine years to squeeze out the extra factory capacity, because the tires lasted longer." Microsoft's future, he said, lies in applications that will offer new capabilities. He cited an announcement planned for later this month that is intended to extend the Microsoft Office business into the telecommunications world by more tightly linking the power of PC's and telephones. Even as he pulls back from day-to-day activities, Mr. Gates will play a prominent role as chairman as well as the company's largest shareholder. But on Thursday he said the company's technical leadership would continue to report to him for only another year before shifting to work for Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive. It is at that point that the unusual chemistry that the two men have refined over a quarter-century — with Mr. Gates as the technical visionary and Mr. Ballmer as the sales leader — will be most thoroughly tested. Whether Mr. Ballmer can change his role to take responsibility for both sides of the equation remains to be seen, but there is little doubt that he has the commitment to carry on as Microsoft's chief executive far into the future. Even six years ago, when Mr. Gates first said that he agreed with Mr. Ballmer to remain committed to Microsoft until he was 50 — the age they have now reached — Mr. Ballmer said he often felt that he would leave only by being carried out of the company. His immediate challenge is to convince Wall Street that he is still the right man for the job, something that is certain to take several successful products. At a news conference on Thursday at a Microsoft corporate television studio, he and Mr. Gates took pains to stress continuity in the company's leadership — what Mr. Ballmer referred to as the "relentless patience" underlying the company's strategy and long-term planning approach. In the front row facing the two executives were Ray Ozzie, the veteran computer industry executive to whom Mr. Gates is handing the role of chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, a second veteran who has been the designer of the company's government and international strategy, and who will now formally head research and strategy. At the back of the room sat the company's three divisional presidents, Jeff Raikes, Robert J. Bach and Kevin Johnson, as well as a handful of key lieutenants, including Rick Rashid, the head of research; Steven Sinofsky, now leading the technical effort in the operating systems business; and J Allard, the original designer of the Xbox video game system, who is now leading an effort to extend the software technology underlying the company's entertainment business. The collection of executive talent represents the breadth of Microsoft's ambition. Mr. Ozzie, whose résumé includes the conception of Lotus Notes in the 1980's, has risen rapidly to his position of technical leader since he came to Microsoft last year when it acquired his company, Groove Networks. Mr. Ozzie's ascent is interpreted by some industry executives as an acknowledgment by Mr. Gates that it is time for Microsoft to build a new foundation on the Internet. Brad Silverberg, a previous technical leader at Microsoft, left the company in the 1990's when he became convinced that Mr. Gates was not willing to move quickly enough in breaking with the past. "Ray is the real DNA in terms of the future of Microsoft's software path," said Mark R. Anderson, an analyst at Strategic News Service, a technology consulting firm. Mr. Gates, he said, has been a "fast follower" who has been able to repeatedly change Microsoft's strategy to rapidly pursue and then overtake competitors with new technologies. Mr. Ozzie, in contrast, has a record of innovation, first with Notes and then with Groove, a PC-based software system that allows groups of workers to collaborate — a product that is now being integrated into the next version of Office. "It's easy when you're following the taillights," Mr. Anderson said. "It's a lot harder when you have to invent the car." One crucial aspect of Mr. Gates's legacy at Microsoft will be its ability to salvage its Windows Vista operating system. The program has entered its second test version and is scheduled to be commercially available early next year. In interviews during the last two days, Microsoft executives almost universally expressed caution about whether the program, the most complex software undertaking in the company's history, is certain to be on schedule for January shipment — more than five years after the current version, Windows XP. "We're looking at these incoming bug arrival rates and feeling pretty good," Mr. Gates said. "They're working really hard, they believe they're going to make those dates, but the dates are not a sacrosanct thing." A number of researchers who follow the company say Vista, a project born under the code name Longhorn, has left psychic wounds from which the company is still trying to recover. "It is clear to me that Gates lost touch with the core of the company several years ago, as evidenced by the collapse of the Longhorn project and the abyss the Windows group fell into," said Michael A. Cusumano, a management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "so this announcement is really just recognizing what already exists — his mind is elsewhere." On Friday, Mr. Gates acknowledged that he was not following Vista on a daily basis. That job belongs to another executive, Jim Allchin, who has announced that he will leave once the troubled program is shipped successfully. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/te...gy/17soft.html ![]() Porn-surfing Oregon Worker Exposes 2,200 Taxpayer IDs Gregg Keizer More than 2,200 Oregon taxpayers' identities were stolen by a keylogging Trojan horse that infected a state PC after an Oregon Department of Revenue worker browsed porn sites, officials admitted this week. The identities included Social Security numbers, names, and addresses, and were transmitted to an unknown hacker by the keylogger, said the Department of Revenue in an online FAQ. According to the DOR, its anti-malware filters didn't pick up the Trojan because it was so new that anti-virus vendors hadn't yet created detecting signatures. No taxpayer financial data was lost to the keylogger, the DOR claimed. Although the part-time worker's PC was infected in early January, the keylogger went undetected until May 15, when an audit of its hard drive was conducted after the employee was found downloading pornography during work hours and fired. Monday, Oregon's DOR began notifying taxpayers whose identities were exposed, and on Wednesday Governor Ted Kulongoski (D) promised that the state would pick up the tab for credit monitoring and other protective services. "I want the citizens of Oregon to know that we are taking every possible action to ensure that the people affected by this breech receive immediate notification, and that the State of Oregon will do everything possible to guard against any further compromise of their personal information," Kulongoski said in a statement. http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/18940172... lYmhvBHNlYwM- ![]() How to Boycott the Music Industry and Still Enjoy Music Andreas Viklund The Music Industry (from now on only called MI) is putting a lot of pressure on the consumers. They release copy protected media but fail to realise that this is a punishment for the people who buy music. Even if you don´t download music from the internet you most likely know sources where to get that music for free, without DRM and in high quality. The commercial pirates as well don´t care about copy protection. The only one who is really affected is the one who is buying CDs and DVDs. Releasing copy proctected media is not enough of course, the MI influences governments as well to outlaw people who copy CDs with copy protection or download them from the internet. They want you to purchase the same media three or four times if you want to listen to it at home, at your notebook, in your car and in your mp3 player. Some companies try to even get more control over the consumers computer by adding additional controlling software to the media. Sony for instance decided it would be a good idea to install a rootkit on the clients computer to ensure no media would be copied. Again only real consumers experienced this measure. People who downloaded them from the internet had no problem with this at all. I think it is time to boycott the Music Industry and find other ways to enjoy music from bands and companies that are not part of this MI. My article tries to list alternatives without paying a dime to the MI. Don´t get me wrong. Artists deserve money for their work, I do not advocate to do something illegal to get the music you like. I only present a different approach. Here we go.. 1. Buy used CDs and trade CDs You find thousands of used music CDs at online shops like Ebay or Amazon Marketplace. The media has been purchased before and everything you pay will reach the person who is selling the media. (with a small amount for the company who provides the plattform). I have no experience in trading CDs but a google search reveals lots of interesting results on the topic. Maybe you already have experience with such a service and would like to comment on it. Let us know if this is a working alternative. 2. Borrow CDs. This might work in some countries while others do not allow this at all. Borrow CDs from friends and listen to those CDs, it´s legal in some countries to copy the content for a friend as well. Check your local laws. 3. Support local bands / bands without major contracts Many local bands manage everything themselves. They produce their own CDs, they create T-Shirts and play in local clubs and bars. The majority of the earnings will reach the band and the people working with the band. This is a great way to support a band directly. 4. Listen to (internet) radio and record it Listening to internet radio is free. Websites like shoutcast, di.fm and xiph.org offer links to streams of thousands of free radio stations. You will find radio stations for mainstream music as well as stations that play stuff like gospel and swing. It is legal in some countries to record those radio streams using so called streamrippers that download the stream while you listen to it. (There are actually some tools out there that are able to record more than one stream). Take a look at my guide to streamripping if you are interested in this. Streamer-Radio is another freeware tool that can record streams. Pandora offers a unique service but is still considered an internet radio station. You enter a song or artist name and it tries to find matching artists that play in the same style. You need to register to hear more than a few songs though. Read this article if you want to find out how to save pandora streams. 5. Audio Blogs / Podcasts Audio Blogs provide their visitors with audio content. This could be in the form of downloadable mp3 files or music streams. Many encourage their visitors to download the mp3 files, some offer options to buy a CD if you like the music. Visit monkeyfilter.com for a large list of audio blogs. 75 Minutes is a great podcast site that links to free music. Podsafe Music Network offers many songs as well. 6. Download free music Thousands of websites exist that offer free mp3 downloads. It could be that a musician offers (part of) his music on a website for free or that a company who sells music is offering free sample songs. The following list contains only sites that offers many songs for free, some demand a registration before you can download songs but that should be ok in my opinion. Altsounds Alternative Music Online (no registration) Amazon Free Music Downloads (registration required) Archive.org (no registration) Artistlaunch (no registration) Audiostreet (registration required) Audiri (no registration) CD Baby (no registration) DMusic (no registration) Download.com (registration required) Epitonic (no registration) Etree (registration required) Garageband (no registration) Oddio Overplay (no registration) Oggle (no registration) Pure Volume (no registration) Singing Fish (no registration) Soundlife (no registration) http://www.ghacks.net/2006/06/16/how...l-enjoy-music/ ![]() Not Going Anywhere For A Few Months? Jack Winamp has always been my first choice for desktop music streaming. It’s small, fast and it sounds good. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t turn down any genuine improvements however. The copywriters, I mean writers at techspot have attempted just that with their tweak system for Winamp. One caveat however: it’s a typically near endless piece of run-on pages, designed to expose you to as much spam as you can possibly stand. They found my limit. It’s more than I could stand so I stayed just long enough to grab the link. I’ll pass it along in case you’re masochistic. Note to techspot: I wish you’d stop treating your readers like they’re captives. They’re not you know, and this business of page after page after irritating page of advertising eventually leads to less hits, not more. ![]() DSL Strikes A Chord With Frugal Shoppers Marguerite Reardon A new kind of digital divide is emerging in the U.S. broadband market. On one side are middle-income and price-sensitive households, which tend to favor DSL service offered by phone companies. On the other are more affluent families, which gravitate toward higher-speed cable modem services. According to a recent report published by Leichtman Research Group, about 21 percent of households earning an annual income of between $30,000 and $75,000 a year subscribe to DSL. About 18 percent of these households subscribe to cable. By contrast, 37 percent of all households with annual household incomes over $75,000 subscribe to cable broadband and 27 percent subscribe to DSL. "Clearly price is much more important at this point in the game," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group. "Middle-income families making the jump from dial-up to broadband are much more price-sensitive, and clearly the phone companies' messaging on low-priced DSL has gotten through loud and clear." A year-and-a-half ago, pricing of DSL and cable modem service was roughly the same. But over the past year, the phone companies have launched an aggressive assault by dropping prices. At the end of 2005, the average price of DSL service was about $32 per month, roughly $9 less than cable, according to research firm IDC. AT&T has twice lowered the price of its DSL service and now offers its 1.5Mbps service for $12.99 for the first year. Since AT&T's prices are promotional, after the first year, the price of the service jumps to the company's regular pricing model, which is $29.99 per month. Verizon created a new tier of service, which includes 768Kbps downloads, for $14.95 per month. Price pressure Regardless of household income, the promise of lower prices has also convinced some cable subscribers to switch to DSL. Dan Spencer, 38, of Norristown, Pa., had been a Comcast broadband subscriber for over three years. But after he realized his family was paying over $100 per month for high-speed Internet access and TV service, he decided to abandon Comcast for EchoStar's satellite TV and Verizon's DSL service. "My wife usually pays our bills," he said. "But one day, when I saw how much we were paying Comcast for our cable TV and broadband, I was shocked. It was outrageous." Spencer said he now pays about $75 per month for TV and Internet access, and he estimates he is saving roughly $45 per month over what he was paying for the Comcast service. The low cost of DSL has kick-started DSL subscription rates, helping DSL providers increase their total customer base by 39 percent in 2005, according to Forrester Research. Verizon alone signed up 613,000 new high-speed Internet subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2005, a record for the company. It continued the strong growth in 2006, having signed up 541,000 new subscribers in the first quarter. But the phone companies' success hasn't meant the demise of cable, which in total saw broadband subscriptions grow 21 percent in 2005. In fact, cable companies have also set new records in recent quarters for the number of subscribers they've acquired. Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., added 436,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of 2006, the largest number of new subscribers the company has ever signed up in a first quarter. And Time Warner, the second-biggest cable company in the nation, had its best quarter ever for broadband subscriptions, winning 343,000 new subscribers in the first quarter. "Our competitors attempted to start a price war last year," said Keith Cocozza, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable. "While some broadband providers lowered prices, we didn't, outside our standard promotional pricing. And over the last few quarters, we've seen some of the strongest growth in new subscribers." Mining dial-up users Growth in broadband for cable and DSL isn't expected to slow anytime soon, as dial-up users and people who have never subscribed to a broadband service come online. Nearly 30 percent of all Americans don't have any Internet access, according to the Leichtman Research Group. And of the 69 percent or so who do have access to the Internet, about 40 percent are still using dial-up. Cable and phone providers see these untapped markets as ripe for new business. "Everyone wants to make it a horse race between cable and DSL," said Leichtman. "The truth is, there is plenty of opportunity for both sides to win." But he added that he sees a growing division between consumers subscribing to cable and those choosing DSL. Cable is perceived as the leader in speed and performance, whereas DSL is seen as the economical choice, he said. Not surprisingly, neither the cable operators nor the phone companies like being pigeonholed into these categories. John Wimsatt, senior vice president of broadband solutions for Verizon, downplayed the impact of price on the company's strong subscriber growth. Instead, he said consumers are drawn to the carrier because they are looking for more choices, which he said cable doesn't offer. "We've learned that one size doesn't fit all," he said. "Even with our 768Kbps product for $14.95, we still see strong demand for our 3Mbps service and even our Fios fiber-to-the-home service, where it's available." Cable operators, who tout their faster speeds any chance they get, also say they haven't given up on price-sensitive consumers. They plan to address the cost issue by pushing packages of service, which include high-speed Internet access, TV and phone service. For example, Comcast offers a triple-play package for $99 for the first year. "This is a bundle that is about value," said Jeanne Russo, a spokeswoman for Comcast. "And we think it appeals very much to middle-income households. You can see from our sales numbers that consumers are responding. We are seeing are greatest penetration in places where we offer the triple-play package." http://news.com.com/DSL+strikes+a+ch...3-6084717.html ![]() House Passes Subscription-TV Legislation Bill seeks to open cable-TV markets to more competition AP Legislation to open cable TV markets to more competition, possibly saving consumers hundreds of dollars a year, passed the House Thursday. The biggest telecommunications legislation in a decade, approved 321-101, would make it easier for telephone companies to enter the subscription television market. A national franchise process would replace the current system where potential providers must negotiate contracts municipality by municipality, sometimes taking months and years. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., co-sponsored the bill. The vote came shortly after the House rejected a Democratic-backed amendment aimed at better protecting Internet users from pricing or access discrimination that Internet providers might apply. The issue of "net neutrality" dominated debate on the bill. "This legislation can increase competition not only for cable services, but also unleash a race for who can supply the fastest, most sophisticated broadband connections that will provide video, voice and data services," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas. He noted that because of the impediments created by the local franchising system, the United States doesn't even rank in the top 10 worldwide in broadband deployment. "This bill should change that statistic." Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich, who heads the telecommunications subcommittee, estimated that people could save $30 to $40 each month if given a choice in video services. But many Democrats said the measure did too little to ensure that broadband services would be extended to lower income and rural areas. They also said the bill does not adequately address "net neutrality," preventing companies from discriminating against competitors or less affluent consumers by restricting access or charging higher fees. The telephone and cable companies that provide the service say further regulation is unnecessary and would hamper efforts to expand high speed services. Demanding assurances of net neutrality are content providers such as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Yahoo! Inc., and Internet users ranging from the Christian Coalition to rock musicians. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., offered an amendment stating that broadband network providers must not discriminate against or interfere with users' ability to access or offer lawful content. Without that amendment, said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, "telecommunications and cable companies will be able to create toll lanes on the information superhighway. This strikes at the heart of the free and equal nature of the Internet." It was defeated 269-152. "You can call an amendment net neutrality," said Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Ohio. "But it's still government regulation." "Tilting the cost burden onto end users, which would be the inevitable result of neutrality regulations, will only delay much-needed broadband deployment," said Mike McCurry, co-chair of Hands off the Internet, a coalition of telephone, business and small government groups. Barton's bill would give the Federal Communications Commission authority to enforce net neutrality principles and set fines of up to $500,000 for violations. The White House said in a statement that it supported the bill and its language on video franchising. But on net neutrality, the administration said the FCC has the power to address potential abuses. "Creating a new legislative framework for regulation in this area is premature," the statement said. Rush, a black lawmaker who represents the South Side of Chicago, said he was co-sponsoring the bill because it would make it easier for minority entrepreneurs to get access to the telecommunications industry. Rush said his constituents want relief from the high cost of cable. "We pay more for video services, for high premium packages, than any other group in America. And why is that? Because only on cable do we see people who look like us, speak like us, and who understand us. That is why we pay more for cable." The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is to vote on its version of the bill later this month. The Senate debate also has focused on how best to ensure net neutrality. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13218791/ ![]() Local news AT&T Announces $336 Million Video TV plan, Other Upgrades Stephanie Reitz AT&T plans to start offering television service over Connecticut phone lines by the end of the year, company officials said Thursday. The service should be available within three years to at least half of the areas in the state that AT&T serves. The company plans to spend $336 million for the new service and other technology improvements in Connecticut. "Consumers here have waited way too long for new choices in the video market," said Michele Macauda, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Connecticut. The state Department of Public Utility Control ruled earlier this month that AT&T can offer the service without securing a cable franchise. DPUC commissioners said AT&T's video product is a packet of data streamed over a network, making it "fundamentally different" from cable TV. "Now that we have the regulatory clarity we need, we will begin building our network," said Ramona Carlow, vice president for regulatory and external affairs for AT&T Connecticut. A day after the DPUC's June 7 ruling in favor of AT&T, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would require video service providers such as AT&T to obtain cable franchises from the Federal Communications Commission. Similar proposals are pending in the Senate. Several Connecticut cable companies and state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the DPUC should stay its decision on AT&T's service so commissioners can review those developments. They argue that exempting AT&T from cable franchise requirements gives it more rights than cable companies and offers fewer protections to consumers. As of Thursday, the DPUC had not decided on the companies' request for a stay. AT&T officials said they are going ahead with their service, which will offer more than 200 channels. Subscribers will also have access to a library of on-demand movies and other video and the ability to immediately check information such as stock quotes and sport scores, they said. The service includes picture-in-picture technology, caller ID displayed on screen, and sports matches with perspectives from multiple camera angles and real-time statistics, the officials said. They declined to discuss how much the service will cost, saying they do not want competitors to learn those details yet. The $336 million project announced Thursday is part of a $4.6 billion system that is expected to reach about 19 million households in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin by 2008. http://news.newstimeslive.com/story....egory=Business ![]() AT&T Rewrites Rules: Your Data Isn't Yours David Lazarus AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials. The new policy says that AT&T -- not customers -- owns customers' confidential info and can use it "to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process." The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service -- something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing. Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service -- a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers' recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others. The company's policy overhaul follows recent reports that AT&T was one of several leading telecom providers that allowed the National Security Agency warrantless access to its voice and data networks as part of the Bush administration's war on terror. "They're obviously trying to avoid a hornet's nest of consumer-protection lawsuits," said Chris Hoofnagle, a San Francisco privacy consultant and former senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "They've written this new policy so broadly that they've given themselves maximum flexibility when it comes to disclosing customers' records," he said. AT&T is being sued by San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation for allegedly allowing the NSA to tap into the company's data network, providing warrantless access to customers' e-mails and Web browsing. AT&T is also believed to have participated in President Bush's acknowledged domestic spying program, in which the NSA was given warrantless access to U.S. citizens' phone calls. AT&T said in a statement last month that it "has a long history of vigorously protecting customer privacy" and that "our customers expect, deserve and receive nothing less than our fullest commitment to their privacy." But the company also asserted that it has "an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare, whether it be an individual or the security interests of the entire nation." Under its former privacy policy, introduced in September 2004, AT&T said it might use customer's data "to respond to subpoenas, court orders or other legal process, to the extent required and/or permitted by law." The new version, which is specifically for Internet and video customers, is much more explicit about the company's right to cooperate with government agencies in any security-related matters -- and AT&T's belief that customers' data belongs to the company, not customers. "While your account information may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that are owned by AT&T," the new policy declares. "As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process." It says the company "may disclose your information in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process," omitting the earlier language about such processes being "required and/or permitted by law." The new policy states that AT&T "may also use your information in order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud (or) situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person" -- conditions that would appear to embrace any terror-related circumstance. Ray Everett-Church, a Silicon Valley privacy consultant, said it seems clear that AT&T has substantially modified its privacy policy in light of revelations about the government's domestic spying program. "It's obvious that they are trying to stretch their blanket pretty tightly to cover as many exposed bits as possible," he said. Gail Hillebrand, a staff attorney at Consumers Union in San Francisco, said the declaration that AT&T owns customers' data represents the most significant departure from the company's previous policy. "It creates the impression that they can do whatever they want," she said. "This is the real heart of AT&T's new policy and is a pretty fundamental difference from how most customers probably see things." John Britton, an AT&T spokesman, denied that the updated privacy policy marks a shift in the company's approach to customers' info. "We don't see this as anything new," he said. "Our goal was to make the policy easier to read and easier for customers to understand." He acknowledged that there was no explicit requirement in the past that customers accept the privacy policy as a condition for service. And he acknowledged that the 2004 policy said nothing about customers' data being owned by AT&T. But Britton insisted that these elements essentially could be found between the lines of the former policy. "There were many things that were implied in the last policy." He said. "We're just clarifying the last policy." AT&T's new privacy policy is the first to include the company's video service. AT&T says it's spending $4.6 billion to roll out TV programming to 19 million homes nationwide. The policy refers to two AT&T video services -- Homezone and U-verse. Homezone is AT&T's satellite TV service, offered in conjunction with Dish Network, and U-verse is the new cablelike video service delivered over phone lines. In a section on "usage information," the privacy policy says AT&T will collect "information about viewing, game, recording and other navigation choices that you and those in your household make when using Homezone or AT&T U-verse TV Services." The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 stipulates that cable and satellite companies can't collect or disclose information about customers' viewing habits. The law is silent on video services offered by phone companies via the Internet, basically because legislators never anticipated such technology would be available. AT&T's Britton said the 1984 law doesn't apply to his company's video service because AT&T isn't a cable provider. "We are not building a cable TV network," he said. "We're building an Internet protocol television network." But Andrew Johnson, a spokesman for cable heavyweight Comcast, disputed this perspective. "Video is video is video," he said. "If you're delivering programming over a telecommunications network to a TV set, all rules need to be the same." AT&T's new and former privacy policies both state that "conducting business ethically and ensuring privacy is critical to maintaining the public's trust and achieving success in a dynamic and competitive business climate." Both also state that "privacy responsibility" extends "to the privacy of conversations and to the flow of information in data form." As such, both say that "the trust of our customers necessitates vigilant, responsible privacy protections." The 2004 policy, though, went one step further. It said AT&T realizes "that privacy is an important issue for our customers and members." The new policy makes no such acknowledgment. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...UG9VJHB9C1.DTL ![]() Stonehenge's Day In The Sun ![]() Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images A man stands on top of Stonehenge as the sun rises on June 21, 2006, in Amesbury, England. An estimated 19,000 people celebrated the start of the longest day of the year at the 5,000-year-old stone circle. Reportedly, only four arrests were made at the all-night party. http://news.com.com/2300-1026_3-6086...ne.gall.latest ![]() Web Firm Tries To Create Safe Haven For Tweens Stefanie Olsen Younger kids now have their own online club for blogging, sharing photos and socializing--without the privacy hazards parents worry about in connection to hip communities like MySpace, where children under 14 aren't welcome but often sneak in anyway. On Thursday, Industrious Kids, a privately held company in Emeryville, Calif., introduced Imbee.com, one of the first social networks for kids aged 8 to 14, and one that promotes security and parental controls. The network requires parents to authorize a child's membership with a valid credit card, by first authenticating their own identity. Information posted to the site by children is viewable only to invited friends and family, and not available for indexing by search engines like Google. For a membership with a personal blog, Imbee costs $3.95 a month (for two kids and one adult). It's free for members who want just to e-mail. Industrious Kids said this summer that it will promote Imbee in partnership with Paramount Parks. It plans visits to three Paramount amusement parks, including Great America in San Jose, Calif., to sign up kids and parents and give away prizes. With Imbee, Industrious is aiming to appeal to "tweens"--a booming portion of the population, with an estimated 30 million kids between the ages of 8 and 14--while also attracting parents with a viable safe haven on the Web. Awareness of the perils the Internet can present to impressionable minds has heightened with the rising popularity of sites like MySpace and YouTube, and the knowledge that ever-younger kids are attracted to them. Despite enforcing decency standards, sites like MySpace have had trouble with risque material being posted, predators taking advantage of children's personal information, and underage children masquerading as adults in order to join. Take Olivia, a 13-year-old from Seattle--she spends one to two hours a day online during the week and between four and five hours a day online on the weekends. "Most of the time I spend working on my own page and commenting on other people's pages" on MySpace, Olivia said this week at the Piper Jaffray Global Internet Summit in Laguna Beach, Calif. There's a question as to whether kids like Olivia would be attracted to a secure, parent-authenticated community. With Imbee, parents can have an active or passive role in their child's membership, meaning they can choose to be notified of, and retain approval power over, new-friend invitations, e-mails and blog posts. Or, by maintaining the default setting, they can choose to just monitor the activity in the background, via a daily Imbee e-mail. In the intermediary role, parents must decide to approve or disapprove blog posts, for example, before they go up on the site. If the child doesn't like a parent's decision, it could be what Tim Donovan, a founding member of Imbee, called a "teachable moment." "It becomes a tool for parents to engage in dialogue with the child about online etiquette, like what to post and who to talk to, so that when they've grown out of it, they go out of it with some real fundamental skill sets," said Donovan. "To some degree, parents have been hands-off to their kids online, probably because they don't know when things happen. This makes it immediate," he added. Like many social networks, Imbee's benefits include libraries of graphics such as avatars and "skins" kids can choose from to personalize their pages. Children can also upload their own graphics, as well as pictures, and the site will eventually host motion graphics and instant messaging. The site also lets members print personalized cards to hand out to friends, and even earn "points" for blogging, which can add up to prizes like limited-edition skins or skateboards. Video frenzy In related news, TiVo introduced its Kidzone feature, software controls that act as a digital nanny for TV viewing. Parents can program their TiVo digital video recorder to block certain channels or programs. Or parents can choose the specific programs their kids are allowed to watch, like those recommended in TiVo's specialized kid-friendly menus. The software controls are now covered by TiVo's standard service fees. Meanwhile, more organizations are warning parents about the dangers that popular video-upload sites can present to kids. This week, the New York State Consumer Protection Board issued a statement about how simple it is for kids to find and watch racy videos on Google Video, which hosts video submitted by users, entertainment companies and others. Despite policies against violent or pornographic clips, such material still ends up on Google Video, according to the Consumer Protection Board. One video it described, labeled as "funny," depicted a man setting himself on fire. "It may surprise parents that Google openly presents videos--with many containing strong sexual content and violence--without a child having to first search for these videos," Teresa Santiago, executive director of the board, said in a statement. According to Santiago, Google had said it would restrict its "Top 100" list and its most-popular video section to only family-friendly videos. And Google said it is working on a safe-search feature for videos that would restrict viewing by kids, if parents applied the filtering tools. The concerns are real. But judging from this week's Global Internet Summit, many older kids say they aren't watching much at Google Video. Zach, a 17-year-old from Newport Beach, Calif., said he largely visits YouTube and wasn't even aware of Google Video. What's more, Yasmin, an 18-year-old from the area, called sites like MySpace "overrated," indicating that MySpace could be a fad for younger kids. So what's the latest fad for college-bound kids? Ravelinks.com, according to CK, a 17-year-old headed to Chapman University next fall. "That's where I find out about parties," he said. http://news.com.com/Web+firm+tries+t...ag=st.txt.caro ![]() Kids Outsmart Web Filters Stefanie Olsen Last November, Ryan, a high-school sophomore, figured out a way to outsmart the Web filters on a school PC in order to visit the off-limits MySpace.com while doing "homework" in the computer lab. A teacher eventually spotted the social network on the screen in front of "Ryan," a fictitious name for a real student attending school in Phoenix, Ore., a small town with a population of about 5,000. The teacher flagged the activity for the school's technology expert, who then followed Ryan's tracks online through the school network. Ryan had apparently set up a so-called Web proxy from his home computer so that when he was at school, he could direct requests for banned sites like MySpace through a Web address at home, thereby tricking the school's filter. (Web, or CGI, proxies can be Web sites or applications that allow users to access other sites through them.) "I eventually tracked down the (Internet Protocol) address, so that it doesn't work for him anymore," said Don Wolff, tech coordinator in the Phoenix-Talent School District, adding that Ryan didn't face disciplinary action. "It's against our acceptable-use policy, but he's not going to quit trying, (and this way) we can keep learning." "This is a hot new trend among kids for getting around Web filters," Wolff said. Web proxies are almost as old as the Internet itself as a means to route Web traffic through an anonymous domain name or circumvent content-filters, and they've long been the territory of corporate networks and the tech savvy seeking privacy. Nowadays, an increasing number of teenagers are setting up proxies on home PCs to sidestep school filtering traps, in addition to using free proxies set up on the Web, according to technologists at schools and at content-filtering technology providers. Proxies are just one of many tricks that kids use to break locks put on forbidden material--a pursuit of almost any young generation. As more schools place tight controls on PCs to stop kids from file-sharing, instant messaging, social networking or looking at undesirable material online, the kids are getting more clever, tech experts say. Google, by far the most popular search site, has a "safe search" feature, for example, that filters out adult material. But kids can circumvent those filters by viewing "cached" links or thumbnail images to look at inappropriate material, experts say. Teens also trick filters by typing in misspelled words or modern slang to retrieve links to racy material. Translation sites Babelfish or Google Translate can deliver sites like Playboy.com translated from another language. "It's going to be the constant battle. No matter what you put up, kids are going to work around it," said Lynn Beebe, a school counselor in Scotts Valley, Calif. Her school, for example, uses filters to block all sites with the word or subject "blog," in addition to other sites. But there's no foolproof solution. Beebe said that a small population of boys at the school use their free time to play games online. Sometimes they've shared with her that when they mistakenly type in a URL, an undesirable site appears, she said. A more popular avenue for teens on school PCs is to visit any one of thousands of Web proxy sites such as Proxify, Guardster.com and Proxy.org to call up banned sites without notice, according to filtering companies. Kevin Sanders, senior software engineer at Lightspeed Systems, maker of a content-filtering system called Total Traffic Control, said he targets such proxy sites in a master database of thousands of barred sites for school clients. Proxies can get trickier. "A far more difficult problem to deal with is when they download a piece of software on their home computer, using a CGI script to (access content). Our product doesn't recognize it as a known domain, because it's just going through their home computer," said Sanders. Web sites like Freeproxy point visitors to many free downloadable applications like "Hidemyass.com" that let kids work around content filters in a more surreptitious way. Teen blogs can also be found that point kids to proxies for school filters. How to deal with it? "We block all requests going to unknown sites," Sanders said. Lightspeed keeps a database of roughly 2 million recognized sites categorized in groups like News, Adult or Violence. School clients or administrators of the product can limit access so kids can access only acceptable categories such as News or Education. For Sanders, if a site goes unrecognized, he simply bans it. "We also have a new feature coming out very soon which will allow us to dynamically detect the use of CGI-based proxies and block that session and send a notification to the network administrator," said Sanders. http://news.com.com/Kids+outsmart+We...48.html?tag=nl ![]() Millions in unpaid royalties CyberHome DVD Recorders Seized A task force of local, state and federal agencies seized more than 20,000 CyberHome-brand DVD recorders that allegedly use Philips patents without a license. CyberHome U.S.A. of Fremont, Calif., markets DVD players, DVD recorders, portable DVD players and a handful of LCD TVs. Its customers include Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry’s, Target and Wal-Mart. The task force, whose lead agency is the FBI, obtained a search warrant to enter the warehouse as “part of an ongoing investigation into the illegal manufacture and sale of products bearing counterfeit trademarks,” the task force said. California law provides for imprisonment up to three years and fines up to $500,000 for the manufacture, possession, or sale of more than 1,000 items bearing a counterfeit mark, the task force said. Eight tractor-trailer loads of infringing DVD recorders were seized with an estimated retail value of more than $2 million. The Santa Clara County district attorney’s office called CyberHome “one of the world’s largest manufacturers and importers of DVD devices.” The company’s Web site said its products are also sold in Europe. The task force, called REACT, was tipped of by Philips, said a spokesman for Philips Electronics North America in New York. “CyberHome has been using Philips DVD technology in its DVD players and recorders for a very long time now without paying royalties,” the spokesman said. “Their debts currently are a multimillion amount of dollars. At this moment, CyberHome is not licensed at all, so they infringe upon our patents. This is illegal, and it also creates unfair competition in the market, as many other companies are licensed. We always want to find solutions in a peaceful way, but if companies do not respect our IP, we are forced to take legal steps.” http://www.twice.com/article/CA6344162.html ![]() Rolling Stones Guitarist in Rehab Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood checked into a London rehabilitation clinic this week for treatment of alcohol abuse, but he will join the band for the start of its European tour next month as planned, a spokeswoman said on Friday. The European leg of the Stones' "Bigger Bang" tour, already delayed once after bandmate Keith Richards' mysterious accident in Fiji, will re-launch as scheduled on July 11 in Milan, Italy, publicist Fran Curtis said. She confirmed reports that Wood, 59, had checked into an alcohol rehabilitation facility in South London this week but insisted he would be on stage and ready to perform with the band for the opening show in Milan. She said a spokesman for Wood was accurately quoted on Wednesday by the Sun newspaper as saying, "He (Wood) needs some rest, but he will definitely be fit for the first night of the European tour." Wood, who has long battled drinking problems and was in rehab last year, was reportedly with Richards, 62, and their wives on vacation in Fiji in late April when Richards suffered a head injury that forced the Stones to postpone the first 15 dates of their European tour. Details of Richards' accident, and his subsequent medical treatment in New Zealand, have never been disclosed, but he was reported to have fallen out of a palm tree. The band announced earlier this month that he had made a "complete recovery." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...061601241.html ![]() Smithsonian Removes Electric-Car Exhibit AP Just weeks before the release of a movie about the death of the electric car from the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution has removed its EV1 electric sedan from display. The National Museum of American History removed the rare exhibit yesterday, just as interest in electric and hybrid vehicles is on the rise. The upcoming film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" questions why General Motors created the battery-powered vehicles and then crushed the program a few years later. The film opens June 30th. GM happens to be one of the Smithsonian's biggest contributors. But museum and GM officials say that had nothing to do with the removal of the EV1 from display. A museum spokeswoman says the museum simply needed the space to display another vehicle, a high-tech SUV. The Smithsonian has no plans to bring the electric car back on view. It will remain in a Suitland storage facility. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...061601241.html ![]() Payola Déjà vu Leon And that makes it four! In a deal to get out of jail, EMI has agreed to pay $3.75 million to a music charity after being accused of paying (read: bribing) radio programmers to play specific songs by the likes of Coldplay, Norah Jones and the Rolling Stones. EMI is the last of the four big music companies to reach a settlement as part of an investigation by the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer. The New York Times reports that EMI had acknowledged that certain employees had "engaged in some promotional activities that were wrong and inappropriate." "Wrong and inappropriate"? Guys, try illegal. US and New York state laws ban broadcasters from accepting payments of cash or anything of value unless the arrangement is disclosed to listeners. EMI executives not only showed that they care about such technicalities. The email trail they left showed they were pretty dumb too. Welcome to the music business. To check the incriminating evidence, check the attorney-general's website. The thing that struck me about this case is that payola, the practice that earned notoriety in the early 60s when DJ Alan Freed was pinged for accepting bribes to play particular records, still seems alive and well. So what's changed? Well may we ask. http://www.soxfirst.com/50226711/payola_deja_vu.php ![]() And You're So Funny? Write My Script Warren St. John IT is a thought that has surely raced through the mind of almost every performer who has ever been heckled, booed, mocked or made to feel unappreciated by an audience: "Let's see you do better." Now a Brooklyn entertainer named Ze Frank is doing something about it. Like a lot of young adults, Mr. Frank, 34, has a Web site, zefrank.com. There, he documents elaborate and often ridiculous stunts of his own creation, like having two people on opposite sides of the world simultaneously place pieces of bread on the ground, creating what he calls an "earth sandwich." Since mid-March, Mr. Frank has also been producing daily video shorts for his site, starring himself. The shorts typically feature a bug-eyed Mr. Frank talking directly into the camera about subjects like MySpace, government wiretapping and Iraq. He also indulges in the occasional stunt, like pouring chocolate milk all over himself. His site draws around 10,000 viewers a day, and many of them use the site's comments section to praise, argue over or eviscerate his abilities as an entertainer. So Mr. Frank turned the tables. With help from a programmer friend, he set up the comedy-writing equivalent of a Wikipedia page — an online site where anyone could write a joke and edit or even delete the jokes of others — and told his viewing public that if they were so brilliant, they could collaborate to write a script for his show. If they did so, Mr. Frank promised, he would faithfully execute it, no matter how absurd, and post the resulting video on his site. He called the event "Fabuloso Friday," and gave it a slogan: "Where you think so I don't have to." Much has been written lately about "the wisdom of crowds." The idea, promoted by the author James Surowiecki in his book of that title, is that large numbers of loosely connected strangers are better at solving problems and predicting the future than a few elites. But what about the wit of crowds? Could a vast network of volunteer writers from around the globe be funnier than a lone comedy writer in a one-bedroom apartment in Cobble Hill? Mr. Frank thought that farming out his script would provide some answers. Which explains why at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 9, he was sitting before a video camera with freshly dyed red hair, wearing a fake mustache, puffing a fake pipe and stroking a stuffed cat, sitting in an armchair next to a globe, a rubber duck, two pieces of white bread and a framed portrait of Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court justice — an absurd array of props mandated by the script. "The meta joke here is, 'See how hard you can shake the marionette,' " Mr. Frank said between takes. "There's a violence to it." Mr. Frank (he pronounces his first name "zay," derived from his real name, Hosea) is an interesting point man for the nascent craft of Wikicomedy. He grew up in Albany and got a degree from Brown University, where he studied neuroscience. In 2001, he whipped up an online montage of silly dance moves called "How to Dance Properly," and sent it to 17 friends. They in turn forwarded it to others, and it became an Internet phenomenon: Within a week it had been viewed more than a million times, a huge number for a personal Web page. Mr. Frank said he felt an incredible rush from all that Web traffic. "I became so obsessed with popularity," he said. Over the next few years, Mr. Frank said, he tried all sorts of different gags on his site, including videos on how to act convincingly and how to impress a date. Though he never quite recaptured the traffic of that initial video, Mr. Frank built a loyal audience of readers and viewers. This year, Mr. Frank made a pledge to produce a three-minute show for his Web site every weekday for a year. Exactly what that would entail, Mr. Frank said, he had no idea. But on March 17, he began what he called "The Show." Mr. Frank starts each day's show from scratch. He begins the morning by riffing to himself on the news, his life and anything else that comes to mind. "There's a lot of real, raw angst in the morning," he said. "And a lot of pacing." Sometime around midmorning, Mr. Frank begins taping. He sometimes puts his thoughts to music, but usually he delivers his material with the zeal of a radio pitchman. His signature gag is to repeat some bit of news he finds absurd and to cut quickly to a shot of himself in an exaggerated Three Stooges-style expression of confusion. He posts "The Show" around 1 in the afternoon, and for the rest of the day, goes about cobbling together a living, doing speaking engagements, consulting for technology companies, and doing anything else he can think of to earn a dollar. "Last year I filed 40 different 1099's," Mr. Frank said. Meanwhile, comments start pouring in. Most are simple congratulations, or questions for Mr. Frank, which he sometimes answers on later episodes, much as David Letterman does. Occasionally, viewers will offer suggestions or lament that Mr. Frank has abandoned a gag they enjoyed. And some comments are simply brutal critiques, like the one by a man who posted that his 7-year-old son's MySpace page made for better viewing. "It hurts," Mr. Frank said. All the feedback started Mr. Frank thinking, and he decided to turn his show over to his viewers. He offered them no guidance, and promised to perform their script faithfully, so long as it was under three minutes long, and required no nudity. Mr. Frank announced his challenge on Friday, June 2, and soon had the first contribution to the script, which required him to call himself a vulgarity repeatedly at the start of the show. "People were playing with the irony of a user-generated show," Mr. Frank said. "Having me insult myself plays on the idea that I'm a puppet." Quickly, the script began to get out of hand. Jokes became tediously long. There were arguments over the content of the material, and over who had the authority to approve or delete it, with some writers taking a dominant role and deleting the work of others at will. Through it all Mr. Frank kept his distance, even as he began receiving what he called "sad puppy" e-mail messages from writers whose feelings were hurt when their contributions were cut. Aaron St. John, 22, a software developer in Washington State, said he spent about 15 hours working on the script, but little of his material made the final draft. He wasn't sure about what he called "comedy by consensus." "Things are either really funny or really stupid to someone," he said. "And if people take out the parts they find really stupid, they're also taking out the parts that are really funny to others." Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor at New York University's interactive telecommunications program and another writer for Fabuloso Friday, said the script began to reflect what he called the two truths of comedy writing: "Most people aren't funny, and most funny people are not funny most of the time." Nevertheless, over the course of a week, a script emerged. Some 220 or so writers made more than 2,000 revisions to what turned out to be a 4-minute-40-second comedy script touching on the World Cup, gay marriage and NASA. It also included, perhaps inevitably, some good old-fashioned bathroom humor. On the day of the big performance, Mr. Frank ran around his neighborhood in a last-minute dash for props. He downloaded a color image of Clarence Thomas. He borrowed a globe from a neighbor, and found that if he inverted a candle snuffer, it could pass as a pipe. For a smoking jacket, Mr. Frank wore a blazer and used computerized special effects to make it look as if it were smoking — a simple but hard-to-resist gag. Mr. Frank's performance was true to the script, and if that is any guide, it is doubtful that any "Saturday Night Live" writers will soon lose their jobs to the vast networks of volunteer comedy writers on the Web. Nevertheless, Mr. Frank's audience seemed pleased with the result. Within an hour of his posting the show, he had more than a hundred comments on the site, most of them complimentary. The show has been viewed 21,000 times. Mr. Frank, who plans to experiment further with the Wiki-script-writing concept, said he didn't take compliments too seriously. "People always praise their own work," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/fa...yles/18ze.html ![]() Growing Wikipedia Revises Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy Katie Hafner Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia that "anyone can edit." Unless you want to edit the entries on Albert Einstein, human rights in China or Christina Aguilera. Wikipedia's come-one, come-all invitation to write and edit articles, and the surprisingly successful results, have captured the public imagination. But it is not the experiment in freewheeling collective creativity it might seem to be, because maintaining so much openness inevitably involves some tradeoffs. At its core, Wikipedia is not just a reference work but also an online community that has built itself a bureaucracy of sorts — one that, in response to well-publicized problems with some entries, has recently grown more elaborate. It has a clear power structure that gives volunteer administrators the authority to exercise editorial control, delete unsuitable articles and protect those that are vulnerable to vandalism. Those measures can put some entries outside of the "anyone can edit" realm. The list changes rapidly, but as of yesterday, the entries for Einstein and Ms. Aguilera were among 82 that administrators had "protected" from all editing, mostly because of repeated vandalism or disputes over what should be said. Another 179 entries — including those for George W. Bush, Islam and Adolf Hitler — were "semi-protected," open to editing only by people who had been registered at the site for at least four days. (See a List of Protected Entries) While these measures may appear to undermine the site's democratic principles, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, notes that protection is usually temporary and affects a tiny fraction of the 1.2 million entries on the English-language site. "Protection is a tool for quality control, but it hardly defines Wikipedia," Mr. Wales said. "What does define Wikipedia is the volunteer community and the open participation." From the start, Mr. Wales gave the site a clear mission: to offer free knowledge to everybody on the planet. At the same time, he put in place a set of rules and policies that he continues to promote, like the need to present information with a neutral point of view. The system seems to be working. Wikipedia is now the Web's third-most-popular news and information source, beating the sites of CNN and Yahoo News, according to Nielsen NetRatings. The bulk of the writing and editing on Wikipedia is done by a geographically diffuse group of 1,000 or so regulars, many of whom are administrators on the site. "A lot of people think of Wikipedia as being 10 million people, each adding one sentence," Mr. Wales said. "But really the vast majority of work is done by this small core community." The administrators are all volunteers, most of them in their 20's. They are in constant communication — in real-time online chats, on "talk" pages connected to each entry and via Internet mailing lists. The volunteers share the job of watching for vandalism, or what Mr. Wales called "drive-by nonsense." Customized software — written by volunteers — also monitors changes to articles. Mr. Wales calls vandalism to the encyclopedia "a minimal problem, a dull roar in the background." Yet early this year, amid heightened publicity about false information on the site, the community decided to introduce semi-protection of some articles. The four-day waiting period is meant to function something like the one imposed on gun buyers. Once the assaults have died down, the semi-protected page is often reset to "anyone can edit" mode. An entry on Bill Gates was semi-protected for just a few days in January, but some entries, like the article on President Bush, stay that way indefinitely. Other semi-protected subjects as of yesterday were Opus Dei, Tony Blair and sex. To some critics, protection policies make a mockery of the "anyone can edit" notion. "As Wikipedia has tried to improve its quality, it's beginning to look more and more like an editorial structure," said Nicholas Carr, a technology writer who recently criticized Wikipedia on his blog. "To say that great work can be created by an army of amateurs with very little control is a distortion of what Wikipedia really is." But Mr. Wales dismissed such criticism, saying there had always been protections and filters on the site. Wikipedia's defenders say it usually takes just a few days for all but the most determined vandals to retreat. "A cooling-off period is a wonderful mediative technique," said Ross Mayfield, chief executive of a company called Socialtext that is based on the same editing technology that Wikipedia uses. Full protection often results from a "revert war," in which users madly change the wording back and forth. In such cases, an administrator usually steps in and freezes the page until the warring parties can settle their differences in another venue, usually the talk page for the entry. The Christina Aguilera entry was frozen this week after after fans of the singer fought back against one user's efforts to streamline it. Much discussion of Wikipedia has focused on its accuracy. Last year, an article in the journal Nature concluded that the incidence of errors in Wikipedia was only slightly higher than in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Officials at Britannica angrily disputed the findings. "To be able to do an encyclopedia without having the ability to differentiate between experts and the general public is very, very difficult," said Jorge Cauz, the president of Britannica, whose subscription-based online version receives a small fraction of the traffic that Wikipedia gets. Intentional mischief can go undetected for long periods. In the article about John Seigenthaler Sr., who served in the Kennedy administration, a suggestion that he was involved in the assassinations of both John F. and Robert Kennedy was on the site for more than four months before Mr. Seigenthaler discovered it. He wrote an op-ed article in USA Today about the incident, calling Wikipedia "a flawed and irresponsible research tool." Yet Wikipedians say that in general the accuracy of an article grows organically. At first, said Wayne Saewyc, a Wikipedia volunteer in Vancouver, British Columbia, "everything is edited mercilessly by idiots who do stupid and weird things to it." But as the article grows, and citations slowly accumulate, Mr. Saewyc said, the article becomes increasingly accurate. Wikipedians often speak of how powerfully liberating their first contribution felt. Kathleen Walsh, 23, a recent college graduate who majored in music, recalled the first time she added to an article on the contrabassoon. "I wrote a paragraph of text and there it was," recalled Ms. Walsh. "You write all these pages for college and no one ever sees it, and you write for Wikipedia and the whole world sees it, instantly." Ms. Walsh is an administrator, a post that others nominated her for in recognition of her contributions to the site. She monitors a list of newly created pages, half of which, she said, end up being good candidates for deletion. Many are "nonsense pages created by kids, like 'Michael is a big dork,' " she said. Ms. Walsh also serves on the 14-member arbitration committee, which she describes as "the last resort" for disputes on Wikipedia. Like so many Web-based successes, Wikipedia started more or less by accident. Six years ago, Mr. Wales, who built up a comfortable nest egg in a brief career as an options trader, started an online encyclopedia called Nupedia.com, with content to be written by experts. But after attracting only a few dozen articles, Mr. Wales started Wikipedia on the side. It grew exponentially. For the first year or so, Mr. Wales paid the expenses out of his own pocket. Now the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that supports Wikipedia, is financed primarily through donations, most in the $50 to $100 range. As the donations have risen, so have the costs. The foundation's annual budget doubled in the last year, to $1.5 million, and traffic has grown sharply. Search engines like Google, which often turn up Wikipedia entries at the top of their results, are a big contributor to the site's traffic, but it is increasingly a first stop for knowledge seekers. Mr. Wales shares the work of running Wikipedia with the administrators and four paid employees of the foundation. Although many decisions are made by consensus within the community, Mr. Wales steps in when an issue is especially contentious. "It's not always obvious when something becomes policy," he said. "One way is when I say it is." Mr. Wales is a true believer in the power of wiki page-editing technology, which predates Wikipedia. In late 2004, Mr. Wales started Wikia, a commercial start-up financed by venture capital that lets people build Web sites based around a community of interest. Wiki 24, for instance, is an unofficial encyclopedia for the television show "24." Unlike Wikipedia, the site carries advertising. Mr. Wales, 39, lives with his wife and daughter in St. Petersburg, Fla., where the foundation is based. But Mr. Wales's main habitat these days, he said, is the inside of airplanes. He travels constantly, giving speeches to reverential audiences and visiting Wikipedians around the world. Wikipedia has inspired its share of imitators. A group of scientists has started the peer-reviewed Encyclopedia of Earth, and Congresspedia is a new encyclopedia with an article about each member of Congress. But beyond the world of reference works, Wikipedia has become a symbol of the potential of the Web. "It can tell us a lot about the future of knowledge creation, which will depend much less on individual heroism and more on collaboration," said Mitchell Kapor, a computer industry pioneer who is president of the Open Source Applications Foundation. Zephyr Teachout, a lawyer in Burlington, Vt., who is involved with Congresspedia, said Wikipedia was reminiscent of old-fashioned civic groups like the Grange, whose members took individual responsibility for the organization's livelihood. "It blows open what's possible," said Ms. Teachout. "What I hope is that these kinds of things lead to thousands of other experiments like this encyclopedia, which we never imagined could be produced in this way." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/te... tner=homepage ![]() CBS News Says Dan Rather Is Leaving AP Former anchorman Dan Rather has agreed to leave CBS after 44 years, the network announced Tuesday. The 74-year-old Rather has complained of being virtually forgotten at CBS Corp. since his exit as anchor last year, six months after a discredited story on President Bush's military service. He has said he is considering an offer to do a weekly show at the HDNet high-definition network. ''There will always be a part of Dan Rather at CBS News,'' said Sean McManus, CBS News president. ''He is truly a `reporter's reporter,' and he has helped to train several generations of broadcast journalists. His legacy cannot be replicated.'' Rather, whose final CBS News report aired on ''CBS Sunday Morning'' this weekend, will be the subject of a prime-time special on his career this fall, CBS said. The network also said it had made a contribution to Rather's alma mater, Sam Houston State University. The Texan has worked at CBS News since 1962, covering stories ranging from the Kennedy assassination to the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was the ''CBS Evening News'' anchor who replaced Walter Cronkite in 1981 until signing off with the admonition ''courage'' on March 9, 2005. Rather apparently hadn't even seen the report questioning Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service before introducing it on the air in September 2004. When CBS News couldn't substantiate the story following questions about its sources, Rather became a symbol of the incident even as he escaped official blame. Since then, Rather's on-air appearances have been infrequent. He contributed eight stories to ''60 Minutes'' this season, about half the airtime of most full-time correspondents there. His most recent ''60 Minutes'' story, a profile of Whole Foods Market, aired June 4. In interviews last week, Rather made clear the professional divorce was imminent. He told The New York Times that he wanted to stay with ''60 Minutes,'' but that CBS News had offered him a contract with no specific affiliation to any program. For more than two decades, Rather dominated broadcast news along with NBC's Tom Brokaw and the late Peter Jennings of ABC. They were the faces seen every evening and whenever big news broke. Rather always considered himself a reporter first, and the habit of news anchors to travel to the scenes of big stories is largely his legacy. His interview with Saddam Hussein in 2003 was the last given by the Iraqi leader before he was toppled. With his intense on-air demeanor, Rather also had his detractors, and his broadcast was a distant third in the evening news ratings at the time he stepped down. CBS News' ratings have rebounded under short-term successor Bob Schieffer; Katie Couric will take over the broadcast in September. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts... tner=homepage ![]() Moving Ahead, Rather Throws Sad Look Back Jacques Steinberg The 74-year-old man with the Mets cap pulled far down on his forehead slid into a booth at a diner on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and ordered a glass of milk without so much as turning a head — so quietly, in fact, that it was hard to believe it was Dan Rather. In place of the swagger that had served him so well throughout his 44-year career at CBS News was an obvious sadness that his tenure at the network was ticking down to an inglorious end. Mr. Rather complained that since stepping down as anchor of the " CBS Evening News" last year, in the aftermath of a reporting scandal, he had been ill used as a correspondent on "60 Minutes" and had been given virtually nothing at all to do for the previous six weeks. Among the places he had sought solace, he said on a recent afternoon, was in "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's homage to Edward R. Murrow and the CBS News of old, a film that Mr. Rather said he had seen five times in theaters, most recently alone. Mr. Rather's contract with CBS, and "60 Minutes," is not scheduled to expire until late November. But he said yesterday that he and the network were close to an agreement that would end his tenure early, and that he was seriously mulling a new venture that, at least initially, relatively few viewers would be able to see: he would develop and be the host of a weekly interview program on a high-definition television channel known as HDNet. The offer, he said, had come directly from Mark Cuban, the unbridled owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, who was a co-founder of HDNet in 2001. Mr. Rather said he had been weighing several other offers for work, including two from what he described as major broadcast or cable networks. But as of yesterday, Mr. Rather said, "what I expect to do, what I hope to do, is bring this HDNet thing to fruition." Mr. Rather, who was anchor of the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter-century and who, at one point also served as a correspondent on the news magazines "60 Minutes II" and "48 Hours," acknowledged that it would "take some adjustment" for him to get used to being seen by perhaps tens of thousands of viewers in a week, as opposed to millions. But he added that "the opportunity to build something from the ground up, I think, will have its own satisfactions." Mr. Rather also said that in April, in anticipation of what seemed to be his imminent departure from CBS, he had formed a company — he named it News and Guts, in a nod to what he considers the pillars of his professional life — through which he plans to create several other journalism ventures, including, perhaps, a blog. (Though he has not yet settled on a title, he says he has ruled out one: "I'd Rather Say This.") Mr. Rather said he first met earlier this year with Mr. Cuban, who made hundreds of millions of dollars in the high-tech boom of the 1990's. Mr. Cuban's team is now tied, two games to two, with the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association finals. When a reporter joked about whether Mr. Rather would also weigh in on the management of the Mavericks, Mr. Rather responded, seriously, that he had already provided Mr. Cuban some unsolicited advice during the team's recent playoff run, suggesting that one particular player be given more minutes on the court. "I'm not going to tell you who he is," Mr. Rather said. "But they're using him more." Mr. Rather also recounted that Mr. Cuban, a producer of "Good Night, and Good Luck," had told him that as part of the deal he expected to ask Mr. Rather for informal advice on future film projects. There, too, Mr. Rather said he was game. In addition to the one-hour interview program, which could eventually include "60 Minutes"-style investigative reports that he would prepare, Mr. Rather said he had been asked to commit to deliver at least two documentaries a year to HDNet. The channel is available to subscribers with high-definition access — it was available in about three million homes last year, according to Kagan Research, an independent firm — either on a handful of cable systems, including Time Warner, or through satellite operators, including DirecTV and Dish. The channel currently carries both original news and music programming, as well as reruns of series like "Hogan's Heroes" and "Charlie's Angels." Asked in an e-mail message yesterday to confirm Mr. Rather's description of the offer, Mr. Cuban sent back the following response last night: "All I can tell you is that we have had some conversations to do some very exciting things. Unshackled from the talking head world where earnings per share mean more than finding the truth, the opportunities for HDNet and Dan are unlimited." Mr. Rather said he had been given assurances by Mr. Cuban, should he accept the offer, that he would have complete, unfettered control of his program. "It's a situation," he said, "where there are not very large — let me put it this way — corporate and political complexities." In those comments, and others, Mr. Rather was referring, however obliquely, to his displeasure with the leadership of CBS. He appeared, for example, to fault the network for eventually withdrawing its support for the "60 Minutes II" report that would, in turn, unravel his career. In the segment, he had sought to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, using memorandums that the network, and later a panel of outside investigators, said they could not authenticate. Asked yesterday about Mr. Rather and his status at the network, a CBS News spokeswoman, Sandra Genelius, said she had no comment. Mr. Rather expressed some disappointment with Leslie Moonves, the president and chief executive of CBS. In late 2004, Mr. Rather announced he would step down as anchor in March 2005. In the interim, Mr. Moonves told a gathering of television critics in California that he hoped to blow up the program's "voice of God, single anchor" format. (After exploring the notion of an ensemble, CBS announced this spring that it was hiring Katie Couric as the program's sole anchor.) Asked in the interview about Mr. Moonves's remarks, Mr. Rather said, "My problem with the 'voice of God' thing was that it was meant disrespectfully." "They talk about wanting a break with the past," he added. "Look at the Murrow film. I don't want to break with that past." Mr. Rather said that the 15 months since he had left the evening news, and joined "60 Minutes," had been among the most frustrating periods of his career. To an outsider, the eight segments he had had broadcast on the program since November — including reports that had taken him to North Korea, China and Beirut — would appear to represent a good year's work.But Mr. Rather said that other correspondents had more than twice as many reports appear on the program, and that two reports he had been particularly proud of (those originating in Beirut and China) had been effectively buried, on the program's Christmas and New Year's Day telecasts.Of being kept idle these last two months, Mr. Rather said, "Anybody who knows me knows that's not the way I like to work." Asked if the network had sought to marginalize him over his role in the disputed Guard report — including his spirited defense of the segment, for more than a week after it was broadcast — Mr. Rather said, "There's a lot I have yet to figure out." Mr. Rather, who has been employed by CBS since he was 30, said that his first choice would have been to remain a correspondent on "60 Minutes." But the network, he said, was uninterested, offering him only a contract that would have entitled him to an office and assistant, but no affiliation with any CBS program. "I am as hungry for important stories as I've ever been," he said. "In fact, I think my hunger might be, if anything, greater. I guess I'd like to think that's saying something." Once it was made clear to him that there was no longer a role for him, he said, he began to warm to the idea of working for someone seeking to explore television's next frontier, in much the way William S. Paley had blazed the trail of the modern CBS, and as Ted Turner had done for CNN. "I may not have found them," Mr. Rather said of Mr. Cuban and a partner, Todd Wagner. "But I found as close as I think anyone is likely to find. And I like the chances." It was not possible yesterday to determine which other outlets may have had conversations with Mr. Rather about future work. Representatives from Fox News, CNN and NBC said their organizations had made no offers to him, and an ABC executive said he knew of no discussions with Mr. Rather. When asked if there was any advice he would give to Katie Couric — who, in September, succeeds Bob Schieffer, the interim anchor of the "Evening News" since Mr. Rather stepped down — Mr. Rather said: "If she comes to CBS and demonstrates that she loves the news, and demonstrates leadership skills — and I do think both those things are true — then I think she will do well." Asked if he might be tempted to change the channel and root for one of Ms. Couric's chief competitors, Charles Gibson on ABC and Brian Williams on NBC, Mr. Rather was unequivocal in his response. "I'm always pulling for CBS News," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/bu...ia/17rath.html |
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Join Date: May 2001
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![]() Wily Crows Disconnect Wired Tokyo
Leo Lewis TOKYO'S futuristic image as the world's most technologically advanced broadband internet-enabled city is under attack from a vicious but decidedly low-tech foe: the crow. Their destructive and unpredictable behaviour during the May-to-June mating season is always problematic for the Japanese capital. But this year the aggressive ink-black birds have created a new headache by developing a taste for fibre-optic internet cable. In the past six weeks, hundreds of homes and offices have been left without high-speed internet services after the crows discovered that broadband cable can be pecked into usable strips more easily than power cables or telephone copper wire. Crows have discovered that the broadband cables, which are strung from telegraph poles across Tokyo, are the perfect consistency for building nests. Although the birds' appetite for fibre-optic cable was spotted last year, broadband service providers have begun reporting a sharp surge in instances of cable-pecking, in line with the rising population of crows. Crows are drawn to Tokyo because of the large quantities of discarded food available. Every year there are reports of the birds attacking domestic pets or small children. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19480143^15405^^nbv^15306-15322,00.html ![]() Spiders Attack Manchester Phone Network Chris Williams A shocked Reg reader was told by a BT engineer his girlfriend was having problems with her phone because spiders had eaten through the line. An OpenReach techie was called out to the Manchester suburb of Chorlton on Monday after problems with voice calls. According to our correspondent, after a quick shimmy up the offending telegraph pole he calmly reported spiders had chewed through the line. Our correspondent was understandably puzzled, noting the ADSL connection he had arranged two weeks previously was functioning fine. The problem was fixed and the engineer went on his way, leaving we at Vulture Central losing sleep over whether spiders are indeed seeking to bring the technological world sobbing to its knees. We contacted BT to ask whether arachnid attacks are becoming a bigger problem in Britain's telecoms infrastructure. A spokesman said someone had the wrong end of the stick, and the engineer had just said there were spiders living in the pole top box, and the line had corroded, rather than being munched. Our correspondent assures us the engineer did say the spiders had eaten the wire. Conspiracy theorists are claiming BT would deny the problem, and are linking the spiders' attack to the recent case of mysterious green goo (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/05/bt_green_goo/) which put the wind up BT engineers in Aldershot. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06...in_manchester/ ![]() Researchers Find Technique to Quickly Erase Hard Drives R. Colin Johnson In 2001, an American spy plane collided in the air with a Chinese fighter and was forced to land on Chinese island. Since then, researchers have been looking for a way to quickly erase computer hard drives to deny access to sensitive intelligence data. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta), working with L-3 Communications Corp. (New York), said they have developed a technique for quickly erasing hard-disk drives. The team reports development of a prototype fast-erasure system to prevent sensitive information from reaching enemy eyes. At the time of the U.S.-China incident, there was no way the U.S. crew could quickly erase hard drives on the surveillance aircraft before landing on Chinese soil. The Chinese eventually gained access to U.S. military secrets. Erasing a hard drive usually takes hours using special procedures that repeatedly scramble information on a disk drive. Still, given unlimited resources and time, special magnetic snooping techniques can often recover at least some of the original information. The researchers sought a method that not only securely erased information but also performed the erasure during emergency situations where minutes, not hours, were available. The researchers concluded that permanent magnets are the best solution. Other methods, including burning disks with heat-generating thermite, crushing drives in presses, chemically destroying the media or frying them with microwaves all proved susceptible to sensitive, patient, recovery efforts. Permanent magnets for erasing magnetic media have been available since the dawn of disk drives, but the team found that commercial systems were either magnetically too weak, too large and heavy or could not meet air-safety standards. Instead, the team crafted a new generation of super-powerful magnets to penetrate hard disk enclosures to quickly erase magnetic media. Special high-strength magnets as powerful as those in medical imaging equipment proved sufficient for permanently erasing all information on a disk drive in a single pass. To create a magnetic field strong enough to penetrate the metal housing around a disk drive and erase the magnetic media inside, the researchers designed a neodymium iron-boron magnet with special pole pieces made of esoteric cobalt alloys. A motorized mechanism pushed disk drives past the magnets; a back up twist-knob allows operators to manually pull drives through the magnetic field. The 125-pound prototype is being streamlined into a deployable version that is light enough for aircraft, operates independently of aircraft electrical systems, produces no noxious gases or flames and includes fail-safe procedures to prevent inadvertent erasures. The team verified that it was impossible to recover information from disk drives erased with the permanent magnets. They used a magnetic force microscope to map even the smallest magnetic domains on the surface of an erased disk drive to ensure that the patterns found there were completely random. The team claimed the magnetic eraser could also be used for commercial applications like quickly erasing VHS tapes, floppy drives, data cassettes and hard drives. http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=97378 ![]() You Tubin’ Spamming my YouTube Account, Cause if I don't who will? Allied http://www.youtube.com/user/AlliedX Click and enjoy. I've uploaded 13 videos. 2 were deleted cause of copyright BS. 1 was removed because of content restrictions. I guess Pink getting her nipple pierced was nudity in the eyes of YouTube. My newest video is a tribute to Wonder Woman I made, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkNnWnSf2Pk Another one of my favorites is Dubbya picking his nose, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWyCUe7IJU Now that you know where's his finger has been, do you really want it on the button If you only watch 1, shame on you they're all great. But if you have to choose just 1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3g497_DZKs * * * YouTube's banned me. First time I've ever been banned from anywhere. - Allied * * * Did they give you a reason..?? - Lion7718 * * * No, but I got my 3rd DMCA notice just a few hours before. 1st DMCA, a montage of Stewie clips with TripleH's The Game playing. I made it myself. http://www.metaldrone.com/Shared/Stewies_Time.avi 2nd DMCA, one of the origional Simpsons sketches from the Tracey ulman show. http://www.metaldrone.com/Shared/The...cary_Movie.AVI 3rd DMCA, clip from Wrestle Mania 22, TripleH and John Cena's intros. ...I don't really feel like uploading that one. It's big. - Allied * * * Well that just bites the big one.....at least i got too see these 2 Thanks Allied - Tiremonkey2000 * * * I think Im going to remove some of my uploads before I get banned, Ive already got one notice Melvin Smiley Edit: I made most of my videos private, so I can post them up without much worry Dancing outlaw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUe1l64eg9I Fake Tv ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LToocbCFhpc Across the Hubble Universe - Beatles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAaRZcKgFCA Bill Hicks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd19kU8ERuo I can no longer find my own videos I market as private from my own account! Weird http://www.p2pconsortium.com/index.p...topic=9560&hl= ![]() Police Launch Eye-In-The-Sky Technology Above Los Angeles Zachary Slobig Police launched the future of law enforcement into the smoggy Los Angeles sky in the form of a drone aircraft, bringing technology most commonly associated with combat zones to urban policing. The unmanned aerial vehicle, which looks like a child's remote control toy and weighs about five pounds (2.3 kilograms), is a prototype being tested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Police say the drone, called the SkySeer, will be able to accomplish tasks too dangerous for officers and free up helicopters for other missions. "This technology could be used to find missing children, search for lost hikers, or survey a fire zone," said Commander Sid Heal, head of the Technology Exploration Project of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "The ideal outcome for us is when this technology becomes instrumental in saving lives." The SkySeer would also be a helpful tool to nab burglary suspects on rooftops and to chase down suspects fleeing on foot. The drone comes equipped with low-light and infrared capabilities and can fly at speeds up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) per hour for 70 minutes. The plane collapses and can fit into a shoulder pack smaller than a golf bag. Its portability and ease of assembly could be a big advantage for law enforcement. "It's basically a high-tech kite that field officers could set up in a matter of minutes," said Heal. A small camera capable of tilt and pan operations is fixed to the underside of the drone which sends the video directly to a laptop command station. Once launched, the craft is set to fly autonomously with global positioning system (GPS) coordinates and a fixed flight pattern. As technology improves, the drone will be outfitted with zoom capabilities. For now, the craft simply flies lower to hone in on its target. Sometimes birds take notice of the slow-flying SkySeer. "In fact, we talked about making it look like a bird to make it more environmentally benign," said Heal. The stealth quality of the SkySeer is a big advantage, according to police. "The plane is virtually silent and invisible," said Heal. "It will give us a vertical perspective that we have never had." The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department operates a fleet of 18 helicopters, priced between three and five million dollars each. The SkySeer will cost between 25,000 and 30,000 dollars. "We never have enough helicopters," said Heal. The police helicopters are in near-constant use, and the SkySeer would alleviate some of this pressure. Unmanned surveillance crafts may become the norm in urban policing, says Heal. "Who knew five years ago we would be shooting photos and video with our phones?" he said. "I could see this drone technology replacing some demand for conventional aircrafts 10 years into the future." Sam De La Torre, designer of the drone at Octatron Industries, has been working on the project for two years and has seen demand from other police forces. "The Los Angeles Police Department has signed on as well," he said. "It's the wave of the future." Though the SkySeer is not capable of spying into windows just yet, for some a future of nearly invisible eyes in the sky is an unsettling introduction of science fiction into daily life. "A helicopter can be seen and heard, and one can make behavior choices based on that," said Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "Do we really want to live in a society where our backyard barbeques will be open to police scrutiny?" But police say that such privacy concerns are unwarranted because surveillance is already ubiquitous. "You shouldn't be worried about being spied on by your government," said Heal. "These days you can't go anywhere without a camera watching you whether you're in a grocery store or walking down the street." For now, the sheriffs will continue trial runs of the SkySeer to get a handle on its capabilities. "Everything works in the lab," said Heal. "But you don't really know until you get it in the field." During Friday's field test, the future of law enforcement looked like the fall of Icarus from Greek mythology. As De la Torre banked the Skyseer left at an elevation of about 300 feet (91 meter), the high-tech kite took a sudden nosedive and crashed in a vacant lot a few hundred yards (meters) from reporters. "There must have been some sort of communication interference," said De La Torre as he inspected the multicolored wires and circuitry spilling out of his damaged drone. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060617...e_060617210138 ![]() No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System to Thwart Unwanted Video and Still Photography Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have completed a prototype device that can block digital-camera function in a given area. Commercial versions of the technology could be used to stymie unwanted use of video or still cameras. The prototype device, produced by a team in the Interactive and Intelligent Computing division of the Georgia Tech College of Computing (COC), uses off-the-shelf equipment -- camera-mounted sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer -- to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. The system works by looking for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras. Gregory Abowd, an associate professor leading the project, says the new camera-neutralizing technology shows commercial promise in two principal fields – protecting limited areas against clandestine photography or stopping video copying in larger areas such as theaters. “We're at a point right now where the prototype we have developed could lead to products for markets that have a small, critical area to protect,” Abowd said. “Then we’re also looking to do additional research that could increase the protected area for one of our more interesting clients, the motion picture industry.” Abowd said the small-area product could prevent espionage photography in government buildings, industrial settings or trade shows. It could also be used in business settings -- for instance, to stop amateur photography where shopping-mall-Santa pictures are being taken. James Clawson, a research technician on Abowd’s prototype team, said preventing movie copying could be a major application for camera-blocking technology. “Movie piracy is a $3 billion-a-year problem,” Clawson maintains -- a problem said to be especially acute in Asia. “If someone videotapes a movie in a theater and then puts it up on the web that night or burns half a million copies to sell on the street – then the movie industry has lost a lot of in-theater revenue.” A Georgia Tech camera-neutralizing prototype could soon be used to stop movie piracy and other forms of unwanted digital-camera photography. Shown here with the device are, left to right, Jay W. Summet, PhD student; James R. Clawson, research technician; Gregory Abowd, associate professor at Georgia Tech, and Khai N. Truong, assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Moreover, movie theaters are likely to be a good setting for camera-blocking technology, said Jay Summet, a research assistant who is also working on the prototype. A camera’s image sensor -- called a CCD -- is “retroreflective,” which means it sends light back directly to its origin rather than scattering it. Retroreflections would probably make it relatively easy to detect and identify video cameras in a darkened theater. The current prototype uses visible light and two cameras to find CCDs, but a future commercial system might use invisible infrared lasers and photo-detecting transistors to scan for contraband cameras. Once such a system found a suspicious spot, it would feed information on the reflection’s properties to a computer for a determination. “The biggest problem is making sure we don’t get false positives from, say, a large shiny earring,” said Summet. “We need to make our system work well enough so that it can find a dot, then test to see if it's reflective, then see if it's retroreflective, and then test to see if it's the right shape.” Once a scanning laser and photodetector located a video camera, the system would flash a thin beam of visible white light directly at the CCD. This beam – possibly a laser in a commercial version – would overwhelm the target camera with light, rendering recorded video unusable. Researchers say that energy levels used to neutralize cameras would be low enough to preclude any health risks to the operator. Still camera neutralization in small areas also shows near-term commercial promise, Abowd said. Despite ambient light levels far higher than in a theater, still cameras at a trade show or a mall should be fairly easy to detect, he said. That’s because image sensors in most cell phones and digital cameras are placed close to the lens, making them easier to spot than the deeper-set sensors of video cameras. Camera neutralization’s potential has helped bring it under the wing of VentureLab, a Georgia Tech group that assists fledgling companies through the critical feasibility and first-funding phases. Operating under the name DominINC, Abowd’s company has already received a Phase 1 grant from the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) with VentureLab assistance. Abowd said that funding availability will likely decide which technology -- small- or large-area -- will be developed first. DominINC will apply soon for GRA Phase 2 money, Abowd said. Those funds would be used to aid anti-piracy product development, as would any funding coming from the film industry. Other potential funding, from industry and elsewhere, would likely be used to develop anti-espionage small-area applications. Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech’s chief commercialization officer, said motion-picture groups are actively looking for technology to foil piracy. Movie distributors might even promote camera-neutralizing systems by refusing to send films to theaters that don’t install anti-piracy systems. There are some caveats, according to Summet. Current camera-neutralizing technology may never work against single-lens-reflex cameras, which use a folding-mirror viewing system that effectively masks its CCD except when a photo is actually being taken. Moreover, anti-digital techniques don’t work on conventional film cameras because they have no image sensor. Good computer analysis will be the heart of effective camera blocking, Summet believes. “Most of the major work that we have left involves algorithmic development,” he said. “False positives will eliminated by making a system with fast, efficient computing.” Also involved in the camera-neutralizing project are Shwetak Patel, a College of Computing PhD student; Khai Truong, a former Georgia Tech PhD student who is now at the University of Toronto, and Kent Lyons, a College of Computing post-doctoral student. A paper on this technology was published and presented at the Ubicomp 2005 conference in Tokyo, Japan, last September. http://www.gtresearchnews.gatech.edu...nti-camera.htm ![]() Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror Eric Lichtblau and James Risen Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials. The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database. Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia, the officials said. The program, run out of the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the Treasury Department, "has provided us with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use of our authorities," Stuart Levey, an under secretary at the Treasury Department, said in an interview on Thursday. The program is grounded in part on the president's emergency economic powers, Mr. Levey said, and multiple safeguards have been imposed to protect against any unwarranted searches of Americans' records. The program, however, is a significant departure from typical practice in how the government acquires Americans' financial records. Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift. That access to large amounts of confidential data was highly unusual, several officials said, and stirred concerns inside the administration about legal and privacy issues. "The capability here is awesome or, depending on where you're sitting, troubling," said one former senior counterterrorism official who considers the program valuable. While tight controls are in place, the official added, "the potential for abuse is enormous." The program is separate from the National Security Agency's efforts to eavesdrop without warrants and collect domestic phone records, operations that have provoked fierce public debate and spurred lawsuits against the government and telecommunications companies. But all the programs grew out of the Bush administration's desire to exploit technological tools to prevent another terrorist strike, and all reflect attempts to break down longstanding legal or institutional barriers to the government's access to private information about Americans and others inside the United States. Officials described the Swift program as the biggest and most far-reaching of several secret efforts to trace terrorist financing. Much more limited agreements with other companies have provided access to A.T.M. transactions, credit card purchases and Western Union wire payments, the officials said. Nearly 20 current and former government officials and industry executives discussed aspects of the Swift operation with The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified. Some of those officials expressed reservations about the program, saying that what they viewed as an urgent, temporary measure had become permanent nearly five years later without specific Congressional approval or formal authorization. Data from the Brussels-based banking consortium, formally known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has allowed officials from the C.I.A., the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies to examine "tens of thousands" of financial transactions, Mr. Levey said. While many of those transactions have occurred entirely on foreign soil, officials have also been keenly interested in international transfers of money by individuals, businesses, charities and other groups under suspicion inside the United States, officials said. A small fraction of Swift's records involve transactions entirely within this country, but Treasury officials said they were uncertain whether any had been examined. Swift executives have been uneasy at times about their secret role, the government and industry officials said. By 2003, the executives told American officials they were considering pulling out of the arrangement, which began as an emergency response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the officials said. Worried about potential legal liability, the Swift executives agreed to continue providing the data only after top officials, including Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, intervened. At that time, new controls were introduced. Among the safeguards, government officials said, is an outside auditing firm that verifies that the data searches are based on intelligence leads about suspected terrorists. "We are not on a fishing expedition," Mr. Levey said. "We're not just turning on a vacuum cleaner and sucking in all the information that we can." Swift and Treasury officials said they were aware of no abuses. But Mr. Levey, the Treasury official, said one person had been removed from the operation for conducting a search considered inappropriate. Treasury officials said Swift was exempt from American laws restricting government access to private financial records because the cooperative was considered a messaging service, not a bank or financial institution. But at the outset of the operation, Treasury and Justice Department lawyers debated whether the program had to comply with such laws before concluding that it did not, people with knowledge of the debate said. Several outside banking experts, however, say that financial privacy laws are murky and sometimes contradictory and that the program raises difficult legal and public policy questions. The Bush administration has made no secret of its campaign to disrupt terrorist financing, and President Bush, Treasury officials and others have spoken publicly about those efforts. Administration officials, however, asked The New York Times not to publish this article, saying that disclosure of the Swift program could jeopardize its effectiveness. They also enlisted several current and former officials, both Democrat and Republican, to vouch for its value. Bill Keller, the newspaper's executive editor, said: "We have listened closely to the administration's arguments for withholding this information, and given them the most serious and respectful consideration. We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest." Mr. Levey agreed to discuss the classified operation after the Times editors told him of the newspaper's decision. On Thursday evening, Dana Perino, deputy White House press secretary, said: "Since immediately following 9/11, the American government has taken every legal measure to prevent another attack on our country. One of the most important tools in the fight against terror is our ability to choke off funds for the terrorists." She added: "We know the terrorists pay attention to our strategy to fight them, and now have another piece of the puzzle of how we are fighting them. We also know they adapt their methods, which increases the challenge to our intelligence and law enforcement officials." Referring to the disclosure by The New York Times last December of the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program, she said, "The president is concerned that once again The New York Times has chosen to expose a classified program that is working to protect our citizens." Swift declined to discuss details of the program but defended its role in written responses to questions. "Swift has fully complied with all applicable laws," the consortium said. The organization said it insisted that the data be used only for terrorism investigations and had narrowed the scope of the information provided to American officials over time. A Crucial Gatekeeper Swift's database provides a rich hunting ground for government investigators. Swift is a crucial gatekeeper, providing electronic instructions on how to transfer money among 7,800 financial institutions worldwide. The cooperative is owned by more than 2,200 organizations, and virtually every major commercial bank, as well as brokerage houses, fund managers and stock exchanges, uses its services. Swift routes more than 11 million transactions each day, most of them across borders. The cooperative's message traffic allows investigators, for example, to track money from the Saudi bank account of a suspected terrorist to a mosque in New York. Starting with tips from intelligence reports about specific targets, agents search the database in what one official described as a "24-7" operation. Customers' names, bank account numbers and other identifying information can be retrieved, the officials said. The data does not allow the government to track routine financial activity, like A.T.M. withdrawals, confined to this country, or to see bank balances, Treasury officials said. And the information is not provided in real time — Swift generally turns it over several weeks later. Because of privacy concerns and the potential for abuse, the government sought the data only for terrorism investigations and prohibited its use for tax fraud, drug trafficking or other inquiries, the officials said. The Treasury Department was charged by President Bush, in a September 2001 executive order, with taking the lead role in efforts to disrupt terrorist financing. Mr. Bush has been briefed on the program and Vice President Dick Cheney has attended C.I.A. demonstrations, the officials said. The National Security Agency has provided some technical assistance. While the banking program is a closely held secret, administration officials have held classified briefings for some members of Congress and the Sept. 11 commission, the officials said. More lawmakers were briefed in recent weeks, after the administration learned The Times was making inquiries for this article. Swift's 25-member board of directors, made up of representatives from financial institutions around the world, was previously told of the program. The Group of 10's central banks, in major industrialized countries, which oversee Swift, were also informed. It is not clear if other network participants know that American intelligence officials can examine their message traffic. Because Swift is based overseas and has offices in the United States, it is governed by European and American laws. Several international regulations and policies impose privacy restrictions on companies that are generally regarded as more stringent than those in this country. United States law establishes some protections for the privacy of Americans' financial data, but they are not ironclad. A 1978 measure, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, has a limited scope and a number of exceptions, and its role in national security cases remains largely untested. Several people familiar with the Swift program said they believed that they were exploiting a "gray area" in the law and that a case could be made for restricting the government's access to the records on Fourth Amendment and statutory grounds. They also worried about the impact on Swift if the program were disclosed. "There was always concern about this program," a former official said. One person involved in the Swift program estimated that analysts had reviewed international transfers involving "many thousands" of people or groups in the United States. Two other officials placed the figure in the thousands. Mr. Levey said he could not estimate the number. The Swift data has provided clues to money trails and ties between possible terrorists and groups financing them, the officials said. In some instances, they said, the program has pointed them to new suspects, while in others it has buttressed cases already under investigation. Among the successes was the capture of a Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 bombing of a Bali resort, several officials said. The Swift data identified a previously unknown figure in Southeast Asia who had financial dealings with a person suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda; that link helped locate Hambali in Thailand in 2003, they said. In the United States, the program has provided financial data in investigations into possible domestic terrorist cells as well as inquiries of Islamic charities with suspected of having links to extremists, the officials said. The data also helped identify a Brooklyn man who was convicted on terrorism-related charges last year, the officials said. The man, Uzair Paracha, who worked at a New York import business, aided a Qaeda operative in Pakistan by agreeing to launder $200,000 through a Karachi bank, prosecutors said. In terrorism prosecutions, intelligence officials have been careful to "sanitize," or hide the origins of evidence collected through the program to keep it secret, officials said. The Bush administration has pursued steps that may provide some enhanced legal standing for the Swift program. In late 2004, Congress authorized the Treasury Department to develop regulations requiring American banks to turn over records of international wire transfers. Officials say a preliminary version of those rules may be ready soon. One official described the regulations as an attempt to "formalize" access to the kind of information secretly provided by Swift, though other officials said the initiative was unrelated to the program. The Scramble for New Tools Like other counterterrorism measures carried out by the Bush administration, the Swift program began in the hectic days after the Sept. 11 attacks, as officials scrambled to identify new tools to head off further strikes. One priority was to cut off the flow of money to Al Qaeda. The 9/11 hijackers had helped finance their plot by moving money through banks. Nine of the hijackers, for instance, funneled money from Europe and the Middle East to SunTrust bank accounts in Florida. Some of the $130,000 they received was wired by people overseas with known links to Al Qaeda. Financial company executives, many of whom had lost friends at the World Trade Center, were eager to help federal officials trace terrorist money. "They saw 9/11 not just as an attack on the United States, but on the financial industry as a whole," said one former government official. Quietly, counterterrorism officials sought to expand the information they were getting from financial institutions. Treasury officials, for instance, spoke with credit card companies about devising an alert if someone tried to buy fertilizer and timing devices that could be used for a bomb, but they were told the idea was not logistically possible, a lawyer in the discussions said. The F.B.I. began acquiring financial records from Western Union and its parent company, the First Data Corporation. The programs were alluded to in Congressional testimony by the F.B.I. in 2003 and described in more detail in a book released this week, "The One Percent Doctrine," by Ron Suskind. Using what officials described as individual, narrowly framed subpoenas and warrants, the F.B.I. has obtained records from First Data, which processes credit and debit card transactions, to track financial activity and try to locate suspects. Similar subpoenas for the Western Union data allowed the F.B.I. to trace wire transfers, mainly outside the United States, and to help Israel disrupt about a half-dozen possible terrorist plots there by unraveling the financing, an official said. The idea for the Swift program, several officials recalled, grew out of a suggestion by a Wall Street executive, who told a senior Bush administration official about Swift's database. Few government officials knew much about the consortium, which is led by a Brooklyn native, Leonard H. Schrank, but they quickly discovered it offered unparalleled access to international transactions. Swift, a former government official said, was "the mother lode, the Rosetta stone" for financial data. Intelligence officials were so eager to use the Swift data that they discussed having the C.I.A. covertly gain access to the system, several officials involved in the talks said. But Treasury officials resisted, the officials said, and favored going to Swift directly. At the same time, lawyers in the Treasury Department and the Justice Department were considering possible legal obstacles to the arrangement, the officials said. In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans had no constitutional right to privacy for their records held by banks or other financial institutions. In response, Congress passed the Right to Financial Privacy Act two years later, restricting government access to Americans' banking records. In considering the Swift program, some government lawyers were particularly concerned about whether the law prohibited officials from gaining access to records without a warrant or subpoena based on some level of suspicion about each target. For many years, law enforcement officials have relied on grand-jury subpoenas or court-approved warrants for such financial data. Since 9/11, the F.B.I. has turned more frequently to an administrative subpoena, known as a national security letter, to demand such records. After an initial debate, Treasury Department lawyers, consulting with the Justice Department, concluded that the privacy laws applied to banks, not to a banking cooperative like Swift. They also said the law protected individual customers and small companies, not the major institutions that route money through Swift on behalf of their customers. Other state, federal and international regulations place different and sometimes conflicting restrictions on the government's access to financial records. Some put greater burdens on the company disclosing the information than on the government officials demanding it. Among their considerations, American officials saw Swift as a willing partner in the operation. But Swift said its participation was never voluntary. "Swift has made clear that it could provide data only in response to a valid subpoena," according to its written statement. Indeed, the cooperative's executives voiced early concerns about legal and corporate liability, officials said, and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control began issuing broad subpoenas for the cooperative's records related to terrorism. One official said the subpoenas were intended to give Swift some legal protection. Underlying the government's legal analysis was the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Mr. Bush invoked after the 9/11 attacks. The law gives the president what legal experts say is broad authority to "investigate, regulate or prohibit" foreign transactions in responding to "an unusual and extraordinary threat." But L. Richard Fischer, a Washington lawyer who wrote a book on banking privacy and is regarded as a leading expert in the field, said he was troubled that the Treasury Department would use broad subpoenas to demand large volumes of financial records for analysis. Such a program, he said, appears to do an end run around bank-privacy laws that generally require the government to show that the records of a particular person or group are relevant to an investigation. "There has to be some due process," Mr. Fischer said. "At an absolute minimum, it strikes me as inappropriate." Several former officials said they had lingering concerns about the legal underpinnings of the Swift operation. The program "arguably complies with the letter of the law, if not the spirit," one official said. Another official said: "This was creative stuff. Nothing was clear cut, because we had never gone after information this way before." Treasury officials said they considered the government's authority to subpoena the Swift records to be clear. "People do not have a privacy interest in their international wire transactions," Mr. Levey, the Treasury under secretary, said. Tighter Controls Sought Within weeks of 9/11, Swift began turning over records that allowed American analysts to look for evidence of terrorist financing. Initially, there appear to have been few formal limits on the searches. "At first, they got everything — the entire Swift database," one person close to the operation said. Intelligence officials paid particular attention to transfers to or from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates because most of the 9/11 hijackers were from those countries. The volume of data, particularly at the outset, was often overwhelming, officials said. "We were turning on every spigot we could find and seeing what water would come out," one former administration official said. "Sometimes there were hits, but a lot of times there weren't." Officials realized the potential for abuse, and narrowed the program's targets and put in more safeguards. Among them were the auditing firm, an electronic record of every search and a requirement that analysts involved in the operation document the intelligence that justified each data search. Mr. Levey said the program was used only to examine records of individuals or entities, not for broader data searches. Despite the controls, Swift executives became increasingly worried about their secret involvement with the American government, the officials said. By 2003, the cooperative's officials were discussing pulling out because of their concerns about legal and financial risks if the program were revealed, one government official said. "How long can this go on?" a Swift executive asked, according to the official. Even some American officials began to question the open-ended arrangement. "I thought there was a limited shelf life and that this was going to go away," the former senior official said. In 2003, administration officials asked Swift executives and some board members to come to Washington. They met with Mr. Greenspan, Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, and Treasury officials, among others, in what one official described as "a full-court press." Aides to Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Mueller declined to comment on the meetings. The executives agreed to continue supplying records after the Americans pledged to impose tighter controls. Swift representatives would be stationed alongside intelligence officials and could block any searches considered inappropriate, several officials said. The procedural change provoked some opposition at the C.I.A. because "the agency was chomping at the bit to have unfettered access to the information," a senior counterterrorism official said. But the Treasury Department saw it as a necessary compromise, the official said, to "save the program." Barclay Walsh contributed reporting for this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/wa...rtner=homepage ![]() Report: FBI Spied on Arthur Miller AP In the summer of 1956, playwright Arthur Miller married screen idol Marilyn Monroe in a Jewish ceremony, an event of high-level gossip for much of the world and of high-level curiosity for the U.S. government. "An anonymous telephone call" has been placed to the New York Daily News, an FBI report notes at the time. The caller stated that the "religious" wedding – Miller was Jewish and Monroe had converted – was an obvious "cover up" for Miller, who "had been and still was a member of the CP (Communist Party) and was their cultural front man." Monroe also "had drifted into the Communist Party orbit." The memo is one of many included in Miller's FBI files, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. Miller, who died last year at age 89 at his home in Roxbury, was a longtime liberal who opposed the Vietnam War, supported civil rights and, in one play, "The Crucible," linked the Cold War pursuit of communists to the Salem witch trials of the 17th century. His files only became available after his death, but the government's interest in Miller was well established in his lifetime. In 1956, the House Un-American Activities Committee asked him to give names of alleged communist writers with whom he had attended some meetings in the 1940s. Miller refused and was convicted of contempt of Congress, a decision eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. For a decade before his congressional testimony, the FBI kept track of the playwright, but ended up making a more convincing case that Miller was a dissenter from the Communist Party rather than a sympathizer. "Miller became disillusioned with the party because the party did not stimulate in him the ability and inspiration to do creative writing as he had expected when he joined the Party," one informant told the FBI. According to a 34-page FBI report, compiled in 1951, Miller was identified by an informant as being "under Communist Party discipline" in the 1930s and, as of the mid-1940s, a member. According to Miller, he had never been "under Communist discipline," although "there were two short periods – one in 1940 and one in 1947 – when I was sufficiently close to Communist Party activities so that someone might honestly have thought that I had become a member." In an essay published in 1999, Miller recalled that "practically everyone I knew stood within the conventions of the political left of center; one or two were Communist party members ... and most had had a brush with Marxist ideas or organizations. "I have never been able to believe in the reality of these people being actual or putative traitors any more than I could be," he wrote. Miller's first Broadway play, "The Man Who Had All the Luck," came out in 1944, around the same time that the earliest FBI files are dated. His professional and personal life were closely watched, usually through newspaper clippings, but also from informants (whose names have been blacked out in the records) and public documents. The FBI not only kept records of Miller's political statements, from his opposition to nuclear weapons to his attacks against the anti-communist blacklist, but of his affiliation with such organizations as the American Labor Party ("a communist front") and the "communist infiltrated" American Civil Liberties Union. In vain, the FBI probed for communist influence in the content and in the productions of his plays. One memo cites an "informant" who reported that "several communists" have been turned down for roles in various "Arthur Miller playlets." Miller's plays, the informant concludes, "although occasionally supported by the Communist Party, do not follow Marxist ideology." A separate file states that "Miller was not looked on with favor by the Communist Party," which regarded him as "'just a civil rights guy."' Miller's fame made him a target of the government, but also protected him. For example, a memo from 1955 noted an admiring article by Holiday magazine and concluded that "because of Miller's "limited activity with the CP (Communist Party) and his position in the business world, it is felt that an interview would result in embarrassment for the Bureau." His files essentially end in 1956, except for a brief reprise in 1993, when a background check was submitted to Bernard Nussbaum, the White House counsel to President Clinton. The occasion was not subversive activity, but the imminent presentation of a National Medal of the Arts. Although his alleged communist ties were reviewed and he was identified as a "participant in activities calling for an end to the war in Vietnam," no other "pertinent information" turned up and he received his medal. At the ceremony, Clinton praised Miller as a major playwright of the 20th century, and cited "The Crucible" for its admirable focus on "issues of conscience." http://news.newstimeslive.com/story....&channel=Local ![]() Library Chief Draws Cops' Ire Merry Firschein Library Director Michele Reutty is under fire for refusing to give police library circulation records without a subpoena. Reutty says she was only doing her job and maintaining the privacy of library patrons. But the mayor called it "a blatant disregard for the Police Department," which needed her help to identify a man who allegedly threatened a child. Reutty, the director for 17 years, now faces possible discipline by the library board. Members of the Borough Council have suggested she receive punishment ranging from a letter of reprimand in her personnel file to a 30-day unpaid suspension. But the Library Board of Trustees said it would reserve judgment until a closed-door hearing next month. Police received a report May 10 that a 12-year-old borough girl was allegedly sexually threatened by a man outside the municipal building. The library is on the second floor. The girl told her parents, who called police. The suspect, who has been identified as a 23-year-old Hackensack man, did not molest the girl, said borough Police Chief Michael Colaneri. The investigation is ongoing through the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, Colaneri said. The girl told police the man was carrying a library book with a certain title. The next day, borough police detectives asked Reutty to tell them who took out that book. Reutty said she refused to give the information to police without a subpoena -- in accordance with New Jersey state statutes governing access of private information from libraries, she said. Police came back with a subpoena later that day. Reutty conducted the search and told police she could not find a book with that title. So, police asked her to show them all the records of everyone who took out or renewed a book for the previous 10 days. Reutty asked for another subpoena because those records are computerized and not kept at the library. On May 12, Reutty said, she complied with the second subpoena -- which required a special computer program by the Bergen County Cooperative Library System. Police found the information right away, which helped them to identify the suspect, according to Colaneri. But borough officials say Reutty intentionally stonewalled the police investigation by putting the library first. They also charged that she did not follow procedure by contacting the borough's attorney when she received the subpoena. Instead, she called a lawyer from the state library association. The whole episode is "shocking," Reutty said Wednesday. "I followed the law. And because I followed the law, at the end of the day, the policemen's case is going to hold strong. Nobody is going to sue the library and nobody is going to sue the municipality of Hasbrouck Heights because information was given out illegally." On Tuesday, about 20 librarians from around the state attended a joint meeting of the Borough Council and the library Board of Trustees in a show of support for Reutty. The group included the executive director of the New Jersey Library Association, who told borough officials that the organization would revise its rules governing subpoenas. "I will ask the Attorney General's Office and the [state] Police Association to sit down with us and look at those regulations," said NJLA head Patricia Tumulty. Reutty is the first vice president/president-elect of the librarians' organization. Several residents spoke in Reutty's defense, saying she must have been confused about the borough's rules. But Reutty dismissed that interpretation. "The main issue here is privacy of information, and all of this could have been handled by education," she said. Reutty did the right thing, said Arthur Miller, her lawyer. "At no time did Michele Reutty say to any police officer or anybody else that she would not give the information if it was properly requested," Miller told the council. "She said you've got to get proper court authorization." Borough labor lawyer Ellen Horn, who also represented the library trustees, said Reutty was "more interested in protecting" her library than helping the police. "It was an absolute misjudgment of the seriousness of the matter," Horn said at Tuesday's meeting. Reutty said the issue has grown to encompass a larger issue. "I think it would have been so easy for me to just resign when all of this started happening," she said. "But it's not just me anymore. This is so that other librarians, when faced with a subpoena, will do the right thing." http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?...Y3dnFlZUVFeXkz ![]() Wisconsin Law Bars Forced RFID Implants Marc Songini Wisconsin this week will become one of the first states to ban the forcible implantation of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags into humans. The ban begins on Wednesday, when legislation signed on May 30 by Gov. James Doyle goes into effect. The act dictates that no person may force another to have a microchip implanted in his body. Violators face fines of $10,000 each day until the chip is removed. A spokeswoman for Doyle said the law targets RFID technology, though it bans the implantation of any microchip without consent. "I'm hoping other states will follow," said state Rep. Marlin Schneider, a Democrat who sponsored the bill. While Schneider acknowledged that he knows of no case where an RFID chip was forcibly implanted into a person, he said he believes that proactive legislation is necessary as the technology quickly advances. Schneider said he is also concerned about current commercial uses of RFID technology. "There are a number of issues here, potentially," he said. Proposed laws that seek to limit the use of RFID devices because of data privacy and security concerns are under discussion in a total of 19 states, according to Douglas Farry, managing director of the government affairs practice at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, a Washington-based law firm. Such legislation could have broad implications for RFID product manufacturers, distributors and users, he said. Further Repercussions Even for companies that use RFID strictly for inventory control or supply chain management, such laws could lead to IT spending on the security infrastructure changes needed for compliance, Farry said. He urged that RFID advocates do more to educate the public and governmental bodies about the benefits of the technology and thus remove the sinister stigma that some opponents have fostered. Kevin Brown, director of information systems at Daisy Brand LP, a Dallas-based maker of sour cream products that uses RFID systems, said, "It is understandable for the states to begin this type of legislation where technology has the potential for abuse." Brown said that in his opinion, makers of RFID technology should educate the public on its capabilities and use. "My hope is that our policymakers can balance the need to legislate the use of technology while not impeding the creative forces of innovation," he said. Scott Silverman, chairman of Applied Digital Solutions Inc., whose Delray Beach, Fla.-based subsidiary VeriChip Corp. supplies RFID chips for human implantation, said he doesn't object to the Wisconsin law. "In theory, we're in agreement with the posture taken," he said. "For medical uses, we've been clear all along that it's a voluntary product." Silverman said that other potential beneficial uses of the technology would include implanting RFID chips in immigrant guest workers for identification at border crossings and employer sites. As the use of the technology becomes more widespread, Silverman said, he expects that all the RFID-related legislation "will shake itself out." http://www.computerworld.com/action/...ticleId=111542 ![]() Senate Bill Compromise Paves The Way For "Net Neutrality Lite" Ken Fisher A vote on one telecommunications bill that seeks to address Net Neutrality is expected later this week, but just what will be voted on is far from clear. Dubbed the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (S.2686), the Senate bill backed by Ted Stevens (R-AK) could be voted on as early as this Thursday, June 22. The vote would take place in the Commerce Committee's weekly session, a necessary step before reaching the attention of the full Senate. Stevens' bill takes a studied approach to Net Neutrality, literally. The bill's current form would authorize the FCC to study the issue of Net Neutrality for a period of five years in order to separate reality from the rhetoric, as it were. The FCC would also handle complaints of abuse during that time. But Stevens' ranking colleague on the Commerce Committee, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), has said that this is too little, and Inouye has offered his own legislation as a tactic to push Stevens into a compromise. Thus for Stevens, the issue is one of bringing Inouye on board. A loyal Republican, Stevens largely backs the White House's position on the issue, believing that the FCC itself is already equipped to handle complaints of abuse and that new laws are not truly needed. As a general opponent of "government interference" in business, Stevens is also a firm believer that it would be inappropriate for the FCC to prevent internet service providers from developing new services, such as Quality of Service (QoS) enhancements. A new draft of the Stevens' bill looks to strike a balance between his concerns and his hopes to see this legislation through, making good on comments he made last week. The draft of the legislation aims to protect consumers' rights by forbidding the blocking of any traffic or application, while stopping short of instructing companies on what they can and cannot do with "their networks." This approach differs from so-called strict Net Neutrality by essentially leaving businesses untouched. Proponents of this approach believe that it would protect consumers by securing access to all public Internet traffic and services, while opponents argue that internet service providers could simply impair the performance of the public Internet to their own advantage. At the heart of the matter is bandwidth. Would internet service providers have to effectively downgrade Joe Consumer's bandwidth in order to sell his neighbor a "quality of service" add-on that would prioritize his own traffic? Stevens believes that this latter concern, while important, is already under the purview of the FCC. One competing House bill, the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act (HR 5417), would make it an antitrust violation to "block impair, discriminate or interfere with anyone’s services or applications or content," but the bill also addresses the kinds of service improvements that Stevens would rather not touch. For example, this House bill would make it illegal to offer Quality of Service improvements for specific data types unless those improvements were available universally (that is, you can't favor your own VoIP service to the exclusion of others). The bill's fate is looking grim, however, as a competing bill passed a House vote earlier this month. The Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (COPE Act) is quite similar with respects to the Network Neutrality provisions in Stevens' new draft bill, and it also leaves businesses largely untouched. An amendment that would have made the law more strict was shot down 269 votes to 152. Should Stevens' new bill make it out of committee, we believe that it would likely pass in the Senate, meaning that the House and Senate would have largely similar bills that could be reconciled and then put into law by the end of the year. If this happens, "public Internet" protections will likely be encoded into law, but the more divisive topic of service "innovation" would be left largely unaddressed. Call it Net Neutrality Lite, if you will. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060618-7078.html ![]() Net Neutered: Why Don't They Tell Us Ending Net Neutrality Might Kill BitTorrent? Robert X. Cringely Last week's column was about Bill Gates' announced departure from day-to-day management at Microsoft and a broad view of the Net Neutrality issue. We'll get back to Microsoft next week with a much closer look at the challenges the company faces as it ages and what I believe is a clever and counter-intuitive plan for Redmond's future success. But this week is all about Net Neutrality, which turns out to be a far more complex issue than we (or Congress) are being told. Net Neutrality is a concept being explored right now in the U.S. Congress, which is trying to decide whether to allow Internet Service Providers to offer tiers of service for extra money or to essentially be prohibited from doing so. The ISPs want the additional income and claim they are being under compensated for their network investments, while pretty much everyone else thinks all packets ought to be treated equally. Last week's column pointed out how shallow are the current arguments, which ignore many of the technical and operational realities of the Internet, especially the fact that there have long been tiers of service and that ISPs have probably been treating different kinds of packets differently for years and we simply didn't know it. One example of unequal treatment is whether packets connect from backbone to backbone through one of the public Network Access Points (NAPs) or through a private peering arrangement between ISPs or backbone providers. The distinction between these two forms of interconnection is vital because the NAPs are overloaded all the time, leading to dropped packets, retransmissions, network congestion, and reduced effective bandwidth. Every ISP that has a private peering agreement still has the right to use the NAPs and one has to wonder how they decide which packets they put in the diamond lane and which ones they make take the bus? Virtual Private Networks are another example of how packets can be treated differently. Most VPNs are created by ISP customers who want secure and reliable interconnections to their corporate networks. VPNs not only encrypt content, but to a certain extent they reserve bandwidth. But not all VPNs are created by customers. There are some ISPs that use VPNs specifically to limit the bandwidth of certain customers who are viewed as taking more than their fair share. My late friend Roger Boisvert, a pioneer Japanese ISP, found that fewer than 5 percent of his customers at gol.com were using more than 70 percent of the ISP's bandwidth, so he captured just those accounts in VPNs limited to a certain amount of bandwidth. Since then I have heard from other ISPs who do the same. As pointed out last week, though, there is only so much damage that an ISP can do and most of it seems limited to Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone service where latency, dropouts, and jitter are key and problematic. Since VoIP is an Internet service customers are used to paying extra for (that, in itself, is rare), ISPs want that money for themselves, which is the major reason why they want permission to end Net Neutrality--if it ever really existed. The implications of this end to Net Neutrality go far beyond VoIP, though it is my feeling that most ISPs don't know that. These are bit schleppers, remember, and the advantages of traffic shaping are only beginning to dawn on most of them. The DIS-advantages are even further from being realized, though that will start to change right here. The key question to ask is what impact will priority service levels have on the services that remain, those having no priority? In terms of the packets, giving priority to VoIP ought not to have a significant impact on audio or video downloads because those services are buffered and if they take a little longer, well that's just the price of progress, right? Wrong. Let's look at the impact of priority services on BitTorrent, the single greatest consumer of Internet bandwidth. Though e-mail and web surfing are both probably more important to Internet users than BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer file transfer scheme uses more total Internet bandwidth at something over 30 percent. Some ISPs absolutely hate BitTorrent and have moved to limit its impact on their networks by controlling the amount of bandwidth available to BitTorrent traffic. This, too, flies in the face of our supposed current state of blissful Net Neutrality. A list of ISPs that limit BitTorrent bandwidth is in this week's links, though most of them are, so far, outside the United States. BitTorrent blocking or limiting can be defeated by encrypting the torrents, but that increases overhead, causes a bigger bandwidth hit, and defeats local caching schemes that might help reduce bandwidth demand. So blocking BitTorrent actually makes life worse for all of us, which may be why most U.S. ISPs aren't doing it. So let's assume that ISPs are allowed to offer tiered services. What impact will that have on BitTorrent? The answer lies in the nature of the TCP/IP protocol. Here is an analysis from a friend who is far more savvy about these things than I am: "If you look at the amount of overhead TCP needs it's exponential to how slow each connection is; the slower (the connection) the more overhead because the window sizes are smaller and more control packets are being used for verification. And you know what? BitTorrent is FAR WORSE. Remember that for each file you download on BitTorrent you connect to dozens, possibly even hundreds of people, and the slower each of those connections is the more the overhead increases. "About a month ago the amount of torrents I may (have been) automatically downloading at any given time was between 10 and 30. This means that I was getting no more than 1Kbps from every peer, which meant about half of my bandwidth usage was in BitTorrent protocol overhead and not in downloading file data. I brought this (overhead) down (by 40 percent) by just having five torrent downloads at a time and queuing the rest, and I even got the files faster. I then did some more scheduling and what not to get (my bandwidth use down by a total of 70 percent) and I still downloaded about the same amount of real file data. "So what happens when everyone's VoIP or other preferred packets get preference over my torrent packets? Since I have no knowledge of the other people's usage in my aggregate network I can't adjust well for changes in the network. The BitTorrent traffic that is going will have exponentially increased overhead due to the slow downs, increasing overall Internet packet overhead (with BitTorrent already 30+ percent of all Internet traffic). Which means that allowing the telco's to subsidize the cost of improving their infrastructure by having preferred packets could exponentially increase the cost accrued by the larger internet and backbone providers just to keep costs down at the aggregate level." To recap: Giving priority to some traffic puts a hurt on other types of traffic and when that other traffic constitutes more than 30 percent of the Internet, the results can be severe for all of us. On the Internet everything is connected, and you can't easily ignore the impact of one service on another. With this new knowledge I did a simple test that you can do, too. I have a Vicomsoft Internet Gateway that does very fine traffic shaping, though there are many similar products available, like ClarkConnect and some others that are open source. Many routers can do traffic shaping, too. I did a couple BitTorrent downloads of specific files, measuring how much time and total bandwidth was required. Then I deleted those files, changed my Internet Gateway settings to give priority to my Vonage VoIP packets, called my Mom on the phone and started downloading the same two BitTorrent files. Vonage and many other VoIP services use an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) device to connect your phone to the network. That ATA can do traffic shaping, too, which requires that it be connected inline between your broadband modem and router. Of course I didn't realize this until AFTER my test was done. My test results were clear. I had no problem downloading the same BitTorrent files, but it took longer. That was no surprise. After all, I WAS talking to my Mom, which would have taken some bandwidth away from BitTorrent. But the more interesting result was that the total bandwidth required to download the same files using traffic shaping versus not using traffic shaping was almost 20 percent more, which undoubtedly came down to increased BitTorrent overhead due to contention and retransmissions involving the priority VoIP service. Traffic shaping causes different patterns on the local network, especially aggregate networks that use creative technologies to send Ethernet frames over old telephone and cable infrastructure. It's taken a very long time to get Internet technologies to where they are today, and all the protocols built on top of those technologies operate under certain assumptions. Just like a web site sent over TCP assumes that TCP will make sure all the packets will get to their destination, rich application protocols like BitTorrent operate under assumptions like known patterns in bandwidth changes on aggregate networks. Let's say Net Neutrality goes away and the broadband ISPs start offering tiered services. My simple test suggests that one possible impact is that Bit Torrent traffic, which currently uses, say, 30 percent of Internet bandwidth, is going to expand to about 36 percent simply because of inefficiencies created by the tiered services. This will increase the backbone costs for ISPs and will take back at least some of the very performance advantage they are supposedly selling to their priority customers. The result of ending Net Neutrality under this scenario, then, is that the ISPs make money from tiered services but with higher overhead costs and lower priority service levels than one might expect. The ISPs then might try banning BitTorrent to keep it from messing with their tiered services, but we've already establish this can't practically be done on a technical level because torrent encryption can always get around the ban. The only way, in fact, to limit BitTorrent traffic would be to have it made illegal and now we're back again to the clueless Congress that started this whole mess. I don't think these latter ideas are even in the heads of broadband ISPs. They simply haven't thought that far. But eventually, as they try trimming this and expanding that to solve a problem that shouldn't have existed in the first place and can't otherwise be solved, they'll come up with something all of us will hate. I guarantee it. http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060622.html ![]() Internet Phones Must Pay Into Subsidy Fund Consumers who use wireless or Internet-based telephones could see their bills rise, as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved on Wednesday an interim new plan for funding phone service subsidies. The FCC ordered Internet telephone services like Vonage Holdings Corp. (VG.N) to contribute part of their revenue into the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service to rural and low-income areas as well as communications services and Internet access for schools, hospitals and libraries. The agency also increased the amount wireless telephone providers would have to pay into the fund. The move may lead to higher wireless and Internet telephone bills because the companies typically pass the fees on to customers. Companies offering long-distance and international telephone services as well as high-speed Internet service via digital subscriber lines (DSL) must currently contribute 10.9 percent of that revenue into the $7.3 billion fund. However, DSL providers will no longer have to contribute to the program after mid-August, so the FCC had to act to avoid a potential shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. Consumers' DSL bills could go down if the savings were passed through to them. Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and the other commissioners said the move was only an interim step to overhauling the contribution system. Martin has pushed for a payment based on telephone numbers. ``Our work in this area is far from complete,'' he said. Under the plan adopted by the FCC commissioners, providers of Internet telephone service, known as Voice over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, would have to pay about 7 percent of their revenue into the fund under the current contribution factor. A spokeswoman for Vonage said the company did not expect the decision to have a big impact on customers, particularly since bills were already expected to drop because of the elimination of a 3 percent excise tax. ``It's likely to be around net zero, or a slight increase for our customers,'' Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz said. Wireless carriers would also have to increase their contribution to the fund by about 1 percentage point to 4 percent of their revenue under the new FCC plan. Agency officials said they expect the new levels to take effect in the fourth quarter. The contribution factor is usually adjusted each quarter, based on payments received from providers. If the wireless or Internet telephone providers could prove that their long distance and international revenue were less, they would be allowed to use a smaller percentage as the basis for their contribution to the fund. There are also efforts in Congress to reform the USF, with senior members of the House of Representatives calling for it to be reined in amid allegations of waste, fraud and abuse. Top lawmakers in the Senate want to revamp and expand the program. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/techn...s-fcc-usf.html ![]() Big Mac Apple Set to Take Bigger Bite of the Market Arik Hesseldahl Some of the people in the survey group owned an iPod, and here the results are stunning. In this category, 7.6 percent say they'd switch even if the Mac can't run Windows. With Windows, that percentage swells to above 20 percent. One starts to see some statistical evidence that iPod is giving Mac the "halo effect" you've no doubt heard about. Windows PC users cite plenty of reasons for not wanting to own a Mac. One of the biggest has historically been the inability to run Windows applications many of them needed for business on an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) computer. However, that and other reasons are becoming less valid, and evidence is mounting that a potentially tectonic shift in Apple's place in the PC market could be coming in the next few years. In case you hadn't heard, Apple's Macs can now run Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows. Also, by the end of the year -- with luck, by the end of the summer -- all Macs will be built with microprocessors from Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) . That, combined with the runaway success of the iPod music player, augurs a considerably brighter picture for Mac sales and worldwide market share starting about 2008. Lots More Interest? Charles Wolf of Needham and Co. says Apple could end up with a global PC market share north of 5 percent by 2011, compared with a 1.9 percent sliver in 2005. How does he reach that conclusion? He asked Windows users. Wolf had Harris Interactive (Nasdaq: HPOL) poll about 2,400 people on their intentions to buy a Mac. About 300 didn't own a computer and another 100 or so already owned a Mac, leaving 2,092 people who use Windows on home computers. Those people were asked to attach a percentage to their likelihood of buying a Mac. Mind you, gauging people's intentions is tricky. Of those who say they're 40 percent likely to do something, generally speaking only 1 percent actually ever end up doing it, Harris says. So if 1,800 people give answers in this range, only 18 will actually do it. But once people start saying they're 50 percent likely to do something, they're a lot more serious about doing it, according to the pollster. Wolf's survey was adjusted way down to allow for this statistical tendency. Even after that, however, the results yield some pretty interesting findings: Assuming that the Mac cannot run Windows applications, 4.3 percent indicated an interest in switching from a Windows PC to the Mac. That translates to about 90 people out of the 2,092 in the sample. When asked if they would switch to the Mac if it could run Windows, the percentage saying yes doubled to about 8 percent. "Halo Effect" Some of the people in the survey group owned an iPod, and here the results are stunning. In this category, 7.6 percent say they'd switch even if the Mac can't run Windows. With Windows, that percentage swells to above 20 percent. One starts to see some statistical evidence that iPod is giving Mac the "halo effect" you've no doubt heard about. That users are so much more likely to switch when they know Mac can run Windows gives Apple a plateful of marketing food for thought. For years, the biggest complaint among people who use Windows and are interested in switching to the Mac has been the lack of certain applications they consider available only for Windows. Boot Camp, the software that lets Mac users toggle over to Windows, is in beta testing now, and expected to become a standard feature in the next Mac operating system -- Mac OS X version 10.5, aka Leopard -- due in early 2007. It gives Apple a high card in the "switch to Mac" game. Wolf stresses that he "bent over backwards" to interpret the survey results conservatively. Even then, they suggest 772,000 Macs, about 17 percent of the 4.3 million units expected to be sold this year, will be purchased by people switching away from Windows, Wolf says. He bases that projection on forecasts for future PC sales growth from market research firm Interactive Data. Mac Attack In the following two years, however, the phenomenon gathers steam. His figures for 2007 -- the year the Intel transition is complete and Windows-ready Leopard launches -- show 1.7 million Windows users switching to the Mac out of 6.7 million Macs sold, implying a 25 percent rate. The year after that shows nearly 3 million switchers, or about 29 percent of a total 10.2 million Macs sold. By 2008, assuming IDC forecasts for worldwide PC sales of 279 million units are correct, the Mac could account for 3.7 percent of the worldwide market. The company's share starts to approach 5 percent by 2010. That's more progress than Mac users have seen in many years. Meanwhile, some 80 million people are going to visit an Apple store this year, and half of them will be Windows users. I've heard that the new Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan is seeing 12,000 people a day, and it's not hard to believe. I was there the other night -- at 9:45 p.m. on a Monday night -- and counted more than 200 people in the place. http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/Wr...e-Market.xhtml ![]() The Next Cheap Thing NComputing Is Reviving a '90s Concept With A Device That Could Give PC Access To The Masses Peter Burrows Stephen A. Dukker is talking a mile a minute, his excited voice filling the small conference room. He's fiddling with a laptop PC, some cables, and a tiny gizmo that looks like something you might pick up in the accessories aisle at Radio Shack (RSH ) as he prepares to demonstrate the wares of tiny NComputing Co. "I have not been this excited about a company...ever," says Dukker, NComputing's chairman. "I'm afraid I'm going to have a stroke, I'm so excited!" That's because Dukker is convinced NComputing has discovered one of techdom's holy grails: a computer cheap enough for the world's PC-less masses. Actually, not a computer. NComputing's gizmo—this one, the unsexily named L100 model—once attached to a mouse, keyboard, and monitor, can be used to tap into a PC somewhere else, across the room or across the continent, at a far lower cost than owning a PC yourself. Dukker's cost is less than $50 per user, vs. $250 for a cut-rate desktop PC. And if volumes rise as he hopes, that price could fall below $10. "Pretty soon, we'll have reached the point that the hardware is essentially free," says Dukker. It's the return of the "thin client," one of Silicon Valley's most hyped concepts of the 1990s. Luminaries such as Oracle Corp. (ORCL ) chief Lawrence J. Ellison and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s chairman Scott G. McNealy gushed back then over the idea that rather than own powerful PCs, Netizens could use these disk-less, processor-less "dumb" devices to access files and programs, stored on some remote server, via the Internet. It kind of made sense. After all, the disk drive and processor in your PC make up about 40% of the materials cost. And who uses all that processing power, anyway? For many of us, a PC is for sending e-mail and surfing the Web. Unless you're designing rocket ships or flying them in some graphics-rich video game, you barely test a PC's limits. Ahead Of Its Time But reality stepped in. With PC prices falling ever lower, customers had a choice between a full-fledged PC and an unproven thin-client device that cost just about as much. The few models that sold were priced over $500 after expensive software licenses were taken into account. So they never really caught on. Today, all the attempts to reach the world's poor are focused on finding ways to make cheaper PCs. One of the most publicized efforts is the nonprofit "One Laptop per Child" program led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Nicholas Negroponte. The computer uses free Linux software rather than Microsoft's Windows and comes with a crank for people who don't have access to reliable power, or the means to pay for it. But maybe, just maybe, the thin client was simply ahead of its time. Broadband connections, after all, are far more widespread today. And millions of people are comfortable with using Net-based software such as Google (GOOG ) and MySpace (NWS ). Now venture capitalists are starting to fund thin-client companies again, such as Teradici Corp. of Canada. Even PC giant Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ ) is ramping up sales of $300-plus thin-client terminals to companies that want to cut the cost of managing software-packed PCs. HP sees a day when consumers will pay a phone company or Net service provider only for the minutes of computing they use over a dumb terminal. "This is not just a 'wouldn't it be nice,"' says Philip McKinney, chief technology officer for HP's Personal Systems Group. "There are a lot of things that are starting to converge that begin to make this make sense." Here's where Dukker would beg to differ. He says it's already happening. Despite having no real sales or marketing effort, NComputing has sold more than 100,000 units since 2004, and is on pace to sell nearly that many in the remainder of the year. Most are going to small companies and school districts in places like Brazil, Thailand, and Ghana. But interest is picking up with U.S. schools as well. Since stumbling upon NComputing's Web site, Tracy Smith, the director of technology for the Fremont School district in rural southeastern Idaho, has replaced 240 ancient PCs running Windows 98 with 80 NComputing devices. "I haven't told our Dell salespeople I'm doing this. But that's 240 computers that Dell didn't sell me." O.K., so Dukker isn't turning the computer industry on its head just yet. But the role of change agent is one that is familiar to him. In 1998, Dukker's eMachines came roaring out of the gate to log $814 million in sales in its first year by selling nearly marginless machines that forced HP and IBM to get serious about sub-$1,000 PCs. Now that price band makes up more than 80% of all home PC sales. But there are legions of potential customers for whom even today's rock-bottom PC prices are too high. Former eMachines executive Young Song started NComputing (he's now CEO) after discovering that the company was unable to entice some people with $299 machines that had been returned and refurbished. To tap that market, Song says, "I knew we needed a new technology." He needed a new job, as well. Song left eMachines soon after Dukker was pushed out in 2001, when the company nearly went broke. In 2003, Song connected with co-founder Klaus Maier, who had worked for more than a decade on software that would let you divvy up an operating system and distribute it among many users over the Internet. By late 2004 they'd converted that software into a cheap chip packaged inside a plastic enclosure with the circuitry to control a mouse, keyboard, and monitor. Thus was born the non-PC. Add in energy savings (the devices consume about 5% as much power as a PC) and lower support costs (there's little inside that can break), and you start to see the logic. Dukker will really push his case once NComputing completes a $20 million-plus round of venture financing. Co-founder Song says the goal is to sell one million units by 2008, and not just as PC replacements. NComputing is talking with makers of TVs, cash registers, factory equipment—anything that could benefit from offering a PC-like experience. Sounds big. But then so did the thin client. And there is one big potential legal obstacle. NComputing's technology in effect lets as many as 30 people use a single copy of Microsoft's Windows. NComputing doesn't resell Windows but leaves it for customers to interpret whether they're covered by their Windows license. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) hasn't said exactly how it feels about that yet, but you can imagine the possibilities. There's also the practical consideration of depending on uninterrupted Internet service in the Third World to use one of these devices. Says MIT's Negroponte in an e-mail: "Please remember that in my world, connections are spotty." So maybe Dukker's campaign is a bit of a windmill tilt after all. "There's always been this idea that people have way too much computing power on their desks, but the fact is that people don't want to cede control back to a central authority," says Stephen Baker, a PC analyst for NPD Group. "History tells me this is likely to be a nichey product that doesn't get a lot of traction." That's not dampening Dukker's spirits at all. "We are a signpost that there's a new approach that could drive the cost of the client device to nothing," he says. "This could change the world." http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...gn_id=rss_tech ![]() NEC Plans To Sell Packard Bell Unit NEC said Wednesday that it was in talks to sell part of its European personal computer operations, which would lead to its withdrawal from the home-use PC market in that region. Shares in NEC, one of the largest Japanese electronics conglomerates, rose slightly on the news. The company declined to give details, including the name of the potential buyer and a sale price for the wholly owned unit, Packard Bell. The Nihon Keizai newspaper reported Wednesday that NEC would sell the majority of its holding in the unit and that it was talking with Lap Shun-hui, a China-born entrepreneur who is one of the founders of eMachines, a maker of low-cost personal computers that has since been bought by Gateway. A price has not been decided, but it appears to be less than ¥10 billion, or $87 million, the paper said. Packard Bell has annual sales of about ¥130 billion, but it has been unprofitable in the past few years. Goldman Sachs said a sale of the European operations would be positive. "We view favorably NEC returning to a stance of exiting businesses where it has little chance of creating value," a Goldman analyst, Ikuo Matsuhashi, wrote in a note to clients. NEC holds the top position in Japan, with more than 20 percent of the PC market, but it has had limited success overseas. In 2005 it had a market share of 2.8 percent, according to the research firm Gartner. Its PC operations posted an operating loss of ¥7 billion in the financial year that ended March 31 on sales of ¥680 billion, accounting for 14 percent of group revenue of ¥4.8 trillion. NEC runs European PC and server operations for corporate clients through another local unit, and that business will continue regardless of the outcome of the talks on the sale of Packard Bell, an NEC spokesman said. Shares in NEC closed up ¥5 at ¥586, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/21/business/nec.php ![]() Telecom Giants in Europe Plan $30 Billion Deal Andrew Ross Sorkin Nokia of Finland and Siemens of Germany are expected to announce today that they will merge their telecommunication network equipment businesses in a deal valued at more than $30 billion, people involved in the transaction said last night. The merger is likely to set off a new global wave of consolidation and a round of price wars as the telecommunication industry continues to remake itself after last decade's boom-and-bust cycle. The cross-border deal, which was approved by the boards of both companies, would create the world's third-largest network equipment concern behind Ericsson and a combined Lucent and Alcatel, which announced plans to merge three months ago. The transaction is also likely to put considerable pressure on Motorola, which will fall to the No. 4 position among network equipment makers in the world, just as its business is turning around as a result of its hot-selling Razr cellphones. The network equipment industry makes the fiber optic cables, routers and wireless beacons that act as the backbone of the communications world for telecommunications carriers like Cingular and Verizon. While Nokia's cellphone business will remain largely unaffected as a result of the deal, it could use the combination to provide network equipment to carriers that includes advanced features for its phones. Motorola has been able to couple its network equipment for Nextel, which is now part of Sprint, with technology for its walkie-talkie handsets with much success. The combination of Nokia and Siemens is being driven, in part, by the fact that so many of the world's biggest carriers — the clients of the equipment makers — are merging themselves, as AT&T's has by acquiring BellSouth and Sprint has in a deal with Nextel. The deal is also being spurred by growing competition from emerging rivals in Asia, which are increasingly finding ways to deploy new technologies while lowering costs. The deal involves creating a new company into which both Nokia and Siemens will merge their network equipment businesses, people involved in the transaction said. It is being structured somewhat like a joint venture because both companies will own the business, they said. Analysts have been predicting mergers between the largest telecommunications equipment makers in the five years since the Internet bubble collapsed. As wireless and conventional phone companies merged and the binge in spending on state-of-the-art fiber optic networks subsided, carriers slashed their budgets for new equipment. At the same time, new low-cost competitors entered the market, particularly from Asia. Huawei, based in China, for instance, has been able to win contracts in Asia in places where Lucent and others had previously been successful. Siemens was particularly vulnerable. The company sold its cellphone handset division to BenQ, of Taiwan, last summer. BenQ still uses the Siemens brand name and Siemens factories in Germany, but the Taiwanese company ultimately hopes to build a brand of its own. With its retail presence diminished and prices for network equipment falling, Siemens was long thought by industry analysts to be considering ways to cushion itself in an increasingly volatile market. The company sells equipment to wireless carriers like Cingular in the United States. Siemens is also likely to face increased pressure when Alcatel and Lucent complete their merger because Alcatel provides G.S.M. wireless technology and Lucent is a leader in the rival C.D.M.A. technology. With Siemens joining forces with Nokia, the combined company will have more money to develop products and additional customers. At the same time, Nokia has been looking to strengthen its network business to compete better with Motorola, analysts said. Both companies are also likely to compete for contracts in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where wireless networks are still being expanded. A deal between Nokia and Siemens leaves open the question of what will happen to Nortel, the Canadian network equipment maker. The company has weathered several years of accounting troubles and its stock has been pummeled during that time. Nortel is one of the largest companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Canadian officials might be reluctant to see it fall into foreign hands. Nokia and Siemens expect their combination will create about $1.5 billion in annual savings by cutting back office costs and creating other efficiencies, the people involved in the transaction said. Both companies decided to structure the deal so that they would continue to retain stakes in the combined business, so they could gain if the value of the entity rises because of the enormous expected savings, these people said. The structure of the deal is somewhat surprising because Siemens was expected to sell or spin off its network equipment business. Ken Belson contributed reporting for this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/bu.../19merger.html ![]() Norway to House Seeds in Doomsday Vault Doug Mellgren It sounds like something from a science fiction film—a doomsday vault carved into a frozen mountainside on a secluded Arctic island ready to serve as a Noah's Ark for seeds in case of a global catastrophe. But Norway's ambitious project is on its way to becoming reality Monday when construction begins on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed to house as many as 3 million of the world's crop seeds. Prime ministers of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland were to attend the cornerstone ceremony on Monday morning near the town of Longyearbyen in Norway's remote Svalbard Islands, roughly 620 miles from the North Pole. Norway's Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen has called the vault a "Noah's Ark on Svalbard.'' Its purpose is to ensure the survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change, and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may have been wiped out. The seeds, packaged in foil, would be stored at such cold temperatures that they could last hundreds, even thousands, of years, according to the independent Global Crop Diversity Trust. The trust, founded in 2004, has also worked on the project and will help run the vault, which is scheduled to open and start accepting seeds from around the world in September 2007. Oil-rich Norway first proposed the idea a year ago, drawing wide international interest, Riis-Johansen said. The Svalbard Archipelago, 300 miles north of the mainland, was selected because it is located far from many threats and has a consistently cold climate. Those factors will help protect the seeds and safeguard their genetic makeup, Norway's Foreign Ministry said. The vault will have thick concrete walls, and even if all cooling systems fail, the temperature in the frozen mountain will never rise above freezing due to permafrost, it said. While the facility will be fenced in and guarded, Svalbard's free-roaming polar bears, known for their ferocity, could also act as natural guardians, according to the Global Diversity Trust. The Nordic nation is footing the bill, amounting to about $4.8 million for infrastructure costs. "This facility will provide a practical means to re-establish crops obliterated by major disasters,'' Cary Fowler, the trust's executive secretary, said in a statement, adding that crop diversity is also threatened by "accidents, mismanagement and shortsighted budget cuts.'' Already, some 1,400 seed banks around the world, most of them national, hold samples of their host country's crops. But these banks are vulnerable to shutdowns, natural disasters, war and lack of funds, said Riis-Johansen. Storing duplicate seeds in the Svalbard vault is meant to offer a fail-safe system for the planet. The idea of a global seed bank has been around since the early 1980s, but unresolved issues, such as ownership rights to genetic material, stalled it until the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization adopted the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in 2001. While Norway will own the vault facility, countries contributing seeds will own the material they deposit—much as with a bank safe deposit box. The Global Crop Diversity Trust will help developing countries pay the cost of preparing and sending seeds. http://www.livescience.com/othernews...nge_seeds.html ![]() Sony Music Wants Bloggers To Promo Videos, Music Michael Kanellos Sony BMG Music Entertainment wants to give bloggers free music and video--sort of. The music conglomerate is promoting a new site, called Musicbox Video, that showcases videos, artist interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and other material from a broad portfolio of its artists. Want to see a film clip of Bruce Springsteen singing "The River" from the 1980 movie "No Nukes" or some clips from Franz Ferdinand? The site has it. But Sony will also actively encourage fan sites and bloggers--who are mostly used to receiving cease-and-desist letters from studios--to link to the material. Links for adding Musicbox content are displayed on the site. Individuals thus could create sites focused around certain artists by linking to video channels on the Musicbox site dedicated to them, or link to several channels which, in the aggregate, comprise the most mawkish artists (in the view of the blogger) that Sony has to offer. The turnabout largely comes amid a revamp of the company being conducted by CEO Howard Stringer. It is also taking place because the videos, in Flash, can't be pirated, at least not easily. Sony also sells ads on the service. DreamWorks Animation SKG and Hewlett-Packard have already signed up to show commercials. The ads pop up before the first video plays. Roll-overs, sponsorships and other forms of advertising will likely be integrated into the system. Thousands of touch points The partner behind the curtain on the deal is Brightcove, the IPTV start-up founded by former Macromedia exec Jeremy Allaire. Brightcove hosts the service, sells the advertisement and writes the code that allows individuals to link to the material. Other studios and publishers are looking at putting up similar video deals, he said. "The media organizations are starting to embrace the idea that their library of assets can be exploited through thousands of touch points," he said. "It is an opportunity to embrace that urge among consumers to post videos." Music and movie producers currently allow third parties to host their content, but these deals typically take several meetings and ornate contracts, Allaire stated. Music companies have also not typically made money off videos, which for two decades, have existed to promote songs on MTV. Videos are now available on company-authorized sites, which contain ads, but traffic is sporadic. Linking essentially provides an avenue for syndication. Brightcove also provides video hosting for the Discovery Channel, Reuters and others. Only some of them, however, are allowing for Web syndication. Success, of course, will depend upon Brightcove's ability to meet any traffic demands and maintain security. Customer attitudes toward Sony will also play a part. Individuals do not get to program the content on the different Musicbox channels--just the channels they add. If a site links to the Shakira video channel, for example, the site owner does not get to block out select videos or keep ones around they happen to like: Sony determines what videos will be available during certain days or weeks on the channel. Once one of the strongest brands in the world, Sony angered customers earlier this year by installing software on consumers' PCs that exposed them to vulnerabilities. The software was loaded onto PCs through Sony BMG CDs. Sony has also seen its once dominant position in televisions and electronic devices get eroded by Samsung, Panasonic, Microsoft, Apple Computer and others. Layoffs and other changes have been imposed in an effort to right the situation. http://news.com.com/Sony+Music+wants...3-6085036.html ![]() USB Teddy Bear Holds Data, Scares Children Stan Horaczek ![]() Generally, when someone makes a teddy bear-themed gadget, his/her intention is to overwhelm bystanders with cuteness. But whoever created this little guy, whose head has to be removed in order to access the internal USB drive, must have watched one too many Tim Burton movies. No word on how much it holds or if there are any plans to make these available for purchase, but with your own bear, a thumb drive, some thread and a closet full of skeletons, you can probably make your own without too much effort. http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/19/u...sung-bd-p1000/ ![]() The BPI Talks Exclusively To WiredFire The past few weeks have been chaotic on the news front, with the dramatic disclosures surrounding The Pirate Bay drawing everyone’s focus away from what has probably been one of the busiest weeks in technology related news in recent times. Half the world seems to be ganging up on Apple over their use of AACS DRM and cheap labour, Microsoft have announced their concern at diminishing profit margins, Bill Gates has announced his resignation as CEO of Microsoft, the Dutch courts have announced a ruling that could impact on the legality of indexing sites and the BPI have relinquished their control over owners recording their own music and announced their intention to prosecute Russian operators, Allofmp3.com. Few could dismiss such remarkable events as boring or inconsequential. Perhaps one of the least reported issues concerns that of the BPI. Peter Jamieson, Chairman of the BPI has stated “traditionally the recording industry has turned a blind eye to private copying and has used the strength of the law to pursue commercial pirates”. “We believe that we now need to make a clear and public distinction between copying for your own use and copying for dissemination to third parties and make it unequivocally clear to the consumer that if they copy their CDs for their own private use in order to move the music from format to format we will not pursue them.” And about time, too, for that interpretive view of copyright law was completely unenforceable and at odds with the Human Rights Act, which specifies that “Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions”. For that matter, the Copyright Designs and Patents Act extends copyright protection to the original content and does not apply to second generation copies. Not only can you copy what you already own, but copying a second generation copy of another recording (e.g. downloading a copy) appears to lie outside of existing law. Not that the BPI have ever targeted those who download anyway. Mark Richardson, Managing Director of Independiente Records risibly claimed in a joint statement “It is early days for digital music. At this point in time the cost of distribution for downloads is actually higher than for CDs. Regardless of that, however, distribution remains a relatively small part of the investment record companies make in music. All of the key costs for a piece of music remain virtually the same whatever format you distribute it on.” Clearly there should be far fewer costs in distribution, there is no physical product to produce, package, store, transport, distribute, merchandise, handle or sell. There are no record stores, sales staff, or whatever to fund as part of the consumer cycle. If, and I use that word very guardedly, the costs of distribution are higher, how come iTunes can sell download media perfectly legally for a fraction of the price of the physical media? Mr Richardson would do well to remember the old adage that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time. And perhaps the BPI would do well to remember that in life, you are often judged by the company you keep. Jamieson went on to criticise iTunes for their use of non interoperable DRM, calling on Apple to open up its software in order that it is compatible with other players. “We would advocate that Apple opts for interoperability” All fascinating stuff, but what of this issue regarding Russian music vendors AllofMP3.com? According to XTN, iTunes accounted for 44% of UK paid downloads. Russian pay site allofmp3.com came second with 14% followed by Napster at 8% and both MSN and Wippit trailing with 6% each. Time for WiredFire to talk to the experts, in this case an exclusive interview with Matt Phillips, Communications Manager of the BPI who are said to in the process of suing AllofMP3.com. Nick: Has this arisen because of the XTN figures showing the popularity of allofmp3.com? Matt: “No, Nick. But it's true that the growing awareness of the site (partly due to the PR around the XTN figures) has made it an increasingly big problem for us” Nick: Will the action be based in the UK and then migrate to Russia once you have obtained judgement, or will it be under Russian law? Matt: “It will be a civil case brought in the UK. There are provisions within UK law to bring an action outside the jurisdiction” Nick: Why are the BPI involved and not the Russian arm of the IFPI? Why isn't the IFPI instigating this action? Matt: “Nick, AllofMP3 are infringing our members' rights by illegally supplying UK consumers with music downloads. They are able to do this at cut prices because, despite their claims, they do not pay a penny to the artists or the labels” But AllofMP3.com are on record as having stated that this is not true, and that they currently pay royalties to ROMS for redistribution within Russia. According to their own press release “AllOfMP3.com does regularly transfer substantial amounts of royalties to the Russian organizations for collective management of rights such as ROMS and FAIR, which have granted the site licenses to legally deliver music through the Internet.” Matt went on to say “Rather than initiate legal actions against the UK users of the site, which we would be perfectly entitled to do, there are provisions in UK law to bring a civil case against the site itself outside the jurisdiction. IFPI are also seeking to close down the site, and there are two ongoing criminal cases against the directors behind the site that have been brought by our equivalents in Russia, but the IFPI are not part of the BPI's legal actions” Matt didn’t explain how it was that UK users of AllofMP3.com could be liable under existing law, inasmuch that S22 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act. This section states “The copyright in a work is infringed by a person who, without the licence of the copyright owner, imports into the United Kingdom, otherwise than for his private and domestic use, an article which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe is, an infringing copy of the work”. Quite clearly the BPI would have a very difficult time indeed trying to enforce action against any individuals importing copyright material for their own private and domestic purposes. And they know it. Matt was most emphatic that AllofMP3.com are not trading under some grey area – or “loophole” - under Russian law, rather that the problems are more an issue of delays in Russian enforcement, adding “you should note that the US are also piling pressure on the Russian authorities to get the site closed down”. However, AllofMP3.com states that “The Russian site AllOfMP3.com is not operating or advertising its business on the territory of other countries”, and in many respects, consumers are indeed as free to shop internationally as they are in their local shopping mall. Whether the BPI action is likely to be that successful is open to widespread conjecture. On the surface they would appear to have quite a solid case under UK civil law, given that their site appears to be targeting English consumers. But enforcing any judgement overseas is going to be an altogether different issue – especially if AllofMP3.com can demonstrate that they have been complying with the laws of their own country and that their export market is incidental to their primary business model. Perhaps the biggest clue as to their future intentions is detailed within their press release: “On September 1, 2006 the changes to the Russian copyright legislation will come into force. Since January 2006 the site has been making direct agreements with rightholders and authors at the same time increasing the price of the music compositions and transferring the royalties directly to the artists and record companies. The aim of AllofMP3.com is to agree with all rightholders on the prices and royalties amounts by September 1, 2006 We believe in the long term and civilized business based on respecting the law, considering the customers' demands as well as the interests of both national and international rightholders”. Whilst it appears that AllofMP3.com seem set to straighten up their act, this promises to be an interesting time for observers. Whatever the outcome, we feel that it is about time that the true cost of digital music is properly reflected in the retail price. Ridiculous statements such as those made by Mark Richardson that “the cost of distribution for downloads is actually higher than for CDs” do nothing to attract any sympathy from those of us who have spent not inconsiderable fortunes in amassing our modest CD and DVD collections. Whilst the BPI are to be commended for their more realistic approach to digital file transfers than their US counterparts, the RIAA, their curious choice of allies in the form of Mark Richardson of Independiente Records is certainly doing them no favours. WiredFire are grateful to Matt Phillips of the BPI for giving so much of his time to this interview. http://wiredfire.org/index.php?q=node/78 ![]() Net Students 'Think Copying OK' Students of the "Google generation" often do not understand what plagiarism is, says an expert on the issue. Many of the new generation of students raised on the internet see nothing wrong with copying other people's work, says Professor Sally Brown. Prof Brown, of Leeds Metropolitan University, will tell an international conference that the net has made copying and pasting too easy. She suggests personalising assignments would make plagiarism difficult. Prof Brown, pro vice-chancellor for assessment, learning and teaching at Leeds Metropolitan, will be speaking in Gateshead this week. In her presentation for the conference, she says students do not necessarily see anything wrong with copying other people's work. She says they say things like "if they are stupid enough to give us three assignments with the same deadline, what can they expect?" and "I just couldn't say it better myself". Some do not understand about the rules while others know there are rules but get them wrong, she says. Widespread problem They might have poor academic practices - not keeping good records of where the material they were using came from, for example, she adds. "They are post-modern, eclectic, Google-generationists, Wikipediasts, who don't necessarily recognise the concepts of authorships/ownerships." Research indicates that plagiarism - whether done as deliberate cheating or not - is widespread in UK universities. And all of them had a problem with it, Prof Brown says. "The ones that say they haven't got a problem have got their heads in the sand." She outlines four basic strategies for tackling plagiarism: • try to deter and punish • make the penalties known and try to educate the students on the issue • try to "design it out" - her preferred option - for example by setting assignments that required personal knowledge or keeping a diary or showing work in progress • change the culture in which students are working - the hardest option 'Bullying tactics' A big issue - but one hard to tackle - was students who deliberately paid someone else to produce work for them, Prof Brown says. She says she has even heard of students bullying other people into doing their work. But group working could also present problems. "There is a very wobbly line between collusion, co-operation and cheating," Prof Brown says. "And students don't know where the wobbly, fuzzy lines are." Increasingly, software is being used to detect work that is similar to other people's. But Prof Brown has this warning: "The good plagiarists aren't caught." The JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service's second international plagiarism conference is at The Sage, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, from Monday to Wednesday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...on/5093286.stm ![]() Blu-Men Unboxing the Samsung BD-P1000 Evan Blass Life sure is good in The Man Room. First these guys got a hold of Toshiba's HD-A1 HD DVD player before almost anyone else, and now they've also managed to score a Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray unit a full six days before the official release, capturing the entire unboxing process for us to enjoy. Since the first Blu-ray titles won't go on sale until tomorrow, initial impressions are limited to the player's design, menu layout, and upscaling abilities, with the HD-A1's output used as a reference point in the latter category. The good news here is that the 500 extra bucks you'll have to spend to pick up the Samsung do indeed give you a few initial advantages over the Tosh, such as the snazzier packaging (big deal), more attractive case, and perhaps most importantly, significantly faster startup and load times. On the downside, the HD-A1 showed slightly better upconverting abilities than the Blu-ray model, and The Man Room also experienced a rather unnerving shrinking and flickering of the menus when connecting to a 1080i projector. As for us, we're gonna wait until some reviews start showing up online before we decide to either shell out the cash or wait for the Sony, the Pioneer, or maybe even the PS3 to come out. Keep reading to check out the remote and a shot of the main menu... http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/19/u...sung-bd-p1000/ ![]() Toshiba Says to Launch HD DVD Recorder in July Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said on Thursday it would launch the next-generation, high-definition optical disk recorder based on the HD DVD format on July 14 in Japan. Toshiba expects the world's first HD DVD recorder, equipped with hard disk drive, to sell for 398,000 yen ($3,466). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/wa...rtner=homepage ![]() Toshiba Losing $200 Per HD-DVD Player, Firm Finds Mark Hachman Toshiba is losing approximately $200 or more on each sale of its HD-A1 HD-DVD player, an analyst firm said Friday. iSuppli, which has published so-called teardown analyses of the Apple Intel-based iMac and other devices, said that the components needed to assemble the HD-A1 came to approximately $674, significantly higher than the $499 estimated price the company charges. Testing, cables, the remote control and packaging probably has pushed Toshiba's cost to more than $700, the company said. Unsurprisingly, the firm came to the conclusion that Toshiba is buying its way into the market. Blu-Ray players from Samsung, Sony and others will start shipping this summer, for about $999. However, establishing a beachhead in the next-generation DVD market could pay off, as in the U.S. alone, estimated DVD player sales totaled about 16 million units in 2005, excluding PC sales and game consoles, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, via The Digital Bits.com. In 2004, player sales totaled just under 20 million units, as manufacturers have shifted to new models with recording capabilities to boost their sales prices. "It's unusual to find this level of subsidization outside of the video-game console and mobile-phone markets," said Chris Crotty, senior analyst of consumer electronics at iSuppli, in a statement. "Presumably, Toshiba anticipates making back any initial HD-A1 losses with subsequent products. There is little question that Toshiba had to use a high-cost design for its first model. But there is a big question as to whether pricing its player so much less than Blu-ray is worth the financial risk." In 1997, the year that the DVD Video format and its first players were launched, approximately 349,000 DVD players were sold, according to the CEA. The average price was just under $490, according to the CEA. iSuppli forecasts that factory shipments of all next generation DVD equipment—both HD-DVD and Blu-ray—will rise to 65 million units in 2010, up from 1.6 million units in 2006. The firm predicts that both formats will win ground in the marketplace for some time, without a clear winner. Interestingly, iSuppli found that the HD-A1 uses a Pentium 4 as its main processor, meaning that the device is more similar to a PC than a consumer-electronics device. The Pentium 4 is paired with other programmable componentrs, namely Broadcom Corp.'s BCM7411 for High-Definition (HD) video decoding and four ADSP-2126x SHARC programmable Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) from Analog Devices Inc., the firm found. In all, the total cost of the chips within the HD-A1 is about $247, including $125 spent on a 1-Gbyte DIMM from Hynix, three other types of DRAM, as well as a 256-Mbyte flash chip from M-Systems and a 32-bit MirrorBit flash chip from Spansion. "The Toshiba HD-A1 is basically a combination of a low-end PC and a high-end DVD player," noted Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and senior analyst for iSuppli, in a statement. CE devices typically use optimized ASIC chips that are tuned for exactly the functions the device needs to perform. While creating such components requires design dollars on the back end, the per-chip cost savings usually results in a net savings over the life of the unit. http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20060623/...Ym hvBHNlYwM- ![]() Which New DVD Format? Neither Just Yet David Pogue WELCOME to high-definition-DVD-FAQs.com, your one-stop info resource about the next generation of home movie equipment! Here you'll find all the frequently asked questions about the new DVD players ... and, better yet, the answers. Forrester Research says that 17 percent of American households have high-def TV screens; no wonder the electronics industry thinks that DVD technology is ready for an upgrade, too. After all, the 60,000 movies already available on DVD may look good on your TV today — but they're not true high definition. You're not seeing the full color, clarity and contrast your high-def screen is capable of. Your timing in visiting our site couldn't be better — the very first Blu-ray DVD player, Samsung's BD-P1000, arrives in stores next week. Read on for details on this revolutionary new player. And now, on with the Frequently Asked Questions! What about the format war? Yes, there are two incompatible types of high-definition DVD players: HD-DVD (backed by Toshiba, Microsoft, Sanyo, NEC and movie studios like New Line and Universal) and Blu-ray (backed by Sony, Apple, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Pioneer, Dell and movie studios like Sony, 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate and Disney). Most movies will be available in only one high-def format. Whichever you choose, you won't be able to play some of your favorite movies on DVD. Isn't competition fun? Which format plays movies better? The two formats offer equally spectacular picture and sensational sound. The image is much sharper than before, and the detail is incredible. Video buffs notice the difference right away. Most people, however, would notice a difference only if an ordinary DVD and a high-def DVD were playing side-by-side on big screens. What about features? Both DVD formats let you summon pop-up, on-screen menus without stopping the movie, so you can switch languages or change scenes without a detour to a main menu. Nice. Both formats make possible new kinds of DVD extras, like picture-in-picture director commentaries (rather than just audio commentaries). And Blu-ray discs can offer a Scene Search function: a clickable menu of the actors and the scenes in which they appear. All of this is so far theoretical, however. We here at high-definition-DVD-FAQs.com have sampled 10 early HD-DVD movies and 7 Blu-ray discs — and not one of them offers any of these features. In fact, for the most part, the DVD extras aren't even in high definition. Clearly, the first order of business for the movie studios was just converting the actual movies to high-def DVD; filling in the blanks can come later. Which is the best high-definition player? You mean, of the two available so far? The new Samsung Blu-ray player costs a cool $1,000 — twice as much as the Toshiba HD-DVD player that arrived last month. (Both players also play standard DVD's, even "up-converting" them to improve the picture on high-def screens.) Samsung concedes that $1,000 isn't exactly pricing for the masses, and stresses that its new machine is intended for well-off early adopters. Which is sort of self-evident, isn't it? "The target audience for this player is whoever will buy it. ... " Then again, that $1,000 buys you a number of advantages over the Toshiba; for example, the Samsung is substantially smaller (17 by 12.1 by 3.1 inches). Lighter, too. And absolutely great-looking: the piano-black, pseudo-lacquered finish of the front panel wraps around to form the entire top surface. The front panel glows with cool blue accents. The Samsung also has memory card slots, so that you can watch your digital camera's pictures in high definition. They look really amazing that way. In fact, Samsung must think they look really, really amazing; even in its fastest slide-show mode, each photo lingers on the screen for at least 15 seconds. We love our kids and all, but that's about 12 seconds longer than necessary. I heard that the Toshiba takes more than a minute to start playing a DVD. How about the Samsung Blu-ray deck? Only 30 seconds. That's still not as fast as a traditional DVD player, though. And the Samsung introduces several-second pauses here and there — between the studio logo and the menu screen, between the menu and the start of the movie, and so on. Samsung's engineers fill these intervals with what may be the world's worst "please wait" symbol: an hourglass icon, as in Microsoft Windows. It's our guess that most people would rather be spared the constant reminder that they've stuck a glorified PC under their TV sets. What's next — the Blu-ray Screen of Death? The hourglass appears almost constantly during those excruciatingly slow photo slide shows. Worse, it appears right smack in the middle of each photo, often on a loved one's forehead. I'm a videophile. Can you give me all the geeky specs that make my heart pound? That's what we're here for! The Samsung can connect to your TV using any of these connector types: HDMI, DVI (with an optional HDMI adapter), component cables or composite (RCA) cables. It hooks up to your sound system using coaxial, optical or stereo outputs, and understands Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby DTS and MP3 audio tracks. The Samsung can pump out the highest-def high-def picture there is: a 1080p signal. (That means the image is formed by 1,080 horizontal lines, painted progressively down the screen.) Not many TV sets can even display 1080p yet, and there's not what you'd call a world of difference between 1080p and the Toshiba's best effort, 1080i (which is 1,080 lines, appearing as alternating, interlaced sets of 540). But for those early adopters with $1,000 to spend, at least they know their system is futureproof. How's the remote? Hey, Samsung — we just paid you $1,000. How about tossing us a bone — like illuminated buttons on the remote? Ever heard of someone watching a movie with the lights turned low? The Play/Pause and Stop buttons are larger than the others and distinguished by recognizable rubber bumps, which is a good thing. On the other hand, the remote is filled with buttons that don't seem to do anything. (Some of them, like Cancel, are just a tease.) And there are no fewer than three different Menu buttons. (They correspond to the player's menu, the movie's menu and the in-movie pop-up menu.) Should I buy one? It's pretty early to consider a high-def DVD player. Keep in mind that for the next six months, the movie selection will be pitiful. The day the Samsung arrives, for example, a grand total of nine Blu-ray movies will be available, including "50 First Dates," "Hitch" and "The Fifth Element." Lions Gate will add five more the following week (like "Crash" and "Saw"), but even by the end of July, the entire Blu-ray library will consist of 24 flicks. (At least 130 other movies are slated for Blu-rayification, but release dates haven't been set.) Besides, if you can wait until November, you'll be able to buy a Blu-ray player for only $500 — in the form of Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which will double as a Blu-ray DVD player. Furthermore, rumor has it that dual-format players (HD-DVD and Blu-ray) are in the works for 2007. But I really want it! Are you sure? It's really awfully early. It's so early, even Samsung is a little sheepish about the glitches. "Blu-ray Disc is a new and evolving format," the user manual says. "Accordingly, disc compatibility issues with new and existing format discs are possible. Not every disc will play back." I know, but I still want it. Listen: What part of "It's too early" don't you understand? If you buy one now, you risk making a huge investment in Blu-ray gear and movies (about $20 each), and then watching in horror as HD-DVD winds up winning the format war. Or vice versa. If that's your fate, you'll have to junk your whole investment. In that case, don't forget to visit our sister site, Modern-day-Betamax-suckers.com. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/te...ogue.html?8dpc ![]() Review The First Blu-Ray Burner, Pioneer's BDR-101A mikemuch "ExtremeTech has a review of Pioneer's BDR-101A-- the first Blu-ray burner available. The drive can do anything with CDs, is kind of slow with DVDs, and doesn't support double-density Blu-ray media, but hey, it's a start, and can burn 25GB in 42 minutes. Check out its burn speed benchmark performance at the link above." http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardwar.../2258200.shtml ![]() Blue on Blu-Ray Review The Fifth Element (Blu-ray) M. Bracke "I don't want one position, I want all positions!" Did I pick the wrong movie for my first Blu-ray review? As any self-respecting tech-geek knows, the first disc you choose to fire up a new format can be akin to a religious experience. Okay, maybe I'm going overboard, but really -- what hardcore home theater nut doesn't remember what the first laserdisc was that they ever bought? Or the first DVD? So it goes now with Blu-ray. And coming only a mere two months after the launch of HD DVD, it has been a bit of an embarrassment of riches -- when was the last time two major new consumer electronics formats launched so close together? Anyway, for my inaugural Blu-ray experience, I went with 'The Fifth Element.' Not, honestly, because I love the movie, but because it has long been regarded as one of the finest-looking standard DVDs out there. So I figured the Blu-ray version must be a home run, right? Well, not so fast. Unfortunately, as you'll find out later on down in the video section, this one didn't quite meet my expectations. So I apologize upfront that what may be the first Blu-ray disc review you read won't be an unequivocal, four-star rave. That said, this is only one of many, many Blu-ray titles to come, and we all know you can't judge a new format just by one disc. But I digress. How's 'The Fifth Element' as a movie? Well, I for one have always had mixed feelings about the films of French auteur Luc Besson. He's certainly audacious, with a bravura visual style, a vigorous sense of pacing and seemingly no fear when it comes to engaging in narrative flights of fancy. Yet many of his films have thus often felt a bit disjointed to me, as if all the cinematic razzmatazz is more important to Besson than the story he is trying to tell. And of all his films, I may feel this most acutely with 'The Fifth Element.' The plot is classic goofy sci-fi (though perhaps the story is besides the point?) As 'The Fifth Element' begins, we learn four stones were taken from Earth in 1914 by a race of giant mechanical turtle-like creatures called the Mondoshawan in order to keep humankind safe from evil. Flashforward 300 years and as the Mondoshawan are returning to Earth they are attacked by a group of mercenary dog men, the Mangalores, which leaves our planet defenseless. But out of the wreckage of battle, scientists are able to salvage a claw that they use to regenerate a new "perfect being" called Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). Too bad she escapes from the lab, and crash lands on the cab hood of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis). They are soon thrust into a sort of treasure hunt to save all mankind. They must restore "the fifth element" -- a sarcophagus that stands in the middle of the four stones -- to restore harmony to the galaxy. Er, something like that. To be honest, I often had absolutely no idea what was going on during a lot of 'The Fifth Element.' This is one loud, colorful, pop tart of a movie. It's like 'Blade Runner' meets 'Xanadu' meets 'The Apple,' only even more outlandish. The plot is so crazy and convoluted, just missing 30 seconds of it is the equivalent of missing 30 minutes of another movie. Certainly, many sci-fi fans will love this -- Besson wisely hints at a larger mythology, which gives the world he creates a life outside of just the visuals. But it is also hard to take any of it seriously, because it is all so day-glo-tastic, and the cast is having such a good time chewing the scenery, there ultimately seems to be little at stake aside from the ballooning costume budget. Oh, did I mention who else is in this movie? Simultaneously amusing and obnoxious is a pre-'Rush Hour' Chris Tucker, who as DJ Ruby Rhod seems to be channeling Prince and that guy from the 'Mannequin' movies. Then there is Ian Holm as Vito Cornelius, a member of an eternal line of clerics (don't ask). Normally a very serious actor, even Holm looks like he is struggling to keep a straight face during most of the movie. And who can forget Gary Oldman as the freaky arms merchant Zorg -- it is saying something that of all the actors here, he might actually be the most restrained. Even in the ridiculous get-ups he is asked to wear (all designed by Madonna favorite Jean-Paul Gaultier, of course). I suppose many sci-fi fans will love 'The Fifth Element.' I certainly did have fun, even if I never, ever bought a single second of it. It is a big, bright, colorful explosion of a movie -- and certainly looks cool. Ultimately, I don't know how influential this movie has become (if at all), and it certainly cribbed most of its best visuals from movies like 'Blade Runner.' But Besson still manages to create a film with an unquestionably unique cinematic sensibility, even if I remain left with absolutely no idea of what it is supposed to be about. The Video: Sizing Up the Picture Okay, here it comes -- the big question. Does Blu-ray deliver the visual goods? Can it match, or even beat rival HD DVD? Of course this is just one title, my first title, so I can't judge the format unequivocally. And, unfortunately, again, I probably picked the wrong disc for my initial Blu-ray test drive, because quite simply 'The Fifth Element' is just not the best HD I've seen, either compared to HD DVD or even-over-the air HD broadcasts. 'The Fifth Element' can't even compare to the best Blu-ray itself has to offer, because I did briefly sample a few other titles prior to sitting down with this one, and all appeared to deliver superior video quality even at a mere glance. However, make no mistake, this is a good-looking picture if you're not too critical. I bet the average consumer who saw this disc up and running at their local Best Buy would probably think it was darn swell. However, I felt there were some deficiencies inherent in the source material itself that keep this one from hitting a homer, or even a solid triple. Though not as noticeable perhaps on the standard DVD releases (even the Superbit), 'The Fifth Element' looks oddly soft in HD, with a lack of detail and three-dimensionality that ranks it as not-quite-demo material in the high-def sweepstakes. But first a couple of positives. Most noticeable are the vivid and clean colors. Reds, especially, really pop, and I also loved all the vibrant purples and greens. Contrast is also nicely rendered, with solid blacks and clean whites. But, unfortunately, the big problem here is still the softness. This transfer is just not that sharp, at least compared to the best HD I've seen. The print is also a bit dirty in spots, which really surprised me. This all gives the image a flatter look that I'm used to on HD -- what I expected would be eye-poppingly three-dimensional throughout just plain isn't. Oftentimes, I felt like I was watching a standard DVD upconverted to 1080i -- good, but kinda fake-looking. Indeed, when I compared the Blu-ray version of 'The Fifth Element' to the Superbit upconverted (both via my Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray deck), the difference was not as apparent as between most of the the HD DVD and DVD releases I've seen. Still, complaints aside, 'The Fifth Element' does look very good, and this is hardly a bad transfer. It just is not the best that Blu-ray has to offer. One final note. Unlike Toshiba's first-generation HD DVD players, the Samsung BD-P1000 is capable of outputting full 1080p (at 30 fps only) via its HDMI output. However, again, without the same title available on both Blu-ray and HD DVD, nor a 1080p-capable HD DVD player on the market, it is simply unfair to try and proclaim one format superior to the other. Until we can compare apples to apples, raw technical specs indicate that both formats should be able to deliver the same high level of video quality, at least when the playing field is level. The Audio: Rating the Sound Unlike the backers of the HD DVD format, Sony is taking a different tack with the audio on their Blu-ray offerings. Like all of the initial Blu-ray titles I've received thus far from the studio for review, 'The Fifth Element' includes neither a Dolby TrueHD nor a Dolby Digital-Plus soundtrack. Instead, Sony presents the film in PCM 5.1 surround -- meaning uncompressed audio. (Optional English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks are offered, however.) Also gone is the DTS 5.1 surround track included on the previous Ultimate Edition and Superbit DVD versions. So, trying to compare this disc to any HD DVD Dolby Digital-Plus track would be pointless (different formats, different movies). I can only compare the uncompressed PCM track here to the Dolby Digital and DTS tracks on the previous DVDs. Audio format issues aside, I can honestly say the PCM track here does sound noticeably superior to both the previous Dolby and DTS tracks. Of course, it helps that 'The Fifth Element' has indeed stood the test of time as a film with absolutely terrific sound design. This disc produces one heck of an involving and enveloping soundfield, with full use of all channels for more than just the odd effect or music cue here or there. The sense of space and imaging to the mix is often quite stunning. Pans from channel to channel are almost transparent, even more so in PCM. Dynamic range is also a bit fuller than on the old DTS track, and especially the Dolby Digital. Low bass also really delivers some punch, but it is tight with no distortion. And thankfully, I did not have to ride my volume control at all during the movie, trying to balance dialogue with bombastic effects -- this mix is very even and the levels are just right. If just this one disc is any indication, I can safely say after having reviewed a couple of dozen HD DVD titles that Blu-ray is certainly capable of delivering a soundtrack as good as any I've heard on the rival format. Of course, the real test will be a direct comparison of the same movie head-to-head on HD DVD and Blu-ray. But until the studios begin to release their titles on both formats, I think it is fair to say neither format can really be said to be technically superior to the other -- at least for now. The Supplements: Digging Into the Good Stuff As expected, Sony has ported over the same extras that were included on the previous "Ultimate Edition" DVD release of the film (though not all of them). Unfortunately, that release wasn't so great. Director Luc Besson declined to be involved, so all of the bonus content felt like reheated EPK material (and it was). So certainly, the appeal of this Blu-ray release won't be because of its extras. First, though, note that like all of Sony's first Blu-ray titles, 'The Fifth Element' boasts what the studio is dubbing "Seamless Menu Navigation." Basically, it is the same nifty real-time menu system that Warner uses on their HD DVD releases. You can access all the disc's chapters, options and extra features "live" while the movie is playing, with no interruption. However, Sony has not integrated Warner's zoom function, which allows you to magnify the picture, nor a chapter bookmarks function. At least that I could find. Now, on with the extras. There was never commentary proper on the Ultiimate Edition of "The Fifth Element,' but there was a trivia fact track, which is replicated here. As usual with these types of features, there is lots of needless if fun trivia, from bits on the cast and production to how many times the number "five" appears in the movie. Cute. But the real centerpiece of the Ultimate Edition DVD was its five featurettes, all with the word "Element" in their titles (clever, huh?) Alas, all that material was culled from the same set of EPK interviews with the cast and crew, and Luc Besson was nowhere to be found. It was never gonna win any awards, I must say "The Visual Element" (18:24) features profiles of French comic book legends Jean-Claude Mézières and Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, lifelong friends who worked together for the first time on 'The Fifth Element.' "The Digital Element" (9:46) is a visit with Digital Domain, who created the film's many CGI-assisted effects, including the flying cab ride through the sky and Leeloo's big leap, which here is examined via a raw-to-final film comparison. "The Star Element"(20:21 total) features three interviews with Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich and Chris Tucker. All appear to be taken on-the-set, so unfortunately it is pretty dated stuff. "The Alien Element" (25:14 total) dissects four of the film's cool creatures, and includes outtake and other conceptual footage. Finally, we get "The Fashion Element" (7:44), a visit with costume designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. A funny, engaging guy, you certainly can't say his viewpoint is boring, even if some of his stuff in 'The Fifth Element' feels like throwaways from Madonna's "Blonde Ambition" tour. HD Bonus Content: Any Exclusive Goodies in There? No exclusive HD bonus content (unless you count the menu navigation system). But as one of the first Blu-ray titles, I wasn't really expecting any. Final Thoughts 'The Fifth Element' is a tough one to rate. Simply by virtue of it being one of the first Blu-ray titles, it had to look perfect or I would likely have been disappointed. And it does look good, no doubt -- it just is not the best HD I've seen. Also a problem is that this film has been released so many times before on standard DVD that maybe only some exclusive HD content here would have elevated it above being just a decent upgrade. Still, it is clear even from this release that Blu-ray can deliver on the bottom line, so I only expect to be even more impressed by the coming Blu-ray titles in the week's ahead. http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/fifthelement4.html ![]() 'Cars' Wins Box Office For 2nd Weekend David Germain Animated autos retained the pole position as "Cars" came in No. 1 at the box office for a second weekend with $31.2 million, holding off the wrestling comedy "Nacho Libre" and another car tale, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift." "Cars," from Disney and Pixar, beat a rush of new movies, lifting its 10-day domestic total to $114.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Paramount's "Nacho Libre," starring Jack Black as a cook at a Mexican orphanage who takes up wrestling to buy better food for the kids, debuted in second place with $27.5 million. The third in the "Fast and the Furious" racing franchise, Universal's "Tokyo Drift" opened at No. 3 with $24.1 million. The movie stars Lucas Black as a speed freak who gets caught up in Japan's illegal racing scene. "Speed" co-stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock reunited for the Warner Bros. romantic drama "The Lake House," which took in $13.7 million to place fourth. The time-bending tale casts Reeves and Bullock as pen pals corresponding with each other two years apart. The weekend's other new wide release, 20th Century Fox's "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties," opened weakly with $7.2 million, coming in sixth. The live-action and animated sequel features the voice of Bill Murray as the comic-strip fat cat. "Garfield" had been competing for the same family audience as "Cars," whose voice cast includes Owen Wilson and Paul Newman in a comedy about a race car that learns the value of slowing down. "I guess the family audience picked their favorite and decided that this is what it was going to be," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution at Disney, which recently bought its animation partner Pixar, the maker of "Finding Nemo," "The Incredibles" and the "Toy Story" movies. The week's two sequels came in well below their predecessors. "The Fast and the Furious," with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, opened with $40.1 million in 2001, and Walker's 2003 followup "2 Fast 2 Furious" debuted with $50.5 million. "Garfield: The Movie" took in $21.7 million over opening weekend in 2004. In limited release, the IFC Films crossword-puzzle documentary "Wordplay" opened solidly with $34,959 at two New York City theaters. The film, featuring interviews with such crossword enthusiasts as former President Bill Clinton, comic Jon Stewart and the musical duo the Indigo Girls, expands to more theaters Friday. Hollywood's overall business rose for the fifth-straight weekend. The top 12 movies took in $139.1 million, up 7 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Batman Begins" opened with $48.7 million. Estimated ticket sales were for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday. 1. "Cars," $31.2 million. 2. "Nacho Libre," $27.5 million. 3. "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," $24.1 million. 4. "The Lake House," $13.7 million. 5. "The Break-Up," $9.5 million. 6. "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties," $7.2 million. 7. "X-Men: The Last Stand," $7.15 million. 8. "The Omen," $5.35 million. 9. "The Da Vinci Code," $5 million. 10. "Over the Hedge," $4.05 million. --- Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Vivendi Universal; DreamWorks is a unit of DreamWorks SKG Inc.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Classics are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT ![]() New Superman Movie Dazzles Critics In First Reviews "Superman Returns," which opens in the United States next week, is receiving knock-out first reviews from critics, with newcomer Brandon Routh tipped to win over audiences as the latest crime-fighting "Man of Steel." Hollywood's two trade newspapers, Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter, gave the movie strong reviews, with The Reporter describing it as "a heartfelt Superman movie that plays to a broad audience thanks to an emotionally troubled Man of Steel." Daily Variety critic Todd McCarthy said director Bryan Singer had imprinted the Warner Bros. movie with its own personality. "'Superman Returns' is never self-consciously hip, ironic, post-modern or camp. To the contrary, it's quite sincere, with an artistic elegance," he said. Routh won praise for his apparent effortlessness -- with his resemblance to Superman predecessor, the late Christopher Reeve, not going unnoticed. The movie's plot has Superman returning to Earth following a mysterious absence of several years. Back home, an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all while the superhero's great love, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), has moved on -- or has she? Newsweek said Singer, who left the popular "X-Men" franchise to make "Superman Returns," did the right thing from the start of "this gorgeously crafted epic" by showing respect for the most foursquare comic superheroes of them all. The magazine added that "Routh may or may not be a real actor, but he effortlessly lays claim to the iconic role, just as Reeve did. Indeed, he virtually duplicates Reeve in the way he plays Kent as a diffident, awkward Midwestern colt." "Next to Singer's champagne, most recent superhero adventure movies are barely sparkling cider." Time magazine said Singer and writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris had revived and revised the story's premise. "The result is an action adventure that's as thrilling for what it means as for what is shows," Time said. The film is Superman's first big-screen appearance since the 1987 movie "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" starring Reeve. Warner Bros. is a unit of Time Warner Inc. http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsAr...ilm+NewsNews-2 ![]() 'Star Trek' Fans, Deprived of a Show, Recreate the Franchise on Digital Video Danny Hakim Paul Sieber was wearing a "Star Trek" uniform in the deep Virginia woods when he found himself surrounded by a leathery-looking gang. Fortunately, the ruffians were dressed up as Klingons, and Mr. Sieber, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, was preparing to film them with a $6,000 digital video camera. At times like this, Mr. Sieber, the writer and director of "Starship Farragut," must come to grips with the obvious — not all Klingons are trained actors — and bellow, "Quiet on the set!" From these Virginia woods to the Scottish Highlands, "Star Trek" fans are filling the void left by a galaxy that has lost "Star Trek." For the first time in nearly two decades, television spinoffs from the original 1960's "Star Trek" series have ended, so fans are banding together to make their own episodes. Fan films have been around for years, particularly those related to the "Star Wars" movies. But now they can be downloaded from the Web, and modern computer graphics technology has lent them surprising special effects. And as long as no one is profiting from the work, Paramount, which owns the rights to "Star Trek," has been tolerant. (Its executives declined to comment.) Up to two dozen of these fan-made "Star Trek" projects are in various stages of completion, depending what you count as a full-fledged production. Dutch and Belgian fans are filming an episode; there is a Scottish production in the works at www.ussintrepid.org.uk. There is a group in Los Angeles that has filmed more than 40 episodes, according to its Web site, www.hiddenfrontier.com, and has explored gay themes that the original series never imagined. Episodes by a group in Austin, Tex., at www.starshipexeter.com, feature a ship whose crew had the misfortune of being turned into salt in an episode of the original "Star Trek," but has now been repopulated by Texans. "I think the networks — Paramount, CBS — I don't think they're giving the fans the 'Trek' they're looking for," said Mr. Sieber, a 40-year-old engineer for a government contractor who likens his "Star Trek" project, at www.starshipfarragut.com, to "online community theater." "The fans are saying, look, if we can't get what we want on television, the technology is out there for us to do it ourselves," he added. And viewers are responding. One series, at www.newvoyages.com, and based in Ticonderoga, N.Y., boasts of 30 million downloads. It has become so popular that Walter Koenig, the actor who played Chekov in the original "Star Trek," is guest starring in an episode, and George Takei, who played Sulu, is slated to shoot another one later this year. D. C. Fontana, a writer from the original "Star Trek" series, has written a script. For many Trekkies, contemporary science fiction on television — like "Battlestar Galactica" and the more recent Star Trek spinoffs — are too dark. "Modern science fiction takes itself too seriously," said Jimm Johnson, 37, who presides over Starship Exeter. John Broughton Jr., who founded the Farragut project, agreed. "One thing about the classic 'Star Trek' is at the end of the episode, it was pretty much a happy ending," he said. "It was sort of like 'The Brady Bunch.' It was all tidied up." Mr. Broughton, a wiry Navy veteran with spiky hair, is a serious collector of all things "Star Trek." His avocado tunic, he said, is made from bolts of the nylon used for the original "Star Trek," purchased at $100 a yard. His boots are made by the son of the man who made the boots used in "Star Trek," he said. His megaphone, bought for $325 on eBay, was the one used by William Shatner when he directed "Star Trek V." In the woods with the Klingons, Brad Graper, 52, finished detailing a pair of Nerf guns painted gray, with sections of chrome tailpipe added to them as gun barrels. Mr. Graper sat at a cluster of picnic tables in this lush 1,814-acre park. Klingon re-enactors from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania played extras. "I'm General DuraD," Mr. Graper said. "The D and the D are capitalized." Around him, Klingons applied swarthy face paint and black hair dye, adjusted silvery sashes, and tottered in platform boots. They usually portray the more heavily costumed Klingons from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the series spinoff that started in 1987. Those Klingons had big ridges on their heads requiring elaborate prosthetics. "This is the first time I've ever done an original Klingon," said Sally Arkulari, 46, who works on a large farm in Lancaster, Pa. "It's a lot less work." Ms. Arkulari is a tall woman, in a shimmering green dress, heavy eyeliner and orange hair extensions. What's her view on the Klingon woman? "Love 'em because they're so tough," she said. "Part of that is not my personality. I need to be more aggressive as a person, and I'm not, so I like that." The couple of dozen people on the set are either related, are friends or met at a Star Trek convention. David Sepan, 31, who plays a security officer, is a spacecraft analyst at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and monitors a space probe heading to Mercury. Mr. Sieber is a family friend. Mr. Sepan's sister Amy, 29, is Farragut's makeup artist and costume designer. "I'm also Dr. Christina Hawley," she said, and then performed a line from her script: "Captain — he's dead!" Holly Bednar, 42, who plays an engineer, is the executive director of a theater in southern Maryland and one of the few participants here with theater experience. Her husband, Mike Bednar, 45, is the prop man, cameraman, science officer and a friend of Mr. Broughton's. The Bednars were childhood sweethearts who lost touch for 23 years and then reconnected and got married in 2004. Ms. Bednar came late to "Star Trek" and considers herself in the married-to-Trekkie category. "It was kind of a nice thing for Mike and I to work on together," she said. "For Mike, it's the 'Star Trek' stuff. For me, it's the acting." At 11 a.m., Mr. Sieber rounded up the Klingons and explained plot points. "You guys are generating a cloaking field from the planet around the orbiting weapon," he explained. Heads nodded. "They heard a rumor from some Orion spies that you guys might be trying to do something on this planet, not knowing that there's this many of you here, and that's why they end up getting ambushed." Fair enough. The group packed into a caravan of cars and headed into the woods at the park south of Washington. They had the camera, a boom mike, even a Hollywood scene marker. Mr. Sieber yelled "Action!" A trio of Klingons charged a gully, crouched into firing positions and tumbled as they pretended to be shot. Later, they filmed 12 takes of a scene in which Mr. Broughton, as the captain of the Starship Farragut, and the Bednars walk through the gully, talking. There are sound problems, battery problems, glare problems. Next scene: the three jump behind a fallen tree. They pretend to be pinned down by Klingons. "Reinforcements! Crossfire!" In a quiet moment, Mike Bednar reflected on what brings a man into the woods, wearing a form-fitting blue tunic, jet-black pants and shiny ebony boots, and carrying a camera. He recalled meeting Mr. Broughton years ago, when his friend was ending his stint in the Navy. "I used to joke with him, 'You'd never get me in a "Star Trek" uniform, even on Halloween, it's not going to happen,' " he said. "Next thing I know, I'm wearing a uniform." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/ar...b75&ei=5087%0A ![]() Battling the Copyright Monster Fiona Morgan How does a filmmaker document the world around her when the sights and sounds that make up that world are copyright protected? Law professors Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins co-wrote and produced the comic book Bound By Law? Tales From the Public Domain. It explores the legal barriers documentary filmmakers in particular must hurdle, or simply avoid. Aoki, a professor at the University of Oregon who studied art before going to law school, drew the panels. Likenesses of Boyle and Jenkins, both professors at Duke University Law School, act as guides for the story's fictional heroine, a young filmmaker named Akiko. The story is itself an exercise in fair use, using copyright images and references to documentaries such as Eyes on the Prize and Outfoxed. The book was recently released under a Creative Commons license. A free digital version is available online. Soft Skull Press will publish a print version later this year. Images of some of the comic book's pages are available at the Wired News Bound by Law gallery. Wired News spoke with the three authors by phone recently about the book's creation. Wired News: Who is the audience for this book? James Boyle: Our first audience is documentary filmmakers and film students. But we're also trying to reach people who might not think of themselves as documentary filmmakers, people who have video blogs for example, who are using digital tools and editing software to put things online. But beyond that, there's a larger audience of people who are interested in the effect of copyright on culture, in the free-culture movement, people who are interested in what a world without gatekeepers might look like. WN: What inspired you to make it a comic book? Keith Aoki: In my former life as an artist, I was a student of Art Spiegelman, and one of the things he instilled in me is a deep appreciation for the history of comics. Jamie and Jennifer and I are children of the Mad magazine generation, which taught kids to be very distrustful of authority, of ads and hype. That was my first encounter with using copyrighted imagery and turning it around on itself to make a critical comment on the culture. Boyle: A lot of people imagine that mashup culture is something unique to the digital age, but it goes all the way back to Benjamin Franklin taking popular songs and changing the lyrics to make a comment or a protest about a political situation. The notion that you might need to take a copyrighted, or in that case widely recognized, piece of art and use it in your own work goes all the way through our culture. It's just that in the digital realm it happens so much more and so much faster. The technology lets more people do it more often and reach a wider audience. WN: Why did you decide to focus on documentary film in this book? What is it about that art form in particular that makes it an especially good topic? Jennifer Jenkins: First of all, documentaries are incredibly important records of our history and culture. They're visual histories, and they're increasingly based on copyrighted culture. Our book describes several instances in which the telling of that history has been thwarted by permissions issues. An example is Jon Else having to pay $10,000 for a four-and-a-half-second clip of The Simpsons playing in the background of his film (Sing Faster: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle). The makers of Mad Hot Ballroom had to pay that same amount to EMI because a cell phone rings in the background of one of the scenes, and the ringtone is the theme from Rocky. These examples really resonate with people. They understand that these are instances where copyright is not working the way it's supposed to. Boyle: The history of our culture is in large part the history of a mass of copyrighted material. The question is, are we going to put our own history off-limits to the documentarians, the historians of the future? Copyright is supposed to encourage the dissemination of knowledge, but in those cases it does exactly the opposite. WN: In the book, you talk about copyright law being out of balance. Can you explain that? Boyle: There are several ways this has happened. For one thing, copyright now lasts longer than it ever has before, so anyone who's telling the history of American culture after 1923 is using stuff that's copyrighted. That's a long time ago. A lot of people who were working in the past were working under certain rules, knowing that work would soon be in the public domain. Well, we're unfortunately unique as a generation completely cut off from the past 80 years because of the continual extension of copyright terms. The second thing is that there are a lot of claims under copyright that really have nothing to do with copyright law. This is what Larry Lessig calls the "permissions culture," where people ask permission for the use of tiny fragments that end up in the background of their films or music out of fear or under threat of lawsuit. And the third thing is the technology. In the '50s, it was quite hard to violate copyright. You needed a printing press or a movie studio. Now all of us make copies of things all the time. A fourth thing that cuts the other way is the fear-and-loathing syndrome. There's a whole generation of filmmakers and digital creators whose only experience of copyright is as a hassle, as an obstruction, as a cease-and-desist letter preventing them from making or distributing their work. They see copyright as a pointless labyrinth they have to make their way through to make their art. We actually view ourselves as copyright defenders, showing how copyright is supposed to work. We're saying this imbalance could cause us to lose the next generation of artists, if they think of copyright as worthless. WN: In what way would those artists be lost? Boyle: One possibility is for people to throw up their hands and say, "I think this whole copyright culture is ridiculous." The people who have that attitude are probably not going to be respectful of copyright at all, even in cases where they should. So they go underground and do it illicitly. There's a cost to that, which is that their work never enters the mainstream. WN: You urge artists to assert strong claims of fair use because if we don't use it, it could go away. How would that happen? Boyle: One of the four factors that a court considers when considering a fair-use claim involves, in part, whether there is a market for the work. Let's say I contact you and say, "You had an eight-second clip from my TV show playing in the background of your documentary. Pay me $8,000." You might say, "No way, it's fair use." I would argue, "No it's not, because there's a market for eight-second clips of TV shows like mine, and you're hindering me from taking advantage of that market." Well, there is no market for that, so it is fair use. But what happens when people give in and pay? The more people do that, the more of a market there turns out to be, and now I have a more legitimate claim. WN: You gave out copies of the book at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. What kind of response have you gotten from filmmakers? Jenkins: The filmmakers were incredibly enthusiastic. When you tell someone, "Why don't you read this book about copyright?" they think, "Oh God, no, anything but that!" So one of the things we were trying to do is to enlighten and demystify copyright, and by doing so empower filmmakers with better information so that when they deal with copyright issues, which they have to do all the time, they're not simply working off rumors or complicated and one-sided information sources. Boyle: One thing I would add is that none of us is presenting this as legal advice. This book is there to educate people so they can know what questions to ask. WN: Will you tackle any other art forms? Jenkins: The next comic book is about music and copyright, which is rich territory. We've started to sketch it out. We're going to go into the history of music and how copyright has affected it over time. The do-not-sample rule has driven a lot of sampling-based music genres underground. Meanwhile the more commercial rap and hip-hop that gets produced involved a tremendous amount of permissions -- some impressive percentage of the cost of producing an album is permissions fees, cleared by an army of record company lawyers. Boyle: One of the questions we're going to be asking is, "Would we have genres like jazz, blues or soul if those musicians had to work in the current climate of copyright protection?" Imagine if, in the history of jazz, anyone who played a sample of any bar of someone else's music had to clear each and every sample and pay permissions, or else just go underground and play at backstreet bars and never make a record. Would we have a better culture? Would this lead to advancement in the arts? I don't think so. Aoki: Picture a conversation between Bach, Robert Johnson and John Lennon, in comic book form. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,...n_technology_3 ![]() 'The Road to Guantánamo' Offers Grim Chronicles That Anger and Stir A. O. Scott THE release of "The Road to Guantánamo" comes shortly after the suicides of three prisoners held in American custody in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in the midst of renewed concern, in the United States and abroad, about the mistreatment of detainees and the policy of holding suspected terrorists at the detention camp. In a sense, then, the film, which is based on the testimony of three British Muslims captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and held at Guantánamo for more than two years, does not tell us anything new. It is nonetheless a wrenching and dismaying account of cruelty and bureaucratic indifference, a graphic tour of a place many citizens of Western democracies would prefer not to think about. It should be emphasized that the movie, directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, is not a documentary. It does rely on talking-head interviews with the former prisoners — Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhel Ahmed, known collectively as the Tipton Three for the town in northern England where they grew up — and faithfully reproduces their version of events. Most of what the audience sees on screen, however, is a re-enactment, conducted mainly by nonprofessional actors. By the time the action reaches Guantánamo — those scenes were shot in Iran — the artifice is unmistakable, since no camera could have penetrated the actual isolation cells, interrogation rooms and chicken-wire cages of Camps X-Ray and Delta. But earlier sequences in Pakistan and Afghanistan have the shaky, grainy urgency of real life captured on the fly. This is not the first time Mr. Winterbottom has mingled the techniques of documentary and fictional filmmaking; he did it whimsically in his mischievous nonadaptation "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story," pruriently in the moodily hard-core "9 Songs" and soberly in "In This World," his grim chronicle of young refugees in flight from Afghanistan. Nor is he alone in teasing the cinematic boundary between storytelling and truth-telling. He seems to have been inspired at least partly by Iranian films like "Close-Up," "The Apple" and "Where Is the Friend's House?," which used ordinary people and on-location photography to recreate real events. Those films can induce a kind of vertigo in the viewer, an almost philosophical confusion about the literalness of the filmed image. And "The Road to Guantánamo" can be disorienting, especially in its first half, as it switches back and forth between the recollections of the three main characters and the raw immediacy of their restaged ordeal. It is sometimes hard to match the speakers with the amateur actors playing them, or to establish a clear sense of who they are. Curiously, their personalities emerge only in the dehumanized environment of Guantánamo itself, when their heads have been shaved and they are dressed in identical orange jumpsuits. There, as the combination of tedium and brutality stretches time and tests their endurance, the movie begins to gather the emotional force that is likely to leave you sickened, shaken and angry. For their part, the former detainees look back calmly and speak about their worst moments with a combination of detachment and puzzlement. How did this happen to them? "The Road to Guantánamo," relying as it does on their testimony, does not entirely answer that question. In September 2001, Mr. Iqbal flew to Pakistan to meet the woman his mother had chosen for him to marry. Shortly afterward, Mr. Ahmed, who had agreed to be the best man at the wedding, arrived with two other friends, Mr. Rasul and Monir Ali. The story of how they ended up in Afghanistan is left a bit hazy, in spite of vivid images of miserable bus rides over bumpy, unpaved roads. The idea of crossing the border into Afghanistan seems to have arisen almost on a whim. They wanted to see for themselves what was going on and to participate in a humanitarian aid mission organized by the imam of a mosque in Karachi, Pakistan. Sitting in an outdoor restaurant one evening, they talk excitedly about the size of Afghan flatbreads, as if they were planning a culinary road trip. As the war against the Taliban intensifies, the four young men travel first to Kandahar, then to Kabul and finally to Kunduz, where they are captured by Northern Alliance soldiers. At that point, an arduous, possibly ill-advised adventure turns into a nightmare, as they are first accused of being Al Qaeda fighters and then, after months of harsh treatment, coerced into confessing that they are. There may still be some die-hards who respond to pictures of hooded prisoners and detailed accounts of physical and psychological abuse with accusations of anti-Americanism. The filmmakers and the Tipton Three are fairly circumspect with regard to their own political beliefs, but their ideological commitments are really beside the point. A news clip shows President Bush referring to the Guantánamo detainees as "bad guys," and it is not necessary to believe that the Tipton Three were good guys — one of them had a police record in Britain — to be appalled at their treatment. And also profoundly depressed. "The Road to Guantánamo," while far from a great movie, nonetheless effectively dramatizes a position that has been argued, by principled commentators on the left and the right, for several years now: that the abuse of prisoners, innocent or not, is not only repugnant in its own right. It also squanders a crucial strategic advantage in the fight against terrorism, namely the moral superiority of liberal democracy to the nihilism and extremism that oppose it. The facts on which "The Road to Guantánamo" is based are horrifying, and in its most effective moments it provokes strong feelings of helplessness and dread. But by far the scariest thing about this movie is that, for too many people in this country and elsewhere, it may already have lost the power to shock. "The Road to Guantánamo" is rated R (Under 17 not admitted without a guardian) for language and violence. The Road to Guantánamo Opens today in New York; Arlington, Va.; Berkeley, Encino, Irvine, Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Francisco and San Rafael, Calif.; Cambridge and Waltham, Mass.; and Washington. Directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross; director of photography, Marcel Zyskind; music by Harry Escott and Molly Nyman; production designer, Mark Digby; produced by Andrew Eaton and Melissa Parmenter; released by Roadside Attractions. Running time: 91 minutes. WITH: Riz Ahmed (Shafiq), Farhad Harun (Ruhel), Waqar Siddiqui (Monir) and Arfan Usman (Asif). http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/06/2...guan.html?8dpc ![]() 'Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man': A Documentary Song of Praise Stephen Holden When Leonard Cohen speaks, the elevated cadences of language are strewn with poetic images so precisely articulated in a rumbling bass-baritone voice that they all but erase the distinction between his song lyrics and personal conversation. Each word is carefully chosen and pronounced with oratorical flourish. Even when his sepulchral drone isn't bending itself around a melody, its sound is musical. Here is one sample of his conversational style, from Lian Lunson's wonderful documentary portrait, "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man." Reflecting on the inspiration for his song "The Traitor," he muses that it is about "failing or betraying some mission you were mandated to fulfill and being unable to fulfill it and then coming to understand that the real mandate was not to fulfill it but to stand guiltless in the predicament in which you found yourself." If a strain of gallows humor didn't underlie many of Mr. Cohen's pronouncements, such observations might sound insufferably pretentious. But he continually undercuts his own solemnity. Here is he is on his own mystique as a silver-tongued Casanova: "My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly the 10,000 nights I spent alone." "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" combines pieces of an extended interview with this Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and author, now 71, with a tribute concert organized by Hal Willner at the Sydney Opera House in January 2005. Titled "Came So Far for Beauty" (after a Cohen song), the event featured performances of many of Mr. Cohen's best-known songs by Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright and Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), among others. Some of the performers offer pungent personal comments. Mr. Cave recalls discovering Mr. Cohen's "Songs of Love and Hate" album while living in a remote Australian town and suddenly "feeling like the coolest person in the world because it separated me from everyone and everything I detested." Bono and Edge from U2, who did not participate in the Sydney event, offer extravagant tributes and near the end of the film are shown accompanying Mr. Cohen in a New York club performance of "Tower of Song." Edge likens him to "the man coming down from the mountaintop with tablets of stone having been up there talking to the angels." Bono observes, "As dark as he gets, you still sense that beauty is truth." Mr. Wainwright, who performs more songs than any other guest, sings "Everybody Knows," "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" (Mr. Cohen's self-deprecating and indiscreet reminiscence of a sexual encounter with Janis Joplin), and "Hallelujah" (the Cohen song Mr. Wainwright and Jeff Buckley have made something of a downtown standard). He locates the dark humor at the bottom of "Everybody Knows," a bleak prophecy about the end of the world as we know it. Backstage he recalls the first time he met Mr. Cohen, who was in his underwear, cooking soba noodles and feeding bits of sausage on a toothpick to revive a baby bird. It wasn't until Mr. Cohen disappeared and returned wearing an Armani suit, Mr. Wainwright said, that he realized he was in the presence of a legend. Two of the other more memorable performances come from Antony, who cries out "If It Be Your Will" in an eerie, shivering falsetto, and Teddy Thompson (son of Richard and Linda), who stamps the more obscure Cohen song "Tonight Will Be Fine" with the concert's most intense vocal. Reflecting on his life and work, Mr. Cohen recalls first encountering poetry in the Jewish liturgy at a synagogue. Some of his more recent recollections are of a purgative sojourn in a Zen monastery during the 1990's on Mount Baldy, where he studied with a Japanese Zen master. But a Zen-like austerity has always been present in his writing. A Zen spirit also informs his modest self-assessment of his life's work. "I had the title poet, and maybe I was one for a while," he says. "Also the title singer was kindly accorded me, even though I could barely carry a tune." "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It contains some strong language. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man Opens today in Manhattan Directed by Lian Lunson; directors of photography, Geoff Hall and John Pirozzi; edited by Mike Cahill; music by Leonard Cohen, performed by Nick Cave, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Antony, Linda Thompson, the Handsome Family, Beth Orton, Teddy Thompson, Jarvis Cocker, Perla Batalla, Julie Christensen, Joan Wasser and U2; produced by Ms. Lunson, Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey; released by Lionsgate. At the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village. Running time: 104 minutes. http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/06/2...es/21leon.html ![]() Al Gore's Documentary Wins Special Award AP The Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" will receive a rare recognition from the Humanitas Prize, which honors screenwriting that helps "liberate, enrich and unify society." "An Inconvenient Truth," which chronicles Gore's quest to draw attention to global warming, will receive the organization's first Special Award in over 10 years, president Frank Desiderio announced Wednesday. "It's a very important film," he said in a statement. "We want to shine a light on it." The documentary's director, Davis Guggenheim, said he was "thrilled" with the recognition, adding that Humanitas "supports the achievements and sacrifices of filmmakers trying to change the world." Since 1974, the Humanitas Prize has presented awards and grants to TV and film writers whose fictional work reflects "the positive values of life." Documentaries are occasionally recognized with Special Awards. The last such honors went to Bill Moyers and Judith Davidson Moyers in 1995 for their documentary "What Can We Do About Violence." http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT ![]() Heh! ‘Pee Wee’s Playhouse’ Reruns Return to TV Paul Reubens' crazy character returns to television July 10 AP After being shuttered for more than 15 years, the doors to “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” are being reopened. The Emmy Award-winning show will get new life on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, which will air all 45 original episodes beginning July 10, company officials announced Monday. “I’d say this is a dream come true,” actor Paul Reubens said in a statement. Reubens, 53, created the bow-tie wearing Pee-wee Herman in 1978 as a member of the L.A.-based comedy troupe, the Groundlings. Known for his big laugh and small suit, Pee-wee gained worldwide fame in 1985 as the star of his own movie, “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” directed by Tim Burton. The film’s success led to “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” which originally aired Saturday mornings on CBS beginning in 1986. In 1991, a year after production wrapped on the final season of “Playhouse,” Reubens was arrested in Florida for indecent exposure. Reubens returned to the big screen with an acclaimed performance in 2001’s “Blow.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13171374/ ![]() A Way to View 'Desperate Housewives' While Cruising the Nile Eric A. Taub Thanks to a handful of hardware and software products, viewers can see their favorite programs anywhere in the world at the same time they are being broadcast back home. As long as the user has access to a high-speed Internet connection, both live and recorded programs can be transmitted from one's home across the globe, to be viewed on a PC or often other types of portable devices, like a palmtop, a cellphone or a portable game unit. If this notion intrigues you, one word of warning: do not expect the picture quality to rival that of your expensive flat-panel HDTV back home. Because of bandwidth restrictions, the evening's episode of "CSI" displayed on your PC while sitting in a Hong Kong coffeehouse can often look no better than an old VHS tape, and depending on the vagaries of the connection, sometimes much worse. Still, it is the ability to place-shift both live and recorded programming from one's home to a hotel in Hamburg or Seoul that has excited a legion of young people and early technology adopters. According to some analysts, that legion is destined to remain small. Forrester Research estimates that the total potential audience for remote video access devices will rise to only 1.5 million customers by 2010, with total sales of 1 million. The most likely customers include business travelers and sports fans who can't bear the thought of missing an important game. "It is quite comforting to be able to watch my programming in a foreign destination," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a research firm. "Still, the audience for this is initially limited." Mr. Bajarin expects the technology to catch on with younger people eventually. The novelty of the technology has generated considerable publicity for companies including Sling Media, maker of the Slingbox, and Sony, which makes the LocationFree device. Users of both systems attach a control unit to a home's TV or other video device like a digital video recorder or DVD player. The unit digitizes the incoming video stream and then transmits it over the Internet, assuming it is plugged into a broadband connection, like a digital subscriber line or cable modem. At the receiving end, a PC or other device can get access to the video data if the user knows the Internet protocol address of the home station. But doing so is not simple; a certain level of technical prowess is required to properly connect the base station's cables and then ensure that the PC can actually communicate with the base. Internet IP addresses and passwords need to be entered, and router ports may need to be opened. Despite several efforts, I was unable to configure properly either of two PC's to recognize a LocationFree base station without professional help. According to Josh Bernoff, a Forrester analyst, Slingbox's growth could be slowed because of "technical challenges" involved in setup. In addition to the ability to watch programs in different geographic areas, LocationFree, Slingbox and a software solution from Orb Networks also allow users to watch TV anywhere in the house on a PC, as long as it is connected to the wired or wireless home network. While the technology is compelling, the marketplace is crowded with competitors. Consumers can also download programs from the Internet or their PC to portable devices, like the Apple iPod, the Archos Media Player, Creative Zen Vision or the ZVUE. Short films are available on a wide range of Web sites, among them Google Video, Yahoo Video and YouTube. Fee-based feature films can be purchased from sites like CinemaNow and MovieFlix and then viewed on a PC or a TV. Still, it's the ability to watch local programming like news and sports as well as personalized recorded programming that may hold a special sway for viewers. Live TV programming transmitted over the Internet is intended to be viewed on a nontraditional screen, like a PC or cellphone, or Sony's own L.C.D. screen for LocationFree. While video can be transferred to a standard TV, picture quality would suffer. And by working with personal, alternative viewing devices, unauthorized viewing (and potential complaints from companies that own transmission rights) can be minimized. Allowing an episode of "24" to be viewed in England on a standard TV screen could raise the hackles of the local British network that licensed the series for scheduling months later. "We run our programming on a laptop or cellphone, and they do not represent big viewership opportunities," said Richard Buchanan, Sling Media's vice president for marketing. For those who love the idea of watching "Cold Case" in Newcastle, right now, here are some options to consider: Locationfree TV. Sony's LocationFree TV was the first hardware device to enable remote viewing of live TV — as long as you watched on the company's L.C.D. screen that came bundled with the base station. After slow sales, Sony reconfigured its approach and now markets the LF-PK1/M, a $280 stand-alone paperback-size base station, as well as the original $1,500 LFX11 bundle, which includes the L.C.D. TV. LocationFree can transmit programming to that L.C.D. TV as well as to a Mac, a Windows PC or PSP portable game player. Mac software costs an additional $40. The company has announced that it will work with developers to enable programming to be transmitted to mobile phones and P.D.A.'s, but no date has been set. Slingbox Sling Media's Slingbox ($250) resembles a Chunky candy bar; company officials say it looks like a gold ingot. Programming is encoded into the Windows Media format. Newly released software allows programming to be displayed on devices running Windows Mobile Edition for Pocket PC, as well as 3-G mobile phones. Mac-compatible software is due by year's end. Because of the low bandwidth available, watching Slingbox-transmitted video on a cellphone "is like watching a slide show," Mr. Buchanan said. "You see one frame every 3 or 4 seconds, with synched audio, or audio only." Orb Networks A free software-based approach from Orb Networks allows users of Internet-connected PC's, cellphones and palmtops to gain remote access to live TV programming, photos, prerecorded video and music stored on a home PC. The software is installed on a home PC running Windows XP. This PC acts as the base station; to work, it requires a video tuner card available from Hauppauge and several other manufacturers. One caveat: to stream programming, the home PC-cum-base station must always remain powered on. In the remote location, the user gets access to the programming through a standard Web browser. While the software is free, the company expects to make money by working with various content partners and by aiming Web-based promotions to users. TiVoToGo Using TiVo's free TiVoToGo service, owners of Series 2 TiVo models can transfer recorded programming to a PC or portable Windows Mobile-based device for later viewing. To do so, the TiVo is connected to a home network using a wired or wireless setup. TiVo Desktop software allows users to pick the programs that will be transferred to the PC. TiVo programs can also be transferred to a video iPod, a PlayStation Portable, a PocketPC or a Smartphone by using third-party software, like the $30 MyTV ToGo application. TiVoToGo works only with TiVo Series 2 models and Windows PC's; a Mac version has been promised but no release date has been announced. TiVo units that incorporate DirecTV tuners are not compatible. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/te.../22basics.html ![]() 'DRM' Protects Downloads, But Does It Stifle Innovation? Consumers now have the ability to buy digital versions of music and movies from a vast (and growing) online catalog. But that convenience has come at a price: Most of the digital content is packaged with technology called digital rights management, or DRM, a sort of copy protection that limits what users can do with the material. The Participants Fritz Attaway is executive vice president and special policy advisor with the Motion Picture Association of America1, where he handles communications, copyright and international trade matters impacting MPAA member companies, which include Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and Walt Disney Co., among others. Before joining the MPAA in 1976, Mr. Attaway worked as an attorney with the Federal Communications Commission. Wendy Seltzer teaches at Brooklyn Law School and is a fellow with Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society2. She was previously a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation3, specializing in intellectual property and First Amendment issues. She frequently writes4 about these and other issues online. Prior to her work at EFF, Ms. Seltzer was an attorney at Kramer Levin in New York. * * * The music and movie industries defend DRM as a means of protecting artists and publishers -- without it, they say, it would be too easy for users to abuse copyrights by illegally swapping files over the Internet. They also argue that without DRM technologies, publishers wouldn't have been willing to distribute their content in online music and video stores, such as Apple's iTunes. But some consumer advocates argue that DRM often goes too far, treating customers as would-be criminals and putting burdensome restrictions on what they can do with music and movies that were legally purchased. (ITunes, for instance, allows users to burn music to an unlimited number of CDs, but limits the number of computers on which users can play purchased music.) The Online Journal asked Fritz Attaway, a senior executive with the Motion Picture Association of America, to debate the issue over email with Wendy Seltzer, a law professor who specializes in intellectual property and First Amendment issues. Their exchange is below. Mr. Attaway begins: Hello, Wendy. It is a pleasure to meet you in cyberspace. I am looking forward to a lively and informative discussion. The answer to the question, "Is digital rights management being implemented in a positive way?" is a resounding yes. Positive, but not perfect. Let me explain. Digital rights management is the key to consumer choice. The better the DRM, the more choices consumers will have in what they view, when they view it and how much they pay for it. The only valid criticism of DRM is that some of the DRM technology currently in use is not sophisticated enough. But it is getting better. Users of next-generation DVD technology will have more choices than they do today because the DRM technology will be more sophisticated. Why is DRM the key to consumer choice? Because it allows content owners to tailor their offerings to what consumers want. Unless you believe in the tooth fairy, you understand that in order to make movies, which today average around $100 million in production and promotion costs for major studio releases, there must be a return. In other words, you must be able to get people to pay for the privilege of watching them. Many consumers want to own a permanent copy of movies. Others are only interested in having an opportunity to watch a movie once. DRM technology allows studios to offer copies of movies that consumers want to own, and a viewing only opportunity, usually at a much lower cost, to those who don't want a permanent copy. It is a win/win proposition for both the owner of the movie and the consumer. I think I have used my allotted space, so Wendy, I will turn it over to you. Ms. Seltzer responds: Thank you Fritz, it's a pleasure to have the chance to talk with you here. Core to the question of DRM implementation today is the legal backdrop, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's7 anticircumvention provisions. The DMCA stops us from innovating in technology around DRM-restricted media, by declaring those innovations to be "circumventions" if not pre-approved by the copyright holders. The DMCA thus stifles technology innovation and scientific investigation, as well as interfering with end-user activities that don't infringe copyright. Our culture and our technology opportunities are poorer for the DRM-DMCA combination. You raise the example of DVD as a success story, but DVD players have hardly changed in the last decade. True they've gotten cheaper, but I still can't buy one (lawfully) that lets me take clips to create my own movie reviews or "Daily Show"-style send-ups of my favorite films. I still can't play movies on my GNU/Linux computer. When Kaleidescape8 tried to build a DVD jukebox to allow people to burn movies to an enclosed hard drive rather than shuffle jewel cases and discs, the company earned high reviews -- and a pricey lawsuit. DRM plus DMCA protects existing business models, such as that of the blockbuster movie, but at the expense of new developments that could create more value for both creators and users of content. In the era of podcasts and YouTube, I'm quite interested in seeing what those users can do as they become creators. Mr. Attaway writes: Wendy -- I have been hearing that the DMCA will stifle technology innovation since the day it was enacted in 1998. But there is absolutely no evidence to support that assertion. In fact, the record supports the very opposite conclusion -- the DMCA has been an incredible stimulus to both technology and marketing innovation. Just look at some of the new viewing opportunities that have become available to consumers in the past few months: • Warner Brothers partners with Free Record Shop using P2P distribution • Disney offers feature length film on iTunes • CBS delivers college basketball "March Madness" online • ABC offers free downloads at ABC.com • Google Video beta launched -- essentially going with a wholesale reseller model -- creating an iTunes-like store. The DMCA may protect old business models, but it also stimulates new business models, and movie studios are at the forefront in the creation of new business models based on innovative technology. DRM does not interfere with end-user activities any more than the electronic tags on the dresses you buy at the mall. DRM prevents you from breaking the deal you make, taking something you haven't paid for. If you pay for one copy of a DVD movie, the DRM prevents you from making 50 copies. What is wrong with that? What about "fair use" -- a legal term meaning a use of a copyrighted work that is not specifically authorized by the owner? The ability to exercise fair use is greater today that it has ever been. The copyright office has conducted two proceedings since enactment of the DMCA and found that the DMCA has had no significant impact on the ability to exercise fair use. Every time the DMCA has been challenged in court on grounds that it interferes with fair use, the court has found that claim to be unfounded. Bottom line: While you can assert that DRM and the DMCA have stifled innovation and fair use, the facts demonstrate the very opposite. Ms. Seltzer says: Fritz, I think we're talking about different parts of the media experience here. You talk about new viewing opportunities, while I'm talking about technologies that allow "viewers" to become creators building on shared cultural reference. Each of the models you mention is a new way to package viewing, but none of them recognizes the wishes of users who want to do more than view, or those who want to view in novel ways that haven't been licensed yet. Fair use protects the public's rights in copyright. It gives the right to make "transformative" uses of copyrighted works, such as parodic remixes and home-made music videos. The same tech law that prevents making 50 copies of a purchased DVD often prevents doing creative things with one. Along with the broader doctrine of noninfringing use, fair use also leaves room for unanticipated uses -- the "time-shifting" of the VCR, the "pause" button on a TiVo video recorder, the "time-stretch" function of my home-built MythTV11. None of those innovators needed to ask permission before offering their products. Under DMCA and proposed legislation, they would need to ask before working with DVDs, digital television, or digital radio broadcasts. Further and unfortunately, it's hard to point to media technology that was never invented because its developers were too afraid of the legal climate to leave their garages. If DRM is a dress tag, it has "enabled" the sale of dresses that, Cinderella-like, expire at midnight, and that prevents me from taking them to the tailor when styles change. I don't want that in my media any more than in my dresses. Mr. Attaway responds: Wendy -- I think we are getting to the philosophical heart of the issue. You want to be able to take for free the intellectual property others invested their time, talent and money to create. I think those creators ought to be able to control, within reasonable bounds, how their property is used, and certainly to be able to extract the economic value of their investment. "Transformative" uses are fine, but they cannot be given priority over the incentive to create new works. A central tenet of our fair use doctrine is that fair uses do not interfere with the ability of the creator to exploit the economic value of her work. You would strip the ability of content owners to prevent the making of unlimited copies for friends and family and even sale on the street corner, so that a few people might be able to make "transformative" uses of the works. I say the interest of society in the creation of new works should be the priority. The good news is that as DRM technology becomes more sophisticated and discerning, content owners will be able to protect the economic value of their works AND provide consumers the flexibility to make transformative and other fair uses. Our goal should be to improve DRM, not kill it. At the risk of over working the dress analogy, you suggest that your dress should not disappear at midnight. But if you only paid to use the dress until midnight, what is wrong with that? As I said, DRM only requires you to abide by the deal you have made. If you make a deal to rent a movie, you should not expect to be able to make a permanent copy. Ms. Seltzer responds: Fritz, I have not been asking for media free of charge. I have been asking for it free of usage and interoperability restrictions that go beyond copyright. The difference is critical -- I fully support a market in which creators are compensated for their works, but not one in which a creative industry can monopolize cultural reference and the technology around its works. The copyright balance is that both creators and the public get the returns on investment, neither to the exclusion of the other. None of us creates from scratch, rather one creative work is input to the next. I'd gladly pay more for fully usable media. The problem is that I don't just want to see my own creative output, but the works of the public around me. DRM hides the choices from us until we have a whole ecosystem of limited-use devices: iPods that need their songs re-purchased after one too many computer crashes; first-generation HDTVs that won't work with the next generation of HD-DVD players; and movies you don't realize you can't re-mix until you have a flash of inspiration after Jon Stewart's Oscar show. I would ask you how you justify DRM that does not stop the commercial pirates -- we all know they use even more sophisticated copying than the still-available DeCSS12 -- but does interfere with noncommercial transformation. Mr. Attaway responds: Wendy, you have brought up what should be the key word in this discussion: balance. You are absolutely right -- copyright is a balance. And DRM is essential to achieving that balance. Consumers should have a choice to either own a copy of a movie for multiple viewing, or to just view it one time for a much lower price. And movie companies want to provide that choice, and many more. But without DRM, every transaction would have to be priced as a sale, not just of one copy but of many copies, in order to account for unrestrained copying. Why would anyone purchase a higher-priced sale copy of a movie if he could simply rent, rip and return -- that is, rent, make a copy and return the original? To repeat my refrain, if there is a problem, it is that DRM technology is not sophisticated enough to provide the optimum balance. The content industry is working hard with the technology industry to improve DRM and the options available to consumers. Good public policy will encourage that process by promoting the development and implementation of DRM. With regard to your comment that many DRM technologies can be circumvented by commercial pirates, you are correct, but DRM is not intended to prevent commercial piracy. It is intended to insure that most consumers will keep the deal they make with movie distributors. Like the lock on your door, they are not a guarantee against theft, but they "keep honest people honest." My plane is about to leave, so I must sign off. This has been great fun. I hope we will have an opportunity to continue this important discussion at a future time. Ms. Seltzer concludes: Thanks Fritz. We're both talking about balance, but our equilibrium points are very different. You seem content if we can pay in lots of different ways to see the same movies on a constrained set of devices. I see balance in an ecosystem of big and small media and independent innovation of technologies around them. I want to see what iPod for movies and TiVo for radio look like, and not just from companies who can strike deals with the major movie studios and record labels before they start. DMCA-backed DRM lets the majors dictate the terms, well beyond price, on which we can use and interact with media. It makes copyright's limited monopoly into a technology regulation, a gate on hardware and software development through which only "approved" devices can pass. More sophisticated DRM will not improve that problem, just make the approvals more onerous and the range of consumer electronics smaller. Nobody wants a door lock that locks its homeowner out too often. The law can support DRM in the short term, but as more and more honest people trip against its restrictions on their noninfringing activities, I predict they'll press Congress to change the law to allow for creativity in media and technology again. Have a good flight. I too enjoyed the conversation and look forward to continuing it. http://online.wsj.com/public/article..._20060720.html ![]() FCC Kicks Off Review of Media Ownership Rules The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday launched what is expected to be a fierce battle over whether to relax media ownership restrictions on television, radio and newspapers, a move that could spark consolidation in the industry. A top priority of Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's agenda has been to allow a company to own a newspaper and a radio or television station that serve the same market and he repeated his desire to revamp the 1975 ban preventing such cross-ownership. ``The commission should take into account the competitive realities of the media marketplace while also ensuring the promotion of the important goals of localism and diversity,'' Martin, a Republican, said at the FCC's monthly open meeting. Companies such as Tribune Co. and Media General Inc. have pressed the FCC to lift the cross-ownership ban, citing cost savings, among other reasons. They and Martin have contended there is plenty of competition. The FCC tried to ease ownership restrictions in 2003, but an appeals court put them on hold, saying the agency failed to justify the limits it set. The public comment period will last four months and the effort could take at least a year. The two Democrats on the five-member commission criticized the new effort. And consumer advocates have already formed alliances to lobby against making consolidation easier, arguing it would squeeze out independent voices and reduce local content. ``Even under the old rules, consolidation grows, localism suffers and diversity dwindles,'' said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat. ``If we make the wrong decision, our communities will suffer and our country will suffer.'' Other rules to be reviewed include whether a broadcaster should be permitted to own more than one television station in smaller media markets, if a company can own more radio stations in a market and if the FCC should eliminate a rule that prevents two of the top four television networks from being owned by the same company. Some have speculated Martin may seek a faster, separate track for lifting the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban. ``This must not be allowed to happen,'' Copps said. He and fellow Democrat Jonathan Adelstein also criticized Martin for refusing to commit to issuing proposed new rules for public review before voting to set final rules. Martin countered it appeared the Democrats were rushing to judgment about the outcome before the review had begun, rather than the other way around. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who was recently sworn in and who gives Martin a Republican majority at the agency, gave little clue about his thoughts on the rules. ``Our rules must take into account the dramatic changes that have occurred in the media landscape since the commission adopted them,'' he said. ``At the same time, we must ensure that the rules continue to promote the long-standing values of competition, diversity and localism.'' The agency plans to hold six public hearings and conduct some economic studies and analyses on the impact of adjusting the ownership rules, Martin said. Copps pushed for as many as 12 hearings. While media industry executives generally support relaxing the ownership rules, not all shareholders agree with more consolidation. Tribune has been under fire from its No. 2 shareholder, the Chandler Trusts, which would rather see the company separate its broadcast and publishing businesses, arguing that owning complementary media properties was not boosting profits. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/busin...ownership.html ![]() Nielsen's New Plan: Measure Video Consumption, Not TV Watching Nate Anderson Nielsen Media Research has just announced an ambitious and far-reaching change to its traditional methodology for measuring television viewership. Recognizing that video is being consumed not just on televisions but on computer screens, cell phones, and iPods, the company plans to measure viewership on all of those platforms as well. The goal is to give television networks a more complete picture of where, when, and how their content is being consumed. Television is in a state of flux at the moment as networks try to make sense of the massive changes that digital distribution has made to their traditional business model. With consumer attention increasingly drawn to video games, DVRs, computers, iPods, and television shows on DVD, television advertising revenue has gone flatter than an LCD screen. Nielsen already tracks DVR usage to address fears by advertisers that they're paying too much for commercials that consumers ultimately skip anyway (they also plan to use GPS trackers on some people to determine when and for how long they're sitting in front of the television). Networks have responded by boosting product placements in their shows (a form of advertising that cannot be skipped), but have also realized that they need to embrace new delivery mechanisms. Nielsen's new service aims to fill a hole in the current process of measuring digital downloads. Currently, companies like NBC know exactly how many episodes of The Office, for instance, are downloaded from iTunes. What they don't know is how many times those episodes are being watched and whether they are actually transferred to an iPod—information that would be valuable when trying to sell product placements. Likewise, a network such as ABC will have objective, third-party data on its new streaming service that will enable it to better sell ads. "What marketers really want is some sort of single-source measurement, to find out what a day in the life of a media consumer is: What they're watching on cell phones, what they are watching on iPods, what they are watching on linear TV and when they are watching," said Brad Adgate, a research executive at New York-based ad buyer Horizon Media. Nielsen hopes to integrate all these measurements to give networks and marketers alike better knowledge of how and where video is consumed. Though this is no announcement about the "death of television," it does show that the market has realized that it's all about the video itself, not the device where that video is watched. And increasingly, that device is not the television. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060615-7066.html ![]() Married to Morticia TV Producer Aaron Spelling Dies at 83 Bob Thomas Aaron Spelling captivated generations of television viewers with shows like "Charlie's Angels" and "Beverly Hills 90210" and left an indelible stamp on American pop culture, but he never won the critical acclaim he sought. One of the most prolific TV producers in history, Spelling chafed at the lowbrow label critics assigned his many hit series. He called his shows "mind candy" while critics referred to them as "mindless candy." Spelling died Friday at his Los Angeles mansion after suffering a stroke on June 18, according to publicist Kevin Sasaki. He was 83. "The knocks by the critics bother you," the man behind "Melrose Place" and "Dynasty" told The Associated Press in a 1986 interview. "But you have a choice of proving yourself to 300 critics or 30 million fans. ... I think you're also categorized by the critics. If you do something good they almost don't want to like it." Spelling's other hit series included "Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "Burke's Law," "The Mod Squad," "Starsky and Hutch," "T.J. Hooker," "Matt Houston," "Hart to Hart" and "Hotel." Most recently he produced "7th Heaven" and "Summerland." He also produced more than 140 television movies. Among the most notable: "Death Sentence" (1974), "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" (1976) and "The Best Little Girl in the World" (1981). During the 1970s and 1980s, Spelling provided series and movies exclusively for ABC and is credited for the network's rise to major status. Jokesters referred to it as "The Aaron Broadcasting Company." "Aaron's contributions in television are unequaled. To me, he was a dear friend and a truly genuine human being," Jaclyn Smith, the only original "Charlie's Angels" actress who stayed with the show for its entire run, said in a statement Friday. Spelling liked to cite some of his more creditable achievements, like "Family" (1976-80), a drama about a middle-class family, and "The Best Little Girl in the World." Among his prestige films for TV: "Day One" (1989), about the making of the atomic bomb; "And the Band Played On" (1992), based on Randy Shilts' book about the AIDS crisis. Spelling had arrived in Hollywood virtually penniless in the early 1950s. By the 1980s, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $300 million. He gave his second wife, Candy, a 40-carat diamond ring. The Spellings' most publicized extravagance was their 56,500-square-foot French chateau in Holmby Hills. The couple bought the former Bing Crosby estate for $10 million and leveled it to the ground, along with two other houses. Construction cost was estimated at $12 million. Born on April 22, 1923, Spelling grew up in a small house in Dallas "on the wrong side of the tracks," he wrote in his 1996 autobiography. He was the fourth son of immigrant Jews, his father from Poland, mother from Russia. At 8, he suffered what he termed a nervous breakdown and spent a year in bed. He later considered that period the birth of his creative urge. Spelling enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1942. After combat and organizing entertainment in Europe during the war, he enrolled at Southern Methodist University, where he wrote and directed plays. He continued working in local theatrics after graduating. Finding no work in New York, Spelling moved to Los Angeles, where he staged plays and acted in more than 40 TV shows and 12 movies. His skinny frame suited him for the role of a beggar in the MGM musical "Kismet." He worked for three weeks, repeating his one line: "Alms for the love of Allah." That experience resulted in two decisions: he abandoned acting for the typewriter; he married a young actress he had been courting, Carolyn Jones, who played Morticia in "The Addams Family" series. They divorced after 13 years, and she died of cancer in 1983. Spelling's friendship with such actor-producers as Dick Powell, Jack Webb and Alan Ladd led to his rapid rise as a prolific writer and later producer of TV series. In 1960, Powell, head of Four Star Productions, hired him to produce shows. "Burke's Law" became the first hit series Spelling created. After Powell's death, Spelling teamed with Danny Thomas, scoring a huge success with "The Mod Squad." In 1969, Spelling began an exclusive contract with ABC. Former ABC programming chief Leonard Goldberg joined him as partner in 1972. After ABC canceled "Dynasty" in 1989 and his contract with the network ended, Spelling found himself without a show on the air for the first time since 1960. "I was so depressed, I would have quit, but I like TV too much," Spelling wrote in his memoir. After a year's respite, he returned with "Beverly Hills 90210," which helped launch the fledgling Fox Network. "Melrose Place" gave Fox another hit. Throughout his career, Spelling maintained the same image: the skinny frame, slightly hawkish face. He usually posed with a pipe in his mouth, a custom he adopted early after seeing stars with pipes in fan magazine photos. Spelling and his second wife, Candy, had two children, Tori, who became a star on the two Fox serials, and Randy, who appeared in the short-lived "Malibu Shores." http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT ![]() The vacancy fit for a king Who Will Be The Next Bill Gates? Or Will There Be Several? Peter Elstrom Perhaps no one knows precisely why Bill Gates chose June 15 to announce to the world that he would give up his day-to-day involvement at Microsoft over the next two years. Or at least no one other than Gates and his wife Melinda. Yet Paul Saffo, director at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., can almost visualize the moment. "I think he looked in the mirror one day and said, 'You're fired,'" says Saffo. Hotly debated over the past few years is whether Microsoft is a mature company, with few growth prospects left. What's indisputable is that the software giant is on the decline in terms of power, if not profits, as numerous upstarts, led by Google, have proven themselves more nimble and innovative in taking advantage of the Internet. And over the past six difficult years, it's been Gates who has had the role of technical architect for the company's many products. So Gates' decision to leave Microsoft does more than vacate his posts at the software company. It also serves as public notice that the position at the center of the tech industry that Gates and Microsoft have occupied for decades is up for grabs. (MSNBC.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal News.) There may be more than one. As the PC era gives way to the Internet Age, a number of stalwarts are struggling to make the leap. At chipmaker Intel, where co-founder Andy Grove gave up his post as chairman last year, the company has lost its unquestioned position of dominance under a fierce assault from rival Advanced Micro Devices. In the wake of Michael Dell's decision to cede the chief executive title at computer maker Dell, the company has struggled mightily. Steve Jobs at Apple is one of a few industry veterans who continues to adapt and thrive. Who will step up to be the industry's next king—or queen? Who will be able to drive the development of new technologies in such dramatic ways that he or she leads the way for the rest of the top companies? Someone at one of the existing giants? At a startup no one has yet heard of? Or perhaps it will be a disheveled twentysomething now spending long, caffeinated hours writing code in a dorm room in Boston or Bangalore. The spotlight will be on a number of emerging players over the coming years, to see who will step forward and claim the crown. At the top of the list of candidates are an obvious few: Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google; Linus Torvalds, who heads development of the Linux operating systems; Marc Benioff at Salesforce.com; and even Ray Ozzie, who is taking over Gates’ job as chief software architect at Microsoft and has been instrumental in prodding Microsoft to make some of its software available online. "I'd put Google well in front of the others," says analyst Safa Rashtchy of Piper Jaffray. There's little doubt about the ambition of Page and Brin. While their search engine has become a money machine, they're moving far beyond the search word advertising business, introducing a new initiative nearly every week. One move this month was to unveil a free online spreadsheet that competes directly with Microsoft's Excel, part of an ongoing effort to systematically knock down the pillars of Microsoft's business. Will Google assume the mantle of leadership from Microsoft the way the software giant took over from IBM? Perhaps. But even if Page and Brin live up to the great expectations for their company, the nature of Google's power is fundamentally different than that of Microsoft. Gates succeeded through Microsoft's tight control of the PC, by locking in customers and suppliers that needed its software. Google has no comparable lock. It operates in the wide-open world of the Internet, where people can find an alternative search engine or spreadsheet or video with the click of a mouse. "Google won't have the dominance that Microsoft had," says Saffo. "They can't. They have an open platform, and that's fundamentally different from what Microsoft did. That's the only way you can do it these days. You have to let other companies in." Indeed, the nature of power in the technology biz is changing. The ubiquity of the Internet means that there is more potential in reaching out to other companies and individuals than there is for a company operating on its own. "The way you get big now is by empowering the small," says Saffo. " Google does it. They empower all of us to search." This opens up opportunity for a new kind of tech leader. Pierre Omidyar founded eBay with the idea that anyone, anywhere, could auction off almost anything on its auction site, and Niklas Zennstrom has carried the idea further with the Net telephone service Skype, which eBay purchased last year for $2.6 billion. The other potential tech titans in the business of empowering others include Jonathan Schwartz, the newly appointed chief executive at Sun Microsystems, and Charlie Giancarlo, the chief development officer at Cisco Systems and a potential successor to CEO John Chambers. These are all leading luminaries in Silicon Valley. Still, the next tech king may come from someplace completely unexpected. For instance, while Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel in Santa Clara, Calif., may still be best positioned to lead the way in the semiconductor industry, there are opportunities for people like Paul Jacobs, chief executive of Qualcomm in San Diego to become preeminent. Qualcomm makes the chips for wireless phones and has been pushing the cell phone as a means to do everything from surfing the Web to watching television broadcasts. Jacobs may have the numbers on his side. Some 600 million cell phones are expected to be sold this year, or roughly three times the number of PCs. One of Jacobs' favorite pronouncements? "The wireless Internet will have a greater impact on the world than the wired Internet." Even farther afield are the entrepreneurs of developing countries, including China and India. Up-and-comers there have the advantages of huge domestic markets and a proximity to a new crop of tech customers. It could be a significant edge. The most popular search engine in China is not Google or Yahoo, despite the American companies' concerted efforts. Rather, it's Baidu, a company founded by Robin Li that went public last year. The top online auction site is not run by eBay, but by Alibaba, a Chinese company founded by Jack Ma that has also taken over the operations of Yahoo in that country. In the end, there may not be only one or two leaders who step to the forefront of the industry. As technology has changed, so too, has the structure of the business behind it. The industry may never again be dominated by the likes of a Bill Gates or an Andy Grove, because it has grown so big, so diverse, and so international. "We're not talking about a replacement for Bill Gates," says Rashtchy. "This is going to be a much more diverse group." Kevin Werbach, a technology analyst and consultant, agrees. "It will be different," he wrote in an e-mail interview. "No one in this next generation was present at the creation" of the personal computer industry in the '70s, the way Jobs, Gates, Ellison, Grove, etc. were." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13422438/ ![]() Online News With a New Angle Leslie Walker To see who will create the Internet newscast of the future, look into a mirror. You and millions of other readers are being cast as Internet news anchors by a fresh crop of Web sites that may well represent the future of news. Chief among them is Digg, a technology news site where story position is determined entirely by readers who submit links to articles and vote on them. Digg's computers use special formulas to analyze which stories readers are voting for and commenting on the most and then elevate those to its home page. What's displayed on Digg are summaries and links to articles on other news sites and blogs, not the actual stories. Having attended plenty of meetings at which editors debate what goes on a newspaper's front page, I am fascinated by this attempt to create a front page of Internet news by analyzing reader behavior. Digg ( http://www.digg.com ), which launched in September 2004, draws 8.5 million monthly visitors, who make 2,000 daily story submissions. Yesterday, top entries included a review of the Opera 9 browser and a story about MySpace adding restrictions. Today, Digg plans to announce a makeover that will expand its repertoire beyond computing and into general news categories and add customization features to go live next week. "We are leveraging the collective wisdom of the Internet masses to sift through these stories and apply their interests to it," said Jay Adelson, chief executive of the 15-employee company, based in San Francisco. "Digg's philosophy is to create more user-controlled experiences that will give every type of reader the news they want." In a nod to its popularity, Digg got a well-heeled competitor last week -- AOL's Netscape.com, a general Web portal being transformed into a Digg clone with a few twists. Netscape's and Digg's news summaries are free and will be supported by advertising. The new Netscape site is in preview mode ( http://www.beta.netscape.com ) and will officially launch July 1. Its key differentiator is the human touch -- real, live reporters and editors. In addition to letting visitors vote on stories to determine their play, Netscape is hiring eight full-time and 15 part-time journalists to add an editorial sensibility on top of its popularity-based layouts. "While people are quick to praise the wisdom of the crowd, being an old-school journalist, I look at the wisdom of the crowd and know it can quickly turn into a mob mentality," said Jason Calacanis, who founded Weblogs Inc. but now runs Netscape's makeover for AOL. Netscape's staff picks one story to spotlight in a box at the top of the home page, while the articles below are arranged solely by popularity. That makes the site a hybrid between Digg's user-shaped layout and the editorially dictated pages of traditional news sites, such as washingtonpost.com. The Post's and the New York Times' sites have hybrid-like features. The Post lists the stories that have been e-mailed or viewed the most, while the Times prominently displays a "most popular" story box on its home page. But these hybrids are mostly the reverse of Netscape's -- a few user-controlled layouts in the form of most-viewed and most-e-mailed story lists, which are subordinated to the main, editor-controlled news layouts. Calacanis described the role of Netscape editorial staff as "meta-journalism," which he defined as adding original research or context to stories that visitors deem popular. "Maybe it's a follow-up interview, fact-checking or research," he said. One example he cited involved a story about an AOL subscriber who called customer service to cancel his account and tape-recorded the call. The AOL employee resisted the cancellation in the call, which was posted online. "We called the person who had the AOL account and interviewed him," Calacanis said. AOL wound up firing the customer service staffer, he added. The Netscape experiment is still early, but I am skeptical that its hybrid model will add any value to the core idea behind Digg -- exploiting the Internet's ability to give readers input on the journalism they consume. Netscape would need high-powered reporters to add first-rate commentary and fact-checking. So far, its commentary strikes me as so anemic and wordy that it interferes with the site's real goal -- letting readers see what others find interesting. This idea of peering over the shoulder of others is powerful. Digg offers a feature called "Digg Spy" that presents random lists of user actions in real time. It shows random activity occurring at any moment, such as who is voting on or submitting which stories. Digg has another social feature that lets users narrow their spying to stories submitted by or commented on by friends -- or any stranger they may choose. Digg also is at the vanguard of a growing movement to build profiles of what people are doing online to help determine what they see. For example, Digg automatically creates profiles of registered users' interests by storing a record of the articles they've commented on or voted for. "So down the road, Digg will become smarter and be able to recommend stories, based on your past Digging activities and those of your friends," said Digg co-founder Kevin Rose. Adelson said Digg and its rivals eventually will give mainstream news sites valuable insights into what the public considers newsworthy. "If you want to know what a particular group of people or the mass public care about today, I can know within seconds, versus waiting for the publication cycle to happen so you can look at your subscription data or Nielsen ratings," Adelson said. Whether you buy into his optimism or not, Digg is experimenting with something important. And as news consumption becomes more personalized online, I believe this concept of letting readership patterns shape story presentation will offer valuable ways to preserve the shared news experience of the mass-media era. Already, it is giving us intriguing new glimpses of what the masses are actually reading. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062101864.html ![]() Let the snarking begin Digg: 'Newspaper Of The Web', Or Its Gossip Column? Donna Bogatin When it comes to technology news, Jay Adelson, Digg CEO, believes in the “collective wisdom” of the “Internet masses” to actively promote good tech stories. Starting next week, his belief in the tech masses will be matched with a belief in the general masses, when Digg expands its service to include entertainment, gaming, science, world and business news… As I discuss in “Social freeloaders: Is there a collective wisdom and can the Web obtain it?,” a “collective wisdom” of any masses, let alone the “Internet masses,” is hard to come by. Wikipedia, which calls itself the “free encyclopedia”, is beset by “nonsense pages,” revert wars,” and “vandalism.” For Michael Arrington, “Digg is looking more and more like the newspaper of the web.” Given that the only “news” Digg actually provides is commentary on other’s news, in what it calls “digg user news" (your latest diggs, or someone else's), however, I hope Digg does not represent our newspapers of the future. Perhaps we should call Digg a gossip column, for while Digg commentary is entertaining and colorful, it is often not newsworthy. Here is a taste of current Digg “news” commentary/gossip about Comcast tech support: Yes I hate Comcast too. But really, I just hate anyone who charges an arm and a leg (or $30+) a month for medium speed internet, YouTube is down for some reason. Any mirrors? I wonder if Digg brought it down, or are they just doing mantinace?, yeah dood, youtube, which uses 200 terabytes of bandwidth a day, was dugg to death :P, YouTube is down retard, Just a quick question. How do you know this is even real? Anyone can record someone sitting on their couch and claim it's a service call, Welcome to web 2.0. It doesn't have to be true as long as people want to believe it, Yeah it's funny, for as seemingly smart and intellectually independent the tech savvy crowd seems, we easily become a blind mob. Basically a commodity of smart cows, Comcast may suck, but I kind of feel for the tech. Nobody should have to wait on hold for an hour. More than ten minutes should be unacceptable. Besides, he was sitting right next to the air conditioner. When you sit next to the air conditioner, you're going to sleep, no questions asked, was going to post this 3 days ago but Digg said there were duplicate stories (even though they didn't show up via a search) so I didn't submit the story. And now 2 versions of the same story have been posted with people ignoring the duplicate warning! guess from now on the duplicate warning should just be ignored all the time eh? http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=156 Digg's 8 Million 'Social Freeloaders' According to Digg CEO Jay Adelson, “The point of Digg is to capture the interests of the Internet masses and use that interest to help organize the huge amounts of information on the Web." Digg’s masses, however, are passive readers of other’s “Diggs,” rather than active contributors to a Digg “collective wisdom.” Digg reportedly attracted 8.5 million visitors in May, but only has 304,000 registered users, submitting, on average, about 2000 stories a day. As I point out in “Social freeloaders: Is there a collective wisdom and can the Web obtain it?,” the Social Web that is purported to be harnessing a “collective wisdom” of millions, is merely reflecting the opinions of a small number of self-selected active contributors: Wikipedia’s “small core community” that does the vast majority of the work reflects the extremely low ratio of contributing users to non-contributing users throughout the new social Web that relies on user contributions for its content. The average YouTube user is watching the content, not generating it, for while more than 35 million videos are viewed daily, only 35,000 are uploaded” and at Riya photo search, searchers outnumber the uploaders, 20 to 1. Perhaps the social Web will come to be known for its freeloaders, rather than its uploaders. A user-contribution reality-check is undoubtedly in order. As it stands now, Internet users are being honored for a "collective wisdom" which has not been harnassed, and Social Web properties are preparing to "sell" access to the non-existent "collective wisdom": If you want to know what…the mass public care about today, I can know within seconds, versus waiting for the publication cycle to happen so you can look at your subscription data or Nielsen ratings, Adelson said. http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=157 ![]() The Jolie Interview: The Humble Star and Eager Newsman Alessandra Stanley It must be a law of celebrity physics: When journalists act like movie stars, movie stars act like journalists. It is always tempting to dismiss an actor's passionate embrace of charity work as a gimmick — method giving. But on Tuesday night Angelina Jolie gracefully slipped past viewer cynicism, speaking with candor and self-deprecation about the plight of third world refugees, a cause that led her to give birth to a daughter in Namibia last month. When CNN's Anderson Cooper marveled that she gives away a third of her earnings, Ms. Jolie laughed. "Yes, well, I have a stupid income for what I do for a living," she said. Mr. Cooper, the silver-haired CNN anchor, did not conduct an interview with the elusive actress; he held a conversation in which he seemed a little too eager to put himself on par with his guest as if the two of them belonged to an elite club of the concerned and caring. "You're not just talking the talk; you are walking the walk," he told Ms. Jolie, and then proceeded to talk a lot about his own walk through war zones and disaster areas, as if somehow that was an eccentric choice for a journalist. He even managed to wedge in a mention of Hurricane Katrina: "One of the stories that we're doing, in this program, is about Niger," he said. "And I was there last summer right before Hurricane Katrina. And one in four children in Niger dies before the age of 5, which to me, I still cannot wrap my mind around." By choosing CNN's most pious anchor for her first interview since the delivery, the actress ensured that the topic would be refugees, not her postpartum slimness or Brad Pitt's spurned ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston. Ms. Jolie is not the first or only celebrity to siphon fame and media attention to a worthy cause, but she is the star of the moment, a glamorous sex symbol at the peak of her career. Even more than Bill Gates or Bono, she signals a shift in mores among the hyper-rich. After 25 years of ever-escalating exorbitance, the pendulum has swung toward conspicuous nonconsumption. Extravagance is measured not by how much is spent, but how much is given away. And that can't be bad. Ms. Jolie may be susceptible to extreme gestures (it was only a few years ago that she wore a vial of her husband's blood around her neck and a tattoo of his name on her arm and elsewhere), but her current obsession is a lasting fancy that is impossible to fault. She has adopted two orphans (she revealed that she and Mr. Pitt are planning to take in a third), traveled extensively for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and lavished time, money and her fame to a difficult cause. She hasn't lost her fondness for body ink, however: she told Mr. Cooper she wears the phrase "know your rights" tattooed on her back, which shows when she wears a low-cut shirt. "I wore it to a prison once," she said saucily. She and Mr. Pitt have mastered the art of celebrity jujitsu, turning tabloid brawn against itself. Their latest coup was selling the first picture of their new baby, Shiloh, to the highest bidder, then donating the proceeds to charity, reportedly several million dollars. Hollywood doesn't offer many savory alternatives, as Matt Lauer's ghastly interview with Britney Spears on NBC's "Dateline" last week proved. That display may have been the nadir of celebrity narcissism. Even Cher has taken on the cause of helmet safety for American troops in Iraq and was scheduled to discuss it with Mr. Cooper last night. As much as Ms. Jolie used the occasion of motherhood to showcase her humanitarian work on CNN, the network used her humanitarian work to showcase its own talent. And that was a bit much. Mr. Cooper, who just published his autobiography, "Dispatches From the Edge," and was on the cover of Vanity Fair, has surely received plenty of publicity and praise. For understandable reasons CNN relentlessly promoted the exclusive, and the network even persuaded Paula Zahn and Larry King to take time from their shows to interview their colleague about his scoop. Both seemed a little put out by the task. "You're talking more about the interview than the interview," Mr. King said to Mr. Cooper. "Are you getting a little tired of it?" Apparently not. On ABC's "Good Morning America" yesterday Mr. Cooper once again explained why Ms. Jolie chose CNN. "I do a lot of reporting in Africa; I'm interested in Africa," he said. "It was sort of a natural fit." He praised Ms. Jolie for doing the interview solely to draw attention to the plight of refugees and not to promote a movie. He then seamlessly moved on to vigorously promote his best-selling book. With journalists like that, its a small wonder celebrities are starting to do their own reporting. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/ar...on/22watc.html ![]() DigiBarn Interview by Eric Steuer The DigiBarn is a computer museum located in a 90-year-old barn in California's Santa Cruz Mountains. It is also an online repository of Creative Commons-licensed photos, video, audio, and technical documentation that tell the history of personal computing. The DigiBarn's collections include small and big computers, game systems, software, and schwag. We recently spoke with the DigiBarn's curator, Bruce Damer about the museum and its use of CC licensing. Creative Commons: What is the DigiBarn project? How did it start? Bruce Damer: The DigiBarn is a large physical collection of computing artifacts that is housed in a barn in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley in Northern California. The DigiBarn is also a sprawling cyber-collection at digibarn.com, which represents both physical artifacts and thousands of community contributions that tell the story of the invention of personal computing, the graphical user interface, and the digital lifestyle. We go beyond just giving the specs for a given computer to weaving together the stories of those who built the industry. We also showcase all the ephemera — from company t-shirts to software to internal prototypes. I started collecting this history while working with Xerox and Xerox PARC in the 1980s. I formally commissioned the physical museum in 2001 with the help of my friend and neighbor Allan Lundell, a well known video chronicler of Valley history and the first west coast editor of Byte magazine. Behind the project are literally thousands of contributors and hundreds of volunteers who have emptied their garages, told us their stories, and done heavy lifting for the physical and online exhibits. CC: What are your goals for the DigiBarn? BD: To capture the story of the birth of personal computing and the origins of the digital lifestyle we are all now living. The artifacts and the story are rapidly being lost and every week someone passes away who had something to contribute to the telling of that story. In a decade or two most of the people who brought us the modern computing world will be gone. In the meantime we are trying to capture oral histories from these people, both the famous and the not-so-famous. CC: In what ways does the DigiBarn use Creative Commons licensing? BD: A key goal of the project was to collect and deliver our shared computing heritage to the public for noncommercial use, hence our choice of the Creative Commons framework. In fact, we were very early adopters, supporting the beta testing phase of CC back in 2002, and the DigiBarn site was featured content at the CC launch. We provide noncommercial share-alike (with attribution) use of hundreds of thousands of photos, written stories, tech specs, scanned documents, audio interviews and video shorts about the history of computing from the late 1940s to today. From artists using our vintage computer photos to produce cool video mixes to academics writing papers and books, thousands of CC-licensed DigiBarn digital objects have found their way into the culture. CC: How has the DigiBarn grown over the years? BD: The DigiBarn is well on its way to having a complete collection of every model of significant personal computer (along with all associated materials) from 1975 to the late 80s. We stop collecting artifacts after about 1990, as by that date innovation and diversity in hardware and software was slowing and most computers were pretty much commodity items produced by a few manufacturers. We have also focused on early workstations including the Xerox Alto and Star, which were the first networked machines with graphical interfaces and mice. The only large systems we have are two Cray supercomputers (a Cray 1 and Cray Q2 prototype). These are impressive machines and true things of beauty. Since the web site launched in 1998, the cyber-collection has swelled to over a half million objects. CC: You also curate a collection of key technical documentation. Can you talk a bit about your experience with this? BD: Some of our key technical documentation, including video and audio interviews with key innovators, has begun to upset the apple cart in the patent domain. Our November 2004 30th birthday event for "Maze War," the first-ever first-person shooter, uncovered so much prior art that Sony contacted us about several patent challenges on multi-player gaming. It turns out that by recovering the history of "Maze War," we had knocked the wind out of several patent claims, which are now headed to settlement instead of to court. In a sense, each bit of digital archeology we dig up and publish openly under CC could roll back the invention envelope, protecting basic innovations in common use from being restricted through inappropriate granting of new patents. There is another case regarding several loads of original documentation that contained some of Apple Computer’s key early business plans, prototypes and technical design documents. Some of this material had recently been ordered discarded by Apple management, yet these documents were key to understanding the history of Apple and where early innovations came from. It could also have been argued that these records Apple was abandoning were in fact part of a common cultural heritage. The DigiBarn accepted the donations with the full understanding by the donors that they would be made available to the world under CC license and there was no objection. You can see several of these contributions including the Woz Wonderbook and the Preliminary Macintosh Business Plan – 12 July 1981 on our site. More of these fascinating documents will be posted soon. CC: How can people help the DigiBarn project? BD: The DigiBarn is an all-volunteer effort with significant personal outlays of funds and time. We are hoping to find financial support to cover at least some of our volunteers' time and for basic infrastructural improvements to the barn building (we have a big winter moisture problem to solve on the lower floor). We are therefore seeking donors of both funds and other forms of support to keep this effort going. We may establish a foundation for urgent oral history capture if such support can be found. If anyone out there is interested in helping out, please contact us. We would like to thank Professor Lessig and the Creative Commons team for giving us a legal framework that has made the DigiBarn project possible. We are always encouraging other museums and collectors to adopt CC licensing as we feel it is an important vehicle that makes it possible to place historical digital archives into a container of commonly shared cultural heritage. http://creativecommons.org/education/digibarn ![]() Dell Laptop Explodes At Japanese Conference INQ reader's amazing snaps AN INQUIRER READER attending a conference in Japan was sat just feet away from a laptop computer that suddenly exploded into flames, in what could have been a deadly accident. Guilhem, our astonished reader reports: "The damn thing was on fire and produced several explosions for more than five minutes". Should you witness such an event, his advice is, "Don't try anything courageous/stupid, stay away, away, away!" "For the record, this is a Dell machine," notes Guilhem. "It is only a matter of time until such an incident breaks out on a plane," he suggests. Guilhem managed to catch all the action in these amazing pictures. "Fire extinguishers leave a mess on your suit and belongings; pack your stuff (if you can) and leave, leave, leave!" he advises. We don't have any further details of the model of the computer in question. In light of the evidence, however, we'd suggest you avoid actually using a laptop on your lap. Ouch. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550 ![]() Higher-Capacity Lithium-Ion Batteries Nanostructured electrodes and active materials could shrink batteries for portable electronics and electric vehicles. Kevin Bullis A forest of copper rods about 100 nanometers in diameter create much more surface area for high-capacity battery electrodes. Researchers in France have created lithium-ion battery electrodes with several times the energy capacity, by weight and volume, of conventional electrodes. The new electrodes could help shrink the size of cell-phone and laptop batteries, or else increase the length of time a device could run on a charge. What's more, the nanotech methods used to make these electrodes could provide a simple and inexpensive way to structure new materials for next-generation batteries for plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles. The key advance is the development of an inexpensive and simple way to organize tiny particles into a desired nanostructure, says Patrice Simon, a chemistry professor at the Université Paul Sabatier, who participated in the work along with other researchers at the university and Université Picardie Jules Verne. In a conventional battery electrode, ions and electrons will move quickly into and out of the active material -- allowing fast charging and discharging -- only if the material is deposited in a very thin film. Thin films, however, limit the amount of active material that can be incorporated into a battery. For high-capacity batteries, engineers typically increase the thickness of the active material, trading off fast charging and high-power bursts for more energy storage. This new nanostructure allows for both high power and high storage capacity. Active materials are applied in a very thin film to copper nanorods anchored to sheets of copper foil. This thin film allows for fast movement of ions and electrons -- providing the power. At the same time, the high surface area of the forest of nanorods makes it possible to pack much more active material into an electrode than thin films typically allow, thus increasing energy capacity. The rods provide 50 square centimeters of surface area for every square centimeter of electrode. In addition, the high ion and electron mobility of the thin layer makes it possible to use a new active material and a new chemical reaction for lithium-ion batteries. This new chemistry is attractive because it can accommodate far more lithium ions, and their electron counterparts, than the chemistry used now, thereby potentially storing more energy. The new electrodes, which would be used as the negative electrodes in lithium-ion batteries, also showed the ability to retain their high capacity after being charged and discharged many times, suggesting that the electrodes may have a long useable lifetime, Simon says, although more extensive tests are needed to confirm this supposition. http://www.techreview.com/read_artic...17&ch=nanotech ![]() Researchers Hack Wi-Fi Driver To Breach Laptop One of many flaws found allowed them to take over a laptop by exploiting a bug in an 802.11 wireless driver Robert McMillan Security researchers have found a way to seize control of a laptop computer by manipulating buggy code in the system's wireless device driver. The hack will be demonstrated at the upcoming Black Hat USA 2006 conference during a presentation by David Maynor, a research engineer with Internet Security Systems and Jon Ellch, a student at the U.S. Naval postgraduate school in Monterey, California. Device driver hacking is technically challenging, but the field has become more appealing in recent years, thanks in part to new software tools that make it easier for less technically savvy hackers, known as script kiddies, to attack wireless cards, Maynor said in an interview. The two researchers used an open-source 802.11 hacking tool called LORCON (Lots of Radion Connectivity) to throw an extremely large number of wireless packets at different wireless cards. Hackers use this technique, called fuzzing, to see if they can cause programs to fail, or perhaps even run unauthorized software when they are bombarded with unexpected data. Using tools like LORCON, Maynor and Ellch were able to discover many examples of wireless device driver flaws, including one that allowed them to take over a laptop by exploiting a bug in an 802.11 wireless driver. They also examined other networking technologies including Bluetooth, Ev-Do (EVolution-Data Only), and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access). The two researchers declined to disclose the specific details of their attack before the August 2 presentation, but they described it in dramatic terms. "This would be the digital equivalent of a drive-by shooting," said Maynor. An attacker could exploit this flaw by simply sitting in a public space and waiting for the right type of machine to come into range. The victim would not even need to connect to a network for the attack to work. "You don't have to necessarily be connected for these device driver flaws to come into play," Ellch said. "Just because your wireless card is on and looking for a network could be enough." More than half of the flaws that the two researchers found could be exploited even before the wireless device connected to a network. Wireless devices are often configured to be constantly sniffing for new networks, and that can lead to security problems, especially if their driver software is badly written. Researchers in Italy recently created a hacking lab on wheels, called project BlueBag, to underscore this point by showing just how many vulnerable Bluetooth wireless devices they could connect with by wandering around public spaces like airports and shopping malls. After spending about 23 hours wandering about Milan, they had found more than 1,400 devices that were open to connection. "Wireless device drivers are like the Wild, Wild West right now," Maynor said. "LORCON has really brought mass Wi-Fi packet injection to script kiddies. Now it's pretty much to the point where anyone can do it." Part of the problem is that the engineers who write device drivers often do not have security in mind, he said. A second problem is that vendors also make devices do more than they really need to in order to be certified as compliant with a particular wireless standard. That piling on of features can open security holes as well, he said. http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/...ibreach_1.html ![]() Wi-Fi Freeloader Arrested in Washington Eric Bangeman We have covered this type of story before: a man finds an open wireless access point, parks in front of the home or business containing the WAP, surfs away on his laptop, and the police are called. The story has played itself out once again, this time in Vancouver, WA, where 20-year-old Alexander Eric Smith was arrested after a three-month stretch where he periodically parked in front of a coffee shop off-and-on with a laptop and used its WAP. The kicker? He never bought so much as a small latte. Brewed Awakenings manager Emily Pranger finally tired of his presence and called 911. Police came and told Smith to surf elsewhere. After returning, he was taken into custody and charged with theft of services. Note that unlike other cases, he was not charged with unauthorized use of a computer network. Instead, the premise for his arrest is that he used Brewed Awakenings' free WiFi network without buying anything from them. Open WAPs are tempting in certain situations. When camping, I've driven into town in search of an open WAP to check e-mail or get my Lounge fix. However, law enforcement types seem to be paying more attention to WiFi leeching these days. An Illinois man was fined US$250 earlier this year after pleading guilty to remotely accessing another computer system without the owner's approval. That followed the conviction of a Florida man for felony unauthorized access to computer network in 2005. Fears over what people might be doing over wireless networks appear to be driving the concern over wardriving. It turns out that Smith is a convicted sex offender. It therefore follows that he was using the coffee shop's WiFi to look a porn or something equally nefarious </sarcasm>. What I find fascinating is that when newspapers and TV stations report on occurrences such as this, they generally magnify the scope of the problem and put an alarmist spin on it. On a random neighborhood street in Vancouver, a KATU News laptop detected 11 networks, five of which were unsecured, meaning anyone could log on to them for free. A computer expert told KATU News there is no way to know if someone is using your wireless connection without permission. Actually, there is. In addition, it is so trivial to turn on security for a home (or business) WAP, that there is no reason anyone should leave a WiFi network unprotected unless he or she really wants it to be open to all comers. Perhaps the sensationalized reporting that usually follows cases like this arises out of the fact that most people (media included) don't really understand how computers in general—and wireless networking in particular—work. Until people are better educated, those tempted by open access points are better off carefully considering whether or not to open up the laptop and start surfing. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060622-7111.html ![]() 5 Steps to a Safer Wireless Network Sonja Ryst Use Wi-Fi at home or the coffee shop? Your computer could be vulnerable to hackers. Here are some easy ways to stay protected Florida police faced a porn paradox. They were investigating a complaint by Tallahassee Community College that someone was subscribing to porn Web sites on the school's nickel. They traced the prurient behavior to the apartment of two women who had no criminal records and denied wrongdoing. Investigators gave the residents the benefit of the doubt and kept on probing. They discovered that a neighbor had hacked into the women's wireless network and connected his computer to theirs (all the while getting his fill of porn, illegally billing a college account). Turns out, the women had never changed the password on their router, giving the intruder easy access to their wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, connection. "If you run Wi-Fi…you need to take the time to secure it," says Bob Breeden, assistant special agent in charge at the Florida Law Enforcement Dept. The Florida residents are hardly alone. Their experience is replicated countless times across the country on a daily basis. Most people don't even know when their Wi-Fi is stolen, Breeden says. CINCH TO HACK. And the problem may only worsen as more people surf wirelessly on laptops. JiWire's Wi-Fi Hotspot Finder, an online Wi-Fi hotspot directory, found 114,910 free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide in January, an 87% increase from a year earlier. The hardware needed to get a wireless connection is much more prevalent now too. Round Rock (Tex.)-based Dell (DELL ), for example, says that about 90% of the notebooks it sells in the U.S. include a wireless card. It has been a standard feature on their new computers since 2003. But wireless surfing on a laptop — whether at home or in public — is often a cinch for hackers to intercept. When people set up wireless network connections at home, they don't always have the technical knowledge to enable security. And safeguards for public network connections can be looser still. "When you go into a wireless environment, the dangers are so much worse" than on a regular Internet connection, says Richard Rushing, chief security officer at security provider AirDefense.net. Savvy wireless hackers don't even have to attack your computer to break into it on a wireless connection — they can just sit and wait for you to provide your information to them. When you're out in public and happen to find something that says "Free Internet Access," you're essentially trusting an unknown network, Rushing says. KEEPING COVERED. Of course, most Wi-Fi freeloaders are looking for little more than a free surf on an open Internet connection. But some can break into an insecure network to read the data stored on a hard drive, plant malicious software on a computer, or, as the Florida case shows, commit criminal activity using someone else's computer address. Here are some easy steps to network security that won't cost much extra time or money. While these won't guarantee laptop safety, they add an extra layer of protection beyond a firewall and antivirus software. 1. Use Your Corporate Network. If your company provides you with a laptop that accesses the corporate network, use it for wireless surfing whenever possible. Virtual private networks, or VPNs, hide your communication with the office network. Mani Dhillon, director of product marketing for Linksys, says that whenever he surfs wirelessly in a public environment like a hotel, he uses the company's VPN. "When you're in a Starbucks, everyone is sitting next to each other with PCs, and anyone willing to pay money for [the Wi-Fi hotspot] has access to the airspace," Dhillon says. "In that case, I would recommend you use a VPN." 2. Keep a Clean Preferred List. The preferred list is like speed dial. Since it puts your most recent network connections at the top, it takes the longest to seek out the first places you visited—typically the relatively secure ones like your home network. "You want to keep that list short," says Rushing. If you look at the settings for the wireless connection on your PC, you'll see a list of wireless devices that your computer can connect to automatically—just press the "start " key and highlight "settings." From there you can reach your "network connections" and choose your wireless one. After you've highlighted it, click on "wireless properties" and look for the second tab labeled "wireless networks." Your preferred list is tucked all the way inside there. Also, when you're surfing in a public place, don't simply turn off your computer and leave when you're finished. Remember to click on the icon that disconnects your computer from the wireless networ. Otherwise, that network address will remain in your preferred list. If you have a coffee-shop hot-spot in your list, you might connect to it automatically the next time you go there to work while drinking a latte. Without your noticing, the preferred list might even automatically drop you from your corporate network and put you on the coffee-shop network instead. 3. Enable Security on Your Router. When you buy a router for wireless surfing at home, its security doesn't normally go on automatically. Some providers have online tutorials that describe how you can enable the router's security. Linksys, for example, lists every step in detail at its Web site. Once you've finished that process, you can check to make sure you did everything correctly by using the free download from McAfee's (MFE ) Wi-FiScan. 4. Pick a Good Password. Your login information may be available to the public, unless you change it. Ulrich Wiedmann, director of research and development at McAfee, says he was able to uncover the default login and passwords for three of his neighbors' networks by entering the name of their router maker into a simple Google search. 5. Enable Web-Mail Security. Call your e-mail service provider to find out how to enable the security for your Web-mail. While the security options vary, many don't automatically turn on. Those who use the Atlanta-based Internet service provider EarthLink (ELNK ), for example, have their login password and usernames protected by default from hackers. If you want an extra layer, you must go inside your preferences folder and look at your Web-mail options. The last option on the list, "session security", starts in the off position. Once you turn it on, EarthLink will prevent wireless hackers from reading your connection with the service provider, essentially hiding the e-mails you receive. You can see the change when the address in your browser changes to "https" from "http." It takes about five minutes to perform this step and doesn't cost extra for the user. But remember that the messages you send out to cyberspace remain unprotected. Most of your friends (maybe even your freelance accountant) will be receiving your e-mail from an http site, where hackers will be able to see what you sent. Of course, nothing you do is foolproof. "There's a lot of advice and misinformation floating out there," warns McAfee's Wiedmann. "People will recommend things like hiding your network—except that you can't really hide it. You'll only hide it from people who don't have hackers' tools." Even if complete security is an unreachable goal, taking a few simple steps is better than doing nothing at all. http://businessweek.com/technology/c...7s+top+stories ![]() Can Murdoch Find Money in MySpace? Andrew Ross Sorkin It may be a huge hit with the youngsters, but social-networking phenomenon MySpace “is so irrelevant to the financial performance” of owner News Corporation that “it doesn’t even merit describing,” Henry Blodget wrote Thursday in his Internet Outsider blog. MySpace’s financial insignificance leaves Mr. Blodget wondering why the media giant spent $580 million to acquire MySpace’s parent, Intermix Media, six months ago. MySpace is still a money-loser, Mr. Blodget writes, and “if the “profitable-monetization engine is ever going to really kick in, it ought to kick in soon.” Otherwise, he wrote, repeating a lesson many people learned around the turn of the last century, “traffic should not necessarily be viewed as a good proxy for business value.” Mr. Blodget’s ruminations come as MySpace is announcing new restrictions meant to protect its younger members from online predators and inappropriate content. It will soon be harder for strangers to send messages to members under 18. Also, certain adult-themed advertisements will not be shown to younger members. Meanwhile, News Corporation is considering auctioning off its search business to a large search provider like Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft’s MSN, Marketwatch recently reported. “By having one of those companies use their well-established search engines to provide paid advertising search for MySpace, News Corporation can take advantage of those sites’ ad-serving technologies without trying to duplicate them,” it wrote. http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=4531 ![]() On Tape: Rep Won't Let Customer Quit AOL An incredible video from CNBC shows an AOL customer trying to cancel his account, but a phone rep won't let him do it. What customer Vincent Ferrari got when he tried to cancel his account was a lot of frustration. It took him 15 minutes waiting on the phone just to reach a real, live person. And, what happened next was recorded by Ferrari on audio and lasted about four minutes: CLOCK READOUT - 00:00 AOL REPRESENTATIVE: Hi this is John at AOL... how may I help you today? VINCENT FERRARI: I wanted to cancel my account. AOL: : Sorry to hear that. Let's pull your account up here real quick. Can I have your name please? VINCENT: Vincent Ferrari. CLOCK READOUT - 00:30 AOL: : You've had this account for a long time. VINCENT: Yup. AOL: : Use this quite a bit. What was the cause of wanting to turn this off today? VINCENT: I just don't use it anymore. AOL: : Do you have a high speed connection, like the DSL or cable? VINCENT: Yup. AOL: : How long have you had that... VINCENT: Years... AOL: : ...the high speed? VINCENT: ...years. AOL: : Well, actually I'm showing a lot of usage on this account. VINCENT: Yeah, a long time, a long time ago, not recently... CLOCK READOUT - 01:47 AOL: : Okay, I mean is there a problem with the software itself? VINCENT: No. I just don't use it, I don't need it, I don't want it. I just don't need it anymore. AOL: : Okay. So when you use this... I mean, use the computer, I'm saying, is that for business or for... for school? VINCENT: Dude, what difference does it make. I don't want the AOL account anymore. Can we please cancel it? CLOCK READOUT - 02:21 AOL: : Last year was 545, last month was 545 hours of usage... VINCENT: I don't know how to make this any clearer, so I'm just gonna say it one last time. Cancel the account. AOL: : Well explain to me what's, why... VINCENT: I'm not explaining anything to you. Cancel the account. AOL: Well, what's the matter man? We're just, I'm just trying to help here. VINCENT: You're not helping me. You're helping me... AOL: I am trying to help. VINCENT: Helping... listen, I called to cancel the account. Helping me would be canceling the account. Please help me and cancel the account. AOL: No, it wouldn't actually... VINCENT: Cancel my account... AOL: : Turning off your account... VINCENT: ...cancel the account... AOL: : ...would be the worst thing that... VINCENT: ...cancel the account. CLOCK READOUT - 03:02 AOL: Okay, cause I'm just trying to figure out... VINCENT: Cancel the account. I don't know how to make this any clearer for you. Cancel the account. When I say cancel the account, I don't mean help me figure out how to keep it, I mean cancel the account. AOL: : Well, I'm sorry, I don't know what anybody's done to you Vincent because all I'm... VINCENT: Will you please cancel the account. CLOCK READOUT - 03:32 AOL: : Alright, some day when you calmed down you're gonna realize that all I was trying to do was help you... and it was actually in your best interest to listen to me. VINCENT: Wonderful, Okay. CLOCK READOUT - 03:39 "I've never ever experienced anything like that," Ferrari told CNBC. He recounts how the AOL representative - as a last resort even asked if his dad was home. "I think I could've put up with everything, but at the point when he asked to speak to my father, I came very close to losing it at that point," said the 30-year-old Ferrari. Ferrari then posted the call online, and the response was tremendous. AOL sent him an apology and said the customer service rep was no longer with the company. http://www.nbc10.com/news/9406462/detail.html ![]() Not tonight R2 No Sex Please, Robot, Just Clean The Floor Ed Habershon and Richard Woods THE race is on to keep humans one step ahead of robots: an international team of scientists and academics is to publish a “code of ethics” for machines as they become more and more sophisticated. Although the nightmare vision of a Terminator world controlled by machines may seem fanciful, scientists believe the boundaries for human-robot interaction must be set now — before super-intelligent robots develop beyond our control. “There are two levels of priority,” said Gianmarco Verruggio, a roboticist at the Institute of Intelligent Systems for Automation in Genoa, northern Italy, and chief architect of the guide, to be published next month. “We have to manage the ethics of the scientists making the robots and the artificial ethics inside the robots.” Verruggio and his colleagues have identified key areas that include: ensuring human control of robots; preventing illegal use; protecting data acquired by robots; and establishing clear identification and traceability of the machines. “Scientists must start analysing these kinds of questions and seeing if laws or regulations are needed to protect the citizen,” said Verruggio. “Robots will develop strong intelligence, and in some ways it will be better than human intelligence. “But it will be alien intelligence; I would prefer to give priority to humans.” The analysis culminated at a meeting recently held in Genoa by the European Robotics Research Network (Euron) that examined the problems likely to arise as robots become smarter, faster, stronger and ubiquitous. “Security, safety and sex are the big concerns,” said Henrik Christensen, a member of the Euron ethics group. How far should robots be allowed to influence people’s lives? How can accidents be avoided? Can deliberate harm be prevented? And what happens if robots turn out to be sexy? “The question is what authority are we going to delegate to these machines?” said Professor Ronald Arkin, a roboticist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “Are we, for example, going to give robots the ability to execute lethal force, or any force, like crowd control?” The forthcoming code is a sign of reality finally catching up with science fiction. Ethical problems involving machines were predicted in the 1950s by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov whose book I, Robot was recently turned into a Hollywood film. The Terminator and Robocop series of films also portrayed mechanical law enforcers running amok. Present robots perform more mundane tasks: the most common consumer robots in Britain include self-guided vacuum cleaners such as the Scooba, lawnmowers such as the Robomow and children’s toys such as Robosapien. But far more sophisticated machines are being developed. The National Health Service has used a robot called da Vinci to perform surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. In Japan, human-like robots such as Honda’s Asimo and Sony’s Qrio can walk on two legs. More advanced versions are expected to be undertaking everyday domestic tasks and helping to care for the elderly in as little as 20 years. “I would hope they would always be subordinate,” said Brian Aldiss, the science fiction writer. “But one will no doubt come to rely on them deeply.” Aldiss’s short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long was the basis for the Steven Spielberg film AI, which addressed the subject of whether androids that have become as intelligent as humans should be denied equal rights. Other dilemmas may arrive sooner than we think, says Christensen. “People are going to be having sex with robots within five years,” he said. So should limits be set on the appearance, for example, of such robotic sex toys? The greatest danger, however, is likely to lie with robots that are able to learn from their “experiences”. As systems develop, robots are likely to have much more sophisticated self-learning mechanisms built into them and it may become impossible to predict exactly how they will behave. “My guess is that we’ll have conscious machines before 2020,” said Ian Pearson, futurologist-in-residence at BT. “If we put that in a robot, it’s an android. That is an enormous ethical change.” To critics who scoff that intelligent robots are a long way off, the roboticists easily riposte that machines can already exert surprising influence over our lives — think about the influence of the internet. Keeping control New robo-ethics recommendations • Safety Ensure human control of robot • Security Prevent wrong or illegal use • Privacy Protect data held by robot o Traceability Record robot’s activity • Identifiability Give unique ID to each robot Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics • Robot may not injure human or, through inaction, allow human to come to harm • Robot must obey human orders, unless they conflict with first law • Robot must protect itself if this does not conflict with other laws http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...230715,00.html ![]() A Strange Loss of Face, More Than Embarrassing Sharon Waxman Philip K. Dick has gone missing, and now Hollywood finds itself an android short. An actual android. This famed science fiction writer, whose work was the source for many a Hollywood blockbuster, from "Blade Runner" to "Minority Report," has been dead since 1982. Last year an admiring doctoral student and evident computer whiz, David Hanson, built a life-size facsimile of Mr. Dick, using the latest artificial intelligence technology, robotics and a skinlike substance he calls "frubber." The android, which looked just like the author and was able to conduct rudimentary conversations about Mr. Dick's work and ideas, was at the cutting edge of robotic technology, able to make eye contact and believable facial expressions. The robot made several public appearances last year, including at the Comic Con in San Diego, where he (it?) was on a panel for the coming movie, "A Scanner Darkly," which is based on a Dick novel. Indeed, Warner Independent Pictures, which on July 7 is releasing the film, an experimental, animated thriller directed by Richard Linklater, had intended to send the robot on a promotional tour to promote the film. That is, until its head went missing. "We thought we might have him do a junket, we would have pitched him to Letterman," said Laura Kim, a senior executive at Warner Independent, the art-house arm of Warner Brothers. "I don't know if they would have had him on, but it would have been fun and interesting and perfect for the film." What happened to the android is a mystery, one that is more than mildly intriguing to fans who knew Mr. Dick as a futurist who advocated freedom and compassion for robots in an evolving world, and that has been debated in the technology press. Less intrigued, rather more like depressed, is Mr. Hanson, the robot maker who left the head on an America West flight from Dallas to Las Vegas in December. En route to San Francisco, Mr. Hanson, 36, had to change planes in Las Vegas, something he hadn't expected. He had been traveling for weeks, pulling all-nighters in a race between his work as a roboticist (he also made a much-discussed robotic head of Einstein); as the founder of a fledgling company, Hanson Robotics; and his doctoral work. But unlike his creation, Mr. Hanson is, apparently, distressingly human. "They woke me up, I got my laptop from under my seat, and being dazed, I just forgot that I had the robot in there," said Mr. Hanson, referring to the head in a black, American Tourister roller bag, left in the overhead compartment. After landing in San Francisco, he notified the airline, whose officials apparently found the head in Las Vegas, packed it in a box and sent it on the next flight to San Francisco. Mysteriously, it never arrived. "It's hard to know where they went wrong," said Mr. Hanson. "Did it go on to another city? Did it get mistagged? Did it end up in a warehouse? What happened?" He still doesn't know, though he is in touch with America West every few weeks in a vain quest for answers. The rest of the android's body was traveling separately, and arrived at San Francisco without incident. The robot was only coincidentally tied to the film, an unusual project that looks much like a graphic novel come to life: it uses live-action photography overlaid with advanced animation. The movie, a cautionary tale about drug use, stars an animated Keanu Reeves as an undercover police officer who is ordered to start spying on his friends, played by Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. When he is directed to begin surveillance on himself, he finds himself in a paranoid web, where people's true loyalties become impossible to decode. Over time, Mr. Dick — who himself struggled with drug abuse — has become a cultural hero in science fiction circles, known for futuristic novels and stories that pose many of the moral and philosophical dilemmas that come with advancing technology. And Hollywood has had its own love affair with the writer, successfully basing huge franchise movies on his work, including "Blade Runner," with Harrison Ford, and "Total Recall" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as smaller films like "Impostor" and "Paycheck." For Mr. Hanson the missing android is an open sore, straining his relations with Mr. Dick's foundation and the author's two surviving daughters, who provided access to much of Mr. Dick's nonpublished materials, which were downloaded into the android's brain. Sorry, database. It took Mr. Hanson and a team of other experts six months to build the robot, and required $25,000 from student loans and investors. He also regards it as an artist might a masterpiece, one of a kind and invaluable in its own right. The film's promotion might have been an opportunity to educate a wider public about Mr. Hanson's — and Mr. Dick's — preoccupations regarding the limits of technology, and the dangers. The robot, Mr. Hanson said, referring to the author by his initials, "realizes science fiction, it transitions it from fiction to reality, to some extent." "It implies that transition," he continued. "And it's supposed to provoke one to consider issues that P.K.D. was considering." However satisfying to those with a sense of irony, Mr. Hanson is not comforted by the idea of his homage to Mr. Dick on a jaunt somewhere or, more likely, stuck in storage. "It's almost like it has some free spirit to it," he said. "A lot of people have said that it's almost like a P.K.D. narrative, like one of those absurd twists that would occur in a P.K.D. novel. But emotionally it doesn't feel that way to me." In Hollywood, though, executives have found a way to turn the loss to their advantage. Noting the oddity of the story, Ms. Kim said of the android: "He was perfect for the film. Now he's disappeared — and that's perfect for the film too." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/24/movies/24andr.html Until next week, - js. ![]() Current Week In Review ![]() Recent WiRs - June 17th, June 10th, June 3rd, May 27th Jack Spratts' Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts (at) lycos (dot) com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC. "The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public." - Hugo Black |
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