Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - April 17th, '04

[JackSpratts]

Early Edition


Quotes Of The Week

"I'm a holder of a copyright myself. But it's a book on homelessness and I don't mind if anyone wants to copy it." – Canadian politician Jack Layton

"People eventually realized that the VCR wasn't going to kill the movie industry and they should learn to use the technology." - Adam Eisgrau

"This type of legislation leads to something that looks like a 'police state,' with the persecution of intentions, compulsory espionage, violations of private life, freedom of opinion and personal communication. And all of this isn’t done to fight terrorists (who may gain considerable advantage from the resulting overburdening and dilution of anti-crime resources) but to satisfy the ego of one or another politician (who wants his own law against the internet) and the powerful lobbies and selfish interests of music, show business or software conglomerates, who don’t care if legislation is inefficient and messy, but enjoy the idea of "terrorizing" people into obedience." - ALCEI

"It's sometimes best to muddle along, take things one step at a time and see what happens. Society can have a way of sorting things out." - Jack Layton






New Frame, Same Picture

The movie companies are bent out shape. It's a full court media press! Now that Jack the Ripper’s stepping down ("I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone!”) they must've hired a new PR firm. Monday night they were on the Newshour with Jeffrey Kaye spewing bs about their “terrible problem” and so after some brief coverage of people who siphon legitimate sales (bootleggers selling burned discs on the street etc), they jump right onto downloaders, blaming them for who knows what since in reality home sales are up 150%. Said Warner Brothers Entertainment CEO Barry Meyer “You would not grow as many tomatoes if you couldn't sell them and protect people from stealing them. It is just a basic economic fact.” Wrong! Nobody’s stealing the movies! Repeat after me Mr. Meyer: “No-One-Is-Stealing-The-Movies.” “No-One-Is-Stealing-The-Movies.” “No-One-Is-Stealing-The-Movies.” Copying maybe, sharing definitely, but the analogy is nonsensical because while nearly everyone I know “copies” and “shares” tomatoes – it’s called “growing them” (God says it’s ok lol), the farmers are still raising ‘em by the railcar load and everybody’s happy! What a nutter. Unfortunately the Newshour didn’t question his premise or his loony analogy, just gave him a pass and swallowed it whole. I’ll tell you what’s basic economic fact and not scare mongering - the movie companies’ sales have increased faster than almost any other industry, and so has the enjoyment of file sharing. If you’re going to claim downloading affects sales at least be honest, because if downloading does affect sales it makes sales go up.

The fact of the matter is the movie companies have gotten addicted to their own greed. Where once they prospered selling tickets in theatres they're now obsessed with an unworkable corporate pyramid scheme that only let’s them see massive profits by selling to every single new aftermarket stream the audience embraces – P.P.V., cable, broadcast, videotape, DVD and now the internet, so of course they'll complain they can't make any more movies because people are downloading since it obscures the basic weakness in their economic plan. But it’s not true. File sharing does not negatively affect sales. How do we know? Because the aftermarket is exploding and sales are skyrocketing. It’s also backed up by serious studies. If the movie companies simply concentrated on their jobs making movies the audience wants to go out on the town and see, the whole file sharing bug a boo would be non-starter. Instead they're sounding more and more like the record companies: huge amounts of bitching – while home sales shoot up. The media then swallows it whole and uncritically parrots it back to us with no analysis. Why? Hmmm, let’s see. Oh yeah, because the movie companies are the media. The problem is not file sharing, the problem is big media.

File sharing is the solution.









Enjoy,

Jack.









Candaian Minister Freaking Out - Vows To Crush File Swapping

Schérrèr seeks to close existing loopholes
Keith Damsell

Music downloaders may have a short honeymoon from potential prosecution as the new federal Heritage Minister has promised to punish music file sharers.

"We are going to make sure that downloading stays illegal," said Hélène Schérrèr, a rookie Quebec MP sworn in as minister last December. "We will make it a priority so it is done as quickly as possible."

Officials at Heritage Canada, in tandem with Industry Canada, will soon meet to draft legislation to amend a loophole in the Copyright Act that permits music downloading, Ms. Schérrèr said in a recent interview. In addition, the minister will push to have the federal government ratify two international treaties that protect the ownership of copyright materials. In a judgment last month, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that swapping songs on the Internet for personal use does not break the law.

"Downloading a song for personal use does not amount to infringement," wrote Mr. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein. "I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer user that places a personal copy on a shared directory."

Judge von Finckenstein refused to grant the Canadian Recording Industry Association a court order to identify 29 so-called uploaders, Internet users it claimed had illegally posted hundreds of songs illegally on the Web. The ruling was hailed as a triumph for the privacy rights of Internet users and a major setback for the music industry's battle to fight music file sharing. CRIA will appeal the decision.

On April 4, Ms. Schérrèr attended the Juno Awards in Edmonton and spent much of the time in meetings with music industry officials.

"Everybody was so worried," she said after the event. The court decision "will have a huge impact . . . it sends a message to all young Canadians that downloading is not illegal. They will start downloading all over again.

"Now I really know what the music industry is all about . . . I am going back to Ottawa with the will to do something."

Brian Robertson, CRIA president, applauded the minister's commitment. The music industry has spent the past eight years lobbying Ottawa to amend copyright legislation and ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization's two copyright treaties.

"Canada is being sort of viewed as a copyright pariah for its inability to keep its copyright up to date," Mr. Robertson said. Judge von Finckenstein's ruling "is essentially saying you have no copyright protection on the Internet."

But Howard Knopf, an Ottawa lawyer who represents the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, suggested Ms. Schérrèr do more homework.

The bulk of music sold and downloaded in Canada is foreign, he said. If the music industry's lobbying efforts are successful, the costs of blank CDs and tapes will rise to pay levies to foreign performers.

"It strikes me that the minister's first job is to defend the interests of the public and not the music industry. It's a multibillion-dollar industry and hardly needs assistance," Mr. Knopf said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...iness/Canadian


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

Not So Fast Says Canadian Pol Jack Layton

Jack Layton has brought NDP out of the wilderness: A fire-in-the-belly politician, he has led the party to its highest polling numbers in years, and even has Stephen Harper taking notice (Edmonton Journal)
Alan Kellogg

Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton has been dissed as a past-master publicity hound, but was he actually trying to get recognized on the red carpet at Sunday's Juno Awards?

A colleague on the scene swears he was. If so, it was lost on the CTV pre-show host, whose grasp of current affairs might only extend as far as Avril Lavigne's latest outfit.

As it turned out, the former Toronto city councillor, who enjoys the support of musicians like Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page and Parachute Club founder Lorraine Segato, fared better than some politicians on the crimson runway. Ralph Klein was booed, which shows that we should invest fully in the aspirations of younger Albertans. Bill Smith pressed the flesh of perplexed kids on hand to toss flowers at Sarah McLachlan or Sam Roberts. Politics is no place for the easily shamed.

Hours earlier, Layton sat down for Sunday brunch in an Old Strathcona cafe just below the office of Alberta New Democrat Leader Raj Pannu.

Even if his party doesn't stand a chance in most Alberta constituencies, Layton claims voting NDP will "make a difference by energizing ridings" and strengthening the party via new legislation governing party donations. "We supported those reforms because of the dominance of the corporate sector.

"Now, anyone can have a real impact."

It was the end of Junos week, and with friends in the recording business -- along with serious initiatives to attract young supporters -- where does Layton stand on Internet music-file sharing?

"I'm a holder of a copyright myself. But it's a book on homelessness and I don't mind if anyone wants to copy it," he says with a grin. "I'm still not so sure how (file sharing) impacts sales -- some studies even say it enhances them. I don't think the dust has settled on this yet. When I was at university there was a great fear that photocopying was going to destroy the publishing industry and that hasn't happened. It's sometimes best to muddle along, take things one step at a time and see what happens. Society can have a way of sorting things out."

That's not the sort of loose, nuanced reading we've come to expect from federal NDP leaders of late. When pressed, though, he can still summon an old-fashioned Tommy Douglas-style analogy, distilled for the sound bites of today.

"When it comes to the Martin budget, you can imagine an emergency family meeting. The roof is leaking, granny is sick and needs medicine, there's no money for the oldest daughter's university books and the fridge is empty. And the father says: we should pay off the mortgage."

One thing he's mostly staying away from is the sponsorship scandal.

"It's deplorable, but how does it really affect people? I'm more interested in ideas. What about the fact that people are having to pay $500 more for their insurance, or why we're not supporting our front line troops, or the fact that with the GST hybrid cars cost more here than elsewhere? There's no action on Romanow, and the reality is that the Martin government is quietly about to support the American Star Wars initiative they know Canadians are against.

"Forget the esoteric Ottawa stuff, let's talk about down to earth, day-to-day issues that affect Canadians."

Given the obvious fact that Layton gets up the prime minister's nose, that party poll numbers are the highest in years, and that even Stephen Harper has discovered the NDP, it's clear the man is doing something right. He says he's not gloating, but recent internal surveys have him 20 points ahead of longtime Liberal MP Dennis Mills in their contested Toronto riding.

All through the talk, there's this nagging sense that there's something fundamentally different about the guy that separates him from his predecessors, something you can't quite put your finger on, since they say much the same things. It suddenly dawns.

Jack Layton is a professional politician, the real thing, with fire in his belly, and he loves his job. The NDP is out of the wilderness, and he's the reason.
http://action.web.ca/home/ndpnpd/en_...f25c33106e7b2f


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

Recording Industry Appeals Judge's Uploader Ruling
Ottawa Business Journal Staff

The Canadian Recording Industry Association has filed its appeal of a court decision made last month that protects the identities of people who upload music files to the Internet for sharing.

The court decision on March 13 by Judge Konrad von Finckenstein of the Federal Court quashed a request by the CRIA that Internet Service Providers be forced to reveal the identities of alleged music uploaders.

The CRIA wanted the identities of 29 alleged uploaders in order to pursue legal action against them.

In addition to denying the CRIA's request, the judge also made additional rulings on issues involving copyright, online privacy and the liability of Internet Service Providers. None of his decisions were considered favourable to the recording industry.

"Today we filed an appeal of last month's court decision," CRIA General Counsel Richard Pfohl said in a statement. "We will argue that the decision was in error on a number of legal bases.

"In our view, Canadian copyright law does not allow people to make copies of hundreds or thousands of musical recordings for global copying, transmission and distribution to millions of strangers on the Internet," he said.

The recording industry has claimed that the proliferation of file-sharing services such as Kazaa has eroded sales and profits. However, a number of industry reports have contradicted that claim.
http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com...0965855021.php


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

UK Music Industry Gets Tough On Serial Swappers
David Graham

RECENT reports that the UK’s record industry has threatened music pirates with court action if they do not stop uploading music have highlighted how common

file sharing and peer-to-peer (P2P) technology now are.

According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), 7.4 million people in the UK are using the internet to swap music files illegally. Financially, this is hitting the music industry hard.

The BPI claims that sales of CD albums are down by 32 per cent and singles by 59 per cent in the past year as a result of downloading. Well publicised cases, notably Napster, Grokster and now KaZaA, demonstrate how the music industry has tried to adapt to the problem of file sharing and how it is likely to deal with it in the future.

File sharing, to give it a definition, takes place when information is shared through P2P networks. A P2P network is a type of network in which each computer connects to another directly without the need for a central server. All computers (or "nodes") in a P2P network which communicate directly with each other may switch between the role of server and client at any time, according to the needs of the network.

Napster, set up in 1999 by 19-year-old US computer expert Shawn Fanning, was a less "pure" P2P network because a central database was generated containing the music files available on the network.

Fanning’s P2P software let Napster users connect with each other and transmit music files (MP3 files) directly from each other’s hard drives.

Napster was set up for new bands to post their music on, but was soon used to swap tracks from users’ collections, meaning that users no longer had to buy CDs. In early July 2000 there were said to be eight million users of Napster’s services in the US, each swapping an average of 20 tracks per month.

An action was brought against Napster by A&M Records, under the American principle of contributory copyright infringement. In the subsequent appeal, the injunction initially granted to A&M Records was recalled, holding that although the Napster system could be used to infringe copyright, it also had substantial legitimate purposes.

The court did not, however, order that Napster shut down. Napster had to shut down as it did not comply with a "zero infringement" standard in the operation of its centralised file-indexing service.

New file-swap websites quickly replaced Napster, most notably KaZaA and Grokster. Unlike Napster, KaZaA did not hold any information on its servers about the indexing, receipt, possession, searching or transfer of any media files by its users. Instead, it used the software FastTrack, which turns individual users’ hard drives into servers. If any server breaks down, other "servers" can keep transferring the data. In this way, the main KaZaA server was not needed to do file swaps.

In the case of KaZaA v Buma/ Stemra, the Supreme Court in the Netherlands overturned the District Court’s ruling that KaZaA was liable for copyright infringement. The appeal court found that KaZaA was not responsible for the illegal actions of its users.

This is the first European decision to protect a file swapping website against liability for copyright infringement (although there has been a similar decision in the US relating to Grokster), but it did not, as is widely believed, rule that file sharing is legal. It ruled that KaZaA could not be forced to take measures against illegal use of the software, which means that for now there is no legal obstruction restricting the use of KaZaA in the Netherlands.

Notwithstanding the decision over KaZaA, the UK music industry has started its own "get-tough" campaign against internet piracy and has threatened to prosecute offenders.

The BPI plans to send on-screen messages to pirates, warning them of possible legal action. This campaign will be aimed at "serial uploaders" - people who make their music collections available to others - rather than the millions of people who download music.

The International Federation for the Phonographic Industry has also said that it will pursue serious offenders across Europe through the courts. This represents a shift in attitude from the aftermath of Napster, when action was threatened against almost every user that had attempted to file share.

In the light of these recent campaigns, it will be interesting to see how this area of law develops. While, at least for the moment, P2P networks appear to be able to operate without immediate risk of liability for copyright infringement, "serial uploaders" are at serious risk of prosecution, which may well have the cumulative effect of rendering P2P networks such as KaZaA obsolete.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=411442004


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

G.I.'s in Iraq Tote Their Own Pop Culture
Thom Shanker


Specialist Abbey Cayanan is the
D.J. of "Abbey in the Afternoon"
on the Armed Forces Network.
Photo: Lynsey Addario/Corbis, for
The New York Times


BAGHDAD, Iraq — American troops arrive for duty in Iraq with a rifle in one hand, a wrench in the other and a lot of American pop culture in their rucksacks.

Personal CD players, MP3's, portable DVD movie systems, satellite dishes and laptop computers with Internet access allow soldiers to stay current with American music, movies and television, even inside the concertina wire at bases deep in a foreign society isolated by years of dictatorship, embargo and war.

When a day's combat patrol or reconstruction mission is over, the troops join the global consumer culture, retreating into the the privacy of headphones to recapture a bit of territory in the war zone, free from the collective of military life.

The new technologies have had a potent impact on the military, ending its monopoly over the supply of news and entertainment for American troops serving in a foreign land whose borders include a language barrier.

Senior officers have responded with daily newsletters for unit commanders and the troops via e-mail. The American Forces Network continues to splice official messages into its satellite TV programming and mingle them with the songs on its radio station here.

But when the troops peel off their flak jackets, they largely tune into their own play lists. While musical tastes among the troops are as varied as they are in civilian life, in the land of the Tigris and Euphrates let it be recorded: Soldiers assigned to civilization's cradle will rock.

At the Kirkush Military Training Base in the eastern Iraqi desert less than 15 miles from the frontier with Iran, an hour's wait for a helicopter was spent listening to Marilyn Manson, Eminem and Shania Twain before the Black Hawk fired up its turbines and somebody back in the barracks, as if on cue and with a dark sense of irony, cranked up Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

The songs came from a European satellite music channel and a communal computer where 12.8 gigabites of tunes had been downloaded for sharing on MP3's. The rule was simple: Take some music, add some music.

"Any time anybody on the team gets a new CD, they load it in, so we stay pretty current," said Sgt. Thomas R. Mena.

As the new CD from Tool blasted in the barracks, Sergeant Mena scrolled through the computerized music library, which ranged from Abba and AC/DC, through Limp Biskit and Metallica and on to Van Halen and ZZ Top.

Émigrés from West Africa who joined the Army for citizenship and career training arrived with the latest Nigerian pop CD's. Chinese-Americans hauled along hot Hong Kong video imports.

"We've got the whole world under one tent," said Pfc. Nicholas Allen of the First Infantry Division's Third Brigade Combat Team.

Troops running a checkpoint near the Kuwait border end their day by listening to Bush, not their commander in chief but the grunge riffs of a band with the same name.

Inside the Baghdad Green Zone, the walled-off sector of central Baghdad whose palaces are home to the American-led occupation authority, Ludacris and R. Kelly were heard within earshot of the broad promenade where Saddam Hussein celebrated victories under crossed swords that reach five stories into the sky.

A Green Beret sergeant in his 40's, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and now in Iraq to train new domestic security forces, said he packed Grateful Dead CD's next to his laser rangefinder.

The country and western of Dwight Yoakam blared from a mechanics' bay at Taji airfield, north of the Iraqi capital, even as a bass drum of captured ordnance rumbled in a controlled detonation.

So in the spate of anniversary stories, one year after the start of the war, 12 months since the capture of Baghdad, as nearly a quarter million American troops trade places in Iraq with 130,000 veterans clearing out their tents to make way for 110,000 fresh soldiers, it is time to take stock.

This is not Vietnam and Jimi Hendrix. In the American war in Iraq there is no obvious soundtrack save the thump-thump-thump of helicopter rotors, which set the rapid tempo for missions all across the combat zone.

Sgt. Daniel Kartchien of the 419th Transportation Company has been in the Army since 1973. He said that when troops go off duty, "it's all individual stuff now."

"Back in Vietnam you had those doing recreational drugs on one side and the heavy drinking on another," he said. "Here there's no alcohol allowed. And drugs aren't the thing anymore. Everybody has their own MP3 player to pass the time."

The Great War had George M. Cohan to lead an all-American chorus to remember our boys "Over There." The Dorsey brothers helped G.I.'s march through Europe to a big band rhythm. Deep in the jungles of Indochina, Jimi Hendrix boomed from cassette players to men lost in "Purple Haze" and the fog of war. Popular military D.J.'s, like Adrian Cronauer, portrayed by Robin Williams in a fictionalized account of 1965 Saigon, spoke straight from the heart, straight to the troops, in must-hear radio shows on the old armed forces radio network.

But for troops serving today in Iraq, the American Forces Network is most popular for its satellite television, which reels in sports, news and shows from "The Simpsons" to "Seinfeld" to "Friends" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

The network's Freedom Radio broadcasts live from inside Iraq for half the day and takes feeds from its headquarters in Riverside, Calif., for the rest. But there is no radio personality who has seized popular acclaim as the voice to wake up troops with an irreverent "Good morning, Baghdad!" In fact soldiers came up with their own salutation here, greeting comrades in the ranks with, "Who's your Baghdaddy?" (No doubt T-shirts are on the way.)

"Our format is `Bright Adult Contemporary,' which is mainstream hits," said Lt. Col. Mathew Durham, who is in charge of the American Forces Network in Baghdad. "Naturally we have to be careful about what we play in an Islamic nation. But we've got a big play list."

Soldiers at checkpoints, where headphones are prohibited, are among the most loyal network radio listeners. The messages they hear between the songs are mostly lowest common denominator public service announcements, urging soldiers to clear their weapons before entering dining halls, to drink more bottled water as March temperatures push toward 100 degrees, to write home more often and file their taxes on time.

Unit commanders have learned it is their responsibility to get important information to the troops, even in the earphone age.

The First Armored Division, for example, publishes The Old Ironsides Daily, which is distributed both as hard copy and as a PDF document via e-mail. The March 23 issue paid tribute to the division's fallen soldiers, listed electoral primaries state-by-state and advised soldiers about a new generation of DVD burners with added capacity.

At a field encampment, Camp Warhorse outside Baquba, the military's forward operating base that carries the grim distinction of being mortared more often than any other, commanders order a total blackout at night: no streetlamps illuminate the roads or walkways, and windows and doors are blanketed.

But satellite TV dishes sprout like mushrooms in the dark, so the dining hall and a cratered hanger that is a recreation center are lighted with the blue light of sitcoms.

The delegation traveling with Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, watched the Super Bowl live with troops of the 101st Airborne Division at Mosul this year, a treat for veterans of the first Persian Gulf war, who recalled not knowing the winner of the 1991 championship for up to a week.

Movie fans among soldiers of the Fourth Infantry Division kept up with the Academy Awards in real time before rotating home from their headquarters in Tikrit.

The military works hard to fill the shelves of base and post exchanges across Iraq with surprisingly new product.

"The PX gets all the new CD's, and only about two months late," said Specialist Roland Hall of the 14th Air Defense Artillery. "So we get all the new music we need."

Hollywood's hottest films are here on the local markets, usually illegally.

"If a movie has been out in a theater for a week, you can get it here," said Specialist Michael Trujillo with the 819th Military Police Company. He said bootleg DVD copies of "50 First Dates," starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, were on sale just days after it opened in the United States.

Not surprisingly, soldiers tend to favor action flicks like the "Matrix," "Mad Max" and "Terminator" trilogies, "Tomb Raider" films, "Scorpion King" and "Cop Land."

Officers prefer "The Sopranos" and slightly more cerebral combat movies, like "U-571," a submarine thriller about World War II. Once you get enough stars on your collars though, the tube is turned to 24-hour news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/ar...ic/13TROO.html


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

Plea in Movie Piracy Case
Bloomberg News

An Illinois man pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges related to Internet posting of copies of first-run movies supplied by an Academy Awards voter, prosecutors said.

Russell W. Sprague, 51, of Homewood, pleaded guilty to one count of copyright infringement before Judge George King in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

Mr. Sprague admitted to pirating promotional copies of videos, known as screeners, that are sent to Oscar voters and film critics.

Mr. Sprague could face as much as three years in prison and might have to repay the studios for any losses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/business/13movie.html


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

Police Search French Offices Of Amazon.com To Check DVDs Being Sold

PARIS (AFP) - Police searched offices of the French subsidiary of the US-based Internet retailer Amazon.com in a check on DVDs they suspected were being sold illegally, officials said.

The operation took place at the headquarters of the subsidiary, Amazon.fr, in an eastern Paris suburb, and in a warehouse belonging to the company in the central city of Orleans.

Law enforcement officials said officers were scrutinising DVDs to see where they came from as part of a preliminary investigation into "audiovisual piracy".

A source close to the inquiry said there were suspicions that some of the DVDs sold online did not "conform to the laws" in France governing such items.

The website of Amazon.fr offers DVDs in many categories, including those made for the French market, DVDs imported from the United States and Britain, and second-hand discs.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040406/323/eqgok.html


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

Michigan Man Pleads Guilty To Selling Bootlegged Recordings Of Bands
AP

A Michigan man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge that he sold bootlegged recordings of performances by Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, KISS and Bruce Springsteen two years ago.

Jeffrey Smittle, 44, of Ceresco, Mich., faces as much as five years in prison and $250,000 in fines when he is sentenced in July.

Federal prosecutors said a search of Smittle's former home in Canonsburg, a Pittsburgh suburb, turned up more than 11,000 pirated recordings, which he allegedly sold to music dealers, at record shows and over the Internet.

Smittle's attorney, federal public defender Crystina Kowalczyk, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment after business hours on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors said the case was rare for western Pennsylvania but mirrored efforts nationwide by the recording industry and law enforcement to curtail bootlegged recordings.

The RIAA, which represents the nation's five major record labels, has set up offices with detectives, hired private detectives and worked with law enforcement to crack down on pirated recordings.

The millions of pirated CDs routinely sold coast to coast are costing its members $300 million domestically and $4.2 billion worldwide in lost sales and royalties, according to the RIAA.
http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/...6_20040414.htm


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

Two Arrests Under Camcorder Law
BBC

Los Angeles police have made the first arrests under a new law targeting pirates who use camcorders in cinemas.

Ruben Centero Moreno, 34, was arrested after the projectionist used night vision goggles to spot video cameras. And Min Jae Joun, 28, was arrested on suspicion of recording a screening of The Passion of the Christ on 10 April.

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said he hoped it would "send a clear signal such crimes will not be tolerated".

"In both cases, the LAPD's fine work would not have occurred without the swift actions of the employees of Pacific Theatres," he told the Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Federal authorities estimate the illegal copying of films costs the entertainment industry as much as $3bn (£1.7bn) a year. The MPAA has established a nationwide telephone hotline for cinema employees to report violations. Studios and cinemas are also investing in metal detectors and night-vision goggles.

Mr Moreno was arrested on 12 April after a screening of The Alamo at the Pacific Winnetka Theatre in the Chatsworth area. No hearing date has yet been set. Mr Joun was arrested after another audience member complained about a red light on a camcorder at the Pacific Theatre at the Grove. He was released on bail and ordered to appear at a hearing on 5 May. If convicted, both men face up to 12 months in jail.

The California anti-camcorder law, which came into force on 1 January, makes it an offence to take a camcorder into a cinema with the intent of taping a movie. Similar laws are on the statute books in nine other US states and the District of Columbia. The new laws enable local authorities to act on offences that would normally be considered violations of federal copyright law. The MPAA claims that between May 2002 and May 2003, over 50 major movie titles were "stolen" by camcording before their US cinema release. MPAA spokesman Matthew Grossman said many illegal recordings were obtained by people who sneaked into advance screenings held for film critics.

The latest arrests follow that of Chicago resident Russell Sprague, who pleaded guilty to copyright infringement earlier this week after being charged of illegally copying movie preview tapes, known as screeners. The 51-year-old faces up to three years in prison for creating pirate copies of films including Mystic River, Kill Bill Volume I and Seabiscuit.

But his sentencing has been postponed for six months to allow the movie studios to calculate the losses incurred.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...nt/3628049.stm


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

Stay Sought On U.S. Cable Ruling
Reuters

Cable operators said Tuesday that they are seeking to suspend a ruling that would subject their Internet offerings to extensive regulation while they take their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last week, a U.S. appeals court refused to reconsider its decision that regulators mistakenly insulated cable companies that offer high-speed Internet from regulations that could force them to offer a choice of Internet providers.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco had ruled in October that the Federal Communications Commission should have classified cable broadband as a telecommunications service instead of an information service.

On Tuesday, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and several cable operators asked the appeals court to stay its decision, due to go into effect Wednesday, until the high court decides if it will hear the appeal.

"This case centers on the regulatory status of a service that is of key importance to national communications policy: broadband Internet service," said NCTA, which represents major cable operators like Time Warner and Comcast.

If the FCC labeled cable broadband as a telecommunications service, cable companies would likely have to offer consumers the ability to have a rival Internet service provider unless the FCC decided otherwise.

But the FCC decided in March 2002 that high-speed Internet service from cable companies was an information service, and therefore not immediately subject to access requirements.

The FCC has asked for comment on whether it should require cable companies to give consumers a choice of Internet service providers. Some cable companies already provide consumers some choice.
http://news.com.com/2100-1034-5186010.html


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

Lindows Shopping for New Name
Wired News Report

Lindows, the scrappy vendor of Linux-based operating systems for bare-bones PCs, is looking for a new moniker.

Lindows founder Michael Robertson said Tuesday his company will change its name under enormous pressure by Microsoft. Microsoft has sued Lindows saying the name is too close to its Windows brand and violates its trademarks.

On Friday, a Seattle federal judge denied Lindows' motion to stop Microsoft from pursuing international lawsuits against the Linux company. Microsoft had won injunctions against Lindows in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, but the Seattle judge said U.S. courts don't have jurisdiction to challenge those decisions.

Robertson announced the name change in a letter on the Lindows site. He expressed frustration with his legal dealings with Microsoft. Lindows won a trademark lawsuit filed by Microsoft in December 2001. But since then, Microsoft has pummeled Lindows with lawsuits overseas.

"Microsoft is publicly demanding that the EU respect the U.S. court actions concerning their monopolistic behavior and not impose their own rulings," Robertson said. "Microsoft hypocritically has no such respect for the U.S. court decision which determined we can operate under the term Lindows pending a final resolution of the litigation."

He said the company is perusing suggestions and will announce its new name on April 14.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,62966,00.html


OK, Try Linspire
Dinesh C. Sharma

Lindows, bowing to legal pressure from Microsoft, has renamed its operating system.

The company announced on Wednesday that its Linux operating system will now be called Linspire and that a similarly named Web site will be the primary online destination for consumers who want to purchase the company's products or who need support for previously purchased software.

The name change had been expected, following recent court rulings in Europe. The company last week acknowledged that lawsuits by Microsoft challenging the Lindows name would force it to adopt a new moniker for Europe and other foreign markets.

But in the United States, where Lindows has had more interim success in its legal battles with Microsoft, the name Lindows will still be used in certain instances and as the corporate name.

"Despite our victories in the United States and overseas, a name change is still necessary to counter Microsoft's strategy to sue us in courts around the world. We're hoping that this puts a halt on the international lawsuits," Michael Robertson, CEO of Lindows, said in a statement.

The San Diego-based company is locked in a 2-year-old legal battle with Microsoft, which says that the Lindows name is an infringement of its trademark for the Windows operating system. Lindows argues that the trademark is invalid, because "windows" is a generic computing term.

The U.S. case, already delayed several times, is likely to go trial later this year. The judge overseeing that case has denied Microsoft's requests for an injunction that would bar Lindows from using the name. But the software giant has been more successful overseas, where judges in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands all have granted such injunctions.

Linspire is similar in features and capabilities to the original open-source Lindows operating system and customers will not need to upgrade, the company said. All Lindows software products will carry the Linspire brand within two weeks, it said.

As of Wednesday, the Lindows.com site carries a prominent notice that "pending Lindows' appeal, visitors from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg are not permitted to access the Lindows.com website or purchase Lindows products." The identical Linspire site carries the same message.
http://news.com.com/2100-7344-5191333.html


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

Concern Grows Over Browser Security
Marguerite Reardon

Browser-based security threats are on the rise and may pose the next significant risk to information technology operations, according to a technology trade association.

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) on Monday released its second annual report on IT security and the work force. The survey asked nearly 900 organizations to rank their top 15 security concerns. According to the results, 36.8 percent said they were plagued by one or more browser-based attacks in the last six months. That's up from 25 percent in last year's survey.

"Browser-based attacks are a logical evolution," said Randall Palm, director of IT at CompTIA. "The better we get at stopping attacks, the
more creative hackers get at writing new ones. Ten years ago, most viruses were distributed on floppy disks. Then came e-mail and instant- messaging software. Now, they are targeting browsers."

Browser-based attacks are typically unleashed when a person visits a Web page that appears harmless but actually contains hidden code intended to sabotage a computer or compromise privacy. Some attacks simply crash a browser, while others pave the way for the theft of personal information or the loss of confidential proprietary data.

One of the most common ways of disseminating these attacks is through e-mails that include a link to a malicious Web server. Because the attacks usually aren't launched until the user clicks on the link, many firewalls don't catch them. Traditional firewalls examine traffic coming into the network, but guarding against browser attacks requires that traffic leaving the network also be inspected.

Some companies are using products from start-ups such as SurfControl and Websense that are designed to monitor and control corporate Web usage in order to help protect against browser-based attacks. Firewall vendors, like Check Point Software Technologies and NetScreen Technologies, have also added some protection. But Palm said these companies still have a long way to go before they eliminate the problem.

"Stateful inspection of inbound vulnerabilities is not Check Point's or NetScreen's main focus," he said. "All the firewall vendors are playing catch-up, when it comes to protecting against this threat."

Browser vendors also are taking action to minimize the risk to their products. In January, Microsoft said it would release software updates to Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer designed to protect Web surfers from being lured to Web sites that could contain malicious code. In December, a Danish security firm alerted the security community to an IE bug that would let hackers display false Web addresses.

While concern over browser-based security threats is growing, companies still view computer viruses and worm attacks as the most threatening security risk. But these threats are significantly less common than they were a year ago, according to the survey. Last year, 80 percent of organizations identified worm and virus attacks as their most common IT security threat. This year, that number is 68.6 percent.

Last year, network intrusion issues were the second-most common security threat, garnering 65.1 percent of the vote. This year, network intrusion issues dropped significantly, falling to 39.9 percent. This drop could be attributed to the high percentage of companies using antivirus applications to fight viruses and worm attacks. According to CompTIA, 95.5 percent of organizations use some form of antivirus technology.
http://news.com.com/2100-7355-5190037.html


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

P2P Telephone News

Canada Leans Toward Regulating VoIP
Ben Charny

Canadian utility regulators on Wednesday said that their existing telephone rules apply to most Internet phone calls--a tentative decision that phone executives say worsens an already haphazard regulatory landscape governing Net phone service providers.

Any Net phone provider that supplies 10-digit phone numbers to subscribers, then lets them make or get calls from traditional dialers, would have to follow the regulations, according to the nonbinding decision released Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Net phone services, which use the Internet rather than traditional circuit-switched phone networks, share enough "functional characteristics" to their circuit-switched competitors to merit regulating, according to the CRTC. "VoIP service providers...should be subject to the regulatory framework for local competition," the commission wrote.

Reaction from U.S. VoIP providers signals an oncoming fight. "On the surface, it sounds like CRTC got whole thing wrong," said Jeff Pulver, whose free VoIP dialing service, Free World Dialup, recently won an exemption from the Federal Communications Commission's telephone rules. "They are treating the service the same, whether it's VoIP or traditional, and not taking into account the major differences."

Pulver and other U.S. VoIP executives believe not only that Canadian authorities are wrong, but that they're complicating an already confusing VoIP regulatory landscape that threatens the spread of commercial services. In the United States, the FCC wants a light approach to coddle the young industry, while dozens of individual U.S. states would like VoIP regulated in order to receive the essential services funding they usually get from traditional phone companies.

An FCC representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

Meanwhile, outside North America, VoIP regulation is also mixed. Because the technology is still predominantly a North American phenomenon, the services are generally unregulated, but some countries are creating policy. Panama has been particularly proactive in trying to regulate VoIP calls that originate or terminate within its borders.

The CRTC's decision could impact 8x8, VoicePulse, Vonage and other U.S.-based Net phone providers that sell dialing plans across North America, U.S.-based Net phone executives say.

A Vonage representative said the decision supplies some measure of clarity to the Canadian rules. However, the representative added that, because the decision is still under review, it is too early to comment further.
http://news.com.com/2100-7352-5186851.html



FCC Urged To Keep VoIP Regulation-Free
Declan McCullagh

Dozens of conservative and lower-tax advocacy groups on Wednesday urged the Federal Communications Commission to protect Internet telephone services from crushing regulations.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, the organizations asked him to make sure that the weighty quilt of regulations blanketing traditional phone services will not apply to fledgling voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) companies.

"We urge the commission to send a clear signal of forbearance on new taxation and regulation," said the letter's 34 signers, which included many groups that are influential within the Republican Party. Among the signers are the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Tax Reform, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Republicans United for Tax Relief, and the Family Research Council.

The FCC is considering what rules, if any, will govern VoIP services that partially travel over the traditional phone network. The FCC has already ruled that Internet-to-Internet phone calls and instant-messaging communications that do not touch the phone network are immune from the hefty stack of government rules, taxes and requirements that applied to 20th-century telephone networks.

Glaringly absent from the letter was any mention of the controversial topic of wiretapping VoIP conversations. Last month, the FBI published a sweeping proposal that would require all broadband Internet providers, including cable modem and DSL (digital subscriber line) companies, to rewire their networks to support easy wiretapping by police.

The language could even force companies to build backdoors into everything from instant-messaging and VoIP programs to Microsoft's Xbox Live game service. The deadline to submit comments to the FCC responding to the Bush administration's request is Monday.

"We chose not to get into that area," said John Berthoud, president of the National Taxpayers Union, which organized the ad hoc coalition. "We wanted to maximize the number of groups and focus on a limited number of issues. There's a trade-off. You broaden the topic, you lose people."

Some of the coalition members are close to the law-and-order wing of the Republican Party and might not agree to sign a letter that could be seen as opposing the FBI. Other members, like Americans for Tax Reform, have been strong defenders of encryption and electronic privacy in the past.

Wednesday's letter also calls for a renewal of a temporary federal ban on Internet access taxes, which expired in November. "In the period since the moratorium has expired, many state and local elected leaders have begun eyeing new charges on Internet access and commerce," the letter said.
http://news.com.com/2100-7352-5186747.html


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

Stumbling Blocks For Skype
Mike Langberg

Skype is not hype.

This new Internet service really does let you make computer-to-computer phone calls anywhere in the world absolutely free, and the audio quality is outstanding. There are some significant drawbacks, however, that will keep Skype from becoming hugely popular right away.

If you've already heard about Skype (www.skype.com), it's probably because its two European founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, previously created the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Kazaa.

Like the voice chat built into America Online's Instant Messenger and other IM programs, Skype's voice-over-Internet protocol connections are free but require people on both ends of the conversation to be sitting in front of a computer and running the same program.

You'll need a newer Windows computer running either Windows XP or Windows 2000, equipped with a broadband connection plus speakers and a microphone or a PC headset. You start by downloading the Skype software from the company's Web site. Installation takes a few minutes, and the final step is creating a user name and password.

From home, I was startled by the lifelike voice quality. It was as if I was playing a CD.

From the overburdened Internet connection at my office, however, the experience was about on the level of the worst of cell phone calls. The Internet moves data in little packets, reassembling them at their destination. For a Web page, it doesn't matter if the packets get delayed half a second. But even small disruptions can degrade Internet phone calls.

Skype's other big drawback is that you have to be sitting in front of the computer to make calls. This might not be a problem for office workers or college students in small dorm rooms, but Skype doesn't fit well into a typical home existence.

Still, that free price tag is hard to resist. A Skype spokeswoman said 3.5 million people have created Skype user names, and -- depending on the time of day -- anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 users are online. Those aren't huge numbers, but it's an impressive start for a service that's only 7 months old.
http://www.freep.com/money/tech/vobox14_20040414.htm


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

Score One For Song-Swappers

The University of Ottawa's tech-savvy law clinic, led by Philippa Lawson (above) jumped in to make online privacy and copyright arguments no one else was making. A judge last week ruled against Big Music -- and the defeat is resounding across the online music world
Andrew Mayeda

It was Wednesday, the last day of March, and Philippa Lawson and her team of University of Ottawa law students were watching the fax machine like hawks, waiting for the decision to arrive. Federal Court Justice Konrad von Finckenstein had promised that his ruling would be ready more than a week and a half ago.

At 11:49 a.m., the first pages of the ruling quietly spilled out. Alex Cameron, a graduate student in the U of O's law and technology program, was the first to notice. Too bad there wasn't enough paper in the fax to print the 31-page decision. Cameron, who weeks earlier had argued in a Sparks Street courtroom for the protection of individual privacy and online anonymity, rushed to feed the machine with paper.

Minutes later, page 23 came through. Near the bottom were the words that dealt a crippling blow to the recording industry's campaign to smoke out rampant file-sharers who swap songs using online services such as Kazaa and Grokster: "This motion is denied."

In the next few days, those words resounded across the online music world. The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Economist, to name a few, analyzed their significance in the wider battle between the industry and file-sharers. "Canada Puts Arctic Chill on Music Industry," blared a headline on the Post's website. "A haven has been created for millions of Canadians to do file-sharing lawfully," an Ohio State professor told USA Today.

In Canada, it meant Geekboy@KaZaA and 28 other defendants were spared the wrath of The Canadian Recording Industry Association. CRIA, which represents the big labels accounting for 95 per cent of the music made and sold in Canada, would not be able to extract their identities from Internet service providers and follow up by suing them.

For the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), a fledgling student law clinic at the U of O directed by Lawson, it was an unquestionable victory. Many arguments presented by the clinic, which had been granted the right to intervene in the case, were echoed by the judge in his ruling.

Two days later, Lawson looks back through the whirlwind of cobbled-together press releases, hasty website updates, media calls and congratulatory e-mails and tries to remember how she felt.

"This is great," she says. "This is what we argued. We made a difference.

"We really made a difference in this case, because we were the only ones asking (the judge) to rule on the copyright issue. That was very important... because otherwise this very grey and misunderstood area of the law would remain grey and misunderstood."

It's been a long week. Lawson is tired, fighting a cold. Her voice trails, only to return in rapid, expansive bursts of thought -- as when she talks about the clinic's mission. "Free speech, civil liberties, fundamental human rights values are what underlie the work the clinic is doing," she says. "And a desire to make sure we're not shutting down opportunities to use new technologies in new and beneficial ways."

Team Effort

Lawson assembled a core team of four to put together CIPPIC's case: Cameron, who practised intellectual property law in Vancouver for several years before joining U of O's graduate program in law and technology last year; Jason Young, Cameron's classmate; and Howard Knopf, a veteran copyright lawyer at the Ottawa law firm Macera and Jarzyna. Both Cameron and Young are doing work on electronic privacy and have been actively involved with the clinic since its fall launch.

Lawson is no stranger to going to bat for the Little Guy. The daughter of activist parents, she honed an interest in third-world development and international human rights as a Trent University undergraduate and while attending Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. After finishing her law degree at Queen's University, she began volunteering at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, where she later worked for 12 years. Parachuted into a case on long- distance phone competition, Lawson quickly developed expertise on the effects of new technologies on the privacy of consumers and citizens. She has also represented consumer and public-interest clients in major telecom regulatory proceedings, appearing before all federal-court levels, including the Supreme Court.

When Lawson decided to apply for leave to intervene in the case, she knew she'd need more firepower. Knopf, whom she had known for several years through legal circles, was the answer. "I felt confident on the privacy law issues, but I don't have an intellectual property law background. So we were very lucky to be able to retain the services of Howard Knopf," Lawson explains.

Knopf has worked in copyright law for close to 25 years. As a former senior advisor to the federal government, he helped write a batch of amendments to the Copyright Act in 1988. Before attending law school, he was also a professional clarinetist who toured internationally and appeared on several radio recordings. "Maybe you'll find them on Kazaa," he jokes. "If you find them, you're welcome to them."

CRIA had announced before Christmas it planned to sue excessive file sharers. Soon after, Lawson met with officials at a few major ISPs to scope out how they would respond to lawsuits against their subscribers. She got the impression they wouldn't put up much resistance.

"We knew if the suits went ahead, the defendants would be needing some kind of legal assistance. But we don't have the kind of resources to be taking on big legal cases." She began to consider the precedents for intervening in cases and arguing on behalf of the public interest.

On Feb. 10, CRIA filed a motion asking the court to order five ISPs to disclose the identities of 29 alleged music uploaders. Von Finckenstein soon adjourned the case until March 12, and Lawson saw a window of opportunity for the clinic to get involved. The ISPs had addressed the costs of complying with the motion, and in some cases, the effect on their customers' privacy. But none had tackled the fundamental question of whether file sharing was legal under current copyright laws, nor the case's broad privacy implications. If ISPs were forced to identify customers in this case, what precedent would that set for governments or corporations seeking to identify those who deprecate them in online chatrooms or websites?

Lawson decided to intervene, enlisting Knopf to help present CIPPIC's application for intervenor status in court. Electronic Frontier Canada would eventually intervene as well.

On March 1, von Finckenstein granted CIPPIC leave to intervene, but gave it only until the end of the week to submit its arguments. "That's when things started getting really interesting, because we had to work fast," says Lawson.

The next four days were a blur. Lawson, Cameron and Young crafted the privacy argument. Knopf handled the copyright side. Drafts criss-crossed the e-mail ether. Lawson called on more than a dozen students connected to CIPPIC to research bits and pieces. The night before the deadline, Young and Cameron pulled an all-nighter at the lab, and a final document was eventually patched together. As the deadline neared, they had to fax copies to other parties in the case. With the fax tied up, it was faster to run the main submission to the court registry on Elgin Street. Carim Lawrence Kiwan, a CIPPIC student, did the legwork. They were under the wire with minutes to spare.

"It was a really good team effort," recalls Knopf. "It was actually one of the most successful team efforts I've been involved with. It just worked out that way. Sometimes you do all the advance planning in the world and it doesn't work out, sometimes it just spontaneously does."

That teamwork continued into the final hearings. Cameron and Knopf appeared in court to argue CIPPIC's case. Young kept an online log of the proceedings.

When the decision came, legal experts were shocked. The judge not only found the evidence presented by CRIA unsatisfactory. He also concluded that making music files available in a computer's shared directory is not an infringement of copyright. The Copyright Board had already ruled that downloading is legal because of a levy consumers pay on blank media including CDs. Von Finckenstein's decision effectively cleared the whole file-sharing circuit.

That put Canada on a starkly different path from the U.S., where the recording industry has aggressively sued a few thousand file sharers and reached settlements with several hundred of them. Are copyright laws really so different in Canada, or is it how judges interpret them?

A little of both, says Cindy Cohn, legal director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a U.S. civil liberties organization. To this point, both downloading and sharing music on peer-to-peer networks have been ruled illegal under U.S. law, she notes.

"There are some differences in the copyright law, but they're not all that different. I think the bigger difference is the Canadian courts actually have embraced the idea of copyrights as a balance (between copyright holders and users)," she says.

Diversity in the Lab

Law students chat near the entrance of the lab, on the fifth floor of Fauteux Hall, the home of the U of O's law school. Others tap away at spacious workstations with black flat-panel screens. All seem to have a relaxed stylishness about them. A mock hazard sign on an office divider reads, "Think, your ideas bring the future."

Yet a few months ago, there was no CIPPIC. Less than a year ago, in fact, this bright, well-equipped lab was a seldom-used corner of the law school's library. Then, the idea of a research lab and legal clinic specializing in technology issues was merely a vision for Michael Geist, Ian Kerr and others in the U of O's technology law community.

The lab and clinic became realities thanks to about $1.2 million in grants and in-kind contributions. Geist and Kerr, leading Canadian experts in technology law, applied for funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and received more than $254,000, leveraged by $443,000 in in-kind contributions from partners such as IBM and Entrust. Last fall, Geist received a $250,000 grant from an Amazon.com Cy Pres fund. The Ontario Research Network for Electronic Commerce, a consortium that includes the U of O and Carleton University, matched that grant.

With $500,000 of the funding in hand, Geist established CIPPIC and set about finding an executive director. After roughly six months, the school hired Lawson.

"We've been building at the University of Ottawa a strength in technology law for some time," said Geist. "But I think there was always a recognition that one thing we needed was an emphasis on the practical and an ability to really play a policy role outside the confines of the campus."

Geist had seen technology law clinics sprout at Harvard, Berkeley and Stanford Universities. He felt it was time for U of O to produce its own version.

The lab, officially known as the Canada Research Chair Laboratory for Law and Technology, was completed last summer. In September, CIPPIC was launched. It shares the lab with researchers working under Geist and Kerr as well as the program's flagship publication, The Law and Technology Journal.

Though CIPPIC has made waves in the file-sharing case, the clinic is about more than battling industry giants in court. Upper-year undergrads and grad students have filed a submission to the government on copyrights for photographers and portrait artists, sat in on parliamentary hearings on copyright reform, and provided legal advice to individuals and small businesses on technology law issues. Students can take a credit course offered each term, or becoming volunteers, research assistants or summer fellows at the clinic.

Lawson and her crew have also been busy updating the clinic's website (www.cippic.ca), which they hope will become a useful public resource. In addition to a primer on the legal aspects of file-sharing, the clinic has posted information on spam, online anonymity and biometric systems such as retinal scanners.

A similar diversity is evident in the lab. Marty Finestone, a third-year common-law undergrad, sits across from Young, one of the key members in the file-sharing case. Young took the inaugural CIPPIC course in the fall, while Finestone is enrolled in this term's course, in addition to doing research for Kerr. Finestone and classmate Michael Yang, who also took the inaugural course, have been working on iCommons Canada, a project that aims to develop a more flexible copyright scheme that allows creators to choose what rights they confer to users.

Marcus Bornfreund, manager of the law and technology program and managing editor of the journal, leads this project. "In other fields of law, you just don't have progress at this speed, you don't the ability to participate in lawmaking. It's a priceless opportunity across the board, and our students are definitely experiencing that," he says.

Elsewhere in the lab, doctoral candidate Marina Pavlovic explores whether legal procedures can disrupt the balance in copyright law between creators and users. Nur Muhammed-Ally, a third-year undergrad, helps Kerr with research on anonymity in the online world. Fourth-year undergrad Pauline Lin is absorbed by a position paper on spam. Warren Yeung, a third-year undergrad, helps Geist update his textbook, Internet Law in Canada.

Despite their range of interests, the students feel united by a common cause, says Young. "The students in the tech program here have a sense of mission, that we're on the frontier and in many cases the laws are unclear or ambiguous -- which is not necessarily a bad thing -- that technology is creating new opportunities, good and bad, and it's our role to help define those in the public interest."

Not one to be shy, Kerr says he wants to see the U of O cement its membership in North America's "Internet Ivy League," if it hasn't already done so. "There's big stuff going on here, and CIPPIC is just a great example of it. We're definitely doing some empire building," he says.

Technology law observers are noticing. "They have done a very good job of increasing their faculty complement, of attracting research money and of building a wide-ranging curriculum," said Richard Owens, executive director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy at the University of Toronto.

Diane Cabell, director of clinical programs at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a member of CIPPIC's advisory board, is impressed by the U of O clinic's accomplishments. "CIPPIC has really staked out the legislative road, and they're doing a fabulous job. They've been very effective in helping the legislative community understand new technologies and the impact of the laws they're trying to make."

CIPPIC may not be able to rest on its laurels. CRIA is expected to appeal the court decision this week. Officials at the Heritage Department, which oversees a House of Commons committee on copyright reform, have rallied to support CRIA. A spokesman for the heritage minister has declared the ministry's commitment to "protect the Canadian music industry." At a Junos event last Friday, Prime Minister Paul Martin vowed he would not let the "second most important music industry in the world" be "jeopardized."

Lawson says the clinic will stay involved if CRIA appeals, and continue to weigh in on copyright law reform. She doesn't see an easy solution to the copyright debate that can satisfy all sides. For that reason, she says Canada needs a public debate on any changes to the law.

"I am not, and CIPPIC is not, opposed to copyright. We absolutely see that as a very important legal construct that we must continue to have to protect artists and allow them to continue to create and make a business out of it. The problem is when you get the balance out of whack, when the rights are too great on the owner side and not enough on the user."
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawac...f-bae1f155e766


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

Microsoft, Business Partner Concocted 'Scheme' to Protect Copyrights
Kelly Cramer

A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has awarded a Boca Raton, Fla., software sales company $1.1 million in damages because software giant Microsoft and one of its business partners engaged in a "scheme" to defraud and deceive the firm as part of Microsoft's effort to protect its copyrights.

U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn issued the bench verdict against Houston-based Wetmore Printing in February after a weeklong trial in December. Microsoft was not a party to the case, styled HGI Associates Inc. v. Wetmore Printing Co., but it was part of the fraud, Cohn said in his ruling.

Amy Petty, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, declined comment.

Ron Swartz, the owner of Lauderhill-based HGI Associates Inc., sued Wetmore in July 2001 for breach of contract, alleging that Wetmore failed to deliver thousands of licensed software kits it promised to sell him for $2.50 each. The suit was filed in federal court on diversity grounds. Swartz claimed he suffered nearly $1 million in lost profits and lost future earnings of $16.7 million.

In HGI's amended complaint, the company contended that Wetmore and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft conspired to enter into a sales agreement with him for the sole purpose of determining whether HGI was violating software copyrights. Cohn found the plaintiff's contentions meritorious.

The attorney for HGI, Michael L. Feinstein, said Microsoft's arrangement with Wetmore to essentially entrap his client was typical of the software giant's aggressive efforts to protect against copyright infringement, but that this time the firm went too far.

"It's clear this was their standard operating procedure," Feinstein said. "Their whole lifeblood is protecting the integrity of their distribution network."

Wetmore's lawyer, Rick Hutchison, a partner at Holland & Knight in Fort Lauderdale, denied that his client committed any fraud, and has filed a notice of appeal. "They were trying to protect consumers from buying unlicensed software," Hutchison said.

HGI's business is the so-called secondary software market. It sells software at a reduced price, mostly to businesses in Europe. It acquires the software largely from computer manufacturers that have purchased the products through software companies' authorized distribution chains, and have left-over kits, which include certificates of authenticity.

In 2001, a federal judge in California found such transactions legal. The judge ruled in Softman v. Adobe that businesses that do not install software they have purchased may legally resell it on the secondary market regardless of the manufacturer's end user license agreement.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1081348843696


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

Copyright Ruling Favors Site That Aggregates Yacht Sale Listings
AP

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled a Florida company's Internet-searching software program did not infringe on copyrights held by another Web site.

Nautical Solutions Marketing Inc. of St. Petersburg runs a Web site called YachtBroker.com which uses a software program to harvest yacht sale information from other Web sites, including one owned by Boats.com of Lake Forest, Ill., and then compiles it for its subscribers.

Nautical's practice of collecting yacht listings, photos and product descriptions from various Web sites represented lawful use of facts that weren't protected by copyright law, Judge Steven D. Merryday ruled April 1.

In a seven-page ruling, Merryday also said the rights to the photos and descriptions listed on Boats.com's YachtWorld.com were held by individual yacht brokers, not Boats.com itself. In addition, Merryday said, Nautical did not infringe on any Boats.com copyrights related to the design of YachtWorld.com or the manner in which the Web site compiled and presented information.

Paul Rabe, president of Boats.com, said his company will respond by changing the terms of use for its Web site and by making sure it has ``the correct protections'' for its content.

Merryday's ruling comes after a federal jury in Tampa found in favor of Nautical in a defamation lawsuit against Boats.com, awarding Nautical $300,000 in damages last December, including $50,000 in punitive damages.

G. Donovan Conwell Jr., an attorney representing Nautical, said Merryday's ruling will lend a boost to online brokers and so-called ``aggregator'' Web sites such as Nautical's YachtBroker.com.

``This has pretty broad implications across the Internet because a lot of companies are using their own private search engines to build databases like this,'' Conwell said Thursday.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...al/8395931.htm


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

Boaters Lost In Marine Chart Fight

HALIFAX - A legal dispute over electronic marine charts may prevent up to 100,000 Canadian boaters from accessing accurate navigational tools.

'Boaters have been using illegal information and dealers have been selling illegal information' – Greg Mercer, NDI

In a few weeks, thousands of boat owners across Canada will be gearing up for the season. There are almost four million fishing, commerical and pleasure boats in Canada, all of them navigating shallow coastal waters using a network of lighthouses and bouys.

Most boaters use marine charts, which are like road maps of coastal areas, to find their way around. Many boaters use paper charts to locate bouys and lighthouses, but in the past few years people have begun using devices with built in electronic charts. What many boatowners don't know is now most of those electronic charts are illegal.

It's all because of a nasty copyright issue. Charts are made at taxpayer expense by the Canadian Hydrographic Service, but 10 years ago the service made a deal with a Newfoundland company called NDI, and handed the company sole rights to all Canadian charts in electronic form.

NDI spokesperson Greg Mercer says two other companies that dominate the electronic chart market worldwide have never recognized NDI's ownership to the Canadians charts and have refused to pay royalties. "Boaters have been using illegal information and dealers have been selling illegal information."

Last month, the dispute came to a head. The government warned marine dealers not to sell C-Map or Navionic electronic charts because the companies were in copyright violation, and that means up to 100,000 boat owners no longer have access to current electronic charts.

Ken Cirillo speaks for the Boston-based company C-Map. His company has warned Canadian boaters it can no longer do business in Canada. "There are 10,000 C-Map and Navionics users who now will have no access to updated charts," he says. "It's a safety issue."

The Canadian Hydrographic Service won't reveal details of its exclusive deal with NDI, but it does recognize the looming safety issue and says its reviewing its relationship with NDI.

"When we made the deal 10 years ago it was good for everyone," says Steve Outhouse of the Canadian Hydrographic Service. "We know understand that its got to change."

But that position surprises NDI's Greg Mercer. "That is news to us that they are considering a change."

There is an urgency here. In a few weeks, thousands of boats will go in the water and as it stands now, many could leave the the dock without current charts, a situation everyone agrees is extremely dangerous.
http://stjohns.cbc.ca/regional/servl...tfight20040409


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

Italians Forcing ISP’s To Spy On Users

Should Music, Video Or Software Copying Be Treated As Terrorism?
ALCEI

The decree-law issued by the Italian government on March 12, 2004 adds to an already long list of laws and rules that, with a variety of pretexts, interfere with freedom and personal rights.

Its alleged purpose is to "urgently intervene on matters of cultural goods and properties". It does nothing that relates to such objectives – and of course there is no "urgency", except for the government’s desire to put the rules in place before they are discussed in parliament.

A detailed analysis (also in English) of the faults and problems of this "decree law" is available on the ALCEI website

The original draft of this decree included some of the messy rulings on data retention that had been placed in the December 24, 2003 decree (that became a law on February 26, 2004, with a few mild amendments in parliament that don’t change its substance – see the ALCEI statement on that matter.) They were removed before the new decree was issued. Repressive regulation now comes from another angle: unnecessary and improper "innovation" on the already distorted and warped legislation on copyright. Introducing additional restrictions and violations of personal and human rights.

This decree-law is a messy and poisonous mixture of unrelated issues, treating peer-to-peer sharing of music, video or software with criteria that were conceived to fight terrorism. The result is useless, ineffective and dangerous.

It’s useless because it does not provide any useful tool for the prevention of serious crime (such as terrorism and violence.)

It’s ineffective because it’s cumbersome and poorly conceived, therefore likely to produce dispersion of energies, uncontrolled persecution of innocent people, overloading of inquires with no sense or purpose, cluttering of police proceedings and already overburdened law courts, getting in the way of any useful activities for the persecution and prevention of serious crime.

It’s dangerous because it introduces, in matters where it’s totally unacceptable, the persecution of "intention", whereby people can be punished not for hat they have done, but for what is assumed they might "intend" to do. (If such a violation of basic human rights and principles of law can, sometimes, be admissible in the case of extreme violence, such as terrorism, it’s obviously intolerable that it be extended to situations where there is no danger for the life and safety of people and institutions).

Like many other such laws it reveals, in the redundancies of its text, a specific desire to control the internet and interfere with the freedom of people using communication networks.

The absurdity and the repressive purpose of this decree are revealed also by specific rulings.

This type of legislation leads to something that looks like a "police state", with the persecution of intentions, compulsory espionage, violations of private life, freedom of opinion and personal communication. And all of this isn’t done to fight terrorists (who may gain considerable advantage from the resulting overburdening and dilution of anti-crime resources) but to satisfy the ego of one or another politician (who wants his own law against the internet) and the powerful lobbies and selfish interests of music, show business or software conglomerates, who don’t care if legislation is inefficient and messy, but enjoy the idea of "terrorizing" people into obedience.

http://www.alcei.it/english/news/cse040315.htm


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

Internet-Censorship Russian Style
English Pravda

Russian State Duma plans to pass a new law limiting Internet access
Dmitry Chirkin

In September of last year British law enforcers have published a research study proving that limited Internet access and censorship of all communication sources worldwide reached unbelievably high level. Another research study ?Silenced¦ was led by Internet-experts and law enforcement organizations on behalf of Pravacy International and GreenNet Educational Trust in more than 50 countries around the globe.

According to the authors of the research study, the US and Great Britain were the first two countries that most actively lobbied mass media regulations including the Net.

Western states promote such rapid spread of censorship in developing countries, since the latter receive all the needed technologies and equipment from the West to enable thorough control of telecommunications. According to the experts, if it wasn't for the West, those developing countries would not have been able to implement censorship so easily and efficiently.

Some of the positive aspects of censorship are as follows: many countries are currently in the process of adopting new laws of confidentiality, new technologies are being developed that suppose to protect one's privacy.

Internet-regulation Asian style

Burma is number one in terms of depriving people of Internet-freedom in Asian region, surpassing even such countries as China and Vietnam, where Internet is fully controlled by the government. Burmese authorities prohibited Internet users to publish any materials of political content, which could in any way ?do harm to the government.¦ Burmese authorities made it clear that they do not wish to see this new technology to cause major riots in the country. Therefore, they are willing to destroy it fully. In China on the contrary, dissidents still find ways for their purposes. For now at least-

A couple of years ago, China adopted a new law concerning telecommunications aimed mainly at regulating Internet-business. The law limits intake of foreign capitals into Chinese Internet-Companies as well monitors all the information placed on those sites. Legally, companies have to store all the Internet data for 60 days and be able to provide that data upon request of law enforcement.

According to a human rights organization Amnesty International, amount of Chinese citizens involved in expressing their alternative opinion on-line keeps rising. In comparison to last year, a number of Internet-victims has increased by 60%, reports The Inquirer. Aside from those people who have been imprisoned for spreading radical ideological views, those who informed the entire country of the SARS epidemic were also among the imprisoned. Amnesty International also criticizes such American companies as Microsoft, Cisco and Sun for providing China with technologies to enable total Internet censorship.

Internet-censorship Russian style

Rumor has it that in a not so distant future Russians will have to have special permission from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to access the Net. Russian authorities have been preoccupied with the Internet issue for quite some time now. Special services for instances claim that the Net often contributes to divulging information of national importance. Police also complains at the rising number of crimes in the technological field; politicians don't like wandering megabytes with discrediting information.

The new bill mainly aims at protecting Internet users from pornography, spam and intellectual piracy. It is also planned, for instance to deny access to anyone who has ever been convicted of a crime. However, it is still unclear how those individuals will be denied access to Internet-cafes. In the meantime, the new Duma's bill is highly confidential.

Everyone keeps quite about the project, like partisans. Deputy Chief of the Information Committee Boris Reznik states the folloinwg: ?I have never heard anything about such bill. However, this is not the first attempt.¦

Anyway, according to some unidentified sources, the bill does in fact exist and is currently in Kremlin. Most likely, it will be introduced in the lower chamber for consideration sometime next Fall. It may just as well be adopted right after the New Year's.
http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/...ensorship.html


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

Australian Online Petition Against IP Provisions In FTA

Open source advocates in Australia have set up an online petition to campaign against adoption of provisions in Chapter 17 of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.

They say these provisions will "harm the flourishing Australian Open Source community both directly by making legitimate and useful Open Source software illegal, and indirectly by preventing the Australian Parliament from considering changes to our intellectual property laws on their own merits."

Linux Australia recently voiced fears about the FTA, saying it would lead to the acceptance of American-style patent and intellectual property laws which, in turn, would cripple the local software industry.

The organisation has set up a page on its website devoted to information about the FTA and the ways in which, in its estimate, it can harm the local open source industry.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...326915388.html


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

New Korean Internet Anti-Libel Law Unenforceable For Now: NEC

An article of the revised election law stipulating that Internet users must use their real names has been set-aside in the upcoming general elections. The article aims to prevent anonymous posts slandering specific politicians or political parties.

The National Election Commission (NEC) announced that it will delay adopting the Internet real-name system and focus on guidance in the April elections. This is because the definition of targeted Internet mediums is ambiguous and a real-name authorization system connected with credit information companies or the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs has not been completely established.

According to the revised election law, which was promulgated on March 12, the Internet real-name system was supposed to take effect from April 12.

As the enforcement of the Internet real-name system became difficult to enforce due to inadequate preparation, the National Election Commission decided to just issue warnings to violators instead of fining them. An official at the NEC said that the Internet real-name system is necessary because illegal activities are rampant on the Internet. The system will be complemented and fully enforced from the next election, the official added.

Pundits are strongly criticizing the NEC for its failure to fully enforce the system. Meanwhile, some Internet users have strongly opposed the system, saying that it might violate freedom of expression.

The NEC said that it sent official documents to the Webmasters of each political party asking for their cooperation, such as voluntarily deleting slanderous messages, in order to prevent cases of Internet libel, which appear especially at the final stages of campaigning.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...404120028.html


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

Vietnamese Cops Tighten Controls On Internet Access

HANOI: Authorities in a southern Vietnamese province have restricted access to Internet sites critical of the government, state-controlled media reported Saturday.
AP

Owners of Internet cafes in Dong Nai province, next to Ho Chi Minh City, are required to prevent customers' access to websites with "bad content" and to install software to control the information available, the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said.

Police are also requiring Internet cafe owners to keep for 30 days customers' personal information such as names, addresses, identification numbers and the duration of their Internet access.

The newspaper said the measures were meant to comply with a Minister of Public Security directive announced on Jan 29. It was unclear whether the restrictions were to be applied throughout the country. Officials weren't available for comment Saturday.

Last year, the Culture and Information Ministry proposed a slew of regulations aimed at policing the Internet, such as requiring Vietnam-based websites to obtain licences and seek approval each time content is changed.

The ministry also wanted to hold Internet service providers and cybercafe owners responsible for monitoring customers' activities. It's not known whether the Public Security Ministry's decision was related to the earlier proposals.

There are more than two million Internet users in Vietnam, which introduced the service in 1997. Most of the customers at the country's estimated 5,000 Internet cafes are students between the ages of 14 and 24, according to a 2002 survey.

Vietnam maintains tight control over all information, with the government using firewalls to block websites with pornography, violence, and especially criticism of Vietnam's one-party communist system.

At least four dissidents have been jailed in Vietnam in recent years for posting Internet articles critical of the government. --
http://star-techcentral.com/tech/sto...sec=technology


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

FTC To Explore RFID Consumer Implications
Richard Shim

The Federal Trade Commission said Monday it is seeking comments and requests to join a June 21 workshop looking at consumer uses and impacts of radio frequency identification technology. The workshop will look into the increasing number of applications of the technology and will address privacy and security concerns, especially fears of tracking users through their RFID products--something privacy groups have been vocal very about. Those seeking to participate in the workshop should notify the FTC by May 7. Workshop members will discuss policy issues and encourage development of best business practices that don't infringe on privacy or security concerns.p>

Government agencies and politicians are taking an increasing role in the evolution of RFID technology. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has discussed federal regulation of RFID technology. Several states--California, Missouri and Utah--have introduced bills to ease privacy concerns related to RFID.
http://news.com.com/2110-7343-5190155.html


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

California Legislator Moves To Block Gmail
Reuters

A California state senator said Monday she was drafting legislation to block Google's free e-mail service "Gmail" because it would place advertising in personal messages after searching them for key words.

"We think it's an absolute invasion of privacy. It's like having a massive billboard in the middle of your home," said Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from Fremont, Calif.

"We are asking them to rethink the whole product," she said.

In late March, the Web search giant announced plans to launch Gmail--a service that would offer users 1GB of free storage, more than 100 times the storage offered by other free services from Yahoo and Microsoft.

But in return for the extra storage, users would agree to let Google's technology scan their incoming e-mail, then deliver targeted ads based on key words in the messages. For instance, a user receiving a message about a friend's flu symptoms might also receive ads for cold and flu remedies.

Gmail is now being tested with a limited number of users. Privacy advocates are assailing Gmail even before its formal launch. Google faces heavy opposition in Europe, where privacy laws are stricter than they are in the United States.

European groups recently lodged a complaint with U.K. authorities, charging that Gmail may violate Europe's privacy laws because it stores messages where users cannot permanently delete them. Europe's privacy protection laws give consumers the right to retain control over their communications.

Google said in a statement that it intends to work with "data protection authorities across Europe to ensure their concerns are heard and resolved."

Industry analysts see the service as a key product for Google because it would boost revenues from advertisers and expand its business as the Mountain View, Calif.-based company nears an expected initial public offering of stock.

Figueroa, who was the author of California's do-not-call law that allows citizens to block telemarketing calls, said she was pursuing the legislation because she had not yet received a response to a letter sent Thursday to Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in which she laid out her concerns.

"We received the letter from Sen. Figueroa. We appreciate her feedback and will take it into consideration as we build the best possible Webmail service for our users," Google said in an e-mailed statement.

The Gmail service would bring Google into the market for free e-mail services now dominated by Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN. Those rivals have been challenging Google's core Web search business.

More than two dozen privacy groups in the United States and Europe have demanded that Google suspend Gmail's launch until privacy issues are adequately addressed.

The groups charged, among other things, that scanning e-mail for ad placement poses unnecessary risks of misuse and that the system sets "potentially dangerous precedents and establishes reduced expectations of privacy" in e-mails.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5190219.html


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

Downloading Music Gets More Expensive
Ethan Smith

To see the future of online music prices, look no further than "Fly or Die," the new album by rock-meets-hip-hop trio N.E.R.D.

For months, digital-music services have been touting albums for $9.99 to entice more people to buy online. But Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store has been charging $16.99 for "Fly or Die," while Roxio Inc.'s Napster service sells the 12-song collection for $13.99. Both prices are higher than the $13.49 that Amazon.com charges for the CD itself. The same pricing shifts are showing up on albums by a growing slate of artists, from Shakira to Bob Dylan.

Unburdened by manufacturing and distribution costs, online music was supposed to usher in a new era of inexpensive, easy-to-access music for consumers. In many cases, buying music online is still cheaper than shopping for CDs at retail outlets. But just a year after iTunes debuted with its 99-cent songs and mostly $9.99 albums, that affordable and straightforward pricing structure is already under pressure.

All five of the major music companies are discussing ways to boost the price of single-song downloads on hot releases - to anywhere from $1.25 to as much as $2.49. It isn't clear how or when such a price hike would take place, and it could still be months away. Sales of such singles - prices have remained at 99 cents - still account for the majority of online music sales.

The industry is also mulling other ways to charge more for online singles. One option under consideration is bundling hit songs with less-desirable tracks. Another possibility is charging more for a single track if it is available online before the broader release of the entire album from which it is taken. There is also talk of lowering the price on some individual tracks from older albums.

Several record-company executives acknowledged that pricing changes are being discussed at all five major companies.

The new pricing developments come as digital-music sales are growing steadily. Some 25 million digital tracks were sold in the first three months of this year, versus 19.2 million for all of the second half of last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That growth is why some in the industry are uncomfortable with the talk of price increases. Most music-company executives believe that the download market is still in a critical early-growth stage, which could be disrupted by raising prices. "For us right now the issue is not, 'Do we make another $300,000 by raising the price five cents?"' says a music company executive. "It's making sure the market grows."

Revenues in the music industry have been dragging in recent years, in part because of the rise of illegal downloading services. Raising digital-music prices could spur additional illicit downloading. Weaning people off those illegal services by giving them an alternative that they consider viable is critical to the industry's future profitability.

N.E.R.D's "Fly or Die" is far from the only album that now costs significantly more to download from iTunes than to buy on CD. And many high-profile albums from two of the big five music companies, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Group PLC, are now priced on iTunes and its competitors well above the $9.99 norm. Sony artist Pete Yorn's "Musicforthemorningafter," for example, costs $13.99 on iTunes and $10.88 on average in retail stores, according to the NPD Group. Albums by EMI artists from Kylie Minogue to Blur also cost more in digital than physical form. (EMI also distributes N.E.R.D.)

The reason this disparity is so pronounced at EMI and Sony is that both companies routinely set wholesale prices for online albums higher than their competitors, according to people familiar with the matter.

A much smaller number of titles from the other major music labels also cost more than $9.99 on iTunes. A handful of albums from Bertelsmann AG's BMG, Warner Music Group, and Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group also cost more online than they do as CDs. But these tend to be double discs such as OutKast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," which incur higher costs in certain kinds of royalties when sold online than as traditional CDs.

"There's a lot of experimentation in the industry," says Peter Csathy, president and chief operating officer of Musicmatch Inc., which sells digital music.

The music companies are reluctant to talk openly about their wholesale-pricing strategies, but they are quick to blame the retailers for higher prices. A spokeswoman for EMI, for instance, stresses that the retailers, not record companies, ultimately set the prices consumers pay.

However, the digital-music services say they base their retail prices directly on the wholesale prices the music companies charge. "Our pricing comes when the fees come in from the labels," said Musicmatch's Mr. Csathy.

ITunes, the market leader among downloading services, and its competitors offer music at two distinct price points: Single tracks cost 99 cents. A full-album has generally cost $9.99, regardless of how many songs are on it.

Napster was until recently the lone holdout among the major online services on full album prices, charging $9.95 for numerous titles that cost between $12.87 and $16.99 on iTunes. But two weeks ago, it relented and created a higher tier of album prices, set at $13.99.

Separately, Walmart.com, the online arm of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., recently rolled out a slightly cheaper 88-cents-per-track price. Many observers, however, argue that any advantage conferred by the 11-cent difference will be offset by a user interface that early reviews have called less friendly than those of other services. Executives at competing services also contend that research shows that consumers don't care much about price differences within the band of about 75 cents and 99 cents.

The issue of online music prices raises philosophical debates for music executives. Some executives, for example, believe they should be charging a premium for the online versions of older tracks because consumers may be willing to pay more for harder-to-find material.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...ing07-ON.html#


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

Coming Soon: The Smut-Free DVD
BBC

American cinephiles will soon be able to enjoy their movies without sex, violence, swearing - indeed, without any of the interesting bits. Wal-Mart, the country's mightiest retailer, is preparing to ship a $79 DVD player that automatically strips out potentially offensive content. The gadget, made by French-owned RCA, aims to tap into mounting concern in the US about media standards. But the self-censoring technology has run into protests from Hollywood.

The RCA player is the first to incorporate the screening technology of Clearplay, a Salt Lake City-based company. Many firms provide bowdlerised versions - not always legally - of Hollywood films, but Clearplay operates at a higher level of sophistication. Clearplay scans movies for dodgy content, and then programs that data into its system. Subscribers can then watch standard copies of the 500-or-so films on its list, with the assurance that they will automatically skip over mute anything that children or the squeamish may not like. Until now, Clearplay has only run through a PC.

The launch of the new player, which RCA says was at Wal-Mart's urging, could hardly be better timed. Ever since the singer Janet Jackson bared a breast during the SuperBowl, US regulators have been highly jumpy about what goes out over the airwaves.

"Increasingly it seems the media is not playing close to the line, but is outright leaping past the line and in fact daring the audience and daring the government to do anything about it," Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, told a media seminar last month.

"Some of the transcripts I have been forced to read reveal content that is pure trash, plain and simple."

The FCC has fought shy of tougher state regulation, but has handed out some unprecedented indecency fines in recent months. But Clearplay and its rivals face a challenge from the other direction. A Hollywood consortium, including some of Tinseltown's top directors, has sued Clearplay and others, arguing that they are abusing the films' artistic integrity. By producing - without permission - altered versions of intellectual property, censors are effectively pirating directors' and studios' work, the lawsuit argues.

Clearplay hopes to escape through a loophole: instead of making new versions of films, it argues, its technology is simply another way of playing the existing movie - no more an abuse than a viewer fast-forwarding a tape in his own home.

The case is pending, but RCA has decided to press ahead regardless.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ss/3611969.stm


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

Microsoft, Time Warner Take DRM Stake
John Borland

Digital rights management company ContentGuard said Monday that Microsoft and Time Warner each made substantial new investments in the company, taking over Xerox's former role as part owner.

ContentGuard holds several content protection patents and has previously licensed them to the likes of Microsoft and Sony. It also has seen them adopted by standards bodies including the Motion Picture Experts Group. The technology was originally developed by Xerox's PARC research facility. Microsoft and Time Warner said the investment showed that their landmark strategic alliance, formed last May, was bearing fruit. Both companies declined to give details on how they might use ContentGuard's technology.
http://news.com.com/2110-1032-5185139.html


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

Microsoft squares Intertrust DRM suit for $440m
Drew Cullen

Microsoft is paying $440m to settle its long-running digital rights management (DRM) patent infringement dispute with Intertrust. The one-off pay-out means that Microsoft customers can use their software "as they are intended to be used without requiring a license from InterTrust".

Anything else would have been intolerable, which may be why Microsoft opted to draw a line under this case. Marshall Phelps, Microsoft lawyer, said: "One of our goals with this and our broader intellectual property (IP) licensing program is to provide peace of mind for our customers and partners by letting them know that patent licensing is our responsibility." Quite.

Software developers working solely on the Microsoft platform will not be required to sign up for an Intertrust license. But they must sign on the dotted line if they are combining MS software with that of third parties.

Intertrust filed its initial suit against Microsoft in June, 2001, and added more complaints along the way to take in just about all Microsoft platform software. Originally a lossmaking digital video software company, Intertrust ditched its operating business in May 2002, to concentrate solely on licensing technology developed inhouse to deliver content securely. The same month, it claimed an early IP licensing success in Sony, which paid $28.5m and agreed to pay royalties for the technology.

Sony was so convinced by the Intertrust claim that it teamed up with Philips to buy the firm for $453m in early 2003.

Microsoft has been in settling mood, lately. Last week, it settled an anti-trust dispute with Sun, perhaps its most vociferous opponent in the computer industry, for $2bn. The hush money means that Sun is withdrawing its complaint with the EC. However, the Commission's investigation into Microsoft's on competition grounds has long since developed its own momentum. Last month, the EC imposed a record fine on Microsoft and ordered the firm to unbundle Windows Media Player from Windows. Microsoft will appeal the ruling - the next step is a submission to the EU's Court of First Instance, in time for the 8 June deadline.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04...es_intertrust/


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

Music Sales Strong Despite Digital Piracy

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Online file-sharing and other digital piracy persist, but a gradual turnaround in U.S. music sales that began last fall picked up in the first quarter of this year, resulting in the industry's best domestic sales in years.

Overall U.S. music sales -- CDs, legal downloads, DVDs -- rose 9.1 percent in the first three months of the year over the same period in 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Album sales were up 9.2 percent. Sales of CDs, which represent 96 percent of album sales, rose 10.6 percent. For the first time since 2000, two recording artists -- Norah Jones and Usher -- managed to sell more than 1 million copies of their albums in a single week.

"We've had a big run so far," said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts and senior analyst for Billboard Magazine. "Because we've had three years of erosion, at least for the first eight months of the year, it will be relatively easy for the industry to post increases."

The sales data are a bolt of encouragement to an industry hit by a three-year sales slump it blames largely on file-sharing. The downturn prompted a wave of restructuring by record companies and thousands of layoffs.

Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, called the first-quarter figures "good news," but cautioned that the results were measured against a dismal period.

"The numbers of 2003 were down about 10 percent to 12 percent from the year before," Sherman said. "If we didn't have that kind of increase it would be really terrible."

U.S. album sales declined annually in the three years following 2000, the biggest year since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking U.S. music sales.

In 2001, sales were down 3 percent. The next year, sales dropped 11 percent. Last year, until September, sales were down 8.5 percent, but the pickup in sales at the end of the year narrowed the total decline for 2003 to less than 4 percent.

The burgeoning online music market accounted for the sale of more than 25 million tracks between January and March, eclipsing the 19.2 million tracks purchased in the last six months of 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Stores also saw gains. Chain stores' music sales were up 7 percent, while independent music retailers saw a 3 percent increase. Discount chains such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart posted a 13 percent jump in sales compared to the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Industry observers said no single factor has driven the turnaround.

Mayfield sees similarities with the industry's slump 20 years ago.

Sales of disco music dried up after the dance scene fell out of vogue in the early 1980s. In the late 1990s, the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and Britney Spears drew millions of teenage fans who had been out of the music marketplace, but sales didn't keep up as the audience got older.

"That music was hot and nothing moved in to replace it," Mayfield said.

He also draws comparisons between the loss of eight-track sales in the early 1980s and the more recent phasing out of cassettes, a format that provided customers with a cheaper alternative to CDs.

The early 1980s and the early part of this decade were also marked by economic downturns. Conversely, the music industry was better able to weather the recession in the early 1990s because of CD sales driven by consumers replacing their vinyl record and cassette tape collections.

Still, the recording industry has focused on Internet piracy, and its trade group cites surveys that indicate the number of people engaging in file-sharing has declined since the group began suing computer users.

But other research shows millions continue to download music, movies and software over peer-to-peer networks.

A recent study by two professors at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may suggest how the industry's sales could be improving amid file-sharing.

The study, conducted over 17 weeks in the fall of 2002, was based on data compiled in the user logs of two OpenNap servers that host traffic by U.S. users of file- sharing programs including WinMX.

The researchers plucked 680 songs on albums by artists like Eminem and compared how often their songs were downloaded on the network to their weekly sales figures. The authors concluded that file-sharing has a statistically insignificant impact on record sales.

The findings are disputed by other researchers whose studies, mostly based on consumer surveys and willing monitoring of computer users, have shown that music fans who download songs for free pay for music less often.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne....ap/index.html


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

A Man, a Plan, a Can: Boosting Wireless Signals
Peter Wayner

When Keith Walter, a wireless network technician, came to install a network on the grounds of an estate in northern Maryland, he ran into a problem. The guest house was 150 yards from the main building, beyond the reach of the base station he had installed, with its standard antenna.

But instead of running wires to the guest house or installing a separate base station there with its own Internet connection, Mr. Walter established a wireless link between the two buildings using two special antennas to beam signals back and forth. That way, guests could hook up their computers to the Internet with the same connection as the main house.

Such artful use of antennas to expand the range and efficiency of wireless networks is becoming increasingly common. Home users are discovering that a well-placed antenna can fill out dead spots and stretch the reach of a base station to include a back bedroom, a backyard or even a neighbor's house.

Antenna design and placement is a science with enough strategies and options to keep a lunch table of wireless engineers locked in debate for hours, but most Wi-Fi users can improve performance without worrying too much about the details.

An antenna's ability to increase a Wi-Fi signal's strength is called its "gain," and it is measured on a logarithmic scale, in decibels.

Dewayne Hendricks, a consultant to the Federal Communications Commission and chief executive of the Dandin Group, a company based in Fremont, Calif., that develops wireless networks, said that at their most essential, antennas focused energy. Gain, he said, measures how good a focusing job they do.

Mr. Hendricks said each antenna manufacturer should include a chart that shows how strong the signal is in each direction so home owners can aim their signals. A good omnidirectional antenna may offer 5 decibels of gain, which translates roughly into a signal that is about three times stronger. A good directional antenna may offer gain that is about 12 to 13 decibels, which may be about 18 to 20 times greater.

Some antenna designs are intended for do-it-yourselfers. One, the can antenna, can be made by adding a wire to an old metal can. Some hobbyists have used soup cans, but Pringles potato crisp canisters have a particularly strong following. The signals bounce off of the metal in the can, focusing the signal in much the same way that a cheerleader's megaphone focuses sound energy. For those who don't want to try making one, one company, Cantenna, sells a version.

Designing the antenna is only half the job because its placement can affect its behavior. Mike Cheponis, of California Wireless, a consulting firm in Santa Clara, Calif., said that some of the antennas in his office were only "nominally omnidirectional" because "the pattern can be affected by materials close to the antenna, like walls, ceilings, and especially metal."

Frank Caimi, the chief technical officer of SkyCross, a developer of wireless communications technology based in Melbourne, Fla., explained that sometimes the simplest and cheapest solution to expanding the range of a Wi-Fi system does not involve any new antennas, but just putting the base station higher up or in a more central location. If that doesn't work, he said, adding another base station or a more basic piece of equipment known as a signal repeater may, and the popularity of Wi-Fi technology has driven the price of many base stations below that of some antennas.

Mr. Caimi warned that an installation using a high-gain antenna with a base station may violate F.C.C. regulations intended to reduce interference among neighboring wireless systems.

The antenna designs currently available are just the beginning of the evolution of the technology. "Intelligent" antennas, which aim and focus a signal through software, have been developed for commercial applications. But these antennas, often called "adaptive" or "phased array" systems, are a long way from home use.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/te...ts/15howw.html


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

New Intel Chips Ensure Better Security
Matthew Fordahl

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The next generation of Intel Corp. microprocessors for cell phones and handheld computers will, for the first time, include hard-wired security features that can enforce copy protection and help prevent hackers from wreaking havoc on wireless networks.

Intel's PXA27x processors, announced Monday at a conference in Taiwan, contain a security "engine"

that's on the same piece of silicon but separated from the area where general processing takes place. The engine also has access to secure memory.

Today, security tasks such as handling the keys that unscramble data are typically processed like any other task. As a result, it's possible that an errant program can alter, intercept or damage jobs that are supposed to be secure.

With Intel's new chips, cell phone makers and carriers can guarantee a greater, hardware-based level of security for customers who use the devices to access corporate networks or need to lock down information.

Carriers, for instance, can secure the software that boots up a phone, making it next to impossible for hackers to tweak the device and cause trouble.

"Carriers want to be able to identify the handset on the network. They want to make sure nobody is doing anything malicious with that handset," said Dave Rogers, Intel's wireless marketing manager.

The same technology also can be used to ensure that content such as music or movies is used in a way dictated by the copyright holder. A purchased song, for instance, would not play unless it's sure that it's authorized and running on secure hardware.

Intel and other supporters of trusted computing believe the extra layer of security will spur content providers to make more songs and movies available on the Internet.

But critics complain that such technologies will be used by content owners to lock down software, music, movies and any other media with draconian digital rights management schemes. As a result, people will lose control of what's on their computers, cell phones and handhelds.

Similar efforts are underway for desktops and other computers. Intel is working on a technology it has code-named LaGrande in its Pentium 4 processors. Microsoft Corp. also is working on what it calls the "Next Generation Secure Computing Base."

"We're taking some of the learnings from LaGrande technology," said Rogers, who declined to elaborate further on the similarities and differences between LaGrande and the PXA270x family.

With its cell phone and handheld chips, Intel is working with all the major operating system vendors — including Microsoft, Symbian Ltd. and PalmSource Inc. — to ensure their software can work with the new security technology. Rogers declined to name manufacturers who will sell phones with the new chips.

Some observers question whether Intel will make inroads into the markets with the chips, which also are designed to consume little power yet be robust enough to handle video and other multimedia.

The world's leading supplier of processors for personal computers has not seen much success in the cell phone market. Its mobile business was reorganized in December after its failure to meet expectations resulted in a $600 million impairment charge.

"They're at an early place in this marketplace," said Michael King, an analyst at the research firm Gartner Inc. "Being able to dictate standards requires that you have a commanding position and I don't think they're there yet."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...l_secure_chips


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

Is Hollywood Undercutting Music Sales?

[ed-Sorry for the lack of links/source. This was sent via email. I think it's from Variety.]

Update: here is the link to the Variety story, although a subscription is required to see the whole thing.

By MEREDITH AMDUR
Is Hollywood to blame for the music industry's woes?

According to market research group NPD, it's not just illegal downloads of electronic MP3 files that are eating into traditional music sales but the ever-increasing popularity of DVD movies.

In a survey of consumers who admitted to spending less money on CDs in the last year, some 21% blamed an increased spending on DVDs for their reduced appetite for CDs. Only 15% of respondents blamed their DVD habit in the same survey a year and a half earlier. NPD noted that the increase was the largest single jump in its survey. At the same time, the number of consumers who cited downloading as their excuse for lower CD spending fell from 30% in 2002 to only 21% this month.

NPD, which just finished up a study into understanding why people are buying less music, said the chief reasons remain the high price of CDs (48% cited) and the general quality of content available recently (42%).

One household entertainment budget

While music and movies are vastly different pastimes, NPD analyst Russ Crupnick argues that the decline in CD sales is increasingly attributable to the rapid rise in DVD sales. (Similarly, many publishers believe the lure of inexpensive DVDs, available in big chains like Borders, has eaten into book sales.) Researchers note that purchases and rentals of movies and music, along with videogames, typically come out of the same household budget for entertainment, so an increase in one can have a direct impact on the other.

"As DVD prices fall, especially for catalog titles, the price-to-value proposition only gets higher," noted Crupnick.

NPD reported that the average full length CD sold for a still-hefty $13.47 in the fourth quarter of last year. This price represents a fairly modest 2% reduction from the same period in 2002 and 4% down from 2001. Many DVD movies can be purchased for $15 or less.
http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/002787.html


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

Sharman Shuffles Legal Team
Patrick Gray

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Sharman Networks, maker of the peer-to-peer file-sharing software Kazaa, has shaken up its legal team following the filing of a lawsuit by the Australian recording industry.

The company has engaged the services of Clayton Utz, but insists it hasn't sacked the legal team it has been using until now, Phillips Fox. However, a Sharman representative would not confirm or deny there would be a reduced reliance on Phillips Fox following the move, and refused to comment on its satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, with the firm's handling of the current federal court proceedings under way in Australia.


"Sharman Networks has made the strategic decision to reinforce its legal representation in Australia by retaining the services of Clayton Utz," a Sharman representative told Wired News.

The move comes at a critical stage in proceedings against Sharman, as the record companies officially filed suit against the company last week.

The statement of claim lodged in Australia's federal court in Sydney alleges not only that the respondents have directly infringed on copyright works, but that Sharman Networks and companies affiliated with it have breached Australia's Trade Practices Act and fair-trading laws by engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct. The recording industry wants the company shut down, and is seeking as-yet unspecified monetary damages.

The six record labels, EMI, Sony, Warner, BMG, Festival Mushroom and Universal Music, filed the 55-page document last Wednesday.

The labels insist it's possible for Sharman to stop users from trading in copyright works, a claim that has been vigorously denied by the peer-to-peer software maker. These denials constitute misleading and deceptive conduct, the record companies say.

Because it's possible to buy some licensed content through Kazaa, the claim that the software is incapable of controlling what is distributed through the peer-to-peer network is simply a lie, the music companies insist.

"They can pick and choose what they control ... and they are actively manipulating an illegal process for commercial gain," said Michael Speck, the Australian music industry's chief piracy investigator. "They revealed their hand. By version 2.5 they were able to apply licensed and unlicensed product as they see fit."

The labels are also alleging that Sharman has made several misrepresentations to its users.

"Each of the representations was made in trade or commerce in Australia ... and was at the time it was made, false," the statement of claim reads.

It also cites Sharman's claim that users operating peer-to-peer "super-nodes," which operate one level higher in the P2P food chain than the average user, will not experience an increase in computer-operating costs, or a decrease in performance, as a bogus statement.

Sharman Networks declined to comment on the lawsuit. Also, Clayton Utz and Phillips Fox did not respond to requests for comment.

Australia's Trade Practices Act is a fairly uncommon law, according to Ben Fitzmaurice, a lawyer with Abbott, Stillman and Wilson Barristers and Solicitors in Melbourne.

"It's pretty unusual: misleading and deceptive conduct. In other (international) jurisdictions it would be a contractual claim, (but here) you don't have to show a legal relationship between the parties per se, just a reliance on a representation," he explained, adding that "a Trade Practices Act claim is easier to make than a copyright claim."

The filing of the suit comes after a series of raids conducted on several sites in February, including Kazaa's Sydney offices and the homes of its executives. Sharman had tried unsuccessfully to have the court order allowing the raids quashed.

Other sites raided included the offices of Brilliant Digital Entertainment and LEF Interactive and the home of Kevin Bermeister, the CEO of Altnet and BDE. Because Sharman Networks is registered in Vanuatu for "tax purposes," exactly who owns it is difficult to ascertain.

In all, the statement of claim names 10 respondents. It's not about killing online music, Speck insists, merely a step toward a legitimate online industry. "All sorts of technologies are going to create opportunities for artists," he said. "When we win this case ... this operation will disappear into the ether."

The music industry has experienced limited success in similar proceedings in other jurisdictions. Sharman, in defense of P2P technology, cited a 1984 U.S. court decision relating to Betamax video recorders as proof it hasn't broken the law.

At that time the courts found Sony was not liable for piracy, despite distributing technology that could be used to infringe on copyright works: the video cassette recorder.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63062,00.html


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

Disharmony Drives Digital-Music Debate
Emily Kumler

A punk rocker defended file-sharing sites while a music-industry representative quoted a rapper blasting the practice, in a lively debate before hundreds of American University students in Boston.

Participants at the event, sponsored by American University's School of Communications, offered different interpretations of the impact of peer-to- peer sites that sometimes distribute copyrighted music.

Cheating the creators?

"Most importantly, songwriters are left behind," said David Sutphen, vice president of government relations for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "People think, well, artists can make money by touring, but if you are a songwriter you aren't touring." The RIAA's stance against sharing digital tunes is well established, as the organization has sued hundreds of people it contends are stealing copyrighted material.

Peer-to-peer sites actually promote music sales by introducing people to new bands and by allowing consumers to sample music before buying it, says Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, an industry association of file-sharing sites.

Also, Marty Lafferty, CEO of the industry group Distributed Computing Industry Association, pushed for congressional action to change current copyright law. He encouraged the music industry to explore new technology to find a compromise with digital-music fans who want to share files.

"Look, people eventually realized that the VCR wasn't going to kill the movie industry and they should learn to use the technology," Eisgrau said. He suggested the recording industry build a royalty pool or some system that embraces the new technology while also meeting their financial goals.

Sutphen maintained that file-sharing is detrimental to the music industry and implored students to consider the consequences.

"I think LL Cool J said it best when he testified before the Senate, 'if I steal a necklace from Tiffany and tell people I got it from Tiffany does that help Tiffany?,'" Sutphen said.

Musician plays to crowd

As the debate escalated, the various representatives defended their positions apparently
unwilling to compromise. Roughly a half-hour into the discussion, punk legend Ian MacKaye of the band Fugazi rallied the audience and took control of the discussion.

"All this going on up here is so far away from music," MacKaye said. "I grew up in DC so I know how deep this bureaucracy goes. If you want to do something don't ask, just do it, because the answer is always no," he advised the audience.

MacKaye also offered a brief history lesson in musical distribution. "Music predates language. At some point in time musicians played and people went to hear them – some may have been paid and some not. At the turn of the century there was this great invention that allowed music to be recorded. Soon there was a market for this music and soon after there was a business established to make money off of this market. You can't take music away from people, it is free in the air." As MacKaye spoke, many in the crowd cheered in agreement.

Others on the panel labeled MacKaye an anomaly among artists.

"Ian made a choice," said Rich Taylor, a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America, which has also sought to protect its copyrights in court. "He made a decision to put music out there, but artists have the right to make a living."

Debate continues

MacKaye noted after the discussion that he is hardly a struggling artist.

"I run a record label. I pay everyone in my band, and all of the band members have bought houses. We are making a living," MacKaye said.

Sarah Van Ballegooijen, a sophomore at American University, said she thought MacKaye made the most impressive argument.

"Anything legal like this is bipolar, two sides," she said. MacKaye "brought in a third, which is really good to hear. I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I think to a certain degree this is the record companies' own fault for not adopting the technology when they could see it coming. If they had adopted a convenient service like iTunes, under record company licensing, the problem wouldn't be as severe as it is now," Van Ballegooijen said. She added she thinks the recording industry's lawsuits will not solve the problem.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_...fm?NewsID=8426