Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review – September 6th, '03

[JackSpratts]

Satire

RIAA Claims Music On Car Radios Meant Only For Original Vehicle Owner!!!!

Trade Group Vows To Go After Passengers Who Illegally Share Soundwaves
Corey Deitz

The Recording Industry Association of America announced today it would be expanding its crackdown on copyright infringement by suing family members, hitchhikers and carpoolers.

Lawyers for the RIAA maintain that the radio in each car was never meant to be listened to by anyone else except the original owner of the vehicle.

Therefore, any additional passengers who listen to music on the radio in another individual's car are doing so illegally and without the express permission of the copyright holders of the respective songs that are broadcast.

RIAA attorneys were preparing to go to Federal District courts across the country to have subpoenas issued to every car maker in America in the hopes of forcing them to disclose the names and addresses of all purchasers from the last 20 years.

"We think this is a no brainer," said an RIAA spokesperson who declined to be identified. "These drivers have been illegally sharing music on their radios and their passengers have been getting a free ride for way too long," he continued.

Legal representatives for the RIAA also warned that they would especially be targeting the "big fish" like charter bus drivers and RV owners who blatantly turn up the radio volume allowing others to hear.

In addition, RIAA lawyers said they were hoping to get a court order to exhume the bodies of Scottish physicist James Clerk-Maxwell, who developed the theory of electromagnetic waves and Guglielmo Marconi, who discovered and harnessed wireless radio in order to sue both corpses for unfair business practices.
http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/aa082603a.htm


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After Filesharing: P2P Telephony
Jan Libbenga

The people who brought you KaZaA have released a software product called Skype, which uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect to other users. Not to share files or music this time, but to talk and chat with your friends.

OK, so it’s not a revolutionary idea. Most internet telephony products, like Net2Phone, are based on P2P or two-way communications; but Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis claim their network uses every available resource to route communications in the most efficient way possible, so the connections should be more reliable. Skype also says it partnered with the best acoustic scientists in the business to deliver sound quality superior to even a fixed telephone line.

As with most chat programs, buddy lists show you when your friends are online and ready to talk or chat. All calls are encrypted end-to- end. Skype uses the 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is also used by U.S. Government organizations. Since you ask Skype can also do simple Instant Messaging.

The software works with all firewall, NAT and routers, with nothing to configure. This is why the Skype founders think their product is so much better than most voice-over-IP applications, which almost never work from behind firewalls and NAT. Only some very strict corporate firewalls which only authorize TCP connections on a restricted number of ports may not allow Skype to connect at the moment.

The beta software (under 3 Megs) is free. You need a PC running Windows 2000 or XP, a 400 MHz processor, 128Mb of memory, a sound card, speakers and a microphone and a broadband Internet connection.

Skype uses its own URL callto:// to connect directly to users, but the company also plans to hook up to plain old telephony networks. For a modest fee, obviously.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/32616.html


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Tone Deaf To A Moral Dilemma?

Millions download songs illegally but don't feel guilty; The industry wants to shake up their consciences
Jon Healey and Jeff Leeds

Susan Philips has a conscience so sensitive to ethical failings that she feels guilty if she leaves her shopping cart adrift in the grocery store parking lot.

Her influence is reflected in her elder daughter's career choice: Miriam Philips, 22, wants to be a rabbi.

On at least one moral dilemma, though, mother and daughter are on opposite sides. To Susan, downloading music on the Internet without permission is wrong. To Miriam, it's just what you do when you go to college.

"My freshman year I was like, 'No, that isn't right.' I wouldn't do that at all," Miriam said at her family's kitchen table, two blocks from the sand in Seal Beach. But by her sophomore year at Brandeis University, she said, she was steering her iMac to free music, collecting enough songs to fill 150 CDs.

Philips' shift helps explain why the record industry has been losing its battle to shape the public's definition of theft in a digital society. Music labels have won a series of court rulings and poured millions of dollars into marketing the message that downloading free songs amounts to online shoplifting — but CD sales keep sinking.

Now the record companies are readying their most desperate bid yet to shake up the public psyche: The industry plans to bombard college students, parents of teenage downloaders and other Internet users with lawsuits alleging millions of dollars in copyright violations.

One goal is to persuade parents to crack down on their children's file sharing before an entire generation comes to expect music to be free. Unlike Susan Philips, many parents see no problem if their kids download tunes, and some actively encourage it for their own ends.

Some observers argue, however, that the effort is as futile as the federal government's attempt to ban booze 80 years ago. About half of the Internet users in the United States, some 60 million people, copy music, movies and other digital goodies from each other for free through online networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus — a statistic that suggests a culture of piracy already has solidified. Said one teenage Kazaa user, "It's hard for me to see it as wrong when so many people are doing it."

She reflects the view of many downloaders. They understand that what they're doing may break the rules of copyright law, but they don't see anything immoral about it. In fact, some even argue that copying a song online isn't "stealing" because the owner still has the original track and still can sell the CD.

Miriam Philips, for example, said that she and her friends at Brandeis knew that their music copying "was illegal and why it was illegal." Similarly, two recent surveys found that a growing number of people acknowledge it's wrong to download songs without permission, but that it doesn't stop many of them from doing it.

Like countless millions, Philips said she felt no guilt about downloading music from a shared campus folder. Not downloading "is the normal ethics of my life," she said, but at college her ethical meter was, well, recalibrated.

And she offered no sympathy for the record labels or well-known artists.

"They're big. They're rich. They can deal with it," she said, adding later: "You can argue that it's illegal but not unethical once they're rich."

Said Deborah Rhode, law professor and director of the Keck Center on Legal Ethics at Stanford University: "There's a view that no one's really harmed. And that turns out to be one of the major predictors of dishonest behavior, whether people can actually draw a connection between their actions and some concrete identifiable victim."

Plus, the ephemeral nature of online music makes it difficult for some to conceive of downloading as stealing. Philips, for instance, said she would never download a movie for free. That's not acceptable even by her college standards.

What makes music different?

"I guess I don't put as high a value on it," said Philips, whose tastes run from Aaron Copland and Stephen Sondheim to Barenaked Ladies and the Byrds.

Expressing a common view, she said music was "more of a background thing," providing flavor to her day but not a focus. As a result, she said, it's "something that doesn't feel quite as tangible" as a movie.

Jonathan Zittrain, director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, also noted that downloaders copy songs without taking them away from the people sharing them. "Normally, we think that sharing is a good thing," Zittrain said. "It's not just, 'Hey, we're all looting.' It's not a looter's mind-set."

File sharing networks are like groups of libraries that invite people to roll photocopiers from stack to stack. To "share" songs on a "peer-to-peer" network such as Kazaa, for example, users simply put them into a folder on their computer and open the folder to others on the network. Anyone searching for those songs can use Kazaa to find the computers where they're stored, then download copies onto his or her PC.

The Recording Industry Assn. of America argues that it's illegal to share or download music without permission because the labels' copyrights give them exclusive rights to distribute and make copies of their songs. That view is widely supported when it comes to users who copy hundreds of files, but some legal experts contend that downloading a few files may prove to be legal under the "fair use" doctrine in copyright law.

"It's far too early in the day to conclude that everything everyone does with peer-to-peer, even when it comes to copyrighted MP3 files, is conclusively infringing," said Peter Jaszi, a law professor at American University.

In addition, Philips and others argue that their downloading actually can benefit labels and artists. The free songs stoked her interest in pop music, Philips said, and prompted her to buy more CDs than she ever had before. She now owns about 50, many of them from artists she discovered through downloading.

"There's really no service that provides this," she said, adding that she doesn't usually fall in love with music unless she listens to it a lot. And buying a CD without knowing the songs "is too darn expensive."
http://www.sunspot.net/technology/ba...ness-headlines


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Optical Discs Face Obsolescence
Matt Whipp

Research from Forrester predicts that online entertainment services will cut hard into revenues from physical media from 2005.

'On-demand services are the future of entertainment delivery. CDs, DVDs, and any other forms of physical media will become obsolete,' said Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Forrester. 'Technology trends like increased broadband adoption and cheap, widespread storage have made it possible for consumers to easily manage their digital entertainment at home.'

The report, entitled 'From Discs to Downloads', predicts that a flood of convenient legal online music services will counter the effect of peer-to-peer networks such as KaZaA and push up revenues for the industry by more than half a billion dollars in 2004. 2005 will see on-demand movie services adding $1.4bn to the coffers of the movie houses. But DVDs and video tapes will gather dust on the shelves, with revenues dipping eight per cent.

'The shift from physical media will halt the music industry's slide and create new revenues for movie companies, but it will wreak havoc with retailers like Tower Records and Blockbuster. As a result, we're about to see a massive power shift in the entertainment industry,' said Bernoff.

Piping entertainment straight to the home rather than selling it on the high street has always been a 'when' rather than an 'if' question. If Forrester is to be believed, then in order to keep up with broadband adoption, the high street middle men will either have to move online or move out in the next few years.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?<a href="htt...p?id=46859</a>


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Joint Higher Education and Entertainment Group Issues Review Of Year- Long Efforts To Curb Illegal File Sharing On College Campuses
Press Release

WASHINGTON--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Sep 2, 2003--A joint committee of leaders from the higher education and entertainment communities, formed to develop collaborative solutions to address illegal file sharing on college campuses, today released a review of its efforts and the progress accomplished during the past year, as well as projects still on the agenda.

The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities was formed last fall and is comprised of leaders representing universities, higher education organizations, and music and motion picture executives. The committee aims to provide a range of resources to school administrators in three basic areas: educational efforts (including practices surrounding the use of copyrighted works, student responsibility, and implications for peer-to-peer network file sharing), technological solutions (including computer network management technologies available to reduce illegal file sharing and the development of legal, campus-based music and movie/entertainment services), and examining differences and exploring prospects for collaboration on legislative initiatives.

''The collaborative efforts of higher education and the entertainment industry have already gone a long way toward addressing problems associated with the piracy of copyrighted material,'' said Graham Spanier, president of Penn State University and co-chair of the Joint Committee. ''The progress in charting solutions and in awareness has been dramatic in recent months.''

''The epidemic of illegal file sharing dramatically impacts both of our respective communities. We are in this boat together, and that`s why collaborative solutions are the best approach,'' said Cary Sherman, President, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and co-chair of the Joint Committee. ''Within a short amount of time, there`s been a sea change in the awareness of piracy`s impact and the appreciation of the need to do something about it. The work of the Joint Committee deserves top-notch marks, but we still have much to accomplish.''

''We are grateful to the university community who, under the leadership of Graham Spanier, has already made great inroads in addressing concerns about network abuse on campus. Our collaboration with the university community has yielded benefits to all parties involved,'' said Jack Valenti, President and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). ''Only through a multi-pronged approach will the promise of the burgeoning digital era be fulfilled. Our industry is committed to providing consumers with the best possible viewing experience and the widest array of options by which they can be enjoyed. The Digital Future will benefit everyone: Computer makers, chip makers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and the creative community, but most of all it will benefit the American economy and millions of American families.''

Among the group`s specific projects:

- A Request for Information (RFI) about technologies offered by various companies that could help curb illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing on college and university campuses (http://www.educause.edu/issues/rfi/). The idea behind this RFI is to create a clearinghouse of readily- accessible information about technologies now available to reduce infringing use of P2P on campus networks, and a convenient and easy resource for school administrators to consult. That RFI was issued in April and the review is near completion. It is intended to lead to on-campus pilot projects beginning this academic year that will afford a practical demonstration and evaluation of the utility and effectiveness of the technologies.

- A Request for Information (RFI) about legitimate online music and movie services now available (http://www.educause.edu/issues/rfi/). The Joint Committee does not plan to recommend a particular service, nor can it negotiate any specific online licensing agreement with schools; rather, the goal is to create a knowledge base of information for university administrators and music and movie officials to help facilitate existing or future conversations between legitimate online content services and schools. That RFI was issued in June and the review is underway. The goal of this effort is the implementation of pilot projects at a number of universities to implement campus-based legitimate online music and movie services.

- A recently released white paper, ''Background Discussion of Copyright Law and Potential Liability for Students Engaged in P2P File Sharing on University Networks,'' designed to help school administrators better understand the application of copyright law to peer-to-peer network file sharing and students` legal liability when they engage in this illegal activity (http://www.acenet.edu/washington/leg.../2003/P2P.pdf.)

- This fall, the Committee will release a best practices document intended to serve as a resource to universities and colleges by outlining some of the approaches other schools have taken in setting campus network use policies and in educating students, faculty and staff about respect for copyrights and the liability for illegal file sharing. The Committee believes that the diverse size and varied traditions of numerous universities and colleges precludes a ''one-sizes-fits-all'' policy. Rather, the document will offer a variety of policies and procedures of demonstrated effectiveness.

- Additionally, the Committee`s legislative task force continues its useful dialogue on various legislative issues before Congress.
http://www.cpwire.com/archive/2003/9/2/1368.asp


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RIAA Says U.S. Music Shipments Down 15.8%
Carolyn Horwitz and Ed Christman

The decline in U.S. music shipments is accelerating, Billboard Bulletin reports. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), total shipments during the first half of 2003 fell 15.8% from the same period last year to 398.5 million units. The value of shipments was down 12% to $4.8 billion.

At last year's midpoint, shipments reported by the RIAA were down 10.1% in units and 6.7% in value from the first half of 2001. Total CD shipments were down 15.3% in unit terms; this follows a 7% decline in first-half 2002.

The trade group attributes the declines, in large part, to music piracy on peer-to-peer networks and illegal CD copying. "While there are other factors contributing to the decline of music shipments in 2003, including the fact that there are significantly fewer music retail locations, illegal file sharing continues to adversely impact the sale of physical CDs," says RIAA president Cary Sherman. "We believe the use of these illegal peer-to-peer services is hurting the music industry's efforts to distribute music online in the way consumers demand."

Industry observers say reasons for the declines include the closure of an estimated 1,000 stores in the first half of the year. Not only does that make for a smaller retail base, but the closures result in increased returns, which are reflected in the RIAA's net shipment figures.

In addition to the shuttered stores, the industry is beginning to feel the impact of a smaller pipeline as music retailers shrink their music inventory to make room for other merchandise lines.

The RIAA's figures track the number, as well as the list-price value, of all units shipped to retail outlets and other music sellers. According to Nielsen SoundScan, which reports final sales to consumers, total U.S. unit sales for the year to date are down 8.5% from last year.
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/ar...ent_id=1967365


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Music: Singles Sales To Stores Up 160%
Katie Dean

The popularity of Apple's iTunes song service has demonstrated that customers like to pick and choose their songs online. New statistics from the music industry indicate that labels are shipping more singles to stores, too.

But whether the stats signal the return of the single is still a bit of a puzzle.

The Recording Industry Association of America's mid-year music statistics chart the number of music products shipped to retailers between January and June. During that time, the labels shipped 5.8 million CD singles, compared with 2.2 million singles in the same period the year before. That's an increase of over 160 percent.

"I think there is a correlation between the sale of CD singles and consumers downloading individual songs," said Mike Goodman, a senior analyst at the Yankee Group. They are "different media formats, but the key point is that they are both singles -- whether it's a physical CD or a single download, the consumer gets specifically what they want."

Goodman said that many consumers only want to buy the songs that interest them and not any additional tracks.

"That is essentially what an album is: two songs you like and seven or eight you don't," he said. "With a single, you're purchasing exactly what you want."

A RIAA spokesman declined to comment on the single statistics.

"We're happy to talk about the aggregate impact of piracy, but as to what format our member companies market their music in, that is up to them," said Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the RIAA.

Goodman cautioned about reading too much into the eye-popping percentage change: "It is a very small number of sales. It doesn't take a lot of additional sales to get a significant increase in new sales."

"I think the important take-away from it is it's growing," Goodman said.

In previous years, the music industry has drastically reduced the number of singles shipped. At its peak in 1997, 66.7 million CD singles were shipped to retailers. The numbers have rapidly declined since then. In 2002, the industry shipped 4.5 million singles.

That's why one analyst doubted that singles are back.

"I would say that (the increase in shipments) is an anomaly -- that's an educated guess," said Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media.

"Everything is going toward Internet distribution, especially singles," Leigh said. "The predominant trend is away from singles -- that's as certain as fleas on a yard dog."

On Wednesday, Forrester Research released a report that predicts that downloads and streaming services will replace sales of CDs and DVDs, which will "wreak havoc with retailers." In five years, 33 percent of music sales will come from downloads, the report said.

Mike McGuire, an analyst with Gartner, said that the CD single could be an important part of the transition that consumers are making from physical to digital media.

"A lot of people assume that the transition is over with," McGuire said. "We're going to see little bits of these sales and marketing tactics that will persist until we get to a totally digital world."

The music industry has traditionally been more committed to the album-length format because it is cheaper to manufacture, ship and market a collection of songs than a single, said IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian.

But faced with falling CD sales for the third year in a row, "it's to the music industry's benefit to offer music in formats that consumers will pay for," Kevorkian said. "You wouldn't see that kind of increase (in single shipments) unless there's been a positive response from consumers."

Still, statistics on the shipments of album-length CDs is probably the best judge of the music market today, she said.

Album-length CD shipments were down nearly 10 percent in the report, compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The RIAA attributed the drop in CD shipments to piracy over peer-to-peer networks.

"While there are other factors contributing to the decline of music shipments in 2003, including the fact that there are significantly fewer music retail locations, illegal file sharing continues to adversely impact the sale of physical CDs," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "We believe the use of these illegal peer-to-peer services is hurting the music industry's efforts to distribute music online in the way consumers demand."

IDC's Kevorkian said the music industry is "covering its bases in terms of offering consumers individual songs on physical media and also through paid music services. These are both alternatives to downloading music from free P2P services.

"It's one more way for the music industry to retain paying music customers."
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60282,00.html


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U.S. Court Blocks Plan to Ease Rule on Media Owners
Stephen Labaton

A federal appeals court issued a surprise order today blocking the Federal Communications Commission from imposing new rules that would make it easier for the nation's largest media conglomerates to add new markets and areas of business.

The decision came a day before the new rules, considered among the most significant efforts at deregulation adopted during the Bush administration, were scheduled to take effect. It followed two hours of oral arguments at an emergency hearing this morning by a three-judge panel in Philadelphia and was a sharp setback for the largest media companies and for the commission's chairman, Michael K. Powell.

Mr. Powell, the architect of the new rules, has emphasized that the commission was compelled to rewrite the old regulations because of a string of federal court decisions in cases brought in Washington by the media companies. Those decisions ordered the agency to reconsider some of the rules.

But today the appeals court voted unamimously to prevent media companies from moving forward with plans to take advantage of the new rules. The court also raised tough questions for the commission and its industry supporters about their efforts to reshape the regulatory landscape. The new regulations are already facing a challenge in Congress, where legislators have taken steps to repeal some of them.

The new rules have been opposed by a broad coalition of groups, ranging from Consumers Union and the National Organization for Women to the National Rifle Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Both the House and the Senate have begun the process to repeal at least one of the new rules, the one that makes it possible for the largest television networks to buy enough stations to reach 45 percent of the nation's viewers, up from 35 percent.

The court's order, however, blocks all of the new rules from taking effect, at least until the outcome of the litigation, which could be many months away. The order also raises questions about whether the rules will ever be allowed to take effect.

The rules that were blocked by the court include one that would permit the same company to own newspapers and broadcast stations in the same city and another that would allow a company to own as many as three television stations and eight radio stations in the same market.

In the meantime, the commission must use the older more restrictive rules, even though a different federal appeals court, in Washington, ordered the commission to reconsider those earlier rules after a challenge from the television networks.

Officials at the commission said they were surprised by the order.

"While we are disappointed by the decision by the court to stay the new rules, we will continue to vigorously defend them and look forward to a decision by the court on the merits," said David Fiske, the agency's top spokesman.

The order also came as a surprise to the critics of the new rules, including the plaintiffs in the case, who said before this morning's hearing that their motion to stay the rules was a long shot. They said courts typically do not issue such injunctions without a finding that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the overall merits of a case.

The chief lawyer for the critics who brought the case said after the order that he hoped Congress would act before the court reached a decision on the merits of the rules.

"This action gives us the opportunity to convince Congress and, if necessary, the courts, that the F.C.C.'s decision is bad for democracy, and bad for broadcast localism," said the lawyer, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, who persuaded the court to issue the order. "Perhaps it will embolden Congress to overturn the new rules in their entirety. That would save everyone a lot of time and effort fighting it out in the court to obtain the same result."

The court today hedged on the overall merits of the case but strongly suggested through its actions that the critics had a good chance of succeeding.

"I think this is great news," said Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, who is helping to lead an effort to repeal the rules in Congress. "It stops the process dead in its tracks for now. I think the court must have understood what we know: the F.C.C. embarked on these dramatic rule changes without the benefit of national hearings and thoughtful analysis."

In a three-page order, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit initially said that it was legally obliged to consider the likelihood of success by the plaintiffs, a group of small radio stations, journalist organizations and the National Council of Churches. The group filed its lawsuit against the F.C.C. and four television networks joined the case in support of the new rules.

The judges refused to handicap the outcome of the case, but reasoned that preserving the old rules, at least for the time being, would give the judges time to consider the arguments before the industry landscape had been changed. "While it is difficult to predict the likelihood of success on the merits at this stage of the proceedings, these harms could outweigh the effect of a stay on respondent and relevant third parties," said the panel, which consisted of Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and Judges Thomas L. Ambro and Julio M. Fuentes, who were appointed by President Bill Clinton.

"Given the magnitude of this matter and the public's interest in reaching the proper resolution, a stay is warranted pending thorough and efficient judicial review," the court concluded in the case, Prometheus Radio Project v. Federal Communications Commission.

The groups that brought the case argued that they were likely to prevail in the end because Congress would probably overturn some of the new rules, and because the rules themselves are "arbitrary and capricious."

For Mr. Powell, the decision could hardly come at a worse time. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to approve legislation that Congressional officials said today would include provisions to roll back some of the new rules already stayed by the court. The Senate Commerce Committee has adopted a similar measure.

And six weeks ago the House, by a vote of 400 to 21, approved a spending measure that would block one of the more important new rules that would permit the nation's largest television networks to own more stations. The White House has threatened to veto that measure, prompting the prospect of a highly unusual showdown between the president and the Republican-controlled Congress.

The new rules were adopted in June by a bitterly divided commission on a party-line vote. The Republican-controlled agency relaxed many of the most significant restrictions on the ability of broadcast and newspaper conglomerates to both expand into new markets and to extend their reach in the cities where they already have a presence.

The rules would have made it easier for the nation's largest television networks to buy enough stations to reach up to 45 percent of the nation's viewers. Two networks, Fox, a unit of the News Corporation, and CBS, a unit of Viacom, are already above the old 35 percent limit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/bu...dia/04FCC.html


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26,000-Hit Wonder Keeps It Hopping
Johanna Jainchill

ON a rainy Monday night at 7, when most of the East Village bars in Manhattan are empty, a steady crowd is rolling into Hi Fi. Drinks are two for one until 8, but that is only one of the reasons many patrons choose the otherwise nondescript watering hole out of the many on Avenue A. They are there for EL DJ, an MP3 jukebox with 26,000 songs to choose from.

Mike Stuto, the 36-year-old owner of Hi Fi and the co-creator of EL DJ, says it has the biggest selection of any jukebox in the world. "The reason it's a great idea is because it's a simple idea," he said.

Mr. Stuto's basic idea was to digitize his music collection and make it available in a jukebox that held far more than the standard 100 albums. EL DJ, or Extra Large Digital Jukebox, includes tracks from 1,798 full-length CD's in Mr. Stuto's collection. Record companies might be pleased to know that he copied the albums individually onto the hard drive rather than downloading them Napster-style.

The artists range from the Replacements to De La Soul to Wilco. As with conventional jukeboxes, Mr. Stuto said, royalties are paid on the songs played.

The tall, narrow wooden box that holds EL DJ is outfitted with a bill accepter and a keypad for making selections. Customers use a trackball mouse to navigate through the albums, which are displayed randomly but can be searched alphabetically. Until a sign was attached to identify it, the jukebox, made from a refurbished PC and some off-the-shelf additions, was frequently confused for a cash machine. A dollar buys three songs on weekdays and two songs on weekends.

The jukebox's popularity is reflected in the lag time between pay and tune. "You can wait three hours and not hear your songs," said Charles Bottomley, who was at Hi Fi celebrating the birthday of a VH1.com colleague.

As a onetime owner of Brownies, a renowned live rock venue that stood on Hi Fi's site for more than a decade, Mr. Stuto wanted the music in his new bar to be delivered in a unique way. He turned to Timothy Roven, a former Web designer, to help him build what he wanted.

"Other stuff out there is ill conceived in that it overuses technology that's not relevant," Mr. Stuto said, referring to the few MP3 jukeboxes for bars, which typically come preprogrammed with a choice of 200 popular CD's and allow additional songs to be downloaded from the Internet by customers.

Mr. Stuto, a self-described music snob, was not about to fill EL DJ with Top 40 selections or allow just any music to be played at Hi Fi. His collection is eclectic and heavy on rock. Since he has all the room in the digital world, he can offer 17 full-length Rolling Stones albums instead of a greatest-hits compilation, and samplings of local bands that otherwise have little exposure. Music lovers have taken notice.

"Outside of the charming bartenders, it's the major draw," said Galen Polivka, a Hi Fi bartender himself, drinking there on his night off. During happy hours, "it's kind of a scholarly vibe," he said. "People want to impress their friends by picking the most obscure thing they possibly can."

If a song is excessively chosen it will be marked "overplayed," sparing anyone from making a choice considered common. Victims of overplay include Coldplay's "Yellow" and the Pixies' "Debaser."

The idea of identifying such songs was one of many originating with customers. From the response, Mr. Roven and Mr. Stuto concluded that there were two marketable products in EL DJ: a software program to equip home computers with similar capabilities, and a commercial version of the jukebox for bars, complete with computer hardware and kiosk.

They started a company and enlisted a code writer, and the three have spent seven months fine-tuning both versions. The home rendition will be available for purchase at ELDJ.com in the next month or so for about $20, they say, and the full-size jukeboxes, yet to be priced, will be made on a custom basis.

Mr. Stuto predicts that his idea will help the jukebox make a comeback. Kerry Segrave, a cultural historian who wrote "Jukeboxes: An American Social History" (McFarland, 2002), disagrees.

"Jukeboxes will never have the popularity they once had," Mr. Segrave said. In the 1920's, he said, people went to bars for the jukebox. "Now you don't notice it. It's in the background like a bottle of whiskey."

And not all bargoers want the MP3 format to take over. "I'm all for technology and the availability of more choices, but there's something nostalgic about flipping through," said Mariah Ehlert of Brooklyn, hanging out on a Friday night at 7B, a bar with a traditional jukebox just a few blocks from Hi Fi. "I miss the 45's, too."

Others are less skeptical.

"I'm addicted, totally addicted," said Vicky Karan, a former East Village resident visiting from San Francisco, while navigating EL DJ's glut of choices. "Even my mom knows how to use the Internet. Everyone knows how to use a mouse. This has finally caught up with what people are doing on a normal day."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/te...ts/04juke.html


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Technology Briefing: People

Information technology chief named.

The chief information officer at the Energy Department, Karen S. Evans, left, will take over the government's top information technology job later this month, the White House said. Ms. Evans will succeed Mark A. Forman, who resigned in early August, as director of e- government programs and information technology at the Office of Management and Budget. In 20 years of government service, Ms. Evans has worked for several federal agencies, including the National Park Service, the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Agriculture; before joining the Energy Department, she served as director of the Information Resources Management Division at the Department of Justice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/te...y/04TBRF1.html


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Technology Briefing: Internet

Suspect held in release of new worm.

Police in Romania said yesterday that they had arrested a 24-year-old Romanian man suspected of releasing a new version of the Blaster Internet worm, the second arrest of a copycat virus writer in the last week. Meanwhile, the main culprit behind the original superpotent Blaster remained at large. The original worm, which also goes by the name "LovSan," surfaced last month, infecting hundreds of thousands of computers running Microsoft Windows. The authorities identified the author of the latest worm strain as Dan Dumitru Ciobanu from the northern Romanian city of Iasi. Police were unavailable for comment, but issued a statement late yesterday through BitDefender — the Romanian company that helped police track the suspect — confirming the suspect's identity. He is a 24-year-old student at the Technical University of Iasi, the statement said. Mihai Radu, a spokesman for BitDefender, said Mr. Ciobanu had not yet been charged. He faces a prison term of 3 to 15 years if convicted, Mr. Radu added. Police confiscated two of Mr. Ciobanu's computers. The machines will be analyzed as early as today in the presence of the defendant, his lawyer and the local district attorney, officials said
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/te...y/04TBRF4.html


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Heart of Darkness, on a Desktop
Katie Hafner with Michael Falcone

THE Kiblers of Santa Clara, Calif., thought they were doing everything right. Bill Kibler, a product manager in Silicon Valley and the unofficial system administrator for his family, was nothing short of diligent about running antivirus programs. He had also erected a software firewall to shield his computer from intruders, and he regularly downloaded patches to inoculate his PC when he heard about new viruses.

But over the course of six months this year, the Kiblers noticed their computer displaying some odd behavior. The automatic weekly scans by Norton AntiVirus mysteriously stopped, and when Mr. Kibler tried to run the software manually, the program would shut down before he could execute commands.

By the middle of the summer, the Kiblers' computer had grown so phlegmatic that the family considered replacing the machine, a powerful Compaq desktop of recent vintage, with a new one.

After many hours of computer forensic work performed by a friend, it turned out that a virus program called Klez was sapping the computer of 90 percent of its processing power. Adding to the burden was a host of strangely named files discovered on the list of programs installed on the hard drive. All of them had entered the machine from the Internet, producing a blizzard of pop-up ads.

The Kiblers' experience is hardly a rarity. More and more PC owners are discovering software lurking on their computers that they had no idea was there - software that can snoop, destroy or simply reproduce itself in droves.

The SoBig and Blaster worms that have been invading computer systems worldwide for several weeks are slowing down. But the two intruders left behind software that could linger undetected for months.

"Both SoBig and Blaster have components that are actively trying to communicate or reach out to master servers without the knowledge of the user," said Vincent Weafer, a senior director at Symantec Security Response, part of the software company that makes Norton AntiVirus.

The alien programs extend well beyond viruses and worms - so named because of the way they spread, as the most familiar carriers of malicious code - to new categories known as spyware and adware. Indeed, the number of home PC's that are infested with alien software that comes in over the Internet and installs itself without the knowledge or consent of the PC user is increasing at an alarming rate.

Richard M. Smith, a computer security expert in Brookline, Mass., estimates that one in every two Windows computers has unsolicited software lurking within.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/te...ts/04lurk.html


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Ruling in Garage-Door-Opener Case
Edward W. Felten

An important ruling was issued yesterday in the Chamberlain v. Skylink lawsuit. (See this previous post for a summary of the case.)

The court denied Chamberlain's motion for summary judgment. Although this is only a ruling on a preliminary motion, the judge used it to offer her analysis of how the DMCA applies to the apparent facts in the case. In short, she ruled that it is not a violation of the DMCA for Skylink to make a replacement remote control that can open Chamberlain-brand garage door openers.

Chamberlain uses a simple cryptographic protocol to authenticate the remote (the small push-button device you keep in your car) to the opener (the big unit attached to the garage ceiling). The purported purpose of this is to prevent bad guys from recording the signals sent by the remote, and replaying them later to open the door when the homeowner is gone. The protocol includes a resynchronization mode that is used when the remote and the opener somehow get out of sync. Skylink's replacement remote uses the resynchronization mode every time. Chamberlain argued that by doing this Skylink was circumventing Chamberlain's authentication protocol, and that the protocol controls access to the copyrighted software running in the opener. Chamberlain concluded that Skylink's actions ran afoul of the DMCA's ban on devices that circumvent (without permission) measures that control access to copyrighted works.

The judge ruled that Skylink was not violating the DMCA, essentially because consumers have permission to open their own garages. You might think this sensible conclusion was easy to reach, but it was not. The judge's problem was that in a previous DMCA case (Universal v. Remeirdes) a court had ruled that consumers do not have permission to view their own DVDs, except on devices "authorized" by the copyright owner. (To be more precise, the Remeirdes court ruled that whatever permission consumers had did not create an exception to the DMCA.)

The toughest part of the Chamberlain judge's opinion is the part that tries to reconcile her ruling with the previous Remeirdes ruling. (This is on pages 25 and 26 of the ruling, if you're reading along at home.) I have to admit I don't fully understand this part of the judge's ruling. Ernest Miller at LawMeme is scornful, saying that the judge used tortured reasoning, based on artificial distinctions between the cases. Derek Slater says that the judge should have simply admitted that her ruling is inconsistent with Remeirdes. (She is allowed to be inconsistent, because Remeirdes was decided in a different circuit and so is not binding precedent for her.)

I'm not sure what to think about this. I hope the issue will become clearer after more discussion.
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000436.html


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Microsoft Moves Forward On DRM
David Becker

Microsoft moved forward on its digital rights management strategy this week, releasing the first of several Windows add-ons associated with the technology and revealing pricing on its server software for corporate rights management.

A key part of the company's strategy involves limiting access to digital files ranging from office memos to software applications.

Primary components of the plan include Windows Rights Management Services (WRMS), server software that will manage access to corporate documents, and new Information Rights Management tools included in Office 2003, the forthcoming update of the company's widespread productivity package.

The software giant also has spoken of broader plans for building "next-generation secure computing base" technology, formerly known as Palladium, into a range of products.

One of the first publicly available components in the rights management strategy is the Windows Rights Management Client, a free Windows add-on Microsoft released for download earlier this week.

The client will be necessary for viewing any documents or files that tie into Windows Rights Management Services, including secure documents created in Office 2003. Versions of the client are available for the XP, Me, 98SE and 2000 versions of Windows and Windows Server 2003.

Microsoft also is working on several other desktop Windows Rights Management tools, including an add-on for its Internet Explorer Web browser that will allow people without Office 2003 to read secured documents. The browser plug-in is available in beta form now, with a final version expected around the time Office 2003 launches next month.

Microsoft also revealed its pricing strategy this week for Windows Rights Management Services, the server software that will work in conjunction with the Windows Server 2003 operating system to track privileges for secured files.

The software itself will be free for Windows Server 2003 users to install, but customers will have to pay for a client access license for every user who needs to access files protected by WRMS. Individual licenses will cost $37 per user, or $185 for a pack of five licenses. An "external connector license" that allows blanket access for people outside a corporate network to access secured documents will cost $18,066.

Matt Rosoff, an analyst for research firm Directions on Microsoft, said the client access fees are a bit of a surprise, as offering free access to the WRMS could have been a way for Microsoft boost slow-building sales for Windows Server 2003.

"We thought they'd want to use this to seed the market for Windows Server 2003," he said. "They seem to have reasoned that the departments that really want to protect their information are going to be willing to pay the price."
http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5071342.html


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Phoenix Developing DRM-Equipped BIOS
Mark Hachman

BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies said it is currently shopping a digital-rights-enabled BIOS system to top PC OEMs, the most aggressive use of DRM technology to date.

Phoenix executives said Wednesday that they've developed a prototype version of its Core Management Environment (cME) using DRM technology in conjunction with Orbid Corp., a DRM technology provider. The software was designed to assist content providers to authenticate and track software moving from PC to PC.

Although DRM technology has moved steadily forward, consumers have had some choice whether to implement it. Selected software providers in various markets, such as Intuit and Macromedia, have chosen to implement DRM, allowing consumers to choose DRM-less alternatives.

Phoenix's efforts, however, represent a more fundamental sea change. Phoenix is a manufacturer of BIOS software, the underlying code which ties together a PC's operating system and the system hardware. Since a personal computer must have BIOS installed to boot, a user could be forced to use the DRM technology whether he or she chooses to or not.

The final version of the cME is due to launch in the fourth quarter, Timothy D. Eades, senior vice-president of corporate marketing for Phoenix, said in an interview.

Phoenix's customers include four out of the top five PC OEMs. Dell Computer uses a heavily-modified Phoenix BIOS from 1988 on its notebooks and desktops, a Dell spokesman confirmed, and Phoenix BIOSes have appeared in Pavilion desktops and notebooks from Hewlett-Packard.

The Phoenix-Orbid deal was designed to allow content providers the ability to "track and trace" content which might be shared from one user to the next, Eades said.

"DRM seems to be becoming a bigger and bigger issue, particularly in…entertainment," Eades said. "Track and trace downloads and the authentication of those downloads is a big issue, but a number of companies do that. Track and trace of a particular solution, however, is done by very few companies."

The Orbid DRM software will be built into the cME, which provides an enhanced BIOS that allows greater interaction with the operating system. While the cME isn't directly a part of Microsoft's Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB), known previously as Palladium, Eades said the technology is "complementary".

Orbid's 4DRM software creates a secure area to store public keys, which can be used to tie any file to that specific PC. The 4DRM system creates a unique identifier for both the content as well as the system, allowing the content providers to manage the content on a user's PC. Orbid previously developed "watermarking" solutions to identify content and prevent it from being distributed or copied, which it calls "gray trading".

Phoenix and Orbid have created a working version of the software that Phoenix is now demonstrating for its OEM customers, Eades said. The DRM software will be shipped as a default option inside the cME package. "It's up to the OEM whether or not to insert it on the machine," he said. "We are offering it as a default option and it's up to them to remove it."

An OEM will also have to decide whether or not to allow an end user to turn the DRM feature off, Eades said.

Whether or not OEMs will adopt the new technology remains to be seen. Microsoft's NGSCB technology is currently tied to Longhorn, Microsoft's OS revision due in about two year's time.

At Dell, the company purchased a BIOS solution from Phoenix in 1988, and since then has assigned Dell engineers to update it with support for the latest hardware, a spokesman said. "We make it pretty clear that Dell writes the BIOS for a particular system," he said.

Intel ships BIOSes designed by Phoenix rival AMI with its desktop motherboards, an Intel spokesman said. Intel will discuss its own security solution, LaGrande, at its Intel Developer Forum in two weeks' time.

The Phoenix software could also turn up in consumer electronics devices. Phoenix has relationships with several consumer electronics manufacturers, including Pioneer and Matsushita, which have announced that they will use embedded versions of the Phoenix software in their next-generation televisions. Other CE customers include Sony and Toshiba, Eades said.

"Initial customer feedback from the entertainment industry in general has been very favorable," Eades added.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1237519,00.asp


Top 10 D/Ls - Singles

BigChampagne


Does the Right of First Sale Still Exist?

I just posted an eBay auction for a song I bought from the iTunes music store. It should be interesting to see how this works out. I only spent $0.99 on it but I bought the song just as legally as I would a CD, so I should be able to sell it used just as legally right?

[Update 09-04-2003 5:51 PM]: HTML Archive, courtesy Become The Media.

[Update 09-04-2003 3:02 PM]:
My GPG signed response:
I do not believe that my auction violates the downloadable media policy, I posted in my auction that I would not be violating it. I specifically ammended [forgot to run ispell] the auction to state that the buyer would not receive the item in question over the Internet.

Please reinstate my auction ASAP.

George Hotelling

[Update 09-04-2003 2:52 PM]:
Dear George Hotelling (me@mydomain.tld)

**PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT EMAIL REGARDING YOUR LISTING(S)**
We would like to let you know that we removed your listing(s):

2555673237 Double Dutch Bus by Devin Vasquez

for violating our Downloadable Media Policy. Please read our Downloadable Media Policy here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/downloadable.html

We have credited any associated fees to your account. We have also notified the bidders that the listing(s) was removed, and that they are not obligated to complete the transaction.

If you relist this item, or any other item that violates eBay policy, your account could be suspended.

If you believe your listing was removed in error, please let us know by replying
to this email with supporting information.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Respectfully,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
Ebay Inc.
http://george.hotelling.net/90percen...till_exist.php


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Intel, Windows 2000 and Roxio cause PC Unbootability

Look before you leap
Mike Magee

A PROBLEM with Intel's Application accelerator means that if you've Windows 2000 running version 4.02x of Roxio your machine becomes unbootable.

A reader says that Intel technical support is unable to fix the problem, which is documented at a URL at its site, for an earlier version.

It's answer to the problem is that you upgrade the Roxio software before installing the driver, but you don't find that out until it's far too late. Our reader said that technical support asked him for a heap of technical information but the problem is if you can't boot your machine, you're up the river in a PC canoe without a paddle.

He said Intel has told him that the problem cannot be fixed but only prevented. The problem is, however, that there is no warning eitehr in the installation documents or on the download page for IAA.

There's a PDF at the Intel site documents the problem, here.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11329


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CDs and DVDs are 'doomed'
Tim Richardson

CDs and DVDs are doomed - so say those soothsayers at Forrester, who reckon that the "end of physical media is nearing".

Forrester reckons that a third of all music sales will be made by downloads in the next five years. It also predicts that almost 15 per cent of films will be viewed by "on-demand" services such as cable TV rather than by DVD or video by 2005.

Although this will "wreak havoc" with traditional retailers flogging and renting the stuff, digital downloads and on-demand services could give the creative industry a much-needed shot in the arm, concluded the report From Discs to Downloads.

"On-demand services are the future of entertainment delivery. CDs, DVDs, and any other forms of physical media will become obsolete," predicted Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff.

"Music and studio executives are finally beginning to understand that they must create new media services through channels that consumers will pay for. Consumers have spoken - they are tired of paying the high cost of CDs and DVDs and prefer more flexible forms of on-demand media delivery," he said.

According to Forrester, music sales are set to increase by more than half a billion dollars in 2004 thanks to online revenues.

Equally, on-demand movie distribution channels will generate $1.4 billion by 2005, while revenue from DVDs and tapes will decline 8 percent.

In both cases it seems that the rise in revenues is due to punters becoming more comfortable with online alternatives leading to subscription services taking-off.

Forrester's survey of 6,000 people found that one in five Americans downloads music, with half admitting that they buy fewer CDs.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/32611.html


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New Office Locks Down Documents
David Becker

As digital media publishers scramble to devise a foolproof method of copy protection, Microsoft is ready to push digital rights management into a whole new arena--your desktop.

Office 2003, the upcoming update of the company's market-dominating productivity package, for the first time will include tools for restricting access to documents created with the software. Office workers can specify who can read or alter a spreadsheet, block it from copying or printing, and set an expiration date.

The technology is one of the first major steps in Microsoft's plan to popularize Windows Rights Management Services, a wide-ranging plan to make restricted access to information a standard part of business processes.

Analysts say it represents a badly needed new avenue for boosting sales of Microsoft's server software and an opportunity to lock out competitors, including older versions of Office. It also gives businesses that skipped on the last round or two of Office upgrades a new reason to bite this time.

"If Office 2003 was just another incremental upgrade, they'd have a hard time getting businesses interested," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst for Jupiter Research. "For most people, the pinnacle of functionality in Office applications came in 1995. But there are more things that can be done using Office as a platform for delivering new services."

The new rights management tools splinter to some extent the long-standing interoperability of Office formats. Until now, PC users have been able to count on opening and manipulating any document saved in Microsoft Word's ".doc" format or Excel's ".xls" in any compatible program, including older versions of Office and competing packages such as Sun Microsystems' StarOffice and the open-source OpenOffice. But rights-protected documents created in Office 2003 can be manipulated only in Office 2003.

"There's certainly a lock-in factor," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. "Microsoft would love people to use Office and only Office. They made very sure that Office has these features that nobody else has."

Information Rights Management (IRM) tools will be included in the professional versions of all Office applications, including the Word processor and Excel spreadsheet programs.

To use IRM features, businesses will need a server running Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 operating system and Windows Rights Management Services software. The server software will record permission rules set by the document creator, such as other people authorized to view the document and expiration dates for any permissions. When another person receives that document, they briefly log in to the Windows Rights Management server--over the Internet or a corporate network--to validate the permissions.

Dan Leach, Microsoft's lead product manager for Office, said rights management features were built into the new Office based on ongoing discussions with customers.

"We asked people what types of things would you like to do that you can't do now, and what they said is they'd like to spread large amounts of information around to more of their people--but they have concerns that the wider they spread information, the more likely it is to become available to the wrong people," he said.

Gartenberg said there's a valid need for such services, especially as office workers become more mobile and more sensitive information is stored on PCs.

"If you're a senior executive and you're carrying around your five-year business plan, you probably want to have that information secured so only you can read it," he said.

Businesses can lock down such documents now with third-party tools such as encryption software, but embedded rights management tools in the document creation software are much easier and more likely to be used, Gartenberg said. "The harder you make security to use for the end user, the less people are going to use it," he said.

Directions on Microsoft's Rosoff said there's a valid business reason for encoding rights management into documents, as shown by Microsoft's travails with leaked software code and documents.

Pushing server sales
As with many Microsoft innovations, the new IRM tools also happen to benefit the software giant's sales in a complementary market--server software--where there's room for growth, as opposed to the fairly saturated market for desktop applications. Both IRM and expanded XML (Extensible Markup Language) functionality--the two biggest areas of innovation in Office 2003--tap into Microsoft's server software. IRM in particular requires Windows Server 2003, which businesses have been slow to adopt since Microsoft finally unveiled it earlier this year.

"When you dominate a market, you change that market," Rosoff said. "Office already has all the document management features people could possibly want. The only way to add value to Office is to make it part of this larger system that adds value."

Microsoft's Leach said Windows Server 2003 simply was the best avenue for delivering rights management functions. "To solve the problem our customers identified...it requires the ability to take advantage of some of the capabilities in Windows Server 2003," he said. "There are many companies that have already invested in Windows Server...and this is certainly going to be a differentiator for them."

Rosoff said Microsoft appears to be less concerned about competitors, however, than getting existing customers to upgrade. "I don't think they're extremely worried about the threat of OpenOffice," he said. "They're worried that documents management is a fairly mature technology that's pretty widely available, so they need to come up with a compelling way to do it."
http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5069246.html


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Sony To Launch Net Music Service
John Borland

Sony will launch its own digital music service next year, in a project that will see its music, movie and electronics divisions work closely together, the company said Thursday.

Announced by Sony Vice Chairman Howard Stringer at an event in Paris, the service appears to be conceived as a rival to Apple Computer's successful iTunes digital music store, and as an attempt to stem its entertainment divisions' perceived losses to file-swapping services like Kazaa.

Although details remain scarce, the Sony service as described will be closely tied to the company's consumer electronics and proprietary copy protection technologies. The company did not provide information on pricing or business models, although Stringer did describe it as a download service.

Like Apple's before it, Sony's announcement of an online song sales service is part of a strategy that goes beyond simple music sales. Both companies are trying to make their hardware, from computers to digital music players, the centerpieces of digitally networked homes, and they hope that providing entertainment content directly to consumers will also drive demand for their hardware.

Sony, though, has been in a uniquely uncomfortable position that straddles the entertainment and consumer electronics world. Hamstrung in part by its movie and music divisions' fears of digital piracy, it has seen independent companies jump ahead in development and sales of digital music players, while its own copy protection-enabled devices have had only lukewarm appeal.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5071475.html


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RIAA Sales Compared to Download Statistics
Posted by michael

from the desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures dept.

OneInEveryCrowd writes "According to an article at SFGate, although the recent crackdown and lawsuits have caused a 22% drop in downloading, the drop in CD sales actually accelerated during the same period. My own response to the RIAA crackdown was to get a Netflix account, get into fansubs, and swear off CD purchases for life. If this was mainstream behavior CD sales would have dropped to zero. I was still pleased to see that many people responded in a similar fashion though." An EMI executive has a piece giving the standard industry view, but this piece about Universal slashing CD prices may be more telling.
http://slashdot.org/articles/03/09/0...&tid=98&tid=99


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Music Biz to Give File Sharers Amnesty
Reuters/Billboard

The Recording Industry Assn. of America plans to announce an amnesty program this week that will let individual online copyright infringers off the hook if they change their ways, sources say.

The amnesty program would apply only to alleged infringers who have not been sued by the music industry trade group or identified by Internet service providers as a result of the trade group's subpoena process. Alleged commercial pirates will not receive amnesty.

According to sources, the RIAA will not pursue legal action if infringers delete all unauthorized music files from their computers, destroy all copies (including CD-Rs) and promise not to upload such material in the future. Each infringing household member will have to send a completed, notarized amnesty form to the RIAA, with a copy of a photo ID. Those who renege on their promise will be subject to charges of willful copyright infringement.

The amnesty program will be revealed at about the same time the RIAA is expected to announce the filing of "several hundred" infringement suits.

The RIAA had no comment.
http://au.news.yahoo.com//030904/11/lkfp.html










Until next week,

- js.








Current Week In Review.


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Recent WIRs -


http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17374 August 30th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17325 August 23rd
[url http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17265[/url] August 16th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17176 August 9th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17108 August 2nd





Jack Spratts’ Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts at lycos.com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.