Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - August 23rd, '03

[JackSpratts]

Words for the week: “De Minimis”. The RIAA’s lofty Latin legalese for “The Minimun”. Are we dazzled yet?


Electrifying Lawsuits

Most of us New Englanders and East Coasters consider ourselves a fairly tough bunch as far as it goes and have recovered more or less (mostly more) from the massive “Blackout of ‘03”, the nation’s biggest; and while it’s impossible to add up our costs and those of our neighbors in terms of life’s disruptions it isn’t stopping the lawyers from giving it their best shot – and taking a crack at the 30% of whatever they can deliver. Seriously though a lot of people lost a lot of expensive things like family food and computers through what is increasingly being seen as sloppy management if not outright negligence. Time will tell what specific negligence - and damages payouts if any– result from the investigation and suits.

The RIAA announced this week a not unexpected appeal of its biggest loss to date, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster, LTD., et al.. Until this crushing defeat the studios - legally at least – seemed to do no wrong. Stumbling blindly from one easy victory to another they began to build a vaporous momentum that soon enfogged not only the recording companies but their friends in the U.S. Congress and the print and electronic news media as well. For a while it was difficult finding an article on the subject of peer–to-peer that didn’t precede the words file-sharing with the pejorative and totally inaccurate “illegal”. Sure their bare knuckled tactics all but destroyed them as far as reputations are concerned but it’s patently obvious this is not an organization that concerns itself with the reputations of its clients. Winning cases was everything, no matter the costs. And win they did, for a while.

It all changed in that last week of April ’03 when the RIAA lost what was certainly their most important case and their best hope of shutting down (or controlling) the amazingly powerful and valuable systems called Peer-to-Peer. In a well-reasoned opinion from Los Angeles U.S. district court judge Stephen V. Wilson refused to declare P2P’s “illegal” and likened them to fax machines and other beneficial recording devices. It is his decision the record companies are asking be overturned (74 page pdf). Wayne Rosso, president of the popular Fasttrack file sharing program Grokster and ever the unreconstructed optimist thinks the whole thing’s a walk in the park for his industry and that the recording companies don’t stand a chance. Rosso says the court will make short work of denying the appeal since the RIAA’s “not bringing anything new to the table”, and while it sounds good to me – and I’d like to believe it - I have a feeling things won’t go so easily this time around for the P2P crowd. In matters like these it always helps to know who you’re dealing with and anybody who’s taken a sober look at the recording industry, its history, its practices, and the background of its founders and executives might correctly conclude these are not the types to dismiss lightly – or turn your back on. Indeed a sack of rattlers might be safer company than the things that slither through the executive suites of the record companies and the law firms in their employ. Tougher than we are? Hardly. But it usually pays to keep ones hands away from the cage.

That we will ultimately win our fight I have no doubt, not even a slight sliver. I’m equally convinced however that many sharp things stand ready to strike before that dazzling day arrives.












Enjoy,

Jack.










The Blackout, The Worm

In Frayed Networks, Common Threads
Seth Schiesel

WHEN the United States entered World War I in 1917, its railroad system had just undergone three decades of torrid expansion after the adoption of a standard track width. While the expansion was unquestionably a boon, it also created the potential for new logistical problems.

"All of a sudden there was a demand to rush all of this war matériel and troops to the East Coast and there was a complete meltdown of the system,'' said Bill Withuhn, transportation curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "All of the ports on the East Coast were totally clogged up because they could not get the railroad cars unloaded. There is a famous story of one troop train that sat on a siding in Ohio for four days because the system was overloaded. The effect of this was colossal, and the parallel is immediate and is an exact duplicate in some ways to the blackout."

Like the World War I railroad meltdown, last week's blackout was vast precisely because of the interconnectedness that the network was meant to exploit and foster.

The 1917 crisis, which prompted the federal government essentially to take over the railroad system, found another digital echo last week in the unleashing of the malicious Internet worm known as MSBlast. While most computer viruses and worms have required users to click on an infected file, the MSBlast program was perhaps the first to come to widespread attention that could infect computers without users' doing anything at all. In a way impossible on more primitive networks and computers, MSBlast exploited the most modern systems to create chaos.

Taken together, the blackout and the worm underscore a far-reaching challenge in managing modern technological societies: the difficulty of reaping the benefits of networks - railroad networks, airline networks, telephone networks, power networks and computer networks, among others - while minimizing their vulnerabilities.

"All of these events demonstrate that network effects, which are generally good in most situations, can go the other way,'' said Bruce Schneier, chief technical officer at Counterpane Internet Security in Cupertino, Calif., and author of "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World'' (Copernicus Books, 2003). "Networks are meant to connect disparate systems, but as they become larger, now you can have power outages that affect half the country, Internet outages, and broader sorts of problems.''

As Darryl Jenkins, director of the Aviation Institute, a unit of George Washington University, puts it: "The plus of a network is that everything is connected. The minus of a network is that everything is connected.''

The airline industry has discovered just that. Before passage of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the government generally controlled route assignments and the carriers' resulting schedules. With deregulation, many airlines consolidated operations geographically and adopted hub-and-spoke route systems in which travelers often pass through a carrier's hub airport to board a connecting flight.

Deregulation and the increasing prevalence of hub-and-spoke systems are often credited for their efficiency, and even for extending the airline network itself. The costs of that network expansion, however, are evident to almost anyone who flies: the risk of huge delays. "The whole advantage of a network is that you can now go to anywhere in the world with one or two connections,'' Mr. Jenkins said. "The problem is that any time you have a glitch anywhere in the network it effects the entire system. If there is a thunderstorm in Chicago, all the flights in New York are held up.''

"You now don't have any small delays,'' he added. "You either have no delays or you have massive delays.'' Part of the reason, he said, is that until recently airlines tried to schedule their flights for profitability without due regard for the physical limitations of airports. "The Airline Deregulation Act didn't talk about constraints," he said. "It talked about freedoms.''

By the summer of 2000, Mr. Jenkins said, the extent of the delays had become intolerable, and the difficulties prompted airlines to consult more often with the agencies that run airports. "It's only in the last couple of years that the government that runs the infrastructure and the airlines are actually working together,'' he said. "You can make a very good network as long as you stay within the constraints, but before, everyone ignored the constraints, and that's where the problems came.''

Some power experts suspect that the blackout may have been caused at least in part by power network operators who similarly focused more on profits than on their networks' constraints.

Power lines are generally rated to carry current only of a certain strength. When a line in a certain area fails, the local utility usually has two options: to cut off customers or route the power through other lines.

The problem with rerouting it is that if all the nearby lines and systems are operating near maximum capacity, the added load from the line that failed may push them into overload as well. Such a cascading effect appears to have contributed to the blackout.

"The system is designed for the most part for something called single contingency,'' said Rick Bush, editor in chief of Transmission & Distribution World, a trade magazine for the power delivery industry. "If one line goes down or one substation goes down or one event occurs, the current that was flowing through that line can move to other lines without a major outage. It's like a computer server. You can lose one server and you won't notice, and that's like the grid, but when you have two or three events that occur they can knock you out.''

One way to prevent that sort of problem is to leave enough unused capacity on transmission lines - known as headroom - so they can absorb more current in an emergency.

It appears that many electrical systems had little headroom remaining when the blackout occurred. One reason could be that it was a hot day. Another could be that network operators realize that unused headroom does not generate any profits.

"I'm speculating,'' said Alex McEachern, president of Power Standards Lab, a power testing laboratory in Emeryville, Calif., "but these relays on the transmission grid are adjustable, and it's very easy for an engineer or system operator to make it tolerate a little more power flow than was originally intended - and if you do that, you can buy or sell more electricity.'' That, however, leaves little margin for emergencies.

In one sense, the blackout, the MSBlast worm and the SoBig virus circulating on the Internet this week were similar, causing disruption by generating excess traffic in systems that cannot handle it.

"There is certainly a parallel between the power network and the worm because they were affecting two different networks in the same way,'' said Ric Telford, director for architecture and technology in I.B.M.'s autonomic computing division. "The worm created an unexpected flow of traffic."

There is an essential difference, however, between power networks and communication networks. In an overload, a power network risks extensive physical damage because of the sheer amount of electricity swirling around. Even when overloaded, a communications network does not risk physical damage. "The electric power system has the distinctive characteristic that it contains and moves around all of the energy necessary to destroy itself,'' Mr. McEachern said. "The implication is that you must design the system to protect itself.''

That is why power generators shut themselves down completely when they detect significant anomalies in the surrounding grid. If a generator continues to try to operate in the context of surrounding fluctuations, the generator itself could be damaged.

By contrast, when an Internet router is overloaded, it simply starts dropping excess data packets completely. Those packets disappear, but the router itself usually continues to function, and at least some traffic gets through. Phone systems permit similar work-arounds.

"The two big differentiators are that we don't sustain physical damage and that we can be much more selective about how we manage our loads,'' said Bill Leighton, vice president for research at AT&T Labs. "The worst we get is that a switch gets overloaded and has to be reset and is out for 20 minutes. But you don't have this risk of physical damage or damage to the turbines that power networks have to worry about.''

The stereotypical physical danger to a communications network is an errant backhoe. Yet even construction crews are less of a danger than they used to be because modern communication networks can often reroute traffic in an emergency.

In the sense of risking physical damage because of an overload, power networks may most closely resemble early railroad networks. When standardized track widths finally allowed the creation of a true network in the 1880's and 90's, they were accompanied by a big increase in deadly accidents, according to Mark Reutter, editor of Railroad History, a scholarly historical journal.

"The network and the demands of the network got skewed out of place," Mr. Reutter said. "There was a new network and at the same time there was a tremendous increase in traffic, almost of dot-com proportions. They just didn't have the answers and were just groping forward, a bit like we are now.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/te...ts/21nett.html


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Senator To Hold Hearings On Recording Industry's Piracy Crackdown

A Senate panel will hold hearings on the recording industry's crackdown against online music swappers, the chairman said Thursday.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) made the announcement in a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America. He had received information he had requested from the group about the campaign, which Coleman has called excessive.

The Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is reviewing the group's responses and declined to make them available Thursday, as did the industry group.

The association announced plans in June to file several hundred lawsuits against people suspected of illegally sharing songs on the Internet. Copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song.

In his letter, Coleman said he would look at not just the scope of that campaign but also the dangers that downloaders face by making their personal information available to others. Coleman said he would review legislation that would expand criminal penalties for downloading music.

The association said in a statement that "hearings are part of any oversight process and we always look forward to having the opportunity to present our position."

Coleman said he is concerned the campaign could ensnare innocent people, such as parents and grandparents whose computers are being used to download music by their children and grandchildren. He also said that some downloaders themselves might not know they are breaking the law.

Coleman has admitted that he used to download music from Napster, the file-sharing service that a federal judge shut down for violating music copyrights.

He wrote that as subcommittee chairman, he intends "to assist in the development of remedies that will be reasonable and narrowly tailored to fit the extent of infringement."

Coleman was on vacation Thursday and unavailable for comment.

Last month, Coleman asked the industry association to furnish him with a list of its subpoenas; its safeguards against invading privacy and making erroneous subpoenas; its standards for issuing subpoenas; and a description of how it collects evidence of illegal file sharing.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/te...earings_x.htm#


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Protesters To March Against EU Software Law
Kieren McCarthy

The battle against a change in EU law that would see software opened up to worldwide patent law is hotting up.

The key decision in the European Parliament will take place on 1 September but those opposed to the change have arranged a protest demonstration to take place next Wednesday, 27 August in Brussels, outside the Parliament in Place du Luxembourg.

The demonstration will then be followed by a small conference held within Parliament, organised by Belgian activists, Eurolinux and FFII in which they hope to persuade MEPs to vote against the measure the following Monday.

At the same time, FFII is planning an online demonstration in which websites stop access to their site and post instead a protest page against the issue of software patent. The theory behind it is that with patents introduced, website owners will not be able to know whether they are inadvertently infringing an old patent or not.

This is music to our ears. On the balance of all the evidence, the case for allowing software patents into European law is far from argued. Moreover, the evidence from the US is that introducing this proviso into law will have an overall negative effect on the IT industry. It smacks more of protectionism than free and open markets. And it would be a severe blow against the fledgling open source community which has already achieved so much in a very short period of time.

However, as we pointed out in June, the case against patents has been damaged by the protesters' approach. Politicians - especially the MEP that put forward the directive, Arlene McCarthy - have been barracked as opposed to persuaded and all the arguments put forward have only been argued from one minority position.

If the releases put out by the organisers of the demonstrations and conference demonstrate anything, however, it is that they have become far more politically aware. For example, the arguments put forward now against a change in the law are that it would:


· Reduce innovation and increase monopolies in such a basic asset as software, thus harming consumers choice and value for money and depriving citizens of a healthy information society
· Undermine e-commerce by legalised extortion from patent holders
· Jeopardise basic freedom of creation and publication (a software patent holder could censor publication by the author of an original program)
· Cause legal uncertainty to copyright holders through patent inflation, since they won't know they are infringing someone else's patents until blackmailed or sued
· Endanger SMEs and professionals who do not have the resources for patent buildup and litigation, and currently concentrate most jobs and innovation in European IT
· Introduce a fundamental legal contradiction by using patents to monopolise information (software is only information) instead of its original purpose of dissemination of information on inventions

Now, that, as they say, is more like it.

On top of that, we also have a number of economists who have looked into the issue and concluded that introducing patent law on software "will have serious detrimental effects on European innovation, growth and competitiveness". It's a good critique and adds more weight to the anti-patent argument - you can read it at Research in Europe.

The demonstration will start at noon at Place du Luxembourg (not hard to find) and will last until 2pm, at which point the conference will start and finish, it is estimated, at 4pm.

So if you feel strongly about the issue, about open source or about software development in general, now is the time to put your money where your mouth is and get to Brussels for the day. It's easy to get to. You can even get the Eurostar direct from London.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/32457.html


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Interview With The CEO of StreamCast Networks
Ciarán Tannam

StreamCast has gone through more changes and faced more challenges than most other p2p clients combined. The changes of network and source code from OpenNap to FastTrack to Gnutella are well documented. In addition to this, StreamCast has undergone several changes in leadership, specifically its CEO. Michael Weiss led the company through its phenomenal success with both OpenNap and FastTrack. He recently returned to the company and with a legal victory under his belt he is seeking to regain the old success of Morpheus.

Can a company that self-admittedly lost contact with much of this community attempt a resurgence? Slyck gets answers from Micahel Weiss, the CEO of StreamCast on lawsuits, FastTrack, P2P, the RIAA, the attempted resurgence of Morpheus and more ...

Slyck Ciarán: Tell us more about your efforts to make Morpheus users anonymous. How effective is the use of proxies (that you encourage users to add to Morpheus) in protecting users?

Michael Weiss: I’m not sure that we encourage our users to use proxies, as much as we make our users aware of the availability of proxies – and leave it to their good sense about whether they want to use proxies or not. The current implementation of proxy servers through Morpheus should be considered as just one step of what needs to be done to provide full anonymity to protect users from unwanted intrusions to their privacy. Since there already exists a worldwide network of public proxies, this was a quick first effort for us.

We are working on more solutions and consider this to be one of our top objectives. Our users want anonymity and the basic rule of success in business is that you must listen to your customers. We are listening. But there is something much more powerful that can be done to protect your privacy and it has nothing to do with technology. In the US, there are 63 million file-sharing voters. Your voice needs to be heard in Congress and I pledge that Morpheus will help facilitate this. Peer-to-peer is wonderful because it gives power to the people. Now the people must use their collective power to be sure that Congress listens less to the recording industry lobbyists and more to their constituents. That’s the end-game. Also, we encourage users to support the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s "Let the Music Play" campaign.

Slyck Ciarán: When you came back to the job you stated that you wanted to put Morpheus back in the number 1 downloaded slot but kazaa still holds this spot. Morpheus downloads are less than 10% of what they were at there height. Why do you think this is so? Do you still believe that you can regain the no.1 slot?

Michael Weiss: Without a doubt we can take out Kazaa. They stopped caring about their users just about right after Kazaa was sold to Sharman. Their AltNet software is an example of that. Kazaa’s lack of concern for their users is their weakness. When Morpheus first joined forces with Kazaa, their FastTrack Network was operating for 6 months and only had 5,000 users. Four months after Morpheus launched, the network had 40 million users with over 2 million on the network at any moment of the day. The majority of those users were Morpheus users. Yes, they have a lot of momentum right now, but I know that with the right moves on our part, we can once again regain that top slot. Unlike the majority of Slyck readers, the general public needs to be educated about what Kazaa is
really all about.

[bb]Slyck Ciarán:[/b] There has been some debate as to the size of the Gnutella network. How many unique users would you estimate are connected at any give time? What percentage would you estimate are Morpheus users? http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=220


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Rolling Stones License Songs For File Sharing

Exclusive deal could prompt other artists to follow example
Benny Evangelista

Iconic music industry stars like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles have long balked at allowing their songs to be legally downloaded or streamed online.

And that has proven to be a major disadvantage for record-industry-backed services like iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody when competing with file-sharing programs like Kazaa, which have Stones and Beatles songs available for free without their permission.

Starting today, however, the Stones for the first time have licensed their entire collection of songs, from "Satisfaction" to "Some Girls," to an online music service in an exclusive deal with San Francisco's Listen.com.

The company, which earlier this month officially became a unit of RealNetworks Inc. of Seattle, will offer more than 40 Stones albums and 500 tracks for streaming or burning onto CDs through its Rhapsody music service.

Other paid online music services are expected to offer the Rolling Stones after the band's brief exclusive deal with Rhapsody expires at the end of August.

The deal may also be a sign that other artists who have been reluctant to test the waters of Internet distribution may do so now, said media analyst Michael McGuire, a research director with the firm GartnerG2.

"This is a cornerstone group," McGuire said. "A lot of people are going to be watching this to see what it does."

Listen.com has been after the Rolling Stones for about two years, but has been unable to secure licenses from the group, said Sean Ryan, Listen.com's former chief executive officer, who became vice president of music services for RealNetworks.

But they and other artists like the Beatles and Garth Brooks have been reluctant to release songs to online services. Meanwhile, people who use file- sharing programs like Kazaa and Grokster have been able to download unauthorized copies by almost any artist or group for free.

The record industry has begun a campaign to crack down on file sharing with plans to sue individuals who offer songs for downloading. But the record labels have gradually been licensing more of their songs to paid services like Rhapsody, Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store and BuyMusic.com in an effort to counteract the lure of free file sharing.

Listen.com signed licenses with both ABKCO Records, which has the rights to older Rolling Stones albums released from 1964 to 1971, and EMI Music Inc.'s Virgin Records, which has the rights to albums released since 1971.

"We think this Rolling Stones move will be the crack in the dam for the remaining artists" to join the online revolution, Ryan said.

Listen.com also plans to announce today that electronics retailer Best Buy Inc. will begin selling Rhapsody subscriptions at all of its 560 stores. Best Buy has offered Rhapsody subscriptions at selected West Coast stores for the past six months as a test.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&type=business


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The Bits Are Willing, but the Batteries Are Weak
Amy Harmon

For many Internet addicts, the blackout last week was a rude reminder of just how decisively the vaunted 21st-century digital lifestyle can be laid low by a disruption in 19th-century electrons.

While hardly enjoyable, being severed from the usual sources of food, water and transportation has occurred in previous power failures. But losing access to the digitized information that permeates our lives — from work-related records to Google searches to e-mail love letters — punctured a cherished illusion of the cyberage: that cyberspace is a separate universe, immune from real-world physics.

Digital bits are often portrayed as a parallel world. If we do not need bodies to communicate or bookstores to buy books, the intuition beckons, why would we need something as mundane as power cords?

But under cover of blackout, the digital world revealed itself as very much in electricity's thrall. Surely, it should have been obvious: personal computers do not work when they are not plugged in. Laptops and MP3 players require batteries, as in charged.

"Power electrons are the mother's milk of the information age and power distribution is a lot more fragile than we imagine," said Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future. "Carry spare batteries."

Yet to judge by the confusion, frustration and occasional acts of desperation during the electricity cutoff, some stalwarts of the information age have not fully grasped that they are subject to something as prosaic as a blown fuse.

"I was in the middle of writing an important work e-mail," said an aggrieved Mike Pearlstein, an animator drinking lukewarm beer with newly befriended neighbors at a restaurant in the Chelsea section of Manhattan on Thursday night. "I tried to use the batteries, but they weren't working; nothing was working."

When one of his companions observed that had he been glued to his computer, he would not have had the pleasure of meeting them on his apartment stoop that night, he simply said, "I really wanted to send that e-mail."

Coming just two days after the latest Internet worm, Blaster, caused headaches for many computer users, the blackout further underscored the vulnerability to technology that millions of people have come to take for granted.

The Internet itself, designed to route around damage and bolstered by a battery back-up at leading telecommunications companies, held up just fine during the power loss. But traffic dipped at eBay, Amazon and other electronic commerce sites because people could not plug in to log on.

"We've transitioned to a computer-based world where we need reliable power," said David J. Farber, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University who was married in New York three minutes before the 1965 blackout. "When things like this happen, our whole information society sits there and sort of shakes because we can't get at it."

For Mr. Farber's son, Manny, 35, the first of his difficulties came when he needed to call colleagues on Friday. He was confident that an antique rotary phone he had would stand in for the fancy cordless one that had been rendered useless by the blackout — until he realized that the phone numbers he needed were stored on his computer.

"I have a business-card scanner," Manny Farber explained. "I do have backups, but they're on CD's."

As the batteries on his cellphone and digital camera ran low on Friday, Mr. Farber said he was contemplating buying a meal he did not particularly want at a diner in a neighborhood that had power so that he might surreptitiously charge the devices.

With the dependency on electrons beginning to sink in, digital information refugees began to ration the battery power on their portable devices like water.

Lorna Keuning, 35, of Park Slope, Brooklyn, forced herself to shut down her iBook on Thursday night when the battery meter was in the red so she would have enough charge to check the Internet in the morning. Her first act on waking up to find the power back on was to plug it in. "From now on, I'm always going to make sure it's fully charged," Ms. Keuning vowed.

The longer-term significance of such temporary inconveniences may be negligible, but experts on Internet infrastructure say it is increasingly important to strengthen the link between the dual grids of electricity and information that power the economy.

Jessica Litman, a law professor who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., said she kept going halfway up the stairs to her computer to get blackout news online before remembering that her sole news source at that point was the car radio. The experience made her appreciate both the luxury of electric power and the ability to tailor her Internet news delivery.

"A car radio tells me what it wants to tell me," Ms. Litman said. "One of the things I realized was how differently I think about the news."

Sapped of their potency, the sights and sounds of digital devices can become even more conspicuous. In the dark, cellphones served as pale blue flashlights even when they would not connect their callers. Strangers debated the merits of calling plans while constantly hitting redial.

" Verizon works, Cingular doesn't," declared Paul Likens, 38, holding one phone to each ear at a table outside a Chelsea restaurant.

Their batteries dying, some people plugged cellphones into the cigarette lighters of their cars to make calls. The lucky owners of BlackBerry devices, which rely on an older network than mobile phones, occasionally sent text messages for the less fortunate.

George Nemeth, of Painesville, Ohio, learned of the blackout during a cellphone call with a friend whose power supplies, connecting several home computers, started beeping the alarms of an unexpected surge.

Mr. Nemeth, who keeps an online journal known as a Web log or blog devoted to Cleveland-related news, said his immediate impulse was to post the news. But when he got home, there was no power at his house either.

"It was disturbing," Mr. Nemeth said. "But my wife enjoyed it because we actually talked for the whole time. When we have power, we're usually both on the computer."

Indeed, many found the 24-hour respite from computers a welcome break. Debbie Dick, an insurance consultant who lives in Detroit, said she had spent the time reading and grilling outside with her 15-year-old daughter.

"I look at it as time to relax," said Ms. Dick, 34, as she waited in a line for gasoline on Friday afternoon.

But for those who use high-speed connections to instant-message friends and family, or to shop, work, or get news and sometimes post it themselves, the withdrawal symptoms were acute.

"Panic sets in when there's a slightest glitch," Jen Chung, editor of the Gothamist Web log, wrote in an e-mail message. "Something like this blackout puts life on hold."

For some bloggers, it was a time for extreme measures. Grant Barrett wrote Thursday evening on his blog, www.worldnewyork.net, "Keeping it short because I'm doing it the old-fashioned way: laptop battery, flashlight and dial-up, the bare necessities." He had just trudged home from Midtown Manhattan to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. "It's now past sundown and the city is black."

Mr. Barrett posted digital pictures, captions and his personal blackout story using a slow dial-up Internet account because his high-speed router required electricity.

"It's the human communication impulse," Mr. Barrett said by telephone of his compulsion to post under such conditions. "Does that sound too grandiose? It's just some moron typing in the dark."

If so, he was not the only one, although other candlelight bloggers appear to have waited until the next morning to post their accounts. At www.camworld.com, Cameron Barrett (no relation) posted a selected list of New York blogs, covering blackout accounts from playing Monopoly by flashlight to being stuck on the Q train.

At a time when the zeros and ones of computer communication seem to zip through the ether, weaving in and out of blogs, phones, music players, bank accounts and address books, the idea that digital data operate in their own dimension is seductive.

But until long-promised new fuel technologies — from fuel cells to mictoturbines to Sterling engines — liberate cyberspace from the power grid, the digital economy will continue to rely on Thomas A. Edison's technology.

Ms. Keuning, during an interview late Friday night touching on her battery-saving practices, stopped in midsentence and inhaled sharply as her illuminated laptop screen went dark: `Oooh, something just happened; we're having a power surge," she said.

Then Ms. Keuning, a media buyer whose blackout blog entry is posted at www.lornagrl.com, breathed out as she realized that she'd made a mistake."My computer just went to screensaver," she said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/te...gy/18DIGI.html


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Filesharers Turn Tables On Music Industry
Owen Gibson

Grokster, the US music-swapping network that came to prominence in the wake of Napster's collapse, has turned the tables on the major music labels by reporting them to the office offFair trading.

The site, which allows users to swap music tracks on a huge global network, claims record companies are guilty of "unfair business practices and restraint of trade" by refusing to discuss ways in which they could legalise its service.

The Grokster president, Wayne Rosso, claims European record labels are refusing to consider licensing tracks to it and other file sharing services.

"It's clearly a cartel in violation of competition laws. We've tried to negotiate with the record labels. They leave us no choice but to protect consumers and ourselves from these grievous practices," Mr Rosso told trade magazine New Media Age.

Other legal download services have also complained that they have found it hard to get labels to agree to licence their tracks, instead favouring OD2, the music download company backed by singer Peter Gabriel that yesterday announced a deal with Microsoft.

The outspoken Mr Rosso has often attacked the complacency of the music and film industries in their refusal to embrace file sharing as a viable distribution model.

He claims Grokster and other file sharing sites such as Kazaa, which sprung up in the wake of the music industry's successful attempt to close down Napster in 2001, are keen to work in partnership with the industry but the labels refuse to talk to them.

Unlike Napster, the file sharing sites do not hold material themselves in a central database but merely enable users to swap tracks and files between their individual computers, making them much harder for copyright holders to control.

Earlier this year Grokster and another song-swapping service named Morpheus won an important victory in a US court when a judge ruled they could not be shut down as they cannot control what is traded over their systems.

The precedent was seen as being similar to a landmark case in 1984, which found that videocassette recorders should not be outlawed because they can be used legally as well as illegally.

The OFT said it was investigating the claim and had asked Grokster to provide further material to back up its claims.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia...019044,00.html


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On-line Music Swappers Ready To Protest

SOUNDS FAMILIAR: The music industry in Taiwan plans to sue a local Web site that allows users to share files, but the site's operator is threatening to put up a fight
Roger Liu

The largest local on-line music-sharing Web site, Kuro.com.tw, has enlisted the help of a seasoned political campaigner to protest a plan by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in Taiwan to sue the Web site and its subscribers for downloading music without the permission of the copyright holders.

Campaign expert Brian Wu (???), convener and initiator of the "MP3 Users Surrender Alliance" (MP3?????????), said he can mobilize 2 million digital-music file sharers to turn themselves in at the nation's police stations and thus clog the legal system to protest the music industry's actions.

IFPI's lawsuits are the result of US diplomatic pressure on Taiwan, Wu claimed.

The US and other governments regularly complain that Taiwan does not protect intellectual property rights (IPR) effectively.

"They [IFPI] have hijacked the Government Information Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Office, forcing the government to listen to them," Wu said.

IFPI intends to demonize the 2 million MP3 users in Taiwan, and 300 million worldwide, Wu said.

Kuro provides a platform on which registered members can swap audio or video files for a monthly fee of NT$99 per person.

IFPI claims Kuro has infringed the copyrights of its members by allowing people to download music that they had not paid for. It therefore filed several lawsuits against Kuro and some of its members earlier this year. Police then launched a crackdown on Kuro members in June.

IFPI has also asked Kuro's Internet service provider, HiNet, to end its contract with the site.

Campaigner Wu says the law favors the music industry. "The law we have now allows only the large recording companies to dominate the market, giving them the opportunity to exploit singers and customers," he said.

Wu declared war on the IFPI, threatening to choke local courts.

"Since we are violating the Copyright Law, we will surrender to the police. When 2 million MP3 users here surrender together ? let's see what the nation's judiciary system will do," Wu said.

Kuro's lawyers say that the site is doing nothing wrong and that it is merely a search engine, which is a neutral technology.

"It's ridiculous to prohibit the use of a copy machine because somebody uses it to make illegal copies," said Lee Chung-teh (???), an attorney at Lee, Tsai and Partners. "We realize that a few Kuro members are illegally selling music downloaded from this site, but most members make reasonable use of this software. Partly illegal does not mean the whole site is illegal."

Last month, Kuro offered to increased its monthly fee by NT$50 per person and pass this on to the music industry as a form of royalty payment. The music industry rejected the offer.

"Its' ridiculous... It's like somebody stole my property, sold it for cash, and then told me I can get a share of the spoils," said Robin Lee (???), Secretary-General of IFPI Taiwan.

IFPI had been willing to reach an agreement with Kuro, but Kuro was indifferent to the protection of the music industry's rights, Lee said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/.../12/2003063348


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Library Settles With Workers Who Sued Over Hostile Work Environment

Minneapolis library officials will consider restricting patrons' access to Internet porn and pay $435,000 to a dozen librarians to settle a lawsuit that alleged the prevalence

of the images constituted a hostile work environment, the librarians' lawyer said Friday.

Library officials confirmed the settlement in a statement. They didn't confirm the amount, but said it involves a payment from their liability insurer.

Lawyer Bob Halagan, representing the librarians, said money wasn't the point of their claim of a hostile work environment. But he said that they sought a sufficient payment so that library officials elsewhere would take seriously such staff complaints.

As part of the operating changes, library officials will consider Internet filters to screen out certain materials, changes in the printing of Internet material to reduce exposure to explicit material, more sanctions for those who violate library Internet policy, and consultation with staff on the placement of terminals in the new downtown library.

The library didn't admit wrongdoing, but Laurie Savran, the trustee representing the Library Board in settlement negotiations, apologized during an all-day settlement conference on Aug. 7.

"I apologized to the 12 plaintiffs that this happened to them and that it was so difficult for them and that we didn't address their concerns more expeditiously," Savran said.

The issue arose in 1997, shortly after library Internet access was launched. The lawsuit alleged that terminals drew users hungry for explicitly sexual images. Librarian Nancy Corcoran complained to then-Library Director Mary Lawson that year that staff members were being regularly exposed to those images.

Concern grew as patrons, including children, also were exposed to the graphic material, both from screens and from printouts made by users.

When the librarians thought Lawson didn't take their complaints seriously, a group of librarians filed complaints with state and federal agencies, charging that they were exposed to a barrage of explicit material and that they endured hostility from some Internet users when they tried to discourage such use.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission in 2001 found probable cause that federal law had been violated because of a sexually hostile work environment. The case was referred to the Justice Department, but it decided not to sue the library on behalf of the librarians. So Halagan filed a federal lawsuit in March.

The librarians said the issue wasn't intellectual freedom but whether obscene material should be publicly displayed.

A Library Board statement said that the issue arose because it tried to strike a balance between allowing public access to lawful materials and protecting workers and library cardholders from exposure to offensive items. It said the board regretted that it didn't respond sooner to the issues raised by Internet access.
http://wcco.com/localnews/local_story_227152529.html


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Studios Help Thwart DVD Piracy Ring
Stefanie Olsen

The Motion Picture Association and the Malaysian government raided operators of five Web sites suspected of selling illegal DVDs, in the film industry's latest attack on Internet piracy.

The international trade group worked with Malaysia's Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA) to organize raids that led to the arrests of nine people, according to the MPA. The people arrested allegedly ran an illegal Web mail-order ring for pirated movies. One targeted site, DVDExpress2u, sold new-release DVD films such as "Confidence" or "2 Fast 2 Furious" for about $12.

In connection with the arrests--made in Penang, Malaysia, on Monday--the MPA said it seized more than 30,000 optical discs, which were largely pirated copies of DVDs from member Hollywood film studios. That was the largest collection of illegal material confiscated by the group, said Ken Jacobsen, senior vice president and director of worldwide antipiracy for the MPA, who described it as a sign of a mounting problem.

"We're finding huge amounts of pirated products sold online and shipped into the United States, Western Europe" and other countries, Jacobsen said. "It is a growing phenomenon, and we're working hard to shut down these people."

Many counterfeit DVDs and video computer discs (VCDs) are made by just a handful of operations in Malaysia, and--more recently--Russia, Jacobsen said.

Several years ago, pirated movies and software were often sold on the streets or in shopping malls in Asia, but police crackdowns drove the business underground. Asia has been under constant scrutiny by intellectual property rights watchdogs such as the MPA, which consider the area a breeding ground for pirated material. Last year, the region accounted for 87 percent of the 7 million pirated DVDs that were seized worldwide, according to the MPA.

However, some governments in the region have stepped up efforts to combat the problem, as part of a bid to boost trade ties with Western countries. In January, Singapore agreed to enforce copyright protection as part of a free-trade pact with the U.S.

The U.S.-based MPA's antipiracy operations are primarily focused on the "digital world," Jacobsen said. The group uses a proprietary search engine, called Ranger, to scout out Web sites that are selling unauthorized copies of films of their member companies, he said.

The four other Web sites connected to the Malaysian crackdown were D9dvd.com, Alldvd2u.com, Getvcd.com and Allvcd.com. The sites' operators were suspected of distributing pirate DVDs to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Great Britain, Holland and the United States.

"Our antipiracy efforts are heavily directed toward digital piracy of optical discs and Internet (sales)," said Jacobsen. "We've seen a terrific convergence between the two...that creates a worldwide flea market of pirated (DVDs)."
http://news.com.com/2100-1026-5064197.html


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Media Groups Appeal P2P Ruling
John Borland

Record labels and movie studios said Tuesday that they have appealed an April federal court ruling that held for the first time that some file-swapping software was legal.

That ruling, made by a Los Angeles federal court judge, Stephen Wilson, came as a sharp blow to copyright holders' strategy of suing peer-to-peer network operators and software developers in order to curb the explosive growth of file trading. Beginning with a ruling against Napster, all court rulings had been in favor of the record companies and movie studios.

"(Wilson's decision) was wrong," Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) President Cary Sherman said in a statement Tuesday. "These are businesses that were built for the exclusive reason of illegally exchanging copyrighted works, and they make money hand over fist from it. The Court of Appeals should hold them accountable."

The surprise April decision revitalized a peer-to-peer world that had been laboring under the pressure of repeated lawsuits and unfavorable court rulings, resulting in the closure of services such as Napster, Aimster and Scour.

Unlike any other judge before him, Wilson ruled that companies that distributed software were not responsible for the misdeeds of their users, even when it was clear that millions of people were using the software to break copyright laws. He compared the software to the VCR or a Xerox copy machine.

"Grokster and Streamcast are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights," Wilson wrote.

The RIAA subsequently turned to its well-publicized campaign of suing individuals for copyright infringement, a strategy it had largely avoided before Wilson's decision. The group has spent the last month and a half sending subpoenas to Internet service providers, seeking the identities of alleged file swappers, and has said it will file what could be hundreds of lawsuits by the end of this month or early September.

The RIAA, which was joined by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) in its appeal, said that Wilson had failed to follow the example of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal's ruling against Napster. In that case, judges laid down a framework under which Napster would likely have been held liable for the copyright infringement of its users, although the issue never came to a full trial.

"The district court incredibly equated (Streamcast) and Grokster to Xerox, rather than the more analogous comparison to the illegitimate Napster service," wrote attorneys for the NMPA in their brief. "Comparing Xerox to (Streamcast) and Grokster is like comparing a farmer who sells chickens to a promoter and organizer of cockfights."

Grokster attorney Michael Page said the copyright holders' trade associations were misreading the April decision.

"The RIAA would like the world to believe that Wilson was a renegade judge who ignored Napster, but he was anything but that," Page said. "He followed Napster carefully and we won."

The April decision granted summary judgment to Grokster and Streamcast Networks, essentially closing the case against them unless the appeals court rules differently. Wilson has not yet ruled the same way for Sharman Networks, which operates the hugely popular Kazaa file-swapping service and is being sued in the same court.

The copyright holders have long said they would appeal, but procedural issues complicating the case had held up the action until now.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026-5065729.html


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RIAA Details Subpoena Strategy
Jay Lyman

U.S. Senator Norm Coleman (R- Minnesota), who chairs the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, revealed the recording industry association promised to provide supplementary documents that confirm it is not targeting "nominal users."

In responding to concerns voiced by U.S. Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota), the Recording Industry Association of America has detailed its strategy for pursuing and prosecuting "egregious" infringers of copyright law.

The recording industry group -- which announced in June its plans to seek out and possibly sue individual file traders who use peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to obtain and share copyrighted music -- said in a letter to Coleman that it had requested 1,075 subpoenas through the first week of August.

While the onslaught of subpoenas has come under fire from a group of Internet service providers, and Verizon and SBC have filed lawsuits, the RIAA said in its letter to Coleman that the organization is focusing on P2P users who download and trade "substantial amounts of copyrighted music."

"Although the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] sets forth the minimum requirements for seeking a subpoena, RIAA is not seeking a subpoena as to everyone who is illegally distributing copyrighted recordings," the letter said. "Rather, at this time, RIAA is focusing on egregious infringers, those who are engaging in substantial amounts of illegal activity."

An RIAA spokesperson could not quantify what the group means by "substantial amounts," but the group called its response "proportionate to the scope of a pervasive piracy problem today."

The letter, a response to concerns and questions raised by Sen. Coleman, is the first time the recording industry group has disclosed the number of subpoenas it has secured in its strategy to go after users of file-sharing networks such as Kazaa.

Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann, who said the number of RIAA subpoenas was growing by 100 per day earlier this month, told TechNewsWorld that the RIAA's strategy appears to be to issue more subpoenas than needed.

"The dragnet is being cast much more widely than the actual lawsuit is going to be," he said.

The RIAA indicated it will file suit on the basis of evidence it gains through the subpoenas, and in the letter detailed its process of searching for copyright infringers on P2P networks.

The industry association said it uses software that searches P2P public directories for copyrighted recordings. The software then downloads a sample of the infringing files with date and time of access and stores the user's Internet Protocol (IP) address. The RIAA then identifies the infringer's ISP, according to the letter.

"Before acting on any of the information obtained by the software, an employee at RIAA manually reviews and verifies the information," the letter said. "And, before filing a request for a subpoena, RIAA sends the infringer's ISP advance notice that RIAA intends to issue a subpoena with respect to a particular IP address."

Still, the subpoena strategy has drawn the ire of a group of ISPs known as NetCoalition, which criticized the subpoena requests because of the burden they place on service providers.

NetCoalition, which also expressed privacy concerns about the RIAA strategy, argued that handling the subpoenas is costly for Internet companies and that the RIAA "fishing expedition" might force providers to raise the price of Internet access.

In his concerns over the subpoenas, Sen. Coleman said the "law of unintended consequences" might mean extreme legal penalties for computer users who were unaware of infringement.
http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/31372.html


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Sobig-F Is 'Worst Variant Yet'
Graeme Wearden

The latest variant of the Sobig virus has the ability to spread across file-sharing networks as well as by email, making it the worst strain yet, experts warned on Tuesday afternoon.

Email service provider MessageLabs has already detected 60,000 copies of Sobig-F, first spotted earlier on Tuesday. This variant could be one of the more active viruses of the year, said the company, adding that it could hit British computer users particularly hard. A third of viruses detected were in the UK.

According to Alex Shipp, senior antivirus technologist at MessageLabs, Sobig-F is easily the most powerful member of the Sobig family to date. Shipp believes that it has been released by the same virus writer who created the original Sobig, which hit the Internet in January this year.

"He's made a couple of tweaks. Previous Sobigs had a bug where the last letter of the file-name was dropped, which meant the file wouldn’t run. That's now been fixed," explained Shipp.

Another addition to Sobig-F's armoury is the ability to spread across file-sharing networks, Shipp said. He wasn't yet able to say which peer-to-peer applications are affected, but warned that this made Sobig-F a serious threat to home users. Businesses whose employees are running P2P software are also at risk, as this infection route is not normally covered by email scanners, which can otherwise catch Sobig-F.

When spreading by email, Sobig-F appears to have been sent from a recognised domain name, such as ibm.com, zdnet.com or Microsoft.com. The subject line typically says "Re: Details", "Resume" or "Thank you".

Attachment names may include: your_document.pif, details.pif, your_details.pif, thank_you.pif, movie0045.pif, document_Fall.pif, application.pif, and document_9446.pif.

The virus grabs email addresses from several different locations on a computer, including the Windows address book and Internet cache, and sends emails to each one. The virus also forges the source of the message using a randomly selected email address, so that the infected message appears to come from someone else.

Sobig.F is more efficient than previous versions of the virus in sending emails, according to MessageLabs' analysis, because the email engine that it uses is "multi-threaded". While earlier versions of the virus had to wait for a task, or thread, to be completed, Sobig.F can send multiple emails at the same time, making it a much more efficient spam engine.

In an attempt to bypass local antivirus security, the file size varies on each generation by appending rubbish to the end of the file, but is on average around 74Kb in size, according to MessageLabs.

Shipp believes that the email form of Sobig-F poses a greater threat to home users than to businesses, as "many firms will be blocking .pif files already".

Shipp added that the major antivirus firms should already be producing patches to address Sobig-F, and suggested that consumers would be advised to compare notes about how their antivirus protection worked, as some products have been much better than others at catching Sobig variants.

Sobig-E, which emerged in June, attempted to hijack PCs in order to use them to send spam emails. It is thought that Sobig-F does the same, which Shipp believes is proof that the virus writer is working closely with spammers. As most spammers live in the US, the odds are that the virus writer is based there as well, he said.

It's also unlikely that Sobig-F will be the last strain to emerge. "It is programmed to stop on 10 September, but by then there will be another variant out there," predicted Shipp.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/sec...9115807,00.htm


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Blame Canada
Jay Currie

A desperate American recording industry is waging a fierce fight against digital copyright infringement seemingly oblivious to the fact that, for practical purposes, it lost the digital music sharing fight over five years ago. In Canada.

"On March 19, 1998, Part VIII of the (Canadian) Copyright Act dealing with private copying came into force. Until that time, copying any sound recording for almost any purpose infringed copyright, although, in practice, the prohibition was largely unenforceable. The amendment to the Act legalized copying of sound recordings of musical works onto audio recording media for the private use of the person who makes the copy (referred to as "private copying"). In addition, the amendment made provision for the imposition of a levy on blank audio recording media to compensate authors, performers and makers who own copyright in eligible sound recordings being copied for private use."

-- Copyright Board of Canada: Fact Sheet: Private Copying 1999-2000 Decision

The Copyright Board of Canada administers the Copyright Act and sets the amount of the levies on blank recording media and determines which media will have levies imposed. Five years ago this seemed like a pretty good deal for the music industry: $0.77 CDN for a blank CD and .29 a blank tape, whether used for recording music or not. Found money for the music moguls who had been pretty disturbed that some of their product was being burned onto CDs. To date over 70 million dollars has been collected through the levy and there is a good possibility the levy will be raised and extended to MP3 players, flash memory cards and recordable DVDs sometime in 2003.

While hardware vendors whine about the levy, consumers seem fairly indifferent. Why? Arguably because the levy is fairly invisible - just another tax in an overtaxed country. And because it makes copying music legal in Canada.

A year before Shawn Fanning invented Napster, these amendments to Canada's Copyright Act were passed with earnest lobbying from the music business. The amendments were really about home taping. The rather cumbersome process of ripping a CD and then burning a copy was included as afterthought to deal with this acme of the digital revolution. The drafters and the music industry lobbyists never imagined full-on P2P access.

As the RIAA wages its increasingly desperate campaign of litigation in terrorum to try to take down the largest American file sharers on the various P2P networks, it seems to be utterly unaware of the radically different status of private copying in Canada.

This is a fatal oversight, because P2P networks are international. While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may make it illegal to share copyright material in America, the Canadian Copyright Act expressly allows exactly the sort of copying which is at the base of the P2P revolution.

In fact, you could not have designed a law which more perfectly captures the peer to peer process. "Private copying" is a term of art in the Act. In Canada, if I own a CD and you borrow it and make a copy of it that is legal private copying; however, if I make you a copy of that same CD and give it to you that would be infringement. Odd, but ideal for protecting file sharers.

Every song on my hard drive comes from a CD in my collection or from a CD in someone else's collection which I have found on a P2P network. In either case I will have made the copy and will claim safe harbor under the "private copying" provision. If you find that song in my shared folder and make a copy this will also be "private copying." I have not made you a copy, rather you have downloaded the song yourself.

The premise of the RIAA's litigation is to go after the "supernodes," the people who have thousands, even tens of thousands of songs on their drives and whose big bandwidth allows massive sharing. The music biz has had some success bringing infringement claims under the DMCA. Critically, that success and the success of the current campaign hinges on it being a violation of the law to "share" music. At this point, in the United States, that is a legally contested question and that contest may take several years to fully play out in the Courts.

RIAA spokesperson Amanda Collins seemed unaware of the situation in Canada. "Our goal is deterrence. We are focused on uploaders in the US. Filing lawsuits against individuals making files available in the US."

Which will be a colossal waste of time because in Canada it is expressly legal to share music. If the RIAA were to somehow succeed in shutting down every "supernode" in America all this would do is transfer the traffic to the millions of file sharers in Canada. And, as 50% of Canadians on the net have broadband (as compared to 20% of Americans) Canadian file sharers are likely to be able to meet the demand.

The Canada Hole in the RIAA's strategic thinking is not likely to close. While Canadians are not very keen about seeing the copyright levy extended to other media or increased, there is not much political traction in the issue. There is no political interest at all in revisiting the Copyright Act. Any lobbying attempt by the RIAA to change the copyright rules in Canada would be met with a howl of anger from nationalist Canadians who are not willing to further reduce Canada's sovereignty. (These folks are still trying to get over NAFTA.)

Nor are there any plausible technical fixes short of banning any connections from American internet users to servers located in Canada.

As the RIAA's "sue your customer" campaign begins to run into stiffening opposition and serious procedural obstacles it may be time to think about a "Plan B". A small levy on storage media, say a penny a megabyte, would be more lucrative than trying to extract 60 million dollars from a music obsessed, file sharing, thirteen year-old.

If American consumers objected -- well, the music biz could always follow Southpark's lead and burst into a chorus of "Blame Canada". Hey, we can take it….We'll even lend you Anne Murray.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/10...D=1051-081803C


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Net Anonymity Service Back-Doored
Thomas C Greene

The popular Java Anonymous Proxy (JAP), used to anonymise one's comings and goings across the Internet, has been back-doored by court order. The service is currently logging access attempts to a particular, and unnamed, Web site and reporting the IP addys of those who attempt to contact it to the German police.

We know this because the JAP operators immediately warned users that their IP traffic might be going straight to Big Brother, right? Wrong. After taking the service down for a few days with the explanation that the interruption was "due to a hardware failure", the operators then required users to install an "upgraded version" (ie. a back-doored version) of the app to continue using the service.

"As soon as our service works again, an obligatory update (version 00.02.001) [will be] needed by all users," the public was told. Not a word about Feds or back doors.

Fortunately, a nosey troublemaker had a look at the 'upgrade' and noticed some unusual business in it, and posted it to alt.2600.

Soon the JAP team replied to the thread, admitting that there is now a "crime detection function" in the system mandated by the courts. But they defended their decision:

"What was the alternative? Shutting down the service? The security apparatchiks would have appreciated that - anonymity in the Internet and especially AN.ON are a thorn in their side anyway."

Sorry, the Feds undoubtedly appreciated the JAP team's willingness to back-door the app while saying nothing about it a lot more than they would have appreciated seeing the service shut down with a warning that JAP can no longer fulfill its stated obligation to protect anonymity due to police interference.

Admittedly, the JAP team makes some good points in its apology. For one, they say they're fighting the court order but that they must comply with it until a decision is reached on their appeal.

Jap is a collaborative effort of Dresden University of Technology, Free University Berlin and the Independent Centre for Privacy Protection Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (ICPP). A press release from ICPP assures users that JAP is safe to use because access to only one Web site is currently being disclosed, and only under court- ordered monitoring.

But that's not the point. Disclosure is the point. The JAP Web site still claims that anonymity is sacrosanct: "No one, not anyone from outside, not any of the other users, not even the provider of the intermediary service can determine which connection belongs to which user."

This is obviously no longer true, if it ever was. And that's a serious problem, that element of doubt. Anonymity services can flourish only if users trust providers to be straight with them at all times. This in turn means that providers must be absolutely punctilious and obsessive about disclosing every exception to their assurances of anonymity. One doesn't build confidence by letting the Feds plug in to the network, legally or otherwise, and saying nothing about it.

Justifying it after the fact, as the JAP team did, simply isn't good enough.

Telling us that they only did it to help catch criminals isn't good enough either. Sure, no normal person is against catching criminals - the more the merrier, I say. But what's criminal is highly relative, always subject to popular perception and state doctrine. If we accept Germany's definition of criminal activity that trumps the natural right to anonymity and privacy, then we must accept North Korea's, China's and Saudi Arabia's. They have laws too, after all. The entire purpose of anonymity services is to sidestep state regulation of what's said and what's read on the basis of natural law.

The JAP Web site has a motto: "Anonymity is not a crime." It's a fine one, even a profound one. But it's also a palpably political one. The JAP project inserted itself, uncalled, into the turbulent confluence between natural law and state regulation, and signaled its allegiance to the former. It's tragic to see it bowing to the latter.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32450.html


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New DVD-Copying Tools To Hit Shelves
John Borland

Despite staunch legal opposition from Hollywood, a new package of DVD-copying software is headed for online and offline retail shelves.

DVD drive company Tritton Technologies on Friday said it agreed to distribute software called DVD CopyWare, created by United Kingdom-based Redxpress. Like software from rival 321 Studios, which has been sued by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the CopyWare package will make a perfect copy of DVDs to a blank disc.

Tritton said it is simply trying to help people make backup copies of their own DVDs, not facilitate movie piracy, even though no protections against making multiple copies or making duplicates of copies are included in the software.

"We're not saying burn as many copies (as you want) and sell (them) on the street," Tritton CEO Christopher Von Huben said. "That's not the scope of the software. But we are saying you have the right to make backup copies for your own use."

The argument is unlikely to win the approval of the motion picture industry, which has worked hard to keep any software that can decrypt or copy DVDs out of the hands of consumers.

The MPAA has won one case against Eric Corley and his 2600.com Web site, which posted and then linked to code called DeCSS, which could be used in the process of making copies of DVDs. The group is also in the midst of a lawsuit against 321 Studios, the largest brand of DVD-copying software, which is distributed in stores such as CompUSA.

While many packages of similar software are now available online, retail distribution of such tools--and its threat of bringing DVD ripping to the mainstream--is particularly worrisome to Hollywood studios, which are seeing a spike in consumer sales due to DVD purchases. Tritton's software will also be carried in large retail outlets such as Buy.com, Von Huben said.

A representative of the MPAA could not immediately be reached for comment.

Von Huben said Tritton is willing to fight lawsuits against Hollywood studios if necessary but that his company's role is that of distributor, not a creator. CompUSA has not been sued for distributing 321 Studios' software, he noted.

However, federal judges previously ruled against Corley and 2600 for distribution of the DeCSS software, not for creating it. A controversial federal copyright law makes it illegal to create or distribute any software that circumvents digital copy-protection mechanisms.

"If you're distributing in the United States, you're not shielded by the fact that the software is made somewhere else," said Rusty Weiss, an intellectual property attorney with Morrison & Foerster in Los Angeles.

Much depends on the judge's ruling in the 321 Studios case, however. That software company argues that its DVD backup software is protected by consumer fair use rights, while the MPAA says it violates copyright law.

The judge in that case, who is expected to rule soon, said she was "substantially persuaded" by past rulings in copyright holders' favor.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5067448.html


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SmartSync: Cast iron s'INQs
Charlie Demerjian

THERE ARE a lot of utilities out there, all claiming to make your life better, the grass greener, and bring world peace that much closer. The vast majority of these are rather worthless. Think memory compressors, internet accelerators, and crash preventers. Yes, the world is full of things to bilk money from the ignorant. One refreshing change from this is a piece of software I was told about a few weeks ago called SmartSync Pro, a product that falls into the 'really useful utility' category.

SmartSync has a deceptively simple premise; it keeps two directories in sync with each other, pretty much wherever they are. It functions like this, you give it a source, destination, schedule, and method, and forget about it. It then works unobtrusively in the background, keeping your files the way you want them. The magic is in the flexibility.

You can keep two directories in sync, but how you do it is rather impressive. It works from drive to drive, over network shares, FTP, removable media (Zips, CD-RW with appropriate software), and probably other things I didn't have time to discover. You more or less tell it where to move the files, and it can, one way or another. The only thing that would make it better is a 3rd party based relay center for people with 2 machines, each behind a NATed firewall. While this is an option for monthly services like GoToMyPC.com, it is a little much to ask for a $35 utility.

After you give it a source, destination, and method, you can then set filters, letting you do things like only syncing .Doc files, .MP3s, or, conversely not copying a certain file type or four. I ran out of ideas before I ran out of abilities to filter things, but I assume there are limits.

After that, you can set it to run automatically, manually, or the best one, whenever there are changes. If you set it to run on startup and shutdown, you will make sure every session is essentially backed up to another machine, or another HD. It almost makes things too easy. If you have to go back and forth between many machines, you can make multiple entries, called profiles, and have them all run.

After a few of these profiles are created, things can get complicated, but no fears, there are some fairly extensive logging features built in, along with a simple but curious omission. The good parts of the logging are that is shows start, stop, and bytes transferred. It also has a separate window to show things changed in the directory since the last update. This is ungodly useful if you have to sync a large directory over a slow link. The bad part is that it does not show the individual files synced, which can be handy if you are troubleshooting. A logging level feature would be a useful addition.

In all my attempts to sync weird things across my network, I couldn't get it to fail, so I can't actually tell you how it handles errors and unexpected situations. I have been running it for over a week, and it exhibited no unruly behavior or conflicts with anything on my system, a very good sign. It sits unobtrusively in my system tray, doing its thing quietly.

If you have a small peer to peer network that you need backed up, but find getting all the files into a single place to burn a CD-R is a pain, this is the tool for you. If things get too big for a single disk, a little filtering action, and voila, you have two directories each less than 700MB. The amount of customization possible here is rather mind-bending, and if you spend the time to do it, the flexibility of the program will reward you.

There are a few things I would like to see in it though. First is the usability for non-technical people. There is a help system, and a well-done wizard to walk you through things, but to the truly dense, it will present a problem. While this is more of an issue with the user, it keeps out the non- technical, the very people who would get the most use out of this software. Those who can write scripts will feel right at home, and marvel at the time this will save them, both in terms of setup, and maintenance.

The other little thing is looks. This program isn't pretty. It is however functional, which is enough for me. Don't expect flashy graphics, animated characters, or even much color, just standard windows dialog boxes. Menu items are more or less where you think they will be, I never had to grope for anything, pop-up help is plentiful, and the help system is thorough, just a little bland.

Overall, Bash scripters will feel right at home, and those without shell- ninja capabilities will have a lot of the file manipulations from Linux in an easy to digest, graphical format. Almost all of the UI blandness is a moot point, because you set it once, and it just works. After the initial configuration, I forgot about it for most of a week, and it kept doing it's thing, and that is very good. If you have a use for this tool, it is hard to figure out how you lived without it. To those with a decent understanding of the windows file system, this program should pose no problems. 7/10 unless you are maintaining a peer-to-peer network, where it jumps to a 9/ 10.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11094


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Colleges Likely To Crack Down On File-Sharing
Lesli A. Maxwell

As they descend on college campuses in coming weeks, millions of music-loving students could find themselves confronting an online piracy legal assault by the recording industry.

The Recording Industry Association of America has pledged to file lawsuits as soon as September against people it alleges illegally share copyrighted songs on the Internet.

College campuses - where peer-to-peer file-sharing and downloading of copyrighted music, movies, video games and software off the Internet are a part of dormitory life - have been targets of music-industry subpoenas demanding the identities of offenders it plans to sue.

The recording industry's aggressive campaign to halt online music piracy has created a new legal dilemma for campus officials. Trapped between protecting student privacy and guarding university integrity and liability, colleges nationwide say they will clamp down on piracy occurring on their computer networks.

"One year ago, this issue was off the radar screen," says Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education. "Now, this is something that many, many schools are getting very serious about." Students who've been following the recording industry's legal attack predict the crackdown will backfire despite cooperation from higher education leaders.

The recording industry has introduced Internet subscription sites - MusicNet, Rhapsody, Pressplay - that allow computer users to download music legally for a few dollars a month. But traffic to those sites is small compared to the numbers flocking to renegade sites that offer songs for free.

It's not yet clear how hard the recording industry association will come down on college students using university networks to download music, though it has already demonstrated how high the stakes can be. Last spring, the association sued four college students in New York, New Jersey and Michigan for storing copyrighted songs that others could access and download. Each student paid between $12,000 and $17,000 to settle.

So far, though, the bulk of subpoenas have targeted private Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon, whose customers are largely home personal computer users.

Officials for the recording industry association won't say how many subpoenas they've filed in court, or how many more will come, but of the estimated 1,000, only "5 to 10 percent have gone to college campuses," Steinbach says.

A spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America expressed gratitude for university efforts to curtail online sharing, but would not talk about its legal campaign on the record.

In California, UC Berkeley and UCLA each received one subpoena requesting the identities of their network users suspected of violating copyright laws.

UC officials say neither campus could trace illegal activity to a particular student and that the computers identified in both cases had been compromised by hackers. None of the seven other UC campuses has heard from the recording industry association.

Last month, two UC senior vice presidents urged campus chancellors to "send a message to all members of your campus community detailing the risks associated with downloading copyrighted materials, including potential disciplinary action by the University, criminal prosecution and civil litigation by copyright holders."

Officials at UC Davis and Berkeley issued similar stern warnings about Internet copyright infringement to freshmen during summer orientation. Students will hear more about the perils of piracy in the opening weeks of school.

California State University, with 23 campuses and more than 400,000 students, also reports no subpoenas. California Community College officials don't either, but unlike UC and CSU, the two-year campuses don't provide Internet service to students.

Northeastern schools drew some of the college-directed subpoenas and two - Boston College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology - successfully challenged their validity on grounds that the recording industry association filed them in the wrong jurisdiction.

Whether or not subpoenas come, college officials say they will hunker down to squash the use of peer-to-peer file-sharing on university networks though popular programs such as Kazaa and Morpheus.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national...190840,00.html


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Broadband Pricing Row Ignites
Graeme Wearden

A UK Internet Service Provider has accused Oftel of failing to push for lower broadband prices for consumers -- a charge the telecoms regulator has batted away.

PlusNet, which offers a full consumer ADSL package for £21.99 including VAT per month, has written to Oftel to complain that more ISPs aren't offering broadband at similar prices, but are instead sticking to prices of around £28 a month and above.

"Household-brand ISPs in this country are selling ADSL at £28 per month and above, when it is more than possible to deliver high quality, lower cost ADSL solutions," said Marco Potesta, commercial director of PlusNet, in a letter sent to Oftel last week.

"Oftel must intervene and ensure that prices are not maintained artificially high as a result of consumer ignorance and large brand price apathy towards their customers," Potesta insisted.

The regulator, though, says it has not received a formal complaint from PlusNet, and is not planinng to investigate broadband pricing in the UK.

"According to our compliance department, no formal complaint has been received," an Oftel spokeswoman told ZDNet UK News.

There is a considerable gap between the cost of broadband from a major ISP, and from one of Britain's smaller operators -- although comparisons can be difficult, with some ISPs also subsidising the cost of an ADSL modem.

BT Openworld charges £29.99 per month for its consumer broadband package, with the first month's rental free. AOL Broadband costs £27.99 per month, with both the modem and the line activation charge thrown in for free.

In comparison, PlusNet has just launched a new product that -- like AOL's -- includes free modem and line activation, for £24.99 per month. As well as its standard ADSL Home product at £21.99 per month, PlusNet also offers a more restrictive ADSL Home Surf package which does not support peer-to-peer file-sharing or binary newsgroup access, for £18.99 per month.

According to a PlusNet spokesman, these broadband products are profitable despite being cheaper than rival offerings.

As price is a key differentiator between broadband ISPs -- who are generally all reselling the same BT Wholesale product -- it appears to be in PlusNet's interest for as many of its rivals as possible to charge more for their ADSL. It's certainly a situation that Oftel seems to be happy about.

"If a customer isn't happy with paying £28 per month for broadband they can go elsewhere," pointed out the Oftel spokeswoman. "The UK has a competitive broadband market, and it's a good sign that PlusNet are offering these lower prices," she added.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communicatio...9115802,00.htm


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Vague Limits Vex Music Traders
Elisa Batista and Kari L. Dean

Stephanie Craig was flabbergasted two weeks ago when she came home from school to discover that her father had emptied her hard drive of downloaded tunes.

The 15-year-old sophomore at a Chicago-area high school considered herself a "light user" of the Kazaa music- file-swapping service. She felt that her father overreacted to news that nearby Loyola University was hit with a subpoena by the recording industry to divulge the names of students obtaining pirated music off the Internet.


"I probably had over a thousand songs downloaded," Craig said. "I would consider myself a light user. I know people who have a way lot more music than I do. Like maybe 75,000."

Eventually, she shared her father's concern and stopped downloading music. To this day, she remains ambivalent about doing so, even after the Recording Industry Association of America said on Monday it would go after "substantial" file sharers rather than "de minimis users" of music-file-sharing programs.

The RIAA's statement to Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, appeared to depart from previous statements in subpoenas against more than 900 file sharers, who appeared to be randomly named. The defendants included college students, unsuspecting parents, Internet service providers and even grandparents.

"I don't think I'll download anymore since we don't really know what they (RIAA) are going to do," Craig said.

It seems as if other file traders are in the same predicament. Because the RIAA has refused to quantify what constitutes a "substantial" amount of file sharing, file sharers are left to wonder whether they are vulnerable to litigation.

In a nine-page letter addressed to Coleman, RIAA president Cary Sherman said, "RIAA is in no way targeting 'de minimis' users. RIAA is gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits only against individual computer users who are illegally distributing a substantial amount of copyrighted music." He offered to follow up with paperwork to assure Coleman that the lawsuits were distributed in a "fair and equitable matter."

For his part, Coleman said he was pleased with the RIAA's response, although he called for additional hearings on peer-to-peer networks. Coleman originally called on the RIAA to provide details of the 900 subpoenas because he feared that the industry was taking extreme measures -- including suing cash-strapped families -- to quash online trading. Coleman, a former '60s rock roadie, has admitted to downloading tunes off the now defunct Napster service.

The RIAA said it has consistently gone after "egregious offenders who have provided music on peer-to-peer networks," a spokesman said later. "Downloading one file is illegal, and one should not think that doing that is acceptable. What we have communicated from the beginning is that the egregious offenders are distributing a significant amount of music to millions of others."

The RIAA, however, declined to quantify what constituted a "significant" amount of music. But apparently the recording industry has achieved its desired effect anyway: Some file sharers are nervous and have stopped frequenting music-file-sharing websites altogether.

Craig said she left her file-sharing days behind two weeks ago. One 22-year-old college student in Fresno, California, now downloads music from a friend's computer instead of his own.

"That makes me nervous," said Rob, an avid user of the Grokster service who declined to give his last name. "If they (RIAA) are not going to say how much traffic is 'high,' I'm not going to say how much I've downloaded."

A 32-year-old San Francisco graphic designer and file trader on etree.org said the RIAA's recent statement won't curb her file-trading habits. She expressed anger at the way the RIAA was threatening users and violating their privacy in these lawsuits.

"They are relative, subjective terms," she said. "That is something that could change daily, and they could pull something out of thin air. That is ridiculous wording. It just makes me angry."
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,60110,00.html


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Computer Buffs Snap Up Fast Macs

Apple Mac fans are rushing to get their hands on what the company is calling the fastest personal computer in the world.


More than 100,000 Power Mac G5s have been ordered since the machine was launched at the end of June.

The arrival of 64-bit personal desktops heralds a new era in computing, offering more power for home users, reports the BBC.

Apple is hoping the G5, which costs between £1,200 and £1,800 will boost Power Mac sales.

"The Power Mac G5 is a big hit with customers and developers," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

It has already started shipping 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz single- processor models of the G5, ahead of schedule.

"We wanted to get those into customers hands as soon as possible, and we're right on track to deliver the dual 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 later this month," said Mr Schiller.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm...ews.technology


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Task Force To Combat £400m Film Piracy Racket

Movie bosses have formed a task force to tackle a £400 million film piracy racket in the UK.

Piracy increased by more than 80% in the past year, according to figures from the Federation Against Copyright Theft - with copies mostly of poor quality and often funding organised crime.Fake DVDs of the second Tomb Raider movie The Cradle Of Life are already on sale on British streets - even though the film doesn't receive its UK premiere until Tuesday.

The task force will be chaired by Nigel Green of the UK Film Council and includes representatives of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, UK film producers, distributors, cinema chiefs and Equity. Its aim is to map out the extent of the problem and spot long-term solutions, such as toughening up the law.

Officials from the UK Film Council, which has co-ordinated the Anti-Piracy Taskforce, found the Tomb Raider II DVDs for sale for £5 each in London's Oxford Street.

A spokesman said: "They were shocking quality and there was no sound for at least the first five minutes." Seizures in 2002 were double those of the previous year with 659,000 illegal copies at a potential value of £10 million recovered.

One seizure in Hornsey, north London, netted 100,000 DVDs, worth an estimated £1,425,000, as well as computer equipment, artwork, and DVD labels, according to FACT. The products were traced to the Far East.

Piracy is believed to have cost the UK film industry £400 million in the past year, FACT says. Illegal copies are often sold at car boot fairs and street markets. They are well packaged to look like the real thing but often suffer from poor sound, colour and clarity.

UK successes such as Bend it like Beckham, Gosford Park and 28 Days Later have all been targeted by pirates while Hollywood hits The Hulk, Terminator 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean have been on the streets before a cinema release.

Around one in three videos purchased in the UK are believed to be copies, and the number of DVDs is rocketing. Fakes, which can usually be spotted because they have no BBFC classification, often fund crime syndicates.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm...ews.technology


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This Worm Installs The Patch

Another Windows worm is on the loose, but this one tries to help rather than hinder.

The Welchi or Nachi worm is using the same trick as last week's disruptive MSBlast virus to travel around the net but tries to fix vulnerable machines rather than exploit them. The Nachi worm tries to automatically apply the software patch issued by Microsoft to secure machines against the attentions of MSBlast. If the Nachi virus finds the MSBlast worm on a PC it removes the malicious program.

"The writer of the Nachi worm may want to be seen as the Dirty Harry of the internet world, cleaning up malicious MSBlast code wherever it is found," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus firm Sophos.

Last week many thousands of net connected Windows PCs fell victim to the MSBlast worm which exploited a month old security loophole to infect machines. Since it made its appearance, the MSBlast worm is thought to have infected more than 500,000 machines. Many machines were due to launch a denial-of-service attack on Microsoft's Windows Update site on Saturday but the software giant said it had managed to dodge the assault. In the wake of MSBlast, the Nachi worm is prowling the net looking for machines with the vulnerability exploited by the more disruptive program. Once it finds a vulnerable machine, Nachi tries to download the patch Microsoft created to make PCs invulnerable to MSBlast-type viruses. Nachi also tries to put the correct language version of the patch to any machine it has reached.

MSBlast targeted many different versions of Windows, but Nachi only seeks out and fixes vulnerable machines running Windows XP. The worm will also uninstall itself after 1 January 2004. The Nachi/Welchi worm was described as an "anti-virus virus" by Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research at security firm F-Secure.

"We've seen similar things before, but not to the extent of actually applying Microsoft's own patches to the system," he said.

"Unfortunately Welchi is not perfect and will create some additional problems."

He said the Welchi/Nachi worm could cause problems because it was untested, installed itself automatically, had the potential to cause compatibility problems and created lots of unwanted net traffic.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...gy/3163001.stm


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The Hidden Dangers Of Documents
Mark Ward

Your Microsoft Word document can give readers more information about you than you might think. Even Alastair Campbell has fallen foul of the
snippets of invisible data few of us realise our documents contain.

Usually with Microsoft Word, what you see is what you get.

If you make a change to a document, then that is what you see when it gets printed out.

But in fact, in many cases it is what you cannot see at first glance that proves more interesting.

Hidden and dangerous

Analysis of hidden information in the so-called Iraq "dodgy dossier" showed, among other things, the names of the four civil servants who worked on it.

Downing Street press office head Alastair Campbell had to explain who these people were to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee investigating the genesis of the plagiarised document.

"The time when most information tends to leak is when you are using a document that has a number of revisions or a number of people working on it," says Nick Spenceley, founder director of computer forensics firm Inforenz.

The UK government has now largely abandoned Microsoft Word for documents that become public and has turned to documents created using Adobe Acrobat which uses the Portable Data Format (PDF).

"I'm not sure many people check Word documents before they go out or are published," says Mr Spenceley.

He says he knows of a case in which someone found previous versions of an employment contract buried in the Word copy he was sent. Reading the hidden extras gave the person applying for the job a big advantage during negotiations.

Sometimes the mistakes are even more public.

During the hunt for the Washington sniper the police allowed the Washington Post to publish a letter sent to the police that included names and telephone numbers.

HIDDEN TEXT

Text from other documents open at the same time
Previously deleted text
E-mail headers and server information
Printer names
Data about the machine where the document was written
Where the document was saved
Word version number and document format
Names and usernames of document authors

The newspaper tried to hide these details using black boxes which were easily removed and the sensitive details exposed for all to see.

But it is not just governments, businesses and newspapers that can be embarrassed in this way.

You could be too.

There is a function in many versions of Microsoft Office programs, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, that means that fragments of data (which Microsoft refers to as metadata) from other files you deleted or were working on at the same time could be hidden in any document you save.

This could be embarrassing for any home workers whose colleagues find out that they have been applying for jobs while working at home or being less than complimentary about their co-workers.

With the right tools this hidden data can easily be extracted.

Unix and Linux users can turn to tools such as Antiword and Catdoc to turn the document, including its formatting information, into a simple text file.

Computer researcher Simon Byers has conducted a survey of Word documents available on the net and found that many of them contain sensitive information.

He gathered about 100,000 Word documents from sites on the web and every single one of them had hidden information.

In a research paper about the work Mr Byers wrote that about half the documents gathered had up to 50 hidden words, a third up to 500 words hidden and 10% had more than 500 words concealed within them.

The hidden text revealed the names of document authors, their relationship to each other and earlier versions of documents.

Occasionally it revealed very personal information such as social security numbers that are beloved of criminals who specialise in identity theft.

Also available was useful information about the internal network the document travelled through, which could be useful to anyone looking for a route into a network.

Mr Byers wrote that the problem of leaky Word documents is pervasive and wrote that anyone worried about losing personal information might want to consider using a different word processing program.

Alternatively he recommends using utility programs that scrub information from Word documents or following Microsoft's advice about how to make documents safer.

"Microsoft is aware of the functionality of metadata being stored within Word 97 documents and would advise users to follow the instructions laid out in [the Microsoft Knowledge Base - see Related Internet Links ]," says a spokesperson. "However, Microsoft do not wish to comment on how customers use the functionality within our software."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3154479.stm


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International Net Traffic Growing

A study released this week by TeleGeography, a research division of PriMetrica, Inc., forecasts 67 percent growth in international Internet traffic this year. The new findings are the result of the industry's first systematic research on international Internet traffic, based on primary data collected from major backbone operators during early 2003.

TeleGeography's new research also reveals how "full" today's Internet backbones are. "Traffic on international links averages only 10 to 30 percent of the available Internet bandwidth," according to Alan Mauldin, Senior Research Analyst at PriMetrica. "However, backbone operators must have sufficient capacity available during the Internet's busiest periods so that peak utilization does not reach levels that degrade network performance."

The data also reveal that the growth of international traffic corresponds well to increases in Internet capacity.

"New Internet capacity deployments appear to be driven by reason, rather than optimism," says Mauldin. Capacity growth, however, is hardly uniform among providers. While some providers have bulked up their networks in response to traffic demand, others have reduced or eliminated capacity on underutilized links.
http://www.boardwatch.com/document.asp?doc_id=38949


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Fuji Unveils 0.8in Hard Disk
Tony Smith

Japan's Fuji Electric this month revealed the latest development in the ongoing shrinkage of hard disks: the 2cm (0.8in) platter.

The current standard in micro disks is the 2.5cm (1in) platter.

Drives based on the platter are already in development, Fuji said, though commercial products are still some way off. Fuji expects them to be used in handheld devices like cellphones and PDAs, which have traditionally been drive-less products.

Each platter is fractionally larger than 2cm and just 0.4mm thick. The magnetic medium Fuji is using provides a data density of 80Gb per square inch, allowing the disk to offer an unformatted capacity of 6GB.

That's more than today's affordable solid-state memory cards can provide, but Fuji believes that's still not enough to persuade manufacturers to use the device in place of memory cards, according to a Nikkei Electronics Asia report. It claims that the demand for high-capacity cards will have driven memory card vendors to offer that sort of capacity by the time Fuji can bring its disk to market.

There's another problem: as it stands, the drive records data longitudinally, which has a limit of 200Gb per square inch, Fuji said. It wants to develop a version using a perpendicular recording system, which should boost the data density to 400Gb per square inch, allowing the company to offer 30GB disks - much more competitive with Flash-based storage products.

Fuji reckons it will take three or more years yet to make that change and to design and develop the equipment needed to mass-produce the disks.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/32444.html


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Net Music Pirate Faces Years In Prison
John Borland

The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that it accepted a guilty plea in a criminal copyright case involving the former leader of a Net music piracy group called the Apocalypse Crew.

The defendant in the case, 21-year-old Mark Shumaker, faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and a maximum fine of $250,000. Shumaker helped coordinate the supply and release of albums online before they hit retail stores and ran the Apocalypse Crew's Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel, federal investigators charged.

"This plea shows that those who steal copyrighted music from artists and believe they are doing so anonymously on the Internet are sadly mistaken," U.S. attorney Paul McNulty said in a statement. "We can find you, we will find you, and we will prosecute you."

Shumaker's case, part of the long-running Operation Buccaneer federal antipiracy investigations, is believed to be the first involving criminal penalties specifically for online music trading, a Department of Justice spokeswoman said. Buccaneer has targeted many other individuals, however, and has resulted in more than 22 convictions of felony copyright infringement involving software piracy groups such as Drink or Die, prosecutors said.

Raymond Griffiths, an Australian computer user alleged to be a leader of Drink or Die, is the subject of extradition requests from the U.S. government. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on all the charges against him.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which is in the process of issuing subpoenas for the identities of individual file swappers as a prelude to filing civil copyright infringement suits, welcomed news of the guilty plea.

"The theft of music on the Internet is a serious crime, and this action shows that the Justice Department means business," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "Those who egregiously distribute music on the Internet should take note--federal prosecution and jail time are real possibilities."

Shumaker will be sentenced in federal court on Nov. 7.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5066894.html

[JackSpratts]

New Euro Law Could Make Criminals Of Us All
Rupert Goodwins

Welcome, European citizen, to a new world of criminality -- a world where you’re the star. The IP Enforcement Directive, a proposed new law from the EU, has been attracting some attention from the usual quarters. In particular, the sainted Ross Anderson of Cambridge University has rolled out a masterly analysis of the threat to many of our accepted civil liberties and commercial freedoms. Yet even a cursory readthrough reveals much to be worried about.

The proposal is a hefty document with no shortage of long sentences. A third of the way through the 54 pages, we’ve learned that piracy and counterfeiting is bad and that different states have different ways of dealing with it -- also bad. So far, who’s arguing? But the solution proposed is to criminalise many civil infringements and to back that up with thudding great powers spring-loaded in favour of the big guys.

By page 20, we’re into the meat. Impressed by the UK’s Anton Pillar orders -- where your premises can be searched and documents and computers seized without warning -- the proposal seeks to make this a standard European-wide process for intellectual property rights infringements. This is to be backed by freezing of bank accounts and other assets. You can do this now in the UK and many states with legislation based on English law, but it’s a fairly rare procedure. Making it the backbone of new law will widen its scope tremendously: you only have to look at the way the RIAA in the US is throwing everything into all-out legal war with its customers to imagine how certain people would behave with this arrow in their quiver.

The really nasty bit comes in Article 21, which creates legal protection for ‘technical systems’ intended to protect and authenticate products. That’s stuff like the hologram on your credit card and Microsoft licence document, and things like RFID tags. The protection for these systems includes outright bans on the creation, selling and use of equipment that can interfere with their operation -- either by letting you clone the authentication devices, or blocking their use. As with the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), this can be extended to the act of analysing how the systems work.

It’s hard to over-emphasise how much power this will give to established manufacturers, and how difficult it will be for anyone to compete in their spheres of influence. Ask yourself whether DVD region locks and smart ink-jet cartridges have been used to benefit the consumer, or whether they’ve been used to keep prices up and choice down: now, imagine the same power of control being given to any manufactured goods.

You want to change the tyres on your 2006 model Ford Prefect? Anything other than genuine Ford tyres -- with the genuine Ford ID chip -- will disable your car. Your Sony MP3-playing nasal hair trimmer will only work with genuine Sony batteries: don’t even think about trying to make alternatives, because that’ll make you a criminal. And no, you can’t buy those jeans -- the RFID chip in the label says they’re only for sale in America. By the way, the same RFID chips on the clothes you are allowed to buy may well be radiating all manner of things about your location: you’re not allowed to find out for yourself, as possession of an unlicensed receiver is a criminal act.

This wholesale criminalisation of anything that might be at risk of contravening IPR goes deep. If you go busking and play a Beatles song, you should pay a few pence to whoever owns the rights: it’s impracticable and pointless, and however much you may be in pain from yet another awful warbling of Yesterday nobody suffers from the minor civil infringement of the rules. In the brave new world of the Directive, singing that song in public with your hat on the floor would be a crime, if you didn’t pay the dues. You can imagine how much the police are going to enjoy having to cope with that.

By effectively conflating counterfeiting and piracy and criminalising large rafts of IP abuse, the proposal creates legal weaponry of extraordinary power and range while making targets of us all. The FAQ issued with the proposal touches on this, claiming that proportionality -- making the punishment fit the crime -- is part of the plan. But this appears to be left to the companies concerned: the FAQ stating piously that “it is not in the interest of rightholders to spend a lot of time and money in litigation to catch offenders who are simply sharing a few files with a handful of friends,” for example. Yeah, tell that to the Americans.

And we know how companies love to use anything in their power to block the open market and extract as much money from us as possible. They have to -- it’s called maximising return on investment, and it’s quite possible that any company that doesn’t use the new law to its fullest extent will be open to legal action from its shareholders. The fiat of big business runs all the way through the directive. They have the power, the motivation and the money to lobby intensively at the highest level for their own benefit, while the consumers and citizens of the EU are individuals, unorganised, unaware and unmotivated.

The EU, like any government, has a duty to balance the powers and rights of individuals and companies in order to promote the best environment for us all. In the case of this directive, it is not doing its job. The directive goes before the European Parliament on 11 September -- a masterpiece of timing for a controversial measure -- so if you care, make sure your MEP knows what’s going on and what you think about it. All property may not be theft, but on this basis intellectual property is verging on thought crime.
http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/rupertgoo...9115479,00.htm


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Texting Blamed For Summer Movie Flops
Andrew Gumbel

In Hollywood, 2003 is rapidly becoming known as the year of the failed blockbuster, and the industry now thinks it knows why.

No, the executives are not blaming such bombs as The Hulk, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle or Gigli on poor quality, lack of originality, or general failure to entertain. There's absolutely nothing new about that.

The problem, they say, is teenagers who instant message their friends with their verdict on new films - sometimes while they are still in the cinema watching - and so scuppering carefully crafted marketing campaigns designed to lure audiences out to a big movie on its opening weekend.

"In the old days, there used to be a term, 'buying your gross,' " Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax, told the Los Angeles Times. "You could buy your gross for the weekend and overcome bad word of mouth, because it took time to filter out into the general audience."

But those days are over, because the technology of hand-held text-message devices has drastically cut down the time it takes for movie- goers to tell their friends that a heavily promoted summer action movie is a waste of time and money.

Five years ago, when summer movies were arguably just as bad as they are now, the average audience drop-off between a film's opening weekend and its second weekend was 40 per cent. This summer, it has been 51 per cent. In some cases, the drop-off has started between the film's opening on a Friday night and the main screenings on Saturday. The upshot: unsuccessful films disappearing from cinemas so fast that there is no time for second opinions.

A 56 per cent drop over the first week of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was not what the studio moguls had expected. As Arnold Schwarzenegger himself might say, hasta la vista, baby.
http://news.independent.co.uk/digita...p?story=434778


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Your Mobile Called Me Names
AP

SYDNEY: Remember those classroom taunts of 'fatso,' 'elephant ears' or worse? Imagine those taunts being circulated around cyberspace for thousands to see.

Children in Australia are taking school-yard bullying to new, high- tech levels, with cell phone text messages and e-mails replacing the traditional note-passing and name-calling, a parents group said on Thursday.

Cyberbullying can be just as hurtful, allowing children to circulate cruel rumours about their victims more widely than ever, said Sharryn Brownlee, president of the New South Wales state parent and Citizens Federation.

“The days of the nasty scribbled note could be over,” she said. “(cyberbullying) is prevalent because it's fairly repetitive, because it's so easy with new technology.”
After surveying 40 classrooms across Australia's most populous state, the federation found that while bullying was more common in affluent areas or at schools where the students had access to cell phones and computers, it was on the rise everywhere.

“It's more widely spread and more noticeable,” she said. “We're certainly seeing new technology bringing it into the fore.”

Cyberbullying was most common among 12 to 14 year olds, and boys were bullied just as much as girls, she said.

One thing hasn't changed - a child's ability to find the sore spot of their playground opponents.

“They say something about your masculinity or your physique, all the areas adolescents are sensitive about,” says Brownle.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow?msid=132342


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Internet Group Questions Music-Industry Subpoenas
Andy Sullivan

Criticism of the recording industry's anti-piracy campaign increased on Monday as a high-tech trade association said it was worried that its members could be forced to police the Internet for illegal song copying.

NetCoalition, which represents hundreds of small Internet providers as well as larger firms such as Yahoo Inc. YHOO.O and DoubleClick Inc.DCLK.O , sent a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America asking pointed questions about its campaign to track down and sue thousands of Internet users who copy songs without permission.

The letter comes as the RIAA faces a mounting backlash from those who worry that the industry is overreaching in its efforts to stop the trading of its copyrighted songs over "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa.

Last week a U.S. judge ruled that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology does not have to reveal the names of suspected song copiers because the subpoenas were filed in Washington, not a regional court. The RIAA said on Monday it would file the subpoenas again in the proper venue.

Large Internet providers, consumer advocates and some lawmakers have worried that the RIAA's campaign could strip away user privacy and open the floodgates to a wave of frivolous copyright investigations.

In its letter, NetCoalition said small Internet providers are worried that they would be forced to police their customers' online behavior and bear the costs of tracking down those who may have traded copyrighted material.

The group asked the RIAA how it identifies suspects, how it determines whether its suspicions have merit, and if it intends to pay Internet providers for their troubles.

"What we're trying to do is determine whether this is a legitimate legal exercise, or whether it's a media campaign to scare Internet users into doing what the RIAA wants," executive director Kevin McGuiness said.

A RIAA spokesperson said the trade group would be happy to meet with NetCoalition to discuss its concerns and dispel some of the "gross inaccuracies" contained in the letter, but did not elaborate.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle....toryID=3258721


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DVD-Recorder Bargains Spark Video Piracy: Study
Jack Kapica

Dropping prices for DVD recorders is spawning a boom in video piracy, which the entertainment industry estimates costs almost $1-billion (U.S.) in potential sales.

That figure appeared in a study released today in Santa Clara, Calif., by Macrovision Corp., a maker of copy protection technologies for the video, music and software industries. The level of displaced revenue amounts to nearly 5 per cent of the $20.6-billion (U.S.) home video industry in the United States, Macrovision said.

The study blames the losses on a lack of comprehensive application of copy protection, such as Macrovision makes and is used in movies, music videos and other video material released on DVD and videocassettes.

The study — the third made by the company this year — shows that more than 25 per cent of respondents admitted to attempting to make copies of prerecorded video content in the previous 12 months, primarily non-copy protected titles they would otherwise have rented (50 per cent) or purchased (30 per cent), amounting to approximately $1-billion in unrealized retail revenues.

"The video rights owners are determined to prevent the financial damage that digital piracy has inflicted on the music industry," Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group vice-president Carol Flaherty said.

"Additional digital rights management technologies, available now or in advancing stages of development, support that objective. The technologies provide options for consumers to make limited numbers of copies when permitted by content rights owners; they support the concept of using an authentic DVD to access other desirable content and features over the Internet, and they further help control illicit peer-to-peer file sharing."

Taylor Nelson Sofres Intersearch and Understanding & Solutions Ltd. conducted 3,066 interviews in the United States in July to collect data for the survey.
Revenue losses relating to home copying in Western Europe are close to those in the United Sates, the Macrovision study said, with losses between $779-million to $1.25-billion.

Western Europe's VCR household base is about 20 per cent larger than in the United States, but has a 20 to 25 per cent lower DVD penetration. The European survey results suggest moderately higher home copying trends among European consumers, the study said.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...gy/?mainhub=GT


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Blackout Leaves Most Appliances Unhurt
AP

Power returning after a blackout can do lasting harm to appliances and electronics, but there were only scattered reports of damage Monday, the first full workday after the Northeast outage.

Harry Persad at Superior Same Day Appliance, a New York repair shop, said he had taken a number of calls from people with broken refrigerators.

"You would expect appliances to get ruined if the voltage is not right," he said.

Some appliances and electronics controlled by software were also acting up because the power outage wiped their memories. Jay Taylor, who answers the phone for a number of service companies, said quite a few callers needed help with burglar alarms.

Computers were hit with related problems. The sudden loss of power prevented them from going through normal shutdown routines, and some had problems getting going again.

After the outage, "We were running around from one existing client or new client to another," said Jim Greenfield, regional director of Computer Troubleshooters, based in Manhattan.

Mel Olken, editor-in-chief at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Power and Energy magazine, said the blackout was probably less damaging than a large thunderstorm. Lightning can send spikes of electricity through wires, burning out delicate devices. The power fluctuations just before and after the blackout were the reverse - drops in voltage.

However, low voltage for a sustained period can damage appliances with electric motors, like air conditioners and refrigerators, Olken said.

"When a motor starts, it drains the system of nearly six times the normal current," he said. When power is restored to a particular area, the effect of thousands of motors starting up at once can depress voltage considerably.

Utilities had recommended customers to turn off appliances during the blackout to minimize this startup effect.

Mr. Olken cautioned that surge protectors, which can be useful in protecting against lightning, are no help against power dips.

Utilities do not accept liability for damaged equipment, but homeowner's insurance often does.

Alejandra Soto, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group, said there was still no estimate of the insured costs of the outage, but it would likely be much lower than the $2-million (U.S.) in electrical damage incurred in New York City in its 1977 blackout.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...ry/Technology/


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Blackout Sinks Cdn. Album Sales
John Williams

With the large Ontario market left in the dark by last Thursday's blackout, it meant lights out for album sales in Canada this week.

Retail sales were down 5 per cent across Canada, with a majority of the low figures felt in Ontario, which was down more than 10 per cent, according to data compiled by Neilsen SoundScan.

Evanescence's "Fallen" held onto the top spot on the album charts on sales of just 8,700, holding off a second-place debut from country star Alan Jackson and his new compilation "Greatest Hits Vol. 2," which managed 8,600 in sales.

The "Bad Boys II" (7,500) soundtrack, Sean Paul's "Dutty Rock" (6,600), Beyonce's "Dangerously In Love" (4,700), and Norah Jones's "Come Away With Me" (4,500) all saw decreases in sales this week, and all fell one position to third, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

Linkin Park's "Meteora" (4,400) and Shania Twain's "Up!" (4,150) both bucked the trend and increased their sales from last week, although both albums remained unchanged in the seventh and eighth spots.

50 Cent's "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" (4,100) sank from sixth to ninth, and the "Lizzie McGuire" soundtrack, newly released to video stores, jumped from No. 22 to the 10th spot.

Other notable debuts included Dashboard Confessional's "A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar" at No. 11, and the "Freddy vs. Jason" soundtrack way back at No. 69.

In the U.S., Alan Jackson debuted at No. 1, followed by Dashboard Confessional, the "Bad Boys II" soundtrack, Evanescence, and Beyonce.

Here are the 10 best-selling albums in Canada, according to Nielsen SoundScan:

1. EVANESCENCE -- "FALLEN" (8,700)
2. ALAN JACKSON -- "GREATEST HITS VOL. 2" (8,600)
3. VARIOUS -- "BAD BOYS II OST" (7,500)
4. SEAN PAUL -- "DUTTY ROCK" (6,600)
5. BEYONCE -- "DANGEROUSLY IN LOVE" (4,700)
6. NORAH JONES -- "COME AWAY WITH ME" (4,500)
7. LINKIN PARK -- "METEORA" (4,400)
8. SHANIA TWAIN -- "UP!" (4,150)
9. 50 CENT -- "GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN'" (4,100)
10. VARIOUS ARTISTS -- "LIZZIE MCGUIRE OST" (4,000)

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/aug20_chartstory-can.html


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United Online Blossoms in No-Frills ISP Market

The company, which owns NetZero, Juno and BlueLight, thrives by offering dial-up service at a bargain price.
Michael Liedtke

Selling dial-up Internet access may seem like a dying business, as waves of Web surfers defect from leading Internet service providers America Online, MSN and EarthLink.

But there's a vibrant dial-up market blossoming below the industry leaders as computer users flock to no-frills access for less than $10 per month.

The growth has inspired dozens of ISPs to elbow into the bargain market, some charging less than $5 a month. But no company is benefiting more from the trend than United Online Inc.

United, based in Westlake Village, is attracting new customers almost as quickly as AOL is losing them. It is the owner of bargain-priced ISPs NetZero, Juno and BlueLight and has added 840,000 subscribers in the year ended in June — while AOL's U.S. service has decreased by 1.2 million customers.

Meanwhile, EarthLink lost 201,000 dial-up subscribers and MSN shed about 100,000.

With 2.55 million subscribers, United Online still lags the industry heavyweights.

America Online has nearly 10 times as many U.S. subscribers. And EarthLink has 4.87 million subscribers, about 3.9 million of them dial-up customers.

MSN, which like AOL doesn't break down dial-up and broadband, had 8.6 million subscribers for the same period ended June 30.

United Online's growth produced a $21-million profit during the first half of this year and ignited a hot stock that has mushroomed 16-fold since the September 2001 marriage between NetZero and Juno that created the company. On Friday, shares of United Online closed up 31 cents at $34.29 on Nasdaq.

Management predicts the boom will continue, with another 400,000 to 600,000 subscribers joining one of its discount ISP plans next year.

"We want to serve the masses in a way that makes them happy and keeps us profitable," said Mark Goldston, United Online's chief executive.

He's not after the defectors of major dial-up providers who are migrating to broadband service. Instead, United Online is wooing AOL, MSN and EarthLink customers who want to trim their expenses without giving up unlimited Internet access.

The bargain ISP market appears poised for further growth as more low-income households buy their first computers and connect to the Internet.

An estimated 16.1 million households with Internet access — about one-fourth of the market — earn less than $35,000, according to IDC, a technology research firm. By 2006, IDC projects 29.1 million Internet households, or about one-third the market, will have annual incomes less than $35,000.

With that price-conscious market in mind, United Online is trying to build the Internet's version of Southwest Airlines Inc. — a frugal business with a decent, low-price service that pressures rivals.

United Online's bare-bones approach still turns off plenty of people.

Those who dislike NetZero and Juno complain of obnoxious ads, frequent disconnections and customer service headaches. Unlike the premium services, United Online charges its customers $1.95 per minute to talk to customer service representatives.

United Online's success has vindicated Goldston, who came to NetZero in 1999 determined to create a free ISP supported by streaming ads.

The concept flopped, resulting in $312 million in losses during NetZero's first three years. To survive the dot-com shakeout, Goldston orchestrated a merger between NetZero and former rival Juno.

Investors were so turned off by the combination that the stocks of NetZero and Juno both fell below $1 per share.

"We were seen as two skunks trying to breed a mink," Goldston recalls.

Goldston saw the deal through and reduced expenses by laying off about half the workforce, leaving United Online with 460 employees today. He also began to emphasize the low-priced subscription service while continuing to offer a limited amount of free access.

United Online still has about as many nonpaying users as subscribers, but the company no longer spends much supporting the free service, just $12.6 million in the company's most recent fiscal year ended in June.

Meanwhile, United Online collected $248 million from its subscribers in its last fiscal year, up from $6.7 million two years ago.

Because United Online initially was built to support a free Internet service, a big chunk of the fees is falling to the company's bottom line.

It's a business that Goldston predicts his rivals won't be able to copy: "To do it, they would have to blow their companies up, which they are more than welcome to do."
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...nes-technology


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Consumer Fights Subpoena Seeking File Sharers' Names
Jon Healey

After serving Internet providers with more than 1,000 subpoenas demanding the names and addresses of people who share copyrighted music online, the Recording Industry Assn. of America has run into someone who wants to fight for her anonymity.

The woman is a Verizon Internet Services customer accused of offering copyrighted songs on a file-sharing network for others to download free. The woman, who has hired a lawyer to contest a subpoena, apparently is the first to try to prevent her identity from being disclosed to the record companies' trade association.

People identified through the subpoenas are likely to be targets for the copyright-infringement lawsuits the RIAA plans to file in its campaign against music piracy.

The trade group's subpoenas have been resisted by some Internet providers but not, until now, by the customers whose anonymity the RIAA wants to penetrate. Because Internet providers aren't required to notify people about subpoenas, many might not be aware they're targeted.

Sarah Deutsch, associate general counsel for Verizon Communications Inc., said the company — which unsuccessfully challenged two early RIAA subpoenas — has notified all customers whose names have been sought by the RIAA. One retained an attorney, Daniel Ballard of McDonough Holland & Allen in Sacramento, who asked Verizon not to comply with the subpoena because he planned to contest it.

Verizon didn't reveal the woman's name, Deutsch said, and the RIAA last week asked a federal judge in Washington to compel Verizon to identify her.

Ballard said he planned to respond by challenging the constitutionality of the RIAA subpoena process on grounds that it has violated people's rights to privacy and due process.

Verizon made the same case when it tried to block RIAA subpoenas this year, and a federal judge rejected the argument.

The RIAA motion to force Verizon to honor the subpoena demanding the woman's name raises new questions about whether individuals have the right to intervene to protect privacy and how they might justify quashing a subpoena.

"This type of issue will go beyond pure copyright law to important questions of due process and consumer rights," Deutsch said.

Matthew Oppenheim, the RIAA's senior vice president of business and legal affairs, defended the group's strategy.

"From our perspective, we are on target, and if people think that suits aren't coming, they should wake up," he said.

At least five Internet providers — SBC Communications Inc.'s Pacific Bell Internet Services, Columbia University, Boston University, Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — have fought the subpoenas by contending that they weren't properly served. Last week, a federal judge in Massachusetts agreed with Boston College and MIT, quashing four subpoenas.

The RIAA subpoenas were issued by a federal court clerk in Washington, and federal rules say subpoenas can't be issued more than 100 miles outside a court's territory, said Robert B. Smith, associate general counsel at Boston University.

"We're willing to give them the name, rank and serial number of anyone who's violating their copyrights," he said, "but they have to do it right."
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...nes-technology


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PS2 Peer-To-Peer Software Released

MultiTerm releases a peer-to-peer middleware application for the PlayStation 2.

Japanese software developer MultiTerm has released a peer-to- peer (P2P) program for the PlayStation 2 called the MassPlayerSystem Dynalink for the PlayStation2. The program consists of a P2P module and a matching lobby module and comes with network code that connects users to each other. MassPlayerSystem Dynalink for the PlayStation2 is a middleware program designed for use in network games published by companies that license the software, and it's not meant for direct use by consumers for the same purposes as PC peer-to-peer applications, such as file sharing. MultiTerm states that its P2P library will help companies avoid having to invest massive funds toward servers and connections for game services, by utilizing the consumer's consoles and lines.

MultiTerm specializes in developing networking utilities and libraries for video games. The company is known for its online game server middleware MassPlayerSystem PlayerServer, which is already available for the PlayStation2 and the GameCube. This server package allows the user's console to act as a server, and it can be used in conjunction with the new P2P library.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/news/news_6073683.html


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Marching To A Different DRM
Alan S. Horowitz

The Internet, one of the greatest innovations of the 20th century, has sparked massive change in industries around the globe. New forms of communication like e-mail and instant messaging have shaken up postal systems, for example, and new ways of selling products and services have transformed the travel and auction sectors, among other areas.

Perhaps no industry was as blindsided by the power of the Internet as the music business. With the rise of Napster, users and senders suddenly could transmit songs and albums across the world at no cost -- and at no profit to content owners, such as music labels and recording artists. This shift from a tightly controlled distribution system to a virtual free-for-all was rapid, irrevocable and reportedly devastating to industry revenue, if you believe the arguments of record label executives.

Technology wars typically have pitted corporations against each other: Microsoft vs. IBM, Microsoft vs. Netscape, Dell vs. Hewlett-Packard, Motorola vs. Nokia. By contrast, the conflict involving the music industry is arguably unique and vastly riskier: Vendors are attacking their own customers, engaging in an epic war of ill-will. Music labels claim their customers are ripping them off; in retaliation, customers claim the labels are not giving them what they want. Declining music sales should not be blamed on the rise of free file-sharing, they argue, but rather on a dearth of good music and viable legal alternatives to piracy.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that the music industry is fighting back against free distribution of copyrighted works; any copyright owner would be wise to do so. However, rather than hitting back with marketable competing products or services, the record labels have turned to the legal system. In what turned out to be merely a warning shot across the bow, they drove Napster out of business through legal challenges. But much to the labels' chagrin, their lackluster online offerings continued to lose out to free peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

Now, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has turned to suing individual file swappers, although it has stated it will target only the most egregious offenders. Still, lawsuits are not a permanent solution to the piracy problem, and they have the potential to create a consumer backlash.

Therefore, record labels, along with movie studios and other intellectual property holders, are exploring ways to protect their assets while still satisfying customers. One technological approach that likely will play a vital role in the future of online content goes by the somewhat cumbersome name of DRM, or digital rights management.

In a nutshell, DRM technology defines users' rights to digital content, allowing content owners to limit who sees what and when, what can be changed, what can be viewed for a certain price, what can be distributed to whom, and what can be printed, copied or forwarded.

"DRM ... manages access to a resource, such as a movie or music work, according to conferred rights," Mark Baugher, technical leader in Cisco Systems' Internet Technologies division, told the E-Commerce Times.

However, the technology is still far from foolproof. In fact, Gartner research director Ray Wagner noted that the music industry has failed to come up with a workable standard so far, although it has been trying for a few years. "No digital rights management capability for consumers has ever shown the promise of being absolutely unbreakable, and most of the ones that have come out have been broken relatively quickly," he told the E-Commerce Times.

For example, he said, a little more than a year ago, the industry tried to prevent illegal copying of CDs by making them readable only on a standard CD player and not a computer CD-ROM drive. However, this method was quickly thwarted by the discovery that drawing a circle around the outside of the disk with a black felt-tip marker defeated the copy-protection mechanism.

However, all is not bleak on the DRM front for content owners. Last April, an event occurred that may prove seminal in hindsight. "If I had to pick a DRM watershed event, it's the iPod with iTunes," VeriSign principal scientist Thomas Hardjono told the E-Commerce Times, referring to Apple's move to sell songs over the Internet for 99 U.S. cents each, and $9.99 for most albums.

"It's a watershed because it has shown the record labels, who are used to making a lot of money out of a CD, there's an alternative business model," Hardjono said. "The labels used to accuse the peer-to-peer networks of killing the legitimate music business. Apple has shown there's a middle way. If you make it easy enough and cheap enough, it will sell."

Apple's iTunes service does use DRM technology -- for example, users may not e-mail downloaded music files to one another, although they may burn unlimited copies of files to CDs. Still, the company's approach is far less restrictive than that of its competitors. Many of those rivals charge monthly subscription fees, restrict the number of times a downloaded file can be burned to CD, or make downloaded files inaccessible if a user's subscription expires. Apple does none of those things.

While it remains to be seen if consumers will accept DRM or reject it as too restrictive, companies are forging ahead with this technology, even beyond the online music arena. Earlier this year, for example, Sony and Royal Philips purchased a company called InterTrust, which owns several DRM patents and technologies, and took it private.

As Hardjono noted: "Sony and Microsoft want to own the center of home entertainment, such as what your cable and computer plug into. Xbox and PlayStation are the platforms they will use." The idea is that if a user purchases a song, an e-book, a movie or other content over the Internet, that content will be encrypted to one of those boxes. The box will be the control center, and whoever owns the box -- that is, the company -- will have some control over the content.

On another front, Microsoft's Windows Media Player and RealNetworks' RealOne Player also are dueling to determine whose technology will become the standard for online streaming media. As Gartner's Wagner noted: "There appears to be a large amount of possible profit at stake. Real is suggesting that Microsoft is boxing them out because they have an operating system monopoly. It's similar to the Netscape-Internet Explorer wars in the late '90s."

All of this jockeying for position shows that DRM is still a new and evolving technology, without standards and major profit centers. However, that is likely to change in the next two or three years -- and the battles that result when real money is at stake, both among companies and between companies and their customers, could make the IBM vs. Microsoft battle seem rather tame.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31387.html


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Earth Station 5 Declares War Against The Motion Picture Association of America
Press Release

FREE Music, FREE Movies, FREE Software and Now FREE Sex Being Beamed By Earthstation 5 to the Humans for Free

In response to the email received today from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to Earthstation 5 for copyright violations for streaming FIRST RUN movies over the internet for FREE, this is our official response!

Earthstation 5 is at war with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Record Association of America (RIAA), and to make our point very clear that their governing laws and policys have absolutely no meaning to us here in Palestine, we will continue to add even more movies for FREE.

ES5 (http://www.es5 .com) does not require any signups, registration, credit cards and/or any other personal information to watch the first rate streamed movies like TERMINATOR 3, BRUCE ALMIGHTY, MATRIX RELOADED, etc. Our secure software protect our users who use our P2P application and there is nothing that you can do to stop us, says Ras Kabir, president of Earthstation 5 (http:/www.earthstation5 .com).

"File-sharers world-wide are learning that our Earthstation 5 software hides the identities of its users and their IP addresses so they can now freely share their music and movies online without the threat of a lawsuit from the RIAA and/or the MPAA," said Kabair. "Unlike Kazaa and other P2P programs who subsequently deny building their P2P program for illegal filesharing, ES5 is the only P2P application and portal to actually join its users in doing P2P."

Currently Earthstation 5 has over 15 million active online users at any given moment of the day or night. Earthstation 5 also has a FREE multi-user Voice and Video chat system, FREE Dating system, provides FREE video streaming of first run movies, FREE ten SEX channels, FREE live Sporting events, and will be releasing soon a Voice over IP application providing FREE local and international telephone calls to its users to communicate with each other. Earthstation 5 is currently available in 28 languages and more languages are coming out each week. Earth Station 5 is provided free to its users and can be downloaded at http://www.es5 .com. Earth Station 5 is spyware free, adware free and contains no popups and/or annoying advertising. Earth Station 5 is located both in Gaza and in the Jenin Refugee Camp of Palestine. Ras Kabir's warning to the RIAA and the MPAA, "The next revolution in P2P file sharing is upon you. Resistance is futile and we are now in control".
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...2003,+06:14+AM


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RIAA Lawsuits Appear to Reduce Music File Sharing, According to The NPD Group
Press Release

NPD MusicWatch Digital Shows Steep Decline in Digital Music File Acquisition after Recording Industry Association Lawsuits Were Publicized

According to The NPD Group, the number of households acquiring music files began to decrease in May of 2003, immediately after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) instituted a well-publicized campaign threatening individual file sharers with legal action. NPD's projection of the number of households acquiring music files reached a high of 14.5 million in April of 2003, but in May that number fell to 12.7 million households and declined again in June to 10.4 million households.

On April 24, the RIAA distributed a press release, titled "Judge Decides in RIAA's Favor Again in Verizon Case," which publicized a legal decision that made clear individuals cannot rely on their ISPs to shield them from accountability for illegal file sharing. The decision was widely covered in a variety of media. This media announcement, along with reports of subsequent legal efforts by the RIAA to target individual file sharers, suggest that fear of record industry subpoenas have led many consumers to curtail peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

"Today, file sharing is the most popular method of digital music acquisition," said Russ Crupnick, VP of The NPD Group. "While we can't say categorically that the RIAA's legal efforts are the sole cause for the reduction in file acquisition, it appears to be more than just a natural seasonal decline. This decrease is sharper than the declines we're seeing in the offline retail world. In addition, because the initial drop followed well-publicized legal efforts, there's evidence to show that the RIAA's tactics may be having their desired impact on reducing file sharing among consumers."

NPD MusicWatch Digital reports that total music files acquired per month also dropped from a high of 852 million files in April to 655 million files in June. Conversely, among those consumers who continue to download files, the average number of music files acquired actually increased from 59 in April to 63 in June. According to Crupnick, "Our data suggests that the RIAA's legal tactics have more of an effect on the attitudes and actions of lighter downloaders."

Crupnick concluded, "A near-term decline in file acquisition should hearten music industry executives, because the bulk of this activity can be ascribed to illegal P2P sites; however, it will be interesting to see in the future if these numbers turn upward again, as new paid online music services begin to break through."

Methodology Note: NPD MusicWatch Digital information is collected continuously from the PCs of 40,000 NPD online panelists, balanced to represent the online population of PC users.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/...m&footer_file=


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RIAA Legal Threat Cuts P2P Downloads By 23%
Tony Smith

The campaign launched in May by the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) to target individual music sharers appears to be scaring punters away from file-sharing services, the latest figures from market watcher NPD appear to show.

NPD tracks consumer file-sharing activity. It calculated that 14.5 million US households downloaded music files in April. In May the figure fell to 12.7 million, and dropped to 10.4 million in June, the company said today.

On a statistical note, the figures listed are calculated from the activity of a sample of 40,000 users, NPD said.

In April some 852 million songs were acquired via the Internet. Come June, the figure fell to 655 million. April, says NPD, was a record- setting month, but the fact it doesn't provide a figure for May, suggests the dip was relatively small.

Indeed, the average number of files downloaded per household grew between April and June, from 59 to 63.

The figures suggest that while hard-core downloaders are grabbing ever more tracks for themselves, more casual punters are holding fire.

"Our data suggests that the RIAA's legal tactics have more of an effect on the attitudes and actions of lighter downloaders," said NPD VP Russ Crupnick in a statement. The vast majority of songs downloaded are from P2P services, he added, implying that some at least come from paid-for download services.

Apple launched its Mac-based iTunes Music Service at the end of April, but even its impressive success - 6.5 million songs sold by the end of July - is nowhere near enough to counter the apparent decline between April and June. Similar services aimed at Windows users, such as BuyMusic and Listen.com, are likely to do better, but some have come too late to account for much more of the 197 million fewer songs downloaded between April and June than Apple does.

Certainly we'll need to see July, August and September figures to see whether all those songs that are now not being nabbed for free from P2P services are being paid for at Apple and the other commercial sites.

If the two figures don't match, it will put the nail in the coffin of the argument that punters would pay for music if they could, and confirm the view of the RIAA and its ilk that the only way to stop them is to threaten legal action.

However, a more interesting statistic to see would be the number of sample tracks that punters listen to at the iTunes Music Store, BuyMusic and so on. P2P pundits often claim that Grokster, Kazaa, Morpheus and the like are used more for checking out new music rather than acquiring it free of charge. If that's the case, we'd expect to see the number of sample tracks users are listening to increasing at the same rate that the number of P2P downloads are falling.

Instead of downloading potentially poorly encoded or virally infected files, music fans are choosing to sample music at the 'legitimate' sites before making music download or, more likely, CD purchases.

Such a trend - if it emerges - is both good and bad news for the P2P service providers. Good, because it shows that their users really aren't interested in pirating music, rather in increasing their exposure to new artists and sounds. The bad news is that they prefer to use a clearly above-board service to do so, and not a P2P with its perceived air - rightly or wrongly - of illegitimacy.

If NPD's analysis is correct, and it's the threat of legal action that is keeping punters away from the P2P services, it will be interesting to see what effect the RIAA's pledge not to pursue small-scale downloaders has as it becomes more widely known.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32456.html


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Decreased P2P Download Statistics

The Peer-to-Peer file sharing activity of the consumers seems to have slightly fallen, or so claims the NPD study.

NPD tracks consumer file-sharing activity. It calculated that 14.5 million US households downloaded music files in April. In May the figure fell to 12.7 million, and dropped to 10.4 million in June, the company said today.

But sometimes the statistics can be fooling as...

in April some 852 million songs were acquired via the Internet. Come June, the figure fell to 655 million. April, says NPD, was a record-setting month, but the fact it doesn't provide a figure for May, suggests the dip was relatively small.

Indeed, the average number of files downloaded per household grew between April and June, from 59 to 63.

It could be that the recent and more aggressive actions by RIAA, which have been targeted towards individuals may have scared some P2P-users. Also, corporations may now be more aware of the P2P-usage, and have been monitoring the Internet usage of the employees more closely. One must also take into account that the summer time typically is less active in the Internet, as the northern side of the globe is enjoying the summer vacation season - vacations at least have an impact in web browsing activity.

Well, at least it’s certain that recently there were a number of U.S. citizens that weren’t file sharing due to lack of electricity. Perhaps the blackout was a RIAA plot as well?
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/4388.cfm


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Here’s a less subjective look

Fasttrack User Statistics – Snapshots since April: http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=16779

– Jack.

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Monsters of Rock
Andrew Zolli

Meet the music industry agents that could ruin your downloading career.

Record-label hackers should wipe out the computers of people who swap MP3s. That's the nuclear option Utah senator Orrin Hatch recommends. Meanwhile, peer-to-peer special ops have already begun. The courts have been busy - and are likely to get busier - with Recording Industry Association of America lawsuits. The labels have also quietly contracted elite gray-hat hackers and small computer security companies to thwart music file-sharing. According to one self-described anti-pirate, "It's eye-for-an-eye time." Here are some of the anti-P2P programs and their industry codenames.

Antinode Creates fake "supernodes," signposts used by some file-sharing technologies (Kazaa, for example) to guide users' computers to files. The pseudo-supernodes distribute misleading file information.

Fester Puts the word out on file-sharing networks that RIAA servers have music files for download. The servers redirect users to black hole sites, tying them up indefinitely. Newer P2P clients drop useless connections more quickly, so this approach may already be obsolete.

Freeze Uses an existing bug in P2P clients to remotely "hang" computers hunting for MP3s. The result could be more than mere frustration - unsaved data can be lost during a long hang. It's in development now.

Shame If implemented, would distribute a benign P2P virus in an illegal media file that adds the words "I steal music on the Internet" to a user's email signature. Expect to see that appear as a slogan on T-shirts a few minutes later.

Silence Scans computers on P2P networks for illegal material, hacks into the pirate machine, and deletes the data. One problem: Early versions delete legal MP3s, too.

Suck Scours the Net for large libraries of MP3s, and then starts asking for files. And asking. And asking. Eventually, the requests clog library owners' connections like hair in a pipe - and if the RIAA is using that bandwidth, then nobody else is. As a bonus, this approach generates huge volumes of data traffic, driving up pirates' usage and incurring the wrath of ISPs.

Tattle Recruits other industries. If you have lots of liberated music, chances are you also have a few pieces of software that fell off the back of a truck. Recording industry bots already track online piracy - insiders have suggested the RIAA share that information with the software and movie industries.

UNLEASH THE LAWYERS!
Music labels have aggressively filed lawsuits in defense of copyright. The targets so far:
File-trading companies The labels beat Napster in 1999. Other cases are on appeal.
ISPs The RIAA forced Verizon to identify users trading files in 2002. Verizon appealed.
Search engines Arista sued MP3Board.com in 2000; the case is pending.
Users After settling with four students in 2003, the RIAA plans to sue more individuals.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...art.html?pg=12


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Long-Awaited Telephone Rules Issued
Jeremy Pelofsky

Long-awaited details of controversial U.S. regulations aimed at spurring high-speed Internet service while requiring dominant local telephone companies to keep sharing voice networks with rivals, were released on Thursday.

But the final rules may be settled in court as legal challenges are expected to the Federal

Communications Commission (news - web sites) regulations that were narrowly approved by the agency just over six months ago.

That vote was the scene of a bruising verbal battle between FCC (news - web sites) Chairman Michael Powell, who supported deregulation, and his fellow Republican Commissioner Kevin Martin, who sided with the agency's two Democrats to keep local phone sharing rules.

They did agree to allow BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - news), Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q - news), SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC - news) and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news) deploy fiber-optic networks for services like high-speed Internet service, or broadband, without sharing it with rivals.

SBC President William Daley earlier this week said the company would likely embark on a multi- million dollar spending spree to accelerate its development of fast Internet service in the Midwest if the regulations freed it from sharing the lines -- and therefore its investment -- with rivals.

But MCI, whose legal name is WorldCom Inc. and is in bankruptcy protection, said the new rules could hamper competition in the market for high-speed Internet service.

"The Commission has jeopardized competition in the broadband market -- which we believe will hurt consumers, and ultimately impede local competition," Wayne Huyard, president of MCI Mass Markets division, said in a statement.

With 526 pages of details, it could take weeks for companies to determine the impact on their businesses and court challenges to be prepared. Some even said the new rules could already be outdated.

NETWORK SHARING

On the issue of network sharing, the FCC required the states to determine within nine months whether new carriers still face unfair burdens when competing for local telephone customers and therefore should be able to lease the dominant carrier's network at government-mandated discounted rates.

The regional telephone giants can escape their sharing obligations if any inbalance has ended. The FCC rules also allow the Bells to charge higher lease rates for services if there are more competitors in a market.

"This order achieves a balanced approach that provides substantial regulatory relief for broadband investment, where there is vigorous competition, while preserving and facilitating competition for local residential service," Martin said in a statement.

The market for local telephone service, which companies want to bundle with broadband and long-distance services to maximize profits, has heated up in recent months, with AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) and MCI (Other OTC:WCOEQ - news) using the Bells' networks to scoop up millions of customers.

The Bells have argued that the rules require them to offer their rivals access to the network parts at below-cost prices, which squeezes their profits and stiffens their competition.

"The world is changing so fast that the order may already be outdated," said Tom Tauke, Verizon's senior vice president for public policy and external affairs.

But AT&T and other new local entrants say that without the low rates they would not be able to compete at all.

"Today's order will allow AT&T to continue to serve our existing local customers and to follow through with our plans to expand to other markets," said Robert Quinn, AT&T vice president for federal regulatory affairs.

The five-member FCC also voted 3-2 to require the Bells to share their copper lines with high-speed Internet service providers like Covad Communications (OTC BB:COVD.OB - news), but only if these other companies offer voice services as well.

"The decision has no impact on Covad's business services, which account for the majority of our revenues," Covad Chief Executive Charles Hoffman, said in a statement, adding that its shared lines already in service were protected by the order.

Nevertheless, Covad plans to challenge the rules. (With additional reporting by Jessica Hall in Philadelphia.)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...elecoms_fcc_dc


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New Broadband Rules Draw Criticism
John Borland, Ben Charny

Six months after outlining their plans, federal regulators released details Thursday on controversial new rules that will help shape the future of the high-speed Internet and local telephone markets.

The new regulations, collected in a massive 576-page document, spell out the Federal Communications Commission's vision for competition between the big local phone companies and their rivals in the data and voice telephony markets.

But as a final order, the dense regulations still carry with them a strong sense of uncertainty. Analysts said that competitors on both sides of several issues are likely to challenge many of the elements, and the commissioners themselves evidenced one of the most bitter splits in recent regulatory history over some of the key provisions.

"I am proud to say that we take some vital steps across the desert from the analog world to the digital one," FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who was overruled in some of his key desires for change, said in a statement accompanying the order. "Yet, regrettably, there are some fateful decisions...that I believe represent poor policy and which flout the law."

The massive set of new regulations comes at the end of the regulatory body's Triennial Review process, which was aimed at bringing telecommunications policy into line with modern market realities and stimulating advanced broadband technologies. Regulators have been studying the issues for two years and have been writing the details of Thursday's order for six months.

Commission decisions as written would give the big local phone companies considerable new powers in advanced broadband services, eliminating requirements that they have to share these new networks with potential rivals. But the commission left in place many rules forcing the phone companies to share their existing networks for voice and DSL (digital subscriber line) service, ensuring continued competition in local phone services from companies such as AT&T.

Several telephone companies declined to comment on the order until they had time to study it.

"It took the FCC two years to decide and write the order. We need time to read and understand it," Tom Tauke, senior vice president of Verizon Communications, said in a statement.

Some groups began weighing in almost immediately, however.

AT&T commended the FCC decision in general, but especially for giving state regulators the responsibility for pushing local phone companies to share access to their existing networks with potential rivals.

That was seen by many--including Powell, who wrote a lengthy critique of the local-rule policy–-as code for preserving regulations on local phone companies that allow companies such as AT&T and Sprint to offer their own local policy using the rival networks.

"Today's order will allow AT&T to continue to serve our existing local customers and to follow through with our plans to expand to other markets," Robert Quinn, AT&T vice president, said in a statement.

The Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), a trade group representing rivals to the big former Baby Bell companies, said the commission was making a mistake on giving the big local phone companies exclusive rights to their advanced high-speed networks.

"We are extremely disappointed that portions of the commission's decision may open the door to allow the Bell companies to restore their monopoly over facilities needed to deliver broadband services," Jonathan Askin, ALTS general counsel, said in a statement. "The order throws out the PANS (pretty awesome new stuff) and keeps the POTS (plain old telephone service), essentially sacrificing America's competitive broadband future in order to preserve marginal price differentiation for run-of-the-mill voice telephony."

Askin's group also criticized the commission's decision to phase out "line sharing," a policy that allowed companies such as Covad Communications inexpensive access to phone lines to offer DSL services. He said the group would "explore all its options to reverse these aspects of the order."

Consumer advocates also said they would fight the advanced broadband portion of the order.

"We will be battling to get (the broadband sections of the order) reversed on reconsideration," said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. "Why shouldn't consumers of 21st century communications get the same benefits from competition that millions of wireline consumers already enjoy?"

Perhaps the harshest criticism of the order came from commissioners themselves, however. The five commissioners split differently on separate pieces of the order, and each released statements that took aim at some part of the massive document. This, as much as anything, could be a preface to the legal challenges sure to emerge in the upcoming weeks and months.

"Instead of preserving, protecting and defending competition, the commission has torn away access to the network architectures that undergird broadband competition," said Commissioner Michael Copps, bemoaning the order's intention to give the large phone companies exclusive control of their own future broadband networks. "This is not a brave new world of broadband, but simply the old system of local monopoly dressed up in a digital cloak."
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5066885.html


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New Spin for Electronics
Gary H. Anthes

Imagine a data storage device the size of an atom, working at the speed of light. Imagine a microprocessor whose circuits could be changed on the fly. One minute, it would be optimized for database access, the next for transaction processing and the next for scientific number-crunching.

Finally, imagine a computer memory thousands of times denser and faster than today's memories. And nonvolatile, so it retains its contents when the power is off.

All of these and more are on computing's horizon, thanks to the exploding field of spintronics. Spintronics, from "spin transport electronics," isn't entirely new. The spintronic effect called giant magneto-resistance was introduced by IBM in 1997 in its GMR disk-read head. As a result, disk capacities have jumped by a factor of 100 in the past five years.

Electronic circuits are driven by electron flows, which have a charge that can be measured and controlled. But electrons not only flow; they also spin like tiny bar magnets. Depending on their orientation, the spins are said to be "up" or "down."

This additional variable, or "degree of freedom," means that electrons can do more things and convey more information than they do in conventional electronics. "Spin gives you an additional knob to turn," explains Stuart Wolf, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is funding much of the spintronics research in the U.S.

The most immediate research goal is to produce magnetic random-access memory (MRAM), which stores data using magnetism rather than electrical charges. Unlike the dynamic RAM in your PC, MRAM is nonvolatile.

IBM is working with Munich-based Infineon Technologies AG and says it will have MRAM in production as early as 2005. It will be 50 times faster than DRAM and 10 times denser than static RAM, and it could eventually replace both, says Stuart Parkin, an IBM fellow at the company's Almaden Research Center in San Jose.

Others have even suggested that MRAM might replace disks for data storage. Putting logic and storage in a single chip would eliminate the slow disk I/O that's a bottleneck in most computer processing.

IBM's MRAM will use magnetic tunnel junctions, an application of spintronics in which electrons are allowed to "tunnel" between two ferromagnetic layers based on their spin. Each junction can store one bit. "It promises a sort of universal RAM with very high performance -- high writing and reading speeds -- plus very high density and nonvolatility," Parkin says.

Further out, researchers are working on still more exotic applications of spin. David Awschalom, director of the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is looking at what might be done with the spin of an atom's nucleus, a new idea.

"The subatomic part of the atom would store the information, and the electron would act as the bus to carry information in and out of the nuclear subsystem," Awschalom says.

He aims to build an optical-based information processor in which beams of light would transfer information to the nucleus through electrons. Such nuclear memories would be "many orders of magnitude" denser and faster than traditional semiconductor memories, he says.

Indeed, more broadly, the thrust of spintronics research will be to combine electronics and photonics with magnetism -- which traditionally involves metals -- in semiconductor materials. That will enable ultrafast and ultraefficient submicron devices that integrate computing, communications and storage. The slow interfaces between different materials that convert one kind of signal or property into another would be gone, and the latencies that typically slow the movement of data from one processing stage to another would be greatly reduced.

"You'd have everything integrated in a much simpler circuit," says DARPA's Wolf. "They would be much like existing semiconductor devices, except the current is spin- polarized." That would enable, for example, the construction of very fast communication switches. "You could call it spin photonics," he says. "They can easily operate at terahertz speeds."

A semiconductor device can't use spin until a way is found to get spin-polarized electrons into it, and that has proved difficult. But IBM recently demonstrated that it can use magnetic tunnel junctions to inject the current, as they do for MRAM.

IBM's Parkin says spintronic semiconductors could be used to build reconfigurable logic devices. "So maybe your computer could be optimized for certain instructions by rearranging the way [logic] gates are connected, on the fly," he says.

Another tough challenge has been to create magnetic semiconductors that sustain their spin states at room temperature, but physicists, materials scientists and engineers have made tremendous progress on that front just this year. "We are not quite there yet," Awschalom says. "But it's a rapidly moving field. If you'd asked me a year ago where we'd be today, I would have been largely wrong in my assessment."

The rapid development of spintronics seems likely to continue, says Awschalom. "The theory is in quite sound shape. What's exciting about this field is there are no obvious show-stoppers. There are many challenges, though."
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwar...,83987,00.html


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MSN Messenger Upgrade Blocks Trillian
Jim Hu

Microsoft is forcing people to upgrade to newer versions of its instant messenger application and is shutting its doors to third-party IM products such as Trillian.

As of Oct. 15, users of Microsoft's free Web-based MSN Messenger and its Windows XP-based Windows Messenger will need to upgrade their software to a newer version or be shut out of the service, the software giant said Wednesday. MSN Messenger users will need to upgrade to version 5.0 of higher; Windows Messengers customers will need to upgrade to version 4.7.2009 or higher; and consumers with MSN Messenger for Mac OS X will have to use version 3.5 or higher. The last MSN Messenger to be released was version 6.

According to Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall, "Security issues that could be posed (on older versions) require us to force an upgrade." He declined to detail the security issue, saying disclosure would "put customers at undue risk."

Meanwhile, Oct. 15 also will mark the deadline for Trillian support for MSN Messenger. Trillian is software that integrates multiple IM clients into a common interface. While it doesn't enable IM services to communicate directly with one another, it lets people view all of their buddy lists from various services under one window.

Sundwall said the company is opening doors to discuss contractual agreements with third-party integrators, but he would not give definitive assurances that Trillian users will be able to access their MSN contacts after the deadline.

"We certainly would urge third parties who want to continue (hosting the MSN software) to contact us before Oct. 15 when they will no longer be able to access the network," Sundwall said.

A Trillian representative did not return an e-mail requesting comment.

The policy shift comes as the Federal Communications Commission lifted rules restricting America Online from offering high-speed IM services. Microsoft was one of the most outspoken critics of AOL's IM dominance and was instrumental in lobbying the FCC to impose IM restrictions as part of the AOL-Time Warner merger approval.

MSN Messenger is one of the most widespread IM products on the Internet, along with AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Instant messaging has become popular because it lets people exchange text messages and communicate in real time. MSN and Yahoo have added video conferencing, games and PC phone calling as add-ons to their services, and all three clients allow people to send files or exchange photos.

Microsoft considers IM to be a crucial application because of its popularity among consumers and in the workplace. The company is planning to use IM as the spearhead of its strategy to power corporate Internet networks and eventually offer voice-over-IP services and other real-time communications functions.

While AOL, Yahoo and MSN all have amassed millions of consumers, they have not allowed their services to communicate with one another. A subscriber of Yahoo's IM service, for example, can't chat directly with someone on MSN. This has forced many people to download multiple IM clients onto their computers, and in turn, has allowed the big three providers to flourish alongside each other.

Despite the mutual benefit among the three competitors, relations have not always been harmonious. In 1999, when Microsoft launched MSN Messenger, the company allowed its customers to communicate with AIM users without AOL's consent. This sparked a volley of software blocks and public mudslinging among executives that lasted for months, until Microsoft finally backed down.

But when AOL and Time Warner were undergoing regulatory review in 2000 for their planned merger, Microsoft struck back by aggressively lobbying lawmakers to impose conditions on IM. Microsoft formed a coalition, which included Yahoo and AT&T, that asked regulators to require AOL to set a timeline for opening its network to competitors.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates even called then-FCC Chairman William Kennard to express his concerns over AOL's IM dominance. An AOL representative declined to comment for this story, and a Yahoo spokeswoman did not comment by publication time.

A central part of the FCC's Wednesday ruling argued that AOL's lead in IM has dwindled, while competitors such as MSN and Yahoo have flourished.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5066412.html


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From PC to TV Screen, a Stream of Multimedia
Neil McManus

Your PC is brimming with great photos, MP3's and videos. But your family and friends are glued to the television.

The MediaMVP, a new product from Hauppauge, aims to bridge this gap by fetching media files from your Windows PC and playing them on the TV. The device, to be shipped to stores this month, connects to an Ethernet home network and hooks up to a TV with standard S-video and composite video plugs.

An infrared remote that comes with the MediaMVP allows you to navigate menus on the television screen to select files on the PC, which might be in another room and can be used at the same time for a different purpose. You can build a multimedia slideshow by selecting a list of songs to accompany a folder full of JPEG or GIF images of the nieces and nephews.

If your PC's hard drive holds digital video files in MPEG-2 or MPEG-1 formats, you can use the MediaMVP to watch them on your television. Tap the remote to pause, rewind and fast-forward, TiVo-style.

Behind the scenes, video and other media files are streaming through your home network and being decoded by hardware and software on the MediaMVP for television viewing. Ken Plotkin, chief executive of Hauppage, said that a Wi-Fi-capable version would be available later this year.

In addition, Hauppauge programmers are writing games and instant messaging software for this deceptively simple Linux-based device.

Mr. Plotkin conceded, however, that hackers might beat them to it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/te...ts/21boxx.html


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I've been personally shut down...
Contributed by: Un-Thesis

Apparently I have been subpoenad, personally, on 8-17-2003 by an as-yet unknown entity under the DMCA clause, because of xmule, when it went on to gov'ment radar w/ the e-matters.de alert :P The subpoena lasts, suposedly, until Dec 6, when i must stand infrotn of a federal appellet court

100% of My job is online
100% of My school is online
100% of My friends are online
100% of My hobbies are online

and if i can't use a comptuer at all, they might as well put me in a federal
prison taht allows me to read and purchase any book i want...

As of 7:43AM MST (-7 UTC) my personal internet connection was shut down due to "unacceptable use". It took me 6 hours to finally contact my ISP customer support, a local cable modem provider, because they were swamped with MSBLASTER calls.

I was redirected to a 1800 number who redirected me to some other number, etc, until i finally reached a federal clerk's office in Washington, D.C. who informed me that it *seems* as though I have been personally subpaened by the USA Gov'ment on behalf of the RIAA. They told me that they were limited in their search for information due to the late hour (8PM EDT (-4 UTC)), but that the prosecuting body that issued under hte auspicies of the DMCA and NOT in the same category as the other 8,000+ copyright violation affidavits issued by the RIAA in recent months.

Additional bad news: xmule.org has reached 90% of its allocated monthly bandwidth. It is the 19th. I am very incapable of rectifying this decision w/out knowledgeable outside assistance in the United States (due to telephone communication required). If you can help me set up the other webserver, please contact me at 520-296-3408.

Unless DRASTIC action is taken within the next 48 hours, or my internet connection is restored, xmule.org forums will be permanently shut down until the bandwidth issue can be resolved.

Supposedly, the subpaena was filed on 8-17-2003. For those that know, the e-matters.de published xmule ni its security bulletin, thus, probably, raising us to teh level of teh RIAA's notice for the first time. Since I am the only american developer, and since i am really the only main developer, it seems they struck at the source.

I have not received written or otherwise announcement of the subpaena, and i still do not know the ramifications of my injunction. I may be able to use dialup or even DSL, cable is certainly out, or I may be completely barred form teh internet (this message might be illegal)

At this point i *know* i will need to hire a civil rights attorney, and if I am not liable to a prison sentence, then I might be able to leave the United States to either Mexico or Canada, at which point i will also need money to relocate...So any donations are greatly appreciated. PLEASE use the Amazon donation box, since it requires no online access by me, while paypal erquires a connectino.

I wont' know what my options are until some time tomorrow or later. Development of xMule seems to be the most likely target of me, since I have downloaded very little copyrighted material over the last, o, 6 months. I figured that before i found out i was banned completely from the internet i would send this mesasge...

Keep it real...weclome to the Fourth Reich of Amerika.

Un-Thesis
http://home.regit.org/datas/html/article-xmule.php.html


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Ireland To Trial Broadband Over Power Cables
Tim Richardson

Ireland's electricity company, ESB, is to see whether it can deliver broadband over electric cables as part of a €50 million ($55.76 million) project part-funded by the Irish government.

News of the trial for Tuam, County Galway, was announced yesterday by Dermot Ahern, Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.

In a statement he said: "Powerline communications systems have the potential to provide an alternative broadband infrastructure, which can compete with local fixed telephony, cable, and wireless networks."

However, campaigners for more affordable and widely availabale Net access in Ireland have reserved their judgment amid concerns about the technology itself.

A spokesman for the Ireland Offline lobby group, told The Register: "We welcome any last mile infrastructure but we're unsure of the viability of powerline as a proven technology."

Powerline technology has been around for a number of years and has been trialled in Germany and the US.

In the UK, Scottish and Southern Energy Group has launched commercial trials of broadband through three-pin electrical sockets in Winchester, Hampshire and Stonehaven in Scotland.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/22/32396.html


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World DSL Sales Up, But Revenues Drop
CNET News.com Staff

The worldwide market for digital subscriber line (DSL) equipment witnessed strong growth in the second quarter of 2003, with the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions topping the charts, according to preliminary results from the research firm Gartner.

However, average vendor revenue per port has dropped from $95.9 in the first quarter of 2003 to $84 in the second quarter.

"Cost is clearly the key in the DSL equipment market," Jouni Forsman, principal analyst for Gartner’s telecoms group, said in a statement. "Prices will continue to be challenged. Vendors must continue rolling out increasingly cost-effective equipment, while maintaining future value-added service capability of the platform."

For the third consecutive quarter, DSL gear sales posted record growth. Global sales for DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) ports reached 9.8 million units, up 81.3 percent from a year ago and 16.5 percent over last quarter. Similarly, shipments for customer premise equipment (CPE) increased 59.5 percent compared with last year and 16.2 percent over the last quarter.

Gartner said Japan and North America registered declines in sales growth. "The regulatory situation in the United States is difficult, and the competitive power of cable is strongly felt. Major incumbents are also looking into fiber as a DSL alternative," the research firm said.

Vendors should expect the European and Chinese markets to be the major growth drivers for the next few quarters, the firm added.

"China will continue to increase in importance as an individual key market," said Gauri Pavate, principal analyst at Gartner’s telecom group. "CPE shipments will have to increase to catch up with the installed base of central office (CO) ports, and the unit growth on this side of the business will be stronger than CO in the future."
http://news.com.com/2100-1034-5064505.html


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Airgo To Double Wi-Fi Bandwidth To 108Mbps
Tony Smith

US-based Airgo Networks today began sampling a WLAN chipset it claims can improve the speed, range and reliability of 802.11-based wireless networks.

The part, the AGN100, employs multiple antennae to boost, say, 802.11g from a maximum throughput of 54Mbps to 108Mbps, the company claims. The part also boosts 802.11a and 802.11b.

Testing conducted by Airgo showed the chipset had a range two to six times further than rival WLAN chipsets.

The chipset uses a technique called Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO), developed by Airgo's founders at Stanford University. Essentially, the system spreads traffic across multiple standard- speed WLAN channels, boosting overall performance. Improved signal processing yields the superior range. Spatial multiplexing schemes put the data back together again. Performance increases proportionally with the number of antennae built into the system. MIMO uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), the basis

802.11g, like 802.11a, is itself based on OFDM technology. 802.11b is based on a technique called complementary code keying (CCK). It's not clear whether Airgo's system doubles 802.11b performance - certainly the company only refers to the slower spec. when it's talking about backward compatibility, not boosted performance.

That said, with the market shifting to 802.11g, it arguably makes sense to target that market, particularly since it's the clear choice of buyers willing to pay more for better network performance.

Airgo promises full compatibility with existing 802.11 kit, but it remains unclear whether the higher throughput the company claims its technology offers operates in environments that mix in non-Airgo based products.

The AGN100 comprises the AGN100BB broadband/MAC chip and a companion part, the AGN100RF radio chip. Says Airgo: "The chipset is built with a scalable architecture that allows manufacturers to implement single antenna systems using just one RF chip or increase performance by adding additional RF chips."

In short, to gain the benefits of the multiple antennae, vendors will need to implement extra chips, increasing the cost.

The AGN100 supports draft 802.11e quality of service specifications, and indeed Airgo is touting the technology as the basis for multimedia networks. It is targeting not only WLAN equipment makers, but consumer electronics companies looking to add network functionality to TVs, DVD players, Hi-Fi, game consoles and the like.

Airgo was founded in 2000, and remains privately held. It names Nokia's VC wing as one of its investors. Founders come not only from Stanford University but Clarity Wireless (now owned by Cisco) and Agere.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/32380.html


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Pocket Wi-Fi Sniffers End Missing Hotspot Misery
Jan Libbenga


Road warriors know the frustration: you're in a foreign city and want
to find a Wi-Fi access point. Normally that means looking on the Internet for site directories that can tell you where the nearest hotspots are located, such as WiFinder or WiFiMaps. Most of the time, it's trial and error.

Now, there is a much easier solution. US peripherals maker Kensington has introduced worlds first: a detector that will locate Wi- Fi networks. No more booting up your notebook to find a Wi-Fi signal.

The small device detects 802.11b and 802.11g signals from up to 200 feet away and filters out other wireless signals, including cordless phones, microwave ovens and Bluetooth networks. Three lights indicate signal strength. For $29.95 that's seems a bargain.

However, Wi-Fi Finder is not perfect. There is no display information on the owner of the network or whether the hotspot is commercial, free or private; nor is there any information about the level of security provided (WEP or WPA, for example).

Another US company, WiFisense, based in New York City, has a different approach altogether. Its wearable scanner not only detects the networks' signal strength, it will also indicate if they the hotspot is password protected or not. It then uses patterns of light and sound to announce its availability, quality and accessibility.

But it doesn't stop there: the technology can easily fit in any wearable, everyday object: laptop bags, jackets, belts and the like. Currently the WiFisense is a handbag.

"A haaaandbaaaag?" as Lady Bracknell might exclaim.

There are 64 LEDs embedded in the front of the handbag, which light up to acknowledge Wi-Fi presence at various signal strength. If there isn't any Wi-Fi activity in the vicinity, the LEDs look just like some beads on the bag's surface. Isn't that neat?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/32374.html


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Wi-Fi Fails To Impress Home Users

Analyst reports low use of wireless Lans outside business.
Robert Jaques

Home users haven't yet switched on to wireless local area networks (Lan), according to researchers.

According to IDC, only a very small number of early adopters are showing interest. And the researcher predicts that by the end of 2003 only 2.2 per cent of homes across western Europe will have an active home network.

The report expects that over half of European home networks will be wireless by 2006, but it added that wired systems, especially Ethernet, will continue to exist in homes.

"The market for home networking is on course to triple in size during 2003," said Jason Armitage, senior research analyst for IDC's European Consumer Devices and Technologies group.

"But deployment remains at a very early stage by any measure."

IDC said the challenges of selling wireless lans to consumers, and the additional problems related to set-up, security, and content protection, will limit the penetration of home networking to fewer than 10 per cent of European homes by the end of 2007.

But a key trend over the next four years will be the increasing number of consumer electronics devices linked to a home network, the analyst added.

Users will need to link a videogames console and PCs to a broadband connection simultaneously. Mobile phones that tap into broadband connections when in the home will also need to be catered for.

"IDC forecasts videogames consoles will be a common feature in the 1.2 million homes expected to have deployed a multimedia home network by 2004," said Armitage.

"Broadband internet service providers have begun to respond to this demand by co-marketing home networking solutions to videogame console platform owners."

Armitage added: "Wi-Fi emerged as a de facto standard for home networking in 2002, but it is not the only option available to consumers aiming to connect devices."
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142966


Top 10 D/Ls - Singles

BigChampagne


BNA

MPA HELP BUST ILLEGAL DVD RING IN MALAYSIA
The Motion Picture Association and the Malaysian government have raided operators of five Web sites suspected of selling illegal DVDs. In connection with the arrests, the MPA said it seized more than 30,000 optical discs, which were largely illegal copies of DVDs from member Hollywood film studios.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-5064197.html

PRIVACY ADVOCATES CALL FOR REGULATION OF RFID TAGS
Privacy advocates argued for the regulation of RFID tags at a California senate hearing yesterday. The experts argue that unregulated use of the technology could results in a loss of consumer privacy as retailers gather unprecedented amounts of information about activity in their stores. http://news.com.com/2100-1020_3-5065388.html

KOREA TO INTRODUCE NEW RULES ON USE OF LOCATION BASED DATA
Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication has announced plans to introduce new legislation that would toughen regulations and penalties for illegal use of location based data. The data is generated by mobile phone carriers in providing service to subscribers.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/da...0308210054.asp

OPPOSITION PARTIES IN OZ WARY OF NEW INTERNET LAW
Opposition parties in Australia have greeted the federal government's move to outlaw Internet use for "offensive and menacing purposes" with caution, saying it could be used to crack down on legitimate protest. Opposition parties questioned the need for additional legislation, saying all the activities in question were already illegal.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...E%5Enbv%5E1530

BNA's Internet Law News is published weekdays by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., 1231 25th St., NW, Washington, DC 20037. Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa Law School and Technology Counsel with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, may be reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca.


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More Kids Want To Be Hackers Than Rockers
By electricnews.net

Small business owners concerned about the number and quality of IT workers have been given hope for the future - a new survey has revealed that working with computer technology is the most popular career path for children, ahead of being elected prime minister or even becoming a pop star.

As reported by Startups.co.uk, over half of UK employers are reported to be unhappy with the skill levels of their IT staff, with many admitting that they required extra training to bring them up to standard.

Concerns have also been raised about the shortage of skilled IT workers in several areas of the UK, particularly London and the South East - regions which have previously benefited from a plentiful supply of computer experts.

However, new research has revealed a potential remedy to firms' IT woes in the future, with nearly a quarter of youngsters surveyed saying they would like a career working with computers.

The study, by IT service operators Parity, found 22 per cent of 12-15 year olds cited working with computers as their ideal career, ahead of launching a pop career (15 per cent) or becoming a doctor (13 per cent).

The prospect of becoming an IT expert was also far more exciting to those quizzed than being prime minister, a bank manager, a soldier or a teacher.

The research found that the main reason for IT ambitions was money, with 34 per cent of those questioned saying that they would like to enter the profession for the salary.

A further 33 per cent said that they wanted to work in IT because of the "exciting technology", but just one in five felt that the job would be particularly fun.

Peter Linas, of Parity, said in the past people had bemoaned a perceived lack of interest in IT in the UK.

"This tide has been reversed in recent years and it's great to see from this research that IT is capturing the younger generation's imagination.

"This goes to show that the tech industries image has changed significantly over a short period of time," he said.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/67/32441.html


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the extremists in power
lessig

I don’t even know how to begin this story, so stupid and extreme it is.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was convinced by Jamie Love and others to hold a meeting about “open collaborative models to develop public goods.” One of those models is, of course, open source and free software. Lobbyists for Microsoft and others apparently (according to this extraordinary story by Jonathan Krim) started lobbying the US government to get the meeting cancelled. No surprise there. Open source and free software is a competitor to MSFT’s products. Lobbying is increasingly the way competition is waged in America.

But the astonishing part is the justification for the US opposing the meeting. According to the Post, Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said “that open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to promote intellectual-property rights.” As she is quoted as saying, “To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.”

If Lois Boland said this, then she should be asked to resign. The level of ignorance built into that statement is astonishing, and the idea that a government official of her level would be so ignorant is an embarrassment. First, and most obviously, open-source software is based in intellectual-property rights. It can’t exist (and free software can’t have its effect) without it. Second, the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should be to promote the right balance of intellectual- property rights, not simply to promote intellectual property rights. And finally, if an intellectual property right holder wants to “disclaim” or “waive” her rights, what business is it of WIPOs? Why should WIPO oppose a copyright or patent rights holder’s choice to do with his or her rights what he or she wants?

These points are basic. They should be fundamental. That someone who doesn’t understand them is at a high level of this government just shows how extreme IP policy in America has become.

Spirited debate ensues – Jack. http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001436.shtml


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The Onion
I Have An iPod—In My Mind
Ted Lascowicz

I'm sure you've seen a lot of tech-savvy people smugly showing off that new hunk of entertainment hardware, the iPod personal stereo. Well, I might not have the scratch to get one, but frankly, I don't want the white-corded wonder. I have my very own iPod—in my mind.

I hear those little things carry up to a month's worth of music. Well, so does my mind. I can call up any song I've ever heard, any time I want. And I never have to load software or charge batteries. There are no firewire cords or docks to mess with. I just put my hands behind my head, lean back, and select a tune from the extensive music-library folder inside my brain.

Thirty gigabytes? So what? I know 7,500 songs, maybe more. Some songs, I forget I even have until they come around on shuffle. Why, just the other day, my mind started playing David Naughton's "Makin' It," a song I hadn't heard in years. And the sound quality was great!

Easy downloads? You don't know the meaning of the word "easy." And I don't have to know the meaning of the word "download." You may get MP3s off the Internet, you smug scenester, but I can get music off the television, the radio, even a passing ice-cream truck. If I don't want to waste the memory space on a high-fidelity copy, I just don't pay very close attention. Now, that's what I call convenience.

All I have to do is hear a song once or twice, and it's stored forever. I can call it up any time I want. Beach Boys. Beatles. How about some Bach? Or some Billy Joel? Sing me a song, piano man of my mind! And those are just the artists whose names begin with "B."

I can browse by artist, album, song, or music genre. Boom! I'm doing it right now! The "repeat" feature? Heck, songs from my iPod don't ever have to end. I swear, I had "Music Box Dancer" going through my head for three days straight last week.

You say those iPods have customizable playlists that allow you to line up songs of your choosing? Primitive! I can put together a playlist, say "Best-Ever Heavy Metal Anthems," while I'm sitting in traffic. My mind is light-years beyond that, though. Does your iPod have the "That Reminds Me Of Another Great Song" feature? Well, my mind does!

Does your iPod have a powerful feature that can play back the great songs of summer 1993, as they sounded coming out of Mike Tollefson's boombox in the back of the school bus? Of course not. That particular playlist is in my brain, which your pitiful iPod will never be able to autosync with.

But wait, you say that my iPod isn't wrapped up in a pretty little white case? Oh, I guess you haven't heard of a pretty little white case I like to call my skull. There's plenty of room for all of my contacts, too. Check this out: Paula, 398-9172, 195 Webster Place. Ha! Take that, Apple.

Sure, it doesn't hold all the music I've ever heard, but if I can't remember a song, it's usually not worth having anyway. Except, I'll admit, that one by The Tubes that I think was called "She's One In A Million Girls." The file somehow got corrupted with part of that J. Geils Band song about the centerfold. But every product has its bugs, right?

Even so, my mind has features your iPod will never have. Does your iPod have real-time remixing? No?! Well, if I don't like the original lyrics to Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son"—zip, zip, zing—my mind can change them! Adding a cool bass line or a rocking keyboard flourish to any piece of music? No problem! Adding images of myself performing on stage with the band? Done!

Does your iPod turn you from just another bus-rider into a lonely figure finding his way down Baker Street? Guess what? My mind can! And it does it all with no moving parts, man. None. 'Cause it's my mind.
http://mobile.theonion.com/oped1.html


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“Wholly without merit.” Judge Slams Fox’s Trademark Suit Against Al Franken
Gail Appleson

A federal judge on Friday slammed Fox News' trademark infringement lawsuit against Al Franken and his publisher Penguin Group and refused to stop the sale of the liberal satirist's new book that pokes fun at the network and host Bill O'Reilly.

Fox charged that Franken had violated its trademarked phrase "fair and balanced" by including it on the cover of his book entitled "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." Fox is owned by News Corp. and Penguin is a unit of Pearson . The book went on sale on Thursday.

"There are hard cases and there are easy cases. This is an easy case," said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin. "This case is wholly without merit both factually and legally."

"Parody is a form of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. The keystone to parody is imitation. Mr. Franken is clearly mocking Fox," said Chin.

The judge said he thought it ironic that a media company that should be fighting to protect free speech would seek to undermine the First Amendment. He also said he thought the "fair and balanced" trademark is weak because the phrase is used so often.

Although the judge refused to grant an injunction that could have stopped further books sales, he did not end the case. Fox could choose to pursue litigation while Penguin could file a motion asking that the case be dismissed. Both sides said they are considering their options.

"We don't care if it's Al Franken or Al Lewis or Weird Al Yankovic. We're here to protect our trademark and our talent," said Paul Schur, a Fox spokesman, after the hearing.

Fox argued in its suit that the cover's tag line, "A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," was used to confuse consumers.

During arguments held before his ruling, Chin asked Fox lawyer Dorie Hansworth if she really believed that the cover was confusing.

"To me, it's quite ambiguous as to what the message is," she said. "It's a deadly serious cover ... This is much too subtle to be considered a parody."

Floyd Abrams, a lawyer representing Penguin and Franken, strongly disagreed.

"There is no way that any person not completely dense would be confused by this cover to think that Fox was accusing O'Reilly of being a liar," he said.

Chin, siding with Abrams, pointed out that the word "Lies" in the title is printed in large red letters next to a photo of O'Reilly. He said that there was no likelihood that book buyers would think that the sponsor is Fox or O'Reilly.

"We are talking about relatively sophisticated consumers here," he said of those who would be buying Franken's book.

Chin also said that there was no evidence of bad faith by Franken to mislead consumers into thinking he works for Fox.

"There is no intent by Franken to palm himself off as a Fox commentator," he said.

Franken, who won four Emmy awards for his work on "Saturday Night Live," is the author of four previous books, including the recent best seller, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot."
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml...toryID=3324571












Until next week,

- js.









Current Week In Review.


Recent WIRs -


http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17265 August 16th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17176 August 9th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17108 August 2nd
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17051 July 26th





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.