P2P-Zone  

Go Back   P2P-Zone > Peer to Peer
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Peer to Peer The 3rd millenium technology!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 22-07-09, 08:02 AM   #1
JackSpratts
 
JackSpratts's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,013
Default Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - July 25th, '09

Since 2002


































"We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up." – Clarence Ditlow


"This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our 'solution' to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission." – Jeff Bezos


"We’re going to have to go with the old imperative of ‘Trust no one,’ and unfortunately part of that is, don’t trust Apple." – Jonathan Zdziarski



































July 25th, 2009




UK ISP Pulls Plug On Suspected Pirates
Tim Johns

Web users suspected of file-sharing are being cut off without warning by internet service provider (ISP) Karoo, based in Hull.

Karoo, the only ISP in the area, makes customers sign a document promising not to repeat the offence in order to get their service restored.

Some customers have had their accounts suspended for more than two years.

While the firm calls its policy "the responsible approach", a digital rights group has called it "unfair".

If a copyright owner such as a major music label notifies Karoo of their content being illegally shared, as soon as the ISP can confirm this information it suspends that user's internet connection.

The customer must then sign a waiver stating that they will not do it again. Only then will Karoo reconnect them.

Compared to other ISPs in the UK, this direct action against illegal file-sharing is surprisingly severe.

The music industry has called for a "three strikes" rule - with disconnection as a final option after formal warnings.

However, the recent Digital Britain report said disconnection was not the government's "preferred option" given that internet access is now seen to be as critical as traditional utilities such as electricity.

Nick Thompson, director of consumer and publishing services at Kingston Communications, told the BBC: "I think it's the responsible approach, because we are protecting people from illegal activity."

"There are no benefits for us. In fact, when we cut off customers we're actually reacting against our own interests because we don't charge customers for that period when the service is suspended."

Andrea Robinson, a Karoo customer from Willerby, told the BBC that she was cut off without warning on Tuesday; her account advised her that her password had expired.

On Thursday she received a letter from the firm, claiming that she had been using the peer-to-peer file-sharing service BitTorrent to download the film Terminator Salvation.

On calling Karoo, she was told to pay a visit to resolve the issue.

"They gave me a form to sign to get reconnected," she told the BBC.

"The form basically said 'if I admit my guilt you'll reconnect me'. So I didn't sign it and walked out. I'm still not reconnected."

'Totally unfair'

Karoo's approach is, for many, not a popular one.

"It's totally unfair to disconnect people without giving them any warning at all. In fact, disconnection is something that should only even possibly be considered as a result of court action." said Jim Killock, executive director of the digital rights activists The Open Rights Group.

Kingston Communications is the primary supplier of telecommunications and data services in the City of Hull.

British Telecoms has no lines in the area, and with no other choice of ISP, the residents of Hull often have no choice but to use Karoo if they want an internet connection.

The terms and conditions Karoo enforce are not new - the BBC has spoken to customers whose accounts were suspended over two years ago.

However, Karoo's policy once again throws open the discussion on how ISPs should deal with illegal file sharing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...gy/8166640.stm





French Anti-Piracy Sanctions Delayed
Aymeric Pichevin

The French music business has expressed its disappointment after the National Assembly president's decision to postpone until September the vote on the sanctions side of the Creation and Internet law.

The decision is down to the lack of time available to examine the law before summer break at the end of the week. The opposing Socialist party has submitted a significant number of amendments for debate ahead of any vote.

While this does not impact on the eventual introduction of the law, the delay is another blow for a project that was first launched two years ago.

"Once again, rights holders are hostages of some deputies' political maneuvers," lamented labels' trade body Snep in a statement. Snep reiterated its call for clear "rules of the game."

The new law has created a new state agency, the Higher Authority for the Distribution of Works and the Protection of Copyright on the Internet (Hadopi), to oversee a system of educational warning letters, although it will not be able to administer the three-strikes measure to cut off consistent copyright infringers as originally planned.

After an intervention by France's Constitutional Council, which found that only a court could decide on cutting Internet access, the government said the law would be reworked so that a judge would be allowed to rule through an "ordonnance pénale" (penal order). This process avoids a hearing involving the presence of the person accused of copyright infringement. Only in the case of an appeal would a court hearing take place.

While some Hadopi supporters now privately wonder whether the law will ever be voted through, the industry is in parallel getting ready for a global debate on the financing of creative works, which new minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand suggested. It could be organized before the end of the year.

In a statement expressing its "great disappointment and genuine anger" on the vote deferment, publishers and songwriters collecting society Sacem said: "While [our members] see their income from the phonograph market shrink year after year, month after month, with no compensation from [Internet Service Provider] online services to make up for their loss, because of the impact of piracy in particular, they solemnly ask the members of parliament to take their responsibilities to answer this institution of justice."

The Sacem statement added: "At the end of this process, it will be important, in all events, to assess the scope of the text and engage an essential debate on the funding of music and remuneration for rights holders, authors, composers and publishers having fully suffered the consequences of this crisis without having benefited in the least from any measures of support, whether on a national or a European level."
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/conte...c32033a87c823d





UK Men Pirate More Than Women; Everyone Confused Over Rights

New survey results show that men seem to pirate more music, TV, and movies than women do—at least in the UK. A majority of users don't feel that musicians should profit from their music on the Internet, and many don't understand who holds the rights to content posted online.
Jacqui Cheng

UK men pirate more than women; everyone confused over rights

British men are much more willing to pirate online music and video content than women, according to the results of a new survey. UK-based IT services company Telindus has released a report that examines the attitudes of adults in the UK when it comes to music and film rights online, noting that many users are confused over intellectual property rights and believe that once content is posted online, it's essentially a "free for all."

According to Telindus' survey of 2,000 UK adults, a full 50 percent of men who download various media said that they never paid for content online, compared to 38 percent of women. Don't get too worked up over this battle of the sexes, though—neither number is particularly good for content owners. Three out of five (60 percent, for those keeping track) adults said they didn't believe musicians should profit from their music and videos being downloaded online, and more than two-thirds said the same of TV and filmmakers.

The firm says that the threat of legal action isn't doing a good job of deterring people from illegal downloads, either. Fifty-nine percent were aware of piracy laws and half knew the consequences, but that didn't stop a fifth of adults from saying they knew exactly where to find illegal material. That number, unsurprisingly, goes up when you look at the teen and young adult demographics—57 percent of the the 16-24 year old group said they were aware of where to find illicit digital goods.

Others appear to be confused about IP rights in general—only a quarter of those surveyed said they believe they still own the rights to content they post online, while a "majority" said that content posted online basically translated to a "free for all." If they believe this about their own content, certainly they believe this about content created by others.

According to Telindus, piracy and file sharing is on the rise, but that claim seems to contradict another report released earlier this month that said file sharing was down across the UK, even among teens. The Leading Question found that music fans are increasingly getting their music fix from legal streaming services and single-track downloads, leaving P2P in the dust. Of course, Telindus provides "network solutions" as its main business, meaning the company depends on organizations that want traffic management to help control unauthorized use, so it's in the company's interests to report piracy is on the rise.

Anecdotally, however, we here at Ars agree that the ease with which legal music can be obtained these days has practically eliminated our old pirate-flag-flying ways. When you can watch a music video for free on YouTube and grab a stream of your favorite band on Last.fm, why bother trying to find something on BitTorrent?
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/20...ver-rights.ars





Music Industry Lures ‘Casual’ Pirates to Legal Sites
Eric Pfanner

Record company executives say there are three kinds of music fans. There are those who buy music, and those who get a kick out of never paying for it. And then there are those whom Rob Wells at Universal Music Group calls “dinner party pirates”: the vast majority of listeners, those who copy music illegally because it is more convenient than buying it.

If those low-level copyright cheats could be converted to using legal music services, the digital music business would get much-needed help. Yet even industry executives acknowledge that until recently, they were not giving those listeners many ways to do what they wanted: to sample new music and to play it back anytime, at little or no cost.

Over the past year, however, as sales of CDs have continued to fall and paid-for downloads from services like Apple’s iTunes have fallen short of hopes, record companies have moved to embrace casual file-sharers. Legal services offering free, unlimited streaming of music, rather than downloads, are proliferating. According to a survey published last week, they are taking some of the wind out of the pirates’ sails.

“Consumers are doing exactly what we said they would do,” said Steve Purdham, chief executive of We7, a service that says it has attracted two million users in Britain in a little more than half a year by offering unlimited access to millions of songs. “They weren’t saying, ‘Give me pirated music’; they were saying, ‘Give me the music I want.”’

The music industry has high hopes that the growth of sites like We7, whose investors include the former Genesis musician Peter Gabriel, can change the reputation of Europe as a hive of digital piracy. Similar businesses include Deezer, in France, and Spotify, which was started by two Swedish entrepreneurs and has grown rapidly in Britain and elsewhere. All of them are licensed by the music industry and hope to make money from advertising.

Last week, Microsoft said it, too, planned to offer a music streaming service in Britain, via its MSN Web business, though it provided few details.

Meanwhile, the survey by two research firms, Music Ally and Leading Question, showed that Britons were adopting such services in large numbers. Among British teenage music fans, 65 percent said they listened to streamed music at least once a month, with 31 percent saying they did so every day.

The survey showed a striking decline in the number of British teenagers who said they had regularly engaged in unauthorized file-sharing; only 26 percent said they had done so as of January, when the survey was taken, compared with 42 percent in December 2007.

Music industry executives say that does not mean the piracy problem has been solved. The survey results did not distinguish between licensed and unlicensed streaming services or others, like YouTube, where both kinds of music can be found. Illegally copied music still accounts for the vast majority of digital listening, they add.

Still, executives say there are some promising signs. Rather than cannibalizing existing digital businesses, they say, the new services are often attracting people who previously shared files illegally. According to research by one of the major record companies, nearly two-thirds of Spotify users say they now engage in less piracy.

Spotify says it has two million registered users in Britain and another two million in Sweden, Spain and France. Paul Brown, managing director of its British arm, said it wants to expand to the United States by the end of the year.

There, it would go up against a number of digital businesses that also offer free music in various ways, including MySpace Music, Imeem, Last.FM, Pandora and others.

While Pandora has said it expects to be profitable by the end of the year, analysts say most other free streaming services are still losing money. Some advertising-supported free music sites, like SpiralFrog, have already gone out of business.

“You only have to use these services for a while to realize that there’s not a lot of advertising on them,” said Paul Brindley, chief executive of Music Ally.

Analysts say the European services like Spotify, We7 and Deezer are different from most of the American streamed offerings because they focus on the music, rather than using it to build, for instance, a social networking service. They also give users more control than, say, Pandora, which is more like an online radio service, with preselected programming, rather than on-demand listening.

To try to supplement advertising income, Spotify offers users a premium service, priced at £9.99, or $16.32, in Britain, which eliminates advertising. The company also plans to add other enhancements to the premium service, including a mobile offering for Apple’s iPhone and other devices.

Mr. Brown declined to say how many users were upgrading to the premium service, but added: “Each new addition creates customers who say, ‘Hey, I want that.’ It’s not just about the ads.”

Over all, he said, revenue has doubled every month since the company began its commercial operations in Britain in February.

Costs are rising, too, because Spotify and similar services pay royalties to rights holders, including music companies, every time a track is streamed.

Those payments are turning into a promising revenue source for the record companies.

In Sweden, a market where piracy has been rampant, Spotify is already the biggest digital revenue earner for Universal Music, even though it has been operating for less than a year, said Mr. Wells, senior vice president of Universal’s international digital operations.

Analysts say record companies have agreed to reduce licensing costs slightly in recent months, with the typical going rate dropping to about 0.8 cent a track from 1 cent a track. The labels are also striking different kinds of agreements, insisting on equity stakes in some cases, or a share of revenue from advertising or subscriptions, in an effort to ensure that they benefit from the growth of the new services.

“Now they have to turn these into sustainable businesses,” said Dan Cryan, an analyst at Screen Digest in London. “You can have 1,001 start-ups, but if they all close down after two years, you’re not any better off.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/te.../20stream.html





The Music Streams That Soothe an Industry
Brad Stone

LIKE many teenagers, Josh Wilson, the 13-year-old son of the New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson, has on occasion visited the Internet’s peer-to-peer file-sharing services to download music and television shows.

But recently, as Mr. Wilson recounted last week on his popular blog, A VC, Josh has started streaming television shows from Netflix under the family’s $24-a-month subscription plan and listening to licensed, ad-supported music videos from YouTube on his iPhone. Asked by his father why he was not using file-sharing services like BitTorrent to download shows like “Friday Night Lights,” Josh replied, “BitTorrent takes too long.”

The answer neatly encapsulates the remaining hope of beleaguered media executives everywhere, especially those in the rapidly deteriorating music business. After a decade of rampant digital piracy that has helped to gut album sales, a raft of new streaming music sites is making the experience of legally finding and listening to music just as seductive as downloading it free.

Many music industry observers now believe that there is a fundamental shift under way: from illegal downloads to licensed streaming services like MySpace Music, imeem and Spotify, where users can play any song, anytime and — coming soon — on any device. These sites are free, supported by ads, and with an expanding catalog of songs, they are finally ready to overshadow the more cumbersome, unauthorized services that can be hard for newcomers to navigate.

“We have been on this endless hunt for a decade trying to accumulate both our all-time favorites and the new hits,” said Bob Lefsetz, author of the Lefsetz Letter, a music industry newsletter, who believes that the future hope of the music industry lies in charging people monthly subscriptions for access to streaming sites on the Web and their phones. “Why are you going to steal if all of a sudden you can check it out quickly on a streaming service?”

Two recent studies of online behavior contribute to this optimistic view. In June, two British research agencies, MusicAlly and The Leading Question, generated a wave of headlines in the tech press after reporting that the percentage of 14- to 18-year-olds using file-sharing services at least once a month dropped to 26 percent in January 2009 from 42 percent in December 2007.

Similarly, a survey by the NPD Group in the United States this spring found that teenagers aged 13 to 17 illegally downloaded 6 percent fewer tracks in 2008 than in 2007, while more than half said they were now listening to legal online radio services like Pandora, up from 34 percent the year before.

There are some good reasons to keep a salt-shaker handy here — some teenagers may not be honest about downloading, for example. But there are also some indisputably positive factors at work. The streaming music services are providing not only an authorized but also in some cases a superior alternative, and may be the first obvious stop for a generation that is too young to remember when the original Napster revolutionized the music industry.

MySpace Music, introduced last September, now makes millions of songs available free, accompanied by ads and links to buy concert tickets and merchandise. Nielsen recently reported that the number of visitors to the site grew to 12.1 million in June, from 4.2 million last September.

YouTube also streams millions of songs under agreements with three of the four major music labels in the form of music videos — Warner Music is a holdout — and is increasingly available free from mobile phones like the iPhone. In the weeks after Michael Jackson’s death, for example, 12 million people played his “Thriller” video from pages on the site with display ads and links to buy the songs.

But perhaps the most-discussed licensed service is Spotify, a two-year-old Swedish start-up that has amassed six million users in Europe — and a few hundred lucky media and music industry insiders in the United States who have been given early access.

Spotify users download a program to their computers that allows them to quickly search for a piece of music and play it instantly. Spotify’s innovation is subtle, embedded in its intuitive user interface and efficient design. Anyone familiar with iTunes can figure out how to navigate Spotify’s s five million songs and add them to playlists.

The free version comes with ads, or users can upgrade to a premium version for 10 euros monthly (about $14). Daniel Ek, a co-founder, was in New York this month, talking to the American music labels and preparing to introduce the service here later this year.

“Piracy is essentially the consumer’s wish to have everything on demand. It’s not like people want to necessarily have it for free,” Mr. Ek said. The problem is that there have not been commercial services “that allowed people to discover new music and easily share music with friends,” he said.

Even if people are abandoning free downloads for ad-supported services like Spotify, the industry will keep facing larger existential questions. Companies like MySpace Music, Pandora and even YouTube — though thick with ads and links to paid downloads — cannot yet (if ever) replace depleted revenue from physical CD sales.

They might even be exacerbating the problem. “The big question is, are we not just fighting piracy, but also taking away the industry’s most lucrative customers, the ones that were buying 30 or 40 CDs a year?” Mr. Ek asks. “If so, the music industry is in worse shape than it was before.”

Mr. Lefsetz believes that the answer is for the music industry to nourish the streaming sites and then push users toward subscribing to them for a monthly fee. “The key is to just get $10 from everybody,” he said.

That, he said, might finally vanquish the demons of music piracy. Mr. Lefsetz uses himself as an example of this salvaged future. He used to turn to file-sharing sites to quickly sample new music he wanted to write about. Now he just streams songs free from Spotify.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/bu.../26stream.html





Online Music Video Site MUZU Signs Up Global Indies
Kate Holton

MUZU.TV, an Irish-based video website, has signed a licensing deal with the agency behind the world's leading independent music labels, giving it access to footage from the Arctic Monkeys to Radiohead.

The site www.muzu.tv, which pays artists through advertising when their music is played online, has won plaudits from the industry for its design, with users watching over 7 million videos a month.

The latest deal is significant because Merlin, which represents the world's most important set of independent music rights, has not signed licensing deals with any other video music site including YouTube or MySpace.

For Muzu, the deal will further boost its offering after it signed deals in some territories with the four major labels: Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner.

Merlin chief executive Charles Caldas told Reuters it chosen Muzu because it recognized the value of Merlin's rights and enabled artists to make money from their video content.

"Independent labels have found many ways to monetize their audio content but there have been very few outlets that repay the investment that it takes to create video content," he said in an interview.

"So having an outlet that not only allows you to find a commercial way to showcase your video but also is helping and enabling you to digitize content that you might not otherwise is a really valuable opportunity for any label."

Caldas said video footage had become increasingly important with the introduction of fan and band websites, social network pages and music DVDs.

Under the deal, Merlin artists will be able to embed the Muzu player on their official sites and social networking pages.

Artists signed to Merlin member labels include Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Katie Melua, Franz Ferdinand, Vampire Weekend and The White Stripes.

Dublin-based Muzu launched in July 2008 and allows users to create, watch and share music video playlists. It provides free access to thousands of hours of diverse music content from concerts, backstage footage, documentaries and interviews.

(Editing by Dan Lalor)
http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...56I2IK20090719





"Thriller" Sales Soar Close to Eagles' "Hits"
Ed Christman

For nearly a decade, the Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975" has been the recording industry's ultimate evergreen release, certified by the RIAA as the all-time best-selling album in the United States. But thanks to continued robust demand for Michael Jackson's catalog since his June 25 death, "Thriller" appears on the verge of matching "Their Greatest Hits," at least in the eyes of the industry trade group.

In March, the Recording Industry Association of America certified "Thriller" as 28 times platinum, meaning that at least 28 million copies of the album have been shipped since its 1982 release. That's just a notch behind the Eagles' hits compilation, which was released in 1976 and was certified 29 times platinum in 2006.

Billboard estimates that the posthumous surge in Jackson's sales and Sony Music Entertainment's efforts to push Jackson CDs into the distribution pipeline have likely propelled shipments of Jackson product, if not yet sales, beyond the 29 million-unit mark in the United States.

Amid the recent explosion in Jackson sales, "Thriller" has enjoyed the second-biggest sales bump in his catalog, just behind the hits collection "Number Ones." During the three weeks that ended July 12, "Thriller" sold 552,000 U.S. copies, for year-to-date sales of 608,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Strong Sales To Continue

Most industry executives believe that the most recent SoundScan week -- which included the widely watched memorial service for Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles -- will mark a posthumous weekly peak for Jackson sales. They also expect sales to wind down slowly in the next few months, which means sales will remain strong. In the week ended July 12, Jackson's album catalog sold a combined 1.1 million copies, up from nearly 800,000 in the preceding week and 422,000 in the week he died.

"Thriller" and "Their Greatest Hits" were instant hits. The RIAA first certified "Thriller" platinum in January 1983, just two months after its release, while "Their Greatest Hits" was certified platinum in February 1976, mere days after it arrived.

Propelled by groundbreaking videos for the singles "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and the title track, "Thriller" reached the 20 million certification milestone in October 1984, becoming the RIAA's top-selling album of all time. The album's next RIAA certification, at 21 times platinum, came in May 1990. The RIAA's certification of "Thriller" as 28 times platinum in March came 13 months after Sony's release of a deluxe 25th-anniversary edition of the album.

The RIAA's second certification of shipments of the Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits" didn't occur until August 1990, when it certified the release as 12 times platinum. The RIAA couldn't immediately explain why the album wasn't certified at earlier platinum milestones, or why it was next certified at 14 times platinum in December 1993, and for 22 times in June 1995, despite U.S. sales of only 919,000 during that period. When the RIAA certified "Their Greatest Hits" as 26 times platinum in November 1999, it unseated "Thriller" at the top of the RIAA's all-time ranking.

Since being certified as 29 times platinum in January 2006, "Their Greatest Hits" has sold 404,000 copies, including 33,000 this year and 115,000 in 2008.

Representatives at Sony and Warner Music Group, which distributes "Their Greatest Hits," declined to comment.

(Editing by SheriLinden at Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...56I2B820090719





Jackson Assets Draw the Gaze of Wall Street
Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael J. de la Merced

As the world sorts through the pieces of Michael Jackson’s life one month after his death, so, too, does Wall Street.

A handful of major financial firms have made inquiries into buying the Jackson estate’s 50 percent share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the company that controls most of the Beatles song catalog, according to people briefed on the matter. Among them are Colony Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Plainfield Asset Management and the media mogul Haim Saban, these people said.

Sony/ATV is by far the most valuable asset in Mr. Jackson’s estate, and his 50 percent stake could be worth as much a $500 million. Mr. Jackson bought the majority of the Beatles catalog in 1985 for $47.5 million, after an informal chat with Paul McCartney about the wisdom of buying song catalogs.

Since then, Sony/ATV — formed from a 1995 partnership with Sony — has bought up the rights to thousands of songs from artists, including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Beck and Taylor Swift. In recent years, it made a big push into TV production, helping to balance out its radio business.

“Sony/ATV’s really started to gain greater value in recent years,” said Barry Massarsky, a music industry consultant who has done work for Sony/ATV and its rivals. “I’m very bullish on its prospects.”

John G. Branca, the entertainment lawyer who structured Mr. Jackson’s initial purchase of the Beatles catalog and is now one of two executors of his estate, declined to comment by e-mail on Sunday, saying only that the Jackson stake in Sony/ATV “is not for sale.”

Mr. Branca and John McClain, a music executive, will make decisions about the estate, pending confirmation at an Aug. 3 court hearing in Los Angeles.

Still, that has not stopped financiers from approaching Jackson family members and Sony, people briefed on the discussions said. Some of these firms already have a connection to the Jackson family.

Colony, for instance, is a co-owner of the Neverland ranch, Mr. Jackson’s former home. The firm’s chairman and chief executive, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., has contacted representatives of the family, these people said. Plainfield, which lent money to Mijac, an entity that owns Mr. Jackson’s own songs as well as those from the likes of Sly and the Family Stone, has also contacted the family, these people said. (Mijac has an estimated worth of $50 million to $100 million and is likely to grow with the pickup in album sales since his death.)

Mr. Jackson nearly lost his stake in Sony/ATV — and his family’s fortune — in 2006. He was days away from filing for bankruptcy when Howard Stringer, the chief executive of Sony, dispatched his chief financial officer, Robert Wiesenthal, to Dubai to broker a last-minute lifeline for Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson was living in the emirate at the time and quickly spending cash.

“His finances were in complete shambles,” said Duross O’Bryan, a forensic accountant at the consulting firm AlixPartners who served as an expert witness at Mr. Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial. “There were serious issues with regards to his ability to meet debt when it comes due.”

The deal, negotiated in Mr. Jackson’s suite at the Burj Al Arab hotel, saved the singer from bankruptcy. In return, Sony took greater operational control of Sony/ATV and received an option to buy half of Mr. Jackson’s share.

Despite earning hundreds of millions of dollars over his lifetime, Mr. Jackson was well known for having a mountain of debt, born of expensive indulgences like the sprawling Neverland estate, costly music and tour productions and art and antiques buying sprees. The estate still carries $400 million to $500 million in debt. Barclays holds about $300 million of debt against the Jackson estate’s stake in Sony/ATV.

It remains possible that Sony could seek to use its option, leaving the Jackson family with a 25 percent stake in the business. Some of the private equity firms have proposed teaming with Sony to buy the remaining stake from the family, these people said.
A spokeswoman for Sony said the company was not interested in selling its stake. Representatives for Colony, K.K.R. and Mr. Saban declined to comment. A representative for Plainfield could not be reached for comment.

Speculation about the Jackson stake in Sony/ATV swirled at the Allen & Company retreat for media moguls in Sun Valley this month. Several attendees said Mr. Stringer had fielded inquiries into the possibility over dinner. Mr. Saban made an informal inquiry then, these people said.

The stake is likely to continue to grow in value, and some members of the Jackson family have pondered the merits of selling. Still others have proposed eventually cobbling together a consortium to buy out Sony’s share in the publisher.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/business/20fund.html





Musicians Find New Backers as Labels Lose Power
Brad Stone

There was a time when most aspiring musicians had the same dream: to sign a deal with a major record label.

Now, with the structure of the music business shifting radically, some industry iconoclasts are sidestepping the music giants and inventing new ways for artists to make and market their music — without ever signing a traditional recording contract.

The latest effort comes from Brian Message, manager of the alternative band Radiohead, which gave away its last album, “In Rainbows,” on the Internet. His venture, called Polyphonic, which was announced this month, will look to invest a few hundred thousand dollars in new and rising artists who are not signed to record deals and then help them create their own direct links to audiences over the Internet.

“Artists are at the point where they realize going back to the old model doesn’t make any sense,” Mr. Message said. “There is a hunger for a new way of doing things.”

Polyphonic and similar new ventures are symptomatic of deep shifts in the music business. The major labels — Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI and Universal Music — no longer have such a firm grip on creating and selling professional music and minting hits with prime placement on the radio.

Much of that has to do with the rise of the Internet as a means of promoting and distributing music. Physical album sales fell 20 percent, to 362.6 million last year, according to Nielsen, while sales of individual digital tracks rose 27 percent, to 1.07 billion, failing to compensate for the drop. Mindful of these changes, in the last few years marquee musicians like Trent Reznor, the Beastie Boys and Barenaked Ladies have created their own artist-run labels and reaped significant rewards by keeping a larger share of their revenue.

Under the Polyphonic model, bands that receive investments from the firm will operate like start-up companies, recording their own music and choosing outside contractors to handle their publicity, merchandise and touring.

Instead of receiving an advance and then possibly reaping royalties later if they have a hit, musicians will share in all the profits from their music and touring. In another departure from tradition in the music business, they will also maintain ownership of their own copyrights and master recordings — meaning they and their heirs can keep earning money from their music.

“We are all witnessing major labels starting to shed artists that are hitting only 80,000 or 100,000 unit sales,” said Adam Driscoll, another Polyphonic founder and chief executive of the British media company MAMA Group. “Do a quick calculation on those sales, with an artist who can tour in multiple cities, and that is a good business. You can take that as a foundation and build on it.”

The third Polyphonic principal is Terry McBride, founder of the Vancouver-based management firm Nettwerk Music Group and manager of Barenaked Ladies.

The Polyphonic founders, who have provided the company with $20 million in seed financing, say they plan to invest around $300,000 in each band. The company will then guide musicians and their business managers — who will function a little like the band’s chief executive — to services like Topspin, which helps manage a band’s online presence, and TuneCore, a company that distributes music to online services like iTunes, Amazon and Napster.

The partners say they have been thinking about such a venture for several years. They recently tried to raise money for the company from venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, but met with initial skepticism.

“Returns on entertainment products when portfolios are small are typically very erratic,” said David Pakman, a partner at venture capital firm Venrock, which passed on the deal. Mr. Pakman doubted that Polyphonic and similar firms could produce the kind of returns on investment that venture firms typically look for.

Polyphonic, which will be based in London and in Nettwerk’s offices in New York and Los Angeles, says it plans to approach private investors again after it has proved its model works.

The new company will have plenty of company in exploring new ways for artists to maintain control over their creations.

Marc Geiger, an agent at William Morris Endeavor, who tried a similar venture in the late 1990s called ArtistDirect, is now developing a program for musicians at his agency that will be called Self Serve. Mr. Geiger said he was not ready to divulge the details yet, but said that Self Serve would provide tools and financing for artists to create businesses independent of major recording labels.

Even the major labels themselves are demonstrating new flexibility for musicians who do not want to sign the immersive partnerships known as 360 deals, in which the label manages and profits from every part of the artist’s business.

In late November, for example, EMI took the unusual step of creating a music services division to provide an array of services — like touring and merchandise support — to musicians who were not signed to the label.

“We all know the role that the record label has traditionally played needs to change,” said Ronn Werre, president of EMI’s new division. “There are artists that want to have more creative control and long-term ownership of their masters, and they may want to take on more of the financial risk. To be successful we need to have a great deal of flexibility in how we work with artists.”

Artists who have produced their own music and contracted with EMI to run parts of their business include the British R&B singer Bobby Valentino and Raekwon, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Mr. Message said that “there are many artists who still want to go with labels, which do still have abilities to really ram home hit singles.”

Bands who take the Polyphonic route, he said, will need to have considerable entrepreneurial energy. For example, they might stay after concerts to “go to the merchandise store and sign their shirts and talk to fans, because they know they are right at the heart of their own business,” he said.

Bands that have taken this approach say it can be arduous. In 2007, after releasing three records with independent labels, Metric, an alternative band from Toronto, finally got several offers from the big record companies. But the band declined to sign after concluding that the labels were asking for too many rights and not offering enough in return.

With help from a grant from the Canadian government, the band cut its own album in April, “Fantasies,” and started selling it directly to fans on services like iTunes, where it has scaled the popularity charts.

“It certainly has not been easy,” said Matt Drouin, Metric’s manager. “When I get up at 6 a.m. the British are e-mailing me. When I go to bed at 2 in the morning the Australians are e-mailing me. It’s an extremely empowering position, but one hell of an undertaking.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/te...t/22music.html





Happy 40th Birthday Woodstock Baby, if You Exist
Michael Hill

Welcome to middle age, Woodstock Baby -- if you're really out there.

The babies reportedly born at the Woodstock festival 40 years ago remain the most enduring mystery from that chaotic weekend that defined a generation. Depending on the source, there was one birth on that patch of upstate New York farmland between Aug. 15-17, 1969. Or two. Or three. Or none.

There is some tantalizing evidence. Singer John Sebastian is captured on film announcing that some cat's old lady just had a baby, a kid destined to be far out. A couple of surviving eyewitnesses say there were births. The concert's medical director told reporters at the scene there were two births: one at a local hospital after the mother was flown out by helicopter; the other in a car caught in the epic traffic jam outside the site crowded with more than 400,000 people.

But no one has come forward with a credible public claim of giving birth to a Woodstock baby or being born there. No one has produced proof that it happened. If babies were born at Woodstock, they have lived their lives ignoring -- or unaware of -- the fact that reporters and researchers have been on their trail for decades.

"I've searched, I've spoken to the doctors and nurses from the main hospitals that were there," said Myron Gittell, who wrote the new medical history, "Woodstock '69: Three Days of Peace, Music, and Medical Care."

Like many before him, he found nothing.

"Almost statistically, you'd think if there are a half-million people, and half of them were women, and 95 percent of them were of childbearing age, and fertile, and active. Just statistically, someone would have had to pop a baby."

Problem is: No one has been able to dig up a birth record.

Rita Sheehan, town clerk for Bethel, which hosted the concert, said there is no local birth certificate on record. Still, it's possible the birth was recorded in one of the surrounding towns. Gittell says there were births recorded in neighboring towns in that period, but the records are sealed under state privacy laws. There's no way to check whether the birth mothers were locals or out-of-towners (the likely pool of Woodstock moms).

That leaves a few eyewitness accounts, like that of Gladys Devaney, who was a member of the volunteer ambulance corps in nearby Liberty. She answered an ambulance call to a tent at the festival and saw a young woman in labor. Her overriding concern then was that other medical workers took her stretcher as they rushed the woman away. But Devaney knew labor when she saw it.

"I heard her screaming," Devaney said. "I didn't get a good look at her, she was thrashing."

Devaney never found out whether they took the young woman to a waiting helicopter or somewhere else.

Elliot Tiber, the subject of Ang Lee's new movie, "Taking Woodstock," tops Devaney. He says he helped deliver a baby that weekend.

Tiber, who has a reputation for being a raconteur, said the woman gave birth at his parents' hotel near the site, which -- like the entire area that weekend -- was mobbed. The woman wore a leather jacket, came in on a motorcycle and just flopped down.

"I see she's starting to give birth," Tiber recalled. "It was like the quote from 'Gone With the Wind': 'I don't know nothing about birthing no babies, Miss Scarlet' ... I was screaming, just screaming. Everybody was standing around stoned saying, 'Yeah, groovy!' They thought it was cool."

Tiber said the baby was taken away, though the mother came by in a cab a few weeks later with her baby in a blanket. He didn't get any names. He never heard from them again.

After four decades, the Woodstock baby trail has gotten colder. The young people who packed into Woodstock are retirement age now. A number of the emergency and medical workers involved, including the concert's medical director, Dr. William Abruzzi, are dead. And if a baby was born onsite, there are curious gaps in the record.

Press accounts at the time mentioning the births did not provide names. Abruzzi wrote an exhaustive account of the event in which he tallied six pages of medical incidents over the three days (11 rat bites, 16 peptic ulcers, 707 drug overdoses, among them). The paper, now in the collection of the Museum at Bethel Woods, the onsite museum, does not mention a single childbirth.

"It could be one of those myths that grow out of major events," said Bethel museum director Wade Lawrence. "It could be like the story of the New York State Thruway being closed. It wasn't."

Maybe the best argument against a Woodstock baby is that no one in the past four decades has stepped forward to publicly and credibly claim they were born or gave birth at Woodstock. There is a theory that neither mother nor child particularly want Woodstock to define their lives, and have chosen to keep their distinction a private matter.

But it bears saying as the 40th anniversary of Woodstock approaches. If you are a Woodstock baby or a Woodstock mother, please consider contacting The Associated Press at woodstockbaby@ap.org.

People have been looking for you.
http://www.newstimes.com/ci_12864185





FMQB Retro-Active: Ken Sharp Talks to Al Jardine About The Beach Boys Legacy



SURF’S UP… No other Rock band evoked the essence of summer like The Beach Boys did. Out now is The Beach Boys’ Summer Love Songs, a new 20-track collection from Capitol Records sporting well-known hits (“California Girls,” “Surfer Girl,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows” and “Help Me Rhonda”) alongside lesser known gems like “Please Let Me Wonder,” “Our Sweet Love” and “Girls On The Beach.” The CD also features new stereo mixes of “Hushabye,” “I’m So Young,” “Good To My Baby” and “Time To Get Alone,” plus the previously unissued Dennis Wilson track “Fallin’ In Love.” Retro-Active’s Ken Sharp recently spoke to Beach Boy Al Jardine about the band’s time honored legacy.

Singer Eric Carmen once described the Beach Boys’ voices as each being an instrument. He said, “I think Brian was a French horn, Carl was a flute, Al Jardine a trumpet, Dennis a trombone and Mike a baritone sax before their present incarnation as The Beach Boys.”

AJ: Yeah, that’s a good point. That’s kind of how we saw ourselves too. In fact, “Heroes and Villains,” at the start, was one of the first things we ever did, really early on, even before we recorded “Surfin’.” We were working on that song way back in ’61. We all became instruments for Brian’s barber shop concept. He said, “Let’s all do this, let’s sing this idea.” Carl would be one instrument, I’d be another, Mike would be another instrument.

So the idea of “Heroes And Villains” was born back in ’61.

AJ: Yeah, the idea, not the song. We started singing a capella first because we didn’t play instruments. With none of us really being players we would just scat in the car going to a show or going to school, anywhere.

Was it pretty natural where each member would find his place singing harmonies?

AJ: Instantly. And Brian had this wonderful gift of remembering lines off of records. He’d pick up harmonies off of Four Freshmen records and he’d just feed them right back to us. We’d go, “Woah!” and like a sponge, we just absorbed it.

Were you intimidated presenting songs to the Beach Boys when you had a writer like Brian Wilson in the band?

AJ: It was intimidating. When I brought “Sloop John B” to him I was almost trembling. I was thinking, “Am I wasting Brian’s time doing this?” But apparently not because the next day he cut the track on it and it became a huge hit for us. But he didn’t bother to stop to acknowledge it, you see. When guys have that kind of capacity for absorption, sometimes they don’t acknowledge where they get their ideas from. And I do that too. I’m sure that I borrowed melodies from other songs that I’m not even aware of. But Brian has forgotten the origin of my contribution to “Sloop John B” as distinct from the folk song. I showed Brian the chords and he sucked it up like a sponge. With his immense talent for recall, the next day he had arranged a brass section to track the song and it was ready for singing the following day. It is truly a masterpiece.

When you sang lead on “Help Me Rhonda” I understand you had a hard time getting the vocal right. Why?

AJ: I did have a hard time with it. I don’t really know. Some kind of a meter thing in there. I never really tackled a lead much before. I was always interested in backgrounds. Carl and I were always on the harmonies but to take a lead was a big leap forward. And this was not an easy lead to be honest with you. It was pretty different. I was happy that Brian asked me to sing the lead. Brian had his idea of how he wanted it and I had an idea of how I heard it and that’s basically what you get (laughs).

How did the arrival of The Beatles onto the music scene impact on The Beach Boys?

AJ: We were out of the country when The Beatles first burst on to the scene. I wasn’t that knocked out by the Beatles when I first heard their stuff. I thought it was just a little esoteric. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” I thought was just a bit esoteric, it didn’t seem like they had the mass appeal that we were having, but I was obviously wrong. I grew to appreciate them. Later on in their career they were writing great melodies, extraordinary songwriting. We felt in competition with them. We were out of the country and they came in and became big hits. It was catch up time after that for a long time.

Speaking of the Beatles, share your meeting with John Lennon back in the late ‘60s.

AJ: At the time we were in England. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was speaking at a conference over there. He had recently initiated the boys into TM. They were so taken by it. Maharishi being a brilliant promoter and one who knows how to convince people to do good. Honestly I think the man is a saint, he really is. But he had a way of getting people to spread the word. So he got The Beatles to recruit the Beach Boys (laughs). So they came up to my suite at the London Hilton. I get this knock at the door and I said, “I wonder who that is.” I open the door and there’s John and George standing there. “Hi mate, do you mind if we come in?” I said, “Sure, why not, heck yeah.” We introduced ourselves to them. Lynda Jardine, my first wife, was there. And lo and behold here comes this speech, they were proselytizing on behalf of TM. They suggested that we get involved with the program and that they would see us later in Paris because they were going to be with Maharishi at this huge concert we were doing for Unicef Emergency Children’s Fund. We played there and all four of the Beatles were sitting in the front row with the Maharishi listening to the show. I wish the meeting with John was a musical one. I wish he brought his guitar up and said “Hey, let’s write a song about meditation.” I’m sure it would have been a lot better than what I sang on the Friends album (“Transcendental Meditation”).

From a purely personal standpoint, can you cite a Beach Boys album that deserves reappraisal?

AJ: That Love You album has some gems on it. That’s the one. It’s a shame that the album cover is so crummy, everything about that thing is homemade. I think they thought it was our last album. I think it was issued as our last album for Warner Brothers. And when we went over to sign with CBS, they checked their agreements and we owed them another one (laughs). They didn’t spend a penny on the Love You album because they knew that we weren’t coming back. They used real cheap cardboard for it. But the music, you wouldn’t believe it. Ed Carter played on that, he’s in our band now too. “The Night Was So Young” is a favorite.
http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=115421





When Rock Stars Fake It

It's not about just the music. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Janelle Monae and others never break character. But is it real or merely an elaborate act?
Ann Powers

Lady Gaga wants you to know she is not a Method actor. The 23-year-old ingénue behind hits like "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi" does believe in cultivating what thespians call "theatrical truth." But while devotees use the exercises developed by the late Lee Strasberg and others to go deep into character and pull themselves out again, Gaga has made artifice her permanent home.

"Hated Lee Strasberg," Gaga says in a behind-the-scenes video on her website, reminiscing about her youthful studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. "You create sensory scenarios for yourself," she explains. "Like, I'm gonna feel a coffee cup right now, or feel the rain, and when I feel rain, I feel this way. Then you go into that state, and you stay there. And then you have to learn in the classes how to get out of that state."

"But that's what I don't do," she concludes. "I'm in a permanent state of Gaga."

The former Stefani Germanotta, who tells every journalist she encounters that Lady Gaga is "not a character" and who gets offended when someone calls her by her given name, is only the most insistent in a wave of pop artists actively questioning the value of an old and often-debated artistic standard: authenticity.

The balance between "real" and "fake" in pop has run in cycles. Rawness and spontaneity come into fashion, then formalism and glitz. In fact, both extremes are always present, with some artists aiming to express unfiltered emotions in unstudied ways, others adopting a deliberately mannered, costumed, referential style, and most combining elements of both approaches.

Since the dawn of the popular music age, the nature of authenticity has been debated by artists, who've battled in rhyme and punched each other backstage over the matter; fans, who tend to think whatever their community does is the most real; and critics and theorists, who've written enough on the topic to sag several bookshelves.

Lately, though, the split between "real" and "fake" seems to have closed. It sometimes seems that all of pop is in a permanent state of Gaga. This isn't because the quest for authenticity has been abandoned. It's because, for artists like Gaga, fake has become what feels most real.

Artificial conventions

Across nearly every genre in pop, artifice, theatricality and synthesized sound rule the day. The biggest group in the nation is the Black Eyed Peas, hip hop's answer to both the Monkees and Cirque du Soleil. Green Day, formerly your basic snotty punk band, has gained renewed respect and commercial success by writing rock operas; now the band's Billie Joe Armstrong and "Spring Awakening" director Michael Mayer are turning one into a musical. And Slipknot-style masks and pseudonyms have returned to the hard rock underground via the band Hollywood Undead.

Theater veteran Adam Lambert turned "American Idol" on its head by wearing glitter and metal wings and performing with KISS; he reportedly is working with Gaga's producer, Red One, on his upcoming album. Lambert's friend Katy Perry became the most talked-about female artist of last year by resurrecting classic styles of feminine masquerade, including burlesque and Lucille Ball-style screwball comedy, and releasing songs like "UR So Gay" and “I Kissed A Girl,” which make provocative hay from the hot topic of fluid sexual identity.

Even college rock, once a bastion of frumpy sincerity, has been taken over by the drama club kids -- from the kitchen-sink epics staged by bands like the Decemberists and Of Montreal to the fairy tales spun by alter-egoed fantasists Bat for Lashes and St. Vincent (real names are not cool these days, unless your mama called you Panda Bear).

Country music too has gained a synthetic sheen: The hot new single by crossover band Gloriana kicks off with what sounds suspiciously like a drum machine, while industry standard-bearer Brad Paisley celebrates video chatting and smart phone Super Pac-Man on "Welcome to the Future."

This giddy embrace of the world as a stage seems to go beyond where glam rock and disco took pop in the past, partly because it's assisted by more sophisticated technology. Auto-Tune, the software program that alters vocal pitch, has become ubiquitous both as a corrective and a kind of carnival mask, used by artists like T-Pain to upend listeners' expectations about what a love song -- or a party song -- should sound like.

Auto-Tune is so overused that it's engendered a backlash. The first single from Jay Z’s upcoming album, “The Blueprint 3,” is called "Death of Autotune," and similar polemics have been issued by his fellow hip-hop veterans Wyclef Jean and KRS-One. But these efforts are akin to the apocryphal story of Pete Seeger trying to cut the power lines with an ax when Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival.

The real story is the gradual emergence of the computer as pop's main musical instrument, not only in dance music and hip-hop -- forms based around synthesized sound -- but across the spectrum. Using Pro Tools or other digital audio workstations that provide huge libraries of sampled sounds, songwriters can create whole soundscapes without strumming a guitar or hitting a drum. Those who favor more "natural" methods of composition can tweak them in any way they want during the recording process, and they do. Even raggedy-looking neo-hippies like Bon Iver couldn't enact their "rustic" experiments without computers.

The new realities of musical composition mirror the ways we're all baring our carefully constructed souls using social media like Facebook or Twitter. No filtering device exists on the Web to separate a true confession from an artful lie, and virtual connections can feel very real. Reality television has blurred lines too: One of Lady Gaga's key concepts, that anyone can think themselves into the supremely self-confident state she calls "feeling the fame," make sense only in the context of a culture in which actual fame might strike any average Jenny lucky enough to have her closet raided by Quentin and Stacy or be challenged to a throwdown by chef Bobby Flay.

Beyond fake

In the permanent state of Gaga, old distinctions simply don't hold. This seems like a new moment in the ongoing relationship between pop music and the theater, one more seamlessly constructed than those to which it reaches back. Gaga and the many other dance-pop artists who cultivate a similar style (from Princess Superstar to the Scissor Sisters) constantly reference glam rock and disco, but in some ways, they take theatricality further than their beloved elders did.

In 1971, David Bowie, one of Gaga's idols, said, "I don't want to climb out of my fantasies in order to go up onstage -- I want to take them on stage with me." Bowie pioneered the idea of rock as theater, incorporating influences like mime and Kabuki into an act that stressed the dreamlike quality of his work. But he still made a distinction between that dream life and his real one.

A decade later, genre-crushing New Wave art star Grace Jones reiterated the split. With her signature Flat Top hairstyle and elaborate outfits designed by artists like Jean-Paul Goude and Keith Haring, the statuesque Jones was possibly the most high-concept pop diva ever. But she could step out of her role. "Listen, I'm two people," she told an interviewer in 1980. "Otherwise, I'd be insane!"

We've also come a long way since 1994, when Courtney Love and her band, Hole, released the single "Doll Parts" after the death of her husband, Kurt Cobain. "I fake it so real I am beyond fake," Love sang in what became one of the most quoted lyrics of the era. But Love, like most musicians of the time, wasn't that good at faking. In her torn ball gowns and smeared makeup, singing her bloody songs about failing to live up to feminine ideals, Love presented herself as exactly what a pop star was supposed to be in the 1990s: uncontainable, willing to be ugly, immediate.

Those qualities added up to "real," even when embodied by artists like Love, who'd read their feminist theory and believed that identity was, at least in part, a construct. Like Cobain, Love wrote songs that questioned social norms, especially when it came to gender roles, but behind her act (and his) was the assertion of a believable self.

Lady Gaga and her peers are the ones who've gone beyond fake. It's not that they no longer recognize the distinction between real life and performance; it's that they don't care about it. The pose initiates the self; what's behind it just can't be that interesting.

Few current pop stars immerse themselves in their personae as completely as does Gaga -- T-Pain, for example, has a song about his children in which he doesn't use Auto-Tune. But many are preoccupied with the idea that the guises of the stage cannot or need not be removed.

In the video for her song "Overpowered," Irish electropop artist Roisin Murphy performs in an eye-popping checked cape and dress and rectangular hat -- and then leaves the nightclub, gets dinner at a chip shop, walks home, does her evening toiletry routine and tucks herself into bed, all in the same massive costume.

Janelle Monae, a protégée of Outkast and Diddy, gained critical accolades last year for "Metropolis: The Chase Suite," an EP that served as the first chapter in an unfolding science fiction epic. In her songs and her live shows, the theater-trained Monae presents herself as "a cyborg without a heart, a face or a mind." Her strange, jerky dance movements imply that she's in character, but she's said that her onstage journeys are never scripted.

The moves these young artists make rarely seem new. Quite the opposite, in fact. Monae, Gaga and others like them wear their debts to Bowie, Jones and Madonna on their shoulder-padded sleeves. But is this a lack of originality, or a refusal of it? Perhaps that's the most powerful point of all.

Taking scam to a new level

Originality is, in its own way, a sign of authenticity: only Bowie could be Ziggy Stardust, because the character, however elaborately garbed and alien-seeming, came from within. Lady Gaga is more like a collection of quotes than a singular performer. Every move she makes, every crazy ensemble she wears, can be easily traced. She's a human mash-up, a sample bank, recycled and reused.

To Gaga's detractors -- and, I suspect, to dance floor veterans 30 and older, who say she makes them feel old -- the borrowed quality of her act undermines her obvious smarts, decent voice and endearingly overwrought sense of purpose. But what pop innovator hasn't also been a borrower? In the permanent state of Gaga, "new" is a false category, just like "real." Every thought's been had by someone who came before and is searchable through Google. Every image has been minted and uploaded to YouTube.

"I know I'm a magpie, right?" Gaga says in another of her well-staged behind-the-scenes videos. "I see shiny things . . . I'm like, waaaa." And she grabs for the air. This is one way forward in the age of too much information, when even the drug of novelty has been exposed as a placebo. The evidence is before us now, that every artist is a borrower, every genius a liar.

Why pretend otherwise?
http://www.courant.com/entertainment...,2850391.story





John Oates's "J-Stache" Cartoon Debuts Online
David J. Prince

John Oates, the curly coifed half of the best-selling pop duo Hall & Oates, can remember the exact day and time that he removed his iconic facial hair.

"I did it in Tokyo after we did a John Lennon Tribute concert (20 years ago)," he told Billboard.com earlier this week. "I realized that if I was going to go on with my life and evolve in some way as a person, I just had to leave that guy behind. And so the shedding of the mustache is symbolic in a way and very important too."

But as it turns out, Oates' mustache didn't disappear down the drain -- it simply went into hibernation. Now the famous follicles have returned as the star of a new cartoon series, "J-stache," which made its public premiere on the comedy website funnyordie.com (www.funnyordie.com).

Independent publisher Primary Wave Music Publishing, which owns a majority stake in most of the biggest hits in the Hall & Oates catalog, is shopping a deal for "J-Stache" that further illustrates the dichotomy. As laid out in the online trailer, Oates is portrayed as a modern-day family man and finds himself enticed back to the rock star life by his mustache, which is voiced by comedian Dave Attell.

"Attell's great because he's really hard and he's real cynical and really nasty," Oates said. "The mustache is definitely the villain in the cartoon."

In the trailer, Oates is in his cartoon house (which he says is actually pretty close to exactly the way his real house looks), having a conversation as though he's talking to his musical partner Daryl, but the gag is that it's really not; it's the mustache. The mustache is an independent character that has a whole other agenda.

The band's music plays a role in all of the story lines too. In fact, the music was the main reasons the series came to fruition.

"One of the motivations is to find another avenue to expose the catalog to a younger generation and a whole new group of people who might not necessarily be completely aware of the depth and breadth of Hall and Oates," he said. "It was a way we thought we could really get into the catalog in a cool, new approach to exposing the catalog to a whole new audience."

But does the obnoxious, beer-swilling, skirt-chasing mustache of the cartoon really represent the John Oates of yore?

"Let's put it this way," Oates said. "I wasn't the guy I am today and I never want to be the guy that had the mustache. I evolved. I shed my skin."

(Editing by Dean Goodman at Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...56M0OC20090723





Amy Winehouse Cleared of Assault

British singer Amy Winehouse was found not guilty on Friday of assaulting a dancer at a charity ball in London last year.

The ruling came at the end of a two-day trial at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, according to the Press Association.

Winehouse, 25, had been accused on punching dancer Sherene Flash in the face. The singer denied the charge, saying she had been intimidated when Flash put her arm around her and so pushed her away.

"Five foot seven in burlesque heels places you at quite an advantage over five foot two in ballet pumps," Winehouse's lawyer Patrick Gibbs told Flash in court on Friday, explaining why the singer had felt threatened.

Winehouse won five Grammy awards in 2008 and her album "Back to Black" earned widespread critical acclaim. But her troubled private life, including a battle against drug addiction, has overshadowed her recording success.

In March, Winehouse was unable to get a U.S. work visa to perform at April's Coachella festival in California because of the assault charge. Earlier this month, she ended her two-year marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil.

(Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)
http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...56M2L420090724





Waller of '60s Pop Duo Peter And Gordon Dies at 64
Dave Collins

Gordon Waller of the pop duo Peter and Gordon, who were part of the 1960s British Invasion and had a string of hits including several written by their friend Paul McCartney, has died. He was 64.

Waller died Friday at The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Conn., nursing supervisor Nity Oris confirmed Monday. The duo's Web site says Waller, who lived in Ledyard, Conn., went into cardiac arrest Thursday night, and the state medical examiner's office lists his cause of death as cardiovascular disease.

Waller and Peter Asher hit No. 1 on music charts around the world in 1964 with their debut single "A World Without Love." McCartney, who at the time was dating Asher's sister, actress Jane Asher, wrote the song.

The duo also hit the charts with other songs written by McCartney, including "Nobody I Know" and "I Don't Want To See You Again." Although McCartney wrote the songs, they were jointly credited to him and John Lennon, as was all their work at the time.

Peter and Gordon's other hits included their versions of Del Shannon's "I Go to Pieces" and the Buddy Holly song "True Love Ways," both in 1965; "Lady Godiva," 1966; and "Knight in Rusty Armour" reached the top 20 in 1967.

"Woman," another McCartney song not to be confused with Lennon's later song of the same name—also reached the top 20 in 1966.

According to the book "The Beatles: The Biography" by Bob Spitz, McCartney had started writing "A World Without
Advertisement
Love" as a teenager. By the time the Beatles reached the top in 1963-64, it wasn't up to their current standard, and it had also been rejected by another singer as "too soft."

McCartney then rewrote it a bit and gave it to Asher. He and Waller "sang it with a pleasant laid-back yearning that transformed the song into a perfectly acceptable pop hit," Spitz wrote.

Peter Asher's Web site says Peter and Gordon had nine Top 20 records from 1964 until they split in 1968.

"Gordon played such a significant role in my life that losing him is hard to comprehend—let alone to tolerate," Asher said in a statement. "Gordon remains one of my very favourite singers of all time and I am still so proud of the work that we did together. I am just a harmony guy and Gordon was the heart and soul of our duo."

After the duo broke up, Asher went on to a long career as a producer. Working for the Beatles' Apple records, he produced James Taylor's first album. In the 1970s, he produced other Taylor albums as well as Linda Ronstadt's string of hits.

Waller was born in Braemar, Scotland. He met Asher at Westminister School in London, according to the duo's MySpace page.

Peter and Gordon, who both played acoustic guitar during their shows, reunited in 2005 for occasional performances. They had several dates this year, including two shows in Kentucky Aug. 27 and 28 and one at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut on Nov. 29.

On his own Web page, Gordon said his time with Asher was "some of the happiest moments of my life."

"I was able to tour with the Beatles in (1966) and see the world with Peter Asher and most of all play the music that I love," Gordon said on his Web page. "I still follow the same simple philosophy today and that is if it sounds good and the words mean something then you have a good song."
http://www.newstimes.com/ci_12875988





Tom Wilkes, Album Cover Designer, Dies at 69
Bruce Weber

Tom Wilkes, an art director, photographer and designer whose posters for the Monterey Pop Festival and album covers for the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, George Harrison and others helped illustrate the age of rock ’n’ roll, died on June 28 in Pioneertown, Calif., in the high desert east of Los Angeles. He was 69.

The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter, Katherine Wilkes Fotch. Mr. Wilkes suffered from primary lateral sclerosis, a progressive neuromuscular disease.

Mr. Wilkes was an art director for a small advertising firm in his hometown, Long Beach, Calif., and taking on occasional freelance work designing album covers when he was hired by Lou Adler, the manager of the Mamas and the Papas, to create imagery for what was then a new idea: a rock ’n’ roll music festival.

Officially billed as the First Annual Monterey International Pop Festival, the event took place over three days in June 1967, two years before Woodstock. It attracted about 200,000 people, with performers like Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, the Byrds and Otis Redding, among many others.

Mr. Wilkes’s memorable poster images included the Greek god Pan, playing the panpipes and wearing a psychedelic necktie. Another shows a shapely woman photographed as a silent film star, wearing a strikingly loopy tie — it has a photograph of another woman on it — that has been painted around her neck, and her suggestively clad figure is set against a pattern of snail-like swirls.

His work at the festival landed him a job as art director for A&M Records, where he designed album covers for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, Claudine Longet and Phil Ochs, but it was as a freelancer that he created his most enduring work.

Mr. Wilkes’s visual style was hard to nail down; working often with a partner, Barry Feinstein, he was known for tailoring his imagery to an idea of the music.

For the Rolling Stones, he created a controversial cover for the album “Beggars Banquet,” using a photograph of a toilet stall with the name of the band prominent on a wall filled with graffiti. The record label initially refused to release the cover, and replaced it with a fake invitation to a dinner. Mr. Wilkes’s version was released later.

For Dave Mason’s “Alone Together,” Mr. Wilkes photographed Mr. Mason wearing a top hat and a long-tailed coat against a backdrop of canyon rocks. For Joe Cocker’s “Mad Dogs & Englishmen,” he placed a photograph of the long-haired Mr. Cocker flexing his right bicep within an illustration of a mirror frame. For George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass,” he depicted the former Beatle as if he were a woodsman in a fairy tale, surrounded by reclining trolls.

Only hours before Janis Joplin’s fatal drug overdose in 1970, Mr. Wilkes photographed her for the album “Pearl,” colorfully dressed and coiffed and looking remarkably relaxed and happy. He photographed Eric Clapton, sitting in a chair in a white suit, for his first solo album, and for Neil Young’s “Harvest,” he created the typescript title over a red sun set against a wheat-colored background.

The cover for the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s rendition of the Who’s rock opera “Tommy,” featuring close-up images of gleaming silver pinballs, two with embedded golden eyeballs, won a 1973 Grammy Award for Mr. Wilkes’s company, Wilkes and Braun.

Thomas Edward Wilkes was born in Long Beach on July 30, 1939. His father, Edward, managed a company that sold vending machines. His grandfather, a sign painter, was the source of his artistic interest. He went to art school, his daughter said, at the Art Center School in Los Angeles (now the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena).

Mr. Wilkes was married and divorced three times. In addition to his daughter, Ms. Wilkes Fotch, who lives in Orange, Calif., he is survived by a brother, Dennis, of Chattanooga, Tenn.; and three grandchildren.

Mr. Wilkes had gotten to know the Rolling Stones when he designed some of the graphics for their 1967 album, “Flowers.” In an interview on Wednesday Ms. Wilkes Fotch said that after “Flowers,” her father and the Stones were hanging out in London, talking about what would be suitable for the cover of “Beggar’s Banquet.”

“They went to some god-awful pub, and my dad went to the bathroom, and someone had written ‘Rolling Stones’ in red lipstick over the toilet,” she said. “That’s where they shot it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/ar.../18wilkes.html





ED#111 : Checked Your CD-Rs Lately?
Adrian Wong

In the past, hard disk drives were small (in capacity) and costly. In 2001, the largest capacity available in a desktop hard disk drive was just 100 GB. More importantly, it would set you back about US$ 450, which was a LOT of money in those days! Needless to say, most users had to settle for hard disk drives of 20-40 GB in capacity.

To make up for the lack of affordable storage, many turned to CD-Rs. Even with an initial storage capacity of only about 650 MB, the CD-R was cheap and one could buy hundreds of them to offload files stored in the small hard disk drive. CD-Rs became an even more popular storage medium when larger capacity 80 mins (700 MB) discs became commonplace, and overburning was introduced.

As it became common to store backups and personal pictures, videos, etc. on CD-Rs, the lifespan of these discs became a concern. According to manufacturers, CD-Rs should last for decades. Some even quoted an upper limit of 120 years based on accelerated aging tests! That sure is a long time, isn't it? But will CD-Rs really last that long?

Time To Go Back To The HDD

Recently, I started porting my archive of over 300 CDs to the hard disk drive. Not only have hard disk drives really expanded in capacity (2 TB per drive and still growing!), they have also dropped a lot in cost per GB of storage, making them one of the cheapest storage options available today. The biggest advantage, of course, is much easier access to the files as you no longer have to look for the proper CD/DVD containing the files you want and load it into the CD/DVD drive.

Interestingly, this exercise also led me to examine the reliability of CD-Rs, as I have never actually thought about their lifespan until now, especially since the oldest CD-R dated only to 2000. That's only 9 years old. I have also taken the trouble to keep them in a cool, dark place. However, the results of the first 173 discs were really surprising. Take a look.

Do note that a CD-R is considered "corrupted" as long as one or more files in the CD-R cannot be read. Discs are labelled as "difficult to read" if it cannot be read by one of the two CD/DVD drives we used for the tests.

Also, this isn't a properly "calibrated" test in that the samples are based on a mixed bunch of CD-Rs - from cheap no-brand CD-Rs all the way to premium Kodak and Mitsubishi CD-R media.

Of the corrupted CD-Rs, many of them only had a few files corrupted, but two of the CD-Rs were completely unreadable. Neither one of the two CD/DVD drives we used could even recognize the CD-Rs, much less read anything off them.

There doesn't seem to be any particular pattern with the disc failures - either with age or with brand. The newest (2002) discs had the highest level of corruptions, followed by the oldest (2000). Of course, those two vintages had the fewest number of samples and the actual results may change radically with a larger sample size.

Even though branded CD-Rs from the likes of Kodak were expected to last longer, they appeared equally susceptible to failure as the cheap, no-brand CD-Rs. More importantly, all these CD-Rs were failing after less than a decade in proper storage conditions (cool, dark and dry).

What Does This Mean?

It should be pretty obvious by now - CD-Rs don't last forever. Although manufacturers may quote lifespans of decades in length, they are unlikely to last more than a few years. Our simple test showed that even when stored properly, CD-Rs that were just 7-9 years old were failing at a significant rate. Of course, how significant it is to you would depend on whether you used CD-Rs to store replaceable files (downloaded media) or critical files (family photos and videos).

Now, we are not saying that all CD-Rs will fail within a few years. It is likely that some could potentially still be readable decades from now. However, you can bet your last dollar that at least a percentage of your CD-Rs will fail after a few years. So what's the moral of this article? If you have something important to keep, back up OFTEN and use MULTIPLE storage options!
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.a...tno=641&pgno=0





New Technology to Make Digital Data Self-Destruct
John Markoff

A group of computer scientists at the University of Washington has developed a way to make electronic messages “self destruct” after a certain period of time, like messages in sand lost to the surf. The researchers said they think the new software, called Vanish, which requires encrypting messages, will be needed more and more as personal and business information is stored not on personal computers, but on centralized machines, or servers. In the term of the moment this is called cloud computing, and the cloud consists of the data — including e-mail and Web-based documents and calendars — stored on numerous servers.

The idea of developing technology to make digital data disappear after a specified period of time is not new. A number of services that perform this function exist on the World Wide Web, and some electronic devices like FLASH memory chips have added this capability for protecting stored data by automatically erasing it after a specified period of time.

But the researchers said they had struck upon a unique approach that relies on “shattering” an encryption key that is held by neither party in an e-mail exchange but is widely scattered across a peer-to-peer file sharing system.

Public key cryptography makes it possible for two parties who have never physically met to share a digital secret and as a result engage in a secure electronic conversation sheltered from potential eavesdroppers. The technology is at the heart of most modern electronic commerce systems.

Vanish uses a key-based encryption system in a different way, making it possible for a decrypted message to be automatically re-encrypted at a specified point in the future without fear that a third party will be able to gain access to the key needed to read the message.

The pieces of the key, small numbers, tend to “erode” over time as they gradually fall out of use. To make keys erode, or timeout, Vanish takes advantage of the structure of a peer-to-peer file system. Such networks are based on millions of personal computers whose Internet addresses change as they come and go from the network. This would make it exceedingly difficult for an eavesdropper or spy to reassemble the pieces of the key because the key is never held in a single location. The Vanish technology is applicable to more than just e-mail or other electronic messages. Tadayoshi Kohno, a University of Washington assistant professor who is one of Vanish’s designers, said Vanish makes it possible to control the “lifetime” of any type of data stored in the cloud, including information on Facebook, Google documents or blogs.

The potential value of such technology was brought into stark relief last week when a computer hacker stole data belonging to the social media company Twitter and e-mailed it to Web publishing companies in the United States and France.

The significance of the advance is that the Vanish “trust model” does not depend on the integrity of third parties, as other systems do. The researchers cite an incident in which a commercial provider of encrypted e-mail services revealed the contents of digital communication when served with a subpoena by a Canadian law enforcement agency.

The researchers acknowledged that there are unexplored legal issues surrounding the use of their technology. For example, certain laws require that corporations archive e-mails and make them accessible.

The researchers have developed a prototype of the Vanish system based on a plug-in module for the Mozilla Firefox Web browser. Using the system requires that both parties of the communication have a copy of the module, which is one of the limits of the technology. Mr. Kohno said that he did not envision Vanish being used for all communications, but only for sensitive ones.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/science/21crypto.html





Network Solutions Suffers Large Data Breach
Larry Walsh

File Under “Faulty Plumbing”: For nearly three months, malware planted by hackers on servers operated by Network Solutions intercepted more than 573,000 credit and debt card numbers used to services rendered by the domain registration and hosting service provide.

According to a report by the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog, the breach occurred sometime around March 12. Hackers inserted code on Network Solutions’ servers that sniffed customer credit card number and personal identifying information. The breach affected accountholders of Network Solutions domain registration and Web services, as well as numerous online retailers that utilize the company’s hosting and online payment services.

Network Solutions doesn’t know how the hackers penetrated its security or the origins of the attack. A company spokesperson told Security Fix that they feel “terrible” about the impact the breach will have on individual and business customers. Network Solutions is working with law enforcement officials, and is covering the notification of customers of its affected retailers. It’s also offering to cover the 12-month cost of credit monitoring services of affected customers.

It should come as no surprise that hackers targeted Network Solutions, since it support so many business clients and provides online payment processing services. While everyone knows about the massive breaches against TJX (94 million credit cards) and Hanniford Supermarkets (4 million), the payment processors themselves are increasingly under attack.

By comparison, the Network Solutions breach is relatively small. In 2005, CardSystems Solutions, a processor of Visa and MasterCard payments, suffered a massive breach that exposed more than 40 million credit card numbers. In January, Heartland Payment Systems disclosed that a network breach may have exposed more than 100 million credit cards.

Incidents such as Network Solutions just go to show that whenever you accept and hold credit card information, you're paint a huge target on your network. It then becomes incumbent upon the organization to measure its threat level and practice appropriate risk management practices to reduce the probability of a data breach.
http://blogs.channelinsider.com/secu...ta_breach.html





Hacking Oracle's Database Will Soon Get Easier
Jim Finkle

Hackers will soon gain a powerful new tool for breaking into Oracle Corp's database, the top-selling business software used by companies to store electronic information.

Security experts have developed an easy-to-use, automated software tool that can remotely break into Oracle databases over the Internet to simulate attacks on computer systems, but cybercrooks can use it for hacking.

The tool's authors created it through a controversial open-source software project known as Metasploit, which releases its free software over the Web.

Chris Gates, a security tester who co-developed the Metasploit tool, will unveil it next week at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, where thousands of security experts and hackers will gather to exchange trade secrets.

"Anyone with no skill and knowledge can download and run it," said Pete Finnigan, an independent consultant who specializes in Oracle security and who advises large corporations and government agencies.

He has not yet studied the Oracle tool but is familiar with other Metasploit software and said it works by automating many of the complicated procedures required to hack into Oracle databases, allowing amateurs to hack into them.

Oracle, which declined to comment, has already issued patches to protect against vulnerabilities that the Metasploit tool targets. But some companies are not diligent in upgrading their software to add the patches, so they are vulnerable to attackers using the new tool. They hire consultants like Gates to help them make sure they are protected.

Metasploit hacks are available for other software programs, including Microsoft Corp's Windows as well as the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.

Gates said this is the first Metasploit program to target Oracle's database.

"There is no way to keep these tools out of the hands of people who want to use them for nefarious purposes," said Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute. SANS trains security professionals in areas including use of Metasploit.

Security testers and hackers have previously used other programs to break into Oracle databases, but the new software from Metasploit is easier to operate and runs more quickly than existing options, said Gates.

Metasploit is the most widely used free hacking tool and has a loyal following in the security community.

In addition to letting hackers break into databases over the Internet, the Metasploit tool allows rogue employees to access them from their work PCs.

Workers could break into an Oracle system and secretly steal confidential data such as credit card numbers, give themselves pay raises or make other changes to corporate databases, said Finnigan, who has specialized in Oracle security for eight years.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Richard Chang)
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...56L66D20090722





BlackBerry Maker: UAE Partner's Update Was Spyware
Adam Schreck

BlackBerry users in the Mideast business centers of Dubai and Abu Dhabi who were directed by their service provider to upgrade their phones were actually installing spy software that could allow outsiders to peer inside, according to the device's maker.

While many questions about the breach remain unanswered, including who ordered it sent and why, analysts say the disclosure highlights the security risks posed by increasingly popular smart-phones like the BlackBerry.

Richard M. Smith, an Internet security and privacy consultant at Boston Software Forensics, said smart-phones are "the perfect personal spying devices" because as tiny computers they can be programmed to send back a broad range of information.

"This is an evolving threat. As the technology advances, the security problems follow behind," he said.

Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes the mobile gadgets, said in a statement Wednesday that it did not authorize the software installation and "was not involved in any way in the testing, promotion or distribution of this software application." It is directing customers on how to remove the software.

"Independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could ... enable unauthorized access to private or confidential information stored on the user's smart-phone," the company said in an eight-page statement strongly distancing itself from the decision to install the software.

RIM said the application users unwittingly installed was a surveillance program developed by a privately held Silicon Valley company called SS8 Networks.

Milpitas-based SS8 describes itself in a company brochure as "the leader in communications interception and a worldwide provider of regulatory compliant, electronic intercept and surveillance solutions." It markets its services to intelligence agencies, law enforcement and communication service providers.

The Abu Dhabi-based mobile service provider Etisalat, which is majority owned by the United Arab Emirates government, earlier sent text messages to BlackBerry customers in the country instructing them to follow a link to update their phones. Etisalat says it has more than 145,000 BlackBerry users in the UAE.

Some customers who installed the new software said it quickly drained the device's batteries, prompting hundreds of complaints to Etisalat and sending users to Internet message boards looking for ways to fix the problem.

In a statement issued following complaints last week, Etisalat described the software change as an "upgrade ... required for service enhancements." It said the upgrades were required and linked to a handover to the 3G wireless technology standard.

The BlackBerry maker dismissed that explanation.

"RIM is not aware of any technical network concerns with the performance of BlackBerry smart-phones on Etisalat's network in the UAE," the company said, adding that it "does not endorse this software application."

Etisalat did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci...nclick_check=1





DD-WRT httpd vulnerability (milw0rm.com report)
McMadPete/Chris

As reported at www.miw0rm.com there is a vulnerability in the http-server for the DD-WRT management GUI that can be used for execution of an exploit to gain control over the router.

Note: The exploit can only be used directly from outside your network over the internet if you have enabled remote Web GUI management in the Administration tab. As immediate action please disable the remote Web GUI management. But that limitation could be easily overridden by a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSFR) where a malicious website could inject the exploit from inside the browser.

We have fixed the issue and generated new builds of the latest DD-WRT version. You can temporarily download the these files from here until we did update the router database.

[UPDATE] We have integrated most of the fixed build files into the router database. You can check there if files for build 12533 are available for your router. If not (yet) please check the location mentioned above to obtain the files.

The exploit can also be stopped, using a firewall rule: Go to your router's admin interface to > Administration > Commands and enter the following text:

Code:
insmod ipt_webstr
ln -s /dev/null /tmp/exec.tmp
iptables -D INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m webstr --url cgi-bin -j REJECT --reject-with tcp-reset
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m webstr --url cgi-bin -j REJECT --reject-with tcp-reset
press "Save Firewall" and reboot your router. This rule blocks any attempt to access sth that has "cgi-bin" in the url. You can verify that the rule is working by entering:

Code:
http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/;reboot
in your browser. That should give a "Connection was reset" (Firefox).

Important Note: This only works for non-https requests. if you have HTTPS Management turned on under > Administration > Management > Remote Access, then turn it off. If you don't want to turn it off, you only can do an Update.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/commu...om-report.html





PDF Exploit for Flash

When Adobe released Acrobat 9 last year, the company introduced support for embedding Flash media in PDF files. This feature is now being used by attackers who are exploiting a new vulnerability in Adobe's Flash media plugin. The vulnerability allows remote code execution, making it a potential vector for malware deployment.

Adobe's security response team issued a statement on Wednesday, confirming the existence of a critical Flash vulnerability that is actively being exploited in the wild. The attacks are currently targeted against Acrobat Reader on the Windows platform. Adobe is working to address the problem and says that a fix will be ready by July 30.

As a temporary measure to eliminate the security risk, Adobe recommends disabling Flash support in Acrobat Reader by renaming or deleting the "authplay.dll" file. Doing so will cause Acrobat Reader to abort when it attempts to reads a Flash-enabled PDF.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has published a cybersecurity alert about the vulnerability and warns that it could potentially be exploited by malicious web sites in addition to PDFs. US-CERT echoes Adobe's recommendation to disable Flash in Acrobat, but also suggests disabling it in browsers too.

Security vendors McAfee and Symantec have both commented on the issue and provided some technical insight. According to Symantec, one known exploit of this vulnerability, which they have designated Trojan.Pidief.G, uses a heap spraying technique.

"Recently we came into possession of an Adobe Acrobat PDF file that upon opening drops and executes a malicious binary. It was quite clear that this PDF was exploiting some vulnerability in order to drop its payload," wrote Symantec researcher Patrick Fitzgerald in a blog entry. "During the analysis it soon became apparent that this vulnerability was not one we had seen in the wild before. What was even more surprising was that this vulnerability affects Adobe Flash--not Adobe Reader as we initially suspected."

Both security companies point out that Flash vulnerabilities are particularly tempting targets for attackers because of its ubiquitous platform support. It's worth noting, however, that the known exploits are currently platform-specific and only target Windows.
http://arstechnica.com/security/news...ed-in-pdfs.ars





Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man
John Markoff

A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a “cockroach” stage of machine intelligence.

While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” they said there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.

The researchers — leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California — generally discounted the possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either already here or will be soon.

They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals could exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were developed. What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smart phones?

The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service robots in the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by Willow Garage in Silicon Valley proved it could navigate the real world.

A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb. 25, is to be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the meeting for the first time with other scientists this month and in interviews.

The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In 1975, the world’s leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.

The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.

Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.

The idea of an “intelligence explosion” in which smart machines would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the “human era will be ended.” He called this shift the Singularity.

This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation.

“Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Dr. Horvitz said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”

The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured imaginations in Silicon Valley. This summer an organization called the Singularity University began offering courses to prepare a “cadre” to shape the advances and help society cope with the ramifications.

“My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort of statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati and people very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines,” Dr. Horvitz said.

The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of “the loss of human control of computer-based intelligences.” It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?

Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a high-security laboratory.

The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.

“If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.,” he said, referring to genetically modified foods, “then it is very difficult. It’s too complex, and people talk right past each other.”

Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his thinking. “I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions,” he said. But, he added, “The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our personal lives.”

Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, “Oh no, sorry to hear that.”

A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion. “That’s a great idea,” Dr. Horvitz said he was told. “I have no time for that.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/science/26robot.html





Researchers Outline Targeted Content Poisoning For P2P Data
Diomidis Spinellis

Two UCLA researchers published a paper in the prestigious IEEE Transactions on Computers that describes a technique for p2p content poisoning targeted exclusively at detected copyright violators. Using identity-based signatures and time-stamped tokens they report a 99.9 percent prevention rate in Gnutella, KaZaA, and Freenet and a 85-98 percent prevention rate on eMule, eDonkey, and Morpheus. Poison-resilient networks based on the BitTorrent protocol are not affected. Also the system can't protect small files, like a single-song MP3. Although the authors don't say so explicitly, my understanding is that the scheme is only useful on commercial p2p distribution systems that adopt the proposed protocol.
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/2...Data?art_pos=6





HP Researchers Develop Browser-Based Darknet
Tom Espiner

Two researchers for Hewlett-Packard have created a browser-based darknet, an idea that could make it easier for businesses to keep eavesdroppers from uncovering confidential information.

Darknets are encrypted peer-to-peer networks normally used to communicate files between closed groups of people. Most darknets require a certain level of technological literacy to set up and maintain, including taking care of the necessary servers. However, HP researchers Billy Hoffman and Matt Wood plan next week to demonstrate a browser-based darknet called "Veiled," which they claim requires little proficiency to set up and run.

"This will really lower the barriers to participation," Wood told ZDNet UK. "If you want to create a darknet, you can send an encrypted e-mail saying, 'Here's the URL.' When (the recipient visits) the Web site, the browser can just get (the darknet application) going."

Hoffman and Wood are scheduled to demonstrate the technology next week at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

Wood said HP does not want to turn the project into a commercial product. While the company does not plan to make the source code available, the researchers do plan to open source their idea, so to speak, so other security researchers can "pick up the baton."

"HP has no desire to patent or copyright or release any code," Wood said. "Black Hat is one of the top security conferences, and we want to get this cool idea into the hands of people who are really smart."

Businesses could use browser-based darknets to set up workgroups to exchange commercially sensitive information, or to have a means of making anonymous suggestions to management, Wood said. "I like the idea of a suggestions box on the Web," he said. "It provides an anonymous way to make suggestions to your boss."

HP's darknet research came about when the researchers realized the potential of new browser technologies, according to Wood.

Browsers with HTML 5 support--such as recent versions of Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer--allow files to be stored "persistently" on the client, for working on them when offline. This feature, coupled with the distributed grid-computing nature of a darknet, means files can be effectively uploaded in perpetuity, even when the initial browser has been shut down. It also makes the darknet resilient, said Wood.

"One of the benefits of a darknet is that they are distributed," said Wood. "To destroy it, you would have to take down all of the clients, because if one server gets compromised, you just shift to a different server. They can hop around."

Advances in JavaScript engines, such as Google's Chrome V8 and Mozilla's TraceMonkey, have also helped make browser-based darknets possible, according to Wood. These engines allow browser-based communications to be set up quickly and encrypted. The Veiled darknet uses RSA public key cryptography, but any cryptography will work.

"Cool advances in JavaScript technology allow encryption in the browser," said Wood. "Browsers are getting really powerful."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10295761-83.html





Curran Suggests ISP Levy for Copyright

Licence fee attached to internet connections proposed

Shadow minister for ICT Clare Curran says a licence fee attached to internet connections should be considered to break New Zealand's copyright law impasse.

In a blog post this morning, Curran suggests any future regime should enable people to access the information or material they seek.

To do that, she says, we should consider introducing a licensing fee attached to internet connections.

"This fee would then be collected and distributed by an external agency amongst copyright holders. In order to work, it would need the buy in of all ISPs and rights holders. It would likely be focussed on New Zealand copyright content first," she writes.

Curran says an independent rights agency could be established to distribute fees and rule on disputes.

"We still need an enforcement regime and a rights agency could also have the power to investigate and adjudicate on copyright disputes and alleged infringements aka the Section 92A model. However, I am of the view that internet disconnection is not a viable option. It simply won’t work and will drive hard core copyright infringers more underground. Financial penalties are more likely to work."

The government last week proposed the Copyright Tribunal should have powers to manage copyright disputes under a new copyright law.

Among her other proposals, Curran suggests there should be more education about copyright.

"A public education campaign is also needed for people to understand that protecting the rights of people who create content is important," she writes.

She also says there should be a commitment to protect New Zealand content first.

"It’s our heritage, and the people who create New Zealand content must be able to make a living from their work and have that work valued."

Curran says from the discussions she's had to date, "there is a growing consensus around these ideas".

"And some of them are still just ideas. They need more work. But if you’re going to spend taxpayer dollars isn’t it be better to spend them enabling access to content and distributing funds to the people who created it rather than just punishing infringements, discouraging access and encouraging more black market activity."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/...2575F800727B2B





Zookz: A License to Infringe?
Jon Healey

Zookz, copyrights, piracy, MPAA, RIAA, downloading, MP3, MP4, DRM Companies that offer downloadable movies and music online without licenses from the copyright holders typically wind up answering lawsuits from the Hollywood studios and the major labels. So it was odd to see a news release announcing the impending launch of Zookz, a site that offers unlimited music or movie downloads for about $10 a month, or both for $18. That's a bit like waving a red cape in front of a couple of bulls, isn't it? But Zookz believes it's in the clear, legally, thanks to the World Trade Organization. It's a far-fetched argument, but you've got to give Zookz credit for nerve.

The main differences between Zookz and most online outlets for bootlegged goods are that it's not a file-sharing network and that the content isn't free. Instead, it's just insanely cheap. The company's impossibly low prices reflect the fact that it doesn't pay for most of its inventory or share revenues with copyright holders. All the proceeds go to Zookz, its 10-person staff in St. Johns, Antigua, and (through taxes) the Antiguan government.

How can it get away with this, you ask? I'm not sure it can, but here's its argument....

The governments of Antigua and the United States battled for several years before the WTO over whether U.S. restrictions on online gambling discriminated against foreign firms. The WTO sided with Antigua in several preliminary stages, but the U.S. kept contesting the body's findings. So to increase the pressure, Antigua asked WTO arbitrators to give it permission to suspend its obligations under sections of the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement related to copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial designs and trade secrets. The arbitrators agreed in December 2007, finding that Antigua could request the WTO's permission to suspend its obligations up to a value of $21 million annually.

Citing that ruling, a company in St. Johns called Carib Media -- led by a prominent local attorney and entrepreneur named Hugh Marshall -- came up with the idea for Zookz. A preliminary version of the site went live last week with a relatively bare cupboard: about 50,000 MP3s and 1,500 movie files in a DRM-free MP4 format. (A spokeswoman for the company said it's adding 10,000 songs and 300 movies a week, but at that rate it will take decades to catch up to the inventory at iTunes and Amazon.com). Among the tracks it offers, though, are ones you can't find on any legitimate online music service, including songs by The Beatles.

Copyright holders say the WTO ruling doesn't give companies in Antigua a free pass to violate the copyright laws of Antigua or any other nation, or other international copyright treaties that Antigua has agreed to. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative contended in an e-mail, “There is no website anywhere in the world that has WTO authorization to engage in copyright piracy. Any representation to the contrary is false, and should be dealt with by the appropriate domestic authorities.”

It's not clear what, in fact, the ruling would let Antiguan firms do. According to Neil Turkewitz, an executive vice president at the RIAA who specializes in international issues, the first step would be for the government of Antigua to seek the WTO's approval for a method to impose the $21 million worth of sanctions. "There’s been no request, and there’s been no consent granted to proceed in this manner," Turkewitz said. And even if the WTO did permit a downloading service, he said, it would have to be confined to Antigua and limited to U.S. intellectual property. No Beatles songs, in other words.

That's a total misreading of the WTO's ruling, argued William Pepper, the company's legal counsel. "There is no burden on Antigua to go back and do anything with anyone," he said in an interview. He claimed that the ruling is much more expansive than the USTR or Turkewitz acknowledge, trumping all other intellectual property laws and agreements and imposing no limits on where Antiguan firms can do business online. The only restriction set by the WTO, he said, is that companies in Antigua can take in no more than $21 million a year through the sale of copyrighted material. Zookz is the only one so far, he said, but if others launch, they'll have to work together to observe that limit. And if Zookz nears the $21-million threshold on its own, Pepper said, it may have to start giving away movies and music.

There's something illogical about that stance. It suggests that if a company didn't charge anything for the downloads, there would be no limit to the quantity of intellectual property infringed. It seems much more realistic that the WTO was imposing $21 million worth of pain annually on U.S. industries, measured by the market value of the intellectual property distributed. A single trade secret could be worth well more than that sum. Nor does it make sense that the WTO would allow Antiguans to exploit intellectual property from countries other than the U.S. -- French movies, say, or Canadian rock -- when Antigua's beef is with Uncle Sam alone.

Pepper said the whole mess could have been avoided had the U.S. taken seriously Antigua's complaints that it was discriminating against offshore betting houses. Antigua has a point about that; Congress allowed some U.S. operations (e.g., race tracks) to take bets online, but barred offshore operators from getting into the game. Rather than complying with the WTO's findings on that issue or finding a way to mitigate the harm to Antiguan gaming businesses, Pepper said, the U.S. government effectively ignored them. "The Americans want to deal with this issue? Fine, they have to come and talk. The movie industry wants to deal with this issue? Fine, they have to come and talk."

The attorney also said the company was concerned about the effect on "creative artists" and would be happy to discuss ways to keep individual artists from being affected by Zookz. But he added, "There's no way we can surrender the right and the opportunity to create more jobs, to generate more revenue up to $21 million, and to benefit the consumers of America."

Naturally, the MPAA doesn't see Zookz as a modern-day Robin Hood. Said spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman in an e-mail, "The suspension of intellectual property rights is not an action this pirate Website can undertake on its own. It is, pure and simple, another example of a movie pirate, stealing movies from creators, and attempting to profit from its theft."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/tech...ights-wto.html





Were We Smarter 100 Years Ago..?
James Boyle

I have been rereading the legislative history of the 1909 Copyright Act. I have come to the conclusion that 100 years ago we were smarter about copyright, about disruptive technologies, about intellectual property, monopolies and network effects than we are today. At least, the legislative hearings were much smarter. The hearings I am looking at took place in 1906 — thanks to the wonder of Google books you can read them yourself, if you are really nerdy.

There are lots of delights here. There is John Philip Sousa (yes, the one who wrote the march that forms the Monty Python theme music) popping up again and again to make his point.. So far as I can tell, he had a wild card from the chair to interrupt whenever it suited him.. viz.

The thing that Sousa (and some other American composers) and the music publishers were most upset about was the fact that copyright covered printing and public performance, but did not cover the mechanical reproduction involved in cutting a roll for a player piano or recording a disk or a cylinder for a phonograph or gramophone. Their goal was to get a new provision (section g) which would give composers (and thus publishers) the right to charge a royalty for these sound recordings. In strong opposition was the recording industry — which violently denied that the copyright holders should gain any share of the new market that (as they saw it) had been created out of thin air by technological innovation. To give copyright holders a veto over technology, they argued, would be fatal to the progress the Copyright Clause was designed to promote. As Larry Lessig points out in Free Culture (which has a superb chapter on this story) there is no small irony involved here, since this is the opposite position that the recording industry takes today (having secured their legal rights) when they face the new technologies of the Net. What’s more, the representatives of the recording and player piano industry believed that there was no harm being done to the composers by the mechanical reproduction of their music.

There were intense debates about the constitutionality of the legislation — piano rolls were not “writings” and restricting accessibility to them was not thought to promote the progress of science or the useful arts, and there were even debates about the correct way to conceptualize intellectual property rights…

There were discussions of whether intellectual property was the norm or the exception

And, my favourite of all, there were passionate attacks on the morality of the publisher’s position on the ground that it was the technologies and not the content, that had revolutionized music in the way the constitution envisaged, by dramatically expanding its distribution to the public, removing the bottleneck of the human who was required to translate musical score into listenable music.

That’s Philip Mauro of the American Graphophone Company — who later became a leading religious writer — and at the end he is striking the note that all the technologists did. The music publishers had a web of contracts in place with which they would create a “trust”, a monopoly, that would dominate music and restrict its availability to the public. As Mauro saw it, on the one side was the threat of monopoly, the squelching of innovation and the greed of the content owners, who were exploiting a misconception about the absolute quality of property rights. “All talk about dishonesty and theft in this connection from however high a source is the merest claptrap for there exists no property in ideas musical, literary or artistic except as defined by statute.”

I quote all this not because I agree with the record industry of the 1900’s — though I wish their representatives today were similarly sophisticated. I’d really like the RIAA to read Mr. Mauro’s speeches and see if it makes them change their minds at all about the disruptive technologies of today. I find no injustice in the composers getting a share of the revenues produced by sound recordings and piano rolls — I would have voted for it myself. And the solution to the problem of the latent monopoly — namely a compulsory license — accomplished that goal without stultifying the technology or restricting distribution to the public. All in all — the fulminations of Sousa and Mauro aside — it was a pretty nice piece of legislation. The legislators actually seemed to understand the arguments made to them. The conceptual confusions of absolute property rights were repeatedly debunked. There were explicit balances made in the statute — weighing technological progress and the encouragement of the arts and culture. Constitutional arguments were weighed and taken into account. They even saw and mitigated the threat of monopoly with a compulsory license. Nowadays when a compulsory license over, say AIDS drugs, is pursued by a country like Thailand, the US Trade Representative beats them up for adopting such “radical” and confiscatory approach. Nothing could be more foreign to the American tradition of intellectual property than compulsory licenses! Hogwash. Our music industry is built on them.

The world of 1906 was hardly perfect — I wouldn’t want to live then. And the 1909 statute was full of its own boondoggles and industry grabs. But if one looks back at these transcripts and compares them to today’s hearings — with vacuous rantings from celebrities and the bloviation of bad economics and worse legal theory from one industry representative after another — it is hard not to feel a sense of nostalgia. In 1900, it appears, we were better at understanding that copyright was a law that regulated technology, a law with constitutional restraints, that property rights were not absolute and that the public would not automatically be served by extending rights out to infinity.
http://www.thepublicdomain.org/2009/...100-years-ago/





Re-education

S. Korea: Cracking Down on Piracy

A new stringent copyright law endorsed by the National Assembly last April goes into effect tomorrow.

Taking tougher actions against the piracy of copyrighted material and intellectual property rights is a global trend. There are still many people in our society with a penchant for copying and making imitations of products from advanced markets.

Korea has been on the United States watch list for potential abuses of intellectual property rights for 20 years but was finally removed three months ago.

The new law may help to further cleanup our image as well as to protect our own music and film industries from similar piracy attacks. And these attacks are indeed occurring here. The Korean independent film “The Old Partner” became an unexpected hit last year, but it failed to generate much revenue due to illegal file-sharing and distribution.

The new law keeps the guidelines used for determining illegality but toughens punitive measures. The move is primarily aimed at those engaged in large-scale illegal uploading or distribution of copyrighted material with the intent of making profits.

The police team launched by the government to specifically go after digital piracy ensnared 43 people for illegal file-sharing, uploading and DVD production during the first six months of this year. Those collared allegedly pocketed 6 billion won ($4.8 million) by selling downloads to 490,000 users.

The new law can force those caught to destroy their files and cease peer-to-peer distribution of copyrighted material. Noncompliance can lead to a six-month or more suspension from their Web accounts.

Some online community members condemn the punishments as too harsh and oppressive.

But we first need to change our mind-set about music and movies. Without copyrights, TV dramas and other intellectual property cannot generate revenue overseas, and in the long run that could stifle creativity in the future.

Of course, the new law is not the answer to all the problems. Teenagers must receive proper education on what constitutes illegal downloads and uploads.

Teenagers charged with unauthorized distribution and illegal file-sharing last year totaled 23,470, compared with 611 in 2006. The police decided to pardon first-timers until February, and officials conditionally suspended some cases. But this Band-Aid action won’t solve any problems.

Authorities, Internet service providers, schools and parents should all be responsible for educating the public about this issue.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/artic...sp?aid=2907764





Pirate Party Sets Sights on Swedish Local Elections

The Pirate Party will be getting its feet wet in local politics in several municipalities in eastern Sweden next year.

The party has decided to run in local elections in 2010 in Nyköping and Oxelösund.

At this point, the party's platform for the local races remains unclear.

According to Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge, one of the local issues the party wants to push is municipal computer licencing.

Both Josefin Hammarling, local party leader in Nyköping and Trosa, and Richard Parck, local leader in Oxelösund, believe that running on a single issue will be not be enough to be successful in local elections as it was in the case of the EU Parliament last month.

“We have been talking about education and health issues,” she told the Södermanlands Nyheter newspaper.

In Oxelösund, the Pirate Party is also considering taking up issues related to entrepreneurship and municipal monopolies.
http://www.thelocal.se/email/94/88342/20854/20090723/





How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free Software
Richard Stallman

The bullying of the copyright industry in Sweden inspired the launch of the first political party whose platform is to reduce copyright restrictions: the Pirate Party. Its platform includes the prohibition of Digital Restrictions Management, legalization of noncommercial sharing of published works, and shortening of copyright for commercial use to a five-year period. Five years after publication, any published work would go into the public domain.

I support these changes, in general; but the specific combination chosen by the Swedish Pirate Party backfires ironically in the special case of free software. I'm sure that they did not intend to hurt free software, but that's what would happen.

The GNU General Public License and other copyleft licenses use copyright law to defend freedom for every user. The GPL permits everyone to publish modified works, but only under the same license. Redistribution of the unmodified work must also preserve the license. And all redistributors must give users access to the software's source code.

How would the Swedish Pirate Party's platform affect copylefted free software? After five years, its source code would go into the public domain, and proprietary software developers would be able to include it in their programs. But what about the reverse case?

Proprietary software is restricted by EULAs, not just by copyright, and the users don't have the source code. Even if copyright permits noncommercial sharing, the EULA may forbid it. In addition, the users, not having the source code, do not control what the program does when they run it. To run such a program is to surrender your freedom and give the developer control over you.

So what would be the effect of terminating this program's copyright after 5 years? This would not require the developer to release source code, and presumably most will never do so. Users, still denied the source code, would still be unable to use the program in freedom. The program could even have a “time bomb” in it to make it stop working after 5 years, in which case the “public domain” copies would not run at all.

Thus, the Pirate Party's proposal would give proprietary software developers the use of GPL-covered source code after 5 years, but it would not give free software developers the use of proprietary source code, not after 5 years or even 50 years. The Free World would get the bad, but not the good. The difference between source code and object code and the practice of using EULAs would give proprietary software an effective exception from the general rule of 5-year copyright — one that free software does not share.

We also use copyright to partially deflect the danger of software patents. We cannot make our programs safe from them — no program is ever safe from software patents in a country which allows them — but at least we prevent them from being used to make the program effectively non-free. The Swedish Pirate Party proposes to abolish software patents, and if that is done, this issue would go away. But until that is achieved, we must not lose our only defense for protection from patents.

Once the Swedish Pirate Party had announced its platform, free software developers noticed this effect and began proposing a special rule for free software: to make copyright last longer for free software, so that it can continue to be copylefted. This explicit exception for free software would counterbalance the effective exception for proprietary software. Even ten years ought to be enough, I think. However, the proposal met with resistance from the Pirate Party's leaders, who objected to the idea of a longer copyright for a special case.

I could support a law that would make GPL-covered software's source code available in the public domain after 5 years, provided it has the same effect on proprietary software's source code. After all, copyleft is a means to an end (users' freedom), not an end in itself. And I'd rather not be an advocate for a stronger copyright.

So I proposed that the Pirate Party platform require proprietary software's source code to be put in escrow when the binaries are released. The escrowed source code would then be released in the public domain after 5 years. Rather than making free software an official exception to the 5-year copyright rule, this would eliminate proprietary software's unofficial exception. Either way, the result is fair.

A Pirate Party supporter proposed a more general variant of the first suggestion: a general scheme to make copyright last longer as the public is granted more freedoms in using the work. The advantage of this is that free software becomes part of a general pattern of varying copyright term, rather than a lone exception.

I'd prefer the escrow solution, but any of these methods would avoid a prejudicial effect specifically against free software. There may be other solutions that would also do the job. One way or another, the Pirate Party of Sweden should avoid placing a handicap on a movement to defend the public from marauding giants.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party.html





Would-Be Buyer of Pirate Bay Backpedals in Court
AP

The would-be buyer of file-sharing Web site The Pirate Bay has backpedaled in a Dutch court Tuesday, saying that it is uncertain whether the purchase will ever be completed.

Lawyer Ricardo Dijkstra says Sweden's Global Gaming Factory X will only buy Pirate Bay if it can turn it into a "legitimate business."

GGF said last month it planned to buy the Pirate Bay domain name and related Web sites for 60 million kronor ($7.8 million), with the deal closing in August.

Dijkstra said Tuesday that it's now conditioned on whether "those assets can be used in a legal manner."

The Dutch court is hearing a civil case brought against The Pirate Bay by a pro-copyright organization.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/200...D99IU7400.html



.)

VLC Video Player’s New DVD-Copying Feature Could Run Afoul of the MPAA
Abhijit Kamal

Has the VLC video player gone too far by allowing you to record encrypted DVDs?

The latest release of the VLC media player is a huge hit, racking up nearly 8.6 million downloads since the 1.0 release last week, according to the makers of the software VideoLAN. But some observers – including movie studio lawyers – may feel the new software is just a little too good. In researching a review of the software, I was surprised to learn that it easily allowed me to copy encrypted DVDs directly onto my hard drive. That’s something that has landed firms such as RealNetworks in court.

Copying a DVD with VLC is simple. Just pop a DVD into your PC’s drive, start playing it through VLC and click the red record button in the VLC interface. The movie, even, in some cases, copy-protected movies, will record in real-time to a file created on your hard drive.

This isn’t quite the same process as DVD ripping, in which a software program cracks the DVD’s CSS encryption and saves the DVD image as an ISO formatted file. Ripping happens much more quickly than real-time recording.

You can save videos recorded with the VLC software in numerous file formats, including MPEG-4, AVI, and QuickTime. The file can then be saved for playback later, copied onto another DVD, or made available for distribution (if you so choose).

I was able to copy the CSS encrypted DVDsThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Spider-Man 2. The Narnia DVD even sported the “copy protected” magnet logo on the back of the case. Another recent DVD, The Da Vinci Code, played in VLC but refused to copy.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf, VLC developer, wrote in an e-mail that in order for VLC to copy a DVD the player needs to bypass the DVD’s copy protection. “VLC needs to break CSS protection to play DVDs,” Kempf wrote adding “I am sorry, but I don’t think this is news at all.” He may be right.

Software, services, and tools to copy DVDs have been flourishing for years despite U.S. copyright laws that state companies that sell DVD-copying tools and the U.S. users of the software are breaking the law, according to copyright attorneys. The federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act bans providing information or tools to evade copy-control technology, including the Content Scramble System that’s used in DVD media.

Copying DVDs may be old news, but given the popularity of VLC the MPAA may be tempted to weigh-in on VLC’s newest feature someday soon. VLC still has a long way to go before it becomes a household name. According to market research firm Nielsen Online VLC is installed on a minority of U.S. computers compared to Windows Media Player, iTunes, and RealPlayer. But among techies VLC has a diehard following. According to Download.com the VLC Media Player 1.0 is a more popular download than RealPlayer 11, Nero 9, Divx, WinAmp, and Windows Media Player.

The MPAA might have a hard time squashing VLC, if it thinks the software is violating its CSS copyrights. VideoLAN, according to its Web site, is made up of developers around the world, including a team of students at the French engineering school École Centrale Paris. The software itself is open source and its makers allow anyone to distribute it freely.

Another VideoLAN developer, Rémi Denis-Courmont, explains, “The original motivation behind breaking CSS was to be able to play legally purchased DVD discs at all on operating systems (Linux, BSD and Solaris) without commercial DVD playback software.” In other words, he says, it’s all about interoperability. “(Using VLC) is the only way I can play my own DVDs on my Linux computer.”

A recent case, RealNetworks v. MPAA, is still tied up in the courts. RealNetworks formerly offered a product called RealDVD that performed the same functions as VLC – the ability to rip a DVD to the hard drive. RealDVD loaded the copied file with additional digital rights management to prevent anything but personal use, but the MPAA wasn’t satisfied. According to a Web site maintained by RealNetworks, the case is still working its way through the system.

VLC offers no such additional DRM protection on the copied file, and it remains to be seen whether the MPAA will turn its eyes toward the VideoLAN team next.
http://techplore.com/technology/vlc-...l-of-the-mpaa/





DRM is Dead, RIAA Says
Ernesto

For years the RIAA has defended the use of DRM, much to the dislike of millions of honest customers who actually paid for their music. Now, in a shocking turnaround, the outfit seems to have come to the realization that DRM does more harm than good and has officially declared its death.

riaaThe digital music landscape is evolving continuously. Just two years ago RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol defended the use of DRM on digital music because customers would benefit from it.

“DRM serves all sorts of pro-consumer purposes,” he said at the time, without going into detail about the alleged benefits.

However, in the year that followed the numbers of consumers calling for DRM-free music increased and more labels and music services started to offer music without digital restrictions. Still, the RIAA was not convinced that there could be a future without it, and predicted a comeback for DRM last year.

Quite the opposite happened. Although DRM is still present in the majority of the legal music stores, most of the big players have decided to ditch it. Most importantly Apple announced in early 2009 that all music sold via the iTunes store would be free of DRM. This time even the RIAA doesn’t believe that it can be resurrected.

Jonathan Lamy, chief spokesperson for the RIAA declared DRM dead, when he was asked about the RIAA’s view on DRM for an upcoming SCMagazine article. “DRM is dead, isn’t it?” Lamy said, referring to the DRM-less iTunes store and other online outfits that now offer music without restrictions.

When the most vocal forefighters of DRM say so, it must be for real. Although this is the first time that the RIAA have actually said on record that DRM is dead, other players in the music industry have seen the light before them. Most notable IFPI, who said earlier this year that stripping DRM would “significantly boost download sales.”

In this we have to agree with them. All DRM has ever done is annoy consumers who actually paid for their music. No single piece of DRM has ever stopped anyone from pirating music, it’s quite the opposite as the music industry now realizes.
http://torrentfreak.com/drm-is-dead-riaa-says-090719/





Careful What You Read, Big Bezos is Watching
Robert X. Cringely

Late last week, hundreds of Kindle owners picked up their e-book readers and discovered two of the books they'd purchased were missing. Was it a software glitch or a hardware failure? Had some hacker broken into the Kindle store and figured out how to access the devices? Nope. The thief was Amazon itself.

The store's digital rights management apparatus had reached into the homely little gadgets via their always-available Sprint Whispernet connections and erased the books. Apparently the publisher who sold the books did not have the rights to them. So Amazon "unsold" them.

Here's the best part: The books that got flushed down the memory hole were none other than George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "1984." Oops.

If Amazon's intent was to demonstrate the Orwellian evil that is digital rights management, it couldn't have picked a better way to do it. (And talk about a gift to the world's headline writers.)

Shortly after this amazing display of cluelessness, Amazon got its irony detection system back online and announced that a) it was refunding the cost of the books (a whopping 99 cents apiece) to Kindle owners who mistakenly thought they owned the books they just bought; and b) it wouldn't pull this stunt again. Or, at least, not in exactly the same way. Lastly, the company apologized deeply for being total jerks.

I'm just kidding about that last bit. Amazon apologize? Don't be ridiculous.

It gets worse. In yanking the books out of its customers' e-libraries, Amazon appears to have broken the Kindle's own terms of service. Per the New York Times' Brad Stone:

Quote:
Amazon's published terms of service agreement for the Kindle does not appear to give the company the right to delete purchases after they have been made. It says Amazon grants customers the right to keep a "permanent copy of the applicable digital content."

Retailers of physical goods cannot, of course, force their way into a customer's home to take back a purchase, no matter how bootlegged it turns out to be. Yet Amazon appears to maintain a unique tether to the digital content it sells for the Kindle.
The problem with digital rights is that you and I don't have any. Paying customers are entirely at the mercy of the content providers and/or their delivery mechanisms. If Amazon decides the book you just paid for isn't "applicable digital content," or Apple decides it doesn't want you to run iTunes on the Palm Pre, you're screwed. Your choice? Take it or leave it; pirate it or hack it.

A closely related problem has to do with creeping nature of copyrights, which are similar to DRM except they're enforced by attorneys, not software.

Orwell published those books in 1945 and 1949. He died in 1950. But thanks to a friendly U.S. Congress that keeps extending the limits of copyright protection, American rights to those works don't expire until 2044. That's when it enters the public domain, joining Shakespeare, Dickens, and all the rest that can republished at will (and are generally available in electronic form from Project Gutenberg).

That's not the case in Russia, where Orwell's works are already in the public domain. So in this case, the folks who live in the country that inspired the totalitarian pigs in "Animal Farm" and Big Brother in "1984" have more rights than we do. Yet more irony to toss onto the fire.

Yes, content publishers need a way to protect themselves against rampant piracy. But we need a way to protect ourselves from content publishers. I think Congress needs to enact a customer bill of rights. Right No. 1: We own what we've paid for, regardless of the fine print inside some license agreement drawn up by a team of $500-an-hour attorneys.

In other words, less digital rights management, more customer rights management. What do you think?
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventure...s-watching-857





Why 2024 Will Be Like Nineteen Eighty-Four

How Amazon's remote deletion of e-books from the Kindle paves the way for book-banning's digital future.
Farhad Manjoo

Let's give Amazon the benefit of the doubt—its explanation for why it deleted some books from customers' Kindles actually sounds halfway defensible. Last week a few Kindle owners awoke to discover that the company had reached into their devices and remotely removed copies of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. Amazon explained that the books had been mistakenly published, and it gave customers a full refund. It turns out that Orwell wasn't the first author to get flushed down the Kindle's memory hole. In June, fans of Ayn Rand suffered the same fate—Amazon removed Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and The Virtue of Selfishness, with an explanation that it had "recently discovered a problem" with the titles. And some customers have complained of the same experience with Harry Potter books. Amazon says the Kindle versions of all these books were illegal. Someone uploaded bootlegged copies using the Kindle Store's self-publishing system, and Amazon was only trying to look after publishers' intellectual property. The Orwell incident was too rich with irony to escape criticism, however. Amazon was forced to promise that it will no longer delete its customers' books.

Don't put too much stock in that promise. The worst thing about this story isn't Amazon's conduct; it's the company's technical capabilities. Now we know that Amazon can delete anything it wants from your electronic reader. That's an awesome power, and Amazon's justification in this instance is beside the point. As our media libraries get converted to 1's and 0's, we are at risk of losing what we take for granted today: full ownership of our book and music and movie collections.

Most of the e-books, videos, video games, and mobile apps that we buy these days day aren't really ours. They come to us with digital strings that stretch back to a single decider—Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, or whomever else. Steve Jobs has confirmed that every iPhone routinely checks back with Apple to make sure the apps you've purchased are still kosher; Apple reserves the right to kill any app at any time for any reason. But why stop there? If Apple or Amazon can decide to delete stuff you've bought, then surely a court—or, to channel Orwell, perhaps even a totalitarian regime—could force them to do the same. Like a lot of others, I've predicted the Kindle is the future of publishing. Now we know what the future of book banning looks like, too.

Consider the legal difference between purchasing a physical book and buying one for your Kindle. When you walk into your local Barnes & Noble to pick up a paperback of Animal Farm, the store doesn't force you to sign a contract limiting your rights. If the Barnes & Noble later realizes that it accidentally sold you a bootlegged copy, it can't compel you to give up the book—after all, it's your property. The rules are completely different online. When you buy a Kindle a book, you're implicitly agreeing to Amazon's Kindle terms of service. The contract gives the company "the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service at any time, and Amazon will not be liable to you should it exercise such right." In Amazon's view, the books you buy aren't your property—they're part of a "service," and Amazon maintains complete control of that service at all times. Amazon has similar terms covering downloadable movies and TV shows, as does Apple for stuff you buy from iTunes.

In The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It, Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain argues that such "tethered" appliances give the government unprecedented power to reach into our homes and change how our devices function. In 2004, TiVo sued Echostar (which runs Dish Network) for giving its customers DVR set-top boxes that TiVo alleged infringed on its software patents. A federal district judge agreed. As a remedy, the judge didn't simply force Dish to stop selling new devices containing the infringing software—the judge also ordered Dish to electronically disable the 192,000 devices that it had already installed in people's homes. (An appeals court later stayed the order; the legal battle is ongoing.) In 2001, a company called Playmedia sued AOL for including a version of the company's MP3 player in its software. A federal court agreed and ordered AOL to remove Playmedia's software from its customers' computers through a "live update."

The digitization of media doesn't necessarily make it more likely for books to get banned. Art is banned across the world for all kinds of reasons. In the United States, the usual justification is copyright infringement. Earlier this month, for instance, a judge issued an injunction against the publication of a Swedish author's unauthorized "sequel" to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. For other examples, take a look at Stay Free! magazine's collection of "illegal art": You'll find Todd Haynes' 1987 film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which played at several film festivals before all copies were ordered recalled and destroyed (Haynes hadn't obtained legal clearance for the music in the film); a CD's worth of songs shot down due to allegations of unlicensed sampling; and lots of parody comics—including of Family Circus and Mickey Mouse—that never saw the light of day.

The difference between today's Kindle deletions and yesteryear's banning is that the earlier prohibitions weren't perfectly enforceable. At best, publishers that found their books banned by courts could try to recall all books in circulation. In 2007, Cambridge University Press settled a lawsuit with Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi Arabian banker who sued for libel over a book that alleged he'd funded terrorism. Cambridge agreed to ask libraries across the world to remove books from their shelves. But the libraries were free to refuse. If bin Mahfouz had sued over a Kindle book, on the other hand, he could ask the court not only to stop sales but also to delete all copies that had already been sold. As Zittrain points out, courts might consider such a request a logical way to enforce a ban—if they can order Dish Network to disable your DVR, they can also tell Amazon or Apple to disable a certain book, movie, or song.

But that sets up a terrible precedent. Amazon deleted books that were already available in print, but in our paperless future—when all books exist as files on servers—courts would have the power to make works vanish completely. Zittrain writes: "Imagine a world in which all copies of once-censored books like Candide, The Call of the Wild, and Ulysses had been permanently destroyed at the time of the censoring and could not be studied or enjoyed after subsequent decision-makers lifted the ban." This may sound like an exaggeration; after all, we'll surely always have file-sharing networks and other online repositories for works that have been decreed illegal. But it seems like small comfort to rely on BitTorrent to save banned art. The anonymous underground movements that have long sustained banned works will be a lot harder to keep up in the world of the Kindle and the iPhone.

The power to delete your books, movies, and music remotely is a power no one should have. Here's one way around this: Don't buy a Kindle until Amazon updates its terms of service to prohibit remote deletions. Even better, the company ought to remove the technical capability to do so, making such a mass evisceration impossible in the event that a government compels it. (Sony and Interead—makers of rival e-book readers—didn't immediately respond to my inquiries about whether their devices allow the same functions. As far as I can tell, their terms of service don't give the companies the same blanket right to modify their services at will, though.)

But these problems are bigger than a few select companies. As Zittrain points out, they come about because of the law's inability to deal with tethered technology—devices that are both yours and not yours, in your possession but under the orders of companies far away. Amazon's promise to do better next time is going to be pretty hard to keep. The company says it won't delete any more books—but it hasn't said what it will do when someone alleges that one of its titles is libelous or violates someone else's copyright. This is bound to happen sooner or later, and the company might find itself deleting books once more. To solve this problem, what we really need are new laws.
http://www.slate.com/id/2223214/





Amazon Boss Sorry for "Stupidly" Wiping Kindle eBooks

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has offered a fulsome apology for the way his company deleted the 1984 eBook from customers' Kindle devices.

The online store provoked a furious response from customers and privacy advocates alike, after it unilaterally wiped copies of the George Orwell novel from customers' Kindles after it was discovered that Amazon didn't have the rights to distribute the book.

Now, in a posting to the Kindle Community forum, Bezos admits Amazon behaved "stupidly".

"This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle," Bezos writes.

"Our 'solution' to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.

"It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission."

The apology appears to have been well received by members of the forum, with many praising Bezos for his honesty. "Everyone makes mistakes," writes one Kindle forum member. "What matters is what you do next. The apology is appreciated and accepted."

Whether Bezos's contrition will be enough to appease privacy advocates is another matter. Critics such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have openly attacked Amazon for putting the interests of its content partners above its customers, and claim that the deletions were not necessary by law.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/263260/a...le-ebooks.html





Lost in the Cloud
Jonathan Zittrain

Cambridge, Mass.

EARLIER this month Google announced a new operating system called Chrome. It’s meant to transform personal computers and handheld devices into single-purpose windows to the Web. This is part of a larger trend: Chrome moves us further away from running code and storing our information on our own PCs toward doing everything online — also known as in “the cloud” — using whatever device is at hand.

Many people consider this development to be as sensible and inevitable as the move from answering machines to voicemail. With your stuff in the cloud, it’s not a catastrophe to lose your laptop, any more than losing your glasses would permanently destroy your vision. In addition, as more and more of our information is gathered from and shared with others — through Facebook, MySpace or Twitter — having it all online can make a lot of sense.

The cloud, however, comes with real dangers.

Some are in plain view. If you entrust your data to others, they can let you down or outright betray you. For example, if your favorite music is rented or authorized from an online subscription service rather than freely in your custody as a compact disc or an MP3 file on your hard drive, you can lose your music if you fall behind on your payments — or if the vendor goes bankrupt or loses interest in the service. Last week Amazon apparently conveyed a publisher’s change-of-heart to owners of its Kindle e-book reader: some purchasers of Orwell’s “1984” found it removed from their devices, with nothing to show for their purchase other than a refund. (Orwell would be amused.)

Worse, data stored online has less privacy protection both in practice and under the law. A hacker recently guessed the password to the personal e-mail account of a Twitter employee, and was thus able to extract the employee’s Google password. That in turn compromised a trove of Twitter’s corporate documents stored too conveniently in the cloud. Before, the bad guys usually needed to get their hands on people’s computers to see their secrets; in today’s cloud all you need is a password.

Thanks in part to the Patriot Act, the federal government has been able to demand some details of your online activities from service providers — and not to tell you about it. There have been thousands of such requests lodged since the law was passed, and the F.B.I.’s own audits have shown that there can be plenty of overreach — perhaps wholly inadvertent — in requests like these.

The cloud can be even more dangerous abroad, as it makes it much easier for authoritarian regimes to spy on their citizens. The Chinese government has used the Chinese version of Skype instant messaging software to monitor text conversations and block undesirable words and phrases. It and other authoritarian regimes routinely monitor all Internet traffic — which, except for e-commerce and banking transactions, is rarely encrypted against prying eyes.

With a little effort and political will, we could solve these problems. Companies could be required under fair practices law to allow your data to be released back to you with just a click so that you can erase your digital footprints or simply take your business (and data) elsewhere. They could also be held to the promises they make about content sold through the cloud: If they sell you an e-book, they can’t take it back or make it less functional later. To increase security, companies that keep their data in the cloud could adopt safer Internet communications and password practices, including the use of biometrics like fingerprints to validate identity.

And some governments can be persuaded — or perhaps required by their independent judiciaries — to treat data entrusted to the cloud with the same level of privacy protection as data held personally. The Supreme Court declared in 1961 that a police search of a rented house for a whiskey still was a violation of the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of the tenant, even though the landlord had given permission for the search. Information stored in the cloud deserves similar safeguards.

But the most difficult challenge — both to grasp and to solve — of the cloud is its effect on our freedom to innovate. The crucial legacy of the personal computer is that anyone can write code for it and give or sell that code to you — and the vendors of the PC and its operating system have no more to say about it than your phone company does about which answering machine you decide to buy. Microsoft might want you to run Word and Internet Explorer, but those had better be good products or you’ll switch with a few mouse clicks to OpenOffice orFirefox.

Promoting competition is only the tip of the iceberg — there are also the thousands of applications so novel that they don’t yet compete with anything. These tend to be produced by tinkerers and hackers. Instant messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing and the Web itself all exist thanks to people out in left field, often writing for fun rather than money, who are able to tempt the rest of us to try out what they’ve done.

This freedom is at risk in the cloud, where the vendor of a platform has much more control over whether and how to let others write new software. Facebook allows outsiders to add functionality to the site but reserves the right to change that policy at any time, to charge a fee for applications, or to de-emphasize or eliminate apps that court controversy or that they simply don’t like. The iPhone’s outside apps act much more as if they’re in the cloud than on your phone: Apple can decide who gets to write code for your phone and which of those offerings will be allowed to run. The company has used this power in ways that Bill Gates never dreamed of when he was the king of Windows: Apple is reported to have censored e-book apps that contain controversial content, eliminated games with political overtones, and blocked uses for the phone that compete with the company’s products.

The market is churning through these issues. Amazon is offering a generic cloud-computing infrastructure so anyone can set up new software on a new Web site without gatekeeping by the likes of Facebook. Google’s Android platform is being used in a new generation of mobile phones with fewer restrictions on outside code. But the dynamics here are complicated. When we vest our activities and identities in one place in the cloud, it takes a lot of dissatisfaction for us to move. And many software developers who once would have been writing whatever they wanted for PCs are simply developing less adventurous, less subversive, less game-changing code under the watchful eyes of Facebook and Apple.

If the market settles into a handful of gated cloud communities whose proprietors control the availability of new code, the time may come to ensure that their platforms do not discriminate. Such a demand could take many forms, from an outright regulatory requirement to a more subtle set of incentives — tax breaks or liability relief — that nudge companies to maintain the kind of openness that earlier allowed them a level playing field on which they could lure users from competing, mighty incumbents.

We’ve only just begun to measure this problem, even as we fly directly into the cloud. That’s not a reason to turn around. But we must make sure the cloud does not hinder the creation of revolutionary software that, like the Web itself, can seem esoteric at first but utterly necessary later.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/op...0zittrain.html





Five Technologies Iran is Using to Censor the Web

Government uses both blunt and surgical tools to stifle dissidents, hacker says
By Brad Reed

One month after a disputed presidential election sparked widespread unrest in Iran, the country's government has initiated a cyber-crackdown that is challenging hackers across the globe to find new ways to help keep Iranian dissidents connected to the Web.

While the government's initial efforts to censor the Internet were blunt and often ineffective, it has started employing more sophisticated tools to thwart dissidents' attempts to communicate with each other and the outside world. Iranian dissidents are not alone in their struggle, however, as several sympathetic hacker groups have been working to keep them online.

One such group is NedaNet, whose mission is to "help the Iranian people by setting up networks of proxy severs, anonymizers, and any other appropriate technologies that can enable them to communicate and organize." NedaNet project coordinator Morgan Sennhauser, who has just written a paper detailing the Iranian government's latest efforts to thwart hackers, says that the government's actions have been surprisingly robust and have challenged hackers in ways that the Chinese government's efforts at censorship have not.

Chinese Internet censorship: An inside look

"China has several gigabytes per second of traffic to deal with and has a lot more international businesses," he says. "They can't be as heavy-handed with their filtration. The Iranians aren't as concerned about that… so they get to use all these fancy toys that, if the Chinese used them, could cripple their economy."

With that in mind, this article will look at five of the most commonly-used technologies the Iranian government has been using to stifle dissent, as outlined in Sennhauser's paper.

IP Blocking

IP Blocking is one of the most basic methods that governments such as Iran use for censorship, as it simply prevents all packets going to or from targeted IP addresses. Sennhauser says that this was how the government banned access to the BBC's Persian news services and how it took down websites critical of the election.

But while these sorts of operations are relatively simple to execute, they don't tackle the problem of individual communications between users, especially if the users have set up multi-hop circuits that use multiple servers to create a proxy ring.

Traffic Classification (QoS)

This is a much more sophisticated method of blocking traffic than IP blocking, as governments can halt any file sent through a certain type of protocol, such as FTP. Because the government knows that FTP transfers are most often sent through TCP port 21, they can simply limit the bandwidth available on that port and throttle transfers. Sennhauser says that this type of traffic shaping practice is the most common one used by governments today, as "it is not too resource intensive and is fairly easy to set up."

Shallow Packet Inspection

Shallow packet inspection is basically a blunter, broader version of the deep packet inspection (DPI) technique that is used to block packets based on their content. But unlike DPI, which intercepts packets and inspects their fingerprints, headers and payloads, shallow packet inspection makes broad generalities about traffic based solely on checking out the packet header. Although shallow packet inspection can't provide the Iranian government with the same detailed traffic assessments as DPI, Sennhauser says that it is much better at handling volume than DPI.

"It's a less refined tool, but it can also deal with a lot more traffic than true DPI can," he explains. "Shallow packet inspection is more judging a book by its cover. If a packet says that it's SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in the header, then a shallow packet inspector takes it at face value."

Sennhauser notes, however, that this is a double-edged sword. If a user disguises their SSL packets as FTP packets in the header, the shallow packet inspector won't be able to tell the difference.

Packet Fingerprinting

This is a slightly more refined method of throttling packets than shallow packet inspection, as it looks not only at the packet header but at its length, frequency of transmission and other characteristics to make a rough determination of its content. Sennhauser says the government can use this technique to better classify packets and not throttle traffic sent out by key businesses.

"A lot of things don't explicitly say what they are. For example, a lot of VPN traffic is indistinguishable from SSH traffic, which means that it would be throttled if SSH was," he says. "But what if businesses relied on VPN connections? You'd move the system to fingerprinting, where the two are easily distinguishable."

Deep Packet Inspection / Packet Content Filtering

DPI is the most refined method that the government has for blocking Internet traffic. As mentioned above, deep packet inspectors examine not only a packet's header but also its payload. This gives governments the ability to filter packets at a more surgical level than any of the other techniques discussed so far.

"Viewing a packet's contents doesn't tell you much on its own, especially if it's encrypted," he says. "But combining it with the knowledge gained from fingerprinting and shallow packet inspection, it is usually more than enough to figure out what sort of traffic you're looking at."

There are downsides to using DPI, of course: it's much more complicated to run and is far more labor-intensive than other traffic-shaping technologies. But on the other hand, Sennhauser says there's no magic bullet for getting around DPI as users can usually only temporarily elude it by "finding flaws in their system." And even this won't help for long, as the government can simply correct their system's flaws once they're discovered.

"Once they fix the flaw, you've lost unless you can figure out some real way to circumvent it," Sennhauser notes.

Endgame still unclear

Sennhauser says that the government has employed these technologies smartly despite being caught flat-footed by the initial furor after the election. Indeed, he thinks the only reason that Iran hasn't yet completely shut down dissidents' communications is that they've had to fight with an army of hackers who tirelessly search for flaws in their system.

"It really is an arms race," he says. "They create a problem, we circumvent it, they create another, we get around that one. This continues on until the need to do so is removed. The circumstances which will end the competition aren't clear yet."
http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...hip-tools.html





Forrester: 2.2 Billion People Online Globally by 2013
Larry Dignan

Forrester Research on Tuesday projected that the Internet population will hit 2.2 billion people by 2013. Of that tally, 43 percent of the Internet population will be in Asia.

In a report, Forrester paints a picture of Internet growth in emerging markets and stagnation in the developing world.

Among the key findings:

• 17 percent of the online population will reside in China.
• Growth rates in the U.S., Western Europe and other industrialized nations will be between 1 percent and 3 percent.
• Online penetration in the U.S. will rise to 82 percent in 2013, up from 73 percent today. That rate will put it on par with other Internet saturated countries. • Russia and Turkey growth will grow 8 percent a year.
• Africa and the Middle East will show strong growth to hit 13 percent of the online population in 2013.

The report breaks down dynamics by region, but here's the overall summary picture in 2013.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10291796-93.html





Chinese Web Sites Close Amid Tightening Controls
Alexa Olesen

Two more Web sites dedicated to social networking went offline in China on Tuesday amid tightening controls that have blocked Facebook, Twitter and other popular sites that offered many Chinese a rare taste of free expression.

China's crackdown on social networking sites began in March, when Chinese Web users found they could no longer visit YouTube shortly after video appeared on the site purporting to show Chinese security officials mistreating Tibetans.

The blockages continued through the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and the recent ethnic riots in Xinjiang, with homegrown and overseas micro-blogging and photo-sharing sites among those targeted.

Though cutting off access to sites can often be traced to a specific trigger - such as the June 4 Tiananmen anniversary - experts say the fact the sites are not coming back online shows the harsh measures are part of a long-term strategy to pare back the power of the Internet and silence some voices finding expression here.

"I am especially pessimistic about this fall and next spring," said Wen Yunchao, a well-known Chinese blogger based in Guangzhou in south China. "I expect they will be more and more restrictive because they have yet to come up with a good way to manage the Internet. They are aware that it has this great power and they are afraid of it."

Digu and Zuosa, two Chinese Web sites that offer micro-blogging services similar to Twitter, were both shut down for maintenance Tuesday, according to notices posted on their homepages. A Digu spokeswoman who would only give her surname, Zhang, said the site was offline so it could be moved to a new server. She said it would be down for at least a week.

"It's a sensitive period, so we are not in a rush to re-open it," Zhang said, adding that some Digu users had recently tried to post politically sensitive material to the site and that the company was having to censor such content. She wouldn't give any specific examples.

Zuosa employees did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment about the site's closure.

Wen, the blogger from Guangzhou, said having two sites close on the same day indicates pressure from authorities for them to shut down. He said the timing of the closures was probably related to the 10-year anniversary on Wednesday of the banning of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

"Maybe the Chinese government is concerned that the Falun Gong will use the occasion to spread some rumors or organize some kind of event via the Internet," he said.

Also Tuesday, the technology channels of the popular Sina and Netease Web portals were shut for about six hours, apparently because they had posted news about a corruption probe without clearance from state censors.

China has the world's largest population of Internet users, more than 298 million, and the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and censorship.

But despite those controls, the Internet's role as a platform for sharing unofficial news and opinions has expanded rapidly and complaints that are articulated online have begun to have powerful influence in the real world.

A waitress who was accused of fatally stabbing a party official to fend off his demands for sex became a folk hero after a flood of supportive postings appeared online. Last month, a court convicted the 21-year-old woman, Deng Yujiao, but spared her punishment in an apparent effort to mollify the public.

While the government claims the main targets of its Web censorship are pornography, online gambling, and other sites deemed harmful to society, critics say that often acts as cover for detecting and blocking sensitive political content.

The video site YouTube has been blocked in China since March - apparently because it contained video depicting harsh treatment of Tibetans by Chinese security forces. Twitter and the photo-sharing Flickr service were made inaccessible in June, just ahead of the 20th Tiananmen crackdown anniversary.

Facebook and Fanfou, a Chinese site similar to Twitter, were cut off after deadly ethnic riots erupted in China's far western region of Xinjiang earlier this month.

The technology channels of China's leading Web portals, Sina and Netease, could not be opened for several hours after both sites posted news about a Namibian probe into corruption allegations against Nuctech, a Beijing company that makes scanning equipment. The articles were deleted and the channels were online again by late Tuesday.

Xiao Qiang, director of the Berkeley China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley, said the closure of a whole channel is unusual.

"These two channels have a lot of readers ... so their being shut down is a very big thing, more than shutting down a blog or something like that," said Xiao. "My guess is ... their chief editors are being punished."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072100811.html





Skype Singled Out as Threat to Russia's Security
Simon Shuster and Anastasia Teterevleva

Russia's most powerful business lobby moved to clamp down on Skype and its peers this week, telling lawmakers that the Internet phone services are a threat to Russian businesses and to national security.

In partnership with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's political party, the lobby created a working group to draft legal safeguards against what they said were the risks of Skype and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone services.

VoIP software has used the Internet to let hundreds of millions of people talk long-distance for free, or at far cheaper rates than traditional service providers can offer.

At a meeting of the lobby this week, telecom executives portrayed the most popular VoIP programs like Skype and Icq as encroaching foreign entities that the government must control.

"Without government restrictions, IP telephony causes certain concerns about security," the lobby's press release said. "Most of the service operators working in Russia, such as Skype and Icq, are foreign. It is therefore necessary to protect the native companies in this sector and so forth."

Skype was not immediately available for comment.

In a presentation posted on the lobby's Web site, Vice President of TTK, a telecoms unit of state-owned Russian Railways, Vitaly Kotov, called on regulators to stop VoIP services from causing "a likely and uncontrolled fall in profits for the core telecom operators."

Valery Ermakov, deputy head of Russia's No.3 mobile phone firm MegaFon, drove the point home with a picture of two hands in handcuffs, the caption running, "protect investments and fight VoIP services."

Delegates at the meeting also warned that it has been impossible for police to spy on VoIP conversations, Vedomosti business daily reported on Friday.

The lobby, called the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, forecast that 40 percent of calls could be made through VoIP services by 2012.

As an alternative to Skype and its peers, the telecom executives proposed creating VoIP services inside their own firms, which would then make them safely available to the Russian public.

"MegaFon is interested in this market. We're interested in providing analogous services. We don't support limiting competition, but we want the market to be civilized," Ermakov said.

TTK's press service said on Friday that it will take until September for the relevant legal amendments to be drafted by the special committee, whose members include top telecoms executives and lawmakers from Putin's United Russia party.

(Editing by Rupert Winchester)
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...56N41I20090724





Barneys NY Removes Killer Window Display
AP

The luxury retailer Barneys New York has removed a window display that made it appear blood-spattered mannequins were fending off attackers.

Creative director Simon Doonan says it was installed in a vestibule window at the Manhattan store while he was away on business. He had it removed Tuesday after an inquiry from the Daily News.

Doonan said he encourages creativity, but "this clearly crossed the line."

The weird window display left some shoppers puzzled and others appalled.

A few shrugged off the edgy art in typical New York fashion. Says Joyce Sanders of Harlem: "I watch a lot of 'CSI.'"
http://www.newstimes.com/national/ci_12889999





The Day Obscenity Became Art
Fred Kaplan

TODAY is the 50th anniversary of the court ruling that overturned America’s obscenity laws, setting off an explosion of free speech — and also, in retrospect, splashing cold water on the idea, much discussed during Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, that judges are “umpires” rather than agents of social change.

The historic case began on May 15, 1959, when Barney Rosset, the publisher of Grove Press, sued the Post Office for confiscating copies of the uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence’s 1928 novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” which had long been banned for its graphic sex scenes.

Most lawyers of the time would have advised Mr. Rosset that he had a weak case. Back in 1873, Anthony Comstock, the former postal inspector who founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, had persuaded Congress to pass a law outlawing obscenity, which state and federal courts came to define over the decades as works that “community standards” would regard as “lustful,” “lewd,” “lascivious” or “prurient.”

As recently as 1957, the Supreme Court had ruled in Roth v. United States — a case involving a bookseller who sent erotic literature through the mail — that the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech did not apply to obscenity. The case against “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” seemed cut and dry; whatever the book’s literary merits, it met the legal definition of obscenity.

However, Mr. Rosset hired a lawyer named Charles Rembar, whom he’d met playing tennis in the Hamptons. Rembar had never argued a case in court but was an adviser to several writers, including his cousin Norman Mailer. (When Mailer wrote “The Naked and the Dead,” his career-sparking World War II novel, Rembar advised him to avoid legal controversy by spelling his characters’ most common utterance “fug.” The trick worked.)

Looking over the Roth decision, Rembar spotted a loophole. The opinion, written by Justice William J. Brennan, noted that the First Amendment’s purpose was “to assure unfettered interchange of ideas” and that “all ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance — unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion — have the full protection of the guarantees.” But, Brennan went on, “implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance.”

Rembar mulled over a question that Brennan apparently hadn’t considered: What if a book met the standards of obscenity yet also presented ideas of “redeeming social importance”? By Brennan’s logic, wouldn’t it qualify for the First Amendment’s protection after all?

On a sheet of paper, Rembar drew two slightly overlapping circles. He labeled one circle “Material appealing to prurient interests.” He labeled the other “Material utterly without social importance.” By Brennan’s reasoning, only material that fell inside both circles — that was both prurient and worthless — should be denied the privileges of free speech.

This was the argument that Rembar made before Judge Frederick van Pelt Bryan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. With the assistance of several literary critics’ testimony, he presented “Lady Chatterley” as a novel of ideas that inveighed against sex without love, the mechanization of industrial life and morbid hypocrisy.

The United States attorney representing the Post Office, S. Hazard Gillespie Jr., thought Rembar had misread the law, and he recited a clause of the Roth ruling that Rembar had omitted. Justice Brennan had written that controversial ideas “have the full protection” of the First Amendment — “unless,” Gillespie underlined, these ideas were “excludable because they encroach upon the limited area of more important interests.” One of those interests, surely, was keeping obscenity under wraps. Hence Rembar’s argument was irrelevant.

This was, however, just the rebuttal Rembar was hoping for. He pointed out a footnote in which Brennan elaborated on what kind of “more important interests” were “excludable.” All of them involved actions — peddling, picketing, parading without a license, playing loud music from a truck. The First Amendment didn’t protect any of that. But none of Brennan’s examples involved writing — expression unattached to conduct. Pure expression could be forbidden, Rembar argued, only if it was “utterly without social importance.”

On July 21, 1959, Judge Bryan ruled in favor of Grove Press and ordered the Post Office to lift all restrictions on sending copies of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” through the mail. This, in effect, marked the end of the Post Office’s authority — which, until then, it held absolutely — to declare a work of literature “obscene” or to impound copies of those works or prosecute their publishers. This wasn’t exactly the end of obscenity as a criminal category. Into the mid-1960s, Barney Rosset would wage battles in various state courts over William Burroughs’s “Naked Lunch” and Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer,” other Grove novels now widely regarded as classics. But the “Chatterley” case established the principle that allowed free speech its total victory.

The Post Office did appeal Judge Bryan’s verdict; a panel of four judges upheld it unanimously. The government’s lawyers decided not to appeal further to the Supreme Court. They knew that they would lose — that the justices who, just two years earlier, had excluded this sort of literature from constitutional protection would now change their minds. They knew that Rembar’s creative view of Justice Brennan’s opinion — a view that Brennan had not explicitly considered when he wrote it — was logically unassailable.

The case also made clear that laws are more complex than strike zones or foul lines, which is why the analogy between judges and umpires is so misleading.

The distinction is sharpened by another argument Rembar made during the “Lady Chatterley” trial. “A novel, no matter how much devoted to the act of sex,” he said, “can hardly add to the constant sexual prodding with which our environment assails us.” In the mass media of the day, with its appeals to a booming youth market, movies and advertisements were often “calculated to produce sexual thoughts and reactions,” to the point where “we live in a sea of sexual provocation.”

In short, “community standards” were radically changing. The proof was that, after the ban on “Lady Chatterley” was lifted, the book reached the No. 2 slot on The New York Times best-seller list (topped only by Leon Uris’s “Exodus”) and, within a year, sold two million copies.

For many decades, the courts upheld racial segregation; then, suddenly, they didn’t. For many decades, the courts let the Post Office decide which books people could read; then, suddenly, they didn’t. In both cases, and many others that could be cited, the laws hadn’t changed; society did. And the courts responded accordingly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/opinion/21kaplan.html





When Big-Box Store Smiles on a Book, Sleepy Titles Can Become Best Sellers
Motoko Rich

When “Sarah’s Key,” a novel about an American journalist investigating the 1942 roundup of Jews in Paris, was published in hardcover two years ago, it dropped with a thud. According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of sales, the book sold just 2,000 copies.

Indeed, the book, by the first-time novelist Tatiana de Rosnay, was well on its way to sinking out of sight last fall when Target, the discount retailer, chose the paperback version of “Sarah’s Key” as its Bookmarked Club Pick: a choice for a program that designates titles for prominent display throughout the chain’s stores. Suddenly sales exploded.

A special edition of the novel that its publisher, St. Martin’s Press, produced exclusively for Target has sold 145,000 copies. The ordinary paperback edition has sold 200,000 copies, and this Sunday will be its 22nd week on the New York Times trade paperback fiction best-seller list.

In publishing circles Target has long been known as a place that can move many copies of discounted best sellers, as do other mass-merchant retailers like Wal-Mart and Costco. But in the last few years, much in the way it has cultivated its image as a counterintuitive purveyor of Isaac Mizrahi clothes or Michael Graves tea kettles, Target has been building itself into a tastemaker for books.

Through its book club, as well as a program it calls Bookmarked Breakout, both started in 2005, the company has highlighted largely unknown writers, helping their books find their way into shopping carts filled with paper towels, cereal and shampoo.

Compared with a large chain bookstore like Barnes & Noble, which averages about 200,000 titles per location, Target carries only about 2,500 titles in each of its 1,700 stores. Offerings include diet books, children’s picture books, young-adult novels and series romances. Paperbacks far outnumber hardcovers, and over the last decade Target has focused on the larger trade format as opposed to the smaller mass-market paperbacks. (The other big-box retailers rely mostly on the biggest commercial books of the moment, though Costco does on occasion offer its own special picks of little-known authors.)

Virtually every book at Target is shelved face out. Books in the book club and Breakout program are set apart on so-called endcaps — narrower shelves that stand at the front or end of aisles — with specially designed signs.

At a Target in Clifton, N.J., last week, one top shelf was devoted exclusively to the current book club pick, “The Wednesday Sisters” by Meg Waite Clayton. Five small stacks were lined up, face out, while lower shelves held previous selections, including “The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes” by Diane Chamberlain and “Still Alice,” a first novel by Lisa Genova. Another endcap featured Breakout books under a sign that read “Hand-Picked Titles From Emerging Authors” and showed a picture of a small chick pecking its way out of a broken eggshell.

Not surprisingly, the conspicuous display helps sell books. “Still Alice,” which was a Target book club pick early this year, has sold 51,000 copies in its Target edition. Louise Burke, publisher of Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster that released “Still Alice,” said that the book — which has sold 174,000 copies over all, according to BookScan — has sold more in Target than in any other outlet.

And after the chain anointed “The Year of Fog,” a novel by Michelle Richmond about a child’s disappearance, in April 2008, the book went on to sell 152,000 copies of its Target edition, according to Bookscan.

Target “can sell hundreds of thousands of copies of a book that is virtually unknown in the rest of the marketplace,” said Jacqueline Updike, director of adult sales at Random House, one of the world’s largest publishers.

By assembling a collection of books by unheralded authors, Target behaves more like an independent bookstore than like a mere retailer of mainstream must-haves (although, of course, Target sells its share of best-seller list regulars, like James Patterson and Janet Evanovich).

“Target says every month, ‘Here are some new titles we’re bringing to you, and you can trust us, even if you haven’t heard of them,’ ” said Patrick Nolan, director of trade paperback sales for Penguin Group USA. “That is a very different approach.”

Danielle Owens, a 24-year-old receptionist in Virginia Beach, Va., regularly buys clothes and other supplies for her 2-year-old son at Target. Last fall she wandered into the book section looking for a book for her son and noticed “Come Back,” a mother-daughter memoir of drug addiction and recovery by Claire and Mia Fontaine that had been a club pick in 2007 but was still featured on the book club shelf.

Ms. Owens liked the book (and its cost — 20 percent off the publisher’s list price) so much that she has started buying all her books at Target. She said she bought a book a week and looks specifically for the store’s recommendations. “I always go to the book pick first,” she said.

Target began its Bookmarked Club Pick and Breakout programs partly to convert “Target core guests into regular Target book shoppers,” said Jana O’Leary, a spokeswoman, in e-mailed responses to questions. Ms. O’Leary said that Target’s “core” book buyers were women, with a median age of 42 and median annual household income of $60,000. About half have completed college degrees, and some have children at home.

The books for both programs are chosen by a panel of Target employees who meet monthly to review submissions from publishers.

Occasionally the panel selects a classic — as it did with “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” last year — or earlier books by a popular author, like “Something Borrowed” and “Something Blue,” both by Emily Giffin, this spring. Matthew Shear, paperback publisher at St. Martin’s Press, Ms. Giffin’s publisher, said that as a result of her older titles’ being selected by Target’s book club, the chain had outstripped any other outlet in sales of “Love the One You’re With,” Ms. Giffin’s newest title.

For each book selected as a Bookmarked Club Pick, the publisher produces a special edition, and the author writes a letter addressed to Target readers.

In a letter written for the Target edition of “The Wednesday Sisters,” Ms. Clayton connected Target with her main characters: “As women with relationships and jobs to tend to, dinners to cook, miles to run, and children to raise, where else would they go for sweatshirts, cookie pans and the alarm clocks that wake them up so they can write in the early-morning silence, before life intrudes?”

In an interview Ms. Clayton said she was more likely to go to Target herself for “teapots and toasters” and mainly bought books at local independents. Target, she figured, would expand the more typical audience for her novel. “Your book is being seen by people who aren’t necessarily there to buy books,” she said. “It makes you think that walk-by traffic is still selling books.”

Ms. de Rosnay, the author of “Sarah’s Key,” who lives in France, said she knew her paperback had a chance of much bigger sales when a friend sent her an iPhone photo of a shelf full of copies of her book at a Target. “That’s when I realized this was big — really big,” Ms. de Rosnay said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/books/22target.html





Barnes & Noble Plans an Extensive E-Bookstore
Motoko Rich

Four months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest chain of bookstores, is starting its own mega e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com.

In an announcement on Monday, Barnes & Noble said that it would offer more than 700,000 books that could be read on a wide range of devices, including Apple’s iPhone, the BlackBerry and various laptop or desktop computers. When Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise in March, that online retailer had about 60,000 books in its catalog.

More than 500,000 of the books now offered electronically on BN.com can be downloaded free, through an agreement with Google to provide electronic versions of public domain books that Google has scanned from university libraries. Sony announced a similar deal in March to offer the public domain books on its Reader device.

Barnes & Noble is promoting its e-bookstore as the world’s largest, an implicit stab at Amazon.com, which offers about 330,000 for its Kindle device. Currently, Google’s public domain books cannot be read on a Kindle.

The number of e-books available on BN.com compares with 1.2 million in stock that can be bought in print form from the company’s Web site.

A further one million books can be ordered from BN.com in the print-on-demand format.

William J. Lynch, president of Barnes & Noble.com, said the company would continue to sell e-book versions of best sellers and new releases — defined as a new e-book for the first six months of its availability — for $9.99. That charge has become the de facto e-book price since Amazon.com set it for Kindle sales.

E-book pricing has become one of the most delicate topics in book circles. Publishers are concerned that by selling new books at such low prices, e-book retailers will undercut sales of hardcover editions, which average about $26, and eventually erode publisher margins.

“The pricing policies won’t remain static,” Mr. Lynch said in an interview. “We’re working with our publishers on various pricing models. As the pricing model evolves over time, we will adjust.”

David Young, chief executive of the Hachette Book Group, the publisher of blockbuster authors like James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer, was cautious about Barnes & Noble’s latest step.

“I’m thrilled that another major player is entering the fast-emerging e-book market,” Mr. Young said. “But I remain deeply concerned that our most valuable front-list titles are being sold at mass-market paperback prices,” he said, referring to the small format paperbacks that usually come out a year after a hardcover is released.

Barnes & Noble also announced an upgraded version of its eReader software that users could download free from its Web site, making it possible to read any e-book bought on BN.com on various devices. Electronic books bought at BN.com cannot be read on Sony’s Reader or on the Kindle.

The retailer also said that when Plastic Logic released its electronic reading device in early 2010, Barnes & Noble would operate a bookstore for e-books that would work on the new device. Mr. Lynch declined to say whether Barnes & Noble would sell the actual device.

Sales of e-books remain small , but are growing fast. According to a survey by the Codex Group, a book marketing research company, 4.9 percent of books sold in May were in digital form, up from 3.7 percent in March.

Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., said BN.com was unlikely to dent Amazon.com’s Kindle sales.

“I don’t think they will be stealing market share from Amazon,” Ms. Rotman Epps said. “If anything I think they are contributing to the growth of the whole category of digital reading.”

She added that as more consumers begin reading digital books on phones and other mobile devices, it made sense to market to those readers as opposed to those who are buying dedicated reading devices like the Kindle or the Sony Reader.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/te...et/21book.html





University of Michigan, Amazon Offer 400,000 Titles with Print-On-Demand
AP

The University of Michigan said Tuesday it is teaming up with Amazon.com to offer reprints of 400,000 rare, out-of-print and out-of-copyright books from its library. Seattle-based Amazon's BookSurge unit will print the books on demand in soft cover editions at prices from $10 to $45.

The Ann Arbor school said the books are in more than 200 languages from Acoli to Zulu and include an 1898 book on nursing by Florence Nightingale, "Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is not."

The move is possible because of the university's project to digitize its collection in partnership with Google, school spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.

"It's basically an outgrowth of the digitization process," Fitzgerald said. He said some of the reprints being offered for sale are of books scanned by Google, while others were processed by the university.

The Michigan-Google partnership started in 2004 as part of a program that also includes Harvard and Stanford universities and the University of California system.

The books in the Michigan-Amazon deal do not have copyright protection and are in the public domain, so no royalty payments go to the author or original publisher.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_12885402





New York Times Profit Rises, Studies Web Access Charge
Robert MacMillan

The New York Times reported higher quarterly profit on cost cuts on Thursday, beating forecasts, but advertising revenue fell 30 percent and a recovery for U.S. newspaper publishers still looks a long way off.

The Times confirmed it is studying ways to charge for access to its popular website at a time when no clear path has emerged for newspaper publishers to switch primarily to the Internet in a sustainable way.

But the company did not address multiple reports that it is trying to sell the money-losing Boston Globe newspaper. It did say it hopes to sell its stake in the holding company that owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team by the end of the year.

Many publishers reported similar results this week and their shares have sunk to historic lows as the recession and the trend of readers abandoning newspapers for the Web sucks away precious ad revenue.

Publishers have slashed jobs and trimmed expenses, making media watchers fearful over the quality of journalism, but the moves have pleased investors, who have sparked a rally in the sector in recent days.

New York Times Co posted second-quarter net income of $39 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $21.1 million, or 15 cents a share, in the quarter a year ago.

Excluding an income tax gain and various charges, its profit of 8 cents a share surprised analysts, who expected a loss of 4 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The Times cut operating costs by 20 percent in the quarter, and said it plans to record $450 million in cost savings this year. Some of that savings is coming from closing its City and Suburban newspaper and magazine distribution unit.

Revenue fell 21 percent to $584.5 million on a 30 percent decline in ad revenue. Ad sales at its news media group, which includes its newspapers, fell 32 percent. Online ad revenue, normally a brighter category for publishers, fell 15.5 percent.

USA Today owner Gannett Co Inc, Miami Herald publisher McClatchy Co and Richmond Times-Dispatch publisher Media General Inc, all surprised Wall Street with higher-than-expected profits due to expense cuts, but said ad revenue continued to fall.

As newspaper ad revenue falls, the Times and many other publishers are exploring ways to charge for Web access, but in a way that will not dent online ad sales or drive away large numbers of readers.

It also is cutting labor costs. Earlier this week, union workers agreed to pay cuts and other concessions at the Globe, which will result in $20 million in annual savings at the money-losing paper. The Times has already cut pay by up to 5 percent at other properties, including its flagship paper.

Earlier this month, the Times said it will sell its classical music radio station in New York to pay debt, and that it hopes to sell its stake in the Red Sox's holding company, New England Sports Ventures, by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...56M5Q820090723





Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It’s a Desert for Photos
Noam Cohen

Some may wonder: Could there be a bad picture of Halle Berry or George Clooney?

Just visit Wikipedia. There you’ll find a fuzzy shot of Ms. Berry from the mid-1980s, when she was part of a U.S.O. tour with other Miss USA contestants. She is out of focus and wearing a red-and-white baseball cap — in short, she is barely recognizable. Mr. Clooney, in his Wikipedia entry, is shown in Chad wearing a khaki vest and a United Nations cap. Smiling, he is ruggedly handsome in the company of two women who work for the United Nations; still this is hardly a glamour shot.

Then there are big names like Howard Stern or Julius Erving who have no photograph at all on Wikipedia.

At a time when celebrities typically employ a team of professionals to control their images, Wikipedia is a place where chaos rules. Few high-quality photographs, particularly of celebrities, make it onto this site. This is because the site runs only pictures with the most permissive Creative Commons license, which allows anyone to use an image, for commercial purposes or not, as long as the photographer is credited.

“Representatives or publicists will contact us” horrified at the photographs on the site, said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the Wikipedia encyclopedias in more than 200 languages. “They will say: ‘I have this image. I want you to use this image.’ But it is not as simple as uploading a picture that is e-mailed to us.”

“In general,” he added, “we need them to know that giving us a photograph from Annie Leibovitz won’t work unless Annie Leibovitz is O.K. with it.”

Photographs are a glaring flaw in the Wikipedia model. Unlike the articles on the site, which in theory are improved, fact checked, footnoted and generally enhanced over time, photographs are static works created by individuals. A bad article can become a better article. A bad photograph simply stays bad.

Wikipedians have tried to make up for this defect by organizing outings where groups of contributors take high-quality photographs of buildings or objects. Likewise Wikipedia has tried to gain permission from large photographic collections to use their material.

Last winter the German Federal Archives released 100,000 low-resolution digital copies under a license so they could appear on Wikipedia. Recently a Wikipedia user, Derrick Coetzee, downloaded more than 3,000 high-resolution photographs from the British National Portrait Gallery — to serve, in essence, as the head shots for important historical figures like Charlotte Brontë or Charles Darwin.

The gallery threatened legal action against Mr. Coetzee, saying that while the painted portraits may be old and thus beyond copyright protection, the photographs are new and therefore copyrighted work. The gallery is demanding a response by Monday from Mr. Coetzee, who is being represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In an e-mail message on Friday a gallery spokeswoman, Eleanor Macnair, wrote that “contact has now been made” with the Wikimedia Foundation and “we remain hopeful that a dialogue will be possible.”

But none of this has made much of an improvement in Wikipedia’s photography. Any gallery of hideous Wikipedia photographs would include the former N.B.A. star George Gervin, who is standing stiffly in a suit in a shot that is cropped longer and thinner than would be typical even for a basketball player. The unrestricted photograph came from the office of Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who has been cut out of it.

As in Mr. Gervin’s case, the government is a prime source for public domain photographs. President Obama, for example, looks composed and serious in the official portrait that sits on the upper right-hand corner of his article.

But Wikipedia contributors also cull government collections for photographs of celebrities’ meetings with politicians, hoping to find something to post on the page.

The former home-run king Hank Aaron is shown in an out-of-context, oddly cropped photograph from a 1978 visit to the White House. Likewise the main photograph of Michael Jackson was taken from his 1984 visit with Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

Recent photographs on Wikipedia almost exclusively are the work of amateurs who don’t mind giving away their work. Amateur may be too kind a word; their photos tend to be the work of fans who happen to have a camera. The opera singer Natalie Dessay is shown looking the wrong way at an autograph signing; the actress Allison Janney appears in sunglasses at the Toronto Film Festival. The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, are seen from middle distance at Cannes in 2001, with Ethan covering his mouth, perhaps because he has just coughed.

Then there are the photographs taken from the stands, with the subject barely a fleck. Barry Bonds is apparently the outfielder in the center of one photograph on his page; David Beckham can be discerned with his hands on hips during a 1999 soccer match.

A few celebrities, like Plácido Domingo and Oliver Stone, have had the foresight to provide their own freely licensed photographs. And considering the money that stars spend to maintain their image, it is surprising that more have not invested in high-quality, freely licensed photographs for Wikipedia and other sites. Perhaps they don’t recognize how popular Wikipedia is. In June, for example, Ms. Berry’s article had more than 180,000 page views.

Also, it can be difficult to persuade a talent photographer to go along with that approach because one free photograph can drive out all the others, said Jerry Avenaim, a celebrity photographer. He is unusual in that he has contributed about a dozen low-resolution photographs to Wikipedia, including a shot of the actor Mark Harmon, originally created for TV Guide.

In an interview Mr. Avenaim still sounded torn about the idea of contributing his work. He said he was trying to accomplish two goals: “One, I really wanted to help the celebrities that I care about to show them in the proper light they want to be shown,” he said. “Second, it is an interesting marketing strategy for myself.”

He said that having his work on Wikipedia has increased his online visibility as reflected in search-engine results and traffic to his Web site,, but that the costs are potentially high. “This is the lifeblood of my career,” he said, noting that photographers may get paid very little for a celebrity shot for a magazine. They make their money from resales of the image. And even a low-resolution photograph that is available free — say, his shot of Dr. Phil — becomes the default photograph online and means there is no need to pay for another one of his shots.

That, ultimately, is the issue for photographers who might want to donate their work to Wikipedia, but not the entire Internet.

“To me the problem is the Wikipedia rule of public use,” Mr. Avenaim said. “If they truly wanted to elevate the image on the site, they should allow photographers to maintain the copyright.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/arts/20funny.html





Forget the Trash Bag, Bring a Towel
Melena Ryzik

The only thing cooler than a pool party on a summer night in New York City is a secret pool party.

And the only thing cooler than that, as a few enterprising developers recently discovered, is a secret pool party in a pool made out of a Dumpster on the banks of the Gowanus Canal in industrial Brooklyn.

On a rented lot that’s hidden from the street they have erected what they call a lo-fi urban country club: three connected pools housed in Dumpsters; a boccie court; some lounge chairs, grills and cabanas. On Saturday night just three dozen people got the nod to check it out, at an afterparty for the art journal Cabinet. “Please don’t forward,” the invitation read.

“It’s amazing,” the artist Nina Katchadourian said after taking a dip in the moonlight. “It makes you wonder, as so many things in New York do, what’s behind every wall that you can’t see past.”

Bobbing in the water on a pool toy was “the last thing I expected to be doing tonight,” added Aaron Levy, a curator visiting from Philadelphia.

Since the space opened over the Fourth of July weekend, it has been host to barbecues, photo shoots and a film screening. Lectures and other events are planned for the rest of the summer, but none are open to the public, to the chagrin of the design bloggers and other cool-hunters who have been chattering about it.

The idea, said David Belt, a real estate developer and the president of Macro-Sea, the company behind the pools, was not to create an exclusive party destination but to experiment with underused space and materials, repurposing them with urban renewal in mind.

“It’s a very simple concept,” said Jocko Weyland, Macro-Sea’s project manager. “There aren’t that many places to swim in New York.” And Dumpsters “are everywhere; they’re ubiquitous.”

The concept itself is borrowed. Mr. Belt, Mr. Weyland and Alix Feinkind, Macro-Sea’s creative director, heard about it in April, when they were scouting a project in Georgia. Curtis Crowe, a musician in the Athens band Pylon, had made one.

After Mr. Weyland had a brief phone conversation with him, Macro-Sea decided to make its own. It took about a month to find a suitably out of the way yet accessible space with an agreeable owner. (The pools are insured, Mr. Belt said, and the lot, filled with junk and machinery, is protected by a chain-link fence.)

From there the project proceeded quickly and cheaply, in guerrilla fashion: the Dumpsters were donated by a construction company that suddenly had a surplus (thanks, economic downturn), the designers who helped render the plans were recruited through Craigslist, and members of the small crew that erected it in a week were unpaid.

“They just wanted to be able to use it,” Mr. Belt said.

The garbage containers, which he described as “newish,” were cleaned and lined in plastic, and a filtration system was installed, as on a regular above-ground pool. Mr. Belt’s wife, Antonia, stitched together the coverings for the cabanas; the furniture came from Ikea. The main cost was the wood for the deck and the water: about 18,000 gallons, delivered from a New Jersey aquifer for $1,200.

“I tried to do it so that even if you had to rent one, you could do a stand-alone Dumpster, a grill and chair for under $1,000,” Mr. Belt said. Copycats are welcome, because Macro-Sea itself is using the project as a template for a larger idea: turning eyesore strip malls into artsy community destinations, with Dumpster pools and other indie attractions.

“I thought if we could get people to come here and swim in a Dumpster, I could probably use the same aesthetic sensibility” to get people — and, not incidentally, better retailers — to come to a dingy strip mall, Mr. Belt said. The company hopes to open its first repurposed shopping center in Atlanta this fall, ideally with dozens of pools in the parking lot that visitors can rent for the day.

While the project is conceptually simple — get a bunch of trash containers, clean and seal them, fill with water, jump in — there were a lot of details to finesse. The coarse edges inside the containers were filed down, and underneath the liners, the bottoms were covered in sand, for soft landings. Tightly packed sandbags double as benches along the walls, and pool toys and kid-friendliness provide an intentional counterpoint to the neighborhood grit.

With brightly colored lanterns crisscrossing overhead and music piped in from an iPod connected to a boombox, the feel is of a do-it-yourself urban oasis.

“The water’s amazingly fresh, for swimming in a Dumpster,” said Alexis Bloom, a documentary filmmaker from TriBeCa, after doing a few laps. She compared it favorably to the pool at Soho House, an actual urban country club.

The problem, of course, with having such a sexy space — especially a sexy private space — is that everyone wants to come.

After Mr. Weyland gave an interview to ReadyMade, the D.I.Y. design magazine, two weeks ago, breathless coverage and links began appearing all over the blogosphere. Soon the location was decoded. One post led to people standing on the roofs of cars in a nearby lot, snapping photos, Mr. Weyland said with an eye roll.

Though they’re certainly aware that there’s nothing more tantalizing to some New Yorkers than a party to which they weren’t invited, the creators profess surprise at the level of attention their project has received. “I’m glad that people like it,” Mr. Belt said. “But it’s not the end all, be all.”

They hope that visitors will be as chill as the Cabinet magazine partygoers, who somehow resisted the temptation to text all their friends the minute they got there. “It’s so easy to ruin something,” one sighed.

The pools are supposed to be open through August or until the coolness wears off. “If it gets really crowded,” Mr. Belt said, “I’ll shut it down.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/ar...ign/20pool.htm





Hey, Gang, Let’s Watch the Web Together
Jenna Wortham

After I moved to the East Coast a few months ago, a few of my close friends and I became fans of video chatting via Google to keep in touch.

But as fun as it is to crack the laptop open alongside a bottle of wine while we catch up on gossip, there are some snags that make the experience less than pleasant.

For example, you can only chat with one person at a time — which, given my circle, means you aren’t getting the full, juicy recap of the previous night’s antics. And then there’s the problem of the dueling screens. Say one party starts watching a YouTube video during the chat. An irritating soundtrack blasts through the other end at full volume, sans the video stream. And even if your chatting partner sends you a link to whatever snippet they happen to be watching, you can’t simultaneously watch without audio interference.

Watchitoo, a start-up based in Israel and New York, offers a simple solution to that exact dilemma. On Tuesday, the company is publicly unveiling a service that combines the concept of live video chatting with the sharing of content like videos — all in a single Web browser.

The service, which has been in private beta since May, allows Watchitoo users to create shows or rooms that can either be open to anyone or limited to a few select invitees. So one member of the room can search for the latest Lady Gaga video or a clip from the BET awards on YouTube in the shared browser window and everyone can watch the video simultaneously — all while chatting via video or an instant messaging client embedded in the same browser.

“We’re taking the concept of collaboration from business and applying it to content,” said Rony Zarom, founder and chief executive of the company. “But beyond that, it’s about a new medium for watching TV and commentary on the Internet.”

Mr. Zarom, who founded Watchitoo in 2007, acknowledged that there were already a handful of competitive offerings on the market, like Skype’s screen sharing feature, Paltalk and View2gether.

The biggest drawback to using a service like Watchitoo is the lack of content: It’s great to watch portions of a show or a Keyboard Cat video with a friend, but it may not be enough of a lure to keep users coming back.

It’s also worth noting that several earlier social viewing initiatives rolled out by CBS and MTV with a few of their hottest shows never really seemed to take off.

But Mr. Zarom is spurred on by the popularity of recent social viewing events, like CNN’s pairing of Facebook status updates with the live stream of President Obama’s inauguration. He hopes to eventually integrate his service with Twitter and Facebook and broaden the slate of content partners, which are currently limited Photobucket and Yahoo for sharing images and Google’s YouTube for watching videos.

Mr. Zarom also says that Watchitoo’s patent-pending technology allows for a synchronized, stutter-free streaming experience that sets the service apart from the pack.

Currently the service is free, but the company plans to eventually roll out premium features for a fee.

Watchitoo is backed by seed funding from Decima Ventures, an investment firm established by Mr. Zarom in 2001, when he sold his first company, a mobile Web start-up called Exalink, to Comverse for $550 million.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...-together/?hpw





"Antichrist" Director Says Outrage "Suits Me Fine"
Mike Collett-White

For Danish film director Lars von Trier, the outrage that greeted "Antichrist" at the Cannes festival in May was music to his ears.

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe as a couple who struggle to cope with the loss of their young son, the psychological horror story drew gasps, groans, jeers and just a few cheers when it was screened at the annual cinema showcase.

Explicit scenes of love-making, graphic violence and sexual self-mutilation, not to mention a talking fox, made Antichrist one of the most talked-about films at the festival for years.

Von Trier was angrily asked to justify his film at a press conference and early reviews generally agreed that the film was misogynistic, deliberately provocative and turgid.

But typically for a director who has polarized opinion throughout his career, not everyone hated it. The Telegraph gave the dark story of death and self-loathing a top rating.

"I feel very good about it," von Trier told Reuters, when asked about the negative reaction to his film.

"If you'd asked me before how should a film reception be, it should be something like that," he said in a telephone interview ahead of the film's theatrical release in Britain on July 24. It has been given an 18 rating and will be shown in its entirety.

"It suits me fine that people get out of the cinema with some kind of an emotion. That's very good."

Von Trier, often referred to as the "enfant terrible" of contemporary cinema, has avoided reading reviews, although he suggested he was not impervious to what people said.

"I don't think I've read one review," he said. "I think the film is like a kid, you know, it has to live its own life. Of course, I would like a phone call now and then."

Hits And Misses

Whether the controversy surrounding Antichrist will boost its box office prospects remains to be seen.

"I am really an idiot when it comes to what helps a film commercially," said von Trier. "Every time I'm sure I made a hit then I made a complete disaster."

The director is probably best known for "Breaking the Waves" and Cannes winner "Dancer in the Dark," while "Dogville" and "Manderlay," filmed on a bare sound stages, also created a stir.

But von Trier called Antichrist the most important movie of his career, possibly because it was his way of coping with a lengthy bout of depression.

"It was mostly the practical thing -- if you do a film then you are really involved in it and it's difficult to be depressed at the same time."

The director repeated his statement in Cannes that he did not have an audience in mind when he made films.

"I work for myself as an audience, and if I like it then I hope that some other people will be able to use it somehow," said von Trier, who has also called himself "the best film director in the world."

He said he did not know what movie he would make next, adding: "I'm waiting to hear from God, really."

Despite converting to Catholicism in the 1990s, reportedly after his mother told him on her deathbed that the person he thought was his father was not, he said he had no faith.

"I would say that I am a poor Christian, I'm not a believer. It was this idea very early in my life that life on earth, nature or man could not be a creation of a merciful God."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)
http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...56J1IX20090720





Depp's Next Role Unclear as Green Lights Delayed
Steven Zeitchik and Borys Kit

Johnny Depp is coming off an acclaimed role in "Public Enemies" and stars in one of the most anticipated movies of this weekend's Comic-Con, "Alice in Wonderland."

But the Mad Hatter is facing an unusual situation: Like the character he plays in "Alice," he soon could be killing time.

Depp is attached to a number of high-profile development properties but is facing a landscape devoid of "go" pictures -- those ready for production. Instead, there are a dizzying number of possibilities and schedule permutations, none of which seems likely to result in a produced movie for him anytime soon.

Producers have been interested in Depp for the title role in Warner Bros.' "The Incredible Mr. Limpet." Kevin Lima's remake of the 1964 fantasy comedy that would continue a whimsical, if slightly less drama-intensive, streak for the actor. He has not signed on, however, and in any event the pic would not go into production until next year.

Meanwhile, the fourth installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean" remains a priority for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. At an earlier point, it was going to be the next picture for Depp, who toplines as Jack Sparrow. But with Gore Verbinski no longer directing the franchise, the ship has slowed.

Disney is seeking a new director, a process that could take time. Although the studio is believed to want an established helmer of franchise and action fare, it has put the word out to agents that it would be open to younger directors and new ideas, potentially prolonging the process. That could mean as much as a four- or five-year hiatus since the 2007 release of the previous picture, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

(Disney also would like to scale back the size and budget of the next movie compared with previous installments; for that reason, it likely won't bring back relatively pricey Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.)

'Ranger' Not Yet Riding

Because of the "Pirates" lag, a Depp project that was supposed to go into production after the Sparrow-fest, "The Lone Ranger," could end up getting pushed back further, though there's also a possibility it could shoot ahead of the nautical tale.

For the moment, though, "Ranger" also remains locked in the stable. "Pirates" writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have written a script for the Disney/Bruckheimer update, but the studio could wind up commissioning a polish or another draft. There's also no director, and Depp is attached to play Tonto, with the title role still to be cast.

Finally, Warners' feature update of the ghoulish TV series "Dark Shadows" -- a Depp/Tim Burton collaboration that might have shot later this year or early next year -- also might be back-burnered. Burton still has work to do on "Alice," which opens in March, and tends to spend a lot of time on prep work.

What the possibilities boil down to, besides head spinning, is that there are projects with momentum that Depp has not signed for, and projects he has signed for that don't have a lot of momentum.

In other words, it's a very 2009 phenomenon brought on by a star's choosiness on the one hand and studios' increasing caution on the other. (In what might be an emerging mini-trend, Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio happen to find themselves in similar situations.)

The result is that Depp could face a year or longer without appearing on the big screen.

That might not sound like a major departure, but for moviegoers, it will seem like a shift. Depp has been in one of the most fertile periods of his career: The actor also stars in the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation "The Rum Diary" and had a supporting role in Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," which hasn't yet been released in the U.S. In the past nine years, Depp has not had more than two movies come out in any 18-month period; if "Imaginarium" gets a release by the end of 2010, he'll have had four.

Then again, the absence of a new role might mean a respite from his breakneck schedule. Even a pirate needs some time off.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...56L1JP20090722





United States Box Office

Issued Tue Jul 21, 2009 Title/Distributor Wknd. Gross Total Gross # Theaters Last Wk. Days Released
1 HARRY POTTER HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
WARNER BROS. $77835727 $158022354 4325 0 5
2 ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX $17561406 $151865987 3817 2 19
3 TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE..
PARAMOUNT $13691487 $363808123 3857 3 26
4 BRUNO
UNIVERSAL $8318385 $49533475 2759 1 10
5 THE PROPOSAL
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS $8289707 $128083273 3043 5 31
6 THE HANGOVER
WARNER BROS. $8177272 $235744423 2667 6 45
7 PUBLIC ENEMIES
UNIVERSAL $7748235 $79639205 3118 4 19
8 UP
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS $3172014 $279583282 1706 8 52
9 MY SISTER'S KEEPER
WARNER BROS. $2828367 $41507695 1967 9 24
10 I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX $2766863 $10363239 1872 7 10
11 THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3
SONY PICTURES $889259 $62900310 610 10 38
12 500 DAYS OF SUMMER
FOX SEARCHLIGHT $834501 $834501 27 0 3
13 NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE...
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX $759571 $171820365 515 11 59
14 THE HURT LOCKER
SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT $740224 $2148619 94 17 24
15 STAR TREK
PARAMOUNT $690639 $253164613 505 12 73
16 MOON
SONY CLASSICS $525740 $2654338 251 16 38
17 AWAY WE GO
FOCUS FEATURES $496917 $8283525 299 14 45
18 WHATEVER WORKS
SONY CLASSICS $471288 $3890755 228 15 31
19 TERMINATOR SALVATION
WARNER BROS. $420964 $123769662 195 26 60
20 ANGELS & DEMONS
SONY PICTURES $413476 $132460823 396 21 66

http://www.reuters.com/news/entertai...R-US-BOXOFFICE





'Tarzan' Actress Brenda Joyce Dies
Mike Barnes

Starred as Jane in five movies in the series


Brenda Joyce

Brenda Joyce, the only "Jane" to star opposite two different Tarzans in the talking era of the big screen, died July 4 at a nursing home in Santa Monica. A friend said she was 92.

After Maureen O'Sullivan exited the "Tarzan" series after six films, the strikingly blond Joyce stepped in to star with Johnny Weissmuller in "Tarzan and the Amazons" (1945). She played the intrepid Jane Parker in four more movies, culminating with "Tarzan's Magic Fountain" (1949) opposite the new Tarzan, Lex Barker.

As a model and 21-year-old student at UCLA, Joyce was spotted by a Fox talent scout and named the studio's Discovery of the Year for 1939. That year, she was given the plum role of Fern Simon in "The Rains Came," an adaptation of the Louis Bromfield novel that starred Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power and George Brent.

In addition to the "Tarzan" films, Joyce appeared in such pics as "Little Old New York" (1940), "Marry the Boss's Daughter" (1941), "The Postman Didn't Ring" (1942) and "The Spider Woman Strikes Back" (1947).

Joyce didn't make a movie after 1949. She worked for a decade in Washington for the Department of Immigration and appeared in two episodes of PBS kids show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in 1971.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...3f3a21519e085b





Oldest UK Television Discovered
Rory Cellan-Jones

Rory Cellan-Jones meets the owner of Britain's oldest working TV

Britain's oldest working television has been tracked down in a house in London

The 1936 Marconiphone is thought to have been made in the months that Britain's first "high-definition" television service began.

The set belongs to Jeffrey Borinsky, an electrical engineer and collector of antique television and radio sets.

He bought the set, which has a 12-inch (30cm) screen from another collector 10 years ago and is still working on restoring it to its original state.

The screen is mounted inside a wooden cabinet. The image from the cathode ray tube, mounted vertically inside the cabinet, is reflected onto a mirror.

The few controls include volume and vertical hold, but there is no channel changer, as there was only one channel when it was made: the BBC.

Modern in part

The set appears to be in good condition, but Mr Borinsky aims to replace a number of modern components with originals.

"The cabinet was beautifully restored by the previous owner," he explained,' but my aim is to gradually restore its electronics to its true 1936 magnificence," he said.

But the Marconiphone 702 still works as a modern television.

It has been hooked up to a Freeview box so that it can show digital channels, although Mr Borinsky has had to install a standards converter so that a modern television signal can be seen.

Mr Borinsky only keeps the set turned on up to two hours at a time, and he uses it to view films from the 1930s and 1940s.

He says he enjoys watching the kind of pictures that might have been seen by the original owners.

The National Media Museum in Bradford has a similar set, but does not use it to show television pictures for fear of damaging it.

Iain Logie Baird, the curator of television at the museum, said it is a thrill to see the Marconiphone working.

"It's very exciting to see the image the way people would have seen it in 1936, before television became ubiquitous as it is today," he said.

Mr Logie Baird, grandson of the television pioneer John Logie Baird, says this set would have been of huge local interest when it was first acquired at a cost of 60 guineas - the equivalent of £11,000 today.

"Television was a very exciting thing, it was something that the whole neighbourhood would come over to watch. People would crowd into the home of the owner."

The set was discovered as the result of a competition run by Digital UK, the body overseeing the switch to digital television. The aim was to publicise the message that just about any television, however old, can be used to show digital channels.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8159406.stm





Local news

Netflix Hartford Distribution Center Maintains Low Profile
Shawn R. Beals

It's Tuesday morning at the Netflix Hartford Distribution Center. Time to hand-sort 90,000 DVDs that were played over the weekend and mailed back on Monday.

Surprisingly, it's not all that high-tech. There are actually people there. Just an average-size, well-lit warehouse that's not even close to a movie nerd's dream. They've got a few movie posters on the walls, but nothing spectacular. No robots, and hardly anything that represents the major profits the company is raking in for its quick service and extensive selection.

We can't tell you where it is though, that's a secret. The building isn't labeled, and the trucks are white except for small, black lettering on the cab that tells you the company is based in Los Gatos, Calif. And forget looking up the address because everything goes to a P.O. box.

"Netflix is so loved that people want to come in and see it," company spokesman Steve Swasey said Tuesday. "We'd rather have them interact on the website."

That's because distractions lead to mistakes, Swasey said.

"Eyes off the disc could potentially mean a mismatch, and that's verboten," he said. "If you ordered 'Goodfellas' from Netflix and you received 'Peter Pan,' your kids might be happy, but you're not."

The nationwide numbers are mind-boggling: 10.3 million customers, 100,000 titles, 89 million discs, over 2 billion shipped. All in 10 years.

The Hartford market watches about 275,000 a week — right now its top five rentals are "Knowing," " The Haunting in Connecticut," " The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Revolutionary Road" and "Push."

Ever wonder how they get your movies to you? That, we can tell you.

More than 50 workers started Tuesday at 3 a.m., ripping open packages and making sure the disc matches the title printed on the sleeve. Each disc is checked for scratches or smudges and passed over to the sorting machine, which sends an e-mail to the subscriber to let him or her know the movie was returned and the next one is on its way.

Then, all the movies are scanned again, this time to see if anyone else wants them. Now it's off to the stuffer — yup, it's really called the stuffer — where a DVD is packed in the red envelope and stamped with its destination before going into the stack for its local post office.

It's all done by the afternoon so the U.S. Postal Service can get them in mailboxes the next day.

Hartford was the 55th Netflix distribution center in the country when it opened July 30 last year, and three have opened since then. By staff size it's considered pretty big, and it serves a large chunk of southern New England, halfway between the Worcester and Long Island centers.

Netflix has facilities in Hawaii and Alaska, too, but each has only six people working there.

For now, Swasey said, Netflix is by far the top choice for DVD rentals, although Blockbuster has a similar mail-order rental program.

Swasey said more and more people are using the option of streaming video instead of waiting for the movie to come in the mail the next day. Netflix has about 12,000 titles available to stream through the Netflix website.

There's strong competition for the streaming video market, with TV networks offering shows free on their websites and other third-party sites jumping on board as well.

Swasey said the company is planning for at least 10 more years of increased DVD sales and rentals, and whenever they become obsolete, Netflix will be ready to offer the same service with streaming. Until then, the company is looking to expand to any platform it can, and has a partnership with Microsoft to offer Netflix on the Xbox 360.

The company also has one-day, $1 rental competition with Redbox, the DVD vending machine in grocery stores, perfect for a last-minute stop after dinner.

"We want to be on any device that you watch movies on," Swasey said.
http://www.courant.com/community/har...,2929816.story





AT & T's Connecticut Customers Will Be Able To Block Third-Party Charges
George Gombossy

AT&T has agreed to honor all customer requests to block third-party charges to their accounts in Connecticut — a major victory for consumers.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal last week requested that AT&T permit its customers to block third-party charges after I informed him that the telephone company was not honoring all such requests.

AT&T, in a Monday letter to Blumenthal, said it would comply with his request, and by Sept. 30 at the latest the company will be able to block these charges that have frustrated hundreds of Connecticut consumers.

Blumenthal on Tuesday said that he was thrilled with AT&T's response and that he had already mentioned it to other state attorneys general and expected them to make similar requests.

Consumers have complained to me for months about being billed on their AT&T land lines or cellphones for services they did not need and never ordered. Internet consumer sites are filled with similar complaints from all over the country.

Some unscrupulous firms get access to people's telephone numbers when consumers fill out forms on the Internet for discount coupons and at other sites and then bill them for such services as voice mail or electronic faxes through their telephone companies.

Under federal law, AT&T and other telephone companies are required to permit these charges — referred to as third-party — to be billed. Whichever telephone company is the dominant one in that state must honor the billings.

In many cases, consumers told me that AT&T reversed the charges from these bills, but refused their requests to have all of these charges blocked in the future.

In his letter to Blumenthal, AT&T attorney Edward J. Fitzgerald said his company will honor all requests to credit customers for disputed billings until the blocking mechanism can be put in place.

A full copy of his letter is available on my blog at www.courant.com/ctwatchdog, along with complaints and Blumenthal's letter of last week.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...6728669.column





Mobile Gadgets Threaten In-Flight Entertainment
Kelvin Soh

Airlines around the world now spend millions of dollars annually upgrading their inflight entertainment systems, but iPods and other mobile entertainment gadgets could render all that useless.

Besides bland airline food, one other certainty for most long-haul travelers flying in economy class has always been time passed with movies and games on a minuscule 5-inch screen provided by the airline.

However, with USB ports and a power socket increasingly common even for economy class passengers on carriers such as Singapore Airlines Ltd and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, the concept of in-flight entertainment could change.

Adding to the mix are plans by carriers such as Delta Air Lines Inc, which has begun offering an Internet connection on board, allowing passengers to continue tweeting and updating their Facebook status instead of flipping channels on the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system.

Analysts call this content customization, where passengers are no longer limited to an airline's offerings in their in-flight entertainment systems and are able to pick and choose what they want to watch or do on board a flight.

Airlines, already badly hit by weak demand for air travel and volatile jet fuel prices, are likely to welcome the move, as it would allow them to save on costs such as licensing fees to production studios and maintenance fees.

"There're so many reasons for airlines to change the way it works right now," said Peter Harbinson, an analyst at the Center of Asia-Pacific Aviation in Sydney. "The biggest advantage for airlines is the weight of the IFE equipment. Fuel burned, regular engineering checks, and licensing fees to movie studios all add up to a considerable amount of money for airlines."

The growing popularity of low-cost netbook PCs and other mobile entertainment devices such as Apple Inc's iPod and other MP3 players could further hasten IFE's demise, as more and more airline passengers carry these gadgets with them when they travel.

Greater Cost Savings

The biggest draw for airlines, industry watchers say, is that they could save money in tough economic times, while simultaneously disguising the change as a product enhancement.

Passengers engrossed with their laptop PCs and mobile entertainment devices that can be used continuously as a result of the power sockets on every seat could also free up cabin crew.

"I've heard stories about the number of crew on board each flight being cut by airlines after they introduced personal TVs on every seat," said Anthony Prakasam, an aviation consultant.

Low-cost airlines such as Ryanair Holdings PLC and AirAsia Bhd, always eager for a fresh revenue source, could also turn to installing USB ports and power sockets and charging for their use.

The biggest losers from the entire episode could be companies such as Rockwell Collins Inc and Panasonic Corp, which develop and build current in-flight entertainment systems but now look like they might have innovated themselves into obsolescence.

These companies have been on the forefront of encouraging airlines to install power sockets and USB ports onto every seat in the aircraft, but they could have to start looking at diversifying their work if they are to stay ahead, analysts say.

Possibilities include venturing into providing advertisers with an entrance into a space that has long been seen as the last bastion of a commercial-free world, broadcasting ads on large screens to a captive audience. But such a plan could backfire.

Khoa C. Huynh, 24, a self-professed airline geek, said he would want to turn off the in-flight entertainment system even more if he were forced to watch advertisements on board.

"I travel everywhere with my laptop, and being able to use it without having to worry about the battery dying on me is a great plus. I won't say I'll stop watching in-flight movies, but I suppose that could mean less time spent on it."

(Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...56L5PB20090722





Same-Name Couple to Wed After Facebook Meeting
Sarah Larimer

This October, Kelly Hildebrandt will vow to share her life with a man who already shares her name.

This is no joke. Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt, 20, and Kelly Carl Hildebrandt, 24, expect just over 100 guests at a ceremony at the Lighthouse Point Yacht & Racquet Club in South Florida, where they will become husband and wife.

"He is just everything that I've ever looked for," she said in an interview. "There's always been certain qualities that a guy has to have. And he has all the ones I could think of—and more."

Their modern romance was a match made in cyberspace. She was curious and bored one night last year, so she plugged her name into the popular social networking Web site Facebook just to see if anyone shared it.

At the time, Kelly Hildebrandt, of Lubbock, Texas, was the only match.

So she sent him a message.

"She said 'Hi. We had the same name. Thought it was cool,'" Kelly Carl Hildebrandt said. "I thought she was pretty cute."

But there were also concerns.

"I thought, man, we've got to be related or something," he said.

For the next three months the two exchanged e-mails. Before he knew it, occasional phone calls turned into daily chats, sometimes lasting hours. He visited her in Florida after a few months and "fell head over heels."

"I thought it was fun," he said of that first online encounter. "I had no idea that it would lead to this."

Months after Kelly Hildebrandt sent her first e-mail, she found a diamond engagement ring hidden in treasure box on a beach in December.

"I totally think that it's all God's timing," Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt said. "He planned it out just perfect."

She's a student at a local community college. He works in financial services. They plan to make their home in South Florida.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing. A trip on a cruise ship almost got canceled when the travel agent deleted one ticket from the system, thinking someone had plugged in the same information twice.

There was also some uncertainty about how to phrase their wedding invitations, so they decided to include their middle names. But any confusion likely won't carry on past the husband and wife. Kelly Katrina Hildebrandt said there are no plans to pass along the name to future children.

"No," she said. "We're definitely not going to name our kids Kelly."
http://www.newstimes.com/national/ci_12882056





Nielsen: Kids' Online Time Leaps Dramatically
Lance Whitney

Kids from two to 11 years of age are spending 63 percent more time online than they did five years ago, says a report released Monday from Nielsen Online. Children in that age range were online an average of 11 hours in May 2009 versus just 7 hours in May 2004.

Over the past five years, the total number of kids surfing the Net has shot up 18 percent to 16 million, says the report, while the overall Internet population has risen only 10 percent. The younger set now represents 9.5 percent of the online community.

Online use among kids surged despite a projected decrease of 1 percent in the population of children under 14 for 2004 to 2010, says Nielsen, citing an estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Results were split pretty evenly by gender. For May 2009, boys 2-11 spent 7 percent more time online than did girls in the same age group, though girls surfed 9 percent more web pages than did boys.

Online video has proven popular among kids, especially boys. Among all children, boys watched 61 percent of videos on the Net in May 2009, accounting for 57 percent of the time the children spent viewing online video.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10...ol;mlt_related





Zer01's Mobile Offer May be Too Good to be True

As the company enlists sales agents in a multilevel marketing effort, its service remains elusive
Nancy Gohring

Imagine downloading a two-hour HD movie in three minutes to your new cell phone, then plugging the phone into your TV to watch the film. Make unlimited phone calls, surf online as much as you like and send unlimited text messaging for US$70 a month, without a contract. Sign up to sell the same service to other people and get $10 a month for each person you sell to.

That's what a group of related companies including Zer01 Mobile, Buzzirk, Global Verge and Unified Technologies Group are promoting heavily online and at industry trade shows. The offer is attractive enough to garner coverage in top business and technology publications, at least one positive review from an analyst and even a "best in show" award from a magazine at the CTIA wireless industry trade show earlier this year.

Top IT turkeys

Does it all sound too good to be true? If so, that's because it probably is. What little information is available about the services is vague, technically inconsistent, and doesn't match up with public records.

One key player in the network of companies is Mark Petschel. He's the CEO of Global Verge, the multilevel marketing firm that is recruiting people to sell Zer01's service, under the Buzzirk brand. Sales associates are paying $70 initially to become part of the program and $40 a month thereafter for back-office support.

Petschel is currently on probation after pleading guilty to securities fraud. According to a bankruptcy filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Petschel allegedly promised to invest $168,000 that he collected from several people, but instead spent some of the money on items like jewelry.

Petschel has been on the losing end of three contract disputes, including one in 2002 in which he was ordered to pay $50,000. The Circuit Court of St. Louis County has no record that he's complied yet with any of the rulings.

He also previously started a company called Everge whose setup was very similar to Global Verge's. It encouraged people to pay to become sales associates and then sell mobile services under the brand BizzBuzz. An Everge YouTube video from 2007 entices people to start selling the mobile service, which was to launch in 18 months.

No such launch appears to have occurred. The state of Missouri recently dissolved Everge for failing to file an annual report. The Circuit Court of St. Louis County recently ordered Petschel and Everge to pay more than $35,000 in back rent for the office building where Everge was located.

Petschel also appears to have had yet another similar company that tried to attract sales people who would sell online games. That company was called NuSkyWay, and it sold games through MVP Network.

The Web site scam.com has long threads of people discussing their concerns over these companies that Petschel has been involved in.

Through Global Verge, Petschel has more recently been working with Unified Technologies Group, which owns Zer01 Mobile.

Zer01 CEO Ben Piilani said that Global Verge has signed up 50,000 associates to sell its unlimited mobile service. Petschel discovered Zer01 at the CTIA trade show in March and then approached the company with the idea of selling the service through a multilevel marketing setup, Piilani said. The two first met in May, he said.

But Piilani became aware of Petschel's securities fraud ruling only recently, and he claims that Petschel is stepping down from his position as Global Verge CEO as a result. "The company has a great business model," Piilani said about Global Verge. Petschel could not be reached for comment; there is no contact information of any kind on Global Verge's Web site and no phone directory listing at the address for him was found in court documents.

Petschel's former venture with BizzBuzz fell apart when Amp'd, a mobile virtual network operator, went under, Piilani said. That's because BizzBuzz's business model was to be an MVNO of an MVNO, an unusual concept and one that would likely struggle to be profitable. Jack Gold, an analyst with J. Gold Associates, said he's never heard of an MVNO of an MVNO. He suspects that network operators likely wouldn't allow such an arrangement in an effort to retain some control over the way their network is being used, in part to try to combat potential fraud or illegal usage of their network.

Zer01's parent company, UTG, a company founded by Piilani, also raises some questions.

For instance, UTG lists its head office under "Illinois offices," but provides an address for that headquarters in Creve Coeur, without noting the state. Creve Coeur is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The leasing agent for that office building has no record of UTG at the location. A group that rents space in the building to small businesses said that UTG may have used space there in the past, but doesn’t currently.

Piilani said the building rents an executive office that he uses for a place to hang his hat when he's in St. Louis.

UTG then lists its mailing address at a mailbox rental store in Collinsville, Illinois. "Unified Technologies Group is a large holding company. There's not huge infrastructure associated with it. We're just a management team and large holding company is all," Piilani said.

UTG claims to own a wide array of companies, including The Yorkshire Foundation. That organization says it is in the process of filing to become a nonprofit. In the meantime, its Web site includes text that is nearly identical to text on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Web site. Their taglines are also quite similar. The Gates Foundation describes its mission like this: "Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives." Similarly, the Yorkshire Foundation features this line at the bottom of its Web page: "Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Yorkshire Foundation enables changes to improve lives globally."

UTG also says it has received regulatory approval to launch banking operations under the name Yorkshire Capital Holdings. The Federal Reserve, which regulates the banking industry, does not show UTG or Yorkshire as organizations authorized to offer banking services in the U.S.

Despite the claims on the site, Yorkshire isn't yet approved to offer banking services but is in the process of getting such approval, Piilani said. The company plans to buy a credit union that he declined to name.

The state registrations for some of the companies tend to feature familiar names, without board members from outside of UTG. For instance, Rick Parker, who is listed as UTG's chief financial officer on its Web site, is named as president, secretary, treasurer and director of Zer01 in the company's registration filing in Nevada.

UTG is registered in Illinois, which currently lists the company as not in good standing for failing to file its annual report by a July 1 deadline. The registration names Reuben Piilani as president and Sharon Piilani as secretary. Both have the same address.

UTG is now registered in Delaware and so has let the Illinois registration lapse, Ben Piilani explained.

He has a relatively clean legal record -- except for traffic violations including a recent driving under the influence accident that left him hospitalized for two days -- but it is difficult to find information about the companies he has been affiliated with. According to his bio, he worked for Unlimited Telecom, a company that deployed the first commercially released "'Flat-Rate' telecom service in the United States market."

The bio also says that he launched a company called Internet Business Advertisement Directory, "the original online geographic based search engine for advertising businesses before AOL, Yahoo, and Google." He then started a company called I-Net Solutions, with a core product called the "Piilani Computer line." Online searches for IBAD and Piilani Computers only turn up references to Piilani's biography or scam.com. I-Net is a name that appears to be used by many different companies.

The technology itself raises questions. Zer01 has arrangements with multiple GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) operators that it can't name for nationwide coverage and combines that access with a nationwide fiber network owned by UTG, Piilani said. Zer01 then uses a VPN (virtual private network) to send its VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls over the wireless network.

But both T-Mobile and AT&T say they don't have relationships with Zer01. Without those operators, Zer01 is unlikely to be able to offer nationwide coverage, Gold said. If Zer01 had deals with all the other regional GSM operators, it still couldn't piece together a nationwide service.

Zer01 might be able to negotiate agreements with a regional carrier that includes the carrier's roaming agreements, although experts said carriers are unlikely to allow such an arrangement. Plus, Zer01 would have to pay the much higher roaming fees for its customers to use the networks beyond its regional partner's reach, making for a much more difficult business case.

UTG owns its own nationwide fiber network, which doesn't have a name, Piilani said. "We've been buying up fiber and collocate service in different data centers like Global Crossing," he said.

The service will be the first commercial launch of VoIP over cellular in the U.S., he said. To arrange the service, "we had to get around [wireless] carrier restrictions. If we had to resell their data, we'd be bound by data caps and the fact that they don't allow data for voice over Internet. The way we did that is to interconnect the fiber-optic infrastructure to the GSM network," he said.

"We own the consumer. We do all the customer support, tech support, provisioning of data, the telecom piece, all the content. So essentially to the carrier there's no extra cost," he said.

The carrier would, however, still have to load the customers onto the wireless portion of their network. That piece is typically the bottleneck for operators since they have a finite amount of wireless spectrum over which to carry traffic. "Even 2 to 3 million customers over a geographic area is not going to put that much load on," Piilani argues. He said Zer01 is constantly working with its carrier partners to monitor the usage.

Most operators impose a 5GB data download cap on mobile users, but that's not out of concern for overloading the network, he said. "The reason is, they don't want anybody to know, is they have this huge legacy infrastructure ... this huge legacy telecom thing they have to support," he said.

Gold disagrees with Piilani's reasoning. "If it's because they have old technology to support, they'll still have to support it. He's just going to make it worse," Gold noted.

Also, there are other reasons the operators limit data usage. "The reason they put a cap on things is because they know that if they give you unlimited bandwidth, you will use it. They started out with unlimited and had to back off because their networks were getting swamped. If you start to download a movie a day, their network is going to go down the toilet," Gold said.

It's the wireless component of Zer01's plan that puzzles Gold the most. MVNOs often run their own customer service and back-end systems and lease fiber to carry calls, so they would have a similar setup to the one that Piilani describes. Zer01 would have to arrange some sort of deal with wireless operators for unlimited data usage, and given existing market conditions that seems unlikely. "His model doesn't work," Gold said.

Zer01 says it uses patent-pending technology called Veritable Mobile Convergence, developed by UTG, which "allows each smart phone user to make voice calls or transmit data by sending voice communications through a VoIP system." A patent search did not reveal an application for technology called Veritable Mobile Convergence or patent applications backed by UTG.

VMC is a trademark name that UTG uses to cover the technology, Piilani said. On Friday, he promised to provide information about how to find the patent filing, but three days later the company had yet to produce confirmation that UTG has a patent application pending with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Some Global Verge sales people, on the many sites they've put up to try to sell the Buzzirk service, say that Zer01 or UTG own 2100 MHz spectrum. Some sites say that UTG bought the spectrum for $50 billion. But Piilani said that's not true. The Buzzirk sales associations are "trying to throw around terminology to make the sales more interesting," he said.

Even a customer service representative on a Buzzirk sales site said via instant message that Zer01 owns the spectrum. "They use GSM phones and 2100 mhz. They have a fiber backbone that the service runs over. They convert the service to a digital signal in the phone and that is one reason it transmits as a digital code through the 2100 mhz and is faster," said Matt Chandler, the service representative.

UTG, Zer01 and Buzzirk do not turn up as winners of the licenses in the 2100 MHz auction, according to U.S. Federal Communications Commission records, although many companies use made-up names for the auctions. However, all the companies that bought vast amounts of the 2100 MHz spectrum are known.

A search on the FCC's licensing system page for Zer01, Unified Technologies and Buzzirk did not show that any of the companies have leased spectrum from another owner.

Global Verge and Buzzirk initially told sales associates that the actual phone service would be available on July 1. Now that the date has passed, they are asking for patience. Saying that it was taking longer than expected, Petschel told listeners on a recent conference call that the top-tier sales associates would start getting phones in the mail in the next week or two.

On Friday, Piilani said that Buzzirk had started turning on service for some agents and that more would be able to start using the service in the next month or so.

Petschel, Lance Dascotte, UTG's chief operating officer, and Ted Robbins, the president of Global Verge, are commonly featured on conference calls for sales associates that can happen as often as twice a week. Some of the associates post the calls online.
While Piilani said there are 50,000 associates, it's hard to confirm exactly how many people have signed up to become Buzzirk sales associates. There are many, many Web sites, some of them nearly identical, set up by sales people.

Rob O'Sullivan is one sales person who claims to have already signed up 250 other sales associates. He's been told not to expect to start getting commission checks for two-and-a-half months after he signed up to the program.

Meanwhile, Zer01's business model seems to change each time it issues a press release. When it launched in March at the CTIA trade show, it said it would directly offer the unlimited service to customers. Its press release called Zer01 a "new mobile national carrier" and said that "Zer01 mobile customers will be able to use their own smartphones or buy a new phone from the online store."

But in May, Zer01 said it would provide its unlimited voice and data service to Buzzirk Mobile subscribers. The service would be marketed by Global Verge, "a mobile virtual network operator for Buzzirk Mobile."

With a July 1 press release, Zer01 changed the content of its Web site and began calling itself a mobile virtual network enabler. Zer01's Web site now positions the company as one that "enables" MVNOs to offer unlimited voice and data services.

"Originally, we were going to go direct to market," Piilani said. "Since the [CTIA] show, we've gotten a lot of interest from distribution players as well as content companies because a lot are interested in unlimited access. So we changed the distribution model after CTIA. Now we're going in a different direction with partners and their brands."

On the Global Verge opportunity line, which anyone can dial into (712-432-1011 Pin: 483294772#), listeners can hear about the service and the sales associate plan. The mobile service is described as "unlimited everything." The handset will be like something out of a science-fiction movie, according to the call. The marketing program will make it easy for anyone to earn about $29,000 a month. "It's truly unbelievable," the voice says. He may be right.

(Nancy Weil in Boston and Stephen Lawson in San Francisco contributed to this report.)
http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...er-may-be.html





After Report Questions Service, Zer01 Parent Strips Web Site

New details have also emerged that appears to connect the two main executives in the past
Nancy Gohring

Two days after a report cast doubt on Zer01 Mobile's business, its parent company has stripped its Web site down to only basic information.

New details have also come to light suggesting a past connection between two of the involved companies, despite claims to the contrary.

Earlier this week IDG News Service reported that it's unlikely that Zer01 could be technically able to offer the unlimited mobile voice and data service that it is advertising. The service, originally targeted for a July 1 launch, does not appear to be available yet. In addition, it's being marketed through a multilevel marketing program run by a company called Global Verge whose founder, Mark Petschel, in 2005 pleaded guilty to securities fraud. Petschel is currently on probation.

Ben Piilani, CEO of Zer01 and its parent company Unified Technologies Group (UTG), said that he first met Petschel in May and only recently found out about his criminal record. As a result, Piilani said that Petschel was stepping down from his role at the head of Global Verge.

However, documents online suggest that their companies were connected in the past.

Several Global Verge marketers have Web sites that include links to a Global Verge program for selling PC equipment. Prior to Wednesday, the URL for that program, nextdaypc.com, opened a Web site for Piilani Computers, described as a division of UTG. One of the marketer's Web sites includes that link on a page dated Dec. 17, 2008. Piilani's biography said that one of his former companies, I-Net, also sold the Piilani Computers line.

But by Wednesday, the "Piilani Computers" headline on the top of the nextdaypc.com page was replaced by the words "Your Smart Choice." In some areas of the country, the Piilani Computers banner is still visible.

UTG's press spokesman Ron Dresner was unable to provide on-the-record verifiable information about any past connection between Petschel and Piilani.

It's not the only related Web site that has changed since the original report on Monday. The Web site for UTG no longer features executive bios, company addresses, some previously provided telephone numbers or links to related companies such as Yorkshire Investments or the Yorkshire Foundation.

The Web site for Yorkshire Bancorp, which claims that the group has regulatory approval to offer banking service, but according to regulatory agency records does not, is still live. The foundation Web site, which mimics information from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation site, is also still accessible.

The UTG site had listed several addresses for offices, including one that was a mailbox rental store and another in Creve Coeur, Missouri, whose leasing agent has no record of UTG at the address. In an interview late last week, Piilani said that UTG is a large holding company without much infrastructure and that it rents an executive office at the Creve Coeur address. Now no physical addresses are listed on the company Web site.

It also included executive biographies that raised questions. For instance, CFO Rick Parker says he graduated from Georgetown in 1973. Georgetown University has no record of anyone with a similar name for that year. Georgetown College, a small institution in Georgia, did not find a reference to Parker in its directory.

Biographies for executives, including Lance Dascotte, chief operating officer, and O.K. Van Slett, chief communications officer, say they successfully started companies, without naming the companies.

None of those biographies are currently on the site and Piilani's has been shortened.

Dresner did not provide on-the-record verifiable information about why UTG's Web site was changed this week. He also did not provide on-the-record verifiable information about a patent UTG says it has filed for technology that enables the Zer01 service. IDG first requested information about the patent on Friday and Dresner said that he would provide a patent number.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...ice-zer01.html





U.S. Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving
Matt Richtel

In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel.

They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.

But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.

On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site.

In interviews, the officials who withheld the research offered their fullest explanation to date.

The former head of the highway safety agency said he was urged to withhold the research to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who had warned the agency to stick to its mission of gathering safety data but not to lobby states.

Critics say that rationale and the failure of the Transportation Department, which oversees the highway agency, to more vigorously pursue distracted driving has cost lives and allowed to blossom a culture of behind-the-wheel multitasking.

“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety.

The group petitioned for the information after The Los Angeles Times wrote about the research last year. Mother Jones later published additional details.

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

The researchers also shelved a draft letter they had prepared for Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to send, warning states that hands-free laws might not solve the problem.

That letter said that hands-free headsets did not eliminate the serious accident risk. The reason: a cellphone conversation itself, not just holding the phone, takes drivers’ focus off the road, studies showed.

The research mirrors other studies about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.

The three-person research team based the fatality and accident estimates on studies that quantified the risks of distracted driving, and an assumption that 6 percent of drivers were talking on the phone at a given time. That figure is roughly half what the Transportation Department assumes to be the case now.

More precise data does not exist because most police forces have not collected long-term data connecting cellphones to accidents. That is why the researchers called for the broader study with 10,000 or more drivers.

“We nevertheless have concluded that the use of cellphones while driving has contributed to an increasing number of crashes, injuries and fatalities,” according to a “talking points” memo the researchers compiled in July 2003.

It added: “We therefore recommend that the drivers not use wireless communication devices, including text messaging systems, when driving, except in an emergency.”

Dr. Jeffrey Runge, then the head of the highway safety agency, said he grudgingly decided not to publish the Mineta letter and policy recommendation because of larger political considerations.

At the time, Congress had warned the agency not to use its research to lobby states. Dr. Runge said transit officials told him he could jeopardize billions of dollars of its financing if Congress perceived the agency had crossed the line into lobbying.

The fate of the research was discussed during a high-level meeting at the transportation secretary’s office. The meeting included Dr. Runge, several staff members with the highway safety agency and John Flaherty, Mr. Mineta’s chief of staff.

Mr. Flaherty recalls that the group decided not to publish the research because the data was too inconclusive.

He recalled that Dr. Runge “indicated that the data was incomplete and there was going to be more research coming.”

He recalled summing up his position as, the agency “should make a decision as to whether they wanted to wait for more data.”

But Dr. Runge recalled feeling that the issue was dire and needed public attention. “I really wanted to send a letter to governors telling them not to give a pass to hands-free laws,” said Dr. Runge, whose staff spent months preparing a binder of materials for their presentation.

His broader goal, he said, was to educate people about the dangers of distracted driving. “Based on the research, there was a possibility of this becoming a really big problem,” he said.

But “my advisers upstairs said we should not poke a finger in the eye of the appropriations committee,” he recalled.

He said Mr. Flaherty asked him, “Do we have enough evidence right now to not create enemies among all the stakeholders?”

Those stakeholders, Dr. Runge said, were the House Appropriations Committee and groups that might influence it, notably voters who multitask while driving and, to a much smaller degree, the cellphone industry.

Mr. Mineta, who left as transportation secretary in 2006, said he was unaware of the meeting.

“I don’t think it ever got to my desk,” he said of the research. Mr. Ditlow, from the Center for Auto Safety, said the officials’ explanations for withholding the research raised concerns. He said the research did not constitute lobbying of states.

And he said it was consistent with the highway safety agency’s research in other areas, like seat belts.

Mr. Ditlow said that putting fears of the House panel ahead of public safety was an abdication of the agency’s responsibility.

“No public health and safety agency should allow its research to be suppressed for political reasons,” he said. Doing so “will cause deaths and injuries on the highways.”

State Senator Joe Simitian of California, who tried from 2001 to 2005 to pass a hands-free cellphone law over objections of the cellphone industry, said the unpublished research would have helped him convince his colleagues that cellphones cause serious — deadly — distraction.

“Years went by when lives could have been saved,” said Mr. Simitian, who in 2006 finally pushed through a hands-free law that took effect last year.

The highway safety agency, rather than commissioning a study with 10,000 drivers, handled one involving 100 cars. That study, done with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, placed cameras inside cars to monitor drivers for more than a year.

It found that drivers using a hand-held device were at 1.3 times greater risk of a crash or near crash, and at three times the risk when dialing compared with other drivers.

Not all the research went unpublished. The safety agency put on its Web site an annotated bibliography of more than 150 scientific articles that showed how a cellphone conversation while driving taxes the brain’s processing power, reducing reaction time. But the bibliography included only a list of the articles, not the one-page summaries of each one written by the researchers.

Chris Monk, who researched the bibliography for 18 months, said the exclusion of the summaries took the teeth out of the findings.

“It became almost laughable,” Mr. Monk said. “What they wound up finally publishing was a stripped-out summary.”

Mr. Monk and Mike Goodman, a division head at the safety agency who led the research project, theorize that the agency might have felt pressure from the cellphone industry. Mr. Goodman said the industry frequently checked in with him about the project and his progress. (He said the industry knew about the research because he had worked with it to gather some data).

But he could offer no proof of the industry’s influence. Mr. Flaherty said he was not contacted or influenced by the industry.

The agency’s current policy is that people should not use cellphones while driving. Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the agency, said it did not, and would not, publish the researchers’ fatality estimates because they were not definitive enough.

He said the other research was compiled as background material for the agency, not for the public.

“There is no report to publish,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/te...istracted.html





Whirling Dervish Drivers
Maureen Dowd

One night several years ago, my mom slipped and broke a bone in her neck. I stayed late at the hospital with her. Driving home on a mostly deserted road, I checked my cellphone messages.

I didn’t notice either the red light coming up or the car stopped at the light. I banged into the back of it, and even though the damage was minor, it was a scary moment.

I admitted that I was upset and distracted, took the blame and swore to myself I’d never use a cellphone in a car again. But, of course, I did. D.C. police will pull you over if they see you using a cellphone that you’re holding up to your ear, but not if you’re hands-free.

Ominously, research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — suppressed for years and released on Tuesday after petitions were filed by advocacy groups — shows that there are “negligible differences” in accident risk whether you’re holding the phone or not. Hands-free devices may even enhance the danger by lulling you into complacency.

It is the conversation that pulls focus. My greatest fear is that I’m going to be in a taxi when the driver gets a call from his wife to tell him that she’s run off with his sexy cousin.

In a March New Yorker profile, Tony Gilroy, the screenwriter of “Michael Clayton” and “Duplicity,” told the nightmare tale of being in a New York taxi when the cell-chatting driver ran a red light and hit another car.

“So they’re lifting the other guy out of the car, and I’m thinking, I’m lucky,” he said, adding: “Then I see them come at my cab with those things, the Jaws of Life.” He’d fractured his rib and hip.

Studies show that drivers who talk on cellphones are four times more likely to be in a crash and drive just as erratically as people with an 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level.

In one study cited by the highway safety agency, “drivers found it easier to drive drunk than to drive while using a phone, even when it was hands-free.”

The agency buried its head in the sand, keeping the research to itself for years and ignoring the fact that soon nearly all Americans would own cellphones and that the phones are always getting smarter and more demanding, putting a multimedia empire at your fingertips while you’re piloting a potentially lethal piece of artillery.

Americans are so addicted to techno-surfing that they’ve gotten hubristic about how many machines they can juggle simultaneously. One reporter I know recently filed a story from his laptop while driving on the Pacific Coast Highway.

As John Ratey, the Harvard professor of psychiatry who specializes in the science of attention, told The Times’s Matt Richtel for his chilling series, “Driven to Distraction,” using digital devices gives you “a dopamine squirt.”

That explains the Pavlovian impulse of people who are out with friends or dates to ignore them and check their BlackBerrys and cellphones, even if 99 out of 100 messages are uninteresting. They’re truffle-hunting for that scintillating one.

Americans woke up one day to find that they were don’t-miss-a-moment addicts who feel compelled to respond to all messages immediately.

The tech industry is our drug dealer, feeding the intense social and economic pressure to stay constantly in touch with employers, colleagues, friends and family.

It also explains why Christopher Hill, a 21-year-old from Oklahoma who killed a woman last September when he ran a red light while on his cellphone and rammed into her S.U.V., tried to keep dialing and driving with a headset his mother gave him two months after the accident.

He “found his mind wandering into his phone call so much that ‘I nearly missed a light,’ ” he told Richtel. Now he says he rarely uses the phone.

Hollywood offered a cautionary story with the depressing “Seven Pounds,” which begins with Will Smith spoiling his perfect life when he BlackBerrys while driving in his fancy car with his gorgeous new fiancée. He crashes into another car, killing six strangers and his girlfriend. The movie ends with a poisonous jellyfish in an icy bathtub. Don’t ask.

Left, literally, to our own devices, we spiral out of control. States should outlaw drivers from talking on phones — except in an emergency — and using digital devices that cause you to drift and swerve; or at least mandate a $10,000 fine for getting in an accident while phoning or Twittering.

Auto companies are busy creating new crack hits for our self-destructive cravings. Ford is developing a system that would let drivers use phones and music players and surf the Internet with voice commands and audible responses.

Sounds like a computerized death machine. But, as our dealers know, we’ll never disconnect.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/opinion/22dowd.html





A Laptop for Every Poor Child
Vivian Yeo

Top technology executives brushed him aside when he first raised his vision, but today Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child (OLPC) device has reached 900,000 children and inspired a whole new--and growing--market segment known as netbooks.

The founder and chairman of an organization with an ambitious goal to eliminate poverty in the world, ironically, never quite experienced what it felt like to be poor. Self-professed to have come from a privileged background, Negroponte had a childhood that included "a lot of traveling".

Confidence and outspokenness were trademarks of a young Negroponte, he told ZDNet Asia in an interview. "When…I was six years old, I went to see the headmaster explaining that my first-grade teacher should be fired--[she] wasn't good enough.

"When I was in high school, I got [the school] to substitute art for sports--I didn't have to do any sports, I could just do art," he shared.

Resistance from industry

The same streak of confidence stood him in good stead three-and-a-half years ago, when Michael Dell, then the founder and chairman of Dell, looked him in the eye and said the US$100 laptop Negroponte envisioned was "impossible". That laptop was to be the tool--a connected device for learning and play--that would revolutionize education in the poorest parts of the world.

"[Then-Microsoft Chairman] Bill Gates said 'Geez get a real computer'," he recounted in a speech to a Singapore audience at the invitation of the Singapore Management University's (SMU) School of Information Studies. "[Then-Intel Chairman] Craig Barrett called [the XO laptop] a gadget."

But he went ahead to do it anyway. Soon after, many PC makers, including Asus with its Eee PC, followed his lead to create low-cost notebooks with built-in connectivity and limited features. Today, netbooks are one of the fastest-growing notebook segments and are beginning to penetrate the enterprise.
Bill Gates said 'Geez get a real computer.' Craig Barrett called it a gadget.

Negroponte, who confesses that the "unexpected resistance from industry" had for him been the most challenging aspect of OLPC, had harsh words for companies such as Intel. The chipmaker, which has its own Classmate PC for education purposes, had been involved in the OLPC effort but later split from the organization.

"It bothers me when people spoil the market," he says, alleging Intel once convinced Libyan authorities to provide for 15,000 children instead of 1.5 million. "It's like MacDonald's competing with the [United Nations] World Food Programme."

'Goose bumps' in learning

While the XO laptop was designed to appeal to young users who are using computers for the first time, it was certainly no toy, Negroponte insists. It's an electronic book and a games machine. It has to "do things that [typical] laptops cannot do"--work well under sunlight and, as he demonstrated by spontaneously flinging the device off-stage onto the floor, "bounce around". It does not always work of course, he concedes, as the laptop once broke into pieces as he performed the same "cheap trick".

In spite of the OLPC's best intentions to build a cheap laptop, the XO did in fact break the US$100 barrier--it currently costs US$175. But Negroponte insists the machine would be priced under US$100 if the currency value and price of raw materials such as zinc and plastic were that five years ago.

Yet, there's no denying the effect these companions have had on the young children, and even adults exposed to them. According to Negroponte, 50 percent of Peruvian children who have XO laptops teach their parents how to read and write. "If that doesn't give you goose bumps, I don't know what will."

The benefits do go beyond education. "When a child opened the laptop at home, it [could be] the brightest light source," he said.

China, India 'biggest disappointment'

To date, 900,000 laptops are in the hands of children from 31 nationalities, notes Negroponte. Another 230,000 are en route, while 600,000 have been ordered but not fulfilled. The XO laptop has been customized for a total of 19 languages.

But despite the OLPC vision originating out of the Asian country of Cambodia, Negroponte admits that the region has benefited "very little" from the project. Mongolia, with 13,000 to 14,000 laptops, has been the most active in the region. Cambodia has to-date received a couple of thousand XO laptops. Thailand was one of six countries the OLPC originally targeted, but the organization faced a "bumpy road" ever since Thaksin Shinawatra was disposed as the country's prime minister. To add to that, there are no "salespeople" that can work the ground in Southeast Asia.

On the other hand, China and India have been the "biggest disappointment" to Negroponte, given the potential impact. "They represent 40 percent of the [world's] children, and neither of them is currently active for different but similar reasons." Both, he laments, have big markets and their own beliefs that they "can do it on their own". In addition, there is the issue of political stability--the Indian central government, for instance, is "quite chaotic".

Other highlights about the OLPC project shared by Negroponte at the SMU talk:

• The green and white colors chosen for the first-generation XO laptops were derived from the Nigerian flag, as the OLPC staff were inspired by the Nigerian president's praise for the device.
• Around 3,000 people were involved in the OLPC project at the peak of its engineering.
• Whenever possible, the laptops are each shipped with 100 e-books so that a village with just 100 machines will, as a result of the multiplication effect, have 10,000 "books".
• At 2.2 million orders, Peru is the country with the largest commitment to OLPC. There are currently 350,000 XO laptops, mostly in very remote parts of the country.
• Teachers in OLPC-participating countries have said they never loved teaching as much as now. In Uruguay, a teacher who had taught for 30 years contemplated early retirement when she heard about the XO laptops, changed her mind after just two days and instead asked for a late retirement.

By December 2008, the organization's "Give One, Get One" program had lost resonance with the public--it did 90 percent worse than in 2007--and 10 corporate sponsors took flight, eight of whom left the same month. The OLPC is now at a stage where it lives from hand to mouth, with new orders making up for the lost of sponsorship.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/har...2056166,00.htm





East Africa Gets High-Speed Web
BBC

New cables could revolutionise communications in the region

The first undersea cable to bring high-speed internet access to East Africa has gone live.

The fibre-optic cable, operated by African-owned firm Seacom, connects South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique to Europe and Asia.

The firm says the cable will help to boost the prospects of the region's industry and commerce.

The cable - which is 17,000km long - took two years to lay and cost more than $650m.

Seacom said in a statement the launch of the cable marked the "dawn of a new era for communications" between Africa and the rest of the world.

The services were unveiled in ceremonies in the Kenyan port of Mombasa and the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam.

School benefits

The cable was due to be launched in June but was delayed by pirate activity off the coast of Somalia.

Cable ushers in broadband era

The BBC's Ben Mwangunda in Dar es Salaam says five institutions are already benefiting from the faster speeds - national electricity company Tanesco, communications company, TTCL, Tanzania Railways and the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Dodoma.

The BBC's Will Ross in Nairobi says the internet revolution trumpeted by Seacom largely depends on how well the service is rolled out across the region.

To the disappointment of many consumers, our correspondent says some ISPs (internet service providers) are not planning to lower the cost of the internet, but instead will offer increased bandwidth.

But businesses, which have been paying around $3,000 a month for 1MB through a satellite link, will now pay considerably less - about $600 a month.

The Kenyan government has been laying a network of cables to all of the country's major towns and says the fibre-optic links will also enable schools nationwide to link into high quality educational resources.

But our correspondent says it is not clear whether the internet revolution will reach the villages, many of which still struggle to access reliable electricity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8165077.stm





Wireless Power System Shown Off
Jonathan Fildes

A system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires has been shown off at a hi-tech conference.

The technique exploits simple physics and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices.

Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford.

He said the system could replace the miles of expensive power cables and billions of disposable batteries.

"There is something like 40 billion disposable batteries built every year for power that, generally speaking, is used within a few inches or feet of where there is very inexpensive power," he said.

Trillions of dollars, he said, had also been invested building an infrastructure of wires "to get power from where it is created to where it is used."

"We love this stuff [electricity] so much," he said.

Mr Giler showed off a Google G1 phone and an Apple iPhone that could be charged using the system.

Witricity, he said, had managed to pack all the necessary components into the body of the G1 phone, but Apple had made that process slightly harder.

"They don't make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones so we put a little sleeve on the back," he said.

He also showed off a commercially available television using the system.

"Imagine you get one of these things and you want to hang it on the wall," he said. "Think about it, you don't want those ugly cords hanging down."

Good vibrations

The system is based on work by physicist Marin Soljacic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

It exploits "resonance", whereby energy transfer is markedly more efficient when a certain frequency is applied.

When two objects have the same resonant frequency, they exchange energy strongly without having an effect on other, surrounding objects.

For example, it is resonance that can cause a wine glass to explode when a singer hits exactly the right tone.

But instead of using acoustic resonance, Witricity's approach exploits the resonance of low frequency electromagnetic waves.

The system uses two coils - one plugged into the mains and the other embedded or attached to the gadget.

Each coil is carefully engineered with the same resonant frequency. When the main coil is connected to an electricity supply, the magnetic field it produces is resonant with that of with the second coil, allowing "tails" of energy to flow between them.

As each "cycle" of energy arrives at the second coil, a voltage begins to build up that can be used to charge the gadget.

Mr Giler said the main coil could be embedded in the "ceiling, in the floor, or underneath your desktop".

Devices using the system would automatically begin to charge as soon as they were within range, he said.

"You'd never have to worry about plugging these things in again."

Safety concerns

Mr Giler was keen to stress the safety of the equipment during the demonstration.

"There's nothing going on - I'm OK," he said walking around a television running on wireless power.

The system is able to operate safely because the energy is largely transferred through magnetic fields.

"Humans and the vast majority of objects around us are non-magnetic in nature," Professor Soljacic, one of the inventors of the system, told BBC News during a visit to Witricity earlier this year.

It is able to do this by exploiting an effect that occurs in a region known as the "far field", the region seen at a distance of more than one wavelength from the device.

In this field, a transmitter would emit mixture of magnetic and potentially dangerous electric fields.

But, crucially, at a distance of less than one wavelength - the "near field" - it is almost entirely magnetic.

Hence, Witricity uses low frequency electromagnetic waves, whose waves are about 30m (100ft) long. Shorter wavelengths would not work.

'Ridiculous technology'

Witricity is not the first jump on the concept of wireless electricity.

For example, the nineteenth century American inventor Thomas Edison and physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla explored the concept.

"In the very early days of electricity before the electric grid was deployed [they] were very interested in developing a scheme to transmit electricity wirelessly over long distances," explained Professor Soljacic.

"They couldn't imagine dragging this vast infrastructure of metallic wires across every continent."

Tesla even went so far as to build a 29m-high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower in New York.

"It ran into some financial troubles and that work was never completed," said Professor Soljacic.

Today, chip-giant Intel has seized on a similar idea to Witricity's, whilst other companies work on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer, such as lasers.

However, unlike Witricity's work, lasers require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.

In contrast, Mr Giler said Witricity's approach could be used for a range of applications from laptops and phones to implanted medical devices and electric cars.

"Imagine driving in the garage and the car charges itself," he said.

He even said he had had interest from a company who proposed to use the system for an "electrically-heated dog bowl".

"You go from the sublime to the ridiculous," he said.

Ted Global is a conference dedicated to "ideas worth spreading". It runs from the 21 to 24 July in Oxford, UK.

HOW WIRELESS POWER WORKS
# 1. First magnetic coil (Antenna A) housed in a box and can be set in wall or ceiling
# 2. Antenna A, powered by mains, resonates at a specific frequency
# 3. Electromagnetic waves transmitted through the air
# 4. Second magnetic coil (Antenna B) fitted in laptop/TV etc resonates at same frequency as first coil and absorbs energy
# 5. Energy charges the device
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...gy/8165928.stm





Exposed: the PC Repair Shops that Rifle Through Your Photos and Passwords

When Sky News launched an undercover investigation into PC repair shops, it turned to PC Pro readers for help with identifying rogue traders. As a result, Sky's cameras caught technicians scouring through private photos, stealing passwords and over-charging for basic repairs. Here is what they found

How many technicians does it take to fix a laptop? Just one, but if you know where to find him, please let us know.

We'd heard there were serious problems with computer repair shops: faults misdiagnosed, overcharging for work and data deleted. So we put them to the test in order to find out why customers were getting such a raw deal and who the culprits were.

The exercise was simple. Create a simple fault on a laptop, load it with spy software, take it into several repair shops, then sit back and see what happened. Would they arrive at the same diagnosis and charge us a fair price to fix it?

First, Sky News engineers installed professional spy software on a new laptop. Spector Pro was programmed to load on start-up and silently record every 'event' that took place. If the mouse was moved, a folder opened or a file looked at, we would know about it. Every event would also trigger a screen snapshot to be taken.

We also installed Digiwatcher. This devious little tool auto-runs on start-up and quietly tells any connected webcam to secretly film whoever is at the machine. The process is invisible and the video file is hidden on the hard drive and password protected.

We then filled the hard drive with the sort of data anyone might have on their PC: holiday photos, curriculum vitae, MP3s, Word documents and log-in details. Our laptop now looked just like any other.

To create the fault, we simply loosened one of the memory chips so Windows wouldn't load. To get things working again, one needs only push the chip back into the slot and reboot the machine. Any half-way competent engineers should fix it in minutes.

All we needed now was our targets. We teamed up with PC Pro readers to track down shops with the worst reputation and took our laptop into be repaired. We expected poor customer service, but nothing prepared us for the first shop we visited.

Snooping on holiday snaps

Laptop Revival in Hammersmith initially offered us a free diagnosis when we dropped our laptop off. Yet the spy software later revealed something extraordinary. The webcam shows that almost immediately the technician discovers our loose memory chip and clicks it back into position [based on recorded boot and shut down times]. The machine is rebooted and the problem solved.

Yet he then begins browsing through our hard drive. A folder marked 'Private' is opened and he flicks through our researcher's holiday photographs, including intimate snaps of her wearing a bikini. He stares at picture after picture, stopping only to show them to colleagues.

He then picks up the phone and calls our researcher. He tells her our motherboard is faulty and will need to be replaced. Usually it costs £130 but he'll do it for £100. We tell him we'll think about it and call him tomorrow.

After more snooping, he logs off. But a few hours later, another technician boots our machine. He also begins searching our hard drive until he finds log-in details for our Facebook and Hotmail accounts. With a cackle he removes a memory stick from around his neck, plugs it in and then copies them across.

He also discovers our holiday photos and copies those of our researcher in her bikini. The spy software takes a snapshot of the files on his memory stick. One is called "MAMMA JAMMAS" (urban slang for females with large breasts). It contains more holiday snaps of girls in their bikinis.

Most worryingly, when he discovers log-in details for our online bank account, he logs onto the bank's website and attempts to break into the account.

He only fails because the details we created were false.

Laptop Revival declined to comment when confronted by Sky's cameras.

Covering up

There were similar problems with Digitech in Putney. Although its staff fixed our fault, they also spent a while snooping. The webcam reveals the technician takes a quick look over his shoulder, before flicking through our holiday pictures. He then attempts to clean up what he's done by deleting the Recent Documents folder. Digitech later told Sky that it was looking at the photos to test the memory.

There were also difficulties with PC World in Brentford. The technician triumphantly diagnosed a faulty motherboard and insisted we needed a new one. We were told unless we paid £230 in advance, we couldn't have it repaired. We agreed. But when we collected the laptop and got it home, we discovered only a memory chip had been replaced and not the motherboard.

PC World said the technician "should not have made an assumption about the cause of the fault of the laptop" and offered to refund £200 of the repair fee.

Bungled repairs

Meanwhile, at Evnova Computers in Barbican the loose memory chip was also spotted and fixed. But the company also told us we needed a new motherboard. We declined the offer and collected our laptop. When we examined it, we discovered technicians had soldered the memory bus pins together to recreate the original fault. Evnova later claimed it believed we were from a rival repair company.

We also had issues with Micro Anvika on London's Tottenham Court Road. It seems the company fixed our laptop then called us to claim it needed to examine the machine to find the fault. We were charged £145. All this for a loose memory chip. Micro Anvika later told us we should only have been charged £95.

Only one shop performed flawlessly. Pix 4 in Shepherds Bush took its time to carefully examine our machine while we waited. The staff promptly discovered the loose chip, popped it back into place and told us with a smile there would be no charge.

Prepare for repairs

So a word of warning. Always back up sensitive data and remove it from your laptop before taking it to be repaired (if you can). Clear the cache of log-in details and passwords and always get more than one quote.

And bear in mind technicians often place all objects in the world into one of two categories: things that need to be fixed and things that will need to be fixed after they've had a few minutes to play with them.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/262978/e...passwords.html





Maine Court Upholds IBM Heir's Adoption of Lover
Clarke Canfield

Maine's highest court gave a legal victory Thursday to a woman who stands to stake a claim to a share of one of America's premier business fortunes thanks to her adoption by her lesbian partner.

In a unanimous decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court overturned a 2008 lower court decision that annulled the adoption.

At issue was whether it was legal for Olive Watson to adopt Patricia Spado in 1991 in Maine, where the longtime partners spent several weeks each summer on the island town of North Haven. Watson was the daughter of the late Thomas Watson Jr., who built International Business Machines Inc. into a computer giant.

The relationship ended a year after the adoption. Thomas Watson's heirs challenged the adoption in court in 2005.

Thursday's ruling is the final word on whether the adoption was legal, Spado's attorneys said. But it's up to a Connecticut court to determine if Spado is entitled to any of Thomas Watson's fortune.

"It means she is Olive Watson's child. She's a Watson family member," said Clifford Ruprecht, one of the attorneys who represented Spado in the Maine case.

Thomas Hanscom, a Rockland attorney who represents the trustees of the Watson family trusts in the adoption appeal, could not be reached for comment.

Olive Watson was 43 when she adopted Spado, who was a year older, as a way to protect her financially.

Watson's father was unaware of the adoption when he died in 1993, and the adoption wasn't an issue until after his wife died in 2004. With the death of both parents, the Watson grandchildren became eligible for cash payouts at age 35.

Spado's lawyer notified the trusts that Olive Watson's former lover was also a legal granddaughter and entitled to a share of the fortune. Trustees challenged that claim in probate court in Greenwich, Conn., where a judge ruled that Watson did not recognize Spado as his granddaughter and did not intend for her to benefit from the trusts.

Spado appealed, but the case was put on hold while the trustees went to court in Maine in an attempt to have the adoption annulled. To do so required evidence of fraud or deception.

In their petition seeking annulment, the trustees alleged that the couple obtained the adoption through fraudulent means by not disclosing their relationship to the court. The petition further alleged that Spado and Watson, as New York residents, had not fulfilled the statutory requirements of living in Maine at the time of the adoption.

A probate judge who granted the adoption in 1991 annulled it in April 2008 on the residency issue.

Spado's attorneys appealed to Maine's highest court, arguing that Spado complied with the requirements of Maine's adoption statute at the time. They claimed that even if Spado was not fully compliant with the statute, there was insufficient evidence that she committed fraud to justify an annulment.

The trustees also appealed the case, arguing that the adoption should have been annulled on the grounds that it was obtained by two partners seeking to manufacture inheritance rights who did not intend to establish a normal parent-child relationship.

In Thursday's decision, Maine's justices ruled that even if Spado did not live in Maine under the law, the adoption should not have been annulled because there wasn't enough evidence to support the claim that she had committed fraud.

The court also rejected the trustees' claim that the adoption should be annulled based on a public policy prohibiting adoptions involving same-sex couples. Historically, adult adoptions have been recognized as a means to convey inheritance rights, to formalize an existing parent-child relationship or to provide perpetual care to a disabled adult adoptee, the decision reads.

The case now will now move to a Connecticut superior court to determine if Spado is entitled to any of the Watson riches, said Michael Koskoff, her lead attorney in the Connecticut case.

"Now the fireworks will start," he said.

Olive Watson could not be reached for comment. Spado's attorneys in Maine said Spado would not be available for comment.
http://www.newstimes.com/national/ci_12901489





In Britain, Judge Finds for Google in Libel Case
Eric Pfanner

Google is not liable for defamatory material that appears in its search results, a British judge has ruled, a decision that lawyers call significant because of the country’s reputation as a haven for libel claimants.

The decision was in a case involving Metropolitan International Schools, a British company that operates Internet-based training courses. The company wanted to sue Google over negative comments posted by a reader of a technology news Web site; the comments appeared in text blurbs with the results of Google searches related to Metropolitan.

David Eady, a High Court judge, ruled that Metropolitan could not sue Google, saying it was not a publisher of the material. “It has merely, by the provision of its search service, played the role of a facilitator,” he wrote.

Lawyers said the decision, the first of its kind in Britain, was consistent with court decisions in several other European countries. In the United States, search engines are protected from liability for the contents of the results they turn up. Several European countries have extended similar protection.

Still, lawyers said Judge Eady’s decision, published Friday, was significant because of uncertainties over libel law in Britain. British courts are often seen as sympathetic to defamation plaintiffs, and Web hosting services in Britain have been held responsible for the contents of sites they host.

“It’s significant because it’s consistent with what we thought the law should mean,” said Struan Robertson, a technology lawyer at the firm Pinsent Masons in London. “If the judge had ruled otherwise, it would have been a terrible decision for search engines.”

Google said the decision “reinforces the principle that search engines are not responsible for content that is published on third-party Web sites.

“Justice Eady made clear if someone feels they have been defamed by material on a Web site then they should address their complaint to the person who actually wrote and published the material, and not a search engine, which simply provides a searchable index of content on the Internet,” the company’s statement said.

Metropolitan International Schools could not be reached for comment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/te...y/21libel.html





Google Promises 'the End of Viruses'

Engineering director claims Chrome OS will finally defeat malware
Adam Hartley

Google's Engineering Director has promised that its forthcoming Chrome OS will see 'the end of malware'.

Google is promising what the latest issue of New Scientist magazine refers to as "a carefree antivirus nirvana" with its forthcoming Google Chrome OS.

Linus Upson, Google's Engineering Director, has promised the company is: "Completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."

Chrome browser patched

Ironically, Google is also in the news this week due to security flaws in its Chrome browser.

Two of the most recent Google Chrome web browser security flaws (one relating to malicious code exploitation in the Chrome tab sandbox and one relating to memory corruption in the browser tab processes) have now been fixed.

You can see the full run-down of all the latest changes over on Google's Chrome site.

So is the cloud computing future really going to be more secure than our current system of downloading regular security patches to constantly fix the software that's sitting on our hard drive?

"Downloading updates is always going to be a step or two behind the cloud approach because it takes a while to get a fix out to a PC to install it," argues Paul Jackson of Forrester Research.

And while Jackson agrees that "the cloud approach allows patches to be applied much faster" he notes that any web-based OS is still going to be at risk from malware targeting the browser or Linux.

Robert Caunt, an analyst from CCS Insight in London, notes that Google has a good record on security to date: "Its Gmail spam filter and search engine's phishing-detection is good. They know what needs doing."

Major computing brands such as Nvidia, Dell, Asus, Acer and others have already confirmed that they will be fully supporting Google's Chrome OS. Stay tuned for further Chrome OS news updates as and when we get them.
http://www.techradar.com/news/intern...iruses--617790





Microsoft Backs Down Over IE8's Default Domination
Stuart Turton

Internet Explorer 8 will no longer replace the default browser when a user selects the "Use express settings" option during installation.

Back in May, Mozilla and Opera accused Microsoft of force-feeding users Internet Explorer 8 through the Automatic Updates process.

The object of their ire was the "Use express settings" option which automatically sets Internet Explorer 8 as the default browser. The option was already ticked when Automatic Updates offered users the choice to upgrade their browser.

"We heard a lot of feedback from a lot of different people and groups and decided to make the user choice of the default browser even more explicit," notes Microsoft in a blog post.

Even selecting "Use express settings" will now bring up a window asking users if they want to set IE8 as their default.

The alteration to the installation process was applauded by rivals: "Good change: Microsoft does the right thing (finally) with IE8 updater," Mozilla's CEO, John Lilly, noted in a Twitter post.

The change follows Microsoft's decision to ship Windows 7 in Europe without a browser, as it looks to avoid an EU anti competition charges.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/262612/m...omination.html





If China Gets Microsoft Office for $29, Why Don't We?
David Coursey

In order to take a bite out of piracy, Microsoft sells copies of its Office Suite in China for just $29 dollars. I wonder how many copies Americans would have to pirate to get the same price? So much for the notion that "crime does not pay!"

I found the pricing information earlier today in a BusinessWeek story about how Microsoft is slashing prices to grab market share and fight off Google and the others that are giving away functionality Microsoft customers are used to paying for.

The magazine said Microsoft estimates 95 percent of all copies of Office used in China are illegal copies. Since the $29 pricing started in September, sales of Office have supposedly increased 800 percent.

This looks like a case of where crime pays big dividends. And, no, I am not suggesting for readers to pirate copies of Office in order to send Redmond a pricing message.

Still, we Westerners have been paying through the nose for Office for almost two decades. If anyone deserves a price break, it's us--not the thieving Chinese. But, it seems that if you are a fast-growing market, lawlessness aside, Microsoft wants to cut you a deal.

I understand what Microsoft is doing and why. I am happy for anything that reduces software theft, but that doesn't make me nearly as happy as a $29 copy of Office would.

This pricing is another demonstration of how Microsoft's business model is under attack, especially in the consumer and small business space. Its enterprise business isn't as solid as it used to be, either, as big corporate customers are remarkably happy with the software they are already using.

These changes haven't caught Redmond quite as flat-footed as when Netscape first arrived on the scene, forcing Microsoft to Internet-enable products at warp speed.

The company has doubtless seen the current market turmoil coming for years, but had little reason to tip its hand. Microsoft clearly needs be more responsive with its pricing and find better ways to compete globally. I guess giving the Chinese $29 copies Microsoft Office is a part of this.

This is still more Microsoft angst we will just have to live with.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/2...for29whydontwe





Amazon Pays £40 to Netbook Owner Who Didn't Want Windows
Barry Collins

Amazon has reportedly provided a £40 refund to a customer who didn't want Windows on his Asus netbook.

Alan Lord, an open-source software consultant, bought the £374 Asus Seashell 1008HA netbook from Amazon, but given his job title, was obviously none-too-keen on the Windows XP operating system that came pre-installed on the PC.

Upon booting the PC, Lord read carefully through the End User Licence Agreement (EULA), which stated that: "If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, you may not use or copy the SOFTWARE, and you should promptly contact Manufacturer for instructions on return of the unused product(s) for a refund in accordance with Manufacturer's return policies."

Lord got in touch with Amazon's customer support centre, and after a brief exchange of emails and telephone calls, was told he would be refunded £40 for his unwanted copy of XP.

"I can't really praise Amazon enough for that," Lord writes on The Open Sourcerer blog. "It was easy, simple and no fuss. I guess my only concern is that the cost of this refund might not get passed back to Asus."

It's not the first time customers have used the Windows EULA to apply for refunds from PC retailers. But given that the Asus Seashell netbook only cost £374 in the first place, Mr Lord managed to effectively negotiate an 11% discount on the hardware.

His next dilemma? Deciding which version of Linux to install on his PC.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/263278/a...t-windows.html





Microsoft Sales Drop Sharply, Sees No Quick Recovery
Bill Rigby

Microsoft Corp posted the first-ever drop in annual sales of Windows and its quarterly revenue fell a steeper-than-expected 17 percent as its business continued to be hurt by the weak global PC and server markets.

The news sent Microsoft shares down 8 percent and took the shine off a big U.S. stock market rally earlier in the day that had driven the Dow Jones industrial average above 9,000 points.

The world's largest software maker, whose operating systems power the vast majority of the world's personal computers, offered little hope for a turnaround in technology until next year, despite recent optimism from rival International Business Machines Corp and chip maker Intel Corp.

"We still see conditions being challenging for the balance of this calendar year," Chief Financial Officer Christopher Liddell said in a telephone interview.

"At least sequentially, we are seeing a little bit of growth. While things are not necessarily getting better, they may have bottomed out," said Liddell.

Light On Revenue

Microsoft reported fiscal fourth quarter net profit of $3.045 billion, or 34 cents per share, compared with $4.297 billion, or 46 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Profit excluding items was 38 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30, beating analysts' average forecast of 36 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales fell 17 percent to $13.1 billion, missing analysts' average estimate of $14.48 billion. Annual sales of the company's Windows operating system -- its first and most important business -- fell for the first time on record.

"They were really light on revenue. They need to explain where the money went. If I was Nancy Drew this would be the case of the missing revenue," said Kim Caughey, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, referring to the fictional detective.

Wall Street highlighted the lack of big tech projects.

"Spending has been sparse by businesses and we're not in full recovery mode yet," said Laxmi Poruri, partner at Primary Global Research. "We're not in big-ticket mode, which is businesses purchasing a lot of equipment and a lot of software. They're doing small projects and that's going to hurt your margins.

Slashing Costs

Microsoft is preparing to bring out the latest version of its operating system, Windows 7, on October 22. Liddell said that release would not, on its own, spark a recovery in PC sales.

With sales under pressure, the Redmond, Washington-based company is focusing on controlling costs, announcing 5,000 job cuts in January.

For fiscal year 2010, which started July 1, the company is targeting $26.6 billion to $26.9 billion in operating expenses, slightly cutting the lower end of its estimate from three months ago. Comparable expenses in the fiscal year just ended were $25.4 billion.

Microsoft's shares fell 8 percent to $23.44 in extended trading, after closing up 3 percent at $25.56 on Nasdaq, contributing to losses on stock futures across the board.

At Thursday's close, the stock had risen 70 percent since early March, on hopes that Windows 7 system will be a hit and a positive reaction to its new Bing search engine.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby and Tiffany Wu; Editing by Richard Chang, Bernard Orr)
http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...56M6CS20090723





Apple Smashes Profit Forecasts, iPhone Shines
Gabriel Madway

Apple Inc's quarterly profit blew past Wall Street forecasts thanks to strong sales of Macs and iPhones and higher-than-expected gross margins, boosting its shares 4 percent on Tuesday.

The company continued to defy the global recession with a solid 13 percent jump in fiscal third-quarter net profit. It sold more than seven times as many iPhones -- 5.2 million units of its latest signature device -- as the year-ago period.

"The numbers are great. Their gross profits continue to surprise people and there is a return to product momentum ... a return to growth in the Mac business," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "And then the iPhone is doing tremendously well and that is a potent combination."

Apple reported a net profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 a share, for its fiscal third quarter ended June 27, up from $1.07 billion, or $1.19 a share, in the year-ago period.

Earnings per share beat by far the average Street forecast of $1.18 according to Reuters Estimates, and topped even the most bullish "whisper" numbers of $1.30 to $1.35.

Sales of Macs and iPhones both beat analysts' expectations, helped by product refreshes and lower prices, while iPod shipments were toward the low end of forecasts.

Apple said it sold 2.6 million Macs, up 4 percent from a year ago, and 5.2 million iPhones in the June quarter, during which the company launched its third-generation iPhone 3GS and cut the price on the second-generation model to $99.

The iPhone is often thought of as more of a consumer device, but Apple said nearly 20 percent of Fortune 100 companies have bought at least 10,000 units and it is unable to make enough iPhone 3GSes to meet demand -- a shortfall the company said it is working to address.

Although the smartphone segment continues to grow more crowded with competitors, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said on a conference call the company is "years ahead of other people" in its competitive position.

iPhone Drives

The install base for the iPhone and the iPod Touch -- which share operating systems -- is now 45 million, Apple said.

"The iPhone is the biggest driver right now, because the profitability is really high," said Frost & Sullivan analyst Ronald Gruia. "It's been an absolute success."

Yet there had been some concern about margin pressure heading into the results, given the product price cuts and the trend of higher component costs.

Although Mac units rose, revenue in the segment fell 8 percent from a year ago as average selling prices came down, a trend seen throughout the PC industry.

But Apple posted a gross margin of 36.3 percent, above the 34 percent some analysts predicted. That compared with 36.4 percent in the last quarter and 34.8 percent a year ago. The company saw margins at 34 percent in the September quarter.

Apple said component costs rose, but not as much as expected and it spent less than it planned in several areas.

"The overall takeaway is that Apple continues to execute in this tough environment," said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu.

"They do the hardware, software and service, and that really allows them to have a leg up against competitors."

Investors have pushed Apple's stock about 75 percent higher this year, well ahead of other big technology issues.

Apple issued a typically conservative outlook for the current quarter, forecasting earnings of $1.18 to $1.23 a share on revenue of $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion.

While that was below the average analyst estimate of $1.30 in earnings per share and $9.1 billion in revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter, it had little impact on investors.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $8.3 billion in the June quarter, versus analysts' average estimate of $8.2 billion.

Cash and marketable securities totaled more than $31 billion, one of the biggest cash hoards in all of technology.

The results demonstrated the consumer appeal of Apple's products despite a troubled economy that has dented sales at competitors selling less expensive products.

Apple reported relative strength in consumer demand, and weakness in education, one of its key markets.

But iPods were a chink in its armor. Apple shipped 10.2 million iPods in the quarter, down 7 percent on the year. As iPod sales slow down, analysts see alternative catalysts on the horizon, with the expected launch of an iPhone in China and a rumored tablet PC or Internet device in the works.

Cook said the company hoped to have an iPhone in China within a year.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs did not make an appearance on the company's conference call, despite rumors that he might. Jobs recently returned from a nearly six-month medical leave, where he underwent an a liver transplant.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple closed at $151.51 on Nasdaq and rose to $158.34 in extended trading.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Additional reporting by Doris Frankel and Tiffany Wu; Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv...56J4AX20090722





Smoking in the boys room

Apple Downplays Fiery iPod Incidents
Amy Clancy

An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation reveals an alarming number of Apple brand iPod MP3 players have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property.

It’s an investigation that Apple has apparently been trying to keep out of the public eye.

It took more than 7-months for KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy to get her hands on documents concerning Apple’s iPods from the Consumer Product Safety Commission because Apple’s lawyers filed exemption after exemption. In the end, the CPSC released more than 800 pages which reveal, for the very first time, a comprehensive look that shows, on a number of occasions, iPods have suddenly burst into flames, started to smoke, and even burned their owners.

Owners like Jamie Balderas of Arlington, Washington, who contacted KIRO 7 in November of 2008.

“At first I thought, how in the heck did I get burned? Right there?” she told Clancy, while pointing to a penny-sized, round burn on her chest. “Then I remembered that I had my iPod right there.”

Balderas says her brand new iPod Shuffle overheated while she was running days before, leaving her with a small burn right where the iPod was clipped to her shirt, next to her skin. “My skin started burning really bad, like it was a bee sting that wouldn’t stop.”

Concerned, Balderas says she called Apple, wondering if such burns were common. She even sent the company photos of her wound. But Balderas says she was told by an Apple customer service representative that her burn was an isolated incident. She says she asked Apple if she could get some documentation on how many other times this had happened, and what Apple was doing to correct the situation. But Balderas claims the Apple customer service representative told her that she “wouldn’t be able to have access to it.”

Jumping online, KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators found plenty of complaints about iPods overheating. Bloggers post photos of their charred and melted iPods. And in Japan, the government even issued a warning to consumers citing "a number of accidents in which iPod Nanos" overheated and sparked, injuring two people.

That led Clancy to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Consumer Product Safety Commission last December, asking to see all complaints related to iPods and burns or fire.

When the documents finally arrived more than seven months later, they included more than 800 pages of information, including 15 burn and fire-related incidents blamed by iPod owners on their iPods. One of the owners found in the documents was Haylie Mooney of Portland, Oregon. She spoke with Clancy recently about what happened with the iPod she received for Christmas, 2007.

“I picked it up and it was really hot, and so my first instinct was to drop it so I didn’t burn myself. But I looked at my hand and it was red and it started to get swollen.”

Mooney is now 14 years old, but says she remembers the incident well. “It was like touching the inside of an oven. It was very hot.”

Haylie’s mother, Tami Mooney, called Apple to complain. She claims she got the run-around. “I was so frustrated because frankly, they didn’t care. They didn’t care that my child was burned. They didn’t care about the possibilities that other children were burned,” she told Clancy at her Portland-area home. “I asked them, has this been happening? Is this new? And they said, we haven’t heard of this one yet.”

But by then, Federal records show that Apple did already know it had problems with its iPod batteries causing fires and burns.

Detailed in the documents Clancy obtained was the story of an iPod overheating "causing damage to home and harm to minor son" in Pennsylvania in 2005.

In 2006, a 17-year-old Illinois girl awoke to find her iPod Nano "smoking and sparking."

A Staten Island man "sustained a minor shock and some redness to his left hand" when he yanked his iPod Shuffle from the USB port after noticing "sparks and a reddish/orange glow." Also in 2006.

That same year, an iPod "caught fire aboard a ship with over 2000 persons onboard."

In 2007, fire alarms at a home in New York went off after an iPod Nano started smoking. According to the CPSC report, smoke was "billowing" out of a teenage girl's bedroom because her iPod had "caught on fire," had "somehow fallen on the chair next to the desk," causing the chair to "smolder."

Also that year, in Atlanta, Daniel Williams' Nano suddenly burst into flames while in his pocket. He spoke about the incident to KIRO 7's sister station, WSB-TV. “So I looked down and I see flames coming up to my chest, about here,” he told a reporter in October of 2007.

In 2008, a Michigan couple awakened by smoke alarms and rushed into their sleeping son's room to find his iPod smoking and melted.

Six other similar claims are also detailed in the CPSC documents obtained by KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators. The complaints concern various iPod models, some charging at the time, some not. Some were older models, some brand new.

So far, no serious injuries have been reported to the CPSC, but Tami Mooney of Portland believes it's only a matter of time. And she says she was angry to read the reports Clancy shared with her, especially since many of them were filed after she had notified Apple about what had happened to her daughter.

“That’s what I’ve been afraid of, is that that could have been a dead child because Apple didn’t care to fix it. I’m horrified to learn it’s still going on.”

Gordon Damant is a fire scientist and 30-year California state regulator. He believes, when it comes to iPods, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and the potential for great harm.

“Whenever you have a fire event of any kind, it can be potentially very serious,” he told Clancy recently while Damant was visiting Redmond, Washington, for the annual National Association of State Fire Marshals conference.

“If a person has a device, is wearing a device that malfunctions it could ignite their clothing. And once a person’s clothing becomes ignited, then you have potential for rapid flame spread.”

Damant believes, as CPSC investigators detail in the documents, that the iPods’ lithium ion batteries could be the source of the problem. Millions of lithium ion batteries were recalled by Dell and Apple in 2006 because over-heating problems in laptop computers caused fires. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission is not recalling iPods.

After conducting its own preliminary investigation, the federal agency determined that, with more than 175 million iPods sold, “the number of incidents is extremely small in relation to the number of products produced, making the risk of injury very low.”

Nick Marchica, who worked for the CPSC for 28 years, explained it to Clancy this way: “The feds, the government guys came in. They looked at this thing and they said, 'not yet. Might be a problem down the line if we get more information, but not yet.' We can’t ask this company to recall the product.'”

Others disagree.

“When is enough, enough?” Damant asked Clancy, while examining the 800 pages of documents she obtained. “Looking at what you have here, it would clearly seem to me that the potential is there for them to do something because, in the past, they’ve negotiated recalls with very much less information than they’ve provided to you.”

While interviewing Balderas back in November, Clancy asked the Arlington woman what her biggest concern is. Balderas quickly said, “there’s millions of these out there, and as a parent of five children, all of my children have at least one (iPod). And they use these, and sometimes they listen to them at night when they’re in bed. And what if the iPod is lying in bed and the sheets catch on fire? I mean, this is worst case scenario, but I would feel terrible if I hadn’t tried to do something to help.”

Tami Mooney of Portland echoes the sentiment. “They need to recall them,” she told Clancy. Apple needs “to figure out, trouble shoot to the point that they know exactly what the problem is and pull them all.” Clancy pointed out that, with more than 175 million iPods sold, that could have devastating financial consequences for Apple. Mooney countered, “What’s it going to cost them if they kill a child and find out that there are these reports out there and Apple did nothing?”

Of all the people interviewed for Clancy’s report, including three consumer safety experts, all of them agree that the public should at least be aware of this potential problem, no matter how rare the cases might be.

Clancy asked that same question of Apple: should its customers know about this? Apple refused to comment, and refused to answer all of the other questions Clancy has been asking of the company since November.

But the documents Clancy obtained indicate future action, including a recall, is possible. Apple has been notified by the Consumer Product Safety Commission that it is the California company’s obligation to “inform the Commission of defects associated with this product which could create a substantial product hazard under 15 U.S.C 2064(a).” The documents further reveal, if Apple “receives any information regarding other potential defects or hazards, it must report this information to the Office of Compliance and Field Operations immediately.” And that the CPSC staff “will assess any new information concerning this product to determine if action should be taken to protect the public.”

One of the reasons the CPSC gives for not taking action now is because “the current generation of iPods uses a battery which has not been shown to have similar problems.” When asked by Clancy, when this “current generation” of batteries started being used, and what type of battery it is, Apple would not comment. But earlier this year a lawsuit against Apple was filed in Cincinnati because, the lawyer claims, an iPod Touch, one of Apple’s newest edition of iPods, also powered by a lithium ion battery, exploded and caught fire while in a teenager’s pocket. The suit claims the boy suffered second-degree burns to his leg, and that the iPod was off at the time. This incident is not included in the CPSC’s file.

We'd also like to hear if a similar incident has happened with your iPod, so post your comments below.
http://www.kirotv.com/money/20089894/detail.html





Hacker Says iPhone 3GS Encryption Is ‘Useless’ for Businesses
Brian X. Chen

Apple claims that hundreds of thousands of iPhones are being used by corporations and government agencies. What it won’t tell you is that the supposedly enterprise-friendly encryption included with the iPhone 3GS is so weak it can be cracked in two minutes with a few pieces of readily available freeware.

“It is kind of like storing all your secret messages right next to the secret decoder ring,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, an iPhone developer and a hacker who teaches forensics courses on recovering data from iPhones. “I don’t think any of us [developers] have ever seen encryption implemented so poorly before, which is why it’s hard to describe why it’s such a big threat to security.”

With its easy-to-use interface and wealth of applications available for download, the iPhone may be the most attractive smartphone yet for business use. Many companies seem to agree: In Apple’s quarterly earnings conference call Tuesday, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook said almost 20 percent of Fortune 100 companies have purchased 10,000 or more iPhones apiece; multiple corporations and government organizations have purchased 25,000 iPhones each; and the iPhone has been approved in more than 300 higher education institutions.

But contrary to Apple’s claim that the new iPhone 3GS is more enterprise friendly (for reference, see Apple’s security overview for iPhone in business), the new iPhone 3GS’ encryption feature is “broken” when it comes to protecting sensitive information such as credit card numbers and social-security digits, Zdziarski said.

Zdziarski said it’s just as easy to access a user’s private information on an iPhone 3GS as it was on the previous generation iPhone 3G or first generation iPhone, both of which didn’t feature encryption. If a thief got his hands on an iPhone, a little bit of free software is all that’s needed to tap into all of the user’s content. Live data can be extracted in as little as two minutes, and an entire raw disk image can be made in about 45 minutes, Zdziarski said.

Wondering where the encryption comes into play? It doesn’t. Strangely, once one begins extracting data from an iPhone 3GS, the iPhone begins to decrypt the data on its own, he said.

To steal an iPhone’s disk image, hackers can use popular jailbreaking tools such as Red Sn0w and Purple Ra1n to install a custom kernel on the phone. Then, the thief can install an Secure Shell (SSH) client to port the iPhone’s raw disk image across SSH onto a computer.

To demonstrate the technique, Zdziarski established a screenshare with Wired.com, and he was able to tap into an iPhone 3GS’ data with a few easy steps. The encryption did not pose any hindrance.

Nonetheless, professionals using the iPhone for business don’t seem to care, or know, about the device’s encryption weakness.

“We’re seeing growing interest with the release of iPhone 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS due in part to the new hardware encryption and improved security policies,” Cook said during Apple’s earnings call. “The phone is particularly doing well with small businesses and large organizations.”

Clearly, the gigantic offering of iPhone applications is luring these business groups. Quickoffice Mobile, for example, enables users to access and edit Microsoft Word or Excel files on their iPhone. For handling transactions, merchants can use apps such as Accept Credit Cards to process a credit card on an iPhone anywhere with a Wi-Fi or cellular connection.

Several employees of Halton Company, an industrial equipment provider, are using iPhones for work, according to Lance Kidd, chief information officer of the company. He said the large number of applications available for the iPhone make it worthy of risk-taking.

“Your organization has to be culturally ready to accept a certain degree of risk,” Kidd said. “I can say we’ve secured everything as tight as a button, but that won’t be true…. Our culture is such that our general manager is saying, ‘I’m willing to take the risk for the value of the applications.’”

Kidd noted that Halton employees are not using iPhones for holding confidential customer information, but rather for basic tasks such as e-mailing and engaging with clients via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Halton also plans to code apps strictly for use at the company, Kidd said.

According to Kidd, a security expert performed an evaluation of Halton, and he said it was possible for any hacker to find an infiltration no matter the level of security. Therefore, Halton has measures in place to respond to an information security threat rather than attempt to avoid it.

“It’s like business continuity,” Kidd said. “You prepare for disasters. You prepare for if there’s an earthquake and the building breaks down, and you prepare for if there’s a crack in [information] security.”

But Zdziarski stands firm that the iPhone’s software versatility isn’t worth the risk for use in the workforce. He said sensitive information is bound to appear in e-mails or anything that can be contained on the iPhone’s disk, which can be easily extracted by thieves thanks to the new handset’s shoddy encryption.

Zdziarski said it’s up to the app developers to add an extra level of security to their apps because Apple’s encryption feature is so poor.

“If they’re relying on Apple’s security, then their application is going to be terribly insecure,” he said. “Apple may be technically correct that [the iPhone 3GS] has an encryption piece in it, but it’s entirely useless toward security.”

He added that the ability for the iPhone to self-erase itself remotely using Apple’s MobileMe service isn’t very helpful, either: Any reasonably intelligent criminal would remove the SIM card to prevent the remote-wipe command from coming through. (In a past Wired.com report, Zdziarski said the iPhone’s remote-wiping ability pales in comparison to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, which can self-delete automatically after the phone has been inactive on the network for a preset amount of time.)

On top of that, the iPhone isn’t well protected in general usability, said John Casasanta, founder of iPhone development company Tap Tap Tap. He said though Apple’s approval process scans for malicious code, a developer could easily tweak the app to send a user’s personal data, such as his contacts list, over the network without his knowing.

“Apple can see if something is blatantly doing something malicious in the approval process, but it wouldn’t be very hard to do something behind the scenes,” Casasanta said.

Evidently, it isn’t difficult to sneak unauthorized content into the App Store. In May, Wired.com reported on an exploit demonstrated by the iPhone app Lyrics. Apple initially rejected the app because it contained profane words, and then Lyrics’ developer snuck the profanity into the app with a hidden Easter egg. Apple then approved the application.

Zdziarski added that there are other weaknesses with the iPhone: Pressing the Home button, and even zooming in on a screen, automatically creates a screenshot temporarily stored in the iPhone’s memory, which can be accessed later. And then there’s the keyboard cache: key strokes logged in a file on the phone, which can contain information such as credit card numbers or confidential messages typed in Safari. Cached keyboard text can be recovered from a device dating back a year or more, Zdziarski said.

Though Apple has declined to comment on iPhone security issues, the company has more or less admitted iPhones are vulnerable to security threats, because an emergency measure exists. In August 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs acknowledged the existence of a remote kill switch for iPhone apps, meaning if a malicious app made its way onto iPhones, Apple could trigger a command to delete the app from users’ devices. There is no evidence that the kill switch has ever been used.

So, what kind of business should you do with an iPhone if the device is not very secure? Zdziarski said there are some business-savvy apps that have managed to integrate better security (such as secure data fields to prevent key-stroke logging of credit card numbers, for example), but he warned companies to be cautious about investing too much trust in the iPhone and the apps available for it.

“We’re going to have to go with the old imperative of ‘Trust no one,’” he said. “And unfortunately part of that is, don’t trust Apple.”
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/...ne-encryption/





Chinese Worker Commits Suicide Over Missing iPhone Prototype
AP

An employee at a factory that makes iPhones in China killed himself after a prototype went missing, and Apple Inc. responded Wednesday by saying its suppliers are required to treat workers with dignity and respect.

The dead worker, Sun Danyong, 25, worked in product communications at Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese firm that makes many Apple products at a massive factory in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

Although Apple and Foxconn have confirmed Sun's suicide, they have not provided details about the circumstances, which have been reported by the state-run Southern Metropolis Daily, one of the region's most popular papers.

There's tremendous pressure on employees dealing with Apple's new products to maintain a high-level secrecy over the gadgets, traditionally launched amid great suspense and a big marketing buzz. Apple is also a constant target of prying journalists, rabidly faithful customers and competitors who make great efforts to try to steal a peek at its latest technology.

Sun was responsible for sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, and on July 13 he reported that he was missing one of the 16 fourth-generation units in his possession, the newspaper reported. His friends said company security guards searched his apartment, detained him and beat him, the paper reported.

In the early morning of July 16, Sun jumped from the 12th floor of his apartment building, the paper said.

Jill Tan, an Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong, issued only a brief statement about the incident.

''We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death,'' Tan said. ''We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.''

The hot-selling iPhone has helped make Apple immune to the global recession. On Tuesday, the Cupertino, California-based company said its earnings jumped 15 percent in the third quarter -- growth propelled by laptop and iPhone sales.

More than 5.2 million iPhones were sold in the third quarter -- seven times what it sold at the same time last year -- and the spike in sales was partly because of a newly released version of the device, the company said.

One of Apple's most important manufacturing partners has long been Foxconn, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. -- the world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics. The corporate behemoth has also produced computers for Hewlett-Packard Co., PlayStation game consoles for Sony Corp. and mobile phones for Nokia Corp.

Foxconn said in a statement its security chief has been suspended and turned over to the police.

The security official, Gu Qinming, was quoted by the Southern Metropolis Daily as saying he never hit Sun. Gu reportedly said after three security personnel searched Sun's apartment and did not find the phone, the employee was ordered to go to Gu's office on July 15.

The security chief said he didn't think Sun was being truthful about the phone, the paper reported.

''I got a bit agitated. I pointed my finger at him and said that he was trying to shift the blame,'' Gu was quoted as saying.

He added, ''I was a little angry and I pulled his right shoulder once to get him to tell me what happened. It (the beating) couldn't have happened,'' the paper reported.

Local police declined to respond to questions from The Associated Press.

Foxconn executive Li Jinming said in a statement that Sun's death showed the company needed to do a better job helping its employees with psychological pressures.

''Sun Danyong graduated from a good school. He joined the company in 2008. He had an extremely bright future. The group and I feel deep pain and regret when a young person dies like this.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009...e-Suicide.html





China Suicide Puts Spotlight on Secretive Apple Culture

Apple Inc said it was awaiting results from an investigation into the death of a worker in China, after media reports said the man killed himself on learning he was suspected of leaking company secrets.

The case puts the spotlight on Apple, whose public face as maker of the wildly successful iPhone contrasts with its reputation for a highly secretive corporate culture.

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of a young employee and we are awaiting the results of the investigation into his death," Apple said in a statement released in the United States on Tuesday, declining further comment.

"We require that our suppliers treat all workers with dignity and respect," it added.

Apple's iPhones are made in south China by its contract manufacturing partner Foxconn International, a unit of Taiwan electronics giant Hon Hai.

Foxconn said in a statement that a worker named Sun Danyong, who had joined the company in 2008, had committed suicide and expressed its condolences to his family.

"The company has noticed there has been much detailed discussion on the Internet and welcomes public discussion on how to help Foxconn's management where it is lacking," Foxconn said in a statement. "We will scrutinize those places ... and strengthen our assistance to young employees," it added

Foxconn did not go into the details surrounding Sun's death.

But according to a report in the influential Nanfang Daily, Sun, a 25-year-old product manager, became frantic after discovering that one of 16 prototypes of Apple's fourth-generation N90 iPhone had gone missing. The iPhone is Apple's hottest-selling device and the latest version is a well-kept secret.

Sun vented his growing frustration in text messages to his girlfriend and a former classmate, and tried to find the missing device, the Nanfang Daily said. But company officials from Foxconn's security division apparently got suspicious and raided his home.

The Yunnan native jumped from his 12th floor apartment the day after, according to the report.

The incident, which triggered an investigation from local police and within Foxconn itself, sparked a Web firestorm in China and has provoked criticism of Apple's intensely guarded culture.

The company has previously threatened lawsuits against media and bloggers that try to publish information about its upcoming products, often arguing they obtained the information from employees who violated confidentiality agreements.

(Reporting by Doug Young and Joanne Chiu in Hong Kong and Gabriel Madway in San Francisco; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...56L33Z20090722





Apple Takes Legal Heel Off Throat of Wiki Operator

After being sued by EFF, company relents on claims of copyright, DMCA violations
Paul McNamara

A wiki operator who was browbeaten by Apple's legal team into removing posts about circumventing the company's music-playback software tells me he is relieved that the iTunes proprietor has changed its tune and he'll be able to restore the disputed pages.

Apple backed off only under legal pressure of its own in the form of a lawsuit filed against it by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

From an EFF press release:

Quote:
In November 2008, Apple sent a series of legal threats to the operator of BluWiki, alleging that these hobbyist discussions about interoperability violated copyright law and constituted a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), even though the author(s) of the pages had not yet figured out how to accomplish their goal. In response to Apple's legal threats, BluWiki took down the wiki pages in question. In April 2009, EFF and the San Francisco law firm Keker & Van Nest sued Apple on behalf of OdioWorks, which runs BluWiki, asking a court to reject Apple's claims and allow BluWiki to restore the discussions.

On July 8, 2009, Apple sent (a) letter withdrawing its cease-and-desist demands and stating that "Apple no longer has, nor will it have in the future, any objection to the publication of the iTunesDB Pages." As a result, EFF has moved to dismiss its complaint against Apple.

"While we are glad that Apple retracted its baseless legal threats, we are disappointed that it only came after 7 months of censorship and a lawsuit," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann."
In response to my e-mail, BluWiki operator Sam Odio says: "It's a relief that Apple has backed down from this issue. As the operator of a non-commercial wiki the idea of a prolonged legal battle obviously stresses me out. We are planning on putting the disputed wiki back online in the next few weeks. There's some DMCA Safe Harbor paperwork that we need to fill out."

You can read the original takedown demand e-mail from Apple's lawyer here.

And the EFF archive has more information about the case.

I've requested comment from Apple's public relations department.Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent Buzzblog items. And, if you'd like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, here's where to sign up.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43762





Texas Court: Online Reporter Covered by State Protections
E&P Staff

A Texas court has ruled that a reporter for an online magazine can enjoy the same protections as a regular electronic and print reporter under Texas law. However, the court also ruled that not all Internet communicators are subject to the same protections.

The Court of Appeals for the 2nd District of Texas in Fort Worth issued the ruling in "Kaufman v. Islamic Society of Arlington" on June 25.

In September of 2007, Joe Kaufman, wrote an article called "Fanatic Muslim Family Day" for Front Page magazine, an online publication of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Kaufman called for protests of "Muslim Family Day," an event organized by the Islamic Circle of North America (INCA) Dallas at an Arlington, Tex. amusement park. Kaufman stated that the ICNA had supported and financed terrorism.

Several Islamic groups sued Kaufman, claiming he unfairly and inaccurately linked them to the ICNA. Kaufman moved for summary judgment, which was denied. It was this decision that Kaufman appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeals. In Texas, the right to appeal a denial of summary judgment is enjoyed by all "electronic or print media."

The Islamic groups challenged Kaufman's status as a media member, claiming that Kaufman had not been trained as a journalist, and that he used Front Page Magazine as his own blog.

The court ruled in favor of Kaufman, and set out a series of tests to determine whether online writers can be considered media members. The test included "[t]he character and text of the communication," "[t]he editorial processes of the Web site or online publication," "[t]he volume of the communication’s dissemination," "[t]he author’s 'extrinsic notoriety unconnected to the communication,'" and "[t]he author’s 'compensation for or professional relationship to making the communication,'" according to Douglas Lee in an article for the First Amendment Center's Web site.

To read the court's decision in full, go here.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/ea..._id=1003995874





Court for Blogger Charged with Threatening Judges
AP

A New Jersey blogger charged with threatening three federal appeals judges is set for arraignment in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Former Internet talk show host Hal Turner is set to appear Friday before U.S. District Judge Donald Walter. The judge was brought in from Louisiana to preside after all Chicago-based federal judges stepped out of the case.

The 47-year-old Turner was arrested after his blog said the three appeals judges "deserve to be killed" for upholding Chicago's ban on handgun possession.

He's also charged in Connecticut with inciting injury to persons for urging his readers to "take up arms" against two state lawmakers.
http://www.newstimes.com/ci_12905792





Bill Extends Copyright Protection to News
Natalya Krainova

The government has drafted legislation that would make it easier for news agencies to contest plagiarism of their reports, drawing cheers from state publications like Interfax and RIA-Novosti, but critics say the bill is too vague to be effective.

The law, drafted by the Communications and Press Ministry, would extend copyright protection to news reports, with the threat of fines and the possible confiscation of publications to dissuade media from using information without properly attributing its source.

News agencies have long complained that other publications — particularly regional and Internet outlets — plagiarize their reports, but the problem became more pressing amid the financial losses related to the economic crisis.

“A copyright holder has to be protected both from the commercial and intellectual perspective,” Deputy Communications and Press Minister Alexander Zharov said last month after a roundtable of media professionals and government officials.

Zharov said the bill could be submitted to the State Duma when it reconvenes this fall.

Under the new regulations, a media outlet accused of plagiarism could be fined 10,000 rubles ($320) to 20,000 rubles ($645) and have its production confiscated. A reporter or editor could be warned or fined 1,000 rubles to 5,000 rubles, according to a copy of the bill provided by the ministry.

But the legislation still lacks many details, including what state body would levy the fines and confiscate materials or under what circumstances confiscations might occur. It also does not say whether a plagiarist would be fined separately for each instance.

The proposal was largely welcomed by the news media, although lawyers and some outlets warned that the lack of clarity could lead to inefficiency and harassment of smaller rivals.

Mikhail Komissar, chairman of Interfax’s board of directors, said at the roundtable that the concept of the bill was “right” and that “today news agencies’ reports are not protected.”

RIA-Novosti registered 1,608 cases of plagiarism of its exclusive news in the period from January to June, editor Svetlana Mironyuk said after the roundtable.

News agencies lose advertising revenue when a media outlet copies reports without citing the initial source of the news, since readers would not visit their web sites or see advertisements there, said Andrei Afanasyev, deputy head of Interfax’s legal department.

Plagiarism by another media outlet also damages a news agency’s “reputation,” Mironyuk said.

Andrei Richter, head of Moscow’s Media Law and Policy Institute, said the bill was “absolutely necessary” because it made it much easier for news agencies to defend their material from plagiarists.

“Currently, news agencies have to go to court and prove that they have suffered financial losses because of the plagiarism,” Richter said, referring to Part Four of the Civil Code, which currently regulates copyright. “This bill would introduce real administrative responsibility,” he said.

The law would also create a legal framework for the sale of information by news agencies, said Vadim Uskov, a copyright lawyer. Currently, information is not legally classified as “an object of buying and selling,” he said.

“There is a real market, but there is no law to regulate it,” Uskov said. “News agencies exist in a legal vacuum,” he said.

Mironyuk said RIA-Novosti has filed complaints with the Federal Mass Media Inspection Service over what it calls a serial plagiarist of its reports, online newspaper The Moscow Post, but it has not been able to prove its case.

Moscow Post editor Alexei Kozlov called the bill “an opportunity to punish a rival media outlet.”

Kozlov shrugged off Mironyuk’s accusations about plagiarism, saying similar reports stemmed from the fact that correspondents from both outlets were attending “the same news conferences.”

“The Moscow Post is a famous brand, but for a young media outlet it would not be easy to fend off” plagiarism accusations, he said. “It must be decided by a court” whether plagiarism actually took place, as is the case now, Kozlov added.

Legal experts interviewed for this report praised the idea of extending copyright protection to news reports but said the bill still needed work.

Richter was concerned it “wouldn’t work” because it did not say who would issue the fines. Uskov said he “welcomed the idea” of the bill but that its formulation was “controversial.”

The notion of information is spelled out in a “great number” of laws, Uskov said, and it is “necessary to conduct voluminous work” to change information’s legal status. The ministry’s proposed changes “award copyright status to any reports of news agencies,” which “contradicts other parts of the Civil Code,” he said.

“There’s a good chance the law would not work the way it’s meant to,” Uskov said.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/600/42/379728.htm





Rather Wins Access to Thousands of Documents in Suit Against CBS
Bill Carter

Dan Rather won significant victories Tuesday in his suit against his former network, CBS. He won access to more than 3,000 documents that his lawyer said were expected to reveal evidence that CBS had tried to influence the outcome of a panel that investigated his much-debated “60 Minutes” report about former President George W. Bush’s military record.

Mr. Rather also won an appeal to restore a fraud charge against CBS that had been dismissed. Martin Gold, the lawyer representing the former anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” called it “a very successful day for us; we got everything.”

Mr. Rather called it a “good day” for his side and — referring to the name for the CBS headquarters — “a bad day for Black Rock.”

Jim Quinn, the lawyer representing CBS, called it “a minor skirmish in a long battle” and predicted that the fraud charge would be dismissed again because “it’s frivolous.”

He added of Mr. Rather’s day in court, “Was it favorable for him? Yes. Was it meaningful? No.”

CBS said in a statement: “Today’s rulings by Judge Gammerman were on technical and procedural issues, not on the merits of Mr. Rather’s allegations. Most of Mr. Rather’s claims already have been rejected by the court and that has not changed. We are similarly confident that Mr. Rather’s re-pleaded fraud claim will be dismissed once the court reaches the actual merits. We also await the appellate division’s decisions on pending motions which, we believe will further curtail his claims.”

The judge in the case, Ira Gammerman, of the New York State Supreme Court, ruled in Mr. Rather’s favor on three motions, all of which could end up aiding his pursuit of background information about the panel of experts that CBS selected to look into “60 Minutes” report.

Most significant may be documents that include e-mail messages between the panel members and a law firm it hired to do investigative work on the case. The firm, K&L Gates, had opposed turning the documents over to Mr. Rather’s lawyers on the grounds of lawyer-client privilege.

But Judge Gammerman ruled that the work done by the firm was not covered by privilege and ordered the documents be turned over to Mr. Rather’s side within 10 days.

Judge Gammerman also pushed the lawyers for each side to take the case to trial within four months.

Mr. Rather filed suit against CBS in September 2007, charging that his career had been damaged by what he called a politically biased report from the panel, which consisted of a former chief executive of The Associated Press, Louis D. Boccardi, and a former Republican attorney general, Richard Thornburgh.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/bu.../22rather.html





In Bill O'Reilly's Sights

Run afoul of the conservative commentator, and feel the wrath of his avid Army
Rick Perlstein

Last week I was greeted with an uncomfortable curiosity: a brace of hate mail in my inbox, received within a 20-minute span. The first came at 7:26: "You are an uneducated writer! You need to get your fact straight! You are a liberal bastard! You need to get informed!" All arguable propositions, perhaps, but that still left the question: why was this person realizing that precisely now, and why, two minutes later, did "Dr. Anthony" feel moved to inform me, "I've noticed a trend that left-wing extremists tend to be exceedingly ugly & perverse. Living with that ugliness & deviance seems to lead to an aberration of thought as well. I am attempting to formulate the correlation..."

And then, while he did, as if on a schedule, another deluge hit some three hours later, the messages several notches more frightening:

"Your a piece of s---. we will hunt you left wing libs down one by one. you lieing piece of trash."

"So perlstein,whats your problem with Fox and conservatives. you jews should be dancing on the ceilings.you have control of the government,obama,congress, senate...."

"You sir are far more dangerous than Sarah Palin ever will be."

YouTube soon revealed all. Bill O'Reilly had run a segment on an article I published in the July 20 Newsweek, along with a picture—my author photograph—and a description of me—"this Perlstein," who had written "some book no one heard of," spit out with such venom that more than one friend of mine thought of Sasha Baron Cohen's Borat singing about throwing a Jew down a well. I was, Bill O'Reilly explained, an agent of "media corruption." In a subsequent newspaper column, O'Reilly summarized the problem thus: "Under the guise of hard news reporting, the media is pushing rank propaganda on the citizenry. Dr. Joseph Goebbels the Nazi propaganda minister, successfully developed this tactic in the 1930s."

Were I a conservative, and a fan of Sarah Palin, and a viewer of Bill O'Reilly—but not a particularly conscientious reader of Newsweek—I would have been mad at me, too.

What had I written, and what had Newsweek attempted to get away with? Here's how one friendly blogger summarized "Beyond the Palin": "Perlstein's entire article is ... a chronicle of the division within Republican ranks between the party's elites ... and its far more strident base." Any contempt present in the piece, he pointed out, came not in my own voice but those of the elite Republicans I quoted, who "treat part of the base with a certain amount of disdain, courting them with a wink and a nod when necessary, dissociating from them ... when they fail to deliver the electoral goods.... Indeed, Perlstein's article is not so much a liberal elitist sneer at the lumpen proletariat in fly-over country as much as it is a careful examination of conservative elites toward those they regard as such."

In truth the article was a little more than that. I also quoted author and former Bush speechwriter David Frum asking worriedly, "What's happening to Fox News?", and suggested that, in an era of occasional violence from the right-wing fringe, all responsible conservatives should all be asking that question. My friend David Neiwert, a Seattle-based journalist and author of the recent book The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, explained to me the problem thus: "I'm hearing now, from supposedly mainstream conservative pundits"—he singled out Fox's Glenn Beck, who has been entertaining the notion that Obama might not be a natural-born American citizen—"the kind of extreme rhetorical appeals that I used to hear from militia movement leaders in the early 1990s, talk about how the evil liberal president literally intends to destroy our country."

Again, my point was not to give my personal opinion of Palin or her followers, or O'Reilly, Beck, and theirs, but that of another segment of the Republican coalition, and explore the consequences of this divide for American politics. Maybe I did so effectively, maybe not; that's for the reader to judge. The political phenomenon I described, meanwhile, rolls on: just the other day a town hall held by Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, a moderate Republican, was disrupted by a constituent who, holding up her own birth certificate in a plastic bag, delivered an impassioned tirade about how congressmen like Castle had failed patriotic Americans by allowing Barack Obama, a "citizen of Kenya," to be inaugurated in the first place. The lion's share of the crowd appeared to support her with cheers, and deride Rep. Castle, who may be running for the Senate, with boos. "He is a citizen of the United States," Castle implored repeatedly, before being drowned out by a spontaneous Pledge of Allegiance from the crowd.

O'Reilly's main point was that since I'm a liberal writer, and even and unabashedly a liberal activist, I couldn't analyze any of this in a fair or useful way. Again, I trust the reader to make that judgment themselves. I never hide my liberal sympathies, as a quick visit to Google will confirm (one of the first articles that will come up is my eulogy for my late friend William F. Buckley, who I describe as my "role model" in striving to make ideologically pointed arguments with civility and intellectual responsibility—and who was among the many conservatives kind in expressing their admiration for the two books I have published on the history of conservatism). O'Reilly says Newsweek misrepresented my piece—this is where the language about "media corruption" comes in—as a straightforward news story. Here he proved himself an inattentive analyst. As Newswek editor Jon Meacham clearly explained in his recent essay introducing the newly reimagined Newsweek, the section of the magazine labeled "Features"—which is where my article appeared—will include "the argued essay—a piece, grounded in reason and supported by evidence, that makes the case for something." He noted the attendant tradeoff: fewer "straightforward news" pieces.

Bill O'Reilly got a lot wrong. So what? He's entitled; nobody's perfect. But he also did something far harder to excuse. He invented, for his loyal viewers who have invested in him their trust as a man who gives it straight, with "no spin," a villain—someone to hate. He did so in language that was precisely and specifically violent. "This Perlstein," he asked his guest: "Doesn't he have a Web site where he says he wants conservatives to explode or something?" (He doesn't; though he used to write a blog for a D.C.-based liberal think tank entitled "The Big Con," which argued, among other things, that conservative leaders exploited the decent aspirations of conservative citizens.) No wonder one of his followers was willing, on the evidence provided, to call me (this was at 7:46 p.m.) "a homosexual" who should "move to a third world country."

O'Reilly claimed in his column that I, and Newsweek magazine, too, am part of a movement, one that wants "to knock out Judeo-Christian traditions." I suppose he would include in this movement the friendly blogger I quoted above, the one who sympathetically paraphrased my article—even though that writer, Geoffrey Kruse-Safford, a religious liberal from Rockford, Illinois, calls his blog "What's Left in the Church." (Geoffrey's not a minister, but his wife is.) But me, and Geoffrey, and the "citizen of Kenya" Barack Obama, and probably Geoffrey's minister wife: some Americans want to insist we are aliens, that we are other, not really American at all.

They might also say I am trying—it's a frequent trope on Fox, and in my e-mail inbox—to "shut them up" by making the argument. I most certainly am not. My inbox—nixonland@live.com—remains open to them; I try to respond to all comers. I'd love, in fact, to talk about all this with O'Reilly. But I have to draw a bright line first. Bill, please assure your trusting viewers that I'm not interested in "exploding" anyone. And can the claims that this American—any American, really—is trying to destroy America. Everyone, including conservatives who want to see the Republican Party unite and succeed, will all be much better off.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/207836





Fox News Producer Gets 10 Years for Child Porn
Hayley Peterson

A Fox News Channel producer was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison on federal child pornography charges.

Aaron Bruns, 29, was arrested in February after authorities searched his Dupont Circle-area apartment and found his computer full of child porn. In May, Bruns pleaded guilty to the charges and was facing up to eight years in prison, according to federal guidelines, documents said. But federal Judge James Robertson on Tuesday pushed his sentence to 10 years, citing a former conviction on similar charges while Bruns was in college.

Bruns was the second Washington journalist to be sentenced for possession of child pornography in less than a week. Former National Public Radio science editor David Malakoff, also facing six to eight years, was spared prison time partially because U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle said he had been raped as a 9-year-old in Rock Creek Park. Malakoff got five years of probation, a $5,000 fine and 600 hours of community service, and is required to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

Bruns was not so lucky.

In 1999, Bruns dropped out of the University of Michigan after the police discovered a student was using the school's server to download and share child pornography. Detectives seized Bruns' computer from his dorm room and found thousands of pornographic images stored on it, according to the school newspaper. Bruns was arrested and pleaded guilty to charges of distributing child pornography, but he served only three years of probation because of his age, according to court documents.

This time, Bruns' laptop contained hundreds of images and at least five movie files depicting children under the age of 10 being sexually abused by men and women, according to police documents. Images show the children, some as young as 3, being tied up and raped, court filings said. A few nude photos of himself were also in the evidence.

Police targeted Bruns after investigators found he was offering to share child pornography over a popular file-sharing network. Bruns worked out of Fox News' Washington bureau before his conviction. He followed candidates on the campaign trail, such as then-Sen. Hillary Clinton during her run for the Democratic nomination, and he most recently covered Vice President Joseph Biden's farewell speech to the Senate.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/lo...-51345032.html





Inside job?

ESPN Reporter Secretly Videotaped Nude in Hotel
Pat Eaton-Robb



ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was secretly videotaped in the nude while she was alone in a hotel room, and the video was posted on the Internet, her attorney said.

The blurry, five-minute video shows Andrews standing in front of a hotel room mirror. It's unknown when or where it was shot.

Andrews' attorney, Marshall Grossman, confirmed Tuesday that the video posted on the Internet shows the 31-year-old reporter. He said she decided to confirm it "to put an end to rumor and speculation and to put the perpetrator and those who are complicit on notice that they act at their peril."

Andrews plans to seek criminal charges and file civil lawsuits against the person who shot the video and anyone who publishes the material, Grossman said.

"While alone in the privacy of her hotel room, Erin Andrews was surreptitiously videotaped without her knowledge or consent," Grossman said in an earlier statement. "She was the victim of a crime and is taking action to protect herself and help ensure that others are not similarly violated in the future."

Andrews has covered hockey, college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball for the network since 2004, often as a sideline reporter during games.

A former dance team member at the University of Florida, Andrews was something of an Internet sensation even before the video's circulation. She has been referred to as "Erin Pageviews" because of the traffic that video clips and photos of her generate, and Playboy magazine named her "sexiest sportscaster" in both 2008 and 2009.

She last appeared on the network as part of its ESPY Awards broadcast on Sunday, and is scheduled to be off until September, when she will be covering college football, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.

"Erin has been grievously wronged here," Krulewitz said. "Our people and resources are in full support of her as she deals with this abhorrent act."

It was not clear when the video first appeared on the Internet. Most of the links to it had been removed by Tuesday.

Several TV networks and newspapers aired brief clips or printed screen grabs of it Tuesday. Grossman responded to an e-mail question about whether he plans to go after those outlets by reiterating his statement that Andrews plans to seek civil charges against "anyone who has published the material."

He would not say what law enforcement agencies might be investigating.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072101303.html





OZ ISPs Give Clean Feed Filter a Technical Green-Light

The majority of Internet filter trial participants report no slowdowns or accidental blockings despite ISP filtering
David Ramli

More than half of the Internet service providers (ISPs) taking part in the Federal Government’s ISP filtering trial have reported minimal speed disruptions or technology problems.

Of the nine participating ISPs, iPrimus, Netforce, Webshield, Nelson Bay Online and OMNIconnect told ARN they had seen no slowdowns in Internet speeds or problems with the filtering solutions in place.

Of the remaining four ISPs, Tech2U and Highway1 were unable to respond by time of publication while Unwired and Optus refused to comment.

iPrimus Australia CEO, Ravi Bhatia, said his company’s ISP filtering trial, which must be opted into by its customers, had “probably involved a few thousand users”.

“The users have not experienced any problems, they haven’t experienced any service degradation so it’s been a pretty good experience,” he said.

The results would be finalised by next week, Bhatia said.

Webshield managing director, Anthony Pillion, said his entire customer base of a few thousand end-users experienced no slow-down in Internet speeds whatsoever.

“From a technical perspective we’re more than confident that if the government decided to roll out a mandatory Internet filter based on or around an Australian Communications and Media Authority [ACMA] blacklist or subset thereof, then it can be done without any impact whatsoever to the speed of the Internet,” he said.

Although OMNIconnect’s managing director, Peter Hutton, received no complaints about slowed speeds or technical problems after the filtering hardware was in place, he said the blacklist provided by ACMA had banned legitimate websites and caused customer dissatisfaction.

“Some of the customers complained because the block list really hadn’t been moderated well enough,” OMNIconnect chief technician, Graeme Lee, said. “One in particular was a site called Redtube.com. The whole site had been blocked and it was just a standard pornography site,” Hutton said.

“Relating to that particular site we did have complaints that people couldn’t get through to it. They opted out of the trial straight away. It was a very embarrassing experience.”

ACMA refused to confirm or deny the website's legality or if it was currently on the blacklist and advised users to read its guidelines for rating internet content.

One common issue with most of the ISPs was the lack of voluntary participants, especially with companies using an opt-in system.

Managing director of Nelson Bay Online, Patrick Sayer, said only 1 per cent of his entire customer base decided to opt-into the system, resulting in just 15 users.

When asked if he believed the trials provided a fair representative study, Hutton’s answer was an unequivocal “no”.

“That’s why we’ve asked for an extension to continue the trial till the end of this month and I understand a number of other ISPs have done the same thing,” he said.

The results come on the back of earlier comments from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy that the current trial’s success or failure would help form much of the government’s opinions on mandatory nation-wide ISP filtering.

“We'll be guided by that trial. We've always said, consistently, we'll be guided by the trial,” the Minister said on the ABC’s Q&A program.
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/312...al_green-light





Plug-Pulling ISP Changes Policy

The ISP has taken an unusual approach to copyright policing
BBC

Internet service provider (ISP) Karoo, based in Hull, has changed its policy of suspending the service of users suspected of copyright violations.

The about face was made following a BBC story outlining the firm's practice.

Karoo issued a statement on Friday, saying that it has been "exceeding the expectations of copyright owners".

The firm will now adopt a "three strikes" rule, in which suspected file-sharers will receive three written warnings before action is taken.

"We have always taken a firm line on the alleged abuse of our internet connections," said Nick Thompson, director of consumer and publishing services, in the statement.

"However, we continually review our policies and procedures to reflect own customers' changing needs and evolving use of the internet.

"It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectations of copyright owners, the media and internet users. So, we have changed our policy to move in more line with the industry standard approach."

'Totally unfair'

Karoo - the only ISP in the area, which has no BT lines - long held a policy of suspending service of suspected file-sharers. In order to get their service restored, customers had to sign a document promising not to repeat the offence.

The firm's approach is more aligned with many other ISPs' approaches to suspected file sharers, mirroring the "three strikes" rule that the music industry itself has called for.

Andrea Robinson, a Karoo customer from Willerby, told the BBC that a day after her service was cut off, she received a letter from the firm claiming that she had been using the peer-to-peer file-sharing service BitTorrent to download the film Terminator Salvation.

On calling Karoo, she was told to visit the company's offices to resolve the issue.

"They gave me a form to sign to get reconnected," she told the BBC. "The form basically said 'if I admit my guilt you'll reconnect me'. So I didn't sign it and walked out."

Jim Killock, executive director of the digital rights activists The Open Rights Group, told the BBC that it is "totally unfair" to disconnect people without notice.

"In fact, disconnection is something that should only even possibly be considered as a result of court action," he said.

While she said that her service had still not been restored, Mrs Robinson called Karoo's policy change "a step in the right direction".

"I'm still a bit upset about it, but it's an improvement that they've done that - rather than just zero chance for any negotiation or to put your case across," she told BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8166640.stm


















Until next week,

- js.



















Current Week In Review





Recent WiRs -

July 18th, July 11th, July 4th, June 27th

Jack Spratts' Week In Review is published every Friday. Submit letters, articles, press releases, comments, questions etc. in plain text English to jackspratts (at) lycos (dot) com. Submission deadlines are Thursdays @ 1400 UTC. Please include contact info. The right to publish all remarks is reserved.


"The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public."
- Hugo Black
JackSpratts is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - July 18th, '09 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 0 15-07-09 07:16 AM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - February 28th, '09 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 1 26-02-09 04:25 PM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - February 14th, '09 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 2 15-02-09 09:54 AM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - January 24th, '09 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 0 21-01-09 09:49 AM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - May 19th, '07 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 1 16-05-07 09:58 AM






All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:39 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
© www.p2p-zone.com - Napsterites - 2000 - 2024 (Contact grm1@iinet.net.au for all admin enquiries)