Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - April 30th, '05

[JackSpratts]

Quotes Of The Week


"Interest in file-sharing at all time high." – Slyck


"It's an open format now. I broke that encryption--I reverse-engineered it." - Dave Coffin


"I don't think a $100 [laptop] computer is out of the question in a three-year time frame." - Hector Ruiz, CEO AMD


"Bush signed the bill in a closed-door ceremony and released no public statement." - Reuters


"People who were upset about this threatened to dump a truckload of shit in his front yard." - University of Tulsa professor


"Moving the Celera data into the public domain is something I have been strongly in favor of, and I feel it sets a good precedent for companies who are sitting on gene and genome data sets that have little or no commercial value, but would be of great benefit to the scientific community." – J. Craig Venter


























Interest in File-Sharing at All Time High
Thomas Mennecke

Slyck.com has been tracking the population of the largest P2P networks since we opened in 2000. We gather the statistics from the network clients, and verify them through a third party. For example, for FastTrack we use KCeasy to verify the statistics displayed by Kazaa Media Desktop. Although it is impossible for a crawler to count every user on a network, it does give an accurate representation to the network's trend over time.

In March of 2005, Slyck compiled our collected data. Starting with January of 2003, the respective statistics for eDonkey2000, DirectConnect, FastTrack, Gnutella and Overnet were averaged per month. Unfortunately there is no accurate way to gauge BitTorrent’s population (other than bandwidth consumption), therefore it is excluded. We then released our "Stats Expanded" section, which graphically depicted the growth or decline of these five networks.

These stats are displayed on a network-by-network basis. While they are able to demonstrate the growth of decline of an individual network, they do not compare or evaluate the trends of the P2P community as a whole.

Acting independently, Slyck member Anders Edström Frejman, also a PhD. candidate of Media Technology in the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, used Slyck's data and compiled a comparison graph depicting the trend of these major P2P networks.

As a comparison graph, it is interesting to note as FastTrack becomes narrower, eDonkey2000 and Gnutella both become considerably wider. Despite the MPAA's (Motion Picture Association of America) campaign to rid the Internet eDonkey2000 indexing sites in December, the growth of this network appears to continue unabated.

Another demonstration of Slyck's statistics is in the total population of the P2P community. Once again compiling the average number of users per month, we are able to see the general trend over the last two years. Although the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA have sued well over 10,000 indivuals, it appears this novelty has worn off as the P2P population has almost doubled since January 2003.

It is important to note these statistics do not include other important players in the file sharing world, such as BitTorrent, WinMX, SoulSeek, the Ares/Warez P2P network, the Manolito P2P network, Sharaza, FileTopia or OpenFT. While our stats dictate there is close to 9 million users on file-sharing networks at any given time, the addition of these other networks most likely pushes this number well over 10 million.

Although the mainstream media tends to report there is a decline in P2P and file-sharing usage, it appears this is largely incorrect. Quite the contrary, the interest in P2P and file-sharing networks appears to be at an all time high, with no end in sight.
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=763


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Bill Making File Sharing A Federal Crime Now Awaits Bush’s Approval

Breaking new law could result in 10-year jail sentence and $250,000 fine
Weiping Yang

Anyone who has even a single copy of a pre-released song or movie could be prosecuted as a federal felon and jailed for up to 10 years if President Bush signs a new piece of legislation.

Last Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005.

Already having cleared the Senate on Feb. 1, the bill now awaits Bush's signature. He is expected to sign it into law.

Under the bill, possessing or distributing songs or movies prior to their commercial release or using video cameras to record films in a theater would be federal crimes carrying lengthy jail time and stiff fines.

Regardless of whether downloading took place, penalties could include a prison term of up to 10 years and stiff fines of up to $250,000.

The bill targets peer-to-peer file sharers, which includes many college students.

Professor Francis Steen in the UCLA Department of Communication Studies said that the bill is a continuation of the federal government and private companies' efforts to criminalize sharing.

Steen said the purpose of copyright law should be to foster creativity by rewarding people who come up with new ideas, but said that current laws no longer seem to serve this function of encouraging progress in the arts and instead "close off the realm of creativity, turning things into proprietary material."

"(The bill) hinders creativity, because culture always builds on what comes before," Steen said.

Under current law, unauthorized reproduction and distribution of copyrighted materials can already be prosecuted as federal crimes. But the value of the unauthorized copies must meet or exceed a total retail value of $2,500, even if no money has changed hands.

The Justice Department typically reserves criminal charges for the most serious cases.

UCLA law Professor Mark Grady expects the bill to make UCLA students think twice before participating in file sharing. "The penalties are so severe that I expect that they will have an effect on file sharers, especially if they are enforced," Grady said.

But Tom Quickel, a graduate student studying chemistry, disagreed. He said he would not change his file-sharing habits. "That's ridiculous," Quickel said. "I'm not really worried because who isn't doing that?"

Congressman Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, principle sponsor of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, said in a statement that the bill would "close some significant gaps in our copyright laws that are feeding some of the piracy so rampant on the Internet."

Along with doling out stricter criminal penalties to file sharers, the bill also affirms the right to use technology to skip objectionable audio and video content, allowing parents to shield their children from profanity and other adult material on movies watched at home.

Users and makers of such editing technology will be exempt from copyright infringement liabilities.
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/...s.asp?id=33023


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Bush Signs Camcorder-Piracy Bill Into Law

People who secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters could go to prison for up to three years under a measure signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday.

The law also toughens penalties for hackers and industry insiders who distribute music, movies or other copyrighted works before their official release dates.

Bush signed the bill in a closed-door ceremony and released no public statement.

Copies of hit movies frequently show up on the Internet while they're still in theaters, allowing skinflint fans to see new releases without buying a ticket.

Pirates sneak camcorders into movie theaters to tape films directly off the screen, while some industry insiders leak copies to tech-savvy hackers before they're officially released.

The U.S. Customs Department has estimated that these distribution groups are responsible for 95 percent of all pirated movies available online.

Those found guilty could face up to three years in prison, as well as lawsuits from copyright holders.

The law also shields "family-friendly" services like ClearPlay that strip violent or sexually explicit scenes from movies.

That provision is less popular with Hollywood, which says such services violate their copyrighted works by altering them without permission.

Nevertheless, a trade group representing large movie studios hailed the bill's passage.

"Video piracy is not a victimless crime," said Dan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Both houses of Congress approved slightly different versions of the measure last year, but could not reconcile their differences before the session ended.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=8318656


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Judge: N.C. Schools Don't Have To Help Music Industry

A federal judge has ruled in favor of two North Carolina university students in a music piracy case after an entertainment industry group tried to force their schools to turn over the students' identities.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell A. Eliason of the found that N.C. State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were not required to provide the personal information of two students to the music industry trade group Recording Industry Association of America.

The association filed subpoenas in November 2003 indicating that an NCSU computer user who used the name "CadillacMan" and a UNC-CH student named "hulk" offered copyrighted songs for download through the universities' computer systems.

The music industry group, unable to determine the users' identities, requested help through the university by filing subpoenas, according to Eliason's order, which was filed April 14.

Both universities at first were willing to cooperate but then joined attorneys for the students in protesting the request, Eliason wrote in his order.

Durham lawyers Fred Battaglia and Michael Kornbluth represented Jane Doe, the UNC-CH student. They said they were not concerned with allegations of music piracy but with whether their client, whom they declined to name, could have his or her privacy protected.

"This was a test case for North Carolina, and the way it stands as we speak is that the North Carolina schools cannot release the name of these individuals," Battaglia said.

The ruling applies only to peer-to-peer file-swapping, Kornbluth said.

"We would never condone music piracy," he said. "What we're interested in is the rights of the individual - privacy rights being protected."

Administrators at UNC-CH were pleased with the order but do not condone students' downloading copyrighted information, said Lisa Katz, a university spokeswoman.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observe...l/11502261.htm


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Radio Promoters Accuse Universal of Racketeering

Two independent music promoters have sued Universal Music Group for $100 million, claiming the record company forced them to submit false invoices so Universal could recoup promotional costs from artists such as rapper Nelly.

The suit raises "pay-for-play" issues similar to those being probed by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in a wide-ranging investigation into whether record companies have broken U.S. law by paying radio stations to play their songs.

The two promoters, National Music Marketing Inc. of Los Angeles and Majestic Promotions Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, claim they were forced to doctor invoices that then allowed Universal to bill promotional costs to artists whom the promoters never represented.

"What (Universal) was doing was defrauding their artists -- some of their biggest artists," plaintiffs' lawyer David J. Cohen said on Monday.

"I'm sure (rapper) Nelly is not going to be too happy that they were taking money out of his promotion budget to pay for promotions for other artists -- money that he had to pay back from his royalties," Cohen said.

The lawsuit said that when National and Majestic refused to submit fraudulent invoices, Universal fired them and told radio stations not to do business with the promoters.

"They bullied these promoters into submitting false bills," Cohen said. The suit accuses UMG of racketeering, fraud, trade libel and breach of contract.

A spokesman for UMG could not immediately be reached for comment.

Federal law prohibits radio stations from taking bribes to play specific songs unless the transaction is made public. But for decades, record labels have used independent promoters as middlemen to get more air time for their artists.

Each time a song is played, the record labels pay promoters who, in turn, pass along the money indirectly via thousands of dollars they shell out for advance copies of radio station play lists, according to the lawsuit.

In New York, Spitzer has served subpoenas on major record companies including Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Entertainment, the EMI Group and the Warner Music Group.

Cohen said the Attorney General's office has contacted his clients. He said Universal drove National Music Marketing, one of the nation's largest promoters, out of business last year. Majestic was "hanging on by a thread" after being defamed by Universal executives, he added.

Universal Music Group is a unit of French communications company Vivendi Universal . Sony BMG is part of Sony Corp (SNE.N). The EMI Group Plc is a publicly owned entity and Warmer Music Group is privately held.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...c_universal_dc


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Open Wallets for Open-Source Software
Gary Rivlin

The first time Marc Fleury tried to raise money for his technology start-up company, in mid-2000, a venture capitalist told him that he didn't have merely a bad business plan but a terrible one. Not only was Mr. Fleury planning to compete against the likes of I.B.M., but his product was open-source software, which he would give away.

Four years later, he tried again. His business was still based on the free distribution of code, yet now there was a dogfight among venture capitalists competing to finance his company, called JBoss.

In February 2004, JBoss received a combined $10 million from two prominent venture capital firms: Accel Partners in Palo Alto, Calif., and Matrix Partners in Waltham, Mass.

Venture capitalists are again embracing open-source technology companies. JBoss, which offers a layer of software for controlling Web applications, was one of 20 such businesses that raised $149 million in venture money in 2004, according to estimates by the research firm VentureOne. At least three open-source start-ups raised $20 million last month alone.

But given some spectacular open-source failures in the late 1990's, a natural question may be whether some of these venture capitalists have perhaps lost their minds.

In 1999 and 2000, according to VentureOne, venture capitalists invested $714 million in 71 open-source companies. Most of those projects collapsed.

Turbolinux, which raised $95 million based on the idea of selling a premium version of Linux, the open-source operating system, was one prominent failure (remnants of the company are still doing business in Asia). Linuxcare, a consulting company backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, among other venture firms, was another. It burned through at least $80 million.

"We all learned a lot of hard lessons," said Peter Fenton, a partner at Accel, which invested in two open-source start-ups in the late 90's.

A big difference between then and now is the increased adoption of open-source software by corporate users. Another is the relative success of Red Hat, an open-source start-up that went public in 1999 and makes money by selling enhancements and maintenance services to corporations using Linux.

Red Hat has become something of an inspiration to open-source businesses and their investors because it shows that it is possible to base a lucrative services business on giveaway software. Red Hat also gives its customers a guarantee that a long list of popular applications will work on its edition of Linux.

The company had $125 million in revenue in 2004 and now has a market capitalization around $2 billion. "There's peace of mind to having the support of a billion-dollar public company behind a product, plus our certification guarantee," said William S. Kaiser, a Red Hat board member and an early investor. "That's valuable to a customer, even though technically they can download all that software for nothing."

Red Hat's success in selling support services has created the business model for virtually every open-source entrepreneur, including Mr. Fleury. Venture capital firms have become so enthusiastic about this approach that they seem eager to support practically any open-source company just to have a stake in this hot area.

Mr. Fenton, for one, saw a sound opportunity with JBoss, whose open-source software competes with similar proprietary products sold by I.B.M. and BEA Systems.

"People thought we were crazy to do the deal," Mr. Fenton said. "They were like, 'How can you do a company when it has no licensing revenue? Didn't you learn from the late '90's?' "

But to Mr. Fenton, JBoss's business model, built on selling support services, made sense. In 2004, Mr. Fleury said, the company was doing so well that it had a positive cash flow. By the time Mr. Fenton thought of investing, JBoss's software had been downloaded more than two million times. Today more than six million copies of its product have been downloaded, according to the company, which has 110 employees.

"Part of me wondered if I was crazy, but I couldn't argue with more than two million downloads," Mr. Fenton said. The consensus among venture capitalists is that JBoss and MySQL, a popular open-source database firm, have the kind of mass distribution that can generate the revenue needed to justify a venture investment.

But broad distribution, which is critical to the service model, is still quite rare.

"Unfortunately, our industry tends to suffer from group thinking in our approach to the world," Mr. Kaiser said. "So a lot of people are saying, 'Hey, Red Hat was a big hit, let's go emulate that.' But I'm not sure, with some exceptions, it can be emulated."

Still, many open-source software products - tens of thousands are listed on SourceForge.net, a corporate-sponsored community for open-source projects - with very limited distribution are generating venture capital interest and securing financing.

"I look at some of the investments made and I don't get it," said Michael Olson, the chief executive of Sleepycat Software, an open-source database vendor based in Lincoln, Mass., who advises several venture capital firms active in the open-source business.

Mr. Olson said that Sleepycat, which has never taken any venture money, has been turning a profit since 1996, charging other software makers an annual licensing fee to use its product.

Danny Rimer of Index Ventures, an early investor in MySQL, is a leading open-source venture investor. He also expresses the belief that some projects that have received financing in recent months are less than promising. He has met with dozens of open-source start-ups over the last two years but has invested in only three.

And Mr. Fleury of JBoss said: "I cringe a little bit when I see some of the companies that are getting funding. I worry it will give us all a bad reputation in a 1999, 2000 way."

Not every open-source start-up is trying to imitate the Red Hat model. For example, SpikeSource of Redwood City, Calif., is hoping that as corporations embrace open- source software, they will need third parties who can harmonize the multitude of proprietary and open-source software packages that together run today's corporate data centers. The company has raised $8 million from Kleiner Perkins.

"We see ourselves as the go-to company for interoperability issues," Kim Polese, SpikeSource's chief executive, said.

In the meantime, SugarCRM, an open-source company in Cupertino, Calif., is jumping into the lucrative market for software that manages customer information. It is pursuing a kind of hybrid model by offering two versions of its product: one that can be downloaded free, and a more robust, more secure professional version that sells for $239 a year for each user. The company raised an initial $2 million in venture money last spring, said John Roberts, its chief executive, and $5.7 million in February.

So far, it has signed up more than 100 businesses willing to pay for its professional version, Mr. Roberts said. The company has created "quite a buzz," said Matt Asay, organizer of the Open Source Business Conference, held in San Francisco this month.

It is too early to tell whether the SugarCRM approach will work. But if it does, Mr. Asay said, "you can guarantee that a year from now, there'll be dozens of companies using the Sugar model."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/te...gy/27open.html


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Open Source Developers Provide 'Glimmer Of Hope'
Ingrid Marson

An eminent software developer has claimed that the pressure to be first to market with new technology is leading to a decline in software quality, but that standards are higher in the open source world.

James Coplien, a software design expert who currently works as an object architect at US-based software company DAFCA, said in an interview at the ACCU conference in Oxford, that unless consumers start demanding better quality software, the software industry is unlikely to change.

"There's a pressure that unless you're one of the first three players in the market you don't have a chance," said Coplien. "Quality is suffering for time — people pay money for the first, not the best. It comes down to the fact that consumers are willing to put up with crap systems that crash all the time."

Coplien said the only area of the industry where people still take pride in the quality of the software they deliver is the open source community.

"The one glimmer of hope is the people who've said, 'Screw the industry, we're going to write excellent software and give it away', in other words, the open source movement," said Coplien. "I take off my hat to these people. Linux is one of the highest quality pieces of software out there."

There are various reasons why open source software is of better quality than proprietary software, according to Coplien. He claimed the collaborative effort of open source contributors, combined with a core group of developers, is the best way to build a secure IT system.

"Security is a system concern — it is a complex system," said Coplien. "How does nature deal with complex systems? Each cell does its own thing. The complementary, independent, selfless acts of thousands of individuals [in the open source community] can address system problems — there are thousands of people making the system stronger. If it was uncoordinated it wouldn't work, but there is a core of developers at the centre."

But other industry experts at the ACCU conference disagreed that open source code is superior to closed source code. Bjarne Stroustrup, who currently works as a professor at Texas A&M University and is the creator of C++, said that the quality of open source software is not necessarily any better.

"Open source is a good idea, but not all open source code is good," said Stroustrup. "Some of the best code in the world is not open source."

"For example, I would dearly love to have a good look at the [proprietary] code running in the Mars Rover. It has to be good — it's been running on Mars for 15 months and has to be debuggable remotely."

Coplien argues that open source software is better tested than closed source software as there are "more eyes" looking at it, and people are encouraged to find bugs. "If I can find a bug in Linux, it’s a lifetime accomplishment," said Coplien. "In the Linux community it is a badge of honour to find a bug," he said, adding that open source developers are under pressure to write superior code because they know it will be seen by many other coders.

But the security of open source software is a controversial issue. Linux kernel co-maintainer Andrew Morton said this week that a lack of 'credit or money or anything' for those who test the open source OS could threaten its long-term stability.

And speaking at the ACCU conference, Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, said that open source software is not inherently more secure than closed source software, as although users can find and fix vulnerabilities more easily when the code is available, this will also help those attacking the software.

But, if asymmetry is introduced, which gives attackers or defenders an additional advantage, this will affect the relative security of open and closed source software, according to Anderson. Factors that could reduce the relative security of closed source software include commercial influences, where a company does not fix a bug due to the cost, or PR influences, where a company tries to hide information on a bug to prevent negative publicity, said Anderson.

Anderson's research on this issue is available as a PDF file from the Cambridge University Web site.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/lin...9195958,00.htm


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Patent Office Chief Endorses Legal Reform
Declan McCullagh

The head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has endorsed some key reforms that Congress is scheduled to consider this year.

Patent Office chief Jon Dudas said Monday that federal law should be changed to award a patent to the first person to file a claim and to permit review of a patent after it is granted. Currently patents are awarded to the first person who concocted the invention, a timeframe that can be difficult to prove.

"I think we can implement that," Dudas said about the post-grant review suggestion. "It will take resources, and it will be necessary for us to get the resources in place" through a larger budget. The Patent Office already has a backlog of 490,000 applications and is planning to hire 800 more patent examiners, bringing its total to 4,400. It approves more than 500 patents per day.

Monday's hearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee kicked off a process that's expected to end in new legislation being drafted by the end of the year.

As a result, technology companies including Microsoft and Oracle recently have stepped up their lobbying efforts. Microsoft has gone on the legislative offensive after a jury awarded Eolas Technologies $565 million in damages--which has been partially reversed--in a patent dispute over Internet Explorer.

A National Research Council study on intellectual property rights also endorsed reforms. In a summary prepared for Monday's hearing, the committee said patents should not be awarded when they're "obvious" to people familiar with the state of the art in a field; that researchers should be immune from patent infringement lawsuits; and the U.S. patent system should be aligned more closely with Europe and Japan.

Dean Kamen, president of the DEKA research firm and inventor of the Segway, asked Congress not to do anything that would detract from the rights of inventors. "I fear that some of the patent reform measures currently under discussion are not only unnecessary to address the issues that exist in our patent system today, but have the very real potential to create substantially worse problems," he said. "Our existing patent system is not broken...A vast majority of the patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are sound."

Other legislative possibilities include lengthening the duration of a patent, currently 20 years. "I've begun to wonder whether the time for the patent is an adequate time," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
http://news.com.com/Patent+Office+ch...3-5683954.html


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Mandelson, The Computer King And A Party On A Luxury Yacht
Anthony Browne, Daniel McGrory and Lewis Smith

POLITICAL foes of Peter Mandelson are demanding that he should explain why he spent New Year’s Eve on the yacht of a billionaire who is at the centre of a major EU investigation.

The European Trade Commissioner was forced to admit that he was a guest at a party thrown by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.

Details of Mr Mandelson’s Caribbean holiday emerged as the sleaze row deepened over European commissioners accepting free hospitality.

Close aides of Mr Mandelson emphasised last night that while he did speak to Mr Allen on the deck of his 414ft yacht, Octopus, he and the world’s seventh richest man did not discuss business at the drinks party. Film stars and business leaders were among the 200 guests on what has become the most coveted invitation for those holidaying on the Caribbean island of St Barthelemy.

Conservative leaders say that Mr Mandelson, who was twice forced to resign from the Cabinet over allegations of sleaze, should learn the lessons of the past, demanding that he should be “totally open” and branding him “naive”.

The EU sleaze row also embroiled José Manuel Barroso, the Commission President, who yesterday promised a written explanation of his free family holiday on the yacht of a Greek shipping billionaire.

The Liberal group, the third largest in the European Parliament, called for commissioners to operate on the same rules as British politicians and declare any free holidays they take.

Graham Watson, the group leader, said: “Hospitality should be treated just like a gift, and should be declared. There is a case for transparency.”

A week after all 25 commissioners agreed to a statement saying they had not accepted any improper hospitality, it emerged that Mr Mandelson had tacked on a four-day stay with friends in the Caribbean island of St Barthelemy during an official visit to the region. Last night he was still refusing to disclose who his hosts were.

Local observers say it was Mr Mandelson’s host who was invited to the party on the yacht anchored off the port of Gustavia and took his holiday companion along with him.

During the party on the Octopus, Mr Mandelson and Mr Allen greeted each other, but his spokesman insisted that “there was no substantial conversation” and that the pair merely exchanged pleasantries.

His opponents say his presence could be a serious conflict of interest. Microsoft is in a protracted legal battle with the European Commission, which last year fined it £355 million for abusing its near- monopoly in the software market. Microsoft and the Commission are still in often turbulent negotiations about how to verify that the company has changed its business practices. The Commission said yesterday that if it was not satisfied with Microsoft it could still impose a daily fine of 5 per cent of its global turnover.

As a Commissioner, Mr Mandelson would have a say on any fines imposed on Microsoft, which would have an impact on Mr Allen’s fortune.

Although Mr Allen is no longer directly involved in the management of Microsoft, he remains its second biggest shareholder. There is no suggestion that Mr Mandelson has broken the Commission’s code of conduct.

Last night a spokesman for Mr Allen refused to comment on whether he and Mr Mandelson discussed business during their brief encounter.

“We would not comment on who meets with Paul Allen,” said Michael Nank, spokesman for Vulcan, the company the billionaire set up before leaving Microsoft.

Taken To Task

The European Commission ruled last year that Microsoft had broken EU competition rules by abusing its dominant position. It levied a €497.2 million fine and called for measures to restore competition to the market.

If the Commission’s competition department thinks that Microsoft has not complied, the matter will be handed to all 25 Commissioners, including Mr Mandelson, to decide on further sanctions.

Playground For The Rich

ST BARTHELÉMY is a secluded Caribbean island of 8 sq miles, 125 miles from Guadeloupe, which was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and named after his brother, Bartolomeo.

It has a population of 7,100 and has for decades been a playground for the wealthy, with luxurious accommodation and glorious beaches.

In the past decade it has become increasingly popular with film stars such as Sylvester Stallone and Uma Thurman, and businessmen including Bill Gates and Paul Allen, of Microsoft.

The Rothschild family owns a villa, as does David Letterman, the American television interviewer.

There is an annual New Year regatta, in which 350 vessels took part this year.

St Barthelémy was colonised by the French in 1648. In 1694 they tried again, the original settlers having been wiped out by Carib Indians. Britain seized it briefly in 1758; in 1784 it was handed to Sweden; and in 1877 it returned to France.

Known as St Bart’s, it is part of the Leeward Islands. French is the first language, the euro the currency and tourism the prime industry, with more than 100,000 visitors annually.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...580068,00.html


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EU Says to Take Steps if Microsoft Doesn't Comply
Marie-Louise Moller

The EU's anti-trust chief met Microsoft's CEO in Brussels and warned him that the tech giant must stop abusing Windows' virtual monopoly or face action, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Steve Ballmer met at short notice late on Tuesday at Microsoft's request to discuss its failure to comply with a March 24, 2004, decision setting out steps the company must take.

"What Mrs Kroes said is that the Commission expects the decision ... to be complied with urgently and in full, and she added that unless this was the case that the Commission would be obliged to take formal steps to ensure compliance," Commission competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

"For the moment we are still not satisfied," he told a news briefing.

Todd declined to give any details of what Ballmer said in the meeting and a Microsoft spokesman would only say Tuesday's talks were "part of the ongoing dialogue" with the EU regulator.

Last year the Commission ruled that Microsoft abused the near-monopoly market position of the Windows operating system to crush competition.

The software giant was ordered to disclose information to rival makers of work group servers to enable their products to work interoperably.

The Commission, which polices competition in the EU, also levied a record fine of 497 million euros ($653.3 million) on Microsoft and ordered it to sell a version of Windows without its Media Player audiovisual software.

Daily Fines

If Microsoft fails to comply with the EU's decision, the company could ultimately face daily fines of up to $5 million, which is 5 percent of its worldwide daily turnover.

The Commission has authority to rule against Microsoft since the U.S. company does significant business in the EU.

Microsoft has repeatedly said it wants to strike a deal with the Commission.

But the EU executive has each time responded that Microsoft must fully meet the conditions it has laid down.

Todd said Microsoft had still to comply on the issues of interoperability and making a fully-functional version of Windows available without the Media Player.

Asked about the question of a trustee to oversee the implementation of the Commission's decision, which until now has been a source of dispute between Microsoft and Brussels, Todd said: "It is not regarded as being a major outstanding issue." (Additional reporting by David Lawsky)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=8314091


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Microsoft Needs to Provide Patent Data-EU Official
David Lawsky

Microsoft Corp. needs to provide key information to the Europe Commission before the EU executive can impose sanctions against the software giant, a top Commission official said on Thursday.

Competition Director General Philip Lowe told Reuters that Microsoft must explain what information is protected by its patents. This is needed to carry out sanctions imposed on Microsoft over the abuse of its near-monopoly over the Windows operating system to crush competition.

Lowe's comments follow a meeting earlier this week with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who was told by Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes the company must comply with its ruling from last year or face new fines.

Microsoft is supposed to license interoperability information to rival makers of work group software, which runs such equipment as printers in offices.

The Commission found that Microsoft is shoving rivals out of the market by illegally withholding the interoperability information, permitting Microsoft's own products to grab market share.

"They key to the solution of interoperability is to be to able to identify -- and Microsoft is capable of doing this -- those parts of the interoperability information which it believes are covered by patents, and where also there is genuine innovative value to remunerate," Lowe told Reuters.

Rivals contend much of the interoperability information is secret in the way the combination on a lock is secret -- easy to change, hard to figure out and not very innovative.

Speaking at the sidelines of the St. Gallen International Competition Law conference, Lowe said the Commission also needs to know what interoperability information "could probably be simply freely available information."

Basis For Solution

"Then we have a good basis for establishing acceptable terms on which Microsoft can license information to competitors," Lowe said.

Some rivals give away parts of their software without charge and say they are not in a position to pass on charges by Microsoft.

Lowe's comments were made against the background of the increasing possibility that Microsoft could face fines of up to $5 million daily -- five percent of its daily worldwide turnover -- if it does not comply.

The Commission has already imposed a record 497 million euro ($642.3 million) fine against the company.

As part of the sanctions, Microsoft is to make available a version of its Windows operating system without Windows Media Player, so that computer makers can substitute a rival.

A spokesman said earlier this week that the Commission wants action by Microsoft "within weeks, not months."

Another issue between Microsoft and the Commission has been the appointment of a trustee to oversee the implementation of the sanctions.

Spokesman Jonathan Todd said on Wednesday that was no longer a major issue, leading to speculation that the problem may be solved.

If there is agreement on a trustee, that could make it easier to help solve the other issues, experts say.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=8335012


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Microsoft Angers Activists Over Gay Rights Law

Company accused of backing down following boycott threats
Ambrose McNevin

MICROSOFT IS TODAY ACCUSED of caving in to threats and backing down from supporting a proposed law in Washington state which would have ended discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Activists say the company shifted its position following meetings with an evangelical church leader who threatened to start a Christian boycott of Microsoft products.

A New York Times story said that gay rights activists denounced Microsoft, which until now had backed their cause, saying the company had ditched its support for the bill.

While confirming that it had met with church representatives Microsoft denied any connection between its decision not to endorse the bill (which failed in the Washington state senate by one vote on Thursday) and discussions it had with a pastor from a church close to its Redmond HQ.

Ken Hutcherson, pastor of the Antioch Bible Church has organized rallies opposing same sex marriages in Washington at which he is reported as saying he would organize a national boycott of Microsoft products.

“I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about," Hutcherson is quoted as saying in the New York Times report.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22727


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Court Grants Dolby Laboratories' Motions for Summary Judgment Ruling that AC-3 Does Not Infringe Lucent's '457 and '938 Patents
Press Release

Dolby Laboratories, Inc.announced today that on April 22, 2005, the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted Dolby's motions for summary judgment that Dolby has not infringed, induced others to infringe, or contributed to the infringement of United States Patent No. 5,341,457 (the "'457 patent") or United States Patent No. 5,627,938 (the "'938 patent"). The '457 patent and the '938 patent generally involve a process and means for digitally encoding and decoding audio signals. Dolby filed these motions as part of an ongoing dispute with Lucent Technologies, Inc., and Lucent Technologies Guardian I, LLC (together "Lucent"), in which Dolby contended that Lucent was wrongly asserting that Dolby licensees using Dolby(R) AC-3 audio compression technology (also known as Dolby Digital) required licenses to the '457 and '938 patents. In granting summary judgment of noninfringement, the court found that Lucent had not presented evidence from which a reasonable fact finder could find that Dolby(R) AC-3 technology infringes either the '457 or '938 patents. The court's April 22, 2005, ruling resolves these issues in favor of Dolby.

In May 2001, Dolby filed a lawsuit against Lucent in the United States District Court seeking a declaration that the '457 and '938 patents are invalid and that Dolby has not infringed, induced others to infringe, or contributed to the infringement of any of the claims of these patents. In August 2002, Lucent filed counterclaims alleging that Dolby has infringed the two patents at issue directly and by inducing or contributing to the infringement of those patents by others. Lucent contended that products manufactured by Dolby licensees incorporating Dolby(R) AC-3 technology infringe those patents. Lucent sought injunctive relief and unspecified damages.

The court's April 22, 2005, ruling granting summary judgment of noninfringement can be appealed to the United States Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

The trial, with respect to the remaining aspects of Dolby's lawsuit (in which Dolby is seeking to invalidate the '457 and '938 patents), is scheduled to commence on September 9, 2005.
http://www.us.design-reuse.com/news/news10217.html


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Apple Settles With Another Alleged Tiger Leaker
Ina Fried

Apple Computer has reached a settlement with a second man it had accused of leaking prerelease versions of Mac OS X Tiger onto the Internet.

An Apple representative confirmed Tuesday that it has settled with Vivek Sambhara, one of three men the company sued in December for allegedly posting developer copies of Tiger onto file-sharing sites.

Last month Apple settled with Doug Steigerwald, a recent college graduate who admitted leaking a developer copy of Tiger onto a file-sharing site. Apple still has a case pending against a third man.

"Apple has settled out of court with another student who participated in the distribution of Mac OS X Tiger on a file-swapping Web site," an Apple representative told CNET News.com. "Vivek Sambhara has accepted responsibility for his actions and Apple is pleased to put another part of this case behind us."

The settlement was reported earlier Tuesday on Drunkenblog, which posted court documents related to the case.

According to those documents, Sambhara would be required to return to Apple any information he got as part of his membership in the company's Apple Developer Connection and an injunction was ordered preventing him from possessing or communicating any proprietary Apple information. The complete terms of the deal were part of a settlement agreement that has not been made public.

Apple declined to say whether Sambhara paid any money to the company or otherwise comment on the terms of the agreement. A lawyer for Sambhara did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
http://news.com.com/Apple+settles+wi...3-5676910.html


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RealNetworks Rekindles iPod Tech Tussle
John Borland

In the midst of a broader music release, RealNetworks has quietly renewed its iPod technology battle with Apple Computer.

Last year, RealNetworks released a technology called Harmony that for the first time let copy-protected songs from a music store other than Apple's iTunes play directly on the iPod. RealNetworks had independently mimicked the antipiracy tools used by Apple and hadn't gotten Apple's permission first.

Apple called the company's actions "hacker tactics" and a few months later changed its software to break the compatibility, at least on iPod Photo devices. On Tuesday, a RealNetworks executive said his company had re- established compatibility with all iPods.

"Harmony now supports all shipping iPods, including iPod Photo," said RealNetworks Chief Strategy Officer Richard Wolpert.

The technology tussle, which focuses on a relatively small portion of RealNetworks' music business, nevertheless aims at the heart of one of the most controversial issues in online music.

Incompatibility between the major download stores and music players has fragmented the digital market. For example, songs purchased from Apple's iTunes store can only be played directly on Apple's iPod, while songs purchased from Napster or Microsoft cannot be played on the iPod.

Record company executives have been bitterly critical of this balkanization, and have asked technology executives-- primarily Apple CEO Steve Jobs--to reconsider their technology decisions. As yet, no broad move toward compatibility has emerged.

RealNetworks' Harmony software, which allows songs to be played directly on an iPod or on a Microsoft-based device, is limited to the company's pay-per-song store. Songs downloaded through the new Rhapsody portable subscription service are compatible only with a small number of Windows-based MP3 players.

An Apple representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5685286.html


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Real's New Rhapsody Adds File Sharing
David Worthington

Nearly two weeks ago, RealNetworks promised to reveal a "groundbreaking initiative in digital music," and today, the company showed its hand. Real unveiled a new version of its Rhapsody digital music store that will provide users with free monthly sampling and permit them to share their music with others - legally.

Real has thrown open its doors to anyone who wants to listen to digital music with a new tier of service called Rhapsody 25. With Rhapsody 25, anyone in the United States can listen to 25 full tracks per month with unrestricted use of the jukebox software's added features. If a track resonates with a user, they may go ahead and purchase the music at ala carte pricing.

Going beyond standard online music stores, downloaded tracks can be shared with other users, but not as they are with peer-to-peer programs. Instead, the recipient is sent a specially crafted e-mail from a Rhapsody user that contains a playlist with embedded URLs. These URLs are linked back to Real's servers which will stream the music with DRM (digital rights management) in place to prevent unlawful use.

Recipients who do not have Rhapsody installed will be prompted to download the software, a requirement for playback. RealNetworks spokesperson Matt Graves told BetaNews that the tactic was, "Straight up viral marketing." Users may try out Rhapsody without, "laying down a credit card," said Graves. "We wanted to set the bar low to use legal music services."

Paid music downloads are encoded with Real's proprietary AAC format and subscription downloads are secured with Microsoft's "Janus" secure-clock DRM technology. Janus is commonly used by digital music stores with subscription pricing models including Napster and Virgin Digital.

Prior to Rhapsody 25, Rhapsody was strictly a members-only subscription service. Now, subscribers may choose two premium tiers in addition to the basic Rhapsody 25 service: Rhapsody Unlimited and Rhapsody To Go.

Rhapsody Unlimited places no restrictions on the amount of music users can download onto their PC hard drive and users may pick tracks from a library of over 1 million songs. Music that is downloaded may be listened to offline, but customers are technically leasing the music and do not retain ownership. The songs will not play back if the user's subscription lapses.

Other benefits of the "unlimited" subscription are full access to Real's premium Internet radio, streaming music videos, and a ten percent discount on purchased music downloads priced at 89 cents US per track and $8.99 USD per album. Current Rhapsody All Access subscribers may upgrade to Rhapsody Unlimited at no charge, and a monthly subscription runs $9.99 USD.

For users that want to listen away from their PC, Real is offering Rhapsody To Go. The aptly named Rhapsody To Go is a portable subscription plan that subscribers can use to transfer music downloads -- both purchased and "leased" -- to a supported digital music player. As with Rhapsody Unlimited, all downloads without ownership rights will no longer be playable when a user's subscription is discontinued. The service costs $14.99 USD per month, the same price as Napster to Go.

Real has partnered with Google and Chrysler to offset some of the music licensing costs, which have not been disclosed.

Comparing the announcement to the advent of streaming audio on the Web, Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks said that, "With the new Rhapsody, millions of people can now experience and share digital music -- legally, and with no strings attached. We think the new Rhapsody will transform digital music."

Real is kicking off the re-launch of Rhapsody with a star studded performance by Good Charlotte at Radio City Music Hall in New York, along with other promotional activities.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Real...ing/1114536166


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Podcasting Killed the Radio Star
Xeni Jardin

Podcasting will soon break out of the "pod" and onto the public airwaves.

The world's first all-podcast radio station will be launched on May 16 by Infinity Broadcasting, the radio division of Viacom.

Infinity plans to convert San Francisco's 1550 KYCY, an AM station, to listener-submitted content. The station, previously devoted to a talk-radio format, will be renamed KYOURadio.

Infinity, one of the country's largest radio operators with more than 183 stations around the country, will invite do-it-yourselfers to upload digital audio files for broadcast consideration by way of the KYOURadio.com website.

"I'm excited," said Infinity Broadcasting CEO Joel Hollander. "We're creating a new way to let a lot of people participate personally in radio -- sharing their feelings on music, news, politics, whatever matters to them.

"I also think this is going to be a really interesting way to develop new talent," he added.

The station's producers will screen submitted content to ensure it meets quality standards and does not violate FCC broadcast guidelines. Approved podcasts will be simultaneously broadcast over the AM airwaves and streamed online at KYOURadio.com.

In addition to the newfound reach promised by radio broadcast, podcasters may be free to include in their podcasts some music from major record labels, Infinity said.

The company said it plans to cover the cost of music-licensing fees, which are prohibitively high for most individuals.

In part because of licensing requirements, which usually cover only broadcast and streaming, the company has no plans to provide downloadable program archives.

Infinity's Hollander said the decision to launch the "open-source radio" experiment came partly because the San Francisco station's current format has not been a great financial success.

"This switch won't be a big gamble for us monetarily, but it's a potential home run," said Hollander. "You have to make bets on new forms of technology -- some work, some don't. We're making a bet that this might become the way people want to communicate."

Podcasting, a term that combines references to broadcasting and to Apple's iPod, is a method of online audio distribution that has become increasingly popular of late. Digital sound files are uploaded to a website, and listeners subscribe to automatically load files onto a portable player as they're made available.

Podcasts consist of any imaginable form of audio content, from spoken-word programs by bloggers to shows made by professional radio organizations.

The company's podcast-to-broadcast announcement coincides with a flurry of similar, user-contributed projects, including former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV cable channel; the Open Media Network launched this week by Netscape pioneers Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen; and the grass-roots media archive Ourmedia.org.

Hollander said Infinity does not plan to assert ownership claims on content submitted by podcasters, who will remain free to publish their podcasts on the internet -- or anywhere else they choose.

"They can give it to us and give it to somebody else, because we're not taking anything away from them," Hollander said. "We're just helping them reach a broader audience with our bandwidth."

Hollander said Infinity has no immediate plans to launch similar podcast stations in other cities, or on other radio frequencies.

Unlike most commercial radio stations, KYOURadio will not follow a predictable programming schedule -- at least not initially. Over time, Hollander expects programming schedules will evolve in response to listener feedback.

The station may shun schedules, but it's not ditching advertising. Both the AM broadcast and the online stream will include ads.

Infinity said it may also launch a new advertising program before the end of 2005 that will allow marketers to place audio ads in podcasts elsewhere on the internet. The system would use podcast metatags to match a podcast's audio content to corresponding ads, much like Google's keyword-driven AdSense text ads.

Other related possibilities under review include selling podcasters access to radio spectrum, so that individuals or groups can become independent radio broadcasters.

Earlier this month, Infinity announced plans to offer "visual radio," a service allowing listeners to tune in to FM radio over their mobile phones while receiving artist data and interactive services. Currently offered in Finland only, the system was developed by Nokia and will be hosted by Hewlett-Packard.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67344,00.html


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Wal-Mart Says, Make It Yourself
David Cohn

Wal-Mart is now offering customized music CDs for its online customers.

Customers can go to the company's website and select songs from a catalog of more than 400,000 choices, including rock, pop, country and new releases.

Wal-Mart (WMT) will put the selections on CD and mail it to the customer. Customers will choose the title and packaging of their CD from a variety of images and can expect their purchase to arrive in three or four days.

The cost to download music from the site is 88 cents per song or typically $9.50 an album. The cost for a customized CD of three songs is $5 plus 88 cents for each additional song.

- - -

Nano-phones: Nokia could start using nanotechnology in its phones within the next two to three years to help keep costs low amid fierce price pressures.

Nokia (NOK) said the new technology would only be used in phone components like casings in the first stage. Nokia sees handset volume growth mainly coming from developing markets in the next five years.

In markets such as these, demand is weighted toward cheaper, lower-end models as consumers are often buying their first phone, meaning it is tougher for companies to squeeze out profits.

- - -

iPhones: Nokia unveiled new premium phones that included one with an MP3 music player that it said will outsell Apple's iPod and a camera phone that it forecast will surpass Canon.

Nokia expects its new luxury Nseries handsets, which feature built-in hard drives and high-quality camera lenses, to boost sales by differentiating it and increasing its industry-leading margins.

Nokia (NOK) also unveiled its N91 multimedia phone, which will have a 4-gigabyte hard drive that can store thousands of music files. The phone is due out by the end of the year.

The hard disk-based music phone would have been launched sooner but Nokia is still working with Microsoft (MSFT) and its online partner OD2 to develop a music download service for mobile devices.

- - -

Shape-up: The EU's antitrust chief met Microsoft's CEO in Brussels and warned him that the tech giant must stop abusing Windows' virtual monopoly or face action.

European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Steve Ballmer met at short notice at Microsoft's request to discuss its failure to comply with a 2004 decision setting out steps the company must take.

Last year the Commission ruled that Microsoft (MSFT) abused the market position of the Windows operating system to crush competition. Microsoft was ordered to disclose information to rival makers of work group servers to enable their products to work interoperably.

If Microsoft fails to comply with the EU's decision, the company could face daily fines of up to $5 million, which is 5 percent of its worldwide daily turnover.

Microsoft has repeatedly said it wants to strike a deal with the Commission, but the EU executive has each time responded that Microsoft must fully meet the conditions it has laid down.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,67356,00.html


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Local news

Wal-Mart Targets Parody Site Run By Student
AP

A college student was forced to redesign a Web site satirizing a foundation run by Wal-Mart after the discount retail giant claimed he violated copyright law by using graphics from the company's Web site.

Daniel Papasian, 20, of West Hartford, Conn., said he was forced to change his Web site -- http://www.walmart-foundation.org -- after lawyers for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sent his Web host a cease-and-desist order last week.

Wal-Mart claimed Papasian violated copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by improperly using images from the real Wal-Mart Foundation's Web site -- http:// www.walmartfoundation.org.

Papasian said he closed the site for five days so he could remove the offending graphics. In place of the images, Papasian has put the word ``censored.''

Papasian launched the Web site April 16 for an art class at Carnegie Mellon University called ``Parasitic Media.'' The class teaches students about the political uses of satire in the media. He acknowledged using Wal-Mart's graphics on his Web site but said he believed he could use the images as part of a parody.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokesman Kevin Thornton said the Bentonville, Ark., company needed to protect its name.

``When you pretend to be someone that you're not, that could lead to a problem,'' Thornton said.

Other Web sites designed by students for the class included a parody of a fitness campaign by the fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's Corp. and a site satirizing ``700 Club,'' religious broadcaster Pat Robertson's television show.

He was also surprised his Web site, which had as many as 400 hits in its first four days, would draw the attention of the world's largest retailer.

``The goal was to make the site look like it could be a real site from a company like Wal-Mart, but have text that was so ridiculous that anyone who read it would realize that it was absurd,'' Papasian said in a statement on his revamped Web site. ``If anyone believed it to be a real Wal-Mart site, that is only a testament to the degree of absurdity that exists within corporate America today.''
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/11504076.htm


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Couple Plans Suit In Web Music Case
Mike Rutledge

COLD SPRING - Sally and Jim Wilson were frightened in February when they learned the recording industry had sued them because their two teenage daughters had downloaded 653 songs - and that they could be liable to pay $750 for each.

The X-ray technician and union pipe fitter didn't have $490,000 to spare, or even the $5,000 recording-industry lawyers said they wanted to settle the copyright-infringement lawsuit filed in Virginia.

The Cold Spring couple has agreed to settle for $3,000. Next week, the Wilsons plan to sue an Australian-based company, Sharman Networks Ltd., whose popular peer-to-peer Kazaa software the girls used.

Newport lawyer Chris Macke, who represented them in the settlement, plans to file suit in Campbell Circuit Court, seeking to make it a class action, so others who have paid settlements for downloading music can become parties. He estimates 10,000 people have been sued by record companies, and 5,000 have paid settlements.

"I really don't want any money," Jim Wilson said. "I don't like the idea of people suing me, and I don't like suing anybody else." He wants to protect other people, he said.

Sally Wilson said she learned how to download music in a way that seemed innocent - in classes Gateway Inc. offered after she bought a computer.

"When you bought the computer, you got certain classes with it," she said. "And one of them was a music class, and how to download music, and copy CDs. They gave you a really nice book and everything."

It brought a costly lesson. The Recording Industry Association of America, which downloaders criticize for enforcing copyright laws, has no love for such services as Kazaa, which hurt music revenue.

"This is not a surprising development," RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said of the suit.

In October 2004 alone, approximately 2.4 million users of the FastTrack network, which includes Kazaa and Grokster, traded 1.4 billion files, according to information the RIAA filed with the Federal Trade Commission.

"This is an industry that during the past five years has seen a decline in shipments of CDs of more than 20 percent, and that has translated into real economic harm," Lamy said.

Thousands of employees have been laid off, songwriters have left the business, and record stores have closed, Lamy said.

Record companies have sued peer-to-peer companies, and one case against them has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled.

In a related matter, in August, 47 state attorneys general, including those of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, wrote a letter of concern to the peer-to- peer trade association, expressing concerns about the software.

Macke said Kazaa and similar companies profit from the ignorance of some users.

"Kazaa markets this software knowing that it's going to be used for an unlawful purpose," he said.

The Wilsons want to get the word to suburbanites like themselves, who don't know how many copyrights their children are infringing.

"I'm spreading the news," Jim Wilson said.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...0103/504230385


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Thatcher Sues BBC Over Use Of Famous Phrase In Ad
Richard Alleyne

Lady Thatcher is suing the BBC over unauthorised use of one of her most famous phrases.

Papers lodged with the High Court show she has teamed up with the television presenter Hugh Scully, the chairman of the Fine Art television production company, to demand thousands of pounds in damages.

Lady Thatcher and Fine Art share the copyright of her televised memoirs, The Downing Street Years.

The series was memorable for her depiction of the Cabinet rebellion that helped to destroy her leadership as "treachery with a smile on its face".

The claim, made against BBC Broadcast, alleges it unlawfully transmitted the clip 407 times in four days last year to advertise Thatcher Week. The BBC admits the infringement but has been unable to agree compensation.

A source close to Lady Thatcher said: "The BBC is offering a derisory sum.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...25/ixhome.html


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European Libraries Join Forces Against Google
AFP

Nineteen European national libraries have joined forces against a planned communications revolution by internet search giant Google to create a global virtual library, organisers said on Wednesday.

The 19 libraries are backing instead a multi-million euro counter-offensive by European nations to put European literature online.

"The leaders of the undersigned national libraries wish to support the initiative of Europe's leaders aimed at a large and organised digitisation of the works belonging to our continent's heritage," a statement said.

"Such a move needs a tight coordination of national ambitions at EU level to decide on the selection of works," it added.

The move, organised by France's national library, comes after Michigan University and four other top libraries - Harvard, Stanford, New York Public Library and the Bodleian in Oxford - announced a deal with Google in December to digitise millions of their books and make them freely available online.

Google's plans have rattled the cultural establishment in Paris, raising fears that the French language and ideas could be just sidelined on the worldwide web, which is already dominated by English.

French President Jacques Chirac has asked Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and France's National Library president Jean-Noel Jeanneney to study how collections in libraries in France and Europe could be put more widely and more rapidly on the internet.

The statement was signed by national libraires in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.

The British National Library has given its implicit support to the move, without signing the motion, while Cyprus and Malta have agreed verbally to the text. Portugal is also set to approve it.

Michigan and Stanford are planning to digitise their entire library collections - totalling some 15 million books - while the Bodleian is offering around one million books published before 1900.

The Harvard and New York Public Library contributions are smaller, but the entire project is still expected to take up to 10 years, with cost estimates ranging from $US150 million ($A193.30 million) to $US200 million.

Jeanneney has acknowleged that such a project, comprising some 4.5 billion pages of text, would help researchers and give poor nations access to global learning.

But he added: "The real issue is elsewhere. And it is immense. It is confirmation of the risk of a crushing American domination in the definition of how future generations conceive the world."

Chirac is due to address the question during his opening address to a meeting of EU culture ministers in Paris on Monday and Tuesday.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking/...?oneclick=true


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Zimra to Descend On Copyright Violators
John Mokwetsi

ZIMBABWE Music Rights Association (Zimra) will descent hard on revellers or anybody using local music without their copyright music licences.

Local musicians have been fleeced of millions of dollars through piracy, free use and free downloads on the Internet. In view of this the association has announced that it will take stern measures against anybody using music without official authorisation.

In a Press release Zimra's administrator, Mary Jaure, said: "Most companies in Zimbabwe play music at their premises for the entertainment of staff or customers either by means of radio, television, cassettes, compact discs, music on hold or through the Internet.

"What these companies do not realise is that if they play this music at their premises without a copyright license from Zimbabwe Music Rights Association, they are breaking the law and rendering themselves liable to either criminal or civil proceedings."

She said there is a common belief existing in Zimbabwe that only those who perform music live on stage are liable for copyright royalties. This, she said, is not the case.

"Any proprietor of a shop, factory, office, surgery, bottle store, night club, hair salon, gymnasium, discotheque etc is infringing copyright by playing the radio or cassettes in public without a copyright music licence," said Jaure.

She said the inlay/sleeve of each cassette or compact disc or videotape contains a warning that public performance is forbidden, a warning which is mostly ignored.

A performance of music is classified as a public performance if it takes place anywhere outside a private home and must be authorised by the copyright owner.

"Without the existence of Zimbabwe Music Rights Association, all music users would be legally obliged to obtain the necessary authority from the composers of each and every work to be played.

"With a Copyright Music Licence from Zimbabwe Music Rights Association, the music user is relieved of this tedious task. The composers are also assured of receiving the financial compensation to which they are legally entitled," Jaure said.

Zimra recently employed seven License Inspectors who will travel throughout the country seeking music users for the purpose of issuing copyright music licences.

The licences can also be obtained from the Zimra offices in Avondale.

Zimra is a non-profit making organisation that was incorporated in terms of section 22 of the Companies Act (Chapter 24:03) for the purpose of administering the public performance, broadcasting and cable diffusion rights of composers when their music is performed in public.

Their rights to local music is derived directly from composers in Zimbabwe, while the rights to international music have been assigned to them by countries all over the world which have, like Zimbabwe, adhered to the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works.

Zimbabwe Music Rights Association administers these performing rights given to composers in terms of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act Chapter 26:05, by issuing copyright licenses for which royalties are levied and then distributing the collected royalties, minus administration expenses, to the composers whose music is performed.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200504251212.html


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Hongkong Customs Charges An Alleged Copyright Infringer Of A BitTorrent Case

Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) today (April 27) laid charges against an alleged copyright infringer in a BitTorrent (BT) case. The 38-year- old man will appear in the Tuen Mun Magistrates' Courts on April 29 (Friday). When taking the first-ever enforcement action against copyright piracy relating to P2P file sharing activities on January 12, Customs officers arrested a 38-year-old man on suspicion of illegal distribution of three copyright movies on the Internet through the BT. Following the arrest, Customs officers have recently completed the investigation, including evidence collection and forensic examination on the seized computers. As advised by the Department of Justice, C&ED today brought three charges against the man under the Copyright Ordinance for "attempting to distribute infringing copies of copyright works otherwise than for the purpose of, in the course of, any trade or business to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright without the licence of the copyright owner". The case was cracked by the Customs Anti-Internet Piracy Team (AIPT), which was set up in April, 2000. It is a dedicated team of seven Customs officers responsible for taking enforcement actions against Internet piracy. Equipped with advanced investigative tools, the team is capable of mounting effective investigations into piracy activities over the Internet. The team members have received training on computer crimes and forensic examination at local and overseas institutions. Up to April 2005, the AIPT has processed 41 Internet piracy cases including the BT case, cases on distributing infringing files on websites and selling infringing articles on auction websites, resulting in the arrest of 67 persons and a total seizure worth $2.4 million. C&ED will continue to conduct round-the-clock monitoring on the Internet to clamp down on Internet piracy, particularly peer-to-peer file sharing activities. In April, 2005, the Department set up the second Anti- Internet Piracy Team, consisting of seven members, to strengthen its investigation and enforcement action against piracy on the Internet. Ends/ Wednesday, April 27, 2005
http://www.reguindex.com/news.php?newsid=160


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Unreleased Oasis Album Tipped Up On eBay

Now available via P2P
Paul Hales

A FORTHCOMING album from loud-mouthed Mancunian rockers Oasis tipped up on eBay weeks before it was due to be released.

Tracks from the album, which may have come from the eBayed discs, are now appearing on file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent.

The sixth Oasis album, entitled Don't Believe The Truth is due to be released on May 16th. But "very rare, full-length" copies sold on eBay for a tenner before disappearing, said a report on Contactmusic.com here.

Five tracks from the album have so far appeared on BitTorrent, as snoops from the record company Sony seek to track down the source of the leak.

The eBay seller, KBROWN123 has done a bunk.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22669


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Peer-To-Peer TV Software Hit By Injunction

A new type of free software that allows internet users to share their television fare with millions of users worldwide was halted on Tuesday by an injunction from a German court.

Broadcasters around the globe are worried at the development of Cybersky-TV, a German-devised software that does to television what Napster did to music. Using a peer-to-peer network, viewers can use a computer to swap whatever they are currently watching.

Premiere, a German pay-TV company, won an injunction in Hamburg against the developer, TC Unterhaltungselektronik of Germany. Judges prohibited TCU from distributing any software that enabled people to watch a Premiere show via the Internet without paying.

But Guido Ciburski, a TCU director and the software engineer who is responsible for the software, said on Tuesday the launch could no longer be stopped because vendors were distributing the free software from servers outside of Germany's jurisdiction.

To use the software, one user switches on his television and hooks it up to the computer, which then rebroadcasts the current TV show to anyone on the internet who logs in and has a fast broadband connection. The signals arrive with a time lag of five to 10 seconds.

In a peer-to-peer network, each personal computer helps distribute a few snippets of the signal, and there is no central server.

The promoters of Cybersky TV say this will revolutionise TV, with broadcasters no longer able to control who watches broadcasts. Viewers will not have to wait months or years before talked-about shows arrive in their nation.

But there have been warnings that CyberSky faces a deluge of lawsuits around the world.

Hamburg justice officials said the injunction, which relies on German copyright law, remained contingent on the outcome of the main legal dispute between TCU and Premiere. TCU was also prohibited from advertising its software as a way to obtain "free pay TV".

TCU maintains it is not to blame, if users decide to rebroadcast Premiere in breach of their own contracts with the channel. Normally viewers cannot watch pay TV unless they buy a set-top decoder box and pay a monthly subscription.
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_...+by+injunction


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Instant Messaging: Delivering A New And Improved Threat Model

More stringent measures are required to combat Instant Messaging security threats.
Butler Group

In the Instant Messaging (IM) arena, the security warnings that have been put forward on a regular basis from specialist solutions providers have consistently positioned IM and its Peer-to-Peer (P2P) derivatives as having the potential to cause real damage. Following the recent highly publicized problems at Reuters and Microsoft, these fears appear to be well and truly justified.

The main threats surround the potential ease and speed with which IM can cause infections to be passed on. Reuters took its IM system down as soon as the presence of a new variant of the W32/ Kelvir worm was identified, causing problems for all of the organization's IM systems users, but hopefully ensuring that only minimal damage will ensue.

The worrying thing from a security management perspective is that this was supposedly a secure enterprise-class financial IM system, providing a mature messaging service (in use since 2002) for the company's users. Most organizations do not have this level of protection.

However, with the combined volume of IM and P2P traffic flows now exceeding that of e-mail for the first time, firmer action needs to be taken to prevent, or at least contain, the threat of future, cross- industry IM-driven virus and worm epidemics. IM and its derivatives should not be dismissed as just another range of communications channels that need to be regulated, as there is quite a complex set of operational and business issues that need to be addressed.

There is a need to start to understand what providing appropriate IM services, and protection against IM misuse, really involves. Getting a grip on organizational use would be a good starting point, especially as the whole marketplace appears to be opening up alongside Microsoft and AOL's latest interoperability initiatives. For Reuters, shutting down direct communications services to around 6,000 users for an unspecified period of time must have been a very difficult decision to make, and serves to highlight the potency of the threat to business services presented by the open nature of IM and P2P.

Regular usage of unauthorized IM services is far more widespread than most organizations believe. The provision of protection facilities lags way behind, and until the problem is properly addressed organizations will be vulnerable to further security threats.
http://www.commentwire.com/commwire_...ntwire_ID=6564


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OMN, The New Download Network

Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen, the makers of the famous browser Netscape, have decided to test their programming skills and develop a legal system for downloading music and not only. In this way, they are widening their horizons regarding the provided Internet services.

This latest project has been entitled "Open Media Network", and it is based on a combination of Peer to Peer and TiVo (digital video recording systems) technologies.

Open Media Network allows users to post and distribute their own movies and video clips, avoiding any problem related to copyrights. The various types of content can be regrouped or classified in several categories, and the users of this free service can subscribe afterwards to the desired programs.

The service offers similar functions to Podcasting, which allows the posting and automatic uploading (according to the preferences of users) of programs and audio/video files which can be transferred to a portable multimedia device and played regardless of the user’s location.

For now, Open Media Network is in beta stage, and the web address is www.omn.org. Momentarily, OMN can be accessed only though Internet Explorer (the site requiring ActiveX), and the developers of this download solution are also working on FireFox and Mac compatible versions.

Having 20 million users, Open Media Network offers a secure download solution, which includes anti-virus software and it can be synchronized with iTunes, iPod, Windows Media Player/WMP and TiVo.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/OMN-t...ork-1495.shtml


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Will Opera's CEO Swim From Norway To The USA?

Speedos, shrinkage, spoke-to-soon-ity
Désiré Athow

SOFTWARE FIRM OPERA sent a press release all around the world with details of the rates at which its latest browser, Opera 8, is being downloaded.

Until now, more than 600,000 have been and, apparently, if the one million downloads barrier is shattered, its CEO promised to swim from Norway to USA with one break in Iceland to drink hot chocolate at his mother's place.

The whole Opera team seems to have been made radically euphoric by the fumes coming from their overheated servers.

Here's the release for you to pore over:

An overly excited Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software, today proclaimed at an internal company meeting that if the download numbers of the new Opera 8 Web browser reach 1 million within the first four days of the launch, he will swim from Norway to the USA with only one stop- over for a cup of hot chocolate at his mother's house in his home country, Iceland. Opera's communications department could obviously not resist to make such a bold and inarguably over-confident statement public.

Opera's new Web browser, Opera 8, was released Tuesday, and the massive response had Opera's download servers kneeling an hour after the launch. Still, the download numbers of Opera 8 reached 600 000 in the first 48 hours.

"A lot of people had great difficulties downloading Opera 8 on Tuesday because the traffic on the servers was simply too high," says Carsten Fischer, VP Desktop, Opera Software. "When download numbers reached 120 per second one hour after the release, our servers had serious problems dealing with all the requests. We had prepared for heavy traffic, but this exceeded our wildest dreams."

Opera has now installed additional servers with increased capacity, and it was the download counter showing 600 000 downloads in 48 hours that sparked Mr Tetzschner's enthusiasm and thus his courageous promise to boldly swim where no man has swum before.

"I am not sure he realizes how cold the Norwegian Sea is in April," says Anne Stavnes, Human Resource Manager, Opera Software. "However, having seen Jon in his red beach attire before, I am not sure if swimming to the USA is scarier than exposing people to this sight."

Opera 8 is launched under the campaign heading "Speed, Security, Simplicity" to firmly position Opera as the fast, secure and easy-to-use browser. However, Opera's communications department clearly sees the potential for two parallel campaigns with their CEO's daring act of oceanic bravery, Opera 8: Speed, Security, Simplicity & Opera's CEO: Speedos, hrinkage, Spoke-to-soon-icity

Speculations are running high at Opera Software, and it is expected that making von Tetzchner's promise public will make it impossible for the couragous CEO to back out. The challenge will end on Saturday at 0900 a.m. CET, but as we are now moving into the weekend the download figures will be revealed on Monday at www.opera.com.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22712


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Deconstructing Stupidity
James Boyle

In two earlier columns on Europe’s database directive, and European public information, I pointed out that our policy-process is almost evidence-free. New rights are created on the basis of anecdote and scaremongering. There are other examples and they are not confined to Europe.

Thomas Macaulay told us copyright law is a tax on readers for the benefit of writers, a tax that shouldn’t last a day longer than necessary. What do we do? We extend the copyright term repeatedly on both sides of the Atlantic. The US goes from fourteen years to the author’s life plus seventy years. We extend protection retrospectively to dead authors, perhaps in the hope they will write from their tombs.

Since only about 4 per cent of copyrighted works more than 20 years old are commercially available, this locks up 96 per cent of 20th century culture to benefit 4 per cent. The harm to the public is huge, the benefit to authors, tiny. In any other field, the officials responsible would be fired. Not here.

It is as if we had signed an international stupidity pact, one that required us to ignore the evidence, to hand out new rights without asking for the simplest assessment of need. If the stakes were trivial, no one would care. But intellectual property (IP) is important. These are the ground rules of the information society. Mistakes hurt us. They have costs to free speech, competition, innovation, and science. Why are we making them?

To some the answer is obvious: corporate capture of the decision making process. This is a nicely cynical conclusion. But wait. There are economic interests on both sides. The film and music industries are tiny compared the consumer electronics industry. Yet copyright law dances to the tune played by the former, not the latter. Open source software is big business. But the international IP bureaucracies seem to view it as godless communism.

If money talks, why can decision-makers only hear one side of the conversation? Corporate capture can only be part of the explanation. Something more is needed. We need to deconstruct the culture of IP stupidity, to understand it so we can change it. But this is a rich and complex stupidity, like a fine Margaux. I can only review a few flavours.

Maximalism: The first thing to realize is that many decisions are driven by honest delusion, not corporate corruption. The delusion is maximalism: the more intellectual property rights we create, the more innovation. This is clearly wrong; rights raise the cost of innovation inputs (lines of code, gene sequences, data.) Do their monopolistic and anti-competitive effects outweigh their incentive effects? That’s the central question, but many of our decision makers seem never to have thought of it.

The point was made by an exchange inside the Committee that shaped Europe’s ill-starred Database Directive. It was observed that the US, with no significant property rights over unoriginal compilations of data, had a much larger database industry than Europe which already had significant “sweat of the brow” protection in some countries. Europe has strong rights, the US weak. The US is winning.

Did this lead the committee to wonder for a moment whether Europe should weaken its rights? No. Their response was that this showed we had to make the European rights much stronger. The closed-mindedness is remarkable. “That man eats only a little salad and looks slim. Clearly to look as good as him, we have to eat twice as much, and doughnuts too!”

Authorial Romance: Part of the delusion depends on the idea that inventors and artists create from nothing. Who needs a public domain of accessible material if one can create out of thin air? But in most cases this simply isn’t true; artists, scientists and technologists build on the past. How would the blues, jazz, Elizabethan theatre, or Silicon valley have developed if they had been forced to play under today’s rules? Don’t believe me? Ask a documentary filmmaker about clearances, or a free-software developer about software patents.

An Industry Contract: Who are the subjects of IP? They used to be companies. You needed a printing press or a factory to trigger the landmines of IP. The law was set up as a contract between industry groups. This was a cosy arrangement, but it is no longer viable. The citizen-publishers of cyberspace, the makers of free software, the scientists of distributed data-analysis are all now implicated in the IP world. The decision-making structure has yet to adjust.

There are many more themes. The idea that greater control, for example, is always better (see my column on public data) or the way we only ever internationally harmonize rights upward. Fundamentally, though, the views I have criticised here are not merely stupidity. They constitute an ideology, a worldview, like flat earth-ism. But the world is not flat and the stupidity pact is not what we want to sign.

Let me be clear. IP is a good thing. (There are also important strands I have not discussed, such as natural rights and the droits d’auteur. They will get their own column.) Not all proposals to extend rights are silly, but if we do not start looking rigorously at evidence, we will never know which.

At my university, we set up The Center for the Study of the Public Domain to study the contributions of the public domain to creativity. We found we were the only such academic centre in the world. At first that made us feel innovative. Later it made us worried. If we don’t look at the evidence and we ignore the role of the public domain in fostering innovation, how can we possibly hope to make good policy?

This writer is William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke Law School, founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain and a board member of Creative Commons and Science Commons.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/39b697dc-b2...00e2511c8.html


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Finland, Utah, & Oregon
Pollstar

For almost every music pirate swiping songs via peer-to-peer networks there's someone out there trying to stop them. Recently making headway in the battle against P2P piracy is Finnish company Viralg, which claims success, not only by blocking song-trades on P2P networks such as Kazaa or Gnutella, but also by stopping trades over networks where bits of a song may come from several sources at the same time, such as BitTorrent or eDonkey.

According to CNET, Viralg's method of operation involves mimicking the digital signature of a song and then injecting junk data into the downstream, thus turning what would be a playable tune into a file filled with garbage.

Viralg already claims BMG Finland as one client and will probably scoop up more as the labels look for ways other than the courts to stop song-swapping. So far, the company claims that since BMG Finland started using its product, the record label's market position has increased from 15 percent to 25 percent.

The secret to Viralg's technology lies in a patented algorithm, a top-secret chunk of computer code that totally screws up any illicit song-swapping transaction. However, that's only part of the secret to Viralg's success, for the company's Web site also claims that the location of its corporate headquarters plays an important part in the company's game plan to wipe out P2P music piracy.

"Viralg's headquareters are located in Helsinki, Finland," states the Web site. "Living close to the North Pole where winters are dark and long means there is not much to do, except to snowboard and learn how to analyse different dialects of computer code."

Copyright protection will get a whole lotta oomph once President Bush signs a new bill into law.

Called the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, it makes using a video camera to record movies in theaters a federal crime, and makes distributing a movie or song prior to its commercial release punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Good news for Hollywood? Probably so, but as everyone knows, politics is a give and take game, and in order to get that bump in copyright penalties, the entertainment world had to give a little as well. For example, this new bill protects those who would edit Tinsel Town's wares in the name of family decency.

It's all about companies that market technology enabling viewers to skip over any nudity, violence and obscene language in a DVD. Ever since a video rental store in Salt Lake City first offered the service a few years ago, Hollywood has been crying foul, claiming that such a practice violates the film director's vision, not to mention the studio's copyright.

But under the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, such services are defined as legal, and companies trading in these services will be immune from being prosecuted for copyright violations, with the author of the bill, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) comparing it to a parent skipping over possibly objectionable material in a book. However, the same bill offers no protection for those who might sell copies of movies with the gore, sex and cuss words edited out of the film.

However, Congress' passing of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act wasn't a slam dunk. Some lawmakers objected to the provision protecting companies from filtering DVDs, but voted for the bill in order to put more teeth into copyright laws. Plus, some critics accused Congress of including the filtering provision in order to protect one single company, ClearPlay, Inc., which sells a filtering device that can be added to DVD players for $4.95 per month.

The Directors Guild of America sued ClearPlay in federal court saying that the company's filtering technology was violating copyrights. However, ClearPlay expects the lawsuit to be dismissed once Bush signs the bill.

For a trip down memory lane, concert industry veterans as well as music fans may want to visit TheSmokingGun.com and check out the latest concert rider posted on the Web site.

It's a rider prepared by General Artists Corporation for a 1965 Beatles concert in Portland, Ore., where the Fab Four contracted to play two performances for $50,000 per show against 65 percent of the gross box office receipts.

What's interesting is the list of items the promoter was expected to provide, including a "hi-fidelity sound system," as well as a "Monitor Speaker to be placed on stage."
Other requirements called for "not less than two (2) super trouper follow spotlights," and "a platform for Ringo Starr and his drums."

Also on the list were the band's transportation needs, including "One (1) one-ton enclosed truck," "One (1) 30-passenger bus with driver," and "Two (2) seven-passenger Cadillac limousines (air-conditioned if possible), with chauffeurs."

Plus, a star act also includes certain "luxuries" on their concert rider, and the Beatles were no exception. For this particular show the promoter was tasked with providing a "portable dressing room, preferably a house trailer," which included "four cots, mirrors, an ice cooler, portable TV set and clean towels."

However, one requirement listed on the rider was a reminder of a much darker time in U.S. history. Item No. 5 on the document clearly states, "Artists will not be required to perform before a segregated audience."

Makes you wonder where the lads once played that inspired them to put that on their rider, doesn't it?
http://www.pollstar.com/news/viewnews.pl?NewsID=3962


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Hollywood Backs Early DVD Releases
Staff and agencies

Responding to consumer demand and the threat of piracy, several of Hollywood's top executives have advocated releasing DVDs earlier than ever before.

Home entertainment releases have typically followed a film's cinema debut by six months, dropping to just over four in recent years. Now the window could be set to shrink further following comments at a Los Angeles forum this week.

Warner Bros chairman Barry Meyer and News Corp president Peter Chernin both advocated the case for earlier DVD launches, against a background of evidence that people are abandoning costly trips to the multiplex in favour of renting a DVD.

The latter option has exploded in popularity over the last three years, with DVD rental and sales revenues in North America last year outstripping ticket sales by $24.5bn (£12.8bn) to $9.5bn (£4.9bn).

Figures show that 70% of consumers who buy or rent a DVD have never seen that film on the big screen, revealing a separate demographic of stay-at-home viewers who account for the lion's share of a title's lifetime revenues.

Furthermore the rate at which pirates are rushing illegal recordings of Hollywood releases onto the black market has alarmed the studios as much as it has stung them in lost income.

The studio lobby group, Motion Picture Association of America, claims studios lose approximately $3.5bn (£1.8bn) around the world each year in potential revenues, and there are numerous reports of bootleg DVDs appearing in countries like China, Russia and eastern Europe the same day the picture goes on theatrical release.

Chernin told attendees at the Milken Institute Global Conference: "If you force the industry to make a 'Sophie's choice' between theatrical and DVD, there's no doubt which way they'll go."
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/stor...466567,00.html


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Hollywood's New Old Girls' Network
Nancy Hass

NOT long after the talent manager and television producer Brad Grey was named the new chief of Paramount Pictures this year, he did something that has become almost routine in Hollywood: he put a woman in charge of the show.

Last month Mr. Grey - who succeeded Sherry Lansing, 60, in Paramount's top job - named Gail Berman, a respected television executive, to lead the studio's creative team. As a woman deciding what gets to the world's movie screens, Ms. Berman becomes the latest player in a quiet revolution transforming a business that until recently was regarded as a male preserve.

Four of the six major studios have women in the top creative decision-making roles, as Ms. Berman joins Stacey Snider, chairman of Universal; Amy Pascal, chairman of Sony Pictures; and Nina Jacobson, president of Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group. Earlier this month, Ms. Snider announced that Mary Parent and Scott Stuber, would be stepping down as vice chairmen at Universal to become producers on the lot; their replacement is Donna Langley, the Universal executive who oversaw "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" and "In Good Company."

Though men still figure most prominently in the corporate echelons of the media companies that own the studios, and talent agencies like William Morris and Creative Artists Agency are still male dominated, these women, who over the years have fought and fostered one another as part of a loose sisterhood, have finally buried the notion that Hollywood is a man's world.

So striking is the change that some now see Hollywood as a gender-balanced model for the rest of corporate America. "It's astonishing," said Elizabeth Daley, dean of the film school at the University of Southern California. "You don't see that kind of progress in any other industry."

Women have come to predominate in Hollywood at a time when less than 1 percent of chief executive officers in the Fortune 500 are female, and none of the nation's top 100 publicly held companies have a female chief. According to the National Association of Law Placement in Washington, 87 percent of the partners in law firms are male, although for two decades more than 50 percent of law school graduates have been female.

It's true that women have yet to own studios - there is no female Rupert Murdoch or Sumner Redstone - and that executives like the Sony Pictures chairman, Michael Lynton, and the Walt Disney Studios chairman, Dick Cook, outrank their studios' female executives. But the power to buy scripts, hire directors and even to greenlight films has become so thoroughly vested in a generation of women that the very notion of a female power ranking, like the one done at the end of the year by The Hollywood Reporter, has been deemed quaint.

"That kind of thing may be vaguely interesting in other businesses, but at this point, here, separating the genders is, well, pretty silly," Ms. Snider said.

While it's true that women have been kicking around - and getting kicked around - behind the scenes in Hollywood since the beginning, mostly as story editors, they only began to infiltrate the power structure in the mid-70's. The names from that era are near legendary, from Marsha Nasatir (executive producer of "The Big Chill"), a New York book editor who came to Los Angeles at 40 and became vice president at United Artists, and Rosilyn Heller and Paula Weinstein who rose to be vice presidents at Columbia and Warner Brothers respectively.

Ms. Weinstein recalls the competition among them as "incredibly intense." While women in the rest of the country were having their feminist consciousnesses raised, she said, Hollywood was "quite retarded."

"A lot of the women had a sort of 1950's hangover," she continued. "They got together at Ma Maison and talked about engagement rings."

By the mid-1980's, as women were gingerly entering the executive ranks throughout corporate America, two female powerhouses emerged in Hollywood: Dawn Steel and Ms. Lansing. (Ms. Steel, who was president of production at Paramount and then president of Columbia, died of a brain tumor in 1997.) Lucy Fisher, a producer, said one reason that the two women were allowed to rise was Hollywood's "immigrant, outsider ethos."

"Here," she said, "if it makes money and you're a gorilla, you're in."

The competitive ethos among women seemed to have reached its apotheosis in the 1980's; to this day, few in Hollywood will mention Ms. Steel and Ms. Lansing in the same breath without quickly adding - as if the pugnacious Ms. Steel were eavesdropping on them from above - that both staked a claim throughout their careers to being the first woman to run a studio. (Ms. Lansing was the first to land a spot as president of production, at 20th Century Fox, in 1980; Ms. Steel became the first female studio president when she took over Columbia in 1987.)

By then, more women were making their way to Hollywood. They had grown up during the auteur 1970's, when Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola made films that set cinephiles' hearts on fire, and the Ivy League universities, with their newly minted film studies departments, proved a particularly fertile breeding ground. Studio jobs, with their unusual combination of high pay, glamour and artiness lured graduates away from more traditional career paths like investment banking and law, said Ms. Fisher, who made her way to Los Angeles soon after graduating from Harvard. She became vice chairman of Columbia during the mid-1990's before leaving to produce such films as "Stuart Little" and the coming "Bewitched" with her husband Doug Wick.

The roles of producer or of executive attracted women, she and others surmise, because they held the promise of a steady paycheck and a chance to work on a team. It was alluring, Ms. Fisher said, "to those of us who didn't have the heart for the all-consuming horror that is a director's life, but wanted to be intimately involved with movies."

Many of the women gravitated toward Warner Brothers, where Ms. Weinstein was a vice president, including Ms. Fisher and, later, the daughter of the puppeteer Jim Henson, Lisa Henson, who went on to become president of Columbia in 1993. Vanity Fair memorialized some of them in a photograph in the mid-1980's as "The Warner Sisters." By then, there were enough women around to spawn a more collegial attitude, said Ms. Fisher, who added that her own attitudes were shaped by Ms. Weinstein's generosity.

But it was not only women who nurtured the new generation of female executives. Two men at Warners, Peter Guber and his partner, Jon Peters - the producers of "Batman" - proved to be unlikely mentors. Although known for slash-and-burn machismo, Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters, who both eventually moved to Sony, regularly filled their staffs with tough, talented women.

"These guys loved women, in the wrong way maybe sometimes, but also in the right way," said Laura Ziskin, who worked for Mr. Peters in the 1970's and credits his tutelage for helping her become the founding chairman of Fox 2000 in 1994. "Jon Peters was a hairdresser, you know? These men had a tendency to get into fistfights with other men. They were less threatened by women."

Mr. Guber, who over the years hired Ms. Heller, Ms. Snider, Ms. Pascal and Ms. Fisher, said he saw in the young women an obvious temperamental advantage, especially when it came to the core of a producer's job: handling actors and directors. "Most men at the time, including me, just roughed people up, they had no governor on their testosterone," he explained in a recent interview. "These women used their power elegantly. And it turned out they were right. That's why they're on top now."

If there was a moment when the accumulated force of women in Hollywood began to show itself, it probably was during the spring of 1993 on the macho terrain of the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City.

As swashbuckling executives and producers including Mr. Guber, Mike Medavoy and Jonathan Dolgen clashed over Arnold Schwarzenegger's ill-fated, high-budget "The Last Action Hero," a cadre of ambitious female executives was massing. The women included Ms. Henson; Ms. Pascal, who was a newly minted vice president; Ms. Snider, who had come to work for Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters; and Laurie MacDonald, who later led DreamWorks SKG's movie division with her husband Walter Parkes. There was also a powerful stable of female producers on the lot, including Lynda Obst ("Sleepless in Seattle"), Wendy Finerman ("Forrest Gump") and Christine Peters ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days").

As the men sweated and screamed over Mr. Schwarzenegger's gold-plated action extravaganza, some of the women worked on a modest project that came to symbolize the new order: "Little Women." Made for $19 million and shot in Canada with a female director, Gillian Armstrong, and producer, Denise DiNovi, it made nearly $50 million in the United States, virtually the same amount that "The Last Action Hero," which cost $60 million, a fortune at the time, was able to eke out in the domestic market.

"I didn't realize it at the time, but those two films really represent the beginning of a real shift," Ms. Pascal, 46, said. "At that moment, the female talent at the studio was just amazing."

From there, the women fanned out to different studios, often employing one another. "There's a little bit of an old girls club at this point," Ms. Pascal said. By the late 1990's, female executives, particularly Ms. Fisher, who cut her work week to as little as three days when she had young children, had smoothed some of the edges off the industry's go-go, late-night culture. "We needed each other for cover, so we could cut out for that concert our kid was in and not seem like slackers," said Ms. Jacobson, who has a 6- year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter. (Such habits spread: even Steven Spielberg has joked publicly about the joy of taking "a Lucy Fisher day" with his children.)

Today, some female executives gladly talk about how gender has affected their jobs and their choices, but others are uncomfortable with undue focus on them as women. Ms. Pascal, for example, is well known for her effusive personality and her outspoken support of other women. Ms. Snider, all business, quickly switches the subject to the financial nuts and bolts of running a studio. "She's always talking about moving units in the home video market, which everyone knows is immensely boring," a female executive said of Ms. Snider, "but she wants to make sure people know she can play with the big boys when it comes to the bottom line."

Despite the differences in their styles, Ms. Snider and Ms. Pascal frequently ponder a bigger question, one that hovers in the background of any discussion about women and the movies: whether their gender has much of an effect on what, in the end, gets made. "It can't help but have at least a subtle influence on your decisions." Ms. Pascal said. "When I first started, I wanted to do movies about girl bands. I still do."

Ms. Ziskin noted that the decline of the pumped-up action figure epitomized by Mr. Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Steven Seagal coincided with the rise of female executives. Tobey Maguire's character in the "Spider-Man" films, for example, which she produced under Ms. Pascal's aegis, was clearly a more multidimensional superhero, Ms. Ziskin said. While at Fox 2000, she pointed out with considerable pride, she had produced the ultra-violent "The Fight Club," which was hugely popular with young men, but ultimately questioned the futility of male aggression.

Even Ms. Snider of Universal, who is hesitant to say that gender influences her, agrees that her studio's "Bourne Supremacy" and "Bourne Identity," with Matt Damon, presented a protagonist who was more complex and more ambivalent than many of his screen predecessors.

But Stacey Sher, a president of Double Feature Films, who was a producer of "Along Came Polly" and "Pulp Fiction," said she believed that the Schwarzenegger ethos is still alive and well, albeit sometimes in drag. "The Bride is the new Arnold," she said, referring to the female assassin in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill." It's unclear, she added, whether that shift can be directly traced to women behind the scenes or is simply a mirror of society's increased acceptance of aggressive females.

But one thing the women can claim as their own is a new genre, the "tween" girl flick. "It's not an accident that I'm a woman and I have a daughter and we've had the 'Princess Diaries' and 'Freaky Friday' here," said Ms. Jacobson of Disney's Buena Vista group. Those two movies, produced on modest budgets, have taken in more than $300 million at the domestic box office. Ms. Jacobson, who keeps a slightly tattered VHS of "Little Women" on her desk as inspiration, says the genre was born in the wake of "Titanic" in 1997, a blockbuster whose success was attributed largely to the packs of young girls who saw it over and over. The market has grown to encompass less- than-sugary movies like "Mean Girls" and, for better or worse, helped created such stars as Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.

Still, when it comes to the large-scale economics of making a studio profitable, whether Hollywood's women remain on top will depend on these executives' ability to serve a popular taste that demands new sensations. A female studio boss, even one whose business sense is as exquisite as her cinematic aesthetic, remains as much at the mercy of the moviegoing public as any mortal man. "We make as many good movies as bad movies," said Ms. Snider, who has had hits as big as "Meet the Fockers," and disappointments as troubling as "Van Helsing." "Ultimately you answer to the marketplace. It's a matter of what the audience wants to see, no matter who you are."

Directed by Mr. So-and-So

Women may have reached parity with men on the executive end of the movie business, but they are still rarely chosen to direct feature films. Only four of the top 100 films last year were directed by women, according to the Directors Guild of America, continuing a trend that has long plagued Hollywood.

"It's our No. 1 concern," said Elizabeth Daley, dean of the film school at the University of Southern California.

Some producers say the problem is a dearth of women studying directing in film school. "They just don't want a director's life," said Laura Ziskin, a producer who made the recent "Spider-Man" movies for Sony Pictures. "It's a 24-hour a day job. How can you go on a 120-day shoot when you have kids?"

Ms. Daley said the pipeline is indeed part of the explanation - only about a third of the women who come to the U.S.C. program are interested in directing - but not all of it. "There are talented girls who want to do this, but so far they haven't done what the boys do - band together and sacrifice everything to make a small film," she said. It's those films that eventually find their way into the hands of studio executives looking for the next hot young thing.

Young women are less likely to get support, both financial and emotional, from their parents, Ms. Daley added. "In my experience, parents of girls aren't as eager to give them their life savings to make a movie," she said.

But some executives, male and female, suggested that directing might require personal characteristics that few women possess. "The fact is that to be a director you have to be unbelievably ruthless," said a woman who has been both a studio chief and a producer, but didn't want her name used for fear of alienating temperamental directors. "They have a cold streak that most women I know don't have and don't want to have. They are both artist and commander, and they have a maniacal vision that precludes them from caring about anything but the film."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/movies/24hass.html


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Film Taboo Is Smashed, to General Shrugging
Stephen Holden

In his surreal novel "Flicker," the author Theodore Roszak evokes the breathless awe of a generation of naïve American moviegoers when European art films offered Americans who came of age in the 1950's their first glimpses of the erotic delights precluded by Hollywood's Production Code. Remembering his baptism in Eros with Louis Malle's "Lovers," the 1991 novel's besotted narrator marvels retrospectively at how "the camera doesn't stare salaciously" but instead examines a woman's body with "the true eye of an experienced lover."

In the nearly half century since then, a nagging question has persisted: When, if ever, will an erotic film not marketed as pornography show a man and a woman enjoying spontaneous, passionate full-frontal sex? With the appearance of Michael Winterbottom's "9 Songs," the answer is now.

This short feature-length movie, which the TriBeCa Film Festival is screening this evening and on Saturday, runs just under 70 minutes. Marketed at Cannes last year and previously shown at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals, "9 Songs" is to be commercially released by Tartan USA in late July. It has already opened in Britain.

As you watch the film's actors Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley make love several times, proceeding from straight sex into light kink (a blindfold and restraints), "9 Songs" offers a reasonably sexy chronicle of an affair, with psychological baggage attached to the lovemaking; these are real people, not pornographic party dolls.

But "9 Songs" carries a residue of sadness and disappointment. Part of the letdown comes from a sense that the long-awaited appearance of complete sex on the screen, filmed without coyness, is too little, too late. Popular culture has become so inundated with pornography and pseudo-pornography that everyday sex, when you finally see it on the screen, looks banal. What might once have seemed thrilling and liberating produces a ho-hum response: Is that all there is? "9 Songs" even elicits a quaint sense of embarrassment at having barged in and violated the privacy of its characters. What are we doing here, anyway?

The movie shows you everything: male and female genitalia in various states of arousal, penetration and orgasm achieved by good-looking actors playing characters with distinct personalities. Part of the letdown comes from the fact that the characters themselves take it so lightly; it's only sex. The word love is bandied about, then dropped. Weren't we brought up to believe the earth should move?

The affair of Matt, a British scientist who studies glaciers, and Lisa, an American visiting London, proceeds over several months and is remembered by Matt during an expedition to the South Pole. The lovers meet at a rock concert at Brixton Academy, in London. The movie alternates between the bedroom and the concert hall (with side trips to Antarctica), as sessions of lovemaking are interspersed with nine rock songs, performed by groups like the Dandy Warhols and the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. When the affair ends, Lisa returns to the United States.

Back in the days of "The Lovers," moviegoers would line up around the block at the local art house hoping to catch just a hint of what we see in "9 Songs." But that was then. The promise of erotic explicitness has long since stopped drawing overflow crowds to urban art houses. The scenes of oral sex and intercourse during menstruation in recent barrier-breaching films like Catherine Breillat's "Romance" and "Anatomy of Hell," and Vincent Gallo's "Brown Bunny" have not sparked box-office magic.

But why should they when the real-life sexual adventures of Paris Hilton, and of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, can be downloaded free from the Internet and replayed in the privacy of one's home? These pirated snippets may not be artistically photographed, but they're the real thing, and they're just the tip of a deepening pornographic iceberg.

If you Google the name Paris Hilton you'll find 2,240,000 English references, more than 2½ times the number, say, for Meryl Streep. The Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, who has performed stud service in two of Ms. Breillat's films, yields 623,000, almost the same as Dustin Hoffman (633,000).

These statistics suggest that pornography and its cold, performance-driven vision of sex have overtaken and begun to obliterate the more personal view of sex presented by the typically adventurous European art films of the 1950's and 60's. For all their sexual indirection, those films portrayed sex as liberating but volatile and something to be handled with care.

In the pornographic view of sex, it as an extreme sport practiced by professionals who place a commercial value on their bodies and their activities. Of course, anybody with a home video camera can become a professional and play this exhibitionist game. And why not? Haven't we been harangued since the 1960's with the cliché everybody is a superstar?

A deepening revulsion toward that pornographic view is evident not only in the hysteria engendered by Janet Jackson's antics at the Super Bowl and other such incidents, but in a new breed of European art films that might be called anti-erotic sex films.

The Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson's "Hole in My Heart," in which two men and a woman (naked much of the time) meet to make a pornographic movie but fail to connect sexually, is a revolting cry of disgust at the pornographic ethos. The worst of the horrors shown in Gaspar Noé's "Irreversible" is a graphic rape in which the camera refuses to turn away from the simulated but all-too-real-looking violence.

The simultaneous tumbling of the final sexual barriers in art films and the mass media's rising hysteria over indecency attest to the total disconnection between the two sides in America's culture wars. Until communication is restored, not likely in the near future, each side will try to pretend the other doesn't exist. For the conservative side, a marginally commercial art house film like "9 Songs" is easy to ignore; the chances of its being widely shown in the Bible Belt are minimal. Meanwhile, everywhere, the pornographic sea continues to rise.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/movies/27dirt.html

[JackSpratts]

Homemade

A new breed of rapid prototyping machine now in development can make everything from rockets to robots, batteries included.

Fabbers (machines that rapidly create useful items on demand from computer-generated design specifications) have been fantasy fodder for decades. And for good reason: a machine that could make a huge variety of reasonably complicated objects, and yet was attainable for ordinary people, would transform human society in a way that few other creations ever have. To understand why, consider the vision offered by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Neil Gershenfeld in his recent book Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop, From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication. Gershenfeld describes his ongoing project to equip ordinary folks with machines once used exclusively by industrial manufacturers to prototype new designs.

With these machines, people can, in effect, "download" such complex items as plastic bicycles, chemical sensors, and radios, and eventually robots, prosthetic limbs, and even human organs, in a way analogous to today's downloading of music and video files. Fabbers of seemingly unlimited capability also buttress lots of recent science-fiction plots; the "matter compiler" of Neil Stephenson's Diamond Age is a memorable example. In Alastair Reynolds' trilogy of space operas, interstellar spaceships rely on fabbers to produce everything from weapons to furniture.

While that kind of capability may be decades if not centuries away, researchers at several universities, including Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are already investigating technologies and materials that could lead to general-use, compact fabbers. At Cornell University's Computational Synthesis Laboratory, Hod Lipson's group has taken the first steps toward what they hope will be a signficant milestone: the creation of a fabricating system that can produce small, simple robots incorporating a battery, actuators, and sensors. The group's goal is to see these little automatons wriggle, completely finished, from the apparatus, their electronic and mechanical subsystems having been created in one seamless process. In the meantime, they recently succeeded in making a small fab produce a coin-shaped battery and an actuator suitable for the envisioned robot.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/511352/?sc=swtn


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Future Computer: Atoms Packed in an "Egg Carton" of Light?

Scientists have taken a step toward the development of powerful new computers -- by making tiny holes that contain nothing at all. The holes -- dark spots in an egg carton-shaped surface of laser light -- could one day cradle atoms for quantum computing.

Scientists at Ohio State University have taken a step toward the development of powerful new computers -- by making tiny holes that
contain nothing at all.

The holes -- dark spots in an egg carton-shaped surface of laser light -- could one day cradle atoms for quantum computing.

Worldwide, scientists are racing to develop computers that exploit the quantum mechanical properties of atoms, explained Greg Lafyatis, associate professor of physics at Ohio State. These so-called quantum computers could enable much faster computing than is possible today. One strategy for making quantum computers involves packaging individual atoms on a chip so that laser beams can read quantum data.

Lafyatis and doctoral student Katharina Christandl recently designed a chip with a top surface of laser light that functions as an array of tiny traps, each of which could potentially hold a single atom. The design could enable quantum data to be read the same way CDs are read today.

They described their work in the journal Physical Review A.

Other research teams have created similar arrays, called optical lattices, but those designs present problems that could make them hard to use in practice. Other lattices lock atoms into a multi-layered cube floating in free space. But manipulating atoms in the center of the cube would be difficult.

The Ohio State lattice has a more practical design, with a single layer of atoms grounded just above a glass chip. Each atom could be manipulated directly with a single laser beam.

The lattice forms where two sets of laser beams cross inside a thin transparent coating on the chip. The beams interfere with each other to create a grid of peaks and valleys -- the egg carton-shaped pattern of light.

The physicists expected to see that much when they first modeled their lattice design on computer. But to their surprise, the simulations showed that each valley contained a dark spot, a tiny empty sphere surrounded by electric fields that seemed ideally suited for trapping single atoms and holding them in place, Lafyatis said.

In the laboratory, he and Christandl were able to create an optical lattice of light, though the traps are too tiny to see with the naked eye. The next step is to see if the traps actually work as the model predicts.

“We’re pretty sure we can trap atoms -- the first step towards making a quantum memory chip,” Lafyatis said. A working computer based on the design is many years away, though, he cautioned.

In fact, Christandl suspects that they are at least two years away from being able to isolate one atom per trap -- the physical arrangement required for a true quantum memory device.

“Right now, we’re just trying to get atoms into the traps, period,” she said.

So far, they’ve been able to form about a billion gaseous rubidium atoms into a pea-sized cloud with magnetic fields. Now they are working to move that cloud into position above a chip supporting the optical lattice.

Theoretically, if they release the atoms above the chip in just the right way, the atoms will fall into the traps. They hope to be able to perform that final test before Christandl graduates in August.

Should they succeed, the payoff is potentially huge.

Both the government and industry are interested in quantum computing because traditional chips are expected to reach a kind of technological speed limit in a decade or so. When that happens, faster, more powerful computers will require a new kind of hardware.

A “bit” in normal computer chips can only encode data as one of two possibilities: either a one or a zero -- the numbers that make up binary code. But if quantum theorists are correct, quantum bits, or qubits, will enable more efficient problem solving because a qubit can simultaneously encode both a zero and a one. This allows the quantum computer to efficiently carry out a large number of calculations simultaneously.

“In principle, quantum computers would need only 10,000 qubits to outperform today’s state-of-the-art computers with billions and billions of regular bits,” Lafyatis said.

Scientists have speculated that qubits could enable long-distance communication and code breaking. But Christandl thinks that the technology could serve an even larger purpose for science in general, by powering computer simulations.

Quantum mechanics tries to explain how atoms and molecules behave at a fundamental level, so simulations of quantum systems could advance research in areas as diverse as astrophysics, genetics, and materials science.

“The quantum computer is the ideal tool for those simulations, because it is a quantum system itself,” Christandl said.

Coauthors on the paper included Jin-Fa Lee, associate professor of electrical engineering, and doctoral student Seung-Cheol Lee of Ohio State’s ElectroScience Laboratory.

The Research Corporation funded this work.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A video animation explaining this research is available at:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/eggcarton.htm

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/511316/?sc=swtn


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Spintronics -- Breakthroughs for Next Generation Electronics

Researchers at the University of Oxford have made a series of breakthrough discoveries that herald the next generation of electronic devices, based around the new science of spintronics.

Traditional silicon chips in computers and other electronic devices control the flow of electrical current by modifying the positive or
negative charge of different parts of each tiny circuit. However it is also possible to use of the mysterious magnetic properties of electrons - know as “spin” - to control the movement of currents. Many large companies have spent millions of dollars trying to solve some of the problems faced by this technology, but progress has remained slow. Discoveries made in Oxford solve several of the most difficult problems and open up this exciting new world of possibilities.

Central to the success of modern electronics is the transistor. A transistor is a switch that controls the flow of electrical current. A modern computer chip contains many millions of tiny transistors; each acting as a tiny switch where a small current is used to control the flow of a larger current.

A spin transistor uses the spin properties of the electrons within it, to control the flow of a current. The big advantage of this approach is that the spin (or magnetic state) of a transistor can be set and then will not change, so unlike a normal electrical circuit that requires a continuous supply of power, a spin transistor remains in the same magnetic state even when power is removed! Producing a spin transistor that can be included in a modern silicon chip is a significant challenge, but scientists at Oxford have developed a spin transistor that works up to 1,000 times better than previous designs making this a real possibility!

There are potential uses for spin transistors all around us. They might be used in computers for data processing, but they can also be used to produce computer memory that is super fast like RAM, but where the data remains in place when the computer is turned off just like a hard disk. This type of memory is known as Magnetic RAM, or MRAM.

MRAM is an exciting opportunity; however even once you have working spin transistors there are other problems that must to be overcome before efficient MRAM can be produced. Ironically, one of the biggest problems is actually reading data from individual components of MRAM memory. The problem might be compared to trying to read a page of small text with a large magnifying glass, where you can only read one character at a time and the image is blurry with the characters on either side making it difficult to see the central character clearly.

The time taken to read a page of text this way makes the whole process unworkable, and it is the same with the “reader circuitry” currently used with MRAM. One alternative would be to shrink the magnifying glass down to the size of an individual character, but this would make identifying each character difficult, and in the same way when we try to shrink the reader circuitry for MRAM we find it no longer works!

The second breakthrough discovery made in Oxford solves this problem! It is a new type of reader circuitry that is simple, accurate and works quickly. The value of each component of MRAM can be easily read without any interference from adjacent cells, and the reader circuitry itself can be miniaturised down to the same scale as the individual units of memory. It works like having a line of lenses across a page, each the same size as an individual character, and allowing an entire line of text to be read instantly before moving on to the next one!

These two breakthroughs are protected by a series of patents, including some that are already granted. When combined together they solve many of the problems faced by the emerging area of spintronics, and represent a quantum leap forward in potential levels of performance.

Isis Innovation is the technology transfer company that helps scientists at the University of Oxford take their research out into the real world. They are currently seeking industrial partners who are also excited by this technology, and who have the resources to develop these technologies quickly into world-leading commercial products.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/511320/?sc=swtn


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PI Seems a Good Random Number Generator -- but not Always the Best

Physicists have completed a study comparing the "randomness" in pi to that produced by random number generators. They have found that while sequences of digits from pi are indeed an acceptable source of randomness, pi's digit string does not always produce randomness as effectively as manufactured generators do.

If you wanted a random number, historically you could do worse than to pick a sequence from the string of digits in pi. But Purdue University scientists now say other sources might be better.

Physicists including Purdue's Ephraim Fischbach have completed a study comparing the "randomness" in pi to that produced by 30 software random number generators and one chaos-generating physical machine. After conducting several tests, they have found that while sequences of digits from pi are indeed an acceptable source of randomness - often an important factor in data encryption and in solving certain physics problems - pi's digit string does not always produce randomness as effectively as manufactured generators do.

"We do not believe these results imply anything about a pattern existing in pi's number set," said Fischbach, who is a professor of physics in Purdue's College of Science. "However, it may imply that if your livelihood depends on a reliable source of random numbers, as a cryptographer's might, then some commercially available random number generators might serve you better."

Fischbach conducted the study with Shu-Ju Tu, a former graduate student who has since moved to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Their research paper appears in the International Journal of Modern Physics C, vol. 16, no. 2.

Pi, the ratio between a circle's diameter and circumference, has fascinated mathematicians for centuries. A bit larger than the number 3, pi cannot be expressed as a ratio of two whole numbers, and its apparently endless string of digits is sometimes expressed as 3.14159... Modern computers have enabled mathematicians to calculate the value of pi to more than 200 billion digits to the right of the decimal point. But no one has ever found evidence that calculating finer and finer values of pi will ever reveal an end to the string or that there is any regular pattern to be found within it.

Tu and Fischbach decided to test pi's randomness against the outputs of 31 commercially available random number generators (RNGs) that are frequently used for encrypting confidential information before it is stored or sent electronically. To produce numbers, many of these RNGs use an algorithm - a short set of instructions that can be repeated quickly - and it is the quality of the algorithm that makes one RNG more valuable than another.

"Strictly speaking, an algorithm does not produce a truly random number," Fischbach said. "Because its instructions are fixed, an RNG's output could, in theory, be predicted, if you knew what the algorithm was. Of course, anyone using a particular RNG will want to keep its algorithm secret, and for the most part RNGs are cleverly designed enough that they produce numbers that are 'sufficiently random' for encryption purposes."

The scientists took approximately the first 100 million digits of pi, broke the string up into 10-digit segments, and gave the segments a form that defines a point somewhere within a cube with sides one unit long. To specify each point, three such segments are necessary - one for each dimension. For example, the sequence 1415926535 was given the form 0.1415926535, which specifies the point's distance along the x-axis. Similarly, the two subsequent sequences give the point's y and z coordinates. All of the sequences thus became coordinates between zero and one, giving millions of points that lay within the imaginary cube.

"Each point within a cube lies at some distance from the cube's center - some are close, some farther away," Fischbach said. "If you graph their distribution from the center, what you get resembles a familiar bell-shaped probability curve. What we wanted to find out, in essence, was whether the points derived from pi's digits generate an identical curve, and also whether the commercially available RNGs do."

In addition to checking these curves against the predicted ideal, the scientists created a computer program that was able to test randomness even further. It also took groups of points, formed angles from the lines between them, and compared the measure of those angles. The program even took groups of coordinates and tested their randomness within imaginary cubes of six dimensions.

"This was our attempt to leave fewer stones unturned," Tu said. "We hoped additional tests might reveal hidden correlations between number sets that a single test might not have shown."

From the tests Tu and Fischbach ran, each RNG was given a letter grade according to how great its standard deviation, or sigma, was from the expected value. Pi's scores were consistently high across all the experiments, but what surprised them was that some of the RNGs performed even better in some situations.

"Our work showed no correlations or patterns in pi's number set - in short, pi is indeed a good source of randomness," Fischbach said. "However, there were times when pi's performance was outdone by the RNGs."

Pi never scored less than a B on the tests, and in one case outperformed all the RNGs, which in addition to mathematical algorithms included a device that uses turbulence in a fluid as its source of randomness. But in most cases, pi lost out to at least one RNG, and in several it finished decidedly in the middle of the pack. Fischbach emphasized that the results do not imply the existence of any patterns in pi's digit string, though he said would like to see more tests done.

"This study probably says more about our commercially available random number generators than the nature of pi," Fischbach said. "Some of them failed our tests outright. But they, and pi as well, might perform differently if the tests were run under different circumstances."

Fischbach mentioned that less than 1 percent of pi's known digits were used in the tests, and that cubes of dimensions other than 3 and 6 could be imagined.

"These tests are simple to reproduce with a desktop computer. All you need is time," he said. "It took us almost a year of work to crunch these numbers. We have included the program we used in the paper if anyone would like to try doing the analysis with a larger number set. I hope someone will because pi shows up in security systems, cryptography and other places that have nothing to do with circles. That's part of what gives it a fascination that will not go away."

This research was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.

ABSTRACT

A STUDY ON THE RANDOMNESS OF THE DIGITS OF π

SHU-JU TU and EPHRAIM FISCHBACH

We apply a newly developed computational method, Geometric Random Inner Products (GRIP), to quantify the randomness of number sequences obtained from the decimal digits of π. Several members from the GRIP family of tests are used, and the results from π are compared to those calculated from other random number generators. These include a recent hardware generator based on an actual physical process, turbulent electroconvection. We find that the decimal digits of π are in fact good candidates for random number generators and can be used for practical scientific and engineering computations.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/511339/?sc=swtn


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Group Wants Encryption Bans Overturned
Dan Ilett

An international security consortium plans to push governments around the world to withdraw restrictions on the use of encryption.

Countries including China, Israel, Russia and Saudi Arabia have strict rules governing the use of encryption tools, and in some cases they have banned these tools.

The Jericho Forum, which is looking to move away from the perimeter model for cybersecurity toward an approach that would make data totally secure, hinted that such policies could cause problems for e-commerce.

The Jericho Forum, whose membership includes many chief security officers from FTSE 100 companies, will push for the removal of encryption restrictions within the next three to five years.

"In industrialized countries, it's not a problem; the real problem comes from places like China," said Nick Bleech, a member of the Jericho Forum and an IT security director for Rolls Royce. "But the Chinese government is extremely keen to further new development."

"This is a big problem for us," he noted. "We have 200 locations (around the world)...We can solve this. But I don't think we'll come up with a universal solution that will solve everything. We don't have the clout to do that yet."

Bleech said that governments usually respect one another's encryption policies and make concessions for one another.

"We've got to lobby governments across borders, find out what restrictions there are and close them," he said. "At the moment, it is a variable nightmare."

Bleech was speaking at Infosecurity 2005, which ends on Thursday.
http://news.com.com/Group+wants+encr...3-5687087.html


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Nikon's Photo Encryption Reported Broken
Declan McCullagh

A Massachusetts programmer says he has broken a proprietary encryption code that has effectively forced some Nikon digital camera owners to use the company's own software.

Because Nikon scrambled a portion of the file, legal worries have kept third- party developers like Adobe Systems from supporting Nikon's uncompressed "raw" photos in their software. Nikon sells its Nikon Capture utility for $100.

"It's an open format now," said programmer Dave Coffin, who posted the decryption code on his Web site this week. "I broke that encryption--I reverse-engineered it."

Coffin gained some fame in digital photography circles as the author of the popular Dcraw utility, which translates raw images from cameras, including ones made by Nikon, Canon and Kodak, into a nonproprietary format. Raw images are prized by serious photographers because, unlike JPEG files, there's no loss in quality.

Nikon's encryption, found in the high-end D2X and D2H cameras, drew attention last weekend thanks to a post on an Adobe forum by Photoshop creator Thomas Knoll. He warned that Adobe could not fully support the Nikon files in its Camera Raw software--by decrypting the encoded white balance information--for fear of violating the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"Nikon might consider breaking the white balance encryption a violation of DMCA, and sue Adobe," Knoll wrote. "Adobe is a large company with deep pockets...and it is unlikely we would run the legal risk of breaking the white balance encryption unless we can get some assurance from Nikon that they will not sue Adobe for doing so."

Coffin said that the publication of his discovery may let Adobe include support for Nikon's file format in the next version of Camera Raw without violating the DMCA. "Adobe has a very cautious legal team," he said. "In fact, all of their engineers are forbidden from doing any decompilation whatsoever."

Neither Nikon nor Adobe responded to repeated requests for comment.

Nikon's white-balance encryption had hindered photographers who preferred other, sometimes faster or more capable, image conversion software by making it infeasible to convert large numbers of images. Canon--which bundles its raw conversion software with its cameras and does not charge extra--does not encrypt its photo metadata.

With some exceptions, the DMCA broadly restricts software that can "circumvent" access to technological protection schemes.

Peter Jaszi, a professor at American University who teaches copyright law, said that while Adobe might have some good arguments, it's reasonable for the company to be cautious. "I wouldn't, in Adobe's position, be thrilled to draw a lawsuit if I could avoid it," Jaszi said. "Adobe knows all about suing people under the DMCA and how much heartache that can generate."

Adobe famously embraced the controversial copyright law four years ago when seeking the arrest of a Russian programmer who broke the encryption code protecting the company's e-books--and then changed its mind a few days later. A California juryacquitted the programmer's employer, ElcomSoft, in December 2002.

In an e-mail message late Thursday, Bibble Labs founder Eric Hyman said he had also broken the Nikon white balance code and had incorporated it in the latest version of his commercial image-manipulation software. Bibble Labs sells the full-featured version of its "Bibble 4" software for $129, and a less-capable version for $69.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5679848.html


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Bowing to Critics, U.S. to Alter Design of Electronic Passports
Eric Lipton

Responding to fears raised by privacy advocates that new electronic passports might be vulnerable to high-tech snooping, the State Department intends to modify the design so that an embedded radio chip holding a digitized photograph and biographical information is more secure.

The move comes after protests by groups as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. They argued that the proposed new electronic passports, which would broadcast personal information to speed processing of travelers, would have served as a virtual bull's-eye for terrorists or others who wanted to harm Americans.

Frank E. Moss, deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services, said in an interview on Tuesday that government tests confirmed privacy advocates' suspicions that the electronic passport might be vulnerable to so-called skimming from a greater distance than officials had previously said, meaning a matter of three or so feet instead of inches.

"You do perhaps face a risk of a reading without the knowledge of the passport bearer, and that is obviously something we want to protect against," Mr. Moss said.

To prevent that, the special electronic passport readers used by Customs officials in the United States and their counterparts around the world would use data printed on the new passport to effectively unlock the radio chip before it would transmit the personal electronic information it holds, Mr. Moss said.

The personal data flowing to the passport reader would also be encrypted, so that someone trying to use an unauthorized electronic reader in the area could not intercept and decipher the identity of the passport holder, he said, confirming a report about the design changes that first appeared Tuesday on the Wired.com Internet site.

The United States government has not yet started to buy these high-tech passport readers, but the technology is already being developed for some European nations that are planning to introduce their own passports with radio chips embedded.

Finally, as previously announced, the passport cover would also be layered with a protective metallic material.

Adding these security features may delay the introduction of the electronic passport, which the State Department had said it planned to start sometime this year, gradually replacing all existing passports, as they expire, over the next decade. The effort was begun because the electronic passport would be extremely difficult to forge and the digital image embedded in the chip could be electronically compared to a photograph taken at the border, ensuring with some certainty that the person possessing the passport is the same person to whom it was legally issued.

The questions about the electronic passport format may ultimately increase pressure on the United States to give other nations more time to start issuing their own new passports. Currently, nations that want their citizens to continue to be able to visit this country without a visa have until Oct. 26 this year to introduce passports that have tamper-resistant biometric data, like the radio chip. There are 27 of these so-called visa waiver nations, mostly from Europe.

Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Bill Scannell, a publicist from Washington who organized a campaign to block the introduction of the radio-chip-based passport, said Tuesday they were pleased that the State Department was taking steps to address the security flaws identified in the original design.

But along with other privacy and computer security experts, they said they remained concerned that the new passports might still be vulnerable to some kind of prying.

"The State Department seems to be putting down the purple Kool-Aid and looking at the serious problem this technology presents," said Mr. Scannell, who runs an Internet site called RFIDKills.com; the first part of the name stands for radio frequency identification chips. "But no matter how much stuff you layer on the technology, it is still inappropriate."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/po...7passport.html


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100’s of thousands affected…

DSW Data Theft Larger Than Predicted
AP

Thieves who accessed a DSW Shoe Warehouse database obtained 1.4 million credit card numbers and the names on those accounts - 10 times more than investigators estimated last month.

DSW Shoe Warehouse said Monday that it has contact information for about half of those people and started sending letters notifying them of the thefts, which happened at 108 stores in 25 states between November and February. A list of the stores is available on the company's Web site.

The stolen information did not include home addresses or personal identification numbers, the Columbus, Ohio-based company said in a statement.

The company, a subsidiary of Retail Ventures Inc., announced the thefts last month after notifying federal authorities and credit card companies. At the time, the Secret Service said only that information involving more than 100,000 people had been compromised.

Besides the credit card numbers, the thieves obtained driver's license numbers and checking account numbers from 96,000 transactions involving checks, the company said. Customer names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not stolen, DSW said.

"Our loyal customers are our highest priority, and we greatly regret any inconvenience this may cause. We take this issue very seriously and will prosecute those responsible for this crime to the full extent of the law," the company said in its statement.

Reports of theft or loss of credit card and other customer information have broadened in recent months, involving companies including Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint Inc., Bank of America Corp., Natick, Mass.-based BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.

Dayton-based LexisNexis said Monday it has begun notifying about 280,000 people whose personal information may have been accessed by unauthorized individuals using stolen passwords and IDs.

The Secret Service is investigating the DSW theft.

Retail Ventures also operates the Value City and Filene's Basement discount chains. The company's shares closed up 23 cents, or 2.5 percent, at $9.51 on the New York Stock Exchange. They lost 12 cents in late trading, after news of the far larger breach was released.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Apr18.html


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An Inexpensive Disaster Plan
Gregory B. Michetti

Would those who still haven't learned your lesson from your last system crash and are still not doing regular backups please raise your hands? That many of you, huh?

While a complete regular, daily backup that is housed at a location different from your main system represents the ideal method of backup, I realize this is not always practical for the average basement PC user. So, you are still a disaster waiting to happen but the good news is there are less expensive options in safeguarding your home data.

For example, shareware program FolderMatch v 3.3.7 (free to try US$30 to buy) is a good little package worth looking at.

Like its name, it lets you compare folder contents via a Windows Explorer look and feel and simultaneously displays the two sets of folders side by side. For example, you would normally display you're "My Documents" folder from your PC and the location of your backed up copy of the My Documents folder. This location can be in one of the following places: The hard drive of another PC on your network; a removable, external USB 2.0 hard drive (about $150 for a 60 gigger) or a drive located via a VPN such as your office computer.

FolderMatch offers synchronization options like being able to mirror, archive, or synchronize folders. The simple and clean interface displays two folders and compares them in terms of which one is newer, older or the same. All you do is instruct it to synchronize; which really means you now have a backup somewhere else.

There is another reason you should try FolderMatch. It, like another good little program called Second Copy, is a poor man's version of peer-to-peer file sharing software and similar in concept to products like those offered by Groove Networks. Groove, a company started by Lotus Notes founder Ray Ozzie, offers higher level P2P file sharing where many users of the same files have constantly updated information as it replicates across the network.

Personally, I feel P2P software will change a lot of the ways we currently operate in traditional networks. In fact, the more you use it, the more you realize it could very well be the next big thing. By the way, Microsoft just bought Groove earlier this month. Now THAT got your attention, didn't it?

____

Want to expand your mind a little? Go to the website linuxiso.org to download a free CD image of SUSE Linux. Why? Because everybody has an old computer kicking around and Linux is ideal for older boxes. More importantly, this will let you check out Linux at your own pace especially since many of you haven't even seen the interface. It is worth doing and the price is right.

____

Since I'm in a crabby mood I would like to discuss a press release I received this week from the newly formed PC-Turnoff Organization, or PC-TOO. They are advocating the days from August 1st to 7th as National PC-Turnoff Week. So, all children are supposed to shut down their PCs for the week as this movement "encourages parents and their children to turn off the family computer during this week, and enjoy other activities, such as reading, exercise, and family time."

The mission of PC-TOO is to make parents aware of risks associated with their children's excessive computer use, and provide information to help them guide their children towards a healthier lifestyle. The press release goes on to say that for families participating in PC-Turnoff Week, they will immediately feel the positive effects of reduced stress levels, more meaningful conversations with their children, peace amongst siblings without fighting over the computer and more reading, playing and exercise.

You can visit PC-Turnoff Organization at pcturnoff.

So I did. And there isn't anything there except links to Amazon.com where you can purchase books related to the topic and a sign up sheet to receive information about the organization.

A phone call to founding member of PC Turnoff, Joe Acunzo revealed the site was just starting up. Acunzo's other firm called SoftwareTime happens to sell a software product called ComputetTime which is a tool for parents to helps limit their children's' time in front of a computer.

What a terrific coincidence!

Anyway, I am always a bit suspicious of "feel good movements" like PC- Turnoff Week. I agree children spend a lot of time in front of a PC but I just don't think it is such a bad thing.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/TechNews...6/1013590.html


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HP Begins Transition To 2.5-Inch Disk Drives

Smaller drives to appear in ProLiant servers by midyear and other HP systems in 2006.
Darrell Dunn

Hewlett-Packard and leading vendors of hard disk drives on Wednesday unveiled plans to begin the transition to next-generation 2.5-inch small form-factor disk-drive technology for servers and storage.

"In the hard-drive industry, transitions take a long time," says Rich Palmer, director of product marketing for storage, networking, and infrastructure for the ProLiant server business at HP. "In the early '90s we transitioned from 5.25-inch to 3.5-inch hard disk drives, and this next step is expected to take us into the next 10 years."

The new 2.5-inch hard disk drives were developed by Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Seagate, and will be used by HP in upcoming ProLiant server and storage products, Palmer says. The 2.5-inch, 10,000-rpm hard drive is expected to be available in HP ProLiant servers by midyear. The drives are also expected to be used in HP's BladeSystem, Integrity, and StorageWorks product lines in 2006. Also in 2006, HP plans to offer 2.5-inch, 15,000-rpm hard drives.

HP currently ships more than 1 million hard disk drives per quarter, Palmer says.

At the same HP is transitioning its product line to 2.5-inch hard disk drives, it also will migrate from traditional parallel SCSI interfaces to Serial Attached SCSI, or SAS, interfaces, he says. "Customers have been loud and clear that they want to make this transition at one time," Palmer says. "They want to move to the small form-factor drives and SAS at the same time, rather than having to complete two separate transitions."

Over the next year, the new drives and Serial Attached SCSI interface will be offered as an option to the ProLiant line of servers, and then next year the new technology will be factory installed, he says.

The advantages of 2.5-inch drives include the ability to create higher data density in smaller areas. The smaller drives also require half the power of 3.5-inch drives while generating 70% less heat, Palmer says.

Another advantage is scalability. With parallel SCSI, there's a limit of 14 drives on a shared 320-Mbps bus. With Serial Attached SCSI, as many as 128 drives can be placed on a single bus, with each drive having access to as much as 300-Mbyte-per-second bandwidth.

HP also plans to offer a 3.5-inch, 15,000-rpm Serial Attached SCSI option.
http://www.informationweek.com/story...leID=161600516


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Peer-To-Peer Users Share More Than Stolen Songs

College kids looking for free music may have popularized Internet file-trading software, but the technology is now used by everyone from penny-pinching phone callers to polar explorers.

Even the recording industry is changing its tune as labels that for years have waged a legal war against "peer-to-peer" companies are now allowing authorized uses of the technology.

"I never thought you'd hear this from me, but the record industry has, mostly, been fairly cooperative," said Wayne Rosso, who is launching an authorized service called Mashboxx (http://www.mashboxx.com) while the U.S. Supreme Court considers the entertainment industry's copyright suit against Grokster, his old peer-to-peer company.

Peer-to-peer, or P2P, software allows users to connect directly to each others' computers, bypassing the powerful servers that underpin much of the Internet. Web pages, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and other material usually stored on servers can thus be made public directly from a user's hard drive.

That makes online communication much simpler, said Steve Crocker, who helped develop an early version of the Internet as a graduate student in the 1960s.

"When you think about the amount of hardware and bandwidth and storage that we all have available on the most common of machines and then you think about how hard it is to actually work together, there's a huge disparity," said Crocker, whose Shinkuro software (http://www.shinkuro.com) allows people in different locations to work on the same document. Encrypted communication keeps snoops and hackers at bay.

High-school teachers in Washington have turned to Shinkuro to develop lesson plans, and researchers on a polar icebreaker have used it to send back photos of unusual ice formations, Crocker said.

Two online standards-setting bodies, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, have developed agendas and other material with Shinkuro, he said.

Skype Technologies' peer-to-peer Internet phone service (http://www.skype.com) allows users anywhere in the globe to talk to one another for free.

A service called Freenet (http://freenet.sourceforge.net) helps people communicate in countries like China, where online content is rigorously censored. Users donate portions of their hard drive to host Web pages and other files, and the software keeps their identities private.

Playing Ball

On March 29, the same day the U.S. Supreme Court heard the recording industry's case against Grokster, Rosso sat in a nearby hotel room searching the Internet for free music.

Scouring several P2P networks at once, he quickly found and downloaded a copy of the Beatles' "Drive My Car." But the version that came out of his laptop's tiny speakers included a voice-over urging him to buy an authorized copy. One click and 99 cents later, a voiceover-free version of the song filled the room.

Rosso's Mashboxx software is one of several P2P platforms that actually promise to pay record labels when their songs are copied.

Mashboxx relies on a technology called Snocap (http://www.snocap.com) that can identify songs by their digital "fingerprints" and allow copyright owners to control them as they wish. A record label could decide to make a low-fidelity version of the song available for free, for instance, or let the song play three times before requiring a payment.

A test version of Mashboxx should be out by May, Rosso said.

Another industry-authorized P2P platform called Peer Impact, currently in an invitation-only test mode, adds an extra incentive: Users get credit toward more music purchases when others copy their songs.

That approach has been used for a year now by a company called Weed (http://www.weedshare.com), whose format has proven popular with independent artists.

Users don't need special software to download Weed songs. A band can sell its Weed-encoded songs through its own Web site, but it also makes money when fans copy songs from one another.

"It's completely decentralized," Weed President John Beezer said. "We want people who are interested to find music quickly."

Beezer said Weed has been most successful so far with cult artists like Sananda Maitreya (http:// www.sanandapromotion.com), formerly known as Terence Trent D'Arby.

Agreements with major labels are in the works, Beezer said.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1789075,00.asp


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Program Fools Peer-To-Peer Pirates
Juliana Torres

A program that was inspired by an episode of the Simpsons and targets the downloading of all things bootlegged has aroused obscene threats toward the program's creator, a professor from the University of Tulsa.

"People who were upset about this threatened to dump a truckload of shit in his front yard," said one of his colleges.

The target is John Hale, professor and director of the Center for Information Security at the University of Tulsa. The unnamed program he built, which was awarded a patent last year, creates a flood of decoy files on the Internet so that those who wish to download a pirated copy of music or video file, for example, can't find the legitimate version.

Hale says that the inspiration for the program came from episode 123 of the Simpsons, where Mr. Burns collects a group of dogs to skin for fur coats. He decides to keep one of the dogs, however, and teaches him a special trick. When they're all bunched together, Mr. Burns figures he can distinguish his special dog by getting him to perform the trick, but Bart and Lisa outsmart him by teaching it to all the dogs.

Hale's program, works in a similar fashion. If you want to stop people from downloading Britney Spears, the program will search for files that fall under that description. From its findings, it will analyze what aspects of the files are characteristic to the group. Virtually anything - from a host's user name, the file size, name of the file - can be identified as a reoccurring feature. The program then creates bogus files that blend in with the rest of the legitimate files that are out there.

"You don't need to fool the computers," Hale says, explaining that the program fools the people who are searching and downloading pirated files.

Among Hale's targets is the current frontrunner for downloading files, BitTorrent.

Ahead of the pack

In July 2004, CacheLogic, a network-management company based in England, reported that BitTorrent had become the most popular peer-to-peer downloading client, beating the longtime No.1 program, KaZaA Media Desktop.

In the same report, the company showed that the new program use contributed to 90 percent of global P2P traffic.

According to the report, BitTorrent has dominated file-swapping because people are starting to realize that they can get more than just mp3s off the Internet - there are also TV episodes, movies and software. Another factor that helped boost BitTorrent's share of the P2P traffic is the size of files that are traded.

"An MP3 may be three to five megabytes, while a BitTorrent often sees files in excess of 500 megabytes being shared across the peer-to-peer network," according to the report.

The difference between KaZaA and BitTorrent is in the efficiency of the downloading process. On KaZaA, when users search for an MP3, they download it directly from one or several people on the network who have that file. In the best case scenario, both the provider and the recipient will have the maximum speed, and Ciara's "One, Two Step" will download in a matter of minutes.

With KaZaA, a file can only be transferred as fast as the slowest provider can go. That makes the power of the T3 line that runs through UT dorms useless unless the host has a similar high speed connection.

The inefficiency is magnified when users try to download files that are larger or harder to find. It may take hours to download an episode of "ER" or a song from an obscure band.

For example, the University's Resnet service, which provides Internet access to its dorms, allows four, eight or 12 gigabytes of bandwidth per week, depending on the type of service. If you live in the dorm, and you're the only one on KaZaA with the latest episode of Alias an hour after it shows on TV, you'll likely exceed your Resnet bandwidth allotment for the week in a couple of hours.

Lightening the load

BitTorrent, on the other hand, was designed to send big files, says Rick Osborne, who worked on the code for BitTorrent in 2003.

"Unlike traditional downloading from a server, where one computer sends out a file to everyone, with BitTorrent, everyone is sending out the file to everyone else, one little piece at a time," explains Osborne.

The concept revolves around a "tracker," which holds specifications of your file, but more importantly keeps track of everyone who has downloaded it in the past. With that information, the BitTorrent program can download a huge file in little chunks - a bit from here, another piece from a different computer, a separate part somewhere else - until it has the complete picture. This way, everyone shares the heavy bandwidth burden required to download something that would take several days to download on KaZaA.

"The key to scaleable and robust distribution is cooperation," BitTorrent's Web site states, "Cooperative distribution can grow almost without limit, because each new participant brings not only demand, but also supply."

When Bram Cohen released the program almost three years ago, he wasn't thinking about using his invention to supply illegal movie clips and TV episodes. It was meant to distribute free software, Osborne says. Cohen is said to never have downloaded anything illegally, if only to keep the integrity of his programming in tact. Because of the way BitTorrent is built, it is relatively easy to trace pirates through the tracker, and if the tracker itself was shut down, everyone loses future downloading access to it.

"BitTorrent was designed to fill a niche market, and a lot of its current use by media and software pirates is actually outside of the normal operating parameters," says John Hoffman, who is involved in creating BitTorrent programs. "I do think they've been giving BitTorrent a bad name, and that its use has been curtailed somewhat in the legitimate communities because of it."

Hoffman is the administrator and lead coder for BitTornado, one of many newer versions of BitTorrent. BitTorrent is open source meaning anyone can download the original code, manipulate it and use it in any way he or she wants, just like Linux. Only Cohen can determine if the modifications, which often smooth kinks, patch bugs or add new features, will be included in the original version of BitTorrent.

Should Cohen decide any new ideas don't adhere to the core purpose of BitTorrent, either through over-complication or piracy promotion, he has the option of creating his own version and means of distribution.

A plethora of different versions have sprung up out of the original BitTorrent idea. Hoffman's BitTornado for example, gives users a way to control their upload rate and view more specifications about the file's "health." Another addition is a status light, which shows how the client is functioning for each user. For instance, a yellow light might alert users that a firewall is impeding their download.

Other sites, such as TorrentSpy.com, take the BitTorrent code a step further and allow users to search for files. This added feature was not included in the original code and makes piracy easy. However, the online "pirates" take the programming and run with it.

"The way I see it, when I download music, movies, games [or] applications, they don't loose any money at all. Why? Because I never intended to buy their products in the first place," writes one enthusiast on TorrentSpy's forum.

BitTorrent's future

The original BitTorrent code is hard to legally pin down as a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, because piracy was never its purpose. Still, in an effort to impede the open bootlegging that BitTorrent has allowed, Hale's program could swarm the Internet with false "trackers."

BitTorrent's community, as with most open source programming, is designed around the simple idea that it can change and evolve with the input of everyone who uses it.

For that reason, while some panicked fans of bootlegging continue to threaten Hale, most BitTorrent users feel safe that nothing can really kill the momentum they've created.

Hale's program won't stop BitTorrent, says Osborne. "It only works in one corner of the universe. ... It's one little chink in the armor."
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news...s-941102.shtml


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China Sentences Americans To Prison For Selling Pirated DVDs
AP

Two American men were sentenced Tuesday to prison terms of up to 2 1/2 years for selling pirated DVDs on Internet sites in a rare success for joint U.S.- China efforts to enforce intellectual property laws.

The two Americans and two Chinese co- defendants were accused of using the Internet to sell more than 180,000 counterfeit DVDs to buyers in 25 countries, including about 20,000 discs to U.S. buyers. Prosecutors said they seized 119,000 pirated DVDs in raids last summer on a warehouse and the Shanghai apartment of American Randolph Hobson Guthrie.

Investigators said the case saw unprecedented cooperation between Chinese and U.S. law enforcement. The U.S. and other nations have been pressing China to crack down on rampant copyright violations.

The sentences marked the culmination of a three-year investigation by U.S. customs, Chinese police and industry group Motion Picture Association of America.

``This landmark case will serve as a roadmap for future Intellectual Property Rights investigations,'' Michael Garcia, the U.S. Homeland Security official responsible for customs investigation, said.

Garcia said U.S. Customs began tracking Guthrie after undercover agents linked him to pirated discs being sold at a Mississippi flea market.

Shanghai's No. 2 District Court ordered the 38-year-old Guthrie to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined him $60,500. Abram Cody Thrush, convicted as an accessory, was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $1,200. Both Americans were ordered deported after serving their sentences.

The men have the right to appeal, but there was no immediate word on whether they would.

``There really isn't too much of a basis for appeal,'' Guthrie's lawyer, Zhai Jian, told reporters. ``I think it was a pretty fair judgment.''

Zhai said the conviction was the first he knew of involving a foreigner selling pirated DVDs.

Guthrie was ``really more upset about the deportation order,'' Zhai said. ``He's lived here for 10 years. He bought a home here. He really feels for Shanghai.''

Guthrie made no audible comments as he and the other defendants stood during the hour-long hearing. U.S. Consulate officials attended the court session but did not comment.

One Chinese co-defendant was found guilty of aiding the operation and sentenced to one year in prison. The other was also convicted but was released.

Guthrie, of New York City, earned $159,000 between October 2002 and November 2003 selling the discs, Xue said. Thrush, of Portland, Ore., provided technical assistance and earned $1,450, Xue said.

Chinese state media pointed to the case as an example of how foreigners are involved in purchases of pirated products. Despite sporadic arrests, counterfeit books, DVDs and music are easily available on almost every city street. Shanghai's outdoor Xiangyang market is filled almost daily with foreign tourists buying up knock-off watches, sportswear and handbags.

However, Patrick Powers, Beijing director of the U.S.-China Business Council, said the high profile given to the Guthrie case could indicate a new determination to prosecute major piracy cases.

``Prosecution of a foreigner for intellectual property rights violations should help authorities persuade local law enforcement to be more proactive,'' Powers said.

Along with DVDs seized from Guthrie, evidence in the case involved shipping invoices and bank transfer receipts, some of which were provided by U.S. law enforcement, Xue said.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/11433412.htm


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Feds' Weather Information Could Go Dark
Robert P. King

Do you want a seven-day weather forecast for your ZIP code? Or hour-by-hour predictions of the temperature, wind speed, humidity and chance of rain? Or weather data beamed to your cellphone?

That information is available for free from the National Weather Service.

But under a bill pending in the U.S. Senate, it might all disappear.

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.

Supporters say the bill wouldn't hamper the weather service or the National Hurricane Center from alerting the public to hazards — in fact, it exempts forecasts meant to protect "life and property."

But critics say the bill's wording is so vague they can't tell exactly what it would ban.

"I believe I've paid for that data once. ... I don't want to have to pay for it again," said Scott Bradner, a technical consultant at Harvard University.

He says that as he reads the bill, a vast amount of federal weather data would be forced offline.

"The National Weather Service Web site would have to go away," Bradner said. "What would be permitted under this bill is not clear — it doesn't say. Even including hurricanes."

Nelson questions intention

The decision of what information to remove would be up to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez — possibly followed, in the event of legal challenges, by a federal judge.

A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the bill threatens to push the weather service back to a "pre-Internet era" — a questionable move in light of the four hurricanes that struck the state last year. Nelson serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, which has been assigned to consider the bill.

"The weather service proved so instrumental and popular and helpful in the wake of the hurricanes. How can you make an argument that we should pull it off the Net now?" said Nelson's spokesman, Dan McLaughlin. "What are you going to do, charge hurricane victims to go online, or give them a pop-up ad?"

But Barry Myers, AccuWeather's executive vice president, said the bill would improve public safety by making the weather service devote its efforts to hurricanes, tsunamis and other dangers, rather than duplicating products already available from the private sector.

"The National Weather Service has not focused on what its core mission should be, which is protecting other people's lives and property," said Myers, whose company is based in State College, Pa. Instead, he said, "It spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year, every day, producing forecasts of 'warm and sunny.'"

Santorum made similar arguments April 14 when introducing his bill. He also said expanded federal services threaten the livelihoods of private weather companies.

"It is not an easy prospect for a business to attract advertisers, subscribers or investors when the government is providing similar products and services for free," Santorum said.

AccuWeather has been an especially vocal critic of the weather service and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The company has accused the federal agencies of withholding data on hurricanes and other hazards, and failing to ensure that employees don't feed upcoming forecasts to favored investors in farming and energy markets.

Weather service expands data

The rivalry intensified last year, when NOAA shelved a 1991 policy that had barred the weather agency from offering services that private industry could provide.

Also last year, the weather service began offering much of its raw data on the Internet in an easily digestible format, allowing entrepreneurs and hobbyists to write simple programs to retrieve the information. At the same time, the weather service's own Web pages have become increasingly sophisticated.

Combined, the trends threaten AccuWeather's business of providing detailed weather reports based on an array of government and private data. AccuWeather's 15,000 customers include The Palm Beach Post, which uses the company's hurricane forecast maps on its Web site, PalmBeachPost.com.

NOAA has taken no position on the bill. But Ed Johnson, the weather service's director of strategic planning and policy, said his agency is expanding its online offerings to serve the public.

"If someone claims that our core mission is just warning the public of hazardous conditions, that's really impossible unless we forecast the weather all the time," Johnson said. "You don't just plug in your clock when you want to know what time it is."

Myers argued that nearly all consumers get their weather information for free through commercial providers, including the news media, so there's little reason for the federal agency to duplicate their efforts.

"Do you really need that from the NOAA Web site?" he asked.

But some weather fans, such as Bradner, say they prefer the federal site's ad-free format.

Another supporter of the weather service's efforts, Tallahassee database analyst John Simpson, said the plethora of free data becoming available could eventually fuel a new industry of small and emerging companies that would repackage the information for public consumption. He said a similar explosion occurred in the 1990s, when corporations' federal securities filings became freely available on the Web.

Shutting off the information flow would stifle that innovation and solidify the major weather companies' hold on the market, Simpson said.

Santorum's bill also would require the weather service to provide "simultaneous and equal access" to its information.

That would prevent weather service employees from favoring some news outlets over others, which Santorum and Myers said has happened in some markets. But it also could end the common practice of giving one-on-one interviews to individual reporters who have questions about storms, droughts or other weather patterns.

"What we want is to make sure that whatever information is provided to one source is provided to all," Myers said.

But Johnson said it's importanst to answer reporters' questions so the public receives accurate information — especially when lives are at stake.

"We are not interested in turning off our telephones," Johnson said. "I would be concerned that that would actually be dangerous."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/co...a_wx_0421.html


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Celera to Quit Selling Genome Information
Andrew Pollack

Celera Genomics, which raced with the publicly financed Human Genome Project to decipher the human DNA sequence, has decided to abandon the business of selling genetic information. The company said yesterday that it was discontinuing its genome database subscription business and putting the information into the public domain.

Celera succeeded in signing up some subscribers to its genome database, but the company is still losing money and it never quite calmed critics who argued that fundamental information about basic human biology should be openly available to all.

Originally led by the maverick scientist J. Craig Venter, Celera's race with the Human Genome Project ended in a sort of tie announced at a White House ceremony in 2000.

But Celera's effort to become the "Bloomberg of biology" by selling its data faltered quickly because the public project was offering much the same information to scientists free of charge. In 2002, Celera ousted Dr. Venter, de-emphasized the information business and began trying to develop drugs instead.

Celera has continued to provide the information to a dwindling number of existing subscribers, and those subscriptions, costing thousands of dollars for a single academic scientist to millions of dollars a year for a big drug company, have provided the bulk of its revenue. But Celera said it would discontinue the service, called the Celera Discovery System, after most of the remaining contracts expire by the end of June.

About 25 companies and 200 academic institutions subscribed to Celera's service at its peak; the company would not say how many subscribers were left.

Company scientists said they would donate the information on 30 billion base pairs - the chemical units of DNA - to a federally run database. The information includes basic DNA sequences for humans, mice and rats and some data on genetic variations but excludes some newer information Celera is using to develop diagnostic tests.

Francis S. Collins, the federal scientist who runs the publicly financed project, hailed Celera's move as a "wonderfully generous contribution" and "a strong endorsement of this kind of information ultimately being accessible to anybody."

He said the mouse and rat data would be particularly useful because strains Celera sequenced were different from those the publicly financed scientists used.

Celera's revenue peaked at $121 million in the fiscal year that ended June 2002. In the current fiscal year, ending this June, revenues are expected to be only $29 million to $32 million, with the decline primarily a result of expired subscriptions.

The company, based in Rockville, Md., has its own tracking stock but is owned by the Applera Corporation. Applera also owns Applied Biosystems of Foster City, Calif., a leading maker of laboratory equipment that includes DNA sequencing machines.

In 2002, Celera transferred the marketing of the genome information to Applied Biosystems, which used the data to develop tests for particular genetic variants that it sells to researchers.

Applied Biosystems executives said they hoped that putting the data into the public domain would encourage more scientists to use that data and then to order tests.

Dennis Gilbert, the chief scientific officer of Applied Biosystems, said in an interview that the company did not consider it a capitulation to turn the formerly proprietary data over to the public. He said the competition from Celera had accelerated the public project. "I feel like ultimately we did the best for science," he said.

Dr. Venter, who now runs his own nonprofit research institute, said in a statement yesterday, "Moving the Celera data into the public domain is something I have been strongly in favor of, and I feel it sets a good precedent for companies who are sitting on gene and genome data sets that have little or no commercial value, but would be of great benefit to the scientific community."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/bu.../27celera.html


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Spitzer Sues Intermix Over 'Spyware'
Andy Sullivan

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Thursday he had sued software company Intermix Media Inc. for bundling hidden "spyware" along with million of programs it gave away for free.

The practice violates state laws that prohibit false advertising and deceptive business practices, Spitzer's office said in a news release.

Intermix stock was down more than 20 percent at $3.81 at midday on the American Stock Exchange.

Spitzer's office is seeking to stop Intermix from secretly installing software on users' computers, give back money it made from the process and pay a fine.

"These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers," Spitzer said in a statement.

Intermix, based in Los Angeles, operates several Web sites, among them (http://mycoolscreen.com) and (http://www.flowgo.com), which allow users to download screen savers and games for free.

These programs were secretly bundled with others designed to deliver pop-up advertising or steer Web traffic to an Intermix search engine, Spitzer said.

Once installed on a computer, the software is difficult to dislodge, he said.

Internet users downloaded tens of millions of these programs, including 3.7 million in New York State, Spitzer said.

Intermix said it has earned $250,000 from New York state computer users.

The programs in question are no longer being distributed, the company said. Other Intermix programs, such as screensavers, can now be downloaded without advertising programs attached, a spokeswoman said.

"Intermix does not promote or condone spyware, and remains committed to putting this legacy issue behind it as soon as practicable," Intermix corporate counsel Christopher Lipp said in a statement.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=8334667


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ILN News Letter

French CT. Orders U.S. Site To Block Access To French Users

A Paris court has ordered ThePlanet.com to block French access to the website "Aaargh" which it hosts. The site contains anti-semitic materials that violate French law.

French language coverage at
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/050420/202/4dk5c.html


French Judge Blocks DVD Copy-Protection

A French court has blocked the use of DVD copy-protection in a suit launched by a consumer group. The court ruled that the protection ran counter to consumer private copying rights.

French language coverage at
http://www.01net.com/editorial/27475...ntre-la-copie/


CAFTA To Extend Copyright & Trademark Provisions To Americas

BNA's Electronic Commerce & Law Report reports on a recent House Committee hearing on the Central America Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. The agreement includes provisions requiring WIPO Internet treaty ratification, extension of the term of copyright protection, and inclusion of UDRP-like policies for the national country-code domains.

CAFTA IP provisions at http://caftaipprovisions.notlong.com/ Article at http://pubs.bna.com/ip/BNA/eip.nsf/is/a0b0u5c8a1 For a free trial to the source of this story, visit http://www.bna.com/prodcuts/ip/eplr.htm



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Mexico Telephone Operator Under VoIP Fire
Ben Charny

Broadband customers of Mexico's dominant telephone operator say the quality of their voice over Internet Protocol calls has tanked, with some alleging that Telmex is engaging in unfair business practices to block VoIP competition.

VoIP, freely available software that lets broadband connections become inexpensive home phone lines, is seen as a major threat to entrenched phone operators such as Telmex because VoIP users no longer need a local phone service; they can use their VoIP service with any broadband connection anywhere in the world.

International operators and habitues of the less urbane world of Web forums are venting about the government-owned operator's alleged practices, which they say include blocking Web sites that VoIP operators use to register new customers and perform a bulk of their customer service.

"We're definitely interested in this situation," said a White House trade official, who asked not to be named. "Telmex has had a long pattern of engaging in anti-competitive behavior."

In a March report, the White House's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative wrote: "Uncertainty regarding the treatment of voice over Internet Protocol services in Mexico is cause for concern. Irrespective of the merits of Telmex's ambitions, restrictions on the ability of any entity, foreign or domestic, to supply VoIP appears inappropriate."

Telmex did not respond to a phone call and an e-mail seeking comment on the situation.

Caller complaints escalate

The Telmex VoIP situation has grown since mid-March, when the company's broadband customers say the quality of their third-party voice over Internet Protocol calls began eroding to what are now unbearable levels, according to e-mail interviews with VoIP customers who routinely call in and out of Mexico.

VoIP operators are running into an alleged problem typical in countries where there's one phone company owned by the government--such as Qatar, Costa Rica and Panama--or privately owned and with enormous sway over regulators. In Mexico, the former government-owned Telmex remains dominant because the Federal Telecommunications Commission lets complaints from foreign competitors linger without resolution for years; and its recommended enforcement is rarely meted by the nation's Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, according to the USTR.

Skype spokeswoman Kelly Larabee said the comany has confirmed degradation in quality of VoIP calls on Telmex, but said the cause was unclear.

"We encourage all Telmex broadband subscribers to contact their ISP and demand the open access they pay for," Larabee said. She stressed that Skype does not know whether the Web site access issue is deliberate, or a temporary glitch Telmex is unaware of.

This may be happening because Telmex allegedly identifies VoIP users based on the kind of traffic they send, then chokes their bandwidth to disrupt the calls, according to Brooke Schulz, a spokeswoman for U.S. Net phone provider Vonage. Telmex is also allegedly blocking access to Net phone Web sites, including that of Skype, the world's most popular VoIP service, Skype says it has confirmed. By blocking the site, Telmex could prevent potential Skype users from signing up, and existing Skype users wouldn't be able to replenish minutes on their prepaid calling cards or order other premium services.

"We're working on exercising our options with the U.S. trade representative," Schulz said. "However, because we're not a Mexican company, we have little leverage with the Mexican regulator. But we're doing everything we can."
http://news.com.com/Mexico+telephone...3-5681542.html


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Wireless Rating System To Tackle Porn

The wireless industry is creating a rating and filtering system that eventually will be applied to all content, including music, offered on such networks.

The work is being done through the industry's trade group the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA).

Driving this effort is the recent explosion of interest that the adult entertainment industry has shown in providing cellular content. Playboy, Hustler, Wicked Wireless, Brickhouse Mobile and adult film stars Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy, among many others, all have unveiled plans to launch wireless content services in the U.S. market at a time when the regulatory landscape is increasingly focused on cleaning up broadcast airwaves.

The Federal Communications Commission oversees the distribution of wireless spectrum to U.S. operators, and wireless carriers do not want the indecency campaign against radio, TV and cable broadcasters to come their way.

"The adult side of things has really kick-started it," says Mark Desautels, CTIA vice president of wireless Internet development. "As indecency becomes an increasing point of interest on the part of policymakers, we really need to be proactive about it."

CTIA has reached out to individual labels and the Recording Industry Association of America to help develop this system, along with the rating bodies of other industries, such as the Entertainment Software Ratings Board for games and the Motion Picture Association of America for movies.

Wireless carriers and record companies view a rating and filtering system as an opportunity to offer a greater spectrum of content, including master ring tones or voice tones with explicit lyrics. Currently, wireless carriers offer only the most non-offensive content possible because they do not have a mechanism for limiting edgier content to adults. Unlike Internet service providers, which have little concern regarding how their networks are used, wireless carriers place themselves at the center of the customer relationship and therefore will be held directly responsible for any offensive content their branded stores offer.

"It's as much about freeing up content that adult customers want to enjoy as it is about restricting children from accessing it," says Jim Ryan, vice president of data product management for Cingular Wireless. "Until we can provide filtering and control for parents, we will offer only the broadcast version of content. When we can provide an 18-plus category, we'll look at the ability to offer other things. Our job is not to restrict or to regulate access to content. Our job is to provide choice and provide control."

When mobile music applications were limited to polyphonic ring tones without lyrics, the issue was of little importance beyond editing the titles of certain hip-hop songs. But now that master ring tone recordings with actual song clips have emerged, the problem has become more prevalent. In their content agreements, carriers require record companies to provide only "clean" titles, which limits the sales pool.

"We would prefer there was a method to make more content available. And if this framework allows us to do that, then we would be happy to work within it," Universal Music Mobile general manager Rio Caraeff said. "Until then, we'll have to come up with some alternative distribution strategies for that content."

This includes providing explicit content to third-party aggregators or selling ring tones and voice tones directly to the consumer at artists' Web sites. In the future, music labels would like to see more direct-to-consumer distribution opportunities like this.

According to CTIA's Desautels, the first stage of this content and filtering system will be ready by midyear. This initial implementation identifies content not appropriate for those under 18 and lumps it all into a "restricted" category. The goal is to rate content by category, applying mobile versions of existing rating systems. He expects that to be completed within 12 months.

"We want to develop more sophisticated filtering tools," Desautels said, "so that the ability to filter or to block certain types of content will be another part of the suite of services that carriers seek to provide."
http://news.com.com/Wireless+rating+...3-5682956.html


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Why $100 Computers Are On The Way
John G. Spooner

It's been just more than two years since CEO Hector Ruiz unveiled Advanced Micro Devices' new Opteron server microprocessor. To the surprise of some, the company was able to sign up IBM right away to use the new chip.

Winning the race to market with a 64-bit processor was not just a vanity play to impress the computer chip cognoscenti. By hitting the streets first with a 64-bit capable x86 processor, AMD one-upped rival Intel.

It also worked to convince other systems vendors to follow Big Blue and lend their support to the Opteron.

Indeed, to the surprise of critics, who could recite a litany of company missteps over the years, this was not a one-off event. As it geared up for stiffer competition with rival Intel, AMD lined up the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and many systems vendors to use Opteron in their higher-end systems.

But to retain the momentum, AMD needs to stay ahead on cutting-edge chip design. Ruiz is pushing hard to promote the use of the dual- core Opteron and is powering forward with a plan to diversify into new market segments.

CNET News.com spoke with Ruiz about technology trends and what he envisions for AMD chips in consumer electronics. We also found out that Ruiz believes the era of the $100 laptop PC may be on the horizon.

Q: When you look back over the last two years, since Opteron's introduction, what's your assessment?
Ruiz: We had a lot of expectations and dreams and hopes and goals...and all that. Considering...that there was a lot of trepidation (by) customers to even just show up--obviously the fear of Godzilla was very strong--when I think what we've done in the last two years, I'm really pleased with the progress.

It's pretty clear the enthusiasm of the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) community of what this technology is doing for them is pretty high. And also our expectations of being able to penetrate an almost impenetrable segment of the market back in those days-- I'm real happy with where we are.

What was the company's original goal?
Ruiz: Our hope was that by the end of 2004 we'd be at 10 percent of the market on the server side. We were just slightly short of that, according to IDC. But in the grand scheme of things, we feel pretty good.

Looking ahead, what are AMD's other goals?
Ruiz: When we set out two years ago...the decision we made was to sort of flip the company upside down in terms of priorities. We felt that the server/enterprise segment was incredibly important for us. It's a very lucrative segment of the market for us to participate in...and it's aimed right at the belly of the giant. We felt that we needed to demonstrate to the outside--particularly to the enterprise-- that we were very capable of doing that, which was the hardest thing to do.

We set out to have a long- term strategy to become very relevant in that space, so that over a period of time, the enterprise would see two very strong players, as opposed to two years ago, when there was only one.

What did that involve?
Ruiz: Part of that revolves around having a very strong technology road map and a very strong product road map-- which we believe we have. I think the introduction of dual core is one of the steps that continue to demonstrate to (business customers) that this is a long-term commitment we're making to the segment and that this is a very high priority.

Look at the benchmarks and the data coming out of our customers. The dual-core product indicates we have actually widened the gap in terms of leadership. I feel this will continue. Our plans are to continue to out-innovate, in a customer-centric way, the technology and products in the server segment. That, combined with our strong partnering with customers, which I believe is getting stronger and stronger, will lead us to (become) a very relevant player in the enterprise (market).

When do you think AMD chips will make it into the mainstream servers, desktops and notebooks that huge corporations buy? Ruiz: The server part of it is happening as we speak. We're already in a fairly significant part of Sun's, HP's and IBM's business, as well as Fujitsu-Siemens, Lenovo and others outside of the United States.

We expect to start seeing, for example, dual-core desktops before the end of the year being fairly active in the marketplace. There, though, I have to tell you that we have to make sure that the consumer understands the value. For a number of consumers, it'll take some time before the software and all the things that will make dual core really great will actually play out.

We're surprised we haven't heard more about big companies, such as banks, adopting Opteron. Do they just not talk about it?
Ruiz: There's a little bit...of cautiousness on the part of banks. If a bank were to talk about the fact that they committed to use AMD technology, that could be interpreted--especially if it's an investment banker--that they were actually endorsing AMD stock, which can be confusing.

I think we're the preferred technology on Wall Street. Frankly, if you talk to any of the Wall Street firms, they'll tell you that they like what we do, and seven out of 10 of the top are using it. But you're right. They don't talk about it.

What about the communications space?
Ruiz: If by communications you mean the traditional communications things...the answer is no in the near future. We will have communications technology in our chipsets, especially around wireless and broadband capability. But we're not doing anything that would put us in the same competitive space as people like Qualcomm or TI.

So the effort is more in consumer electronics?
Ruiz: The way I would describe it is, because of our commitment to the x86 architecture, we have an opportunity to be the premier company--if we're not there already--in that architecture. Therefore, we can take it to places that no others can, because they don't have the intellectual property and the experience to do it.

So our intent is to continue to go down in power and cost so that we could see x86 used in places like automobile entertainment and consumer electronics devices, such as a portable media player, and perhaps potentially down the road a digital convergence device that has mobile and computing capability that's far superior to what a smart phone has today.

So by staying focused on one architecture, we believe we can go all the way from a very low-cost consumer device all the way to a supercomputer.

People are dying to know what the deal is with Dell.
Ruiz: We'd love to have Dell as a customer, obviously, and we'll continue to always work hard at it. But you know, frankly, if you take the extreme that if Dell were to publicly say they really no longer have an interest in AMD and they're not going to do it, they lose all the leverage with the other supplier. So I think by definition, they'll never say that.

Then the question is will we ever be able to get to the point where we provide a good solution to their business. I believe we will, but it's not clear when and how that's going to happen.

What's the next step for AMD in emerging markets? Are you going to continue with the Personal Internet Communicator or are you working on the mythical $100 PC?
Ruiz: The PIC was our first attempt to do something different. I think that will continue to morph into a new generation of products. We have a PIC 2 and a PIC 3 on the road map. All those products will improve the (computing) power and value, while at the same time lowering the cost.

I don't think a $100 computer is out of the question in a three- year time frame. A lot of people forget that the first cell phones came out at $3,000 to $4,000 dollars and today are free. I think there's going to be some of that same kind of movement with computing and communications devices.

It's important for us to not lose sight of the segment that today doesn't have any products built for it. The trickle- down effect of desktops and laptops into that segment just doesn't work. I believe that we have an opportunity to use our x86 know-how and capability to really build products for that segment. That will be the PIC at the beginning, and there will be more. I think, within three years, it's not at all unreasonable to think of a $100 laptop for that segment.

A $100 laptop?
Ruiz: Yes.

When it comes to the competition, was the Japan FTC ruling against Intel a victory for AMD?
Ruiz: I think the important thing in Japan is it's a victory for the customer and the consumer. More than anything else it tried to eliminate any impediment to free and open competition.

We would hope that we can see the elimination of those impediments throughout the world, not just in Japan.

So Intel is doing the same thing in other markets?
Ruiz: We believe that the practices that they have been accused of doing in Japan and the evidence that was found by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in Japan is probably indicative and a proxy of the way they operate around the world.

Do you think they use the Intel Inside campaign to keep OEMs on the hook?
Ruiz: There are some things that are not allowed when you're a monopoly, and they're pretty clearly spelled out. Although there are slight variances from one place to another, they're all pretty clear in terms of holding someone hostage to a monopoly. I think those things need to change.

Then AMD isn't planning to do something like Intel Inside?
Ruiz: No. We prefer to be on our customers' side rather than on the inside.

Are acquisitions something you're looking at?
I do think there's an opportunity for us to complement our x86 architecture. The possibility of either acquiring or doing things like that with some companies is something we'll consider.
http://news.com.com/Why+100+computer...tml?tag=st.pop


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Nuclear fusion on the desktop ... really!

Mini-Reactor Yields Neutrons, Could Power Spacecraft

Scientists say they have achieved small-scale nuclear fusion in a tabletop experiment, using tried and true techniques that are expected to generate far less controversy than past such claims.

This latest experiment relied on a tiny crystal to generate a strong electric field. While the energy created was too small to harness cheap fusion power, the technique could have potential uses in medicine, spacecraft propulsion, the oil drilling industry and homeland security, said Seth Putterman, a physicist at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Putterman and his colleagues at UCLA, Brian Naranjo and Jim Gimzewski, report their results in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Past derision

Previous claims of tabletop fusion have been met with skepticism and even derision by physicists.

In one of the most notable cases, Dr. B. Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Martin Fleischmann of Southampton University in England shocked the world in 1989 when they announced that they had achieved so-called cold fusion at room temperature. Their work was discredited after repeated attempts to reproduce it failed.

Another technique, known as sonoluminescence, generates heat through the collapse of tiny bubbles in a liquid. Some scientists claim that nuclear fusion occurs during the reaction, but those claims have sparked sharp debate.

Fusion experts said the UCLA experiment will face far less skepticism because it conforms to well-known principles of physics.

"This doesn't have any controversy in it because they're using a tried and true method," David Ruzic, professor of nuclear and plasma engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told The Associated Press. "There's no mystery in terms of the physics."

In a Nature commentary, Michael Saltmarsh of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory said the UCLA process was in some ways "remarkably low-tech," drawing upon principles that were first recorded by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus in 314 B.C.

Ultimate energy source

Fusion power has been touted as the ultimate energy source and a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels like coal and oil. Fossil fuels are expected to run short in about 50 years.

In fusion, light atoms are joined in a high-temperature process that frees large amounts of energy. It is considered environmentally friendly because it produces virtually no air pollution and does not pose the safety and long-term radioactive waste concerns associated with modern nuclear power plants, where heavy uranium atoms are split to create energy in a process known as fission.

In the UCLA experiment, scientists placed a tiny crystal that can generate a strong electric field into a vacuum chamber filled with deuterium gas, a form of hydrogen capable of fusion. Then the researchers activated the crystal by heating it.

The resulting electric field created a beam of charged deuterium atoms that struck a nearby target, which was embedded with yet more deuterium. When some of the deuterium atoms in the beam collided with their counterparts in the target, they fused.

The reaction gave off an isotope of helium along with subatomic particles known as neutrons, a characteristic of fusion. The experiment did not, however, produce more energy than the amount put in — an achievement that would be a huge breakthrough.

Commercial uses

UCLA's Putterman said future experiments will focus on refining the technique for potential commercial uses, including designing portable neutron generators that could be used for oil well drilling or scanning luggage and cargo at airports.

The technology also could conceivably give rise to implantable radiation sources, which could target cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. "You could bring a tiny crystal into the body, place it next to a tumor, turn on the radiation and blast the tumor," Putterman told MSNBC.com.

In the Nature report, Putterman and his colleagues said the crystal-based method could be used in "microthrusters for miniature spacecraft." In such an application, the method would not rely on nuclear fusion for power generation, but rather on ion propulsion, Putterman said.

"As wild as it is, that’s a conservative application," he said.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7654627/
















Until next week,

- js.














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Current Week In Review.





Recent WiRs -

April 23rd, April16th, April 9th, April 2nd, March 26th, March 19th

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


"The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public." - Hugo Black

[multi]

exellent reading this week

KBROWN123 has done a bunk

wtf..?
disappeared ?