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16-01-03, 11:41 PM
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Join Date: May 2001
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Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - Jan. 18th, ‘03
Supreme Blunders
Perhaps it’s an American Yin to a European Yang, perhaps it’s because establishments change with agonizing slowness, perhaps it’s because something is fundamentally wrong with this system or perhaps it’s because of no particular reason at all but whatever the underlying factors ultimately are the verdict is abundantly clear: the U.S. Supreme court has decided that U.S. copyright law will remain firmly in the grip of a United States Congress that doesn’t need or understand it, and out of the hands of the citizens that do. An early morning valentine to a grasping oligarchy came this week on a clear and frigid Wednesday in Washington when the Court delivered the best news a media giant could hear: There will be no reversal of any copyright extensions granted by Congress. Originally a temporary monopoly lasting fourteen years, copyrights have now been fattened to 95 years for corporations or lifetime plus 70 years for authors. Copyrights now cover more while the public gets less. European copyrights last for a comparatively brief 50 years, an irritant for the Americans and something they’ll focus their efforts to change. The Supreme Court may well feel that Congress is derelict in its duty to its citizens but according to their latest assessment that dereliction is well within the powers granted by the Constitution. A U.S. court delivered a second blow to the flow of information this week by ruling that offshore Sharman Networks, Ltd, owners of the file sharing powerhouse KaZaA, can be sued for copyright violations in the United States. While it remains to be seen what this will mean on a practical level since stack developers for Fasttrack say their system can run independently as a pure peer-to-peer, this may be the nail in the coffin for P2Ps backed by VC development cash. If the case is lost it will certainly accelerate the capping or closing of P2P bandwidth by ISPs and universities. A third unsettling development comes to us this week by way of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The tech sector says they’ve done the math and figured the best odds are with the Content Cartels - so they’ve hopped into bed with the RIAA and delivered a honeymoon promise to use really good copy protection on their hot new hardware if the RIAA would just let their hair down and stop all the legal whining. Of course honeymoons end and relationships can fizzle so who knows what the union will produce, but I’m sure any failures won’t be from lack of effort. Meanwhile the movie guys are having none of it - for better or for worse they’ve decided to stay single - but only because they really are hot for a date with a certain legislature. When policy makers start asking why the United States went from being a media powerhouse to an also ran they can find their answers in decisions like these. The days of downloading content are far from over but as the world switches from old delivery models to new, I would’ve liked to have seen the U.S. take a more active and progressive leadership role instead of ceding the future of communications to others. Enjoy, Jack. "failing to protect the public” Supreme Court Keeps Copyright Protections Gina Holland - AP The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld lengthier copyrights protecting the profits of songs, books and cartoon characters - a huge victory for Disney and other companies. The 7-2 ruling, while not unexpected, was a blow to Internet publishers and others who wanted to make old books available online and use the likenesses of a Mickey Mouse cartoon and other old creations without paying high royalties. Hundreds of thousands of books, movies and songs were close to being released into the public domain when Congress extended the copyright by 20 years in 1998. Justices said the copyright extension, named for the late Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif., was neither unconstitutional overreaching by Congress, nor a violation of constitutional free-speech rights. Eric Eldred challenged the copyright extension, which he said unfairly limits what he can make available on a public web library he runs. The extension "protects authors' original expression from unrestricted exploitation," Ginsburg wrote in rejecting Eldred's free-speech claims. "Protection of that order does not raise the free speech concerns present when government compels or burdens the communication of particular facts or ideas." Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer disagreed with their colleagues. Stevens wrote that the court was "failing to protect the public interest in free access to the products of inventive and artistic genius." http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...N&SECTION=HOME http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Jan15.html http://balkin.blogspot.com/2003_01_1....html#87500874 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/bu...ia/16BIZC.html http://www.forbes.com/2003/01/15/cz_...copyright.html http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57237,00.html ‘Copyright will lose its meaning’ David Brooks A Derry man’s attempt to put more free books on the Internet was shot down Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court, and he says the court’s support of extended copyright laws will encourage more Internet sharing of material of the sort that many copyright holders call piracy. “The response from people who really want to have access to these works is to disregard copyright, and that’s dangerous,” Eric Eldred said after the court issued its ruling. “This will just increase the movement toward peer-to-peer networks.” http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/Main....rticleID=71766 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Digital Denial George F. Colony Digital media will transform the music and film industries--whether they like it or not. And entertainment business models have worked phenomenally for the past 75 years. Edwin Booth, the superstar stage actor of the mid-19th century, had fame and a modicum of wealth. But he was compensated, inflation adjusted, in his lifetime, at less than what Mel Gibson brings in per movie. John Phillip Sousa was renowned for musical compositions and performances at the turn of the century, but his career take was less than what Eminem made in 2002. What created this flood of money for today's artists and the companies that sponsor them? In a word, technology. Radio, records, film, tape, home audio, television, VCRs, CDs, and DVDs opened up avenues for syndicating music and film and drove high compensation. The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee Harrison Ford $25 million per movie. Technology got him to that figure. Technology can create extraordinary business equations as it did with entertainment. And technology can rewrite the formula. There are three inexorable factors that are changing the equation for entertainment. First, in the future there will be no medium--no piece of plastic, no spool of tape--that will contain film or music content. Second, consumers want liquidity in their entertainment product. Much of the MP3 ripping and burning that infuriates the Recording Industry Association of America is devoted to achieving mobility. Third, pricing will change. Lawyers and lobbyists can't stop these trends. End the denial. Get over it, get on with it, figure it out. Or end up in the dustbin of history with sheet music publishers. What it all means - http://news.com.com/2009-1122-980364.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EFF Blasts Controversial Copyright Law Lisa M. Bowman A controversial digital copyright law is quashing free speech and choking innovation, according to a new study by longtime critics of the measure. In its new "Unintended Consequences" report released Thursday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) lists a variety of cases triggered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law passed in 1998 designed to bring copyright law into the digital age. Hollywood studios, record labels and other intellectual property holders lobbied hard for the law, fearing that the Internet would become a forum for rampant piracy because it allows people to easily copy and distribute digital products. Unlike analog copies, which lose resolution with each replication, digital copies of products maintain their high quality. In its report, the EFF said aggressive applications of the law have reached beyond the intention of the measure. The EFF said the DMCA has had a threefold effect: chilling free expression and scientific research; jeopardizing fair use; and impeding competition. "In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy," the study's authors wrote. The study examines the fallout of a particular portion of the DMCA, known as the anti-circumvention provision, which prohibits cracking protections on copyrighted works, in most cases, or even telling people how to break into the software. Aside from narrow exceptions related to research or to reverse engineering, the law doesn't consider whether a person cracking the code plans to do so for legitimate purposes. The study lists more than a dozen cases where intellectual property holders have wielded the DMCA in ways the EFF says are overly aggressive and chilling. The study cites cases including those of Ed Felten, a Princeton professor who backed down from giving a speech about his research under threats from the record industry; Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian programmer who was jailed after speaking about software he developed that could crack Adobe Systems' eBooks; and Static Control Components, a company that allegedly reverse-engineered some of Lexmark International Group's printer component programs to get toner cartridges to work with Lexmark products. The study also cites media stories about foreign programmers who fear traveling to the United States because their work might get them in trouble, as well as comments from the White House cybersecurity chief Richard Clarke saying that the law needs be reformed because it's threatening research. The study's release comes as some Washington lawmakers have introduced a bill to scale back the anti-circumvention provisions. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980112.html You’ll find the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) full report here: http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20030102_...sequences.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DMCA defendant to stop making chip Declan McCullagh A federal judge has agreed to Static Control Components' offer to temporarily cease manufacturing a toner cartridge chip that drew a lawsuit under a controversial copyright law. Lexmark International Group, the No. 2 manufacturer of printers in the United States, sued Static Control in December 2002 for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by selling the Smartek chip. Aftermarket toner makers use the Smartek chip to trick Lexmark printers into accepting their cartridges. The lawsuit is one of the first brought under the DMCA, which is backed by copyright holders but has drawn fire from academics and programmers for restricting tinkering with software and hardware. Rep. Rick Boucher, R-Va., and three other members of Congress reintroduced a bill this week that would repeal key portions of the 1998 law. A particular section of the DMCA makes it generally unlawful to circumvent technology that restricts access to a copyrighted work. In a 17-page complaint filed Dec. 30, Lexmark claimed the Smartek chip mimics a technology used by Lexmark chips and unlawfully tricks the printer into accepting an aftermarket cartridge. That "circumvents the technological measure that controls access" to Lexmark's software, the complaint said. Lexmark said Thursday that it expects fourth-quarter earnings of 88 cents to 90 cents per share, more than the 70 cents to 80 cents per share it had projected in October. The company said sales were up 5 percent to 6 percent compared with the prior year. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980157.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hubs Increase Risk to Internet Kimberly Patch The Internet has much in common with air travel, according to researchers from Ohio State University. This does not bode well, considering how disruptive storms can be to the airlines. The researchers' analysis showed the overall vulnerability of the hub-and- spoke system for 41 network backbone providers. The most susceptible networks have the greatest reliance on hub-and-spoke configurations. The networks most susceptible to disconnection are AT&T, GTE, and Multacom, which would suffer significant performance hits and leave many smaller spoke cities without service with the loss of any one of eight, seven or six of the 14 largest hubs, respectively, according to the analysis. In contrast, there are 11 network providers that use network topologies that resemble a mesh rather than a hub and spokes; these providers are robust enough to survive the loss of any of the largest hubs. These mesh-like topologies are more expensive to construct, but clearly have advantages where survivability is concerned, according to Grubesic. http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2003/0...sk_122502.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For a fascinating look at the whole internet copyright conflict check out Bill Moyers’ excellent segment “Tollbooths on the Digital Highway” on his PBS program “Now”. It’s a well-crafted and zippy 20 minute primer on a usually dense and dry subject. You’ll find the transcript here http://www.pbs.org/now/printable/tra...ght_print.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AOL needs cash - looks to spin off cable stake Reuters A top AOL Time Warner executive told investors on Thursday that the media behemoth hoped to spin off its cable television operations during the second- quarter as part of its effort to begin paring down its weighty debt load. Under ideal conditions, analysts predicted AOL Time Warner would spin off a stake of between 25 percent and 30 percent of Time Warner Cable, the nation's No. 2 cable operator, raising about $6 billion. AOL Time Warner CFO Wayne Pace, speaking at the Salomon Smith Barney entertainment conference, said the company was aiming to close this month its agreement to buy Comcast's 27.6 percent stake in Time Warner Entertainment for about $9 billion. "We are looking for a second-quarter initial public offering for the cable company," Pace told investors. Spinning off its cable operations is part of the company's plans to expand its presence in the sector. The public offering will give the debt-laden company currency and the ability to acquire other cable rivals or take stakes in them. AOL's $106.2 billion purchase of Time Warner was partially driven by the desire to gain access to cable lines to push high-speed Internet services. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980097.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feds mull broadband market shake-up John Borland U.S. regulators plan to unveil a major overhaul in telecommunications policy in the coming weeks that could strengthen the hand of local phone monopolies in a number of key areas, including high-speed Internet access. At stake are arcane regulations governing how local phone companies must treat competitors seeking access to their lines and facilities. Those rules, set in 1996, were intended to be the cornerstone of a competitive marketplace for services that piggyback on the local phone networks. But some top policy-makers at the Federal Communications Commission have recently indicated that they believe consumers would do better if such rules were sharply curtailed. "It sounds like they want to set up two monopoly toll roads and say that's enough for competition," said Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America. That's not a good idea, he added. "Proprietary gatekeepers destroy the innovative fabric of the Internet." Bottom line, there's no argument that can be made that consumers would be better off with fewer broadband choices," said Jason Oxman, assistant general counsel for Covad, one of the few remaining independent DSL companies. "Consumers clearly have benefited from an explosion in broadband services." http://news.com.com/2100-1033-979356.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Broadband Access Grows 59%, narrowband continues decline. http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=26972 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mmmm Music “Free Downloading Eating Net Music” The European record industry must act now to curb the illegal free downloading of music and license their content to paid-for online music services. These are the main conclusions from new Net music industry research from Jupiter MMXI. This latest study shows how the legal music-downloading sites (such as MP3.com, Peoplesound.com and Vitaminic.com) are suffering as the usage of grey market, peer-to-peer applications (such as KaZaA, MusicCity Morpheus and Audiogalaxy) are increasing. Jupiter believes that the music industry’s attempts to regain control of this market through the courts, as seen with Napster, have not only failed to check the growth of file sharing but have also proved unpopular with consumers. In addition to tackling piracy, the record industry needs to offer compelling alternative options to the grey market that are worth paying for. Mulligan concluded, ‘Europe’s legitimate online music market is being left in the starting blocks by the unchecked growth of illegal file sharing. The record industry needs to crack down hard and fast on the software companies behind file sharing networks and at the same time get serious about licensing content so that legitimate services can offer compelling alternatives. If they fail to do this, the free music mindset will become permanently embedded in the new generation of music listeners and paid- for music services in Europe will never get off the ground.' http://www.mrons.com/drno/news1575.htm One can only hope… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Slumping record labels peer uneasily into Web-shrouded future John Soeder Eric Bazilian has seen the music industry's future and it's . . . a fish without gills? Speaking at the third annual Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit, the singer-songwriter of Hooters fame compared the industry at the dawn of a new digital age to the first prehistoric creature to crawl out of the ocean for a go at life on dry land. "Certain organs are going to develop further. But other organs like the gills are going to atrophy and fall away. Right now, we're all hoping we're not the ones [who] are going to atrophy," said Bazilian. In other words, evolve or die. That message came across loud and clear last week at Georgetown University, where artists, record company executives, dot-commies and others gathered to ponder their fates and the shape of musical things to come. The forward-thinking, three-day symposium was organized by the Future of Music Coalition, or FMC, a not-for-profit organization representing musicians and consumers. Nobody actually ventured a guess as to what music is going to sound like in, say, 2013. Too many other issues were on the table, not the least of which was how compact discs are destined to become as obsolete as eight-track tapes. "Ten years from now, you won't have CDs. The future of music is online distribution," said Bruce Lehman, president of the International Intellectual Property Institute. Amid plenty of prognostication, there also was kvetching about how bad things are right now, especially on the radio and at retail. Despite all the uncertainty out there, there's no reason to run scared from the future, said Marc Cooper, the Consumer Federation of America's research director. "Technological change has the potential to expand markets," Cooper said. "The problem is the initial knee-jerk reaction . . . to defend old business models. "It's absolutely critical to understand this is an opportunity." http://www.cleveland.com/entertainme...8200893140.xml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music's Broken Record Rick Aristotle Munarriz Michael Jackson called him "devilish," and Mariah Carey married him... until she realized all that's Glitter isn't gold. Now, ladies and gentlemen, Tommy Mottola has left the building. The abrupt resignation of Sony's (NYSE: SNE) music chief last night may have taken folks by surprise, but Mottola's not the only one frustrated with the current state of the music industry. The sale of prerecorded music has fallen off in each of the last three years, and everybody is pointing fingers at someone else. The music industry blames listeners, who have taken to pirated MP3 downloads in droves. Listeners blame artists for not releasing compelling material to make an entire CD worth purchasing. The artists? Well, they blame the label's marketing efforts. So if the blame game does nothing but go in circles, will anything ever be resolved? Four months ago, we looked at Napster's carnage. It's a real problem for the five major labels because there's no perfect solution. Copy-protected CDs can be defeated quickly, and they alienate the audience. Peer-to-peer file swapping is practically impossible to police effectively. The saving grace is that the five major labels are owned by major entertainment conglomerates. Sony, AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL), Vivendi (NYSE: V), EMI, and BMG have more than just listening experience in the industry. Most of them are entertainment powerhouses, and you're already seeing more emphasis placed on the physical product. From bonus DVD discs to CDs that unlock rich band-related content online, it's the consumer-friendly way to win this very ugly war. http://www.fool.com/News/Take/2003/mft/mft03011001.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Easy as That… TV Guy Now Label Guy Frank Ahrens Sony Corp. of America has tapped NBC President Andrew Lack, a recording industry outsider, to head its faltering music division, one day after Sony Music chief Thomas D. Mottola left the company to start his own record label. Lack, 55, is an acclaimed television veteran, having run the network's news division since 1993 and building "NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw" into the top-rated evening news telecast. He also presided over the creation of MSNBC, the cable news channel produced in cooperation with Microsoft Corp. He has never worked in the music industry, which he calls a "business in transition." However, his experience in merging television and the Internet fits nicely with Sony's strategy to sell its vast motion picture and music libraries online with the aid of Sony home electronics, such as the PS2 video game console. The music industry "has some pretty well-reported challenges," Lack said in an interview yesterday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Jan10.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music Industry Braces for a Shift Laura Holson, Geraldine Fabrikant The resignation last week of one of the music industry's most powerful figures, Thomas D. Mottola, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment, and his subsequent replacement by an outsider, Andrew Lack, a top NBC executive, has brought to the surface a growing sense of fear within the industry. The record business is bracing for a seismic shift and is increasingly reconciled to the fact that the current priorities of senior executives are outmoded. What the Lack appointment underscores, analysts and industry executives agree, is the notion that the business is in such shaky condition that only an executive schooled outside the industry can come up with the radical approach that may be needed. In the last two years, the industry's basic business structure — selling music to stores — has taken a blow. The industry is now selling 100 million fewer CD's and cassettes than it did in 2000. According to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks album sales, 681 million were sold in 2002, down from 785 million in 2000. At the same time, music-swapping on the Internet, perceived as a major threat, continues to grow. The industry's immediate problem is that although costs must be cut, the biggest costs of all — talent and marketing — are the toughest to rein in. And although many analysts and industry executives say they believe that further global consolidation is necessary — perhaps trimming the number of major recording companies to three from five — those financial benefits can go only so far. To some extent, mergers can help companies reduce overhead, which amounts to about a third of expenses, said Michael Nathanson, a music analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in New York. But he points out that in the music industry, as in other entertainment businesses, mergers will not put the lid on the basic impulse of entertainment executives to bid against one another for talent. The risk is that there will always be one profligate spender who starts a bidding war for artists, he noted. Talent and marketing costs are roughly 36 percent of overall budgets. "The business model doesn't work anymore," Mr. Nathanson said. "There is going to be more pain before it gets better." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/13/bu...ia/13TUNE.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thought it was cool… Giant Lava Lamp May Rise In Small Town http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...nm/lavalamp_dc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Napster’s concept morphs in networks Jim.Hillibish My nephew visiting for Christmas shocked me. He hasn’t bought a music CD in four years, yet he enjoys a huge music collection. Now I understand why the music business is so upset. He’s a senior at a large university. Every computer in the school, from personal ones in the dorms and frat houses to those in classrooms and labs, is networked. That means anybody can share files, even over a wireless system that allows computing under trees in the campus park. I’m certain the fathers of academia were sold on this system as a way to make students smarter, and indeed, they are. They can collaborate on discussions and work out problems and discover solutions at all hours, unencumbered by class schedules and time limits. Of course, since music and movies too are digital files, they share them, too. Microsoft realized years ago that the more expensive the software, the more it will be pirated. So Microsoft cut prices to the point where software bundled with a new computer is a very small percentage of the price. They make up the difference because they sell more if less is pirated. With music CDs running $18 for 12 songs, perhaps that’s something the industry should consider. The hardware cost of that CD probably is less than 50 cents. There’s room for substantial price cuts in exchange for higher sales. Of course, convincing an artiste of this economy may be impossible. They’ve decided to take exactly the opposite track, rapidly increasing prices to recoup at least a fraction of the pirating. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more they charge, the more files will be shared for free. Describing the file sharers as thieves and mobsters doesn’t seem to work, especially when they view the music industry as thieves and mobsters. The music biz spent piles of its royalties shutting down Napster in court, only to see the concept morph into scores of new directions, almost instantly. Hence, nearly every university and many company networks now are miniature Napsters. At this rate, the Dixie Chicks may never become trillionaires. http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?C...6&ID=79947&r=1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interview w/ former napster programer Nir Arbel of Soulseek. http://www.napjunk.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=712 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Says CD burners, internet to blame. Lafayette loses legendary record store Brad Kemp remembers the astonished looks on his customers' faces. Berry could literally hand them their favorite hits the second they walked through the door of his store, Raccoon Records. Twenty years later, Berry is lucky if customers leave with anything -- if they bother to come in at all. "We've had people at the counter decide not to buy," said Berry, who opened Raccoon Records in 1974. "One girl had something to buy and she turned to her friend, who said, 'Don't buy it. I'll burn you one,' " meaning she could get the music from the Internet for free. Berry cites CD burners on computers, Internet file sharing and competition from national discount chains as the reasons why Raccoon Records is closing after 28 years. No closing day has been set, but Berry estimates all merchandise should be gone by mid- to late February. "Kids are proud they have hundreds and hundreds of songs on their hard drives. Those that didn't have CD burners were getting them for Christmas. We can't make it like that," Berry said. Raccoon's "Wall of Hits" is bare, just as most record bins in the 5,200 square-foot store. The remaining CDs and cassette tapes are marked at 30 percent off. http://vh80299.vh8.infi.net/html/94A...8E4B19F9.shtml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This Music store is beating the odds With all the music megastores cropping up these days, it's not easy to keep a small underground music shop open. One of the oldest and best of these offbeat but personal shops is Hyang Music in Sinchon, founded by Kim Gun-hil in 1992. Although just a hole in the wall among a plethora of DVD-bangs, noraebangs and cell phone shops, Hyang Music is impossible to miss. The front window is bedecked with dozens of CDs and posters of underground artists. Inside, the walls are covered with electronica, rock and hip-hop disks. And it's all underground. You can tell by the clientele: Deejays from the nightlife areas around Hongik University and Sinchon hang out at Hyang Music; many use the shop as a base to promote themselves. The store has had some stiff challenges. One is the rise in MP3 file- sharing programs; another is the proliferation of big book and music stores, such as the Synnara Record outlet in Sinchon, which used to be Tower Records. Before the financial crisis of 1997-8, a few other underground music shops were also operating in Sinchon. Now Hyang Music is the only one. Mr. Kim kept the shop alive by consistently marketing underground labels from the United States, Europe and Korea; other underground music shops tried futilely to compete with the former Tower Records by switching to popular music. Here's the update on Hyang Music: It's still stocking the latest imports in underground hip-hop, rock, electronica and sound tracks. After a purchase of an album that isn't on sale, you get a membership card good for discounts on later purchases. The shop also has an online store at hyangmusic.com where you can find a wide range of disks and also read comprehensive music reviews. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/20030...092109211.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stolen Beatles Tapes Found Police raids in England and the Netherlands on Friday recovered what could be about 500 original Beatles tapes that were stolen in the 1970s, including some never-released tracks. British police said the tapes were "priceless," and that the only such recordings that have been heard before were bootlegs. Dutch police, who recovered all the tapes in the Netherlands, agreed, but said they were still analyzing the material. "We're currently investigating whether they really are the originals, but it appears to be so," said prosecutor spokesman Robert Meulenbroek in Amsterdam. "There are about 500 tapes, so there's quite a bit to research." Five people were arrested in separate police raids in England and Holland. Their names were not immediately released. The tapes contain what are known as the "Get Back" sessions, which were to become an album in 1969 before the project was shelved. Some of the songs, including "Get Back" itself, became part of the "Let It Be" album, said London police. http://entertainment.msn.com/news/ar...px?news=111641 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Groove Codes for Tablet PC Groove Networks, in Beverly, Mass., is adapting its peer-to-peer collaboration system to Tablet PC. Ray Ozzie, Groove's CEO says, "Almost daily I have conversations on the phone with business associates and partners where I could use the ability to sketch a picture or visually share and annotate a document to enhance the communication." Ozzie agrees that the Tablet PC can help users work more naturally across business boundaries, reducing the cost of coordination and accelerating decision making. http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ap...13apcollab.xml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dream Discs - 47 DVDs Per Square Inch Eric Smalley Cramming lots of information into very small spaces means making and measuring infinitesimal containers for each bit of data. Researchers from Tohoku University, the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science, and Pioneer Corporation in Japan have found a way to store huge amounts of data after figuring out how to make many tiny, inverted dots in a thin film of metal and determining how to sense the state of each dot. The dots are as small as 10 nanometers in diameter and store one bit of information each. A nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter, or the equivalent of a line of 10 hydrogen atoms. The researchers' prototype storage device packs 1.5 trillion dots per square inch, and so could store 1.5 terabits in one square inch of material, said Yasuo Cho, an associate professor of electrical engineering at Tohoku University in Japan. That's the equivalent of 48 million 250-page books, or 47 DVDs. http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2003/0...ge_011503.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Power lines promising for Internet expansion AP The same power lines that bring electricity to televisions and toasters may become the next pathway into homes for high-speed Internet access. The technology offers an alternative to cable and telephone lines as a way to get broadband service, with its ability to quickly deliver large amounts of data and high-quality video signals. Federal officials in the United States are seriously evaluating the technology for public use, the U.S. government announced Wednesday. "Every power plug in your home becomes a broadband connection," said Edmond Thomas, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology. He said companies developing the technology have overcome many hurdles in the past year. "It's starting to look like a very viable technology," said Thomas, who described the technology in a presentation to the agency's five commissioners. "We're very excited." http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/se...nology/techBN/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Annual Snapshot of US Home Video The US home video sector enjoyed record-breaking rental and sales revenues in 2001. This is according to the latest annual report on the home entertainment industry from the Video Software Dealers’ Association (VSDA). The report details how the American home video industry experienced its best year ever in 2001. It is believed that it took in excess of $18 billion during the 12 months. Home video consumers spent $7 billion renting VHS tapes and an all-time-high $1.4 billion renting DVDs. Consumers spent an additional $5.4 billion purchasing DVDs and $4.9 billion purchasing VHS tapes. The new data represents part of the VSDA's sixth consecutive Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry. The 2002 report is a year-end recap of 2001 and includes a view-from-the-top analysis of the rapidly changing landscape of home entertainment. The report also includes data on video game rental and sales data, hardware penetration rates, video retailer information, video control and piracy issues, the effects of the peer-to-peer networks on music sales, and the future of Internet video-on-demand. http://www.mrons.com/drno/news1751.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Converting to Wi-Fi Making Pay Phones Pay Stephanie N. Mehta When was the last time you used a pay phone? Like many folks you probably long ago ditched quarters in favor of a cellphone. Which helps explain why Bell Canada recently started converting public pay phones in Toronto, Montreal, and Kingston into terminals for "Wi-Fi" Internet connections. Some U.S. phone companies may soon follow suit. Wi-Fi, short for "wireless fidelity," is a wireless local area network that uses unlicensed airwaves to link laptop users. The service is the hottest thing in telecom these days, and Wi-Fi antennas and radios are popping up in Starbucks cafes, city parks, and shopping malls. The ideal location? A high-traffic area with a wired, high-speed connection to the Net. Pay phones are a perfect solution. Phone lines can be sped up using DSL technology. Plus the phones are already installed in airports, hotel lobbies--the very places people want to communicate, notes Martin Dunsby of wireless consultancy InCode Telecom, which is working with Bell Canada. Right now Bell Canada is offering a trial service free to users with Wi-Fi- enabled laptops. But you can bet that once phone companies start charging for access, those now overlooked pay phones may once again be raking in quarters. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/techn...405456,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ian Clarks’ Locutus. Now Playing - v.02.2. http://locut.us/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Capping again Ma? Get used to it. Press release MERRIMACK, N.H. -- Ellacoya Networksä, Inc., an innovative provider of service control systems for broadband networks, today announced it has received $14 million in venture financing for continued business operations and the commercialization of its IP Service Control System. The IP Service Control System improves broadband customer satisfaction by enabling the broadband operator to monitor network usage patterns and manage resources accordingly so that all users receive the level of service entitled by their service plan. New investors Flagship Ventures and Atlas Venture join existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Goldman Sachs in participating in the round. The use of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and other robotic applications are continuously rising, consuming up to 70% of network capacity at peak times, but primarily enjoyed by less than 10% of subscribers. Consequently, interactive users (web-surfers, e-mailers, etc), comprising a majority of the subscriber base, are experiencing poor service levels at peak usage times. Broadband operators can deploy Ellacoya technology to identify network traffic by application and insure that both interactive and P2P users receive the level of service to which they have subscribed even during peak times. The platform can further be leveraged to offer flexible service plans that meet the needs of a broad range of users. “The broadband market is still in its early stages, so the potential for mass adoption of our technology is very exciting,” said Ron Sege, president and CEO of Ellacoya Networks. “Our platform helps broadband operators deal with the sudden increase in robotic applications, while providing a framework for flexible service plans that can speed the next wave of broadband service adoption. We are pleased to participate in this market with a product that contributes to its growth, and we appreciate our investors’ confidence.” http://www.lightreading.com/document...g&doc_id=26763 Ellacoya Lands New Customers Peter J. Howe Ellacoya chief executive Ron Sege, a former senior executive of Web portal Lycos.com, said peer- to-peer file sharing ''is probably 10 times more popular now than it was at Napster's peak'' before federal courts shut down the pioneering service in the summer of 2000, ruling that it faciliated massive theft of copyrighted content. But today, network operators are finding 5 or 10 percent of their users are hogging 70 percent of the network usage by sharing music and video files over Napster successors. After initially positioning itself as a wide-ranging system for big broadband operators to create and bill for specialized data services, Sege said Ellacoya has since found a promising niche selling systems to keep peer-to-peer traffic from clogging networks. It hopes to use these as a springboard to sell a full suite of network management services. The customers being announced today are generally tiny and obscure utility and cable companies that operate small-scale broadband systems, including Aurora Cable Internet in Ontario, Cedar Falls Utilities and Muscatine Power & Water in Iowa, Coldwater Board of Public Utilities in Minnesota, Eastlink Cable Systems in Nova Scotia, and Murray Electric System in Kentucky. Sege hopes they will help clinch deals at larger cable and Internet system operators. Ellacoya's system enables broadband network operators to ''look into'' data packets that are flowing over the network and give the highest priority to legitimate e-mail and Web surfing while making peer-to-peer traffic ''fly coach or standby instead of first-class,'' Sege said. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/01...funding+.shtml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ University has taken steps to limit bandwidth P2P software brings problems By Melissa Lemorie / News Editor The Internet, with its seemingly infinite potential for communication and information, has proven an invaluable resource for the average college campus in recent years. Technologies such as peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing now make it easier than ever to exchange knowledge. Since the lawsuits concerning the now defunct P2P sharing system Napster, P2P technology has been the focus of negative attention from the both the recording and motion picture industry, as well as software companies. The Recording Industry Association of America claims that illegitimate uses of this technology, such as the sharing of copyrighted music files, results in the potential loss of millions of dollars in their industry alone, according to information found on their Web site. According to the Eastern Michigan University Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources policy, “No person may copy or distribute software, or its documentation, without the permission of the copyright holder,” which means students who use file-sharing technology, such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Imesh, or Gnutella to obtain copyrighted files are subject to disciplinary action from the university. Internet piracy also violates the Michnet Acceptable Use Policy, of which EMU is a member. “In the past, EMU has received specific complaints from the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America that alleged that a specific computer on our network was serving copyrighted material illegally to the Internet via something like Kazaa,” said Rocky Jenkins, director of Network and Web Services at EMU. “In these cases, we identify the person who owns the computer in question and disconnect the computer from the network. We ask the person who owns the computer in question that they show proof that they have a right to distribute the work in question or ask them to remove the allegedly illegal material from their computer. These complaints are directly attributable to file-sharing technologies.” http://www.easternecho.com/news/2003...30103_p2p.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More sensible approach to campus bandwidth File Sharing is at Heart of Server Speed Issues Sharon Albright Information Services connect last month's temporarily slow server to the need for additional software to handle file sharing, according to the department director. For the last year and a half, Information Services has relied on a packet shaper device to ensure that file sharing does not take up more than a specified amount of the server's bandwidth at any given time. But, occasionally, this device needs to be brought up to speed to take into account new downloading options. "The server was running slower because KaZaa had come up with a different way of getting around the limitations that we had in place," said Paul Crittenden, computer system administrator for Information Services. "In order to get the speed under control, I had to update our software with these modifications." Crittenden says that the limitations on file sharing should not cause concern among students, since its ultimate purpose rests in preserving everyone's right to use the Internet for their own purposes. Crittenden reminds students and faculty that the server is a shared resource, and he recommends that everyone does their part to keep it running efficiently. "Just use courtesy and consider using off-times to download large files. If a file is going to tie up the bandwidth for an awful long time, the best time to start it is between midnight and 6 a.m.," Crittenden said. http://www.thesimpsonian.com/vnews/d.../3e25ec3baee42 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hitting P2P Users Where It Hurts James Maguire Most of Marc Morganstern's top clients won't publicly acknowledge hiring his company. And, for his part, Morganstern can't reveal the names of clients he describes as the leading music, film and game- development companies. As part of their contract with Overpeer, of which Morganstern is CEO, all parties sign a confidentiality agreement. Why the secrecy? Unable to snuff out file-swapping networks in court, record labels and other media outfits are shifting their anti-peer-to-peer crusade to a new venue: the file-trading networks themselves. That's where Overpeer comes in. Overpeer "intervenes on behalf of our clients to protect their content from piracy on P2P networks. And, in certain cases, we also may help them build relationships with potential customers who happen to be on the P2P site," Morganstern said. Overpeer's patent application offers a few more clues. The application, which credits Overpeer board members Cheol-Woong Lee and Chang-Young Lee as inventors, describes the methodology: 1) Search for digital music file on network. 2) Collect illegally produced digital music file. 3) Edit illegally produced digital music file (damage sound quality). 4) Distribute digital music file on network. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57112,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Digital Piracy: The Show Must Go On Howard Greenfield In a year or two, free broadband exchange of videos, music, and movies will begin to come under some kind of industry control. In the mean time, the commercialisation of the current interactive sharing system seems elusive at best. In an effort to tame the situation, a bewildering number of rights management and security solutions are being floated by companies and organizations that stand to win or lose in the great digital marketplace. Entertainment companies have a golden goose to protect and copyrighted assets will benefit from widespread digital rights management (DRM) and the thwarting of gratis distribution of digital media content. For now though, consumers share files like crazy. Free access reigns, as new and classic material is bootlegged through CDs and global peer-to-peer networks. Broadcast television programming has always been supported by commercials and service subscriptions. However, in Cyberspace, there is a tradition, a great heritage of getting stuff for free on the internet. It is even arguable that the internet’s free access to words, images, and software (also eventually including cracked, copyrighted entertainment content) is what originally made the online experience so compelling and universal, contributing to its huge growth and current position as the world’s foremost new mass medium. Now, however, digital battle-lines have clearly formed between content-providers and consumers. Government is trying to fix the problem. Representative Howard L. Berman (D - CA), U.S. congressman representing a Hollywood constituency, has been pushing a remarkable new piece of legislation this year. Berman asserts, "massive theft of copyrighted works is the predominant use for public P2P networks today." He also says, "copyright owners should have the same right as other property owners to stop the notorious, brazen, and open theft of their property." But as a legislator, Berman’s position, however well intended, has struck many as being Orwellian. Though tempered by industry reaction, his bill authorises companies to secretly log on to the computer of someone caught illegally downloading copyrighted content, and eject them from the internet. After government, there’s Microsoft. Their Media Player – bundled with every version of Windows – and therefore nearly every PC shipped – has just added new content protection features. For one, it enables a file format with fixed-time expiration licences. In other words, the customer "rents" a download. Peter Gabriel released his latest album, Up in this manner and provided free previews from October 1 to 8. However, some experts believe this is insufficient protection, and that the road to true, secure entertainment assets will not be simple or cheap. Michiel Willemsen, of Irdeto Access – which provides secure conditional access to over 100 pay-media companies world-wide, thinks a real solution is still beyond the grasp of current PC economics and technology: "Software encryption in an open (Windows PC or any other open platform) environment is vulnerable to hacking attacks. The software environment is well known, excellently documented. There is an abundance of highly trained specialists." And security attacks can come 'from within' – someone with a legal subscription or legally obtained keys. Willemsen believes more formidable security is needed – such as smart card technology combined with integrated decryption/decompression, and an 'always-on' environment. http://www.europemedia.net/showfeatu...ticleID=14358# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Improved Morpheus client due by midyear James Niccolai and Joris Evers StreamCast Networks is preparing an upgrade to its Morpheus file-sharing software that will allow users to search further across the peer-to-peer network for songs and other files, making it easier to locate obscure or rare recordings, Streamcast Chairman and CEO Steve Griffin said Saturday. The company also is preparing a Web-based, "remote control" version of its software for PDAs and mobile phones. While away from home, users will be able to instruct the Morpheus client software on their PC to locate and retrieve files for playback when they return, Griffin said. Both enhancements are due by midyear, he added. Like some other file sharing services, when Morpheus scours the Internet for a file it looks at a "cluster" of only about 15,000 PCs, even though as many as a million Morpheus users may be online at any given time. Griffin said. While that's often enough machines to find a popular song, for example, more obscure files sometimes don't show up. By midyear the company will introduce an upgrade to its client that allows "cluster-hopping." If the Morpheus client doesn't find what it's looking for in the user's local cluster it will hop further afield to different clusters until it finds the file, Griffin said, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show. The update will likely include other tweaks intended to boost the performance of the software and make it easier to use, he said. It will also be made smaller and therefore easier to download, Griffin said. http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0113impromorph.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I am happy to see it." - Napster prosecutor Digital Experts Swap Copy Protection Talk Elisa Batista The battle over who owns digital content and whether it is moral or even legal to download and distribute over the Internet won't be resolved this year, said some high profile speakers at the Consumer Electronics tradeshow. When asked to predict the outcome of proposed legislation and litigation brought by recording studios against digital file-sharing websites, Scott Dinsdale of the Motion Picture Association of America, said he hoped that the "progress" made by the studios to protect themselves from piracy wouldn't be hampered. In the other corner, Steve Griffin, CEO of StreamCast Networks, a company that promotes peer-to-peer systems and has already been sued by "29 of the most powerful" media companies – "you can't get anymore sued than our company has," he joked -- was confident that the recording studios would drop their suit and embrace file-sharing technology to distribute their content. Receiving more hoots and hollers than anyone else on that panel was Steve Wozniak, an Apple co-founder and perhaps the most prominent speaker. Wozniak said he couldn't comment either way, "I'm really kind of neutral." But one thing's for sure: Some electronics makers have already made up their minds. During last week's CES show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, many electronic manufacturers introduced products that would prohibit people from sharing copied or downloaded digital content. Semiconductor chipmaker Silicon Image, for example, said it was testing silicon for digital television sets and other digital media products that would limit the recording of certain programs. Meanwhile, TiVo said it added "TiVo Guard" to its digital recording service to prohibit people from sending content from their TiVo recorders to other people's homes. The guard also limits viewing of a program to one machine at a time even within a single home. Such products caught the eye of George Borkowski, a lead attorney in the prosecution against Napster, who said, "I am happy to see it." http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57181,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hollywood muscles Australian ISPs over piracy Dan Warne Hollywood giant Warner Bros has started ordering Australian ISPs to disconnect users for sharing copyright material. One ISP, which asked not to be named in this story, received a letter from a company called Media Force, acting on behalf of Warner Bros, listing the IP address of users who had shared movies, along with infringement times and dates. The Australian ISP community was today hotly debating the topic of what to do in response to the demands. Some ISPs advocated warning or disconnecting users, while others believed US companies had no jurisdiction in Australian law, but were seeking legal advice. The company behind the letter is Media Force, a New York based anti-piracy group that uses "advanced scanning techniques" to monitor piracy across the internet and report infringing users. According to its website, the company monitors Napster/OpenNap, Aimster, Swapnut, Gnutella (Bearshare, Limewire & others), AudioGalaxy, Hotline, iMesh, KaZaA, Morpheus/MusicCity, Grokster, Xolox, FTP Sites and IRC. But the company does not just monitor copyright violations, it encourages ISPs to block or restrict file sharing ports on their services. It is also behind 'decoy' files placed on file sharing networks which look like real pirate files, but are mostly garbled sound and picture. http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1054 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Senators Skeptical of Broadband Telco Deregulation http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=26951 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Judge: Kazaa Can Be Sued In U.S. Roy Mark After studying the facts of the case for more than a month, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson has ruled music and movie picture companies can sue the off-shore file-swapping site Kazaa, which argued it was exempt from U.S. jurisdiction because it is based in Australia and incorporated on the island of Vanuatu. The ruling is major victory for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which have been seeking to include Kazaa, which is owned by Sharman Networks, Ltd., in a massive copyright infringement suit brought against a number of file swapping companies, including Tennessee's MusicCity.com, Inc. and MusicCity Networks, Inc. (which runs the popular Morpheus service), and West Indies-based Grokster, LTD. Wilson ruled that Kazaa does substantial business in the U.S and since it is alleged the company engages in copyright infringement, the company is subject to U.S. law. The music and movie empires claim the file-swapping sites are costing the industries billions, and the entertainment industry has been unrelenting in its legal and legislative assault on what it considers to be largest heist in the history of intellectual property rights. The RIAA attorneys contend that Kazaa's peer-to-peer network is used by about 21 million users in the U.S. to share digital files. In addition to its off-shore status, Sharman argued that Kazaa should not be held liable for copyright infringement, pointing out that PC makers aren't responsible for the actions of destructive hackers. http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/1568591 Sharman Networks to fight Californian judgement Jeanne-Vida Douglas Sydney-based Sharman Networks, which owns the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer software, has announced it intends to launch a counterclaim following the US District Judge Stephen Wilson's decision to allow a US lawsuit against the company to proceed. The company decided to go ahead with the counterclaim after reviewing Judge Wilson's "thoughtful" 46-page decision handed down on Friday last week. "While Sharman is disappointed with the court's conclusion that the Constitution permits this case to be heard in the United States, we fully expect to prevail on the merits," the statement said. "Sharman's upcoming counterclaim will set forth the full story for the first time." The company is declining to reveal any further details at this stage. Friday's judgement ruled that record companies and movie studios are able to proceed with a lawsuit against the parent company of Kazaa--the most popular online file-swapping service--in the United States. The decision was taken on the basis that Kazaa software had been downloaded and used by millions of Californians, thus enabling the US-based lawsuit to proceed. Although based in Sydney, Sharman Networks is incorporated in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu and had previously filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing it was not bound by US laws since it did not have substantial contacts with California. http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/ebu...0271194,00.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "It is tragic that decisions are being made on copyright issues," SonicBlue Says Development of New Devices on Track Ben Berkowitz A slow holiday shopping season had a serious impact on consumer electronics sales, but development of new devices connecting digital media and home entertainment centers is still on track, according to the chief executive of consumer electronics maker SonicBlue Inc. In an interview with Reuters on Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, SonicBlue's Greg Ballard said the holiday season weakened as people spent less money on things for the home and more on relaxation. Ballard said the main impact of the suit has been to keep the company from adding some features to devices in development that he said would have been legal but may have invited further legal action. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...h_sonicblue_dc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summus Chooses Calysto Communications for Strategic Public Relations Counsel Press Release Summus, Inc a developer of applications and information processing tools that optimize the wireless multimedia experience, has selected Calysto Communications, an Atlanta-based niche public relations firm focusing solely on wireless and communications companies, to promote the company's BlueFuel(tm) platform and multiple wireless applications. Summus, Inc., based in Raleigh, N.C., has developed a series of solutions to change the way information is communicated and processed through mobile and wireless networks. Summus offers a host of products and services based on its BlueFuel platform that enable wireless users to access multimedia services faster and on a wider range of mobile devices. exego, the first application powered by BlueFuel, gives users the ability to access, share, and transfer files and digital multimedia information of any size to and from any location in the world via their mobile phone or PDA. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...2003,+05:35+AM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Security flaw may threaten cellphones running MS Microsoft and U.K. carrier Orange are investigating whether hackers are sending rogue software to cellphones using Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 operating system. Instructions about avoiding the security catches inside the smart phone, which Orange sells and calls the SPV, were made public the last few days, Orange spokesman Stuart Jackson said. The SPV is the only wireless device on sale that uses Microsoft's operating system for advanced phones. The possibility of rogue software flooding through cellphone networks is among the worst fears that carriers have, said Alan Reiter, an analyst with consulting company Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing. Cellphone networks became vulnerable to such attacks when carriers began selling phones that can download software and games, ring tones and business tools became available for download, he said. "Carriers will have to offer as many different applications from as many different vendors and make downloading as easy as possible," Mr. Reiter said. "But the easier it is to transmit and receive data, the more likely it is to get a virus or some rogue code." To his knowledge, however, no one has accomplished on cellphones anything that even compares to the virus attacks that often cripple computer networks. "Obviously, the carriers can't stand this happening," Mr. Reiter said. But it's only a matter of time, he added. http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/se...nology/techBN/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Novelist Who Walks the Walk Paul Boutin An award-winning science fiction writer and digital rights activist has persuaded the publisher of his first novel to make the book available free online for anyone to read, print or even republish on paper. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, a science fiction tale that revolves around the employees of a dystopian Disney World sometime in the 22nd century, is writer Cory Doctorow's first published novel. The 31-year-old Canadian writer won the John W. Campbell Award for best new science fiction writer at the 2000 Hugo convention. Doctorow's fans aren't surprised to find his book online for free. The plots of his most recent short story, "0wnz0red," involves digital rights management, or how files are protected from sharing and copying. Moreover, Doctorow is known outside science fiction circles for his prolific, passionate posts about digital rights issues on the BoingBoing weblog and other forums, as well as his work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "I don't believe that I am giving up book royalties," Doctorow said about persuading his publisher, Tor Books, to make Down and Out available digitally for free under the new Creative Commons licensing system. "(Downloads) crossed the 10,000-download threshold at 8 a.m. this morning," Doctorow said Thursday, "which exceeds the initial print run for the book." http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57152,00.html Downloads http://www.craphound.com/down/download.php ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yikes! Campus jitters used to mean the RA vs. your pot stash. Now it's it's the RIAA vs. your P2P horde. Doonesbury Comic. http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dail...b&uc_daction=X ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cartel's Copyright Control Loosening Dan Gillmor For several days last week, the cavernous convention halls here became battlefields in the copyright wars. On balance, the entertainment cartel didn't seem to be doing very well. Some of the gadgets on display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show were surely the kinds of things that make the Hollywood studios and their music- industry allies cringe -- increasingly capable digital devices that, yes, can be tools for copyright infringement as well as legitimate uses. There are more hard- disk music and video recording and playback devices all the time, for example, and the disk capacities are doubling about every year. The gear I saw here paid lip service to the cartel's wish for absolute control over how copyrighted material may be used. So far, hard-disk music players can be connected to personal computers but not to each other, thereby requiring an intermediate step for anyone who wants to easily share files with someone else using the same kind of device. Still, it was evident that -- technologically speaking, at any rate -- tomorrow is not on the side of the copyright control freaks. Information doesn't want to be free, but customers definitely want it to. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...ey/4929834.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Time to rethink the digital copyright act Hiawatha Bray You can see the future. Already some auto parts have chips embedded in them. Imagine a day when you can only replace a Ford headlamp with another Ford headlamp, or the car will stop running. Or imagine buying a house with nothing but Whirlpool appliances, designed so that a Kenmore fridge won't work. Extreme? Sure. But perfectly legal, if Lexmark has its way. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/01...ght_act+.shtml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Holy war over gospel Mbali Mlambo Johannesburg - A copyright battle over gospel music is looming as churches square up against gospel artists who take church hymns without permission and rearrange them without crediting the composers or paying royalties to the churches. The holy war erupted when a leading member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA), Wellington Ntshangase, accused Mthunzi Namba of Joyous Celebration fame of failing to credit the church for four hymns he used on his latest album, Send Your Glory. Some of the artists remain defiant in their stance not to credit the original composers of recorded hymns, nor do they recognise church ownership of the music. The music "belongs to God," said one. Ntshangase lashed out at the gospel star for "presenting songs taken from hymn books of the church as his original work". An industry insider told City Press that this case might deter infringement of copyright in the R25m a year gospel industry. He further estimated that the denial of acknowledgement to churches and hymn composers could mean that they are deprived of about R1.8 million a year. "The gospel music industry in South Africa arguably sells about one million units (CDs and cassettes combined) a year. If one took an average wholesale price of R25 a unit, the gross sales revenue would be R25 million a year," said the source. "One income sector of musical work - mechanical copyright income from the making of the record - would amount to R1.69 million a year based on the one million units sold. "If one factors in the performance, synchronisation and other copyright income sectors, one could apply a factor of 2.5%, to come up with a total copyright income generation of roughly R4.2 million." Lesley Sedibe of the Recording Industry of South Africa confirmed that gospel music has the biggest share of the local market, followed by kwaito. http://www.news24.com/News24/Enterta...306257,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sharelive’s back up. http://www.intimidated.f2s.com/sharelive/ |
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Join Date: May 2001
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Song Lyrics Stored in Bacteria
Natasha McDowell A message encoded as artificial DNA can be stored within the genomes of multiplying bacteria and then accurately retrieved, US scientists have shown. Their concern that all current ways of storing information, from paper to electronic memory, can easily be lost or destroyed prompted them to devise a new type of memory - within living organisms. "A big concern is the protection of valuable information in the case of a nuclear catastrophe," says information technologist Pak Chung Wong, of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington State. The laboratory was set up as a nuclear energy research institute. The scientists took the words of the song It's a Small World and translated it into a code based on the four "letters" of DNA. They then created artificial DNA strands recording different parts of the song. These DNA messages, each about 150 bases long, were inserted into bacteria such as E. coli and Deinococcus radiodurans. "The magic of the sentinel is that it protects the information, so that even after a hundred bacterial generations we were able to retrieve the exact message," says Wong. "Once the DNA message is in bacteria, it is protected and can survive." And as a millilitre of liquid can contain up to billion bacteria, the potential capacity of such a memory system is enormous. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993243 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Studio copyright battles worthy of Hollywood script Stefanie Olsen The Internet's long-held promise of offering every movie ever made is facing a threat far more powerful than any studio chief, box-office star or pitbull uber- agent: the Hollywood contract. Although the movie industry is taking steps that signal new seriousness about selling works online, complex matters of intellectual property rights could keep some titles offline for years, according to those negotiating such deals. "Clearing rights to movies is the biggest single hurdle to Internet video on demand today," said CinemaNow Chief Executive Curt Marvis, whose company struck a deal late last year to sell first-run movies from Warner Bros., including the smash hit "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." "The studios would like to give us more, but can't clear the titles," he said. "There are strange clauses attached to almost every film because the Internet either wasn't contemplated or the contracts were loosely worded." The movie business is hardly the first industry to encounter problems with online licensing. Internet music retailers are still seeking the rights to sell songs by The Beatles and other major artists, even after hammering out deals with all of the leading record labels. And in 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Internet publishers to pay up or pull work by freelance writers whose articles were republished online without permission. But those cases pale in comparison to the massive battles looming in the movie industry, which typically include many more legal layers and parties who bring considerable muscle--not to mention ego--to the bargaining table. One of the biggest stumbling blocks involves rights to popular music played in films. Movie studios typically own the rights to the score of a movie--or music that's specifically written for a film--but popular music of the times played throughout a film must be licensed separately. "The studios all claim that they are having problems clearing the music rights," Taplin said. "On some levels this is a bit of posturing, as I think they want to release only a small amount of content to IP sites. They seem to have no problem releasing any film to cable systems, so it really becomes a definition of what is the 'TV rights' vis-a-vis IP delivery." http://news.com.com/2009-1023-979754...g=fd_lede1_hed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FCC's Powell Calls TiVo 'God's Machine' Jim Krane The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) is a new convert — to the personal digital video recorder faithful. "My favorite product that I got for Christmas is TiVo," FCC chairman Michael Powell said during a question and answer session at the International Consumer Electronics Show. "TiVo is God's machine." If Powell's enthusiasm for digital recordings of TV broadcasts are reflected in FCC rulings, the entertainment industry could find it difficult to push in Washington its agenda for technical restrictions on making and sharing such recordings. Powell said he intended to use the TiVo machine to record TV shows to play on other television sets in his home, and even suggested that he might share recordings with his sister if she were to miss a favorite show. "I'd like to move it to other TVs," he said of his digitally recorded programming. A number of products already allow that. A TiVo competitor, SONICblue, has been sued by top motion picture studios and some television networks over a ReplayTV device that enables users to share digitally recorded shows over the Internet with a limited group of fellow ReplayTV owners. Powell made the statements during a brief exchange with Gary Shapiro, who heads the Consumer Electronics Association, a lobbying group opposed to government-imposed restrictions on TiVo-like digital recording technology. Shapiro was clearly delighted, calling Powell's statement "good news" and suggesting to Powell that his regulatory authority might allow him to rule in favor of sharing recorded TV broadcasts. "That's up to you, actually," Shapiro said. "We're glad. We hope some of your colleagues in Congress buy a TiVo as well." Many in Hollywood have railed against the machines, saying they could cut into TV advertising revenues if fewer people watch the commercials that underwrite broadcasters' business. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...c_loves_tivo_1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Excellent Gnutella Hybrid. Shareaza v1.8 released. http://www.shareaza.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learning Your Limits You've got to know your limitations. And these cases demonstrate one of them clearly, and show why Hollywood, the record companies and publishers will face big problems if they continue down their current path to protect their works from being copyrighted. For what Hollywood and other copyright holders are trying to make illegal amounts to taking away the property rights of the very buyers of their wares. Echoing the sentiments of the ElcomSoft jury, Johansen's lawyer told the Oslo court in his closing argument "The thief who breaks into his own flat is not committing any crime." And the court agreed, saying he was entitled to view DVDs that he had legally purchased in any way he chose and couldn't be convicted of "breaking into" property that he already owned. Furthermore, as Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig argued defending Dimitri Sklyarov, making decryption illegal, as DMCA does, "not only interferes with the legitimate use of copyrighted material, it undermines security more generally. Research into security and encryption depends on the right to crack and report." And finally, seeking to apply American law and standards to foreign programmers sets a terrible precedent for the future of the Internet. http://www.techcentralstation.com/10...D=1051-010903D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sharing Digital Content Is Your Right, Intel Says James Niccolai Consumers have a right to share music, videos, and other digital content that they have purchased between their computing devices, and a commercial model needs to be developed that allows them to do so, Intel Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett said at the Consumer Electronics Show Thursday. As a company that spends billions of dollars on research and development, and files for thousands of technology patents a year, Intel understands the value of intellectual property, he said. But consumers have an "expectation" that they'll be able to use legally acquired content however they want to. "There's no simple solution to this," he said. "Law enforcement has a role to play, and anyone who grossly violates anybody's content should be severely dealt with," he said. Equipment makers can also help by using technology that limits the "retransmission" of content. "There also has to be an acceptable commercial model to let people send content over the Internet," Barrett said. The digitization of the world will be led by young people, Barrett said. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...pcworld/108695 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New bill calls for drastic changes to DCMA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the brainchild of the Big Five American record labels and enacted to serve them, the movie studios and book publishers, will be radically amended to protect users if US representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA), John Doolittle (R-CA), Spencer Bachus (R-AL) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) have their way. "The fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before," says Boucher. "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the Fair Use rights of the users of copyrighted material." Boucher, Doolittle, Bachus and Kennedy have re-introduced the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, originally put forward by Boucher and Doolittle last fall, to, "assure that consumers who purchase digital media can enjoy a broad range of uses of the media for their own convenience in a way which does not infringe the copyright in the work," Boucher says. It addresses key provisions of the 1998 DMCA which prohibit the circumvention of a technical protection measure guarding access to a copyrighted work - even if the purpose of the circumvention is to exercise consumer Fair Use rights. http://www.p2pnet.net/issue1/page5.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the prowl for a few files? Don’t forget the Archos Q Disk 60GB external hard drive. http://www.archos.com/lang=en//products/prw_500332.html Better than a moving van. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone Units Join in Effort for Seamless Wireless Net Barnaby Feder Motorola, Proxim and Avaya are expected to announce today that they will jointly develop technology to allow wireless communications to jump between networks without interruption. If the three companies are successful, an executive could begin downloading data using a wireless hub in a Starbucks, airport or other public site and move to a company office without interrupting the transfer. Similarly, a phone call that began over a company's internal voice-over-Internet network could move to a public carrier as the user of the cellphone left the building. Analysts briefed on the plans said the partnership would face daunting technical hurdles, including reconciling the different security levels and frequency levels in different wireless networks. Analysts called it the most ambitious wireless roaming plan yet to try to take advantage of the spread of communication hubs based on a standard called 802.11, known as Wi-Fi. The hubs, also called hot spots, are either free to any user of a mobile device with a Wi-Fi card who happens to be in the neighborhood or are limited to subscribers, depending on who operates them. Most Wi-Fi networks have focused on transfer of e-mail messages and other forms of data from laptop computers but the goal of the three companies is to offer seamless transitions to cellphone users as well. "The way hot spots are evolving, it could take a lot of traffic off of traditional wireless networks," said Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects, who is among the analysts briefed by the companies. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/14/business/14MOTO.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Resignation May Help Ground a Visionary Medium Amy Harmon Anyone checking e-mail on AOL these days will probably be confronted with multiple entreaties to try the company's broadband service, the keystone of America Online's new determination to charge a premium for online information and entertainment. If there is symbolic meaning to Stephen M. Case's decision to step down as chairman of the world's largest media company this week, it may lie in the message underscored by the insistent marketing: it is time for the online service to start pulling its own weight. Moreover, some industry analysts argue that while people may well pay cable television companies for on-demand movies, the Internet has never been about mainstream media, and perhaps never will be. In other words, one of the main rationales for the merger of AOL and Time Warner might have been a fallacy. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/14/bu...ia/14ONLI.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music, tech groups give nod to copyright plan AP The top trade associations for the music and technology industries, which have been at loggerheads over consumers downloading songs on the Internet, have negotiated a compromise they contend will protect copyrights on movies and music without new government involvement. Lobbyists for some of the largest technology companies will argue under the new agreement against efforts in U.S. Congress to amend U.S. laws to broaden the rights of consumers, such as explicitly permitting viewers to make backup copies of DVDs for personal use or copy songs onto handheld listening devices. These companies, including Microsoft Corp., IBM, Intel Corp. and Dell Computer Corp., also will announce support for aggressive enforcement against digital pirates. In exchange, the Recording Industry Association of America will argue against government requirements to build locking controls into future generations of entertainment devices to make it more difficult for consumers to share music and movies. Technology companies have complained that the controls are too expensive and complex. The agreement, expected to be announced Tuesday in Washington, attempts to head off government intervention in the rising debate over what consumers can do with copyrighted material they have purchased. The battle over copyrights, pitting Hollywood against Silicon Valley, has emerged as a central policy question for this Congress. The agreement also could affect fledgling efforts such as those by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Rick Boucher, R-Va., to further define consumers' rights under U.S. laws affecting copyrights. Mr. Lofgren, for example, wants it made clear that consumers would be allowed to resell or give away music or movies they purchase, and would be protected if they deliberately broke anti-piracy controls that interfere with these rights. http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/se...nology/techBN/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dilithium Crystals Press Release Dilithium Networks today announced that it is collaborating with Texas Instruments to jointly provide advanced transcoding solutions to enable seamless, real-time multimedia communications between circuit, packet and wireless networks. These transcoding solutions will enable the delivery of cost-effective rich media communications across networks operating under different protocol standards. Through its collaboration, TI and Dilithium Networks will reduce time to market for transcoding solutions based on Dilithium's patent- pending Unicoding technology. Unicoding is a breakthrough in signal processing technology that transcodes in real time and on the fly between voice and video standards. "Dilithium Networks' Unicoding technology dramatically reduces the processing power and memory required to do transcoding between common voice and video standards while maintaining a high level of quality," said Brian Glinsman, executive director, infrastructure solutions at Texas Instruments. "This is a unique technology that will have a big impact on driving down the cost for multimedia services." http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=26821 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He Really Wants to Know Is Broadband a Natural Monopoly? Bill St. Arnaud One of the ongoing debates in broadband is the role of government, particularly municipalities, in its regulation and deployment. Some argue that broadband is a natural monopoly like water and roads and therefore it should be delivered by municipalities or be heavily regulated as with electric power and gas. Others argue that there is a number of competitive broadband suppliers and therefore it is not a natural monopoly and governments should have no role in its deployment or regulation. One of the fundamental questions is what constitutes a "natural monopoly" ? A Natural monopoly should not be confused with "market monopoly". Although cable modems and DSL may dominate the broadband marketplace that does not necessarily imply a natural monopoly. The common economist's tool for measuring degree of market monopoly is the Hefindahl index. (It is interesting to note that a duopoly can in effect be a monopoly - but in some cases a market monopoly may not be necessarily a bad thing). A high score on the Herfindahl index may indicate the presence of a natural monopoly, but it does not differentiate whether that monopoly is natural or market driven. http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=26786 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Egyptian Builds Long Range Wi-Fi. So Can You “A lot of aimless browsing brought me to ‘I, Cringly’. This man is a genius.” Genius mebbe but hardly aimless. So this guy thinks “how tough can it be?” and then goes out and does it. Get this – it’s good for one kilometer. Photos, links included. http://www.d128.com/wireless/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ma B. Cuts The Cord Ben Charny BellSouth said Monday that it began testing a powerful wireless network it believes can help bridge the nation's digital divide. The telephone and broadband provider will use "fixed wireless" equipment to deliver high-speed Web access to 100 customers in Daytona, Fla., for the next three months, according to a BellSouth representative. The trial run is a crucial step before a full-scale launch. Verizon Communications and Sprint PCS are testing similar so-called fixed wireless equipment, which can wirelessly deliver 1.5mbps of Web access up to 20 miles at a time. Fixed wireless works by directing Internet access from an underground fiber-optic cable to an antenna on a 1,000-foot-high tower, which then directs the signal through the air to rooftop antennas. Newer generations of fixed wireless technology, which BellSouth and others are testing, use an antenna that compresses the radio waves into a smaller, more precise beam. The result is a system that can blast a signal through trees or even a stucco wall. The first versions of fixed wireless networks were "line of sight." If a neighbor were to grow a rooftop garden that blocked the antenna's line of sight, for example, Net access would be cut off. "The fact that someone has come up with non-line-of-sight solutions" has helped spur interest, Verizon Communications spokesman Mark Marchand said. "It's helped move (fixed wireless technology) from the lab to the field." Some high-speed Web providers think fixed wireless is a more cost-effective way to expand broadband to rural areas, where wired networks like digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable broadband Web access cost too much to build. But so far, none of the carriers have gone beyond test trials of the gear. Verizon is testing a fixed wireless network in Fairfax, Va., and may do a trial run in Baltimore, using equipment from Beam Reach Systems, Marchand said. Sprint PCS is doing a trial run of a fixed wireless network in both Houston and Montreal, a representative said. The company is using equipment from start-ups Navini Networks and IPWireless. http://news.com.com/2100-1033-980396.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple shuts down 3rd Party P2P/Streamer for iTunes. http://www.icommune.net/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World’s Longest Wi-Fi Connection Made by The Swedish Space Corporation Press Release Wireless broadband connectivity achieved over 310km using equipment from AlvarionThe Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) announced today that they have transmitted information via a broadband wireless link over a distance of 310km. They believe that this is the longest distance achieved using wireless connectivity. The link was made between a stratospheric balloon that was launched from Esrange near the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden and a base station located near Esrange. Onboard the balloon was an antenna supplied by Alvarion, the world’s most successful provider of broadband wireless products. The antenna was connected to a high-power amplifier with 6 watts power output, a camera and a server. Data, such as environmental conditions and weather patterns, was collected and the information was sent back to Esrange via an Alvarion base station which measured 2.4 meters with 6 watt power output and automatic tracking of the antenna using GPS technology. Information received at the base station was then sent back to Esrange via the internal network. The information between the balloon and the base station was transmitted over the 2.4GHz spectrum (2480 Mhz which the SSC is allowed to use with higher ERP) with a stable signal strength of -68 dBm. The round trip ping response at 300Km was 300-500 mSec. The weather balloon reached a maxium height of 29.7 km and drifted steadily. It finally touched down east of Sodankylä in the northern part of Finland, having travelled approximately 315 Km. Lars-Olov Jonsson, System engineer RF and microwave, at SSC Esrange commented: “This is an amazing technical achievement, the difficulty of which should not be underestimated. Alvarion has developed extremely robust equipment capable of operating in a very harsh environment. Its technology has helped us save money, time and energy.” Zvi Slonimsky, CEO of Alvarion, said: “Time and time again, wireless is proving to be a genuine option in the broadband arena for enterprises, incumbent and alternative operators looking for alternatives to fibre and satellite to be continued.” http://www.alvarion.com/RunTime/Corp...=281&type=item ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MPAA Spurns Digital Copyright Plans Ted Bridis - AP Hollywood spurned a high-stakes agreement disclosed Tuesday between leading music and technology companies aiming to protect copyrights on digital movies and music without new government involvement. The unusual compromise, brokered among the music industry and some of the largest computer companies, lists seven "guiding principles" that the companies hope lawmakers will take into account as Congress develops future technology policies. The agreement attempts to head off government intervention in the rising debate between Hollywood and Silicon Valley over what consumers can do with commercial music or movies they purchase. The powerful movie, television and home video industry, represented by the Motion Picture Association of America, spurned the agreement. The MPAA has aggressively supported new government requirements for built-in locking controls on new devices, such as DVD recorders. The MPAA also complained Tuesday about promises by the music and technology companies to participate in "constructive dialogue." It cited plans by the technology industry to spend $1 million over the next six months on a new organization, the Alliance for Digital Progress. A bid proposal for public-relations companies said the group's ambition was to "counter Hollywood" on the debate over copyrights. http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...N&SECTION=HOME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ United We Stand (Against the Pirates) Cynthia L. Webb Entertainment and technology heavyweights yesterday announced a united front to stop the piracy of digital content -- a front that explicitly eschews government mandates. The Recording Industry Association of America, the Business Software Alliance and the Computer Systems Policy Project announced a "core set of principles" outlining how the groups plan to lobby congressional leaders about the issue of distributing digital content. Included in the plan: Allow the private sector to control digital distribution decisions and a direct message to lawmakers that "government-dictated" technology mandates are not welcome. At the same time, the groups do want government to enforce copyright laws and to commit to funding public awareness efforts to fight digital piracy. The tech groups represent big players including Intel, Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard. "The agreement seems to oppose legislation from the likes of Senator Fritz Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, whose Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act calls for embedding copy protection technology in all high-tech devices. Hollings introduced that bill last year, but it made little progress" before the 107th Congress adjourned, wrote InfoWorld in its coverage of the pact. Of course, not everyone is happy with the "united we stand" digital piracy plan. "It is not good news for the consumer," Wendy Seltzer, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Wired. "They are trying to take the legislative process out of the legislature and put it in the hands of a few industry groups. There's a lot of public debate that has to go on and we do need Congress to step in and undo the mess that has been created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Noticeably missing from yesterday's announcement was the Motion Picture Association of America, a traditional ally of the RIAA in fighting digital piracy. The New York Times explained the absence this way: "The motion picture industry is worried mainly about the future, concerned that digital television broadcasts and movies copied from DVD's will soon be traded over the Internet in the same high volumes as music is currently. Hollywood movie and television studios view federal intervention as a crucial element in avoiding the same fate as their record industry colleagues." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Jan15.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the point was to deliver a robust client resistant to attacks including legal ones, then how tough is Ian Clarks’ Freenet really? UCLA Law takes a look. http://www.lawtechjournal.com/articl...229_roemer.php ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phony Advisory Attacks RIAA Dennis Fisher A hoax message posted to two security mailing lists Monday suggests that the Recording Industry Association of America has hired a group of hackers who have developed a worm capable of infecting and shutting down peer-to-peer file-sharing software. The hackers claim to have released the worm, on the RIAA's orders, and that it now controls almost 95 percent of "all P2P participating hosts." The RIAA said the message was a total fabrication. "It's a complete hoax," said an RIAA spokesman in Washington. "Someone forwarded the message to us and that was the first we heard or read about it." Although the existence of the worm and the RIAA's involvement are clearly a hoax, there is a working exploit for a vulnerability in the Mpg123 media player attached to the message. Several sources verified that the code does in fact exploit a buffer overrun in the player. The outlandish claims are part of a "security advisory" supposedly written by a group called Gobbles Security. The group is known for publishing humorous advisories on serious software vulnerabilities, many of which are posted with exploit code. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,827970,00.asp ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Corporate Victory, but One That Raises Public Consciousness Amy Harmon The Supreme Court's decision to uphold a 20-year extension on the copyright term handed a major victory to the entertainment and publishing industries, which stand to make billions of dollars by keeping control over lucrative properties for up to 95 years. But the public domain advocates who had challenged the constitutionality of the 1998 law might claim a measure of success in the court of public opinion. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/bu...ia/16IMPA.html Nick: bobbob Pass: bobbob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Discussion Joab Jackson COLLABORATION TOOLS Value to integrator: This software allows remote partners to work on documents. Vendors include eRoomSystem Technologies, Inc., St. George, Utah.; Groove Networks Inc., Beverly, Mass. Petchon: Collaboration is a very hot area for us. A lot of our clients are looking for Internet and extranet portals that provide collaboration capabilities for employees. Boese: To us, this isn't a new area. We've been using collaborative tools in our integrator offerings for six years now. From our perspective, especially with some of the transformational programs coming in the Defense Department, collaboration tools pretty much need to be part of the offering. It does not make sense to do the kind of things the Defense Department is doing without them. Fritzson: The collaboration tools that we use most often are moving to the peer-to-peer platform. Peer-to-peer implementation means that everything in the shared space -- the calendars, documents, discussions -- are replicated on each machine [in contrast to] the thin-client server, where everything is based on one server. We have people who travel a lot, their connectivity is still intermittent. In the coming year, we expect to be bridging these two types of platforms. There's a huge push on in the government for a concept called "power to the edge," which comes from [Defense Department CIO] John Stenbit. It means having a bridge between the edge and center-based architectures, bringing peer-to-peer and thin-client [platforms] together. Richards: There are a lot of what we call external referrals, where one agency needs to send an action item to another agency. I think peer-to-peer computing is the technology to do that. WIRELESS FIDELITY (WIFI) Value to integrator: This hardware can set up wireless local area data networks. Vendors include Linksys Group Inc., Irvine, Calif.; Netgear Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. Williams (Micro Warehouse): We will probably sell twice as much WiFi equipment this year as we did in 2002. Public-sector sales wasn't a huge success in 2002. Agencies were still setting up labs for testing. But tools for data integration and encryption have come online in this last quarter, so we see a lot of growth in this arena. Manchise: It is almost a commodity now. It has gotten so easy to implement. I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing wireless access kits being sold in hardware stores and pharmacies. As an integrator, we do not propose using the WiFi by any of our customers until the security problem is solved. We do implement WiFi in limited cases for our customers only after we discuss the pros and cons on the lack of security and privacy. When there is some guarantee of privacy, then it will be easier to justify implementing WiFi into comprehensive solutions. * http://www.washingtontechnology.com/...h/19793-1.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Wi-Fi Hamming” Could Be the Next Big Thing Press Release NEWINGTON, CT, High-speed multimedia hamming via "The Hinternet" could be the next big thing for Amateur Radio. That's the hope of the ARRL High Speed Multimedia (HSMM) Working Group, which is adapting the highly popular IEEE 802.11b Part 15 wireless Internet protocol to Part 97 amateur operating. "We expect it to be nothing less than revolutionary!" says John Champa, K8OCL, who chairs the ARRL HSMM Working Group--a subset of the League's Technology Task Force. The term "Hinternet" (ham + Internet), Champa says, is a user-friendly way to refer to the development of high-speed Radio Local Area Networks (RLANs) capable of simultaneously carrying audio, video and data signals. In addition to emergency communication, Hinternet applications could include two-way streaming video, full-duplex streaming audio, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications such as eQSO, EchoLink, iLink and IRLP, and digital voice. As on the wired Internet, communication can be point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and multicast at high bandwidth. Antenna manufacturer M2 already is planning to produce an antenna designed specifically for amateur 802.11b work. Champa says the new M2 antenna will be a adaptation of an experimental HSMM antenna built by Ernst Kiefer, N8EK, for the ARRL HSMM Experimenters Team. It will consist of four horizontal turnstile antennas protected by a radome. http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/01/10/3/?nc=1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vienna’s The Champ. With 136 WLAN hot-spots, Vienna is the world champion of wireless internet, according to a ranking by Austrian Wi-Fi provider Metronet. http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=14449 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nevada CES: Media Company Jitters Slowing Progress, Some Say. Other Manufacturers Excited By Prospects Saul Hansell At the Consumer Electronics Association's annual trade show, which was held here Wednesday through Saturday, the industry was jubilant over its success with digital products. Despite economic uncertainty, sales of consumer electronics in the United States increased by 3.7 percent in 2002 to set a record of $96.2 billion, according to the association. The trade show, with 2,200 exhibitors and 100,000 attendees, has become the largest convention in North America, eclipsing the Comdex annual computer show. At the show here, SonicBlue introduced a $249 device that will let people watch a DVD playing in one room on a television in another by way of a wireless network. Most other companies prevent their devices from making copies of recorded DVD's or sending them anywhere — to the next room or over the Internet — for fear of angering the movie studios, which do not like the prospect of the rampant file sharing that has afflicted the music industry. Patrick Lo, chief executive of Netgear, a leading maker of home networking equipment, said that such concerns over copyrights were substantially slowing the development of home entertainment systems. "The studios will not let us copy movies onto servers, and so we can't distribute them around the house," he said. "The media PC will not fly because without content, there is no reason to use it." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/13/te...rtne r=GOOGLE nick: bobbob pass: bobbob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Handheld networks faster than DSL/Cable on drawing boards. Bouncing Signals Push the Limits of Bandwidth Ian Austen It is a phenomenon well known to people who drive through urban high-rise canyons. Just as you stop at a traffic light, the car radio loses its signal. Once the light turns green, the car only has to creep forward a few feet to restore the radio reception. Those dead spots, which can also cut off cellphone calls and mobile computer communications, are often caused when signals bounce wildly off the surrounding buildings. This scattering creates pockets in which two reflections of the same signal collide and cancel each other out. Avoiding the undesirable effects of multipath, as this scattering effect is formally known, has long been a preoccupation of people who design wireless communications systems. Now, however, a system developed by Bell Labs actually embraces radio reflections not only to improve reception but also to boost the speed of wireless networks. Prototypes of the system, called Blast, can send data over third-generation, or 3G, cellphone networks at rates about eight times those of 3G. "Normally multipath is the source of confusion, it's the enemy," said Robert W. Lucky, who recently retired as vice president for applied research at Telcordia Technologies and is familiar with the Bell Labs work. "Here you put the confusion back together Humpty Dumpty style. It's like getting something for nothing." Bell Labs has made prototype chips that would allow Blast to operate at speeds of 19.2 megabits per second over a 3G wireless network. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/te...ts/16next.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Laptop Sends Network Cruisers Into 802.11a Overdrive J.D. Biersdorfer Laptop speedsters on corporate Wi-Fi networks can surf even faster with a new notebook computer from Toshiba. The top model in the company's new Satellite Pro 6100 series comes not only with built-in wireless 802.11b networking for data transfer at a fast 11 megabits per second, but also with 802.11a networking capability. With maximum data-transfer speeds of 54 megabits per second, the 802.11a wireless technology is almost five times as fast as the 802.11b standard (also known as Wi-Fi and operating on the 2.4-gigahertz frequency). It operates at the 5-gigahertz frequency and is designed to carry heavy loads of video, audio and images across wireless networks. The Satellite Pro 6100 with dual-band wireless networking comes with standard Ethernet and modem connections, a 2.2-gigahertz Pentium 4 processor and 512 megabytes of memory. It has a 60-gigabyte hard drive, a 15-inch screen, an integrated DVD burner and other features for a list price of $2,687 at www.shoptoshiba.com. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/te...ts/16tosh.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wireless Bill Introduced (NYT) Senators George Allen, Republican of Virginia, and Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, have introduced legislation to promote wireless broadband deployment. The bill, the Jumpstart Broadband Act, calls for the Federal Communications Commission to allocate at least 255 megahertz of spectrum in the 5-gigahertz band for unlicensed use by wireless broadband services. The measure seeks to support the expansion of wireless technology known as WiFi, which allows users of personal and hand-held computers to connect to the Internet at high speed without cables. Mr. Allen said the legislation would create an environment that embraces innovation and encourages the adoption of next-generation wireless broadband Internet devices. In addition, he said, such action would build confidence among consumers, investors and those in the telecommunications and technology industries. "This is really the next revolution in the whole communications area," Ms. Boxer said. "It's going to make it easier to get your information, make it quicker, make it less hassle." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/te...y/16TBRF3.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Getting Onto the Internet at 30,000 Feet or So Edward Wong For many air travelers, flying has become an escape from the modern-day cyclone of phone calls, e-mail and instant text messages. But some of the world's largest airlines are now rolling out technology that allows passengers to surf the Internet, check e-mail and beam text messages to the ground. Lufthansa Airlines, the German carrier, begins flying a Boeing 747-400 today between Frankfurt and Washington outfitted with Internet connectivity developed by the Boeing Company. Next month, British Airways plans to start a trial flight with the same technology between London and New York. Japan Airlines and SAS, the Scandinavian carrier, have signed contracts with Boeing to outfit nearly a dozen planes each to offer Internet service next year. Later this month, Cathay Pacific, the airline based in Hong Kong, will offer e-mail service on 40 planes using technology developed by Tenzing Communications, a small company based in Seattle that is partly owned by Airbus, Boeing's rival. For broadband, each plane has to be fitted with various hardware and two large antennas that shoot data back and forth between satellite transponders, similar to the transmission of satellite television. Boeing leases the transponders for $2 million each, said Bill Richards, Connexion's chief engineer. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/business/15AIR.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yahoo Plans Big Expansion of Broadband Saul Hansell Buoyed by its growing sales and profits, Yahoo is planning to take its high-speed Internet access service nationwide. Yesterday, the big Internet portal announced better-than-expected financial results for the fourth quarter of 2002. It was able to expand its sales of online advertising, even as it added new services that generate monthly fees from users. One of the fastest-growing of those services is high-speed, or broadband, Internet access, which Yahoo now offers as a co-branded service with SBC Communications, the phone company that serves about one-third of the nation. "Sometime this year, if you are a Yahoo user, you will have the ability to be part of Yahoo broadband all over the country," Terry S. Semel, Yahoo's chief executive, said in an interview yesterday. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/te...gy/16YAHO.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DMCA Invoked by Maker of Garage Door Openers http://www.burstnet.com/cgi-bin/ads/...44/RETURN-CODE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Consumers: RIAA still not thinking of us Grant Gross The Recording Industry Association of America Inc. (RIAA) and two major IT trade groups have agreed on the direction public policy for copyright projection should take, but representatives for a couple of consumer groups say the agreement may still hurt Internet users. On Tuesday, the RIAA, the Business Software Alliance, and the Computer Systems Policy Project announced an agreement on how they want the U.S. Congress to deal with copyright protection. Members of the three groups have warred in the past over how best to kill unauthorized song sharing, but the new agreement calls for the government to stay away from mandating copy protection. However, Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, said the agreement is less than a "landmark" move, as BSA president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Holleyman called it. "I think it was essentially a non-event," Potter said. "The only meaningful change would be the RIAA's agreement not to support government-imposed technical mandates that are intended to protect copyright owners." But the RIAA and the other groups still support the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal for consumers to circumvent copy-protection devices, Potter said, and the agreement supports marketplace copyright protection efforts. While the RIAA is now asking the government to lay off, it's still threatening consumers with legal action if they share files illegally, he noted. "If Hollywood and RIAA get technology companies to work in collusion with them to put any kind of restrictions into the hardware we buy that Hollywood and RIAA wants, then the public is still hurt, because we can't bypass those restrictions legally," added Brett Wynkoop, a member of New Yorkers for Fair Use and a free software advocate. Wynkoop remains concerned that the RIAA may try to take away such consumer rights as making copies of songs for their own use, he said, and that copy-protection technology, including Microsoft Corp.'s Palladium security initiative, may eventually keep consumers from using software not approved by Hollywood or IT giants. "Apparently, we've shown Hollywood that they're not going to be able to get Washington to do things, because Washington now realizes that the public has other opinions," Wynkoop said. "The public isn't going to stand for their rights being blatantly taken away from them, but that doesn't mean the content cartel has given up on trying to tell us how the digital world should run." http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0301/16.riaa.php ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright truce excludes key corporate voice Declan McCullagh The key detail about a digital-copyright agreement announced here on Tuesday was who was not in the room at the time. The peace accord was designed to show a unified front linking the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a pair of computer industry groups, thus persuading Congress that new regulations are unnecessary. But absent from the press conference were influential lobbyists who have been far more aggressive--and who show no signs of relenting. Take the Motion Picture Association of America, which worked with Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., to craft a bill that would require implanting copy-protection technology in PCs and consumer-electronics devices. Though the plan is anathema to Silicon Valley, Hollywood seems convinced that such extreme measures are the only way to prevent movies from becoming as widely traded as MP3 files currently are. That's why MPAA President Jack Valenti says he's not about to sign a truce. "We are not prepared to abandon the option of seeking technical protection measures via the Congress or appropriate regulatory agency," Valenti said in a statement Tuesday. Perhaps the biggest impact of Tuesday's announcement is to zap any momentum that Hollings' proposal would have if he chose to reintroduce it in the new Congress that convened last week. With the Republican control of the Senate, Hollings lost his chairmanship of the commerce committee, but he's still in a position to try again. By demonstrating that copyright holders are divided on what legislative approach is best, foes now stand a better chance of bottling up bills in committee. In addition to Hollings' approach, a proposal backed by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., that would allow peer-to-peer hacking is now more likely to meet the same fate. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980671.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As Goes Canada James Adams There is general agreement that 2003 will be a watershed for the Canadian music industry -- a year that could either set the industry on a course of renewed viability, or make it as moribund as those dust-covered eight-track cartridges piled in the furnace room. A lot will happen on a variety of fronts, not all of it necessarily complementary or synchronized. Consumers are going to be cajoled, taxed, dissuaded, tracked and stroked, all in an effort to reverse or compensate for a three-year sales slump of 25 per cent in Canada alone. (In fact, Nielsen Soundscan recently reported that CD album sales in 2002 were down almost 17 per cent over the year before, to 50 million units from 60. In 2000, sales were about 62 million units) You can thank Shawn Fanning for all this. He's the Massachusetts teenager who, in the summer of 1999, wrote the Internet source code for the music file-sharing program that came to be known as Napster. It was another revolutionary, Lenin, who observed that capitalism would be hung by the very rope it manufactured and sold. And so it has been in the case of the music industry: When it forced the compact disc onto the marketplace in the mid-1980s, supplanting vinyl as the dominant medium of sound reproduction, it gave listeners undoubtedly crisper sound, but at significantly higher cost. Consumers at first seemed willing to pay $15 or $18 for a single shiny CD, instead of the $7 or $10 charged for a vinyl LP, on the understanding that they were getting a sonically superior product and paying down the steep start-up costs apparently attendant on any new technology. By the late 1990s, though, every new recording was being released on digital while previous analog recordings of all the world's most significant music had been copied onto unencrypted CDs. Not a few consumers began to wonder why, 10 or so years after the onset of the CD, in an era of low inflation, retail prices still seemed to be very, very high. It was, in short, a situation ripe for young Mr. Fanning. He realized that digital's universality and its portability via computers made it possible for huge numbers of music files to be swapped directly among fans, at virtually no cost -- without going through a centralized file-server or a middleman like Sony. Now, almost four years after the invention of Napster, the major Canadian labels are set to introduce their own on- line, on-demand services of downloadable music this February. It's a phenomenon that's coming more than a year after Warner Music, BMG and EMI combined forces to introduce their digital subscription service, MusicNet, to the U.S. It was followed a month later by the Universal/Sony Music on-line service Pressplay. However, until last fall, neither service cross-licensed each other's content, meaning that for almost a year a music fan had to subscribe to both if he wanted the full panoply of downloads available from the five majors. Even with this cross-licensing, as well as more on-line content (and more exclusive on-line content), and the recent introduction of label-approved permanent downloads, the U.S. experience has not been a salutary one. There are probably no more than 600,000 American consumers who are subscribers to MusicNet, Pressplay, Rhapsody and other label-approved services. By contrast, Kazaa, one of the "person-to-person" rogue services that arose in the wake of Napster's shutdown in 2001, has an estimated 11-million home users. Still, Canadian on-line subscription services are hoping the U.S. example has worked out the kinks in what they plan to deliver in 2003. If they can get 50,000 to 70,000 subscribers in their first 18 months, they feel they have a good shot at eventually "driving the on-line train" within three to five years. But, as in the U.S., these services still face the hurdle of competing against popular Kazaa-type services that provide virtually limitless content for free. Of course, it's not really free. Since 1999, the Canadian Private Copyright Collective (CPCC), a nonprofit organization representing recording artists, songwriters, record companies and music publishers, has quietly collected between $24-million and $32-million from levies approved in 1998 by the Canadian Copyright Board. The fees have been compensation of sorts for the wear and tear caused by the digital revolution in Canada where, since 1997, private copying, albeit with some limitations, has been legal. Thus, each time a consumer has gone into a store to buy, say, a package of 50 blank CDs, he's helped pay $10.50 to the CPCC, or 21 cents a CD. The same goes for blank cassettes: A Canadian buying any cassette with 40 or more minutes of recording time on it has, in the last three years, contributed to a tariff of 29 cents per tape. So far, none of this largesse has found its way into the hands of any of the CPCC's stakeholders. It's currently sitting in an escrow account, says David Basskin, executive director of the CPCC, because, "you can't hand out random amounts to random individuals. You need to create a prioritized or weighted list from thousands and thousands of claimants that accurately reflects use. Quite simply, it takes time." Basskin expects artists, songwriters, record companies and other CPCC signatories will start to see some cheques in 2003. Meanwhile, the CPCC is going before the Copyright Board in Ottawa on Jan. 21 to ask for sizeable increases on levies on blank CDs (to 59 cents per CD, a 55 per cent hike) and cassettes (to 60 cents per cassette, a 71 per cent increase). More controversially, the CPCC also wants Ottawa to let it charge and collect new levies in 2003. These include $2.27 on sales of individual recordable DVD discs; 2.1 cents per megabyte for recording media permanently installed on computer hard drives ("burners"); and $21 for each gigabyte available in MP3 players. Unsurprisingly, the CPCC's ambitions are meeting stiff resistance, notably from the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access (CCFDA), created in September last year. It's a hodgepodge of 20 or so retailers and manufacturers of digital hardware and software, including Wal-Mart, RadioShack, London Drugs, Apple Canada, Costco and Hewlett-Packard. The Coalition thinks the CPCC's levies are "worse than a tax" because they're indiscriminate, affecting consumers who may be using blank CDs to store, say, photographs or data, not unauthorized downloads of music. Moreover, unlike a provincial sales tax or the GST, they're collected by a private agency and hidden in the cost of what the consumer pays. That MP3 player that's now going for $300? According to the CCFDA, it's going to sell for $500 by this spring if the CPCC gets its way. Barbara Caplan, general counsel with Hewlett-Packard Canada and head of the CCFDA, thinks the CPCC's aims are "absurd" and, in fact, "just the tip of the iceberg. Unless we see significant changes in the law, Canadian consumers and businesses had better be prepared for the CPCC to seek levies on all current technologies capable of recording sounds," including cellphones, hand-held computers and digital cameras. http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/...s_temp/5/5/11/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music products sales up despite recorded music turmoil Sue Zeidler Tough times may have hit the record business, but sellers of musical instruments and products are humming. "It looks like we got back to the high water mark of $7 billion in annual U.S. sales in 2002, and I'm very bullish about the next 10 years," said Joe Lamond, president and chief executive officer of International Music Products Association, representing nearly 8,000 retailers and makers of musical instruments and products in 85 countries. The estimated 2002 U.S. level would represent an uptick from $6.7 billion in 2001, which had fallen from the industry's record $7 billion in 2000. The latest global figures available peg industry sales worldwide at about $16 billion in 2001. Lamond thinks 2002 global sales will match the 2001 figures, with gains in the U.S. and elsewhere potentially offset by economic weakness in Japan, which is the No. 2 musical products market behind the United States. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=2052812 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Supreme Court Endorses Copyright Theft Dan Gillmor Swipe a CD from a record store and you'll get arrested. But when Congress authorizes the entertainment industry to steal from you -- well, that's the American way. We learned as much on Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress can repeatedly extend copyright terms, as it did most recently in 1998 when it added 20 years to the terms for new and existing works. The law, a brazen heist, was called the Copyright Term Extension Act. It was better known as the Sonny Bono act, so named after its chief sponsor even though Disney and other giant media corporations were the money and muscle behind it. Who got robbed? You did. I did. Who won? Endlessly greedy media barons will now collect billions from works that should have long since entered the public domain. Like public lands and the oceans, the public domain is controlled by no one -- a situation that infuriates people who believe that nothing can have value unless some person or corporation owns it. The public domain is the pool of knowledge from which new art and scholarship have arisen over the centuries. The Constitution talks about granting rights to creators of ''science and useful arts'' but only for limited periods. After that, the works can be used freely by anyone. Walt Disney understood the value of the public domain, and used it precisely as other great artists had done. He updated an out-of-copyright character to create Mickey Mouse, for example, and launched an empire. The company he founded later used French writer Victor Hugo's work, which was also no longer owned by anyone, to create a cartoon based on the Hunchback of Notre Dame saga. The Disney animators had every right to build new works on old ones -- and the public also got the benefit. Try the same thing with Mickey Mouse and you'll be hauled into court faster than you can say ''Goofy.'' http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/colu...0.shtml#000730 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity In 1998 Congress was the scene of a battle over public domain, the public right of common, free and unrestricted use of artistic works whose copyright has expired. Corporations like Disney, organizations like the Motion Picture Association of America, and dead artists' families wanted to extend copyright. Advocates of public domain wanted to leave copyright protection as it was, which would have allowed many early 20th-century works, including corporate creations like Mickey Mouse, to slip into the public domain. The copyright owners won, and yesterday they won again when the Supreme Court, by a vote of 7 to 2, decided that Congress was within its constitutional rights when it extended copyright. The court's decision may make constitutional sense, but it does not serve the public well. Under that 1998 act, copyright now extends for the life of an artist plus 70 years. Copyrights owned by corporations run for 95 years. Since the Constitution grants Congress the right to authorize copyright for "limited times," even the opponents of an extended term were not hopeful that the Supreme Court would rule otherwise. This decision almost certainly prepares the way for more bad copyright extension laws in the future. Congress has lengthened copyright 11 times in the past 40 years. Artists naturally deserve to hold a property interest in their work, and so do the corporate owners of copyright. But the public has an equally strong interest in seeing copyright lapse after a time, returning works to the public domain — the great democratic seedbed of artistic creation — where they can be used without paying royalties. In effect, the Supreme Court's decision makes it likely that we are seeing the beginning of the end of public domain and the birth of copyright perpetuity. Public domain has been a grand experiment, one that should not be allowed to die. The ability to draw freely on the entire creative output of humanity is one of the reasons we live in a time of such fruitful creative ferment. – The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/opinion/16THU2.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “So I’ve got to go get onto a plane to go to my least favorite city (DC). My inbox is filling with kind emails from friends. Also with a few of a different flavor. It’s my nature to identify most closely with those of the different flavor. David Gossett at the law firm of Mayer Brown wrote Declan, “Larry lost Eldred, 7-2.” Yes, no matter what is said, that is how I will always view this case. The constitutional question is not even close. To have failed to get the Court to see it is my failing. It has often been said that movements gain by losing in the Supreme Court. Some feminists say it would have been better to lose Roe, because that would have built a movement in response. I have often wondered whether it would ever be possible to lose a case and yet smell victory in the defeat. I’m not yet convinced it’s possible. But if there is any good that might come from my loss, let it be the anger and passion that now gets to swell against the unchecked power that the Supreme Court has said Congress has. When the Free Software Foundation, Intel, Phillis Schlafly, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, Kenneth Arrow, Brewster Kahle, and hundreds of creators and innovators all stand on one side saying, “this makes no sense,” then it makes no sense. Let that be enough to move people to do something about it. Our courts will not. I will always be grateful to Eric Eldred, and our other plaintiffs, for putting his faith in this case. I will always regret not being able to meet that faith with the success it deserves. What the Framers of our constitution did is not enough. We must do more.” - Lawrence Lessig Until next week, - js. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Current Week In Review Submit articles and press releases in English - text only, no HTML - to jackspratts at lycos dot com. Please include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC. |
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17-01-03, 05:42 PM
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WAH!
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 725
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very groovy stuff, thx mr. spratts.
i especially liked the soulseek interview; i never would've seen that otherwise and i'm always curious as to new news on my favorite mp3 sharing community/client.
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I hate hate haters |
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17-01-03, 10:25 PM
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Pronunciation: 'hau-lE
Join Date: Feb 2002
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18-01-03, 03:38 PM
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Guardian of the Maturation Chamber
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Unimatrix Zero, Area 25
Posts: 462
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I thought I'd finally cured myself of my addiction to clicking on links and opening countless windows in Opera...I guess not!
 Hi Jack!  An excellent issue as usual!  Two stories in particular highlighted how much mainstream exposure is being given to p2p issues : Quote:
 Reporters shouldn't perpetuate the mistakes made by their sources.  I found the following snippets humourous (btw great comic strip!) : Quote:
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 That's nothing to be proud about really. *yawns*  Quote:
 Other items I found interesting : Quote:
  The Power lines promising for Internet expansion story was interesting, but it's still disappointing that it won't have much greater coverage than current broadband services. The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity story and the article entitled As Goes Canada are of particular concern. The taxes imposed on CDRs, burners etc. in Canada is in many ways even more flawed than the current business model followed by the music industry, as the artists aren't being compensated AT ALL, whilst the consumer also continues to be RIPPED OFF!  Song Lyrics Stored in Bacteria is a great story! Covergence of IT and biotechnology is something that's always intrigued me, the potential that DNA has to store information is staggering and in future I believe that this kind of technology will allow us to build self-regulating organic houses, vehicles, clothes and other devices that are powered by photosynthesis, garbage and even sewerage! One can only dream...  Thanks too for the in-depth Freenet analysis and the personal message from Lawrence Lessig.  I think that his performance was admirable, it's just unfortunate that the constitution supports such a traditionalist regime!  |
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20-01-03, 01:25 PM
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,017
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As goes the law so goes your p2p. Sorry about your windows. - js. |
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