Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - September 10th, ’05

[JackSpratts]

When the Levee Breaks

If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
And the water gonna come in, have no place to stay
Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan
Well all last night I sat on the levee and moan
Thinkin' 'bout my baby and my happy home
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break
And all these people have no place to stay
Now look here mama what am I to do
Now look here mama what am I to do
I ain't got nobody to tell my troubles to
I works on the levee mama both night and day
I works on the levee mama both night and day
I ain't got nobody, keep the water away
Oh cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do no good
Oh cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to lose
I works on the levee, mama both night and day
I works on the levee, mama both night and day
I works so hard, to keep the water away
I had a woman, she wouldn't do for me
I had a woman, she wouldn't do for me
I'm goin' back to my used to be
I's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
I's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
Gonna leave my baby, and my happy home

Memphis Minnie, 1929















































September 10th, 2005





Kuro File-Swapper Distributors, User Sentenced To Prison
Carmen Russell

The two-year case against the distributors of Kuro, Taiwan's most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) software, ended yesterday with unprecedented prison sentences for its distributors and one of its users.

"Kuro violated copyright law by offering members software with which to download MP3 music," said Liu Shou-sun, a spokesperson for the Taipei District Court which heard the case.

While the court neglected to adjudicate the legality of P2P software, it found Kuro responsible for encouraging its members to illegally trade copyrighted content through advertising.

In addition to NT$300,000 fines for each of its top three executives, chairman Chen Shou-teng received a sentence of two years in prison while CEO James Chen and general manager Victor Chen were each sentenced to three years.

The court also handed down a four-month prison term to Chen Chia-hui, a member that used Kuro to download more than 900 songs, likely setting an explosive example for Kuro's other estimated 500,000 users.

Ruby Hsu, an attorney who represented IFPI in the Kuro lawsuit, said that the judgment brings Taiwan up to international judicial standards.

"This verdict follows international cases such as those against Kazaa and Grokster," Hsu said, referring to recent court judgments against the two major P2P providers in Australia and the U.S. "The foreign courts have decided that if you offer a P2P service and you know a high percentage of the songs that are traded are copyrighted, you have to take responsibility."

When reminded that the prison sentences deviated from the foreign court rulings, Hsu said that such punishments were necessary in Taiwan.

"In the case of Napster in the U.S., the civil court told them they must shut down and they had to respect the judgment of the court," she explained. "The injunctions against Kuro and Ezpeer have been largely ignored, so Taiwan has had to employ criminal punishments."

Even after yesterday's verdict, Kuro representatives have declared that the show will go on as they appeal to a higher court.

"Currently Kuro's member services and day-to-day business will remain the same," said Kuro attorney C.P. Lee.

Kuro spokesperson Eric Yang added that the company is unlikely to make any changes to the problem areas identified by the court despite the threat of imprisonment.

"We will not stop advertising," he said.

Yang also blew off the idea that the company executives may actually spend time in jail.

"We will worry about that when the appeals verdict is handed down."
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=30600





Judge Rules Kazaa Illegal

AN AUSTRALIAN judge today ruled that popular peer-to-peer network Kazaa is illegal.

In a groundbreaking decision, Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox ordered Kazaa's owners Sharman Networks to modify its software to prevent illegal downloading of music files.

While the ruling is only enforceable in Australia, today's verdict is likely to have far-reaching implications for file sharers around the world.

John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, told the BBC: "Today's judgement shows that Kazaa, one of the biggest engines of copyright theft and the biggest brand in music piracy worldwide, is illegal."

"This is a milestone in the fight against internet piracy worldwide."

Lawyers representing Sharman say the company plans to appeal against today's decision.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_obje...name_page.html





Kazaa Hit By File-Sharing Ruling
BBC

An Australian court has ruled that the popular file-swapping program Kazaa urged its users to breach copyright. The Federal Court ordered Kazaa's owners, Sharman Networks, to modify the software to prevent further piracy. The ruling comes after months of legal wrangling between Sharman Networks, and a group of record labels. The case is the latest courtroom battle between peer-to-peer networks and copyright holders, such as record labels and music studios.

'Milestone'

Although the ruling is only enforceable in Australia, the record industry has hailed it as a victory that would resonate around the world. "Today's judgement shows that Kazaa, one of the biggest engines of copyright theft and the biggest brand in music piracy worldwide, is illegal," said John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries. "This is a milestone in the fight against internet piracy worldwide."

The defeat for Kazaa comes two months after the Supreme Court in the US ruled that file-sharing services could be held liable for copyright infringement under certain circumstances.

The lawsuit was brought by five record labels - Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and Festival Mushroom - who said that Kazaa technology helped copyright infringement on a huge scale. The defendants in the case argued they had no control over how people used their technology, comparing it to a photocopier or tape recorder.

Two months to change

In his ruling, Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox said the owners of Kazaa had "long known that the Kazaa system is widely used for the sharing of copyright files". He went on to say that the effect of the Kazaa website was "to encourage visitors to think it 'cool' to defy the record companies by ignoring copyright constraints". The judge dismissed as "overstated" accusations that Kazaa's owners were infringing copyright themselves. "The more realistic claim is that the respondents authorised users to infringe the applicants' copyright in their sound recordings," he said.

Kazaa's owners were ordered to modify the software within two months to include filters designed to stop the sharing of copyright material. A fresh round of hearings will now be held to determine the level of damages, which could run into the millions of dollars.

"The court has ruled the current Kazaa system illegal," said record industry spokesman Michael Speck said outside the court. "These people have crowed for years about the downloads, 270 million downloads of somebody else's work each month. We will ask the court when it comes to damages to reflect the value of the music these people ripped off."

Lawyers for Kazaa said they would appeal against the decision.

Moving target

The victory for the record industry may be too little, too late. Research shows that file-sharers have already moved from Kazaa to other peer-to-peer software. "It just isn't as big a player as it once was, as BitTorrent and eDonkey are now far more important to file sharers," said Professor Michael Geist, an e- commerce expert at Ottawa University. "This has been a common trend for years as file sharers move between services."

According to internet analysis firm CacheLogic, 60% of the traffic on the net by the end of 2004 was made up of peer-to-peer activity. It found that eDonkey has become the dominant peer-to-peer file-sharing network in countries such as South Korea, Italy, Germany and Spain. In Australia, BitTorrent accounts for more than half of all file-sharing, followed by eDonkey, CacheLogic figures show. FastTrack, the network used by Kazaa, makes up about 10% of all peer-to-peer traffic.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...gy/4214810.stm





Music Industry Up-Beat Over Down-Under Victory
William Knight

Record companies have won Australia's largest ever copyright infringement case against Sydney-based Sharman Networks, owners of the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing application.

The case took nine months and reviewed a mountain of documents, but the Federal Court found the defendants liable for authorising Kazaa users to infringe copyrighted recordings and for entering into a common design with each other to "carry out, procure or direct" the authorisation to infringe.

The recording industry has been dastardly clever. So clever you might think they were carrying on as normal, but peer-to-peer file sharing has been a very successful loss leader and brought much needed vitality back into the music business.

Loss leading is a sales strategy by which a product is sold at a knock-down price so that other products are purchased at the same time, or the consumer returns and pays a more profitable price later on. The technique is commonly used by the pushers of addictive substances when forging new markets.

Before file sharing the recording industry was in decline. When world sales of recorded music fell by 7.6 per cent in 2003, it was the fourth consecutive year of falling revenues affecting virtually all major markets. Sales in Germany were down 19 per cent, and 30 per cent lower than 1999. Most of Europe experienced similar falls.

Despite the protestations of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which stated: "Internet piracy remains a very significant factor in the decline in world music sales" - the decline was actually due to increased competition among retailers, and boredom among consumers.

With supermarkets stocking only the top ten hits and ruthlessly cutting prices, other retailers resorted to slashing margins to compete. For many retailers – echoing the book publishing industry after the collapse of the net book agreement – it was only viable to stock best-sellers, and the record labels responded with greater emphasis on far fewer, but more famous artists.

The drive for instant profit stifled the rise of new talent and shortened the life of all but the most successful artists. The recording industries back-list of old songs could not find the shelf space it needed and was losing value fast. Meanwhile the public were fed up with processed pop, and slowly they stopped buying.

And that remained the case until file-sharing emerged in force. Suddenly the old, forgotten artists could compete for listeners on level terms with the highly- marketed boy bands and manufactured acts. It was time to download all those albums and singles you failed to buy when you were younger and that you wouldn't, or couldn't, buy at the full price.

But the record companies have slowly turned the screws on illegal file sharing, craftily allowing it to create demand and then moving in on the territory. Single- song downloads have escalated, and music-for-lease is a being pushed as a subscription service. The consumer doesn't even get to own the music in some of these marketing models.

Napster in the UK yesterday reported 55 million downloads and streams in just 15 months from 750,000 members, and one in five of those members no longer purchase CDs. This may sound fabulous, but Napster also report 80 per cent of their clients are over 25, and 75 per cent are male; not really a mixed demographic, and they are probably all IT staff as well.

Yet this mix of users only really points to the growth that is to come from legal music downloads, and there is no wonder the recording industry is cock-a-hoop over winning in Australia. Their loss leading strategy would seem to be paying off, and with subscription services being the favoured model – with new entrants almost daily – they can look forward to big revenues without even producing a CD.

Like the drug pusher, a record company executive reported in Business Week said, "The music industry wants to get people hooked on subscriptions and then increase prices."

And illegal downloading has been a shot in the arm for a beleaguered industry.
http://www.contractoruk.com/002276.html





Day The Music Died
Simon Hayes and wires

SHARMAN Networks chief executive Nikki Hemming wasn't in court to see the music industry deliver its body blow to file sharing, but there's no doubt Justice Wilcox's ruling on the Kazaa peer-to-peer network is a major win for the big record companies.

It was quickly clear to those crowding court 21C in Sydney's Queen's Square complex that the judgment represented a victory for the record labels, which have been fighting peer-to-peer around the world.

Justice Wilcox found the respondents - Sharman Networks, management company LEF Interactive, chief executive Nicola Anne Hemming, business partners Brilliant Digital Entertainment and Altnet, and BDE chief executive Kevin Glenn Bermeister - had authorised copyright infringement.

They have been given two months to install filters to stop traffic in pirated tracks on their system, and face a large damages bill, to be assessed at a later hearing.

Justice Wilcox said the respondents had not installed filtering to stop piracy, and had encouraged piracy through an advertising campaign.

"They also sponsored a Kazaa Revolution campaign attacking the record companies," he said. "To a young audience ... the effect of this web page would be to encourage visitors to think it cool to defy the record companies."

The Australian decision follows a July US Supreme Court judgment that found peer-to-peer networks Grokster and StreamCast were liable for copyright infringement.

The judge in that case argued the two network operators could be sued because they encouraged users to share pirated material in order to build up their audiences.

Kazaa solicitor Mary Still said the company was "confident of a win on appeal".

"Sharman Networks is disappointed that we have not been completely successful,' she said. "But we will appeal those parts of the decision where we were not successful."

Brilliant Digital Entertainment chief executive Kevin Bermeister said he would not comment until the company had time to "fully assess the ruling".

The music companies were pleased with the decision. Music Industry Piracy Investigations spokesman Michael Speck said the case would have a "global impact".

"This was an important case for not only the record companies but for anybody who wants to make a living from creating music," he said. "It's increasingly difficult for online businesses to do anything other than be legal."

Observers said the decision had major implications for digital music.

Anne Flahvin, a senior associate with law firm Baker and McKenzie, said Kazaa could continue to operate, but would have to change its business model.

"Certainly the business model insofar as its use of infringing music goes, it's over," she said. "This decision knocks it on the head."

Ms Flahvin said the decision was good news for peer-to-peer, however, because it did not stop the use of the technology.

"The judge in this case has bent over backwards to give some direction as to what they need to do to keep on the right side of the law," she said. "We may very well see more non-infringing uses of this software." Australian National University senior law lecturer Matthew Rimmer said the case would not necessarily set a precedent for the US.

"The US law is slightly different in some respects," he said. "There are more limited defences in Australia than in the US."

Success in the Kazaa case is also likely to be huge boost for the global music industry, which has been hanging on by its fingernails, blaming music piracy for a huge drop in CD sales.

According to the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, peer-to-peer was partly to blame for a 25 per cent drop in record sales since 1999. In Australia, the value of record sales fell 6 per cent in 2004 to $607 million.

In a statement accompanying the figures, music industry lobby group ARIA said peer-to-peer was one of the major reasons for the sales decline. "The industry attributes the overall decline in both the volume and value of the market to various factors, including ... the significant growth over the past 12 months in the uptake of high-speed internet access in Australia, which more easily enables the illegal downloading of music."

Yesterday ARIA was hailing the decision as a "victory for common sense".

Kazaa's owner, Sharman Networks, had tried to pitch the case as a David and Goliath battle, with an underweight Sharman facing a hulking opponent backed by millions of music industry dollars.

That picture to a large extent reflected the reality of a Sydney North Shore minnow taking on the sheer size and wealth of the global music industry.

The essence of the industry's argument was that Sharman could stop illegal file trading on the network, but chose not to do so.

Indeed, the music giants argued, it encouraged piracy through advertising and promotion, and had "knowledge and awareness of rampant copyright infringement".

"Rather than get asked what's your licence number and told here's a termination notice, they got a biscuit and sent on their way," music industry counsel Tony Bannon SC argued.

Sharman's argument was that it could not control file trading on its network, and that there were no reasonable steps it could take to do so.

Sharman counsel Anthony Meagher SC referred to the Amstrad precedent, in which CBS Songs failed to convince the British House of Lords that the computer maker was implicated in piracy, even though its machines could be used for copyright violation.

Mr Meagher said Sharman's position was not materially different to Amstrad's.

"We provide them with the software to search and download files - we don't control what they put in their MyShare folders," he said. Ironically, while the court has been hearing the case, the world may well have moved on. While Kazaa claims 317 million registered users, experts say it is no longer the largest of the filesharing networks, having ceded that title in the middle of last year to the likes of BitTorrent and eDonkey.

Research released last week by British firm CacheLogic showed eDonkey was the most popular filetrading network, followed by BitTorrent. CacheLogic warned that peer-to-peer was now the largest element on traffic on the networks of major ISPs.

In the wake of Napster, Grokster, StreamCast and now Kazaa, peer-to-peer operators are looking for legitimacy. The most recent entry to the market, BitTorrent, is negotiating with key coyright owners and even seeking venture capital funding.

Kazaa founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, meanwhile, have shifted peer- to-peer technology into another sector, and are well advanced on their latest venture, the Skype internet telephone service.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...nbv%5E,00.html





Kazaa Ruling Too Late to Stop Downloading
Susan B. Shor

"You're not going to stop people from writing code," said Michael Goodman, senior analyst with Yankee Group. "Unlicensed file sharing will migrate to these countries that don't care." He added that file-sharing networks will just use the model of offshore casinos, which operate in countries that don't prohibit them and whose owners also live in those countries.

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File-sharing network Kazaa must alter its software to try to stop illegal music sharing, a federal judge in Australia ruled Monday, but one analyst said the ruling won't change peer-to- peer file-swapping at all.

"In the end it's about as relevant as anything else these industries have done. Trying to pin down file sharing is like grabbing sand slipping through your fingers," Michael Goodman, senior analyst with Yankee Group, told TechNewsWorld. "Is [the ruling] the final nail in coffin for Kazaa? Who cares?"

"The court system and legislation can't keep up with technology. They're always fighting yesterday's battle," he added.

Users Have Moved On

Much of the music downloading that violates copyright laws now happens on BitTorrent and eDonkey, he said, adding that file-sharing networks will just use the model of offshore casinos, which operate in countries that don't prohibit them and whose owners also live in those countries.

"You're not going to stop people from writing code," he said. "Unlicensed file sharing will migrate to these countries that don't care."

Thirty record companies had joined together to file the lawsuit against Sydney, Australia-based Sharman Networks, which owns Kazaa. Sharman Chief Executive Nikki Hemming and Sharman software partner Altnet were also found guilty of copyright infringement and ordered by Judge Murray R. Wilcox to pay 90 percent of the record industry's costs for the lawsuit. Kazaa said in a brief statement that it will appeal the decision.

Similar US Ruling

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that file-sharing companies could be held liable for any copyright infringement that occurred over their networks. That case involved Grokster and StreamCast Networks' Morpheus .

Goodman said he has been arguing for years that both record labels and musicians should embrace file-sharing and create new business models around it, but from the Recording Industry Association of America's reaction to the decision, it is clear that that is a long way off.

"This decision reflects a growing, international chorus: those who promote theft can be held accountable no matter how they may attempt to escape responsibility," an RIAA statement said. "A corrupt business strategy of attempting to hide offshore is not off limits to the enforcement of rights by creators or law enforcement."

Kazaa's network operated from the island nation of Vanuatu off the Australian coast, but its executives lived in Sydney and Los Angeles, leaving them open to lawsuits in nations with laws against copyright infringement.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/H...nloading.xhtml





Court Blocks Free File-Sharing Services
Kim Tong-hyung

A local court Wednesday ruled in favor of the music industry in a dispute with Internet companies providing file-swapping services, touching off a heated debate on balancing consumer rights and intellectual property.

The Seoul Central District Court gave the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers (KAPP), a music industry lobby, further protection against the unauthorized downloading of music when it ruled that Internet company Soribada (www.soribada.com) should abandon its current free service model in accordance with copyright protection laws.

Soribada runs the country’s largest peer-to-peer network with more than 5 million subscribers and 400,000 users.

The KAPP filed a lawsuit last November for an injunction to bar Soribada from providing about 67,000 songs on its network that are copyrighted by the music lobby’s member labels.

In the ruling, the court went a step further by announcing that it will now be illegal for Internet users to distribute Soribada’s file-sharing software and share music files with existing peer-to-peer programs, basically ordering a complete halt to the Internet company’s current services.

``The defendant admitted that it is impossible to control individuals from uploading and downloading music files on its network. We order a suspension of Soribada’s services and the distribution of its programs to guard against the infringement of copyrights,’’ the court said.

The court ruling stands in line with the intentions by policymakers to strengthen the protection of copyrights.

In February, the government enforced a new law that bans individuals or companies from sharing copyrighted music without the consent of record companies, barring the trading of music files through peer-to-peer software, e-mail or web logs.

However, the court’s decision is likely to spark controversy over how much Internet companies should be held responsible for the actions of individual users.

A Soribada employee told The Korea Times that the company is considering appealing the court’s ruling.

``Soribada is no longer a separate program running through a single server. It is now more of a technology that is spread over the Web. It’s hard to say if anybody should acquire full control over such activities,’’ he said.

The local recording industry has been arguing that the unauthorized downloading of files has been hurting sales.

It pointed out that the advent of online file-sharing is co- related with a decrease in music sales. But critics say that the causal link does not exist.

Online file-sharing through peer-to-peer networks has become an increasingly contentious issue in Korea, where more than 70 percent of households have an Internet connection.

According to the Samsung Economic Research Institute, the digital music market first overtook the size of the offline market in 2003, when it reached over 190 billion won.

However, critics are skeptical of how far record companies could push their campaign to reduce illegal music downloads.

They point out that the demise of the CD-based music market has more to do with a loss of market share than to individual peer-to-peer activities, with sales from Web sites and telecom operators replacing a large part of the traditional market.

And with major Internet portals and mobile-phones operators, such as SK Telecom, providing customers unlimited access to music files for just 5,000 won per month, some question why recording companies are trying to pin most of the blame on random individuals using peer-to-peer sites.

``I personally think that the court went too far. The advancement in peer-to-peer technology has given consumers more power to distribute products, which is a new environment that the music industry must adapt to,’’ said Lee Dong-san, an official from the civic group Cultural Action.

The KAPP, of which members include major record companies such as Yedang Entertainment and Doremi Media, has been involved in a similar dispute with Bugs Music (www.bugsmusic.co.kr), an Internet site that allowed users to listen to music for free but not download it.

After a series of legal disputes, Bugs Music ended up selling 60 percent of its company to a group of recording companies and gave up its management rights with a KAPP senior official stepping in to head operations.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nati...7362711960.htm





Prosecution Indicts Web Site Operators Of Music Sharing

The prosecution yesterday indicted the chief executive of popular music file-sharing service Soribada on charges of copyright infringement.

The Seoul District Prosecutor's Office said the fee- based music service violated intellectual property laws by servicing music for profit without gaining permission from musicians, officials said yesterday.

Chief executive Yang Chung-hwan and the company itself were indicted on charges of operating a profit- seeking business while using 10 unauthorized Korean pop-music files. Yang was not arrested.

Last month, Seoul Central District Court ordered the company to stop offering Soribada 3 music software to netizens which allows the transfer of MP3 files between users through the company's Web site.

Soribada, the country's largest Internet music-sharing site with an estimated membership of five million, is charged with gaining illegal profits amounting to 318 million won ($300,000) through subscriptions to its downloading and music-streaming services, said the prosecution.

"According to the copyright laws, servicing profitable music requires the consent of three parties - composer, performer and music producer, - involved in a music piece. But, Soribada operated its business without obtaining permission from the first two," the prosecutor said. Under the law, music-sharing websites should get agreements from the Recording Industry Association of Korea, an incorporated organization representing the copyrights of composers and the Federation of Korean Art Performers Organization, a group that advocates for performers' royalties.

In a response to yesterday's indictment, Soribada (www. soribada.com), the nation's largest Internet music-sharing site with an estimated membership of five million, said it hasn't decided yet whether to appeal the case to a higher court, said a public relations manager of Soribada. The company's head, Yang has insisted that Soribada should be regarded as any other search engine on the Internet.

Under the new law adopted last February, online music distributors such as Bugs Music and Soribada have been forced to abandon their free-service model and are currently providing new services that charge subscriber fees to cover royalty fees due to the record companies.

Bugs Music, the nation's biggest online music streaming site (www.bugs.co.kr), has started to provide paid music-streaming services. Soribada also started to adopt payment systems and says their system was designed to protect copyright holders if they ever want to operate such fire-sharing services.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/da...0509090014.asp





Myanmar To Enact Intellectual Property Protection Law

Myanmar is finalizing a draft intellectual property protection (IPP) law for promulgation by next January to provide legal basis for artists in their undertakings, legal sources said on Thursday.

The law, drafted under guidelines of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), would cover intellectual property rights in terms of literature, arts, trade mark, mechanical design and invention, it said.

Artists of respective fields including literature, music, drama and film industry have expressed welcome over the move, saying that the law would help provide protection for art creators.

Myanmar's drafting of the law began in 2004 and the country is the last among member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to promulgate such law, the sources added.

The move constitutes part of the implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement reached in January 2000.

Myanmar became a member of the WTO and WIPO in 1995 and 2000 respectively and was set to complete drafting of the IPP law by the end of 2005 along with other least developing countries.
http://english.people.com.cn/200509/...01_205768.html





Game Piracy Outlook Bleak For Near-Term

The video game industry is especially vulnerable to piracy because there is only one revenue window for a title. Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL '06" came out in July, but is already available on so-called "back-up" sites selling steeply discounted copies.
Paul Hyman

When Electronic Arts released its hugely popular "Madden NFL 06" in August, stores sold it -- and continue to sell it -- for $49.95. Today, however, the football game can be had for $6.95 from any number of Web sites that sell "backups" (a euphemism for "copies") of dozens and dozens of hot titles. It's also free for the download from a wide assortment of peer-to-peer sites (P2P) where gamers enthusiastically post and "share" files.

It's all highly illegal, of course. And this growing piracy threat to the video games industry is thought to be more dangerous than the theft of music and films is to those industries because of the tiny commercial window in which game software is released.

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), 60% to 80% of the total revenue a video game earns comes from sales during the first few months after release. There is no secondary market. And so, any piracy that occurs during that initial period has a huge impact on potential sales.

The problem can't all be blamed on the Internet, of course. Piracy of "hard goods" alone -- games that are illegally replicated onto physical media like CDs and DVDs - - is said to cost $3 billion annually. Add online piracy to the mix and the losses to publishers and retailers balloons to -- well, no one really knows.

"We just don't have a good sense as to how much additional money online piracy (represents). I've seen estimates as low as $1 billion annually and as high as $3 billion," says Ric Hirsch, the ESA's senior vp for intellectual property enforcement. "The problem is that measuring activity on the Internet -- legitimate or otherwise -- is much more difficult than measuring the loss due to hard-goods piracy. When a hacker cracks a game's protection code and puts the game on the Web, it's impossible to determine how many downloads will result."

Until last year, Mark Litvack was the vp and director of legal affairs worldwide anti-piracy for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Today, he is a partner with LA-based Mitchell Silberberg and Knupp LLP, a law firm that focuses on intellectual property matters and piracy, among other things, in the video game, film, and recording industries. Litvack half-jokes that "the only way to totally secure and make something pirate-proof is to never distribute it."

"In this country Internet bandwidth will continue to expand and access to it will become cheaper, making it simpler and more cost-effective for the video games industry to distribute content online," predicts Litvack. "It's so much less expensive than pressing a disk, replicating it, packaging it and driving it to the store, especially with today's gas prices. But, as my former boss [at MPAA], Jack Valenti, once said: 'Bandwidth is an ever-shrinking mode of protection.' "

At the Washington-based ESA, the trade association of the video games industry, Ric Hirsch concurs that the problem will get worse before it gets better.

"The Internet as a vehicle for downloading digital copies of games has accelerated the spread of pirated product globally," he reports. "As hackers have continued to succeed in breaking through copyright protections and putting out unprotected versions of games onto the Internet, we're seeing a lot of the piracy migrate to peer-to-peer environments where games are being copied exponentially. And that, I think, is having an impact overall on putting pirate versions of games into the hands of people a lot sooner than they might otherwise have been because, obviously, hard goods distribution trickles out much more slowly."

To crack down on piracy, Litvack maintains that there needs to be parallel efforts that he likens to "five legs of a multi-leg stool."

"To achieve a balanced effort, all five legs -- legislation, litigation, education, public relations and technology -- must progress together," he says.

But it's an uphill battle to be sure. A survey in February by Santa Clara, Calif.- based Macrovision reveals the extent of the piracy problem in the video games industry. Of 2,219 PC gamers polled, 42% said they have copied PC games from friends and 59% said they have downloaded patches or free copies from the Internet; 46% admitted to obtaining at least one pirated game in the last 24 months; and 15% admitted to acquiring 15 pirated games or more in the past two years. Of the PC gamers, 66% said they have looked for and acquired "cracked" games online, and 18% of them were found on peer-to-peer sites.

Additionally, of the 6,000 Xbox and PlayStation 2 console gamers surveyed, about 21% admitted to playing pirated games and 20% copied games from their friends. About 19% downloaded patches or free copies.

Macrovision develops copy protection products such as SafeDisc, which embeds security measures right into the game's software, and Hawkeye, which aims to reduce the number of illegal downloads on peer-to-peer networks. According to the company, SafeDisc has been added to about 3,000 PC game titles and has shipped on about 300 million disks.

Reducing peer-to-peer activity frequently involves what's known as "spoofing," or posting bogus files which carry the same name as popular games. The object is to fill the P2P sites with unplayable games in order to raise the frustration level of gamers seeking to download a particular file.

The challenge, says Tom DuBois, senior director of business development and marketing at the company's Trymedia Games Business Unit, is to protect the multiple "attack points" at which a game can be copied -- while it is still being created at the developer, while it is in transit between studios, just before it gets replicated and, of course, after it is released.

One popular misconception is that this "hacking" is done casually by gamers with too much time on their hands. According to Todd Basche, senior VP and general manager of Macrovision's Trymedia Group, "there are actually active teams of hackers -- known as "warez" groups -- that compete with each other to be the first to release a hacked version of a major game. The groups have names and brands and they go after the top titles for bragging rights. It's very much an ego thing."

It's also a money thing. There is reportedly plenty of evidence, according to the ESA, that many hackers within the warez groups are in it for the profit too, and that the hacked versions of games are the ones used by the mass replicators in Southeast Asia to make thousands of digital copies for global sale.

While technology hasn't yet found a way to keep the best hackers from cracking a game, Basche maintains that there's a lot to be said for just slowing them down.

"We've done surveys that have shown that every day of protection will buy the publisher more customers," he explains. "Many gamers are looking for the latest, hottest games right away and, if they have to wait two weeks, a fairly large percentage of them will actually go out and buy the title rather than wait. Our studies have shown that about 75% said they would purchase the game if they can't find it for free within a month."

As companies like Macrovision support the "technology leg" of the five-leg anti- piracy stool, the ESA involves itself in the other four, namely legislation, litigation, education, and public relations.

One of the real challenges for the ESA and for law enforcement officials is that many of the warez sites are set up overseas where it is difficult, if not impossible, to shut them down.

"In the U.S., the enforcement environment from an IP standpoint is very good," explains the ESA's Hirsch. "We have an active criminal law enforcement community -- thanks to the Justice Department, the FBI, and Customs -- that is working on elevating IP as a criminal offense priority. But overseas we're really hurt by countries that have not updated their copyright laws. As a result, there are certain countries that are hosts for a lot of pirate activity. Malaysia would be at the top of that list, then China and some countries in Eastern Europe, like the Ukraine and Russia. Those are all countries where, hopefully, through a combination of international pressure and growing recognition by their governments, they will become self-interested in better IP enforcement."

The fear, however, is that because none of this will happen overnight, an unknown number of video game companies will become increasingly adversely affected by piracy, says Hirsch. "Obviously our goal is to minimize that."

In the meantime, the ESA has an active campaign to educate gamers, particularly the children, "who used to be our future consumers but, these days, are our current consumers," adds Hirsch. "They need to know that the games they enjoy are protected by copyright and, if they continue to abuse them through their use of computers and the Internet, ultimately they are doing harm to themselves. I mean, obviously, the ability to produce games is totally dependent on publishers getting a return on their investments."

Hirsch wouldn't speculate on whether the release of next-generation consoles this year and next, all of which will be hooked up to the Internet, will fuel additional pirating activity.

"A lot will depend on the security technologies that the console makers incorporate into their new products, and how quickly those protections are hacked -- if they're hacked at all," he says. "It was a number of years before the security technology on Nintendo's GameCube was broken. There's nothing I know of today that indicates to me that Internet connectivity on consoles will increase piracy. It's possible. We can only hope not."
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.as...llywood&email=





DVD Jon Hacks Media Player File Encryption
Gavin Clarke

Norway's best known IT export, DVD Jon, has hacked encryption coding in Microsoft's Windows Media Player, opening up content broadcast for the multimedia player to alternative devices on multiple platforms.

Jon Lech Johansen has reverse engineered (http://nanocrew.net/ index.php?s=microsoft) a proprietary algorithm, which is used to wrap Media Player NSC files and ostensibly protect them from hackers sniffing for the media's source IP address, port or stream format. He has also made a decoder available.

Johansen doesn't believe there is a good reason to keep the NSC files encrypted, because once you open the file with Media Player to start viewing the stream, the IP address and port can be revealed by running the netstat network utility that is included with most operating systems.

The hacker hopes his move will make content streamed to Media Player more widely available to users of alternative players on non-Windows platforms.

Johansen achieved notoriety when he was tried and re-tried in a Norwegian court for creating a utility that enabled him to play DVDs on his Linux PC. Prosecutors, acting in the interests of the beloved US Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), argued he had acted illegally by distributing his DeCSS tool to others via the internet. This, the prosecution, claimed, made it easier to pirate DVDs.

However, the court ruled in his favor, saying he had not broken the law in bypassing DVD scrambling codes that had stopped him from using his PC to play back DVDs.

Earlier this year Johansen developed a work around to bypass digital rights management (DRM) technology in Apple Computer's iTunes.

His latest hack was done to make Media Player content available to the open source VideoLAN Client (VLC) streaming media player. VLC is available for download to 12 different operating systems and Linux distributions and has seen more than six million downloads to Mac. Apple is even pre-loading VLC on some Macs destined for high schools in Florida.

Johansen told The Register he'd acted following requests for NSC support in VLC. One developer (http://sidequest.org/weblog/archives...cast_from.html) is already hard at work integrating Johansen's decoder into the VLC.

Johansen said: "Windows Media Player is not very good and Windows and Mac users should not be forced to use it to view such [NSC] streams."

The NSC file contains information about the stream, such as the name and address of the stream server. When the file is opened in Media Player, the file is decoded and then connected to the stream server specified.

Johansen said claims made by companies like Cisco Systems, who ship products with NSC support, that the encoding he cracked protects the media don't make much sense. "It's more likely that the purpose is to prevent competing media players from supporting the NSC format," he observed.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09...n_mediaplayer/





Next GPL To Protect Free Software From Lawsuits?
Ingrid Marson

The next version of the General Public License may contain a clause to penalize companies that use software patents against free software.

GPL version 3, a draft of which will be released in January 2006, may contain a patent retaliation clause, Georg Greve, the president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said Tuesday. Such a clause would mean that if a company accused a free-software product of infringing its software patents, that company would lose the right to distribute that product.

Joachim Jakobs from FSF Europe said such a clause would only affect companies that used their software patents against free software. "We don't want to hinder people from using free software if they merely hold software patents," Jakobs said.

The GPL may also contain a clause to penalize companies that use copy-restricting technologies. "There could be something that addresses this if we can find a sensible way to put it," Greve said.

It is not currently certain whether clauses opposing software patents and digital rights management will actually make it into GPL 3, Greve said.

"These are things that are being tossed around, but whether, how and in what form it will take place, we don't know," he said. "Even (GPL author) Richard Stallman hasn't sat down to work it out yet."

The next version of the GPL is also expected to offer improved compatibility with other free-software licenses and improved internationalization.
http://news.com.com/Next+GPL+to+prot...3-5851365.html

[JackSpratts]

Back to School

Duke Student Sues After Finding Her Term Paper For Sale Online
Natalie Gott

Blue Macellari wrote the term paper back in 1999 while studying abroad, so the Duke University graduate student didn't understand why it was on the Internet - or why it was for sale.

Now, she's suing the operator of Web sites selling her paper and seeking more than $100,000 for copyright infringement, invasion of privacy and damage to her reputation.

"They were pushing it, using it, making copies of it without authorization," Macellari's attorney, Evan Andrew Parke, said Thursday.

Macellari filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in East St. Louis, Ill., against Rusty Carroll, his Carbondale, Ill.-based company R2C2 Inc. and South Carolina-based Digitalsmiths Corp. No one answered the telephone at a number listed for Carroll and Digitalsmiths did not immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.

Macellari alleges in her lawsuit that she wrote a term paper about South Africa as one of her requirements for a class she took at the University of Cape Town, where she studied during her junior year in college. She returned to Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., where she earned her undergraduate degree, and, for another class during her senior year, created a Web site and posted her term paper to highlight her past work.

Last January, Macellari learned from a friend that her paper was posted on Web sites registered to Carroll's company and contained notices that the sites own the copyright to the papers. Furthermore, her name was listed. Macellari never gave the papers to the Web sites or gave them permission to post her papers, Parke said.

"They didn't just post it. They are making an explicit claim that they own this paper," said Parke, who is representing Macellari free of charge.

Among the Web sites cited in the lawsuit are http://www.doingmyhomework.com, which says it provides the public with examples of papers and essays to help people find ideas to complete their homework.

"Feel free to cite our Web site if you decide to use any of our text in your papers. We do not support plagiarism, and will work to help fight it," the Web site reads.

Readers can find previews of essays but on a linked site, customers are prompted to sign up for memberships that cost as much as $104.95 for 180 days.

Macellari, a graduate student in a joint program through Johns Hopkins University and Duke, declined to comment about the case and referred calls to Parke, who said Macellari's paper has now been removed from the Web sites.

Faculty are already concerned about students who turn in papers downloaded from the Internet but this case raises another issue about protecting your work, said David DeCosse, director of Campus Ethics Programs at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Students and university professors want to post student work on the Web, he said. "But perhaps we should all be aware of ... requiring passwords or things of that nature a little bit more so we don't contribute to that traffic, sort of illicit student paper traffic," DeCosse said.

Donald McCabe, the founding president of the Duke-based Center for Academic Integrity, said he is not aware of a similar lawsuit and he believes that universities will applaud Macellari.

"This has been an issue at a large number of schools," McCabe said. "I think it's encouraging to see someone willing to take a stand on it from an integrity point of view."
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld...l/12551726.htm





IN RETROSPECT: Access To Digital Information Withering
Justin William

With every new peer-to-peer sharing program that makes its debut in college dorm rooms, a little bit of digital freedom is chipped away. It is an ever-growing trend for major recording labels — along with big-name bands riding wingman — to pursue startup companies like Grokster, StreamCast, Napster or Kazaa and pursue them right into the digital graveyard. But with each new strike against peer sharing programs, the level of lunacy is raised tenfold — most recently against Grokster and StreamCast.

Now, some might believe that it’s purely heresy to claim the rights of the individual come before the will of the “rightly appointed” Supreme Court justices, whose only fear for losing their positions is the grim reaper himself. But from time to time, I find myself thinking these crazy “individualistic,” “non-contemporary,” “wacky” thoughts — some of which include the belief that individuals should have the right to distribute and freely share digital media.

The problem, then, lies with the aims of the recording labels and the artists who intend to make a living producing these products. It doesn’t just stop with them, however, it also encompasses everyone associated with the production process that brought the band together in the recording studio and everyone who produced and fine tuned the sound. Then you have to consider the middle men, the people who are really turning the prices up: the distributors, wholesalers and retailers.

So, taking all of these people into consideration, it’s easy to understand why there’s all this commotion over the growing problem of copyright infringement that the Supreme Court is so fervently cracking down on.

Honestly, the problem isn’t really with the fact that the Supreme Court is upholding laws that make sense. In fact, that’s probably a good idea, and maybe we should do some more of that. The real problem lies with the persecution of file sharers that is becoming a growing trend in the decisions of the Supreme Court — digital media sharing is becoming a real-world “thought crime,” the crimes you read about in science fiction novels set in post-apocalyptic utopias.

According to the Supreme Court, copyright law goes as far as this: “One who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.” This is entirely too vague of a description. This type of open-ended ruling leaves a lot of room for loopholes and manipulation.

So you are probably wondering, what’s the big deal? It seems relatively simple to avoid infringing upon copyrights — or court rulings — doesn’t it? However, there are rolling complications with such vague rulings that favor the rights of large interest groups. Decisions like that require American companies to spend needless amounts of resources and time to re-engineer software, as well as ensure that every single aspect of their software doesn’t, in the slightest way, hint at “promoting” the possibility of infringing upon copyrights — because otherwise they are inviting investigators to inspect every server, every e-mail, every line of code and every developer meeting, searching for more clues that “thought-crimes” are being committed. And that’s not to mention the severe detriment to the freedom of innovation such a ruling causes.

The fact remains, years after the release of the first file-sharing program, people love to share the latest information, whether that information is ripped CDs, pirated software, audio books, movies or whatever else there is out there that hasn’t been outlawed yet. Because of this, companies should look for a better solution to obvious problems, before involving the Supreme Court. For years, hardware manufacturers and security software companies have been shouting for security integrated into the hardware — software is just too easy to get around.
http://www.bsudailynews.com/vnews/di.../431fddb54c004





Download Habits Change With File Sharing Software
Rebecca Shoval

Last year marked the beginning of a new type of file sharing at Cornell — one that allows students to legally download vast quantities of music without using up their two gigabyte limit. Napster, completely revamped from its original infamous form, allows users to download as much music as they want from a library of over 750,000 songs and stream advertisement-free Internet radio.

Soon after the service started, students complained that Napster did not work with Macs, that the service occasionally only downloaded 30 seconds of a song and that, in order to burn a track to a CD or MP3 player or retain the music after leaving Cornell, there was a 99 cent charge per song.

Nevertheless, by the end of last school year, approximately 9,000 Cornellians had subscribed to the service. About 14,000 people were eligible for the Napster program.

Cornell’s agreement with Napster was part of an effort to curb illegal file sharing by students. Beginning with five notices of copyright infringement at Cornell in Fall 2001, Tracy Mitrano J.D. '95, director of University Computer Policy and Law, has processed several hundred notices of copyright infringement.

“Upon receipt of notice from the copyright holder” the University blocks the IP address, Mitrano said. Once the IP address is blocked, the individual can delete their files, be unblocked and face the Judicial Administration or file a legal counter notice claiming ownership of the file or proper permission to share the file. Some of the notices that Cornell receives are the result of non-Cornellians hacking into the system.

In a February 2004 article entitled “Campaign Against Illegal Filesharing Continues,” Judicial Administrator Mary Beth Grant said that in the 2002-2003 school year “we had approximately 200 referrals for digital copyright violations.”

Grant also told The Sun that first-time violators usually receive community service or a fine as punishment.

Compared to the large number of notices some colleges and universities must handle, Cornell has relatively few problems and has never received a subpoena for the identity of an IP address user, according to Mitrano.

Mitrano also told The Sun that Cornell “does not monitor the network for content” in order to protect free speech and academic integrity throughout the school.

Last year, a major Cornell direct-connect hub was shut down after a bootleg video of Jon Stewart's performance at Cornell appear on the server. In an April 5 article in The Sun entitled “Studios, Universities Fight Battles Against Illegal File Sharing,” Jae Kwon ’05 spoke of the renewed file exchange room — which operates under a different name — as “fostering a sense of community among Cornell Resnet users.”

Kwon maintained that a “hub owner doesn’t know what files are traded between users” but said he disconnected users he found sharing copyrighted material.

This article appeared amid MGM v. Grokster, a Supreme Court case over whether file-sharing program makers are liable for secondary copyright infringement since their users trade copyrighted material.

The Supreme Court decided in June that file-sharing program makers could be held liable for illegal usage, based on whether or not they encouraged infringement.

“We adopt it here, holding that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties," the Supreme Court decision stated.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 outlaws exchanging or obtaining copyrighted music, games or videos over the internet.

Yet some feel this 18-page addendum to copyright law may not be enough. Prof. Tarleton Gillespie, communications, gave a speech in April about copyright law. Gillespie feels the legal regulations that once protected copyrights are not sufficient.

"Copyright was principled on a moment when they were talking about print," Gillespie said in an April article in The Sun entitled Prof Speaks About Copyright Law. “Technology [has] stirred old copyright questions."

In 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against Napster, the first wide-spread file-sharing program that allowed users to download music, both copyrighted and public domain, from strangers. According to Prof. Lawrence Lessig, law, Stanford University, when the RIAA filed the lawsuit, Napster had around 200,000 users; after the lawsuit drew public attention to file sharing and Napster, the number of users grew to 57 million.

Napster, in its original form, worked as a matchmaking service that linked users through a centralized system, allowing Napster to control what content could be found. Thus, Napster was forced to disable access to copyrighted material if the copyright holder told the company about the infringement.

In light of the Napster lawsuit, new peer-to-peer software, often written P2P in Internet slang, was developed; this software has no centralized server but has users search others directly for files.

These newer file-sharing programs, such as KaZaA, cannot be shut down by their creator; once the software exists, users need no parent body to continue.

Nationwide, people trade an estimated 2.6 billion copyrighted files each month through programs such as KaZaA and Grokster.
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/disp.../431e7c57baf05





The Media

An Excruciating Excess of Reality
Kate Aurthur

BREAKING BONADUCE
VH1
Premiere at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11.

DURING a scene in the fifth episode of VH1's new reality series "Breaking Bonaduce," Danny Bonaduce, the former child star from "The Partridge Family," is playing with his 10-year-old daughter, Isabella. "Daddy, what happened to your wrists?" she asks, looking at bandages he is wearing. As she swings in and out of the frame, Mr. Bonaduce lies to her. "Oh, it's nothing," he says with a slight grimace. "Daddy's just not a very handy guy when it comes to installing windows."

What actually happened to Mr. Bonaduce's wrists is that he slashed them after his wife, Gretchen, asked him for a divorce. It was the last desperate act in a long, crazy night that started with hours of drinking and taking pills, and it caused him to land in the psychiatric ward.

Before she raised the subject of divorce, Mrs. Bonaduce had asked the cameras to leave, so her husband's suicidal gesture and subsequent hospitalization were not filmed. But the events that led up to them were: when as he drank himself into a rage, when he yelled at the television production crew ("I will cripple him for the rest of his life!" he says about a producer) and when he made threats toward his wife ("If she doesn't get on the phone right now," he says at one point, "there will be no stopping me."). These are just a few of the excruciating moments from his life as it fell to pieces. And they will soon be broadcast for all the world to see beginning Sept. 11.

That wasn't the plan when VH1 conceived of the show. "No normal person expects someone to slit their wrists on your reality show," Michael Hirschorn, the channel's executive vice president of programming and production, said in a recent interview. "If you're taking your sailboat out, you'd like a strong wind, you just don't expect a hurricane."

The rough weather, however, was not completely without warning. Over the years, Mr. Bonaduce has attracted a good deal of negative publicity because of multiple arrests and his struggles with addiction - though he was also able to achieve success in radio and as an occasional talking head (on shows like VH1's "In Search of the Partridge Family"). But his marriage of 15 years suffered a blow recently when he had an affair. His dodgy kind of fame well suited the Bonaduces for VH1's brand of "celebreality" programming, and the Bonaduces agreed to allow the network to chronicle their marital counseling.

Soon after the show began filming, however Mr. Bonaduce fell off the wagon. Not only did he binge drink - viewers will see him downing an entire bottle of vodka in a single guzzle at one point - but he also started taking Vicodin and, as part of an obsessive exercise regimen, injecting steroids. During the show, he becomes increasingly muscular and tightly wound. He also becomes verbally abusive toward his wife and their therapist, Dr. Garry Corgiat. After the suicide attempt, Dr. Corgiat refused to work with Mr. Bonaduce until he got in-patient treatment for his substance abuse. VH1 executives found a clinic near Los Angeles, and Mr. Bonaduce checked into rehab.

Over breakfast at the Argyle Hotel in Los Angeles last month, the Bonaduces, who are still together, recounted their experiences of the past few months. "My behavior is humiliating," Mr. Bonaduce said about what the audience will see on the show, which neither of them has watched. "Right now, I'm embarrassed in front of a crew of 20, 1 doctor and 1 wife. Sept. 12, I will be embarrassed in front of millions."

AS the life of the Bonaduces, including Isabella and Dante (age 4), shaped up to be less like the endearing dysfunction of "The Osbournes" and more like the viciousness of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" VH1 considered abandoning the project. Jeff Olde, the channel's senior vice president of series production, said that even the earliest sessions the Bonaduces had with Dr. Corgiat gave him and the channel's other executives pause.

"Therapy was a very revealing process for them," Mr. Olde said. VH1 had shot the pilot, along with the couple's first sessions with the psychologist, during the fall. In those early sessions, Mrs. Bonaduce expressed uncertainty about her commitment to her husband. Then months passed before therapy and filming began again. "I think they were ready to explode, really," Mr. Olde said. "That gate had been opened up. Some really, really intense stuff was coming up in their therapy sessions, and at the end of the day, we didn't want to get in the way of these people's marriage."

The Bonaduces wed on their first date, which was in 1990. Faced with the news that there would be no sex without marriage, Mr. Bonaduce - drunk at the time - called a minister. Despite this harebrained beginning, they say they have been devoted to each other ever since, even through some very rough patches. And that, he says, is why the recent fissures between them were so unsettling, and why he returned to substance abuse and other irrational behavior.

"This is where I get all psycho - everybody was out to facilitate my demise," Mr. Bonaduce said, trying to explain his delusional thinking during the filming of the show before he entered rehab. "Dr. Garry thinks I'm no good for her, that I'm a big mistake for Gretchen. 'You're trying to kill me,' is the way I saw it. So it became very adversarial."

The twice-a-week sessions with Dr. Corgiat - a psychologist whom everyone calls Dr. Garry, following the standard set by teletherapists like Dr. Phil (McGraw) - were filmed at the Sunset-Gower Studios in Hollywood, in a replica of his office. On the show, he asks Mr. Bonaduce directly whether he's using steroids, he grills Mrs. Bonaduce about whether her husband has ever hit her or their children (she adamantly says he has not) and as weeks go by, he grows visibly and outspokenly alarmed at what he sees.

In a restaurant in Venice Beach, Dr. Corgiat - tanned, fit and inquisitive - recently recalled what those counseling sessions were like. "Oh, man," he said, rolling his eyes. "I thought it was going to be celebrity shrinkdom. And I was going to tell them some very clever, insightful things, and they would integrate them. And they were going to get better! It's a lot more real than that. Everybody really has their pants down on that show." If "Breaking Bonaduce" rewrites the rules about how far televised therapy can go, it also does something even more daring - practically unheard of - for an unscripted program: it acknowledges that these events are being filmed for broadcast. Dr. Corgiat and the Bonaduces, for example, regularly refer to the show and the cameras during sessions. Most poignantly, in the fourth episode, Mr. Bonaduce says to Dr. Corgiat: "I never expected any of this. I thought this would be the best thing that ever happened, because I'd have another TV show and it makes me happy and it's what I'm good at. But now I see my marriage is dissolving." He starts sobbing.

The day after his suicide attempt - the "deal breaker," in Mr. Olde's words - executives met to discuss canceling the plans for the show. "We've all worked on a lot of reality shows where a lot of people get really, really drunk and do some crazy things, but Danny's behavior was on the edge," he said. "We would not have continued shooting that show, there was no way."

They consulted with Dr. Corgiat, who recalled saying: "He's in a drug-induced psychosis. This is not O.K. I'm not doing this - this is unethical, immoral. We need to take care of this guy."

But Mr. Olde said that when he and Claire McCabe, an executive producer for VH1, talked to Mrs. Bonaduce, "she really begged us to keep filming."

Mrs. Bonaduce explained: "I wanted to use every leverage that I could to get him to get help. Because Danny loves to be on TV. I expected them to say, 'You know what, you guys are just too crazy and we don't want any part of this.' And when they didn't, I literally started to cry because I couldn't believe they didn't cut us loose. They stuck around. It was amazing to me."

Mr. Bonaduce insists he would not have agreed to go into rehab had VH1 abandoned the project. "I pushed them to film," he said. "VH1 said: 'You've gone too far. We can't film you - you're dying.' I thought, What are you talking about? You'll have a great show if I die. What's wrong with you, not rolling on my death? So that surprised me."

Was sticking with their troubled star - and finding him a rehab facility that would allow cameras - a true act of beneficence on VH1's part? "I think the psychotherapeutic term is 'codependency,' " Mr. Hirschorn said, "where the network becomes codependent to the subject." If filming had stopped, of course, there would not have been a series. But Mr. Hirschorn insisted that wasn't the network's motivation. "Even the most cynical, self-serving interpretation would suggest that if somebody really did themselves harm, that would be really terrible for a television network," he said. "That would be something both personally I could not have on my conscience, and corporately would be horrible for VH1."

Mr. Bonaduce completed the drug-and-alcohol program at the beginning of June, and since then, he said, he has been sober. He was fired from his radio job, which he said paid $1 million a year. (The radio station, Star 98.7, did not return calls asking for comment.) Today he attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings daily, and hangs out at home.

At the Argyle Hotel, the Bonaduces said they were nervous, about both the show's looming premiere date and about their being interviewed. Mr. Bonaduce's hands shook, and he had to be talked into ordering food. "I didn't sleep last night," Mrs. Bonaduce said. About her desire for divorce only a few months earlier, she said, "I was just trying to shake his reality - he just had lost control completely, and everything he was doing and saying was really freaking me out."

Mr. Bonaduce said he felt nearly worshipful of his wife, but added, "It makes me nervous to give her too many compliments, because when do I become obsessive again?" Since rehab, he said, "the old me is kind of dissipating, and that's a good thing." He added: "But there's no new me. It's a bizarre, precarious place to be. I'm really going to miss me."

Mr. Olde said he hoped that critics and viewers were able to see past the sensationalism of "Breaking Bonaduce." "It's such an easy shot to say, 'Oh, this is reality TV going to the next level,' " he said. "This is not in the same bucket as reality shows. It's more in line with a very intense documentary series that is relevant to our audience because of who Danny is."

And that is - still - in Mr. Bonaduce's words, "a B-lister who might die." If therapy is about changing the narrative of your life, having a television show expose it, then preserve it in reruns, might seem to endanger all that therapy accomplishes. In any case, it's scary. "Telling people to watch this show in some ways seems dishonest to me," he said. " 'Watch this show: I disintegrate.' Why would I want to do that?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/ar...on/04aurt.html





So Long, AT&T? Not So Fast

Once SBC completes its acquisition, Ma Bell's familiar moniker will replace its new parent's. And a renewed consumer push will commence

As telecom giant SBC prepares to close its acquisition of AT&T, it might seem that the 120- year-old telecom brand is about to fade into history.

Don't bet on it. SBC, which was spun off from AT&T amid the breakup of the Bell telephone system in 1984, will assume its former parent's name, BusinessWeek Online has learned. The plan, which is consistent with speculation that followed SBC's bid for AT&T earlier this year, reflects SBC's new national identity and its desire to market AT&T's Internet phone service to consumers around the country. And it gives SBC a marketing weapon to use against its rivals.

GLORY DAYS PAST. The initials S-B-C trace back to the company's roots as regional Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. A spokesman says SBC has made no decision on the fate of the AT&T brand. But one industry executive familiar with the matter says SBC's rebirth as AT&T is a done deal.

The AT&T brand still ranks among the most recognizable corporate monikers in the world. Of course, it has diminished since the height of AT&T's power, when it spent as much as $1 billion a year on marketing and advertising. But the name, which goes back to the incorporation of AT&T in 1885, has hardly passed from the national consciousness.

SBC's acquisition of AT&T is expected to close any time after mid-November because it requires approval at both the federal and state government level. First, the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Dept. are expected to sign off in mid-September. And then the long process of winning state approvals for the $16 billion cash-and-stock transaction is expected to take another two months, concluding with a vote by California regulators.

WHO STAYS, WHO GOES? The company that emerges from the acquisition will look far different from the current SBC or AT&T. Ed Whitacre, SBC's longtime CEO, will likely step aside after a long and dramatic reign filled with big deals.

Whitacre built SBC into a national player with the purchase of Ameritech, its counterpart in the Midwest. He also pushed wireless giant Cingular, a joint venture of SBC and BellSouth, to acquire AT&T Wireless. The top job at the combined SBC-AT&T is expected to go to SBC's current chief operating officer, Randall Stephenson. It isn't clear whether or not AT&T CEO David Dorman, who will earn about $20 million from the sale of AT&T, will stick around.

AT&T still serves millions of consumers, but it has stopped marketing and advertising in traditional consumer media such as print and TV. SBC has different ideas, though. It wants to sell AT&T's Internet-based phone service to consumers around the country. As SBC pushes beyond its local phone markets in the West and Midwest, it will compete head-to-head with rivals such as Verizon and BellSouth and cable-TV operators such as Time Warner and upstarts Vonage and Skype.

"NEED TO BUNDLE." SBC is readying for a nationwide push in the consumer market by getting its infrastructure in place. It has networks covering the West and Midwest, and it serves about one-third of the nation's phone lines. SBC has widened coverage outside of its region by striking deals with Covad. And SBC and AT&T extended an agreement with Time Warner Telecom in June. Time Warner Telecom will help connect the merged companies to customers outside of the SBC region, where SBC doesn't have its own wires running into homes and businesses.

AT&T hasn't enjoyed much success in the consumer market on its own during the last few years. It spent $25 million promoting its Internet phone service during the 2004 summer Olympics. Reviewers gave the service high marks, but AT&T couldn't gain enough traction and shifted its focus to serving businesses.

The approach to business will change after the SBC-AT&T deal closes, though. The new company will find it easier to sell consumers on broadband and Internet phone service, known as voice over Internet protocol (VOIP). "It's clear you need to bundle voice over IP with broadband and video," says AT&T spokesman Gary Morgenstern. "We weren't able to do that as a stand-alone company, but SBC can. So it will have a different value proposition." SBC, like Verizon, is beginning to roll out TV service.

VoIP'S BLOSSOMING. Internet phone technology continues to advance, which will help SBC-AT&T compete with traditional phone services in territories served by Verizon, BellSouth, and others. For example, Covad is deploying a new kind of "line-powered" VOIP, according to CEO Charles Hoffman. Customers will have full 911 service, just the way regular phone customers do. And they won't have to worry if their electrical power is knocked out, because the phone will be powered by a common source at the company's local phone office, just the way regular phones are. In fact, they won't even need to plug their VoIP phone into a cable modem or DSL router, he says.

AT&T's return to the consumer market shows that VoIP is coming of age. Smaller rivals such as Vonage will face a challenge, because they won't be able to match the breadth of offering from the likes of SBC and Verizon, which is buying MCI. Vonage lost its lead in the Internet phone market to Time Warner and is looking for a buyer, according to a report in trade journal LightReading. And Skype is looking for a buyer, too (see BW Online, 8/10/05, "Skype: On the Block").

The technology has changed immeasurably over the last 120 years, but one thing is as true about the communications business today as it was in the days of Alexander Graham Bell: The advantage goes to the company with the greatest scale and scope.
http://businessweek.com/technology/c...0330_tc119.htm





How Sound Feels to Musician Who Lost Her Hearing
Stephen Holden

"Hearing is a form of touch," the Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie declares. "You feel it through your body, and sometimes it almost hits your face."

Those words echo through "Touch the Sound," an impressionistic documentary directed, edited and photographed by Thomas Riedelsheimer. Subtitled "a sound journey with Evelyn Glennie," it is a mystical exploration of the sensory world as experienced by a renowned musician who lost most of her hearing by the time she was a teenager. Expanding on Ms. Glennie's passionate assertion that hearing is only the most obvious component of deeper physical relationship between sound and the human body, the film is crammed with striking visual correlations to the percussive vibrations she conjures.

Every location visited by the film - from a Manhattan rooftop swarming with pigeons, to a construction site, to the rocky Pacific Coast, to the Scottish farm where Ms. Glennie grew up - reveals its own percussive signature. In one of the film's most striking fusions of sound and image, the camera looks up from below to study the shadowy pitter-patter of pedestrians and their pets on a semitranslucent walkway.

"Touch the Sound" follows the same rambling format as "Rivers and Tides," Mr. Riedelsheimer's profile of the Scottish earthworks artist Andy Goldsworthy, whose mutable sculptures in nature embrace the concept of evanescence. Like Mr. Goldsworthy and like the great San Francisco experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky, Mr. Riedelsheimer is fascinated with the beauty of the fleeting moment and with what Ms. Glennie calls "the sixth sense."

That sense, in her definition, is not an occult connection to the spirit world, but her firsthand knowledge of how the loss of one of the five senses is compensated by the heightened attunement of the other four; that awareness used to be called synergy before the word was hijacked by jargon-spouting corporate bloviators. Ms. Glennie, an articulate, charismatic redhead, becomes vague only when trying to philosophize about the opposite of sound.

Structurally the film might be described as a duet within a duet. As the movie rambles here and there around the world, it periodically returns to a loft in an abandoned German sugar factory where Ms. Glennie and the British multi-instrumentalist Fred Frith are preparing to record an album of improvisations. If their project gives the film a center, it is only one aspect of a larger collaboration between the filmmaker and the percussionist.

The film follows her from Germany to New York, where she delights a small crowd in the middle of Grand Central Terminal by playing the snare drums, barefoot, to a Japanese restaurant where she arranges chopsticks, dishes, a glass and a metal lid into a makeshift drum kit and gives an impromptu demonstration.

Visiting the family homestead tended by a brother, she recalls being "Daddy's girl" and says she still harbors a special kinship with her father, an accordionist who is no longer alive. At 8, she says, she became aware of her progressive hearing loss. She had intended to be a pianist but switched to percussion upon entering high school. A gifted teacher advised her to remove her hearing aids and learn to distinguish musical intervals by pressing her head to a wall and feeling the percussive vibrations in her hands and arms. Out of these experiences developed her sense of sound as a tactile as well as an auditory phenomenon.

If Ms. Glennie declares her favorite instrument to be the snare drum, it is the marimba on which she creates the film's most haunting music. "Touch the Sound" concludes with a sustained meditation for percussion and guitar, in which Mr. Frith, stationed on an elevated platform on the other side of the room, elicits plaintive, shivery cries from an electric guitar while Ms. Glennie taps out a deep, quiet, musical prayer on the marimba. This is synergy of a high order.

Touch the Sound

Opens today in Manhattan.

Directed and edited by Thomas Riedelsheimer; director of photography, Mr. Riedelsheimer; music by Evelyn Glennie and Fred Frith, Roxanne Butterfly, Horazio Hernandez, Za Ondekoza, This Mika, and Saikou and Jason; produced by Stefan Tolz, Leslie Hills and Trevor Davies; released by Shadow Distribution. At the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 99 minutes. This film is not rated.
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2005/09/0...es/07touc.html





Upbeat Music Industry Hits Hill
Roy Mark

Neither an official state funeral nor the devastating aftermath of a cataclysmic storm will stop the music this morning in Washington. There's always time for showbiz on Capitol Hill.

While Washington buries Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in a solemn ceremony stretching from the Supreme Court to Arlington National Cemetery, Desmond Child will be laying on a little Livin' La Vida Loca in a House office building.

As congressional committees scramble to focus on a federal response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Gloria Estefan, Jimmy Jam and Dave Koz will be headlining a Power of Music show promoted by the folks who bring you the Grammys.

Last week, China President Hu Jintao postponed his trip to Washington to give the White House and Congress more time for disaster-recovery efforts. Not Hollywood.

For the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, it's the first-ever Recording Arts Day on Capitol Hill and, of course, the show must go on, good timing or not. Besides, there'll be an awards event packed with stars and lawmakers alike jostling for photo ops.

According to the academy, the point of the event is to not only stress the power of music but to also "raise the profile of recording arts during meetings with legislators."

Desmond, Gloria, Jimmy and Dave have issues, although no one on Tuesday afternoon could recall quite what they might be.

"The entire music industry is coming together on common issues," said Daryl Friedman, vice president of advocacy and government relations for the academy, after a long day of dealing with star- struck media inquiries on the nature of Estefan's dress. "We want to build a top-line relationship [with Congress]."

The coalition put together by the Grammy Awards producers includes performing artists, songwriters, music labels, distributors and retailers, groups whose best interests often conflict with each other.

"They don't always agree," Friedman said. "But they do agree on the big issues."

Friedman admitted Hollywood has little to be unhappy about these days. Just two days ago, an Australian federal court gave the industry thumbs up to sue the peer-to-peer (P2P) network Kazaa for aiding and abetting massive copyright theft. Damages are expected to run into the billions.

That verdict follows a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for Hollywood to pursue similar litigation and jumbo damages against U.S.-based Grokster and other P2P networks.

As Kazaa and Grokster take their place to be the next P2P network sued out of business, the Department of Justice is stepping up its anti-piracy enforcement with a number of high-profile busts. The industry itself continues to successfully sue thousands of individuals for copyright infringement.

"The illegal services are becoming less attractive," said Friedman. "In the first six months of this year, the number of legal downloads are up three times from where it was a year ago."

All in all, the music industry thinks Washington is doing a bang-up job delivering the goods. "It's been a good year, no doubt about that," Friedman confessed.

So today Hollywood salutes the solons, even as they scuttle from funeral appearances to Katrina finger-pointing press conferences. Estefan will headline an all-star, hour-long show in the Gold Room of the House Rayburn Office Building.

In the media-only, RSVP-required event, Estefan will "mentor young musicians, culminating in a unique jam session with members of Congress." Dozens of other performers from Randy Jackson to Earl Klugh will join the mentored children and jamming lawmakers.

For the public, the academy is hosting a $200-per-ticket evening downtown at the Willard called Grammys on the Hill. Estefan, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) will be honored for improving the "environment for music makers."

Hey, a Grammy's a Grammy, good day or not.
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news...le.php/3538336





Navy Bans Access To P2P, Personal e-Mail On NMCI
Michael Wiss

No Hotmail, no Yahoo, no Napster, or any other Web-based e-mail services or peer-to- peer file sharing services for personnel using the Navy Marine Corps Intranet. Violators could lose computer privileges.

The use of e-mail is vital part of business and a great help with personal matters. But if you use a Navy computer workstation, mixing the two e-mail worlds can lead to a breach of security and a heap of trouble.

A new directive from the Navy Chief Information Officer prohibits military personnel from assessing their personal e-mail accounts from the NMCI military computer system. In addition, the directive says people cannot auto-forward official e-mail to a commercial account or use a commercial account for official government business. According to Kings Bay Information Access Mana-ger Bonnie Guinn, the policy will help stem the abuse of government computer systems.

''Commercial e-mail service is vulnerable to information being intercepted easier than government systems,'' she said. ''The policy is a way to protect you from computer hackers and people sending out Spam messages. The overall goal is to protect the security of the government computer system.''

Another procedure prohibited by the directive is peer-to-peer sharing applications, also called P2P. P2P file sharing provides Internet users the ability to share files on their computers with millions of other people. Common P2P swaps include MP3 and movie file sharing, gaming and instant messaging. This software also makes it possible for people to accidentally share personal files or sensitive data.

According to a bulletin from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, P2P programs have been found to allow easier access to government computer systems for theft of sensitive documents and use of government resources, due to unauthorized installation and use of this software on government systems. Recent news media reports stated P2P allowed sensitive government documents to get into the public domain. There are also documented incidents where DoD sensitive messages have been found on non-US computers with no protection against hostile intelligence services. The use of this software creates vulnerabilities, which can be exploited by providing a means of introducing malicious code and other illegal material.

According to Guinn, any small amount of data released can allow unauthorized personnel access to your government computer account.

''People need to know how serious a problem this could be. The consequences could be severe if the rules are not followed,'' she said. ''It would be foolish to lose your computer access because of breaking this policy. You will just have to wait until you get home to check your commercial account. The rule has been set - it must be adhered to, plain and simple.''
http://www.kingsbayperiscope.com/sto...email001.shtml





Hey iTunes, don't make it bad...
Just take a sad song and let us download it. The Beatles still aren't available (legally) online.
Paul R. La Monica

The Rolling Stones have fully embraced the digital music bandwagon. Is it time for the Beatles to do the same?

iTunes announced in early August that it had struck a deal with Abkco, the label that owned the rights to most of the Rolling Stones' older material, to provide the entire selection of Rolling Stones' songs online for downloading. The deal includes "A Bigger Bang," the latest Rolling Stones album, which was released on Tuesday.

The Rolling Stones had a prior online music deal with Rhapsody, owned by RealNetworks (Research). But it was not for the group's complete music catalog -- older music (pre-1971) was available only for streaming on Rhapsody, and couldn't be loaded onto a portable music player.

Now hopes are increasing that the Beatles may finally let their songs be downloaded as well.

A deal for the Beatles' library of music would be, by far, the most significant in the nascent world of online music.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, the Beatles are, by far, the best selling artists in history, with 168.5 million albums sold. Elvis Presley is No. 2, with 116.5 million albums sold.

"If the Beatles did come on board, I'd imagine you'd see a lot of publicity," said Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media, an independent research firm. "It would have the effect of pressing down the accelerator a bit in the online music business."

Michael Goodman, senior digital entertainment analyst with Yankee Group, a Boston-based tech research firm, agreed.

He noted that the Beatles appeal to an older demographic, who have tended to buy songs and albums from legal online music sites like iTunes, Napster (Research), Rhapsody and the new Yahoo! (Research) Music Unlimited as opposed to illegally downloading songs from so- called peer-to-peer file sharing sites like Kazaa and Grokster.

"There is a clear bifurcation between older listeners who buy music online versus younger listeners who get it free," said Goodman. "The Beatles won't bring in a new generation of users but it will boost revenue because it will appeal to the segment of older listeners who are already buying music online."

Money can't buy me love...or Beatles downloads

But Leigh said that fans of the Fab Four may have to wait a bit longer before they can legally download hits like "Yellow Submarine," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Yesterday." He said that the Beatles were one of the last groups to make their albums available as compact discs in the 1980s.

"They've already established a precedent of being the last to change to a new format," Leigh said.

Then there's the somewhat confusing ownership arrangement for the Beatles' songs.

Record label EMI Music owns the actual master recordings but a spokeswoman for EMI Music said that the company cannot make any decisions regarding online music distribution without the agreement of the Beatles' management company, Apple Corps.

Apple Corps. is controlled by surviving Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison. (A partnership between Michael Jackson and Sony owns the publishing rights to the Beatles' music, which gives them free reign over the use of songs in movies and endorsements, but not any say in online distribution.)

What's more, Apple Corps. has been involved in a legal feud with Apple Computer (Research), which owns iTunes, regarding trademark issues.

This fight is widely believed to be one of the main reasons that Beatles songs are not yet available on iTunes. Representatives from Apple Computer and Apple Corps. did not return calls seeking comment about the lawsuits and speculation regarding an online music deal.

But if the Beatles don't come to an agreement with Apple, which is the clear market leader in digital music since it also makes the wildly popular iPod music player, then what company could they partner with?

Other players such as Napster and Rhapsody are possibilities. And there was even speculation last year that the Beatles were nearing an agreement with Microsoft, which launched its MSN Music online store in 2004, but it appears that nothing has come out of it.

"I am not hearing anything that says the Beatles are any closer to signing an online deal today than they were a year ago," said Goodman.

The EMI spokeswoman said that the company would not comment on speculation about an online distribution deal.

Still, she added that "EMI has made it a big priority and have been in ongoing discussions with Apple Corps. to get the Beatles to make their music available in a digital music format."

So while computer-savvy Stones fans are finally able to get some satisfaction, it looks like Beatlemaniacs that want to buy songs online are going to have take solace in some lyrics from a more obscure song on "Rubber Soul."

"I'll trust in you and know that you will wait for me."
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/07/tech...ltech/beatles/





Is The Time Right For Phone-Music Player Hybrids?
Michael Singer

As Apple Computer and Motorola unveiled an iTunes phone Wednesday, analysts were debating whether the time was right for more mobile phone-digital music player hybrids.

Mobile-phone customers are already consuming music on their handsets. Nokia's N91, Samsung's SGH i300 and Sony's Walkman W800 are examples of handsets that play digital music files.

A phone may be limited to storing about 1,000 songs now--as much as 4 gigabytes of music storage is available in the N91 handset--but that's expected to grow dramatically as larger flash memory becomes available and as phones begin incorporating high-capacity micro-hard drives, which currently support 6GB of storage.

Current habits regarding the storage of digital music suggest that the marriage of mobile phones and digital music players makes sense, according to a study by Solutions Research Group.

Even though some standalone players can hold as many as 15,000 songs, the average user of a high-capacity digital music device stores only 375 songs, the study found. One out of every four players holds between 100 and 499 songs, while 25 percent have 500 songs stored on them. Half of those surveyed said their digital music player holds fewer than 100 songs. That's a good sign for the phone unveiled by Motorola and Apple, which should store about 100 songs.

Owners of Apple's iPods have significantly larger libraries--504 songs on average--compared with owners of other digital music players, with 246 songs, the study said.

The Solutions Research Group study was based on 1,062 random interviews the group conducted in the United States via telephone in May and June.

In a recent Forrester survey, 78 percent of online consumers age 18 and older said they had no interest in using their cell phone to play back audio tracks. Only 13 percent of online consumers ages 12 to 17 said they were interested in such a feature.

Despite the popularity of the iPod, the public still may need some coaxing in downloading songs. Only 22 percent of those who own digital music players bought a song online at some point in the past, suggesting that a majority of the music on the devices comes from owners' CDs and from peer-to-peer, file-sharing sources, Solutions Research Group found.

But that may change if Apple and Motorola launch a media blitz to convince the public that there is an advantage to owning a phone that merges iPod technology.

"Apple could offer a special on downloading songs from iTunes with the purchase of a cell phone and the plan," said Tim Deal, an analyst at Technology Business Research. "Clearly, we are talking about a computer-based solution using iTunes and not a download service via the carrier. Apple wants to make sure that the business model works first, before it develops its wireless world."

And teaming with Cingular may provide the market sweet spot Apple and Motorola are looking for. According to Solutions Research Group, 14 percent of Cingular's customers have a digital music player. A larger proportion, 17 percent of those surveyed, report that they want to buy one within 12 months, the report said.
http://news.com.com/Is+the+time+righ...3-5852845.html





The Baltics: More Famous Than You Might Think

Take a trip to any part of the world and the phrase “I come from the Baltics” is likely to be met with confused looks of wonder and confusion. “The Balkans?” people reply. But more and more, this part of the world finds itself in the news. As the Baltics emerge as independent countries after years of occupation, the world is getting a better sense of their unique identity. A common question might follow: “What are the people like?” To assist in answering this question, TBT staff has put together a list of some of the most famous and maybe not so famous people with connections to the Baltics.

Mikhail Baryshnikov – Latvia - Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov was born in Riga in 1948. He started dancing in 1960. He studied in Leningrad under the famous Aleksander Pushkin and began to make a name for himself early on in his career. In 1974, Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union and started dancing with the American Ballet Theatre. He has become the face of ballet not only in cultural circles but among common people and has been described by dance critics as “the most perfect dancer of all time.”

Zydrunas Ilgauskas – Lithuania - This 30-year- old Kaunas native joined the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball League for the 1997 season. The 7’3’’, 230 pound center has remained with Cleveland since being drafted. He was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star Team in 2002-2003.

Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn - Estonia – These three Estonian born computer geniuses were only in their twenties when they invented Kazaa in collaboration with a Swedish programming company. Kazaa, a peer to peer file sharing program, allows people to find virtually any song or movie on the internet—sometimes even before it is officially released—and download it for free. But the trio insists they never thought of creating it to bypass buying licensed music, movies and software. Says their official spokesman, “Consumers decide what to do with the tool. You can’t blame the tool maker.” The three have also had a hand in creating two other famous programs – Skype and Hotmail.

Auric Goldfinger – Latvia – Goldfinger is a millionaire industrialist, the founder of Goldfinger Industries and one of the richest men in England. He defected from Soviet occupied Latvia and opened a small jewelry store in London like his father and grandfather had done before him in Riga. His empire includes factories, biological institutes, horse breeding farms and research facilities. He has the largest private gold reserve in the world. So what if he’s a product of Ian Fleming’s imagination and a James Bond character? We can still credit him to Latvia, can’t we?

Mart Poom - Estonia - The Estonian Giant, as he is affectionately called, was born in Tallinn in 1972. Mart Poom started playing football in 1979, and has played at home in Estonia, as well as in Finland, Switzerland and England. The Estonian goalkeeper made his English Premier League debut at the end of the 1996/97 season in front of a nail-biting crowd of 55,000, against Manchester United. He currently plays for Arsenal.

Uljana Semjonova – Latvia – Semjonova was born in 1952 in Daugavpils, Latvia. At seven feet tall, she is the tallest female basketball player ever to play in the Olympic Games. Semjonova’s team won the Soviet Union women’s basketball championship 15 times and the European Champion’s Cup 15 times. It is an anstonishing fact that her team never lost a game in international competition in 18 years of play. This basketball superstar won an amazing 45 medals and was the first non-U.S. woman to be admitted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Charles Bronson – Lithuania – This rough and tumble Hollywood star of “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Great Escape” and “Death Wish” fame was originally born as Charles Buchinski to Lithuanian parents in Pennsylvania. But wait, is he really Lithuanian? The Latvians claim him as theirs …

Mark Rothko – Latvia - Born Marcus Rothkovich in Daugavpils, Rothko is one of the world’s best-known 20th century abstract painters. In 1913, his family emigrated from Latvia to the U.S.A. Rothko’s work is regarded to have made major contributions to the world of abstract art and his works are some of the most recognized 20th century paintings. He has been exhibited at some of the most prestigious galleries in the world including the Metropolitan Museum, the Tate Gallery and the Guggenheim.

Carmen Kass – Estonia – The whole world loves Estonian born Carmen Kass- the model for Christian Dior’s perfume “J’adore.” Not just another pretty face, she is president of the Estonian National Chess League and, while she didn’t win, received almost 2,000 votes when she ran for election to the European Parliament in 2004.

Monica Lewinsky – Lithuania

It may not be something that Lithuanians want to advertise, but America’s favorite presidential home wrecker is of Lithuanian heritage.

Mena Suvari - Estonia - The object of Kevin Spacey’s fantasies in the film ’’American Beauty ‘‘ (1999) has Estonian heritage – Mena Suvari’s father is Estonian. She has been acting since she was 12 and has appeared extensively in both television and films perhaps most notably as Heather in the first two American Pie films.
http://www.baltictimes.com/art.php?art_id=13535





Lotta swag

$1bn Pirates

THE music industry will push for more than $1 billion in damages after its landmark court victory over internet music pirates Kazaa.

The Sydney-based internet file-sharing company has had $30 million of its assets frozen as record companies try to recoup some of the estimated $3 billion lost in pirated music.

"Given the value of the music ripped off was several billion dollars, the damages claim will be substantial," Music Industry Piracy Investigations spokesman Michael Speck said yesterday.

"It's about sending a message to illegal operators that they cannot get away with taking other people's work."

The Federal Court ruled on Monday that Kazaa software, which allows users to swap music files for free over the web, had illegally infringed artists' copyright on an unprecedented scale.

The court did not order Kazaa to be shut down, but to instead install filters on future versions of its software to prevent trading of copyrighted music.

Kazaa owner Sharman Networks, which was sued by 30 record companies including Sony BMG, Universal and EMI, was given two months to comply.

More than 317 million people worldwide have downloaded the Kazaa software, developed by Sharman Networks, owned by Nikki Hemming, and Altnet, owned by Kevin Bermeister.

The pair met a decade ago while running the ill-fated Segaworld theme park at Darling Harbour.

Kazaa, which admits its customers download more than three billion files a year, is believed to have had more than 50 lawyers fighting its case.

The court also ordered Kazaa to pay 90 per cent of the music industry's legal costs of more than $9 million.

Justice Murray Wilcox found the majority of Kazaa's music files were "shared without the approval of the relevant copyright owner".

EMI Australia managing director John O'Donnell said Kazaa had profited from its theft "in a big way".

"I've been overwhelmed by the positive reaction from our artists and our full global company to this judgment – it's vitally important to all of us and sends a very clear message all around the world that copyright theft will not be tolerated," Mr O'Donnell said.

Kazaa, which intends to appeal, refused to comment yesterday.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/st...001022,00.html





Sharman To Appeal While Record Labels Celebrate
Steven Deare

Sharman Networks has announced it will appeal a Federal Court ruling that several respondents associated with the company had authorised infringement of music industry copyright and that it must introduce filters to the Kazaa file-sharing software.

Justice Murray Wilcox delivered the landmark judgement in the Federal Court in Sydney today.

Outside the court, a spokesperson for Sharman Networks said the company would appeal the decision.

She stressed the record label's victory had not been comprehensive, citing the judge's dismissal of the labels' Trade Practices Act and conspiracy claims.

"Both parties have had a win, although neither side has had a complete victory.

"Sharman Networks is obviously disappointed that we have not been completely successful. But, we will appeal those parts of the decision where we were not successful and are confident of a win on appeal," the company said in a statement.

Spokesperson for the record labels, Michael Speck, said his side was disappointed in Sharman's decision.

"We're disappointed they won't accept the umpire's decision.

"It can't be fair to build a business on somebody else's work," he said.

However, the applicants were "absolutely delighted" with the judgement, according to Speck.

"It's a great day for artists, and music," he said.

"The consequence of this [judgement] will have global impact."

Importantly, Justice Wilcox had ruled that Sharman would have to make considerable change to Kazaa if it wished to continue its business, according to Speck.

"The court has made orders in that [Kazaa] has to be legitimate or disappear," he said.

"It is up to these people to honestly and decently stop ripping off music.

"If you're out there and you're ripping off music...sit up and take notice."

Asked how many millions of dollars the record labels might apply for in damages, Speck avoided giving a figure, but said: "These people have crowed for years about [the number of] their downloads."

The labels would ask the court that the damages awarded reflect those claims, he said.

The labels had already frozen AU$30 million worth of the respondents' assets, according to Speck, and so were confident they would receive full payment.

He described the cost of the long-running court action to the record labels as "a small investment".

"We made a small investment in protecting the future of the music industry.

"It's very small compared to what was ripped off from the industry."

Asked whether the record labels would pursue similar operators, he said: "It's not our preferred option".

The international record industry organisation, International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers (IFPI), said the court's decision would lay down the law for future generations.

The Australian decision comes just ten weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled against file-sharing operator Grokster.

"Within the space of 10 weeks, two courts in different continents and hemispheres have given a huge boost to the efforts by music and technology companies to forge a legal online music business," said IFPI chairman and CEO John Kennedy.

"Today’s judgement shows that Kazaa -- one of the biggest engines of copyright theft and the biggest brand in music piracy worldwide -- is illegal," he said.

"This is a milestone in the fight against Internet piracy worldwide. Today there is a resounding signal to other unauthorised file-swapping networks: they should adapt their systems and go legitimate now".
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/softwar...els_celebrate/ 0,2000061733,39210052,00.htm





This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Sun-Earth Interactions
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A s t r o A l e r t

09 September 2005

Solar Terrestrial Dispatch
www.spacew.com


Intense Solar Flaring Continues

Active sunspot complex 10808 (also known as Region 808) continues to impress. It is now more fully in-view and is presenting itself as a very large sunspot complex that will (if its present size persists) be visible to the unaided (protected) eye over the next week to 10 days. Aside from the very large class X17 flare reported in the last Astroalert, it has managed to produce two additional major flares: a class X5 and a smaller class X1 within six hours of each other (the X5 occurred at 21:06 UTC [5:06 pm EDT] on 8 September, and the X1 occurred at 03:00 UTC on 9 September [11 pm EDT on 8 September]).

Region 10808 appears to be a magnetically complex monster, with at least one very probable strong delta magnetic configuration visible (opposite polarity umbrae located within a single penumbra). Such configurations are inherently less stable and are often associated with energetic solar flares. There is obvious strong magnetic shear visible in solar images of this region at various wavelengths that are undoubtably contributing to the energetic events. No significant change has been observed in the sunspot complex during the last 24 hours. Granted, it would be difficult to discern significant changes given its close proximity to the solar limb, but there is sufficient data available now to suggest that additional very strong solar flare activity will likely persist in the form of moderate to strong X-class events.

These recent events (the three X-class flares observed thus far) have elevated the population of energetic protons in the near-Earth space environment to levels that are now roughly 100 times more dense than normal background levels. Energetic protons are being redirected by the Earth's magnetic field toward the polar ionospheres, where they are bombarding and ionizing the polar ionosphere to levels sufficient to produce a phenomenon known as Polar Cap Absorption (or PCA). PCA is not harmful to human health, but can be dissasterous to high-frequency radio communications through the polar regions. Such radio signals are normally bounced off the lower side of the ionosphere and are returned back to the Earth, permitting long-distance radio communications to take place. But the energetic protons have ionized the lower ionospheric layers to levels capable of absorbing most radio signals that attempt to pass through that region. As a result, for large regions of the Earth where radio paths traverse the high and polar latitudes, a radio blackout is currently in effect.

Additional strong solar flare activity could significantly elevate proton populations over and above what is currently being observed, during the next two weeks. This could prove to be hazardous to the health of spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. Indeed, it is possible for vulnerable spacecraft to become crippled or even irrevocably lost. It is also possible that spacecraft reliant upon solar arrays for power may observe permanent degradations in performance. In other words, another effect of strong space radiation is to permanently reduce the efficiency of solar panels, causing a reduction in electrical output and therefore reduced lifetimes.

Space weather storms caused by the high velocity mass that is often ejected from such powerful solar events can also significantly reduce the lifetime of spacecraft through another method as well. During strong storms, the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere heats up and bloats outward into space. This bloating effect increases the atmospheric drag on spacecraft in near-Earth orbits and can cause their orbital parameters to change rapidly. Their lifetimes can therefore be reduced simply because the drag reduces their altitude, which can result in early re-entry of the spacecraft back to the Earth.

The intense radio bursts associated with these solar flares can produce interference with antennas that happen to be directed toward the Sun during the bursts. For example, if a strong solar flare occurs when the Sun is just rising and a cellular phone or other radio communications network (wireless internet, etc.) happens to be aligned in the direction of the rising Sun, the intense radio emissions from the Sun may interfere with the communications occurring in the network. This can result in poorer communications performance.

Thus, there are many ways in which Region 10808 may influence our activities here on the Earth during the next two weeks. Of course, this is all dependent upon whether it is capable of retaining its volatile nature. At the present time, this appears to be likely in the short-term. But such strong activity also often results in some stabilization in the sunspot complex, which could help curb future energetic activity.


** End of AstroAlert **


























If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break,
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break,
When the levee breaks I’ll have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Lord, mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.
Don’t it make you feel bad
When you’re tryin’ to find your way home,
You don’t know which way to go?
If you’re goin’ down south
They got no work to do,
If you don’t know about chicago.
Cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
Now, cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin’ ’bout me baby and my happy home.
Going, go’n’ to chicago,
Go’n’ to chicago,
Sorry but I can’t take you.
Going down, going down now, going down.

Led Zeppellin, 1971



























Until next week,

- js.










































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