|
|
|||||||
| Peer to Peer The 3rd millenium technology! |
|
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread | Display Modes |
24-03-05, 07:53 PM
|
#3 |
Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,018
|
Record Sales Up. Credit File Sharing
Richard Menta For the last few years the record industry has experienced drops in CD sales and blamed it all on file sharing. All of it. They did not blame the recession, which conveniently coincided with this sales drop. They did not blame the DVD, which held no floor space in record stores when Napster first appeared in 1999, but now accounts for 50% - as in half - of all the floor space in every record store in the nation (another interesting bit of timing). They did not blame a number of other factors that may have accounted for this drop. That's OK, the movie industry also blames file sharing for lost sales and they have never experienced a loss, setting yet another box office record this year. Now the record industry is reporting a gain. According to the Record Industry Association of America "the number of CDs shipped domestically from record companies to retail distribution channels rose 5.3 percent -- a 2.7 percent increase in value -- in 2004, compared to the previous year". At the same time as CD shipments jumped, file trading became more popular. According to Big Champagne the numer of US monthly average simultaneous file shareres in January of 2004 was 3,528,419. By November of 2004 that number was up to 5,445,200, almost 2 million simultaneous users more! If CD sales are up and file sharing is dramatically up AND according to the RIAA there is a direct coorelation between file sharing activity and CD sales then the answer is simple. File sharing sells CDs. This is the RIAA's reasoning, not my own, though I have made a strong case for it in articles such as my October 2000 essay " Did Napster Take Radiohead's New Album to Number 1?" and others. There you have it. File sharing sells CDs. Now repeat it again and tell it to the Supreme Court. Call it a non-infringing use. http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/5002/salesup.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Strange Decline Of Computer Worms John Leyden Computer worms are becoming less commonplace as virus writers diversify their malware spreading tactics to create the maximum effect for the least possible effort. Email-borne worms, such as NetSky, Bagle and Sober, remain perennial favourites with malware authors but Slammer-style worms are becoming rarer, according to anti-virus firm F-Secure. Mikko Hyppönen, director of anti-virus research at F-Secure, said that with the single exception of the Santy worm (which targeted vulnerable PHP installations) little new has been seen of computer worms since the May 2004 outbreak of Sasser. The hiatus follows a string of high-profile worm outbreaks including Blaster, Nimda, Slammer, Welchi and Code Red over recent years. The decrease in computer worms noted by F-Secure ironically comes at the same time many vendors, such as HP, Cisco, Check Point and others, are aggressively marketing worm-throttling technology. One explanation for the dip in computer worms is that the widespread use of XP SP2 and greater use of personal firewall had rendered worms far less potent in the same way that boot sector viruses died out with Windows 95 and the introduction of Office 2000 made macro viruses far less common. Thwarted worm attacks could be explained by security improvements but Hyppönen notes that virus writers have not even attempted to spread computer worms over recent months. Computer worms exploit software vulnerabilities to spread automatically and are technically more difficult to write than other types of malware. Hyppönen reckons this factor might have a lot to do with explaining their relative decline. Whilst standard computer worms have experienced a relative decline, email worms have remained a problem and instant message security threats are becoming a greater concern. "A worm that exploited an IM vulnerability to spread could spread very quickly and travel straight through firewalls," Hyppönen warned. Spyware, Trojans and other types of software that turn PCs into zombie drones in botnets, and the increased sophistication of viruses capable of infecting mobile phones also remain key security concerns. F-Secure recently released a free toolkit designed to root out 'stealth' software that can hide malicious programs from conventional anti- virus and anti-spyware packages, a tactic adopted in the Invisible Keylogging spyware package and viruses such as Maslan and Padodor that F-Secure expects will become increasingly common over time. Hyppönen made his comments during the Websec 2005 Conference in London on Thursday 17 March. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03...secure_websec/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JackBe Makes Dial-Up Connections Bearable Arik Hesseldahl The day you need to work from home is definitely a bad time for your broadband Internet connection to crash. A case of "something going around" sidelined me for a few days last week but I was secure in the knowledge that I could still get some work done. Thanks to my DSL line I could connect to the office network via a virtual private network and stay in the loop on office e-mail. I was also planning to read the news online and do some banking. But like a lineup of dominos something went awry with the DSL line, which made my wireless router and the Wi-Fi card in my laptop useless too. It's for moments like this that I keep a dial-up account with Earthlink. But I had forgotten how lousy narrowband life can be. A connection to the office VPN was out of the question, and what really slowed me down was checking in with my financial institutions. I wanted to transfer some money between accounts and pay some bills. Getting these chores done took the patience of a saint. It turns out there are a lot of patient saints out there. More than half of the Web users in the U.S. are narrowbanders, according to Bruce Leichtman, principal analyst with The Leichtman Group in Durham, N. H. Liechtman says there are 38 million dial-up users compared to 33 million broadband users in the U.S. However he says broadband should catch up and then surpass dialup sometime this year. While waiting for my banking requests to complete--something akin to waiting for a half-full bottle of ketchup to start pouring--I thought of a company I met recently called JackBe. Founded in Mexico City and now based in a McLean, Va., it specializes in making Internet applications run faster, whether they're being served up over a fast connection or a slow one. Luis Derechin, 36, is chief executive and his brother Jacob, 33, is chief technical officer. Luis says that when people do Internet transactions, speed goes a long way toward making that experience seem pleasant. But most companies just aren't very good at building Internet applications that run fast. JackBe's product is called the NQ Suite, and it helps companies build simple, streamlined snappy user interfaces on top of complex applications, using nothing more involved than Dynamic HTML. For companies building Web applications there are traditionally two ways to get the job done. One is through a client-server application, where part of the application runs on a server and the other on a user's PC. Performance can be fast in part because the server doesn't have to work very hard, but the downside is that users have to install some software on their machine. The other way to build an application is simply to rely on the Web and let the application run on the server, and then serve up the results directly via the Web browser. There's no software for a user to install but running the application can eat up server time, which can yield a slower overall experience. JackBe takes some of the good bits from each approach. There's no software to install on a PC and the overall performance is fast. Luis showed me a few demonstration applications with interfaces built using NQ Suite. One happened to be a banking application. Moving funds from one account to another happened in a matter of seconds. No other parts of the page seemed to be reloading or refreshing. The experience, he said, would be roughly the same over a broadband connection or on dialup. Pages load faster because they're using only a fraction of the code they would normally require, while portions of the page that don't change just don't get reloaded. JackBe already counts Citigroup as a customer, and its technology is being used to develop an online banking site that will be aimed at customers in Latin America. Several other banks are using it, including Banco de Bogota and Banco de Occidente Credencial in Colombia. The Mexican building-materials concern Cemex used it to build the interface through which customers order its products. The home products company Tupperware used it for the interface through which it distributes products to its sales force. Between its 20 customers, two million people are interacting with JackBe-enabled Web sites every day, Luis says. While waiting for my bank balances to refresh, I wished I was one of them. http://www.forbes.com/technology/200...18tentech.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Review SanDisk Digital Audio Player “This is the first dedicated flash MP3 player I have tried out, and I have to say I am extremely happy with its quality, navigation, size, and price.” http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/20...0324028713.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Review The Album Leaf - Seal Beach Acuarela, 2004 Kara Tutunjian There is something very wrong with me: I wasn't born in the '80s. I didn't grow up with all of the music-scouting advantages of the modern teenager and college-goer. I worked hard to find a "find" in rural suburbia and to pay for it. Tapes made by friends were as free as music got, and MTV was a new bay window to the world. But there is at least one disadvantage to being a music fan born on or beyond 1980: you learn to like too much stuff ... like electronic music. Every kid able to afford some sort of computerized music-composing device thinks that he or she is an acclaimed musician. And they are able to disseminate their treasures to a number of targets at a rapid pace through the miracle of the Internet. And hey, if it's out there, it must be interesting. Standards have been lowered. True, they were previously lowered by others, but the strides taken to achieve their very own genre of "lame" were akin to all of the heart and soul of a John Tesh career. There is so much now that is "instantly lame," thanks to cables and Pro Tools. Or maybe I'm also bipolar. If something must be happy and pretty, then it better be real bubblegum or fairy dust. I don't like in-between styles, white stucco ranches, or pre-fab porches. I like gothic architecture, Le Corbu, art-deco, pop art, surrealism, and of course Hieronymous Bosch. Pastels look best with black, brown looks great with purple. The Album Leaf is the pair of tan pants that you will never see me wear. It's painful to admit, because as I make this vow, I can't help but understand how appropriately this project fits into Acuarela's wonderfully sublime family of records. I have so much respect for that label, its earnest attempts to stay true to an impressionist aesthetic, the amazing talent it attracts (Mus, Vitesse, Viva Las Vegas, Damien Jurado, the Clientele). The guilt doubles as I admit that I do indeed like electronica, although you'll find my personal collection to be dwarfed by post punk and lo-fi twee. But good post rock is hard to come by. Jimmy LaValle of Tristeza fame is the Album Leaf. People recognize him as an acclaimed musician, a label I do not reject. His new EP, Seal Beach, is a pleasant bicycle ride and repose on the beach -- as described by the Fender Rhodes. I know, nothing wrong with that -- I love the Rhodes, I love bicycle rides, and I grew up on the beach. So let's see. The first track, "Malmo," starts with a bright, diffused series of tones that becomes a wavering melody of the same handful of outward and inward steps, slightly bolstered by syncopated background beats. "Brennivin" is waiting for sunlight, and has the same innocuous electro beats propelling its travel through time and an imagined early dawn. Tiny pipe-like noises emerge from ground level, and the piece warms and swells with a violin, abiding the direction of a bland distorted electronic background. The Rhodes makes a safe comment or two in the bridge, then moves to speak more boldly, and in dialogue with the initial instrumental sounds and rhythmic elements. The song is sipping coffee, and is about to breakfast under a half-risen sun. The title track is the watercolors of an oceanfront gently applied to damp paper, and the liquid image is abandoned before it dries. "Christiansands" is a finger- plucked acoustic guitar, footprinted lightly by high synthetic notes. And "One Minute" is the hum-drum reprise to "Malmo," echoing the almost New Age instrumentation of the opening piece. There are layers, there is tonal variation, there is continuity. There are points of real interest, especially within "Brennivin" and "Christiansands." But ultimately, for me, a House of Seven Gables New Englander, this kind of electro post rock is synonymous with stucco-ranch California, and with the stoner muzak pavillion of the Dylan Group. The Album Leaf won the "Best Electronic" category at San Diego's 2003 Music Awards, and has just been signed to Sub Pop. Professionally, LaValle keeps company with the likes of the Black Heart Procession, Sigur Rós, Her Space Holiday, and On!Air!Library!. If you are an electro post rock fan, you might have been born in the '80s, and you will most likely enjoy this release. I like the dark, cinematic little outfits found on Monopsone, or the strange adventures of Gastr del Sol, Fontanelle, Talk Talk -- but maybe that's because they are able to move me, to appeal to my teenage sensibilities and practicality, to convince me they are worth ownership and continual listenership. If you think you are like me, there might be something very wrong with you ... but you will still ditch Jimmy LaValle for his much more intriguing friends. http://www.earlash.com/ar.php?albid=122 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scott G (The G-Man) Credits Peer-to-Peer Filesharing with Launching His Career Press Release In view of the upcoming Supreme Court hearing in the landmark MGM vs. Grokster lawsuit, it is more important than ever to consider the case of Scott G (The G-Man), who began with a self-released album and got signed, got on iTunes, and launched his own music production company, all by initially giving his music away for free via P2P. Defying the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the major record labels, Scott G (recording artist The G-Man) offered all the music on his first album for free via P2P (peer-to-peer filesharing). The G-Man went even further, sending individual tracks of his songs (bass, guitar, drums, synthesizer, etc.) to anyone who wanted to mix a new version of his work. And while the Hollywood studios and the major record companies fret and litigate in an attempt to shut down P2P, Scott G feels it actually created his career. "Everything started to happen for me once I began giving those first songs away for free," G-Man states. "The results have changed my life, both personally and professionally." He is now signed to Delvian Records, a part of The Gate Media Group, all his albums are on Apple's iTunes, and he is running his own production company, G-Man Music & Radical Radio, where he has created commercials for Verizon Wireless, Goodrich, Micron, NASSCO, the Auto Club, and more. The full text of the article is on more than a hundred websites, including these: http://www.audiocourses.com/article337.html http://diariaa.com/article-gman.htm http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=9433 http://www.mpeg3.net/news/music/article040412.htm http://www.bitchinentertainment.com/contributors.html http://www.indiemusician.com/2004/05...peertopee.html http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2...rweb116996.htm http://www.lamusicproductions.com/Ne.../15_g-man.html http://www.dcia.info/News/newsletter_2004-06-14.htm Scott G, whose fourth album, SONIC TONIC, is being released 04/04/05, is president of G-Man Music & Radical Radio, a creative director of the National Association of Record Industry Professionals (NARIP) and a member of The Recording Academy (NARAS). He writes about music for MusicDish and the Immedia Wire Service. His music and commercials are at: http:// www.gmanmusic.com. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb218338.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Guitarist Rod Price of Foghat Dies at 57 AP Guitarist Rod Price, founding member of the blues boogie band Foghat, died Tuesday after falling down a stairway at his home, a family friend said. He was 57. The London native's solos drove Foghat to three platinum and eight gold records during the band's quarter-century career. After many years of touring he settled in Wilton in 1994. Many in town knew Price as a loving father who never missed his son's baseball, soccer or basketball games. Fewer people knew of Price's musical background. Price had played with Champion Jack Dupree, Eddie Kirkland, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon and Honey Boy Edwards. In recent years, Price concentrated on his blues projects, cutting several CDs and giving private guitar lessons at his home. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...=ENTERTAINMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hackers Reach Beyond Windows, IE Robert Vamosi Commentary--Like cockroaches that you stop at a hole in the wall only to have them reappear under the door, criminal hackers are finding new and better ways to compromise your computer and electronic devices. So concludes a new Internet Security Threat report out today, based on data collected at Symantec's Security Response facilities worldwide. The report is one company's snapshot of malicious Internet activity during the last six months of 2004. I asked David Cole, director of product management for Symantec Security Response, to use the information uncovered in the report (more than 70 pages long) to talk about what he's already seeing in 2005. In our conversation, he covered trends such as the discovery and exploitation of flaws in non- Internet Explorer browsers and non-Windows operating systems and the recent reach by criminal hackers (crackers) into nondesktop computer systems such as handhelds and smart phone devices. Overall, the news is mixed The good news, says Cole, is that today, companies are much better at defending our network perimeters than they were a few years ago. Traditional Internet attacks are down. Unfortunately, attackers are opportunistic and are now going after end users-- employees who log in from home or while on the road. Since companies are doing a good job protecting their e-mail systems--either at the gateway with corporate defenses or on desktops with antivirus apps--virus writers are frequently frustrated and have begun targeting instant-messaging apps, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and peer-to-peer networks (P2P) in addition to e-mail. Symantec reported threats related to P2P, IM, IRC, and CIFS make up 50 percent of its top 50 threat submissions, up from 32 percent covering the same period one year earlier. Browsers beware But viruses and worms aren't the only Internet threats. Phishing scams, spyware, and now pharming attacks are becoming more common. By now, most of us know that Microsoft Internet Explorer harbors many security vulnerabilities. So as people move away from IE (now below 90 percent usage), attackers are turning their attention to Mozilla and other Internet browsers, according to Symantec. An example might be what crackers have done with the vulnerability found in Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) that affects most non-IE browsers. IDN renders specialized character sets such as non-English domain names in a standardized way using Unicode characters, a standard that attempts to assign a unique computer number for every computer character, no matter the platform or the language set used. The IDN standard allows foreign companies to register domain names in different languages; however, criminal hackers have discovered that they can use this loophole to fool end users onto their phishing sites by substituting specific letters from alternative character sets. Oddly, IE does not support IDN (although rumors suggest the upcoming Windows XP- only IE 7 will support IDN). Mozilla and Firefox have since patched their IDN flaw. But if you thought that IE would be a safer browser as a result of recent attention to non- IE browsers, you'd be wrong. Cole said that while there were a greater number of vulnerabilities reported in Mozilla during the last half of 2004, Symantec found that the most severe vulnerabilities still reside within Internet Explorer. Of the 13 Internet Explorer vulnerabilities rated by Symantec from June to December 2004, 9 were considered high. Other OSs under attack The Symantec report also predicts that crackers will become more interested in Macs during 2005, specifically mentioning sales of low-priced mini Macs. As more casual, less tech-savvy users adopt Macs, expect to hear more about vulnerabilities exposed within the Mac OS, which is based on the Unix system. Other security companies are seeing an uptick in Mac flaws. For example, security company Secunia also saw an increase in reported Mac OS flaws during 2004. Other electronic devices under attack As more people leave their desktops and start accessing the Internet via mobile devices, so too do the crackers. Last summer, someone released the Cabir worm, designed to infect Symbian OS-equipped Nokia series 60 smart phones. These phones are popular in Europe, but have only recently started selling here in the United States. Since the first of this year, however, the Cabir worm has been reported in nearly two dozen countries, including the United States. Cole says these attacks will continue to grow as Bluetooth and smart phone adoption sets in. In fact, crackers recently launched CommWarrior, a smart phone-enabled virus that is able to infect either Bluetooth systems or those using Multimedia Messaging Service. Expect hybrid or multiplatform worms to remain the norm with mobile technology devices. All is not lost What's fueling the spread of Internet threats to other platforms? Money. As I wrote during the Sobig virus attacks in 2003, spammers and perhaps organized crime are now paying virus writers to push the limits and infect as many systems as they can. But that's good. We've moved from a strictly ego-fueled virus culture to one where the tools of law enforcement work best. Instead of finding a random, rogue programmer, law enforcement officials are following the money, and they're making some major busts against cybercrime. As you adopt new technology, stop and think about the possible security pros and cons. Just because someone hasn't written a devastating worm to hit the Mac OS platform doesn't mean it won't happen. Same with your Nokia smart phone. Proceed with caution. If we've been successful in frustrating crackers by having antivirus and firewall solutions on our desktops, I think there's a chance we'll also prevail in these other areas as well. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5628404.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Boston College Warns Alumni About Hacked Computer AP Boston College officials have warned 120,000 alumni that their personal information may have been stolen when an intruder hacked into a school computer containing the addresses and Social Security numbers of BC graduates. BC spokesman Jack Dunn told The Boston Globe on Thursday that officials don't believe the hacker accessed the personal information, but instead planted a program that could be used to launch attacks on other machines. Still, amid rising concerns about identity theft, the school sent letters to its alumni. ``As a precaution we have chosen to alert the entire database,'' Dunn said of the letters sent last Friday. The letters urge alumni to protect their identities and financial accounts by contacting their banks and warning them that their Social Security numbers may have been stolen. The compromised computer at Boston College was not run by the school, but by an outside contractor Dunn did not identify. It was used to look up the names and phone numbers of graduates for the purpose of soliciting donations. During a routine security check last week, school employees found the machine had been invaded, and it was taken off-line. ``There's no evidence to suggest that this involved anyone from the Boston College community, but instead was an external hacker,'' Dunn said. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/11162721.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Calif. University Says 59,000 Affected by Hackers Hackers attacked computer servers of a California university and may have gained access to the personal information of 59,000 people affiliated with the school, a university spokesman said on Monday. California State University, Chico in northern California is alerting students, former students, prospective students and faculty that their personal information, including Social Security numbers, may have been compromised in the attack three weeks ago, said spokesman Joe Wills. "It looked like it was illegal access to do some, perhaps, some downloading of files," Wills said. "In investigating it we realized the hackers had some access to a great deal of personal information." "We have no indication that the hackers used the information ... But we can't say for sure," Wills said. "My understanding is that to this point we haven't had any success in figuring out who did it." The school will continue probing the attack on its servers, Wills said. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7964776 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ China Clamps Down on Campus Bulletin Boards China has blocked off-campus Internet users from accessing several bulletin boards operated by universities as part of a government clampdown on outspoken domestic Web sites. Shuimu Tsinghua, a popular bulletin board run by Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, was among the sites sealed to outside participants last week, the Beijing Times reported over the weekend. "The Ministry of Education made the decision to shut the site because the bulletin board was only supposed to be a platform for internal exchange within the university," a Tsinghua University student who requested anonymity said on Monday. "Students are calm about it, but it seems that non-student users are angry because they can no longer get access." A note posted on the bulletin board's home page (www.smth.org) on March 16 announced the move and said it had been made in keeping with a new policy passed by the Ministry of Education. There were no further details. Internet bulletin boards at Wuhan and Nankai universities were also barred to outside users earlier this month, the newspaper said. Such university bulletin boards had become popular forums for discussion of everything from politics to pop culture between students, faculty, graduates and others. A ministry spokesman declined to comment when contacted by telephone. China has been cracking down on Internet content -- from politics to pornography -- but has struggled to gain control over the medium as more Chinese have got Web access and have used it to gain information beyond official sources. Yitahutu, a bulletin board operated by Peking University, was shut down altogether last September. China had 94 million Internet users at the end of 2004, the government said this month, adding that the number should jump 28 percent to 120 million this year. Beijing has created a special Internet police force believed responsible for shutting down domestic sites posting politically unacceptable content, blocking some foreign news sites and jailing several people for their online postings. http://today.reuters.com/News/TechSt...NTERNET-DC.XML ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AOL Time Warner to Pay $300 Million to Settle SEC Charges The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday said it has approved Time Warner Inc.'s proposal to pay $300 million to settle charges that it overstated its AOL online advertising revenue and the number of its subscribers. As part of the agreement, the company agreed to restate financial results by reducing its reported online advertising revenues by roughly $500 million for the fourth quarter of 2000 through 2002, in addition to $190 million it has already restated, the SEC said. Time Warner said it had restated its results in its 2004 annual report filed on March 11. The settlement brings an end to the SEC investigation into accounting at America Online, which was also the target of a Justice Department investigation. The two probes went on for some two years, helping to wipe away more than $200 billion in shareholder value since AOL purchased Time Warner in 2002. "It's nice to finally have the investigations in the past so people can increase their focus on core operations," said Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners. "It means you can take a footnote out of the annual report," Dennis McAlpine of McAlpine Associates said. Time Warner Chief Financial Officer Wayne Pace, Controller James Barge and Deputy Controller Pascal Desroches also settled SEC accusations that they caused the reporting violations and consented to cease-and-desist orders, the SEC said. Time Warner, Pace, Barge and Desroches all agreed to the settlements without admitting or denying the SEC charges. "We have confidence in our top financial officers, and we're pleased that they will continue to serve our company in their current positions," Time Warner Chief Executive Dick Parsons said in a statement. Time Warner announced in December that it would pay $210 million to resolve criminal charges that its America Online unit fraudulently inflated revenue figures and that it would pay $300 million to settle SEC charges. Stephen Cutler, the SEC's director of enforcement, said, "Our complaint against AOL Time Warner details a wide array of wrongdoing, including fraudulent round-trip transactions to inflate online advertising revenues, fraudulent inflation of AOL subscriber numbers, misapplication of accounting principles relating to AOL Europe, and participation in frauds against the shareholders of three other companies." Attorneys for Pace, Barge and Desroches could not immediately be reached for comment. The company also faces more than 40 shareholder lawsuits. Analysts say the fact that there were no admissions of wrongdoing in the settlements with both the Justice Department and the SEC could mute the impact of the suits. Time Warner shares closed down fell 28 cents, or 1.33 percent, to $18.42 on the New York Stock Exchange. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7968120 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sony BMG Seen Mulling Music IPO If Warner Succeeds Hard-hit Sony Corp and German media giant Bertelsmann AG may sell shares in their joint music company if rival Warner Music Group's IPO scores a hit, analysts said on Monday. Officials at Sony and Bertelsmann declined comment on prospects for an IPO of their combined music company, which together with market leader Vivendi Universal's Universal Music control about half of the global music market. Analysts and other experts believe a Sony music IPO is highly likely if Warner takes in the $4 billion to $6 billion it is estimated to raise. Warner recently filed to raise up to $750 million in an IPO of common stock. "My sense is that a Sony BMG IPO is completely possible. They've already taken the first step by creating a separate organization and it puts them in a better position than if either of them were by themselves," said Karl Slatoff, a partner with ZelnickMedia, a media holding company. "If they think they can get a lot of value, it's something they should consider," he said. Sony's new chief executive officer, Howard Stringer, charged with reviving Sony's core electronics business and turning the company around after a rocky five years under predecessor Nobuyuki Idei has previously expressed interest in spinning off entertainment assets as separately quoted units. Analysts believe Stringer's new appointment will likely raise the question again. Additionally, Viacom Inc.'s recent move to explore breaking up its entertainment assets as a means of increasing its stock price reinforced these views. Back in November, while still vice chairman of Japan's Sony Corp. and chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Corp. of America, Stringer said it was "worth considering" a flotation of the international film, music and television operations. "It's conceivable Sony BMG would file for an IPO, but we'd have to see how Warner's IPO does," said Harold Vogel, a veteran media analyst at Vogel Capital Management. "If Warner sells at a multiple of twice sales, or about $6 billion, then Sony BMG would jump on it," he said. Some market watchers believe the market is poised for pure-play music stocks, given the buzz surrounding revenue generators like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes and iPod players. "Music was seen as a negative and potential exposure, but time and again, new technologies have always benefited content providers," said Slatoff. "So I think the fact that iTunes has been the first successful play in digital music has given people hope and it's generating buzz around music," he said. Both the Sony BMG merger and the $2.6 billion acquisition of Warner Music from Time Warner Inc. last year set in motion industry-wide cost-cutting that collectively eliminated more than a half-billion dollars in expenses and 3,000 jobs. Some analysts believe Vivendi Universal could also try an IPO of its Universal Music division if Warner Music takes off. A spokesman for Universal Music declined to comment. "Everybody's searching for ways to get money to pay off all of the debt they've incurred because of their purchases, so an IPO is within the realm of possibility," said entertainment lawyer Jay Cooper. "A few years ago, everyone was trying to combine motion picture and music companies into one, and now that trend is in reverse and everyone's trying to separate the assets. I guess we're in a cycle of separation," he said. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7968119 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bertelsmann To Offer P2P Download Platform German media giant Bertelsmann, a former partner of file-sharing network Napster, is launching a new Internet platform for downloading and sharing movies and games over the Internet, it said Tuesday. Arvato, Bertelsmann's services and technology arm, said it would sell the service, dubbed GNAB, to mobile phone operators, Internet providers and TV stations, which could then offer their clients legal downloads of large files under their own brands. In addition, the service could allow them to share the files they have received over the network, effectively outsourcing the storage of the files and their download to the users of the network. Sharing of legally copied as well as bootlegged music and movie files is hugely popular among Internet users, which have made services such as eDonkey and Kazaa big hubs for music downloads, while the music industry stood on the sidelines. But easy-to-use services such as Apple Computer's iTunes have let the music industry discover its sympathy for music downloads and led to a surge in legal online-music sales. Bertelsmann, which with Sony co-owns the world's second-largest music label, Sony BMG, teamed up with Napster in late 2000, when the service was already being sued by the industry for helping copyright infringements. http://news.com.com/Bertelsmann+to+o...3-5629713.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Sony President Admits Consumer Misses Yuri Kageyama Sony Corp.'s engineering prowess helped the company develop an array of nifty products but those gadgets often failed to appeal to consumers, the electronics maker's new president said Thursday. Ryoji Chubachi, a production expert appointed president earlier this month to lead a turnaround at the struggling manufacturer, said Sony often struck out with buyers because engineers had sometimes strayed from market trends. "Engineers have always been Sony's heroes," Chubachi said, addressing a small group of reporters at the company's Tokyo headquarters. "A lot of work is going into producing megapixels, ultra- thin super-light gadgets, long-lasting batteries or zooms, and Sony has that kind of power. But we strike out." In a major management reshuffle, Chubachi was appointed Sony president, overseeing the electronics business, and Howard Stringer, who has led Sony's entertainment business, was chosen chairman and chief executive. Stringer, who holds British and U.S. citizenship, is the first foreigner to lead Sony, a company that made its global fortune over several decades on the success of its Walkman portable music player, Trinitron TV and other popular products. But in recent years, Sony has been fighting competition from cheaper and more profitable Asian rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. of South Korea. Sony's brand image was also battered as smaller Japanese rivals such as Sharp Corp. took a lead in booming products such as liquid- crystal display TVs. Chubachi compared Sony to a wrestling champion being forced to take on 100 challengers at once. Sony, which also has entertainment businesses including video games, movies and music, is an all-around player and is getting beaten in certain products by "specialists," Chubachi said, pointing to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player as an example. "There's an illusion that Sony is somehow getting totally defeated, but that's just one business for Sony," he said. "It is going to be tough for Sony to beat all the specialists." Sony needs to shift to "growth" areas such as flat TVs, DVD recorders and mobile gadgets, Chubachi said, while declining to give specifics about products. He also acknowledged Sony's problems require time to fix. Another critical problem has been Sony's inability to quickly and thoroughly communicate management goals through its ranks, he said. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Takeover Roils Japan: Politeness Out, Hostility In Todd Zaun It has happened before in the United States: a fast-growing Internet start-up sets its sights on an old-line media company, and, in the end, gets it. That was the AOL takeover of Time Warner in 2000. Until now, though, something like that seemed unlikely in Japan, where only a handful of hostile takeovers have been attempted. But a court ruling on Wednesday set the stage for a 32-year-old entrepreneur, Takafumi Horie, and his Internet company, Livedoor, to gain a majority stake in Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., a 50-year-old radio broadcaster. In addition, Mr. Horie's company, which offers Internet services and operates a Web portal similar to Yahoo, has a chance to gain significant influence over the management of Nippon's larger affiliate, Fuji Television Network, the core company in one of Japan's largest media groups. Because the contentious battle for control of Nippon, which began last month when Livedoor announced that it had bought a controlling stake in the broadcaster, is a rarity for Japan, the clash is being followed with a media blitz befitting a celebrity murder trial. The spike-haired Mr. Horie, who prefers T-shirts and khakis, is being portrayed as the representative of a young, more Westernized Japan taking on the country's clubby corporate leaders. "This is a young Japanese who has got a vision, and he's got the guts," said Jesper Koll, chief economist for Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. "The Japanese are no longer afraid to take on their own elite." The battle also highlights the shift in Japan from what is known as stakeholder capitalism, under which the interests of a company's employees, business partners or managers were often given higher priority than increasing the company's bottom line. Taking its place is an increasingly Western approach in which companies are under pressure to think first about their shareholders. The ruling on Wednesday by the Tokyo High Court blocked a planned move by Nippon to transfer a majority stake in itself to Fuji TV by issuing share warrants to the television company. Fuji would then have been able to convert the warrants into new shares in Nippon, potentially more than doubling the number of outstanding shares in the radio company. That would have greatly diluted the holdings of Livedoor and other current shareholders. But the High Court, upholding a lower court, said that the only purpose of the sale was to keep Nippon under the control of its current management and that the sale, therefore, did not have any strategic value. "It's regrettable, really regrettable," the president of Nippon, Akinobu Kamebuchi, said after the ruling. "We were sure justice would be on our side but that was not accepted. It's really too bad." He added that Nippon would scrap the warrant sale and was now evaluating what to do next. It could appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. The ruling clears the way for Livedoor, with a market capitalization of 236 billion yen, or $2.2 billion, to take over management of Nippon, with a market cap of 206 billion yen, or $1.9 billion, later this year. Livedoor had a 49.78 percent stake in Nippon Broadcasting as of last Thursday and was expected to be able accumulate a majority stake in time to elect its own directors to the broadcaster's board at the next shareholder meeting in June. Livedoor raised the money it needed to buy the Nippon stock with a sale of 80 billion yen (about $750 million) in bonds, arranged by Lehman Brothers. The bonds would then be convertible to Livedoor stock after the purchase. "We want to work now to raise the value of Nippon Broadcasting and its group companies," Mr. Horie said after learning of the court's decision. Mr. Horie has said he wants the radio broadcaster so he can advertise on its programs and draw listeners to his Internet sites and services. He also said he believed that traditional media and the Internet would inevitably become more closely integrated and he wanted to be at the forefront of the change in Japan. "I tried to do business with broadcasters over the last five years but they are too slow to make decisions," Mr. Horie said in a speech this month. "We have to speed up this process. Of course, everyone would prefer a friendly approach but I felt we don't have time for that friendly approach." Gaining control of Nippon could also give Livedoor a strong say in the boardroom of Fuji TV, Japan's largest private television network, because Nippon is Fuji's largest shareholder, with a 22.5 percent stake. Media reports have said Mr. Horie has set his sights on increasing his stake in Fuji even further and the network has been beefing up its defenses against a takeover attempt. This week, Fuji said it was prepared to issue up to 50 billion yen in new shares to fend off an unwanted bidder. The company also announced that it would raise its fiscal year-end dividend to 5,000 yen a share from the previously announced 1,200 yen, giving shareholders a strong incentive to hang on to their stocks. But a Livedoor executive suggested Wednesday that the company would take a more conciliatory approach toward Fuji TV than it had in its pursuit of Nippon. Livedoor does not intend to raise its stake in Fuji without the approval of that company's management, Livedoor's senior vice president, Fumito Kumagai, said Wednesday, according to a company spokesman, Koichiro Ohta. Mr. Horie, a college dropout, built Livedoor into one of the country's best-known Internet companies by combining a portal site with online brokerage and banking and a host of other Internet services. The company posted a profit of 3.58 billion yen for the year ended Sept. 30 on sales of 30.87 billion yen. By that measure, the company is still a long way behind its top rival, the Yahoo Japan Corporation, which had sales of 75.78 billion yen in its most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2004. Aside from shaking up corporate Japan, Mr. Horie's takeover bid also promises to change the landscape for mergers and acquisitions in Japan. Although Mr. Horie is Japanese, his aggressive tactics and early success have unleashed fears that a horde of foreign companies might try to buy up Japanese firms using his methods as a model. Although analysts say a wave of such acquisitions is unlikely, ruling-party politicians are nonetheless threatening to delay long-anticipated legal changes that would have allowed foreign companies to buy Japanese companies through stock swaps. On the other hand, many analysts and lawyers say that the attention the battle has generated could lead to a more thorough overhaul of laws governing takeovers that would benefit the industry in the long run. "This is a very good event to educate Japanese people," said Nobutoshi Yamanouchi, a lawyer in the Tokyo office of the American law firm of Jones Day. "Some people don't like to see Japan transforming into a Western-style society but in my opinion in order to have international or global competitiveness, this step is necessary." Many ordinary Japanese have also applauded Mr. Horie's effort even if they find his aggressive style somewhat distasteful. Polls show that he has broad support for his takeover attempt among both younger and older Japanese. "I like what's happening," said Hitashi Suzuki, a 35-year-old employee of a construction company in Tokyo. "It is very modern and suits the time we live in. I wouldn't say I support Mr. Horie personally, but I think it is good that he fights for what he wants." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/24/bu...4livedoor.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Creative Labs Owes You $62 Little known lawsuits of our time Simon Burns SINGAPOREAN soundcard maker, Creative Labs, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit related to misleading marketing of its Audigy and Extigy range. Actually, it appears this settlement was agreed in principle at the end of last year, but few potential claimants yet know about it. Creative claimed that the products in question could handle 24-bit audio at 96Khz – indeed this was stated on the product boxes in bold letters, and in all advertising. But complaints filed in 2003 pointed out that this was only true in a very limited set of circumstances, and pretty much all of the audio passing through the cards would actually be processed at lower quality. The difference probably wouldn't concern the average gamer or casual MP3 enthusiast, but many of those planning to use the Creative cards for professional-quality audio were outraged by the labelling. Owners of all of the original Audigy series are included in the proposed settlement. This includes the Audigy ES, Audigy Platinum, Audigy Platinum eX, Audigy Gamer, Audigy MP3+ and also the original Extigy external USB sound module. Creative did not admit liability, but graciously agreed to settle the embarrasing case. Anyone, anywhere* who purchased one of these products before the end of 2004, and is unhappy with the audio processing, will be able to get 25 per cent off the cost of their next purchase from Creative's website, up to a limit of $62.50. Hurry, this great offer ends September 25, 2005. Meanwhile, the lawyers who helped inflict this savage punishment on Creative will get up to $470,000 for their work, it seems. Interestingly, the three individuals who originally filed the complaint receive a mere $1000 to $3000 for all their trouble. * IN NORTH OR South America only, apparently. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22019 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Runway Scarecrow Machine Lost in Translation China imported a U.S.-made scream machine to scare away the birds at Beijing airport -- except they didn't recognize the noises and refused to budge. The bird-dispersing equipment had recorded the screams of American birds or the sounds of the birds' natural enemies, the Beijing Evening News said. "Local birds did not understand the foreign language," the newspaper said. So Chinese experts "translated" the U.S. bird noises into those of their Chinese counterparts. "The workers have already recorded six or seven bird screams which are common in Beijing," it said, adding that the new scare tactics were undergoing tests. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7985896 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rival Calls Microsoft Unready to Carry Out European Order Paul Meller Microsoft is failing to comply with a European Commission order to sell an unbundled version of its Windows operating system, competitors that were asked to examine the program said on Tuesday. A year ago, Mario Monti, then the European commissioner for competition, ordered Microsoft to sell a second version of Windows in Europe that has its music and video-playing program, Media Player, stripped out. The order was intended to restore competition. The second version, installed with a rival alternative to Media Player, is supposed to be introduced in the next few weeks. But David R. Stewart, deputy general counsel for RealNetworks, said Tuesday that Microsoft was still not ready to comply with the European ruling. RealNetworks, of Seattle, which makes rival software, has the most to gain from enforcement of the order. The commission has yet to decide whether Microsoft's proposal for introducing the unbundled version of Windows meets its requirements. Mr. Stewart contended that "the version of Windows Microsoft is proposing to sell has technical problems that render it less functional than the existing version of Windows." RealNetworks said that Microsoft had deleted registry entries associated with media-playing functions in Windows. Without the registry entries, Mr. Stewart said, rival media players installed in the second version of Windows could not work with other applications like Word documents and some Web sites. A spokesman for Microsoft, Dirk Delmartino, said the company was aware of the commission's concern about its plan to delete the registry entries. He acknowledged the problem, but said it was a direct result of having to comply with the commission's order. "We told the commission there would be certain functions that don't work," Mr. Delmartino said, adding, "This is a result of the removal of 186 Media Player files." Last week, in a sign of growing impatience, the commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, said it had "strong doubts" that Microsoft was complying with a separate order in last year's ruling to disclose information about Windows that would allow rival producers of server software to make programs that work with the Windows operating system. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/23/te...gy/23soft.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ILN News Letter Maine CT. Issues Decision On Identifying Anonymous Posters The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has released its decision in Fitch v. Doe, ruling that a plaintiff who claimed that he had been injured by an anonymous Internet user could enforce a subpoena to identify the person who sent the email. The defendant had sent the email in the plaintiff's own name, and the plaintiff claimed that this constituted both identity theft and other torts under state law. Decision at http://www.courts.state.me.us/opinio...s/05me39fi.htm EC Files Complaint Over Copyright Directive Implementations The European Commmission has referred Italy and Luxembourg to the European Court of Justice for failure to implement fully into national legislation the "public lending right" provided for by a 1992 Directive. In a related development, the Commission has also launched infringement proceedings against Belgium, Finland and Sweden because these Member States have not complied with the 2004 rulings of the Court requiring them to implement the 2001 Copyright Directive. http://eccopyrightcomplaint.notlong.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One In Five Downloaders Has Copied Files From Other People’s iPods Or MP3 Players About 36 million Americans—or 27% of internet users—say they download either music or video files and about half of them have found ways outside of traditional peer-to-peer networks or paid online services to gather and swap their files, according to the most recent survey of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The Project’s national survey of 1,421 adult Internet users conducted between January 13 and February 9, 2005 shows that 19% of current music and video downloaders, about 7 million adults, say they have downloaded files from someone else’s iPod or MP3 player. About 28%, or 10 million people, say they get music and video files via email and instant messages. There is some overlap between these two groups; 9% of downloaders say they have used both of these sources. In all, 48% of current downloaders have used sources other than peer-to-peer networks or paid music and movie services to get music or video files. Beyond MP3 players, email and instant messaging, these alternative sources include music and movie websites, blogs and online review sites. The survey of internet users has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. “Though much public attention has been paid to the file-sharing activity that happens on peer-to- peer networks, it’s harder to monitor the type of everyday sharing or ‘privatized’ file-sharing that is taking place between informal networks of friends and family,” said Mary Madden, a Research Specialist at the Pew Internet Project who wrote a new Project report on file-sharing. “We’ve seen the recording industry lawsuits deter some peer-to-peer users and many have migrated to paid music services. But the most striking new observation is the incidence of workarounds and alternative ways people are using to trade files.” There are several other highlights in the new Pew Internet Project survey: # 49% of all Americans and 53% of internet users believe that the firms that own and operate file- sharing networks should be deemed responsible for the pirating of music and movie files. Some 18% of all Americans think individual file traders should be held responsible and 12% say both companies and individuals should shoulder responsibility. Almost one in five Americans (18%) say they do not know who should be held responsible or refused to answer the question. # The public is sharply divided on the question of whether government enforcement against music and movie pirates will work, but broadband users strongly believe that a government crackdown will not succeed. Some 38% of all Americans believe that government efforts would reduce file-sharing and 42% believe that government enforcement would not work very well. Broadband users are more skeptical about government anti-piracy efforts. Some 57% of broadband users believe there is not much the government can do to reduce illegal file-sharing, compared to 32% who believe that enforcement would help control piracy. # Current file downloaders are now more likely to say they use online music services like iTunes than they are to report using p2p services. The percentage of music downloaders who have tried paid services has grown from 24% in 2004 to 43% in our most recent survey. However, respondents may now be less likely to report peer-to-peer usage due to the stigma associated with the networks. # The percentage of internet users who say they download music files has increased from 18% (measured in a February 2004 survey) to 22% in our latest survey from January 2005. Still, this number continues to rest well-below the peak level (32%) that we registered in October 2002. http://www.internetadsales.com/modul...p?storyid=5102 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ File Sharers Go Beyond P2P Rob McGann Approximately 36 million Americans, or 27 percent of Internet users, download music or video files. About half have done so outside of traditional peer-to-peer networks (P2P) or paid online services, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. A full 28 percent (10 million people) say they obtain music and video files via e-mail and instant messages. Another 19 percent of current music and video downloaders (7 million adults) say they've acquired files from someone else's MP3 player. Pew used the term "download" generically in the survey, without differentiating between legal and illegal means of acquiring video and music files online. "The findings of this study suggest that people looking to download video or music files are certainly willing to look beyond peer-to-peer networks and paid download services," said Mary Madden, research specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,421 adult Internet users conducted between January 12 and February 9, 2005. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points. Pew conducted the survey to create a snapshot of public sentiment before the MGM v. Grokster file-sharing case begins Supreme Court proceedings on March 29. The key issue is whether providers of P2P file-sharing technology are liable for illegal use of copyright music and video files by people who use their services. P2P companies were victorious in prior decisions upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "It will be interesting to see the reaction from the public and the technology companies," Madden said about the significance of the pending case. "It we see a ruling favoring entertainment companies, it might be more difficult to find third party software that allows you to rip music files off an iPod or an MP3 player, for example. Also, we may see a lot more copy protection on files, where it would cost less if you want to use the file one time only, and more if you want to use it for a month." Despite the attention file-sharing will command this spring, Pew found a 42 percent of Americans believe government efforts will be ineffective in reducing file-sharing. Broadband users were much more pessimistic about government regulation; 57 percent of respondents with high-speed connections say there's not much Uncle Sam can do. Other key findings include: 49 percent of all Americans (and 53 percent of Internet users) believe firms that own and operate file-sharing networks should be held responsible for the pirating of music and movie files. 18 percent of Americans believe individual file sharers should be held responsible; 18 percent said they didn't know who should be held responsible, or refused to answer. The percentage of music downloaders who have tried paid services has grown from 24 percent in February 2004 to 43 percent in the current survey. The percentage of Internet users who download music files, legally or illegally, has increased from 18 percent in February, 2004 to 22 percent in the current study. The peak level measured by Pew was 32 percent, recorded in October 2002. Pew notes respondents may now be less likely to report P2P usage due to associated stigma. http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/...le.php/3492356 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hobbling Grokster -- and Innovation, Too Hollywood's case against the online file-sharing service gives the Supreme Court a chance to defend the future of new technologies When Elliott D. Frutkin, chief executive of Time Trax Technologies, set out to raise $3 million in venture capital to develop his company's fledgling audio-recording system, would-be investors typically had two reactions. "The first was 'Wow, this is really cool,'" Frutkin recalls. The second: "What about Grokster?" Although the U.S. Supreme Court won't hear arguments in MGM Studios (MGM ) v. Grokster until Mar. 29, the case is already having a chilling effect on technological innovation. Feeling the sting of the massive theft by users of peer-to-peer (P2P) software made by Grokster and other defendants, movie and music studios are asking the court to hold tech companies liable for copyright infringement if people use their products to steal films, songs, or other protected works. BETAMAX PRECEDENT. The justices might just need their grandchildren to explain MP3s and downloads. But they should be on notice that if they side with Hollywood, they could put an entire up-and-coming generation of technological innovation at risk. The nation's highest court has been down this road before. Twenty-one years ago, it ruled Sony (SNE ) couldn't be held responsible if its customers used their Betamax VCRs to copy movies and TV programs illegally. The 5-to-4 opinion protected any technology from liability, as long as it is "merely capable" of "substantial, noninfringing use." That language created a legal safe harbor that fostered many of today's popular consumer gadgets, such as Apple's (AAPL ) iPod and TiVo (TIVO ). But that safe harbor is under siege, thanks to the legal uncertainty surrounding the Grokster case. Some companies are so fearful of getting sued they are consulting copyright lawyers at every step of the design process. "Our engineers have become very conversant in these legal matters," says Michael Malcolm, chairman and CEO of Kaleidescape, a Mountain View (Calif.) outfit that makes home viewing systems for DVDs. RELUCTANT INVESTORS. And venture capitalists are reluctant to place their bets on promising technologies that might be subject to lawsuits from movie and music companies. "It's difficult to invest when you don't have any certainty about the legal environment," says Hank Barry, a partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a leading VC outfit. "Betamax gave us a pretty good degree of certainty about where the line would be drawn." That reluctance has hit Time Trax hard. "We have been put on hold by quite a few people," says Frutkin, whose Gaithersburg (Md.) company makes gadgets that let audiophiles copy satellite-radio programming onto their personal computers and MP3 players. "If the Grokster case did not exist, our round of financing would be closed." Studios have little sympathy. Online content theft has reached epidemic proportions, with users of P2P software stealing millions of songs and films every day. Music, movie, and software execs say rampant piracy is the lifeblood of companies such as Grokster. Studies show illegal file-swapping accounts for at least 90% of the activity on P2P sites. LIABILITY MINEFIELD. Grokster profits in part by selling advertising displayed to those millions of users. "This is a business model based almost exclusively on getting people to take what they haven't paid for," says Dan Glickman, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. Movie studios and record companies want the court to set a new standard. Hardware and software companies should be liable for infringement if they know their technology is being misused, or if they could have designed it to reduce that risk. P2P sites, for example, could be shut down if they know their customers are stealing but don't stop it. But that standard, if made law, would give the content industry free rein to second-guess the design decisions of tech companies and expose nascent innovations -- such as P2P -- to potentially ruinous litigation. And the existence of controls doesn't give content owners the right to force third parties to use them. UNEXPECTED WINDFALLS. "Just because there could be filtering [on P2P systems] doesn't give the content industry the right to demand it," says Michael Weiss, CEO of Streamcast Networks, a defendant in the Grokster case. And even when companies do try to install content safeguards, third parties often come along and thwart those efforts. No one can predict the effects of squelching a technology on the drawing board. Even inventors of new technologies often fail to anticipate all the potential uses or commercial value -- and the content providers often win big despite themselves. When Hollywood fought Betamax, studios didn't anticipate that video rentals would become the movie industry's leading source of revenue. "Every company morphs, every technology ends up being used for purposes that no one thought of at the beginning," says Hummer Winblad's Barry. BENEFITS ABOUND. P2P technology already is winning adherents within the very industries that oppose it. A small group of musicians, including Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, rapper Chuck D, and songwriter Janis Ian, has sided with Grokster at the Supreme Court. They say P2P has introduced new audiences to their music, brought them new fans, and helped them find collaborators. P2P sites host plenty of other content, too. Programmers use it to swap code, and academics are sharing scholarly papers. During the 2004 political campaign season, such advocacy groups as MoveOn.org circulated political ads using P2P software. Ever since the invention of the player piano, the reigning entertainment titans of the day have fought new technologies, most recently taking up arms against VCRs, CDs, and MP3 players. Each time, they eventually came to recognize the value of these innovations, for themselves and for their customers. P2P -- and whatever as-yet-unimagined technologies might follow -- will be no different. The Supreme Court needs to keep the way clear for innovation. http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...50324_0001.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Millions Keep Downloading Free Music New study notes 7 million Americans do it; the Supreme Court is set to weigh in. Krysten Crawford  A Supreme Court case is drawing a lot of interest from many places. Here's a look at the how the camps are split. The online store that supplies 99-cent songs for your iPod just celebrated its 300 millionth sale. But a new study suggests that free music downloading is alive and well in the virtual world. The Pew Internet & American Life Project, in a report released Wednesday, found that 7 million Americans -- or about 9 percent of Internet users -- are currently making unlicensed copies of music from someone else's iPod or similar MP3 device. About 10 million are getting bootlegged music and movies through e-mail and instant messages. To some analysts, the study offers further proof of the myriad ways that piracy is thriving despite efforts by the entertainment industry to curb it. "Apple Computer has spent a couple of years working its way to 300 million songs sold (for its iPod)," said Eric Garland, the CEO of file-sharing tracker BigChampagne. "We think, very conservatively, that 750 million unauthorized or free songs are swapped online every month." Next week, entertainment companies will ask the U.S. Supreme Court for help in a case that is remarkable on many fronts, including the extraordinary interest it has drawn not just from the technology sector but also from myriad groups like the Christian Coalition of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Taxpayers Union and the commissioner of major league baseball. The case, MGM v. Grokster, is about an increasingly popular method for Internet downloading known as "peer-to-peer" file sharing. The technology first gained national attention four years ago when a startup called Napster fueled massive music piracy before record labels won a court order shutting down the service. Last summer, the appeals court that shut down Napster refused to do the same with the developers and distributors of the Grokster and Morpheus software, which allow users to trade music and movie files without going to a central site like Napster. The court found that there were critical differences between Napster and its Grokster & Co. successors. The ghost of 'Betamax' The key question in Grokster is whether peer-to-peer software providers should be held liable for illegal uses of their technology. Both sides of the battle portray the outcome in apocryphal terms. It appears that no less than the future of the Internet -- and possibly the U.S. economy -- is at stake. "This case is not about bad actors," said Michael Weiss, the CEO of Morpheus developer StreamCast Networks, at a press conference early this month. "It's about technology and who gets to control it, plain and simple." Weiss and other peer-to-peer defenders say a ruling against them could apply to Apple or any other technology company that manufactures any device used to steal copyrighted works online. Hollywood and the music labels call the scale of online piracy "mindboggling." They argue that billions of dollars worth of lost sales and licensing fees are at stake. Critics say those claims are overblown and point to signs that the industry is in good health. Overall the music business sold 817 million units -- including albums, singles and digital downloads -- in 2004, a 19 percent jump from the prior year, according to research firm Nielsen SoundScan. Much of the increase was attributed to digital music sales, through Apple's iTunes and other paid online services, as well as resurgent CD sales. Movie piracy is still considered nascent because it takes far more technological might to download a flick than it does to download a song. But that's changing with the emergence of newer, better peer-to-peer programs such as BitTorrent and eDonkey. Odd alliances The debate has created some strange bedfellows. For instance, religious and "pro-family" groups have set aside their gripes over on-air nudity and profanity to support the entertainment industry because they think peer-to-peer is widely used by pornographers and other miscreants. The Grokster debate hinges on dueling interpretations of a 21-year-old landmark Supreme Court decision that allowed Sony Corporation's Betamax to stay on the market. In Sony v. Universal City Studios, the high court found that home video recorders had primarily legitimate purposes that far outweighed their illegal uses. So Grokster is likely to be decided on whether peer-to-peer technology has enough legitimate uses to satisfy the court. According to BigChampagne's Garland, the vast majority of the 6.2 million Americans who were using peer-to-peer at any given time in February were using the technology for illicit purposes. But that doesn't mean that will always be the case, argues StreamCast lawyer Fed von Lohmann. "You don't want to condemn a technology in its infancy before non-infringing uses have had a chance to take hold," said von Lohmann, who is a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group. Grokster is one battle in a long war The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Grokster March 29, with a decision expected by early summer. No matter who wins the case, both sides acknowledge that the battle over piracy will continue -- in Congress and in the courts. Hollywood and the recording industry have already sued thousands of individuals for allegedly illegal downloads using Grokster, BitTorrent, eDonkey and others. Garland predicts the litigation blitzkrieg against individuals will continue no matter what happens in Grokster. The Betamax case was about an actual device that, had the high court ruled the other way, would no longer have been manufactured. Grokster is about lines of indestructible computer code. "All you can do (in Grokster) is remove a company from the equation," explained Garland. "At a certain point it will always comes back to the end users and the lawsuits again individual users," he said. http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/23/news...e500/grokster/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MP3 to go Music lovers will find it easier to take their favorite tunes on the road thanks to a new family of radios that will debut on the Chevy HHR and other GM vehicles starting later this year. Press Release The new radios include an auxiliary channel and front mounted auxiliary input jack, so that an iPod or other audio source can be easily plugged in and played through the vehicle audio system. "The Chevy HHR will help launch a new family of radios that will bring iPod connectivity to a broad range of GM vehicles," said Paul Nadeau, director, infotainment displays and controls, for GM Engineering. "We think the ability to easily connect an iPod or other audio source directly into the vehicle audio system will be a big hit with customers." Radios featuring the new auxiliary input jack will debut starting in late spring. They will be standard equipment on 2006 models of the Chevy HHR, Impala and Monte Carlo; Saturn VUE and ION; Pontiac Solstice; Buick Lucerne; and Cadillac DTS. The radios will be fitted to other new GM models over the next several years. Auxiliary audio inputs in the console of GM vehicles equipped with DVD players also allow an iPod or other source to be played through the vehicle sound system using a simple adapter cord. "General Motors has a long tradition of leading with technology that provides real benefits to our customers," said Mark LaNeve, GM North America vice president, sales, service and marketing. "We are excited to be part of the iPod revolution by offering our customers an easy way to play their favorite music in their GM cars and trucks." http://i-newswire.com/pr11244.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Skype, Others Connect Far-Flung Strangers Ethan Todras-Whitehill John Perry Barlow is pretty open, but he's no simpleton. So when he signed on to Skype, a free Internet phone service, and a woman identifying herself as Kitty messaged him, saying, "I need a friend," he was skeptical. He figured she was "looking for 'friends' to come watch her 'relax' in her Webcam- equipped 'bedroom.' " Nevertheless, he took the call. "Will you talk to me?" she said. "I want to practice my English." Kitty turned out to be Dzung Vu My, 22, a worker at an oil company in Hanoi, Vietnam. They spoke for a long time, exchanging text, photographs and Web addresses, and discussing everything from the state of Vietnam's economy to My's father's time in the army. "One doesn't get random phone calls from Vietnam," Barlow, 57, the former Grateful Dead lyricist and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy organization for an unfettered Internet, wrote on his blog. "At least, one never could before." Barlow's experience is not unique. Skype users report unsolicited contacts every day, and contrary to such experiences with phone and e-mail, the calls are often welcomed. Skype was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the creators of Kazaa, a peer-to- peer file-sharing service. Skype is one of a few hundred companies in the United States that let people talk to one another over the Internet using just their computers and a headset, a microphone or a conventional phone. The technology, known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is offered by phone and cable companies like AT&T and Comcast as well as instant-messaging services like Yahoo's and MSN's. Skype says that it has more than 2.8 million customers in the United States and 30.6 million worldwide and that it is adding customers at a rate of 155,000 a day. Skype's biggest competitor, Vonage, a paid VoIP service, has about 550,000 customers. It actually works A reason Skype is so popular is that it is free. Another is that it works. That may not seem like much, but it matters when calls with other free VoIP programs sound more like walkie-talkie conversations than phone calls. Skype also has unusual features: Customers can search the database of fellow Skype users by such fields as age, language and nationality. When Skype began, in August 2003, this search feature resulted in unwanted calls for some people. In response, Skype added the Skype Me feature in 2004. People can now set their user status to Skype Me if they are interested in receiving calls from strangers and search for others in the same mode. A preponderance of the random calls involve people "Skyping" one another to practice a certain language (as with Barlow's experience), but other people seem to be calling simply because they can. In February 2004, John Andersen, 57, a software engineer in Juneau, Alaska, was contacted out of the blue by two retired couples in Sydney, Australia, planning a cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage region that summer. They wanted to know the best helicopter glacier tours and fishing excursions in Juneau, and Andersen was happy to send them links through Skype. They made plans to meet, but Andersen was away when the couples visited. "I did get a very nice e-mail from them saying the trip had gone off without a hitch," Andersen said. "It's like ham radio for the Internet." This was something I had to try. I picked up a $25 headset and microphone combination, downloaded the free software from the Web site (skype.com), put a few personal details in my user profile (male, New York, favorite color green) and set my user status to Skype Me. Despite what I had heard, I wasn't convinced that I would get any calls. Within 15 minutes, I had more callers than I could handle. In the five days I was in Skype Me mode, I received more than 30 calls and messages from Morocco, Russia, China, Poland, Argentina, Israel and several other countries. One of my most interesting chats was with Billy Einkamerer, 27, a freelance Web developer in Johannesburg. I messaged him first, the Skype equivalent of knocking on the door before barging in. He taught me a little Afrikaans, and we commiserated over our mutual inability to multitask. I do some Web design myself, so through Skype's instant messaging feature we traded links to sites we had done; he found an error on one of mine, which I quickly corrected. It was a pretty afternoon in Brooklyn, so I took a snapshot out the window and sent it to him. Near the end of our conversation, Einkamerer got a call from his friend Gerhard Jacobs, also 27 and from Johannesburg. Jacobs runs an information technology company. Einkamerer conferenced him into the call, and the three of us made jokes about our accents. It felt like the early days of AOL, another environment in which people contacted others randomly. But voice brings to life the other person in a way that typing cannot, like hearing Einkamerer laugh at my jokes. The instant messaging environment is anonymous; with voice, you cannot hide from the other person. Moreover, the voice quality over Skype is actually superior to traditional phone service. Standard telecommunications are restricted to the 0 to 3.4 kilohertz range to limit the bandwidth consumed; Skype transmits at 0.5 to 8 kilohertz, according to a Columbia University study in 2004. It feels intimate because it is; more of the users' voices reach each other. Not free of problems There are problems with Skype Me mode. Skype Me users are subject to the undesirable solicitors familiar to e-mail and phone users: spammers, scammers and perverts. Skype is starting to see its fair share of all these groups: One person who contacted me was a Nigerian "model" who requested my help depositing $4,000 in an American bank account--a classic scheme. In addition, the blogging community is reporting scattered Skype telemarketers, and women who identify themselves as such in their profile report a bombardment of unwelcome advances when they enter Skype Me mode. These problems appear to be growing. Skype users can limit callers to people on their contact list, so if the nuisance calls become substantial, the number of users who choose Skype Me mode--already only a tiny fraction of users, according to Kelly Larabee, a Skype spokeswoman--could disappear entirely. Government intervention is not a likely fix. In February 2004, the Federal Communications Commission issued the Pulver Order, named after the VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver, which states that "pure" computer-to-computer VoIP services like Skype and Pulver's Free World Dialup are no different from the unregulated instant messaging programs and are not subject to the traditional phone service taxes and regulations. The Pulver Order is viewed as a victory by many in the VoIP community, including Skype, but it has potentially negative implications for the Skype Me callers: no regulation means no do-not-call list, which means Skype Me users, particularly women, will continue to receive unwanted and unfriendly calls. Formalized social networks Even without government intervention, however, random Skyping appears likely to continue in some form. The next phase may be more formalized Skype-enabled social networks like Jyve, which connects people with similar interests and desire to practice a certain language, and SomeoneNew.com, which connects people for romantic purposes. Only a few English- language social networking sites currently use Skype, but such sites in Asia have been very successful. Jyve, according to Charles Carleton, a co-founder, will be introducing a feature in the next few months that Carleton hopes will protect the medium's social capabilities: an eBay-like feedback system to help users reject callers with a track record of inappropriate conversation. Skype is happy to leave these functions to other companies. "We're probably never going to run a dating service or language seminars," Larabee said of Skype. "Our business is the technology, not the networks." Barlow, who has been inviting people to Skype him for three months, with 20 takers, believes that Skype's intimate feel will be sufficient to keep the Skype Me phenomenon alive. "There's something confessional about this space," Barlow said about Skype. "It's like a long over-the-ocean flight where the other guy starts telling you stuff that you're astonished to hear and you start talking about stuff you're astonished to say. The combination of anonymity and intimacy creates a special kind of environment." http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/p...394/1010/STATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keep In on the Down-Load Benedikt Koehler The British Phonograph Industry has levied over £50,000 in fines against various individuals guilty of swapping pop music downloaded from the internet. This successful conviction of music file-swappers in Britain made a great impact. To begin with, millions of panic-stricken British parents charged into their teenage children's rooms on suspicion that junior's collection of Moby and Franz Ferdinand may force them to take on a second mortgage to pay for copyright infringements. The bigger picture is that the BPI's action was a volley fired in the copyright cyberwars, where the next battle is joined on 29th March, when the US Supreme Court hears MGM v Grokster. In the general scheme of things £50,000 is small change in the entertainment industry, barely enough to kit out a single Eminem stage set. The point the BPI is making is that when copyrighted material changes hands, copyright owners expect somebody somewhere to pay them. In Europe, the BPI thinks they have a case against cybersquatters. In the US, MGM is going after Grokster, blaming the problem on software which enables file-sharing in the first place. To date, MGM's suit has not had much luck. The Court of Appeal held against MGM citing the 1984 Betamax precedent. The issue at the time was whether manufacturers of video blanks were accessories to copyright pirates who taped movies and sold them on the black market. Then as now the court decreed that manufacturers were not culpable if customers used products illegally. It would be a stunning turnaround if the Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeal. No matter which outcome, the Supreme Court's judgment will set out ground rules for competition in markets where high-tech clashes with copyright. The decision is key to information markets on both sides of the Atlantic. The precedent in European courts is Magill (1991). At the time of Magill each broadcaster in Ireland issued individual TV guides. Magill, a Dublin publisher, thought it was absurd viewers had to check three separate magazines to find out what was on TV and spotted a market for a single magazine combining all three listings. The broadcasters sued Magill for copyright infringement, and won. However, the court's affirmation had a sting in its tail. Though upholding broadcasters' copyright, the court charged broadcasters with abuse of dominance for "preventing the emergence on the market of a new product." In due course a consolidated TV guide came to the market. There's the rub. Grokster's software not only challenges copyrights, but also the way artistic output reaches the public. The world's entertainment industry is built on a business model where a substantial element of revenues comes from managing distribution. The industry's logical riposte to its challenge has been to permit distribution via internet, provided users pay a fee. However, at issue is not only whether customers should pay, but at what price. The cost of disseminating information via the internet is substantially lower than via CD sales outlets. It is a fact of life that consumers will challenge prices unless they are justified by costs. As Alfred Marshall put it succinctly, "no one could get extra high wages for making eggs stand on their ends after Columbus's plan had become public property." The BPI's successful raid on file-swappers may turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory. The Ninth Court of Appeal observed "we live in a quicksilver technological environment" and that "the introduction of new technology is always disruptive to old markets." Producers take note. Whenever producers offer products at prices higher than they could be, markets will undercut them. Courts will protect copyrights and patents, but business models have to survive on their merits. http://www.techcentralstation.com/032405F.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple's Legal Drive to Stifle Web Sites Is Fruitless So Far John Markoff Since Apple Computer filed a lawsuit in January against Think Secret, a Web site operated by a 19-year-old Harvard student, accusing the site of publishing Apple's trade secrets, the company has sent a series of cease-and-desist letters to the student, Nicholas M. Ciarelli. So far, the letters appear to have done nothing to reduce Mr. Ciarelli's enthusiasm. He has continued to publish articles about Apple's new product plans. Apple's continued legal barrage has also stirred up the community of Web sites and Web logs that routinely speculate on the company's product plans. Several operators said that Apple's legal campaign does not appear to have slowed the flow of information about details and announcement dates of new Apple products. On Monday, another Web site, macosXrumors, removed an article describing Apple's recent distribution of a test version of its new Tiger operating system, stating that it had done so at the request of Apple's lawyers. The Web site operator, Alexandros Roussos, is a college student at Université René Descartes Paris 5. He said in an online interview that much of the information published on the site, which he has published since May 2002, comes from anonymous sources. "I'm a bit disappointed by these moves," he said. "I think Apple should protect itself from trade secret revelations, but not this way." He said that he was currently seeking legal advice on how to respond to Apple's legal threat. At the same time, Mr. Roussos said the dispute between Apple and Web sites operators did not appear to have reduced gossip about Apple. "Even though we lost contact with some sources, the rumor flow is still quite the same," he said. "The fact that there are quite reliable ways to share information anonymously is probably the reason why sources sometimes persist." Apple refused to comment on the letters sent to Mr. Ciarelli and Mr. Roussos. Mr. Ciarelli, who still considers himself a fan of Apple, said he was a journalist and should be protected by laws that shield journalists from having to divulge the names of confidential sources. "The important part is that I've done nothing wrong," Mr. Ciarelli said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "We're staying focused on providing our audience with news. It's business as usual." So far this month Mr. Ciarelli has reported that Apple is planning to introduce the newest version of its operating system, known as OS X Tiger, in April and that it is also planning newer versions of its iMac and eMac computers. In a separate case, Apple filed suit in December against unnamed individuals, presumably Apple employees, who might have leaked information about new music software to several Apple enthusiast Web sites, including PowerPage and AppleInsider. The Web sites were not named in the suit. In that case, a judge in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California ruled earlier this month that the Web sites could not block a subpoena from Apple to the e-mail provider for one of the Web sites, seeking messages that might identify the confidential source of the information. Apple said that it was seeking the source because it claimed the information was protected under trade secret law. Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the Web site operators, have argued that the journalist's privilege blocks Apple's subpoena. They filed an appeal this week to overturn the ruling. Mr. Ciarelli's attorney, Terry Gross, of Gross & Belsky in San Francisco, said that Apple's attorney had refused to identify the specific trade secrets contained in articles published on the Think Secret Web site. Separately, Apple said on Wednesday that it had reached a settlement with Doug Steigerwald, a 22-year-old college student whom the company had accused of illegally distributing a test version of the Tiger operating system over the Internet. Apple still has legal action pending against two other men in the case, which was filed in December in federal court in San Jose, Calif. http://news.com.com/Apples+battle+ag...l?tag=nefd.top ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple Settles Lawsuit with One Tiger Leak Defendant Misha Sakellaropoulo "While Apple will always protect its innovations, it is not our desire to send students to jail," said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling. "We are pleased that Mr. Steigerwald has taken responsibility for his actions and that we can put this lawsuit behind us." Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has settled a lawsuit with one of three defendants it sued for distributing developer versions of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, the company said today. Doug Steigerwald, a student and Apple Developer Connection member at the time, was sued in December 2004 after Apple determined that he was the source for pre-release copies of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger that were floating around various BitTorrent file sharing sites. Criminal Probe "While Apple will always protect its innovations, it is not our desire to send students to jail," said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling. "We are pleased that Mr. Steigerwald has taken responsibility for his actions and that we can put this lawsuit behind us." As part of the settlement, Steigerwald will pay an undisclosed sum to Apple and said he will not discuss the details of the case. Steigerwald also revealed that he is the subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office and said he is "working toward a resolution with the federal government." "I disseminated it [Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger] over the Internet and thousands of unauthorized copies of Apple's software were illegally distributed to the public," Steigerwald said in a statement. "As a result, Apple sued me for copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation. All of the claims regarding me in Apple's complaint are true. "Although I did not mean to do any harm, I realize now that my actions were wrong and that what I did caused substantial harm to Apple, and for that I am truly sorry. I am grateful for the chance to resolve this lawsuit and move on with my life, and hope that any publicity generated by this lawsuit discourages others from making the same mistake as I did." Other Defendants Apple said it had no comment on the other two defendants in the lawsuit, Vivek Sambhara and David Schwartzstein. In February, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak threw his support behind the students in the case, saying in a blog posting regarding Sambhara: "This is an unintentional oversight and the interviewed student appears to be one of the most honest people on this planet. I have to question who is most right in this case. I wish that Apple could find some way to drop the matter. In my opinion, more than appropriate punishment has already been dealt out. In this age of professional spammers and telemarketers making fortunes, we're misusing our energies to pursue these types of small time wrongdoers. I will personally donate $1,000 to the Canadian student's defense." http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/article/41711.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Online Politicking Receives Temporary Reprieve Declan McCullagh Political bloggers would continue to be exempt from most campaign finance laws, according to highly anticipated rules that federal regulators released Wednesday. The Federal Election Commission also proposed that online-only news outlets and that even individual bloggers should be treated as legitimate journalists and immune from laws that could count their political endorsements as campaign contributions. The 47-page outline of proposed rules (click here for PDF file) takes a cautious approach to the explosive question of how Web sites and e-mail should be regulated, with the FEC saying throughout that its conclusions are only tentative ones and inviting public comment. The comment process is expected to be approved by the FEC at its meeting Thursday. Ever since FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith warned of the possibility of a crackdown on bloggers in an interview with CNET News.com in early March, politicians and political junkies have been closely following the commission's deliberations. While one senator has proposed a near-complete inoculation of the Internet, some of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's original sponsors have warned of "creating loopholes" through insufficiently aggressive regulations. "These proposals are intended to ensure that political committees properly finance and disclose their Internet communications, without impeding individual citizens from using the Internet to speak freely regarding candidates and elections," the FEC said in a statement. The initial reaction from bloggers was cautiously positive. "The blogosphere has indeed flexed its muscles here, and we've been heard," said a post on the conservative-leaning Democracy-Project.com. The FEC's proposed regulations also say: • Political spam must be labeled, a relaxation of a current regulation that requires disclaimers when more than 500 bulk messages endorse or attack a political candidate. Now only such e-mail sent to addresses purchased "through a commercial transaction" must sport disclaimers. • Linking to a campaign's Web site will not be counted as an "expenditure" that could trigger campaign finance law unless money changes hands. Also exempt are "distributing banner messages" and "blogging." • Someone simply running their own Web site from their own computer or hosted on a service like Blogger.com does "not make a contribution or expenditure" that must be reported as a campaign contribution. • Forwarding e-mail from a political candidate "would not constitute republication of campaign materials," which could have triggered another complex section of campaign finance law. In one area, the FEC seems unsure about where to proceed and asks for input from Internet users. The agency notes that online-only news sites such as Salon.com, Slate.com and DrudgeReport.com have no print equivalent. But, the FEC asks, should individual bloggers qualify? What if a blogger receives payment from a political campaign? And "should bloggers' activity be considered commentary or editorializing, or news story activity?" The initial reaction from bloggers was cautiously positive. "The blogosphere has indeed flexed its muscles here, and we've been heard," said a post on the conservative-leaning Democracy-Project.com. Since Smith's interview appeared, an unusual alliance of conservatives, libertarians and liberals have coalesced around the idea of heading off overly intrusive government regulation. An online petition has garnered thousands of electronic signatures, and the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday wrote in an editorial that "this was always going to be the end result of a law that naively believed it could ban money from politics." Michael Bassik, a self-described Democrat who co-created the online petition, was cautiously enthusiastic about the FEC's draft rules. "It appears as though the FEC did a good job of listening to those in the online community in the past few weeks and seems to have incorporated the comments that individual bloggers and journalists have voiced in the past few weeks," Bassik said late Wednesday. Some bloggers have created a "free speech pledge" endorsing civil disobedience if the government eventually goes too far, while some Democratic bloggers have fretted that the three Democratic members of the FEC could be blamed for choosing not to appeal a federal court decision from last year that ordered the commission to revisit its regulations. In 2002, the FEC largely exempted the Internet from campaign finance laws by a 4-2 vote, but U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall overturned that decision. "The commission's exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines" the campaign finance law's purposes, Kollar-Kotelly wrote. http://news.com.com/Online+politicki...3-5632346.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rockers Flex BitTorrent's Muscle Katie Dean With MTV and VH1 now crowded with programs like Date My Mom, The Ashlee Simpson Show and Celebrity Fit Club, there's little room for music videos, especially from independent artists. That's why one up-and-coming group, the Decemberists, opted to release its new music video, Sixteen Military Wives, for free using BitTorrent. The high-quality video file has logged more than 1,700 downloads since it was released over the weekend. "For the most part, MTV and VH1 won't touch video unless bands have sold a huge number of records," said Dawn Barger, manager of the Decemberists. "It's impossible to get rotation." BitTorrent provided a way for the band to efficiently get the video out without paying a lot of money for bandwidth. The group also hopes to gain exposure from fans passing along the video to others. "No matter where you stand on issues of copyright, a network like BitTorrent is really for exactly this kind of thing -- when you have content that you want to freely distribute," said Slim Moon, founder of Kill Rock Stars, the Decemberists' record label. "It seems like ... the most logical way to distribute." Aaron Stewart, the director of the video, said the idea to use BitTorrent came from a friend. He said the fans on the Decemberists' message board helped get the video out by acting as seeders -- people who share their download of the video file with others to speed up download time and share bandwidth. Two fans agreed to host the tracker, which provides the link to the torrent file, on their server. The video has also aired on MTV2, Stewart said, but he believes using BitTorrent is a more reliable and effective way to reach a larger audience. And providing fans with a high-quality video file is a better option than the low- quality videos in the "postage-stamp-sized window" hosted on sites like Launch.com and MTV.com, he said. The video for "Sixteen Military Wives" was shot for less than $6,000 at a high school in Portland, Oregon, and features members of the band participating in a Model United Nations, a simulation popular in high schools to teach students about problem-solving and international relations. In the video, Decemberists singer Colin Meloy represents the United States and boldly declares war on Luxembourg, a not-so-subtle jab at the Bush administration's decision to go to war. The video "address the political subtext (of the song) but not in a heavy-handed way," said Stewart, who conceived the idea. "I'd rather be snarkily juvenile in our feelings about the current administration." The video also features cameos from other musicians from the Pacific Northwest. Chris Walla, a guitarist for Death Cab for Cutie and producer of the Decemberists' new album, Picaresque, plays a reporter. John Roderick from the Long Winters takes on the role of a teacher. Both Barger and Moon said they plan to use this method of online video distribution with other bands. One P2P advocate was excited to hear about the band's use of the technology. "This is an acknowledgement of the cost-effective power of peer-to-peer technology in the service of, by and for the artists," said Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, the trade association for the file-sharing industry. "It's one of the first steps along a road that many people feel is inevitable to the self-empowerment of artists in a world that for too long has had the landscape shaped by large, impersonal, copyright-aggregating multinational companies. "The lie that you can't compete with free, that peer to peer will be the death of the music industry, that it will be a disincentive to create, has been disproven every time a band takes advantage of the real power of this technology," he said. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,66969,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rapper's New Single Features Ringtone Innovation The new CD single "Baby" from rapper Fabolous allows UK consumers to choose which part of the song they want to use as a mobile phone ringtone, a feature that Warner Music said on Thursday was a first for the industry. Until now, the 30-second ringtone clips packaged with singles have been pre-determined by record companies. The Fabolous single from Warner's Atlantic Records, which includes built-in software that lets listeners isolate any part of the song and load it onto their phones, retails for 3.99 pounds ($7.51), the same price as other CD singles. "It's the next step for music lovers," said Crispin Futrille, whose company Bounce supplied Warner with the technology. "Ultimately the idea is to get this included on all CDs." Record companies are seeking new ways to capitalize on the desire among consumers to use their favorite songs as ringtones as the industry reshapes itself amid a fight against piracy and illegal downloading. Some analyst estimates have put the global ringtone market at more than $3 billion. Industry trade magazine "Billboard" last year even launched a weekly ringtone chart of top sellers. Warner Music, smallest of the four major music companies, declined to comment on prospects for the ringtone technology, citing its announcement earlier this month that it would sell shares to the public and the related prohibitions on discussing forward-looking plans. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7996749 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Declaration of Technology and Independence Veronica O'Connell Until recently, the United States has been the world center for creativity. We have attracted the best, the brightest and most creative people from around the world. Unfortunately, trends to restrict new technologies are discouraging creativity and threatening our ability to compete in a global marketplace. The debate is no longer just about piracy and profits. The unbalanced importance given to protecting intellectual property (IP) is stifling creativity and steering America toward a cold war on new technologies. For America to compete globally, the issues must be redefined, including striking the right balance between protecting IP and encouraging creativity and innovation. We need to advance the fight against the unbalanced importance given to protection of IP and the increase in litigation against innovators. Public policies should encourage innovation and allow people to make full use of the opportunities provided by new technologies. IP issues need to be redirected to focus on encouraging and advancing creativity rather than on protecting existing business models. We have a technology and intellectual property statute. We call it our Declaration of Technology Independence. It sets forth principles to bring balance to the debate to protect and advance innovation. WHEREAS, The Supreme Court in 1984 held that it is legal under the copyright law to sell a product if the product has substantial non-infringing uses. This Betamax holding paved the way for the introduction of revolutionary technologies enabling recording, storage and shifting of content in time and space without the prior permission of the copyright holders. Technologies such as MP3 encoding, the PC, the Internet and digital and audio recorders have supported a creative renaissance that has enriched the content community, empowered consumers and helped establish the United States as the world’s economic leader. Our nation attracts the world’s smartest and most innovative people because our society embraces and encourages entrepreneurship. Our nation of immigrants has created the world’s largest technologies and communication systems. Currently, our leadership in innovation is being threatened by the content industry’s misguided attempts to protect intellectual property. The recording and motion picture industries have often resisted, opposed or sought to stifle new technologies and products, despite the fact that these technologies transform markets and create new avenues for profitable content creation and distribution. The influential content lobby has in many respects shaped the current state of copyright law. Copyright terms have been unreasonably extended so that the reporting of history itself is subject to permission. Makers of pioneering technologies are now routinely subject to expensive and time-consuming lawsuits that discourage innovation and impede U.S. companies from competing globally. Moreover, false equations have been drawn between intellectual property and real property, noncommercial home recording and commercial piracy, and national creativity and sales of particular products and formats, such as CDs. THEREFORE, as Americans concerned about preserving our rights of freedom of expression and striving to be leaders in advancing creativity, and who understand that new technologies promote and enhance creativity, communication and our national welfare, we hereby ask policymakers to: Recognize that our founders instituted copyright law to promote creation, innovation and culture rather than to maximize copyright holders’ profits, and that it can do this only if new technologies are not stifled and fair use rights are upheld; Reaffirm the Betamax holding that a product is legal if it has significant legal uses; Resist pleas by big content aggregators for new laws, causes of action, liabilities and ways to discourage new product introductions; Re-establish the fundamental rights of consumers to time- shift, place-shift and make backup copies of lawfully acquired content, and use that content on a platform of their choice; Re-examine the length of the copyright term and explore avenues for content to be reliably available for creative endeavors, scholarship, education, history, documentaries and innovation benefiting society at large; and Realize that our nation’s creativity arises from a remarkable citizenry whose individuality, passion, belief in the American dream and desire to improve should not be shackled by laws that restrict creativity. http://www.ce.org/publications/visio...marapr/p06.asp Until next week, - js. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Current Week In Review.  Recent WiRs - March 19th, March 12th, March 5th, February 26th, February 19th Jack Spratt's Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts (at) lycos (dot) com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC. "The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public." - Hugo Black |
|
|
| Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Threaded Mode