Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review – May 7th, '05 - P2P-Zone

JackSpratts · 05-05-05, 07:01 PM

Early Edition

Quotes Of The Week

"Theft of intellectual property is so prevalent on the Internet that I will never put myself out of business." – Mark Ishikawa

"There's no form of copyright protection that can't be broken." - Kevin Carmony.

"Peer-to-peer networks are here to stay." - Michael Goodman

"It has nothing to do with eXeem." - Olivier

"If you can just give up a Saturday night, there's a very small chance at it being the biggest event in human history." - Amal Dorai

Broadcast Flag lowered

Court Blocks TV Anti-Piracy Tech Rules
Ted Bridis

A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out new federal rules to require anti-piracy technology that would have limited how consumers could record and watch their favorite television programs in the future.

The three-judge panel for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia determined the Federal Communications Commission had exceeded its authority when it announced it would require such technology in digital televisions and other consumer electronic devices sold after July 1.

"This opens up the future for consumers to have more wide-ranging video experiences," said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Washington-based Public Knowledge, a consumers group. "They will be able to take advantage of new products and features that won't be dictated to them by the entertainment industry."

The controversial rules were challenged by consumer groups, including library associations. Their lawyers complained the FCC requirement would drive up prices of digital television devices and prevent consumers from recording programs in ways permitted under copyright laws.

The technology, known as the broadcast flag, would have been required after July 1 for televisions equipped to receive new digital signals, many personal computers and VCR-type recording devices. It would permit entertainment companies to designate, or flag, programs to prevent viewers from copying shows or distributing them over the Internet.

Entertainment companies said the technology was needed to block viewers from recording high-quality, digital versions of television shows and films and distributing them free online.

The FCC acknowledged the agency never had exercised the authority to impose regulations affecting television broadcasts after such programs are beamed into households, but it maintained that was permitted by Congress since lawmakers didn't explicitly outlaw it.

"We categorically reject that suggestion," the appeals panel said.

The appeals decision will launch an aggressive lobbying effort by entertainment companies in Washington to persuade lawmakers to require new technology to enforce copyright protections.

Friday's ruling was no real surprise. During courtroom arguments, U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the FCC it had "crossed the line" by requiring the new anti-piracy technology for next-generation television devices and rhetorically asked the FCC whether it also intended to regulate household appliances.

"You've gone too far," Edwards told the FCC's lawyer. "Are washing machines next?"
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan...=apn_home_down

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Internet Piracy Fails To Sink Film Profits
Staff and agencies

Despite fears that internet piracy would dent its profits, Hollywood has had a buoyant year.

Worldwide revenues from cinema tickets, videos and DVD sales, as well as television rights, reached a whopping $44.8bn (£24bn) last year, up 9% from 2003.

Record DVD sales fuelled the increase, up 14% in the US and 46% worldwide, but most other sectors did better than last year. The only exception was cinema ticket sales
outside America. These did fall, but by a relatively modest 1%.

The figures are from a report by the Motion Picture Association, part of the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood studios.

For the past year, the MPAA has mounted an aggressive anti-piracy campaign in the US, claiming that studios lose around $3.5bn (£1.8bn) in potential earnings each year.

In February, it launched its third wave of lawsuits in four months against anyone illegally up- or downloading movies through internet file-sharing programs. The MPAA has also taken to sending guards sporting night-vision goggles into cinemas, in a bid to catch the pirates red-handed.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/stor...475482,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Azureus Introduces DHT Layer
Thomas Mennecke

Azureus, a leading java based BitTorrent client, has introduced DHT (Distributed Hash Table) to its client. DHT is a networking protocol that enhances the scalability and efficiency of decentralized networks by creating a virtual index rather than broadcasting search queries. Decentralized networks that utilized DHT technology are able to search and locate files significantly faster than networks that do not use this technology.

You may think to yourself, "So what, Azureus has incorporated DHT, many decentralized networks employ this technology."

The significance of adding this layer to Azureus is that it significantly increases the efficiency of file distribution. With the new version of Azureus, any client can choose to become a tracker or not. This is where DHT comes into play.

With DHT, each node is responsible for indexing a certain percentage of hash files on the network. For example, say there are 50 Azureus users all participating on the DHT portion of the network. If 8 decide to become nodes, each one will work together to become a virtual index (so-called "tracker-less.")

This allows a client to continue downloading a file even if the web-based tracker goes down. In addition, even if a tracker happens to go down, the swarms will continue to be maintained - even finding alternative file sources. Olivier from Azureus explains this new DHT implementation has a familiar origin.

"The technology behind the DHT (Distributed Hash Table = Distributed Database) is Kademlia, (the "Kad" network in eMule is another Kademlia distributed hash table, Kad is heavily modified from the original specifications for performance reasons). Azureus implementation follows quite a lot the original Kademlia specifications so far."

Keep in mind this is not a "decentralized BitTorrent" network. The BitTorrent network and DHT network operate independently. DHT is a layer added on top of the BitTorrent network to assist in Azureus’ performance. BitTorrent is a distinct networking protocol, of which is specified by creator Bram Cohen. Anything existing outside of those specifications is not BitTorrent. Some articles have attempted to label the new Azureus as a “decentralized BitTorrent”, possibly confusing some with a dubious client named “eXeem.” Olivier makes it quite clear these two clients are not even in the same Universe.

“It has nothing to do with eXeem, and in terms of performance, searching the DHT is a matter of ms (milliseconds) when the content is available (ie, when it has results), and of seconds when it' s not. I don't know for sure how eXeem works, but from the test I did, it's not using a DHT.”
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=772

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hackers Figure Out File Extraction From Sony UMD

Software developers have figured out how to extract files from the Universal Media Discs used in Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation Portable handheld video game device, though there is no way to play the games extracted from those discs.

Some details of the exploit were posted Wednesday night on the Web site PS2nfo.com, along with lists showing all the files pulled off the game discs for "Ridge Racers," "Wipeout Pure" and "Vampire Chronicles."

The games are not yet playable because there is no way to burn UMDs from scratch, and the PSP does not accommodate larger discs. However, the site said the ability to look through the games' file structures could still be instructive for developers.

A spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment of America was not immediately available for comment.

Sony released the PSP on March 24 in North America, and the device has sold well since. Movie studios are gearing up to release some of their films on the UMD format, though it was not immediately clear if the techniques used to extract the game files would also work for films.
http://today.reuters.com/News/TechSt...ONY-PSP-DC.XML

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

USB Drives Aid File Sharing
Enid Burns

Portable USB flash drives come in all shapes and sizes, and capacities and capabilities are growing to suit users. Eighty percent of respondents in a survey have flash drives primarily for personal use, and share files with their friends 66 percent of the time according to a survey conducted by Hall & Partners, commissioned by M-Systems and DiskOnKey.

The survey polled 415 respondents who regularly use USB flash drive devices or are likely to buy one within the next six months. It found USB drive consumers are predominantly male, in their mid-30s to mid-50s, and make over $50K a year.

Most Popular Files Stored on USB Drive

File Type
Respondents

Music
62%

Graphics
52%

Video
46%

Source: Hall & Partners, February 2005

The overwhelming majority of respondents (83 percent) would pay more for extra storage capacity, with 59 percent are likely to buy another flash drive in the next two years. Capacity is an important purchase consideration, say 51 percent of respondents, followed by speed. Thirty-eight percent of those questioned want a faster drive.

USB flash drives have become a daily accessory for 21 percent of those surveyed. Sixty-six percent use their drive to share files with friends and families. The pass-along rate of files (not necessarily the drives themselves) may provide a new outlet for rich media that can be stored and shared on USB flash drives.

Interest in Future Applications on USB Drive

Application
Respondents

Customizing portable desktop
54%

Accessing e-mail
51%

Managing passwords
47%

Accessing Web accounts
43%

Source: Hall & Partners, February 2005

"Making content more portable, like the BMW film ads; USB flash drives made it easy to transport content," says Joe Unsworth of Gartner Group.

Unsworth explains the price point is the driving factor in the sale of this medium, with a $50 purchase price being the sweet spot for most buyers. A few are willing to spend a few dollars more to up the capacity of the drive they are purchasing.

"They want that extra storage for a few more dollars. That is where it is compelling, and has made the market elastic," comments Unsworth.

Another element to the pass-along rate of USB flash drives is when they're given out at conferences and events loaded with presentations and other data. The affordable size for this brand of promotion is typically up to 64 megabytes.

"You are going to see video talk tracks and music talk tracks," explains Unsworth. "There is talk about giving away music player USB drive devices with little cost to the marketer."
http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/...le.php/3501446

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

People Telecom Gets Piracy Warning
Renai LeMay

Anti-piracy agencies are targeting a select number of Internet service providers with e-mails warning of illegal movie and software downloads by their users.

MediaSentry and the Business Software Alliance, which act for sections of the recording and software industries in stopping online piracy, respectively, have requested ISPs to clamp down on illegal file- sharing activity. If no action is taken, legal action would be taken.

Australia's People Telecom is one such ISP which has received numerous warnings. However, Telstra's BigPond, the country's largest ISP, has received none.

"We get hundreds of them, all the time. Every ISP does," said People Telecom CEO Ryan O'Hare, adding that the company has been receiving such e-mails since it launched 18 months ago.

A BigPond spokesperson said the company "did not believe it had received any such e-mail". At press time, other large Internet service providers including Optus, iiNet, Internode, Netspace and Westnet did not comment on whether they too had been targeted.

Upon receiving notices from anti-piracy organisations, People Telecom would merely forward the e-mails to customers in question and request for an end to such activities. The company's action is in line with its standard service agreement, which states that customers may not use its network to infringe intellectual property rights.

In two e-mails obtained by ZDNet Australia , the ISP said: "Please be advised that we have received a copyright infringement notice against an IP address identified as belonging to your account.

"We request that you check your PC for a virus and/or cease immediately from downloading copyright material. Should you fail to comply with this request within 48 hours, further action may be taken against you."

O'Hare said it was his belief that some ISPs didn't react to the e-mails, "because they say it's not their responsibility", but some -- such as his own company -- do.

"We always have, and it's part of the Copyright Act," he said. "We're trying to do the right thing."

People Telecom is currently involved in a court case resulted from a raid on the premises of its subsidiary Swiftel this March. The Music Industry Piracy Investigations has alleged that Swiftel hosted and maintained two servers providing access to copyrighted material via the BitTorrent application, which is enjoying rising popularity in peer-to-peer file-sharing circles.

O'Hare would not confirm whether his company was currently monitoring its users' traffic for copyright infringements due to the restrictions of the Swiftel court proceedings.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communi...9190667,00.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Austrian ISP Has To Divulge User Data After All

A performing rights society has won a suit filed with the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Vienna to have the identity of a file-sharing user revealed. The court thus upheld the original judge's ruling. The Council Chamber of the first-instance district criminal court of Vienna had overruled this ruling on December 01, 2004. The provider has been ordered to reveal the name and address of a customer charged with offering 3,864 music files as downloads for 21 minutes on October 07, 2004. The plaintiff, a performing rights society, only knows the person's dynamic IP address.

The first-instance district criminal court has rejected the plaintiff's demand to have the data revealed, arguing that a dynamic IP address is not master data (unlike names, addresses, etc.). Hence, the court argued, the identity of the accused could only be determined by tracing the call data, which is admissible according to Section 149a of the Austrian Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) only if crimes with penalties exceeding one year in prison were committed intentionally. However, the plaintiff argued that Section 91 paragraph 1 of the Copyright Act has been violated, which has a maximum sentence of six months in prison.

The Appeals Court thus had to rule that an IP address was equivalent to a telephone number, thus making both master data. "Master data are not subject to privacy of telecommunications, but rather only to data protection. Information about master data provided to criminal courts - i.e., the regular revelation of a user's identity based on a telephone number (which corresponds to an IP address) - can be provided if the suspect is to be investigated and prosecuted for a specific crime; here, the restrictions in Section 149a ff stop do not apply", the court explained when handing down its ruling. The Appeals Court based its ruling on "Section 18 paragraph 4 of the ECG, which stipulates that service providers have to divulge a user's name and address if a third party has a material legal interest in determining the user's identity to provide evidence of an illegal action." In addition, the Court explained that "providers cannot be allowed to decide at their discretion whether to issue static or dynamic IP addresses in order to avoid their duty to disclose information.” (Daniel AJ Sokolov) / (Craig Morris) / (jk/c't)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/59083

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apple Gets Tech Support In Court
Dawn Kawamoto

The potential conflict between trade secrets and First Amendment rights intensified earlier this week as Intel, Genentech and the Business Software Alliance filed court briefs in support of Apple Computer.

Apple wants to subpoena e-mail records from a Web site that leaked confidential product information.

The briefs, filed this week in a California appeals court, support a tentative ruling by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg. Kleinberg ruled that Apple could subpoena e-mail records of Macintosh enthusiast site PowerPage, which leaked confidential information about a music hardware device code named Asteroid, one of Apple's upcoming products.

Following the judge's decision, however, the digital-rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the appeals court to overturn Kleinberg's ruling, saying it would infringe on PowerPage's First Amendment rights. EFF represents three online journalists whose records are being sought by Apple in the case.

Intel, Genentech and the software alliance contend that innovation would be hampered if it were legal to obtain trade secrets and post them on a Web site.

"Strong trade secret laws are vital to the health of California's high-technology business and to the economy of the nation as a whole," Intel and BSA stated in their joint brief. "There is no public interest in having such trade secrets stolen and plastered on the Internet for competitors and others to see."

The chip giant and BSA asked the appeals court to differentiate between First Amendment protections and cases where reporters "have been conduits of stolen information and their files contain direct evidence of that illegal conduct."

Genentech, a biotech giant, asked the court to consider the effect of allowing a company's intellectual property to be published without its permission.

"In this day and age, when a trade secret--indeed, any kind of secret--is never more than a few keystrokes away from global publication, companies that prosper on the strength of their intellectual property must have the ability to take reasonable steps to learn the identities of those who steal that property," Genentech stated in court documents.

In the last five months, Apple has subpoenaed the records of PowerPage and AppleInsider to uncover the identities of three "John Does" who it says leaked the confidential information to the sites. While Apple is not directly suing the two sites, it is focusing its suit against the individuals who leaked the information. In a separate case, Apple is suing the publisher of Web site ThinkSecret for its role in disclosing Apple's trade secrets.

Apple declined to comment on the Intel, Genentech and BSA briefs, and instead referred to its original statement when it filed its John Doe case with the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

"Apple has filed a civil complaint against unnamed individuals who we believe stole our trade secrets and posted detailed information about an unannounced Apple product on the Internet. Apple's DNA is innovation, and the protection of our trade secrets is crucial to our success," the company said.

Meanwhile, in a third, unrelated case, Apple sued three men who leaked developer copies of its new Tiger operating system onto file-sharing sites. Apple has settled with two of the three men.
http://news.com.com/Apple+gets+tech+...3-5689203.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apple Sued Over "Tiger," Injunction Sought
AppleInsider Staff

Apple Computer has been slapped with a lawsuit by Tiger Direct Inc. for allegedly infringing its trademark with the new Mac OS X "Tiger'' operating system scheduled for release on Friday.

Tiger Direct, which sells computers and related products on the Internet, said Apple's Tiger OS threatens to dilute its trademarked name, according to Bloomberg, which has obtained a copy of the lawsuit.

The online retailer also accused Apple of deceptive and unfair trade practices in the lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Miami, Florida, Bloomberg said.

"Apple Computer has created and launched a nationwide media blitz led by Steven Jobs, overwhelming the computer world with a sea of Tiger references," Tiger Direct's attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.

If the court grants Tiger Direct's request for an injunction, Apple's rollout of Tiger could be stopped.

Tiger Direct, which is based in Miami, Florida, has used its family of Tiger trademarks to sell computers and computer related products since 1987, the lawsuit said. The company owns trademarks on the names Tiger, TigerDirect and TigerSoftware.

The retailer said Apple's use of the name "is causing confusion, mistake and deception among the general purchasing public."

At the root of the issue appears to internet search results. Tiger Direct contends that Apple's use of the name has adversely affected its ranking amongst the Internet's largest search engines, Google and Yahoo, bumping the company from its usual spot in the first three results.

Tiger Direct has asked the federal court to block Apple from using the name, according to Bloomberg.

The online retailer is also seeking damages and legal fees.

Update: Tiger Direct claims a preliminary injunction hearing is slated for Tuesday, May 3, several days after Tiger is scheduled to go onsale.
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1039

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apple Releases Huge Security Update to OS X 10.3.9

Apple released a major security update earlier today for Max OS X 10.3.9, both client and server editions. The patch addresses 20 vulnerabilities in the OS, including Apache, AppleScript, Bluetooth, Finder, Terminal and VPN.

Security Update 2005-005 is a fix for all of the vulnerabilities and can be downloaded through Software Update or from http:// www.apple.com/support/downloads.
http://www.geekcoffee.net/archives/2...eleases_3.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Review

Mac Os X Steps Ahead of Windows
Matthew Fordahl

Tired of waiting while your PC slowly scours its hard drive for a document you stashed somewhere six months ago? Sick of having to change how you work to conform with the computer's rigid way of organizing files? Bored with the flat look of the desktop's graphics?

Microsoft's next-generation operating system for Windows, code-named Longhorn, is supposed to address such digital woes. It may even be released in time for Christmas 2006.

But if you've got a Macintosh computer, or plan to buy one, those issues have been tackled. They're amply addressed in the latest update of Mac OS X, dubbed "Tiger," goes on sale Friday.

Despite a much smaller user base, Mac OS X has been steps ahead of Windows on key fronts since its first release in 2001. It's got more advanced and polished graphics. It's less prone to malicious attacks. And Macs look better than nearly all Windows PCs.

Until recently, Apple has been dogged by a reputation for high prices. Its computers now start at $499, and the number of programs that run on them has grown dramatically. Tiger provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows.

I've been trying out Tiger on a borrowed an iMac G5 and my own dual-processor Power Mac G4. New Mac users will get it with their systems; existing customers must pay $129 for the upgrade. (The update was simple, taking about an hour.)

Topping the list of 200 or so improvements in Tiger is a built-in search tool that goes a long way toward relieving one of the biggest headaches that's plagued computers.

That is, as hard drive capacity grows and our digital universe broadens to include text, music, video, e-mail, pictures and everything else, information gets lost in the shuffle of folders scattered across gigabytes of hard drive real estate.

Operating systems have been designed to pigeonhole that data into a hierarchy of folders. But what if a document, song or picture fits into five or six different categories, each with its own folder? If you choose one, how will you remember it a year from now?

Tiger addresses both problems with a search technology, called Spotlight, that also enables a new way of organization, called Smart Folders.

Accessed by clicking small magnifying glass icon, search results fill in as you type keywords. Spotlight doesn't just search filenames. It also looks inside files - into a document's text, a picture's caption or tags linked to a music file, for instance.

Spotlight's speed, even on my older Power Mac, is impressive. Results were on target, too.

Like the desktop search tools available on Windows PCs from Yahoo, Google and MSN, Spotlight relies on an index that's created when it's first installed. Instead of having to scour an entire drive in search of something, it just looks it up in the database.

Indexing with Windows add-ons is a more computer-intensive process. Most are smart enough to do their work only when you're not working on something, but that means new information isn't always available. I have also found their range of files to be limited.

After the initial index is built in Tiger, changes are made to it whenever a file is changed - whether it's saved, deleted, moved or modified in another way. I noticed no performance hit and, despite my repeated attempts to trick it, Spotlight never missed a file change.

I actually found myself using Spotlight to launch programs.

And there's more. Searches can be saved and the results turned into folders that run a query each time they're opened, fine-tuned to display only certain types of files. Time variables can also be set.

There is room for some improvement, however.

Spotlight only searches for files on the local computer, not networked hard drives or remote shared folders. Network file searching is something that's expected in Longhorn, and Apple hasn't ruled it out as a future feature.

Tiger - like previous versions of Mac OS X - also sets the bar high in the graphics display area.

In its "Dashboard," small programs called "Widgets" overlay the screen at the punch of a button. They such display information as the weather, stock prices, flight information and calendar info. More can be added, and they pop open with a rippling flourish.

But Tiger is about a lot more than look and feel. It's also about looking at more people than ever on your video screen live.

With Apple's iSight camera ($149) and Tiger's new built-in iChat AV program, you can set up and participate in video conferences with 10 people. It's visually stunning, with each person showing up in a panel, their animated faces reflecting against a black background.

Of course, it's impossible to judge how Tiger will compare with the next-generation of Windows since Longhorn isn't available.

As more details come out, additional complaints of Microsoft copying Mac OS X will surely be heard.

Both Apple and Microsoft are trying to address the same problems: sifting more quickly through more and more data. The onus is now on Bill Gates & Co. to see if it can one-up Steve Jobs' shop.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Shift on Intellectual Property, Microsoft Will Team With Outsiders
Steve Lohr

Microsoft announced today that it would begin to license its home-grown ideas to venture capital firms and entrepreneurs. The move, the company said, is an effort both to open up its technology to outsiders and to exploit its storehouse of intellectual property.

The new program, called Microsoft Intellectual Property Ventures, is intended to foster more amicable relations between the big software company and start-up companies that have often regarded Microsoft as a threat.

The program, company executives say, will also provide a path into the marketplace for technology developed by Microsoft researchers that does not necessarily make it into the company's products. The licensing deals, which could include Microsoft's taking equity stakes in startups, will yield added revenue and investment income, though the amounts will be modest at first.

The new initiative points to a shift in Microsoft's intellectual property strategy away from a trade secrets mentality, in which inventions are hoarded under a licensing policy. Microsoft is following the well-traveled course of more mature technology companies, led by I.B.M., which has long licensed its innovations and earns more than $1 billion a year in royalties. Two years ago, Microsoft hired a former I.B.M. executive, Marshall Phelps, as deputy general counsel overseeing intellectual property licensing.

The traditional licensing policies of big companies have mostly focused on cross-licensing deals with other big companies. Yet in the last year or so, several major technology companies have tried ways to sell or share their technology with smaller companies and entrepreneurs by offering more flexible terms or making some patents free, as I.B.M. and Sun Microsystems have done.

Microsoft has been working for more than six months to develop its program with a handful of venture capital firms. Venture capitalists who have been told of the Microsoft effort said the technology on offer was grouped in 20 categories, including artificial intelligence, security, graphics, gaming and databases.

Lucinda Stewart, a general partner at OVP Venture Partners in Seattle, said startups could benefit from using off-the-shelf technology from Microsoft as building blocks for their own new products or services. "This program could accelerate the speed to market for some of the opportunities we're working on," Ms. Stewart said.

Besides building on the Microsoft technology, startups may also want to strike licensing deals to make sure their products or services work well with Microsoft products. "We want to make sure the things our companies are doing fit into the Microsoft ecosystem, and in the past that has sometimes been challenging," said Sam Jadallah, a general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures in Silicon Valley.

One of the startups Mohr Davidow is financing is Scalix, which makes e-mail server software that runs on the Linux operating system, a competitor of the Windows server operating system. Scalix is also a direct rival to Microsoft's Exchange e-mail server software, lends support to Linux, yet must work well with Microsoft's desktop Outlook e-mail program.

Will Microsoft's more open licensing policy extend to potential competitors like Scalix? "I'm sure those kinds of conversations will take place," said Mr. Jadallah, a former Microsoft executive. "As in all things, you want to see how the execution of this program works."

For Microsoft's labs, which now employ more than 700 researchers worldwide, the new licensing program is a way to have their innovations used more broadly than in the company's products, Rick Rashid, senior vice president for Microsoft's research division, said.

Mr. Rashid cited a deal signed last month with a startup, Inrix, as a forerunner of the new program. Inrix licensed some predictive, real-time technology developed in Microsoft's labs for its business of modeling traffic patterns on highways and streets. "We don't do traffic-flow analysis," Mr. Rashid explained. "Computer science now has a lot to offer in a broad set of fields."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/te...4cnd-soft.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Microsoft Loses A Round In Eolas Patent Case

Microsoft Corp. lost a U.S. appeals court bid to limit the damages software makers can be ordered to pay in some patent-infringement cases, on its way to a new trial in a dispute over a method of surfing the Internet.

A jury had told Microsoft to pay Eolas Technologies Inc. $521 million for infringement. Yesterday, an appeals court let stand its earlier decision that upheld the infringement finding and ruled that Microsoft can be forced to pay damages based on overseas sales of software. Microsoft still gets a new trial to argue that the patent is invalid.

The case involves a 2003 award to closely held Eolas by a jury that decided Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser infringed an Eolas patent on technology for reading information stored on the Internet.

Intel Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s America Online supported Microsoft's argument that damages in such patent-infringement cases shouldn't include global sales when disks containing software code have been sent overseas.

Microsoft said in court papers that more than 64 percent of the $521 million award was based on computers "made, sold and used entirely in foreign countries."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled March 2 that Microsoft's software on computers sold overseas was covered by a U.S. patent because it had been copied from a master program developed in the United States.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...3_eolas04.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IBM to Cut Up to 13,000 Jobs, Take Charge
AP

International Business Machines Corp. said Wednesday it would cut between 10,000 and 13,000 jobs and record a pre-tax charge of between $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion in the second quarter.

IBM surprised investors last month when it missed first-quarter earnings estimates by 5 cents a share. When it reported earnings, the chief financial officer Mark Loughridge said the company would take a "sizable restructuring."

The majority of the cuts are planned for Europe. The company began cutting jobs at its European operations even before it announced its first-quarter earnings. The cuts are in line with analysts' estimates.

The company plans to realign its operations and organizational structure in Europe to reduce bureaucracy in lower-growth countries.

IBM stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange at $77.07 a share, up 60 cents, late Monday.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...M&SECTION=HOME

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hard times for hard drive maker

Maxtor Swings to Loss for First Quarter
AP

Maxtor Corp., a maker of hard disk drives, said Wednesday it swung to a loss in the first quarter as it absorbed a big severance charge.

The company lost $24.2 million, or 10 cents per share, in the three months ended April 2 compared with a profit of $8.9 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago. The results for the latest quarter reflected a $4.9 million charge related to the termination of the Company's 2.5-inch drive program and $13.9 million in severance-related charges associated with the reduction in force in the U.S. and in Singapore.

Revenue rose slightly to $1.07 billion from $1.02 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to post a loss of 8 cents per share on revenue of $989.3 million.

Maxtor said drive shipments in the quarter totaled 14.2 million, with desktop drives representing 13.4 million of the total, including 1,029,000 shipped to consumer electronics original equipment makers.

Maxtor said that following a review of its accounting for leases acquired in its 2001 acquisition of Quantum Corp.'s hard disk drive business, the company has determined that net income for prior periods was overstated by $6.7 million. The company said that it will file an amended financial statement for 2004 that will include the adjustments for the earlier periods.

Maxtor shares rose 26 cents, or 5.5 percent, to close at $4.97 on the New York Stock Exchange. It reported its earnings after the close and its shares were down a penny a share in extended trading.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Russia's Federal Security Bureau Asks For More Authority To Control Internet
RIA Novosti

Russian security authorities should be given broader powers to control telecommunications and the Internet, argues Dmitri Frolov, of the Federal Security Service's Information Security Center.

Frolov spoke Thursday in the Federation Council, or Russia's upper house of parliament, at a panel discussion devoted to telecommunications and Internet regulations.

The Federal Security Service proposes setting new rules for Internet providers so that it could prevent the spread of extremist ideas, track down illegal online operations, and get access to databases with mobile telephone subscribers' details, such as e-mail addresses, Frolov said. There should be compulsory registration of mobile phone users with Internet connectivity.

The lack of clear-cut regulations on Internet operations may bring some sensitive information or misinformation into the public domain, as well as lead to copyright violations, argued Frolov. He believes that Russia needs enabling legislation to put this sector in order.

The Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications is opposed to the idea of adopting a separate law on Internet operations. Speaking at today's panel discussion in the Federation Council, Deputy Minister Boris Antonyuk said the use of the Internet could be regulated by more general laws already in effect, including those dealing with advertising, the protection of consumer rights, and administrative offenses.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050428/39757635.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bahrain's Decision To Register Web Sites Criticized
AP

All Web sites operating in Bahrain must register with the country's Information Ministry under a new government mandate that has provoked protests
from an international watchdog for press freedom.

The move comes two months after the government detained three Bahrainis who were linked to an Internet forum that it viewed as hostile.

Web sites have six months starting this Monday to register. They must give the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the operators, said Jamal Dawood, the ministry's director of publications. Web sites will then get an ID number they must post.

The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders criticized the move, saying it will intimidate Web publishers, including operators of personal Web journals such as blogs, and pressure sites to cut back on message boards and other interactive features for fear they will be held responsible for what visitors post.

``This does not happen in any democratic country and is a threat to press freedom,'' the Paris-based organization said in a statement.

Dawood, who helped draft the regulation, denied the requirement was a restriction of press freedom or freedom of expression.

He said nobody will be refused registration on grounds of their site's content.

The government had not yet decided what would happen to those who fail to register, Dawood said.

The three Bahrainis detained in February were released last month, but their passports have been confiscated. They may yet be prosecuted for running a site accused of criticizing the royal family, inciting hatred against the government and spreading false information that could destabilize the nation.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/11512867.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Law Firm Suing To Take News Of Woes Off Web Site
Michael Beebe

Cellino & Barnes has gone to court to stop a Rochester law firm from mentioning its potential disciplinary problems on the Rochester firm's Web site.

Ross M. Cellino and Stephen E. Barnes claim that Moran & Kufta PC and its principal attorney, James J. Moran, violated New York State's civil rights law.

It had no right, the suit claims, to mention a March 11 Buffalo News story about the investigation of Cellino & Barnes on the Moran Web site and to link to The News story over the Internet.

Attorney Richard T. Sullivan, who filed the lawsuit, said Moran & Kufta never obtained permission from Cellino and Barnes to use "their names for advertising or trade purposes."

The suit, filed April 18 in State Supreme Court, demands a permanent injunction against the Moran firm from using the names of Cellino and Barnes on its Web site, and any other relief the court deems proper.

Moran referred questions to attorney Phillip G. Spellane, of the Rochester firm Harris Beach, who said only: "We disagree with the claim alleged and intend to defend it vigorously."

Sullivan, who is also representing Cellino & Barnes before the grievance committee with attorney Joel L. Daniels, could not be reached to comment.

A lawyer specializing in Internet law says Cellino & Barnes will have a difficult time winning its suit.

"It seems like a bizarre complaint," said Internet law professor Wendy Seltzer, a lawyer with the Electronic Freedom Forum and a founding fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

"It seems like something the First Amendment would not permit to go forward because commercial speech is protected by the First Amendment," she said.

She also said New York's Civil Rights statute more likely applies to an advertisement that falsely claims an endorsement or testimonial, not just the mention of a competitor's name.

Section 50 of the statute, referred to in the suit, reads in full: "Right of privacy. A person, firm or corporation that uses for advertising purposes, or for the purposes of trade, the name, portrait or picture of any living person without having first obtained the written consent of such person, or if a minor of his or her parent or guardian, is guilty of a misdemeanor."

Moran & Kufta's linking The News article on its Web site, Seltzer said, would be no different than the law firm putting a copy of the story in a newsletter or posting it in its lobby.

She said she suspects "the complaining party is perturbed that more people have become aware of the article because it's linked to on the Internet and think this might be a good way to quiet it down."

The lawsuit has already had a temporary effect. Moran & Kufta's Web site, moranandkufta.com, has not been available since the suit was filed.

In his complaint, Sullivan said Moran & Kufta posted the link to the March 11 article under the Web site's Hot Topics section. The Web site designer, Electronic Portfolio, described it as "a place for current hot topics, which keeps the site up to date . . . "

It carried a headline, "Cellino & Barnes Investigated." By clicking on an Internet link, the reader would be directed to The News Web site for the full story.

Before linking to The News story, the Web site copy also stated: "Cellino & Barnes facing the grievance committee because of multiple client complaints."

The News story referred to an expected decision by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court on complaints made about Cellino & Barnes to the grievance committee that investigates lawyers.

The story said the specific complaints were not known, but said the range of possible outcomes from the Appellate Division ranged from disbarment, suspension, censure, or letters of admonition to no cause of action.

No decision on Cellino & Barnes has come down from the court in the past two months. The next round of decisions from the Appellate Division is expected in June.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...03/1065516.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tunisia Jails Lawyer For Internet Writings

A Tunisian court jailed lawyer and human rights activist Mohamed Abbou for three-and- half years for charges stemming from articles he published on the Internet, lawyers said on Friday.

He went on trial on Thursday on charges of "his incitement of the population to infringe the laws", "spreading false information " to disturb public order and "violence" against a female lawyer.

Abbou, 39, has been detained since his arrest on March 1.

More than 300 lawyers lined up for his defence, arguing that the government was using the judiciary to punish dissidents for their opinion. The verdict came in early on Friday.

"The sentences were two years for violence and one-and-half year for the Internet articles, so he will be jailed for three-and-half years," lawyer Radhia Nasraoui told Reuters.

Lawyers argued the government has no case in trying Abbou for "violence" against one of his female colleagues, saying the case dated back to 2002.

"The authorities came up with this violence case just to disguise their hidden motives to punish Abbou for publishing his views," said Ayachi Hammami, also a lawyer and rights activist.

Some lawyers said the trial made a mockery of the North African country's selection to host the U.N.- backed World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November.

The Tunisian government has been accused by human and press freedom groups of not being suitable to host of WSIS because of its record on press freedom and tolerance of dissidents.

Tunis dismissed such accusations, insisting it had won the right to host the summit in recognition for its social and economic development efforts, including Internet use expansion.

"It would be a shame and scandal for Tunisia to host the WSIS summit. It is a country that jails people for writing articles on the Internet," said Nasraoui, who is also leading rights activist.

Abbou wrote an article on the Internet recently arguing that conditions in Tunisia's jails were worse than Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison where abuse of prisoners by U.S. troops caused a global outcry.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch and three Tunisian human rights groups said last week the government had subjected political prisoners to years of torture, rape and solitary confinement. Tunisia denies the existence of such prisoners.

Abbou also published an article criticising the authorities for inviting Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to attend the summit.

Sharon is unpopular in Muslim countries for his policy against Palestinians and his role as a defence minister for the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

Lawyers said they will lodge appeal in the next few days but many of them said Abbou will leave jail any time soon only if President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali were to pardon him as he did with some prisoners in the previous years.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050429/80/fhnwl.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ofcom May Have To Police Internet Content

Watchdog is uneasy at plans that may hinder UK firms
Owen Gibson

Media regulators across Europe could be forced to police internet content for taste and decency in the same way as television programmes, according to proposals under consideration in Brussels.

The plans have led to fears at the British media watchdog Ofcom that this may stifle innovation in the nascent broadband content industry and prove impossible to enforce.

This year the UK regulator will review the likely impact of broadband and other new services such as 3G over the next decade and consult the public and the industry over whether content delivered over them can and should be regulated.

The issue has come to a head as Brussels debates changes to a revamped Television Without Frontiers directive, which sets the agenda for European media regulation. New draft proposals are due to be issued later this year. The thinking in Brussels is that it will contain plans for Europe-wide regulation of television-style broadcasts over the internet.

But content providers, internet service providers and Ofcom are worried that as myriad new services delivering television over the internet become commonplace, they will prove impossible to regulate in the traditional manner.

And with overseas content providers able to broadcast internationally over the internet, there are also concerns that it would put British companies at a competitive disadvantage.

The proposals, if implemented, would run counter to Ofcom's determination to reduce its regulatory burden and switch to a "light touch".

Robin Foster, Ofcom's senior partner in charge of strategy, said: "[Television Without Frontiers] seems to be geared to extending traditional broadcasting regulation into new media and the internet.

"The slight worry is that it takes a very regulatory approach to new media, which may have a number of bene fits, but it may not be positive and may stop new ideas developing in a broadband world. We shouldn't just assume that we should regulate."

Instead, Ofcom is believed to favour a mix of existing laws, such as those on obscenity and copyright, and advocating greater media literacy so consumers can block unwelcome content themselves. One idea floated last year would be to rate content on all websites.

The industry, from internet service providers to websites, is also sceptical over whether the medium can be regulated in any meaningful way.

A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers' Association, a trade body, said: "There's been laws passed against spam. But in a situation where spam is coming from around the world and there are different laws in place in Europe and the US, what do you do?"

Already an increasing number of broadband subscribers watch television programmes over the web as prices come down and connection speeds increase. Later this year telecom companies including BT and France Telecom's Wanadoo plan to launch video-on-demand services to be delivered over broadband lines via a set-top box to the television.

Mr Foster has also been asked by the chief executive, Stephen Carter, to lead a wide-ranging review of Ofcom's regulatory role in the digital age before he leaves the post later this year. And as part of the implementation of its recommendations in its public-service broadcasting review, it will ask media groups this summer to mock up options for its mooted £350m public-service publisher.

Designed to provide the BBC with competition in a multi channel age, the trial services will form the centrepiece of a public consultation.

Other pressing issues for the regulator include a review of the options for local television. Mr Foster said Ofcom would consult over whether to advocate a commercial "city TV" model or one based on not-for-profit community services.

He said he hoped to have a framework in place for the network of new channels by the time the government begins to switch off the analogue signal in 2008, so they could broadcast immediately using the spectrum released.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/new...476127,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Illinois Games-Restriction Bill Advances
Tim Surette

The Safe Games Illinois Act is a step closer to becoming law in the Prairie State.

House Bill 4023 was approved 6 to 2 in the state's Senate Housing and Community Affairs Committee on Tuesday, and now moves on to the state Senate. Since its proposal earlier this year, the bill has been readily approved through the legal process.

The bill would allow the state to slap its own ratings on games, ignoring those set by the self-regulatory Entertainment Software Ratings Board, or ESRB. The bill concentrates on keeping violent games out of youngsters' hands, and severely fines retailers who fail to do so.

According to state legislators, games that feature "dismemberment, decapitation, disfigurement, maiming, mutilation of body parts or rape" would be slapped with an "18" sticker similar to the parental advisory warning on compact discs. The sale of such games to minors would warrant legal action of a $1,001 fine and a red mark on the seller's permanent record. The current ESRB ratings system isn't legally binding.

The full spectrum of the bill's effects has not been set in stone. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, has not yet clarified the scope of the rating system or the financial penalties the legislation would incur. The bill's sponsor, Democrat Deanna Demuzio, has said that she will not bring the proposal to a Senate vote until questions of the fines and labeling are made clearer.

Legislatures in at least six states are considering new proposals that would make it a crime to sell mature games to children.

Courts have overturned laws in the state of Washington; St. Louis County, Mo.; and Indianapolis that made it illegal to sell violent games to minors, in each case ruling that games are constitutionally protected speech, and age restrictions thus must be limited to the type of discretionary systems used for movies, books and other media.
http://news.com.com/Illinois+games-r...3-5695620.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tech Repair Official Kid Porn Watchdog?
Natalie Pona

The province is eyeing a law that would force computer repair shops to call police when they find kiddie porn on a client's computer, The Sun has learned.

Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh formed a committee in 2001 to examine ways to protect Manitoba children from being exploited on the Internet.

Now members are planning to suggest to Mackintosh that Manitoba legislate mandatory reporting of child pornography, including for employees of computer repair shops.

"He wouldn't have asked a committee to bring forward these recommendations if he wasn't seriously considering this," said a spokesman for Mackintosh.

Lianna McDonald, executive director of Child Find Manitoba, is a member of the committee. She said child pornography should legally be considered in the same vein as child abuse.

"If you look at child abuse, mandatory reporting is the law in this province. We want to see whether that could be applicable to child pornography," she said.

McDonald said they plan to bring the issue to Mackintosh in the next couple months.

Though mandatory reporting is not yet law, many offenders have been turned in to police after bringing their computers in to be fixed.

Yesterday, The Sun reported 21-year-old Matthew Jonathon Dudeck, of East St. Paul, was given a 14-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

Dudeck brought his home computer to a repair shop to be fixed on Oct. 23, 2003.

While the system was being re-installed, an employee noticed a file with the title "Fu----- pre-teen, both children under 10," flash across the screen, Crown attorney Mick Makar told court.

The employee called police and Dudeck was arrested.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Winnip...24701-sun.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dutch Plans For iPod Tax Could Kill MP3 Industry
Faultline

A Netherlands proposed tax on MP3 players could devastate sales of hard disk players, and set up international waves over copyright legislation.

The tax is being proposed by the Stichting Thuiskopie foundation, and is set to become law in the Netherlands in a few short months unless the European Commission finds a reason to intervene. It is unlikely that will happen, as it has failed to come up with a policy for levy taxation so far.

The idea of all levy based legislation is that some form of copyright collections agency collects tax by imposing a surcharge at the point of sale for any storage devices that could possibly be used to store pirated works. This certainly extends to the iPod which has up to 60 GB of storage, and which can store MP3 files.

Because of the fact that the great bulk of iPods are used to store legitimate iTunes files which are Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected, this means that copyright is being purchased twice over for these devices if a levy is also paid.

The charge will be levied against every MP3 player, and is effectively a tax on the MP3 format. Some efforts to place MP3 files under DRM protection will also mean that these will pay copyright twice over.

Levies are an outmoded and unfair way of rewarding existing monopolies and are only ever put in place to keep ancient publishing copyright agencies in business.

In almost every case the organization itself that carries out the collection is lavish and well funded, the proceeds are distributed only to large multinational music publishers, bolstering their revenues unfairly. It is little more than a club of companies that "have a right" to make money.

If this legislation comes into play, the surcharge will be as much as €3.28 ($4.3) per gigabyte. This might put €180 ($235) to the price of a top end iPod.

Already in Germany there is a levy on PC hard drives, that will soon become larger than the entire PC industry revenue if it is left in place. Within two years, as disk drive sizes move to terabyte class on notebooks, and petabyte levels on home DVRs, the tax will come to far outweigh not just the cost of the drive, but the cost of the device. Under this Netherlands law, if it were extended to the PC, the cost of 1,000 GB would be €3,280 ($4,300) and yet drives of this size will be delivered by 2007.

The only way to bypass this law in the Netherlands might be to tweak iPods and other players to only accept alternative formats that are always protected by DRM, but that would mean that only iPod (with AAC) and Sony devices (with ATRAC) could have any sales and we're not sure that would satisfy the new law as we don't yet know how it is going to be worded.

Or the Dutch could just become a nation without iPods. I wonder how happy that would make them?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04...ands_ipod_tax/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diamonds Create Unhackable Code
Kate Lahey

DIAMONDS have long been a girl's best friend, but they could also become the sworn enemy of spies and hackers.

Researchers at Melbourne University are growing diamond particles on optical fibres to transmit information they say will be impossible to hack.

The diamonds, just 1/ 1000 of a millimetre in size, send information through a single photon of light instead of the billions of photons found in an ordinary light beam.

Research fellow James Rabeau compares the technology to flicking a torch to send a message to a friend across a room.

Light from the torch can be seen by others in the room, because there are billions of photons, and the message can be de-coded.

But if the light was a single photon beam, others in the room could not see it, and the two friends would also know instantly if it had been intercepted.

"If it's intercepted, no useable information is gleaned," Dr Rabeau said.

At the moment, when information is sent electronically, such as credit card details, it is encrypted and then decoded at the other end, but the information can be stolen along the way.

"They're stealing a coded message and then if they have very powerful computers they can start to try to crack the code," he said.

"Computers are getting faster and faster so codes have to get better.

"But our technique exploits quantum mechanics. This allows you to communicate in total secrecy, with unhackable codes."

The quantum cryptography project has been given $3.3 million by the Victorian Government to allow researchers to develop a prototype and make it commercially available.

Dr Rabeau said two companies were already selling a similar system for about $80,000, that simply "turned down" the light.

"They don't reliably produce single particles of light," he said.

"It's pretty secure, but it's still not absolutely secure."

The diamond particles are produced in a 1500 watt microwave reactor, using gases containing carbon to grow tiny crystals of diamond over the tip of the optic fibre, which itself is only the size of a hair.

Dr Rabeau said the technology did have limitations and slowed down the speed at which a message was sent, at this stage to about 120km/h.

Nevertheless, demand was expected to be high, he said.

"There are huge military and national security implications if we can do this," Dr Rabeau said.

"I think there's a lot of potential for spin-off technologies, this is a very unique device."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...-29277,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Payday for Patents 'R' Us
Ian Austen and Lisa Guernsey

The express elevator that whisks visitors to Donald E. Stout's office on the top floor of a black glass building across the Potomac from Washington suggests success. But nothing up there indicates that Mr. Stout is a major player in the software business. There are no cubicles for software engineers or humming server farms capturing their keystrokes.

There are, however, plenty of lawyers. Mr. Stout, who has practiced patent law for 33 years, is a founder of NTP, whose only assets are a series of wireless e-mail patents granted to Thomas J. Campana Jr., the other founder, and whose only business is extracting licensing fees from companies.

Started 13 years ago, NTP has used the staff at Mr. Stout's law firm to exploit those patents. In March, their persistence paid off. Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices, agreed to pay NTP $450 million to settle a long-running and sometimes bitter patent dispute between the companies.

Mr. Campana, a Chicago-area resident, died of cancer last year. Mr. Stout said the settlement was a vindication of individuals over large corporations. And the settlement has emboldened NTP, which is pursuing additional licenses. Other companies, including Nokia, a rival of Research In Motion, have already signed licensing agreements with NTP.

"Most people would like to see that a small inventor can succeed in this country," Mr. Stout said. "This is proof that it can happen."

But others find the growth of patent holding companies troublesome rather than heartwarming. Critics of the patent system maintain that these companies - called "patent trolls" by their detractors - rely on excessively broad patents, particularly for software, that should never have been granted in the first place.

And the costs of litigation and licensing fees to settle patent disputes have become facts of life for technology companies. In March, an appeals court upheld a $29.5 million penalty against eBay in a patent infringement suit brought by MercExchange, a failed online travel service that holds patents related to eBay's "Buy Now" feature. (The case remains in litigation, in part because of a preliminary Patent Office ruling against MercExchange in April.)

In 2003, Eolas Technologies, a Web browser patent-licensing spinoff of the University of California, was awarded $565 million in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft. In March, an appeals court ordered a retrial.

Other than legal respite, these companies get very little for their settlement money. For example, Research In Motion's BlackBerry e-mail software is far more sophisticated than anything outlined in Mr. Campana's patents, and there has never been any suggestion that R.I.M. relied on those patents while developing its own software.

Josh Lerner, a Harvard Business School professor and an author of "Innovation and Its Discontents," argues that the potential costs of patent litigation are higher for small technology companies.

"Any start-up company is a long shot," he said. "But now, even if you are successful in the market, there's a high probability that someone will show up with a patent. Many of these patent holding companies have been quite successful even when their patents have been problematic."

There have long been companies organized solely around pressing patent rights. Henry Ford required a prolonged legal battle to successfully fight a holding company that claimed patent rights over all automobiles with internal combustion engines in 1911.

It was not until 1982 that appeals of patent cases were moved to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, producing more consistent rulings. Before that, appeals were handled in circuit courts around the country, depending on the trial court where the case was first heard. Several of those appellate courts, specialists said, had reputations of siding against patent owners seeking to press their claims.

"Before the Federal Circuit, patents weren't worth much," said Thomas L. Creel, a lawyer with the firm of Goodwin Procter in New York. "Patents have now become a piece of property that is very valuable."

Mr. Stout, who is 58, and Mr. Campana first met at Telefind, a company that in 1987 introduced a primitive form of wireless e-mail that could send relatively short messages to pager-like devices. (The devices could only receive messages, not transmit them.) While Mr. Campana has been described as the inventor of the software that Research In Motion will now license, Mr. Stout acknowledged that was not the case. Instead it was developed by two employees of E.S.A., a separate company Mr. Campana owned.

"Tom was basically an overall developer of networks," Mr. Stout said. "The two co-workers at E.S.A. were software guys."

When Telefind went under in 1991, Mr. Stout said he and Mr. Campana decided to start NTP as "a kind of virtual company" to make money from the e-mail patents. Company headquarters were in Mr. Stout's home but NTP did attract 22 investors, most of them former Telefind shareholders who had just seen that investment vanish. (All the investors will receive money from the R.I.M. settlement, once the legal bills are paid.)

Patent holding companies often take an incremental approach. They initially focus their license demands on the smallest companies in a sector on the theory that little companies will not have the time or resources for a fight. The income they generate from those licenses, in turn, is used to build a legal war chest for challenging more established players.

But in 1992, there were not many companies developing wireless e-mail. That began to change in the latter part of the decade, and NTP began sending letters to wireless e-mail providers and software and equipment makers, citing the Campana patents and offering licenses. Often, Mr. Stout acknowledged, the NTP claims had no more support than printouts of the service providers' Web pages.

"There weren't a lot of letters coming back," Mr. Stout said.

At that time Research In Motion, based in Waterloo, Ontario, was a small manufacturer of specialized data wireless cards mostly for industry and the military as it embarked on what would become the BlackBerry. Nevertheless, it chose to challenge NTP rather than license its patents. (Through a spokeswoman, R.I.M. declined to comment about its dealings with NTP.)

Challenging patent licensing companies is not a common strategy except for giant competitors like Microsoft. While there are no reliable statistics, Mr. Creel and others said that most patent enforcement attempts were settled without a trip to court.

"The philosophy in many companies is that litigation is not only expensive, it's disruptive," Mr. Creel said. "Most people are willing to pay rather than fight. It's in effect a tax on doing business."

While Mr. Stout is now careful not to discuss R.I.M.'s motivation in taking on his company, during an interview in January he attributed the action to the personalities of its executives, in particular Michael Lazaridis, R.I.M.'s president and co-chief executive. Mr. Lazaridis, who started the company while still a student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, is widely respected for his engineering skills and holds 30 patents covering wireless technologies and software.

"I've never seen anything like it," Mr. Stout said then. "Most companies don't have this amount of fight in them."

For Research In Motion, financial penalties set in early. In addition to legal expenses, after the litigation with NTP was under way in 2001 R.I.M. was forced to reduce its earnings, regularly setting aside millions of dollars in a fund to cover the cost of any settlement.

Its decision to fight led to a trial court ruling in 2003 that upheld NTP patents and threatened to undercut R.I.M.'s success with BlackBerry. As part of its ruling, the court issued an injunction barring Research In Motion from offering BlackBerry service in the United States. And as the American market was by far the largest, NTP potentially had the power to destroy R.I.M.

Since then, NTP's litigation record has been mixed. An injunction was put on hold so Research In Motion could appeal. Late last year, the appeals court upheld 11 NTP patents but ordered that 5 should be reargued.

At the same time that R.I.M. initiated its appeal, the Patent and Trademark Office began reviewing eight of NTP's patents at R.I.M.'s request. On April 19, the patent office, in a preliminary ruling, declared one patent at the center of the legal battle between the companies invalid and rejected all 89 claims used to support it. To date, the patent office has reviewed 8 of NTP's patents in preliminary rulings, rejected 4 and dismissed 612 of its patent claims.

Research In Motion has never disclosed why it finally settled. But it had been under some investment industry pressure to end the litigation. Among other things, there were growing concerns that the uncertainty created by the NTP case might cause some wireless service providers to shy away from R.I.M.'s e-mail system.

The two adversaries are still working out the terms of the settlement, including a payment schedule. The BlackBerry's success means that Research In Motion has ample resources to cover its costs.

Little has changed at NTP beyond moving the company's mailing address from Mr. Stout's house to a business service center.

But as NTP picks new targets for its licenses, Mr. Stout is quick to reject suggestions that the company's patents will not survive patent office review or that the patent holding business is a less-than-desirable line of work.

"Those who criticize, they think that unless you make products, you aren't entitled to having rights," he said. "That's just not so."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/te.../02patent.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An MTV Host Moves to Radio, Giving Voice to Audible Blogs
Ken Belson

It was an offer even the podfather could not refuse: the chance to be host of a radio program devoted solely to podcasts, or homemade radio shows formatted for digital audio players.

Adam Curry, a former MTV host who developed software that lets people automatically receive these programs on Apple's iPod and other players, will produce and be host of a four-hour program every weekday starting May 13 on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Mr. Curry will help choose material for "Adam Curry's PodShow" from some of the thousands of amateur shows produced in basements, living rooms and dormitories. Sirius subscribers, who pay $12.95 a month for the service, can listen to the show on channel 148, "Talk Central."

Podcasting has grown out of the boom in MP3 players, which can store hundreds of hours of music in devices the size of a transistor radio. The word "podcasting" is a nod to iPod, the most popular player.

Podcasts - essentially homemade digital audio files that users upload to the Internet for others to download on demand - run the gamut from tributes by aspiring disc jockeys to their favorite music artists, to up-and-coming bands, to talk show "hosts" chatting with their friends about everything from fine wine to fly fishing.

As with TiVo and other digital video players, users can listen to podcasts whenever they want, pause them or rewind them to listen again. This allows users to carry their shows with them and no longer be bound to a radio station's schedule.

Unscripted podcasts are an audio version of television reality shows for the airwaves. The unpolished and recreational feel of podcasts often draws comparisons to the Saturday Night Live skit "Wayne's World." The serendipity of the shows appeals to listeners looking for an alternative to canned commercial radio.

"It has to be the completely unedited voice," said Mr. Curry, who will preside over the show from London, where he lives. "There's a whole universe of people who make music but there is no disc jockey putting it out there."

Sirius is not the only radio network moving into podcasting. Infinity Broadcasting plans to convert one of its AM channels in San Francisco, 1550 KYCY, which now broadcasts mostly syndicated talk shows, into one mostly filled with podcasts.

More than 200 people have already submitted podcasts to the station, whose programming will be simultaneously streamed over a Web site for listeners outside the San Francisco area. The channel will continue to sell on-air advertising, though it will be adapted to fit the irregular length of the podcasts, according to Infinity.

Mr. Curry's show on Sirius will also include advertising. But the company expects the show to have a free-form feel, much like the podcasts, rather than the more rigid format of mainstream radio.

The audience for the show is likely to be skewed toward 18- to 34-year-old listeners, who are also the core users of MP3 players. Mr. Curry expects them to be a vocal and demanding group, one that will help drive what's heard on the show.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/bu.../02SIRIUS.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Double Your Pleasure? Early 'Exorcist,' Take 2
Dave Kehr

When "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist," directed by Paul Schrader, opens nationally on May 20, some filmgoers may have the strange feeling they have seen it before. "Dominion" bears a not at all coincidental similarity to Renny Harlin's "Exorcist: The Beginning," a disappointment at the box office last August.

Mr. Schrader's film, the "original" prequel, was shelved by Morgan Creek Productions, an independent film company, in 2003 for being insufficiently scary. The company then hired Mr. Harlin to remake it. Morgan Creek, which had a distribution deal with Warner Brothers at the time, released the Harlin version with a single screening for critics the night before, usually a bad omen.

Perhaps someday a cinemathèque will present both versions in a simultaneous, side-by-side screening. The dueling films could provide fodder for a textual analysis of the auteur theory, with almost identical material yielding wildly different results in the hands of two temperamentally opposed artists: Mr. Schrader, the thoughtful, restrained art-house filmmaker ("Affliction"), and Mr. Harlin, the vigorous director of Hollywood action films ("Cliffhanger").

Both prequels star the Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard ("Breaking the Waves") as a young version of Father Merrin, the Roman-Catholic priest played by Max von Sydow in William Friedkin's hugely successful 1973 film based on William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel. And both tell the story of Father Merrin's first encounter with demonic possession when, working for the Vatican in the years after World War II, he investigates the discovery of a perfectly preserved Byzantine church buried in the East African desert.

How these two movies came to be made is a story as tortured and complex as any Hollywood thriller. The notion of an "Exorcist" prequel dates back several years to when Morgan Creek, the owners of the franchise, commissioned a script from William Wisher, a writer of "Terminator 2." That script was rewritten by Caleb Carr, the author of the best-selling novel "The Alienist," and attracted the attention of the Hollywood veteran John Frankenheimer. Frankenheimer signed on to direct and had begun casting the film when he died in July 2002 at 72.

Rather than abandon the project, James G. Robinson, the Morgan Creek chairman, turned the film over to Mr. Schrader. As the director of "Light Sleeper" (1992) and "Auto Focus" (2002), and the writer of "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "Raging Bull" (with Mardik Martin, 1980), Mr. Schrader possessed impeccable art-house credentials, but had not directed a mainstream genre film since "Cat People" in 1982.

Mr. Schrader shot on location in Morocco and at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. But when the rough cut was screened for Mr. Robinson, he was reportedly disappointed to find that Paul Schrader had made a Paul Schrader movie, rather than a hyperkinetic action picture filled with gore and scary effects.

As was widely reported in the trade papers at the time, Mr. Robinson brought in Mr. Harlin for a couple of weeks of retakes with Mr. Skarsgard and the cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. The original script was rewritten by Alexi Hawley to introduce more shock sequences.

"It wasn't really a script," Mr. Skarsgard said of the rewrite, by telephone from his home in Stockholm, "but just a bunch of ideas about how to make film scarier, basically by throwing in unmotivated scares in every second scene. I didn't like it and I didn't want to do it. But then Renny Harlin came on, who I've worked with before, on the 'Deep Blue Sea,' and who is a friend.

"In many ways, he's the opposite of Paul Schrader, so it was hard to imagine him working with Paul Schrader's material. But gradually Renny turned it into another movie, and got Morgan Creek to reshoot the entire film - or rather, make an entirely different film."

Mr. Harlin's manager said he was traveling and could not be reached for comment for this article.

Using the standing sets of the church interior at Cinecittà, Mr. Harlin created an R-rated film of rapid cuts, expressionistic camera angles, extensive computer-generated imagery and a strong dose of sex and violence. Mr. Schrader's film, also R-rated, featured a demure leading lady, Clara Bellar (cast by Frankenheimer), who was replaced by the former Bond girl Izabella Scorupco. Father Merrin went from a withdrawn, tortured man suffering a crisis of faith to a sort of swashbuckling hero with a gun in his hand. The climax of Mr. Schrader's film, in which Father Merrin has a theological discussion with a preternaturally handsome demon (the pop star Billy Crawford) gave way to an apocalyptic free-for-all in Mr. Harlin's film.

"Exorcist: The Beginning" received largely negative reviews ("singularly fails to deliver any palpable shivers," Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times) and went on to earn a disappointing $41 million in domestic gross, not much for a film that cost a reported $80 million ($30 million for the Schrader version and $50 for the Harlin one).

In a recent e-mail exchange, Mr. Blatty, the author of the original novel, recalled going to see the Harlin version with Mr. Schrader at a multiplex in Bethesda, Md.: "After a slam-bang opening sequence, Harlin's prequel deteriorated into what was surely the most humiliating professional experience of my life, particularly the finale. I don't blame Renny Harlin, for he gave Morgan Creek, I promise you, precisely what Morgan Creek demanded: not shocking obscenity, but shocking vulgarity."

(Mr. Blatty had his own experience with Morgan Creek in 1990 when he directed an adaptation of his nonsupernatural novel "Legion" for the company. After much wrangling and reshooting, and the last minute addition of an exorcism, the film was released as "The Exorcist III." Mr. Blatty subsequently lampooned the experience in his satirical novel "Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing.")

Last fall, Mr. Schrader heard from the film editor Tim Silano that Morgan Creek was trying to reassemble his version, with an eye toward releasing it on DVD or on cable. The director volunteered to work with Mr. Silano, and with a minimal budget they assembled a score and completed a sound mix. In March, the movie received good notices at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film, good enough to interest Morgan Creek and Warner Brothers in a theatrical release.

The tricky job of positioning "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist," as Mr. Schrader's version came to be called, has fallen to Brian Robinson, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Morgan Creek, and a son of the producer who originally rejected it. Rather than give "Dominion" the 2,803-screen release that "Exorcist: The Beginning" received, he decided to aim the film at the specialized audience that has long supported Mr. Schrader.

"It's on a limited release pattern of 110 screens, so the plan is to release it and see how it plays," Mr. Robinson said. "The Renny Harlin version was a much more commercially shot horror film, and this one is much more cerebral. The masses that want to see these 'Alien vs. Predator' movies want to see much more graphic violence. Paul's version is much more about the terror that resides in your own mind."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/movies/02exor.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Megachurch's Leader Says Microsoft Is No Match
Sarah Kershaw

Before he became a born-again Christian and later a rising national star in the world of black evangelical ministers, the Rev. Ken Hutcherson started playing football because, he said, it was the best way he could think of to "hurt white people."

Dr. Hutcherson, a husky former linebacker for three National Football League teams who goes fishing with Rush Limbaugh and raises Rottweilers ("the bigger, the meaner, the better," he said of his pets), does not talk that way anymore about whites, saying his conversion to Christianity as a teenager changed all that. And a majority of the 3,500 members of his megachurch, which is based in this tidy Seattle suburb and high-tech hub, is white, as is his wife.

With a thundering charisma that makes him a hero to some and a gay-bashing bully to others, he has taken on the white mayor of Seattle, a prominent black county executive and the Washington State Legislature. In his mission to stop the legalization of gay marriage, Dr. Hutcherson has accused gay rights activists of trying to hijack and sully the civil rights movement by their comparison of the right of gays and lesbians to marry to the civil rights struggle he lived through as a poor child in Alabama in the 1950's and 60's.

Now Dr. Hutcherson, 52, known as "Hutch," and by his self-chosen nickname, "the black man," claims to be the person who forced Microsoft, situated near his Antioch Bible Church offices, to withdraw its support of a gay rights bill before the State Legislature, one it had supported the two previous years.

Dr. Hutcherson had threatened to organize a national boycott of Microsoft if it backed the legislation this year. The antidiscrimination bill was defeated by one vote in the State Senate on April 21.

But officials at Microsoft vehemently deny that the minister had anything to do with their decision not to support the bill this year; gay rights groups and employees have since criticized Microsoft, which had long enjoyed a reputation as one of the nation's most gay-friendly companies.

"We respect Dr. Hutcherson's right to his beliefs and opinions, but he does not speak for Microsoft, and he certainly does not set Microsoft's legislative agenda," said Mark Murray, a company spokesman. "We're proud of our antidiscrimination policies and benefits for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, and we are committed to diversity at every level of our company."

Microsoft officials said they were re-evaluating their legislative priorities and had decided to take a "neutral" stance on the bill long before a high-level company official met twice with Dr. Hutcherson over his concerns that the company was going to support it.

In a style that is typically blunt (and, his detractors say, typically intimidating), Dr. Hutcherson described Microsoft's version of the events as "a flat-out lie."

Asked if he thought that he alone could have changed the giant corporation's mind, Dr. Hutcherson said in an interview Friday: "I don't think. I know."

He continued: "If I got God on my side, what's a Microsoft? What's a Microsoft? It's nothing."

If there is any question about Dr. Hutcherson's intolerance of dissent or disobedience - one that is infused with a stinging sense of humor - it could be answered quickly by a glance at the mini-refrigerator in his office. Next to his chair, which is submerged under a lavish white sheepskin cover, a sign on the fridge says, "Warning: I have licked the tops of all my Snapples - Hutch. * And I have tested positive for anthrax."

He is close to some of the nation's best-known Christian conservatives, including Dr. James C. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, whom he calls "Dr. D," and over the last year he has organized rallies in Seattle and Washington, D.C., drawing tens of thousands of opponents of same-sex marriage.

There is little doubt, from hearing Dr. Hutcherson tell it, that he believes not only in the power of God, but also in the power of "Hutch," especially when it comes to going up against companies like Microsoft - or anyone else, for that matter.

"God plus Hutch is enough," said the minister, who stands 6 feet 2 inches, weighs 260 pounds and has a shaved head and a thick goatee streaked with a splash of white.

He added: "I want to be to Christianity what Gretzky was to hockey, what Beckham is to soccer, what Jordan was to basketball, what Martin Luther King was to African-American rights, what the Pope was to Poland. I want to be that to Christianity."

By trusting God, he said, he hopes for "great things" and "that I will be the most feared man in America, not because of me, but because of who I got on my side."

As even some of the church members say, there is good reason to fear Dr. Hutcherson. The church's motto is "black and white in a gray world."

On Sunday mornings, a half-dozen trailers pull up to Lake Washington High School in nearby Kirkland, filled with risers, microphones and other equipment, turning a school parking lot into what looks like a staging area for a rock concert. Antioch, which has offices but not its own church building, holds its rollicking, multimedia Sunday services at the school's gymnasium.

Dr. Hutcherson is known for publicly chastising and excommunicating members if he finds out they are sinning, calling adulterers, for example, up to the pulpit and demanding they repent, congregants said.

"And if they don't want to repent of it, he'll let them know that this is not the church for you," said John Stachofsky, 42, a longtime friend of Dr. Hutcherson and a member of the church who goes bird and deer hunting with him.

Many African-American ministers and conservative Christians share Dr. Hutcherson's opposition to same-sex marriage, which he calls "the greatest danger to America." But Dr. Hutcherson also often criticizes gay rights activists for drawing comparisons between their quest for equal rights and antidiscrimination laws and the struggles of other groups facing prejudice.

"You tell me what I went through as an African-American, when they talk about discrimination, compared to what gays go through with discrimination - it's the difference between night and day, not even close," Dr. Hutcherson said. "I even get upset when people say, 'Well, you got to understand what they go through.' Not when they've chosen to do what they do. They can stop choosing what to do what they do, and they can hide it anytime they want. They can hide their homosexuality. Could I take a 'don't ask don't tell' policy as an African-American? I could try even to pretend I was Puerto Rican, but I'm still going to get blasted for my skin color."

Dr. Hutcherson's views have earned him a fast-growing stable of enemies and critics.

"He came across as a bully, somebody who was threatening people, someone who was using the Scriptures, not for love but for hate," said Ed Murray, an openly gay state legislator from Seattle, a practicing Roman Catholic and a sponsor of the antidiscrimination bill.

Mr. Murray said he heard Dr. Hutcherson testify at a House hearing against the bill last February. Two Microsoft employees testified on behalf of the bill, prompting Dr. Hutcherson to demand the two meetings with Microsoft and to threaten the boycott. Microsoft officials have said the employees were testifying as private individuals, not on behalf of the company.

"I think he didn't so much as change Microsoft's mind as he caught them off guard," said Mr. Murray, who has also said that Microsoft officials told him Dr. Hutcherson had a role in their decision not to support the bill this year. "I think he was successful in throwing a ball at them and that they fumbled."

Ron Sims, the King County executive, has been a target of Dr. Hutcherson's protests because of his support for gay marriage. Mr. Sims, who is black, said he strongly disagreed with the minister on the civil rights question.

"I don't think that civil rights is the province of any particular group," said Mr. Sims, who earlier this year publicly invited six same-sex couples to sue him for the right to marry in King County, a case that is now being decided by the State Supreme Court and could determine whether gay men and lesbians can marry in Washington state.

"African-American homophobia is just another form of discrimination," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/na...2minister.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases
Stephen Labaton, Lorne Manly and Elizabeth Jensen

The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence.

Without the knowledge of his board, the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers."

In late March, on the recommendation of administration officials, Mr. Tomlinson hired the director of the White House Office of Global Communications as a senior staff member, corporation officials said. While she was still on the White House staff, she helped draft guidelines governing the work of two ombudsmen whom the corporation recently appointed to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts.

Mr. Tomlinson also encouraged corporation and public broadcasting officials to broadcast "The Journal Editorial Report," whose host, Paul Gigot, is editor of the conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. And while a search firm has been retained to find a successor for Kathleen A. Cox, the corporation's president and chief executive, whose contract was not renewed last month, Mr. Tomlinson has made clear to the board that his choice is Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state.

Mr. Tomlinson said that he was striving for balance and had no desire to impose a political point of view on programming, explaining that his efforts are intended to help public broadcasting distinguish itself in a 500-channel universe and gain financial and political support.

"My goal here is to see programming that satisfies a broad constituency," he said, adding, "I'm not after removing shows or tampering internally with shows."

But he has repeatedly criticized public television programs as too liberal overall, and said in the interview, "I frankly feel at PBS headquarters there is a tone deafness to issues of tone and balance."

Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive of PBS, who has sparred with Mr. Tomlinson privately but till now has not challenged him publicly, disputed the accusation of bias and was critical of some of his actions.

"I believe there has been no chilling effect, but I do think there have been instances of attempts to influence content from a political perspective that I do not consider appropriate," Ms. Mitchell, who plans to step down when her contract expires next year, said Friday.

Robert Coonrod, who stepped down as corporation president in July 2004, has known Mr. Tomlinson about 20 years and considers him a good friend. "I believe that his motives are exactly what he says they are," he said. Mr. Tomlinson is "trying to help the people in public broadcasting understand why some people in the conservative movement think PBS is hostile to them and, two, imbue public broadcasting with the notion of balance because he thinks that long term it's a winner in getting Congressional support."

"Whether people like the way he goes about it or not is a different issue," Mr. Coonrod added.

Though PBS's ratings have stabilized lately after several years of decline, the network has faced criticism that much of its programming - shows like "Antiques Roadshow" and "Masterpiece Theater" - is little different from what can be found on cable television. Though a huge bequest to National Public Radio from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonald's, has furthered the independence of public radio, corporate support and state financing for public television have slipped in recent years, making the nearly $400 million in federal money annually funneled through the corporation increasingly important.

Nor have administration officials and lawmakers been shy about challenging certain programming. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, for example, earlier this year publicly denounced a program featuring a cartoon rabbit named Buster who visited a pair of lesbian parents.

The corporation is a private, nonprofit entity financed by Congress to ensure the vitality of public television and radio. Tension is hardwired into its charter, where its mandate to ensure "objectivity and balance" is accompanied by an exhortation to maintain public broadcasting's independence. Mr. Tomlinson said that in his view, objectivity and balance meant "a program schedule that's not skewed in one direction or another." Some corporation board members say that complaints about ideological pressure are premature.

Beth Courtney, president and chief executive of Louisiana Public Broadcasting and one of three non-Republicans on the nine-member board, said there had been no chilling of journalistic efforts. "What we should look for are the real actions," she said. "We shouldn't speculate about people's motivations."

But Mr. Tomlinson's tenure has brought criticism that his chairmanship has been the most polarizing in a generation. Christy Carpenter, a Democratic appointee to the board from 1998 to 2002, said partisanship was "essentially nonexistent" in her first years. But once Mr. Tomlinson, a former editor in chief of Reader's Digest, joined in September 2000 and President Bush's election changed the board's political composition, the tenor changed, she said.

"There was an increasingly and disturbingly aggressive desire to be more involved and to push programming in a more conservative direction," said Ms. Carpenter, who is now a vice president of the Museum of Television and Radio. One of the more disturbing developments, she added, was a "very vehement dislike for Bill Moyers."

It is not a shock that Mr. Moyers's work exercised Mr. Tomlinson. He is a reliable source of agitation for conservatives, who complain that "Now" under Mr. Moyers (who left the show last year and was replaced by David Brancaccio) was consistently critical of Republicans and the Bush administration. Days after the Republicans gained control of the Senate in the 2002 elections, Mr. Moyers - an aide in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and a former newspaper publisher who has been associated with PBS since the 1970's - said the entire federal government was "united behind a right-wing agenda" that included "the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives."

In December 2003, three months after he was elected chairman, Mr. Tomlinson sent Ms. Mitchell of PBS a letter outlining his concerns. " 'Now With Bill Moyers' does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires for public broadcasting," he wrote.

Shortly after, Mr. Tomlinson hired a consultant to review Mr. Moyers's program; one three-month contract cost $10,000. The reports Mr. Tomlinson saw placed the program's guests in categories like "anti-Bush," "anti-business" and "anti-Tom DeLay," referring to the House majority leader, corporation officials said. The reports found the guests were overwhelmingly anti-Bush, a conclusion Mr. Moyers disputed.

Mr. Moyers said on Friday that he did not know a content review was undertaken but that he was not surprised. "Tomlinson has waged a surreptitious and relentless campaign against 'Now' and me," he said, dismissing complaints that he is biased. Mr. Moyers left "Now" to write a book but is back on public television as host of the series "Wide Angle."

Mr. Tomlinson said he conducted the content review on his own, without sending the results to the board or making them public, because he wanted to better understand complaints he was hearing without provoking a storm. "If I wanted to be more destructive to public broadcasting but score political points, I would have come out with this study a year and a half ago," he said.

Recently, PBS refused for months to sign its latest contract with the corporation governing federal financing of national programming, holding up the release of $26.5 million. For the first time, the corporation argued that PBS's agreeing to abide by its own journalistic standards was not sufficient, but that it must adhere to the "objectivity and balance" language in the charter. In a January letter to the leaders of the three biggest producing stations, in New York, Boston and Washington, the deputy general counsel of PBS warned that this could give the corporation editorial control, infringing on its First Amendment rights and possibly leading to a demand for balance in each and every show.

The corporation said it had no such plans, and the contract was finally signed about a month ago.

Mr. Tomlinson did help get one program, "The Journal Editorial Report," on the air as a way of balancing "Now." Ms. Mitchell backed the program, but public broadcasting officials said Mr. Tomlinson was instrumental in lining up $5 million in corporate financing and pressing PBS to distribute it.

Public television executives noted that Mr. Gigot's show by design features the members of the conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, while Mr. Moyers's guests included many conservatives, like Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition; Richard Viguerie, a conservative political strategist; and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Mr. Tomlinson said that it was his concerns about "objectivity and balance" that led to the creation of a new office of the ombudsman at the corporation to issue reports about public television and radio broadcasts. But the role of a White House official in setting up the office has raised questions among some public broadcasting executives about its independence. In March, after she had been hired by the corporation but was still at the White House as director of the Office of Global Communications, Mary Catherine Andrews helped draft the office's guiding principles, set up a Web page and prepare a news release about the appointment of the new ombudsmen, officials said.

Ms. Andrews said she undertook the work at the instruction of top officials at the corporation. "I was careful not to work on this project during office hours during my last days at the White House," she said.

Mr. Tomlinson has also occasionally worked with other White House officials on public broadcasting issues. Last year he enlisted the presidential adviser Karl Rove to help kill a legislative proposal that would change the composition of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board by requiring the president to fill about half the seats with people who had experience in local radio and television. The proposal was dropped after Mr. Rove and the White House criticized it.

Mr. Tomlinson said he understood the need to reassure liberals that the traditions of public broadcasting, including public affairs programs, were not changing, "that we're not trying to put a wet blanket on this type of programming."

But his efforts to sow goodwill have shown that what he says he tries to project is sometimes read in a different way. Last November, members of the Association of Public Television Stations met in Baltimore along with officials from the corporation and PBS. Mr. Tomlinson told them they should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate.

Mr. Tomlinson said that his comment was in jest and that he couldn't imagine how remarks at "a fun occasion" were taken the wrong way. Others, though, were not amused.

"I was in that room," said Ms. Mitchell. "I was surprised by the comment. I thought it was inappropriate."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/ar...rtner=homepage

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Synergy for Viacom: Dr. Phil of CBS Interviews Pat O'Brien of CBS
Mark Glassman

March was not a good month for Pat O'Brien.

First, Mr. O'Brien, the host of the syndicated celebrity gossip show "The Insider," entered a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse, leaving his anchor position. Around the same time, several sexually explicit voice-mail messages apparently made by Mr. O'Brien surfaced on blogs, making him instant fodder for late-night comics.

And that is when Dr. Phil McGraw got a call from his producer, suggesting that Mr. O'Brien's misfortunes might one day be material for a show. The rest is synergy.

On Wednesday night, CBS will broadcast an hour-long special, "Behind the Headlines," in which Dr. Phil McGraw, the combative host of "The Dr. Phil Show," will conduct the first interview with Mr. O'Brien since his discharge last week from the rehabilitation clinic. Both "The Dr. Phil Show" and "The Insider" are properties of Paramount Television, a subsidiary of Viacom, which also owns CBS Television. The special will replace the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes" during this sweeps period, which helps determine advertising rates for the network for the rest of the year.

The next day, Mr. O'Brien, 57, will appear with other guests on Dr. McGraw's syndicated daytime show in an episode dedicated to rehabilitation from substance abuse. That night, Mr. O'Brien will return as the host of "The Insider."

The practice of cross-promoting shows on the same network has existed since the days of radio, but broadcast television has grown much bolder recently. Failed contestants from "The Apprentice" and "Survivor" typically appear soon after on the morning news shows of NBC and CBS respectively, for example.

But Mr. O'Brien's awkward return to television on Dr. McGraw's special may represent the first time a host has used another network show as part of his professional and personal rehabilitation.

A CBS executive who did not wish to be identified said that the idea for Mr. O'Brien's appearance had come from the staff of "Dr. Phil" and not from anyone at CBS, but that the network management had quickly agreed. (He declined to say who at the network had approved the show.) The executive said that the synergy "only makes sense, when you have these great assets that fit within the framework of what your show is." He added that this was especially true when the show's interests aligned with the setbacks of "a high-profile actor."

Mr. O'Brien could not be reached for comment.

Dr. McGraw, the weight-loss guru who preaches tough love in an affable Southern twang, said that he did not take into account corporate relationships when choosing a subject and that he himself had made numerous appearances on other networks.

"It doesn't make a difference to me who somebody else works for," he said.

"I do all the networks, and I do all the different shows. I'm not going to exclude CBS just because we both do business with Viacom."

This is Dr. McGraw's third CBS prime-time special to use television celebrities from CBS programs. In September, Amy Brenneman, the lead in the series "Judging Amy," and Patricia Heaton, from the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," appeared in Dr. McGraw's CBS special on parenting. Five months later, Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller, the feuding couple from the sixth season of CBS's "The Amazing Race," confronted Dr. McGraw with their marital problems on his special, "Romance Rescue." Dr. McGraw has also appeared on the MTV series "The Osbournes," another Viacom property.

Joseph Turow, who studies mass media industries at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said Mr. O'Brien and Dr. McGraw were each playing roles in one more story in a long tradition of celebrity confessionals.

"There's a whole ritual that's developed around these sorts of issues," he said. "It typically involves admitting, treating and confessing. This is just another example of that, but it happens to be synergistically appropriate."

Mr. Turow added, "Clearly that there was a strategic decision made that he was going to have to talk to someone. He might as well talk to Dr. Phil."

But Dr. McGraw bristled at the idea that he would pull his punches for a fellow Paramount employee, and said that he doubted that anyone else "could've conducted a more microscopic interview" with Mr. O'Brien.

"It was not a home court advantage," said Dr. McGraw, who taped the interview last Wednesday. He added that censored portions of Mr. O'Brien's graphic voice-mail messages would be played during the piece.

Still, Mr. O'Brien did not balk. "He made no requests," Dr. McGraw said. "He put up no fences or boundaries whatsoever."

Dr. McGraw said that Carla Pennington Stewart, the executive producer for "The Dr. Phil Show" and for the past two CBS specials, had suggested that he pair up with Mr. O'Brien to discuss the latter's struggle with alcoholism.

"When the story broke in the media a couple of months ago," Dr. McGraw said, "she came and said, 'I know you're not big on celebrity interviews, but this is a natural to-do.'"

Alcoholism and drug addiction have been recurrent themes this year on "Dr. Phil." Dr. McGraw estimated that at least 20 episodes have dealt with substance abuse in the program's third season. That made Mr. O'Brien's case of particular interest, so it was closely monitored by the program, Dr. McGraw said.

"We made the decision probably two or three weeks ago, when it was apparent that he was going to be coming out of rehab," Dr. McGraw said.

Until then, CBS had planned to broadcast another Dr. Phil special on Wednesday, called "Escaping Danger," about physically and emotionally abused wives, the CBS executive said.

Either special would have replaced CBS's regularly scheduled "60 Minutes" program on Wednesday and could prove to be a substantial lift during sweeps week. This season, the Wednesday evening edition of "60 Minutes" has drawn an average audience of 8.5 million viewers, representing a 6 percent audience share, according to Nielsen Media Research. Dr. McGraw's February special drew 11 million viewers, a 7.7 percent rating, and the September special, which fell on a Wednesday, drew 13.1 million viewers and scored a rating of 9 percent.

When Mr. O'Brien was released a week ago, he wasted little time before meeting with Dr. McGraw. Mr. O'Brien took Tuesday "to kind of get home and get unpacked and settled," Dr. McGraw said. The camera crew arrived at his home on Wednesday.

Joan Bonsignore, the executive director of the Westchester County branch of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, said that the first several days after release from a rehabilitation clinic can be a confusing time for patients.

"I'm concerned about anybody walking out of a rehab and sitting in front of a camera," Ms. Bonsignore said. Still, recovery is an individual process, she said, adding, "If he's able to go back to work, who are we to judge what he should do?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/bu...ehab.html?8dpc

JackSpratts · 05-05-05, 07:03 PM

Conservatives ♥ 'South Park'
Frank Rich

Conservatives can't stop whining about Hollywood, but the embarrassing reality is that they want to be hip, too. It's not easy. In the showbiz wrangling sweepstakes of 2004, liberals had Leonardo DiCaprio, the Dixie Chicks and the Boss. The right had Bo Derek, Pat Boone and Jessica Simpson, who, upon meeting the secretary of the interior, Gale Norton, congratulated her for doing "a nice job decorating the White House." Ms. Simpson may be the last performer in America who can make Whoopi Goldberg seem like the soul of wit.

What to do? Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger's poll numbers have sunk, the right's latest effort to grab a piece of the showbiz action is a new and fast-selling book published by Regnery, home to the Swift Boat Veterans, and promoted in lock step by the right-wing media elite of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal's editorial page and The New York Post. "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias," by Brian C. Anderson of the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, gives a wet kiss to one of the funniest and most foul-mouthed series on television. The book has even been endorsed by the grim theologian Michael Novak, who presumably forgot to TiVo the "South Park" episode that holds the record for the largest number of bleeped-out repetitions (162) of a single four-letter expletive in a single television half-hour. Then again, The Weekly Standard has informed us that William Bennett, egged on by his children, has given the show a tentative thumbs up.

Cynics might say that conservatives, flummoxed by the popularity of Jon Stewart, are eager to endorse any bigger hit on Comedy Central: The animated adventures of four obstreperous fourth graders in the mythical town of South Park, Colo., outdraws "The Daily Show" by a million or so viewers. But Mr. Anderson has another case to make. He quotes "South Park" profanity without apology and cheers the "scathing genius" with which it mocks "hate-crime laws and sexual harassment policies, liberal celebrities, abortion-rights extremists."

In one episode he praises, "Butt Out," a caricatured Rob Reiner journeys from Hollywood to South Park to mount a fascistic antismoking campaign that "perfectly captures the Olympian arrogance and illiberalism of liberal elites." Mr. Anderson also applauds last fall's "South Park" adjunct, "Team America: World Police," the feature film in which the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, portray Michael Moore as a suicide bomber and ridicule the antiwar activism of Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn and Janeane Garofalo by presenting them as dim-witted, terrorist-appeasing puppets (literally so, with strings) who are ultimately blown to bits at a "world peace conference" convened by Kim Jong Il. (The film is out on DVD, with an expanded marionette sex scene featuring coprophilia, on May 17.)

So far, so right. Among their other anarchic comic skills, Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone have a perfect pitch for lampooning what many Americans find most irritating about liberals, especially Hollywood liberals: a self-righteous propensity for knowing better than anyone else and for meddling in everyone's business, whether by enforcing P.C. speech codes or plotting to curb S.U.V.'s and guns.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the publication of "South Park Conservatives": Emboldened by the supposed "moral values" landslide on Election Day, the faith-based right became the new left. Just as Mr. Anderson's book reached stores in early April, Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, true to their butt-out libertarianism, aimed their fire at self-righteous, big-government conservatives who have become every bit as high-handed and meddlesome as any Prius-pushing movie star. Such is this role reversal that the same TV show celebrated by Mr. Anderson and his cohort as the leading edge of a potential conservative victory in the culture wars now looks like a harbinger of an anti-conservative backlash instead.

In the March 30 episode, Kenny, a kid whose periodic death is a "South Park" ritual, lands in a hospital in a "persistent vegetative state" and is fed through a tube. The last page of his living will is missing. Demonstrators and media hordes descend. Though heavenly angels decree that "God intended Kenny to die" rather than be "kept alive artificially," they are thwarted by Satan, whose demonic aide advises him to "do what we always do - use the Republicans." Soon demagogic Republican politicians are spewing sound bites ("Removing the feeding tube is murder") scripted in Hell. But as in the Schiavo case, they don't prevail. Kenny is allowed to die in peace once his missing final wish is found: "If I should ever be in a vegetative state and kept alive on life support, please for the love of God don't ever show me in that condition on national television."

This remarkably prescient scenario, first broadcast on the eve of Terri Schiavo's death, anticipated just how far the zeitgeist would swing in the month after the right's overreach in her case. A USA Today poll a week later found that Americans by 55 to 40 percent believe that "Republicans, traditionally the party of limited government, are 'trying to use the federal government to interfere with the private lives of most Americans' on moral values." In other words, what Hillary Clinton's overreaching big-government health care plan did to the Democrats a decade ago is the whammy the Schiavo case has inflicted on the G.O.P. today. And like the Democrats back then, the Republican elites have been so besotted with their election victory and so out of touch with the mainstream they didn't see their comeuppance coming. At the height of the feeding-tube frenzy, Peggy Noonan told her Wall Street Journal troops that federal intervention in the Schiavo family brawl was a political slam dunk: "Politicians, please, think of yourselves! Move to help Terri Schiavo, and no one will be mad at you, and you'll keep a human being alive." (Italics hers.)

Oops. But what's given the Schiavo case resonance beyond the Schiavo story itself is that it crystallized the bigger picture of Olympian arrogance and illiberalism on the right. The impulse that led conservatives to intervene in a family's bitter debate over a feeding tube is the same one that makes them turn a debate over a Senate rule on filibusters into a litmus test of spiritual correctness. Surely no holier-than-thou Hollywood pontificator could be harder to take than the sanctimonious Bill Frist, who, unlike Barbra Streisand, can't even sing.

The same arrogance that sent Republicans into Terri Schiavo's hospice room has also led them to try to police the culture of sex more rabidly than the left did the culture of sexism. No wonder another recent poll, from the Pew Research Center, finds that for all the real American displeasure with coarse entertainment, a plurality of 48 percent believes that "the government's imposing undue restrictions" on pop culture is "a greater danger" to the country than the entertainment industry itself. Who could have imagined that the public would fear Focus on the Family's James Dobson more than 50 Cent?

But in this crusade, too, few on the right seem to recognize that they're overplaying their hand; they keep upping the ante. One powerful senator, Ted Stevens of Alaska, has proposed that cable and satellite be policed by the federal government along with broadcast television - a death knell for even the Sirius incarnation of Howard Stern, not to mention much of Comedy Central. A powerful House committee chairman, James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, topped that by calling for offenders to be pursued through a "criminal process." Last week President Bush signed a Family Entertainment and Copyright Act that allows "family-friendly" companies to sell filter technology that cleans up DVD's of Hollywood movies without permission or input from the films' own authors and copyright holders. That sounds innocuous enough until you learn that even "Schindler's List" isn't immune from the right's rigid P.C. code. As the owner of CleanFlicks, the American Fork, Utah, company that goes further and sells pre-sanitized DVD's, once explained to The New York Times: "Every teenager in America should see that film. But I don't think my daughters should see naked old men running around in circles." And so Big Brother can intervene to protect our kids from all that geriatric Holocaust porn.

On the first page of "South Park Conservatives," its author declares that "CBS's cancellation in late 2003 of its planned four-hour miniseries 'The Reagans' marked a watershed in America's culture wars." It did, in the sense that the right's successful effort to stifle what it regarded as an un-P.C. (i.e., somewhat critical) treatment of Ronald Reagan sped the censorious jihad that's now threatening everything from "The Sopranos" on HBO to lesbian moms on PBS. Of course "South Park" is also on this hit list: the Parents Television Council, the take-no-prisoners e-mail mill leading the anti-indecency charge, has condemned the show on its Web site as a "curdled, malodorous black hole of Comedy Central vomit." Should such theocratic conservatives prevail, "South Park" conservatives will be hipper than they ever could have imagined - terminally hip, you might say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/op...wanted=2&8hpib

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Falling in Love With Elvis
Stuart Elliott

ELVIS may have left the building, but for Madison Avenue, it is as if he were still inside, helping woo consumers more ardently than ever.

A multimedia marketing blitz with a budget estimated at $10 million to $20 million is under way to promote a new round of entertainment programming about Elvis Presley. The CBS division of Viacom has declared next week "Elvis Week," in hopes of luring viewers to watch two biographical shows, one fictionalized, the other factual, that run a total of six hours.

CBS has a lengthy list of marketing partners to pitch the shows, "Elvis," a mini-series starting this Sunday, and "Elvis by the Presleys," a documentary, on May 13. Among the partners are American Airlines, part of the AMR Corporation, which will run a Presley program during its in-flight entertainment and distribute Presley CD samplers to passengers; Crown Publishers, part of the Random House division of Bertelsmann, which will release a book, also titled "Elvis by the Presleys"; and People magazine, part of the Time Inc. unit of Time Warner, which will run in its May 9 issue an insert carrying the headline "The King is Hear." When opened, the insert plays a snippet of "Blue Suede Shoes" and a commercial for the TV shows.

Other partners are Presley's music label, Sony BMG, owned by Bertelsmann and the Sony Corporation of America; the quiz show "Jeopardy," owned by Sony, which will feature an "Elvis" category during its show Friday; TV Guide, part of Gemstar-TV Guide International; and Web sites like citysearch.com, with a promotion called "Elvis Was Here," as well as elvis.com and yahoo.com.

There will also be copious cross-promotion by Viacom siblings including CMT, Infinity billboards and radio stations, MTV, Spike, TV Land and VH1.

"It's the biggest thing we've got going for the May sweeps," said George F. Schweitzer, president of the CBS Marketing Group unit of CBS in New York. His reference was to a month in which the broadcast networks typically stuff their schedules full of special programs to stimulate ratings gains as the TV season concludes.

Indeed, almost 28 years after his death, interest in Presley seems bigger among advertisers, agencies and media companies than it was during his life. His growing appeal is emblematic of the increasing interest in deceased celebrities as endorsers because their fame often outshines that of today's stars - and it typically costs less to use their images than their contemporary counterparts'.

Presley, in fact, topped the fourth annual list of top-earning dead celebrities released last October by Forbes magazine, with annual revenue of $40 million, compared with $35 million for No. 2, Charles M. Schulz, the creator of "Peanuts," and $23 million for J. R. R. Tolkien, author of "Lord of the Rings." Here are some additional examples of current Presley projects:

A musical inspired by Presley, "All Shook Up," opened March 24 on Broadway, featuring live performances of 25 tunes he originally sang. The cast recording, on Sony BMG, is due in stores on May 31.

A 24-hour Presley music channel, called Elvis Radio, is among the choices offered by Sirius Satellite Radio.

Presley will be a character in a biographical film about Johnny Cash, "Walk the Line," scheduled to be released on Nov. 18 by the 20th Century Fox division of the News Corporation. Presley will be played by a young singer, Tyler Hilton, who warmed up by performing two Presley songs last month at the wedding of his cast mates Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush from the WB series "One Tree Hill."

Presley is a central part of a musical celebration of the 100th anniversary of Las Vegas, with "Elvis: Live from Las Vegas" to be released May 10 on a new label, Las Vegas Centennial Records, by EMI Music Marketing, part of the EMI Group. The same day, Sony BMG is to release a two-CD set of music from "Elvis by the Presleys," which features his wife, Priscilla, and his daughter, Lisa Marie.

The first commercials to encourage tourists to visit Presley's Graceland home in Memphis began appearing last month on national television. The spots, created by Thompson & Company in Memphis, carry the theme "Graceland. Where Elvis lives." Note the present tense.

"It's a perfect storm of Elvis," said Jennifer Burgess, marketing director for Elvis Presley Enterprises in Memphis. An 85 percent stake in the company, which controls the rights to the Presley image, likeness and name, was recently acquired from the Presley heirs by the entrepreneur Robert F. X. Sillerman; he is making it a centerpiece of his new entertainment firm, CKX.

Some elements of this most recent Presley blitz were timed to appear all at once, Ms. Burgess said, while others are turning up around the same time by coincidence. The CBS shows were once scheduled for last November, Mr. Schweitzer said, and Jonathan Pollard, the lead producer of "All Shook Up," said his musical had been in development for five years.

But Presley's return to prominence at this time is no accident, many executives say. It has been building for the last three years, as shown by the success of the compilation CD "30 No. 1 Hits," as well as by commercials for brands like Nike and movies like "Lilo and Stitch," which used original or remixed versions of Presley songs.

"It's the re-emergence of Elvis Presley as a brand," Mr. Pollard said. "He has always been popular, but there has been a resurgence in attention to his music and his place in cultural history."

Presley "resonates today because he was a forerunner, a catalyst for change and larger than life," Mr. Pollard said. "And when you look for icons, you expect them to be larger than life."

The renewed interest in Presley is partly due to assiduous efforts by Elvis Presley Enterprises to introduce him to consumers who grew up after the 1960's and 1970's. The goal is to help ensure a continuous revenue stream as older fans lose interest or, um, are returned to sender.

"We've worked hard to present him as contemporary and timeless and it's paying off," Ms. Burgess said. "Our demographics show 80 percent of the visitors to Graceland are under 49."

Others report similar examples of youthful appeal.

"There's a whole generation of new fans," said Chuck Cordray, senior vice president for consumer marketing at TV Guide in New York. "Three of the four times we ran Elvis on the cover in the last five years, those were the best-selling covers of the year."

As part of the CBS promotion, mini-CD's of a previously unreleased version of a Presley tune, "Young and Beautiful," will be attached to millions of covers of the May 8 issue of TV Guide, which goes on sale Thursday. There are four covers, each bearing a Presley likeness from a different year from 1955 to 1968, and a "Discover Elvis" sweepstakes online (tvguide.com/elviscbs), co-sponsored by "The Early Show" on CBS.

There are those who would perceive all this as commercial exploitation, said Joe DiMuro, executive vice president for Sony BMG Strategic Marketing in New York, who acknowledged that "there is a business here, a solid business."

"But we are the home of Elvis Presley," he added, "and it's up to us to find new and innovative ways to keep the legacy going."

What is next for the hardest-working deceased man in show business?

"We're planning another major network event in 2007," Mr. DiMuro said, to mark the 30th anniversary of Presley's death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/bu...col.html?8hpib

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Iron Mountain Loses Data On 600K Time Warner Employees
Boston Business Journal

Iron Mountain Inc. lost computer tapes containing information on 600,000 people employed by Time Warner Inc. since 1986, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Iron Mountain spokeswoman Melissa Burman confirmed that one box of computer tapes containing Time Warner employee records had been lost.

New York-based Time Warner said the U.S. Secret Service is investigating the incident.

The newspaper quoted Time Warner spokeswoman Kathy McKiernan saying the tapes were placed in a container on March 22 and failed to show up at an Iron Mountain storage facility that same day.

No evidence has turned up that the tapes' contents have been accessed or misused, but the companies have been unable to rule out foul play. Time Warner is providing affected employees with resources to monitor their credit reports.

On April 21, Iron Mountain issued a general statement recommending that companies encrypt information contained in backup tapes.
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston...ml?jst=b_ln_hl

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. Supreme Court Denies to Hear Case InternetMovies.com vs. MPAA to Change the Good Faith Provision of the DMCA
Press Release

The Supreme Court has denied to hear the case InternetMovies.com (Rossi) vs. Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), setting the stage for continued subjective interpretation of the good faith belief provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This decision sets the standard to threaten web site owners and unrelenting shut downs prompted from copyright holders accusing alleged copyright violations without reasonable investigation.

The case was originally filed in 2002 after the MPAA shut the web site down for allegedly offering to download copyrighted materials. The MPAA issued a cease and desist letter to the site's host service citing Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was available for download, forcing them to shut off http://www.InternetMovies.com under the provisions of the DMCA. The MPAA claimed they had believed in good faith and swore under perjury that the 2003 release of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was available, in 2001, and did not conduct any further investigation. Michael Jay Rossi, President of InternetMovies.com Inc. said, "All I was doing was reporting news about movies online. This now proves there are no freedom of speech or due process rights on the Internet for the common person."

"The MPAA did not dispute it had made an error in judging the site's content, the District Court, Ninth Circuit Court and Supreme Court have all sided with the subjective interpretation of the DMCA and ruled in favor of MPAA," says Rossi.

According to Rossi, "Believing material from the future is downloadable is now a valid and reasonable belief that protects copyright holders to continue to abuse the 'shoot now, ask later' good faith belief in the DMCA. A Pandora's box of troubles for web site owners and individuals is open. Rossi continued, "I am very sad to see that American rights have been an illusion all this time. The DMCA is meant to sever our constitutional rights in my eyes. I can only hope that copyright holders do not abuse this DMCA super power, but as you can see they already do. Look for the book downloadable soon: 'In Hollywood we trust, no liberty or justice for all.'"
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050502/lam107.html?.v=6

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nielsen Entertainment's Broadcast Data Systems and BigChampagne's P2P Charts to Link Data, Providing Actionable Entertainment Intelligence on the Relationship Between Radio Airplay and Download Activity
Press Release

Nielsen Entertainment, the leading provider of Actionable Entertainment Intelligence (AEI) and BigChampagne Online Media Measurement, have entered a strategic relationship to link airplay monitoring and Peer to Peer download data, it was announced today. This relationship will link Nielsen Entertainment's BDSRadio.com, to BigChampagne's Peer to Peer (P2P) charts, combining radio airplay "spin" data with "Top Swaps." This combined analysis of Nielsen Entertainment's BDSradio.com resources; digital, terrestrial, and satellite airplay data and BigChampagne's P2P measurement, will provide both the radio and record industries with a unique matrix of music consumption measurement.

"The linkage of Nielsen Entertainment's Actionable Entertainment Intelligence in music with Big Champagne's P2P charts is the beginning of a broader new landscape we plan to map, detailing the interrelationship between technology and consumption. I anticipate Nielsen Entertainment's relationship with BigChampagne will grow beyond music," said Andrew Wing, President and CEO, Nielsen Entertainment. Rob Sisco, President Nielsen Entertainment's Music Group, and COO Nielsen Entertainment East Coast Operations added, "Given everything Nielsen Entertainment knows about entertainment consumption and specifically, music retail and radio airplay, this relationship provides both our companies' subscribers with greater insight into marketing and monitoring their product." Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, said, "Partnering with Nielsen Entertainment has been an ambition of ours from the start. We're thrilled to be working with Nielsen Entertainment's BDS, one great step towards validating that online interest is the leading and most immediate measure of market response to radio and music television programming."

Nielsen Entertainment's BDS captures in excess of 100 million song detections annually on more than 1,200 radio stations in over 130 markets in the U.S. and 22 Canadian markets. Record labels and music programmers rely on Nielsen Entertainment's BDS for information about radio and video airplay. Nielsen Entertainment's products such as BDS and SoundScan provide data that Billboard magazine uses to determine its airplay and sales charts. Affiliated Nielsen Entertainment companies SoundScan, VideoScan and BookScan carry point- of-sale information in the music, video and book publishing arenas respectively. Nielsen Entertainment's BDS subscribers include record labels, radio stations, concert promoters, music publishers, and advertising agencies. Nielsen Entertainment's SoundScan accrues sales information from more than 20,000 retailer locations in the U.S., including digitally downloaded tracks, singles, and albums, accounting for more than ten million sales transactions per week, representing more than 90% of over-the-counter music product sales in the nation.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...3542267&EDATE=

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

File-Sharing, Sampling, and Music Distribution

MARTIN PEITZ International University in Germany; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research) PATRICK WAELBROECK Free University of Brussels (VUB/ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES)

International University in Germany Working Paper No. 26/2004

Abstract:
The use of file-sharing technologies, so-called Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks, to copy music files has become common since the arrival of Napster. P2P networks may actually improve the matching between products and buyers - we call this the matching effect. For a label the downside of P2P networks is that consumers receive a copy which, although it is an imperfect substitute to the original, may reduce their willingness-to-pay for the original - we call this the competition effect. We show that the matching effect may dominate so that a label's profits are higher with P2P networks than without. Furthermore, we show that the existence of P2P networks may alter the standard business model: sampling may replace costly marketing and promotion. This may allow labels to increase profits in spite of lower revenues.

Abstract has been viewed 5972 times
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...ract_id=652743

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grossly Excessive Penalties in the Battle Against Illegal File-Sharing: The Troubling Effects of Aggregating Minimum Statutory Damages for Copyright Infringement

J. CAM BARKER
University of Texas at Austin - School of Law

Abstract:
The recent copyright-infringement lawsuits targeting individual file-sharers have in common the following facts: a statutory damage award with a substantial punitive component, a large number of like-kind violations, and fairly low reprehensibility as assessed under the relevant Supreme Court test. The substantive due process principles laid out by the Court in BMW v. Gore provide a roadmap for evaluating whether the aggregated punitive effect of these awards has become unconstitutionally excessive.

In this paper, I argue that there is a constitutional right to not have a highly punitive statutory damage award stacked hundreds or thousands of times over for similar, low-reprehensibility misconduct. I point to the rationale behind criminal law's single-larceny doctrine, identify the concept of wholly proportionate reprehensibility, and use this to explain why the massive aggregation of statutory damage awards can violate substantive due process.

I conclude that massively aggregated awards of even the minimum statutory damages for illegal file-sharing will impose huge penalties and can be constitutionally infirm like the punitive damage award of Gore itself. Yet practical and institutional reasons will likely make this norm underenforced by the courts, pointing to Congress as the actor that should modify copyright law to remove the possibility of grossly excessive punishment.

Abstract has been viewed 12680 times
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...ract_id=660601

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Editorial

Sharing Isn't Caring
By The Daily Illini Editorial Staff

Last Wednesday, President Bush signed The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, also known as the Artist's Rights and Theft Prevention Act (ART Act) into law. While the act takes significant strides toward punishing copyright violators and allowing for greater technological freedom for the entertainment industry, the law also threatens file-sharers with excessive punishments.

There are three significant parts to the act. The first makes using a camcorder to copy a film showing in a movie theater a felony. The second makes it a felony to distribute "pre-released" movies over the Internet. The third part allows for companies to produce products that allow users to use a device to play a movie in a "censored" format (i.e. skipping over scenes containing excessive violence and sexuality or omitting foul language).

The third part of the law should be praised for allowing parents and users greater control over the versions of movies they want themselves and their children to see, and the second part of the law is redundant because there are laws already preventing the recording of movies in theaters.

The area that concerns us is the punishment for distributing a pre-released film - that is, copies of movies that come out before the movie is formally released by the studio. Under the ART Act, putting a film online via a peer-to-peer (p2p) network such as Kazaa or BitTorrent can put away first-time offenders for up to three years in jail, plus additional fines - even if the movie was never downloaded once. Attempting to distribute a pre-released film for a commercial profit could result in a prison term of five years plus fines. Repeat offenses can range up to a 10-year sentence.

While copyright infringement is illegal and artists and producers should be paid for their work, we believe that these new penalties are excessive. Is it fair to take away an Internet user's right to vote just because he or she offered a copy of the next Tom Cruise summer blockbuster for download?

If studios want to seek punishment and recover damages from movie pirates, they should do so with a civil lawsuit. If financial damages are the problem, then seeking financial recoveries would be the logical course of action to take against file-sharers.

Instead, the U.S. government has now put Internet pirates on the same level of bank robbers, child molesters, drug dealers, drunk drivers and domestic abusers in terms of societal harm. The government has just turned the common college student and Internet user into the common criminal. Sharing a pre- release DVD of the next Marvel comic book movie is hardly the same crime as manufacturing methamphetamine.

While the safest way to not get caught for copyright infringement is simply to not engage in the file-sharing process, we do realize that many students will still do so on a regular basis. We urge users to be aware of the penalties and know that no one is completely anonymous while using most mainstream p2p programs.

Participating in the distribution process is still illegal and those who create films deserve to be compensated for their efforts to bring society the entertainment that enriches our lives and stimulates our minds to think differently. The users and the copyright owners should learn to come to a compromise that can benefit both sides - otherwise there could be harsh consequences on both sides.
http://www.dailyillini.com/news/2005...g-947561.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recording Official Reminds UTSA Community Of Copyright Laws

UTSA technology officials recently were informed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that a computer at one of the UTSA residence halls was used illegally to share 24 copyrighted songs.

The RIAA is the watchdog agency for music publishers and artists

According to Cary Sherman of the RIAA, a personal computer at UTSA's Chisholm Hall was found March 4 to be sharing copyrighted materials.

The student was using a software program that creates a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection to allow sharing of files and other information.

Although the unidentified UTSA student was not included in the latest round of lawsuits that targeted more than 400 students at 18 universities, Sherman reiterated that the RIAA will continue to prosecute those who illegally share copyrighted materials.

Students who are found to be using the university's network to illegally share copyrighted materials will be referred to the Disciplinary Affairs Committee.
http://www.utsa.edu/today/2005/05/copyright.cfm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Point…

Puts & Calls: Mellifluous discord

Universities' High-Speed Internet2 Used By Students To Pilfer Music
Cary Sherman

America's universities are home to many of the great minds and future leaders of our nation and our world. It is on these campuses that knowledge and skills are developed and critical core values established. That is why the epidemic of music theft on our college and university campuses -- Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh included -- should concern us all.

Stealing music on the Internet -- just because it can be done easily and, as some mistakenly think, anonymously -- is somehow being accepted as OK. It is not OK. It is illegal. It steals the livelihoods of current artists, technicians and manufacturers and limits possibilities for future creative innovation. The acceptance of theft is not a value we desire for today's students, and it is a dangerous pollutant in a climate in which innovation and creativity are nourished and protected.

It was with this in mind that the Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of the major record companies, took action last week against a new strain of the epidemic of music piracy emerging on our campuses. Of the 405 students at 18 universities identified in the new copyright infringement lawsuits, some 10 percent of them are enrolled at universities here in Pittsburgh.

Students stealing music on the Internet is not a new challenge for the higher education community. For several years now, students have been using peer- to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications such as KaZaa and Grokster to illegally trade files containing copyrighted works. Even before last week's lawsuits, recording industry enforcement efforts had resulted in almost 10,000 lawsuits against illegal file sharers nationwide.

What is new about these latest cases is that an advanced, high-speed network -- specifically created by participating universities for important academic research -- has been hijacked for music theft. The network is called Internet2, and because of its speed, it is increasingly becoming the network of choice for students seeking to pirate copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale. The use of P2P applications such as i2hub on the ultrafast Internet2 network allows students to trade copyrighted works at unprecedented speed and volume.

It's not hard to see why a determined music pirate would see this as hidden treasure. Using i2hub via Internet2, a movie can be downloaded in five or fewer minutes, a song in less than 20 seconds. On DSL or cable, a song might take one to two minutes and a movie an hour or two. Plus, there is a widespread, albeit false, perception that abuse on i2hub is undetectable.

Don't get me wrong -- the problem is not Internet2, which is a marvelous technological initiative to harness and expand the power of the Internet for research and learning. The problem is that this network, supported in part by taxpayer dollars, is being subverted for the illegal sharing of copyrighted files.

Forty-one students at CMU and Pitt are cited in the initial round of i2hub lawsuits filed last week. Combined, they've illegally shared a staggering 144,000 files, including more than 68,000 music files. And while the music industry can sue to help arrest the growth of this illegal activity, the universities themselves can be the most powerful leaders in curbing theft of copyright materials on campus.

Through filtering and other technical means, universities can prevent this mass piracy. Proactively, they can partner with legal music services to offer students legitimate music downloads -- as have 44 other universities (including Penn State). And through consistent education programs, they can continually remind users of the value of copyrighted works and the necessity of responsible use of network resources.

Through the 20th century, Pittsburgh was known as a national and world leader in innovation in industries ranging from minerals to steel to food production. Today, as we move into the 21st century, that spirit of innovation is alive and well on its university campuses, creating new ideas for the "new economy" and educating the next generation of leaders.

Yet, this epidemic of music piracy threatens that spirit of innovation today. Piracy undermines both Internet2's stated and noble purpose to promote research and higher education, and our ability to invest in the next generation of creativity. It threatens -- both in theory and practice -- to leave new ideas in science, industry and finance vulnerable to theft and abuse by anyone who can somehow find a way to uncover them in the ethernet. The music community may have taken the first blow; but if this rampant theft is left unchecked, other industries cannot be far behind.

As we educate the future leaders on campuses in Pittsburgh and throughout the nation, we have the opportunity to foster a climate where creativity is valued and respected. In this way, we can pave the way to a new century of innovation.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05121/496886.stm

Counterpoint…

Letters to the business editor

Music Stealing All Around

Cary Sherman's opinion piece on Sunday, "Mellifluous Discord: Universities' High-Speed Internet2 Used by Students to Pilfer Music," was as one-sided and illogical as the whole Recording Industry Association of America he represents, as president.

Sherman suggests that universities should remind users of "the necessity of responsible use of network resources." In my computer science class at Carnegie Mellon, "Introduction to Computer Music," I spend a little time doing just that. I teach students how, historically, the major recording labels have dominated the recording industry, refusing to record some of America's greatest artists, including Louis Armstrong. (His first recordings were manufactured by a former piano company in Indiana, which was sued by the major labels of the day for patent infringement.) Mr. Sherman, is this an example of "a climate where creativity is valued" that you are seeking?

My students also learn how the broadcasting industry, dominated by NBC and CBS, ignored recording technology until the NBC monopoly was broken up by the FCC. The innovations in magnetic recording for broadcast introduced by the struggling ABC were a major step forward, enabling the modern recording industry and even modern computer technology. Mr. Sherman, was the monopolistic suppression of innovation the "responsible use of network resources" you are seeking?

Mr. Sherman, you say that stealing "is not OK," and yet I have musician friends who cannot get RIAA members to pay them the royalties they are due. While you are asking universities to address your problems, please don't forget that you too can be a "powerful leader in curbing theft of copyright materials on campus." If you'll stop your members from stealing from my friends, and then study some history, maybe I can help you.

Roger Dannenberg

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05123/497993.stm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Share Float Cash Or We Quit, Linkin Park Tells Warner
David Teather

Rock'n'roll used to be all about sex, drugs and wrecking hotel rooms. For today's angry young men of music, add share prices.

Linkin Park, the best-selling American rap metal band, is demanding to be released from its contract with Warner Music, complaining that it will not see a penny from the company's planned stock market flotation.

In a statement from the band's management, Linkin Park claimed it has been responsible for 10% of Warner Music's sales during the past five years.

Its albums, including Hybrid Theory and Meteora, have together sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. The band has threatened to delay its next album, which is due to be released in 2006.

"The new owners of Warner Music Group will be reaping a windfall of $1.4bn [£740m] from their $2.6bn purchase a mere 18 months ago if their planned initial public offering moves forward," the statement read. "Linkin Park, their biggest act, will get nothing."

The Grammy award-winning band also said it had become "increasingly concerned" that Warner Music's "diminished resources will leave it unable to compete in today's global music marketplace". It added: "We feel a responsibility to get great music to our fans. Unfortunately, we believe that we can't accomplish that effectively with the current Warner Music."

It noted that only $7m of the $750m proceeds of the IPO had been earmarked for corporate purposes.

The investment team led by Edgar Bronfman Jr that bought the business from Time Warner last year has since cut $250m in costs, reducing the workforce by 20% and its roster of artists by about 30%.

Warner responded by saying the threat was nothing more than an attempt to wring extra cash out of it. "While Linkin Park's talent is without question, the band's management is using fictitious numbers and making baseless charges and inflammatory threats in what is clearly a negotiating tactic.

"Warner Bros Records has made significant investments in Linkin Park, and they have always been compensated generously for their outstanding success worldwide."

The company contends that the band accounted for less than 3% of sales in the past five years, not 10%.

According to reports, the band's management, the Firm, is seeking a $60m payment and a 50:50 split of future profits as part of a new deal. The band's current contract demands four more albums.

Warner's other artists include Madonna, Green Day and Missy Elliott.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/...ticle_continue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EMI Signs Up For Fanning's Swap Service
Adam Pasick

The world's third-largest music company, EMI Group Plc, has signed a deal with Snocap, a technology firm that is working to create a legal peer-to-peer music-sharing network.

Snocap, headed by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, identifies songs by their digital "fingerprints" and determines how copyright holders want them to be used. For example, a music label could authorize an up-and-coming single to be freely distributed, or to play three times before requiring payment.

Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Bertelsmann <6758.T>, the largest and second-largest music companies respectively, already have deals in place to register their content with Snocap. Terms of Thursday's Snocap-EMI deal were not disclosed.

"This sends a signal to music industry critics who claim we are technophobic. If anything, we are embracing technologies like Snocap, which allow the P2P (peer-to-peer) community to share music legally," said David Munns, chairman and chief executive of EMI Music North America.

The music industry reacted slowly to the threat of peer-to-peer file-trading networks, beginning with Napster, and suffered one of the worst downturns in its history as millions of songs were illicitly shared online.

In the past year, legal online music services such as Apple's iTunes, RealNetworks's Rhapsody and the reformed Napster have grown increasingly popular, bolstering hopes that music companies can create a viable online business model.

At the same time, music companies have launched an aggressive legal battle against users who illicitly share large amounts of copyrighted music, filing hundreds of lawsuits.

A new breed of authorized P2P services such as Mashboxx -- in contrast to unauthorized services like Kazaa -- rely on Snocap to identify which songs are controlled by copyright owners. Matchboxx is set to launch a test version this month and is in active negotiations with the four major labels, according to its chief executive, Wayne Rosso.

Rosso, like Fanning, is a former antagonist of the music industry who is now seeking partnerships with the labels. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a landmark copyright lawsuit by the entertainment industry against Grokster, his old peer-to-peer company.

EMI shares were up 1.3 percent to 242 pence by 1517 GMT.
http://today.reuters.com/News/TechSt...SIC-EMI-DC.XML

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get Ready for Corporate Peer-to-Peer Applications

The networking traffic dynamics are not trivial in the P2P world. Complexity is the norm, with today's clients and servers becoming next-generation I.T. peer nodes. This seems to be a natural blueprint for the future.

Peer-to-peer networking has caused a dramatic increase in Internet traffic. Today, the major P2P user is the consumer, and the major application is media file sharing. Music, movies and the like now are available to consumers using P2P technology. Depending on the analysis methodology, P2P networking accounts for 60 to 89 percent of all Internet traffic.

P2P uses the computing power at the edge of a connection rather than within the network. The concept of clients or servers does not exist. Instead, peer nodes function as both clients and servers to other network nodes.

Although pure P2P networks exist, almost all efficient P2P networks use a hybrid approach in which the critical applications of indexing and searching are implemented in a client- server form, and data transfer is accomplished in a P2P manner.

This technology is analogous to a router's use of a route or table look-up processor and multiple forwarding processors.

There is a fundamental difference between P2P and client-server network traffic. For example, when using the classic client-server Internet FTP application, a user uploads a file to the FTP server and then other users can download that file, without any user-to- user communication.

The only network bandwidth being consumed is that of the client and the contended server. As the number of clients increases, the available server bandwidth decreases. If the same file distribution application is implemented using P2P networking, the download bandwidth increases with the number of distributed peer nodes.

Most corporate networkers believe P2P, with its ability to "hog" bandwidth and its myriad security issues, is a consumer phenomenon.

This is a misconception that in the future may be the undoing of the corporate network. P2P network applications such as Kazaa or Napster may not have a place in the corporate environment, but the same cannot be said for BitTorrent's File Sharing technology, currently being used for Linux software distribution, and Groove Networks' Virtual Office application, designed for shared workspace-online collaboration.

The use of BitTorrent and Groove software currently does not impose a significant bandwidth demand on corporate networks. But Microsoft's recent acquisition of Groove may drastically change the bandwidth consumption equation.

One of Microsoft's stated intentions is to add Groove's P2P technology to its next- generation operating system called Longhorn. With Longhorn's arrival on the desktop and server, Microsoft may single-handedly redistribute and accelerate corporate bandwidth demand.

Also on the horizon is another corporate networking nightmare called the grid. Lo and behold, the underpinning of all grid technology is P2P. With the adoption of Globus 4.0 as the new XML-based protocol standard, grid services will become the P2P of Web services.

As corporate terminal-mainframe centralized networking evolved into client-server distributed networking, so shall all forms of corporate networking eventually evolve into P2P.

The networking traffic dynamics are not trivial in the P2P world. Complexity is the norm, with today's clients and servers becoming next-generation I.T. peer nodes. This seems to be a natural blueprint for the future.

All edge nodes will become highly intelligent, simultaneously and randomly capable of dynamically participating in the combined execution of an application as well as interfacing directly with the user. The corporate network also will become more internally intelligent, being required to optimize applications bandwidth demand dynamically while simultaneously managing network latency/jitter and corporate policy.

Be forewarned, get educated and be prepared for the network implications of corporate I.T. P2P applications. The corporate next-generation network future may be just around the corner in 2006.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtm...d=002000001GK2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hackers Lookin’ For New Meat: MACs Are Next
John Stith

It would appear the hackers are looking for new meat and your MAC may be next. With SANS releasing their internet security update, ITunes and MAC users are in for a rude awakening.

Microsoft products have always been the hackers venue of choice because everyone used it. Windows in one form or another is on nearly every computer in the world so it was easy for hackers to work over. They'd hit you in Outlook or visit a webpage. Look at an email or download a file. It was easy.

Microsoft has been concentrating more on its security protocols and that means hackers have to work a little harder. Why do that when you have all these other venues to work on. Apple just released the OS X and Longhorn is still a year plus away. ITunes are everywhere now. It stands to reason that the hackers will eventually go for these formats.

You might want to keep an eye on your file swapping too. Peer- to-Peer (P2P) links are popular now and file swapping could cause some problems as hackers send you little presents and dig through your computers looking for names and email addresses.

It's getting tougher and more complicated to be a simple computer user and surf for porn or games or some other useless geek entertainment. I just don't know what I'm going to do.
http://www.securitypronews.com/news/...CsAreNext.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Technology Controls Accessibility of Adult Content Online: Media Rights Technologies Announces the Release of SeCure Alliance DVD
Pres Release

Media Rights Technologies ("MRT") announces a powerful new technology that addresses and mitigates one of the most pressing issues of online piracy: underage viewing of adult content.

SeCure Alliance DVD is an integral part of MRT's powerhouse SeCure software suite, which provides comprehensive and/or selective control of digital copyrighted material. This effective and robust technology is the most potent advance offered thus far toward the critical goal of protecting adult material. By preventing unauthorized ripping, uploading and redistribution via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, SeCure Alliance DVD transparently yet solidly blocks age-inappropriate adult content from becoming available to minors. In addition to "blanket control" options, MRT's application features multiple provisions for selective security to manage value-added content, enhancing the DVD's value for both the end user and content owner.

The development of DivX video and other smaller file formats has resulted in widespread consumer DVD ripping. Illegally shared adult content propagates rapidly and unmonitored through Internet communities, P2P networks and newsgroups. Once on these networks, minors have immediate and unrestricted access to adult content. This problem will undoubtedly continue to grow at an accelerated pace as more DVD ripping programs become available, some even available for free. Parents and the adult entertainment industry are equally and legitimately alarmed that the ease of sharing adult content over the Internet is exposing minors to inappropriate material.

MRT's SeCure Alliance DVD technology protects against the growing unrestricted access to illegal adult content online. MRT CEO, Hank Risan adds, "Through the implementation of this unique technology, the adult entertainment community and major motion film companies can exhibit their willingness to proactively protect and ensure that adult content does not fall into the hands of minors without inhibiting freedom of artistic expression." MRT's SeCure Alliance DVD works across all DVD platforms and, in conjunction with MRT's dynamic software updates, provides an ongoing solution to this expanding industry dilemma. Evaluation discs for testing are available to all interested parties. All evaluation and licensing inquiries should be directed to Elizabeth Crowell, Director of Business Development, 831-426-4412 or liz@mediarightstech.com.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050503/sftu151.html?.v=4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New ASA 5500 Series delivers converged market-proven security technologies to help protect organizations of all sizes
Press Release

Cisco Systems®, Inc., today announced the availability of the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance ( ASA ) 5500 Series, an innovative family of multi- function security appliances that help stop attacks before they spread through the network.

The Cisco ASA 5500 Series controls network and application traffic, delivers flexible Virtual Private Network ( VPN ) connectivity, and reduces the overall deployment, operations costs and complexity that would otherwise be associated with this level of comprehensive security. A key component of the recently announced Adaptive Threat Defense phase of the Cisco Self-Defending Network ( SDN ) security strategy, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series includes the Cisco ASA 5510, Cisco ASA 5520, and Cisco ASA 5540 products. This appliance family is designed to span from small and medium sized businesses to large enterprises, and is purpose built for concurrent services scalability and unified management. This enables high- performance and simultaneous operation of multiple security services without added operational complexity.

The Application security services available on the Cisco ASA 5500 series provide advanced application inspection and control for dynamic and reliable protection of networked business applications. These services include control of bandwidth-intensive peer-to-peer services ( P2P ) such as Kazaa and Instant Messaging ( IM ), Web URL access controls, protection and integrity validation of core business applications like database services, and numerous application-specific protections for Voice over IP ( VoIP ) and multimedia services.

The Cisco ASA 5500 Series also offers Network containment and control services that provide precise control and segmentation of users, application access and network traffic flows. These include Layer 2-4 stateful inspection firewall capabilities let customers track the state of all network communications and help prevent unauthorized network access. The Cisco ASA 5500 Series also includes virtualization services that enable network segmentation and services scalability.
http://i-newswire.com/pr18466.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gee. That’s no fun

Network Shares Audio And Video, Screens Out Bootlegs
Jon Healey

Mike Homer sees the future of public broadcasting, and it's on the Internet.

Or rather, it is the Internet.

Homer and erstwhile Netscape wunderkind Marc Andreessen are using file-sharing technology to distribute audio and video files for free online. Unlike Kazaa and other popular "peer-to-peer" programs, however, Open Media Network allows only authorized sharing and weeds out bootlegged goods.

The nonprofit network is designed to be an outlet for anyone who creates audiovisual works -- be it an independent filmmaker, a public television station or a hobbyist with a camera or a microphone.

The effort tries to tap the growth in noncommercial and grass-roots media epitomized by weblogs, the personal Web sites frequently updated with fresh reporting, commentary and creativity.

Weblogs have grown from a handful of sites in 1997 to about 31 million today, by Open Media Network's count.

More broadly, the rise in high-speed Internet connections has fueled an evolution of the Web from a medium heavy on text and graphics into a source of music and moving pictures as well. And the proliferation of low-priced digital camcorders and recording gear has created millions of potential producers of entertainment and information in search of an audience.

The challenge for organizations such as Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Open Media Network, though, is generating a market for this new material, said John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

Such efforts can attract an audience if users easily can sort through the "undifferentiated mass" and find what interests them, Palfrey said. "But I think most of them are going to fail," he added, because "they won't get that stuff right, and it will just be a mass that's very hard to sort through."

All the same, the field has drawn some big players. Both Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are building collections of video files -- including television shows and homemade movies -- that users can search through and, in some cases, watch.

"I really believe there's a big, huge publishing revolution," said Homer, who has provided some of the start-up capital for Open Media Network. "A new system like this can take advantage of it."

Open Media Network's approach is different from Google's and Yahoo's in at least two important ways.

First, Homer said, Open Media Network will offer several means to help people navigate through its offerings. Its TV-style program guide is expected to sort files by type and topic, as well as lists the most popular ones. Later this year, it plans to let users rate files, post comments about them and provide descriptive tags to help identify the files to searchers.

Second, users can download copies of files on the network, rather than just watch them or read transcripts. Open Media Network's file-sharing technology, which comes from Kontiki Inc. of Sunnyvale, slashes distribution costs by having users download popular files from one another's computers, not Open Media Network's servers.

Kontiki tries to deter piracy by keeping a tight lid on the material that users can share. This central control makes it difficult to publish copyrighted audio or video on Open Media Network without the copyright owner's permission, and easy to remove anything that proves to be pirated, Homer said.

The network also can distribute files with electronic locks, enabling copyright owners to restrict copying or demand fees for playback.

Homer, Kontiki's founder and chairman, said the several thousand files available on Open Media Network could be downloaded free.

Later this year, though, the network plans to introduce tools that will enable publishers to charge for their works. The fees they generate will be split with Open Media Network, helping to cover its costs, Homer said.

Among the network's first suppliers are numerous audio and video bloggers such as Los Angeles-based Shannon Noble, creator of "This Is Vlog," whose works are syndicated online.

Others include Cinequest, a San Jose, Calif.-based motion picture institute that offers independent features and short films, and three public broadcasters -- KWSU in Pullman, Wash., KQED in San Francisco and WGBH in Boston.

John Boland, KQED's chief content officer, said his company was experimenting with several alternative ways to deliver its TV and radio programming "to try to meet what we feel the demand of consumers will be, which is to have their content where they want it when they want it."

Using the Internet not only helps KQED retain supporters by keeping up with their shifting habits but also helps the station to reach new ones, said Boland and Tim Olson, director of KQED Interactive.

The station's flexibility to experiment is limited by "mind-boggling" copyright issues, Boland said. Still, Olson said, the company is working with several online distributors because, "It's so early in this marketplace that it's really hard to say how it's going to shake out."
http://www.detnews.com/2005/technolo...ech-170546.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

File Sharers Can No Longer Hide
Jack M. Germain

FirstSource monitors for the first uploads of a client's intellectual property to the eDonkey and Bit Torrent networks. When the system spots a file name matching the client's content, it initiates a download to confirm that the file is what it appears to be.

eDonkey.com, Bit Torrent and other file-sharing networks beware: The commercial equivalent to Big Brother is watching you.

BayTSP, a leading provider of online intellectual property monitoring and compliance systems, last month began offering a service aimed at software, movie and music pirates. FirstSource is an automated system that identifies the first users to upload copyright- or trademark-protected content to major peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

The service gives owners of intellectual property a way to identify the first individuals who upload illegal content. It also allows companies to track all subsequent users who download and share a particular file.

Evidence for Court

With this information in hand, intellectual property owners can produce evidence in court to substantiate piracy charges.

"Pirated copies of movies and software typically appear online within hours of release," Mark Ishikawa, CEO of BayTSP, said. "Identifying and taking action against the first uploaders can greatly slow the distribution of illegally obtained intellectual property and might make users think twice before doing it."

The FirstSource concept was tested successfully in BayTSP's computer labs. "We've been working with this system in-house since the summer," Ishikawa told TechNewsWorld.

He said the system is based on a unique search protocol, but declined to provide specifics. He added that the process is similar to conducting an Internet search with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) .

Ishikawa said the concept has proved successful in trials conducted since the last quarter of 2004.

"We don't have to touch the file first. We identify the first person to make it available," Ishikawa said.

Initial tests of the FirstSource service indicate that several thousand copies of a movie available for download on the eDonkey.com and Bit Torrent networks can be traced back to the initial uploaded file.

Ishikawa said the FirstSource service is already in use for some of BayTSP's clients for gathering evidence to be used in pending litigation.

How It Works

"Just watch for the news when the first major case breaks," he told TechNewsWorld.

EDonkey and Bit Torrent are two of the most popular file sharing networks and use a technique called swarming that allows users to download slices of a file, according to BayTSP. These slices could come from a pirated movie or software application.

The swarming technique lets multiple users access the files for download simultaneously. As users download a file, they also share the portions they've already received.

FirstSource monitors for the first uploads of a client's intellectual property to the eDonkey and Bit Torrent networks. When the system spots a file name matching the client's content, it initiates a download to confirm that the file is what it appears to be.

Once the content is validated, the FirstSource system captures the Internet Protocol address and identifying information of other users downloading and sharing the pirated material.

The system also logs which portions of the file that each user shares. This data is stored in an infringement database as evidence in the event the client decides to pursue litigation against the file sharers.

Offenders Put on Notice

The FirstSource system permits BayTSP's clients to monitor the tracking via a Web-based interface. When computer users are identified as being a tracked downloader or supplying copyrighted material, they receive a notice of violation.

Clients have the option of automatically or manually issuing these take-down notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The process is so efficient that sometimes the notices can be served while the downloads are still in progress.

The take-down notice is directed at both the ISP operators and the individual file-sharers.

U.S.-based ISP operators are directed to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by blocking access to infringing files. The notice directs the ISP owner to reply to the infringement notice and verify that the infringing material is blocked. According to the notice, International ISPs are bound by the Bilateral Treaty and/or the Berne Convention to similarly block access to the copyrighted material.

The notice sent to identified users announces that copyrighted material belonging to a client of BayTSP is publicly available on the users' computers without the proper authorization and/or license.

Effective Deterrent

The notice states: "Under the DMCA (USA) and the Bilateral Treaty and Berne Convention (International), this constitutes a copyright violation. You must promptly remove the infringing works. We also strongly recommend you reply to the infringement notice verifying removal of the infringing files. Please note that blocking access/removal of infringing material does not relinquish our client's right for further action against you."

Ishikawa said the FirstSource scans find between 3.5 million and 5 million copyright violations per day.

BayTSP officials are counting on word of their success rate spreading quickly to file-sharers who exchange illegal files. The penalties, noted Ishikawa, are too severe not to take notice. He hopes to discourage people from taking the risk.

"I could be the best Internet op around. I still could never stop the piracy completely," Ishikawa said.

"Theft of intellectual property is so prevalent on the Internet that I will never put myself out of business," he said.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/40247.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Macrovision Corporation Reports Results for the First Quarter of 2005
Press Release

Company Achieves Record First Quarter Revenues and Earnings

Macrovision Corporation (Nasdaq:MVSN - News) announced today first quarter 2005 net revenues of $51.3 million, an increase of 35% compared to $38.0 million in the first quarter of 2004. Pro forma earnings (before amortization of intangibles from acquisitions, non-cash deferred compensation expense, impairment gains and losses on investments, and adjustments for changes to our tax rate, as applicable) were $11.5 million. Pro forma diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.22. The Company generated $15.1 million of cash from operations and its ending cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments and long term marketable securities were $265.2 million.

GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2005 was $5.5 million which includes a charge of $5.8 million as a result of writing down an investment in Digimarc to market. Diluted GAAP earnings per share for the quarter were $0.11.

"We are very pleased with our first quarter results," said Bill Krepick, President and CEO at Macrovision. "Our software business turned in a strong performance and for the first time our software technologies' revenues exceeded our entertainment technologies' revenues. We increased our customer base for both our new Hawkeye(TM) peer-to-peer anti-piracy service and our RipGuard DVD(TM) anti-ripping product. We are pleased that we were able to manage our costs even in the face of additional Sarbanes Oxley expenses and continued investment in new products and in the integration of our acquired products. We were also pleased that we filed our first 10-K under the rules governed by Sarbanes Oxley, and we received an unqualified opinion from our independent registered public accounting firm on our internal controls."

Krepick continued, "Looking ahead, we are confirming our FY2005 guidance for revenues to be between $220 and $230 million, but increasing our guidance for pro forma EPS which we expect to be in the $1.05-$1.07 range, and GAAP earnings per share in the range of $0.83-$0.86. For Q2 2005, we are estimating that our revenues will be in the range of $47-$49 million and our pro forma EPS will be in the range of $0.15-$0.17. Our forecasts take into account the fact that we have a number of new products that we expect will slowly gain traction as the year progresses and will culminate in a strong Q4, which will reflect historical seasonality in both of our business units. These projections include the impact of the InstallShield® acquisition for the full year."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050502/26086.html?.v=1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terror on the Internet!

We write scare stories!

File Sharers, Beware!
CBS

It was among the most frightening phone calls Don Bodiker ever received. A stranger calling from California was reading Bodiker's tax return.

"We had not even sent our taxes in yet," he says. "They had not even been mailed."

And worse, the stranger got the tax return online straight out of his computer, "where he could read every single line of everything that I had on my taxes," says Bodiker.

It was, he says, "a very scary moment for us."

CBS News found the mystery caller, who wants to be known only as "Jeff from Sacramento." So far, Jeff has called 120 people to warn them their financial documents are available because of file sharing.

It's all there, he says – tax files, checking account and routing number.

As CBS News Correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports, file sharing today is the rage on the Internet, mostly because of users who want to share songs. But because file sharing literally opens your computer to outsiders it can also lead to snooping. All Jeff does is search for the word "tax."

Millions of Americans now share files, usually music, by downloading what's called peer-to-peer software. The problem is many users don't understand which files exactly are being made public.

While we watched, Jeff pulled the tax return of Zachary in New Mexico and called him

"You had your refund of $794 sent directly to your checking account," Jeff tells Zachary. "No sir I am not kidding."

Zachary, clearly shaken, agreed to speak with CBS News.

Asked to share his thoughts about it, Zachary says: "I'm deeply concerned, and I think something needs to be done now. "

After tracking down Zachary, it's learned that both he and Bodiker had installed a file share program called BearShare. They had no idea BearShare was giving away personal documents like their taxes.

Zachary says the software program didn't give him enough warning that he was giving away personal information.

"If I had known that I never would have downloaded the program," he says.

The makers of BearShare declined comment but an industry spokesman, Adam Eisgrau, says the privacy rules for Bear Share will be upgraded immediately.

"As I understand it, a new version will be coming out literally in a matter of days that will seek to close any possible vulnerabilities of this," says Eisgrau.

And there are plenty of vulnerabilities. Besides tax returns, CBS News also found private medical files, and private bank statements.

Jeff doesn't believe both Bodiker nor Zachary meant to share their tax returns.

Jeff says computer users need to be more responsible for what they allow on their computer and need to know what a program does or can do. Otherwise users in such a rush to take in music files, may well be giving away much, much more.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in692765.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t care whacha call me long as ya call me…

RIAA Suits May Actually Promote File Sharing
Richard Menta

Today it is accepted as common knowledge that the record industry lawsuits against the original Napster served as advertisement for the new service. That can happen when you take an application only a few months old and splash it on the front page of newspapers throughout the world for two years. Over the course of the trial tens-of-millions flocked to the service and when it was finally shut down those users turned to Morpheus, KaZaa and later to eDonkey and Bittorrent. File sharing was big and only became bigger.

The entertainment industry's "Sue 'em All" campaign seems to be suffering from the same effect. Rather than do what it was designed to do (as Jon Newton would say 'scare file sharers into purchasing their overpriced products') and cause file sharing to drop, trading on the P2P applications have increased. According to Thomas Mennecke in his great article "RIAA's Grand Total" 10,037 - What are Your Odds" there are approximately 12 million P2P users online at any given moment.

Now that the media conglomerates have topped the 10,000 lawsuit mark Tom's article lays out the fact that the chances of being sued are 1 in 1,840. The chances of dying by external causes like a horrible accident? 1 in 1,755. People don't stop driving cars because of fears it will kill them (though they might buy bigger more secure ones if their concerns are high). Likewise, file sharers won't stop sharing.

Tom parses the numbers quite adeptly and is a recommended read for all as is this article by Jon Newton. By placing the risks in this perspective, the fear of lawsuits is lessened. Lower the fear and the suits themselves only become more like ads, keeping the spotlight on file sharing. These articles could become quite influential should it pick up a wide readership.

But what if the RIAA uses these numbers as an excuse to turn up the heat? What if they decide to increase the mass scale of these suits to worsen the odds? Then they have to deal with another effect, lost sales due to bad PR. Ask Martha Stewart about that one if you doubt its influence.
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/5002/advertise.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RIAA’s Grand Total: 10,037 - What are Your Odds?
Thomas Mennecke

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) began their lawsuit campaign against alleged music pirates in June of 2003. When the first RIAA lawsuits began rolling off the assembly line, an enormous media frenzy accompanied this event. Since that time the lawsuits have become second-rate news, as the chances of becoming another RIAA statistic is relatively low – very low.

So what exactly are your chances of being sued by the RIAA? In our news story last Wednesday, Slyck reported the number of online file-sharers was approximately 9 million users. Among other networks, this number did not account for the BitTorrent, WinMX, Manolito, Warez/Ares, Gnutella2 or SoulSeek populations. If we did include those users, we would be looking at a much larger population – perhaps as many as 15 million users. For the purposes of this article, we will split the difference and approximate there are 12 million P2P users online at any given moment.

With this number in mind, there have been 10,037 people sued by the RIAA since June of 2003. According to the web log “ RIAA Watch”, 6,523 people were sued by the RIAA in 2004. What exactly does this mean?

If we divide the total population of the P2P community (~12 million individuals), by the total number of lawsuits in 2004 (6,523), we get 1,840. In other words, your chances of being sued are 1 in 1,840 for all users (regardless of network) per year. How does that stack against all other odds of dying from an intentional or non- intentional injury? According to the National Safety Council, one’s yearly chances of dying from all external causes were 1 in 1,755 in 2002.

Basically, your chances of dying from all causes of external injuries, whether from a car accident, motorcycle accident, plane crash, murder, etc was 1 in 1,755 – fairly remote odds. Although the odds were remote, they still were not as remote as specific causes of death – such as lightening strikes, suicide, “fall on and from stairs and steps” or being electrocuted. In some cases, your chances of dying from contact with a sharp object were 1 in 2.8 million.

So let us examine the chances of being sued by the RIAA a bit further. The main focus of the RIAA lawsuits have been against the FastTrack network. The effects of this campaign has crippled FastTrack, dropping its population from ~4.5 million to ~2.5 million users. From the last capture of the proportion of networks under the RIAA’s gun in November of 2003, 150 users of FastTrack were sued, compared to 5 Blubster users. Since the RIAA cannot subpoena individuals anymore, we unfortunately cannot provide a more current proportion. However, common knowledge dictates that FastTrack remains a priority, and on November 13 of 2003 it represented ~96% of those being sued.

If we were to eliminate 96% (proportion of FastTrack users) of the 6,523 sued in 2004, the odds of being sued changes dramatically. If we consider only those using a non-FastTrack P2P network, the total number of lawsuits drops to only ~261. In other words, you then have a 1 in 45,977 chance of being sued if you do not use FastTrack. Comparatively, according to the National Safety Council, you have a better chance of being killed in a transportation or non-transportational accident, death from suicide, death from assault or death by legal intervention (such as execution or being shot by a police officer.)

However this assumes the RIAA has remained consistent in which network users are being sued from. Let's say the RIAA was more diverse in which networks they pursue. If we assume half of those sued in 2004 were using FastTrack, that leaves us with 3,261 non-FastTrack related lawsuits. You would then have a 1 in 3,679 chance of being sued. That still places you above all external cases of mortality (1 in 1,755), but below all transportational accidents (1 in 5,953.) However, you would still have a better chance of being killed in an unintentional accident (1 in 2,698), then being sued by the RIAA.

Although these numbers are hardly an exact science, they do reflect the odds of being sued are little different than the risks one takes by simply living day-to-day life. But if we were to get real specific, the odds of being sued by the RIAA for non- FastTrack users (1 in 3,679) is still much greater than death by contact with a venomous snake or lizard (1 in 95 million.) So just watch yourself.
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=769

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Intermix is just the start

Ramifications Of Adware Suit Are Broad
Bambi Francisco

As I stepped ashore onto the island of Cozumel last year after a pleasant few days aboard a cruise ship I was accosted by solicitors offering scuba diving tours before I could get 50 feet away from the ship

One after the other, they invaded my space.

I thought: "Ugh! Live pop-ups!"

That happened once. But on the computer, the digital equivalents of pesky sports' tours or timeshare salesmen haunt us every minute of each day.

The way they get on our computer is through adware, which is on an estimated nine out of 10 computers. The definition is fluid, but broadly speaking it is software that's mysteriously installed on computers without user consent. It can track user activity and serve up advertisements related to that activity. It's typically bundled with applications, like screensavers, or music file-sharing applications or when people mistype URLs.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued Intermix Media Inc. (MIX), accusing the Internet marketing company of secretly installing spyware on millions of home computers. Spitzer's civil suit accuses Intermix of violating New York General Business Law provisions against false advertising and deceptive business practices, according to the Associated Presss. He also accuses them of trespass under New York common law, the AP reported. See related story

If history is any guide, the attorney general -- who's taken on Wall Street, brokerages, insurers and others -- won't be satisfied with one tiny company. There are a whole slew of companies that distribute malicious adware applications as well as advertisers or ad networks that know such practices occur but turn a blind eye to them.

There are file-sharing companies, like Grokster, Morpheus and Kazaa that bundle their software with 20 to 30 adware applications, according to Webroot CEO David Moll.

Then there are companies, backed by major venture capitalists, like 180Solutions, funded by Spectrum Equity Investors, as well as Claria/Gator, Direct Revenue and eXact Advertising, that many observers consider adware/spyware companies.

There's also FindWhat.com (FWHT), Yahoo (YHOO) and ValueClick (VCLK), to name a few ad networks that may or may not know the extent to which adware is used to deliver their ads.

And then there's Ask Jeeves (ASKJ), which just on Monday terminated an agreement with a marketing/distribution partner that uses drive-by downloads (a form of adware). The termination was prompted after I questioned Ask Jeeves about this partnership, which was uncovered by spyware sleuth Ben Edelman. Edelman was an expert witness who testified on behalf of media publications in a case against Gator, now known as Claria, back in 2002.

Adware is big business. It's estimated that ads worth $2 billion are served up via adware, according to a report being released Tuesday by Webroot. That's more than 20% of the estimated $9.6 billion in advertisements placed online last year. Watch interview with Webroot's Moll.

Webroot measured ads delivered via pop-ups, pop-unders, as well as those seen when applications redirect searches or hijack home pages. As a maker of anti- spyware software Webroot is clearly motivated to heighten the risks. But there's no question that adware is a real menace to Internet surfers and to investors.

Investor risk

Intermix shares dove 23% when Spitzer announced the lawsuit against the Los Angeles-based company last Thursday. See full story.

But Intermix won't be the only stock to see its share price slashed as Spitzer's investigation widens. Based on my conversation with Spitzer's office, the Intermix case may pry open a Pandora's Box for the industry.

"A lot of advertisers are using spyware companies," said Assistant Attorney General Justin Brookman, who's handling the case for Spitzer's Internet Bureau. "Intermix is the only company sued at this point," said Brookman. Translation: Spitzer's team isn't stopping with Intermix.

In fact, Brookman told me that there are as many as 30 other Web sites or companies acting as agents helping to distribute applications without consumers' consent. One tiny company highlighted in the report, Acez Software, already settled with Spitzer's office, according to Brookman.

Spitzer's team wouldn't elaborate on specific companies being investigated. But it's fair to say it's a comprehensive list.

So what happens when Spitzer cracks down? What's the risk and who's at risk? Do the ads go away? If not, where do they go, and which online company will they benefit?

Guilty by association

"We're not ruling out in the future going after advertisers, or Overture," said Brookman. Yahoo's Overture accounted for some 10% of Intermix's revenue, said Brookman.

Yahoo would not comment.

Claria, formerly Gator, is another company that's been accused of distributing spyware. It has said in its pre-IPO S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Yahoo's Overture accounted for 31% of its sales in 2003.

To be sure, two high profile lawsuits against the company have been settled without any admission of wrongdoing. Claria, describes itself as a "behavioral marketing" company. It's sensitive enough to criticism to carry disclaimers on its website insisting that "We have strictly abided to our commitment to privacy and are dedicated to providing valuable permission-based software applications in exchange for delivering targeted messages to our users based on their anonymous online behavior."

Netflix was another Intermix advertiser. Its ads were seen on the FloGo toolbar that is one of Intermix's applications that is downloaded alongside an Intermix screen saver program. Netflix said that it's unaware of any promotions on adware and prohibits its affiliates or distributors to place ads on such applications.

While Brookman believes there may be culpability on the part of advertisers, Spitzer's office hasn't drawn any conclusions.

After all, Netflix said it's not aware of its ads being delivered in such a nefarious way. There's also a question of whether advertisers should be responsible for how or where their distributors place their ads.

Suffice it to say that if advertisers did know that ads were being placed by misleading installations of toolbars or redirects of Web pages, then Spitzer's office will likely have a word or two with them.

Ask Jeeves is particularly worth noting since there have been a number of independent sources alleging that Ask Jeeves uses distributors of spyware.

Heather Staples, a spokeswoman for Ask Jeeves, said the company does not use distributors that inadvertently install applications on computers of unsuspecting or non-consenting consumers.

So I alerted her to a video clip captured by Edelman, who documented an instance in which he received the Ask Jeeves' MySearch toolbar without his request. See Bendelman's video and reports.

Staples came back and said that Ask Jeeves did in fact find fault with this particular distribution partner. "We just turned off that partner," she said, adding, "I don't think this is a widespread issue because of the preventive steps we've taken." That said, "this is an imperfect industry... We need to rely on consumer feedback to identify these outlying issues."

But outlying issues seem to plague Ask Jeeves.

Ask Jeeves worked with distributors of spyware in the past, such as Mindset's FavoriteMan, a spyware program that installs other spyware programs, installs new icons on computer desktops and adds links to a users' favorites list in Microsoft's (MSFT) Internet Explorer. FavoriteMan was also used by Intermix, according to Spitzer's suit.

The agreement between MySearch and Mindset was that MySearch would be bundled with downloadable games, said Staples.

The agreement ended in the fall of 2003 when Ask Jeeves realized that the distribution of MySearch via Mindset fell outside the scope of the Ask Jeeves' policies, namely that distributors had to give consumers proper notification. Additionally, the company advocates that its distributors comply with proper disclosure and notification and removal requirements for any of its applications.

But Ask Jeeves still partners with Kazaa, a peer-to-peer file-sharing company as well as Grokster. Peer-to-peer companies bundle a number of adware programs with their own software. Ask Jeeves won't be able to rely on that type of distribution if the P2P companies are found to be liable for distributing spyware.

Even if Ask Jeeves isn't doing anything wrong, it's still not off the hook with investors if a significant amount of advertising is placed on its properties that acquire traffic via devious channels. Two-thirds of Ask Jeeves' search traffic in March came from its MySearch, MyWebSearch and MyWay properties, according to comScore Networks. These are the properties that have in the past, and may still be relying on distributors that use adware to get onto computers.

Not only does this have implications for Ask Jeeves, but InterActiveCorp (IACI), which has agreed to spend $1.8 billion to buy the property.

As for FindWhat.com, Tom Wilde, senior vice president of primary traffic acquisition said that the company currently has a distribution agreement with Direct Revenue, but the revenue is "well under half a percent of total revenue." Direct Revenue's software monitors a users' activity and serves up ads related to that activity, according to Edelman. I asked Wilde why FindWhat.com even uses Direct Revenue if the company allegedly uses spyware, and Wilde said that Direct Revenue also uses legitimate channels to distribute advertisements. Wilde also said that FindWhat is not distributing through Intermix, Gator or 180Solutions.

ValueClick did not return calls seeking comment.

Final thoughts...

The problems are getting some companies to act. Last week, CNet (CNET) said that any application downloaded from its Download.com site will be tested for adware and will be adware-free.

Many of these ad networks, like Ask Jeeves, say they that this type of behavior is new and tough to track. Indeed, it is.

But perhaps companies should take better care in conducting their due diligence in choosing distribution partners. Goodness, it was once the case that we couldn't trust Internet revenue figures. Now, is it the case that we can't trust audience figures and traffic? Are companies so driven to drive up traffic to attract advertisers that they're lowering the standards their partners must meet?

If that's the case, I'm glad Spitzer is on this. If companies aren't going to comply or make their distributors or marketing partners comply, then Spitzer will have to make them.
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comm...=10117_0_3_1_C

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RIAA Shrugs Off Court Ruling In Favor Of File-Sharers

North Carolina decision pertains to outdated litigation process.
Brandee J. Tecson

A federal judge recently ruled that two North Carolina universities do not have to disclose the identities of two college students who allegedly file-swapped songs on the universities' computer systems.

While the ruling might at first seem like a setback for the Recording Industry Association of America's effort to eradicate illegal file-sharing, the RIAA said the overall effect will be minimal. "This [ruling deals with] an old process that we no longer use and have not used since 2003," explained Jonathan Lamy, a spokesperson for the RIAA.

According to The Associated Press, the RIAA filed subpoenas at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in November 2003 in order to obtain the schools' cooperation in identifying two file-sharers who logged on to a peer- to-peer system as "CadillacMan" and "hulk."

But starting in January 2004, the RIAA began using a different litigation process, dubbed "John Doe," to obtain the identities of illegal file-sharers. To date, the organization has issued more than 11,000 lawsuits, including 800 against university students, under the "John Doe" process.

The way it works is the RIAA sues an anonymous computer address under the name John Doe. After the suit is filed and the judge grants the request to start the investigative process, the RIAA can subpoena the individual's identity from their Internet service provider. The complaint is then amended to include the alleged file-sharer's name. "John Doe" has been highly successful, the RIAA said, and universities have been responsive to the process.

Prior to "John Doe," the RIAA was relying on a provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that allowed for pre-lawsuit subpoenas to learn the identities of file-sharers. However, in December 2003, the D.C. Court of Appeals struck down the use of DMCA subpoenas to learn names.

"When the court ruled against us, we stopped using DMCA subpoenas, but there were still lingering cases left over that had not been resolved," including the two in North Carolina, Lamy explained. The RIAA decided not to withdraw the suit, but to also move forward using the "John Doe" litigation process.

Fred Battaglia and Michael Kornbluth, lawyers who represent one of the students targeted in the case, said they were not concerned with allegations of music piracy but with whether identifying their client would violate her privacy rights, according to the AP.

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

Kornbluth added that the ruling only applied to P2P file-sharing. "We would never condone music piracy," he said. "What we're interested in is the rights of the individual [and] privacy rights being protected."

Earlier this month, the RIAA filed 405 lawsuits against students at 18 universities who allegedly used Internet2 — a private research network used by colleges — to trade copyrighted songs and movies (see "RIAA Sues More Than 400 College Students Over Internet2 Downloads"), also utilizing the "John Doe" litigation process.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/150...headlines=true

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REM Song Row Halts Film
Deborah Haile

BLOW: Stephanie and Sarah

A COPYRIGHT row over a song by American supergroup REM is threatening a plan by Stockport youngsters to spread a green message across the world.

The three-minute film, produced by pupils from the Reddish Vale Technology College to promote green travel, was due to be shown at the World Expo 2005, which is being held until September 25 in Japan.

But without the backing of REM, the film, which won the Panasonic Witness News Competition to be shown at the event, will have to go back to the cutting room because it features the band's songs, Everybody Hurts."

The hauntingtrack accompanies images of potential disasters resulting from climate change and carbon dioxide emissions. And the children believe replacing it would take away the power the dramatic scenes create.

Ecology

School bosses say they have tried without success to obtain permission to use the track. And now deputy headteacher Jenny Campbell has written to the band.

She said: "The kids are really upset. The song is so apt for the subject - damage to our ecology does hurt us all."

And the school's head of citizenship Pat Spencer said: "We didn't anticipate there would be any problem with copyright."

Youngsters have been working on the film for almost six months. Now they hope the plea to singer Michael Stipe and his bandmates will enable them to keep the track.

The film's director Sarah Murphy, 15, said: "If Michael saw the film he would understand why we want this."

And Stephanie Bruckshaw, 14, who starred in the film, added: "Changing the music will change the whole film and I don't think the seriousness of it will get across."
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/me...alts_film.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fan Fiction Booms As Modern Folklore

Legions of serious fans take to the Internet to let their imaginations run wild writing scenarios for their favorite shows
Diane Werts

Have you ever loved a TV show so much that you wanted to be a part of it, to share the characters' adventures, to guide the action into exotic realms unexplored in actual episodes?

Maybe you visualized yourself kicking butt with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or hanging with prehistoric heroine Xena at a modern-day Starbucks. Maybe you feared your beloved show's scripters just weren't heading in the right direction. Why not get "X-Files" colleagues Mulder and Scully together - reeeeally together? For that matter, what about Mulder and assistant FBI director Skinner? Hey, Kirk and Spock on "Star Trek" sometimes seemed more than just "good friends." And what if Mulder and Scully crossed paths with Kirk and Spock?

These may be idle daydreams - but only if you don't type all your fervent imaginings into the computer, then post the doings on the Internet for the world to read. These days, it seems that's what everybody else does.

Down a new-old path

Fan fiction has become a booming hobby, with millions of stories written for cyberspace by ordinary consumers of TV shows, movies, books, even video games. "Fanfic" recycles well-known characters by taking them down fresh paths, recounted in epic-length chronicles, 100-word "drabbles," explicit character vignettes and crossovers between completely unrelated series. The reimaginings use existing entertainment icons to present an alternative mythology to the "official" version - a modern grassroots folklore subverting corporate control of "intellectual property."

Yet it isn't modern at all. While the Internet delivers fanfic with new efficiency through archives such as fanfiction.net, this kind of shared storytelling is actually an ancient form, which was once the norm.

"For most of human history, that's how narrative evolved," says Henry Jenkins, director of comparative media studies at MIT and author of "Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture" (1992). "There was never a single author, whether it's Homer or Shakespeare. Writers always borrowed heavily from the stories of their time," which were shaped and altered while being retold, Jenkins says. "There's a human need to tell stories to each other, and fanfic now fulfills that need."

"How many different King Arthur and Robin Hood stories are there?" asks Batya Wittenberg, who studied literature at Barnard after writing her own fanfic stories from age 9 (she started with a new "Wizard of Oz" tale). Now 29, the Kew Gardens Hills office manager discovered as the Internet mushroomed that thousands of fans were reconfiguring their faves.

She began riffing on shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" after she took a shine to a sixth-season "nerd" character named Andrew Wells seen in only an occasional scene. She remembers feeling, "'I bet I know what this character was thinking right after that. But I didn't see it. So I'm going to write it.' It's like, here's something the show didn't explore. It's filling in the blanks."

"They're expanding the relationships into a place that we don't have time to do on television," observes David Kemper, executive producer of "Farscape," the acclaimed Sci Fi cable drama whose fervent fandom still churns out stories online two years after cancellation. Like other TV professionals, Kemper says he doesn't read fan fiction - studios forbid it, fearing lawsuits over "borrowed" ideas - but he knows what it is and that it means a valuable core of loyal fans. He also understands the urge that makes them write. Kemper loved "Star Trek" as a kid. "I remember thinking, I should be a 12-year-old on the ship with these guys, going down to the planets and seeing all these things."

"Star Trek" actually owes its franchise life to the devotion fanfic epitomizes. After the original NBC series' cancellation in 1969, viewer zeal kept the concept alive in fan clubs, conventions and self-penned stories laboriously produced in printed fanzine form. "Fans were the only ones producing anything for a long time to satiate that hunger," says producer Ron Moore, who now runs Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" but cut his teeth as a writer on the several "Trek" TV sequels dating from the late 1980s. "It told Paramount there were people out there willing to pay for more 'Star Trek.'"

"It's still considered the grande dame of fandom," says Melissa "Merlin Missy" Wilson, a 30-year-old analytical chemist in suburban Chicago. Wilson has written dozens of fanfics but is best known for her "Dr. Merlin's Guide to Fan Fiction," a detailed online how-to widely consulted for a decade. Wilson says most TV fanfic is devoted to series with "some element of the fantastic or sci-fi" to stimulate imagination, as well as to "a certain kind of ensemble drama that just clicks with you." Fanfic writers know it when they see it.

Reality isn't big - really

The tube's big kahunas include the "Trek" series, "Buffy," "The X-Files," "Xena: Warrior Princess," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." (a 1960s fanfic pioneer that's still active) and "Alias," all of which seem obvious. But also "The West Wing" and "JAG," which don't, along with "Gilmore Girls," "Law & Order" and "Diagnosis Murder." Also inspiring fanfic are soap operas ("Passions"), animated series (from "Justice League" to "Rugrats"), even wrestling entertainment. Wilson says, "Sitcoms don't get a lot. Reality shows don't get a lot. They don't draw in the kind of people who write fanfic. Those are shows you click onto, watch and move on to the next show."

More appealing are shows in which viewers feel a stake in the characters' emotional lives. That bond can pull the writer personally into the tale. The "Mary Sue" story is a subgenre in which a perfect, altruistic, often tragic character represents an idealized version of the writer herself. And it usually is a "her." TV fan fiction writers are overwhelmingly female (with more men in areas like anime and video games that attract male users). "In the shows that tend to attract fan fiction," says MIT's Jenkins, "women are a 'surplus' audience. For men, what they want from the show is fully aired onscreen, while what women want is in the margins. Fandom is a mixture of fascination and frustration."

TV episodes revolve around plot. Fanfic writers prefer character. Their prose often languidly describes a passionate intimacy that's rarely conveyed between commercials. "Farscape's" Kemper notes that fanfic writers work in "the written form: This is for you to curl up on the couch to read and daydream. Whereas our show had to be visual and aural. They're two different things."

The presumption of fan fiction to get inside characters' heads ticks off some professional authors. Legal action has been taken by Anne Rice to deter fanfic of her vampire books and by J.K. Rowling to stop "adult" takes on Harry Potter. Fanfics often lead with disclaimers that their writers don't claim to own the characters or seek profit from their "fair use" extensions.

"Galactica" producer Moore, conversely, is thrilled to hear of even peculiar permutations of his characters. "I always loved it when writers went into strange nooks and crannies and turned the universe upside down in ways that we couldn't. 'Wouldn't it be great if Kirk and Spock were lovers?' We can't do that, but it's great that somebody can."

Which they certainly do. While some stories are innocuous what-ifs - the latest poker night of "Galactica's" Starbuck, or chance meetings between characters from "The West Wing" and "Will & Grace" - others are intricately detailed accounts of sexual explorations far beyond the series' established "canon." A wildly popular subgenre named slash, for the slash punctuation between character names, revolves around explicit sexual acts that make physical the emotional connection between male "buddy" pairs - Solo/Illya on "U.N.C.L.E.," or that ever popular Kirk/Spock team.

MIT's Jenkins is unfazed that women write such elaborately envisioned homoerotica. "Our culture loves passionate friendships between men that are more glorious than any man would have in real life," he says. "On 'Star Trek,' Kirk loves a girlfriend-of-the-week that he abandons at the end of the episode. But if Spock is in trouble, he'll risk everything in his career to go save him. It doesn't take a PhD in comparative literature to see the real relationship there."

No dead shows

Writer Wilson observes that "without a male-female power dynamic in the relationship, you can get down to quote, unquote 'pure' emotion." Would that also explain all those Xena/Gabrielle fanfic flings?

As the online activity around "Xena," "U.N.C.L.E" and "Trek" proves, there are no dead shows in the fan fiction universe. Tales are still being written around 1960s hits "Bonanza" and "Combat." Even short-run series such as NBC's 1997 half-season spy drama "UC: Undercover" have inspired hundreds of stories online. Writers collaborate to string together "virtual seasons" of canceled cult faves like the 1990s "Gargoyles" cartoon or CBS' "American Gothic" spooker.

And, of course, mass media are evolving from the passive model of reading and watching to the active engagement of computers and video games. If "Galactica" producer Moore is an old-school creator of top-down television, he also answers viewer questions on the show's Sci Fi site, writes a blog dialogue on its moral and aesthetic choices and records "podcast" commentaries fans can download for listening while watching episodes.

So is Buffy an immutable creation that a studio can employ copyright laws to prevent others from adapting? Or is she a folk character a la Snow White, and a fine jumping off point for storytelling variations? "I'm sure Shakespeare wouldn't like a lot of the incarnations of Romeo and Juliet," says Moore. "But once you create characters and they leave your computer and go out into the world, somebody is going to do something with them. I really think it's more flattering than anything else."

Lingo according to The Powers That Be

Fan fiction is a huge, fluid subculture with its own language and modus operandi.

A quick primer:

Canon. The officially aired or distributed form of the original concept the fanfic expands on, as created/ approved by The Powers That Be (TPTB).

Gen. "General" fan fiction stories, which tend to hue close to canon in terms of behavior and taste. Can signify nonromantic content when used alongside "ships" or "shippers" (meaning relationships).

Alt or AU. Alternate Universe tales stray from canon in any number of ways: time frame, setting, diverging.

Crossover. Stories that mix separate series. "Charmed" witches show up at the "M*A*S*H" camp. Xena patronizes the "Seinfeld" coffee shop. The "Beverly Hills 90210" kids meet "Kung Fu's" Caine. The "South Park" boys party with the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" folks.

Slash. Named for the slash punctuation between names, this indicates (mainly) male/male sexual pairings that violate series canon. Can mean female/female pairings, sometimes marked f/f. "Het" denotes heterosexual activity. Adult in nature, usually explicit, often emotionally charged.

PWP. Plot, What Plot? Here, sex is pretty much the only point.

Ratings. Fanfics may be categorized online by their adult content. Some sites apply familiar movie ratings (PG) or TV ratings (MA). Others use labels such as "adult" or "teen" to indicate appropriate readership.

Drabble. Brief scene lasting exactly 100 words.

Challenge. Soliciting stories to be shaped around a suggested theme, character, dialogue.

To explore fan fiction

Learn about fanfic at en.wikipe dia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction.

Read stories at www.fanfiction.net.

Follow links at www.fan ficweb.net/directory.

Peruse the amusing "Dr. Merlin's Guide to Fan Fiction" at missy.reimer.com/library/guide.html

See what not to do at www.godawful.net

Browse thoughtful essays at www.trickster.org/symposium and web.mit.edu/21fms/www/facul ty/henry3
http://fanfiction.notlong.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The First Lady's DVD
Posted by daddydirt

Laura Bush is a big hit for the one-liners she told at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night. some pretty funny stuff from an unlikely source. i've heard some clips and her delivery was quite good.

Quote:

I am married to the president of the United States, and here's our typical evening: Nine o'clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep, and I'm watching Desperate Housewives— with Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife. I mean, if those women on that show think they're desperate, they oughta be with George.

later, her press secretary set the record straight.

Quote:

Playing off "Desperate Housewives," the racy hit U.S. television show, was a natural, even though Whitson said in a brief interview after the dinner that Bush had never actually seen it. Whitson said the first lady had heard about the characters and plot from her twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, who are fans, and was planning to watch the entire first season on a DVD she has at home.

now i know they watch first-run movies at the White House movie theater, but do they get their hands on DVDs that haven't been released yet? if not, just what the hell is she gonna watch and where did she get it?

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/...comments_x.htm
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.ph...ews/letter.php
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...87113?v=glance

http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...ad.php?t=21482

JackSpratts · 05-05-05, 07:04 PM

MPAA Leader Weighs In on Grokster Case
Chris Nolan

Dan Glickman, a former congressman and a Cabinet member in the Clinton administration, took over as CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America last fall.

Although Glickman didn't initiate the association's lawsuits, which have led to the U.S. Supreme Court's pending decision on the legal merits and ramifications of peer-to-peer file sharing, his brief tenure has coincided with the hearing of what is perhaps the most-watched legal action in the tech community.

It's a case that will set the tone for how digital copyright is managed—legally and in the real-world marketplace—for some time to come.

Glickman, who is making a deliberate effort to talk to more tech folks more frequently, sat down with me for an interview in his Washington, D.C., office Tuesday morning.

What do you think the Supreme Court is going to decide in MGM v. Grokster?

I'm not clairvoyant. My guess is, if I were betting, that we—meaning the MGM et al group—will win a victory. I can't tell you how sweeping the victory will be, nor can I tell you whether the issue ultimately, in part, gets remanded back to the district court for further evidentiary discussions.

The betting around Washington is that it is going to be sent back to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Yeah. I think if it's sent back, it will be sent back with an affirmation of the 9th Circuit. It will be sent back with the recognition that conduct which is geared to encourage people to infringe is wrong and illegal, and if it's sent back, it will be sent back with some different legal context in mind.

Is conduct innovation and invention, or is it encouragement of the innovation and invention?

It's clear the conduct is not innovation or invention because we're all in that game, whether we're in the technology business directly or the content business. The conduct I'm referring to is the conduct which actively encourages people to break the copyright law, and that is what we saw in Grokster, where we have a peer-to-peer service that is established, in our judgment, to encourage people to take music and movies without paying for them.

Grokster is set up in a way that avoids "ownership." That's kind of a trend, and if I were you, I'd be worried. Are you?

Well, obviously, we're worried enough to go to court to try to stop this behavior from occurring.

I've got on my desk—you see, 'Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil'—the fact of the matter is that the law is replete with evidence that [if there's] active or constructive knowledge that the law being broken, you can't escape from that, you can't hide from that. You can't say 'I don't know and I don't care.'

So, the vogue in some tech companies to think, 'Oh well, if it's out there on the network, it's off our servers, we don't have to worry about it,' is not one that you'd cotton to?

It's certainly one we don't cotton to when, in fact, the user is encouraged to in fact infringe. This is, of course, a tricky area. I don't know exactly how far the court is going to go, and I'm not an expert lawyer in this situation.

Almost everyone I've spoken to in the past couple of days has talked about how engaged the justices were, and they were struck by the astuteness of their technical questions, that's both tech people as well as people here in Washington.

I sat in on the hearing, and all but Justice Thomas asked serious questions, all the way from somewhat complicated technology questions to more basic questions about the role of copyright in a modern society.

Let's talk about that. My feeling is that the Grokster case is really the thing everyone is waiting for. That after this, there will be some congressional redress or action. There's a feeling that Congress will somehow update or change copyright law, either to protect companies like your members against the 'wink-wink-nudge-nudge' or on the part of technology users to allow them more freedom and to relieve the threat that they feel is hanging over them.

From the larger perspective, we have to recognize that creative juices are largely fed through some form of compensation. That is that while, yeah, some people do create out of the goodness of their heart, it defies the laws of human nature to think that people are going to come up with new ideas— whether it's movies, music, books, software or other inventions just because it's a sweet and wonderful thing to do. That's that side of the coin.

The other side of the coin is that technology is changing so rapidly and consumers' desires for new products are changing so rapidly that it's harder and harder to fit an old model into this new distribution system that we've got.

On the other hand, I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and I saw all this amazing stuff. [The fact that] all these new things had movies—they're running things that we have created— on there shows that it's a little bit like the old song, 'Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage—you can't have one without the other.' It's going to get trickier and trickier to try and figure out how to compensate artists and creators in this new world.

Next Page: The tech and content worlds need to work together, Glickman says.

Having said that, Larry Lessig has put forth his Creative Commons licensing idea. Former MPAA head Jack Valenti didn't quite endorse it but seemed receptive. Have you changed course on that?

My position—at this stage—would be roughly the same as Jack's.

The one thing I am trying to do is—the tech world and the, I hate to use the word 'content,' world, because we're all kind of in this together—these two worlds are worlds that have to work together. What I've noticed in Washington over the past 10 or 15 years is that every issue that's worked on becomes Armageddon here, and I want to try and keep these issues as much as possible from becoming another Armageddon type of thing.

How?

The only thing you can really do is keep talking, keep the lines of communication open. The other night, I was at a dinner for Bill Gates. Microsoft invited me to come. There's all sorts of opportunities where we can work together and talk.

Are you talking to any companies besides Microsoft?

Yes. We as an organization are talking to all the companies.

Including TiVo?

Yes. As a matter of fact, at the Consumer Electronics Show, I met with the TiVo people. There's no reason not to meet with them.

I don't think a lot of people understand the television aspect of the motion picture business [Most TV shows are produced by the studios].

It's like the old Pogo thing: We have met the enemy and it is us, so to speak. Who would have thought that 'them' would become 'us'? Television—and it's not just television, it's all sorts of delivery systems to the individual—are all now part of our world, and they weren't years and years ago.

That's an interesting point. When you talk about MPAA, you're talking about people who are used to selling large packages of content to people. We're moving into a one-to-one world, and TiVo allows me to record a program, not necessarily watch a channel.

The concept of time shifting generally, that's obviously an enormous change, particularly for the television and broadcast part of this business. Modern technology, digital technology will allow the consumer to do an awful lot of things that are inconsistent with the historic mode of how broadcast television was created. It's just an enormous challenge for people in this business. That's why so many of them have gone into multiple businesses.

What kind of time frame do you see for Grokster?

The decision will come out sometime near the end of June [the Supreme Court adjourns at the end of June and issues its opinions before that date]. And then we'll see. No body knows exactly what the decision is. Obviously, we're getting ready to anticipate that, both offensively and defensively, as I'm sure some in the tech community are doing as well.

We're waiting to see what it is and then to see what, if any, remedies are needed or desirable, either in the legislative context—more than likely there will be a strong look at that—but I think the marketplace will be the main place where a lot of this stuff is decided.

eWEEK.com technology and politics columnist Chris Nolan spent years chronicling the excesses of the dot-com era with incisive analysis leavened with a dash of humor. Before that, she covered politics and technology in D.C. You can read her musings on politics and technology every day in her Politics from Left to Right Weblog.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1812933,00.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What will Ahnud do?

State Bill to Limit RFID
Kim Zetter

While civil libertarians battle the federal government's decision to embed RFID chips in new U.S. passports, a California bill is moving swiftly through the state legislature that would make it illegal for state agencies and other bodies to use the technology in state identification documents.

The bill, which California lawmakers believe is the first of its kind in the nation, would prohibit the use of radio- frequency identification, or RFID, chips in state identity documents such as student badges, driver's licenses, medical cards and state employee cards. The bill allows for some exceptions.

RFID, also known as contactless integrated circuits, transmits information wirelessly, allowing scanners to read cards from a distance, typically a few feet. The technology is widely used in building security and inventory-tracking systems, and is being considered for numerous other applications.

The bill, which passed out of the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday with a vote of 6 to 1, also would outlaw skimming -- which occurs when an unauthorized person with an electronic reading device surreptitiously reads the electronic information on an RFID chip without the knowledge of the person carrying or wearing the chip.

"It's heartening to think that hopefully the government is starting to recognize the seriousness of the security and privacy implications," said Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which helped draft the legislation with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

State Sen. Joe Simitian, a democrat representing a district in Northern California, introduced the Identity Information Protection Act of 2005 (SB682) in February after a small-town California school received national attention for launching an RFID program to track students without properly notifying parents or students.

In January, Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, California, began requiring students to wear photo ID cards embedded with an RFID chip containing a 15-digit number assigned to each student to track attendance.

The school cut a deal with a local maker of the technology to test the tracking system and receive a percentage of profits if the company succeeded in selling the system to other school districts. But after a group of outraged parents protested the plan, the school dropped it.

Simitian said the incident was the catalyst that was needed to address a technology that was on its way to becoming ubiquitous.

"(The use of RFID) is an issue we've been following for some time in the legislature, but mostly in (relation to) the retail setting in years past," Sen. Simitian told Wired News. "But the events in the Northern California school district brought the personal privacy issues (regarding the technology) into sharp relief."

Simitian said California's move was also spurred by plans at the federal level to use RFID in passports.

"If you've got a discussion going on that reaches from neighborhood elementary schools to the U.S. Department of State, that suggests that it's time to confront the position and try to put some thoughtful, rational policy in place," he said.

Concerns about RFID center around surreptitious scanning and tracking, since data on the chips can be picked up by either an authorized or an unauthorized reader without the knowledge of the person carrying the chip.

For example, a student participating in a protest on a state university campus could be scanned by a campus policeman carrying a reader to track his political activities. Or, depending on the kind of data stored on the card, someone could read the data on a chip in order to clone it and create false documents.

The bill allows for a number of exceptions for the use of RFID, such as devices used for paying bridge and road tolls, ID badges used for inmates housed in prisons or mental health facilities, or ID bracelets and badges used for children under the age of four who are in the care of a government-operated medical facility.

The bill allows agencies to obtain additional exceptions to the ban if they can prove to the legislature that there is a compelling state interest to use it in certain situations and can prove that other, less invasive technologies would be unsuitable. The bill allows state agencies that already have RFID devices in place -- such as the Senate and Assembly office buildings -- to phase them out by 2011.

"RFID in itself is not a bad thing. But there are circumstances where RFID technology is not appropriate because of the privacy and security risks," said Ozer. "There are other (technology) options that deliver the same kind of convenience without the same kind of privacy concerns. Right now there's no mechanism, no control over the state deciding to adopt RFID without having staff think about why they need the technology."

The bill has the support of a wide range of consumer and privacy groups, in particular groups concerned with domestic violence and stalking, who fear that RFID would expose the whereabouts of women and children who have fled dangerous home environments. It also has bipartisan support from conservative and liberal lawmakers and organizations like the conservative Capitol Resource Institute.

"It's restoring my faith in the political system that it doesn't have to be a bipartisan issue and that they can put party politics aside and just do what's good for the people of California," said Michele Tatro, mother of two Brittan Elementary School students, who helped lead the fight against her school district's RFID program. "This issue is wrong for the state of California and they recognized it right away."

Tatro, along with her husband and two teenage children, appeared at a state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to discuss the bill on Tuesday, where she said committee members expressed "shock and amazement" when the parent of another Brittan student described what happened at their school.

"They couldn't believe what (we) told them," Tatro said. "By their facial reactions you could tell that the panel was appalled."

Tatro said her kids were pleased that the bill was moving forward but said they hadn't yet grasped its full significance.

"It's still sinking in to us, the fact that this is the first legislation of its kind, not only in the state of California but in the nation," Tatro said. "I don't think they realized the gravity of that, how big that is."

The bill will likely reach the Senate floor in late May or early June.

Ozer said she hoped the move in California would spur federal legislators to re-examine their use of RFID in passports.

"California legislators are often on the forefront of these issues, and they definitely sent an important message by moving the bill on," Ozer said. "After all of this talk, hopefully some congressmen are finally waking up to the serious privacy and security ramifications of utilizing this technology in identification documents."

The Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility, a group representing the RFID industry in the United States, was unavailable for comment late Thursday.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67382,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He can read the writing on the emails

Lawmaker Rips RFID Passport Plans
Kim Zetter

A key U.S. congressman who led post-Sept. 11 passport reforms told European diplomats last week that there was no need for European countries to put RFID chips in their passports and that Congress never required them to do so.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, expressed dismay that EU countries were planning to employ a technology that was still unproven for use in travel documents that would add costs and delays to rolling out new, more secure passports.

Sensenbrenner said the countries were planning to use RFID chips even though the United States had not required them to do so and there were other, more proven technologies available that would allow countries to meet an Oct. 26, 2005, deadline Congress set for issuing new passports. He made the comments during an April 27 breakfast meeting with EU ambassadors at the Luxembourg Embassy in Washington.

Sensenbrenner authored the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, which stipulates new biometric passport requirements for the 27 so-called visa-waiver countries whose citizens don't need visas to enter the United States if they come for 90 days or less. According to Section 303 of the act, new passports must be machine-readable and conform to standards issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, a United Nations agency that was tasked with developing standards for travel documents.

"The Border Security Act stipulated only that biometric identifiers and documents meet ICAO standards, and that the passport be 'machine-readable,'" Sensenbrenner said. "(T)hat the EU should choose an elaborate and expensive path to meet the requirement has led to consequences that are regrettable, but not insurmountable."

Sensenbrenner's remarks underscore ongoing uncertainty over technical requirements for electronic passports, even as dozens of countries, including the United States, move forward with plans to adopt them. The use of RFID in passports has sparked debate over the potential implications for privacy and raised concerns about costs and delays in shoring up a system aimed at verifying the identities of millions of travelers each month.

RFID, also known as contactless integrated circuits, transmits information wirelessly, allowing scanners to read cards from a distance, typically a few feet. The technology is widely used in building security and inventory- tracking systems, and is being considered for numerous other applications.

Concerns about RFID center on surreptitious scanning and tracking, since data on the chips can be picked up either by an authorized or an unauthorized reader without the knowledge of the person carrying the chip.

Sensenbrenner said that although the act calls for passports to use some kind of biometric identifier -- such as a standardized, digitally stored facial image that can be used with facial-recognition software -- it doesn't require countries to use an RFID chip to store the biometric data on the passport. Other technologies can be used -- such as 2-D bar codes -- that don't carry the same privacy and security risks as RFID.

Biometrics is a technology that measures physiological characteristics of a person to distinguish one person from another and to authenticate that an individual is who he says he is. The physiological characteristics can be facial or hand patterns, fingerprints, irises or voice patterns.

The act doesn't specify which biometric characteristic a country should measure. The ICAO standards include facial biometrics and fingerprint biometrics, although the standards make only facial biometrics mandatory for passports.

The biometric characteristics a country chooses to embed in its passport are important because they help determine what kind of technology is necessary to store the data on the passport. The State Department has decided to include only a digital photograph in U.S. passports, but the EU will include fingerprints as well, and the United Kingdom is considering embedding iris scans in its passports.

For that reason, the ICAO standards call for countries to use a "contactless IC chip."

Frank Moss, speaking last month at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle, said that RFID chips were preferred because they could store more data than a magnetic strip or a bar code and, being contactless, they could speed movement through border crossings.

"One of the purposes of this is not just security," Moss said, "it is in fact travel facilitation by putting this technology into a contactless chip and really allowing some data to be collected on travelers before they actually physically appear before the border inspector.... Contactless chips have considerably higher bandwidth so we get the data out of the chip and into the reader (without impeding) travel."

The act originally required visa-waiver countries to begin issuing new, biometric-enabled passports beginning Oct. 26, 2004, but the deadline was extended to October of this year when it became clear that countries could not meet it. The deadline affects only new passports. Countries do not have to replace existing passports before they expire.

But many countries are now saying they cannot meet the October 2005 deadline either. This is primarily because the RFID chips and readers they plan to use are still in the testing phase. Early interoperability tests have indicated reliability and privacy problems with regard to reading the chips.

Sensenbrenner criticized not only European countries opting for RFID, but the ICAO for approving its use in the first place. He said countries would not have had trouble meeting the original October 2004 deadline had ICAO opted for a proven technology rather than RFID.

He told the diplomats that "the only obstacle to visa-waiver program countries meeting the 2004 deadline was for ICAO to update standards for digital photographs of the facial images contained in passports, and possibly address some software and camera technicalities relating to how the photos could be read by machine standards for purposes of validation."

Sensenbrenner said Congress chose October 2004 to force countries to modernize their passports promptly. He also said Congress anticipated that the ICAO would establish "reasonable, cost-effective standards which relied upon existing technology" rather than becoming "enmeshed in new and unproven technology."

In a letter Sensenbrenner sent to leaders of the European Union on April 5, he wrote that using additional biometric elements increased the cost of creating an infrastructure for reading the passports and added technical obstacles that led to delays in implementing the new passport system.

"In my view, much expense and public consternation could have been avoided by a less technically ambitious approach, one that simply met the terms of the act as written," Sensenbrenner wrote in the letter.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Kimberly Weissman could not respond to Sensenbrenner's statements other than to say that plans for the visa-waiver passports are still being negotiated.

"(DHS Secretary Michael) Chertoff is set to meet with Sensenbrenner (this month) to review this issue. It is still under review," she said. "We are continuing to work with our international partners and the administration on how we will proceed."
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67418,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tempe 1st Major City Going Fully Wireless

Wi-Fi Internet access should be up by fall
Stephanie Paterik

It's official: Tempe will become the first major metropolitan area in the United States to deploy citywide wireless Internet access.

The City Council has approved a contract with MobilePro Corp. and Strix Systems, and staff members are wrapping up negotiations this week. The companies will install hundreds of access points throughout Tempe in phases, starting this summer with south Tempe.

The "mesh network" will cover the entire city by late summer or early fall, allowing subscribers to fire up the Internet on laptops, cellphones and PDAs anywhere within Tempe's borders.

"Tempe is blazing the trail" to provide residents and businesses with full access, said Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman, who logs on wirelessly at home. He said it would allow people to enjoy the community's recreational amenities while still tending to "the occasional business and family interruption."

Monthly subscriptions are likely to be $20 for dial-up speed and $30 to $40 for high-speed wireless, although prices have not been set.

Only 29 U.S. cities have gone completely wireless, mostly rural or remote regions without traditional high-speed Internet access, according to a March report by muniwireless.com. Eight urban areas in addition to Tempe plan to join the trend, including Philadelphia, Cleveland, West Hollywood, Calif. and Madison, Wis.

Tempe will be the first Arizona city to try border-to-border wireless access. Nearby communities are consulting Tempe as they consider similar action, said Dave Heck, Tempe's deputy manager of information technology.

"I think it's going to be looked at by a lot of folks," he said, "especially the model we took in letting someone else install and manage it."

Tempe is offering use of its streetlights for nodes that serve as access points, and in exchange, city officials and public safety workers will get free wireless on the job.

There are persistent fears about the safety of wireless Internet, but Strix uses advanced encryption and does not allow network users to view other users, said Doug Huemme, associate vice president of marketing.

Tempe and Arizona State University will continue to offer free wireless downtown, and anyone with a wireless device can access the city and university Web sites for free.

MobilePro is taking the unusual step of partnering with multiple service providers to give residents a choice. So far, Cox Communications, EarthLink and Limelight Networks will vie for wireless customers in Tempe.

"This will be a freedom of choice network," said Bruce Sanguinetti, president and chief executive officer of MobilPro's Neoreach Wireless Division. "That's the magic of what Tempe has pulled off. If you look at other wireless opportunities, you have to take what they give you. . . . This allows competition."

Based in Bethesda, Md., MobilePro faced off with three other bidders for Tempe's coveted contract, including America Online, Wildfire Internet Services and Wi-Vod Communications. It is teaming with Strix Systems of Calabasas, Calif., to provide the Internet backbone.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/t...-wifiZ10.html#

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speakeasy Launches Wireless Broadband In Seattle

Speakeasy Inc., a privately owned Internet broadband provider, on Wednesday launched an Internet access service for businesses using

new wireless technology that it said was faster and easier to deploy than its current broadband service.

Seattle-based Speakeasy has built a loyal base of subscribers in most metro areas of the United States for DSL, which uses telephone lines to connect homes and businesses to the Internet.

The new wireless service, which will be launched first in Seattle, uses WiMAX technology, which the company said will allow users to connect to the Internet at much faster speeds without having to install complicated equipment.

Several major communication providers have said they expect WiMAX to play a key role in the growth of broadband Internet access, especially in urban areas.

Speakeasy Chief Executive Bruce Chatterley said that Seattle was an ideal place to experiment with WiMAX and related technology because its water, hills, tall buildings and trees provide a challenging topology.

Speakeasy is using Seattle's Space Needle, built for the 1962 World's Fair, as a broadcast and receiving tower for one of the wireless base stations that power the new service.

Speakeasy said it would start taking orders from Wednesday and begin deploying the service to customers next month.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=8385351

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

U.S. Cities Set Up Their Own Wireless Networks

A number of U.S. cities are becoming giant wireless "hot spots" where Internet users will be able to log on from the beach or a bus stop, a trend that is triggering a fierce backlash from telecom and cable giants.

"We look at this as another utility just like water, sewer, parks and recreation, that our communities should have," said St. Cloud, Florida, Mayor Glen Sangiovanni, who hopes to provide free wireless service to the entire city by the fall.

At a conference this week, officials from dozens of local governments compared notes, listened to pitches from vendors and discussed ways to counter the lobbying of telecommunications giants that have sought to block them at the state level.

Free or discounted wireless service can spur economic development, improve police patrols and other city services and encourage Internet use in poorer neighborhoods, they said.

Slightly more than 100 U.S. cities -- as big as Philadelphia and as small as Nantucket, Massachusetts -- are setting up wireless networks now. Conference organizer Daniel Aghion said close to 1,000 local governments worldwide have plans in the works.

The trend has prompted an intense backlash from the large telecom and cable providers that sell most broadband access in the United States. At their request, 13 states have passed laws restricting cities setting up their own networks, and several others are considering such bans.

"With so many other issues challenging municipalities today, why on earth should cities waste millions of taxpayer dollars to compete with carriers already offering high speed Internet service?" said Allison Remsen, spokeswoman for the U.S. Telecom Association, which represents incumbents like SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications.

Resistance Sparks Interest

City officials said they don't want to compete head on with commercial providers but aren't going to be held hostage to their profit concerns.

Providers have shown no interest in setting up broadband wireless service or offering free or discounted rates, they said. Sometimes they refuse to provide any broadband service at all.

"We begged them to deliver the service -- we didn't want to be in this business," said Scottsburg, Indiana, Mayor Bill Graham, who said local businesses threatened to leave his town before it set up its own wireless network.

The legal battles seem to have only increased interest among city officials, especially after squabbles over a Pennsylvania state law made national headlines last year.

"It helped to bring to light what the telecommunications industry was attempting to do," said Philadelphia technology manager Dianah Neff.

Others said the threat of a ban at the state level has spurred them to action.

"We're acting pretty quickly for a municipality of our size, because we don't like to be pre-empted," said Lindy Fleming McGuire, a Chicago City Council staffer.

Smaller wireless startups are rushing to provide the equipment and expertise needed to run city networks.

"Munis don't want to own this at all, they just want the service," said Robert Ford, chief executive of NextPhase Wireless, a service provider.

Rio Rancho, New Mexico, brought in wireless provider OttawaWireless because incumbents didn't reach many areas, assistant city administrator Peggy McCarthy said. Now that the network is up and running, the incumbents' service has grown more competitive, she said.

"The lethargy and apathy with which we had been given DSL and cable have both changed," she said.

Some cities, including Spokane, Washington, found they could easily set up wireless service when they upgrade their emergency communications networks with a little help from the Homeland Security Department. The federal department awarded $925 million last year for communications upgrades.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=8388919

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cities Brace For Broadband War
Jim Hu and Marguerite Reardon

A hundred years ago, when Louisiana was still literally in the dark, residents of Lafayette banded together to build a city-owned electric utility where once there was little more than swampland. Today, at the dawn of the 21st century, it is hatching plans to lay out its own state-of-the-art fiber-optic broadband network.

This time, the city's futuristic ambitions are challenged not by the rigors of geography but by obstacles of business: specifically, telecommunications giant BellSouth and cable provider Cox Communications, which claimed the region as their own years ago. But the historic coastal community, known for its eclectic culture and rhythmic zydeco music, is not about to abandon the pioneering spirit that begat its visionary reputation.

After a legal skirmish earlier this year, the two sides are preparing for a citywide election slated for mid-July that will decide the issue.

"The people of Lafayette feel like there is a history of seizing the initiative," said John St. Julien, a member of Lafayette Coming Together, a citizens group supporting the fiber network. "Our Creole and Cajun communities have always been told by outsiders that everything we did was wrong--from our language to the food we eat. Culturally, we've learned not to care what others think or say about us. I think it gives us a place to stand when companies like BellSouth and Cox come in and tell us we can't do something."

Across the country, acrimonious conflicts have erupted as local governments attempt to create publicly funded broadband services with faster connections and cheaper rates for all citizens, narrowing the so-called digital divide. The Bells and cable companies, for their part, argue that government intervention in their business is not justified and say they are far better equipped to operate complex and far-flung data networks.

As part of this special report, CNET News.com has created an interactive municipal broadband legislative map that details the major battlegrounds on the issue. At stake is the fate of high- speed Internet access for millions of Americans, hinging on a fundamental question of civics and economics--whether the government or private industries should take the leading role in building out what's considered this generation's critical infrastructure challenge.

"Is broadband fast food, or is it power?" said Doug Lichtman, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. "The answer might be: 'We don't know. Let's experiment with it.' It might give us great information about what risks the government assumes, once it gets into it."

In some cases, local governments have simply stepped into a vacuum left by commercial providers that have proved slow or unwilling to bring broadband to their residents. But the situation has grown more complicated with public broadband proposals in major cities already served by private industry. These projects highlight a growing conviction that broadband is not merely a luxury of modern urban life, but rather an essential public service that could increase tourism and commerce while squeezing new efficiencies from services such as health care, education and even sanitation.

Despite the technology's youth, the dynamics over its control are as old as the nation itself. Governments and private businesses have long quarreled over who should control the build-out of highways, canals, railroads, the postal system and telephone networks. Oftentimes, what begins as a project of one side eventually falls into the hands of the other: The railroad system was first constructed by private companies but is now controlled largely by the federal government, while the postal system is run by Washington but faces stiff competition from private couriers such as FedEx and United Parcel Service of America.

Philadelphia is an early high-profile litmus test for whether cities and broadband are a good mix. As is the goal with many municipal projects, the city hopes that its planned wireless broadband network will put it on the map as one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world.

In April, city officials unveiled an ambitious plan to blanket Philadelphia's 135-square-mile area with wireless broadband, or Wi-Fi, access. Officials hope the network will attract tourists and businesses, while providing affordable broadband access to underprivileged residents. The service could cost as little as $20 a month, which is cheaper than local phone company Verizon Communications' rate of $30.

Not surprisingly, Verizon has fought fiercely against the plan. The Baby Bell successfully helped shepherd a state bill that bans any city in Pennsylvania from pursuing similar projects without Verizon's input.

State activity
Verizon isn't the only one taking the legislative route. Other Bells and cable companies have thrown their weight behind similar state bills that bar municipalities from building networks. Twenty states have already passed, or are trying to push through, legislation that would impose heavy restrictions on communities creating their own networks in areas already served by Bells and cable companies.

Thirteen of those states--Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington--have passed bills restricting future public broadband projects, though existing initiatives are allowed to operate. The remaining eight have measures pending or have seen their bills fail to reach a vote.

The debate has become contentious, sparking heated opinions over how the nation can become a global leader in broadband. Critics of the state of U.S. broadband penetration cite the nation's ranking below Japan, Korea and Norway, to name a few. But telecommunications giants say broadband adoption continues to skyrocket and that competition remains healthy.

The origins of the conflict date back to the late 1990s, when the Bells and cable giants were just beginning to dip their toes in the broadband stream. Cities eager for high-speed networks faced frustrating delays, particularly in rural centers where the phone and cable companies faced the prospects of heavy costs and slim returns.

The story has changed dramatically in some ways since then. The Bells and cable giants are fighting a fierce war over broadband among Americans, prompting the local phone companies to lower prices, and cable providers to nearly double download speeds, over the past two years.

Within the next 12 months, Verizon and SBC Communications expect to launch their own pay TV services, to put more competitive pressure on cable companies. In late April, Verizon said it would sell to some customers DSL access without requiring people to buy a local phone line--a longtime demand from consumer groups.

Providers are also trying to add bells and whistles to the basic data pipe into the home. Some of the phone carriers, including Verizon and SBC, have partnered with Web portals Yahoo or MSN, or both. Cable giant Comcast runs its own broadband portal, which emphasizes high-bandwidth features such as video clips and video e-mail. Time Warner Cable's Road Runner service comes packaged with America Online.

"Broadband services are maturing enough where it's not just high-speed access to the Internet," said Mike Paxton, an analyst at In-Stat. "There's a lot more that can be done with a broadband connection now than in the past, and that is very attractive and beneficial to consumers."

Appealing to the states
The stakes for the winners are huge. So it's hardly a surprise that the Bells and cable companies are lobbying hard to keep government out of the race. They're working to support antimunicipal broadband bills at the state level and funding publicity campaigns to squash these projects. The message: Local governments should not compete against private industries, which have spent billions of dollars on infrastructure to serve residents and on city taxes.

The industry also argues that governments are in over their heads when they try to operate a complex citywide network. And if the city's plans go belly-up, opponents say residents will have to bail out the projects through higher tax bills.

"Our major focus--either through the legislative branch or through working with regulators--is to make sure...we have provisions in place that the resulting competition that we engage with is fair," BellSouth spokesman Joe Chandler said.

Fairness in the eyes of the Bells means implementing a series of "safeguards," according to Chandler. These include barring cities from using taxes to fund their ventures; requiring city networks to pay the same taxes as private companies; and requiring the public to vote on proposals before construction.

Many cities claim that they are not competing against the Bells and cable but rather are serving their communities. Legal experts wonder whether municipalities are addressing legitimate problems ignored by the telecoms, or whether they are trying stifle competition.

"I worry about the political economics of it," said Matthew Spitzer, Dean of the University of Southern California Law School. "Once the city gets into a business that's directly competitive with private companies, there are temptations to regulate the private companies in ways that disadvantage them."

What are cities doing?
Many communities remain undeterred. Larger cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago claim broadband is too expensive for lower-income residents.

In March, officials in Chicago threw down the gauntlet against the state of Illinois when they announced plans to consider blanketing the entire metropolis with Wi-Fi. Just as in Philadelphia and Lafayette, lawmakers promoting this plan think that cheap broadband is good for residents and offers an additional source of revenue for city coffers.

"It's our responsibility to protect the interests of citizens of Chicago, and if we feel a Wi-Fi system would open up opportunities to provide cheaper access, why wouldn't we examine it, and why should we be told by Springfield that we can't?" said Donal Quinlan, a spokesman for Chicago Alderman Edward Burke.

Smaller communities such as Scottsburg, Ind., and Lafayette hope that citywide broadband systems will attract more businesses and spark entrepreneurship.

Lafayette's economy over the last century has been tied to the oil industry. But as oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico run down, city leaders recognize that they need to attract new industries to the community to sustain growth. A fiber-based broadband network could help attract manufacturing-design companies and software developers, said Kaliste Saloom, an attorney in Lafayette who organized the Lafayette Yes political action group to campaign for the new fiber network.

"We have a great computer science program right here in Lafayette at the University of Louisiana," he said. "So we already have the talent. If we have the high-speed broadband network, it would be easy for companies to tap that resource and open development facilities here."

Then there's the string of cities hugging Utah's Great Salt Lake that have begun constructing a fiber-optic network. Called the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, the project aims to pipe video, phone service and broadband Internet access into peoples' homes. Organizers draw analogies to airports, for which governments fund facilities and private companies operate their businesses using the space.

Utopia's executive director, Paul Morris, told an audience at the Voice on the Net conference this month that the project has already attracted some private companies, including AT&T. One Utah-based ISP plans to begin offering 10 megabits per second of broadband speed for $39.95 a month. Cable broadband at less than half that speed costs about $45 a month, while many cheaper DSL services from the Bells provide 1.5mbps at the base service tier.

"We were concerned we were being left behind," Morris said. "We wanted to lure businesses and nurture them in Utah, and we didn't see that happening for us."
http://news.com.com/2009-1034_3-5680305.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At Dartmouth, Advanced Wi-Fi
Katie Zezima

IT'S not that he doesn't like them or doubts his teaching ability, but Thomas H. Luxon, an English professor at Dartmouth College here, wants to see his students less next semester, hoping they will learn a lot more without having to look at him in a classroom.

Professor Luxon, who teaches courses on Shakespeare, wishes they will instead be watching scenes from "The Merchant of Venice" or "Macbeth" on their PC's while sitting on a lawn, in a coffee shop or while relaxing in a dorm room. "That will be really cool," Professor Luxon said. "They could watch it on their own time and in their own place instead of having to go to the classroom or the media center. That means they could review it as often as they like, and they don't have to see it just once."

Professor Luxon is able to release his students from the shackles of forced classroom movie viewing as a result of a major wireless convergence project that has taken Dartmouth's phone, cable and wireless systems and condensed them into one Wi-Fi network. The project, officials say, keeps students on the forefront of wireless technology, and opens up endless educational and teaching opportunities while saving the college millions of dollars. The switch, which started in 2001 and will be complete with the wireless cable rollout this fall, includes the addition of 1,400 wireless access points and 24,000 wired ports across the campus of the 236-year-old college, the first in the country to completely integrate its communications systems into a wireless infrastructure.

"This really improves our ability to deliver types of information services that enhance teaching and learning," said Brad Noblet, Dartmouth's director of technical services.

The first phase of the cable rollout will put the school's cable television system online. After that, students, professors and anyone else on the overall network will be able to make up his or her own "channel," showing movie clips, video projects or presentations with cable-quality video.

The college's public affairs office hopes to have its own channel as well. It could also be used by students to shop for classes during course selection because they could view a few minutes of a lecture or discussion on the network, and by professors to provide discussion materials before class. Dartmouth also hopes to put all its public lectures and forums on a cable network instead of on the sometimes gritty streaming video now available.

"We're really at the front end of this," said Jeffrey L. Horrell, dean of the libraries and librarian of the college. "It's not yet clear where the boundaries are."

The new network could even change how students write papers. They will not replace words or writing, but might enhance, say, a paper on "The Merchant of Venice" with a clip of the actor Patrick Stewart explaining the method behind his portrayal of the character Shylock, said Professor Luxon, who teaches a course on the play.

"Imagine writing a paper about one of these performances and including a video clip in your paper, like you would a quote," he said. "Now your paper isn't on paper anymore, it's on a Web site or a word file."

The convergence project is meant for educational purposes, but it is not bad for entertainment, either. Students will be able to catch the latest episode of MTV's "Pimp My Ride" or any other television show anywhere on campus - including in class. While that is one more worry for professors who are now used to students staring at screens, they hope that the interaction and stimulation of a class will detract from the desire to tune in to "TRL" during sociology, Mr. Horrell said.

Students, many of whom did not know about the new service, are enthusiastic. Jean Cowgill, 19, a freshman, hopes to use the network to watch materials outside of class. But, Ms. Cowgill said, the cable access might backfire.

"That sounds amazing," she said. "But I don't know how great it will be for my study habits."

Wireless data has been available here since 2001. Its success led the technology department to combine it with the college's cable and data lines, which were antiquated and in need of replacement. Over the next few years, Dartmouth standardized its wireless protocol and increased its capacity by uniting two versions of wireless, 802.11b and 802.11g, on its central server, both of which can be retrieved anywhere off campus with wireless access and a Dartmouth computer or port.

It's also cost effective. College officials said that Dartmouth saved $2.07 million by updating and condensing its current system instead of replacing it, and saves nearly $1 million annually on maintenance, cabling and salary costs.

Officials added that the system is secure because the video component is not installed on computers, but instead is downloaded every time it is used. But for right now, faculty and staff like Cynthia Pawlek, associate librarian of the college, are focused on how the network will change teaching and learning here.

"The possibilities are really endless," she said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/te...?hp&oref=login

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Unwired Peer

AeroComm's Mesh-ready AC4790 Peer-to-Peer Transceivers Smooth Data Flow, Boost Range
Robert Hoskins

AeroComm eases networking for a wide variety of industrial control applications with true peer-to-peer technology, embedded into new AC4790 transceivers. AC4790s remove the server from an RF communication system, facilitating fully expandable mesh networking. The wireless solution complements AeroComm's popular server-client-based AC4490 transceivers, giving any OEM the flexibility to choose the protocol that best suits the application.

By utilizing a dynamic addressing scheme, AC4790's protocol supports independent communication between any two in-range transceivers in an RF network. Each transceiver "node" knows exactly which other nodes are within talking distance, as well as the signal strength of each one. The OEM is able to design routing sequences that optimize the network without bogging down system performance.

"Both flexibility and reliability are vital to a vast array of network architectures," said Mike Varady, CEO of AeroComm. "In AC4790's intelligent addressing mechanism, we embed software 'hooks' so an OEM can have complete control of the routing schemes. This maximizes the efficiency of the network, while allowing the OEM to alter the architecture as necessary."

Multiple node groups may also communicate simultaneously, supporting system scalability. Traffic is forwarded seamlessly from node to node, across a virtually endless range. An optional API command processor controls packet delivery and acknowledgment (on a packet-by-packet basis) and reports to the host device, greatly reducing OEM software development. Additionally, AC4790s feature industry-leading 25ms sync times and SenseAdjust -- a software- controlled RF desensitizer that wards off interference.

As with all AeroComm 900MHz transceivers, the AC4790 family utilizes field- proven FHSS technology, employs data-encryption standards and supports transmit-power levels of up to 1 watt, providing for extremely long range between nodes.

AC4790 supports hundreds of industrial applications, including those where devices must be able to communicate with one another seamlessly. Some examples are automatic meter reading, industrial automation, vending control and utility monitoring. AC4790 Developer Tools are available from AeroComm, Avnet, Mouser and premier distributors worldwide for $199. Quantity pricing for 1,000 units starts at $39 for 200mW devices.

AeroComm Inc. has played a major role in the short-range RF industry for more than a decade with consistent technological advances in both performance and price. The company made waves in 1994 by gaining FCC approval for the first 2.4GHz spread spectrum transceivers.

Soon after, it introduced its groundbreaking $200 digital sequence commercial module. In 1996 AeroComm shifted to frequency hopping for greater interference immunity in any environment. Its innovative design techniques resulted in superior modules using inexpensive materials -- producing a cost- per-module that suited vastly more applications.

AeroComm broke the $100 price barrier in 1998. Responding to the growing demand for affordable yet versatile wireless, it quickly developed the first complete line of 2.4GHz OEM RF transceivers. These products were backed by the company's own fully automated radio testing system, measuring all critical parameters and assuring the highest quality.

The company continues to support myriad applications where wireless was previously cost-prohibitive. Its robust proprietary technology, manufacturing and testing guarantee reliable communication, while lower frequencies and fewer parts allow for reduced prices.
http://www.bbwexchange.com/publicati...46-1979931.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wireless Developers Plan to Meld Bluetooth
Bruce Meyerson

Wireless developers plan to work together to meld Bluetooth, the short-range technology that links cell phones and cordless headsets, with an emerging technology designed to beam video and other large content short distances between TVs, home entertainment systems and computers.

The plan, announced Wednesday, comes at a crucial time for Bluetooth. After years of hype, the technology is finally becoming a mainstream feature on mobile devices, only to be met with predictions it may soon be supplanted by other technologies and disappear.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a 3,400-member group whose backers include Nokia Corp., Motorola Corp. and Intel Corp., said it has begun working with two industry bodies developing rival versions of the technology commonly referred to as ultra-wideband, or UWB.

The discussions with the WiMedia Alliance and the UWB Forum are very preliminary, so it is unclear whether the collaboration will produce an integrated platform combining Bluetooth with UWB. There are also issues such as UWB regulatory approvals and signal interference with other wireless technologies that need resolution.

While both technologies are used for connections of 10 yards or less to create so-called "personal area networks" between various devices, the similarities mostly end there.

There's little relation in terms of the actual technology, but the most significant difference is speed.

The most common type of Bluetooth transmits data at speeds of up to 1 megabit per second, while a next-generation version starting to hit the market offers up to 3 mbps.

UWB allows speeds of 100 mbps and higher, making it a far more effective way to transmit, for example, a video signal from a digital video recorder to a flat-screen monitor or a laptop without wires.

That means a UWB signal has enough bandwidth to handle a high-definition television program, which can require 22 mbps of bandwidth for real-time streaming and viewing, plus a few other tasks at the same time.

One major goal, according to the Bluetooth group, is to enable short-range wireless compatibility between today's Bluetooth-enabled devices and machines with UWB, which are not expected to hit the market until at least next year.

The appeal? Millions of devices with Bluetooth shipping every week, and buyers of those products might be frustrated if they're unable to communicate with UWB- enabled purchases down the road.

By contrast, the prospect of compatibility could make manufacturers more comfortable about developing products with the technologies, said Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth group.

"The question becomes how do we make people feel comfortable about implementing Bluetooth in their devices today when they see something on the horizon," Foley said. "And this solution will really speed the time to market for UWB devices because we're creating a very clear path for manufacturers to add ultra wideband to their devices" without negating their investment in developing Bluetooth products.

While Bluetooth adoption is expected to grow for the next few years, many have questioned its longer-term fate.

Bluetooth's big advantages, for now, compared with UWB include its market penetration and increasingly recognizable brand name, as well as its low power- consumption, which makes it perfect for cell phones and headsets with limited battery life.

"Nobody's really been targeting voice applications for ultra-wideband, everybody is targeting video," said Joyce Putscher, an industry analyst for In-Stat. But, she added, "If nothing was done (to integrate Bluetooth with UWB), at some point ultra wideband would figure out a way to tackle voice."

In addition, thanks to the growing demand, Bluetooth component prices have fallen sharply to a few dollars per device, whereas UWB may cost as much as $20 per device in the beginning, said Putscher.

"So you have to wait for ultra-wideband to get very cost efficient," she said. "This is going to be a very slow process. It's too soon to tell if Bluetooth goes away."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Navy Gives Small Antenna Big Results

The news last June that an inventor had shrunk the antenna size without shrinking its effectiveness, produced a large group of Doubting Thomases worldwide. Prove it, they demanded. With the help of the Navy's antenna test range, the inventor has done just that.

The news last June that Rob Vincent, an employee in the Physics Department at the University of Rhode Island, had shrunk the antenna size without shrinking its effectiveness, produced a large group of Doubting Thomases worldwide. Prove it, they demanded.

Vincent and URI, with the help of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and its antenna test range on Fishers Island, N. Y., have done just that.

On March 31, 14 versions of Vincent’s Distributed Load Monopole (DLM) antennas were put through a battery of validation tests. The results exceeded Vincent’s and URI’s expectations. Smaller is better.

The Navy center responds to a wide variety of military and commercial requests for testing antennas at its Fishers Island over water range, the only such range of its kind in the world. Water provides a better path for transmission and reception than land. The site is located on a low-lying, remote coastal area, free of local interference.

The Fishers Island range is a far-field ground wave antenna test range capable of measuring the performance of antennas ranging in frequency from 2 to 30 megahertz. Gain measurements are done relative to an ideal quarter wave monopole antenna. The URI antennas were tested using the same methods and instrumentation as those used to test and certify Navy antenna systems.

Industry regards such testing as dependable as science permits and often includes the center’s data with products to assure customers of its performance specifications.

Vincent’s Plano Spiral Top Hat antenna at 7 megahertz is half the size of a normal quarter-wave antenna operating at that frequency. The URI antenna gain matched the performance of the ideal quarter-wave antenna, and its bandwidth was nearly twice as wide. This type of antenna has multiple uses, including military, marine, amateur radio communications and AM broadcasting.
In addition, the gain of Vincent’s capacity Top Hat DLM antenna, which incorporates a helix, a load coil, a capacitive top hat utilizing radial spokes at the top of the antenna and a horizontal plane was nearly identical to the ideal quarter wave antenna. Its bandwidth was greater than 5 percent of the operating frequency and the antenna is more than 70 percent shorter than an ideal quarter wave antenna.

Vincent’s standard DLM antennas with a standard helix and load coil were also tested at various frequencies. All exhibited gains nearly equal to the ideal antenna with bandwidths of 3 to 10 percent. The antennas were 33 to 40 percent shorter.

More than 200 businesses, companies, and government agencies have contacted URI seeking information for automotive, marine, and military applications, among others, since the antenna announcement last year. A patent is pending on Vincent's technology. The inventor has made the University of Rhode Island and its Physics Department partners that will benefit from any revenue his invention earns.

URI is close to securing several license agreements. In addition, prototypes have been developed for numerous applications.

View the test data on URI’s antenna technology online. Visit the U.S. Navy’s testing facility online for more information.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/511437/?sc=swtn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ILN News Letter

NJ Fed CT. Refuses To Award Higher Damages To DirecTV

A federal court in New Jersey has refused to order payment of higher statutory damages to DirecTV in case involving an infringing access device. The court ruled that it was not persuaded that the defendant was "highly culpable" and expressed doubt that the higher award was needed to compensate DirecTV and punish the defendant for his action.

Case name is DirecTV v. Cain.

Australia A.G. Releases Fair Use Study Paper

The Australian Attorney General has released a study paper on fair use in the digital age. The paper is part of a national consultation on the issue.
http://aufairusepaper.notlong.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But but but…he was a Nazi

Italians Seek To Close Web Site Showing Pope As Nazi

Rome judicial authorities sought a temporary injunction on Friday against an Internet site which carried doctored photographs of Pope Benedict dressed in a Nazi uniform.

The crude photomontages of the head of former German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on the body of a man wearing a swastika armband and standing in front of a Nazi flag were posted 10 days ago on the Italian branch of the international news and opinion site, Independent Media Center.

Rome investigating magistrate Salavtore Vitello said in a statement that the pictures violated a national law prohibiting defamation of the Catholic Church. Vitello said he was also considering taking action against the owners of the site for insulting the authority and honor of the pope himself.

Ratzinger served in the Hitler Youth, a Nazi paramilitary organization, in World War II when membership was compulsory for young Germans.

He was soon released to study for the priesthood, and his biographers have said he was never a member of the Nazi Party and his family opposed Hitler's regime.

Jewish leaders and human rights groups have welcomed his election as pope and his anti-Nazi roots.

Judicial sources in Rome said the Indymedia site was registered in Brazil and it was not immediately clear how the injunction, if granted, would be put into effect.

The Italian arm of the Independent Media Center, whose site is a forum for hundreds of contributors around the world on issues ranging from anti-globalization to gay rights, could not be reached for comment.
http://news.com.com/Italians+seek+to...3-5690570.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Face To Face With The Great Firewall Of China
Michael Geist

As the Internet was taking flight in the early 1990s, John Gilmore, one of the co-founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading online civil liberties group, is credited with having coined the infamous phrase that “the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” Gilmore’s view has since been regularly invoked whenever there are failed attempts to limit the dissemination of information.

Beginning with a string of cases dating back to the Paul Bernardo trial in the mid-1990s, the Internet has undermined court-ordered publication bans in Canada with surprising frequency. The latest incident occurred last month when a U.S. website posted evidence from the Gomery inquiry that was subject to a publication ban. The ban was lifted within days, however, as Judge Gomery acknowledged what had become obvious to all – supposedly secret testimony was readily available to anyone with Internet access.

While these events seemingly affirm the notion that the Internet is beyond the reach of governments and courts, my recent trip to China provided a powerful reminder that unfettered Internet access is far more fragile than is commonly perceived. China, which boasts the world’s second largest Internet user base, is currently home to more than 94 million Internet users, yet their Internet is far different from ours.

These differences are not immediately obvious. My hotel in Beijing featured high-speed Internet access much like that offered in hotels throughout North America. Logging onto the network was a snap and I quickly found that bandwidth speeds were comparable to those found at home.

It was once I sought to access common news sites that I found myself face to face with the “Great Firewall of China.” Google News, a popular aggregator of news stories from around the world, would not load into my browser, apparently blocked by a filtering system that employs 30,000 people to regularly monitor Internet traffic and content. Similarly, while the BBC website would load, attempts to access news stories on that site yielded only error messages.

My frustration increased when I attempted to download my own email. While I was able to access my Canadian-based mail server storing my messages, the download was short-circuited midway as I suddenly lost the connection. Although I initially thought that perhaps the error lay at the Canadian end, when the experience repeated itself, it became clear that the Chinese system was filtering my email messages and cutting off the connection.

Having experienced limits in accessing both news and email, it came as little surprise to find that the search engines were subject to similar restrictions. Searches for articles on circumventing the Chinese filters yielded a long list of results, none of which could be opened. Moreover, inputting politically sensitive words such as the “Falun Gong” cut me off from the search engines completely.

While I found using the Chinese Internet exceptionally frustrating, most people I spoke to were resigned to an Internet with limits. They live with the fact that in recent months the government has shut down thousands of Internet cafes, an important point of access for many citizens. Many noted that the censorship “only” affected political information, but that business could be conducted online unimpeded. At one academic conference, Chinese law professors even spoke of the desirability of increased content regulation and supported government limits on search engine results.

As groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders regularly seek to remind us, the Chinese Internet is not unique. Countries throughout the Middle East and in parts of Asia employ similar technologies to limit their citizens’ access to a medium that most Canadians now take for granted.

It would be a mistake, however, to think that the Canadian Internet will always remain just as free as China’s is censored. Canadian law enforcement officials are actively lobbying for a series of “lawful access” reforms that will provide authorities with dramatically increased Internet surveillance powers. These include mandating real-time network surveillance capabilities on Canada’s biggest Internet service providers and providing authorities with the right to demand subscriber information without the need to obtain a prior court order.

While it would be unfair to characterize the lawful access proposal as comparable to the monitoring and censorship used in the Chinese Internet, my experience provided a sobering reminder of the dangers inherent in increased surveillance and weakened judicial oversight.

The Internet may be accessible from Toronto to Beijing, yet people in these two cities do not access the same Internet. The challenge in the months and years ahead will be to promote Gilmore’s vision of online freedom through lobbying for greater access abroad and rejecting unnecessary and potentially dangerous limits at home.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/resc/html_bkup/may22005.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your Phone Is Calling Your Car
Wilson Rothman

HOP in your car, turn the key and your phone book stares up at you from the liquid crystal display screen in your dashboard. Scroll through a list of missed calls or recently dialed numbers. Find the name you're looking for, press a button and the call rings through the car's sound system, all while your phone remains untouched in your jacket pocket.

Radio-frequency wireless connections in cars through a technology known as Bluetooth have been around for about three years, but this new level of connectivity - where the phone's internal directory and call logs are displayed on the car's dashboard - is new. At the moment, you can find it only in 2005 Audi A6 and A8 models, and only if you use certain phones, including PalmOne's popular Treo 650 P.D.A. phone.

The Audi-Treo matchup may still be missing certain crucial features, like the ability to find entries stored in the phone's memory by using the car's voice-recognition system. But this initial cooperation, followed by a broadening of the Bluetooth standard and continued development in automotive technology, promise a future where most cars and most phones work together in wireless harmony.

"There's much greater availability in cars today than ever before," said Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth special interest group. "Over 20 carmakers - including over 30 2005 models - offer factory-installed Bluetooth options."

BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Ford offer Bluetooth in all or most of their cars in the United States. G.M., Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen, makers of Audi, each offer at least one car with integrated Bluetooth.

The most rudimentary systems simply turn the car's sound system into a hands-free speakerphone. More advanced systems - like those in DaimlerChrysler cars featuring the UConnect Bluetooth option as well as Honda's latest Acura TL and RL models - use voice recognition. Call out a string of numbers, and they are sent to your phone, where the call is placed. These in-car systems allow you to create "voice tags" - short recordings of names - that can be matched to numbers, so you can say a name instead of remembering a number.

The 2005 Audi A6 and A8 come standard with Bluetooth, and the special connectivity for retrieving call logs. The system is also compatible with nine other Bluetooth phones from Motorola, Siemens and Sony Ericsson.

The difficulty in marrying phone technology to automotive technology originates partly from the development time of different systems. By the time a carmaker has added a technology like Bluetooth to its assembly process - at its fastest, this might take 18 to 24 months - a cellphone maker has built and marketed two or three generations of phones, each time honing that technology.

There is another cook in the kitchen, too. In the United States, cellphone companies can choose whether to carry Bluetooth-enabled phones and scale back the software loaded onto the phones they sell. Last year, Verizon Wireless shipped Motorola's V710 handset, but only after some of the phone's Bluetooth ability had been removed.

Even with reduced ability, the V710 was a breakthrough for Veri- zon Wireless, as the carrier's first Bluetooth phone.

"Automakers, wireless carriers and handset makers have to agree on a profile," said Dan Benjamin, senior automotive analyst for ABI Research.

The latest draft of that profile, Mr. Foley said, will be out this summer, and will include detailed instructions for standardizing phone books, so that phones other than the Treo 650 - and cars other than Audi - can have instant on-screen access.

Mr. Foley promised additional new applications for Bluetooth in cars. Besides phone books and enhanced voice-recognition compatibility, the biggest breakthrough might be wireless music. If you store digital music files on your phone, you may soon be able to stream them to the sound system of your Bluetooth-enabled car.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/te...04rothman.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Internet Cuts Need for Bike Messengers
David Sharp

Bicycle messengers once crowded downtown traffic to deliver court papers, business documents and blueprints. Today, only one such company and one lone courier pump along on any given workday in Maine's biggest city.

Around the country, high-speed Internet, which allows larger documents to be e- mailed quickly, is beating cyclists in the race for fast and cheap delivery of urgently needed material.

"I enjoy this. It's a lot of fun. But it's not a tenable way to make a living," said Portland courier Stephen Wagner, taking a break on a park bench. "You'd be dirt poor if you did this for a living."

Wagner, 22, splits his time working for Rapid Courier and a bike shop.

In recent years, many courier companies from New York to California have been scaling back on bicycle messengers, those daredevils on two wheels who have long been ubiquitous on city streets.

But don't count them all out. They survived the fax revolution, and riders say they'll survive broadband Internet as well.

"There's still potential there. There's still stuff that needs to be hand-delivered," said Bob Smyth, a former bicycle messenger in Boston and San Francisco who came to Portland to serve as office manager for Rapid Courier.

At the peak, around 1992, there were about 14 or 15 bicycle messengers working for four or five companies in Portland, said Percy Wheeler, a former messenger who worked for several companies and himself as Mad Dash Courier.

The cyclists earned their reputations as rebels by weaving in and out of traffic, jumping curbs and bouncing down stairs.

But business began riding downhill with fax machines and e-mail. Broadband made things worse.

Years ago, it was common for a courier to pocket more than $100 a day in Portland, Wheeler said. Now, $100 represents a rare good day.

In San Francisco, Speedway used to have 30 bicycle messengers but there are now 12, said Lori O'Rourke, one of the owners. Another company, Quicksilver, had 14 messengers five years ago and now has only two, said dispatcher Stacey Means.

In Chicago, Velocity has half as many bicycle messengers as it did in 1999, when there were about two dozen riders, said Kyle Wiberg, a co-owner.

In Seattle, Dynamex had 15 to 20 riders at the peak; now there are five or six, said Phil Matthews, senior dispatcher.

"At this rate, in five to 10 years, I don't think there'll be bicycle messengers," Matthews said.

New York is the nation's bicycle messenger capital, with about 1,000. Fax machines and computers can't deliver fabric samples to the garment district, or hand-signed legal documents, or portfolios or blueprints.

But even in New York, growth has stagnated.

The number of bicycle messengers at Breakaway Courier has dropped from 100 to 40, said Robert Kotch, the company's president. New York Minute has 15 riders, roughly half what it had a couple of years ago, said Mike Sirota, general manager.

New York's Urban Express, which has 250 bicycle messengers, reports that bicycle work has been flat while vehicle deliveries continue to grow.

Portland's Wheeler, 35, left the business after someone in a parked car threw open a door as he sped down Congress Street. The collision sent him careening to the ground, leaving him with a smashed helmet, gashed hand, numerous cuts and road rash. He hung up his bicycle messenger bag and his two-way radio and now runs a bicycle repair shop. But he misses it.

"I just miss riding my bike every day. I miss the fitness," he said. "I don't like being inside every day."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phishing Attacks Take A New Twist
Alorie Gilbert

Phishers are increasingly using new methods to nab sensitive information from Internet users, according to data from Websense Security Labs.

In recent months, the researchers at security software company Websense detected a rise in schemes involving malicious programs known as keyloggers, according to the March phishing trends report released Wednesday by the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

The technology, which records the keystrokes of people using infected machines, could be designed to help phishers stay one step ahead of honest folk. In the past, attackers have relied mainly on e-mail messages that lure victims to malicious Web sites, where they are duped into disclosing logins and usernames for banking sites and other sensitive online accounts. The messages are typically spoofed to look like they come the bank or other trusted provider.

The keylogger programs are built specifically to capture login names and passwords for online bank accounts and to send them to the attackers, Websense Security Labs said. They typically exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser program.

Each week in March and February, Websense uncovered as many as 10 new keylogger variants and more than 100 new Web sites set up to infect computers with them. That's up from November and December, when the company's researchers identified an average of one-to-two new variants and 10 to 15 Web sites per week.

People can infect their machines with keylogger programs in numerous ways, including opening bogus e-mail attachments, downloading programs online or simply visiting a fraudulent Web site.

Keylogger attacks are a particular problem in Brazil, where recent two schemes targeted more than 100,000 .br e-mail accounts, the report found. However, the machine that hosted the malicious code in one of the attacks was located in California.

Phishers have previously turned to instant messaging, faked news feeds and have preyed on people that mistype the Web addresses of popular online destinations, such as Google.

The United States is host to more phishing sites than any other country, followed by China and Korea, according to the APWG report. In March alone, people reported more than 13,000 phishing-scheme e-mails to the group.
http://news.com.com/Phishing+attacks...3-5695874.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Scouts Get Merit Badge For Respecting Intellectual Property

Dib, dib, dib
Paul Hales

THE HONG KONG Scout Association has issued a badge scouts can earn for "respecting intellectual property rights."

The idea is the brainchild of scout master Victor Chan, who also happens to be Deputy General Manager of the Hong Kong Motion Picture Association (MPA).

The MPA in Hong Kong says Chan’s idea is supported by the Hong Kong Scout Association and Hong Kong Customs.

A spokesman for the Asia-Pacific MPA, Mike Ellis, said there was a need, "to make people understand that intellectual property has a value, and that its development has a cost. If people don’t value intellectual property, and are not willing to pay for it, eventually the development of that intellectual property will dry up."

Elllis, who isn’t a psychologist, or an expert on human motivation, might be excused for peddling untruths, but should he be allowed near your children, we wonder?

The MPA says far-eastern piracy costs it members US$896 million in lost revenue each year.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23038

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BitTorrent As Friend, Not Foe

Hollywood wants to cripple peer-to-peer technology. One Internet guru thinks that's a mistake.
Krysten Crawford

BitTorrent has been described as Hollywood's Napster -- a sinister software that makes it easy to steal movies off the Internet. And just like the recording industry response to the Napster scourge years ago, movie studios today are determined to stamp out BitTorrent.

Vinton Cerf, one of the co-creators of the Internet, thinks Hollywood is making a big mistake and that BitTorrent or another technology like it can't be stopped. His advice to Hollywood: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

"It would be a mistake to think that because a particular technology can be used to distribute illegal copies therefore you should just run away from it," said Cerf, who helped design the architecture that underlies the Internet and current chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the private, non-profit group that essentially supervises the Web.

In fact, Cerf said he knows Hollywood producers who are considering ways to use BitTorrent to distribute movies or other content online. He did not provide any names, but described the interest as "serious."

"Nobody has made any commitments," continued Cerf. Given the huge stakes involved, the producers are moving cautiously, he said.

The incipient interest in effectively embracing the enemy comes at a critical time for Hollywood,

The movie industry, claiming that billions worth of sales are lost to DVD and online piracy every year, has mounted a high-profile and multi-thronged campaign against so-called "peer-to-peer" networks, a technology that allows Internet users to trade songs, movies, video games, and photos stored on their hard drives.

Stopping the unstoppable

Together the movie and music industries have sued thousands of peer-to-peer users. They're asking the Supreme Court to give them standing to sue peer-to- peer developers. They're lobbying Congress to enact stiffer piracy penalties.

The movie industry faces an uphill climb. Data from tracking firm CacheLogic show that BitTorrent usage levels -- about half of all peer-to-peer traffic -- have not changed since the Hollywood onslaught began late last year.

But BitTorrent is not a company, it's a technology. And when one site shuts down, another instantly takes its place.

Briefly, here's how it works: users download from BitTorrent.com or some other site what's known as a '.torrent file' which also contains a link to a "tracker." This tracker basically allows users to find files, whether it's a movie or an operating system or a video game.

The beauty of BitTorrent is, the more people who download a file the better. Mass downloading essentially accelerates the process instead of slowing it down. As a result, instead of taking a full day, a movie download can happen in a matter of hours.

"BitTorrent makes Hollywood nervous the way Napster made the recording industry nervous," said Michael Goodman, an analyst with the Yankee Group.

But Goodman and other industry analysts think Hollywood has only one choice: embrace BitTorrent or a technology like it.

"One of the lessons we've certainly learned is you can't stem the technology tide," explained Goodman. "Peer-to-peer networks are here to stay and that begs the question, 'How do you live and work with them rather than let them be a source of piracy?'"

Some companies are looking for ways to use BitTorrent or similar technology.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is designing a peer-to-peer network where users can get free access to all the U.K.-based company's programs. On Wednesday, Netscape pioneers Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen launched the Open Media Network, a similar site that contains television shows, radio programs, movies and other content that their creators are willing to give away without cost.

Both the BBC project and the Open Media Network are based on a technology called Kontiki, which is like BitTorrent in that it allows participants to share unused bandwidth on their computers and servers.

A brief case study

One company that uses BitTorrent is Linspire, a San Diego-based developer of the Linux operating system. Linspire uses BitTorrent to distribute its products and minimize demand on company servers, said CEO Kevin Carmony.

He estimates the company saves about $20,000 a month, or half its bandwidth costs, using BitTorrent. "We love it and customers love it because it's a faster download," said Carmony.

Can BitTorrent be used to steal Linspire software? Carmony shrugs. "Of course it can and of course it will," he said. "There's no form of copyright protection that can't be broken."

Andrew Parker, the co-founder and chief technology officer at CacheLogic, thinks it's only a matter of time before Hollywood accepts that there is no "magic bullet" to combat peer-to- peer piracy and then starts to embrace it.

"I'm not sure they understand it enough yet," said Parker.

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America, the movie industry group leading the anti-piracy campaign, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/29/tech...iracy/?cnn=yes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Man Who Claims He Created The Internet Gets Award

Ironically from the man who really did
Nick Farrell

FAILED presidential candidate Al Gore, who once famously claimed to have invented the Internet, is going to get a lifetime achievement award for services to the Internet.

Gore was widely laughed at for his comments in a CNN interview that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet". In fact he was only 21 when the Internet was created out of a Pentagon project.

However the Webby awards, herefor online achievements said that Gore will get a lifetime achievement award for three decades of contributions service to the Internet.

Not that the Webby awards say he created the Internet, he just did "amazing work for three decades as congressman, senator and vice president".

Ironically, one of the blokes who really did invent the Interweb, Vint Cerf, will give Gore the award at a June 6 ceremony in New York.

When Gore joined Congress eight years after the Internet was created, he promoted high-speed telecommunications for economic growth and supported funding increases for the Internet.

He also came up with the term "information superhighway" when he was vice president, so it was his fault.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23023

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time Travelers to Meet in Not Too Distant Future
Pam Belluck

Suppose it is the future - maybe a thousand years from now. There is no static cling, diapers change themselves, and everyone who is anyone summers on Mars.

What's more, it is possible to travel back in time, to any place, any era. Where would people go? Would they zoom to a 2005 Saturday night for chips and burgers in a college courtyard, eager to schmooze with computer science majors possessing way too many brain cells?

Why not, say some students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who have organized what they call the first convention for time travelers.

Actually, they contend that theirs is the only time traveler convention the world needs, because people from the future can travel to it anytime they want.

"I would hope they would come with the idea of showing us that time travel is possible," said Amal Dorai, 22, the graduate student who thought up the convention, which is to be this Saturday on the M.I.T. campus. "Maybe they could leave something with us. It is possible they might look slightly different, the shape of the head, the body proportions."

The event is potluck and alcohol-free - present-day humans are bringing things like brownies. But Mr. Dorai's Web site asks that future-folk bring something to prove they are really ahead of our time: "Things like a cure for AIDS or cancer, a solution for global poverty or a cold fusion reactor would be particularly convincing as well as greatly appreciated."

He would also welcome people from only a few days in the future, far enough to, say, give him a few stock market tips.

Mr. Dorai and fellow organizers are the kind of people who transplant a snowblower engine into a sleeper sofa and drive the couch around Cambridge. (If the upholstery were bright red, it could be a midlife crisis convertible for couch potatoes.)

They built a human-size hamster wheel - eight feet in diameter. And they concocted the "pizza button," a plexiglass pizza slice mounted in their hallway; when pressed, it calls up a Web site and arranges for pizza delivery 30 minutes later. (For anyone wanting to try this at home, the contraption uses a Huffman binary code. It takes fewer keystrokes to order the most popular toppings, like pepperoni, more keystrokes for less popular extras, like onions.)

At the convention, they plan to introduce a robot with an "infrared pyro-electric detector," designed to follow anything that emits heat, including humans.

"It's supposed to be our pet," said Adam Kraft, 22, a senior.

"It needs fur," added David Nelson, 23, a graduate student.

While Mr. Dorai has precisely calculated that "the odds of a time traveler showing up are between one in a million and one in a trillion," organizers have tried to make things inviting.

In case their august university does not exist forever, they have posted the latitude and longitude of the East Campus Courtyard (42:21:36.025 degrees north, 71:05:16.332 degrees west).

A roped-off area, including part of an improvised volleyball court, will create a landing pad so materializing time-travel machines will not crash into trees or dormitories.

To set the mood, organizers plan to display a DeLorean - the sleek but short-lived 1980's car that was the time-traveling vehicle in the "Back to the Future" movies.

At first, Mr. Dorai urged people to publicize the event with methods likely to last. "Write the details down on a piece of acid-free paper," he directed, "and slip them into obscure books in academic libraries!"

But Mr. Dorai said the response was so overwhelming that the police, concerned about security, had asked that anyone who had not replied by Wednesday not be allowed to attend.

No future-guests are confirmed as of yet, although one responder purports to be from 2026. But among the 100 likely attendees, there are those from another time zone - Chicago - and from New York, which at least likes to think of itself as light-years ahead.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed," said Erik D. Demaine, an M.I.T. mathematician who will be one of the professors speaking.

There will also be two bands, the Hong Kong Regulars and Off-White Noise, performing new, time-travel-apropos tunes.

"If you subscribe to alternative-world theory, then time travel makes sense at some level," said Professor Demaine, who would like future-guests to bring answers to mathematical mysteries. "The universe is inherently uncertain, and at various times it's essentially flipping coins to make a decision. At any point, there's the heads version of the world and the tails version of the world. We think that we actually live in one of them, and you could imagine that there's actually many versions of the universe, including one where suddenly you appear from 10 years in the future."

If you can not imagine that, consider Erin Rhode's view of time travel.

"I kind of think if it's going to happen, it'll be the wormhole theory," said Ms. Rhode, 23, a recent graduate, adding, "If you create a stable wormhole," a hole in space, "people can go back to visit it."

William McGehee, 19, a freshman who helped build a "Saturday Night Fever"-like dance floor in his dorm, said, "It's pretty obvious if time travel does occur, then it doesn't cause the universe to explode."

And Sam McVeety, 18, a freshman, wondered if wearing a tinfoil hat would be comforting or insulting to future-people.

Mr. Dorai has had quirky brainstorms before: proposing the imprisonment of Bill Watterson, the retired cartoonist, to force him to continue his "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip; and donning the costume of M.I.T.'s mascot, the beaver, while climbing the statue of John Harvard, namesake of that other Cambridge college. That incident went awry when some Harvard men swiped a paw.

But Mr. Dorai's time travel idea seems to have legs.

"If you can just give up a Saturday night, there's a very small chance at it being the biggest event in human history," he said.

And if it is a flop, futuristically speaking?

Well, Mr. Dorai reasoned, "Certainly, if no one from the future shows up, that won't prove that it's impossible."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/national/06time.html

Until next week,

- js.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent WiRs -

April 30th, April 23rd, April16th, April 9th, April 2nd, March 26th

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

TankGirl · 05-05-05, 08:36 PM

Thanks for another interesting WiR, Jack.

This new trend of cities setting up their own free wireless networks is very interesting and promising. The fierce lobbying efforts by the telecom corporations to ban a good thing before it has hardly got started are very reminiscent of the content industries' efforts to ban p2p. Free wireless access does not prevent commercial bandwidth vendors from running a business but it does force them to offer more and cheaper bandwidth to remain competitive and it also prevents them from playing with availibility issues. Just like free p2p does not prevent commercial content producers from doing business but forces them to offer more bang for the consumer's buck and also prevents them from playing with availibility issues. Both good things for the proverbial 'consumer'.

- tg

theknife · 07-05-05, 06:40 AM

Quote:

A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out new federal rules to require anti-piracy technology that would have limited how consumers could record and watch their favorite television programs in the future.

The three-judge panel for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia determined the Federal Communications Commission had exceeded its authority when it announced it would require such technology in digital televisions and other consumer electronic devices sold after July 1.

this is a very good thing for our side, but watch for the full-court lobbying press by Big Media to shove this thing thru Congress now that it's been established that the FCC was out of it's element.

i loved the reaction on Boing-Boing:

Quote:

My first day on the job at EFF was at the first meeting where they were negotiating the Broadcast Flag, a set of rules for restricting the features of digital television devices to those that were approved by the Hollywood executives who tried to ban the VCR. The rules set out to ban the use of Open Source/Free Software in digital television applications, and to require hardware components to be designed to be hard or impossible to create open drivers for. Fox exec Andy Setos told me that we were there to create "a polite marketplace" where no one would be allowed to disrupt his business model without getting his permission and cooperation first (cough planned economy cough commies cough).

I'm honored and thrilled to have been part of the gigantic upswelling of public outcry over this naked attempt to bootstrap the studios' limited monopoly over copying movies into an unlimited monopoly over the design of every device that might be used to copy a movie.

And to the studio execs whom I faced across the table, who shouted at us and excluded us and told us that this was going to happen no matter what: NEENER NEENER NEENER.

theknife · 08-05-05, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theknife

this is a very good thing for our side, but watch for the full-court lobbying press by Big Media to shove this thing thru Congress now that it's been established that the FCC was out of it's element.

can i quote myself? sure i can

just in time to bolster the case for the broadcast flag via Congress, we have this:

Quote:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lucrative summer movie season suffered its worst start in years Sunday, as the costly Crusades epic "Kingdom of Heaven" crawled into the No. 1 slot at the North American weekend box office with meager ticket sales of just $20 million.

Industry hopes that "Kingdom" would pull the business out of a lengthy slump were dashed: the box office has now endured 11 "down" weekends when compared with the year-ago periods. According to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, this ties the longest losing streak, which ran from July to October in 2000.

how timely - you know what the MPAA is gonna blame this on. coincidence? we think not.

05-05-05, 07:01 PM	#1
JackSpratts Join Date: May 2001 Location: New England Posts: 10,017	Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review – May 7th, '05 Early Edition Quotes Of The Week "Theft of intellectual property is so prevalent on the Internet that I will never put myself out of business." – Mark Ishikawa "There's no form of copyright protection that can't be broken." - Kevin Carmony. "Peer-to-peer networks are here to stay." - Michael Goodman "It has nothing to do with eXeem." - Olivier "If you can just give up a Saturday night, there's a very small chance at it being the biggest event in human history." - Amal Dorai Broadcast Flag lowered Court Blocks TV Anti-Piracy Tech Rules Ted Bridis A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out new federal rules to require anti-piracy technology that would have limited how consumers could record and watch their favorite television programs in the future. The three-judge panel for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia determined the Federal Communications Commission had exceeded its authority when it announced it would require such technology in digital televisions and other consumer electronic devices sold after July 1. "This opens up the future for consumers to have more wide-ranging video experiences," said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Washington-based Public Knowledge, a consumers group. "They will be able to take advantage of new products and features that won't be dictated to them by the entertainment industry." The controversial rules were challenged by consumer groups, including library associations. Their lawyers complained the FCC requirement would drive up prices of digital television devices and prevent consumers from recording programs in ways permitted under copyright laws. The technology, known as the broadcast flag, would have been required after July 1 for televisions equipped to receive new digital signals, many personal computers and VCR-type recording devices. It would permit entertainment companies to designate, or flag, programs to prevent viewers from copying shows or distributing them over the Internet. Entertainment companies said the technology was needed to block viewers from recording high-quality, digital versions of television shows and films and distributing them free online. The FCC acknowledged the agency never had exercised the authority to impose regulations affecting television broadcasts after such programs are beamed into households, but it maintained that was permitted by Congress since lawmakers didn't explicitly outlaw it. "We categorically reject that suggestion," the appeals panel said. The appeals decision will launch an aggressive lobbying effort by entertainment companies in Washington to persuade lawmakers to require new technology to enforce copyright protections. Friday's ruling was no real surprise. During courtroom arguments, U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the FCC it had "crossed the line" by requiring the new anti-piracy technology for next-generation television devices and rhetorically asked the FCC whether it also intended to regulate household appliances. "You've gone too far," Edwards told the FCC's lawyer. "Are washing machines next?" http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan...=apn_home_down ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Piracy Fails To Sink Film Profits Staff and agencies Despite fears that internet piracy would dent its profits, Hollywood has had a buoyant year. Worldwide revenues from cinema tickets, videos and DVD sales, as well as television rights, reached a whopping $44.8bn (£24bn) last year, up 9% from 2003. Record DVD sales fuelled the increase, up 14% in the US and 46% worldwide, but most other sectors did better than last year. The only exception was cinema ticket sales outside America. These did fall, but by a relatively modest 1%. The figures are from a report by the Motion Picture Association, part of the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood studios. For the past year, the MPAA has mounted an aggressive anti-piracy campaign in the US, claiming that studios lose around $3.5bn (£1.8bn) in potential earnings each year. In February, it launched its third wave of lawsuits in four months against anyone illegally up- or downloading movies through internet file-sharing programs. The MPAA has also taken to sending guards sporting night-vision goggles into cinemas, in a bid to catch the pirates red-handed. http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/stor...475482,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Azureus Introduces DHT Layer Thomas Mennecke Azureus, a leading java based BitTorrent client, has introduced DHT (Distributed Hash Table) to its client. DHT is a networking protocol that enhances the scalability and efficiency of decentralized networks by creating a virtual index rather than broadcasting search queries. Decentralized networks that utilized DHT technology are able to search and locate files significantly faster than networks that do not use this technology. You may think to yourself, "So what, Azureus has incorporated DHT, many decentralized networks employ this technology." The significance of adding this layer to Azureus is that it significantly increases the efficiency of file distribution. With the new version of Azureus, any client can choose to become a tracker or not. This is where DHT comes into play. With DHT, each node is responsible for indexing a certain percentage of hash files on the network. For example, say there are 50 Azureus users all participating on the DHT portion of the network. If 8 decide to become nodes, each one will work together to become a virtual index (so-called "tracker-less.") This allows a client to continue downloading a file even if the web-based tracker goes down. In addition, even if a tracker happens to go down, the swarms will continue to be maintained - even finding alternative file sources. Olivier from Azureus explains this new DHT implementation has a familiar origin. "The technology behind the DHT (Distributed Hash Table = Distributed Database) is Kademlia, (the "Kad" network in eMule is another Kademlia distributed hash table, Kad is heavily modified from the original specifications for performance reasons). Azureus implementation follows quite a lot the original Kademlia specifications so far." Keep in mind this is not a "decentralized BitTorrent" network. The BitTorrent network and DHT network operate independently. DHT is a layer added on top of the BitTorrent network to assist in Azureus’ performance. BitTorrent is a distinct networking protocol, of which is specified by creator Bram Cohen. Anything existing outside of those specifications is not BitTorrent. Some articles have attempted to label the new Azureus as a “decentralized BitTorrent”, possibly confusing some with a dubious client named “eXeem.” Olivier makes it quite clear these two clients are not even in the same Universe. “It has nothing to do with eXeem, and in terms of performance, searching the DHT is a matter of ms (milliseconds) when the content is available (ie, when it has results), and of seconds when it' s not. I don't know for sure how eXeem works, but from the test I did, it's not using a DHT.” http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=772 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hackers Figure Out File Extraction From Sony UMD Software developers have figured out how to extract files from the Universal Media Discs used in Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation Portable handheld video game device, though there is no way to play the games extracted from those discs. Some details of the exploit were posted Wednesday night on the Web site PS2nfo.com, along with lists showing all the files pulled off the game discs for "Ridge Racers," "Wipeout Pure" and "Vampire Chronicles." The games are not yet playable because there is no way to burn UMDs from scratch, and the PSP does not accommodate larger discs. However, the site said the ability to look through the games' file structures could still be instructive for developers. A spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment of America was not immediately available for comment. Sony released the PSP on March 24 in North America, and the device has sold well since. Movie studios are gearing up to release some of their films on the UMD format, though it was not immediately clear if the techniques used to extract the game files would also work for films. http://today.reuters.com/News/TechSt...ONY-PSP-DC.XML ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ USB Drives Aid File Sharing Enid Burns Portable USB flash drives come in all shapes and sizes, and capacities and capabilities are growing to suit users. Eighty percent of respondents in a survey have flash drives primarily for personal use, and share files with their friends 66 percent of the time according to a survey conducted by Hall & Partners, commissioned by M-Systems and DiskOnKey. The survey polled 415 respondents who regularly use USB flash drive devices or are likely to buy one within the next six months. It found USB drive consumers are predominantly male, in their mid-30s to mid-50s, and make over $50K a year. Most Popular Files Stored on USB Drive File Type Respondents Music 62% Graphics 52% Video 46% Source: Hall & Partners, February 2005 The overwhelming majority of respondents (83 percent) would pay more for extra storage capacity, with 59 percent are likely to buy another flash drive in the next two years. Capacity is an important purchase consideration, say 51 percent of respondents, followed by speed. Thirty-eight percent of those questioned want a faster drive. USB flash drives have become a daily accessory for 21 percent of those surveyed. Sixty-six percent use their drive to share files with friends and families. The pass-along rate of files (not necessarily the drives themselves) may provide a new outlet for rich media that can be stored and shared on USB flash drives. Interest in Future Applications on USB Drive Application Respondents Customizing portable desktop 54% Accessing e-mail 51% Managing passwords 47% Accessing Web accounts 43% Source: Hall & Partners, February 2005 "Making content more portable, like the BMW film ads; USB flash drives made it easy to transport content," says Joe Unsworth of Gartner Group. Unsworth explains the price point is the driving factor in the sale of this medium, with a $50 purchase price being the sweet spot for most buyers. A few are willing to spend a few dollars more to up the capacity of the drive they are purchasing. "They want that extra storage for a few more dollars. That is where it is compelling, and has made the market elastic," comments Unsworth. Another element to the pass-along rate of USB flash drives is when they're given out at conferences and events loaded with presentations and other data. The affordable size for this brand of promotion is typically up to 64 megabytes. "You are going to see video talk tracks and music talk tracks," explains Unsworth. "There is talk about giving away music player USB drive devices with little cost to the marketer." http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/...le.php/3501446 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ People Telecom Gets Piracy Warning Renai LeMay Anti-piracy agencies are targeting a select number of Internet service providers with e-mails warning of illegal movie and software downloads by their users. MediaSentry and the Business Software Alliance, which act for sections of the recording and software industries in stopping online piracy, respectively, have requested ISPs to clamp down on illegal file- sharing activity. If no action is taken, legal action would be taken. Australia's People Telecom is one such ISP which has received numerous warnings. However, Telstra's BigPond, the country's largest ISP, has received none. "We get hundreds of them, all the time. Every ISP does," said People Telecom CEO Ryan O'Hare, adding that the company has been receiving such e-mails since it launched 18 months ago. A BigPond spokesperson said the company "did not believe it had received any such e-mail". At press time, other large Internet service providers including Optus, iiNet, Internode, Netspace and Westnet did not comment on whether they too had been targeted. Upon receiving notices from anti-piracy organisations, People Telecom would merely forward the e-mails to customers in question and request for an end to such activities. The company's action is in line with its standard service agreement, which states that customers may not use its network to infringe intellectual property rights. In two e-mails obtained by ZDNet Australia , the ISP said: "Please be advised that we have received a copyright infringement notice against an IP address identified as belonging to your account. "We request that you check your PC for a virus and/or cease immediately from downloading copyright material. Should you fail to comply with this request within 48 hours, further action may be taken against you." O'Hare said it was his belief that some ISPs didn't react to the e-mails, "because they say it's not their responsibility", but some -- such as his own company -- do. "We always have, and it's part of the Copyright Act," he said. "We're trying to do the right thing." People Telecom is currently involved in a court case resulted from a raid on the premises of its subsidiary Swiftel this March. The Music Industry Piracy Investigations has alleged that Swiftel hosted and maintained two servers providing access to copyrighted material via the BitTorrent application, which is enjoying rising popularity in peer-to-peer file-sharing circles. O'Hare would not confirm whether his company was currently monitoring its users' traffic for copyright infringements due to the restrictions of the Swiftel court proceedings. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communi...9190667,00.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Austrian ISP Has To Divulge User Data After All A performing rights society has won a suit filed with the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Vienna to have the identity of a file-sharing user revealed. The court thus upheld the original judge's ruling. The Council Chamber of the first-instance district criminal court of Vienna had overruled this ruling on December 01, 2004. The provider has been ordered to reveal the name and address of a customer charged with offering 3,864 music files as downloads for 21 minutes on October 07, 2004. The plaintiff, a performing rights society, only knows the person's dynamic IP address. The first-instance district criminal court has rejected the plaintiff's demand to have the data revealed, arguing that a dynamic IP address is not master data (unlike names, addresses, etc.). Hence, the court argued, the identity of the accused could only be determined by tracing the call data, which is admissible according to Section 149a of the Austrian Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) only if crimes with penalties exceeding one year in prison were committed intentionally. However, the plaintiff argued that Section 91 paragraph 1 of the Copyright Act has been violated, which has a maximum sentence of six months in prison. The Appeals Court thus had to rule that an IP address was equivalent to a telephone number, thus making both master data. "Master data are not subject to privacy of telecommunications, but rather only to data protection. Information about master data provided to criminal courts - i.e., the regular revelation of a user's identity based on a telephone number (which corresponds to an IP address) - can be provided if the suspect is to be investigated and prosecuted for a specific crime; here, the restrictions in Section 149a ff stop do not apply", the court explained when handing down its ruling. The Appeals Court based its ruling on "Section 18 paragraph 4 of the ECG, which stipulates that service providers have to divulge a user's name and address if a third party has a material legal interest in determining the user's identity to provide evidence of an illegal action." In addition, the Court explained that "providers cannot be allowed to decide at their discretion whether to issue static or dynamic IP addresses in order to avoid their duty to disclose information.” (Daniel AJ Sokolov) / (Craig Morris) / (jk/c't) http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/59083 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple Gets Tech Support In Court Dawn Kawamoto The potential conflict between trade secrets and First Amendment rights intensified earlier this week as Intel, Genentech and the Business Software Alliance filed court briefs in support of Apple Computer. Apple wants to subpoena e-mail records from a Web site that leaked confidential product information. The briefs, filed this week in a California appeals court, support a tentative ruling by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg. Kleinberg ruled that Apple could subpoena e-mail records of Macintosh enthusiast site PowerPage, which leaked confidential information about a music hardware device code named Asteroid, one of Apple's upcoming products. Following the judge's decision, however, the digital-rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the appeals court to overturn Kleinberg's ruling, saying it would infringe on PowerPage's First Amendment rights. EFF represents three online journalists whose records are being sought by Apple in the case. Intel, Genentech and the software alliance contend that innovation would be hampered if it were legal to obtain trade secrets and post them on a Web site. "Strong trade secret laws are vital to the health of California's high-technology business and to the economy of the nation as a whole," Intel and BSA stated in their joint brief. "There is no public interest in having such trade secrets stolen and plastered on the Internet for competitors and others to see." The chip giant and BSA asked the appeals court to differentiate between First Amendment protections and cases where reporters "have been conduits of stolen information and their files contain direct evidence of that illegal conduct." Genentech, a biotech giant, asked the court to consider the effect of allowing a company's intellectual property to be published without its permission. "In this day and age, when a trade secret--indeed, any kind of secret--is never more than a few keystrokes away from global publication, companies that prosper on the strength of their intellectual property must have the ability to take reasonable steps to learn the identities of those who steal that property," Genentech stated in court documents. In the last five months, Apple has subpoenaed the records of PowerPage and AppleInsider to uncover the identities of three "John Does" who it says leaked the confidential information to the sites. While Apple is not directly suing the two sites, it is focusing its suit against the individuals who leaked the information. In a separate case, Apple is suing the publisher of Web site ThinkSecret for its role in disclosing Apple's trade secrets. Apple declined to comment on the Intel, Genentech and BSA briefs, and instead referred to its original statement when it filed its John Doe case with the Santa Clara County Superior Court. "Apple has filed a civil complaint against unnamed individuals who we believe stole our trade secrets and posted detailed information about an unannounced Apple product on the Internet. Apple's DNA is innovation, and the protection of our trade secrets is crucial to our success," the company said. Meanwhile, in a third, unrelated case, Apple sued three men who leaked developer copies of its new Tiger operating system onto file-sharing sites. Apple has settled with two of the three men. http://news.com.com/Apple+gets+tech+...3-5689203.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple Sued Over "Tiger," Injunction Sought AppleInsider Staff Apple Computer has been slapped with a lawsuit by Tiger Direct Inc. for allegedly infringing its trademark with the new Mac OS X "Tiger'' operating system scheduled for release on Friday. Tiger Direct, which sells computers and related products on the Internet, said Apple's Tiger OS threatens to dilute its trademarked name, according to Bloomberg, which has obtained a copy of the lawsuit. The online retailer also accused Apple of deceptive and unfair trade practices in the lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Miami, Florida, Bloomberg said. "Apple Computer has created and launched a nationwide media blitz led by Steven Jobs, overwhelming the computer world with a sea of Tiger references," Tiger Direct's attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. If the court grants Tiger Direct's request for an injunction, Apple's rollout of Tiger could be stopped. Tiger Direct, which is based in Miami, Florida, has used its family of Tiger trademarks to sell computers and computer related products since 1987, the lawsuit said. The company owns trademarks on the names Tiger, TigerDirect and TigerSoftware. The retailer said Apple's use of the name "is causing confusion, mistake and deception among the general purchasing public." At the root of the issue appears to internet search results. Tiger Direct contends that Apple's use of the name has adversely affected its ranking amongst the Internet's largest search engines, Google and Yahoo, bumping the company from its usual spot in the first three results. Tiger Direct has asked the federal court to block Apple from using the name, according to Bloomberg. The online retailer is also seeking damages and legal fees. Update: Tiger Direct claims a preliminary injunction hearing is slated for Tuesday, May 3, several days after Tiger is scheduled to go onsale. http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1039 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Apple Releases Huge Security Update to OS X 10.3.9 Apple released a major security update earlier today for Max OS X 10.3.9, both client and server editions. The patch addresses 20 vulnerabilities in the OS, including Apache, AppleScript, Bluetooth, Finder, Terminal and VPN. Security Update 2005-005 is a fix for all of the vulnerabilities and can be downloaded through Software Update or from http:// www.apple.com/support/downloads. http://www.geekcoffee.net/archives/2...eleases_3.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Review Mac Os X Steps Ahead of Windows Matthew Fordahl Tired of waiting while your PC slowly scours its hard drive for a document you stashed somewhere six months ago? Sick of having to change how you work to conform with the computer's rigid way of organizing files? Bored with the flat look of the desktop's graphics? Microsoft's next-generation operating system for Windows, code-named Longhorn, is supposed to address such digital woes. It may even be released in time for Christmas 2006. But if you've got a Macintosh computer, or plan to buy one, those issues have been tackled. They're amply addressed in the latest update of Mac OS X, dubbed "Tiger," goes on sale Friday. Despite a much smaller user base, Mac OS X has been steps ahead of Windows on key fronts since its first release in 2001. It's got more advanced and polished graphics. It's less prone to malicious attacks. And Macs look better than nearly all Windows PCs. Until recently, Apple has been dogged by a reputation for high prices. Its computers now start at $499, and the number of programs that run on them has grown dramatically. Tiger provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows. I've been trying out Tiger on a borrowed an iMac G5 and my own dual-processor Power Mac G4. New Mac users will get it with their systems; existing customers must pay $129 for the upgrade. (The update was simple, taking about an hour.) Topping the list of 200 or so improvements in Tiger is a built-in search tool that goes a long way toward relieving one of the biggest headaches that's plagued computers. That is, as hard drive capacity grows and our digital universe broadens to include text, music, video, e-mail, pictures and everything else, information gets lost in the shuffle of folders scattered across gigabytes of hard drive real estate. Operating systems have been designed to pigeonhole that data into a hierarchy of folders. But what if a document, song or picture fits into five or six different categories, each with its own folder? If you choose one, how will you remember it a year from now? Tiger addresses both problems with a search technology, called Spotlight, that also enables a new way of organization, called Smart Folders. Accessed by clicking small magnifying glass icon, search results fill in as you type keywords. Spotlight doesn't just search filenames. It also looks inside files - into a document's text, a picture's caption or tags linked to a music file, for instance. Spotlight's speed, even on my older Power Mac, is impressive. Results were on target, too. Like the desktop search tools available on Windows PCs from Yahoo, Google and MSN, Spotlight relies on an index that's created when it's first installed. Instead of having to scour an entire drive in search of something, it just looks it up in the database. Indexing with Windows add-ons is a more computer-intensive process. Most are smart enough to do their work only when you're not working on something, but that means new information isn't always available. I have also found their range of files to be limited. After the initial index is built in Tiger, changes are made to it whenever a file is changed - whether it's saved, deleted, moved or modified in another way. I noticed no performance hit and, despite my repeated attempts to trick it, Spotlight never missed a file change. I actually found myself using Spotlight to launch programs. And there's more. Searches can be saved and the results turned into folders that run a query each time they're opened, fine-tuned to display only certain types of files. Time variables can also be set. There is room for some improvement, however. Spotlight only searches for files on the local computer, not networked hard drives or remote shared folders. Network file searching is something that's expected in Longhorn, and Apple hasn't ruled it out as a future feature. Tiger - like previous versions of Mac OS X - also sets the bar high in the graphics display area. In its "Dashboard," small programs called "Widgets" overlay the screen at the punch of a button. They such display information as the weather, stock prices, flight information and calendar info. More can be added, and they pop open with a rippling flourish. But Tiger is about a lot more than look and feel. It's also about looking at more people than ever on your video screen live. With Apple's iSight camera ($149) and Tiger's new built-in iChat AV program, you can set up and participate in video conferences with 10 people. It's visually stunning, with each person showing up in a panel, their animated faces reflecting against a black background. Of course, it's impossible to judge how Tiger will compare with the next-generation of Windows since Longhorn isn't available. As more details come out, additional complaints of Microsoft copying Mac OS X will surely be heard. Both Apple and Microsoft are trying to address the same problems: sifting more quickly through more and more data. The onus is now on Bill Gates & Co. to see if it can one-up Steve Jobs' shop. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Shift on Intellectual Property, Microsoft Will Team With Outsiders Steve Lohr Microsoft announced today that it would begin to license its home-grown ideas to venture capital firms and entrepreneurs. The move, the company said, is an effort both to open up its technology to outsiders and to exploit its storehouse of intellectual property. The new program, called Microsoft Intellectual Property Ventures, is intended to foster more amicable relations between the big software company and start-up companies that have often regarded Microsoft as a threat. The program, company executives say, will also provide a path into the marketplace for technology developed by Microsoft researchers that does not necessarily make it into the company's products. The licensing deals, which could include Microsoft's taking equity stakes in startups, will yield added revenue and investment income, though the amounts will be modest at first. The new initiative points to a shift in Microsoft's intellectual property strategy away from a trade secrets mentality, in which inventions are hoarded under a licensing policy. Microsoft is following the well-traveled course of more mature technology companies, led by I.B.M., which has long licensed its innovations and earns more than $1 billion a year in royalties. Two years ago, Microsoft hired a former I.B.M. executive, Marshall Phelps, as deputy general counsel overseeing intellectual property licensing. The traditional licensing policies of big companies have mostly focused on cross-licensing deals with other big companies. Yet in the last year or so, several major technology companies have tried ways to sell or share their technology with smaller companies and entrepreneurs by offering more flexible terms or making some patents free, as I.B.M. and Sun Microsystems have done. Microsoft has been working for more than six months to develop its program with a handful of venture capital firms. Venture capitalists who have been told of the Microsoft effort said the technology on offer was grouped in 20 categories, including artificial intelligence, security, graphics, gaming and databases. Lucinda Stewart, a general partner at OVP Venture Partners in Seattle, said startups could benefit from using off-the-shelf technology from Microsoft as building blocks for their own new products or services. "This program could accelerate the speed to market for some of the opportunities we're working on," Ms. Stewart said. Besides building on the Microsoft technology, startups may also want to strike licensing deals to make sure their products or services work well with Microsoft products. "We want to make sure the things our companies are doing fit into the Microsoft ecosystem, and in the past that has sometimes been challenging," said Sam Jadallah, a general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures in Silicon Valley. One of the startups Mohr Davidow is financing is Scalix, which makes e-mail server software that runs on the Linux operating system, a competitor of the Windows server operating system. Scalix is also a direct rival to Microsoft's Exchange e-mail server software, lends support to Linux, yet must work well with Microsoft's desktop Outlook e-mail program. Will Microsoft's more open licensing policy extend to potential competitors like Scalix? "I'm sure those kinds of conversations will take place," said Mr. Jadallah, a former Microsoft executive. "As in all things, you want to see how the execution of this program works." For Microsoft's labs, which now employ more than 700 researchers worldwide, the new licensing program is a way to have their innovations used more broadly than in the company's products, Rick Rashid, senior vice president for Microsoft's research division, said. Mr. Rashid cited a deal signed last month with a startup, Inrix, as a forerunner of the new program. Inrix licensed some predictive, real-time technology developed in Microsoft's labs for its business of modeling traffic patterns on highways and streets. "We don't do traffic-flow analysis," Mr. Rashid explained. "Computer science now has a lot to offer in a broad set of fields." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/te...4cnd-soft.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Microsoft Loses A Round In Eolas Patent Case Microsoft Corp. lost a U.S. appeals court bid to limit the damages software makers can be ordered to pay in some patent-infringement cases, on its way to a new trial in a dispute over a method of surfing the Internet. A jury had told Microsoft to pay Eolas Technologies Inc. $521 million for infringement. Yesterday, an appeals court let stand its earlier decision that upheld the infringement finding and ruled that Microsoft can be forced to pay damages based on overseas sales of software. Microsoft still gets a new trial to argue that the patent is invalid. The case involves a 2003 award to closely held Eolas by a jury that decided Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser infringed an Eolas patent on technology for reading information stored on the Internet. Intel Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s America Online supported Microsoft's argument that damages in such patent-infringement cases shouldn't include global sales when disks containing software code have been sent overseas. Microsoft said in court papers that more than 64 percent of the $521 million award was based on computers "made, sold and used entirely in foreign countries." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled March 2 that Microsoft's software on computers sold overseas was covered by a U.S. patent because it had been copied from a master program developed in the United States. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...3_eolas04.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IBM to Cut Up to 13,000 Jobs, Take Charge AP International Business Machines Corp. said Wednesday it would cut between 10,000 and 13,000 jobs and record a pre-tax charge of between $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion in the second quarter. IBM surprised investors last month when it missed first-quarter earnings estimates by 5 cents a share. When it reported earnings, the chief financial officer Mark Loughridge said the company would take a "sizable restructuring." The majority of the cuts are planned for Europe. The company began cutting jobs at its European operations even before it announced its first-quarter earnings. The cuts are in line with analysts' estimates. The company plans to realign its operations and organizational structure in Europe to reduce bureaucracy in lower-growth countries. IBM stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange at $77.07 a share, up 60 cents, late Monday. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...M&SECTION=HOME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hard times for hard drive maker Maxtor Swings to Loss for First Quarter AP Maxtor Corp., a maker of hard disk drives, said Wednesday it swung to a loss in the first quarter as it absorbed a big severance charge. The company lost $24.2 million, or 10 cents per share, in the three months ended April 2 compared with a profit of $8.9 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago. The results for the latest quarter reflected a $4.9 million charge related to the termination of the Company's 2.5-inch drive program and $13.9 million in severance-related charges associated with the reduction in force in the U.S. and in Singapore. Revenue rose slightly to $1.07 billion from $1.02 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to post a loss of 8 cents per share on revenue of $989.3 million. Maxtor said drive shipments in the quarter totaled 14.2 million, with desktop drives representing 13.4 million of the total, including 1,029,000 shipped to consumer electronics original equipment makers. Maxtor said that following a review of its accounting for leases acquired in its 2001 acquisition of Quantum Corp.'s hard disk drive business, the company has determined that net income for prior periods was overstated by $6.7 million. The company said that it will file an amended financial statement for 2004 that will include the adjustments for the earlier periods. Maxtor shares rose 26 cents, or 5.5 percent, to close at $4.97 on the New York Stock Exchange. It reported its earnings after the close and its shares were down a penny a share in extended trading. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Russia's Federal Security Bureau Asks For More Authority To Control Internet RIA Novosti Russian security authorities should be given broader powers to control telecommunications and the Internet, argues Dmitri Frolov, of the Federal Security Service's Information Security Center. Frolov spoke Thursday in the Federation Council, or Russia's upper house of parliament, at a panel discussion devoted to telecommunications and Internet regulations. The Federal Security Service proposes setting new rules for Internet providers so that it could prevent the spread of extremist ideas, track down illegal online operations, and get access to databases with mobile telephone subscribers' details, such as e-mail addresses, Frolov said. There should be compulsory registration of mobile phone users with Internet connectivity. The lack of clear-cut regulations on Internet operations may bring some sensitive information or misinformation into the public domain, as well as lead to copyright violations, argued Frolov. He believes that Russia needs enabling legislation to put this sector in order. The Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications is opposed to the idea of adopting a separate law on Internet operations. Speaking at today's panel discussion in the Federation Council, Deputy Minister Boris Antonyuk said the use of the Internet could be regulated by more general laws already in effect, including those dealing with advertising, the protection of consumer rights, and administrative offenses. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050428/39757635.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bahrain's Decision To Register Web Sites Criticized AP All Web sites operating in Bahrain must register with the country's Information Ministry under a new government mandate that has provoked protests from an international watchdog for press freedom. The move comes two months after the government detained three Bahrainis who were linked to an Internet forum that it viewed as hostile. Web sites have six months starting this Monday to register. They must give the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the operators, said Jamal Dawood, the ministry's director of publications. Web sites will then get an ID number they must post. The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders criticized the move, saying it will intimidate Web publishers, including operators of personal Web journals such as blogs, and pressure sites to cut back on message boards and other interactive features for fear they will be held responsible for what visitors post. ``This does not happen in any democratic country and is a threat to press freedom,'' the Paris-based organization said in a statement. Dawood, who helped draft the regulation, denied the requirement was a restriction of press freedom or freedom of expression. He said nobody will be refused registration on grounds of their site's content. The government had not yet decided what would happen to those who fail to register, Dawood said. The three Bahrainis detained in February were released last month, but their passports have been confiscated. They may yet be prosecuted for running a site accused of criticizing the royal family, inciting hatred against the government and spreading false information that could destabilize the nation. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/11512867.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Law Firm Suing To Take News Of Woes Off Web Site Michael Beebe Cellino & Barnes has gone to court to stop a Rochester law firm from mentioning its potential disciplinary problems on the Rochester firm's Web site. Ross M. Cellino and Stephen E. Barnes claim that Moran & Kufta PC and its principal attorney, James J. Moran, violated New York State's civil rights law. It had no right, the suit claims, to mention a March 11 Buffalo News story about the investigation of Cellino & Barnes on the Moran Web site and to link to The News story over the Internet. Attorney Richard T. Sullivan, who filed the lawsuit, said Moran & Kufta never obtained permission from Cellino and Barnes to use "their names for advertising or trade purposes." The suit, filed April 18 in State Supreme Court, demands a permanent injunction against the Moran firm from using the names of Cellino and Barnes on its Web site, and any other relief the court deems proper. Moran referred questions to attorney Phillip G. Spellane, of the Rochester firm Harris Beach, who said only: "We disagree with the claim alleged and intend to defend it vigorously." Sullivan, who is also representing Cellino & Barnes before the grievance committee with attorney Joel L. Daniels, could not be reached to comment. A lawyer specializing in Internet law says Cellino & Barnes will have a difficult time winning its suit. "It seems like a bizarre complaint," said Internet law professor Wendy Seltzer, a lawyer with the Electronic Freedom Forum and a founding fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. "It seems like something the First Amendment would not permit to go forward because commercial speech is protected by the First Amendment," she said. She also said New York's Civil Rights statute more likely applies to an advertisement that falsely claims an endorsement or testimonial, not just the mention of a competitor's name. Section 50 of the statute, referred to in the suit, reads in full: "Right of privacy. A person, firm or corporation that uses for advertising purposes, or for the purposes of trade, the name, portrait or picture of any living person without having first obtained the written consent of such person, or if a minor of his or her parent or guardian, is guilty of a misdemeanor." Moran & Kufta's linking The News article on its Web site, Seltzer said, would be no different than the law firm putting a copy of the story in a newsletter or posting it in its lobby. She said she suspects "the complaining party is perturbed that more people have become aware of the article because it's linked to on the Internet and think this might be a good way to quiet it down." The lawsuit has already had a temporary effect. Moran & Kufta's Web site, moranandkufta.com, has not been available since the suit was filed. In his complaint, Sullivan said Moran & Kufta posted the link to the March 11 article under the Web site's Hot Topics section. The Web site designer, Electronic Portfolio, described it as "a place for current hot topics, which keeps the site up to date . . . " It carried a headline, "Cellino & Barnes Investigated." By clicking on an Internet link, the reader would be directed to The News Web site for the full story. Before linking to The News story, the Web site copy also stated: "Cellino & Barnes facing the grievance committee because of multiple client complaints." The News story referred to an expected decision by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court on complaints made about Cellino & Barnes to the grievance committee that investigates lawyers. The story said the specific complaints were not known, but said the range of possible outcomes from the Appellate Division ranged from disbarment, suspension, censure, or letters of admonition to no cause of action. No decision on Cellino & Barnes has come down from the court in the past two months. The next round of decisions from the Appellate Division is expected in June. http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...03/1065516.asp ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tunisia Jails Lawyer For Internet Writings A Tunisian court jailed lawyer and human rights activist Mohamed Abbou for three-and- half years for charges stemming from articles he published on the Internet, lawyers said on Friday. He went on trial on Thursday on charges of "his incitement of the population to infringe the laws", "spreading false information " to disturb public order and "violence" against a female lawyer. Abbou, 39, has been detained since his arrest on March 1. More than 300 lawyers lined up for his defence, arguing that the government was using the judiciary to punish dissidents for their opinion. The verdict came in early on Friday. "The sentences were two years for violence and one-and-half year for the Internet articles, so he will be jailed for three-and-half years," lawyer Radhia Nasraoui told Reuters. Lawyers argued the government has no case in trying Abbou for "violence" against one of his female colleagues, saying the case dated back to 2002. "The authorities came up with this violence case just to disguise their hidden motives to punish Abbou for publishing his views," said Ayachi Hammami, also a lawyer and rights activist. Some lawyers said the trial made a mockery of the North African country's selection to host the U.N.- backed World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November. The Tunisian government has been accused by human and press freedom groups of not being suitable to host of WSIS because of its record on press freedom and tolerance of dissidents. Tunis dismissed such accusations, insisting it had won the right to host the summit in recognition for its social and economic development efforts, including Internet use expansion. "It would be a shame and scandal for Tunisia to host the WSIS summit. It is a country that jails people for writing articles on the Internet," said Nasraoui, who is also leading rights activist. Abbou wrote an article on the Internet recently arguing that conditions in Tunisia's jails were worse than Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison where abuse of prisoners by U.S. troops caused a global outcry. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch and three Tunisian human rights groups said last week the government had subjected political prisoners to years of torture, rape and solitary confinement. Tunisia denies the existence of such prisoners. Abbou also published an article criticising the authorities for inviting Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to attend the summit. Sharon is unpopular in Muslim countries for his policy against Palestinians and his role as a defence minister for the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Lawyers said they will lodge appeal in the next few days but many of them said Abbou will leave jail any time soon only if President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali were to pardon him as he did with some prisoners in the previous years. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050429/80/fhnwl.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ofcom May Have To Police Internet Content Watchdog is uneasy at plans that may hinder UK firms Owen Gibson Media regulators across Europe could be forced to police internet content for taste and decency in the same way as television programmes, according to proposals under consideration in Brussels. The plans have led to fears at the British media watchdog Ofcom that this may stifle innovation in the nascent broadband content industry and prove impossible to enforce. This year the UK regulator will review the likely impact of broadband and other new services such as 3G over the next decade and consult the public and the industry over whether content delivered over them can and should be regulated. The issue has come to a head as Brussels debates changes to a revamped Television Without Frontiers directive, which sets the agenda for European media regulation. New draft proposals are due to be issued later this year. The thinking in Brussels is that it will contain plans for Europe-wide regulation of television-style broadcasts over the internet. But content providers, internet service providers and Ofcom are worried that as myriad new services delivering television over the internet become commonplace, they will prove impossible to regulate in the traditional manner. And with overseas content providers able to broadcast internationally over the internet, there are also concerns that it would put British companies at a competitive disadvantage. The proposals, if implemented, would run counter to Ofcom's determination to reduce its regulatory burden and switch to a "light touch". Robin Foster, Ofcom's senior partner in charge of strategy, said: "[Television Without Frontiers] seems to be geared to extending traditional broadcasting regulation into new media and the internet. "The slight worry is that it takes a very regulatory approach to new media, which may have a number of bene fits, but it may not be positive and may stop new ideas developing in a broadband world. We shouldn't just assume that we should regulate." Instead, Ofcom is believed to favour a mix of existing laws, such as those on obscenity and copyright, and advocating greater media literacy so consumers can block unwelcome content themselves. One idea floated last year would be to rate content on all websites. The industry, from internet service providers to websites, is also sceptical over whether the medium can be regulated in any meaningful way. A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers' Association, a trade body, said: "There's been laws passed against spam. But in a situation where spam is coming from around the world and there are different laws in place in Europe and the US, what do you do?" Already an increasing number of broadband subscribers watch television programmes over the web as prices come down and connection speeds increase. Later this year telecom companies including BT and France Telecom's Wanadoo plan to launch video-on-demand services to be delivered over broadband lines via a set-top box to the television. Mr Foster has also been asked by the chief executive, Stephen Carter, to lead a wide-ranging review of Ofcom's regulatory role in the digital age before he leaves the post later this year. And as part of the implementation of its recommendations in its public-service broadcasting review, it will ask media groups this summer to mock up options for its mooted £350m public-service publisher. Designed to provide the BBC with competition in a multi channel age, the trial services will form the centrepiece of a public consultation. Other pressing issues for the regulator include a review of the options for local television. Mr Foster said Ofcom would consult over whether to advocate a commercial "city TV" model or one based on not-for-profit community services. He said he hoped to have a framework in place for the network of new channels by the time the government begins to switch off the analogue signal in 2008, so they could broadcast immediately using the spectrum released. http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/new...476127,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Illinois Games-Restriction Bill Advances Tim Surette The Safe Games Illinois Act is a step closer to becoming law in the Prairie State. House Bill 4023 was approved 6 to 2 in the state's Senate Housing and Community Affairs Committee on Tuesday, and now moves on to the state Senate. Since its proposal earlier this year, the bill has been readily approved through the legal process. The bill would allow the state to slap its own ratings on games, ignoring those set by the self-regulatory Entertainment Software Ratings Board, or ESRB. The bill concentrates on keeping violent games out of youngsters' hands, and severely fines retailers who fail to do so. According to state legislators, games that feature "dismemberment, decapitation, disfigurement, maiming, mutilation of body parts or rape" would be slapped with an "18" sticker similar to the parental advisory warning on compact discs. The sale of such games to minors would warrant legal action of a $1,001 fine and a red mark on the seller's permanent record. The current ESRB ratings system isn't legally binding. The full spectrum of the bill's effects has not been set in stone. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, has not yet clarified the scope of the rating system or the financial penalties the legislation would incur. The bill's sponsor, Democrat Deanna Demuzio, has said that she will not bring the proposal to a Senate vote until questions of the fines and labeling are made clearer. Legislatures in at least six states are considering new proposals that would make it a crime to sell mature games to children. Courts have overturned laws in the state of Washington; St. Louis County, Mo.; and Indianapolis that made it illegal to sell violent games to minors, in each case ruling that games are constitutionally protected speech, and age restrictions thus must be limited to the type of discretionary systems used for movies, books and other media. http://news.com.com/Illinois+games-r...3-5695620.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tech Repair Official Kid Porn Watchdog? Natalie Pona The province is eyeing a law that would force computer repair shops to call police when they find kiddie porn on a client's computer, The Sun has learned. Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh formed a committee in 2001 to examine ways to protect Manitoba children from being exploited on the Internet. Now members are planning to suggest to Mackintosh that Manitoba legislate mandatory reporting of child pornography, including for employees of computer repair shops. "He wouldn't have asked a committee to bring forward these recommendations if he wasn't seriously considering this," said a spokesman for Mackintosh. Lianna McDonald, executive director of Child Find Manitoba, is a member of the committee. She said child pornography should legally be considered in the same vein as child abuse. "If you look at child abuse, mandatory reporting is the law in this province. We want to see whether that could be applicable to child pornography," she said. McDonald said they plan to bring the issue to Mackintosh in the next couple months. Though mandatory reporting is not yet law, many offenders have been turned in to police after bringing their computers in to be fixed. Yesterday, The Sun reported 21-year-old Matthew Jonathon Dudeck, of East St. Paul, was given a 14-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography. Dudeck brought his home computer to a repair shop to be fixed on Oct. 23, 2003. While the system was being re-installed, an employee noticed a file with the title "Fu----- pre-teen, both children under 10," flash across the screen, Crown attorney Mick Makar told court. The employee called police and Dudeck was arrested. http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Winnip...24701-sun.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dutch Plans For iPod Tax Could Kill MP3 Industry Faultline A Netherlands proposed tax on MP3 players could devastate sales of hard disk players, and set up international waves over copyright legislation. The tax is being proposed by the Stichting Thuiskopie foundation, and is set to become law in the Netherlands in a few short months unless the European Commission finds a reason to intervene. It is unlikely that will happen, as it has failed to come up with a policy for levy taxation so far. The idea of all levy based legislation is that some form of copyright collections agency collects tax by imposing a surcharge at the point of sale for any storage devices that could possibly be used to store pirated works. This certainly extends to the iPod which has up to 60 GB of storage, and which can store MP3 files. Because of the fact that the great bulk of iPods are used to store legitimate iTunes files which are Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected, this means that copyright is being purchased twice over for these devices if a levy is also paid. The charge will be levied against every MP3 player, and is effectively a tax on the MP3 format. Some efforts to place MP3 files under DRM protection will also mean that these will pay copyright twice over. Levies are an outmoded and unfair way of rewarding existing monopolies and are only ever put in place to keep ancient publishing copyright agencies in business. In almost every case the organization itself that carries out the collection is lavish and well funded, the proceeds are distributed only to large multinational music publishers, bolstering their revenues unfairly. It is little more than a club of companies that "have a right" to make money. If this legislation comes into play, the surcharge will be as much as €3.28 ($4.3) per gigabyte. This might put €180 ($235) to the price of a top end iPod. Already in Germany there is a levy on PC hard drives, that will soon become larger than the entire PC industry revenue if it is left in place. Within two years, as disk drive sizes move to terabyte class on notebooks, and petabyte levels on home DVRs, the tax will come to far outweigh not just the cost of the drive, but the cost of the device. Under this Netherlands law, if it were extended to the PC, the cost of 1,000 GB would be €3,280 ($4,300) and yet drives of this size will be delivered by 2007. The only way to bypass this law in the Netherlands might be to tweak iPods and other players to only accept alternative formats that are always protected by DRM, but that would mean that only iPod (with AAC) and Sony devices (with ATRAC) could have any sales and we're not sure that would satisfy the new law as we don't yet know how it is going to be worded. Or the Dutch could just become a nation without iPods. I wonder how happy that would make them? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04...ands_ipod_tax/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Diamonds Create Unhackable Code Kate Lahey DIAMONDS have long been a girl's best friend, but they could also become the sworn enemy of spies and hackers. Researchers at Melbourne University are growing diamond particles on optical fibres to transmit information they say will be impossible to hack. The diamonds, just 1/ 1000 of a millimetre in size, send information through a single photon of light instead of the billions of photons found in an ordinary light beam. Research fellow James Rabeau compares the technology to flicking a torch to send a message to a friend across a room. Light from the torch can be seen by others in the room, because there are billions of photons, and the message can be de-coded. But if the light was a single photon beam, others in the room could not see it, and the two friends would also know instantly if it had been intercepted. "If it's intercepted, no useable information is gleaned," Dr Rabeau said. At the moment, when information is sent electronically, such as credit card details, it is encrypted and then decoded at the other end, but the information can be stolen along the way. "They're stealing a coded message and then if they have very powerful computers they can start to try to crack the code," he said. "Computers are getting faster and faster so codes have to get better. "But our technique exploits quantum mechanics. This allows you to communicate in total secrecy, with unhackable codes." The quantum cryptography project has been given $3.3 million by the Victorian Government to allow researchers to develop a prototype and make it commercially available. Dr Rabeau said two companies were already selling a similar system for about $80,000, that simply "turned down" the light. "They don't reliably produce single particles of light," he said. "It's pretty secure, but it's still not absolutely secure." The diamond particles are produced in a 1500 watt microwave reactor, using gases containing carbon to grow tiny crystals of diamond over the tip of the optic fibre, which itself is only the size of a hair. Dr Rabeau said the technology did have limitations and slowed down the speed at which a message was sent, at this stage to about 120km/h. Nevertheless, demand was expected to be high, he said. "There are huge military and national security implications if we can do this," Dr Rabeau said. "I think there's a lot of potential for spin-off technologies, this is a very unique device." http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...-29277,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Payday for Patents 'R' Us Ian Austen and Lisa Guernsey The express elevator that whisks visitors to Donald E. Stout's office on the top floor of a black glass building across the Potomac from Washington suggests success. But nothing up there indicates that Mr. Stout is a major player in the software business. There are no cubicles for software engineers or humming server farms capturing their keystrokes. There are, however, plenty of lawyers. Mr. Stout, who has practiced patent law for 33 years, is a founder of NTP, whose only assets are a series of wireless e-mail patents granted to Thomas J. Campana Jr., the other founder, and whose only business is extracting licensing fees from companies. Started 13 years ago, NTP has used the staff at Mr. Stout's law firm to exploit those patents. In March, their persistence paid off. Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices, agreed to pay NTP $450 million to settle a long-running and sometimes bitter patent dispute between the companies. Mr. Campana, a Chicago-area resident, died of cancer last year. Mr. Stout said the settlement was a vindication of individuals over large corporations. And the settlement has emboldened NTP, which is pursuing additional licenses. Other companies, including Nokia, a rival of Research In Motion, have already signed licensing agreements with NTP. "Most people would like to see that a small inventor can succeed in this country," Mr. Stout said. "This is proof that it can happen." But others find the growth of patent holding companies troublesome rather than heartwarming. Critics of the patent system maintain that these companies - called "patent trolls" by their detractors - rely on excessively broad patents, particularly for software, that should never have been granted in the first place. And the costs of litigation and licensing fees to settle patent disputes have become facts of life for technology companies. In March, an appeals court upheld a $29.5 million penalty against eBay in a patent infringement suit brought by MercExchange, a failed online travel service that holds patents related to eBay's "Buy Now" feature. (The case remains in litigation, in part because of a preliminary Patent Office ruling against MercExchange in April.) In 2003, Eolas Technologies, a Web browser patent-licensing spinoff of the University of California, was awarded $565 million in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft. In March, an appeals court ordered a retrial. Other than legal respite, these companies get very little for their settlement money. For example, Research In Motion's BlackBerry e-mail software is far more sophisticated than anything outlined in Mr. Campana's patents, and there has never been any suggestion that R.I.M. relied on those patents while developing its own software. Josh Lerner, a Harvard Business School professor and an author of "Innovation and Its Discontents," argues that the potential costs of patent litigation are higher for small technology companies. "Any start-up company is a long shot," he said. "But now, even if you are successful in the market, there's a high probability that someone will show up with a patent. Many of these patent holding companies have been quite successful even when their patents have been problematic." There have long been companies organized solely around pressing patent rights. Henry Ford required a prolonged legal battle to successfully fight a holding company that claimed patent rights over all automobiles with internal combustion engines in 1911. It was not until 1982 that appeals of patent cases were moved to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, producing more consistent rulings. Before that, appeals were handled in circuit courts around the country, depending on the trial court where the case was first heard. Several of those appellate courts, specialists said, had reputations of siding against patent owners seeking to press their claims. "Before the Federal Circuit, patents weren't worth much," said Thomas L. Creel, a lawyer with the firm of Goodwin Procter in New York. "Patents have now become a piece of property that is very valuable." Mr. Stout, who is 58, and Mr. Campana first met at Telefind, a company that in 1987 introduced a primitive form of wireless e-mail that could send relatively short messages to pager-like devices. (The devices could only receive messages, not transmit them.) While Mr. Campana has been described as the inventor of the software that Research In Motion will now license, Mr. Stout acknowledged that was not the case. Instead it was developed by two employees of E.S.A., a separate company Mr. Campana owned. "Tom was basically an overall developer of networks," Mr. Stout said. "The two co-workers at E.S.A. were software guys." When Telefind went under in 1991, Mr. Stout said he and Mr. Campana decided to start NTP as "a kind of virtual company" to make money from the e-mail patents. Company headquarters were in Mr. Stout's home but NTP did attract 22 investors, most of them former Telefind shareholders who had just seen that investment vanish. (All the investors will receive money from the R.I.M. settlement, once the legal bills are paid.) Patent holding companies often take an incremental approach. They initially focus their license demands on the smallest companies in a sector on the theory that little companies will not have the time or resources for a fight. The income they generate from those licenses, in turn, is used to build a legal war chest for challenging more established players. But in 1992, there were not many companies developing wireless e-mail. That began to change in the latter part of the decade, and NTP began sending letters to wireless e-mail providers and software and equipment makers, citing the Campana patents and offering licenses. Often, Mr. Stout acknowledged, the NTP claims had no more support than printouts of the service providers' Web pages. "There weren't a lot of letters coming back," Mr. Stout said. At that time Research In Motion, based in Waterloo, Ontario, was a small manufacturer of specialized data wireless cards mostly for industry and the military as it embarked on what would become the BlackBerry. Nevertheless, it chose to challenge NTP rather than license its patents. (Through a spokeswoman, R.I.M. declined to comment about its dealings with NTP.) Challenging patent licensing companies is not a common strategy except for giant competitors like Microsoft. While there are no reliable statistics, Mr. Creel and others said that most patent enforcement attempts were settled without a trip to court. "The philosophy in many companies is that litigation is not only expensive, it's disruptive," Mr. Creel said. "Most people are willing to pay rather than fight. It's in effect a tax on doing business." While Mr. Stout is now careful not to discuss R.I.M.'s motivation in taking on his company, during an interview in January he attributed the action to the personalities of its executives, in particular Michael Lazaridis, R.I.M.'s president and co-chief executive. Mr. Lazaridis, who started the company while still a student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, is widely respected for his engineering skills and holds 30 patents covering wireless technologies and software. "I've never seen anything like it," Mr. Stout said then. "Most companies don't have this amount of fight in them." For Research In Motion, financial penalties set in early. In addition to legal expenses, after the litigation with NTP was under way in 2001 R.I.M. was forced to reduce its earnings, regularly setting aside millions of dollars in a fund to cover the cost of any settlement. Its decision to fight led to a trial court ruling in 2003 that upheld NTP patents and threatened to undercut R.I.M.'s success with BlackBerry. As part of its ruling, the court issued an injunction barring Research In Motion from offering BlackBerry service in the United States. And as the American market was by far the largest, NTP potentially had the power to destroy R.I.M. Since then, NTP's litigation record has been mixed. An injunction was put on hold so Research In Motion could appeal. Late last year, the appeals court upheld 11 NTP patents but ordered that 5 should be reargued. At the same time that R.I.M. initiated its appeal, the Patent and Trademark Office began reviewing eight of NTP's patents at R.I.M.'s request. On April 19, the patent office, in a preliminary ruling, declared one patent at the center of the legal battle between the companies invalid and rejected all 89 claims used to support it. To date, the patent office has reviewed 8 of NTP's patents in preliminary rulings, rejected 4 and dismissed 612 of its patent claims. Research In Motion has never disclosed why it finally settled. But it had been under some investment industry pressure to end the litigation. Among other things, there were growing concerns that the uncertainty created by the NTP case might cause some wireless service providers to shy away from R.I.M.'s e-mail system. The two adversaries are still working out the terms of the settlement, including a payment schedule. The BlackBerry's success means that Research In Motion has ample resources to cover its costs. Little has changed at NTP beyond moving the company's mailing address from Mr. Stout's house to a business service center. But as NTP picks new targets for its licenses, Mr. Stout is quick to reject suggestions that the company's patents will not survive patent office review or that the patent holding business is a less-than-desirable line of work. "Those who criticize, they think that unless you make products, you aren't entitled to having rights," he said. "That's just not so." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/te.../02patent.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An MTV Host Moves to Radio, Giving Voice to Audible Blogs Ken Belson It was an offer even the podfather could not refuse: the chance to be host of a radio program devoted solely to podcasts, or homemade radio shows formatted for digital audio players. Adam Curry, a former MTV host who developed software that lets people automatically receive these programs on Apple's iPod and other players, will produce and be host of a four-hour program every weekday starting May 13 on Sirius Satellite Radio. Mr. Curry will help choose material for "Adam Curry's PodShow" from some of the thousands of amateur shows produced in basements, living rooms and dormitories. Sirius subscribers, who pay $12.95 a month for the service, can listen to the show on channel 148, "Talk Central." Podcasting has grown out of the boom in MP3 players, which can store hundreds of hours of music in devices the size of a transistor radio. The word "podcasting" is a nod to iPod, the most popular player. Podcasts - essentially homemade digital audio files that users upload to the Internet for others to download on demand - run the gamut from tributes by aspiring disc jockeys to their favorite music artists, to up-and-coming bands, to talk show "hosts" chatting with their friends about everything from fine wine to fly fishing. As with TiVo and other digital video players, users can listen to podcasts whenever they want, pause them or rewind them to listen again. This allows users to carry their shows with them and no longer be bound to a radio station's schedule. Unscripted podcasts are an audio version of television reality shows for the airwaves. The unpolished and recreational feel of podcasts often draws comparisons to the Saturday Night Live skit "Wayne's World." The serendipity of the shows appeals to listeners looking for an alternative to canned commercial radio. "It has to be the completely unedited voice," said Mr. Curry, who will preside over the show from London, where he lives. "There's a whole universe of people who make music but there is no disc jockey putting it out there." Sirius is not the only radio network moving into podcasting. Infinity Broadcasting plans to convert one of its AM channels in San Francisco, 1550 KYCY, which now broadcasts mostly syndicated talk shows, into one mostly filled with podcasts. More than 200 people have already submitted podcasts to the station, whose programming will be simultaneously streamed over a Web site for listeners outside the San Francisco area. The channel will continue to sell on-air advertising, though it will be adapted to fit the irregular length of the podcasts, according to Infinity. Mr. Curry's show on Sirius will also include advertising. But the company expects the show to have a free-form feel, much like the podcasts, rather than the more rigid format of mainstream radio. The audience for the show is likely to be skewed toward 18- to 34-year-old listeners, who are also the core users of MP3 players. Mr. Curry expects them to be a vocal and demanding group, one that will help drive what's heard on the show. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/bu.../02SIRIUS.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Double Your Pleasure? Early 'Exorcist,' Take 2 Dave Kehr When "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist," directed by Paul Schrader, opens nationally on May 20, some filmgoers may have the strange feeling they have seen it before. "Dominion" bears a not at all coincidental similarity to Renny Harlin's "Exorcist: The Beginning," a disappointment at the box office last August. Mr. Schrader's film, the "original" prequel, was shelved by Morgan Creek Productions, an independent film company, in 2003 for being insufficiently scary. The company then hired Mr. Harlin to remake it. Morgan Creek, which had a distribution deal with Warner Brothers at the time, released the Harlin version with a single screening for critics the night before, usually a bad omen. Perhaps someday a cinemathèque will present both versions in a simultaneous, side-by-side screening. The dueling films could provide fodder for a textual analysis of the auteur theory, with almost identical material yielding wildly different results in the hands of two temperamentally opposed artists: Mr. Schrader, the thoughtful, restrained art-house filmmaker ("Affliction"), and Mr. Harlin, the vigorous director of Hollywood action films ("Cliffhanger"). Both prequels star the Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard ("Breaking the Waves") as a young version of Father Merrin, the Roman-Catholic priest played by Max von Sydow in William Friedkin's hugely successful 1973 film based on William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel. And both tell the story of Father Merrin's first encounter with demonic possession when, working for the Vatican in the years after World War II, he investigates the discovery of a perfectly preserved Byzantine church buried in the East African desert. How these two movies came to be made is a story as tortured and complex as any Hollywood thriller. The notion of an "Exorcist" prequel dates back several years to when Morgan Creek, the owners of the franchise, commissioned a script from William Wisher, a writer of "Terminator 2." That script was rewritten by Caleb Carr, the author of the best-selling novel "The Alienist," and attracted the attention of the Hollywood veteran John Frankenheimer. Frankenheimer signed on to direct and had begun casting the film when he died in July 2002 at 72. Rather than abandon the project, James G. Robinson, the Morgan Creek chairman, turned the film over to Mr. Schrader. As the director of "Light Sleeper" (1992) and "Auto Focus" (2002), and the writer of "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "Raging Bull" (with Mardik Martin, 1980), Mr. Schrader possessed impeccable art-house credentials, but had not directed a mainstream genre film since "Cat People" in 1982. Mr. Schrader shot on location in Morocco and at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. But when the rough cut was screened for Mr. Robinson, he was reportedly disappointed to find that Paul Schrader had made a Paul Schrader movie, rather than a hyperkinetic action picture filled with gore and scary effects. As was widely reported in the trade papers at the time, Mr. Robinson brought in Mr. Harlin for a couple of weeks of retakes with Mr. Skarsgard and the cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. The original script was rewritten by Alexi Hawley to introduce more shock sequences. "It wasn't really a script," Mr. Skarsgard said of the rewrite, by telephone from his home in Stockholm, "but just a bunch of ideas about how to make film scarier, basically by throwing in unmotivated scares in every second scene. I didn't like it and I didn't want to do it. But then Renny Harlin came on, who I've worked with before, on the 'Deep Blue Sea,' and who is a friend. "In many ways, he's the opposite of Paul Schrader, so it was hard to imagine him working with Paul Schrader's material. But gradually Renny turned it into another movie, and got Morgan Creek to reshoot the entire film - or rather, make an entirely different film." Mr. Harlin's manager said he was traveling and could not be reached for comment for this article. Using the standing sets of the church interior at Cinecittà, Mr. Harlin created an R-rated film of rapid cuts, expressionistic camera angles, extensive computer-generated imagery and a strong dose of sex and violence. Mr. Schrader's film, also R-rated, featured a demure leading lady, Clara Bellar (cast by Frankenheimer), who was replaced by the former Bond girl Izabella Scorupco. Father Merrin went from a withdrawn, tortured man suffering a crisis of faith to a sort of swashbuckling hero with a gun in his hand. The climax of Mr. Schrader's film, in which Father Merrin has a theological discussion with a preternaturally handsome demon (the pop star Billy Crawford) gave way to an apocalyptic free-for-all in Mr. Harlin's film. "Exorcist: The Beginning" received largely negative reviews ("singularly fails to deliver any palpable shivers," Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times) and went on to earn a disappointing $41 million in domestic gross, not much for a film that cost a reported $80 million ($30 million for the Schrader version and $50 for the Harlin one). In a recent e-mail exchange, Mr. Blatty, the author of the original novel, recalled going to see the Harlin version with Mr. Schrader at a multiplex in Bethesda, Md.: "After a slam-bang opening sequence, Harlin's prequel deteriorated into what was surely the most humiliating professional experience of my life, particularly the finale. I don't blame Renny Harlin, for he gave Morgan Creek, I promise you, precisely what Morgan Creek demanded: not shocking obscenity, but shocking vulgarity." (Mr. Blatty had his own experience with Morgan Creek in 1990 when he directed an adaptation of his nonsupernatural novel "Legion" for the company. After much wrangling and reshooting, and the last minute addition of an exorcism, the film was released as "The Exorcist III." Mr. Blatty subsequently lampooned the experience in his satirical novel "Demons Five, Exorcists Nothing.") Last fall, Mr. Schrader heard from the film editor Tim Silano that Morgan Creek was trying to reassemble his version, with an eye toward releasing it on DVD or on cable. The director volunteered to work with Mr. Silano, and with a minimal budget they assembled a score and completed a sound mix. In March, the movie received good notices at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film, good enough to interest Morgan Creek and Warner Brothers in a theatrical release. The tricky job of positioning "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist," as Mr. Schrader's version came to be called, has fallen to Brian Robinson, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Morgan Creek, and a son of the producer who originally rejected it. Rather than give "Dominion" the 2,803-screen release that "Exorcist: The Beginning" received, he decided to aim the film at the specialized audience that has long supported Mr. Schrader. "It's on a limited release pattern of 110 screens, so the plan is to release it and see how it plays," Mr. Robinson said. "The Renny Harlin version was a much more commercially shot horror film, and this one is much more cerebral. The masses that want to see these 'Alien vs. Predator' movies want to see much more graphic violence. Paul's version is much more about the terror that resides in your own mind." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/movies/02exor.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Megachurch's Leader Says Microsoft Is No Match Sarah Kershaw Before he became a born-again Christian and later a rising national star in the world of black evangelical ministers, the Rev. Ken Hutcherson started playing football because, he said, it was the best way he could think of to "hurt white people." Dr. Hutcherson, a husky former linebacker for three National Football League teams who goes fishing with Rush Limbaugh and raises Rottweilers ("the bigger, the meaner, the better," he said of his pets), does not talk that way anymore about whites, saying his conversion to Christianity as a teenager changed all that. And a majority of the 3,500 members of his megachurch, which is based in this tidy Seattle suburb and high-tech hub, is white, as is his wife. With a thundering charisma that makes him a hero to some and a gay-bashing bully to others, he has taken on the white mayor of Seattle, a prominent black county executive and the Washington State Legislature. In his mission to stop the legalization of gay marriage, Dr. Hutcherson has accused gay rights activists of trying to hijack and sully the civil rights movement by their comparison of the right of gays and lesbians to marry to the civil rights struggle he lived through as a poor child in Alabama in the 1950's and 60's. Now Dr. Hutcherson, 52, known as "Hutch," and by his self-chosen nickname, "the black man," claims to be the person who forced Microsoft, situated near his Antioch Bible Church offices, to withdraw its support of a gay rights bill before the State Legislature, one it had supported the two previous years. Dr. Hutcherson had threatened to organize a national boycott of Microsoft if it backed the legislation this year. The antidiscrimination bill was defeated by one vote in the State Senate on April 21. But officials at Microsoft vehemently deny that the minister had anything to do with their decision not to support the bill this year; gay rights groups and employees have since criticized Microsoft, which had long enjoyed a reputation as one of the nation's most gay-friendly companies. "We respect Dr. Hutcherson's right to his beliefs and opinions, but he does not speak for Microsoft, and he certainly does not set Microsoft's legislative agenda," said Mark Murray, a company spokesman. "We're proud of our antidiscrimination policies and benefits for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, and we are committed to diversity at every level of our company." Microsoft officials said they were re-evaluating their legislative priorities and had decided to take a "neutral" stance on the bill long before a high-level company official met twice with Dr. Hutcherson over his concerns that the company was going to support it. In a style that is typically blunt (and, his detractors say, typically intimidating), Dr. Hutcherson described Microsoft's version of the events as "a flat-out lie." Asked if he thought that he alone could have changed the giant corporation's mind, Dr. Hutcherson said in an interview Friday: "I don't think. I know." He continued: "If I got God on my side, what's a Microsoft? What's a Microsoft? It's nothing." If there is any question about Dr. Hutcherson's intolerance of dissent or disobedience - one that is infused with a stinging sense of humor - it could be answered quickly by a glance at the mini-refrigerator in his office. Next to his chair, which is submerged under a lavish white sheepskin cover, a sign on the fridge says, "Warning: I have licked the tops of all my Snapples - Hutch. * And I have tested positive for anthrax." He is close to some of the nation's best-known Christian conservatives, including Dr. James C. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, whom he calls "Dr. D," and over the last year he has organized rallies in Seattle and Washington, D.C., drawing tens of thousands of opponents of same-sex marriage. There is little doubt, from hearing Dr. Hutcherson tell it, that he believes not only in the power of God, but also in the power of "Hutch," especially when it comes to going up against companies like Microsoft - or anyone else, for that matter. "God plus Hutch is enough," said the minister, who stands 6 feet 2 inches, weighs 260 pounds and has a shaved head and a thick goatee streaked with a splash of white. He added: "I want to be to Christianity what Gretzky was to hockey, what Beckham is to soccer, what Jordan was to basketball, what Martin Luther King was to African-American rights, what the Pope was to Poland. I want to be that to Christianity." By trusting God, he said, he hopes for "great things" and "that I will be the most feared man in America, not because of me, but because of who I got on my side." As even some of the church members say, there is good reason to fear Dr. Hutcherson. The church's motto is "black and white in a gray world." On Sunday mornings, a half-dozen trailers pull up to Lake Washington High School in nearby Kirkland, filled with risers, microphones and other equipment, turning a school parking lot into what looks like a staging area for a rock concert. Antioch, which has offices but not its own church building, holds its rollicking, multimedia Sunday services at the school's gymnasium. Dr. Hutcherson is known for publicly chastising and excommunicating members if he finds out they are sinning, calling adulterers, for example, up to the pulpit and demanding they repent, congregants said. "And if they don't want to repent of it, he'll let them know that this is not the church for you," said John Stachofsky, 42, a longtime friend of Dr. Hutcherson and a member of the church who goes bird and deer hunting with him. Many African-American ministers and conservative Christians share Dr. Hutcherson's opposition to same-sex marriage, which he calls "the greatest danger to America." But Dr. Hutcherson also often criticizes gay rights activists for drawing comparisons between their quest for equal rights and antidiscrimination laws and the struggles of other groups facing prejudice. "You tell me what I went through as an African-American, when they talk about discrimination, compared to what gays go through with discrimination - it's the difference between night and day, not even close," Dr. Hutcherson said. "I even get upset when people say, 'Well, you got to understand what they go through.' Not when they've chosen to do what they do. They can stop choosing what to do what they do, and they can hide it anytime they want. They can hide their homosexuality. Could I take a 'don't ask don't tell' policy as an African-American? I could try even to pretend I was Puerto Rican, but I'm still going to get blasted for my skin color." Dr. Hutcherson's views have earned him a fast-growing stable of enemies and critics. "He came across as a bully, somebody who was threatening people, someone who was using the Scriptures, not for love but for hate," said Ed Murray, an openly gay state legislator from Seattle, a practicing Roman Catholic and a sponsor of the antidiscrimination bill. Mr. Murray said he heard Dr. Hutcherson testify at a House hearing against the bill last February. Two Microsoft employees testified on behalf of the bill, prompting Dr. Hutcherson to demand the two meetings with Microsoft and to threaten the boycott. Microsoft officials have said the employees were testifying as private individuals, not on behalf of the company. "I think he didn't so much as change Microsoft's mind as he caught them off guard," said Mr. Murray, who has also said that Microsoft officials told him Dr. Hutcherson had a role in their decision not to support the bill this year. "I think he was successful in throwing a ball at them and that they fumbled." Ron Sims, the King County executive, has been a target of Dr. Hutcherson's protests because of his support for gay marriage. Mr. Sims, who is black, said he strongly disagreed with the minister on the civil rights question. "I don't think that civil rights is the province of any particular group," said Mr. Sims, who earlier this year publicly invited six same-sex couples to sue him for the right to marry in King County, a case that is now being decided by the State Supreme Court and could determine whether gay men and lesbians can marry in Washington state. "African-American homophobia is just another form of discrimination," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/na...2minister.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases Stephen Labaton, Lorne Manly and Elizabeth Jensen The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence. Without the knowledge of his board, the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers." In late March, on the recommendation of administration officials, Mr. Tomlinson hired the director of the White House Office of Global Communications as a senior staff member, corporation officials said. While she was still on the White House staff, she helped draft guidelines governing the work of two ombudsmen whom the corporation recently appointed to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts. Mr. Tomlinson also encouraged corporation and public broadcasting officials to broadcast "The Journal Editorial Report," whose host, Paul Gigot, is editor of the conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. And while a search firm has been retained to find a successor for Kathleen A. Cox, the corporation's president and chief executive, whose contract was not renewed last month, Mr. Tomlinson has made clear to the board that his choice is Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state. Mr. Tomlinson said that he was striving for balance and had no desire to impose a political point of view on programming, explaining that his efforts are intended to help public broadcasting distinguish itself in a 500-channel universe and gain financial and political support. "My goal here is to see programming that satisfies a broad constituency," he said, adding, "I'm not after removing shows or tampering internally with shows." But he has repeatedly criticized public television programs as too liberal overall, and said in the interview, "I frankly feel at PBS headquarters there is a tone deafness to issues of tone and balance." Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive of PBS, who has sparred with Mr. Tomlinson privately but till now has not challenged him publicly, disputed the accusation of bias and was critical of some of his actions. "I believe there has been no chilling effect, but I do think there have been instances of attempts to influence content from a political perspective that I do not consider appropriate," Ms. Mitchell, who plans to step down when her contract expires next year, said Friday. Robert Coonrod, who stepped down as corporation president in July 2004, has known Mr. Tomlinson about 20 years and considers him a good friend. "I believe that his motives are exactly what he says they are," he said. Mr. Tomlinson is "trying to help the people in public broadcasting understand why some people in the conservative movement think PBS is hostile to them and, two, imbue public broadcasting with the notion of balance because he thinks that long term it's a winner in getting Congressional support." "Whether people like the way he goes about it or not is a different issue," Mr. Coonrod added. Though PBS's ratings have stabilized lately after several years of decline, the network has faced criticism that much of its programming - shows like "Antiques Roadshow" and "Masterpiece Theater" - is little different from what can be found on cable television. Though a huge bequest to National Public Radio from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonald's, has furthered the independence of public radio, corporate support and state financing for public television have slipped in recent years, making the nearly $400 million in federal money annually funneled through the corporation increasingly important. Nor have administration officials and lawmakers been shy about challenging certain programming. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, for example, earlier this year publicly denounced a program featuring a cartoon rabbit named Buster who visited a pair of lesbian parents. The corporation is a private, nonprofit entity financed by Congress to ensure the vitality of public television and radio. Tension is hardwired into its charter, where its mandate to ensure "objectivity and balance" is accompanied by an exhortation to maintain public broadcasting's independence. Mr. Tomlinson said that in his view, objectivity and balance meant "a program schedule that's not skewed in one direction or another." Some corporation board members say that complaints about ideological pressure are premature. Beth Courtney, president and chief executive of Louisiana Public Broadcasting and one of three non-Republicans on the nine-member board, said there had been no chilling of journalistic efforts. "What we should look for are the real actions," she said. "We shouldn't speculate about people's motivations." But Mr. Tomlinson's tenure has brought criticism that his chairmanship has been the most polarizing in a generation. Christy Carpenter, a Democratic appointee to the board from 1998 to 2002, said partisanship was "essentially nonexistent" in her first years. But once Mr. Tomlinson, a former editor in chief of Reader's Digest, joined in September 2000 and President Bush's election changed the board's political composition, the tenor changed, she said. "There was an increasingly and disturbingly aggressive desire to be more involved and to push programming in a more conservative direction," said Ms. Carpenter, who is now a vice president of the Museum of Television and Radio. One of the more disturbing developments, she added, was a "very vehement dislike for Bill Moyers." It is not a shock that Mr. Moyers's work exercised Mr. Tomlinson. He is a reliable source of agitation for conservatives, who complain that "Now" under Mr. Moyers (who left the show last year and was replaced by David Brancaccio) was consistently critical of Republicans and the Bush administration. Days after the Republicans gained control of the Senate in the 2002 elections, Mr. Moyers - an aide in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and a former newspaper publisher who has been associated with PBS since the 1970's - said the entire federal government was "united behind a right-wing agenda" that included "the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives." In December 2003, three months after he was elected chairman, Mr. Tomlinson sent Ms. Mitchell of PBS a letter outlining his concerns. " 'Now With Bill Moyers' does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires for public broadcasting," he wrote. Shortly after, Mr. Tomlinson hired a consultant to review Mr. Moyers's program; one three-month contract cost $10,000. The reports Mr. Tomlinson saw placed the program's guests in categories like "anti-Bush," "anti-business" and "anti-Tom DeLay," referring to the House majority leader, corporation officials said. The reports found the guests were overwhelmingly anti-Bush, a conclusion Mr. Moyers disputed. Mr. Moyers said on Friday that he did not know a content review was undertaken but that he was not surprised. "Tomlinson has waged a surreptitious and relentless campaign against 'Now' and me," he said, dismissing complaints that he is biased. Mr. Moyers left "Now" to write a book but is back on public television as host of the series "Wide Angle." Mr. Tomlinson said he conducted the content review on his own, without sending the results to the board or making them public, because he wanted to better understand complaints he was hearing without provoking a storm. "If I wanted to be more destructive to public broadcasting but score political points, I would have come out with this study a year and a half ago," he said. Recently, PBS refused for months to sign its latest contract with the corporation governing federal financing of national programming, holding up the release of $26.5 million. For the first time, the corporation argued that PBS's agreeing to abide by its own journalistic standards was not sufficient, but that it must adhere to the "objectivity and balance" language in the charter. In a January letter to the leaders of the three biggest producing stations, in New York, Boston and Washington, the deputy general counsel of PBS warned that this could give the corporation editorial control, infringing on its First Amendment rights and possibly leading to a demand for balance in each and every show. The corporation said it had no such plans, and the contract was finally signed about a month ago. Mr. Tomlinson did help get one program, "The Journal Editorial Report," on the air as a way of balancing "Now." Ms. Mitchell backed the program, but public broadcasting officials said Mr. Tomlinson was instrumental in lining up $5 million in corporate financing and pressing PBS to distribute it. Public television executives noted that Mr. Gigot's show by design features the members of the conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, while Mr. Moyers's guests included many conservatives, like Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition; Richard Viguerie, a conservative political strategist; and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. Mr. Tomlinson said that it was his concerns about "objectivity and balance" that led to the creation of a new office of the ombudsman at the corporation to issue reports about public television and radio broadcasts. But the role of a White House official in setting up the office has raised questions among some public broadcasting executives about its independence. In March, after she had been hired by the corporation but was still at the White House as director of the Office of Global Communications, Mary Catherine Andrews helped draft the office's guiding principles, set up a Web page and prepare a news release about the appointment of the new ombudsmen, officials said. Ms. Andrews said she undertook the work at the instruction of top officials at the corporation. "I was careful not to work on this project during office hours during my last days at the White House," she said. Mr. Tomlinson has also occasionally worked with other White House officials on public broadcasting issues. Last year he enlisted the presidential adviser Karl Rove to help kill a legislative proposal that would change the composition of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board by requiring the president to fill about half the seats with people who had experience in local radio and television. The proposal was dropped after Mr. Rove and the White House criticized it. Mr. Tomlinson said he understood the need to reassure liberals that the traditions of public broadcasting, including public affairs programs, were not changing, "that we're not trying to put a wet blanket on this type of programming." But his efforts to sow goodwill have shown that what he says he tries to project is sometimes read in a different way. Last November, members of the Association of Public Television Stations met in Baltimore along with officials from the corporation and PBS. Mr. Tomlinson told them they should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate. Mr. Tomlinson said that his comment was in jest and that he couldn't imagine how remarks at "a fun occasion" were taken the wrong way. Others, though, were not amused. "I was in that room," said Ms. Mitchell. "I was surprised by the comment. I thought it was inappropriate." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/ar...rtner=homepage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Synergy for Viacom: Dr. Phil of CBS Interviews Pat O'Brien of CBS Mark Glassman March was not a good month for Pat O'Brien. First, Mr. O'Brien, the host of the syndicated celebrity gossip show "The Insider," entered a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse, leaving his anchor position. Around the same time, several sexually explicit voice-mail messages apparently made by Mr. O'Brien surfaced on blogs, making him instant fodder for late-night comics. And that is when Dr. Phil McGraw got a call from his producer, suggesting that Mr. O'Brien's misfortunes might one day be material for a show. The rest is synergy. On Wednesday night, CBS will broadcast an hour-long special, "Behind the Headlines," in which Dr. Phil McGraw, the combative host of "The Dr. Phil Show," will conduct the first interview with Mr. O'Brien since his discharge last week from the rehabilitation clinic. Both "The Dr. Phil Show" and "The Insider" are properties of Paramount Television, a subsidiary of Viacom, which also owns CBS Television. The special will replace the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes" during this sweeps period, which helps determine advertising rates for the network for the rest of the year. The next day, Mr. O'Brien, 57, will appear with other guests on Dr. McGraw's syndicated daytime show in an episode dedicated to rehabilitation from substance abuse. That night, Mr. O'Brien will return as the host of "The Insider." The practice of cross-promoting shows on the same network has existed since the days of radio, but broadcast television has grown much bolder recently. Failed contestants from "The Apprentice" and "Survivor" typically appear soon after on the morning news shows of NBC and CBS respectively, for example. But Mr. O'Brien's awkward return to television on Dr. McGraw's special may represent the first time a host has used another network show as part of his professional and personal rehabilitation. A CBS executive who did not wish to be identified said that the idea for Mr. O'Brien's appearance had come from the staff of "Dr. Phil" and not from anyone at CBS, but that the network management had quickly agreed. (He declined to say who at the network had approved the show.) The executive said that the synergy "only makes sense, when you have these great assets that fit within the framework of what your show is." He added that this was especially true when the show's interests aligned with the setbacks of "a high-profile actor." Mr. O'Brien could not be reached for comment. Dr. McGraw, the weight-loss guru who preaches tough love in an affable Southern twang, said that he did not take into account corporate relationships when choosing a subject and that he himself had made numerous appearances on other networks. "It doesn't make a difference to me who somebody else works for," he said. "I do all the networks, and I do all the different shows. I'm not going to exclude CBS just because we both do business with Viacom." This is Dr. McGraw's third CBS prime-time special to use television celebrities from CBS programs. In September, Amy Brenneman, the lead in the series "Judging Amy," and Patricia Heaton, from the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," appeared in Dr. McGraw's CBS special on parenting. Five months later, Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller, the feuding couple from the sixth season of CBS's "The Amazing Race," confronted Dr. McGraw with their marital problems on his special, "Romance Rescue." Dr. McGraw has also appeared on the MTV series "The Osbournes," another Viacom property. Joseph Turow, who studies mass media industries at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said Mr. O'Brien and Dr. McGraw were each playing roles in one more story in a long tradition of celebrity confessionals. "There's a whole ritual that's developed around these sorts of issues," he said. "It typically involves admitting, treating and confessing. This is just another example of that, but it happens to be synergistically appropriate." Mr. Turow added, "Clearly that there was a strategic decision made that he was going to have to talk to someone. He might as well talk to Dr. Phil." But Dr. McGraw bristled at the idea that he would pull his punches for a fellow Paramount employee, and said that he doubted that anyone else "could've conducted a more microscopic interview" with Mr. O'Brien. "It was not a home court advantage," said Dr. McGraw, who taped the interview last Wednesday. He added that censored portions of Mr. O'Brien's graphic voice-mail messages would be played during the piece. Still, Mr. O'Brien did not balk. "He made no requests," Dr. McGraw said. "He put up no fences or boundaries whatsoever." Dr. McGraw said that Carla Pennington Stewart, the executive producer for "The Dr. Phil Show" and for the past two CBS specials, had suggested that he pair up with Mr. O'Brien to discuss the latter's struggle with alcoholism. "When the story broke in the media a couple of months ago," Dr. McGraw said, "she came and said, 'I know you're not big on celebrity interviews, but this is a natural to-do.'" Alcoholism and drug addiction have been recurrent themes this year on "Dr. Phil." Dr. McGraw estimated that at least 20 episodes have dealt with substance abuse in the program's third season. That made Mr. O'Brien's case of particular interest, so it was closely monitored by the program, Dr. McGraw said. "We made the decision probably two or three weeks ago, when it was apparent that he was going to be coming out of rehab," Dr. McGraw said. Until then, CBS had planned to broadcast another Dr. Phil special on Wednesday, called "Escaping Danger," about physically and emotionally abused wives, the CBS executive said. Either special would have replaced CBS's regularly scheduled "60 Minutes" program on Wednesday and could prove to be a substantial lift during sweeps week. This season, the Wednesday evening edition of "60 Minutes" has drawn an average audience of 8.5 million viewers, representing a 6 percent audience share, according to Nielsen Media Research. Dr. McGraw's February special drew 11 million viewers, a 7.7 percent rating, and the September special, which fell on a Wednesday, drew 13.1 million viewers and scored a rating of 9 percent. When Mr. O'Brien was released a week ago, he wasted little time before meeting with Dr. McGraw. Mr. O'Brien took Tuesday "to kind of get home and get unpacked and settled," Dr. McGraw said. The camera crew arrived at his home on Wednesday. Joan Bonsignore, the executive director of the Westchester County branch of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, said that the first several days after release from a rehabilitation clinic can be a confusing time for patients. "I'm concerned about anybody walking out of a rehab and sitting in front of a camera," Ms. Bonsignore said. Still, recovery is an individual process, she said, adding, "If he's able to go back to work, who are we to judge what he should do?" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/bu...ehab.html?8dpc

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

05-05-05, 08:36 PM	#4
TankGirl Madame Comrade Join Date: May 2000 Location: Area 25 Posts: 5,587	Thanks for another interesting WiR, Jack. This new trend of cities setting up their own free wireless networks is very interesting and promising. The fierce lobbying efforts by the telecom corporations to ban a good thing before it has hardly got started are very reminiscent of the content industries' efforts to ban p2p. Free wireless access does not prevent commercial bandwidth vendors from running a business but it does force them to offer more and cheaper bandwidth to remain competitive and it also prevents them from playing with availibility issues. Just like free p2p does not prevent commercial content producers from doing business but forces them to offer more bang for the consumer's buck and also prevents them from playing with availibility issues. Both good things for the proverbial 'consumer'. - tg