Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review – December 13th, '03

[JackSpratts]

Quotes of the week: "The pornography available on peer-to-peer networks is not necessarily more dangerous than the pornography available on Web sites or through other electronic means of dissemination." – The United States General Accounting Office.

"The GAO observed that peer-to-peer networks accounted for only about 1.4 percent of the child porn." – John P. Mello Jr..

"As far as computer hard drives are concerned, we say that for the time being, it is still legal" - Claude Majeau, referring to music downloading, secretary general of the Canadian Copyright Board.




P2P Speaks

Last week I mentioned giving Skype and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) a try thinking it’s just about perfect for filesharers interested in improving communication. Skype came to mind because it’s P2P based, using well known peer-to-peer protocols like superpeering to handle data transfers and because of it’s built-in anonymity; it doesn’t call your home or office phone, it remains strictly PC based. This week I tried it out.

The free program download was fast and install and setup was a breeze. A quick check with freshly updated versions of Ad-Aware and Spybot showed nothing in the spyware department so after picking up a couple of different headsets I was ready to go. The only problem I could see was Skype’s claim that it only works with 2000 and XP and I’m using Windows/ME on the test machine. Only one way to find out. I got in touch with a filesharing friend via a chat room in Waste and he agreed to install the app. That was it. Minutes later we were talking – and it worked with ME. It was that easy. Sort of. We had some minor problems configuring mics and speakers and such and we’re not sure if these were hardware problems unrelated to Skype or something more fundamental to this application but it will get worked out soon.

The Sound

Initial conversations were simplex in nature – like a walkie-talkie, first one party speaks and stops - then the other goes ahead. We weren’t able to have a duplex conversation at any point during the two hours plus calls we made. We’d tried “hanging-up” (click the hang-up bar in the drop down menu) and “redialing” to get a better line (double click a username) but it didn’t solve the problem - although it did lead to some initial improvements. In the end nothing we did got us into full duplex mode and so in that sense Skype is not like regular telephone calling, it can be more awkward – at first. I found I got used to the system very quickly, especially with the chat box open and after a short time I was talking away - when the signals got through. Typing the occasional word or two kept the conversation running right along so in that sense it’s a big deal for chat. You’ll get away with typing about 90% less when you’re using Skype and your chat sessions will be much more nuanced and detailed. Still, duplexing is the way to go and to that end we’re experimenting with a registry hack for the problem.

After I tried the fix I talked with a Canadian friend (who hadn’t tried it) and the conversation was much improved, with partial duplexing during the entire exchange and pristine, noiseless sound quality. We both have ME.

And this is only the beta.

Bottom line: Worth the install? You bet. It’s not perfect but when it’s working it’s the best telephone audio I’ve ever heard. And when it’s stuttering and stopping it’s still a useful application in circumstances like those described above. I spoke to someone on the other side of the globe for over two hours this morning. Someone I’ve known for two years but never heard until now. I’ll soon be repeating that with other net acquaintances I might never have contacted were it not for the anonymity provided by the program. In and of itself that’s a pretty amazing thing. That these endless conversations won’t cost us a penny makes it all the more remarkable. And it’s just the beginning.









Enjoy,

Jack.








These Uploaders Get Paid – Not Sued

SML Ships Weed File-Sharing Software, Offers $5 to New Users
Press Release

Shared Media Licensing, Inc. released Weed Media Activator version 2.0 today. The free Windows software is a central component in the company's innovative distribution and promotion service, which pays Internet users to share music files.

This release updates Weed's preview version released last August. The software enables you to purchase Weed files you've downloaded from web sites or peer-to-peer networks. Any Weed file can be played 3 times for free. After that, you're invited to purchase the song at a price set by the artist. Purchasing a song unlocks it and allows copying to CD or portable players.

The most revolutionary part of the concept is this: buying a song can make you money if people you share files with also buy it. When you share a Weed file with friends who buy it, 20% of the sale price is credited to you on each sale. Sales at the next two levels down earn 10% and 5%, respectively. 50% of every sale is credited directly to the artist or other rightsholder. The remaining 15% goes to SML.

New Weed users receive a free $5 balance in their accounts so they can try the system out. Most files cost about $1.

SML President John Beezer says that Weed's service finally puts artists and listeners on the same side. "If you try to distribute music contained in Weed files in an unauthorized fashion, you're not only hurting the artist, you're hurting yourself. You lose the opportunity to share in future sales."

"Weed recognizes the role of the music fan in supporting new artists and distributing great music to people who will enjoy it." says Beezer, "Word of mouth has always been the primary means of introducing new music -- Weed encourages and rewards it."

"Ultimately, Weed puts more control in the hands of artists and fans. If you discover a band you're passionate about, you can buy their songs and send them to your friends. The artist gets paid, you get paid, and the people who got the music to you get paid. Everyone's happy."

More information, including software download link, the current "Weed Top 10" and a list of web sites offering Weed files, is available on SML's web site at www.weedshare.com. Details, downloadable graphics and other press materials are available from: www.weedshare.com/web/press.html.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...&newsLang =en


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Norwegian DVD Piracy Retrial Ends
Reuters

The landmark retrial of a Norwegian who achieved fame when he was cleared of DVD piracy charges lodged by top Hollywood studios ended Thursday with prosecutors demanding a suspended 90-day jail term.

A final verdict from the Oslo Appeals Court, which will be closely monitored by the U.S. movie industry as it seeks to set a legal precedent, is due Dec. 22.

Jon Johansen, dubbed "DVD Jon," pleaded not guilty to charges that he broke Norwegian copyright law by cracking the copy-protection code on commercial DVDs, enabling unauthorized copies to be made.

Prosecutors from Norway's Economic Crime Unit, which pursued the case on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America, (MPAA) argued that Johansen's copying of DVDs was unauthorized and therefore illegal.

The MPAA, which represents Hollywood studios like Walt Disney, Universal Studios and Warner Bros., estimates that piracy costs $3 billion annually in lost sales.

The state prosecutor repeated a demand from the original trial for a 90-day suspended jail term for Johansen, but said a milder sentence of 45 days would be appropriate if the court chose to disregard the argument that he had caused damage for the film industry.

"It is perhaps too great a responsibility to put on Jon Johansen's shoulders," state prosecutor Inger Marie Sunde told the court.

Johansen, now 20, helped develop and distributed on the Internet a computer program for DVD copying in the late 1990s, prompting Hollywood to file a complaint in Norway as part of a global crackdown on piracy.

The Oslo district court established in January that Johansen could do whatever he wanted with DVDs that he had legally bought. It also said prosecutors had failed to prove that his program--called DeCSS--had been used for illegal copying.

Prosecutors lodged an appeal, objecting to the application of the law and the presentation of evidence.

Johansen's lawyer, Halvor Manshaus, continued to focus on the right of the consumer rights to do whatever they want with their own DVDs in the seven-day retrial.

"When you buy a DVD film, you are buying the right to watch it," Manshaus said. "How you choose to do that is up to you."

Both sides can lodge a new appeal to the Supreme Court.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5120669.html



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New Ad Campaign Targets Music Swappers

Recording industry enlists parents in $2M fear-of-viruses advertising series
The Canadian Press

Who knows what dangers lurk in the unregulated and often illegal world of Internet file sharing?

That's the question posed in a $2-million advertising campaign launched this week by a trade group representing Canada's recording industry.

The campaign's first 30-second television ad, produced by Toronto agency Cyclops Communications Inc., is directed at adults whose children use the Internet to swap files -- often unsupervised, in their bedrooms.

"It's aimed at parents because many of them don't have any idea what their kids are doing or can find on these sites," said Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

"There's a lot more than music that can be accessed on these sites."

CRIA's commercial depicts a young boy using his computer to download a file when he's suddenly swarmed by what appears to be a SWAT team -- outfitted in white biohazard suits and gas masks -- that uses a set of oversized tongs to transfer both the boy and computer to a truck waiting outside.

"Illegal music sites# have viruses that can do a lot of damage," the commercial's voice-over says. A message on the screen reminds consumers that legal downloading sites, such as Puretracks.com, are free of viruses, pornography and spyware.

The ads begin airing this week on cable channels such as Bravo, the History channel and Sportsnet.

Like U.S. firms including Apple Computer Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Roxio Inc.'s Napster, CRIA and the syndicate that owns Puretracks.com are trying to find ways to persuade music fans that they should pay for material that many are already getting for free through programs such as KaZaA.

Apple, for instance, will be the focus of a promotion airing during the telecast of the National Football League's Super Bowl on Feb. 1, when an ad produced with PepsiCo Inc. will tout their plans to give away 100 million songs from ITunes.

While Canadian figures aren't available, U.S. sales of legally downloaded music are expected to reach $1.4 billion U.S., or 11 per cent of the industry's $12.8 billion in sales before 2006, according to Forrester Research. That percentage could reach one-third by 2008.

CRIA is funded by 32 members, including Universal Music Canada, Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and EMI Group.
http://www.canada.com/technology/sto...7-A0EAFF880FBB


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Feds Get A 'D' In Computer Security
Robert Lemos

U.S. federal departments and agencies are showing some improvement in protecting their computer networks, but many--including the Department of Homeland Security--are failing, according to a government report released Tuesday.

The report, prepared for the House of Representatives' Committee on Government Reform, found that almost all agencies improved their computer-security grade since last year. However, several key federal departments continued to fail to adequately protect their networks and earned an "F."

"For too long now information security has taken a back seat in the collective conscience (sic) of our nation," said a statement from Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee chairman. "We must come to the stark realization that a major Achilles heel is our computer networks."

Overall, the government earned a "D" on this year's report card. In 2002, it was given an
"F."

Two agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, slipped in the rankings since 2002. The newest department in the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security, got off to a bad start with an overall "F" for its computer security, despite the fact that securing the nation's network is part of its mission.

Davis took the private sector to task for poor security overall as well.

"The culture of our top-level CEOs in the private sector, and top executives in government, must be changed," he said in the statement. "We must get those at the very top, the decision makers, the ones accountable to the shareholders, the customers or the electorate, to recognize that lack of network security in an organization is a material weakness and one that deserves necessary resources and immediate action."

This year, two agencies earned an "A": The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Science Foundation. Ironically, a privately maintained nuclear reactor under the NRC's jurisdiction suffered an attack by the Slammer worm in early 2003.

The agencies rankings can be found on the Committee on Government Reform's Web site.
http://news.com.com/2100-7355-5118344.html


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The File-Sharing Debates
David Pogue

In this space, I wondered why the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and movie studios get so worked up about online file swapping, when public libraries distribute their works freely without a penny of compensation.

As usual, some of this column’s readers responded thoughtfully and with authority; I thought I’d share three of those reactions with you this week.

The most enlightening piece of e-mail came straight from the source: the Video Software Dealers Association, the trade association for the home video industry. Public affairs executive Sean Bersell neatly nipped my queries in the bud:

“You said, ‘Why do the publishers and movie studios let the library get away with it? For that matter, why don't they object to the Blockbusters of the world, who let people rent movies by the millions?’

“The answer is, ‘Because they don’t have a choice.’

Copyright law requires copyright holders to give up their ability to control distribution of those works once they have put them into the stream of commerce. This principle, commonly referred to as the ‘first sale doctrine,’ is codified in Section 109 of the Copyright Act. The first sale doctrine gives libraries and video retailers the right to rent and sell prerecorded videos and video games without the authorization of the copyright holder.”

Mr. Bersell pointed out, too, that in fact, members of his organization did indeed raise “fierce objections,” as the vsda.org Web site puts it, to the rental of videos. He went on: “Second, you said, ‘Whether we steal these movies or rent them, the Hollywood studios don't see another penny after the initial sale.’ That used to be true, but in the late 1990s, most major studios entered into revenue-sharing arrangements with major video rental chains. Under these agreements, the studios and the rental stores split the rental revenue. Initially, revenue sharing was used only on VHS, but it is now being extended to DVD. I should note that revenue sharing has been controversial in the industry.”

Meanwhile, another reader noted that, “Our real problem isn't here. It's in Asia. My brother just came back from China with maybe 20 copies of ‘X-Men 2,’ ‘Matrix Reloaded’ and ‘Terminator 3.’ These aren’t crummy DiVX copies-- they are gorgeous DVD-R, with nice motion menus, fake covers, ISBN numbers, the whole thing. You'd swear that they were the real thing. So, why are we going after our domestic kids in colleges and high schools...when our real pirates are in China?”

Finally, this intriguing note arrived from a guy who’s both a software engineer and a musician in two bands: “It’s my belief that music CDs will soon be given away free. The CD will become promotional material to advertise a band’s live shows and merchandise for sale. Space inside the CD cover could even be sold for advertising.

“This will have several results: First, bands will reduce the cost of producing a CD by making use of the incredible capabilities of your average digital recording system to avoid the ridiculous hourly prices that professional recording studios charge. (Next week my band is doing this very thing.) Self-production will become the norm.

“Second, CDs will become shorter, more focused and released more frequently. (‘See us on tour next month at these locations! Hear these four songs performed live!’) Third, bands will perform live far more often and venues for live music will see a resurgence in popularity.”

From your mouth to the RIAA’s ear, buddy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/09/te...rtner =GOOGLE


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Sea Change
Simon Tsang

Whichever way you look at it, this has been a pretty eventful year for consumer technology. Mobile phones now make video calls and take happy snaps when you're least ready. Digital cameras are now an essential item in any handbag. Games consoles with broadband bring together players from across the world. And all manner of gadgets rain down to tempt us with their multiple functions.

Not that any of this makes selecting Christmas presents easier. In this month's buyer's guide we've sifted through the plethora of gizmos to outline the best options in the most popular categories to help you decide.

Heading the list, garnering most mainstream media attention, is anything related to digital music. The ongoing battle between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks took on a new twist when the RIAA began targeting individuals deemed to be "egregious" swappers of copyrighted music.

Such is the frontier nature of digital media and the internet, industries and laws have been struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, in the absence of any sensible solution from the recording companies to selling digital music, consumers have been finding their own ways of getting the tracks they want online.

It took the Mac maker, Apple, to show how it was all supposed to be done when it announced its iTunes Music Store in the US on April 28. For the first time in digital music history, the focus wasn't on digital rights, but "personal use rights", which in quintessential Apple fashion, favoured consumer friendliness. At US99 cents a song, the internet crowd loved it and despite being available only to Mac users in the US, iTunes Music Store boasted 1 million songs downloaded in the first week.

It's been so successful that Microsoft has thrown its hat into the ring, announcing plans to launch an online music store despite formerly insisting it wouldn't.

What this all means for consumers is that they are finally getting what they've been asking the recording industry for all along - a reasonably priced music download service that respects the rights of the legitimate user.

We're still waiting for such a service to be made available in Australia, but that hasn't stopped the ever-growing popularity of portable digital audio players. As memory capacities increase, sound qualities improve and prices continue to fall, consumers are snapping them up by the truckload. And now, like the mobile phone industry, digital audio players are creating a market for makers of third-party accessories like Belkin's new range of iPod add-ons.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...351780810.html


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U.S. Congress: P2P E-Smut 'Not Necessarily' More Dangerous than Other Forms
John P. Mello Jr.

"Although some users of peer-to-peer networks might believe that they are sharing files anonymously, it is possible for law enforcement officials to discover identities of individuals sharing child pornography and other illegal material on peer-to- peer networks," the GAO wrote in its letter, a copy of which was obtained by TechNewsWorld.

Smut distributed through peer-to-peer networks isn't inherently more dangerous than titillating matter found elsewhere on the Internet.

That was one of several findings by the research arm of the U.S. Congress, the General Accounting Office (GAO), in a letter responding to written inquiries by the Senate Judiciary Committee following the panel's hearings in September on P2P technology .

"The pornography available on peer-to-peer networks is not necessarily more dangerous than the pornography available on Web sites or through other electronic means of dissemination," the GAO wrote in the letter to committee chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).

The GAO's comment came in response to the committee's query, "Is there something particularly dangerous about the pornography on peer-to-peer networks, whether in the user's ability to share it anonymously or in its accessibility to children?"

"Although some users of peer-to-peer networks might believe that they are sharing files anonymously, it is possible for law enforcement officials to discover identities of individuals sharing child pornography and other illegal material on peer-to-peer networks," the GAO wrote in its letter, a copy of which was obtained by TechNewsWorld.

The agency went on to say: "With peer-to-peer networks, pornography is easily accessible to children and the risk of inadvertent exposure to pornography is significant. However, pornography is also easily accessible through other electronic means, such as Web sites, and the risk of children's inadvertent exposure to pornography exists on these other mediums as well."

Red Herring

According to Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, a Washington, D.C., organization that represents a group of peer-to-peer providers, the pornography issue has been used by the recording industry as a "red herring" to make P2P networks a target for Congressional action.

"The GAO absolutely documents that the problem of the exposure of children to child pornography is an Internet-driven problem overall," he noted. "The material is not only just as available over the Internet in general; it's vastly more available over the Internet in general."

The agency noted that it would be difficult for operators of P2P networks to prevent the introduction of child pornography on their systems. "Unlike traditional Web sites, which have centralized content management , users control the content that is available on peer-to-peer networks, and the users of the network are constantly in flux," the GAO said.

Moreover, as Jarad Carleton, an IT industry analyst with Frost & Sullivan in San Francisco pointed out, some P2P developers, such as the Freenet Project, are creating networks whose sole purpose is to preserve their users' anonymity. According to a Frost & Sullivan report published earlier this year, Freenet protects anonymity by making data "placeless."

The report noted: "The concept of placeless data is handled in the Freenet platform by creating a cell structure, similar to terrorist cell structures that have been designed to protect a person's anonymity. Therefore, any node that participates in retrieving a piece of information, only knows where it got the request from and where it sent the request to. It doesn't know where the request originated nor can it determine which node answers the request."

The Judiciary panel also asked the GAO if the volume of child pornography on peer-to-peer networks is underreported. Although unable to address the question directly, the GAO observed that peer-to-peer networks accounted for only about 1.4 percent of the more than 62,000 reports of Internet-related child porn collected this year by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/32341.html


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Porn Purge At Australia Post

UP TO 50 Australia Post managers and staff have reportedly been caught sending pornographic emails, some showing children engaged in sex acts. Sydney's Daily Telegraph says at least four employees had resigned, two were sacked, dozens had been suspended pending further inquiries and more sackings were expected. The newspaper said most of the offenders were white-collar workers in NSW and four were from Queensland. Every Australia Post staff member had their computer hard-drives and email profiles examined during the investigation.

Several of those suspended or forced to quit claimed they had been made scapegoats to allow management to avoid a wider inquiry. One NSW manager said he was forced to quit because he was found to have forwarded two pornographic emails. Other managers had been found to have viewed up to 500 pornographic images including extremely graphic pictures and video.

"Some people may deserve criminal charges," the former employee told the newspaper.

"I definitely feel some of us are being used as scapegoats by people higher up."

A spokesman for Australia Post denied that senior management was quarantined from the investigation.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...E15306,00.html


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Japan Journal

69% Of Nation Is Worried About Leaked Personal Info

Sixty-nine percent of Japanese are worried their personal information could be leaked from public entities and private firms, according to a government report.

The results of the Cabinet Office's survey on the protection of personal information show that public distrust is high despite a privacy protection law passed in May.

The last time the government conducted a survey of this kind, in 1989, the figure was 39.8 percent.

The new survey of 3,000 men and women aged 20 and older nationwide was conducted in September and October.

It found that 82.2 percent of the respondents expect violations of privacy to increase due to the growing use of computers to store personal information and the growth of the Internet. The survey had a response rate of 70.9 percent.

Misgivings were high among younger people, with more than 80 percent of people in their 20s and 30s saying they are concerned about unauthorized disclosure of information.

Of all respondents, 66 percent said they are concerned their information will be used for purposes they have not approved, jumping from 40 percent in the survey 14 years ago.

Asked what they most want kept private, the highest percentage of respondents -- 74.3 percent -- cited their financial records such as salaries and tax payments, up from 48.1 percent in the last survey.

In the previous survey, only 10.9 percent said they wanted their addresses and telephone numbers kept private, but this figure rose to 42.9 percent in the latest survey.

A total of 39.7 percent, up from 14.2 percent, said they want their personal history, such as academic and professional backgrounds, kept private.

A little more than 61 percent said they are worried their personal information is being collected without their knowledge, up from about 40 percent.

A total of 58.4 percent, up from 39.3 percent in the last survey, said they are concerned about computer errors cropping up in such things as bank deposits.

More than one person in three said they do not trust private companies to protect their data, with 36 percent saying they do not think firms exercise sufficient care.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20031208a3.htm


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Slip-up Exposes Database To Prying Eyes
Robert Lemos

A developer mistake left a sensitive database with detailed personal information, including Social Security numbers, open to public Internet access for a few hours on Tuesday.

The database--frequently used by law enforcement, credit agencies and private investigators--was accessible through a simple search form on the Web and contained millions of names, social security numbers, phone records and public records such as residential histories, confirmed LocatePlus.com, which provides the database service.

"It was a pretty small breach of information," said Jon Latorella, CEO of the investigative services company. "It was only our bottom tier of information, or one up from the bottom."

LocatePlus shut down public access to the database around 10 a.m. PST. Latorella said that perhaps several hundred queries were made of the database and that 95 percent of those were apparently from security researchers who detected the breach.

While the company was working on an application to make the database information available on wireless devices, a developer opened up access for a limited range of Internet addresses to test the mobile service, Latorella said. The change resulted in the database being opened up to public access.

LocatePlus, based in Beverly, Mass., is investigating the incident, Latorella said. He stressed that the security surrounding the company's database service hadn't been breached. Moreover, the database routinely logs the Internet addresses of users, and so the company will know who had accessed the data.

Public access to the database underscores the danger inherent in placing such information on the Internet: Even the smallest slip-up can lead to a data leak.

"It is a little disturbing, to say the least," said Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering for security software firm Symantec. "Uncontrolled access like this, to this level of information, makes identity theft trivial."

Security analysts at Symantec discovered the glitch when someone posted the address of the database to an Internet relay chat. Symantec notified the FBI and CNET News.com. Soon after, LocatePlus was notified of the incident.

"We would have caught it in a day or so, but the response was very helpful," Latorella said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-5118138.html


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Chinese Cyber-Dissident In Solitary Confinement
AFP

Chinese cyber-dissident Huang Qi, who is serving a five-year jail term, was put in solitary confinement after representatives of a media watchdog tried to visit him in prison, the group has said.

Huang was moved to a two-square-metre unfurnished cell at Nanchong prison, south-western Sichuan province, and was forced to sleep on the ground, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on Friday.

This happened after a two-member delegation from Reporters Without Borders tried to visit Huang in late October, and were turned down by the prison governor, according to the group.

After several days in solitary confinement, Huang was moved to a larger but "closely monitored" cell with other prisoners, the statement said.

Nanchong prison officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Huang was convicted on May 9 by an intermediate court in south-western China's Chongqing municipality.

He has been in prison since June 2000 when he was arrested for publishing political information on his website, http://www.6-4tianwang.com.

The website originally listed information on people who had gone missing, but soon became a forum about people who had disappeared into police custody, usually because of their political or religious beliefs.

The site carried reports on dissidents, the separatist movement in north-west Xinjiang province, the banned Falungong sect and the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests of June 1989.

China seems determined to stamp out dissent on the Internet, as reflected in a wave of detentions and trials in recent months.

However, in one small sign of a less harsh approach, 23-year-old Internet dissident Liu Di was released from a Beijing prison late last month after being held for a year without charges.

Reporters Without Borders welcomed this move, but said it was not enough.

"It should not be allowed to (overshadow) the fact that dozens of Internet users and cyber-dissidents languish in jails in China," it said.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...732107164.html


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Computer Investigations May Conflict With Privacy Rights

New Zealand investigators sidestep concerns of Australia's privacy commissioner
Stephen Bell

Questions are being asked on both sides of the Tasman about the privacy implications of investigators searching the computer systems or ISP logs of
people who allegedly trade copyright or illegal material over peer-to-peer networks.

Australia’s Federal Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton, questions the tactics of those acting on behalf of owners of copyright material in scanning the ISP logs of people allegedly trading, for example, music tracks and video clips.

“This has the potential to invade the privacy not of the person being chased, but of all the people that have ever used that ISP. [It’s] not appropriate, it’s a sledgehammer to crack a walnut,” Crompton says.

He emphasises that when going after offenders, investigating companies must be careful not to intrude on personal information.

“I challenge both the digital industry and software pirates to recognise that digital rights management includes both the right of protection for intellectual property and the right of protection for personal information,” says Crompton, addressing the 11th Biennial Copyright Law and Practice Symposium in Sydney last month.

Auckland-based forensic specialist John Thackray said action against ISPs themselves is under way in Australia and could shortly hit New Zealand. A week after his comments, local file-sharing service p2p.net.nz shut down.

Meanwhile, the Department of Internal Affairs in this country is practising a simpler method of detecting allegedly illegal downloads, doing away with the need to search ISP records. An inspector logs into the P2P network, scans traders’ folders for certain files and downloads any apparently offending ones made available by New Zealand sources.

At least two people have been prosecuted for trading files when the file transfer has apparently been triggered entirely by the inspector.

Computerworld has asked the DIA, lawyers and Justice Minister Phil Goff how such a search squares with the requirements for search warrants in the “real world” and with the amendments introduced into the Crimes Act this year that prohibit access to another’s computer system without authorisation. Opening a P2P resource could be seen as an implied authority to access, but if a user were specifically to deny investigators authorisation, it is unclear whether they would be able to collect P2P evidence. A possible analogy is with someone holding an “open home” to sell their house, but reserving the right to turn away particular visitors. This might include law-enforcement officers seeking to search a property for evidence of crime without a search warrant.

In the physical world, an inspector has to obtain a warrant allowing a search only on a particular premises, even if they are seeking something very specific, and they can only get a warrant if there is reasonable evidence of actual trading. The department’s inspectors, acting on legal advice, previously only considered they had sufficient evidence for a warrant when a suspect, invited to upload a file to the inspector, has done so willingly with a deliberate action on their computer.

Potential for incrimination also exists. Someone could be trapped into downloading an innocently named illegal file, then reported to the DIA, who could upload the file from the user’s P2P folder before he/she had a chance to view and delete it.

DIA Gaming and Censorship head Keith Manch says “mistakes [in downloading files] are not established as a defence under the [Films, Videos and Publications Classification] Act”.

Some internet users also see problems in the censorship legislation involving “offences of strict liability” and not taking account of intent (in legal language, mens rea) or the lack of it.

No reply had been obtained from any of the official sources by press time. Goff’s private secretary had forwarded Computerworld’s questions to Internal Affairs minister George Hawkins.

An anonymous newsgroup source, who appeared well acquainted with the procedure of the DIA investigation, argues it was not an intrusion on information in general or a “fishing” expedition through the files of innocent users. Inspectors were looking for particular files and therefore not searching through computers that did not hold those files. They are not violating innocent users’ privacy, as the Australian privacy commissioner suggests might happen in Australia, the source argues.
http://www.computerworld.co.nz/news....D?OpenDocument


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West African Academics Connect Up Online
AFP

DAKAR - Students and teachers at a French-speaking digital campus in the Senegalese capital Dakar follow courses on-line, download text books which would cost too much to buy and enjoy access to a wealth of Internet data.

Their experience will be important input at a groundbreaking global summit on bridging the digital divide, the World Summit on the Information Society, which opens in Geneva Wednesday with the aim of reducing the digital gap between rich and poor.

Abdou Faye, a master's student of human resources in Dakar, says the digital campus facilities here give local students access to books they would otherwise never be able to afford.

"Some works cost 65,000 CFA francs (100 euros/120 dollars). I couldn't buy them," he said.

The campus with its 100 computers connected to the Internet was set up at the initiative of the Francophone University Agency (Agence universitaire de la francophonie - AUF), a worldwide network of more than 450 French-speaking higher education and research establishments.

"By putting lecture courses and research papers on the Internet, the campus has demonstrated that Africa is not a scientific desert and that it can compare with the northern hemisphere countries," said Bonaventure Mve-Ondo, head of the AUF's west African bureau.

Mve-Ondo says the centre's vocation is to make knowledge, essentially a product of the northern hemisphere, more accessible to everybody.

The digital campus first went into operation in October 2000 and now between 400 and 500 mainly students use its facilities daily at a cost of only 2,500 CFA francs (3.8 euros/4.6 dollars) a month, greatly reducing the time they spend on research.

Facilities are provided for students at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. Archivist Aminata Sakho Deme assists with online research.

"I have access to databases," says Aminata, who also handles requests for documents from Europe: "I provide a lot of assistance to students preparing their thesis, and also to professors preparing for congresses."

Mve-Ondo says the digital campus also serves as an "enterprise (news - web sites) incubator" for Senegalese graduates provided with technical facilities for a 10-month period.

"Last year young graduates set up a service company here," said Thomas Noel, regional technical coordinator: "There were six to begin with. Now they're out of the incubator and there are 30 of them."

The digital campus also helps university staff in obtaining teaching materials.

Linguistics professor Moussa Daff has used the Internet to find material for his lectures.

"Without the the Internet, I would have to go to Europe to buy books," he said: "Now I can give my students web-bibliographies."

But above all he considers the Internet a fantastic means of communication, enabling him to talk to other academics and get his own research papers more widely known via his on-line review Sudlangue.

Five other west African cities, Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Bamako in Mali, Cotonou in Benin, Ouagadougou in Burkina-Faso and Niamey in Niger, have followed Dakar's example and set up digital campuses equipped with between 25 and 70 terminals.

Four other more modest information centres with 10 to 15 terminals have been set up at Lome in Togo, Conakry in Guinea and Nouakchott in Mauritania, and in a further Senegalese town, Saint-Louis.

Cooperative networking takes places between the various centres.

"Thanks to an online advertisement recently, researchers in five countries of the region realised they were working on the same project and and set up contacts with each other," said Noel.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...summit_senegal


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Merger of Digital Rights Management and Peer-to-Peer Networks to Create ''eBay'' for Digital Goods

DigitalContainers patented ecommerce-enabled DRM system allows for secure distribution of media and payment collection over peer-to-peer networks.
Press Release

DigitalContainers Inc. announced today that its solutions can provide ecommerce-enabled digital rights management (DRM) solutions for use in peer-to-peer networks, creating a global market for digital goods with over 150 million potential customers.

According to the recent white paper "Integrating DRM with P2P Networks: Enabling the Future of Online Content Business Models" by Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and managing editor of the Jupitermedia newsletter DRM Watch, integration of DRM into P2P architectures is inevitable, as IP owners try to walk the fine line between embracing functionality that users want and maintaining control over their IP. The white paper proposes that DRM systems should:

1. Be able to support a user's reasonable content usage expectations.

2. Provide simple ways to define and implement content business models, including rights specifications and commerce terms.

3. Embrace standards for creating content rights specifications.

4. Support Web services to foster the development of services that P2P network participants can use in conjunction with DRM schemes to create new types of content-related services with minimized cost and complexity.

DigitalContainers is a DRM technology vendor that is addressing these challenges today. DCI has patented critical content security, authentication, e-commerce and media playback technologies suitable for use in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and digital rights management (DRM). DCI's technology allows intellectual property owners to preserve the monetary value of digital content as it travels from content owner to consumer or from consumer to other consumers by protecting it from unauthorized use and enforcing appropriate payment terms and conditions.

Rosenblatt concurs, "DigitalContainers is a DRM technology that supports lightweight Superdistribution through its Hybrid P2P architecture. It supports the ability to describe content rights in a fine-grained manner, the ability to facilitate on-the-fly server-based user authentication, and rich functionality for supporting a wide variety of business models, including payment processing, onboard the encrypted content objects rather than on a server."

"Our system solves the problems that the content industries are having with P2P file trading," said Chip Venters, president and CEO of DigitalContainers. "Now it's possible for organizations and individuals of all kinds - from the largest movie company to the smallest garage band, fledgling authors, professional photographers, financial analysts, or large and small catalogers - to easily and profitably package, distribute, protect and monetize all types of digital goods. We envision it as an "eBay" for peer-to-peer networks."

Both the "Integrating DRM with P2P Networks" white paper and a white paper detailing DigitalContainers' technology are available for download on DigitalContainers' web site www.digitalcontainers.com.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...&newsLang =en


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Altnet and Indie Labels Serve Up a P2P Holiday Feast

The Jethro Tull Christmas album is among a long list of new releases using Altnet to securely distribute music to almost 100 million users on Peer to Peer applications
Press Release

Altnet, Inc., a subsidiary of Brilliant Digital Entertainment (AMEX:BDE), the leading provider of secure digital media via peer-to-peer technology, today announced a slate of new distribution agreements for classic rock and blues catalogs on independent music labels. Coming to Altnet are such Grammy winning and Billboard chart topping acts as Jethro Tull, Ike Turner, Otis Rush, Aaron Neville and Benny Mardones.

Altnet patented technology allows artists to be paid when users share their files on peer-to-peer file sharing applications. Unlike other Internet music download sites that limit the ability of artists and labels to market themselves, Altnet gives its customers direct control over their music distribution including the ability to dynamically set pricing, control promotional messaging and placement, and tools to maximize interaction with fans and consumers in a viral marketplace.

For music labels, Altnet offers an audience of over 100 million music fans worldwide through its relationships with peer-to-peer programs such as Kazaa and eDonkey and web search engines such as Excite's My Search. Altnet's Gold File Top Search service gives licensed music a special gold icon and top-of-the-list premium placement in search results and integrates a seamless payment system.

For music fans, Altnet offers a growing collection of mainstream and independent music from over two dozen labels as well as simple one-click purchasing and the PeerPoints(tm) program which rewards users for sharing Altnet licensed files.

Greg Ross, CEO of independent label Go Kart records said, "Altnet proves that people will pay for downloaded music, when it is delivered in an intelligent way at a fair price. If the RIAA and the major labels stopped suing people and spent their time working with a model that is as usable as Altnet's, they would make more money and stem the tide of illegally downloaded music."

In addition to music, Altnet also distributes a wide selection of video games, software and movies. "When given a chance, users will share licensed files just as much as unlicensed ones," said Derek Broes, EVP of Altnet. "We sweeten the pot by rewarding users for doing the right thing and sharing licensed files instead of unlicensed ones. The major labels have declined to offer file swappers a legitimate way to share files, even though Altnet has a proven system that ensures everyone can be paid. It's really their loss, but it gives a tremendous leg up to independent labels who work with us and our built-in audience. There is no need to lure users away from file sharing applications, the users are ready and willing to play fair as long as they have a role in the process," added Broes who is a featured speaker on the "Taming the Peer-to-Peer Beast" panel at the iHollywood Forum "Music 2.0: A Digital Music Summit" today.
http://www.primezone.com/pages/news_....mhtml?d=49467


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File-Sharing Site Calls Suit Futile
Bill Heaney

The nation's most popular file-sharing, or peer-to-peer, Web site yesterday tried to play down a criminal indictment launched against it by the Taipei District Public Prosecutors' Office, citing failed attempts to close similar sites in the US.

"Peer-to-peer sites have been prosecuted before and have been found not guilty," Philip Wang (???), spokesman for Kuro.com.tw (???), told the Taipei Times yesterday.

"Given this trend, even the US federal court is taking the position that the technology itself is no different from a Xerox machine. It is the user's behavior that infringes copyright," he said.

Wang's comment goes to the heart of the peer-to-peer dilemma. While the technology itself may be neutral like a knife -- a useful tool for cutting vegetables that can also be used to kill -- site owners are allowing millions of people to copy movies, music and software without paying for it, which is crippling the entertainment industry, officials say.

On Thursday, the prosecutor's office filed charges against Kuro's management team and one subscriber under the amended Copyright Law (????). Wang said that his company had not been served legal papers as of yesterday evening.

Music industry representative body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) was celebrating the move yesterday.

"Our position is that this is great," IFPI Taiwan branch secretary-general Robin Lee (???) said yesterday.

"This proves that peer-to-peer is illegal and infringes copyright. It also shows that Taiwan's copyright laws conform to global standards," he said.

"It also means that Kuro and Ezpeer should close down their businesses," Lee added.

But cases against peer-to-peer sites have been notoriously difficult to prosecute. Napster, the world's first peer-to-peer site, was declared illegal and closed in 2001, but in April this year, the Los Angeles District Court dismissed cases against Web sites Grokster and Morpheus, ruling that their peer-to-peer technology could be used to share files like movie trailers and non-copyright music legally, as well as to download music files without the record labels' permission. It could not be proven that the site owners had direct knowledge of its users' infringement, the ruling said.

This ruling is currently under appeal, but it forced the music industry to change tactics and go after individuals. Since September, the Recording Industry Association of America has sent out 400 warning letters, received affidavits from over 1,000 former file-users and more than 200 settlements, Agence France Presse reported Wednesday. The same day, the association launched 41 new lawsuits and sent out 90 new warning letters to file-sharers.

Taiwan is following suit and has filed charges against five individuals, the most recent one on Thursday with Kuro against Chen Jia-hui (???), who allegedly had stored 970 illegally copied song titles on her computer's hard disk.

"We want to take this chance to give peer-to-peer users a warning that they need to reconsider what they're doing and give up their membership of peer-to-peer sites," Lee said.

International IPR experts welcomed the news of the prosecutions yesterday.

"The Internet is the new frontier," Jeffrey Harris, co-chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei's Intellectual Property Committee.

"The law in Taiwan is quite clear. Offering to sell unlicensed products over the Internet is against the law," he said.

But Harris' counterpart at the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei expressed concerns that there might be better ways to tackle IPR violations.

"If you look at these cases, there's a lot more sensationalism to them than actual results," John Eastwood said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/fron.../06/2003078502


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Distributed Trojans (not that kind)
Eric Bangeman

Malicious programs such as viruses and Trojan horses have become increasingly sophisticated over the past couple of years. At one time, a virus would connect to the Internet, and go to a designated IP address (either a server or other compromised computer) to download further instructions for wreaking havoc. That method proved easy enough to defeat: find the designated machine and take it offline. The Sobig virus from this past summer highlighted further strategic development on the part of the writer(s). Instead of a single machine, there were 20, and the communications were encrypted. However, there was still one machine acting as a download site, which was taken down once it was discovered. Now, malware authors are going to the next logical step: peer-to-peer networks.

Joe Stewart, a computer expert at Lurhq, a security company based in Chicago, said that he discovered this new phase in the evolution of Trojan horse programs while taking apart a program called Backdoor.Sinit, which has been circulating on the Internet since late September. Sinit, Stewart said, does something unexpected: It uses the commandeered machines to form a peer-to-peer network like the popular Kazaa program used to trade music files. Each machine on the network can share resources and provide information to the others without being controlled by a central server machine.

"It's like Kazaa only without all the pesky copyrighted files," Stewart said. And, as the music industry has discovered, when there is no central machine, "these tactics make it impossible to shut down," he said.

What is particularly interesting about this development is that there is now greater economic motivation on the part of the virus writers. Instead of popping up messages like "I hAv3 haX0r3d yuor G1bs0N," the new breed of viruses create networks of infected machines which can then be used for more nefarious purposes such as serving pop-up ads or downloading programs that cause a user's PC to dial up 900-numbers and rack up obscene charges. The "headless" nature of these new malicious P2P networks will also make them more difficult to destroy:

The implications for the Internet of the new breed of Trojan programs are troubling, said Bruce Schneier, the founder and chief technical officer of Counterpane Internet Security. "A self-replicating peer-to-peer network is kind of scary," he said, not just because a less easily detectable network is bad news, but because it offers proof that hackers, once primarily interested in breaking into systems for thrills, now have a profit motive.

When behavior becomes profitable, it becomes that much more difficult to stamp out. Given that the profit motive stands to make Trojan horses and other types of malicious code ever more ubiquitous, it becomes even more important to stay on top of your own security. Those who do not may end up paying a high price.
http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1070914654.html


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Developing Mobile Peer-to-Peer Networks
By Syndication

Since PacketHop's special software essentially creates a "mesh" of connections between all the devices, the wireless network becomes more robust at delivering data where it needs to go.
Can you hear me now?

For cell-phone users, that simple question often points to one of the most frustrating things about cell phones or any other wireless communication network -- the hassles of maintaining a connection to a central and often distant transmitter.

While that can be maddening for cell-phone users, the situation can be even worse for mobile workers who are increasingly switching to wireless 802.11, or Wi-Fi, data networks.

As some Wi-Fi users know from experience, the quality of wireless connections between computers and so-called access points, or APs, can vary greatly.

A Wi-Fi PC in a home living room, for example, might have no trouble connecting to an AP in the den. But a Wi-Fi laptop in the kitchen might not connect because of the pipes in the walls that separate the room from the den.

So several companies are working on new schemes called "mesh networking" that might ease the aggravation. And one start-up company, PacketHop in Belmont; Calif., has hashed out a particularly interesting way to form these mobile meshes.

Making a Mesh of Things

PacketHop's technology is a set of specialized software that can be embedded into mobile devices and wireless network transmitters. The computer code allows each device within the wireless network - whether a cell phone, laptop, handheld computer -- to act as a "node," or relay point, and to route digital data along to other compatible devices nearby.

Data bounces, or "hops," from one device to another until it reaches the device that requested the information. If a node becomes unavailable due to interference or other problems, other nearby devices can pick up the slack in relaying the bits of data.

Since PacketHop's special software essentially creates a "mesh" of connections between all the devices, the wireless network becomes more robust at delivering data where it needs to go.

"The routing [software] in each device discovers instantly neighboring devices and broadcasts to [it]," says Michael Howse, chief executive officer of PacketHop. "The net effect is that it creates a topology of peer devices."

Although the companies working on similar mesh networking solutions, Howse claims PacketHop has several distinct advantages.

For one, the company and its technology is a spinoff of SRI International, a Menlo Park, Calif., research firm with more than 30 years of experience in developing network protocols -- including those used by the ARPANET, the military data network that was the predecessor to the Internet.

In fact, PacketHop claims the technology is similar to the interconnected approach used in the wired world of the Internet. "The idea," says Howse, "was to create an instant, mobile Internet."

What's more, since the technology is just a small software code of about 500 kilobytes, Howse claims it can be easily added as part of any common wireless communication scheme -- including Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

"We create a whole new capability," says Howse, "not reinvent the wheel."

J. Gerry Purdy, principal analyst with wireless research firm MobileTrax in Cupertino, Calif., says development of mesh networks is a natural progression for wireless communications.

"I think it's an important development in making wireless networks more useful," says Purdy. "It's just taking what [known technology] works in the wired world and make it work wirelessly."

But, he cautions it remains to be seen if and when mesh networks will develop.

"Most of the mesh networking effort today is in an evolutionary stage," says Purdy. And while SRI's technology looks interesting, "[PacketHop] is a true start-up company and haven't been able to demonstrate a true [commercial] system."

PacketHop's Howse says the company is confident in the technology and has recently raised $5 million from U.S. Venture Partners, SRI and others. And he says the company is already building a mesh network for a "big trial" in the first quarter of 2004 with an undisclosed commercial customer.
http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/22829.html


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SCO CEO Publishes Open Letter On Copyright
ILN

Darl McBride, the CEO of SCO, has published an open letter on copyright. McBride argues that the GNU GPL violates the U.S. constitution and U.S. copyright laws.

Letter at http://www.sco.com/copyright/


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Norwegian Court Rules No Liability For Linking To Site
ILN

Thanks to an ILN reader for reporting that a Norwegian court has ruled that merely linking to a site that provides access to file sharing software does not infringe copyright. The case involved an action against portal Startsiden.no which had a link to such software. The court ruled that there was insufficient causality between the website link and the infringements.

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ANNO 2003: Legal Peer-to-Peer Solution Will Ignite New Web Boom

Payshare delivers legal, protected and profitable online distribution
Press Release

Anybody can sell their own digital content -- such as music, movies, software or electronic books -- legally and profitably with Payshare, a new digital distribution service that legitimises peer-to-peer. Payshare, developed and patented by software house ANNO 2003, will revolutionise the way digital content is distributed. "Payshare combines the anarchy and community of peer-to-peer file sharing with the rights-to-profit and free market ideals of capitalism," says Norbert Boehnke, sales director, ANNO 2003.

The Payshare distribution model allows anyone to profit by copying and promoting digital goods, and gives original content owners a far higher profit margin than traditional distribution models. Original content owners register their digital content with Payshare and make the product available online. Purchasers buy the product and have the option to register with Payshare as a 'co-publisher'. Co-publishers distribute the content (through, for example, a website, or a peer-to-peer network) and receive a percentage of the retail price. The percentage a co-publisher receives is set by the original content owner. "Payshare undermines traditional distribution models. Anyone -- from home movie makers to unsigned bands or established artists -- can sell their content digitally, at no risk of piracy and with a higher profit margin. Traditional music labels or movie distributors suddenly have little value to offer," says Boehnke.

The first product to be distributed using Payshare is ANNO 2X, video-compression software from ANNO 2003. ANNO 2X can squeeze four hours of DVD-movies into just 630 MB at broadcast television standard. "ANNO 2X is a tool for archiving DVDs to a hard disk drive. But, more important, it helps people sell their own movies online as it lets purchasers download, and resell, content faster. For that reason, and to demonstrate Payshare, we decided to make ANNO 2X the first product available through Payshare, says Boehnke. "The web gave everyone the right to publish. Payshare gives them the right to profit too," says Boehnke.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...2003,+04:00+AM


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Kofi Annan: Keep Media Free!

GENEVA -- A summit of world leaders focusing on expanding the Internet must reaffirm media freedoms and the rights of ordinary people to stay informed, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.

It is one thing for governments to establish regulations governing the media, Annan said in remarks prepared for delivery at a parallel conference of broadcasters from around the world.

"But when they go further down the slope toward censorship and harassment, all of us -- and potentially our rights -- are imperiled," Annan told participants at the opening session of the World Electronic Media Forum.

The media forum has drawn 360 organizations from 112 countries. Although U.S. networks are not taking part, the Canadian-based North American Broadcasters' Association, the British Broadcasting Corp. and state-owned broadcasters from France, Russia and Japan and a host of developing countries are taking part in the four-day meeting.

The forum is running at the same Geneva conference center as the Dec. 10-12 World Summit on the Information Society, which is drawing around 60 heads of state and government, mostly from developing countries. Both events are sponsored by the United Nations.

The information summit centers on whether the United Nations should have more control of the Internet -- the key decisions currently are made by a private, U.S.-based organization of technical and business experts known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN -- as well as who will pay for getting more poor nations online. Rich and poor countries have been split on both issues.

Organizers of the media forum are concerned that the technology-heavy Internet summit will neglect vital issues tied to TV and radio.

Workshops at the media forum consider how the Internet has influenced radio and television, the challenge it poses for public service broadcasters, and how to ensure it does not undermine press freedom, or cultural and language diversity.

Participants plan to hand Annan a document calling on information summit participants to remember that "communications technology is not an end in itself -- it is a vehicle for the provision of information and content."

The broadcasters asserted that "the future is not only on line," but radio and TV will remain dominant means of mass communication in many poor countries for decades.

They said policy makers should not forget them, nor their viewers and listeners, in the rush to the Internet. They also note that freedom of expression should be protected.

Annan said he was aware of their concerns.

"All over the developing world, as antennas and satellite dishes sprout across the landscape -- some of them placed there in defiance of the authorities -- we can see the immense thirst for connection," he said. "Let us show we are listening."

Media organizations and press freedom campaigners had expressed worries that the information summit would skirt human rights issues.

Countries -- including China -- that have clamped down on both regular and Internet media were anxious to restrict references to press freedom in a declaration that will be issued at the close of the information summit, but negotiators reached a compromise over the weekend on wording to be included in the meeting's final declaration.

The summit declaration to be adopted by the leaders mentions media freedoms, including those enshrined in the 55-year-old Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also says governments can place limits by declaring overriding national concerns.

But Shashi Tharoor, U.N. undersecretary-general for communications, said, "The message is clear: Do not do anything to backslide."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61530,00.html


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Meta-Music for the Masses
Seth Jayson

For the past couple of years, the recording industry has tried just about everything to stop the digital music piracy accomplished via peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and the previous incarnation of Napster. The industry efforts have been a little like turning a garden hose on a forest fire. Sure, you get some neat sizzles, and it's mildly satisfying, but man, the flames just keep on coming.

Suing the makers of peer-to-peer software hasn't worked. Suing the file-swappers seems to have little deterrent value, and it forces the industry to play the heavy in the media tribunal. The public has a hard time feeling sorry for a bunch of millionaire lawyers and executives as they haul pimply teenagers and college students into court.

How about paid services with anti-sharing software safeguards like Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) and the new Napster? These have been somewhat successful from a sales standpoint, but they're far from cheat-proof. Certain Scandinavian super-hackers have been cutting through our flimsy American security code more quickly than you can say iTunes.

The latest attempt to stymie file-swappers comes from a consortium called the Content Reference Forum (CRF) founded by Universal Music Group and technology firms as diverse as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), ARM (Nasdaq: ARMHY), VeriSign (Nasdaq: VRSN), and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NYSE: NTT).

The CRF is proposing a new standard media meta-file. This digital nibblet would contain information about the sound or video file, but not the media itself. Instead, the home users' media software would be directed by the meta-file to a server where the real, copy-protected media resides. Then it can be acquired or purchased, subject to the download privileges of the individual consumer.

The CRF envisions some kind of reward system for sharing these files, as a way to encourage users to share them among their online peers.

It also harbors pretensions to become the creators of an entirely new digital-media world -- as evidenced by the not-so-subtle snippet from Michelangelo's Sistine Creation of Adam at the top of its Web page. But version 1.0 looks DOA to me. The reward system seems like a thinly camouflaged effort to enlist hyperactive teens to do online marketing. I doubt it will work. Do they really think that a generation of file-swappers raised on free goods will suddenly be satisfied by high-tech teasers? (And can you imagine the opportunities for Spam?)

I don't pretend to know the final solution to this problem. But I'm certain of this: The game will be won by those who can provide the cheapest content with the least hassle to the end user. If that means illegal file sharing, the software and media industries will have squandered their big advantages in technology and capital.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2003/mft03121207.htm

[JackSpratts]

Glue Together Two Broadband Links To Make Fat Pipe

Review Edimax BR6524 "Dual-WAN" Router
Fernando Cassia

"If you're really serious about high speed internet connections, contact your local phone company about installing a high
speed digital line. These lines can cost you plenty ... think of thousands of dollars (...) a T1 line has a connection speed of up to 1.544 Mbps.""Networking for Dummies.", 4th Ed.

A (not) brief Introduction to Dual WAN routers
You probably would love to have a T1 or T3 at home, but more often than not, it's hard to justify the luxury. While in some places residential DSL service has reached T1 speeds, in too many others - like mine - residential Cable modem, ADSL and even fixed wireless services offer less-than-T1 speeds. In my home city/ country, for instance, providers of all three available broadband service types (cable, DSL, fixed wireless) seem to have conspired to offer 512 Kbps as the fastest speed. I could rant about the price too, suffice to say we pay the same price for 256 Kbps for which a subscriber can get 1.5 Mbits ADSL in the U.S.

Even if you're lucky and you live in advanced societies with Internet-friendly Telcos and governments where broadband is not only inexpensive and ubiquitous but also fast - Korea, Japan, Sweden, Norway come to mind-, wouldn't it be nice to join your two japanese 45 Mbps DSL accounts into a single, combined data pipe?

A new range of affordable broadband routers now make T1 speeds and beyond available to anyone who can afford it - even if the broadband offerings are limited in speed. These routers have the ability to "join" two broadband links - xDSL, Cable modem, Fixed Wireless, you name it - into a single seamless "big data pipe" shared by all the machines in your LAN. The devices don't even have to be of the same type, as any pair of broadband connections with Ethernet (RJ45) connectivity can be used, and even mixed for additional safety against service outages from a particular (Telco or Cable) infrastructure.

While you won't be able to use the combined bandwidth with a single file download, any applications using multiple simultaneous connections will. The scenarios are many; you can use the combined bandwidth even if you have only one PC behind the router doing multiple downloads -when downloading a web page with graphics for example, when you use a "download accelerator", when you manually start downloading multiple files at once, or when you use a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Of course, if there are multiple machines behind the router accessing the internet at once, the benefits are obvious.

This type of linking of two connections into one is often referred to as "Multi-Homing" and also "connection teaming", it is different from "bridging" where it would require some work on the ISP side to split a single IP address connection between two physical links.

The First Review: Edimax In this first article of the series reviewing "Dual WAN" routers, it is now time to test Edimax's offering, the BR6524 Dual WAN Router.

For the test I decided to add ADSL service to my secondary phone line, which until now only had a sleeping Panasonic fax machine dinosaur connected to it. After the usual delays and fighting the local Italian-owned incumbent telco -who keeps a monopoly on the local loop, by the way-, I got DSL service up and running. I requested their maximum speed offering: 512 Kbps ADSL service (wow! - not), so I could add that extra bandwidth to my existing 256 Kbps link, for a nice 768 Kbps of total downstream speed, or about half what U.S. customers can get on a single link. .

Yes, a pair of 512 Kbps ADSL links teamed into one 1 Mbit pipe would have been better, but my budget as a writer doesn't allow such expenses. This test scenario also serves as proof that the broadband connections that you plug into the router's WAN ports can be of radically different speeds.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=13103


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Piracy Now “Terrorism” Says WIPO Chief

Piracy of the know-how to make products from machines to branded baby shampoo is a form of terrorism and must be stopped, the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said.

In addition, the enforcement of intellectual property rights by developing countries was crucial to boost their economies, the director-general, Kamil Idris, told a group of reporters in Geneva. "Piracy is a very serious problem, and this is why when people discuss piracy it is not a north-south issue," he said. "Piracy is like terrorism today and it exists everywhere and it is a very dangerous phenomenon." Idris described how he had heard of children dying after using counterfeit baby shampoo and warned of the potentially disastrous consequences of relying on machines that had been made using an illicitly duplicated model. Last month, the World Health Organisation said that up to 25 percent of medicines consumed in developing nations were believed to be counterfeit or substandard, and it warned they could be useless, harmful or even deadly. "We would like to have consensus by all countries and all nations that piracy is a very dangerous phenomenon today," declared Idris. WIPO lacked the power to interfere with national jurisdictions to ensure that intellectual property laws forbidding piracy were implemented, he said. But the UN agency says it is actively involved in building awareness, the demystification of what intellectual property means and training law enforcement authorities. "Our efforts are related to persuading governments to adopt national mechanisms in order to fight this phenomenon," explained Idris. "I know that combating piracy is not an easy task, but it requires efforts of governments and international organisations and of course the NGO (non-governmental organisation) community." Idris also insisted that better enforcement of intellectual property rights -- such as patents for inventions or copyright for songs -- could stoke the economic engines of many poor nations. The WIPO chief said he recently met a number of Caribbean ministers who told him they believed a greater protection of their home-grown art and culture was "a matter of life or death for their economy". Turning to China -- which was required to strengthen national legislation against counterfeiting before it joined the World Trade Organization at the end of 2001 -- Ibris said the country was making progress, but more challenges lay ahead. International treaties had been signed, national legislation to protect know-how was in place and measures to enforce these laws had also been created, observed the director-general. "But enforcement, the way we want it, still has a long way to go and it continues to be a controversial issue," he admitted.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031203/323/efqp1.html


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States Scrutinize E-Voting As Primaries Near
Paul Festa

Some states are raising last-minute security concerns over e-voting technology as much of the country prepares to switch over from mechanical to electronic ballots in time for the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

After antiquated punch-card ballots led to a contested vote count in Florida during the 2000 race, Congress passed, in 2002, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which offers federal assistance to states that replace mechanical voting machines by 2004.

Now, with the presidential primaries approaching, some critics are calling for a second look at the leading e-voting vendors' products--a move that could make some states fall behind schedule. At least one, Ohio, has indicated it will petition the government for an extension, likely delaying e-voting in that state until August, at the earliest.

"This is a storm that we've been waiting for," Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller said. Heller, whose state has been using electronic ballot boxes for 10 years in its largest county, advised U.S. senators on HAVA. "I think it's to be expected that, because there's change, there's going to be some uneasiness in this process."

Ongoing concerns over the security and reporting features of e-voting machines have cast a cloud of uncertainty over the upcoming election season, forcing ballot machine vendors to address a host of complaints over their products amid signs of an escalating voter backlash.

The affected companies say the weaknesses that have been identified to date aren't insurmountable, and most said they expect to fix them on time to meet the HAVA deadlines. But the biggest problem facing e-voting machine vendors may turn out to be political rather than technical, as belated resistance to e-voting systems mounts.

Individual counties in the United States have used electronic voting machines for years, but many voters have only learned about the potential hazards of e-voting recently, through the missteps of one company: Diebold Election Systems of North Canton, Ohio. The company has become a lightning rod for criticism following partisan political statements by its chief executive and revelations of security flaws within its flagship product.

"I think it's been a year of widespread awakening among the American public about the risks of computerized voting," said Kim Alexander, founder and president of the California Voter Foundation. "A huge movement has developed across the nation, with citizen activists joining computer scientists, academics, lawyers, and nonprofits to demand verifiable voting systems."
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5114062.html


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Ohio Halts E-Voting Machines
AP

The state's top elections official said Tuesday that security problems found in new touch- screen voting systems mean they won't be in place statewide in time for the November 2004 presidential election.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said some of the new voting machines would be installed in August, some in November and the rest in 2005.

That means some of Ohio's 88 counties still will be using punch-card systems for the 2004 election. Problems with punch cards in Florida left the outcome of the 2000 presidential race in doubt for more than a month.

The four electronic touch-screen systems must be proven secure before Ohio voters use them, Blackwell said. His office will work with the manufacturers to ensure the problems are corrected, he said.

Ohio and much of the rest of the nation are upgrading voting equipment under legislation passed by Congress after the 2000 election.

The state must ask the Federal Election Commission for an extension in complying with the law, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

Companies that tested the security systems of the four machine types found software that permits votes to be counted more than once, and a risk that unauthorized poll workers or others could gain access to the system.

Identical passwords were discovered for more than one poll worker, while voting booth cases did not provide for locks, leaving a risk of tampering during transportation of ballots.

Each of the voting systems provided by the four vendors -- Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software and Maximus/Hart Intercivic/DFM Associates -- has multiple but not identical problems, Blackwell said.

Mark Radke, a Diebold executive, said the company already had fixed problems in machines used in municipal elections in Maryland.

"These software enhancements will be implemented in all touch-screen units deployed within Ohio and the process-related questions are addressed in the Diebold Election Systems training manuals," Radke said.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61467,00.html


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French PM Calls For International Rules To Govern Internet
AFP

GENEVA - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called for "international rules" overseen by the United Nations to govern the Internet.

"The information society offers new opportunities, but like all new technological revolutions it also brings uncertainty," Raffarin told the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society, the world's first such meeting. "It calls on us to establish international rules, which citizens can rely on," said the premier. "For France, the UN is the major source of international rights, which must ensure peace and development. That also concerns the information society," he insisted. According to Raffarin, these international rules must cover technical questions -- such as the attribution of web addresses and management of domain names -- as well as the protection of intellectual property. This would guarantee "network security" and "deal with content while respecting freedom (of expression)." The United States and other countries argue that governance of the Internet should be left in private hands, namely the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031210/323/egrph.html


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The WSIS: Whose Freedom, Whose Information?
Solana Larsen

The UN’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva is intended to create ways of bridging the global ‘digital divide’. But will its political tensions and complex agenda make it less of an “internet-Kyoto” and more of an arid talk shop?

You can’t eat a computer. But having access to information and communication technologies can mean life or death, when it comes to delivering to people around the world necessities like clean water, medical help, education and employment.

The preparatory meetings have gone less than smoothly. A complete breakdown of negotiations has been close more than once. Countries disagree radically on so many things that it is hard to come up with language that can be agreed on by consensus. Nonetheless, for all the hot air, the evasions, the clichés and the diplomatic subsidies, important issues are in play and innovation is occurring.

For the first time at a UN summit, non-governmental participants have been invited to take part in drafting the documents. But some governments – among them China, Egypt, Mexico, and Pakistan – refused to negotiate in their presence.

Civil society participants, who represent over 940 interest organisations, universities, think-tanks, and religious groups, were locked out of meetings on some of the most contentious issues. In frustration over the failure of government to come to terms, they have formed a body and created an alternative declaration.

The only thing everyone can agree on is that there should be more telephones and computers for everyone. In 2000, the UN’s member states promised to uphold a list of “Millennium Development Goals”. One goal demands there should be a computer with internet access for every 100 people around the world by 2015.

With little more than ten years to get online computers within walking distance of even the poorest of the world’s citizens, a meeting of nations is not happening too soon.

The issues that divide

A clear plan is nowhere in sight. China won’t hear any mention of human rights and wants governments to have full control over the internet. The United States and Europe have helped weaken proposals on open source software in favour of proprietary software (like Microsoft’s). And many of the wealthiest countries would like all mention of financial support for the developing world erased from the declaration of principles.

The reality is that WSIS is not just about bringing computers to the poor. It is also about making money from selling them equipment and software; privatisation of national communications industries; investment and infrastructure. And it is about seizing power over the internet as it spreads. Many governments want to rein it in and have more direct control.

Open Source versus Microsoft

One of the most inhibiting barriers to the spread of computers in the developing world is the cost of software like Microsoft Windows, which is not only expensive but needs to be updated regularly at a steep price. Governments can save billions simply by switching to free and open source software like Linux, which can be updated or modified gratis by anyone, helped by a global community of programmers. India, Peru, Brazil and South Africa are among nations who have already started switching over to viable alternatives to Microsoft.

In what many suspect is a response to the mounting business threat from open source software, Bill Gates and Microsoft have been donating billions of dollars worth of software and aid to the developing countries where open source is most popular. Accusations abound that United States and European Union delegates at WSIS are in the pockets of Microsoft lobbyists. Certainly, in the centre of the negotiations, the draft for the WSIS declaration of principles has gone from outright “support” of open source software for the developing world to “promoting awareness” about “different software models, and the means of their creation, including proprietary, open source and free software”.

Intellectual property

The issue of intellectual property has become explosive with the advent of digital technology, which enables anyone to make a quick and perfect copy of anything that can be stored on a computer. Since the original Napster, free file-sharing software has accelerated, hurting the profits of the music and film industry (and by extension the American economy). The legal battle between rich copyright holders and regular computer users in Europe and America has been fierce. But the loaded guns of the entertainment business are also aimed at developing nations like China where piracy is both rampant and a significant gain for the economy.

Hollywood lobbyists are given a lot of credit for new, stringent international legislation for the protection of copyright. The extension of copyright periods, and closure of old loopholes like “fair use”, impact on what is allowed to enter the public domain. Developing nations may have less free access to content from literature and science, to policy statements, basic statistical data and social and political analysis – all in different ways important tools of development.

Freedom and security

Fear of terrorism fuels the emphasis on “security” at WSIS. Reliability and integrity of the internet is also required for growth of the United States’s priorities. “Network security” is at the top of their list.

China and Russia are attempting to switch the emphasis onto “information security” and “military security”, causing alarm among critics that the declaration of principles could be used by nations to legitimise censorship and invasions of privacy through surveillance.

Their alarm may be justified. In the draft declaration, a free and independent media are currently only promised “in accordance with the legal system of each country”. This is a significant step back from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that guarantees “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”.

Once again, China is stubbornly opposed to such basic rights. But there are many others with dirty track records, such as Tunisia, the 2005 host of the WSIS. After nearly a year and a half, this country still holds the editor of satirical website Tunezine, Zouhair Yahyaoui, in jail for being critical of the country’s president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates...-8-10-1630.jsp


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How Much Is Digital Music Worth?
John Borland

As the early buzz over new music services such as Apple Computer's iTunes fades, record labels and technology companies are struggling to turn the services into profitable businesses.

Speaking at the iHollywood Forum's Music 2.0 conference in Los Angeles Monday, executives on both sides focused on the 99-cent price tag that has become the market's standard for downloadable music.

Critics say that that price needs to come down if mainstream consumers are to start buying in large numbers, making the Internet a serious factor in the record industry's bottom line. Record labels say they can't afford to go lower.

"There's very little money in this to begin with," said David Ring, vice president of Universal Music Group's eLabs division. "A lot of people are already recognizing that we're going to have to sell a lot more singles at 99 cents in order for us to make money, and for artists to be able to make a living."

Whatever the ongoing tensions, it's clear that the relationships between record labels and technology companies have improved immeasurably over the past year. Going into the holiday buying season, numerous services are for the first time offering digital music downloads or online subscription services with the blessing of the largest music companies.

That--in theory--will help drive purchases of portable music players such as Apple's iPod or Samsung's Napster device. Music executives hope all of this will help spark consumers' interest in buying music online and offline, and boost industry revenue, which has fallen steeply over the last three years.

Indeed, the download services are seeing some signs that many music listeners are accepting the 99-cent price tag, despite some downward pressure. Apple said Monday that it has now sold more than 20 million songs in fewer than seven months through its iTunes song store.

Online buying patterns are also beginning to emerge, pointing to potential ground rules for the new services. Peter Lowe, Apple director of marketing, said that 45 percent of songs downloaded through iTunes had been sold as part of a full album, rather than in single song form.

This indicates that many people are still interested in purchasing large numbers of songs, or full albums, despite having a la carte options, Lowe said.

Additional research from the NPD Group indicated that iTunes customers bought more music than did ordinary offline consumers over the first four months of that service's operations. The average iTunes customer bought 49 songs online during that time, or the equivalent of about an album a month, compared with the average teenager's purchase of a CD every two months, said NPD vice president Russ Crupnick.

The Macintosh audience may not be representative of the larger market, however, since Apple buyers tend to have higher incomes and greater technological sophistication than the PC audience as a whole, and have previously had less access to the free file-swapping services.

Despite these positive early signs from iTunes and its rival services, consumers are still showing resistance to today's prevailing market price for digital music, conference attendees said.

"I've been hearing 99 cents (as a price for digital songs). If it's that, I would just go out and buy the CD," said Alina, a UCLA student who participated on a panel discussing college students' music behavior.

She said she had never used any of the paid digital music services. The students did not use their full names, in part because in some cases they were talking about downloading music illegally. "If it's 30 cents I would buy it."

A survey conducted by research firm Ipsos-Insight found that consumers said they thought $7.99 was the best price for digital-music albums. The typical price for an online album today is $9.99. Consumers in the survey also said they were still willing to pay considerably more--between $10 and $12--for a physical CD.

Technology companies say record companies need to take heed of these signs and be more flexible with pricing and the restrictions they put on copying and CD burning. Labels, artists and music publishers can potentially make more money with lower prices by offering deals on back-catalog songs that are unavailable elsewhere today and by spurring much more frequent purchases from consumers, technology company executives said.

"There has not really been an attempt to explore the price elasticity of this product," said Robbie Vann-Adibe, CEO of Ecast, a company that provides digital music jukeboxes for bars and retail businesses.

Currently, close to two-thirds of the 99 cent digital song price goes to labels and other copyright holders, leaving slim or even negative margins for the song stores themselves. Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently said his company remains interested in the business because it helps sell the company's profitable iPod music devices.

Music executives say they may become more flexible with this pricing, but it will take time and resources. Their industry has accepted that the future is digital, but it can’t change overnight, they said.

"This business is going to grow," said Courtney Holt, head of new media for Interscope Geffen A&M Records. "But you can't look at old-world models of how we made money and say we're going to duplicate those in the new world. At the corporate level we’re looking seriously at what the record business, not just the record company, is going to be in five years."
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5117275.html


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Amazon Wins Ruling On DMCA Safe Harbor

Thanks to an ILN reader for reporting that Amazon has won a California federal court case in which the court ruled that it qualified for the DMCA safe harbor in the sale of a copyright infringing DVD on its site. The court ruled a notification months earlier about potential infringements did not constitute adequate notice since it was not Congress' intent to have a single notice place all future monitoring responsibility on the intermediary.

Case name is Hendrickson v. Amazon.com.


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Rural Co-Ops Challenging Internet Phone Company
Dale Wetzel

North Dakota's small telephone companies are challenging a business that advertises cheap Internet phone calls, saying it cheats them of the fees they collect for granting access to their customers.

Their complaint is part of a mushrooming national debate over how the industry should be regulated.

Thirteen rural telephone cooperatives and small independent companies are asserting that SmartNet Inc. of Dickinson, which does business across North Dakota as CallSmart, is using their networks to connect long-distance calls.

The companies want to force CallSmart to stop doing business until it is licensed as a telecommunications carrier, and to pay them fees for access to their local customers. Traditional long-distance companies, including Sprint and AT&T, already pay the access fees.

"The services offered by ... (CallSmart) and its method of operations are a scheme to avoid legal obligations of paying access charges," the companies' attorney, Don Negaard of Minot, said in a state Public Service Commission filing.

CallSmart's president, Bruce Burke, said his company handles data and is an Internet service provider, not a phone company. Most of CallSmart's customers live outside North Dakota, he said.

He declined comment on the complaint, which the Public Service Commission accepted last week. He had no warning it was coming, and was surprised by it, he said.

"We'll just respond through the process of the PSC, and follow whatever requirements that they ask us to follow," he said.

State regulators in California, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota are among those exploring whether to treat businesses that provide voice service over the Internet as traditional phone companies.

The technology is called "voice over Internet protocol," or VoIP. It converts a person's voice into small packets of data, which are carried over the Internet and reassembled into sound on the other end of the call.

Generally, VoIP provides poorer sound quality, along with conversation gaps -- caused by loss of voice packets -- that can make a speaker's speech sound occasionally jerky and clipped. It is, however, much less expensive.

Last September, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission ordered Vonage, an Internet voice provider based in Edison, N.J., to apply for certification as a traditional telephone company. Vonage has built its business with help from advertising on Yahoo! and other large Internet portals.

Vonage argued it was a provider of information services, not a telecommunications company. But the PUC ruled that Vonage "is offering two-way communication that is functionally no different than any other telephone service."

However, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Minneapolis permanently barred the PUC in October from regulating Vonage as a phone company, saying its order conflicted with federal law and could inhibit the development of the Internet.
http://bismarcktribune.com/articles/...tate/sta01.txt


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Qwest Taps Into Net Telephony
Ben Charny

Qwest Communications International on Monday began selling Internet telephone service to a few hundred of its broadband customers in Minnesota.

Qwest is selecting initial customers, then providing them with either Internet phones or an adapter for their existing home phones, a company representative said. For competitive reasons, the carrier wouldn't disclose the price of monthly local and long-distance dialing plans or the equipment each subscriber needs.

The telephone company said it's the first major telecommunications service provider to offer what is known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service to U.S. homes. "The future of voice communications will be based on the Internet, and Qwest is excited to lead the way for customers," Qwest CEO Richard Notebaert said in a statement.

VoIP is a cheaper alternative to traditional telephone dialing, because the calls use the Internet and avoid telephone company access fees. About 10 percent of all telephone calls now rely at some point on VoIP, and that percentage is expected to rise dramatically during the next decade.

Qwest's intentions signal a further thawing of the once icy attitude among major phone companies' toward a mass- market VoIP service. Like most traditional phone companies, Qwest already uses VoIP to reduce the cost of its own operations, saving an estimated $15 million a month by completing long-distance and international calls "on Net." Qwest, the nation's fourth-largest local phone carrier, sells traditional local phone service in Minnesota, meaning that its VoIP plans will likely eat into its own base of customers.

Verizon Communications plans to begin selling Internet telephony services to broadband customers early next year. SBC Communications also is testing Net telephony services, according to a company representative. In October, regional phone company BellSouth announced plans to sell VoIP to small and midsize businesses.

The Bells are reacting to cable companies, which are selling less-expensive Internet phone service to their broadband customers. Time Warner Cable and Cablevision are both using VoIP technology.

But major cable providers Cox Communications and Comcast are hesitant to dabble in VoIP. Instead, they are content to sell phone services to a combined 2.1 million people using an earlier generation of telephone switches, which hog more bandwidth and are more expensive to operate than VoIP. Some Cox and Comcast executives believe VoIP as a technology is still not ready for widespread adoption.
http://news.com.com/2100-7352_3-5119020.html


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Time Warner Cable Reaches VoIP Deals
Ben Charny and Jim Hu

Time Warner Cable and two U.S. telephone service providers announced agreements Monday that may help the cable company's attack on the local and long- distance phone service market.

Sprint Communications and MCI will supply Time Warner Cable (TWC) with the necessary technology bridge so the cable company's Digital Phone subscribers can reach traditional telephone customers in a total of 27 markets, according to a TWC spokesman. The long-distance carriers also plan to provide Digital Phone subscribers with a location-based 911 service and local-number portability.

Sprint Communications and MCI will supply Time Warner Cable with the necessary technology bridge so the cable company's Digital Phone subscribers can reach traditional telephone customers in 27 markets.

VoIP is generating significant interest, particularly among cable companies that want to challenge traditional long-distance and local phone service providers.
http://news.com.com/2100-7352-5116936.html


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AT&T To Offer Internet Calling
Margaret Kane and Scott Ard

AT&T plans to let customers place telephone calls using Internet technology, an increasingly popular option for businesses and individuals that's cheaper than routing calls over the century- old telephone system.

The long-distance giant announced Thursday that it expects to have a service delivering voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) available to consumers in the top 100 markets by the first quarter of 2004.

AT&T already offers managed VoIP services to some businesses and has been testing a consumer service in three states since October.

The company said in a press release that it would "expand its VoIP portfolio and aggressively market a full suite of VoIP-enabled services to business customers worldwide."

AT&T is the latest and largest telecommunications company to embrace VoIP, but it is far from alone. Several start-ups, such as Vonage, 8x8 and VoicePulse, offer a similar service, and many Baby Bells are also testing the waters or are expected to do so soon. VoIP providers typically charge about $40 a month for unlimited local and long-distance. AT&T did not release pricing information Thursday.

Using the Internet to send phone calls is generally cheaper than standard methods, because users don't have to pay access charges to the various telephone companies that route the calls over their networks. Such charges can amount to 20 percent to 30 percent of the cost of offering local service.

Cathy Martine, a senior vice president in AT&T's Consumer division, has been named to oversee the new VoIP project at AT&T, CEO David Dorman said in a release. Martine had previously managed the employee trial and the subsequent consumer trial of VoIP for AT&T

AT&T's plans emerged the same week that cable giant Time Warner Cable said it reached deals with Sprint and MCI to expand its VoIP service. The company's Digital Phone plan costs $39.95 a month and allows unlimited local and long-distance service. Those who aren't Time Warner Cable customers pay an additional $10 a month.

And Qwest Communications International on Monday began selling Internet telephone service to a few hundred broadband customers in Minnesota.

"Unlike many of our competitors, who are constrained by geographic reach or broadband access technologies, our voice over IP offer will be available in cities across America to customers with different kinds of broadband access," Dorman said in a release.
http://news.com.com/2100-7352_3-5119779.html


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Standards Body Seeks To Help Content Owners Develop Flexible Business Models

The Content Reference Forum's goal is to enable interoperability that will let consumers more easily access the content they want and share it with others.
Tony Kontzer

Despite the glut of digital content available on the Internet, a host of barriers--such as the wide array of software formats and device types used to access content—still prevents content owners from developing truly flexible business models. A group of technology vendors and content providers has formed a standards body to solve that problem by creating a technical and business architecture that will support such business models.

The Content Reference Forum this week goes public with its first proposed specifications, and the ultimate goal is to enable the kind of interoperability that will let consumers more easily access the content they want and share it with others--regardless of format, platform, or other preferences. The initial set of specs, which the forum is calling the Baseline Profile 1.0, is focused on distribution of content to Internet-enabled PCs. Eventually, the forum plans to develop standards for distributing content to other devices, such as mobile phones and set-top boxes. The group also will work on standards for business processes such as reporting, payment services, and registration of any parties who hold a stake in the distribution of content.

The centerpiece of the forum's architecture is a data package called a "content reference," which serves as a unique identifier of a piece of content and the context in which it will be used. Those references then trigger "reference services," essentially a set of Web services that check the content reference against contractual agreements related to the content, automatically triggering options to purchase the content, thus preserving the rights of content stakeholders. The way those involved in the forum see it, it's time to overcome the Catch-22 that has prevented mature digital-content business models. "It's hard to create new business models without the technology infrastructure," Dmitry Radbel, VP of advanced technology for forum member Universal Music Group and chairman of the forum's requirements and architecture working group. "On the other hand, there's no motive to create a technology infrastructure if there are no business models."

While a handful of digital-content services have achieved a degree of success, Radbel says, current distribution models often don't take things such as device types or software platforms into account. Making content more abstract will result in services that can be format- and bandwidth-agnostic, he says. Moreover, the forum's architecture of content references and reference services will provide better capabilities for tracking all the participants involved in a content value chain so that even the most minor business agreements can be respected. "Our concern is, how do we capture the business rules related to the content?" Radbel says.

Another area of concern is trying to figure out how content owners can take advantage of the file-sharing distribution channel. "Peer-to-peer networks are here," Radbel says. "We don't like much of what's going on, but you can also look at it as the glass being half full and say, 'How can we use it?'"

In addition to Universal, founders of the forum include ARM Holdings, ContentGuard, Macrovision, Microsoft, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and VeriSign. The initial Baseline Profile specs are expected to be formally released in mid-2004.
http://www.informationweek.com/story...cleID=16700059


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Hacker Admits Sharing $2.2 Million In Software

A Mercer County man admitted in federal court Monday that he violated copyright law by sharing $2.2 million worth of pirated movie, music and game software over the Internet.

James Remy, 40, of Washington Township, who was not accused of profiting from the scheme, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Trenton to one count of copyright infringement.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said Remy, a computer enthusiast who works for a printing and graphic design company in New Brunswick, operated what is known as a warez server, which allows other Internet users to download files for free. Christie said Remy was among a group of file pirates tracked by federal agents nationwide under the government's "Cybernet" operation.

During a nine-month period from Oct. 26, 2000 through July 24, 2001, the value of files downloaded from the server Remy set up was $2,242,712, Christie said.

Remy faces a maximum of three years in prison when sentenced March 19 by Judge Mary L. Cooper. His lawyer, Darrell L. Paster, said he will ask for leniency, because his client, a husband and father of three, has never been convicted of a crime, and never intended to make money.

"He did not do this as a protest or an act of civil disobedience," Paster said. "He didn't think what he was doing was immoral. While he knew it was wrong on some level, he never would have done it had he known the criminal consequences."
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...,3642553.story


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Coke Enters the Music Business
Reuters

Coca-Cola is launching an Internet music download service in Britain next month, the first consumer brand to jump into Europe's crowded Internet music market, the company said on Monday.

The soft drinks maker said that in January it will begin selling music downloads from a catalog of 250,000 songs supplied from each of the five major music labels.

The artists range from Eminem to Elvis, delivered through a partnership with OD2, a British music-download company. The companies did not announce the pricing plan for downloads.

The European market for legal music downloads, though small at the moment, has attracted intense interest from major media companies and retailers ranging from Virgin Megastores to Time Warner's AOL unit. Still, the industry-sanctioned sites are running well behind the free file-sharing services run by Kazaa and iMesh.

Coke, which has huge brand appeal and a massive marketing budget, is expected to bring some much-needed publicity to the subscription download services.

Coke's main rival, PepsiCo, will join forces with Apple Computer iTunes download service in a 100-million-song "under-the-cap" giveaway beginning in February. The Apple service is not available in Europe.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61509,00.html


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Judge Orders SCO To Show Linux Infringement
Stephen Shankland

IBM won a tactical victory Friday in a legal battle with SCO Group when a judge ordered SCO to show within 30 days the Linux software to which it believes it has rights and to point out where it believes IBM is infringing.

But SCO also said it will open a new copyright infringement claim in its legal attack.

In a hearing in Salt Lake City, Federal Judge Dale A. Kimball required SCO to produce two key batches of information IBM had sought in the case.

In one batch, called Interrogatory No. 12, IBM sought "all source code and other material in Linux...to which plaintiff (SCO) has rights; and the nature of plaintiff's rights." In the second, Interrogatory No. 13, Big Blue sought a detailed description of how SCO believes IBM has infringed SCO's rights and whether SCO ever distributed the source code described in Interrogatory No. 12.

The information IBM sought is at the heart of the case, a bold lawsuit SCO began in March that alleges IBM moved technology from Unix to Linux against the terms of its contract with SCO, violating trade secrets in the process. SCO is seeking $3 billion from Big Blue, and is also trying to compel Linux-using corporations to license SCO's Unix. The judge's decision is one of the first moves in a case that will affect not just IBM but also other computing giants including Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, SAP and Dell that have embraced Linux.

IBM in August countersued with four patent violation claims and a defense that charges SCO with violating the terms of the General Public License (GPL) that governs Linux.

In the spring, when SCO first said Unix code had been copied into Linux, Chief Executive Darl McBride told CNET News.com, "We will be happy to show the evidence we have at the appropriate time in a court setting," but thus far the company hasn't done so.

IBM welcomed Kimball's decision. "IBM has said all along SCO has failed to show evidence to back its claims. We are very pleased the court has indicated it will compel SCO to finally back up its claims instead of relying on marketplace FUD" (fear, uncertainty and doubt), spokeswoman Trink Guarino said.

With interrogatory No. 12, IBM is essentially seeking to pin down what precisely SCO believes is in Linux that infringes Unix intellectual property. Though it hasn't said so in court, SCO executives in interviews have pointed to Unix technology including read-copy update (RCU), symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP), nonuniform memory access (NUMA) and IBM's Journaled File System (JFS).

Work on that software took place at IBM or a company called Sequent it acquired. SCO doesn't dispute that IBM owns copyrights to that software but does argue that the agreement under which IBM and Sequent licensed Unix prohibit Big Blue from making the software public.

Interrogatory No. 13, in which IBM is trying to find out if SCO distributed Linux software that violates SCO's Unix intellectual property rights, would provide evidence that relates to IBM's counterattack. IBM argues that SCO's distribution of a Linux product means it has agreed to the GPL's terms and therefore given permission to use that particular Unix technology in Linux.

Another charge coming
To the original charges in the case, SCO plans to add a new one: copyright infringement.

SCO's attorneys "decided to notify the court they will be adding (copyright claims) as part of the claims. There will be a new filing on that coming out in the near future," SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said. The attorneys told Kimball of the intention on Friday, Stowell said.

SCO wasn't legally permitted to include copyright claims until it resolved a tussle with Novell--which sold much of its Unix intellectual property rights to SCO's predecessor-- over who actually held the copyrights. Only in June did SCO unearth the document that showed it had copyrights.

But thus far, its copyright actions have been unusual, said intellectual-property attorney John Ferrell of Carr & Ferrell.

"Since May, SCO has been saying they have proof of copyright violations by IBM and the rest of the Linux community, yet they've provided nothing that's been very convincing," Ferrell said. Without that evidence, SCO's attempt to force Linux-using corporations to license SCO's Unix is weakened, he said. "It seems if you're trying to get people to pay, it's reasonable to show them what the violation is."

SCO and IBM have each filed several motions to try to compel the other side to release information. In a motion Wednesday, IBM criticized SCO for delivering source code to IBM that had been printed on 1 million sheets of paper.

"Knowing full well that IBM would need its source code in electronic form so that proper analyses--such as those SCO itself claims to have performed--could be conducted, SCO instead produced the source code on one million sheets of paper," IBM said in the motion. "The only reason for SCO's production of code on paper was, we believe, to stall the progress of these proceedings while giving the (false) impression of being forthcoming in its discovery responses."

In response to IBM's complaint, Stowell said, "If a company wants code, it's the other party's decision to provide that any way they feel like providing that."

Kimball on Friday also scheduled a Jan. 23 hearing to address SCO's concerns that IBM isn't being sufficiently forthcoming, Stowell said. SCO is seeking source code to versions of Unix that IBM has developed and sold.

The attorney representing SCO on Friday was Kevin McBride, whom Stowell said is the SCO CEO's brother.

In other legal action, IBM on Wednesday subpoenaed Sun Microsystems; which recently expanded its Unix license with SCO Group and has a warrant to purchase shares in the company; Schwartz Communications; a public relations firm that represents SCO; and defense contractor Northrop Grumman. IBM spokeswoman Guarino couldn't immediately describe the purpose of the subpoenas.

One Fortune 500 company signed up for SCO's program to buy Unix licenses for running Linux, but Stowell said Northrop Grumman was not that company.

A Northrop Grumman representative declined to comment on the company's legal matters.
http://news.com.com/2100-7344-5114689.html


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Judge Blocks Movie 'Screener' Ban
Patricia Hurtado

In a Hollywood ending where the little guy prevails against the big studios, a federal judge ruled Friday that an industry ban against sending out screening copies of movies posed irreparable harm to independent filmmakers during an important awards season.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey ruled that the ban against so-called screeners should be lifted now, in time for the upcoming Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild prizes.

"The plaintiffs will likely suffer irreparable harm as a result of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) screening ban," Mukasey said from the bench.

"It's thrilling to see that justice prevailed," filmmaker Theodore Hope told reporters after court. Hope, a plaintiff, is an independent producer whose movies "21 Grams" and "American Splendor" have garnered critical acclaim this year.

"The big problem I've always had is reaching an audience," Hope said. "Piracy. . .is a huge threat to the industry and needs to be discussed and acted upon, but I don't think this ban was the right way to combat it."

In a statement issued late Friday, Jack Valenti, the MPAA's president, vowed to appeal.

"We know, without dispute, that in the past screeners have been sources for pirated goods," Valenti said. "We will appeal because the impact and growing threat of piracy is real and must be addressed whever it appears."

In their suit, independent filmmakers contended that the motion picture association conspired with the seven major studios to hinder the indies' ability to promote films.

Valenti testified Wednesday that he decided in October to impose a partial ban against screeners or promotional DVD copies of movies for end-of-year award consideration.

Valenti agreed to make an exception to about 5,600 Academy Award members who would instead receive poorer quality VHS copies of movies, since the DVD format was highly desirable for bootleggers.

But in his ruling, Mukasey said Hope's testimony described the importance of screeners for the success of an independent film.

"The success of an independent film is dependent on the critical success surrounding the film and screeners are essential to attaining that acclaim," Mukasey said.
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/...,3521688.story


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Go-Kart Records Sides With Kazaa

As the Recording Industry Association of America continues to clamp down on Internet music piracy, Go Karts records is encouraging it with free album downloads.

"We at Go-Kart Records want to make it perfectly clear that the RIAA does not represent the views of all record labels," a record-label spokesman said in a statement. "So, we are putting our music where our mouth is to prove a point. We believe that if you like the music you hear you will support it by going to shows, telling your friends, and buying the bands' CDs."

If users appreciate what they hear, they can make contributions to the label and band through a Pay Pal donation.
http://www.aversion.com/news/news_ar...m?news_id=1534


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53 Arrested Under Newly Amended Copyright Law

KUALA LUMPUR: Fifty-three people have been arrested under the newly amended Copyright Act, which came into effect on Oct 1.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Sulaiman Mahboob said one of them was fined RM32,000 for possession of 16 pirated VCDs.

“The rest have been remanded and will be charged,” he said after the ministry’s post- Cabinet meeting yesterday.

Under the Act, a person who makes, hires, sells, rents out, distributes, possesses, exhibits, trades or imports pirated copies could be fined a minimum of RM2,000 and a maximum of RM20,000 per copy.

Previously, only a maximum fine of RM10,000 was stipulated.

Sulaiman said the level of piracy in Malaysia had decreased and such items were no longer as visible or as easily obtainable.

He said the number of permanent premises and stalls selling pirated VCDs and CDs had fallen from 2,036 on July 21 to 1,823 on Nov 21.

He credited this to the ministry's campaigns and active enforcement of copyright laws.

On reports of a piracy network being responsible for the sale of pirated early version copies of Microsoft’s computer operating system that was only due to be released in 2006, Sulaiman said his ministry would have to obtain more details to begin investigations.

Asked about reports that Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Satyabrata Mookherjee had urged Malaysia to get tough on music and video piracy, he also said the Government would investigate once more information was obtained.

On another matter, Sulaiman said investigations on three major cooking oil suppliers alleged to have hoarded supplies had been completed.

He said one of the suppliers had been fined RM1,000 while the other two cases were with the ministry’s legal adviser.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story...221&sec=nation


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A Toll Booth for File Sharers

Microsoft and Universal Music join a group that aims to ensure payment for digital goods by letting users pass around links to products.
Jon Healey

The world's largest record company is teaming up with Microsoft Corp. and other companies to try to change the way people use the Internet to buy music, movies and games.

Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Microsoft and the five other companies are expected to announce today that they are collaborating on technology to ensure payment to copyright holders while letting computer users share digital products, as tens of millions of people do on networks like Kazaa.

Companies from chip makers to discount retailers are eager to figure out how to profit from delivery over the Internet, which is rife with pirates.

File-sharing networks are very good at distributing songs, videos and software for free — although the networks are frequently used for illegal copying.

They also can distribute digital material wrapped in electronic locks that enable copyright owners to charge users for the contents.

But the dominant brand of electronic lock, which Microsoft provides, has limited capabilities, said Albhy Galuten, senior vice president for advanced technology at Universal Music Group.

"It doesn't provide any sort of complex or innovative business models, which is why nobody uses it," he said.

Universal, Microsoft and the other companies — Japanese telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., chip maker ARM Holdings, Internet security company VeriSign Inc. and rights-management specialist Macrovision Corp. — have joined forces in what they call the Content Reference Forum.

The name derives from what the forum aims to do, which is to create a system in which people would share customized links, called "content references," rather than the music or movie files themselves.

It would work like this, according to forum President Michael Miron:

Clicking on a link would trigger a series of hidden electronic messages that would determine what kind of digital file your PC could be offered, how much you should be asked to pay for the file and how your money would be split among the various participants in the distribution chain.

That approach would enable companies to change prices and other terms on the fly.

For example, Galuten said, a record label could offer an album free to the first 5,000 people who download it, then charge $2 to the next 5,000 people, then $5, and so on.

It also would provide a bridge between incompatible types of software and across international borders with differing distribution rules, said Miron, who is also chief executive of ContentGuard Holdings Inc., a firm that makes rights-management software.

The links could work on existing file-sharing networks. But copyright owners would have to convince users to share and download links instead of actual songs, movies and software programs.

The forum isn't the only group offering a way to sell goods through file-sharing networks. Woodland Hills-based Altnet Inc., which helps companies sell digital goods through the Kazaa and EDonkey networks, has deals with several video game, software and independent movie and music companies.

On Tuesday, Altnet announced agreements with three independent labels offering selected releases from classic rock and blues artists, including Jethro Tull and Ike Turner.

In other developments in the online music market, Music Choice is expected to announce today a partnership with Santa Clara-based Roxio Inc.'s Napster service to enhance the free online radio service that Music Choice plans to offer next year to cable-modem users.

Through the partnership, people will be able to buy downloadable versions of songs as they play on Music Choice's channels.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...nes-technology


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RIAA Hires ATF Chief for Anti-Piracy Unit
Reuters

The trade group representing the music industry said it had hired the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to lead its efforts against digital piracy.

The Recording Industry Assn. of America said Bradley A. Buckles would head its anti-piracy unit, working with law enforcement agencies and staff investigators around the country to stamp out the piracy of music that the industry has blamed for slumping sales and lost profits.

Buckles will leave the ATF on Jan. 3 after 30 years of service, including four as the bureau's director during which he oversaw a staff of more than 4,800 and a budget of more than $800 million.

RIAA member companies include Vivendi Universal's Universal Music, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music, Bertelsmann's BMG and EMI Group.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...nes-technology


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New P2P features.

Microsoft Preps Windows XP Service Pack 2 Beta For Release Within Next Week
Paula Rooney

Microsoft is prepping Windows XP Service Pack 2 to be released into beta testing within a week, sources said.

Service Pack 2, or SP2, expected to be delivered in finished form during the first half of 2004, is considered a significant Windows update because it offers enhanced security features and rolls up all the security patches and updates that have been released since the last service pack shipped in September 2002.

Sources familiar with the Service Pack 2 beta said the update offers Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) turned on by default, better patch detection and management features, changes in the way e- mail attachments are handled and support for the Security Configuration Wizard, planned for the first Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 due in the second half of next year, partners said.

Partners say it will take a long time to test this beta code due to the variety of new security features and other new instant messaging, peer-to-peer (P2P) and video features introduced in SP2 beta. "This is big," one partner said of the update.

SP2, for instance, also features new support for Microsoft's P2P technologies, Microsoft Live Communications Server for corporate instant messaging and improves upon compression/ decompression performance for video, said sources familiar with the beta.

One provider in the licensing arena said some service packs can be overlooked but probably not this one.
http://www.crn.com/sections/Breaking...rticleID=46604


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ONLINE MUSIC

Detecto-Ware Sniffs Out Kazaa

If you're worried that the teenager in your home may be illegally downloading music, there's a new software program that will scan your computer to tell you if the popular peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa are present.

ShareControl, available for download for $19.95 from www.music- amnesty.com, will detect the settings of the P2P programs and also locate MP3 files.

The software allows parents, school administrators and others who are worried about being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America to police themselves to stay safe.

``Users decide if they want to delete these programs, turn sharing on or off, delete or keep music files,'' said Mark Andrews, co-founder of Music-Amnesty.com.

-- Sam Diaz

Pricing Remains A Stumbling Block

Prices have to fall if the online music business is going to go mainstream and be profitable, according to comments at IHollywood Forum's Music 2.0 conference in Los Angeles. Music companies, however, say they can't afford to drop prices.

Ipsos-Insight www.ipsos-insight.com/news/, a research firm, reported consumers thought $7.99 was the most attractive price for a digital-music album. Current pricing is generally $9.99. One student said at 99 cents a song for online music, she would be more likely to buy a CD. Several other students on the panel agreed with the sentiment, one adding, ``If it's 30 cents I would buy it.''

-- CBS Marketwatch

ENTERTAINMENT

Group Seeks Playback Standards

A new group that includes Microsoft and Universal Music is hoping to make it easier to play music and videos across competing technologies.

The Content Reference Forum aims to publish standards to allow consumers to play music or other digital content encoded in one format to play easily on any device and in any country while also obeying contractual obligations, such as paying licensing fees and enforcing copyright protections.

The group has published its first set of standards that would use Internet-based references to identify content and the business agreements attached to them.

- Associated Press

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...gy/7466281.htm


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Only In LA - Police Captain Accused of Bootleg DVD Sales
Richard Winton and Monte Morin

Just days after Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton pledged a crackdown on motion picture piracy, department investigators on Tuesday helped arrest an LAPD captain suspected of selling bootleg DVDs.

Julie D. Nelson, a decorated patrol captain and a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, was arrested at the Hollywood station following a sting operation in which she allegedly sold counterfeit film titles such as "The Cat in the Hat" to undercover officers.

Authorities said they recovered hundreds of suspected bootleg DVDs from her home in Orange County and from a friend's home in Torrance. Officials said they also recovered recording equipment at the home in Torrance.

"The message here is, it does not matter what rank you are. If you break the law, we will come after you," said Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell at a news conference after the arrest.

Nelson, who commanded the department's Harbor Division until early this year, was booked on suspicion of possessing and selling counterfeit merchandise and for failing to disclose the origins of a recording, both felonies. Nelson, 52, has been suspended with pay pending further investigation, McDonnell said.

Although LAPD internal affairs officers arranged the sting operation, Nelson was arrested by police officers from La Palma, where she lives. McDonnell said Nelson would be prosecuted by the district attorney of Orange County.

Officers began investigating Nelson after receiving a tip. They arranged to purchase DVDs from her at an Orange County business Saturday, before Nelson attended the Hollywood station's annual Christmas party, McDonnell said. He said it does not appear that Nelson sold DVDs at the Hollywood station, and it was unclear how long she might have been selling DVDs.

"She sold to people with whom she had personal relationships and people she knew," McDonnell said. Another police source described the movies recovered at her home as recent blockbusters. "You name it, she had it, whatever was hot," the source said.

The DVDs that were seized will be examined by the Encino-based Motion Picture Assn. of America, which has called for heightened enforcement of anti-piracy laws and launched a campaign to discourage the theft of movies.

Earlier this year, Nelson was shifted from the head of the Harbor Division to the No. 2 slot in Hollywood. Her new duty as a patrol captain was widely viewed as a reduction in authority.

A graduate of Cal State Fullerton, Nelson spent much of her career as an investigator, particularly of rapes and domestic violence.

She has been considered a pioneer in investigative methods. In 1994, she established one of the first emergency response programs for victims of domestic violence and served as the head of Robbery Homicide Division's rape unit.

At a news conference Friday, Bratton joined Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and movie industry executives on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to announce efforts to combat movie piracy.

Among other initiatives, Bratton told reporters then that he personally would keep an eye out for movie pirates and that his department would instruct movie theater employees on how to make a citizen's arrest if they found someone illegally taping a film with a camcorder.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...nes-technology


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Canada Deems P2P Downloading Legal
John Borland

Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators said in a ruling released Friday.

In the same decision, the Copyright Board of Canada imposed a government fee of as much as $25 on iPod-like MP3 players, putting the devices in the same category as audio tapes and blank CDs. The money collected from levies on "recording mediums" goes into a fund to pay musicians and songwriters for revenues lost from consumers' personal copying. Manufacturers are responsible for paying the fees and often pass the cost on to consumers.

The peer-to-peer component of the decision was prompted by questions from consumer and entertainment groups about ambiguous elements of Canadian law. Previously, most analysts had said uploading was illegal but that downloading for personal use might be allowed.

"As far as computer hard drives are concerned, we say that for the time being, it is still legal," said Claude Majeau, secretary general of the Copyright Board.

The decision is likely to ruffle feathers on many sides, from consumer-electronics sellers worried about declining sales to international entertainment companies worried about the spread of peer-to-peer networks.

Copyright holder groups such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had already been critical of Canada's copyright laws, in large part because the country has not instituted provisions similar to those found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One portion of that law makes it illegal to break, or to distribute tools for breaking, digital copy protection mechanisms, such as the technology used to protect DVDs from piracy.

A lawyer for the Canadian record industry's trade association said the group still believed downloading was illegal, despite the decision.

"Our position is that under Canadian law, downloading is also prohibited," said Richard Pfohl, general counsel for the Canadian Recording Industry Association. "This is the opinion of the Copyright Board, but Canadian courts will decide this issue."

In its decision Friday, the Copyright Board said uploading or distributing copyrighted works online appeared to be prohibited under current Canadian law.

However, the country's copyright law does allow making a copy for personal use and does not address the source of that copy or whether the original has to be an authorized or noninfringing version, the board said.

Under those laws, certain media are designated as appropriate for making personal copies of music, and producers pay a per-unit fee into a pool designed to compensate musicians and songwriters. Most audio tapes and CDs, and now MP3 players, are included in that category. Other mediums, such as DVDs, are not deemed appropriate for personal copying.

Computer hard drives have never been reviewed under that provision, however. In its decision Friday, the board decided to allow personal copies on a hard drive until a fee ruling is made specifically on that medium or until the courts or legislature tell regulators to rule otherwise.

"Until such time, as a decision is made on hard drives, for the time being, (we are ruling) in favor of consumers," Majeau said.

Legal analysts said that courts would likely rule on the file-swapping issue later, despite Friday's opinion.

"I think it is pretty significant," Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said. "It's not that the issue is resolved...I think that sooner or later, courts will sound off on the issue. But one thing they will take into consideration is the Copyright Board ruling."

Friday's decision will also impose a substantial surcharge on hard drive-based music players such as Apple Computer's iPod or the new Samsung Napster player for the first time. MP3 players with up to 10GB of memory will have an added levy of $15 added to their price, while larger players will see $25 added on top of the wholesale price.

MP3 players with less than 1GB of memory will have only a $2 surcharge added to their cost.

With a population of about 31 million people, Canada is approximately one-tenth the size of the United States. But Canadians are relatively heavy users of high-speed Internet connections, which make it easy to download music files. About 4.1 million Canadians were using a broadband connection at home as of the end of June 2003, according to U.K.-based research firm Point Topic. By comparison, U.S. cable and DSL (digital subscriber line) subscribers totaled 22.7 million at the end of September, according to Leichtman Research Group.

Canada has already raised the hackles of some copyright holders through its reluctance to enact measures that significantly expand digital copyright protection, as the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has done in the United States. As a result, Canada could become a model for countries seeking to find a balance between protecting copyright holders' rights and providing consumers with more liberal rights to copyrighted works. For now, it remains unclear how other countries might be influenced by Friday's ruling.

Geist said he believes the tariff decision could be just the tip of the iceberg for hardware makers, as Canadian regulators grapple with the full implications of the policy. Other devices, including PCs, may eventually be brought under the tariff scheme, he predicted.

"Given that they've made a strong stand on (peer-to-peer matters), if the policy remains the same, there's little choice but to move ahead on personal computers," Geist said.

However, a representative of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the group of music copyright holders that typically petitions for new media types to be added to the list, said computers were not on its agenda.

"We have never sought a levy on computer hard drives and do not intend to do so in the future," Lucie Beaucheni, vice chair of the CPCC, said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5121479.html












Until next week,

- js.










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

Current Week In Review.


Recent WIRs -


http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=18087 December 6th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=18030 November 29th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17982 November 22nd
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=17925 November 15th




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.com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.

[jaan]

hi jack & others!

Originally posted by JackSpratts
Bottom line: Worth the install? You bet. It’s not perfect but when it’s working it’s the best telephone audio I’ve ever heard.

i'm glad you like it! the half-duplex issue is indeed something that quite a few users experience, and we're working on fixing it. as you probably know, it is caused by the echo suppresser going bezerk on certain hardware configurations, and can be circumvented by having *both* parties of a conversation to turn off echo suppressor from the registry (HKCU/Software/Skype/Phone/UI/General/AEC).

- jaan

ps. great WIR -- i'm a regular reader.

[multi]

skype is cool bannanas

i would say its the first in a new generation of apps that uses p2p for encrypted telephony..

[goldie]

Nice seein' ya jaan!

I've got the proggie dl'd but not installed just yet. Plan on trying it out this weekend.......yes, JS - this weekend

;D

[JackSpratts]

@goldie!

Originally posted by jaan
great WIR -- i'm a regular reader.

Thanks Jaan. And congratulations on the launch. If it’s half as popular as your last big hit it’ll be huge!

- js.

[SA_Dave]

Thanks for another great edition Jack!

SCO CEO Publishes Open Letter On Copyright
ILN

Darl McBride, the CEO of SCO, has published an open letter on copyright. McBride argues that the GNU GPL violates the U.S. constitution and U.S. copyright laws.

Letter at http://www.sco.com/copyright/

I just had to comment on this. His entire "argument" is based on his perception that the GPL eliminates the profit motive. Needless to say, this is WRONG! I suggest that he visit the FSF/GNU websites and read the GPL FAQ. The GPL does the opposite in fact i.e. it encourages free and fair capitalism better than proprietary licences can.

Secondly, the letter implies that the terms of copyright are legally binding. In fact an author can give away his/her creations/inventions and relinquish any copyright claims if they so desire. Copyright is a government-protected monopoly, but it's not mandatory.

Darl is another one of those people who believe that there are only 2 camps i.e. those who want strong copyright protection and those who don't want any. This simplistic view clouds his judgement and invalidates his entire argument. Nobody wants to eliminate all patents, only frivolous software patents. Not many people (especially not Stallman and the FSF, as the GPL is only as powerful as it is due to strong copyright protection) want to abolish copyright. We only want balance: Red Hat, the FSF, academics and the ordinary global citizen included!

BTW Darl, "insure" is spelt with an "e" in that context.

I have no respect for SCO. They're a bunch of monkeys with typewriters. At least Microsoft are smart enough to understand the competition. They know that FUD doesn't work. You're doing a fine job Darl. CEO-of-the-year you are.

[TankGirl]

Thanks for the WiR, Jack!

And hi jaan!

Meta-Music for the Masses
Seth Jayson

….
The latest attempt to stymie file-swappers comes from a consortium called the Content Reference Forum (CRF) founded by Universal Music Group and technology firms as diverse as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), ARM (Nasdaq: ARMHY), VeriSign (Nasdaq: VRSN), and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NYSE: NTT).

The CRF is proposing a new standard media meta-file. This digital nibblet would contain information about the sound or video file, but not the media itself. Instead, the home users' media software would be directed by the meta-file to a server where the real, copy-protected media resides. Then it can be acquired or purchased, subject to the download privileges of the individual consumer.
…..

http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2003/mft03121207.htm

Similar digital nibblets have been available for a good while, known as Ed2K links and Torrents. These handy little nibblets also assist the home user to reach servers that contain the actual media files, and what’s best, these media files come typically in freely usable formats with the mere price of bandwidth.

- tg