Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review – March 8th, '03

[JackSpratts]

Phase Shift for Students on Campus

It’s evident, especially in the last few months, that the attitudes of many University administrators regarding peer-to-peer activities have become more conservative. For people in the knowledge business they’re peculiarly uncomfortable in an odd sort of way about the easy dissemination of information – and are getting more so everyday. Whether due to consistent and concerted propagandizing on the part of the RIAA/MPAA or because of simple and shortsighted bottom line concerns like network bandwidth expenses, college campus downloading is now a very iffy proposition, penalty wise, for dorm bound students. Unthinkable until recently we now hear administrators speak of expulsions and even arrests for the “serious crimes” of swapping songs! A practice that was legal for generations is now a felony with nightmarish consequences since congress passed a flawed and severely regressive bill called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) just a few short years ago.

Even as it’s become common for campus spokespersons to bemoan a general lowering of student morality as regards their freewheeling file sharing and copying attitudes, it’s almost unheard of for the same self appointed moralists to criticize the professors for the similar and time honored practices of photocopying and distributing copyrighted course material to those very same students. While it’s unthinkable a student would (or could) purchase all of the songs and movies he or she now downloads for free, thus confusing any easy to make download to lost-sale-ratio moral arguments, there is no doubt that students are required to purchase course materials at the say so of their teachers, and that the items are major educational expenses. Although educators may have very good reasons to copy, from factors like time constraints and the lack of availability of course work, it remains more than possible that with each instance a professor distributes a xeroxed book or chapter, a sale is lost for an author and publisher. Still, it happens to be a common if somewhat controversial practice and one that has beneficially raised the educational bar for several generations of scholars.

It seems reasonable therefore that cutting tuition paying students the same kind of slack administrations regularly hand out to their salary receiving professors might be a step in the right moral direction, especially since each time a student copies a song the effect on sales is more than possibly neutral, and perhaps even positive (one of the most popular genres of music for instance has seen CD sales increase 12% in the last year), and that’s a hard case to make for campus staff copying.

There is good news. The breezy swing of the pendulum deep into this conservative and dangerous-for-students territory may be meeting resistance. This week found a few more people speaking up if tentatively and conditionally on behalf of these students and their rampant swapping, challenging the whole establishment dogma that equates file sharing with immorality.


Enjoy,

Jack.







Experts: Copyright law hurts technology
Robert Lemos

Attempts to protect copyrighted material have strayed from their original purpose, say lawyers, technologists and academics, but few can agree on the solution.

Speaking Friday at a University of California at Berkeley conference on the law and policy of digital rights management, experts from all circles seem to agree that more is going wrong than right with the current approach to protecting digital content. Moreover, they argue that current laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)--which makes cracking copyright protections illegal, even when otherwise acceptable under other laws--are serving the extremes, not the mainstream populace.

"There has to be a way between the lunatics at the two extremes," said Larry Lessig, a law professor at Stanford University and well-known opponent of the DMCA. "We need to build a layer of reasonable copyright law on top of this background of unreasonable extremism."

Such sentiments for loosening the control of copyright holders are finding far more fertile ground these days, in the wake of a number of lawsuits that illustrate the dangers of the DMCA. Far fewer people believe that the DMCA is an appropriate method to stave off digital pirates in the Internet age.

On Friday, a Kentucky courtgranted a preliminary injunction to Lexmark International against a company that makes generic replacement cartridges for Lexmark printers. The court found that a chip in Lexmark cartridges that identify the refills as "official" could be protected under the DMCA, and thus, cannot be cloned.

Even Real Networks, a company that has a digital-rights management system for protecting video and audio delivered over the Internet, found fault with the ruling. "This is a travesty," said Alex Alben, vice president for the Seattle-based firm. "This is not what we intended when we created the DMCA."

For example, security researchers have many more hurdles to overcome under the DMCA to publish research, said Joseph Liu, a law professor at Boston College Law School. Researchers can circumvent protections in order to study the security measures under an exemption of the DMCA, but the exemption favors those researchers with a good academic pedigree. Moreover, the researcher has to inform the copyright holder of the research and requires predisclosure of results, which could lead to censorship.

"There are so many flaws in the statute that you can censor yourself more than you really need to" because of the fear that you will be sued, Liu said.

Another speaker, Princeton University computer science professor Edward Felten, experienced such fears first hand when the Recording Industry Association of America told him that publishing results that showed the weaknesses in several secure digital music candidate technologies could violate the DMCA.

The courts disagreed that such a notice entailed a threat and threw out the case, but the tactic has become commonplace. Software companies have cited the DMCA to researchers who discover holes in their programs and have frequently sent out blanket notices to anyone who seems to host a pirated program. A site that offers up the open-source OpenOffice program received such a notice from Microsoft, according to reports on Friday, because an automated program searching for MS Office triggered on a simple keyword.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-990689.html

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

Norwegian Teenager to Face Retrial for Film Piracy
Reuters

A Norwegian teenager cleared of cyber piracy charges in a landmark ruling is to be tried again in an appeals court, his lawyer said on Friday. Jon Johansen, aged 19 and dubbed "DVD Jon," was acquitted by an Oslo court in January of charges of theft after he developed a computer program to copy DVD movies which has been outlawed in the United States.

Johansen had admitted copying only legally-purchased DVDs using his program, and the Oslo district court ruled that he was entitled to do this.

Prosecutors, on behalf of Hollywood studies, lodged an appeal in the Borgarting appeals court in Oslo, objecting to the application of the law and the presentation of evidence.

"The appeals court has decided to bring up the case again," Johansen's lawyer Halvor Manshaus told Reuters. The appeals court screens cases before deciding whether to hear them.

The first ruling was a blow to the movie studios who have launched a global effort to crack down on piracy and were hoping to establish a legal precedent in Europe to fight future cases.

The new trial is expected to start after the summer.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._norway_dvd_dc

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

Professor Ed Felten fights for the “freedom to tinker” in Congress and the courts
Jeffrey Klineman

Five years ago, the U.S. Justice Department needed a lead technical witness in its antitrust case against Microsoft Corporation. It chose Ed Felten, then a 35-year-old Princeton assistant computer science professor, an expert in computer security and cryptography, and a whiz at manipulating programming codes.

Using a videotaped demonstration, Felten explained how he had tinkered with Microsoft’s programming to separate its Internet Explorer Web browser from its Windows 98 operating system, bolstering an essential government argument: that the two applications could indeed operate independently, and that the corporate giant had linked them to restrict competition.

For Felten, the case was a wakeup call. It taught him that computer systems are not always written because someone wants a precise, elegant program – and that economics is as important as code. “If you get an education in computer science, for the most part you have not traditionally been taught about how industry works; you have been taught about software and about the design of computers from a sort of abstract, analytical perspective, a ‘let’s design the best possible system’ worldview,” he says. “Although people in industry think about that, it’s not really what drives them to do what they do.”

Since that case, Felten has launched a high-profile, sometimes humorous, sometimes litigious campaign to get his fellow computer scientists, and the general public, more interested in Congress’s regulation of digital technology. Proponents of such regulation say it’s needed to protect copyrighted material and preserve the incentive to innovate. But Felten and others believe Congress’s approach actually could stifle innovation by scientists, raise prices for consumers, and – in the end – fail to offer the protection legislators desire.

Two years ago, he mounted a highly publicized struggle with the recording industry. Last year, he studied cyberlaw at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society. His most recent target was the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, proposed in Congress last session, which would have required manufacturers to add anticopying devices to computer hardware and software, with the goal of preventing unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material. Felten helped derail the bill by demonstrating that it was so broad that it would affect not only general-use computers, but anything using a digital recorder – such as a robot dog and a machine that simulates the sounds of flatulence.
http://www.princeton.edu/paw/archive...features1.html

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

Ralph Nader, Patent Buster
Joshua Davis

America's consumer watchdog has a bone to pick with the US Trade Representative. The USTR is lobbying foreign countries to adopt America's liberal approach to issuing patents and to honor US patents granted for business methods, such as Amazon's 1-Click ordering. Backed by his advocacy group, the Consumer Project on Technology (www.cptech.org), Nader argues that exporting a flawed policy is a mistake. We caught up with him in Washington to find out why he believes US patent evangelism is a problem.

WIRED: What's wrong with pushing US patent policy overseas?

NADER: The United States spends more than $1 billion annually to examine patents. Despite this expenditure, the Patent Office has become a glorified diploma mill, routinely granting rights that should never have been issued. The patents wouldn't stand up in court, but they're expensive to litigate. So why are we forcing developing countries to follow our lead when we don't do a good job ourselves?

The system must be working for someone. Who benefits?

The system protects two groups: software companies with weak products who use patents to harass competitors, and patent lawyers. The ease of getting patents makes it economically attractive to abuse the system in a number of unpleasant ways. People obtain patents and then ask businesses to pay licensing fees that are cheaper than the cost of mounting a legal defense. Also, firms are wary of investing in new products for fear they will be ambushed by an infringement claim that may or may not be valid but will cost millions in legal fees.

Limiting software patents might prevent abuses, but wouldn't that also limit the ability of genius inventors to profit from their own code?

Name one genius inventor who has gotten rich from a software patent. There must be some, but the system mostly benefits a handful of businesspeople and lawyers who don't write code. Look at British Telecom. It took years before BT's patent lawyers "discovered" the company had invented hypertext linking. Now General Electric claims it invented the JPEG file format. If GE is so smart, why did it take so many years to figure out it invented such a popular technology? Which genius inventors get rich on such claims?
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.03/view.html?pg=3

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

Newspapers Sued for Violating Web Patent
60 Cease-and-Desist Letters Sent
Carl Sullivan

A dozen small newspapers scattered across the country have been sued in the U.S. District Court of Northern California for infringing patents that allegedly apply to technology used by their Web sites. Publishers generally declined to speak on the record about the suit, but several privately expressed fears that the patents could apply to nearly all of the Web sites run by the 1,468 daily newspapers in the United States.

The patent holder, Paul C. Heckel, 62, of Los Altos, Calif., sued the newspapers Jan. 6 after they failed to respond to letters sent last fall notifying them of the alleged patent infringement and offering licenses for the technology in question.

The San Mateo (Calif.) Daily Journal, which was included in the suit, already has settled with Heckel, according to Publisher Jerry Lee. He declined to comment further.

Cinergy Communications Co. of Evansville, Ind., which hosts the Web site for the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville, has reconfigured its Web site and settled the case, said Robert Bye, vice president and general counsel for Cinergy.

And the Gettysburg (Pa.) Times bought a license before the lawsuit was filed, Heckel said.

The two patents -- RE 36,654, issued in 2000, and 4,486,857, issued in 1984 -- cover technology that Heckel said he has been developing since the 1980s. Both concern the use of software to group multiple files into a system that allows computers to display abbreviated portions of the files on a single screen.

Heckel said the patents cover some technologies that allow Web sites to display the headline and abstract of a news story with a link to another file that displays the entire story. The ability to "zoom" into a related file from a Web page is apparently a key element of the complex patent claims.

Although patent 4,486,857 expired last fall, a patent holder can still sue for past infringement, according to Heckel. This is the same patent that Apple Computer Inc. was accused of violating in developing its HyperCard software. Apple settled that case with Heckel in 1989, reportedly for six figures.

Several of the newspapers plan to file a motion for dismissal, said Dawn Phillips Hertz, an attorney with Butzel Long of Detroit and general counsel of the Michigan Press Association, who is representing four of the defendants. "We've been sued in Northern California, and this does not strike us as being the appropriate forum since none of these defendants have any substantial contact with California," she said. Hertz added that her clients are performing "due diligence to determine the nature and extent of this patent." She is representing the Cadillac (Mich.) News; The Daily Standard of Celina, Ohio; The Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa; and The Tryon (N.C.) Daily Bulletin.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/ed...ent_id=1824789

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

Court curbs trademarks' reach
Dedlan McCullagh

Americans who own Internet domains that criticize corporations or use their trademarks received a surprise legal boost on Tuesday, thanks to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a nine-to-zero decision, the justices effectively narrowed the scope of a U.S. federal trademark law that frequently is invoked in spats over domain names. The effect is to make it more difficult for trademark owners to win lawsuits over alleged infringements of their intellectual property rights.

Even if consumers recognize a word or phrase as a trademark, the court ruled, "such mental association will not necessarily reduce the capacity of the famous mark to identify the goods of its owner."

Tuesday's decision arose out of a lawsuit brought by undergarment-vendor Victoria's Secret against a sex toy shop called Victor's Secret in Elizabethtown, Ky. In an opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court said Victoria's Secret had not proven that the value of its trademark to identify its own stores or products had been reduced.

Under a U.S. called the Federal Trademark Dilution Act, actions that effectively dilute the value and distinctiveness of the trademark can be punished. Dilution is defined as the "lessening of the capacity of a famous mark to identify and distinguish goods or services."

Paul Levy, an attorney at U.S. tech-specialist law firm Public Citizen who estimates he has litigated 10 to 20 domain name cases on behalf of people sued by corporations, says the decision will have "a tremendous impact."

"It's going to affect the cases that arise over infringement because Justice Stevens emphasizes that infringement is about the interests of consumers, not just protection of companies," Mr. Levy said. "A lot of judges and lawyers have lost sight of that."

For example, a current case pitting Nissan Computer — owned by Uzi Nissan — against Nissan Motor Co. involves the Federal Trademark Dilution Act.

"The only legal basis for the district court's injunction against criticism of Nissan Motor Co. was a finding of dilution, and that finding ... must in my view be reconsidered in light of [today's ruling]," Mr. Levy said.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...rb0305/GTStory

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

File sharing tips radio playlists
Francis Till

During the Grammy Awards, downloads of Nora Jones songs jumped 400 per cent on file sharing network FastTrack, which hosts several of the most popular peer-to-peer file swapping communities, including Kazaa. The recording industry would say that's a lot of IP theft, but it's also something radio stations should know when assembling playlists.

Enter online media measurement company BigChampagne, which measures and analyses the traffic on all the major file sharing networks -- and spins the data back out as a guide to what's really in demand by the music-listening crowd.

BigChampagne says it is to radio music ratings what Nielsen is to TV ratings -- but imagine how good Nielsen's data would be if there were a monitoring box on every single television set.

That's BigChampagne.

"We're seeing 25 million searches a day," said Adam Toll, chief operations officer for BigChampagne, to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently. The 2 1/2-year-old company -- with 16 employees between Atlanta and Los Angeles -- was named from a lyric in a Peter Tosh reggae song, "Downpresser Man," the AJC says.

Downpressing it is, then.

And it's not just radio stations that stand to benefit when assembling playlists -- record labels are using the service, as well, to see if artists are hot, or not, and even in many cases, where.

"[The labels] can't publicly admit it," says Craig Marks, editor of Blender music magazine, "but this is better information than they can get from SoundScan," the service that registers official, in- store CD sales.

On Saturday afternoon, NZT, BigChampagne was monitoring 10 file sharing networks on which over seven million users were swapping things -- mostly music, but also software, videos, games, books and photographic images (often, that's porn) -- without a thought for copyright or cops.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/print/print.asp...ame=Technology

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

Business
Open-content distribution via P2P

THIS WEEK NetSpeak explores a couple of content distribution services that employ Peer-to-Peer (P2P) techniques.

It is common knowledge that you can distribute content via web by just uploading the resource file on to a web server to which you have access. But, if you have large valuable content, over time many people will get attracted to it. This will naturally increase the web server's load and ultimately your visitors may find it difficult to download the content. The problem becomes more acute if you are hosting free content that can be downloaded by anyone on the web.

P2P (Peer-to-Peer) based content distribution

One solution that is becoming popular is to use the unused space and bandwidth of people who download the content from a server. Here, apart from the original server, the peers requesting the content will also start distributing it. That is, if you have already downloaded a file from the server or are in the process of downloading it, this method allows others to download a part of the file from your PC also. So, if you download a file from a source that supports this type of distribution, your machine will automatically become another download source for this content. That is, this technology, known as P2P-based content distribution, allows a user to download parts of a file from other peer downloaders and this way enables the original content provider to minimise the wasting of his resources. For more details on P2P-based content distribution, refer to NetSpeak of May 6, 2002.

BitTorrent

BitTorrent is an example of a service that has implemented this technology. To experiment with this kind of content distribution, download the BitTorrent client from BitTorrent's site (http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/) and install it. Now access a content provider who is distributing content using this technology.

For a list of BitTorrent-based content providers check out the link: http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page= BitTorrent.

As mentioned in its site, Open Content Network (http:// open-content.net/ ) is a "collaborative effort to help deliver large, freely-downloadable content using peer-to-peer technology.'' The service helps its users efficiently download free, open-source and public domain resources through the browser. To try out the service quickly, access the link "I want to download files through OCN,'' which will allow you to download files from OCN member sites. To download files, you need to install a browser plug-in specified at the download link. For example, if you want to download the Cory Doctorow's novel "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom,'' you need to install the `Tornado Cache Plug-in' (http://onionnetworks.com/ocn/).

As per OCN, files/programs under public domain/open-source or that are licensed under "Creative Commons''(http:// creativecommons.org/) can be distributed through OCN. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/s...0300040200.htm

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

In Brief – RIAA

Topping the list of Recording Industry Association of America’s recent announced victories is a federal jury’s unprecedented $136 million damage award against Media Group and its former CEO. The verdict follows a bench ruling that the CD manufacturing plant and its former CEO, Jimmy Chan, were liable for copyright infringement. The size of the award arose from the jury’s damage calculation of $90,000 per infringed song. RIAA, representing 23 record companies, claimed that more than 1,500 works were infringed. Collection of the multi-million dollar award may be difficult in that Media Group filed bankruptcy prior to entry of the jury’s verdict. The RIAA also announced a $10.1 million settlement of copyright infringement claims by Toronto-based CD manufacturer Cinram International Inc., a $3.2 million settlement by CD manufacturer DOCdata USA and a $1 million settlement with Integrated Information Systems, Inc., a technology company one of whose internal servers allowed employees to retrieve and share copyrighted MP3 files. The RIAA also joined the National Music Publishers’ Association and The Harry Fox Agency in reaching an agreement, financial terms undisclosed, with peer-to-peer network Audiogalaxy.com, as part of which Audiogalaxy will now require copyright owner permission before music can be shared.
http://www.entlawdigest.com/story.cfm?storyID=2574

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

WKU working to curb file- sharing
Crackdown on digital piracy stems from school’s accountability under Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Scott Sisco

Like many other Internet service providers, Western Kentucky University is dealing with digital piracy.

Various organizations and companies that represent music and movies contact ISPs with Internet addresses of people sharing copyrighted material. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the ISPs must stop those users from sharing the material, which includes music and movie files. It doesn’t apply to students who download songs or movies, only those who share the files.

“We go out and find users that have the material that (the companies) own the copyright to,” said Brandon Vincent, network security specialist for Western. The companies send the university a letter requesting that the users be taken off the network. “We do our best to contact the student,” Vincent said. Vincent then asks the student to stop sharing the files. Western hasn’t had a repeat offender.

“They don’t understand that it’s illegal or they don’t understand that anyone cares,” Vincent said.

Some of the students even thank Vincent for pointing the problem out to them. Many students aren’t aware they are sharing files. Many peer-to-peer programs are set up with sharing set as the default, said Dave Beckley, director of network computing. “Some of the students don’t realize that’s what’s happening,” Beckley said. “That’s a configuration setting that they can change on their machine. They just don’t know to do it.”

Vincent said Western averages about one request from one of these companies a day. Sometimes several days will pass without a request, then 10 or 20 will come in on one day. If the university didn’t stop the students from sharing the files, it could be held liable, or the student could face more serious trouble.

“We’re handling that internally,” Beckley said. When the students stop sharing files, Western doesn’t pursue the situation any further, he said.
http://www.bgdailynews.com/cgi-bin/v...+20030302+news

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

Legal Fight Over Music File-Sharing May Hit Sour Note For Cable
RIAA Triumph in Verizon Case Could Open Floodgates for Subpoenas Against MSOs
Alan Breznick

Watch out, cable industry. A mushrooming legal battle between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Verizon Communications over the pursuit of alleged Internet music-pirates could wind up having a major impact on MSOs. If RIAA wins the duel, music companies wielding broad federal subpoena power could force cable operators to divulge the names of high-speed data subscribers each time one is suspected of breaking a copyright.

In its fight with Verizon, RIAA is attempting to do just that, trying to enforce a subpoena to track down a phone company DSL subscriber who allegedly downloaded hundreds of songs from the Internet illegally. Verizon, however, is resisting the effort by refusing to comply with the subpoena and challenging it in court.

Moreover, if RIAA has its way, cable operators with high-speed data operations could ultimately find themselves paying Internet copyright fees into a new industry-wide ISP pool. The association has proposed setting up such a fund to compensate music companies for the copyright violations that they can't track down, raising the hackles of MSOs and other ISPs.

The smoldering dispute over music copyright infringements, now headed towards federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., has drawn national attention because of the digital copyright, customer privacy and other policy issues involved. It has also led to numerous friend-of-the-court briefs from ISP, consumer, privacy and other groups concerned about the implications of the eventual final decision, particularly if the courts find in the copyright owners' favor. Even such seemingly unaffected organizations as the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), representing CE manufacturers and retailers, have weighed in with their opinions.

In contrast, cable companies and organizations have not taken a stand on the RIAA-Verizon fight. Publicly, the NCTA declines any comment on the court battle. Likewise, the major MSOs, some of whom compete directly against Verizon in the high-speed data business but have similar interest in protecting their broadband customers against unwelcome legal investigations, refrain from saying much.

Clearly, however, cable executives are concerned about the Verizon-RIAA duel. "We're watching the case," says a spokeswoman for Comcast Corp., which, like other MSOs, has not publicly sided with either party. "We're going to continue to watch the case."
http://www.cabledatacomnews.com/cgi-bin/printer.cgi

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

Program Hides Secret Messages in Executables
Kevin Poulsen

Netizens with extreme privacy needs got a new tool for their cyber utility belts recently with the release of an application that lets users hide secret messages in virtually any executable computer program, without changing the program's size or affecting its operation. The tool is called "Hydan," an old English word for the act of hiding something, and it's part of a research project by Columbia University computer science masters student Rakan El-Khalil, who showed off the program to a small group of open-source programmers and hackers gathered at the second annual CodeCon conference in San Francisco on Sunday. Hydan is a novel development in the field of steganography -- the science of burying secret messages in seemingly innocuous content. Popular stego programs operate on image and music files, where a secret missive can be hidden without altering the content enough to be perceived by human senses. But because they contain instructions for a computer's processor, executable files are less forgiving of tampering. Improperly changing a single bit of executable code can render an application completely unusable. El-Khalil's research focused on redundancies in the Intel x86 instruction set -- places where at least two different instructions are effectively the same. Each choice between two redundant options can represent a single bit of data. "The problem with program binaries is there is just not a lot of redundancy in them," said El-Khalil.

He found some of that useful redundancy in the instructions that tell the computer to add or subtract.

Future versions of Hydan will boost that capacity by finding different places to code data, such as in the order of a program's functions, and the order in which arguments are passed to those functions. For now, the application is still powerful enough to secretly stash the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in a single copy of Microsoft Word.

Beyond the covert uses, the technology could be used to attach a digital signature to an application, or to embed an executable with a virtual watermark.
http://securityfocus.com/news/2623

You can aquire the code here: http://www.crazyboy.com/hydan/

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

CompUSA Blocks P2Ps From Internal Network
Press Release

Blue Coat Systems, Inc. today announced that CompUSA, the nation's leading retailer and reseller of personal computer-related products and services, has deployed the Blue Coat Port 80 Security Appliance platform to secure Web and peer-to-peer (P2P) access among more than 15,000 users. CompUSA's Blue Coat deployment is providing a significant return-on-investment (ROI) by increasing network bandwidth and improving employee productivity.

The Blue Coat SG6000, Blue Coat's highest performing appliance, serves as the Web security platform for CompUSA's network infrastructure. The fault-tolerant, modular appliance delivers line-speed performance and operates just inside CompUSA's firewall platform to enforce any number of security policies on Web- based transactions. From one central location, CompUSA's information security administrator is able to restrict the use of popular peer-to-peer Web applications, while controlling and logging the use of other Web resources that deplete network bandwidth and employee productivity. With the Blue Coat appliance platform, CompUSA has the flexibility to manage Web usage at organizational, group and user levels, while applying granular policies depending upon time of day, user location, browser type and several other attributes.

"Blue Coat Systems is enabling us to efficiently maximize our Web security efforts across the enterprise at a cost savings of roughly $20 million annually," said Ken Monroe, director of WAN and telecommunications for CompUSA. "Deployed as a 'Web content firewall' behind our packet-level firewall, Blue Coat's Web security platform acts as our 'Web traffic cop' to police all the Web content being accessed by our more than 15,000 users. The appliance enables us to effectively restrict and monitor our employees use of unauthorized Internet and intranet Web resources."
http://www.lightreading.com/document...g&doc_id=29107

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

P2P to The Rescue: Zona Releases Terazona 1.1 for MMOGs at GDC 2003

Zona, Inc. is announcing the release of Terazona 1.1 at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Jose, California on Thursday, March 6, 2003 in Booth #1028. The complete Terazona Product Suite will support small to medium to massive-scale MMOGs. Terazona products are specifically designed to take the headache out of MMOG Network development.

"Terazona version 1.1 is our most impressive and technologically sound release to date," states Gary Chang, Ph.D., CTO of Zona, Inc. "Thanks to feedback from our various customers, we have extended the feature set of Terazona greatly and are hoping to establish the new MMOG development standard in the industry with the introduction of Terazona 1.1."
http://www.gameinfowire.com/news.asp?nid=1761

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

Hollywood Oscar: `For Your Consideration'
James Hookway, Geoffrey A. Fowler, Raphael Pura

Research company BigChampagne LLC, which tracks activity on Internet peer-to-peer networks but does not download files, estimates that about 30% of the versions of "Chicago," and some 14% of the versions of "Two Towers" that it found also included the word "screener." A copy on the Kazaa peer-to-peer network, an online file-sharing service similar to the outlawed Napster, last week flashed the three words "for your consideration" -- words intended for awards voters' eyes only.

"Even an infrequent user of filesharing networks would have little trouble locating these versions online," says Eric Garland, BigChampagne's chief executive. "It's as simple as using Google or Yahoo."

The problem is the direct result of an old dilemma for the studios: getting Academy voters to honor their films when many of them have not seen them in theaters. To generate heat for Oscar contenders, most of the studios send screeners not just to the 5,800 members of the academy, but also to the press and at least some members of guilds representing writers, actors and other trades. Some studios are now sending more than 10,000 copies of each film, the vast majority in DVD format. Because the studios are eager to keep top stars and directors happy, they do not limit their mailings to top Oscar contenders such as "Chicago" or "The Hours" but also bombard voters with copies of also-rans such as "Blood Work" from Warner Bros.

Warren Lieberfarb, the recently departed head of AOL Time Warner's Warner Home Video, says the issue is emblematic of how digitalization is going to force Hollywood "to rethink its customs and practices, as well as its business models." But Mr. Lieberfarb says the business types aren't always consulted at Oscar time: "Running the Academy campaign is one of the sacred cows of the movie industry. I would gamble that the video divisions were never consulted."

Refusing to send out DVD screeners would be the equivalent of saying "don't vote for us," says Terry Press, marketing chief of DreamWorks. Yet she is among those in Hollywood who would like to stop the practice of mailing movies to voters altogether: "This is the devil's bargain for sending out movies that you should see in a theater."

Walt Disney Studios didn't send out DVD screeners for any film that was still in theatrical release or not scheduled for an imminent DVD release, meaning that films such as Spike Lee's "25th Hour" and the animated "Treasure Planet" were available only on videocassette. Tony Angellotti, a consultant to Disney on Oscar campaigns, says the move prompted complaints from Academy members who asked: "Hey, where's my DVD?"

Disney studio chief Dick Cook says the company was "simply not going to facilitate pirates using our material." He is not surprised that the rest of Hollywood is slow to recognize the problem. "The unfortunate part of this industry sometimes is that it has to get hit over the head before something happens," Mr. Cook says. Movies continue to do well in theaters, DVDs are selling fast, and as a result "the economic blow [of piracy] has not been readily felt," he says.
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030303/72/38g2h.html

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

Australian ISP music copyright code closer
Simon Hayes

INTERNET service providers have edged closer to a code of conduct for the treatment of alleged copyright breaches, including music file sharing.

The Australian Internet Industry Association confirmed it was in negotiations with lawyers for Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) in the hope of developing a system of take-down notices similar to the regime that governs online pornography.

However, the IIA warned, it could not be expected to subsidise an industry with a "business model very near its use-by date".

The complaint-based regime would not require ISPs to monitor user traffic, but would rely on copyright owners informing ISPs of suspected violations.

IIA chief executive Peter Coroneos said the main sticking point between the two sides was how to decide who owned the material.

"There's always going to be question whether they are legitimate holders of the copyright," he said. "This is more complex than the content code of practice."

Mr Coroneos made his comments as the music industry pursued alleged music pirates at some of Australia's universities.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...-15321,00.html

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

Bandwidth Traffic Managers Pitch Hardware to Ease Growing Cable Modem Congestion Problems
Alan Breznick

There's a new breed of sheriffs riding into town. With cable operators and other broadband service providers increasingly concerned about music fans, telecommuters and other "bandwidth hogs" tying up their high- speed data networks, firms engaged in Internet Protocol (IP) service control switching are popping up to offer ways to detect, dissect, direct, deflect and diminish the growing traffic loads. Brandishing their own brands of boxes and software, at least five of these new data-traffic cops are furiously courting MSOs, DSL providers and broadband wireless players to deploy their bandwidth management solutions.

All five high-tech startups--Allot Communications, Ellacoya Networks, Packeteer Inc., P-Cube Inc., and Sandvine Inc.--are seeking to gain traction in an emerging, fast-moving and growing market. While few, if any, MSOs and regional Bells have revealed their plans publicly, many are looking at bandwidth management techniques now because of their increasing problems with congestion and their desire to offer other, more advanced IP services. In fact, industry vendors estimate that a dozen or more broadband providers are quietly exploring various types of bandwidth management systems.

"There's a lot of activity," says Milind Gadekar, vice president of marketing for P-Cube Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "Every service provider has his own favorite application he wants to control."
http://www.cabledatacomnews.com/cgi-bin/printer.cgi

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

Arrests urged to foil Web piracy on campus
Angel Wilson

Colleges need to monitor campus Internet activity more closely and possibly arrest students who download copyrighted material for free, members of a congressional panel said yesterday.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., said students who download music and movies from file-sharing Web sites are clearly breaking copyright laws.

"It's electronic theft, plain and simple," said Wexler, a member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on courts, the Internet, and intellectual property.

Lesser-known artists are being forced to find other lines of work because they are not being compensated for the use of their material, he said.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Internet piracy should be treated just like any other crime. She said universities should consider criminal arrests instead of simply warning or talking to "hard-core offenders," students who download and distribute large quantities of copyrighted material.

If universities are not willing to "get tough, we're just wasting everyone's time," she said.

Universities are seen as centers of digital piracy, because students are eager consumers of music and movies and because many dorm rooms are equipped with ultra-high-speed fiber-optic Internet connections.

Hilary Rosen, the Recording Industry Association of America's chairman and chief executive officer, said laws against copyright infringement are adequate, but they are not being enforced.

Rosen said the level of piracy overall is giving the recording industry a financial blow.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...piracy27.shtml




Sony Unveils First Blue-Laser DVD Recorder

Japan's Sony Corp said on Monday it would start sales next month of the world's first DVD recorder that uses blue laser light and can pack a two-hour high-definition TV program onto a single disc. It won't be cheap, with a retail list price of 450,000 yen ($3,800) while low-end DVD recorders using conventional red lasers go for as little as 50,000-70,000 yen.

But with digital satellite broadcasts in Japan, the United States and elsewhere now bringing high-definition TV to a small but growing number of households, Sony wants to get an early start in what could become a hot product.

"The market has already been established, and although it's still looking for direction, there will be a growing number of users who want high-definition recording," said Sony spokeswoman Shoko Yanagisawa.

The recorder, which includes a built-in broadcast satellite tuner, will hit store shelves in Japan on April 10. No date has been set yet for an overseas roll-out, she said.

The machine will give Sony, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, a head start over its partners in the Blu-ray consortium, a nine-member group of industry heavyweights that unveiled a common format for blue laser DVDs a year ago.

Blue light, with a shorter wavelength than red, can read and store data at much higher densities needed for high-definition recordings.

Blu-ray discs, which Sony will also start selling on April 10, hold up to 23 gigabytes of data, or nearly five times as much as existing DVDs and enough for two hours of digital satellite high-definition programming.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=2316801

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

Police powers move into your browser
Declan McCullagh

The U.S. Justice Department is experimenting with an Internet crime- fighting technique that raises novel legal, technical and privacy concerns.

The tactic: domain name forfeiture. In two separate cases last week, the Justice Department seized domains for Web sites that it claimed were engaging in illegal activity.

The first set of domains were allegedly used to sell drug paraphernalia such as bongs and marijuana cigarette holders. Now visitors to PipesForYou.com, 420now.com, OmniLounge.com and ColorChangingGlass.com are greeted by this hair-raising alert: "By application of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the Web site you are attempting to visit has been restrained by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania."

The second case involved David Rocci's iSoNews.com, which he handed to the Feds as part of a plea bargain in which he admitted to selling illegal "mod" chips for Xbox and PlayStation game consoles. Rocci will be sentenced under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA ) on March 7 before a federal judge in Alexandria, Va.

iSoNews.com now says: "The domain and Web site were surrendered to U.S. law enforcement pursuant to a federal prosecution and felony plea agreement for conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws."

Because domain names can't be squeezed into traditional legal categories, a novel problem arises: They're not ordinary property like cars or boats, which can be seized and resold without worries. It's true that domains can be an instrumentality of a crime, but Web sites and mailing lists are also spots where people meet, chat and search for information--without expecting that ownership may switch hands silently and abruptly.

It's possible to imagine a scenario where an innocent Web visitor becomes unfairly targeted by the Feds. It's legal to browse the Web for information about illegal drugs and even legal to read about bypassing copy-protection technology (though under the DMCA, researchers writing such papers may have cause for concern). But in a newly security-conscious climate, the Justice Department may not be terribly sensitive to Americans' First Amendment rights and may assume the worst about visitors to its collection of seized domains.

What's more, the Justice Department is able to review the search terms that people type in before connecting to the seized site from search engines such as Google or AltaVista. That's because Web protocols pass the search terms to the destination site in the Referer: header.

A third problem with the Justice Department's tactic is that criminal defendants are innocent until proven guilty. While Rocci pleaded guilty to DMCA crimes, the people raided last week for selling "drug paraphernalia" online did not. But even if they're eventually acquitted by a jury, what value will their domain name have if it's been tarred by Justice Department ownership for the past few years?
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-990728.html

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

Now They're After You: Music Cops Target Users
Recording industry expands focus and guns for file traders
Dylan F. Tweney

Millions of people download copyrighted songs and even movies from the Internet with little fear of being caught. That's about to change.

"[The music industry is] starting to move down the food chain," says Lawrence Hertz, a partner at New York law firm Hall Dickler Kent Goldstein and Wood, and a specialist in online law.

He predicts that music publishers and other content owners will soon use 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act much more aggressively--prosecuting not only companies like Napster but also individuals who download copyrighted content--and that they will start with the biggest users of peer-to-peer networks.

The new strategy became evident last year when the Recording Industry Association of America served Verizon with a subpoena demanding that the service provider disclose the identity of a user who uploaded more than 600 songs while connected to the company's Internet service.

Verizon protested, but recently a U.S. district court judge ruled in favor of the RIAA and ordered Verizon to reveal the user's identity.

Verizon asked for a stay of the judge's order; at press time this was still pending, but approval seemed unlikely.

"If this ruling stands, consumers will be caught in a digital dragnet," says John Thorne, Verizon senior vice president and deputy general counsel. If the stay is denied, Verizon says it will seek a stay at the appeals court level.

"It's going to have quite a huge impact on privacy," says Gwen Hinze, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF argues that the ruling lets copyright holders get users' identities merely by alleging copyright infringement (a fairly easy standard to meet)--without review by a judge and without giving users any chance to protect themselves or their identities.

The music industry says that it's just defending itself from digital piracy, which has contributed to two successive years of declining CD sales.

"Most consumers are getting what they want on the Internet, and it's really hurting this industry," says Brian Dunn, senior VP of corporate development for Macrovision, a provider of copyright-protection technologies. Dunn predicts that cash-strapped music labels could start paring promotion budgets for new artists in the coming year, while moving to include copy protection on all of their CDs. (So far, only a handful of major-label releases in the United States use copy protection.)
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109584,00.asp

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Broadchart acquires music piracy monitor NetPD

UK based digital music service provider Broadchart, has announced that it has acquired NetPD, the digital rights management provider and online media monitoring service.

NetPD has acted at the bequest of clients to indentify and remove over 56 million unauthorised files from the internet and was also instrumental in establishing the music industry’s case against Napster.

"The acquisition of NetPD enables us to establish a presence and customer base in the USA and to offer an even more comprehensive range of services to music industry customers, which now include ones which address the ever growing problem of illegal music," said Broadchart CEO Andy Hill.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15244

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

Shareaza Developer Responds to Hostile Comments

Slyck.com has finally published the last two parts of their three part interview series discussing Gnutella2. The original interview with me was published back in December ( http://slyck.com/news/200212Dec/122002a.html ). The latest two parts interview BearShare, LimeWire and XoloX, and can be seen at http://www.slyck.com now.

However after reading through the (understandably) lengthy articles, I was a little disappointed: there is a lot of “aggressive” content that is nothing more than cold-blooded fabrications from someone who really should know better. I use the term cold-blooded because this was not the product of some heated debate, or some knee-jerk, passionate reaction – these interviews come more than two months after the interview with me was published. There can be no doubt they were drafted and redrafted.

The second interview on the other hand seemed more constructive, more interested in discussing the topic at hand rather than simply Shareaza-bashing, which is good. Respect is a mutual thing.

However I think there is some potential for people to be misled by the first interview, so I’d like to respond to the serious sounding accusations it raised. Later on I'll respond to the more relevant points raised in the second interview if there is interest there.

“Slyck.com: There's been a lot of talk on the GDF about how Shareaza has been overqueerying the Gnutella network. How significant is this? Did this occur before or after the implementation of "Gnutella2" (or MP)?

BearShare: Currently, the end user is able to specify the frequency of the query; this is inappropriate. The user has the ability to set the query rate to give a DoS (Denial of Service) attack effect on the network. The download-retry interval is additionally adjustable, which causes a DoS attack effect on individual hosts. These are hostile actions. Additionally this constant hammering gives an unfair advantage in that the client using friendly querying does not receive the same attention as the client using hostile querying which uses up all available network resources.”

Lets consider what he didn’t say here: the Shareaza application operated by a normal P2P user is effective and completely well behaved with respect to all of the networks it connects to and all of the hosts it downloads from. It could certainly not be considered “hostile”.

Instead of admitting that, we see a focus on Shareaza’s extensive configurability and an attempt to portray that as the root of all evil. What a joke. Shareaza is probably the most configurable file sharing software in existence, which I think is a great thing. It puts power into the hands of each and every user, which is exactly where it belongs in a network that prides itself on freedom.

But are Shareaza’s extensive configuration features an inappropriate and “hostile” threat, endangering all that we hold dear? Of course not. Each setting you can adjust has appropriate limits placed upon it, to ensure that extreme values do not accidentally cause harm to others. For example, the “download retry interval” mentioned in the interview can indeed be changed by Shareaza users – but the lowest it can be set is 50 seconds, a perfectly reasonable delay. But I guess he forgot to mention that.

Shareaza provides its users with great file sharing performance without abusing any of the file sharing networks it connects to, including Gnutella1. It allows advanced users to tweak performance with a vast array of settings, while still maintaining appropriate limits to avoid harm. These are good things for Shareaza users, and frankly they’re good things for non-Shareaza users too: not every client is as well behaved.
http://www.shareaza.com/forum/viewthread.aspx?ID=5138

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

Graphics author complains about music firm ripping his work
Alleges RIAA member used work without acknowledgement
Adamson Rust

AN AUTHOR OF original graphics images made on a PC has complained that a video on a RIAA web site has used his work without permission.

The video, Beautiful Goodbye, by Jennifer Hanson, which can be found on the Capitol Records site, has, it is alleged, made use of author Ryan Bliss' artwork without acknowledgement as a background to the video.

Bliss, whose web site is Digital Blasphemy, has complained on his own forum about what he alleges is a rip of his work.

Ryan Bliss says on his forum: "My work has been on the web for six years now (seven if you count the images I posted on AOL back in 1996). As far as people using my work without my permission, I thought I had seen it all. I guess I was wrong. Case in point: someone tipped me off that my "Tropic of Capricorn" image was being used in a country music video. I couldn't believe it until I saw it for myself.

The image that he claims is his is the sunset-like image behind the country crooner.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=8086

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

Why would the RIAA do this to the poor guy?
Disabled war veteran hosts Disabled RIAA website
Andrew Orlowski

Ciarán Tannam reports that the Recording Industry Association of America's website has been down for a week, again, and did we know why? I think we can help.

At the end of January, the RIAA gave responsibilities for the site to a hitherto little-heard-of operation in Rockville, MD called Tomorrow's Solutions Today, or TST Inc.

The site is run by one Kevin Dziekonski, and the RIAA appears to be his very first live customer.

In this directory listing, Dziekonski describes himself as a "Service Disabled Veteran" and TST as a "Small Disadvantaged Business".

Before the latest denial of service attack took down the site, TST was running an out-of-the-box edition of Internet Information Server 5.0. It also appears to be run from a residential address - Dziekonski's home.

After an RIAA outage earlier this month, Dziekonski responded to reporters' queries by explaining that "the site is hosted in a couple locations and need to have redundant communications between them. The one thing in common they share that cannot be avoided is Verizon." So the redundancy does, er... not extend to having two hosting companies.

It's a pleasure to see veterans finding a rewarding life outside the service. The brown cardboard signs at many an urban intersection here show that life outside the service can be tough, and discrimination abounds.

And it's particularly gratifying to see the RIAA extending the working life of service personnel at one end of the age scale, when it's doing all it can to truncate the careers of service personnel at the other end. Those Navy cadets found guilty of pirating MP3s face a military trial, and in all likelihood, will be dismissed from the service.

But the puzzle remains:

How did one of the most reviled, and therefore attacked web sites in the world end up in the hands of an apparently inexperienced operator?

Calls from The Register to Dziekonski had not been returned at time of publication. And if the RIAA's VP of Corporate Subtlety, Amy Weiss, would like to provide an explanation, we will of course print it
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29534.html

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

Madster creator withdraws bankruptcy petition
Richard A. D'Errico

John Deep, the Cohoes creator of Internet file-swapping software Madster, has withdrawn his personal bankruptcy petition.

He had listed $770,000 in debts while he filed for bankruptcy protection nearly a year ago. At the time, he said the filing was the result of numerous copyright lawsuits in which he was involved. He withdrew his petition on Feb. 24, he said.

But on Friday Deep said he wasn’t worried about not having the bankruptcy protection.

“I sort of welcome the challenge,” he said.

Deep, and two companies he founded, BuddyUSA Inc. of Albany, a file-sharing software maker, and AbovePeer Inc. of Cohoes, an Internet service provider, have been the subject of several lawsuits. The Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, and several record labels brought the lawsuits, saying Deep’s file-swapping software infringes on copyrights.

A federal judge in Chicago sided with the recording industry and ordered Deep to shut down Madster in December, which Deep has done. He has filed an appeal and expects a decision by July.

“The companies are no longer in operation and they’re just going to be pursuing litigation,” Deep said. Deep said he expected to file anti-trust lawsuits against the RIAA and MPAA this spring.

Deep said the bankruptcy filing prevented him from starting a new business. He has created file-swapping software called FairPlay for artists to use when distributing their own works. The software allows artists to protect their own copyrights, he said.

He expects to release FairPlay next month.

“It is made available to authors and artists so they themselves can protect their own copyrights rather than relying on the ineffective efforts of the media companies,” he said, adding that he was referring to the RIAA and record companies.

“It is the other side, the side the media companies have always wanted to suppress because they will lose control if the artists speak for themselves,” Deep said.

An RIAA spokeswoman said Deep’s characterization of the recording industry is wrong.
http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany...4/daily50.html

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

KaZaA participation hack released
The first and only CODE MODIFYING Participation Level hack for Kazaa and Kazaa Lite!
Press Release

Skyrocket
When 'skyrocketing' your participation level, the best thing to do is to download a small part of a file, then pause it. This is because of the fact that Kazaa updates your participation level during breaks in activity, and not during the activity itself (i.e. when you disconnect from a user, or cancel/pause a download, etc...)
It should never take more than a few breaks to reach 'Supreme Being (1000)'.

Freeze
The 'Freeze' function provided by 'Kazaa Hack' allows you to prevent your participation level from dropping, no matter how much you download (or upload).
The program does not constantly rewrite any value in memory. It simply prevents Kazaa from calling the function to decrease your participation level, whether you have downloaded anything or not..

Reverse
Uploads are treated as downloads, and downloads as uploads.
This function may seem worthless, however it was created with two situations in mind:

1 Some users have found that there is an upper limit while 'Skyrocketing' before their participation level begins decreasing again rapidly (should be fixed soon).
In many cases, downloading with the 'Reverse' function on allows you to reach the level you want.

2 In light of the recent abundance of downloaders reaching 'Supreme Being (1000)' status, some users have decided to hastily assume that cheats were used , and immediately cancel their uploads. When downloading multiple files over long periods of time, it may actually be wiser to keep the 'Reverse' function on. A gradual increase in a participation level over time is less likely to be received with doubt by conditional file-sharers.

Act Normal
When you want Kazaa to behave like it was intended to, use this function. It essentially undoes any changes and returns Kazaa to its normal operation.
Closing Kazaa and reloading it accomplishes the same thing.

Notes
The registry key located at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Kazaa\LastSearchHash stores your last participation level. This key is unique to your computer, and re-writing it before Kazaa loads will ensure that you always start out with the level you saved. While this approach works, it does not prevent your participation level from dropping. Using the 'Freeze' function is usually a better solution.
http://kazaahack.250x.com./

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

ISPs worried about FCC's next DSL decision
Higher cost line sharing may squeeze smaller players out
Grant Gross

Fresh from a defeat at the hands of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, independent DSL providers say that what may happen next -- a further relaxing of requirements that regional Bells must share their DSL networks -- may kill off some small Internet service providers.

On Feb. 20, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to allow the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) to stop providing the "line-sharing" portion of their DSL networks to competitors at discounted prices. The FCC ruling, still not published in its final form, allows the regional Bells over a three-year period gradually to raise the prices they charge competitors to share telephone/DSL loops into residences.

The FCC's rationale: The price regulations are no longer needed because significant competition exists in the residential broadband market, and that competition, from cable modem services as well as multiple DSL providers, should keep prices low.

Many independent Internet service providers saw that FCC decision as a blow to their businesses, but they may be more worried about another FCC decision on the horizon, one that would reclassify DSL as a less-regulated "information service" instead of a "telecommunications service." Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, telecommunications services are more heavily regulated than information services, with more requirements on how the owners of the networks share their services with competitors.

The FCC's notice of proposed rulemaking, dated Feb. 14, 2002, outlines the reasons for the change, which could remove some of pricing regulations for Bell-controlled DSL lines. The FCC document, available at http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Ca...nrcc0202.html, suggests DSL should be treated consistently with cable-modem service. Broadband services should exist in a "minimal regulatory environment that promotes investment and innovation," according to the FCC notice.

Some industry participants said the final FCC decision on DSL classification could happen late this spring or early this summer.

The regional Bells argue that DSL should be regulated at the same level as its closest competitor, cable-modem service, where the owner of the cable line doesn't have to share it. Unnecessary regulation is hampering the adoption of DSL service, which has only about half the market share of cable-modem service, the Bells argue.

"There's no reason we should be subsidizing our competitors, just as cable companies don't," said Bill McCloskey, director of media relations for BellSouth.

The FCC needs to provide "clarity and certainty" for the struggling telecommunications industry, but the current policy giving different regulations for cable-modem service and DSL does not, said Link Hoewing, vice president for Internet and technology policy for Verizon Communications, another regional Bell.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/...Nfccdsl_1.html

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

E-Music Sites Settle on Prices. It's a Start
Saul Hansell

Has the music industry found the 99-cent solution to its file-sharing woes?

"Solution" is far too final a term for this business still very much in flux. But after years of denial and confusion, belligerence and panic, most of the big record labels have coalesced around a set of prices at which they will make almost all of their music available to an ever-expanding array of legal online services.

A major step toward a legal mass market for online music came last week when America Online started offering its first online music service to its 27 million members. AOL's plan roughly matches the terms and pricing that have evolved over the last 18 months by about half a dozen other paid music services.

They all now charge $9 or $10 a month for customers to listen to a pool of about 250,000 songs online, using a technology called streaming. And they charge about 99 cents to download a song and copy it onto a CD, where it can be played in a car or on a home stereo, or converted to a computer file format like MP3 to be shared with others (legally or not).

Other variations have also evolved. AOL's service, and others, include an unlimited number of what are known as tethered downloads, where songs can be copied onto a computer and played offline, for example, by a traveling laptop user. (The tethering means a subscriber can listen to the downloads on no more than two computers, and cannot copy the files to other devices or send them to other people.) And others offer variations on Internet radio, where users can pick genres or even specific artists to listen to online.

These options, along with the expanding pool of songs, finally have created online services that might have a chance of appealing to consumers and luring at least some from the free file-sharing services like KaZaA.

"We are at a crossover point," said Rob Glaser, the chief executive of RealNetworks and the chairman of MusicNet, which operates an online music service sold by RealNetworks and AOL. "Everyone doesn't agree on everything, but everyone agrees on enough things that we can start putting products in the market."

This agreement is also helping to frame some of the difficult questions the music industry must confront as it moves, however slowly, into a post-CD world. It is unclear so far whether the dominant digital business model will be selling downloads or renting access to a full catalog. It is clear that consumers are more interested in buying one song at a time than entire albums, an audience preference that is likely to mean major changes for the way the recording industry produces music. What those songs are worth in the long run is very much up in the air — except everyone agrees that eventually the hottest hit and the stalest oldie will not both be worth 99 cents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/03/te...gy/03TUNE.html

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

Pondering Value of Copyright vs. Innovation
Amy Harmon

Technology scholars, business leaders and policy makers gathered at California conferences this weekend to argue whether a mismatch between two different technologies and the legal policies that govern them could inhibit free expression and innovation.

At one conference, held here at the University of California at Berkeley, the technology in question was software known as digital rights management, which allows copyright holders to set rules on how people can use a wide range of products, from DVD's to garage-door openers.

Joseph Liu, an assistant professor at Boston College Law School, said that the law could have a chilling effect on academic researchers. "When you're regulating activity this far upstream," he said, "you have to be careful of downstream effects."

Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, said digital rights management could be pushed too far. She cited as an example a preliminary injunction issued to Lexmark International by a federal judge in Kentucky on Friday against a company that makes generic replacement cartridges for Lexmark printers.

"We have ceded too much power to copyright owners," said Ms. Lofgren, who plans on Tuesday to reintroduce a bill that would amend the 1998 law. "People are afraid to proceed on innovative measures."

At the other conference, held at Stanford University, technologists, economists and lawyers clashed over how the airwaves should be allocated with the advent of technology that may make the traditional notion of "interference" between bands obsolete.

Some economists argue that rather than have the Federal Communications Commission allocate licenses, large chunks of the spectrum should be sold outright, creating a market economy for spectrum that, they argue, would drive down prices and spur innovation.

Others argued that as technology like software-enabled radios make it easier to communicate over the airwaves without interfering, such ownership rights are unnecessary and would only serve to limit the wide-ranging uses of the spectrum by requiring cumbersome transaction costs for whoever wanted to use it.

One judge, Harold Demsetz, professor emeritus at U.C.L.A. business school, who acknowledged that his bias leaned heavily toward the property side, said he had been impressed with the debate, but he asked for more clarification.

"Go back to work and clear up this mess for us," Professor Demsetz said. "And don't take too long to do it because we're losing ground fast."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/03/te...gy/03COPY.html

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

Reaching Out to the Multitasking Modern Teenager
J.D. Considine

For most music fans, deciding whether to buy Mariah Carey or Ashanti is a matter of musical taste. But for fans of "IMX," the "interactive music exchange" on the digital cable channel MuchMusic USA, choosing between Ms. Carey and Ashanti has less to do with current singles than with a sense of which artist's stock is more likely to rise.

Literally.

On "IMX," pop star popularity is traded like virtual stock, with an artist's shares going up or down in value as his or her popularity index — determined by the "buy" and "sell" orders of "IMX" players — crests and wanes. Online, there's an interface that lets users monitor both their own accounts and the general shape of the market; on air, a ticker bearing information like "NORAH 146.78 +5.67" (on the day after Ms. Jones's Grammy Awards sweep) scrolls at the bottom of the screen as the hosts chat and banter. On the whole, it looks like some bizarre parody of CNNfn.

But for those playing, "IMX" is as absorbing as any interactive video game. Within two weeks of its mid-January premiere, more than two billion dollars in IMX- money was being traded daily. And while the money isn't real — contestants are given $1 million to play with when they sign up — the profit motive is genuine: IMX money is redeemable for prizes ranging from CD's to Sony Playstations.

It may seem odd for a cable channel to encourage its viewers to log on while watching one of its shows. But the president of MuchMusic USA, Marc Juris, pointed out that there was a time when nobody believed young people would turn on the television to "watch radio."

That, of course, was before MTV brought the term music video into the popular lexicon and made cable an essential part of American teenage life. Now, MuchMusic USA hopes to change viewing habits yet again, with programming that feeds off the plugged-in teen's ability to do two or three things at once.

"Based anecdotally on what I've seen, the next generation of entertainment users really are able to multitask in a way where everything is on the same level," Mr. Juris said. "They really can watch a show and be online and do something else, and pay equal attention — because they're all important."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/ar...on/02CONS.html



Penny-Arcade.com


“Who has time to develop psychic powers?”
You Are What You Queue
Craig Tomashoff

SHERLOCK HOLMES could simply look at a man's walking stick and determine not only how ambitious the man was, but also the size of his dog.

Late-night tele-psychics like Miss Cleo require only the sound of a person's voice to divine whom a caller will marry and how much money he or she will make someday.

These techniques for analyzing people are all well and good, but who has time to develop deductive skills or psychic powers? There's actually an easier and more entertaining way to determine someone's personality — the Netflix Queue.

For the uninitiated, Netflix is a San Jose, Calif.-based DVD rental service that allows its customers to go to Netflix.com and select their movies. For a fee that ranges from $13.95 to $39.95 a month, members create a list of the titles they want. The films on this roster, better known as the Queue, are sent out for viewing at one's leisure. (The higher the fee, the more titles you're allowed to have at one time, to a maximum of eight.) There are no late fees to worry about; movies can be returned whenever subscribers are done with them. When a film is sent back, the next one on the Queue is mailed out.

With a catalog of more than 10,000 films on DVD, Netflix offers nearly everything a movie lover could want for listing in a Queue. Membership has gone from 60,000, when the service was founded in 1998, to nearly 850,000. There are plenty of causes for this surge, but I'm convinced that the real appeal of Netflix lies in the seductive power of the Queue.

"We call it the Queue obsession, and about a third of our customers have it," said Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, who came up with the idea after spending far too much money on video store late fees. "They visit their lists three or more times a week and look at it the way they look at their stocks. 'What's on the list?' `What should I move around?' Honestly, I've heard of people who have more than 400 films in their Queues."

A friend of mine recently confessed that he lists 306 films. He no longer subscribes to cable or satellite television. He simply watches Netflix movies. My current list of 45 movies may pale by comparison, yet I know I'm a victim of the addiction. For instance, I just checked my Queue to get the latest count for this article. As I did that, I remembered seeing a commercial featuring Jackie Chan earlier in the day. That reminded me of my favorite Chan film, "The Legend of Drunken Master," which I hadn't seen in a few years. So in the space of one paragraph, my Queue count has risen to 46.

That's how Netflix gets you. I can't recall any previous service that allowed movie lovers to quantify their fixation with such detail.

Once you start free-associating about films, the service's vast collection makes the process nearly impossible to stop. Nearly everything starts reminding you of movies you always wanted to see but never got around to, or that you saw once and never forgot, or that you are curious about although you were too embarrassed to catch them in the cineplex.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/movies/02TOMA.html

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

KaZaA’s Nikki Hemming, Defiant, Totally Confident

The music and film moguls would never believe this — because to them she is Public Enemy Number One — but Nikki Hemming still pays for CDs and movies.

Hemming heads Kazaa, the new Napster. It is the internet’s biggest pirate site, and it is based in Australia. At last count, Kazaa.com had clocked 192 million downloads, many of which were internet users “ripping” free music files — a very modern phenomenon that has been partially blamed for the worldwide slump in music sales.

Piracy also means that artists lose copyright money. But Hemming says she still pays. "Cinema is the best place to watch movies," she says. Same with music. "The last album I bought was (by) Moby. The second album. And it’s great."

Hemming is the chief executive officer of Sharman Networks, Kazaa’s parent company. It is based on Sydney’s north shore with a staff of 18. Sharman is being sued by Hollywood and the American music industry for alleged breach of copyright over pirated music and movies. But Kazaa is fighting back, counter-suing household names such as EMI, Sony, Warner and Disney for alleged collusion and anti-competitive conduct.

Kazaa makes both sanctioned and unsanctioned material available through the internet. The legal stuff — music files, portions of movies, software, computer games, even recipes — is called "rights-managed" content: copyright is intact.

But the unsanctioned material is in question — the pirated versions. The case will be a landmark in digital copyright and internet law and may determine the future of the monolithic
entertainment industries. It will be heard in Los Angeles later this year.

Sydney intellectual property lawyer Michael Williams is one of a team of international lawyers representing the American record industry in the fight to stop Kazaa. He says that under Hemming’s leadership Sharman is "ultra-aggressive". "Instead of saying, 'Don’t persecute me', they say that we are the aggressors. This turns the tables entirely."

Nikki Hemming, 36, was born in Britain, but settled in Sydney seven years ago. She's a power-dressing, blonde businesswoman with a background in marketing and IT. She worked for Richard Branson's Virgin Interactive, setting up offices in Germany, France, Spain and Sydney.

She was also general manager of the $70 million Segaworld theme park in Sydney, which flopped around the time of the 2000 Olympics.

Kazaa, however, does monumental business. It is the market leader in its field. It makes money from internet advertising and from "bundling", or spyware - software that finds personal information about its users, through their computers. That information is then sold.

Hemming's staff say she is tough, but fair, inspiring them to work long hours while rewarding them with gifts. Last Christmas, she treated staff to a plush country retreat.

"Her style," says marketing manager Michael Liubinskis, "is, 'I'm here to help; here's the vision, go for it. Any major change involves struggle, but let's work towards it'. "

Her Kazaa offsider is Australian Kevin Bermeister, who is based in the US: they worked together at Virgin and Segaworld. Bermeister brokered the deal to allow Sharman to buy the Kazaa software 14 months ago. He has never given an interview - and Hemming rarely. Their silence has only added to conjecture about Kazaa's legality.

But Hemming granted The Age an interview last week, saying, "You are one of the main ways that we can actually educate people". The interview - taped by her public relations staffer - was peppered with jargon, partly due to her background in technology and marketing, but also to zealous spin-doctoring.

She describes the way Kazaa works, for example, as "supreme technical elegance", referring to the much-vaunted peer-to-peer (P2P) system, where individuals using Kazaa software trade files directly with each other, avoiding a central internet database, which was Napster's legal undoing.

Internet users, she says, "in this paradigm", are more powerful than ever.

"But, bear in mind, we are a utility. We are an effective, efficient utility that can be used to distribute myriad content."

Hemming is so confident that Kazaa will win in court against the powerful entertainment industry that she's not even thinking about the result.

"The principle is established," she says. "Now we're just talking about scale."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...540185222.html

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

New Peer-to-Peer Clearing(TM) Software Creates Potential for Significant Cost Savings for Transit Authorities
Pres Release

Cubic Transportation Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Cubic Corp. (AMEX:CUB), today introduced a new software feature that eliminates the requirement for a central clearinghouse in regional smart card and magnetic ticketing systems.

Cubic, the world's leading provider of revenue management equipment and central systems for public transit, said the new feature creates the potential for significant savings for public transit agencies.

Building off technology the company introduced in Europe, Cubic's new peer-to-peer software module allows individual agencies to "self-clear," providing a cost-effective alternative to the traditional approach of outsourcing regional clearinghouse services to third-party providers.

Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. has installations in major cities around the world including Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco (BART and MUNI).

With Cubic's peer-to-peer transaction clearing software, individual agencies can now choose to autonomously clear and recover fares collected from inter- agency transactions that are part of a regional smart card and/or magnetic ticketing system. Agencies can also retain control of issuing their own branded cards, while being able to accept other agencies' cards as well as "regional" cards.

"Cubic is proud to be able to offer solutions to our customers that provide cost savings and revenue enhancements," said Richard Johnson, president and CEO of Cubic Transportation Systems Inc.

Using Peer-to-Peer Clearing(TM), participating agencies negotiate agreements on how the regional system operates; then their revenue management software is structured to allow each agency to participate in automated clearing. With Peer-to-Peer Clearing(TM), each agency can develop fare products and business rules and their central computers will communicate with each other to settle and clear transactions and generate reconciliation reports instead of having to send all of their transactional information to a central clearinghouse for the same process. Like a regional clearinghouse, the entire process is electronic and automatic. The software also allows for same-day settlement and clearing.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/...m&footer_file=

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

Sun Continues to Innovate as Project JXTA Speeds Past One Million Downloads

Only Peer-to-Peer Computing Technology that Enables Collaboration and Communication on Any Networked Device; Commercial Products Available from InView Software, Internet Access Methods and Implemented by National Association of Realtors and National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS)
Press Release

Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced in a press teleconference that more than one million developers have downloaded Project JXTA from the Sun Web site. JXTA is the only open source, standards-based, peer-to-peer technology that supports collaboration and communication on any networked device anywhere, anytime. Sun also announced that the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Convenience Stores are implementing JXTA-based applications and that InView Software and Internet Access Methods have released commercial products based on JXTA.

This major milestone highlights the mounting adoption of JXTA for peer-to-peer application and service deployment. With initiatives like JXTA, Sun is leading the charge in enabling companies to profit from open source computing.

"Our JXTA based solution allows distributed property listing data sources to participate in a listing search without the need to have the listing data aggregated in a single database," said Aubrey Jackson, strategic architect, National Association of Realtors. "By allowing listing owners to maintain their data, updates are reflected immediately making the most current information always available."

"The promise of peer-to-peer computing is that devices will be able to communicate and collaborate across a wide variety of operating systems and networked devices ranging from sensors to cell phones to desktops to super servers," said John Fowler, chief technology officer, Software, Sun Microsystems. "Project JXTA is the first peer-to-peer platform that delivers on that promise. Recent commercial deployments clearly illustrate the power and versatility of JXTA for creating applications that interact in new ways."

The open source community of more than 12,700 members has evolved Project JXTA into an open set of XML-based protocols for creating peer-to-peer style network computing applications and services quickly and easily. The community is also releasing JXTA Version 2.0, which offers enhanced scalability and performance. To download the new release visit http://www.jxta.org.

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

Streaming Media
Warren Ernst

Streaming media can enhance your Web presence—and your bottom line. Let's look at the basics.

There are two types of streaming methods on the Internet: progressive and real-time. Each has its strengths and drawbacks, and each is suited to different types of material.

Progressive streams are sent to users via conventional Web servers such as Apache and Microsoft IIS. In fact, progressive streams are just "regular" files—such as MP3, QuickTime (MOV), RealMedia (RM), and MPEG video—which are designed to stream naturally. Such files can stream content because various media players, including QuickTime, RealOne Player, Winamp, and Windows Media Player, can start playing these files as they are being downloaded.

A new generation of broadcast tools called distributed content delivery systems works by placing identical copies of media files on many networked PCs. When a user requests content, the player begins downloading different sections of the file from different machines at the same time, then stitches the pieces together. In most cases, the entire file must download before playback can begin, but playback quality typically is very high. Even better, because these systems spread the bandwidth load across an internal LAN or the Internet itself, bottlenecks are generally eliminated.

Solutions using this peer-to-peer approach, such as CenterSpan's C-StarOne (www.centerspan.com), Jibe's Edgeburst (www.jibeinc.com/index.htm), and Kontiki's Delivery Management System 2.0 (www.kontiki.com), promise to speed rich media downloads and reduce bandwidth costs. Such solutions typically include components for managing and securing digital content. So far, these solutions generally come with a hefty price tag. As with other innovations, however, the technology should filter down eventually and bring better content delivery to individuals and small businesses.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,907759,00.asp

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

Indiana University will punish for illegal downloads
Students using Kazaa, other programs could face expulsion, legal action
Adam VanOsdol

The Recording Industry Artists of America and the Motion Picture Association of America are turning up the heat on colleges and universities nationwide,
encouraging administrators to expel or arrest students who illegally download music and movies from the Internet.

Dean of Students Richard McKaig said IU will aggressively punish students who illegally use peer-to-peer programs like Kazaa. Some investigations into students are already underway, he said.

IU does not police its servers for illegal file sharing out of respect for the privacy rights of its users, IU Policy Officer Mark Bruhn said.

However, when the RIAA and MPAA notify IU of the illegal activity on its servers, IU responds according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

The RIAA and MPAA enlist agents to roam the Internet to watch for illegal downloads. When those agents determine that someone using IU's servers has downloaded an illegal movie or music file, they contact the University Information Technology Services policy office.

The user who has downloaded the file is identified only by a discrete tracking code, not by name.

The policy office then contacts the user by e-mail, warning that the file must be deleted. The student must contact UITS and state the file has been removed.

If the student affirms the file has been deleted, the policy office considers the matter resolved.

However, if IU receives a second notification stating the same user has again downloaded an illegal file, that user's access to IU's servers will immediately be terminated. The user's name will also be reported to the dean's office.

Bruhn said most students comply with the first warning.

"Students who lose their connectivity understand quickly how inconvenient that is because they have to go to a residence hall lab or come to campus to do their computing," Bruhn said.

Bruhn said he supports expulsions and arrests for students who ignore the University warnings and still engage in illegal downloading.
http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=15235

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

Should Universities Crack Down on File Swapping?
They Should Resist Congress's Call And Fight for Students' Free Speech Rights
Julie Hilden

Recently, Congress has been calling for universities to take a strong role in stopping students' peer-to-peer swapping of files containing
copyrighted software, music, and movies. In support of their position, legislators have pointed out that, unless authorized by the copyright owner, such file swapping is illegal under federal law.

Indeed, under the No Electronic Theft Act (NETA), enacted in 1997, illegal file swapping is a federal felony, punishable with a prison term. Meanwhile, swappers also face potential liability under longstanding federal copyright statutes, and the more recent Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Yet file swapping is rampant among college students who - because of their need to download information for their classes - typically enjoy access, through the university, to high-speed computer networks. These networks allow students to download, store, upload, and exchange large audio and video files - and thus to file swap, if they so choose.

However, students may soon face penalties for swapping copyrighted files. And so may universities, if they continue to allow their networks to be used for such activities. Although they do not participate in the actual swapping of information, they might still be able to be held liable for "vicarious" and "contributory" copyright infringement (as Napster was).

Should universities therefore crack down on file swapping, in response to Congress's request? On the contrary.

Instead, universities should take the lead in mounting free speech and "fair use" challenges to the application of NETA and the DMCA. They should also take the lead in spearheading lobbying efforts that seek to achieve a more moderate legislative solution - one under which legal file swapping is plainly protected, and its parameters are clear.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hilden/20030304.html

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

Film company issues warning to file- sharing students
Cristina Daglas

Universal City Studios Inc. is targeting 127 University of Wisconsin network users for allegedly downloading and sharing movie files and violating federal copyright laws, according to Brian Rust, the Division of Information Technology's communication manager.

The Universal City, Calif.-based movie studio sent warnings to UW equipped with a number of Internet Protocol numbers representing specific computer terminals. These numbers allow officials to find the exact user who may have illegally downloaded the material by tracking down the specific computer.

DoIt employees are currently in the process of tracking down these individuals via IP number to notify them of the situation.

"We are forwarding notices to the people with the specific IP addresses," Rust said. The distribution and sale or offer to sell DVDs, compact discs or any other unauthorized copies of copyrighted materials is illegal, according to copyright law. Exceptions are made in cases for individuals with licenses or permission to distribute copied items.

In addition to copyright law, UW's Appropriate Use Guidelines prohibit the downloading and sharing of music and video files on campus.

UW policy reads, "Persons may not use University IT resources to sell or solicit sales for any goods, services or contributions unless such use conforms to UW- Madison rules and regulations governing the use of university resources."

In addition, Rust said Universal has similarly notified a number of other campuses. He said Universal's complaints are against students, not the universities these students attend.

"This is an issue with individual students," Rust said. He said that Universal will pursue action with students who continue to download and share copyrighted material.
http://www.badgerherald.com/vnews/di.../3e6423a8e1e81

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

Morphing the music business
CD sales are slumping. Everyone's a song pirate. The music industry must go digital or die
Peter Hum

Dear tech-empowered music fan: If only you had left your computer last week and refrained from downloading that 10,000th MP3 file, you no doubt would have enjoyed a jaunt to Toronto for Canadian Music Week. Night after night, you could have crawled from tavern to tavern and set your ears a-ringing to a cavalcade of bands, from the punishing hip-hop/hardcore of Ottawa's 54stance to the too-cool bossa nova of Montreal's Bet.e & Stef to the foul- mouthed, femme fatale rap of Surrey's Stink Mitt.

The acts pretty much covered the musical gamut -- except for the sounds of dread and anxiety regarding the music industry's uncertain future. For that, you would have had to attend some of the panel discussions during the event's daytime conference, when music industry types discussed the technological revolution that, download by download, is rendering their business model obsolete. One panel, titled The 10 Most Influential People in the Music Business, was composed of young people between the ages of 15 and 21, telling the audience what was what (they are big fans of illegal music downloading, and wonder why they should buy music when they can get it free on their computers). Canadians have downloaded an estimated one billion songs illegally, allegedly causing a seven-per-cent drop in sales each year over the last three years, equal to roughly $80 million in yearly lost revenue. These are the kind of numbers that prompted Don Tapscott, a University of Toronto professor and author of Paradigm Shift and Growing Up Digital, to proclaim last week: "The CD is dead.''

Like many music-industry watchers and insiders, Tapscott says the business is at critical fork in the road. "One route spells disaster for the incumbents and the rebirth of a whole new industry,'' he said. "The other route sees the incumbents doing an 11th-hour re-invention and the creation of a whole new paradigm of music production, distribution, marketing and enjoyment.''

Or as Tony MacDonnell, the lead singer of 54stance, succinctly puts it: "Step into the new school. If not, you're wiping yourself out.''

Get ready, then, for the music industry's Hail-Mary pass. As early as this month, in the weeks leading to the Juno awards extravaganza in Ottawa April 6, expect to see the Canadian music industry's first forays into a new, Net- savvy paradigm. This revolution will be preceded by publicity -- the music-biz equivalent of dropping leaflets on Iraq. Radio and TV advertising, combined with a snazzy, made-in-Ottawa Web site, are intended to convince downloaders that a fundamental law of the Internet -- "I can get it for free'' -- is wrong in the case of copyrighted music.

Also this spring, the Canadian Recording Industry Association, whose members include the five major record companies, leading independent labels and CD and tape manufacturers, is to send promotional videos and information kits to Canada's high schools, enlisting teachers as emissaries spreading the anti-piracy message.
http://www.canada.com/technology/sto...7-158B9CD5AA86

[JackSpratts]

Labels think Apple has perfect pitch
Executives of major record firms believe a speedy, simple online music service for Mac users will be a hit
Jon Healey

Top executives at the major record companies have finally found an online music service that makes them excited about the digital future — but it's only for Macs.

The new service was developed by Apple Computer Inc., sources said Monday, and offers users of Macintoshes and iPod portable music players many of the same capabilities that already are available from services previously endorsed by the labels. But the Apple offering won over music executives because it makes buying and downloading music as simple and non-technical as buying a book from Amazon.com.

"This is exactly what the music industry has been waiting for," said one person familiar with the negotiations between the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker and the labels. "It's hip. It's quick. It's easy. If people on the Internet are actually interested in buying music, not just stealing it, this is the answer."

That ease of use has music executives optimistic that the Apple service will be an effective antidote to surging piracy on the Internet, sources said.

Other legitimate music services have cumbersome technology and pricing plans — motivated in part by the labels' demands for security — that make them much harder to use than unauthorized online services, such as the Kazaa file-sharing system.

As promising as the new service is, however, there is a big limitation. Apple's products account for just a sliver of the total computer market — less than 3% of the computers sold worldwide are Macs. The vast majority of the potential audience for downloadable music services uses machines that run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the service Monday, as did representatives from the five major record corporations — Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group, Bertelsmann's BMG division and EMI Group.

The new service is so important to Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs that he personally demonstrated it to top executives at all five companies, sources said. More than a dozen music executives have visited Apple since last summer and came away enthusiastic.

The executives also like the massive marketing plan designed by Jobs to educate consumers about the service.
http://www.sunspot.net/technology/ba...logy-headlines

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

FullAudio Switches the MusicNow
Ryan Naraine

In a week of increasing noise from the digital music subscription sector, Chicago-based FullAudio is fine-tuning plans for a revamped -- and renamed -- service that adds unlimited tethered downloads and streamed songs for $9.95 per month.

With analysts positioning FullAudio as a prime candidate for an acquisition, most likely by Microsoft , the company's rebranded MusicNow service will join competitors in offering song downloads for 99 cents each when it is launched on Friday.

The company is positioning the new MusicNow as a shift away from the "search-and- browse" database model to a complete "entertainment experience," that will feature paid radio channels targeting a grown-up audience.

For $4.95 per month, the company will sell access to 36 radio channels. A channel will let paying subscribers listen to premium radio stations or to play on-demand relevant content like hit singles or programmed bundles of music and entire albums.

FullAudio CEO Scott Kauffman made the announcement at the Digital Music Forum in New York City, making it clear the company was targeting those music fans who are willing to pay to avoid the congestion and intricacies of the illegal file-sharing networks.

"Illegal file downloading services, such as Kazaa and Morpheus, are less effective at meeting the needs [of busy consumers] since these large databases of music require consumers to spend hours 'hunting and pecking' for individual songs," Kauffman said.

"We're going after the consumer with little time and an abundance of money, not the consumer with little money and an abundance of time," he added.
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/2026571

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

Rising prices, other diversions lowering CD sales
Dave Larsen

Brian Zuercher made a rare trip last week to Gem City Records in Dayton to buy the latest Dixie Chicks CD as a birthday gift for his mother. Zuercher, 17, doesn't buy CDs for himself.

"I usually burn them," he said, referring to the popular practice of copying CDs on a computer. "I only do this when I have to."

Instead of buying music, Zuercher downloads MP3 files via the Internet to make his own CDs, averaging about 15 to 20 discs a month. He is one of countless fans who use online services such as Kazaa to digitally swap songs for free. In one week in January, Kazaa's service reportedly was downloaded 3 million times. Blank, recordable CDs outsold pre-recorded albums in 2002, for the second year in a row.

The music industry is in decline. CD sales in 2002 fell about 9 percent, from 763 million in 2001 to 681 million last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Music sales this year are expected to be down by an additional 6 percent. Music industry leaders blame the proliferation of free music on the Internet, coupled with an exponential increase in the use of CD-burning technology. Dayton-area music retailers have seen their sales of new-release CDs decline in recent years, in line with industry figures, but they are singing a slightly different tune.

The sluggish economy, the rising cost of new CDs and increased competition for consumers' time and money from new media such as DVDs and video games are among the other possible reasons for the music industry's downturn, according to local retailers.

"For us, the sales slump, if you will, has been almost entirely based on new releases not selling -- nonhit product," said John Huffman, owner of Gem City Records.

It's not because platinum-selling pop stars are not as big as they once were, said Hans Buflod, co-owner of CD Connection, "because that has changed numerous times over the last 15 years we've been here." Buflod points to the astonishing success of rap performer 50 Cent, who in February saw his major-label debut sell 872,000 copies in its first four days in stores. "Music tastes have just kind of changed somewhat," said Buflod, whose local chain has seven area stores.
http://www.saljournal.com/stories/030403/ent_cd.html

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

Broadband Internet has become a product for the masses. Most high- speed surfers are young, usually male and use the service mainly to download music and video files using file-sharing programs such as Kazaa.
What are 280,000 high-speed Internet subscribers seeking?

Bezeq announced last week it had reached the 200,000-subscriber mark for its high-speed Internet service. The cable television companies do not usually publish their figures in this area, but industry sources estimate their subscribership at about 80,000.

Israel has now joined the list of countries that have a large broadband Internet subscribership. The age of high-speed Internet in Israel began in late 2000 after a tough struggle, mainly because Communications Ministry officials had difficulty understanding the nature of the new service.

Broadband technologies have existed since the mid-1980s and began to spread rapidly in the mid-1990s. Israel, which is usually quick at adopting new communications technologies, was late in joining the trend. For various bureaucratic and legal reasons the initiative to grant a high-speed Internet license to the cable companies in 1999 failed.

Bezeq, which was relatively late in preparing its infrastructure for the new service, was forced to suffer the Communications Ministry's deliberate bureaucratic foot-dragging because it felt that if Bezeq received a license before the cable companies, it would control the market and stymie effective competition. It was only at the end of 2000, under heavy political pressure, that then-communications minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer consented to grant Bezeq a license and bring Israel into the broadband era.

The beginning was somewhat lame, as Bezeq was marketing an expensive service by any standards. Monthly fees were NIS 149 for a surfing speed of 1.5 megabits per second. Public awareness and demand for the service were much lower than expected, due to the immense efforts that Bezeq and the cable companies had invested in obtaining their licenses.

In the service's first year of operation Bezeq ignored the criticism of the high price, stridently claiming that it would be impossible otherwise, considering that the Communications Ministry refused to allow Bezeq to provide both the infrastructure service and access service directly.

Only in September 2001 was the formula found for springboarding the use of the high-speed network - Bezeq began offering service packages at lower prices. For NIS 90-100 per month high-speed became the logical choice for moderate to heavy surfers (in terms of surfing time). Most surfers would barely notice the difference in the surfing speed between high-speed surfing at 1.5 megabits per second in the expensive packages and 0.25-0.5 mbps in the cheaper packages.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pa...ID=0&listSrc=Y

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Winamp kids - All Floyd, All The Time http://live.grapeshot.net:8075/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LP To MP3 Conversions
Wes Stewart

So you have a big old collection of vinyl records that you'd love to convert to CDs or MP3. We never could get that balancing act just right to take vinyl albums on the
road via tape. There's got to be a process to convert the media.

Sure there is. Though it might be a bit time-consuming, we are sure it will save you money in the long run vs. having it done professionally. Still, there are some considerations before starting to dig out the record collection.

As a reference, we found vanishingbones.com/vanishingbones/LPCD.htm, which offered what looks like a very nice service at $20.00 per record plus $6.00 shipping.

The details on professional conversions and the software options themselves could fill volumes. So let's just touch on the principles so you get an idea what you are up against taking on the task yourself.

You need to set up a good quality sound card in you computer that will record the full range of sounds you wish to reproduce. Many sound cards fall off in the lower and upper ranges because their makers presume a PC is going to be playing music through some junky speakers -- a waste of quality. You need one that will record the whole range of human hearing -- 20-20,000hz.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=...8-083631-4102r

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

Businesses securing computer files in nuclear bunker

The threat of a terror strike has left businesses racing to secure vital computer files in underground bunkers, it has emerged.

Demand has rocketed in recent months as more and more firms make contingency plans to combat the risk of terrorism, according to a company that specialises in safeguarding company data.

A L Digital, which runs The Bunker in a former RAF nuclear shelter near Sandwich, Kent, offers secure storage of computer network systems.

The site is 30 metres below ground, has three metre thick concrete walls, steel doors weighing more than two tons and 24-hour guards.

Companies are able to base their computer control systems there while continuing their business as normal at the office.

Following the September 11 attacks many companies based in the World Trade Centre went bust because they had no back up or contingency plans in place to salvage business data.

Paul Lightfoot, operations manager for The Bunker, said "hundreds" of companies were now using the service, which can cost up to £36,000 a year.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm...ews.technology

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

Wealthy users dominate internet

Three times as many well-off families are going online for the first time as those with low incomes, a new report has revealed.

The charity Citizens Online also found more than six times as many homes were online in some parts of the country than in others.

Wokingham in Berkshire was the UK's best connected town, with almost six in 10 households online.

In Blaenau Gwent, South Wales, fewer than one in ten homes had access to the internet.

John Fisher, head of Citizens Online, said: "This research now makes it possible to focus efforts on those areas that need the most help to bridge the internet divide."

The lowest internet uptake was in Wales at 29%, while the region with the most homes connected was south-east England with 45%.

Citizens Online is launching a joint project with BT to increase internet access in disadvantaged communities.

A pilot scheme will first run in St Stephen in Brannel, Cornwall, with a second in Audley and Bignall End in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2819905.stm

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

U.S. rethinks porn filters
AP

Pornography is everywhere on the Internet, some of it free for the peeking to anyone with an Internet connection and a bit of on-line know-how. Right alongside the smut is more valuable information than anyone could amass anywhere else, including the best public and university libraries, also free for the asking.

The U.S. Supreme Court is to take another look Wednesday at the fundamental problem of how government can protect the public from the seamy side of the Internet without muzzling free speech. The case is United States v. American Library Association, 02-361, and the question this time is whether Congress can require public libraries to install software to filter out pornography as a condition of receiving federal money.

The Bush administration argued that just as libraries decline to collect X-rated movies and pornographic magazines, they shouldn't have to offer access to pornography on their computers.

"Public libraries may reasonably conclude that it best furthers their missions to use a resource that is effective in keeping out pornography, even if that resource keeps out some material that is not pornographic," U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued in a court filing.

Librarians and civil liberties groups contend that filters are censorship, plain and simple, and that they filter out vast amount of valuable information along with the dirty pictures.

"This is not the answer," said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the Washington office of the American Library Association.

"It is not the answer because it does not protect children and it is not the answer because it censors ... health information, scientific information, social information and political information."

A three-judge federal panel in Pennsylvania agreed a year ago, ruling that the Children's Internet Protection Act violates the First Amendment because the filtering programs block too much nonpornographic material.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...rn0305/GTStory

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smokin’
IBM recalls 56,000 monitors
AP

IBM is recalling about 56,000 computer monitors that can overheat and smoke, posing a fire hazard to consumers.

The Armonk, N.Y., company has received five reports of monitors overheating and smoking, including one report of property damage, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday. No injuries have been reported.

The recalled monitors include the G51 CRT and G51t Touch Screen CRT models bearing model numbers 6541-02N, 6541-02E, 6541-02S, 6541-Q0N, 6541-Q0E and 6541-Q0S.

IBM, MicroTouch Systems and major retail stores sold the monitors nationwide from June 1997 to September 1997 for about $370 (U.S.).

The U.S. goverment's consumer protection branch has urged consumers to stop using the monitors immediately and contact IBM for a free inspection and repair or replacement.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...mm0305/GTStory


Christianne Carafano


Ruling could threaten content protections
Paul Festa

A controversial case before a U.S. federal appeals court could significantly restrict legal protections that have long absolved Internet companies from responsibility for their customers' actions.

The issue stems from a libel lawsuit filed by actress Christianne Carafano over postings that appeared on the dating site Matchmaker.com. Her suit was filed against the company that operates the site, Metrosplash, which was acquired by Lycos in June 2000 for about $44-million (U.S.) in cash.

Ms. Carafano, whose roles under the stage name Chase Masterson include Leeta on the TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, sued Metrosplash after someone posted a personals ad that mixed accurate information, including her name and address, with alleged falsehoods.

In March 2002, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rejected Ms. Carafano's libel claim, citing traditional defamation law that makes malice difficult for public figures to prove. In his decision, however, Judge Dickran Tevrizian also said Metrosplash was not shielded by Section 230 of the landmark Communications Decency Act, which has long protected on-line companies from being held responsible for material that others post on their sites or send through their servers and networks.

"The language of the statute itself requires this court to determine whether Matchmaker, as a provider of an interactive computer service, is an information content provider, i.e., is partly responsible for the creation or development of the information being provided," Mr. Tevrizian wrote in the decision. "This court concludes that Matchmaker is such an information content provider. Consequently, the immunity of Section 230 does not extend to it as a matter of law."

The ruling is believed to be the first significant challenge to the core protections of the Communications Decency Act, which were drafted seven years ago at the behest of Internet service providers such as America Online. The statute, which granted broad immunity for ISPs and other companies doing business on- line, states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...tcourt/GTStory

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Review
Audigy 2 Platinum sound card
Ian Johnson

The Good: Extremely clean, clear sound; 6.1-speaker Dolby Digital EX capability; large software bundle with solid music creation programs and games; front-panel-mounted Audigy drive gives access to wide array of audio inputs, outputs and level controls, as well as an infrared remote control to help turn the PC into a true entertainment system; card adds Firewire ports to the PC.

The Bad: Ports on card are poorly marked; installation can be tricky for novice computer users.

The Verdict: From the audiophile-level sound quality and full-frequency DVD audio output, to the semi-professional recording capability, to the Firewire ports and Dolby Digital EX 6.1-channel surround-sound capability, the Audigy 2 Platinum is a state-of-the-art audio card that can turn your PC into a true home entertainment centre.

More: http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...igyrev/GTStory

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

Movie attendance up in 2002
At ShoWest, MPAA head Jack Valenti laments the price impact of special effects and technology.
Lorenza Munoz

The price of making a movie soared dramatically last year, with the average major studio production costing nearly $59 million, a 23% increase from 2001, the Motion Picture Assn. of America announced Tuesday. It was the biggest percentage increase since 1997 and a little more than double the $29 million of 10 years ago.

In his address to theater owners at the annual ShoWest convention, MPAA president Jack Valenti lamented the skyrocketing costs of making movies and attributed the increase to the special effects and high technology now used throughout the filmmaking process in many movies.

"Costs are an un-gloried fact of the creative business landscape," he said to nearly 2,000 theater owners in the Paris Hotel's cavernous auditorium. He said all the studios were trying to "put a tight harness" on costs. But with today's major movie stars making more than $20 million a picture, and the back-end deals landing them high percentages off the box-office receipts, it is unclear how those costs will be controlled.

More encouragingly, Valenti noted that in 2002 theatrical admissions reached their highest level since 1957, with 1.64 billion tickets sold in the U.S. alone -- a 10% increase over 2001. Last year the major studios made or distributed 225 movies, 29 more than the previous year.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...2Dtech nology

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

Report: Internet Traffic Boom Redux

Past expectations of outlandish telecom equipment revenue growth may have been banished to the land of myth, but the same should not happen to huge Internet traffic growth predictions, according to a new IDC report (see Broadband Drives Internet Growth ).

The report, titled “Worldwide Bandwidth End-User Forecast and Analysis, 2003- 2007: More is Still Not Enough,” counters the speculations by many industry observers and news reports that Internet traffic growth has slowed down. Instead, it expects Internet traffic to nearly double every year for the next five years, with an annual compound growth rate of 96 percent.

“We noticed that people started saying that Internet was slowing,” says IDC analyst and one of the authors of the report, Sterling Perrin. “But we never found any data to support that… That would really indicate an industry at a very mature stage.”



The report, which is based on IDC-generated survey data, forecasts that Internet traffic will grow from 180 petabits per day in 2002 to 5,175 petabits per day by the end of 2007. IDC compares these astronomical numbers to the mere 10 terabytes of information it says exist in the entire Library of Congress. “By 2007, IDC expects Internet users will access, download and share the information equivalent of the entire Library of Congress more than 64,000 times over every day,” according to yesterday's IDC press release.

While Perrin does not forecast a new boom in telecom equipment sales for some time to come, he does say that the massive Internet traffic growth does have important implications for the sector. “The amount of capacity that’s out there will at one point be depleted,” he says, insisting that the need will arise for carriers to buy next-generation optical equipment that can manage the increasing traffic more efficiently and at a lower cost.

The Internet traffic growth also has implications for the kinds of network architectures we can expect to see once new builds start picking up again, according to the report. “The volume of Internet traffic is just starting to swamp the networks,” Perrin says. “When they’re going to build… it will have to be next- gen data-centric.”
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=29062

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

Toshiba, Accenture to Offer 'Hot Spots'
Carmen Nobel

Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to join with Accenture Ltd. to offer wireless LAN "hot spot" services throughout North America.

By 2003 the companies hope to have launched up to 10,000 hot spots, which are public places where customers pay for wireless access to the Internet.

Toshiba is providing the hardware to potential operators, while Accenture will be handling the support functions, such as billing and help desk support, said officials at Toshiba, in Irvine, Calif.

Meanwhile, hotspot operator Wayport Inc. on Tuesday announced an agreement with CNN Airport Network, the satellite-delivered television service seen in more than 1,775 airport waiting areas in the United States.

Through the deal, wireless Internet service will be available in the 38 airports that run the CNN Airport Network. The service will run over the existing CNN Airport Network infrastructure, said officials at Wayport, in Austin, Texas.

CNN Airport Network is run by Turner Private Networks, Inc.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...,916296,00.asp

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

'Black boxes' put rights at risk
Dan Gillmor

DON'T LOOK THERE: One of the most alarming effects of federal copyright law has been the turning of crucial electronic devices into ''black boxes'' -- machines that are closed to scrutiny even when a great deal rides on their robustness and accuracy.

Ed Felten, a Princeton University computer science professor, noted this danger at a ''Digital Rights Management'' conference last week at the University of California-Berkeley. He warned that the trend is not well-appreciated, and that the boundaries of black boxes are growing.

It's not just such outrageous cases as printer maker Lexmark's use of copyright law to prevent the manufacture of cheaper cartridge refills than Lexmark is itself willing to sell. Turning the cartridge into a black box, using software whose purpose is to prevent competition, is bad enough -- and it's part of a growing trend.

But Felten worries about even bigger societal issues.

Consider the ''Total Information Awareness'' proposals from the Pentagon, which wants to collect information about all of us from a variety of public and private databases, and then mine the data to find suspicious people. The program is, for the moment, being slowed by Congress, but you can expect it to resurface.

Advocates of this surveillance say digital locks in the system will keep it from being misused by corrupt law-enforcement people. Yet unless qualified outsiders can examine how the system works, we'll just have to take the word of the police and spies that there's no abuse.

Or, closer to home, consider electronic voting machines. These designs, he said, are ''totally opaque'' to scrutiny. If there was ever a system that should be open to critical examination, this is the one.

''Bans on understanding technology tend to cripple the public debate about these issues,'' Felten said.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...ey/5320213.htm

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

Can You Reach Your Congressmember Online?
More lawmakers are wired, but a few sites lag, study shows.
Kyle Stock

Only about half of Congress is well-wired, providing useful Web sites to their constituents and using communications technology effectively, according to an annual report card.

Roughly half of the 610 congressional Web sites are rated good or excellent in the George Washington University study, but 25 percent of elected officials' Internet portals are labeled subpar.

Lawmakers have made great leaps in the past year to establish "virtual offices," the study finds. It notes that many Web sites are more informative, interactive, easy to use, and up-to-date than was evident in last year's evaluation.

"Access to legislative information is no longer the exclusive domain of the lobbyists and activists who are physically present on Capitol Hill," the report says. "With just a few clicks of a mouse, citizens can become actively engaged in the work of Congress."

The Congress Online Project gave out more than twice as many gold, silver, and bronze "mouse awards" as last year, when only 10 percent of Capitol Hill Web sites received an "A" or "B" grade.

"Our original campaign was to change their mindset and view of online communication," says Nicole Folk, primary author of the report. "We thought it would be a lot more difficult than it has been, but in the last year it's been quite a shift."

The Web site of Delaware Democratic Senator Tom Carper received a golden mouse for its exceptional focus on constituents. Among other features, Carper's site has an interactive map of Delaware that details news and government allocations by county.

The Web site of Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) received the highest accolade for cultivating dialogue. Reid's site features an online poll, where Internet surfers can weigh in on current legislative topics and sign up for 20 e-mail newsletters designed to inform subscribers on different political issues.

Other sites won praise for such features as detailing the lawmakers' voting records, linking to twin sites written in Spanish, and providing information on how Congress and the federal government work.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109668,00.asp

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

Grokster: Lawsuits good for business
Reuters

The head of the online file-sharing network said on Tuesday that lawsuits by major record labels seeking to shut down the service helped raise its profile and attract millions of users and big-name advertisers.

Grokster is one of three file-sharing services being sued by major music labels and Hollywood. Media executives have decried these outfits as “piratical bazaars,” claiming they let consumers trade all manners of copyright-protected materials for free, a phenomenon blamed for declining music sales.

The music and film industry's high-profile crusade against such services has been good for business, Grokster President Wayne Rosso told attendees of the FT New Media and Broadcasting Conference in London.

“Grokster has more than 10 million unique users worldwide every month accessing the network,” said Rosso. “That's a pretty big window of opportunity to market goods and services to a highly desirable affluent mass audience.” According to Rosso, Grokster advertisers include the U.S. Air Force, AT&T Wireless, Dell Computer and French cosmetics firm L'Oreal's Lancome brand. He told Reuters the surge of interest by advertisers has helped Grokster return a profit, though he declined to disclose figures.

“Every time they attack file-sharing software in any way, users rush to download the program, just to see what's going on, and become hooked. As a result, we prosper and revenues grow,” Rosso said.

Cashing in
Grokster and its rivals Kazaa and Morpheus have begun to cash in on their enormous user base, selling advertising space to companies pitching products ranging from antivirus software to mobile phone contracts.

Grokster and its rival file-sharing networks have been vilified by the media establishment who accuse them of facilitating rampant unauthorized trade of film, music, software and video games. The music and film industry are seeking a ruling from a Los Angeles Federal Court to have Grokster, Kazaa and Morpheus shut down. In 2000, the music labels succeeded in bringing a U.S. federal court injunction against Napster, the original song-swapping service, which ultimately led to its demise.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-991003.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As secrets go, it wasn't very technical.

Matt Blaze, a respected security expert and research scientist at AT&T Labs Research, in Florham Park, N.J., published a paper last fall describing how to make a master key for an office building or a school. The method required one key for any lock in the building, access to that lock and a small number of blanks. "Although a few people have confused my reporting of the vulnerability with causing the vulnerability itself, I can take comfort in a story that [scientist] Richard Feynman famously told about his days on the Manhattan Project. Some simple vulnerabilities and user interface problems made it easy to open most of the safes in use at Los Alamos. Feynman eventually demonstrated the problem to the Army officials in charge. Horrified, they promised to do something about it. The response? A memo ordering the staff to keep Feynman away from their safes."
http://security.ziffdavis.com/articl...02TTX1K0000556

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

Beaming Video at Speed of Light By Kim Griggs
Kim Griggs

On the large television screen, a Kiwi singer strummed a guitar and sang an old country favorite. Looking away from the monitor, the audience could barely pick out a tiny red light in the tall building 1.4 kilometers -- a little less than a mile -- away.

It was this light that brought the singer's performance to the 100 or so in the audience this week in what is believed to be the first live broadcast of high-quality television images over visible light spectrum.

The free-space optics system developed by New Zealand company Power Beat International works by modulating a beam of visible light -- the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be seen by humans -- to carry a digital or analog signal.

"When a video recorder is looking at something, it is reading the voltages that are being transferred from light onto a surface of photo cells. We take all of those voltage changes and use them to modulate our light," said Peter Witehira, managing director of Power Beat.

Free-space optics has had uses elsewhere: After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Merrill Lynch used an FSOlink provided by Terabeam to connect two offices 2.6 kilometers apart. AirFiber helped transmit images of the 2002 MTV European Music Awards from the stadium to the telecommunication provider's headquarters using a 1.65-kilometer laser connection.

One of the technology's key benefits is the amount of data that can be transmitted over short distances: The Merrill Lynch link transmitted data at a rate of 1 Gbps, nearly 1,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection. The lack of bureaucracy is another plus -- there are no spectrum licenses to buy. There are also no cables to lay, making installation cheap and simple relative to the potential connection speeds.

"Say you want to get it across the motorway, even if it's only a hundred meters, digging a trench under a motorway to put a fiber-optic cable in costs you nearly a million dollars, but the cost of deploying this thing (FSO) is next to nothing," said John Harvey, professor of physics at the University of Auckland. "Some one rigs it up on a power pole and it's done." http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,57860,00.html

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

Senate hearings urged over FCC decision
Ben Charny

Two consumer groups on Wednesday demanded that lawmakers overturn a recent Federal Communications Commission decision to deregulate the broadband industry.

FCC commissioners voted 3-2 last month to eliminate rules forcing broadband network owners to dramatically discount what they charge competitors to use their high- speed Web networks. The FCC kept in place the same rules, which are meant to spur competition, for telephone network owners.

The Consumer Federation of America and the Consumers Union on Wednesday demanded the Senate's Commerce Committee conduct hearings about the decision. Both Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., the committee's chairman, and Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., the committee's leading member, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

"For the first time in our history, communications could end up operated by private carriers on a closed, proprietary basis with no obligations to interconnect, interoperate or provide nondiscriminatory access for the public," the groups wrote in letters to the two senators.

The consumer groups argue that Congress, which represents a broader range of interests than the FCC, should make the decision. "Public policy decisions with such massive implications should flow directly from Congress and not be conjured up through 'legal jujitsu,'" they wrote to lawmakers.

The two consumer groups are the latest to opine about the FCC's decision. Major telephone companies are unhappy with the decision as well. The Bells will likely turn to the court system to get the FCC decision overturned, believing it doesn't go far enough to deregulate telephone and broadband networks.

Broadband providers that relied on the rules, including Covad Communications, stand to lose most of their consumer business.
http://news.com.com/2100-1037-991216.html


Broadcast industry addresses FCC
Washington Internet Daily via NewsEdge.

The broadcasting industry as it's known today will cease to exist if the FCC and Congress don't mandate implementation of the broadcast flag proposal made by the nation's major
content providers, some of those producers told the Commission. Those joint reply comments were made by more than 15 industry groups and companies, including the MPAA, ABC, CBS, Fox, the NAB, the American Federation of TV & Radio Artists (AFTRA), Belo, the Directors Guild of America, Dreamworks SKG, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the AFL- CIO. High-quality programming will be withheld from broadcast TV and given instead to other, protected distribution channels if adequate protections aren't adopted "in parallel with the rapid expansion in broadband connections and DTV equipment," the groups said.

Reply comments originally were due Tues., but because of the huge snowstorm in the Northeast, the FCC Media Bureau extended the deadline until Fri. In its rulemaking, the Commission seeks comments on, among other things, whether a broadcast flag, which would prevent copying and distribution over the Internet, is necessary, whether it should be mandated in consumer electronic (CE) devices, whether it would affect consumer privacy and whether the agency has the legal authority to impose any mandates in that area.

The content producers contend that, as technology improves to allow perfect copies of programming to be traded freely over the Internet, "television programming will be as susceptible to piracy as music is now, unless a solution is already in place." They said the threat of unauthorized redistribution over wide area networks was "qualitatively different" from any other previous technology, such as the VCR. The broadcast flag solution already proposed should be adopted and any delay will allow device manufacturers "to create a huge legacy of noncompliant products that may stymie the broadcast flag," they said.

The groups also sought to allay some fears, saying the flag wouldn't: (1) Affect existing equipment in consumers' homes. (2) Restrict the number of copies a consumer could make. (3) Prevent content transfer within the home. (4) Require approval of a content owner for transfers in the home or for use in a school project. (5) Apply to every device, nor to Internet service providers, but only to DTV receivers, DTV modulators and "a very limited number of related DTV consumer products."

On the other side, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told the FCC to "set aside Hollywood's latest bid to undermine fair use and stymie innovation by requiring all manufacturers of digital television devices to seek Hollywood approval... and by banning the use of open source software in DTV applications." The EFF reminded the agency that those were the same people who had tried to ban the VCR. The EFF's Cory Doctorow said the threat of DTV piracy was "both nonexistent and implausible" hyperbole and Hollywood's solution would only slow the DTV transition. "Hollywood's own admissions about the 'analog hole'... mean that the broadcast flag will do nothing to slow down such unauthorized copying as may occur, while setting the stage for even more restrictive mandates," Doctorow said. The EFF said that had nothing to do with Internet piracy, but with a desire by Hollywood to control the future of TV technology.
http://www.computeruser.com/news/03/03/02/news1.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From the Inquirer…

Woman wins porn e-mail discrimination case
Damages to be decided later

A WOMAN HAS WON a sexual discrimination and harassment case after she complained that porn emails made her ill, causing her to go sick for months.

Sarah Sadler was sent a series of images by her boss over a two day period, reports the Southampton Daily Echo. And she claimed to an employment tribunal that the firm she worked for, Portsmouth Publishing and Printing, failed to take action quickly enough after she complained.

A Southampton tribunal found in her favour and will award her damages at a future date, the Echo says.

She was off sick for six months suffering from depression and stress, the tribunal was told.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8137

Windows "makes people clench their buttocks"
Harta Glass

WEB PIONEER Salon has made a case for the Linux operating system and described the difference between it and Windows in broadly anatomical terms.

The magazine quotes a chap called Sam Hiser as describing the "Windows pucker", which happens when end users are ready to launch program number five and pull their buttocks in because they're afraid of a system crash.

And Salon reckons that sometimes applications blow up, sending megapixels flying into your vicinity and turning you into a quivering heap of protoplasm. (We made the second part of that sentence up).

But the magazine says there's no danger of Linux causing you to feel like a humanoid who has eaten something dodgy and has two seconds to get from pint a to point b. The article reckons that Lindows and Lycoris will stop your bum cheeks from crinkling, and you can buy them from Wal-Mart, unless you're one of the few countries that doesn't have a Wal-Mart, that is.

Personally, we find that just as long as we don't install any critical updates at all, Windows XP doesn't crash. Also, if you don't switch a machine on, it doesn't crash either.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=8091

Sandisk intros 1GB Flash card
Claims it's the fastest too
Mike Magee

MEMORY FIRM SANDISK introduced a 1GB CompactFlash card with a wire speed of six MB/s and a read speed of 9MB/s, a bit of a breakthrough in the market, we think.

The first IBM PC clone we used had a staggering 20MB of hard drive storage and IBM's first hard file was an even more staggering 10MB, described as "massive storage" capacity in those far off days.

The Sandisk card is compatible with all cameras using the CompactFlash storage, and with readers and adaptors, but the firm said the speed is twice that of its Ultra line.

The high end card will cost $329 but given the state of the memory business and the speed the technology is changing, that price can only drop.

Sandisk also said it is introducing an Ultra SD card line which will range in capacity between 128MB and 512MB, and prices will range from $79 to $199.

The cards are expected to be available in the second quarter of this year, and use Sandisk's NAND flash technology.

Be that as it may, we also learn that you can get 3GB CompactFlash cards from Pretec. Even better, probably.

These advances in memory technology, we think, are exciting developments, managing to escape the built-in Mageek Cynicism Filter (CNF). Yeah, I know storage is supposed to be boring, but everyone needs it whether it's a garden shed, a cupboard, an attic or a flash card
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=8111

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

For PC Buying, a New Picture
Michel Marriott

GERRIT VOOREN braved an icy Manhattan morning last week to press his search for just the right new computer. It had to be powerful, crammed with hundreds of megabytes of memory, and have enough hard-drive space to hold a vast music library and hours upon hours of digital video.

For Mr. Vooren, a 40-year-old native of the Netherlands who moved to New York 16 years ago to pursue acting and visual art, his new computer essentially had to do what his old one could barely manage: handle the latest high-performance programs to help him edit short films in his Brooklyn apartment, where he recently started a business, Reels 4 Artists. A DVD burner was essential, too, to save the video onto disks.

"Smoke was coming out of the back of my computer," at least in the figurative sense, he recalled. "What I was doing with it was more than it could. It was just too much for it."

He replaced his aging Apple PowerBook G3, which ran on a single 400-megahertz processor, with a $2,000 Apple Power Mac G4, which uses two processors, each running at more than twice the power of his old computer's central processor. A 17-inch, $700 flat liquid crystal display replaced his old tube-based monitor.

It is shoppers like Mr. Vooren, and their demanding needs, that personal-computer makers hope will end their sales doldrums.

Just as digital recording and mixing have invaded professional recording studios, digital music studios in a box are steadily finding converts among home-computer users who are learning that they can make music with the click of a mouse.

Mr. Bond said that while many of the newest music studio programs would run on Pentium III computers as well as more powerful Pentium 4's, users should "be prepared to wait" to hear the results on a slower machine. Multitrack mixing and recording are especially power-hungry, he cautioned, adding that some of the newest software takes advantage of the latest processor designs, including Cakewalk's Home Studio and Sonar 2.0 (for more advanced users), Steinberg's Cubase and Nuendo (for more advanced users).

For best results, Mr. Bond recommends using music-creation software on the PC in conjunction with U.S.B.-connected external digital-recording devices - sleek boxes that include high-performance sound cards and pre-amps like Aardvark's Q10 and M-Audio's Duo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/06/te...ts/06upgr.html

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

Internet as Jukebox, at a Price
David Pogue

Befuddlement (n.): 1. Confusion resulting from failure to understand. 2. Loss of sense of direction, position, or relationship with one's surroundings. 3. The state of the recording industry as it tries to sell music on the Internet.

THE only thing record companies know for sure is that they want to kill off the insanely popular Sons of Napster: free music-sharing services like KaZaA, Gnutella and Morpheus. After all, the millions who use these services are in effect stealing music, depriving the five major labels of perfectly good money. But watching the record companies as they try to find a formula for a successful paid alternative is like watching five people play blindman's bluff on stilts.

At least they're generally crashing in the right direction. This is a busy time for improvements in the music-downloading services: America Online unveiled its MusicNet service last week; Pressplay has launched version 2.5 of its software; Rhapsody has unveiled a 49-cents-per-song special; and a new service called MusicNow, which offers a fresh approach to finding music, will make its debut later this month. With each development, these companies (and another MusicNet affiliate, RealOne MusicPass) are gradually lowering prices, filling the holes in their catalogs and loosening the restrictions on what you can do with the music you've bought.

Unfortunately, one thing that has not changed is the complexity of their price plans, which make choosing a cellphone plan look like child's play. Each company offers several degrees of freedom for the music it sells, each priced differently.

The most basic freedom is listening to songs while your Windows PC is online. It's a lot like one of those free Internet radio stations, except that these "stations" are commercial-free and, in some cases, customizable.

The next level of freedom is the most bizarre. In some plans, you are allowed to download songs to your PC's hard drive for playback even when you're not online. (Companies call these temporary, conditional or tethered downloads.) But you're only renting these songs, not buying them. If your subscription to the music service expires, your music files expire too, turning into worthless kilobyte carcasses on your hard drive. It's like having a landlord blow up your apartment if you miss a month's rent.

Finally, for an extra fee, most services let you download selected songs - called portable or permanent downloads - directly onto a blank CD. At that point, you own them forever. You can mix and match songs from different bands, dictate the playback order or build your own versions of hit CD's, minus the annoying songs.

You still can't move these files to another computer or e-mail them. Nonetheless, this approach is the closest the music services have come to a compromise between what music fans want (flexibility to use what they have bought) and what the record companies want (preventing file swapping).

Yet the music services don't mind admitting that if you have the time and the right music utility program, you can "rip" the songs from the newly burned CD right back onto your hard drive. Presto: standard MP3 files that you can back up, share with others or copy to a portable music player.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/06/te...ts/06stat.html

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

Pro P2P Maker Groove Announces Layoffs And $38 Million In Aid
Alliance strengthened as Microsoft, Sun debut Windows, Java P2P code, protocol
Paula Rooney

Groove Networks is getting a little help from its friends--in high places.

The Beverly-based peer-to-peer (P2P) software concern announced Wednesday a corporate restructuring and layoff of 20 percent of its 278 employees. At the same time, the company revealed that it had captured a fifth round of financing--$38 million--from existing investors Microsoft, Intel Capital and Accel Partners.

Groove, which has raised a total of $155 million since being founded by Lotus Notes developer Ray Ozzie in fall 1997, is viewed as Microsoft's strategic partner for its ambitious P2P and collaboration software portfolio for .Net and Longhorn version of Windows in 2004, according to CRN sources.

Late last month, Groove unveiled a major upgrade of its intra- and cross-organization collaboration platform, Workspace 2.5. It also announced an add-in toolkit for Microsoft's Visual Studio.Net, which is due in April.

P2P technology, which promises to connect devices, users, servers and applications in realtime, remains one of the hot technologies originally cultivated by Napster and others for the consumer market but eyed for corporate use. While adoption has been slow, major software vendors Microsoft and Sun in recent days have touted products and protocols to make P2P plumbing more widely available in Windows and Java platforms.

Last week, for instance, Microsoft announced the release of its Windows XP Peer-to-Peer Software Development Kit (SDK) and its plans to release a Windows XP Peer-to-Peer Update next quarter.
http://www.crn.com/sections/Breaking...rticleID=40335)

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

Three Degrees: A peek behind the curtain
Christopher Saunders

While it seems simple enough, threedegrees asks for some hearty requirements: broadband and Windows XP (with Service Pack 1 and the Windows XP Peer-to-Peer Networking Update), for starters. Oh, and a MSN Passport account.

The need for those exacting requirements are clear, since threedegrees uses some pretty new Microsoft technology to work its file-sharing magic. In fact, it's one of the first live applications using Peer-to-Peer Networking Update services exposed in the beta-version P2P SDK introduced by the company last month.

APIs exposed in the SDK helps developers tackle a number of the common, often difficult tasks inherent in P2P applications. For instance, the SDK addresses peer name resolution -- handling the "finding peers" aspect of P2P networking -- as well as distributed data management, which manages how users' machines inform each other of updated content, and distribute that content.

The P2P technology also provides support for dealing with Network Address Translators and IPv6 -- which is growing in importance as networks require more than 32-bit IP addresses; IPv6 support also thus provides key support for unique device addresses.

Most importantly, the P2P Update and APIs aim to enable these functions on a wide scale -- "to support incredibly large groups," said Passport Product Manager Pete McKiernan.

"The SDK takes advantage of the new benefits of the P2P programming model, where in the past, there have been a lot of things that have held people back from doing that," he said. "We've heard that it's too complicated to solve things like NAT traversal, or writing your own distributed data management protocols, and how you solve those problems."

In the long-term, McKiernan said the P2P technology is viewed by Microsoft as a complement to server-based collaboration initiatives, like the company's upcoming "Greenwich" product. From that perspective, threedegrees seems not only a pure teens- only play, but more like a testbed for more advanced presence- and P2P-based collaborative enterprise products.

And that's where things get interesting -- especially in light of Microsoft's recent preoccupation with communications and collaboration. Today, the company dropped an additional $30 million into Groove Networks, a leading player in enterprise P2P applications.
http://www.instantmessagingplanet.co...le.php/2105671

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sinapore: Illegal movie shipping hub?
Winston Chai

Singapore has been a success story in fighting pirated movies, but an industry association warns the city-state could just be shipping the problem out of the country.

Singapore is the third lowest in terms of losses due to piracy in Asia-Pacific, ahead of only Vietnam and New Zealand,? said Michael Ellis, vice president and regional director of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), a U.S.-based film rights advocate.

But he warned that Singapore acts as a transshipment center for pirated DVDs produced in Indonesia and Malaysia. About 13 percent of counterfeit seizures made in the United Kingdom last year were shipped from the republic, he said.

Singapore has the busiest air and sea port in Southeast Asia and serves as the region?s most important transport hub, so its role in pirated DVD re-distribution occurs as a by-product.

According to statistics released by the MPA, Singapore?s domestic DVD piracy losses in 2002 totaled US$8 million, dwarfed by losses of US$168 million in China and US$110 million in Japan.
http://star-techcentral.com/cnetasia...0&sec=cnetasia

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australian ISPs raided in MP3 probe
Simon Hayes

FEDERAL police have executed search warrants on Telstra and internet company Eftel in one of Australia's largest investigations into alleged music piracy, which could be worth up to $60 million.

Warrants were also executed at several other un-named internet service providers, with more warrants possible as the investigation continues. It's understood the police were seeking information about the identities of particular subscribers, as well as music files that may have been stored by them on servers.

According to sources, the wholesale value of the allegedly pirated music may be as high as $60 million - making it one of Australia's largest copyright infringement investigations.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that officers, accompanied by computer forensics experts, visited a Telstra facility in Melbourne and Eftel's Perth offices, as part of ongoing investigations. Search warrants were also executed at several other ISPs, which she declined to name. She said the execution of these warrants was part of "related investigations".

The Australian understands that the investigations are at an early stage, and that more ISPs may yet be searched.
http://australianit.news.com.au/comm...nbv%5E,00.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not Just Music: Auto Sales Fell to Lowest Rate in 4 1/2 Years
Danny Hakim

Sales of the lucrative, gas-guzzling giants of the auto industry — the Escalades, Excursions, Suburbans and other big sport utility vehicles — are sliding, according to figures released today.

Analysts said that rising gas prices and a drumbeat of criticism of S.U.V.'s figure in the slowing sales. But the biggest culprit, they said, is a new wave of small and medium-size sport utilities from Asian automakers that are chipping away at a crucial profit center for the domestic auto industry.

Sales fell 6.7 percent from a year earlier, to a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 15.4 million vehicles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/04/business/04AUTO.html

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

'Next' up on the Internet
New Web technology showcases live concerts by cutting-edge acts.
Andrew John Ignatius Vontz

Before the dot-com dream imploded, visionary twentysomething chief executives promised to bring innovative broadband entertainment programming to life on the Internet.

RealNetworks and Venice's Gigantic Entertainment recently launched an original series of music videos of live performances called "The Next," which breathes new life into the temporarily deferred broadband entertainment dream.

Each biweekly installment of "The Next" is a video of a live-music performance from a cutting-edge act on the cusp of a mainstream breakthrough. The first episode was a performance by L.A. hip-hop group Blackalicious from the Christmas concert by KCRW-FM (89.9) at Universal Amphitheater.

Kinky and Beth Orton are currently featured, with the Vines, Pete Yorn, Fischerspooner, Zero 7 and more to follow. While RealNetworks has long provided music and music video content on its Web site, "The Next" is a fresh venture using state-of-the-art technology aimed at providing a 30-minute concert music video experience tailored toward users with DSL or cable modems.

"We really thought about what the end-user experience was going to be here: Let's get the sound right, let's make the images something that makes sense in this format, let's optimize for broadband and make something that's a showcase and get as good a dose of these bands as you can get," says Erik Flannigan, RealNetworks' vice president of media programming.

The driving creative force and director of each episode is Gigantic's Kevin Kerslake, who has directed commercials, action sports movies and music videos for groups including the Rolling Stones, Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kerslake shoots the episodes utilizing improvements in Web-based video technology.

"In the past you had to be much more tentative stylistically and cautious about pace and exposures," says Kerslake. "The new technology lets you get back to the aesthetic that is called for when you're shooting bands that are more energetic.... The computer's not going to freak out because there are too many cuts per minute."

After quickly downloading the free Real Player and restarting my computer -- a PC with DSL modem -- I visited RealNetworks' Web site, www.real.com, to check out the Blackalicious concert. I was immediately impressed by the site's intuitive interface and ease of use. In a few clicks, I found "The Next" section of the site and clicked on the broadband viewing option; the video launched without any delay.

In the first few seconds, it was clear that I was having the best video-viewing experience I'd ever had on the Web. There were no buffering delays, I didn't have to download the video, and the sound mix immediately jumped out at me. Gigantic optimizes the sound mix for the Web -- and you can tell. The mix was crisp and the low-end tones so crucial to the hip-hop experience were there in abundance, booming out from even my puny stock speakers.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology



BigChampange


Linksys releases dual-band Wi-Fi card
Paul Festa

Wireless networking company Linksys on Wednesday released a PC card that supports two nascent Wi-Fi standards.

Linksys's Wireless Dual Band A+G Wireless PC Card for notebook computers supports not only 802.11b--the prevailing IEEE standard for wireless networking--but its newer cousins 802.11a, which sacrifices bandwidth for range, and 802.11g, which is supposed to be backward-compatible with 802.11b.

The company, based in Irvine, Calif., is not alone in producing an 802.11a/g-compatible card. Hardware maker NetGear last month announced it would soon ship dual- band 802.11a/g PC cards for $129, with dual-band 802.11a/g access points and routers to follow next quarter.

Linksys announced some future plans of its own, saying this month it would release a wireless A+G router, access point and PCI adapter for desktop computers.

The new PC cards carry a $99 price tag.

In a statement, Linksys compared its March contributions with the introduction of the AM/FM radio.

"With its universal dual-band A+G solutions, Linksys eliminates once and for all any potential confusion or incompatibilities caused by having three separate wireless standards," the company said in a release. "Like the world's first AM/FM radio, the customer will be able to buy a single device for wireless networking that guarantees universal IEEE standard compatibility."
http://news.com.com/2100-1039-991309.html

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

Pseudo spins hip-hop TV show on Kazaa
Stefanie Olsen

Digital broadcaster Pseudo.com plans to release a weekly TV show hosted by rap star Ice-T on the Internet file-sharing network Kazaa, in attempts to start a new model of advertising-supported television.

Pseudo President Edward Salzano said Thursday that the show--a feature on hip-hop culture called "One Nation"--will be available exclusively to Kazaa's roughly 60 million registered users beginning in the next two weeks. People using Kazaa to trade video, audio and text files will be able to download a new episode of the hour- long show weekly and watch it anytime.

Free to Kazaa users, the show will be supported through advertising in the form of commercials and product placements, Salzano said. Pseudo.com, which is owned by New York-based INTV, has already signed on soft-drink maker Red Bull as a sponsor.

"We believe there's a lot of money that is going to people it shouldn't be going to such as studios, producers and advertising agencies," Salzano said. "But that money should be going directly from the fans to the artist, so we're trying to come up with ways to make it legitimate and affordable to do that."

The move flies in the face of the entertainment industry's long history of fighting file-sharing networks such as Kazaa and former highflier Napster, which are thought of by Hollywood as black markets for Web surfers to trade pirated music and film files. As a result, many major film studios and music labels have filed lawsuits against the networks, which resulted in successfully shutting down Napster.

Still, others are trying to find a way to use peer-to-peer communities for legitimate business and marketing because of the wide reach among media-obsessed audiences. For example, Microsoft partnered last year with film studio Lions Gate to release a trailer for the movie "Rules of Attraction" through Kazaa. Brilliant Digital Entertainment-owned Altnet also has developed a way to package content on Kazaa so that rights holders can receive revenue through the sale of products featured in the content, among other sales opportunities.

"There's a legitimate content market developing on peer-to-peer networks," said Ben Reneker, associate analyst with Kagan World Media, a research firm based in Carmel, Calif.

"Pseudo's idea is a powerful concept because peer-to-peer networks have such lucrative demographics in terms of media consumption," he said. "The question and reason that this may not take off is because the content owners are the most opposed to these networks because they see them as major hemorrhage for revenues."

Still, Pseudo's Salvano said, it's time for the entertainment industry to embrace new forms of distribution.

"The entertainment industry has to get it together and use the technology to their advantage," he said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-991396.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How bad can it be?
Vivendi rumoured to keep hold of music business

Vivendi Universal might not be about to dispose of its music business after all, according to widespread rumours that have circulated in the press over the last few days.

Directors of the media group are said now to favour a reorganisation of assets that would enable it to keep hold of its largest music company, Universal Music.

Though Vivendi had been contemplating oil tycoon Marvin Davis’ E20bn offer for all of its entertainment assets – including Universal Studios and theme parks – it is now thought the company seek to retain its music business whilst collaborating with alternative investment partners for its other entertainment assets.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15220

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

Net speed record smashed
Dr David Whitehouse

Scientists have set a new internet speed record by transferring 6.7 gigabytes of data across 10,978 kilometres (6,800 miles), from Sunnyvale in the US to Amsterdam in Holland, in less than one minute
Using a quantity of data equivalent to two feature-length DVD-quality movies, the transfer was accomplished at an average speed of more than 923 megabits per second, or more than 3,500 times faster than a typical home broadband connection.

Les Cottrel, of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (Slac) Computer Services, said: "By exploring the edges of internet technologies' performance envelope, we will bring high-speed data transfer to practical everyday applications."

He added that potential uses included: "Doctors at multiple sites sharing and discussing a patient's cardio-angiographs to diagnose and plan treatment; or disaster recovery experts sharing information across the globe in near real-time to develop recovery and relief plans."

Next generation

The data were sent across the Internet2 network. This is operated by a consortium of 200 universities working in a worldwide effort to develop and deploy tomorrow's internet.

It is intended to connect and serve research and educational institutions at transmission speeds that allow near-instant transfer of hundreds of megabytes of data.

The motivation for the record was the need to transfer and analyse the vast amounts of data produced by particle physicists studying the fundamental building blocks of matter.

Raymond Orbach, director of the US Energy Department's Office of Science, said: "It underlines the tradition in particle physics of groundbreaking work in manipulation and transfer of enormous datasets."

Harvey Newman, professor of physics at Caltech, said: "The largest high-energy experiments are already dealing with data stores approaching the petabyte range and we expect this to increase by a factor of 1,000 over the next decade."

During its research, Slac has accumulated the largest known database in the world, which grows at one terabyte per day.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2822333.stm

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

European Hacker Laws Could Make Protest a Crime
Law could make online protests a crime
Paul Meller

The justice ministers of the European Union have agreed on laws intended to deter computer hacking and the spreading of computer viruses. But legal experts say the new measures could pose problems because the language could also outlaw people who organize protests online, as happened recently, en masse, with protests against a war in Iraq.

The agreement, reached last week, obliges all 15 member states to adopt a new criminal offense: illegal access to, and illegal interference with an information system. It calls on national courts to impose jail terms of at least two years in serious cases.

Critics from the legal profession say the agreement makes no legal distinction between an online protester and terrorists, hackers and spreaders of computer viruses that the new laws are intended to trap.

Last Wednesday, protesters against a possible war against Iraq barraged the White House and Senate offices with tens of thousands of messages by phone, fax and e-mail, as part of what was billed as the first-ever "virtual protest march."

Under the new agreement, if European Union citizens undertook a similar electronic bombardment of the e-mail, fax and phone lines of the British prime minister, Tony Blair, they might be liable for prosecution, said Leon de Costa, chief executive of Judicium, a legal consultancy based in London. The new code "criminalizes behavior which, until now, has been seen as lawful civil disobedience," Mr. de Costa said.

Ulrich Sieber, a professor of law at Munich University, urged lawmakers to amend the code to add a specific reference to the right to free expression as outlined in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Human Rights.

Marco Cappato, a European Parliament deputy from Italy, said he failed to persuade the ministers to insert wording that differentiates between the online equivalent of trespassing and someone breaking and entering. The role of the European Parliament is consultative, so it cannot force changes to the law.

A European Union diplomat involved in the drafting of the measures agreed that protection mechanisms in the code are soft and said that amendments could still be made.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/in...pe/05BRUS.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Would 'Protect' American Consumers from DMCA
Effort seen as uphill fight in Congress
Grant Gross

A congresswoman from Silicon Valley is hoping to "protect" consumers of digital content from the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by introducing a bill that spells out what kinds of copies they are allowed to make.

Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday reintroduced a bill she authored in late 2002. But some of her big-business neighbors in the Business Software Alliance, and her cross-state neighbors at the Motion Picture Association of America, immediately opposed her efforts.

Lofgren's office acknowledged that passage of her bill would be an uphill fight in the U.S. Congress. The last version of the bill didn't get a hearing before Congress adjourned for the winter holidays. A spokesman for Lofgren said the bill's chances may depend on what anticopying initiatives the entertainment industry takes in Congress.

"I think our chances for a hearing are better than the ultimate chances for passage," the spokesman said. "Only time will tell."

The spokesman admitted that those in Congress pushing for consumer-rights changes to the DMCA were in the minority, but bills like Lofgren's raise awareness of the consumer issue. "It is now part of the debate, and people know about it," the spokesman said. "Consumers need a voice. This is not just a technology versus Hollywood fight."

Lofgren's bill, renamed the Benefit Authors without Limiting Advancement or Net Consumer Expectations, or BALANCE Act, would clarify consumer rights under the much-protested DMCA, passed in 1998. The bill would allow buyers to make backup copies and display digital works on devices of their choice. It would also prohibit non-negotiable, "shrink-wrap" licenses on digital content that "limit consumer rights," according to Lofgren's office, and it would allow consumers to bypass copy protection technologies if those technologies "impede" their fair-use rights under copyright law.

One of the most controversial sections of the DMCA outlaws most attempts to circumvent copy controls on digital content. Several companies have used the DMCA to stop programmers from creating copying software or competitors from creating products that interact with their own products.

"There is wide agreement to fight piracy, and it is something that needs to be stopped," Lofgren said in a statement. "But individual consumers are being denied their legitimate rights in the digital age. We can solve this problem, but lawsuits and locking down content are not the solutions."
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/05/HNdmca_1.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sex, the Constitution and the Net
Declan McCullagh

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday considered a new twist on the old question of restricting sexually explicit material while preserving First Amendment rights. At issue is a 2000 law called the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which says that schools and public libraries receiving federal funds must filter the Internet. In May, a special three-judge panel unanimously ruled the CIPA was unconstitutional and blocked it from taking effect for libraries. The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court in June.

In the center of this high-stakes legal struggle is Judith Krug, a lifelong First Amendment advocate and director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom since it was founded in 1968. The ALA sued to overturn the law last year but because only the library-related sections of CIPA were challenged, it remains in effect for schools.

CNET News.com caught up with Krug in Washington, D.C., to discuss the case and the proliferation of Internet filtering throughout the nation's libraries.

Q: The three-judge panel in Philadelphia last year based its reasoning on the technological problems of the current crop of blocking software. Even if you win this case, might you lose a future case if the technology improves?
A: The problem with filtering software that is never going to be solved is the fact that it's a mechanical device. It's a thing. No matter how good they make the thing, it's never going to be able to think or to make judgments or to discern between the various meanings of words and contexts. The fact that any mechanical device is ever going to do that on its own is ludicrous.

Why do you think you won in Philadelphia? What made those judges so leery of the Justice Department's defense of CIPA?
I think we had a really solid case. I think that we're not pulling any punches. We're saying this is the reality of libraries today, to provide ideas and information. What the government wants to do is put on devices that will limit access to information on the Internet. The people who are going to be most affected will be the very people who most need the information and most need the library to secure the information.

What I keep coming back to is that the First Amendment provides the mechanism that allows us to govern ourselves effectively. In this post-9/11 environment, when so many people are trying to limit the amount of information and ideas that are readily accessible because these ideas and information may be misused, it becomes even more important that libraries stand their ground.

The Justice Department's brief to the Supreme Court says that libraries always make "content-based judgments in selecting material for their collections" and that CIPA is nothing new.
It seems that whoever was writing the brief hasn't been in a public library for years. Their idea of what a public library is for is so far removed from reality. They're going back to what we call material selection or collection development. Every library has a material selection policy that determines what kind of material should be in the collection, given who they're serving, where they're serving and so on.

The problem is that these collection development policies and procedures arose because libraries, up until the beginning of the 1990s, have always been limited in terms of money and bricks and mortar. In other words, every librarian had a certain amount of money to spend on physical materials and this was tempered by the amount of space they had in which to keep these physical materials. Now, for the first time in the history of the world, we have access to information that is not dependent on either (funding) or a physical space

The government argues that "The Joy of Sex" and "The Joy of Gay Sex" may be available in libraries, but XXX videos and Hustler magazine usually aren't. Yet it's not difficult to find that content on the Internet, right?
Yes, but so what? It goes back to the fact that there are graphic materials in libraries--but the government may or may not want to recognize this. They mention "The Joy of Sex" and "The Joy of Gay Sex," and there are a lot of materials that talk about sexual relations. I imagine the Kama Sutra is available in many libraries.

Just because the government says certain things doesn't make them true. I guarantee you that the government has not looked at every library in the U.S. I guarantee you they have not tried to get materials via interlibrary loan if they're making that kind of statement.
http://news.com.com/2008-1082-991006.html








Until next week,

- js.







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

Current Week In Review


Recent WIRs -

http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15348 March 1st
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15292 Feb. 22nd
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15219 Feb. 15th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15128 Feb. 8th


Submit articles, press releases and letters in English - plain text only, no HTML - to jackspratts at lycos dot com. Please include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.

[TankGirl]

Your weekly p2p news digests are getting just better & better, Jack. The pictures and clearer formatting make the hefty content more readable. Excellent work, much appreciated!

- tg

[JackSpratts]

thanks tg, just trying to cover the bases in one easy to find spot.

- js.

[multi]

Program Hides Secret Messages in Executables
Kevin Poulsen

Netizens with extreme privacy needs got a new tool for their cyber utility belts recently with the release of an application that lets users hide secret messages in virtually any executable computer program, without changing the program's size or affecting its operation. The tool is called "Hydan," an old English word for the act of hiding something, and it's part of a research project by Columbia University computer science masters student Rakan El-Khalil, who showed off the program to a small group of open-source programmers and hackers gathered at the second annual CodeCon conference in San Francisco on Sunday. Hydan is a novel development in the field of steganography -- the science of burying secret messages in seemingly innocuous content. Popular stego programs operate on image and music files, where a secret missive can be hidden without altering the content enough to be perceived by human senses. But because they contain instructions for a computer's processor, executable files are less forgiving of tampering. Improperly changing a single bit of executable code can render an application completely unusable. El-Khalil's research focused on redundancies in the Intel x86 instruction set -- places where at least two different instructions are effectively the same. Each choice between two redundant options can represent a single bit of data. "The problem with program binaries is there is just not a lot of redundancy in them," said El-Khalil.

He found some of that useful redundancy in the instructions that tell the computer to add or subtract.

Future versions of Hydan will boost that capacity by finding different places to code data, such as in the order of a program's functions, and the order in which arguments are passed to those functions. For now, the application is still powerful enough to secretly stash the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in a single copy of Microsoft Word.

Beyond the covert uses, the technology could be used to attach a digital signature to an application, or to embed an executable with a virtual watermark.
http://securityfocus.com/news/2623

You can aquire the code here: http://www.crazyboy.com/hydan/

i reckon thats a bit scary..
ppl messing with rar or zip .exe's
or
microsoft using it in every file that runs on your system

[theflaco]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dutch Firm Opens New Front in Music File-Swapping

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Dutch Internet company on Thursday said it had developed software that could be used to compensate musicians whose songs are swapped online, a move it said could cut out the embattled music industry.

PGR BV, a privately held company has its own new file-sharing service known as The Honest Thief and is helping companies start up services like the popular Kazaa and Morpheus services in the Netherlands, which has emerged as something of a haven for such operations.

"We are the first, but certainly not the last, to eliminate the record companies from the equation," said Pieter Plass, founder of PGR BV.

Last March, an appeals court in Amsterdam ruled that Kazaa was not liable for any abuse of its software, which is being used by millions of people around the world to swap copyright-protected music, pictures and movies.

Plass says his firm has developed software, to be available in the second quarter of this year, enabling file-sharing providers to capitalize on the unused computing power of their members. That in turn would allow them to raise money to compensate artists for the use of their material, he said.

He said the software, known as ThankYou 2.0, enables a peer-to-peer file-sharing client to turn the computers of digital music fans into a node in a network of computers linked through the Internet.

By leasing out the unused processor power on those multiple PCs to research facilities -- a technology known as "grid computing" -- Plass said the software could generate revenues that would be distributed back to the musicians.

"The record companies are not dead yet, but they're certainly on life support. And The Honest Thief pulls the plug," said Plass, who is also chief executive of a construction-management firm in the Dutch city of Arnhem.

Plass said the record industry, which fought a legal battle to shutter Napster and has a lawsuit pending against Kazaa, had been "quite hostile" to his initiative.

Record-label executives believe the Netherlands ruling in favor of Kazaa will eventually be reversed and have said they will press ahead with an effort to enforce their rights world-wide.

"We don't believe that the Netherlands is a haven for unauthorized peer-to-peer services, and we have every intention of proving it in the courts. It's hard to see how someone can claim they are making some 'honest money' by stealing other peoples' works," said Jay Berman, Chairman and chief executive officer of International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...nestthief_dc_1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BTW
Thanks for the news JS

theflaco

[SA_Dave]

Thanks Jack!

Just caught up on the last 3 issues...

It's provided me with plenty of ideas for some long-delayed topics in "Area 25".

{I'll delve into that topic soon, I promise. This isn't going to be like my 20-page, uber-FAQ for AG I was working on sporadically for nearly a year before having to "incinerate" it. }

Originally posted by multi
i reckon thats a bit scary..
ppl messing with rar or zip .exe's
or
microsoft using it in every file that runs on your system

That may be true to an extent, but...

"Beyond the covert uses, the technology could be used to attach a digital signature to an application..."

How interesting! {I'm sure you can figure out what I mean by that. Cooee tg! }

[JackSpratts]

You're welcome!

Originally posted by theflaco
You missed this?

Last week.

- js.