Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review – April 5th, '03

[JackSpratts]

The Ascendancy of Peer-To-Peer

For several years the smart money's held that the real winners of the content vs. hardware wars would have to be hardware, simply because that business is so much the bigger of the two. That it hasn't worked out that way yet is thought to be more a matter of the RIAA's clout in congress and it's much more sophisticated lobbying style versus the younger tech industries' arrogance and missteps, more than any flaw in the theory.

People have pointed to the Sony Corporation, whose hardware receipts dwarf software, as the company to watch, for whichever way goes Sony so goes the industry. For all the lip service paid to protecting the record companies' copyrights, when push came to shove the hardware side of the operation would crush the music division if it meant keeping market share, or at least so went the theory.

A funny thing happened on the way to bank however - the hardware guys blinked. In case after case all the cool, forward-looking products smack in the middle of the tech storm came from other companies as Sony waited on the sidelines, afraid of angering content, and releasing compromised products handicapped by copy protection that consumers easily ignored.

From MP3 players like the iPod and sophisticated player-recorders like the Archos with it's FM modulator/demodulator, big drive capable of holding and playing movies and software that lets different units transfer files to each other without the need for wires, all the edgy must-have gear has come from Anywhere But Sony. It seemed the Japanese giant's products were notable more for what they didn't allow consumers to do than for what they did, so saddled with "Rights Management" roadblocks were they to protect Sony's highly visible but comparatively tiny Film and Music divisions. For a company that exploited gaps in the market by inventing whole new categories of consumer products like the Walkman, embarrassing questions were being asked about its ability to navigate the future. Where is this company going and what form will it take? If they serve two masters, why are both failing? How long will investors put up with mounting losses in this once unstoppable high tech consumer powerhouse? Indeed, will the company survive?

All that changed last month in an AlwaysOn interview with Tony Perkins when the boss came out with his take on the troubled conglomerate and in so doing created shock waves heard around the music world.

In a startling burst of candor for a company known more for its' plain vanilla press release platitudes than straight talk, chairman and CEO Nobuyuki Idei cleared the air and in no uncertain terms gave it to the music division like an angry Dad frustrated with a grown son who won't leave the house and won't get a job. Leaving no doubt in anyone's mind on which side Sony butters its Yen, he said

"The music industry has been spoiled. They have controlled the distribution of music by producing CDs, and thereby have also protected their profits. So they have resisted Internet distribution. Six years ago I asked Sony Music to start working with IBM to figure out how to offer secured distribution of their content over the Net. But nobody in Sony Music would listen. Then about six months ago, they started to panic."

What usually happens if the boss tells you to do something and six years goes by with no results? Well it's amazing that Tommy Motolla lasted as long as he did.

But Idei was just getting started. On the subject of the single most important aspect of a record companies profitability - the distribution business - and seemingly alone in the industry view that that peer-to-peer networking has changed everything permanently, he made an announcement that simply blew away every working record exec from NYC to LA,

"They have to change their mindset away from selling albums, and think about selling singles over the Internet for as cheap as possible-even 20 cents or 10 cents-and encourage file-sharing so they can also get micro-payments for these files. The music industry has to re-invent itself, we can no longer control distribution they way we used to."

And with that, everything changed.

This wasn't some unnamed ex music store hippy with a better idea and plenty of weed in his bowl but the top guy in the biggest consumer electronics company in the world, the company that owns Columbia Pictures and Records, Sony Music, PlayStation. And he was dropping the gauntlet.

"Encourage file sharing"? Sell singles for "10 cents"? It was enough to put Hillary Rosen and Jack Valenti on life support, and it goes a long way towards explaining why both are leaving their respective trade groups or making plans to do so. You could hear guys all over California checking out how many Escalade payments they had left in their books. It was time to go to back to work for a living. The gravy train had derailed, reality was coming on hard.

Then within days the other shoe dropped, unexpectedly delivering the final devastating blow in silent headlines on websites and newspapers across the world.

All the pamphleteering, the PR campaigns, the TV and magazine ads, the in house theater ads, the strident preaching from wealthy artists, the court challenges, the lawsuits, the campus threats, the campus expulsions, the campus arrests, the Congressional Porn Hearings, the Congressional Terrorist Hearings, the endless Congressional hand wringing, the DMCA arrests, the losing DMCA show trials – all the combined might of an overwhelmingly powerful industry with overwhelmingly powerful friends directed solely at little programs used by kids in their bedrooms to kill time and swap tunes with each other and in less than three years it came to this:

Internet file-sharing bigger than record business
AP

SACRAMENTO - Free peer-to-peer music file-sharing has become larger than the multibillion dollar recording industry with a growth trend that has become "fundamentally unstoppable," a media analyst told a state Senate committee exploring Internet piracy on Thursday.

There it was, and that was it. Peer-To-Peer was bigger than the record industry.

Books will be written, recriminations will be rampant, powerful people with reputations to protect and plenty of money for the job will try to explain away their failures and pass the blame to somebody or something else. We’ll all be treated to fascinating accounts of coke fueled screaming matches, gunfights in executive suites and the requisite corporate guys who have their hands on the power buttons but haven’t a clue which ones to push. In years to come some kind of consensus will emerge that puts such a neat spin on it that first year business students will cluck with smarmy superiority over how stupid those older guys were who lost the record business. But that’s their problem and it’s down the road.

Right now there’s only this:

It’s over.

Peer-to-Peer won.

You and I are now the record business.

And that’s a pretty cool thing.

So how about we do something fun with it?










Enjoy,

Jack.










High-tech fails to stop the music going round
Ben Harper's CD has a copy block, but foiling it takes only minutes.
Peter Griffin

I've got to admit this - I broke the law researching this story. But it was done to verify facts.

The web was crawling with stories of how easy it had become to crack EMI's "copyright control protection", the brains the company embeds in its CDs to stop people copying them.

Side-stepping EMI's controls is not illegal, but copying the music of its artists to a digital device or blank CD is.

New EMI discs will carry the blocking technology, which music buyers can check for by looking for the copy control symbol - a white play button in a black circle.

But a simple test done by the Herald shows how easy it is to beat EMI's controls.

We were able to copy a number of new EMI titles - Ben Harper's Diamonds On The Inside and Ether Song from Turin Brakes among them - with minimal time and effort and some widely available freeware titles we won't name here.

The programs break down the file structure of a CD, separating the song files from the copy protection software.

The songs can then be extracted, converted to .wav audio files and copied to the computer's hard drive.

The process takes less than a minute a song, and the user gets a number of large, high-quality audio files that can be played back using most standard audio players such as Real Player or Windows Media Player.

A second piece of freeware, downloadable in less than five minutes, converts the .wav files to .mp3 files - enabling them to be burned to CD and played on home stereo systems, car CD players and computer CD drives.

So much for copyright control protection.

The whole process took about 30 minutes - and that was the first try. Now the software is on my computer, I could repeat the entire process in less than five minutes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydispl...ection=general

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Peer-to-Peer Goes to Battle
Joseph Menn

A technology made famous by teenage digital music fans and since adopted by some of the world's biggest companies is making headway with the U.S. military.

Various forms of peer-to-peer technology, which allows computer users to bypass central servers and connect directly with one another, are being used to plan battlefield operations in Iraq and deliver humanitarian aid.

Microsoft Corp.'s NetMeeting software and programs from Groove Networks Inc. and Appian Corp. are part of the military's shift away from massive central computer servers toward more flexible models that let users work on joint projects and share information -- even when they are cut off from high-speed communication links.

Commanders in the Persian Gulf use collaboration software to chart progress, drawing on one another's maps during videoconferences several times a day, said J.P. Angelone, who heads the enterprise capabilities center at the Defense Information Systems Agency.

The data are kept on individuals' computers instead of a central server. When one person disconnects from the network, he can keep working on a personal version of the material. Logging in again automatically sends updates to the other participants.

"It's helpful because you reduce the physical distance to connect," Angelone said. "If you've got a command or a tactical unit in the area of responsibility, there's no sense coming all the way back to tap into a server."

The technology is largely off the shelf, relying on NetMeeting and audio and video add-ins for computers.

"Peer-to-peer" is a catchall phrase that describes a general approach; the actual systems vary widely in the way they're set up and in how decentralized they are.

The defunct song-swapping service Napster, for example, was a hybrid system that used central servers to direct its users to one another and then dropped out of the picture. A successor service, Gnutella, is more purely peer-to-peer, with no central index. Individuals use the Internet to find one another through small hubs, without a single point of failure that could crash the entire system if it shutdown.

The military is likewise employing a range of designs. The NetMeeting system used by commanders in the Iraq war falls somewhere in the middle.

The most decentralized so far may be in Army war games, which have thousands of participants connected to one another through phones and other hand-held devices.

"In the last couple of years, we've been able to go beyond relatively small peer-to-peer environments to massively large-scale ones," said Michael Macedonia, chief technology officer for the Army's Simulation, Training and Instrumentation command.

Groove's systems rely less on central machines than the NetMeeting system does. Nongovernmental aid workers from several countries are using Groove software to coordinate with one another and the military in southern Iraq.

"Usually, the people in the field are not connected to the Net," said Groove Senior Marketing Director Andrew Mahon. "But they can fill out electronic forms, answering questions about whether the water is polluted, whether there are any doctors in the area. When they get back to a communications vehicle, even with low bandwidth, they can send the information to [U.S. operations in] Kuwait and to others in the decision-making process."

A side benefit, Mahon said, is that no one controls the data: They are not all stored at the Pentagon or at an aid organization such as Save the Children. "Since no one owns the data, the dynamics of the space are fairly trust-engendering."
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology

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From Desert Storm to Desert Swarm
"Netwar" proponent John Arquilla says info-tech advances clear the way for a military that can "overwhelm an opponent's ability to respond"

Over the last decade, corporations have become faster and leaner, thanks to their embrace of the Internet and communications technologies. And as the war in Iraq demonstrates, the military has been doing some networking of its own as well. Indeed, if Gulf War I was the first conflict to underscore the use of high technology, the current conflict is the first to spotlight the armed forces' new network-centric warfare. The idea is to link the military's sensors, weapons, communication systems, commanders, and soldiers into a giant computing grid that gives U.S. troops the clearest battlefield picture ever known, attempting to lift the fabled fog of war (see BW Online, 1/7/03, "The Network Is the Battlefield").

No person is more responsible for driving the military to embrace this new doctrine than John Arquilla. Armed with a PhD in international relations from Stanford University, Arquilla first shook up the military Establishment with Cyberwar Is Coming, a 1993 RAND think-tank study co-written with David Ronfeldt. Since then, he has further articulated a vision for the future of warfare with two more radical treatises, also co-written with Ronfeldt, The Advent of Netwar, published in 1996, and Networks and Netwars, published in 2001. The soft-spoken Arquilla, talking from his office at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., recently discussed with BusinessWeek Computers Editor Spencer E. Ante the promise, perils, and challenges of network-centric warfare. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation:

Q: What's new about this war?
A: The biggest difference is we have information systems that grant accuracy to our weapons that we've never had before. In the first Gulf War, only 10% of the bombs were smart. Now, 90% are smart. We can strike with pinpoint accuracy and truly sever the links between Saddam Hussein's regime and his forces in his field.

We're using swarming tactics -- striking in multiple places to overwhelm an opponent's ability to respond. The swarming approach is a more appropriate model for understanding what we're doing -- more than "shock and awe." Iraq is an opportunity to move from Desert Storm to Desert Swarm. Whether we can carry this off, though, remains to be seen.

Q: How are soldiers using the network?
A: The military is starting to use the Web in combat situations. In Afghanistan, an innovation called the tactical Web page was introduced for the first time. It was initially thought to be used for logistics. But Special Forces soldiers quickly learned it was something they could use to become far more powerful.

Q: What's on the Web page?
A: It would show text of soldier communications in near real-time. A Webmaster staffer would transmit communications. There were also little video feeds that showed views from Predators [unmanned spy planes] during operations. It's basically raw data. It's about putting info before the relevant parties. It's not something a general would look at. Good generalship largely means giving up power today.

Q: What's the value of the tactical Internet?
A: It facilitated the swapping of combat-relevant information. We have big plans for the future though. We want to go to the next stage, past Napster. We want to give a peer-to-peer computing capability.

The whole point is to use Internet connectivity for the tremendous efficiency it provides over every system we've used. A lot of U.S. businesses have been decontrolling or decentralizing for the last 15 years. We look to the business community for inspiration. Networked organizational forms are highly efficient, and we like to emulate that.
http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...9330_tc124.htm

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“If being a pirate is wrong, I don't think I want to be right.”

Book Pirates and the People Who've Never Heard of Them
Jeff Kirvin

"Piracy" is a hot word in electronic media of all stripes, but it's more sizzle than steak for ebooks.

D'arr, Matey. I was accused of being a pirate recently. I committed the heinous crime of pointing out the names of Usenet newsgroups where I occasionally download home-scanned editions of books I already own in paper form.

Personally, I didn't see this as a transgression. As I said, I only download the ebook versions of books I already own -- with an occassional exception I'll get to in a moment -- and format shifting is a legally protected activity, at least for now. I prefer to read ebooks over paper and there's no substantive difference between reading ebook versions of paper books I own that I downloaded off the net or scanning them in myself from my own paper copies.

The ensuing discussion did get me thinking about digital piracy of print works. I've stated before that I don't really think pirate editions are wrong. They're generally scanned versions of books that are out of print and thus unavailable for sale anyway. But more to the point, the pirate market is just a minor blip on the radar. This isn't Napster, folks.

Contrary to popular belief, Napster wasn't the dawn of digital music trading. Long before Napster came along, MP3s were flying around the net via pirate FTP sites. These sites were popular, but only among the geek set. You had to know the name, or sometimes just the numeric IP address, of the site, the user id and password to log on and in many cases, you had to upload two or three new songs that you ripped yourself before you could download a song you didn't have. In short, the technical know-how required to use these sites was too high for average computer users. Music trading didn't hit critical mass until Napster came along and made the process easy enough for anyone to do it.

Book piracy is largely irrevelant, pure and simple. Even if someone comes up with a Napster-easy way to do it, it will never be as popular as music trading. Let's face it, our society is much more interested in music than reading. Baen has proven that even giving ebooks away ends up improving the bottom line by beefing up print sales.

The same guy that brought up my pirate transgression made another interesting point, though. He stated that he wanted to see more older but still in copyright books available as ebooks, and he was afraid that piracy would remove the incentive for publishers to create these books. He may have a point. In the long run, though, I don't think it matters.

Look at it this way. These older books are out of print. Modern bookstores only sell new books that move. They keep a selection of the classics on hand because classics sell -- that's why they're still classics -- but for the most part you won't find a book in a retail bookstore older than two years. If you want a legitimate paper edition, you have to skulk around used bookstores until you find it. And when you buy it from the used bookstore, the publisher and author get nothing from the sale. For that matter, when you buy a used book from Amazon, which list used books on the same page as new editions of the same book, the publisher and the author get nothing from the sale.

Bottom line, how is this different from downloading a scanned edition from Usenet? The publisher and author get the same big fat zero either way. If publishers aren't interested in scanning and epublishing their backlists, they're only hurting themselves. The technobiliophiles out there will fill the vacuum with scanned editions of old paper copies, creating a vast digital library of "used" books that generate no revenue, just like paper used books.

Saying that the existence of scanned pirate editons eliminates the incentive for publishers to create legitimate electronic editions of their backlist looks at the process from the wrong direction. The decision of publishers not to digitize their backlist leads to amateur scanned editions. By not making ebooks available, publishers are essentially saying they're not interested in that revenue stream, just like they do when they allow a book to fall out of print so that further sales of that book will be in used bookstores that do not compensate the publisher

I've been asked what I would do if my books were pirated. I'd jump up and down. I'd sputter. I'd stammer. The veins would pop out on my neck. I'd be so freaking happy that I'd be uncharacteristically speachless. Finding one or more of my books on a pirate newsgroup or IRC channel would mean that someone read my book and liked it enough to recommend it to others with no financial incentive to do so. You can't buy PR like that. It's invaluable. And let's face it, as a relative unknown -- Between Heaven and Hell and Do Over! have done all right for indie ebooks, but I'm no Stephen King -- I need all the buzz I can get.
http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/

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Teen faces new trial in piracy case
Reuters

A Norwegian court will retry a teen whose DVD-copying exploits made him a hero to hackers worldwide, in a case that will be closely monitored by Hollywood.

In January, an Oslo court acquitted 19-year-old Jon Johansen of charges that he developed a computer program that enabled mass copying of movies on DVDs.

Hollywood studios accused Johansen of developing the software and posting his findings on the Internet.

Johansen's attorney, Halvor Manshaus, said Tuesday that he had received a letter from the Borgarting appeals court, stating that it had set aside eight days from Dec. 2 for the appeal hearing.

"I regard our prospects for the appeal as positive. We are in a stronger position now than ever before since we won the first time,'' Manshaus said.

The first-round acquittal was a blow to Hollywood, which is on a global campaign to crack down on piracy. The U.S. motion picture industry estimates piracy costs it $3 billion annually in lost sales.

The Motion Picture Association of America, representing major Hollywood studios such as Walt Disney, Universal Studios and Warner Bros., filed the original complaint at Norway's Economic Crime Unit.

The Oslo district court ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove that Johansen's program--called DeCSS--had been used for illegal copying of DVDs, saying he was entitled to copy legally purchased DVDs.

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

There is no specific legislation in Norway that bars the digital duplication of copyrighted material, but Johansen's program has been made a criminal offense in the United States under the Digital Copyright Millennium Act.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=2487095

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Verizon Says Subpoena Process in Piracy Case Violates Constitution
Josh Long

In a fight with the recording industry over whether it should be required to divulge the names of its Internet customers, Verizon Communications Inc. is poised to make its case before an appeals court based on the First Amendment and an article of the Constitution designed to block abuse of the judicial system's authority.

The case pits the recording industry's battle to block piracy versus the desire of ISPs to protect the privacy of their customers and limit the number of names they are required to disclose to a third party.

The recording industry is winning the fight. A federal judge ruled in January Verizon must disclose the identity of a customer the Recording Industry Association of America alleges distributed more than 600 music files through peer-to-peer software without the permission of the copyright holders.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear the case and has granted an expedited schedule, says Sarah Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel, Verizon. Written briefs making the legal arguments likely will be due in May, she says, and the three-member appeals court will hear oral arguments in the fall.

Meantime, Verizon has asked a federal court judge to stay his decision while the appeals court hears the case. If U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates denies a stay, Verizon will seek a stay before the appeals court, Deutsch says. The RIAA opposed the stay.

On Tuesday Bates heard arguments over a second subpoena the RIAA issued last month to Verizon. Verizon has asked the court to quash the subpoena. The judge said he would "get back to us shortly," possibly within a week, Deutsch says.
http://www.phoneplusmag.com/hotnews/34h3145612.html

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What's So Free About This DVD?
Michelle Delio

Go to any gathering of open-source developers and someone is bound to tell you that free software isn't free -- not free as in "free lunch," anyway. Free as in "free speech."

Such politics have sparked another technological transformation, this time freeing a DVD from the constraints imposed by copyright-protection technology.

The documentary film Revolution OS was released Friday on DVD. The film features interviews with Linus Torvalds of Linux fame; Richard Stallman of the GNU/Free software project; Eric Raymond, author of Cathedral and the Bazaar (a treatise on marketing and open source); Rob Malda of hacker discussion and news site Slashdot; Larry Augustin, co-founder of VA Linux Systems; and others.

In the spirit of open source, the DVD was released without CSS, the content scrambling system used on most commercial DVDs.

J.T.S. Moore, the film's creator, said it's an experiment in going "CSS-free" -- one he fervently hopes won't blow up in his face. He hopes his film won't be pirated, and that his success will encourage other filmmakers not to use CSS.

According to the DVD Copy Control Association, a nonprofit corporation that licenses CSS to manufacturers of DVD hardware, CSS' primary purpose is to stop piracy.

But some feel CSS restricts far too many consumer rights in the name of copyright control.

"CSS is a sort of electronic-thought policeman that comes home with you, and works for the media owner," said open-source advocate Bruce Perens. "It controls what you can do in your living room with a disc that you've paid for. It prevents many legitimate uses in the name of stopping one illegitimate use."

Perens worked at Pixar Animation Studios for 12 years and is also one of the founders of the Open Source Initiative. He said he has sympathy for, and understanding of, both sides of the copy-protection argument. But he firmly believes CSS isn't the answer.

The copy-protection scheme stops people from easily making copies of a DVD for personal use -- even as backups or to view on a computer that doesn't have a DVD drive. CSS also makes it difficult to view DVDs on many Linux computers.

To get a license that allows CSS to be incorporated into a DVD player or other device, a company has to sign the CSS licensing agreement, something many Linux developers refuse to do. As a result, the majority of computers running Linux cannot use DVDs unless their owners opt to use DeCSS, a utility that decodes DVDs, allowing them to be viewed on a Linux computer.

The entertainment industry has taken several cases to court, alleging that the use of DeCSS violates the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which prohibits anyone from distributing software designed to circumvent copy protection.

Moore is concerned that his CSS-free DVD could result in unauthorized copying and screening of the film. The film has already been made available for download on a few websites and screened sans his permission at various small technology conventions and colleges.

He self-financed Revolution OS and worked for years without a salary to make the film. For those reasons, he said, it's important to him that people purchase the film rather than pirate it.

But despite his concerns, Moore said he couldn't rationalize releasing a DVD about open-source and free software that many users of that software would be unable to view. He's equally uncomfortable with supporting what he believes are increasingly Draconian copyright control techniques.

Open-source advocate Eric Raymond said he doubts open-source developers will pirate the film in great numbers.

"Moore's action is a giveback to the community, and one that will be warmly appreciated," Raymond said.

"I'm not sure that will reduce the incidence of copying, though, since we're already pretty straight- laced about other peoples' IP (intellectual property) rights. Moore's big risk of being pirated was never from us Internet hackers, but rather from the cracker and warez-d00d crowds."

Perens concurs.

"I suspect that some people will be paid by various media companies to deliberately pass the film around, just to rain on our parade," he said. "The media companies and their trade associations, the MPAA and the RIAA, are that Machiavellian.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58253,00.html

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Movielink: Short Lines, Long Wait
Katie Dean

While the music industry feverishly tries to keep up with the rampant piracy on peer-to-peer sites, the movie industry is taking steps to beef up the legitimate delivery of movies online.

Movielink, the online video-rental service co-owned by five major studios -- MGM, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Universal and Paramount -- has yet to interest mainstream consumers, but some attendees at the Digital Media Summit here said the service is a good strategic move.

The service, which launched in November, currently has a library of 250 films. Viewers pay between $3 and $5 to download a film and store it on their PC for up to 30 days. Once they start watching the film, they have 24 hours to finish viewing it, at which point it is automatically deleted. Users can try the service free by downloading the Oscar-winning animated short The ChubbChubbs.

On average, it takes about 80 minutes to download one movie, said Movielink CEO Jim Ramo, who spoke Thursday at the conference.

The company also recently announced an agreement with Artisan Entertainment to expand the Movielink library.

After studying the piracy problems in the music industry, Ramo said he hoped the movie industry would be able to "stay on top of this."

"The movie companies are determined to not make the same mistake they made with HBO or (that) the music companies made with MTV -- letting a third party intervene with their distribution system," said Craig Ullman, a principal with Leto Entertainment, a television production and marketing company. "It's a smart move. It's trying to get ahead of the curve rather than getting stuck behind it."

"This really keeps the control in their hands," added Steve Tobenkin, president of Leto Entertainment.
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58255,00.html

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Fox Sets Deal for Downloadable Movies
Jon Healey

News Corp. subsidiary 20th Century Fox plans to make its movies available online for the first time, offering downloadable versions of selected titles through Marina del Rey-based CinemaNow Inc. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to be announced today, were not disclosed.

Fox announced an Internet movie joint venture in 2001 with Walt Disney Co., but that project was shelved last year because of antitrust concerns before it got off the ground.

The deal calls for Fox to make all of its new movies available through CinemaNow as soon as they are released to cable and satellite TV pay-per-view services -- about 45 days after they reach video rental stores, as well as a limited number of older titles.

The downloadable movies have electronic locks that deter copying and stop playback 24 hours after first viewed.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...s%2Dtechnology

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Students Really Dig P2P at Radford University
"If the packateer happens to go down for some reason, then P2P sharing controls 90 per cent of the bandwidth on the Radford server."
Jeremy Butterfield

Dr. Dan Davidson, a professor of business law at RU, believes any copyright infringement to be as bad as the next. Breaking the law is breaking the law. When asked about the RIAA v. Verizon case Davidson believed it to be going right along with other cases involving P2P sites.

"The court didn't overturn a decision, it said that P2P was a copyright violation. It doesn't seem like a ground breaking case," said Davidson.

Although RIAA v. Verizon does agree with other cases involving P2P this case's ramifications could be much different. Ramifications could result in individual user names from sites like KaZaa being released to copyright owners who believe the user has infringed on their copyright. Copyright holders could accomplish this with no judicial oversight by only having to obtain a subpoena from a district court clerk.

This could mean big problems for the students at RU and other universities. The university community and its server can be a host for hundreds of thousands of downloads due to the fast connection it offers. This is not just for students on campus downloading music, but also serves users from around the world downloading from students. "Networking wise it's (P2P) killed us (RU)," said Ed Oakes the Director of Academic Computing at RU. Oakes related how RU was forced to purchase a $25,000 Packateer in '00-'01 to amend the enormous strain P2P puts on the server.

A Packateer controls the amount of bandwidth the server allows to actions being performed on it. P2P was taking over the bandwidth, according to Oakes, when Napster first hit the scene. Before there were any major decisions made with Napster by the courts, RU was forced to disable Napster from the campus server. This was due to Napster's control of RU's server. Every other function of the server was slowed down significantly while file sharing over Napster was being used. This still happens on occasion.

"If the packateer happens to go down for some reason, then P2P sharing controls 90 per cent of the bandwidth on the Radford server," said Oakes

Some believe that with the rampant spread of P2P sharing, MP3 players, and CD/DVD burners that copyright laws are outdated and need to be changed to follow the times. Professor Phillup Lewis, director of technology training at RU, believes that "what's going on in music now is challenging ownership and giving back to the artists by taking it out of the hands of the conglomerates."

Lewis believes that with the people in charge of mainstream it has actually thrown the big companies out of the loop. It is nearing the time when they are not the deciders of what is cool, in, fashionable, and popular. The big companies may be listening to what the people want to hear and providing that rather than telling them what they want to hear, believes Lewis.
http://www.thetartan.com/vnews/displ.../3e80eeca2391c

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Soulseek – New Version. Everybody’s favorite unknown file sharing product gets an update. This one addresses the bane of P2Ps - the dreaded “Memory Leak.” New version tackles other issues too. http://www.slsk.org/download.html

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From a Slim Black Box, Shared Knowledge Streams Wirelessly
Thomas Fitzgerald

The Martian NetDrive Wireless sounds as if it might be a device capable of connecting you with extraterrestrial neighbors. Its reach is not quite that far, but it does allow people who are not in the same room to share data.

The device, a wireless storage system from Martian Technology, stores files in a central location so they can be shared among users on a home or office network. Any user on the network can call up digital photos, music files or documents, and files are backed up in the central base.

The Martian NetDrive Wireless is essentially a computer programmed to handle the single task of sharing files. It runs a customized version of the Linux operating system, has a fanless processor (for noise reduction), and offers 32 megabytes of random access memory, enough for file sharing on smaller networks.

The device, a nondescript black box, can be tucked away in a closet, garage or basement. It communicates wirelessly (using the 802.11b Wi-Fi standard) with Windows, Mac and Linux computers, and its hard drive comes in two sizes: 40 gigabytes ($399), and 120 gigabytes ($479). It can be ordered at www.martian.com.

Steve Dossick, the president of Martian Technology, a small Silicon Valley company, said the Linux system provided flexibility for future enhancements that will be free to customers. One of those enhancements, wireless printing, will soon allow users to attach a printer to one of the unit's several U.S.B. ports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/03/te...ts/03driv.html

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Film Studios Target Piracy at Screenings
Claudia Eller and Michael Cieply

The security officer seen scanning the crowd with night vision binoculars at last week's media screening of Warner Bros.' "Dreamcatcher" wasn't looking for pockets of critical resistance. He was testing new anti-piracy measures aimed squarely at Hollywood's pre-release promotional machinery.

Warner and the other studios are working closely with their trade group, the Motion Picture Assn. of America, to search for potential high-tech film thieves among the thousands of reporters, critics and assorted hangers-on who populate the movie industry's busy screening circuit. The MPAA is devising official anti-piracy guidelines, referred to as "best practices recommendations," for the studios.

People who attended at least two recent Warner screenings -- including the one on March 18 for "Dreamcatcher" at the ArcLight Hollywood theater -- said night-vision-equipped security guards walked the darkened aisles looking for evidence of illicit taping.

Media members and their guests were told to leave cell phones, pagers and other electronic devices outside the theater. People were then scanned with an electronic wand to ensure compliance.

A representative of the AOL Time Warner Inc.-owned studio warned that anyone lifting images would be "prosecuted to the full extent of the law," according to one person who attended. "Piracy prevention is a top priority for us, and we are instituting numerous, across-the-board deterrents," said Warner Bros. spokeswoman Barbara Brogliatti. An executive with News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox said that in the last couple of weeks the studio banned cell phones at screenings and already had been successful using night vision gear to catch pirates.

In January, Fox nabbed a guestusing a camcorder to record its big action movie "Daredevil" at a media screening. Fox executives said they called authorities, but declined to say whether an arrest was made. "We take this incredibly seriously, and we have instituted a variety of measures at screenings, including checking the projection booths," said Jeffrey Godsick, Fox studio's executive vice president of marketing.

All of the top Hollywood studios have designated anti-piracy executives who work in tandem with the MPAA in battling movie piracy -- a problem that has grown worse in recent years with the ease of digital duplication. "We know that these pre-theatrical word-of-mouth, marketing research and media screenings are a source of piracy," said MPAA spokeswoman Marta Grutka.

Ken Jacobsen, the MPAA's senior vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy, said the trade group can account for 28 pirated movies since May that surfaced before their theatrical release in the U.S."All were camcorded copies which would have occurred at some type of screening," Jacobsen said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,3457384.story

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Bootleggers, Roll Your DATs
Steve Knopper

The day after Tori Amos shocked fans in England with a piano rendition of the Eagles' "Desperado," MP3s of her performance showed up in Nashville, Tennessee, where David Mobley downloaded one from alt.binaries.tori-amos. "The Tori community is loosely organized," says the 25-year-old cable TV employee, "but it gets shows to people quickly."

Fans have traded live bootlegs for decades ("Got that 'Dark Star' from Cleveland '73?"). But the tech - gadgets like laptop recorders, portable DAT players, and pen-sized microphones, as well as distribution methods like SHNapster and FTP servers - keeps getting better. With the upgrades, trading communities have spread well beyond the Deadheads. It's easy to find concerts by Beck, Oasis, and Radiohead. "It becomes, 'How much time do I have in the day to burn it?'" says John Bartol, a 35-year-old IT consultant from Alexandria, Virginia, who has been taping and trading concerts since 1984. "There's always more to grab."

Among the booters' most inventive tactics: using wireless radio receivers that capture signals sent to the in-ear monitors musicians wear to hear one another onstage. Fans can record a pristine feed of the entire show from outside the venue.

Obtaining copies of pirated performances has also gotten easier - plugging an artist's name and "bootleg" into Google is surprisingly effective. Or download the shareware app Direct Connect to get into SHNapster. That's not to say it's legal. By law, all bootlegs - even free trades - are forbidden. Or are they? Search "official bootlegs." For $10 to $20 you can download Pearl Jam and Phish shows on sanctioned sites. Wanna bet how long before they hit unsanctioned sites?

Find recordings here:
Ryan Adams: hometown.aol.com/hew40/homepage.html
Pearl Jam: www.pearljambootlegs.com
Radiohead: pw1.netcom.com/~kenko1/Radiohead.htm
Bruce Springsteen: www.joosse.org
Lucinda Williams: users3.ev1.net/~svwalker/lucinda_williams.htm
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/play_pr.html

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Will Broadband ISPs Become Censors?
Industry players consider laws to ensure open access
Scarlet Pruitt

As Internet architecture moves from dial-up to broadband access in much of the United States, some worry that the major cable operators that provide the high-speed networks will control users' access to content.

"If we don't do something now, broadband access will be based on the TV model--it will all be about directing marketing and advertising to your household," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. He and others expressed concerns at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in New York this week.

Chester fears a broadband world in which cable operators steer users to content, services, and applications that the provider or its partners own. He wonders whether cable operators might also impede access to competitors' offerings by slowing users' connection to those sites or blocking them altogether.

"It's about bucks and bytes, not about free speech," Chester said.

However, Michael Schooler, deputy general counsel of the National Cable Television Association, dismissed claims that broadband providers will control users' access to Web offerings.

"[Cable operators] don't do this now, and I don't think it's going to happen in the future," he said.

Regulatory Role

Chester and others argue for either allowing ISPs open access to the high-speed networks or passing regulations to stop broadband providers from limiting users' access to Web content and services. But Schooler believes that these measures are excessive.

"We don't want to live under an uncertain regulatory environment," Schooler said. "Normally in Washington we consider regulation if there is a market failure."

The spirited debate comes as the Federal Communications Commission considers whether it should adopt rules for broadband consumers, according to the speakers.

Paula H. Boyd, regulatory counsel to Microsoft, said the issue is important to the software giant. Microsoft is asking the FCC to adopt a rule that prevents high-speed network providers from limiting consumers' access to content, services, and applications on the Web, she said.

"We want to compete in the marketplace for consumers without intervention from network folks," Boyd said. She added that Microsoft expects its software will be downloaded from the Web in the future, and that access to applications could be impeded if a network provider is looking after its own interests.

Still, Schooler, who was the only cable industry representative debating the issue at CFP, argued that fettered access has so far not been an issue. He also questioned large Internet players' motives for regulatory relief in the still-nascent marketplace.


"You should be suspicious of industry leaders' advance efforts for a regulatory fix," Schooler said. "What do they have planned?"
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110131,00.asp

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anything box

is offering an entire cd zip package, songs and artwork, ab-so-lute-ly free. as a matter of fact the tos practically insists you give it away and requests you report anyone with the bad form to actually sell the thing. so don't.

yeah yeah big deal right? who cares? they probably suck.

um.

no.

they're actually very good. really. assuming (as always) the music runs to your taste. which is a youthfull, pretty, somewhat swedish warner bros tv background kindasound (think gilmore girls, smallville etc).

anyway, enuf of the chatter.

go check out their (40 meg) platter.

pass it on: hillary rosen loves this band

i made that last part up.

- js

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CBS rejects Gateway ad for digital music deal
Mike Freeman

Gateway Inc. tried to buy air time this week during the CBS Evening News for a hip new commercial touting the digital music features of the company's personal computers.

CBS's answer to Poway-based Gateway: Thanks but no thanks.

Gateway's ad offers a digital music package as part of the purchase of any new PC, including 50 free songs from an Internet music provider. The ad also mentions a new Gateway Web site, www.ripburnrespect.com. On the site, Gateway urges visitors to contact Congress if they think anti-piracy proposals by the record labels have gone too far.

But the network rejected the 30-second spot – and as much as $40,000 in revenue – because it believes the ad took a stand in the lingering controversy over digital copyrights. "We don't accept advocacy advertising, and this falls under that umbrella," said Dana McClintock, a network spokesman. CBS's move highlights the awkward waltz under way between media companies and technology firms over the digital piracy of songs and movies.

CBS is a division of Viacom International, the media conglomerate that owns Paramount Pictures. Viacom has been among the most vocal media companies lobbying Congress for tougher rules regarding digital piracy.

"We think there is a lot of confusion out there – some of it as a result of the campaign that has been waged by the recording industry – about what's legal and what's not," said Brad Williams, a Gateway spokesman.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/b...29gateway.html

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Study: Music File-Sharing 'Cemented' In American Psyche

Report Suggests Industry Should Embrace Digital Distribution

It has already upset the recording industry -- and appears to show no signs of letting up. A new study says the idea of peer-to-peer file-sharing is "cemented" in the American psyche. The report by Internet-trend watcher Big Champagne says only 9 percent of those who download files believing they are doing anything wrong -- making the practice "fundamentally unstoppable." The Big Champagne report says instead of fighting file-swapping, the record industry should embrace digital distribution of music.

The recording industry, begs to differ -- and is continuing its efforts to fight piracy. The study was presented to a California state Senate committee looking into the issue of Internet piracy.
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/...54/detail.html



Get Hollywood on the phone, plus new entertainment options for PCs.
Coming Soon: Movies on Your Cell Phone
Anne B. McDonald

LOS ANGELES -- Digital music and movies are making their way to mobile devices at a frantic pace. At IHollywood Forum's Digital Media Summit conference here this week, companies are unveiling services for delivering full-motion video to your cell phone, as well as showing new and innovative ways to bring audio and video content to your PC.

T-Mobile says full-motion video and sound will be available on the new Nokia 3650 wireless phone with the company's service. The announcement marks the first time a U.S. wireless carrier has offered full-motion video with sound on a cell phone.

The $199 phone will support RealNetworks' RealOne media player and service, which will also appear soon on select Pocket PC products. The service lets users stream live video of news and sports, as well as downloaded music, video clips, and movie trailers.

In addition, the Nokia 3650 features a built-in camcorder, VGA camera, and audio recorder. Users can record their own short videos, tap in an e-mail address, and send the clips across the country on T-Mobile's high-speed data network.

Movie News

Hollywood and the recording industry are very interested in putting their products--both video and audio--into your hands. Studios and labels are developing new ways to deliver movies and music to your mobile devices, as well as more-innovative ways to bring them to your PC.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110043,00.asp

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Is Radio Still King?

With the severe decline in the diversity of sounds and, in this observer's humble opinion, the quality of material broadcast on modern rock and mix stations, I have become like all of those hippies older than me, a revisionist. You may know the type: they believe rock 'n’ roll died when the media stopped using that expression, replacing it with just "rock." They are the dinosaurs that complain there hasn't been any great music released since 1974 (or 1976 or 1979) and that no new groups that deserve any fanfare. If you’re only exposed to the material on the cookie-cutter radio stations that populate the nation (the majority of them owned by the same super-corporation with almost identical playlists) you may swallow this view lock, stock and barrel. If they really anted to help the music industry, major record labels, as well as commercial radio stations would realize this narrow programming needs to change.

Right now everyone in the industry is shivering in his or her collective boots due to the continued proliferation of file swapping on the Internet. Outside of the much publicized court battles to shut down peer-to-peer music sites, the industry has attempted to fight back by increasing the value- added content on commercial releases. The addition of special audio mixes and DVD extras, videos and exclusive behind the scenes content is nice, but the biggest problem with the industry is the inability to embrace change. The old ways were to throw money at a cute band/ singer and hire the best songwriters either to massage a group's sound or provide well-crafted but emotionally vacuous material. Sure, in the short-term we’ll see the success of ,say, a Lisa Marie Presley, but for the long-term good of the music industry the concept of developing artists before expecting results has been lost. In sports and other professional music circles, there isn't the desire to sell style over substance. Could you imagine the first chair violinist position for a national symphony being offered to a 16-year-old boy or girl solely on the basis of them being cute?

Among the many structural and financial problems it faces, the music industry needs to put more emphasis on the "music" rather than the "industry" portion of the current equation. So it comes back to the role of radio. Back in the Golden Era of music, radio was king. There was diversity on Top 40 stations. Different styles of music from folk to hard rock could be heard back to back and there was general acceptance. Sure the shit sometimes floated to the top, but generally those less-memorable songs have been forgotten by everyone except the hardiest fans of these groups. Simply put, if radio in North America was better, the music industry would be better too.http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2003/03/2808.cfm

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Internet2 Project launches P2P working group

The Internet2 Project - a consortium of 200 universities, in partnership with the private sector and government, that is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies, in order to accelerate adoption of next generation internet technologies – has initiated a peer-to-peer working group that will research P2P, looking at best practices, trends and collaboration efforts.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15700

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Copyproof CDs moving to market?
John Borland

Copy-protection technology on music CDs may be headed for the U.S. market in bulk this year for the first time, according to one Wall Street analyst.

In a research note published Friday, J.P. Morgan analyst Sterling Auty said that Arista Records, a subsidiary of BMG Music, appeared to be moving to market with CD copy-protection technology produced by SunnComm Technologies.

"We expect volume shipments of protected CDs to ship commercially in the U.S. as early as the May-June time frame using the SunnComm solution," Auty wrote. "This will be the first major step in the growth of the CD audio protection market."

Record labels have been experimenting with compact disc copy-protection technology for close to two years now, but other early indications that mass-market release was close have proven premature. Labels in Europe and Asia have begun releasing scattered tests, but U.S. trials have remained largely limited to advance and promotional CDs.

A spokesman for BMG Music said his company's corporate policy, which would affect Arista, has not changed in any way. "We are conducting trials only, and we have not announced any plans to go to market with copy-protected CDs," BMG spokesman Nathaniel Brown said.

Labels, which have seen their revenues fall over the past two years, are eager to find a copy-protection technology that would block people from burning copies of CDs or from "ripping" unprotected MP3 files with their computers and putting the songs on file-trading networks such as Kazaa.

However, previous versions of the antipiracy technologies from SunnComm, Macrovision and others have proven flawed. CDs protected with the technology have been unable to play in some CD players or computers, potentially even damaging some machines. Hackers have been able to break through much of the protection technologies using techniques as simple as drawing on the CD with a felt-tipped pen.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-994565.html

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Who will hook up your house?
High-speed Internet finally catches on, and so far, cable modems are winning
Jason Gertzen

The nation's Internet users are clamoring for speed.

Slowpoke dial-up connections that introduced the masses to the World Wide Web quickly are giving way to their high-speed counterparts.

Broadband connections are expected to provide Internet access to the majority of U.S. online homes within the next few years, and by 2006, they will be in at least half of all U.S. households, said Jed Kolko, a principal analyst in San Francisco for Forrester Research.

In short, broadband technology is no longer solely a plaything for extreme techno-geeks.

With this long-predicted demand finally materializing, cable television companies such as Time Warner Cable, telephone industry giants such as SBC Communications and smaller telephone companies such as TDS Metrocom are in a pitched battle to command the broadband kingdom.

For now, cable is king.

Cable companies, which were the first to jump into the high-speed Internet market, have secured a dominant position. High-speed connections that use the same wires bringing cable television into the home account for at least 57% of the household broadband market, according to Gartner Inc., a technology consulting and research firm in Connecticut.

It's a popular option in the Milwaukee area. Time Warner Cable has signed up 100,000 southeastern Wisconsin customers since launching its Road Runner service here at the end of 2000.

Telephone companies providing digital subscriber line, or DSL, service have less than one-third of the national market. They are rallying with aggressive initiatives of their own and could enjoy a boost from a recent broadband ruling by the Federal Communications Commission.

"Certainly cable modems continue to be a dominant factor in the marketplace right now, but DSL growth is really taking off," said Joe Izbrand, an SBC spokesman specializing in broadband issues at the corporation's San Antonio headquarters.

SBC said it provides 2.2 million digital subscriber lines nationwide, but would not specify the number in Wisconsin. Other companies such as TDS Metrocom also provide home DSL service.

The recent FCC ruling was seen as a big victory for the broadband ambitions of the regional Bell companies of SBC, Verizon Communications Inc., Qwest and BellSouth.

These Baby Bells, which once controlled local markets with monopoly power, have been required to share their networks with other phone firms as a way of fostering competition, lowering prices and providing more choices for consumers.

While they still must share their lines for the telephone market, the FCC said that they will no longer have to provide the same access for companies that want to piggyback on the networks to provide broadband Internet service.

Before the ruling, the Baby Bells had slowed their new investment in broadband infrastructure. In addition to worries about the soft economy and major upheaval in the telecommunications industry, the Bells did not see much point in making big investments that could be used against them by competitors allowed by regulators to pay reduced rather than market rates.
http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/mar03/129565.asp

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Holding back the flood
Kevin Werbach

The media industries are under siege. The reason is simple: these industries depend on forms of control and artificial scarcities that are incompatible with digital distribution. Hillary Rosen understood this. The much-hated CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), who just resigned, spent almost as much energy badgering her own industry behind the scenes as she did fighting peer-to-peer file-sharing. Unfortunately, she had more success on the
latter front. Many of the leaders of the content industries want to fight rear-guard actions as long as they possibly can.

The old guard won a victory when the Supreme Court voted 7-2 to uphold the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. In effect, the court allowed copyright to be extended indefinitely and retroactively, keeping countless works out of the public domain. The decision, along with the RIAA's effectively in crushing Napster, seems to suggest that the content industries are winning. Not so fast.

In fact, we're now in a transitional phase. Reformers such as Larry Lessig, who challenged the copyright extension before the Supreme Court, are pushing new models. In December, Lessig and others launched Creative Commons, which wants to make it easier for content creators to distribute their works with less-restrictive licenses. Meanwhile, the music and movie industries are trying out a variety of licensed digital distribution services, including PressPlay, MusicNet, MovieLink, and most recently Echo, a joint venture of music retailers. In recent months, established companies have acquired the key digital rights management technologies and patents of InterTrust and Liquid Audio, no doubt with similar goals.

Most of these efforts will fail. They don't provide a good enough user experience, especially given the alternatives. Over time, though, the great Darwinian force of the market will produce better options.

Decentralisation of media is inexorable. Look, for example, at what's happening to television. The good news -- there are now 1.8 million personal video recorders (PVRs) such as Tivo and ReplayTV out there. The better news (from Tivo President Morgan Guenther at Supernova 2002) -- churn is less than 1 per cent, and Tivo is close to profitability. The best news -- PVR is a killer app. Customers love it, and it's a platform for other new services.
http://www.europemedia.net/showfeatu...ticleID=15307#

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2.4 GHz Wireless Design Suite Includes Free Spectrum Analyzer for Simplified Wireless Connectivity
Press Release

True to its motto of ‘instant wireless,’ leading supplier of wireless modules AeroComm has introduced a complete Design Suite that includes all the necessary tools to rapidly integrate wireless connectivity into OEMs’ products.

AeroComm’s Design Suite is much more than a development kit. Unlike many RF manufacturers who offer kits that are just a few pieces of hardware, AeroComm provides a full development system comprised of ConnexRF™ transceivers, RS232 adapter boards, power adapters and cables, antennas, software, full documentation, and importantly, the assignment of a dedicated RF design engineer to assist from development to certification. Additionally, AeroComm now includes a free Spectrum Analyzer (SA3000) tool to complete the package.

The Spectrum Analyzer is a compact, cost-effective, PC-based instrument covering the entire 2.4 GHz ISM band. When combined with a notebook PC, the SA3000 enables comprehensive mobile site surveying to help OEMs identify optimal RF-equipment location and find potential interferers.

Using proprietary application software, the SA3000 closely simulates the display of a dedicated -- and much more expensive -- spectrum analyzer instrument. SA3000’s great benefit is its small size, making it portable and ideal for any site analysis. Using the tool, a layman can have confidence installing RF equipment.

AeroComm’s Windows-based software personalizes the radios to support virtually any network configuration from simple point-to-point, to complex peer-to-peer. Using simple GUI (graphical user interface), OEMs are able to choose the parameters to meet their needs including speed, broadcast or addressed, channels, security features and so on.
http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/r...lease_id=52365

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P2P Helping Wastewater Recovery
InTech
Islands of automation among goals in budget-strapped upgrades.

Judge and wastewater are not glamorous. They are not in short supply-ever-and they keep coming through the pipe whether you're ready or not.

During the past few years, this organization has replaced, retrofitted, and upgraded existing obsolete chemical feed systems for water and wastewater plants, specifically the polymer feed systems for wastewater sludge handling facilities and lime feed systems for water treatment units.

Some of the problems associated with the existing chemical feed systems have been clogging in the long chemical feed lines, lack of sufficient pressure at the feed end, and obsolescence of existing control system hardware and software.

Upgrade of the control system hardware and software is another major issue. Due to budgetary constraints, it is normally not possible to undertake the upgrade of an entire plantwide automation and control system while implementing a relatively small chemical feed system upgrade.

The computer system include a main computer and a hot backup computer with continuously updating databases and commercially available HMI software packages for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA).

Each of the 21 existing centrifuges has a dedicated PLC. These PLCs have a peer-to-peer high-speed data link for inter-PLC communication-a welcome departure from the DCS, which installed before such options were available.

For this DCS replacement project, we added an Ethernet interface to the existing PLC peer-to-peer data link to allow direct high- speed data exchange between the new computer system and the existing centrifuge PLCs, eliminating the need for hard-wired I/0 point duplication.

In summary, the DCS replacement project replaced several existing DCS controllers and associated I/O points in different locations with individual PLCs and I/O racks. A total of 1,277 DCSI/O points converted to the PLC system.
http://acs.yellowbrix.com/pages/acs/...ory=Chemicals&

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Music industry fights a useless war against world's MP3s
Greg Salvatore, Arizona State University

Here we go again. The record industry crooks have moved past America. They're ready to hit up the rest of the world over MP3s.

Reuters reported Thursday that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a trade group that represents major record labels, has begun inundating universities in Canada, Asia, South America, Australia and Europe with fliers detailing the legal and technological problems with online file sharing, an issue that is well known in the United States.

While it is necessary for record companies to take on the challenge of stopping download-hungry computer users, they are swimming against the tide, fighting a battle they will never win.

When Napster was finally forced to cease making free MP3 downloads available, iMesh, Morpheus, and KaZaa became widely used. When those services are all shut down, newer, better point- to-point file sharing programs will reach the masses.

Services like the new MusicNow offer members the ability to listen to various radio stations and artists for a monthly fee. This service is the TiVo of radio, allowing listeners to listen to what they want to, when they want to, without having to deal with commercials.

The music industry has, to some degree, accepted that people will download music, and is now allowing them to do so, as long as they are willing to pay for it.

The record companies should, instead of spending heaps of money fighting against downloads, address some of their own problems first. For example, if people didn't have to pay $15.99 for a mediocre disc with 10 tracks on it, downloading might not be so widespread. Music could easily become more affordable.

If artists are so adamant about receiving their due paychecks in return for their work, they should understand that their fans are being shut out by the ridiculous prices of CDs.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty began fighting the record industry 20 years ago and hasn't backed down since. According to an October Rolling Stone interview, when his record company wanted to charge the then-exorbitant price of $9.98 for his 1982 album "Hard Promises," Petty threatened to rename the album "8.98" in protest.

On his latest album, "The Last DJ," the title track talks about a disc jockey who takes a stand against corporations telling him what to play based on revenue. Many radio stations banned the single.

Petty can probably afford to fight. Record labels understand that they will always make money off of his albums and will put up with the inconvenience of fighting him to be able to sell his work. Perhaps newer bands don't have that luxury, but it's time they tried.

There are smaller groups that fight against the industry, but there needs to be more. It isn't an impossible battle; they can win. Recording artists are the industry, and there probably wouldn't be a fight for very long if hundreds of them began fighting against the prices of their CDs.

This is the power that the artists and industry do have against MP3s. They are never going to stop the downloading of music; they shouldn't bother to try. What they can do is police themselves. They should start by making their music and concerts more affordable.

It is sickening to hear artists whine about people ripping them off by downloading their singles and then watch said artists on "MTV Cribs" showing off their Bentley collections. What is another Bentley in the garage worth? It might be worth a few more fans.
http://www.statepress.com/news/403086.html

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Are we doomed yet?
Sheldon Pacotti

The legal line between speech and action will blur dramatically during this century. The new technologies, from nanotechnology to the online economy, will be created and implemented with computer language, which by nature is both "expressive" and "functional." How the courts untangle these two aspects of "code" will define 21st century attitudes toward new ideas and their regulation. Even Kaplan acknowledges that, legally, code must be treated as speech: "It cannot seriously be argued that any form of computer code may be regulated without reference to First Amendment doctrine. The path from idea to human language to source code to object code is a continuum." What he painstakingly argues, however, is that in contrast to the "expressive" component, protected by the First Amendment, the "functional" component of computer code can be regulated by government. "Computer code is not purely expressive any more than the assassination of a political figure is purely a political statement," he writes.

The inevitable concern is that free speech issues will become hazy when computer code is the central medium of expression for commerce, science, and technology. If any individual can code nanobot machinery or an Ebola-AIDS virus, then it won't be enough to e-mail your friends and say, "Watch out for an email called 'ILOVEYOU.'" People will want safeguards. When everyone has access to formal languages that define material processes, then all of our voices will (potentially) have functional components, and maybe they will have to be regulated. We will all have the magical power to bring novel material structures into being simply by defining them on our computer screens, and perhaps, Harry Potter notwithstanding, a society of wizards will fail to coexist with modern democratic institutions.

The question we need to ask is whether a tightly regulated society would really be more secure than an open one. If so, then maybe there is some merit to "reconfiguring" our openness. However, if the benefits of a closed society are not dramatically apparent, then we would be fools to scale back our civil liberties, because, once lost, they would be very difficult to recover.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...dge/print.html

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Madonna, Institution and Rebel, but Not Quite the Diva of Old
Lynette Holloway

This is how the music world is changing: Madonna, who has been a pop diva for two decades, may be looking at the final stages of a long career.

She crashed and burned last year in the movie "Swept Away," a project with her husband, Guy Ritchie, who directed the film. And her most recent albums, with their underground European techno beats, have failed to capture audiences anywhere near the size of those that bought her earlier albums. She has sold about $200 million in CD's and other products throughout her 20-year career.

"Music," released in 2000, has sold 2.9 million copies and "Ray of Light," released in 1998, has sold 3.7 million copies, compared with "Like a Virgin," which has sold more than 10 million copies since its release in 1984, according to Nielsen Sound- Scan, which tracks album sales, and the Recording Industry Association of America, which certifies sales.

Madonna's label, Maverick/Warner Brothers Records, which is owned by AOL Time Warner, desperately needs a hit. Its market share has fallen to 4.74 percent, from 6.74 percent a year earlier, according to SoundScan. Record companies over all are racing to deliver hit albums at a time when record sales are rapidly declining. Industry executives blame Internet file-sharing and counterfeiting for the decline, while consumers complain of a lack of exciting new talent and uninspired music from older artists.

To sell records, many record labels are turning to the younger female pop artists, like Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, Avril Lavigne and Christina Aguilera, who dominate the music world, making Madonna appear less and less commercially relevant these days.

The album has some tracks that sound like vintage Madonna dance music and a few surprises, like Madonna rapping and playing the guitar. The marketing has an even bigger surprise, one that has already sparked debate on the Internet. The video for the first single, "American Life," portrays her as a "superhero military figure," satirizing the macho mystique of war.

Last month, The Drudge Report called the video one of "the most shocking antiwar, anti-Bush statements yet to come from the show business industry, complete with images of Iraqi children and bloody limbs."

Ms. Rosenberg has denied that the video is anti-Bush, adding that there are no pictures of Iraqi children or bloody images in the video. The video, which was still being edited last week, will be introduced on VH1 on Wednesday. The label is working with America Online to promote the album.

"People are always interested in what she does," Ms. Rosenberg said. "She has had an unprecedented success as a musical artist. I don't know anyone else who has accomplished what she has. Her staying power is there. She has interesting and provocative things to say. She is not afraid."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/bu...rtne r=GOOGLE

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HP Introduces New Compaq Presario Desktop and Notebook PC Lineup
Press Release

HP (NYSE:HPQ) today introduced a full line of Compaq Presario PCs, including the newly designed Compaq Presario S3000 series desktops and the Compaq Presario 2500 and 2100 series notebooks with integrated 54g wireless LAN technology.

The new notebooks provide higher data transfer speeds over longer distances than other wireless LAN technologies while providing backward compatibility to existing 802.11 standards, thus enabling mobile customers to significantly enhance their productivity from work, home or on the go.

The redesigned Compaq Presario S3000 series desktop PCs feature high-capacity hard drives and DVD or rewritable CD drives at affordable prices -- making them perfect for work, school or play.

"Our continued investment in the Compaq Presario brand -- including advanced wireless connectivity for Compaq Presario notebooks and digital recording capabilities in all Compaq Presario desktops -- reaffirms HP's commitment to providing consumers the latest technologies at great values," said Sam Szteinbaum, vice president and general manager, HP North America Consumer Computing.

Designed to work with new wireless networks based on the draft 802.11g specification as well as existing 802.11b wireless networks, the Compaq Presario 2500 series notebook PCs let customers take advantage of speeds up to almost five times faster (54 Mbps) than current 802.11b wireless networks.

Faster file sharing, a richer digital media experience or a more advanced head-to-head gaming experience are only a few of the benefits users can experience when operating in an 802.11g environment. This next-generation wireless technology is also more secure, supporting various security features including 128-bit WEP (wired equivalent privacy) encryption.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/...m&footer_file=

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Pirates attack the high seas of the music industry
Zack Medford

I'm not going to lie. If I had a computer, I'd probably download thousands upon thousands of mp3s. Let's keep that just between you and me though. But is it right? Is it fair? The simple answer is of course not. Downloading copy-written mp3s is very similar to walking into K-mart, shoving some CDs down your pants and then bolting toward the door. The only difference really is the final victim.

But wait a minute, the final victim in mp3 theft is the music industry. That is very same industry that is currently being sued for illegally conspiring to raise prices on CDs. They are the very same industry that charges me $15 bucks for a piece of plastic I can buy at CompUSA for about a quarter apiece. Could the little laser lines on this CD make it worth an extra $14.75? Perhaps they are, but I pretty much doubt it.

Stealing is wrong, but in this case it raises issues. The music industry is wasteful. Right now, bands are being grown in test-tubes. Rap stars are being encouraged to waste their money and buy flashy jewelry just to keep up with each other. Big name concerts cost around $40 apiece. The industry has gotten out of hand, and now that a tiny percentage of its sales have drooped it is flipping out. Apparently, it wants to make sure its execs stay billionaires and don't care what we have to say.

The biggest problem is that the Supreme Court sided on the industry's side. They ruled Congress could continuously lengthen the copyright terms of intellectual material so long as they had the votes. In 1998, Congress followed this ruling by adding 20 years. This was a blow to many online publishers, who were looking forward to posting copies of out-of-copyright books and cartoons. Now, they have to continue to pay insane royalties. Big business was the muscle behind this legislation. Disney and its cronies shoved the legislation through like a mugger shoves an old lady into the street.

The music industry has treated the American public like an old pair of gym socks. They use us when it's time to play ball but abuse us in the off season. We still pay absurd amounts for CDs, are subject to copyright seizures of our property and still can't seem to get rid of the Backstreet Boys. Before mp3s, we were definitely on the bottom end of the toilet of the entertainment industry.

The good news is that through the immoral act of stealing mp3s, we have started some changes. More and more artists seem to agree with the openness provided by P2P file sharing. They see it as a way of getting their songs to the public without having to work through a stupid middleman. It's true, P2P can help build popularity for already-established artists like Aerosmith or Nelly. It can also propel fledgling bands into the limelight, which is partly to blame for the recent rise of punk music in pop culture. P2P can help fight the growing trend of the music industry to consolidate its music and keep the number of famous musicians to a minimum while sales are at a maximum.

This is America, and competition is perfection. We need more local bands to rise to the top, more choices on the radio to listen to. Sure, Avril is great. But I don't need her shoved down my throat every time I turn the radio station. This is the beginning of a new era in music. It is up to us to help expand the industry once again. Steal mp3s if you want, but more importantly, attend some local concerts. They need the support.
http://technicianonline.com/read/tol...on/007255.html

He doesn’t have a computer?

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Pop’s Bastards
Are Mash-ups a Clever Culture Jam or Mere Cynical Sarcasm?
Martin Turenne

Aristotle defined the good metaphor as “an intuitive perception of the similarities in dissimilar objects,” an observation borne out by the addictive appeal of so many mash-up songs. Bastard pop works best when two seeming opposites are fused together, as when Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s “Push It” is turned into a righteous riot grrrl anthem with the help of the Stooges’ garage-rock classic, “No Fun.” Then there’s “God Only Knows Billie Jean,” which finds Brian Wilson and Michael Jackson collaborating in a virtual state of eternal pre-pubescence.

As it turns out, making these remixes is a relatively simple process, within the grasp of any net surfer with a decent processor and plenty of free time. The internet is rife with file-sharing services (like Get Your Bootleg On) from which budding pirates can download a cappella tracks and instrumentals. From there, all the home producer has to do is use mixing software (e.g. Pro Tools) to tweak the tracks for length, pitch and tempo.

The mother of all mash-up sites is Boom Selection (www.base58.com/bsx), run by Daniel Sheldon, a 16-year old Briton who has collected a staggering 34 hours worth of bootleg MP3s onto a three-disc set titled Boom Selection_Issue 01. If mash-ups are addictive, this box provides the overdose.

Given the form’s very structure, bastard pop isn’t a particularly “new” art form at all, but it does raise interesting questions about copyright, creativity and consumerism in the digital age. Read in a positive light, these remixes represent a flattening of the creative hierarchy, whereby pop tunes are reclaimed from the corporate vault and used as creative fodder by formerly passive consumers. Says Bobby Carlton, who runs a mash-up club night in Los Angeles: “This is culture jamming in its purest form. Major artists and labels will have a problem with it, but kids with computers are doing revolutionary things with music.”

Legal questions aside, critics are quick to deride bastard pop’s inherently caustic edge. “It’s cynical music made by cynical, tired people with no ideas,” says Slam, a Scottish techno producer. It’s hard to disagree with him. Every time I listen to bastard pop, I’m left with a distinctly hollow feeling, like I’ve overdosed on sarcasm.
http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid1=1476

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"People are increasingly unwilling to pay for music because they feel ripped off."
AOL, Vivendi, EMI are losing the battle against CD pirates
"Chaos and upheaval caused by file sharing led all of us to examine business models closer."
Cecile Daurat

LONDON -- Iain Titterington, a 36-year- old pop video director, pays for about one in four songs he listens to. He downloads the rest from Kazaa, an Internet service that enables users to share their music. Since November, "I made five purchases because I couldn't find what I was looking for on Kazaa," Titterington said. AOL Time Warner Inc., Vivendi Universal SA, EMI Group Plc and other record companies are losing the battle against piracy. The illegal manufacturing of compact discs is costing them more than $4 billion in lost revenue annually, according to industry estimates. And the unauthorized copying of songs from 500 million files on Web services, such as Kazaa, is further eroding sales. "The pirates will always beat the music companies," said Patrick Wollenberg, who helps manage securities worth 13 billion euros ($13.8 billion) at Robeco Groep, and refuses to invest in music companies. "People are increasingly unwilling to pay for music because they feel ripped off." The shares of EMI, the world's third-largest record company, this month dropped below 1 pound for the first time, from a peak of 8 pounds three years ago, reflecting investors' pessimism about music sales. Global CD sales this year will probably fall below $30 billion, the lowest since 1992, analysts said. There's more to the slump than piracy. Consumer spending is waning in the U.S. and Europe, fourth- quarter gross domestic product figures show. And a growing number of singers, from Natalie Merchant to Prince, are selling music direct to fans on the Internet, cutting out the middle men: the record companies. EMI is one of the best gauges of the music industry because, unlike larger rivals Vivendi Universal and Sony Corp., it hasn't diversified into other areas of entertainment, such as films. EMI shares have plunged more than 85 percent in three years, wiping about 5.5 billion pounds ($8.6 billion) from the company's value.

Record companies are also trying to use the Web to their advantage. Sony and Vivendi in 2000 set up Pressplay, allowing users to download songs from a library that includes 250,000 hits for $9.95 a month, or a pay-per-song fee. "Chaos and upheaval caused by file sharing led all of us to examine business models closer," Pressplay Chief Executive Michael Bebel said in an interview. As for market share, "we intend to capture a significant portion by offering high quality to consumers now accustomed to file sharing." Last month, Sony invested in a rival service called MusicNet, which is partly owned by EMI, Warner Music and Bertelsmann. Since December, EMI has let consumers buy songs from singers such as Kylie Minogue on Web sites including Yahoo! Inc. "We will see the impact of these measures over the next year," John Rose, vice president at EMI, said in an interview. "If the industry moves aggressively on prevention and providing legitimate music over the Web, and if governments address the piracy problem, there is quite a lot of growth left in the recorded music business." Many musicians and investors aren't convinced. Piracy is "great," singer Robbie Williams said in January at a music industry conference in Cannes, France. "There is nothing anyone can do about it." For artists such as Williams, 29, the broader the reach of his music, the more money there is to be made from concert tickets, DVDs, T-shirts and other products sold on his Web site.
http://www.detnews.com/2003/technolo...ogy-114624.htm

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Life With TiVo
Why Television Will Never Be the Same
Robert X. Cringely, PBS

We tend to overestimate change in the short term, and underestimate it in the long term. This effect is clear and I have written about it many times before. While we can often tell that a specific change is coming, it can be very hard to say exactly when the change will happen, so we tend to get over- excited and think that it will happen sooner than it actually does. On the other hand, longer-term trends are more difficult to call because they are likely to be derailed by events that simply could not be anticipated, with those unanticipated events sending us spinning off in a completely new direction. And that is exactly what’s happening right now to television -- a medium that is in such technical transition that it will soon have a completely different look everywhere, except perhaps here at PBS. You might think by this I am writing about Digital TV or maybe the Internet, but no, I am writing about TiVo.

With an ever-increasing number of broadcast, cable, and satellite channels, it is harder and harder to draw an enormous TV audience. And the likely success of Digital Video Recorders makes this even worse because now it is almost effortless to record your favorite shows and watch them some other time when you want to do so, rather than when a network strategist wants you to watch. The most sophisticated DVRs, which means TiVo itself, even record shows you haven’t asked for just because they are somewhat like shows you have watched or recorded before. In this way, DVRs take away the power of programmers and allow us to watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it.

On the face of it, this is good because audiences are better served. It is also good because once DVRs become the dominant way of watching TV, which they will soon when DVRs are built into TVs themselves, then broadcast networks can begin to think more like cable networks and play the same shows several times per week in order to create an optimal recording opportunity, thus increasing the impact potential of each individual episode. Think of this as the Sopranos Effect.

But from the commercial broadcasters’ viewpoint DVRs are beyond bad. They are terrible. This is because watching pre-recorded shows allows viewers to bypass the commercials. Some DVRs even have the capability to automatically cut out the commercials for you, instantly turning television from a business to some form of charity

Commercial television will adapt or die. Maybe they’ll make commercials even more interesting than the shows themselves. Broadcasters will find ways to cope, though between now and then there will be plenty of breast-beating and tantrums. Only non- commercial broadcasters like PBS will remain unaffected and serene.

TiVo? TiVo is our friend.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20030327.html

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Free Legal MP3 Downloads?
Major label artists are abundant, says Lawrence
Larry Matthews

The Net is rife with free and low cost legal downloads of music that really matters to people. So says the Net Music Countdown's host, David Lawrence, whose newest blog has people scrambling to snap up the offerings.

"Most people know my strong stance against music piracy," said Lawrence, whose outspoken criticism of p2p sites has made him a media regular. "But...my listeners have been asking me a very reasonable question with more frequency lately: 'Fine, David, I'll be moral and all that and stop pirating. OK? There, I've uninstalled KaZaA and Limewire. Are you happy? Now, how and where do I go to get legitimate, licensed downloads...free or not? And not indie bands - I can get those from lots of places. I'm talking about the music I hear on your show and on the radio and TV. Where's all that stuff at?'"

"Fair question," Lawrence continued. "I've decided to pull, as well as push, people to stay legal when downloading. Aside from exhorting them on the air to not pirate, to respect intellectual property rights, and to avoid file piracy sites, I've decided to catalog all the available options I can find that are legal, and in many cases, free of charge. I've answered them with a new blog"

The blog, which can be found at http://netmusiccountdown.com/mp3, is updated daily, and not only lists free MP3s, but various for-pay digital files.

"This is not a list of indie bands, since there are great sites for them already, but rather a list of the commercial outlets for the latest releases from charting artists, the songs they currently have available for download, the formats in which they can be downloaded and the cost, if any, for the downloaded material. I will be promoting this hourly on both Online Tonight, and the Net Music Countdown, beginning with tonight's shows. Sites featured include Amazon, MP3.com, Tower Records, Liquid Audio, the label owned sites, artist sites and more, including special events like the Lenny Kravitz cut available at Rock The Vote," said Lawrence.

Listeners are invited to submit sightings of free and legal downloads to Lawrence, who edits the site by hand, not by scraping data from the outlets listed. "It's a labor of love," said Lawrence.
http://www.netmusiccountdown.com/new....php?id=5l35ge

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Legal game downloads from Dutch ISP

IT news website is reporting that Dutch ISP Planet Internet has started up a videogame subscription service,

For a monthly fee of E9.30, subscribers receive an unlimited number of game downloads from a list of recent gaming hits. There are 20 titles currently available, with additional titles added every month.

The system is completely legal.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15667

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Universities to be sued over music downloads
Adam Sherwin

THE British record industry is to prosecute universities that allow students to copy music over the internet through their computer networks.

Heads of universities will face criminal sanctions if they collude in the illegal downloading of music files — “copyright theft” — that is costing the music industry £2 billion a year.

The industry believes that universities, which offer students unlimited access to computers, are producing a generation of fans who believe that music is a commodity available free of charge. Websites such as kazaa and grokster allow internet users to download digital copies of the latest hits and produce their own compilation CDs for nothing.

Universities countered that it was not their job to police the internet on behalf of a record industry that is suffering a slump in CD sales.

Every university in Britain will today receive a letter from the British Phonographic Industry and its sister organisation, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, reminding them that unlicensed internet copying is a breach of legislation. The federation quotes studies conducted at universities showing that 50 to 100 per cent of the institutions’ internet capability had been taken over by illegal file-sharing traffic.

Academic institutions now face legal action. The federation said: “The legal risks include injunctions, damages, costs and possible criminal sanctions against the institutions and their heads where systems are used for copyright theft.” It was in the interest of academic institutions to crack down on illegal copying.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...625793,00.html

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Public Hearing for Mass ''State-Level DMCA''
David Carroll

"The Massachusetts House will be holding hearings for its version of a supposed "State- Level DMCA" on 2 April 2003 at 10 AM. Details here. All members of the public are welcome to attend and speak.

Text (possibly preliminary?) of the bill, House Bill No. 2743, can be downloaded here. Pre-existing versions of the statues being modified are here and here.

My State Representative provided the following instructions for attending these hearings:

The purpose of a committee public hearing is to receive testimony from anyone who wishes to weigh in on a bill. You are welcome and encouraged to attend.

The Committee will be hearing testimony on a number of bills. The usual procedure is to sign in as you enter, and wait to be called forward. You will be asked to keep your remarks brief. If you have written testimony you should give copies to the Committee, and it is preferable that you not read your statement but summarize your argument. Bills are discussed in order by bill number, so you may have to wait awhile before speaking. It is usually difficult to predict exactly when you will speak.

The entrances that are open at the State House are Beacon Street near the Hooker statue, Bowdoin Street, and Derne Street (rear of building). You will be required to go through security screening/metal detector. Room 222 is on the 2nd floor of the building.
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/mod...ticle&sid=1037

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DMCA critics decry state-level proposals
Declan McCullagh

Critics of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act said Friday that they were disturbed by proposals for similar laws at the state level.

Quietly, opponents said, with few people paying close attention, state legislators are considering bills that would be even broader than the controversial DMCA, which restricts bypassing copy-protection measures.

The DMCA critics reacted with dismay this week after learning about the existence of the state bills when a lobbyist flagged one as disturbing, an industry source said. On Friday, library groups quickly dashed off a note to Arkansas and Colorado warning politicians there that their "proposed legislation is deeply flawed and should be rejected."

"The entertainment companies state that these laws need to be updated to combat digital piracy," said the letter from the Association of Research Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries and the American Library Association. "While digital piracy is a serious problem, some of the proposed amendments will undermine the ability of libraries to provide important information services."

But whether the proposals are an attempt to unjustly restrict computer users' freedom to tinker or a reasonable response to the threat of piracy depends on whom you talk to. The movie industry, which backs the proposals, says DMCA opponents are overreacting.

The group primarily responsible for the state bills is the Motion Picture Association of America, one of the most vocal supporters of the federal DMCA. The MPAA rejects the characterization of the state legislation as similar to the federal law, saying the state measures update cable and satellite protection laws to catch up with today's hacking technologies.

"The intention of this legislation is to protect services and audiovisual works, music, and sound recordings in the digital age," said Vans Stevenson, the MPAA's senior vice president for state legislative affairs. "It provides state remedies for people who steal or pirate those works. It's an extension of what we've done for years with cable television and phone services at the state level. It's nothing new. For the life of me, I don't see why anybody would object to that."

Some of the proposals have already become law and have been on the books for some time. In Maryland, residents may not possess or distribute software that can take music or video transmitted over the Internet and convert it to another format, unless they have the copyright holder's explicit permission. The law arguably restricts reverse engineering as well, and punishes violators with up to three years in state prison.

The law went through in May 2001, passing the Maryland Senate with only one nay vote and clearing the House unanimously.

Though, like similar measures in other states, the Maryland law has been characterized as a way to stop theft of cable and cellular phone service, it stretches to Internet communications, hardware and software as well. It's arguably more sweeping than the federal DMCA, which contains exemptions for reverse engineering, for encryption research and for librarians. The DMCA also created a process that the Library of Congress can use to identify additional exemptions; the state bills do not include such procedures.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-994667.html

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Freedom, technology and the Net
Declan McCullagh

These are perilous times for online privacy, free speech and the freedom to tinker with legally purchased hardware and software.

Last week, the House of Representatives approved a constitutionally dubious bill to criminalize domain names that might possibly confuse children, while the movie studios tried to expand the most worrisome parts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) through the simple expedient of lobbying state legislators.

I recently wrote about how even a short war against Iraq could depress tech stocks, and now we know the war will be neither quick nor cheap. And let's not forget Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision last week to revise the rules governing the FBI's massive database, which is choked with information about criminal suspects. Now, Ashcroft says, data no longer has to be verified as accurate and relevant before being added to it.

It's always tempting for columnists to focus on bad news. This week, however, there's something very positive to write about: a conference called Computers, Freedom and Privacy that will take place in New York. CFP is organized under the auspices of the Association for Computing Machinery, the professional association for computer scientists. (Full disclosure: I'm speaking at a luncheon session on Wednesday along with Dan Gillmor of The San Jose Mercury News, Emmanuel Goldstein of 2600 Magazine, and Robert O'Harrow of The Washington Post.)

First held in 1991, CFP is the longest-running gathering of people concerned with topics relating to freedom and technology, and it remains the most interesting. True, there are plenty of cookie-cutter conferences talking about privacy--there were at least two in Washington alone in the last few weeks.

Yet CFP is noteworthy not only for its breadth of participants, but also for its willingness to convene actual debates. Instead of asking attendees to suffer through a torpidity- inducing PowerPoint presentation, CFP organizers do things like organizing a debate on the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness system that includes an analyst from the conservative Heritage Foundation and an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union. The Transportation Security Administration's secretive data-mining and passenger-profiling system is another hot topic.

We're going to take on the issues of the day," said Barry Steinhardt, who is this year's CFP chairman. "We're trying to be as contemporary as possible. We've been amending the conference as we go along to include new people and new issues...We're trying to focus on two things: One is cyberliberties--
As I've said before, technologists should remember to do what comes naturally: Invent technology that outpaces the law and might even make new laws irrelevant.
computers, freedom and privacy--post 9/11. Second, we're trying to add an international component to this. It's quite clear that these issues are not restricted to the U.S. border."

About the only problem with CFP is its near-exclusive focus on legal and political ways to fight back against snooping and surveillance. There's certainly a need for short-term action in this area: I wrote last fall about the ways geeks could mobilize to punish their foes in Congress.

But in the long run, that effort is unlikely to be wildly successful. Congress will remain vulnerable to pressure from special interest groups that are better-organized and more disciplined than the technology community can hope to be.

As I've said before, technologists should remember to do what comes naturally: Invent technology that outpaces the law and might even make new laws irrelevant.

Worried about a newly emboldened FBI that has the power to conduct some kinds of Internet wiretaps without a judge's approval? If you run a mail server, upgrade to Postfix/TLS--or a similar protocol--which transparently encrypts e-mail messages exchanged with another computer that is also upgraded.

Fretting about the Bush administration's attempts to wiretap Internet telephony, as reported by Kevin Poulsen at SecurityFocus.com? Encourage your company to shift to IPv6, which has encryption designed into the protocol specification.

Don't give up on the political fight. Show up at CFP if you can. But remember that technological mechanisms that protect privacy, anonymity and free speech won't change with the whims of politicians, judges and bureaucrats.
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-994654.html

[JackSpratts]

Wail To The Thief


Being Very Careful Not to Blame Fans, Radiohead Decries “Stolen” Songs

The leaked version of the new RADIOHEAD album 'HAIL TO THE THIEF' is a collection of "stolen recordings of early work", bandmember Jonny Greenwood has said.

Songs from the album have appeared on the Internet over the last week, sparking a frenzy of downloading from fans across the globe, eager to hear the band's new material.

However, Greenwood said the group are "pissed off" about the leak, not because they're against file sharing, but because the songs fans are downloading are not the songs on the finished album.

According toateaseweb.com, he said: "So it turns out the leaked music is a stolen copy of early, unmixed edits and roughs - so we're kind of pissed off about it, to be honest.

"I see it like this: there's Napster-style file sharing of released music, then there's early Internet distribution of what we at least consider to be a finished body of work. Then there's this - work we've not finished, being released in this sloppy way, ten weeks before the real version is even available. It doesn't even exist as a record yet.

"So yes, we're annoyed - the songs are good on the recordings, which you can hear. But we worked on them after this point until we were happy with them. This is why we're pissed off - we didn't give up on them in February (which is what you're hearing) and it's just a shame that, to your ears, we did.

"So of course people will still download them and hear them, I can understand the temptation. It's not you lot I'm pissed off about, it's just the situation I guess. It's stolen work, fer fuck's sake. What do you all think? I know it'll come out for real eventually, and it'll all be fine, but I though you all might as well know what's in my head."
http://www.nme.com/news/104672.htm

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Denmark Boasts Biggest Fiber Network
Press Release

COPENHAGEN -- Europe’s largest fibre-optic connection now runs through the ground under Denmark’s capital city, Copenhagen. The cable comprises 624 fibre-optic wires, with a total capacity to transfer volumes of 50 million gigabits – equivalent to 500 million phone lines – a second. The cable was laid on the 1st and 2nd of February 2003 and is a good 10 km long. Danish company, Cablux, undertook the technical work for the installation.

Europe’s largest fibre-optic cable comprises a so-called redundant connection (every 5 km, two lines are drawn between the same two points for optimum data security). The 10-km long cable was bought by a Danish company in the Copenhagen area, which before now used a connection with 480 fibre-optic wires, but this capacity was no longer enough. Therefore, the fibre-optic connection was expanded using a cable containing an additional 624 fibre-optic wires – a number not exceeded by any other cable laid in Europe to date.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=30615

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BT Cuts DSL Wholesale Prices, Extends Range To 20,000 Feet, Other Breakthroughs

LONDON -- BT today announced great news for Broadband Britain with radical plans to bring mass market broadband within reach of 90 per cent of UK homes. These plans are based on technological breakthroughs and cost saving initiatives. The company also revealed that wholesale prices will be cut from May 1.

In addition, BT said that public sector demand could be aligned to help accelerate the roll out of broadband. This will help local campaign groups in their efforts to bring broadband to their communities.

Providing a major update on the company's broadband strategy, BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen said that BT was well on track to hit its target of one million ADSL connections by the summer, having recently passed the 800,000 mark. He said the speed of this progress is generating economies of scale that will help BT continue to reduce costs and progress beyond the one million figure.

He also announced that BT had made a series of technological breakthroughs that would, for the first time, bring ADSL within potential reach of 90 per cent of UK homes and small businesses. This represents a major advance from the current enabled footprint of 67 per cent.

The new initiatives mean that about 600 additional exchanges can now have trigger levels set taking potential coverage to 90 per cent. These represent the level of demand needed to make it commercially sensible for BT to take the risk of upgrading an exchange with ADSL. Within a week BT will announce trigger levels for the next 200 or so exchanges that, if enabled together with those exchanges that have existing trigger levels, would take coverage up to 85 per cent. The remainder will be announced by early summer.

Central to the setting of the new triggers is a technological development that enables exchanges to be linked together so that the costs of connecting them to the core BT network are reduced. This is one of several developments that will lead to cost savings and help BT set the new trigger levels.

This is in addition to BT extending the reach of ADSL broadband up to 6kms from the exchange. This separate development means that up to 98 per cent of people connected to an ADSL enabled exchange will be able to access the technology. This means close to 600,000 additional people will be able to access broadband from June.

BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen said: "Today's announcements mark a major milestone in the creation of Broadband Britain. BT has managed to overcome the challenge of bringing affordable broadband within reach of 90 per cent of UK homes and I am sure the news will be welcomed across the UK."

He also revealed that BT would boost the market even further by cutting the wholesale price of broadband from May 1. This is possible due to factors including reduced cost of equipment and network efficiencies. The monthly fee for the wholesale consumer product will be reduced by up to £2 and there will be even larger savings on BT's wholesale products that are aimed at service providers who serve small businesses. Prices for the 500kbs, 1Mbs and 2Mbs products will be slashed by over 50 per cent.

Mr Verwaayen said: "These price cuts will benefit everyone from service providers to consumers and businesses and will ensure that the UK continues to have some of the lowest prices in Europe."
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=30736

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Security Holes in RealPlayer, QuickTime
Ryan Naraine

Researchers are warning of serious security holes in two popular digital media players -- RealNetworks' RealOne and Apple's QuickTime -- that have put millions of systems at risk. The vulnerabilities, which are not related, affect the way the media players read certain file types and could leave susceptible systems open to intrusion.

RealNetworks confirmed the security hole in its flagship media player, which has enjoyed widespread adoption among digital media enthusiasts. Affected versions of the player include the RealOne Player and RealOne Player v2 for Windows, RealPlayer 8 for Windows, RealPlayer 8 for Mac OS 9, RealOne Player for Mac OS X, RealOne Enterprise Desktop Manager and RealOne Enterprise Desktop.

The company said the Helix DNA Client was not affected by this vulnerability. In an advisory, RealNetworks warned that a hacker could create a specifically corrupted Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file to cause heap corruption.

A successful exploit of the flaw would an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a user's machine, the company cautioned, noting the vulnerability was due to the usage of an older, vulnerable version of a data-compression library within the RealPix component of the Player.

"In addition to fixing the reported vulnerability, RealNetworks performed a review of all of the RealOne Player source code to identify other areas where this data-compression library is used. As a result of this review, several additional Player components have also been fixed, and are included in the provided updates," the company said, urging users to immediately install the updates to all the flawed media players.

Separately, security research firm iDefense warned of an exploitable buffer overflow in QuickTime, the media player owned by Apple Computer.

An alert warned that a URL containing 400 characters will overrun the allocated space on the stack overwriting the saved instruction pointer (EIP) and open the door for an attacker to redirect the flow of control and execute arbitrary code.

"Any remote attacker can compromise a target system if he or she can convince a user to load a specially crafted exploit URL. Upon successful exploitation, arbitrary code can be executed under the privileges of the user who launched QuickTime," the company said.
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news...le.php/2173361

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California Aggie P2P Q&A
What’s the campus’ stance on downloading music and other
media?

Almost everyone does it, and there are some legal, legitimate uses of file sharing sites. There are also federal regulations the campus has to follow. Read on.

Q: What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how does it affect UC students?

A: The U.S. Constitution — which of course was drafted long before our founding fathers could conceptualize the technology that was to come — intended to encourage creation of original ideas by giving the creator/owner exclusive rights to use them for a limited time. The digital age makes violating these exclusive rights much easier than before, especially with the high-speed Internet connection that our university offers. When you transmit material to others (MP3s, movies, et cetera) that you did not create — whether via e-mail, web posting, or file sharing — you and every computer networked between you and the recipient are making a copy which, under the federal copyright law, requires a license from the author or owner.

At the start of the digital age, copyright owners asked Internet Service Providers to provide them the names of their users who were copying copyright-protected materials without a license so they could make these users stop. However, the ISPs declined, so to keep copyright values in place in the information age, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Part of the DMCA says that ISPs (commercial or institutional) may avoid liability for their users’ copyright infringement provided that they block access to any allegedly- infringing material that they have been made aware of. ISP users get to keep their privacy, ISPs can continue to operate, and copyright-owners can protect their creative efforts. Whether you agree with this law or not (see www.anti- dmca.com for an opposing argument), the UC chooses to uphold the DMCA rather than be liable for the sharing of illegal copies through its network.

I use a peer-to-peer service (like Kazaa) legally to download files that aren’t protected by copyright. Does this free me of liability?

No! If you use a peer-to-peer, or P2P, file-sharing service like Kazaa, WinMX or Morpheus, you risk getting in trouble for someone else’s wrongdoings. Peer- to-peer services don’t look at individual requests for media to determine if they are for licensed materials or not — their systems are automated. Say you purchase a CD and copy it onto your computer. If you are simultaneously signed on to a peer-to-peer service, someone else may request a song from your disk that you have agreed to share with other users (acknowledgment that you will be making your music files accessible to others is in the fine print when you download the P2P software — but you probably didn’t read it!). However, YOU are the one who made the song available without a license to do so, and you are the one the copyright owner will go after, through your ISP (UC Davis)! Violation of federal copyright law is a violation of the campus Acceptable Use Policy (http://www.mrak.ucdavis.edu/web-mans...10/310-16a.htm), which you acknowledged you understood and agreed to abide by when you signed up for a campus computing account.

So how can I use P2P software in compliance with federal and campus rules?

Using peer-to-peer software itself is not against the rules; it’s what you’re copying and sharing through the service that could get you in trouble. If you have material on your computer that isn’t copyright protected — for example, a song or a picture that you created — you’re free to swap it with your friends using a P2P service. P2Ps can also be a useful tool when collaborating with others on a research project or paper assignment. In addition, you can subscribe to a “pay- to-play” music service (such as MusicNet or Pressplay), but this does not permit you to share the music you’ve paid to listen to. Also, you should use caution, since the legitimacy and/or quality of each website varies.

How will copyright owners really know if I’m illegally using their material?

If you believe that signing on to a file-sharing program is anonymous, think again: Industries can easily identify your computer’s Internet Protocol address at the time of the download, and that’s enough to know it’s a UCD connection. Music, movie and computer game industries specifically hire people to watch for copyright infringements and notify ISPs of violations. As a result, mass warnings to institutions have made local and national headlines. For example, an article in the Chronicle for Higher Education explained how some schools, such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Maryland, College Park, have had to re-evaluate their enforcement of the DMCA after receiving an unprecedented number of complaints from Universal Studios. Recently the Recording Industry Association of America won a court case that forces Verizon (an ISP) to reveal the names of individual users who were caught uploading songs. More and more, major corporations are seeking out individual users, instead of networks or companies (like Napster). The Motion Picture Association of America is seeking protection measures for copyrighted movies via Congress. It seems that sharing copyrighted material online is becoming more and more difficult and less and less anonymous.

What actions will be taken if I am caught violating copyright law?

The copyright owners (media industries) will issue a DMCA “notification” to UCD, as the ISP, with the identifying information. At a minimum, this information includes the IP address, date and time the material was transferred, and the name of the material. UCD will then take the action required by the DMCA to “expeditiously” block access to the material, usually by blocking the offending computer from the UCD servers. If you live in the residence halls, an area conduct coordinator will meet with you to determine your level of violation and what programs you are running on your computer, and then have an education discussion with you about DMCA policy, according to Branden Petitt, Student Judicial Affairs officer for Student Housing. If found responsible, you will receive a formal warning from Student Housing and your name will be placed on record with SJA. In the meantime, your connection to the campus network will remain disabled until the matter is resolved.

How many UCD students have actually gotten in trouble for this?

This past year, UCD received 97 notifications, 50 of which were the result of students’ violations, according to a campus IT security coordinator. Students caught violating the computer-use policy more than twice may permanently lose access to the campus servers, although a violation of this severity has yet to be documented.

I don’t run P2P software on my computer, but the university still issued me a warning! How can that be?

Some notices relate to computers that have been hacked into in order to take advantage of the university’s nice bandwidth to move around large files. Your computer could be compromised for a long time without detection, until a DMCA violation comes in. These can be messy and time-consuming to fix — it is much better to prevent them by running good protective software and changing your password often. If you think your computer might be hacked, you should call IT Express at 754-HELP. They can help you determine if you have in fact been hacked.

Are there any other dangers of using file-sharing programs?

File-sharing sites often covertly package Spyware. Spyware is software that gathers personal information without your knowledge. Therefore, you can unknowingly be giving hackers access to your personal files and programs when you visit file-sharing sites. To prevent Spyware and other means of unintentional file sharing, students should maintain current antivirus programs and update their computers with the latest security patches. (Bovine Online, the campus’ Internet Software Toolkit CD, contains the latest version of Norton Anti-Virus for you to use.) And here’s another reason for caution: Use of file-sharing programs or inattention to computer security measures may lead to the unintentional sharing of personal information and identity theft.
http://www.californiaaggie.com/_articles/6079.taf

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P-Cube and Mitsubishi Corporation Provide Peer to Peer Control Solutions
Press Release

P-Cube Inc., the originator of programmable IP service control platforms, today announced a business alliance with Mitsubishi Corporation to deliver P-Cube Service Control solutions to Japanese broadband providers facing increased challenges from peer-to-peer users. In addition to the marketing and distribution partnership, Mitsubishi Corporation plans to develop a Customer Show Case Center in Tokyo, Japan, demonstrating P-Cube's solutions for usage analysis, content- based billing and peer-to-peer control.

"Mitsubishi is an ideal partner for P-Cube as we ramp up sales and support of our solutions in the Asian-Pacific market," said Yuval Shahar, P-Cube president and CEO. "Mitsubishi has existing relationships with tier one carriers and service providers in Japan, providing an opportunity for us to engage in multiple opportunities with leading customers. We look forward to our growing relationship with Mitsubishi as we continue rolling out our Service Control solutions to service providers in Japan."

P-Cube's service control platform is a purpose-built system designed to analyze and control network level application transactions across a service provider's IP infrastructure. In Japan, as in many other parts of the world, P-Cube's solution has been a critical part of the service provider's ability to control, restrict, and manage Peer-To-Peer (P2P) network abuse. Using the highly granular user aware and P2P application specific control ability found in P-Cube's service control solution, service providers quickly turn over-consumed cable and DSL networks into profitable broadband service delivery networks. P-Cube solutions also provide application-level usage analysis, which can break the barriers of time- or volume-based billing that have hampered service provider revenues, and enable postpaid, prepaid, or content-based billing plans for data, mobile and WiFi services.

"P-Cube provides a compelling portfolio of solutions for Japanese broadband service providers facing increased networking challenges, as the rapid increase in peer-to-peer applications and users continues," said Shuichi Seguchi, General Manager of Telecommunication Infrastructure Business Unit, Telecommunication & Broadcasting Division in the New Business Initiative Group of Mitsubishi Corporation. "We have already seen an increased interest in P-Cube's portfolio of solutions to identify and control bandwidth abuse, optimize their networks, and roll out new usage-based billing plans. We already have several trials with leading providers."
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/...230915152&dire

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Tectonic Rumblings
ololiuhqui

Every so often a new tool comes along that causes a shift from Bronze to Iron, that divides history into "before" and "after." The peer-to-peer world has certainly seen its share. Those who used 486s to encode and play MP3s remember it wasn't just abysmal modem speeds that kept people from casual trading, but the tiresome process of finding users and content; Napster freed us from that bondage, letting the computer do the heavy lifting and freeing people to do what they do best.

When the weaknesses began to show in Napster's overly centralized model, Gnutella stepped in with a distributed, decentralized network. Audiogalaxy gave us astounding variety (even the most obscure music could always be found sooner or later) and a rich sense of community that is still sorely missed. WinMX offered the ability to connect to multiple Napster-compatible networks; with the advent of multi-source downloading, Morpheus and similar programs allowed us to rise above the limitations of slow upstream (until it's hard now to find any P2P applications that don't use it); and EDonkey added the nice touch of being able to share files before they were done downloading.

So what's the next stage of P2P evolution?

Enter BitTorrent -- a "swarming, scatter and gather" file transfer protocol developed by Bram Cohen that's taking the net by storm. Even without a friendly, unified interface, BT's ability to scale in the face of overwhelming demand while minimizing the free rider problem ("leeching") has attracted a flood of new users. But as with any tool, understanding how and why it works will always make using it easier and more fun.

BitTorrent is not a 'website' or a 'network', and strictly speaking is not even a program -- it's a protocol with a number of functional implementations.

Instead of jumping right into downloading, first we'll discuss how files are served. Most new BT users are familiar with going to a website and clicking on links to .torrent files, but this just provides a friendlier interface and isn't actually necessary. All you really need to serve is a public Internet machine. The "tracker" will "keep track" of who is connected and who has which pieces of the file(s) in question. Like any public Internet service, a static IP address and/or valid hostname will make it easier for people to connect to your tracker.

To start serving, you choose a file or directory to serve and run a program which generates a .torrent file. This contains a 'hash,' which serves as a checksum to ensure the file is the same on all systems, as well as the address of a tracker. A typical .torrent file is quite small, typically 5-50k in size.

The second step is to load the .torrent file into a BT client. The client asks you where to save the file, you point it at the existing and complete copy, it verifies that the file hash matches, says the download is done and sits there uploading when necessary until you cancel it.
http://slashdot.org/articles/03/03/3....shtml?tid=110

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CSC gets tough on file-sharing employees
Tim Richardson

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) has warned employees that they face "counselling" or even the sack if they are found to be using the firm's network to download and store illegally-held copyright material.

The stark warning was contained in an internal memo sent last Friday in which CSC explained that it has been notified by the Business Software Alliance and the Recording Industry Association of America, among others, that "illegal audio, video and software copyrighted materials has been detected on its computers".

According to a copy of the memo, seen by The Register this illegal hoarding of copyright material has been verified following an internal investigation by the IT services company.

"This is in clear violation of CSC's Human Resources Management Policy," said the memo.

"Anyone using either CSC computers and / or the CSC network that has such programs and / or copyrighted media (.avi, .mp3, etc., files) is subject to appropriate disciplinary actions. First offenses will result in counselling by both your manager and Human Resources, and your personnel file being annotated as to the situation. Second offenses will result in immediate termination. CSC will not tolerate such abuse of the law," it said.

In a bid to clampdown on illegal downloads, CSC - which employs around 90,000 people - is to begin scanning its network and PCs to "detect the presence of such peer-to-peer programs" from the end of April.

Anyone caught with illegal software on their machines faces the threat of "counselling" [hang on, do they mean a rollicking? Ed] or even the sack.

"We regret having to take these steps, but the abusive and inappropriate behavior of certain members of our staff leave us no alternative," the memo said.

CSC declined to comment on the content of the leaked memo.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30043.html

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Record Industry, Webcasters Reach Deal
David Ho

WASHINGTON - Internet music broadcasters and the record industry agreed Thursday to settle their long-running dispute over how much big webcasters must pay to broadcast songs over the Internet.

The deal calls for webcasters including Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks to pay slightly lower per-song royalty fees than those imposed last year by the U.S. Copyright Office, which still must sign off on the agreement.

Internet radio — either simulcasts of traditional over-the-air radio or Internet-only stations streamed over the Internet to computers — is becoming more popular as people get high-speed connections.

The record industry has been pressing to collect royalties to pay artists and music labels for use of their songs.

"Musicians in all styles of music and at every level of popular success deserve fair compensation for their hard work and talent," said Thomas Lee, president of the American Federation of Musicians. "We are delighted to have reached an agreement."

A 1998 law required that organizations broadcasting music and other radio content over the Internet pay fees to record companies that hold song copyrights.

After the two sides were unable agree on rates on their own, the Copyright Office ruled in June that webcasters must pay about 70 cents for every song heard by 1,000 listeners as counted by the webcasters.

The larger webcasters complained the rates, which they paid retroactively back to 1998, cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars for each year, more than some of them get from advertising or listener contributions.

The Copyright Office was to begin another arbitration between the parties next month to work out royalty payments for 2003 and 2004. The new deal, if approved, will make that process unnecessary.

Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, which represents webcasters, said the agreement will save his industry millions of dollars in legal fees that would be needed if the Copyright Office arbitrated the agreement. He said webcasters can now put resources toward "high-quality programming that is enjoyed by millions of listeners."

The agreement proposes a per-song rate similar to that set by the government last year, but allows 4 percent of a webcasters' songs to be free from royalties. The proposal also gives webcasters the option of paying royalties as a percentage of their revenue or at an hourly rate.

Potter said those choices will allow webcasters to save money by picking the method that works best for them.

The new proposal does not apply to Internet simulcasts of traditional over-the-air radio or to noncommercial webcasters such as college radio stations.

Small webcasters — typically operations that are listener-supported and reach, at most, just a few thousand people — had complained the Copyright Office rates would force them out of business. Legislation passed last year allowed them to pay less.

Those small webcasters can choose to keep paying those rates or follow the new ones.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...internet_radio

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QnA
J.D. Biersdorfer

Q. What is the difference in quality between video files recorded to a VCD and those recorded to a SVCD?

A. A VCD, or Video Compact Disc, uses the MPEG-1 video compression format to store full-motion video on a regular CD that you can play on most DVD drives. About 80 minutes of video can be stored on a 700-megabyte disc. The picture quality of the video is similar to that of a VHS tape.

A SVCD, or Super Video Compact Disc, uses the MPEG-2 video format and can include two stereo audio tracks, which makes it similar to a DVD movies although a SVCD uses standard compact discs. The picture quality is higher on SVCD, but the files take up more space. You can fit 40 minutes to an hour of video on a 700-megabyte disc.

Older DVD players may not be able to play VCD or SVCD discs, so you may want to make a test disc in each format if you plan to use them with home entertainment equipment. Software is available that will let you play either type of disc on your computer's DVD or CD-ROM drive. Information about the software and a list of DVD players that will work with VCD and SCVD's is at www.dvdrhelp.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/03/te...ts/03askk.html

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Workers are gamers in office hours
Steve Ranger

One in four employees admits to installing games on their work computers, according to a research. And more than half of IT managers report that employees are accessing online game sites at work, according to data from internet access management company Websense.

The research found that employees are bored with Solitaire and are turning instead to games such as Quake, EverQuest and Snood during working hours.

"The online gaming explosion first hit the workplace because of prevalent broadband internet access," explained Geoff Haggart, European vice president of Websense, in a statement.

Haggart said employees are now bringing in unauthorised games on CDs, or downloading free games via peer-to-peer networks, which risks exposing corporate networks to malicious code.

"It leads to increased demands on bandwidth and could lead to legal issues as a result of software being copied or stored illegally on the server," he said.

"As PC games become more entertaining and interactive, they require increasing quantities of broadband web access and employee mind share."
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139813

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Web swarm gathers in the Netherlands
Andrew McLindon

Ever wished for someone to share Web surfing experiences with or wanted to see what sites people with similar interests are visiting? Now you can.

Eyebees, (http://www.eyebees.com/index2.php) a Dutch-based start-up, has launched a beta version of a software application bearing the company's name that allows users to become either part of or lead an on-line "swarm" as they navigate the Internet.

According to George Witteveen, one of the founders of Eyebees, the idea behind the Eyebees application is to make Internet surfing a more communal experience.

"At the moment, Internet surfing is a boring experience. There are millions of people around the world on-line all at the same time, but most Internet users would have no contact with any of these people, accept maybe with a few through instant messaging. Eyebees though creates clusters of people and transforms Internet surfing into a social activity," Witteveen told ElectricNews.Net.

With Eyebees, if you join a "swarm" your Web browser will track the movement of the swarm as it goes from Web page to Web page. The swarm, however, will not be able to enter secure sites such as Web-based e-mail sites like Hotmail.

Users of the application can either join a "swarm" or create their own under one of six categories such as politics, government and social activism, and music and entertainment.

According to Witteveen, the service is anonymous with users only identified by their nicknames. Eyebees also does not log what sites people swarm to.

The free beta version was released at the start of March and currently over 60 swarms have formed, although activity on them was low on Friday afternoon.

Witteveen said the company aims to release a commercial version of the software, which will be licensed to companies. "Businesses could use Eyebees to bring the members of their communities (workers, suppliers, clients etc) closer together or to observe how consumers behave on-line," said Witteveen. Another potential commercial usage of Eyebees outlined by Witteveen is to help share on-line information among dispersed attendees of Web-based seminars.

Witteveen, who is an architect, has been working on the Eyebees idea with Marco Bunge, a book publisher, and writer Jack Bury for the last few years.

The launch of Eyebees follows the release by Microsoft in February of a beta version of software that is designed to make Internet usage a more group experience. Called Threedegrees, it allows users to create on-line peer-to-peer social groups where they can chat, share photos, and create and listen to music playlists.
http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9353876

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Industry's fears silence music for critics
Ben Wener

As you may know, the White Stripes' new album, "Elephant," arrives in stores Tuesday. Flop, milestone or some middling nothing in between, it is surely one
of the most anticipated albums of the year.

And I can't hear it - at least not until everyone else can.

"I haven't gotten my advance copies yet," I was told earlier this week, which is a publicist's way of saying "You're not getting one." Really, calling them "advances" at this stage is ludicrous. By the time I do get a copy from the band's label, I already will have purchased one at Tower Records - exactly the same case as Linkin Park's "Meteora," which I wasn't allowed to hear even in advance of a concert last week designed to preview it.

I bet you've heard this complaint before, and it's not the sort that elicits much sympathy. "Oh, boo hoo, the poor critic can't get all the best albums weeks before everyone else. And for free at that!"

You're right, of course. But it's a curious thing: No one seems to mind that movie critics get to see every major and minor flick weeks in advance of its theatrical run, but a great many people take angry exception when a music critic gets the same treatment.

Yet we don't all get the same treatment in this game. I guarantee that the country's four or five biggest publications will run something about the White Stripes by Tuesday.

Is this not the equivalent of, say, only Ebert & Roeper, Entertainment Weekly and USA Today being allowed to see the next "Lord of the Rings" installment, while all other movie writers have to wait until it opens nationwide?

Such selective coverage - "spin," you might call it, even if the publicity machine can't control what gets written - has gone on for years in pop circles, at least when it comes to blockbuster releases. It's a publicist's way of ensuring a high-paying client gets a long run - TV and radio first, then the big publications, then down a notch, and again, until you've reached the lowliest weekly in Smalltown USA. Full media saturation.

But this practice has gotten worse, thanks to unfounded fears over file-sharing. So ignorantly terrified is the music biz of losing profits to illegal downloading that now the most oft-heard excuse for not sending out advances is, essentially, "We don't trust you not to leak it."

Never mind that I wouldn't, and haven't, in my eight years of writing. Let's imagine what might happen if I did: nothing. Look at the most recent releases from Eminem and 50 Cent - widely leaked, available on the Internet before street dates, yet both are huge sellers.

The industry just doesn't get it. After decades of all manner of private tune-trading, they still think they're getting ripped off, when in fact the proliferation of good music only benefits everyone who helped create it. Losing even 100,000 buyers to downloading pirates doesn't keep the masses from purchasing.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...ic/5523914.htm

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Free content: Why not?
Greg Blonder

COMMENTARY--"Ripping" a copy of a friend's music CD, or grabbing a track from a Napster-like service on the Internet, is stealing, plain and simple.

Music fans, seeking to justify this casual act of larceny, claim they're really supporting an economic boycott of a usurious and uncreative music industry. "Cybershoplifting," reply the record companies, seizing the opportunity to impose their opaque and onerous copyright schemes on the listening public.

While the battle rages on, piling up legal fees and taking the joy out of music, a simpler solution is on the horizon. The best way to stem this tidal wave of thievery is to give the music away.

Free content, by itself, is not at all that unusual. Broadcast television is "free"--at least to the viewer-- courtesy of ad-supported subsidies, as are radio, many concerts and sporting events. But even those services commanding a fee today should become free tomorrow as the economics of music distribution take radical new shape.

To understand how, we would do well to look at a very different industry, but one with surprising parallels to music: 19th-century fuel delivery. In the late 1800s, when a tenant sought to warm a cold apartment, she had to buy her own coal from passing coal wagons and then haul it in coal buckets up to her fourth-floor kitchen. This apparently straightforward transaction brought with it considerable challenges for wagon drivers.

Theft was endemic. Stories abound of coal wagons stripped of half their load by street urchins before a first delivery could be made. Various solutions to improve security were proposed, including various patented coal locks. The ultimate solution, however, proved to be something quite different: a new distribution model that made coal theft irrelevant. It was called central heating.

Coal distributors sold their product efficiently in one large delivery to apartment landlords, at the same time removing the incentive for individual tenants to steal. Landlords could pass a significant part of the savings on to tenants in their bill for monthly rent. Everyone benefited, even the families of the coal- stealing urchins.

Similarly, it is the power of low-cost distribution, combined with subsidized free services, that will save and transform the music business. Stealing will become equally irrelevant.

It is the power of low-cost distribution, combined with subsidized free services, that will save and transform the music business.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-995332.html

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Microsoft fortifies Wi-Fi security
Joe Wilcox

Microsoft on Monday released a Windows XP update designed to enhance security for computers that connect to wireless networks, but the software is only a part of the Wi-Fi picture.

The software update would change how the operating system connects to 802.11, or Wi-Fi, networks or base stations. Under the older method, one encrypted key is used by everyone connecting to the wireless network. The update would provide a means of associating a separate key for each computer connecting to the network, a change that in theory should increase security.

Businesses are increasingly concerned about wireless security, particularly since a breach through a single base station could expose an otherwise fortified network to infiltration by hacking or snooping.

The update adds support for Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), which is intended to replace the current standard, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WPA has been approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance, which is the group responsible for establishing standards governing wireless networking.

WEP already provides one layer of encryption, and WPA adds another. "There would be a different (encryption) key generated during the operation of the wireless link, which would give you stronger protection," said Jawad Khaki, corporate vice president of Microsoft Windows networking and communications technologies.

While seen as an improvement on the older standard, WPA could also complicate matters for some businesses since Wi-Fi firmware would also need to be updated to support the security technology.

"The weakness of WEP as part of the 802.11 standards has been clearly demonstrated," said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. "Since security remains one of the biggest inhibitors of Wi-Fi deployments, Microsoft felt the need to step in and offer an integrated OS alternative."

Still, Gartenberg remained cautious about the WPA update. "Given Microsoft's track record on security, this initiative is going to require very careful scrutiny before most users will feel comfortable with deployment," he said.

Since January 2002, Microsoft has been working to make security a priority across its product line, but the company acknowledges that much more work needs to be done. In the last month, vulnerabilities have been noted in the Windows 2000 operating system and the Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft was a latecomer to Wi-Fi, adding support for that technology to the operating system with the release of Windows XP in October 2001. Apple Computer, for example, had added support almost two years earlier to Mac OS.
http://news.com.com/2100-1039-994719.html



Microsoft's Wi-Fi ups and downs
Joe Wilcox and Richard Shim

Microsoft's decision to wait on delivering faster, "g"-class Wi-Fi gear may have reversed huge market share gains the company made in the hot consumer category.

In January, Microsoft captured the No. 2 position in U.S. retail sales of Wi-Fi wireless networking gear, only to see its share drop back down to fourth place in February, according to NPDTechworld. The market researcher tracks sales at retail, which is where the bulk of wireless networking gear is sold.

Considering that Microsoft entered the Wi-Fi market in September, its early rise up the market share charts was very impressive, said NPDTechworld analyst Stephen Baker.

But in January, other Wi-Fi manufacturers started selling faster gear that caught on quickly with consumers. Microsoft delayed delivering products in this category ahead of the ratification for "g"-class routers. Wi-Fi gear in that category, however, has grabbed consumer attention and market share, apparently at Microsoft's expense.

Wi-Fi is a wireless networking technology based on the 802.11b, 802.11a and--by midyear--the 802.11g standards. Wi-Fi lets people wirelessly access and share resources on a network. The "b" standard, with maximum throughput of 11 megabits per second (mbps), is the mostly commonly sold at retail and in PC notebooks. By contrast, 802.11a and 802.11g pump data at up to 54mbps. Only "g" is backward-compatible with "b," so some manufacturers also sell combination "a/b" networking gear.

Microsoft on Friday plans to announce that it will ship products based on 802.11g in the second half of the year, once the "g" standard has been ratified by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers and approved for interoperability by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

"The fact Microsoft didn't come out with 'g' product seemed to be a prudent move, since there is no final standard yet," Baker said. "Now it looks like that if you didn't do a 'g' product, that was a mistake."
http://news.com.com/2100-1039-994518.html



Most IT Experts Do Not Trust Microsoft
Reuters

Three-fourths of computer software security experts at major companies surveyed by Forrester Research Inc. FORR.O do not think Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O products are secure, the technology research company said on Monday.

While 77 percent of respondents in the information technology (IT) field said security was a top concern when using Windows, 89 percent still use the software for sensitive applications, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester said in a report titled "Can Microsoft Be Secure?"

The survey polled 35 software security experts at $1 billion companies.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=2481991

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New deal for Opera in IP television market

Opera, the Oslo-based internet browser developer, has announced that Japanese set-top box manufacturer Plat
Communication Components will include the company's Opera for iTV browser in its broadband terminal box, which delivers television over IP networks.

The deal marks Opera's first entry into the Japanese digital TV (DTV) market, an important milestone for the company considering research firm Strategy Analytics has suggested Asia is a boom market for IPTV developments. Strategy Analytics also estimates that, by 2008, 20m homes worldwide will subscribe to IPTV services.

Opera’s spatial navigation system sidelines the keyboard by allowing users to simply click up and down arrows on their keypads to scroll through links on web pages or menu items.

"By utilising Opera's HTML presentation engine, middleware costs can be cut down to half compared to traditional broadcast boxes," claims Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15666

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Ricochet fishes for broadband bites
Ben Charny

Wireless Internet provider Ricochet on Tuesday began targeting subscribers of dial-up Web providers AOL, MSN and Yahoo that want to upgrade to a broadband home or office connection.

Ricochet Access, introduced Tuesday, lets subscribers of other companies' dial-up service do their surfing on Ricochet's wireless network. The network provides a connection that is about three times faster than dial-up service, the company said.

Ricochet Access users keep their dial-up account, e-mail addresses and home pages. Ricochet Access costs $30 a month. Subscribers must also purchase a $100 wireless router, which sends and receives the broadband access.

"What you are getting here is broadband to your house, even if a cable or DSL connection hasn't been built," said a Ricochet spokesman.

Ricochet in the late 1990s, when it was known as Metricom, spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a nationwide 176kbps wireless Web network. Original investors included Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures.

But the original incarnation attracted just 50,000 subscribers, too few to keep going. It was purchased by its current owners, then called Aerie Networks, who purchased the network for pennies on the dollar two years ago. It has since relaunched the network in Denver and San Diego. The company's plans to rebuild the entire network have been scaled back dramatically. It now targets only a city at a time.
http://news.com.com/2100-1034-994947.html

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Sonicblue to auction off units
Dawn Kawamoto

Sonicblue will put on the auction block its ReplayTV digital recorder and Rio MP3 business units, which represent the bulk of the company's assets, Sonicblue announced Tuesday.

Sonicblue, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, had hoped to sell the business units to Japanese electronics company D&M Holdings for $40 million. But the deadline expired before the deal could be completed.

ReplayTV and Rio will be auctioned off April 15, in two separate bankruptcy court transactions.

"While we worked very hard with the D&M team over the last few weeks, we were just not able to finalize all of the needed terms before the court-set deadline," Sonicblue CEO Greg Ballard said in a statement. "Our relationship with D&M is still strong, and we anticipate that they will participate in the court-run action process in April."

D&M previously had a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire the two business units.

Sonicblue said it will also put a third business unit, GoVideo, up for auction on Friday. Previously, Opta Systems had entered into a definitive agreement to buy the networked DVD player business for $12.5 million.

The pending auctions come roughly four months after Sonicblue announced it would seek a buyer as part of its strategic plans.
http://news.com.com/2100-1041-994972.html

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SBC Talks to Buy DirecTV Break Down
Reuters

SBC Communications Inc.'s negotiations SBC.N to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV from General Motors Corp. GM.N broke down this week, sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

Talks fell apart over deal structure, sources said. GM has been running an auction to sell DirecTV, but has required bidders to negotiate a structure for the transaction before submitting bids, sources said. It remained unclear whether SBC would return to the bidding process.

"GM seems to have found a better alternative somewhere else," one source said.

SBC, the No. 2 U.S. local telephone company, has been in talks since last month about buying all or part of DirecTV from Hughes Electronics Corp. GMH.N . Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of GM but trades as a tracking stock that is only 20 percent controlled by the automaker.

San Antonio-based SBC had wanted to acquire DirecTV to help accelerate its high-speed Internet plans. It did not want to buy all of Hughes, a source said.
http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsAr...toryID=2489494

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BT going mobile

BT Broadcast Services is set to announce the list of broadcasters that are to use its solution for distributing programming via mobile video, according to a report in New Media Zero.

The company reportedly has a variety of prominent brands set to go with its hosting, encoding and delivery package to distribute video services via GPRS.

While BT Broadcast Services usually delivers distribution networks for broadcasters, the company decided in 2002 to supply this for 3G networks.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15695

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Siemens delivers Telecom Italia broadband upgrade

Telecom Italia has awarded Siemens a E10m contract to upgrade its broadband telecommunications
infrastructure for the provision of advanced multimedia services.

The Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology being supplied and installed by Siemens will allow Telecom Italia to offer ADSL, SHDSL and VDSL-based services. The Siemens technology is optimised to support Triple Play services – voice, data and video – in addition to high-speed broadband internet access.

Siemens will start supplying and installing the xDSL technology at Telecom Italia exchanges immediately. Siemens Carrier Networks Division will deliver and deploy more than 500 new DSLAM technology ADSL exchanges over the next three months.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15690

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Estonia leads Baltics with broadband DSL penetration

International analysts regard Estonia as a clear leader in Eastern Europe in terms of broadband DSL services,
and in terms of the percentage of the main telephone lines distributing broadband DSL services it is among the top ten countries in the world.

“In terms of broadband DSL penetration Estonia is clearly the most developed East European country, with 2.24 lines per 100 residents, ahead of countries such as Holland, Italy and Great Britain,” the Point-Topic analysis firm writes in its report for Q4 2002, according to Eesti Telefon (Estonian Telephone Co).

According to DSL Forum, a consortium of nearly 200 firms, Estonia was in second place in Eastern Europe after Hungary for the total number of broadband DSL subscribers at the end of 2002. “Estonia with over 6 percent penetration of DSL services over its main telephone lines is almost in the top ten countries list this year,” said Tom Starr, president of the international DSL Forum.

Toivo Praakel, director of the main network service responsible for the construction of DSL lines in Eesti Telefon, said last year was crucial for broadband DSL technology in the world and there was reason to be satisfied with the Estonian growth figures.

“The growth throughout the world was 90 per cent and Estonia’s growth of 88 per cent was in every respect in accordance with the world average,” Praakel said. “In terms of the penetration of DSL lines per 100 residents, Estonia was in 15th place in the world at the end of last year.” Eesti Telefon now has more than 34,000 broadband DSL subscribers.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=15673

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Website offers new view of music
BBC

A website that acts as your personal music adviser has been set up by a student at the University of Southampton.

Richard Jones began working on Audioscrobbler as part of his third-year computer science project and has been surprised at how popular it has become. Now, around 3,000 users regularly tune in to the website to go to the forums and get in touch with people with similar music tastes.

At the heart of the website is a software program that monitors what you listen to, recommends new artists and puts you in touch with other people who listen to similar tunes.

Using a technique known as collaborative filtering, the software matches everything that is played on the computer, whether from MP3 files, streaming media or CDs converted to some other format. It can then match your profile up with other Audioscrobbler members, as a means of introducing people to new music.

E-commerce site Amazon offers a similar service, recommending registered users new books, music and movies based on what they have bought online But often people are buying presents for others, rather than themselves.

Audioscrobbler was a little more geared to your individual taste, said Mr Jones.

"On Amazon you might buy something as a present which doesn't represent your taste but this system bases information on what you have actually played on your computer," he said.

Mr Jones is hoping to develop the site futher.

"What I have achieved so far is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to work on and I want this site to become the way to discover and promote new music," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2888431.stm

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’Salada Space
Sony unveils high-capacity tape drive

Sony of Canada's Communication Information Solutions Group will ship production units of its new Advanced Intelligent Tape technology family - S-AIT drives, S- PetaSite and media - in the spring. With the ability to store up to 1.3 terabytes of compressed data (500 gigabytes native) on a half-inch tape cartridge, S-AIT-1 is being touted as the industry's highest-capacity tape drive and the first available single drive to break the 1TB capacity barrier.

The drive also features a sustained data transfer rate of up to 78 megabytes per second (30 MB/sec native). Later this year, Sony is also expected to introduce an S-AIT version of its PetaSite tape library system. S-AIT-1 libraries will be available in a number of configurations, with a 1,000-cartridge library capable of storing up to 1.3 petabytes of data. With the number of companies managing a petabyte or more of data.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servl...gtsony/GTStory

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HP bundles ADSL modems with PCs
Dinah Greek
Vendor tests the market with range of broadband-ready computers

Banking on the burgeoning interest in broadband, Hewlett Packard (HP) will begin bundling broadband modems with a number of its higher specification PCs.

According to HP, the built in ADSL modems will not be added to the cost of the PC, saving the end user £50 to £80 on the price of signing up for a broadband connection.

Although the modems offer broadband access through any ADSL provider, BT Openworld discs offering free broadband activation have been included in the offer.

The PCs, priced at £1,119 to £1,299, will go on sale in the next few weeks exclusively, for now, at PC World.

HP explained that it would be monitoring demand for the packages, and expected them to prove popular.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139884

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Disc-Based Recorder Almost Gives VCR a Run for the Money
Brett Larson

TiVo and ReplayTV users have it all. Almost. They can digitally record their favorite TV shows for later viewing, but unless they want to use up precious disk space, they still have to use that near-retro- status videotape to save those shows.

Sure, you could finagle a setup with your computer that gets the digital content onto DVD. But let's be real: You're not going to do that because you'd have to deal with tricky software. Fortunately there's the set-top DVD recorder. And although it hasn't entered into mainstream use yet, the stand alone device is almost ready to take the place of your dust-covered VCR.

If you want the ease of a cassette tape, you have to get reusable media. That's partly why Panasonic has chosen the DVD-RAM format for its new DMR-E30S DVD recorder.

With the -RAM format, you get the benefits of reusable media and the ability for some TiVo-like "time-shifting" playback. For example, should you be halfway through recording a show, you can go back to the beginning and watch it from there. You can even fast-forward through commercials or, in my case, the boring parts of the show.

And when it comes to capturing video on a blank disc, you've got options for recording length — just like with a VCR. Just like a videocassette tape, a DVD-RAM disc can record two, four, or six hours. And as with a videocassette tape, the longer you go the lower the quality of your recording.

However, jamming six hours on a disc doesn't leave you with grainy, somewhat lackluster video. Instead you get less than 30 frames per second (fps) video playback with a little kick of compression. The end result: Video that looks a bit funny and may have a slight "flicker." It's not bad, but if you're archiving a show, use the least amount of compression.

Since the DMR-E30S is progressive scan, you're not just getting a nice DVD recorder, you're also getting a high-end DVD player that delivers crisp video from pre-recorded DVD movies.

And it has plenty of input/output options, even for the high-end user. It features the RF cable in/out and even RCA audio/video input jacks. There's also S-Video, a BNC video connection, and a digital out for audio using fiber optic cables.

The Panasonic was easy to set up and easy to use. The iconic menus were clear and playing back our DVD-RAM disc was a cinch. However, when it came to recording programs at a later time we ran into problems.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...Rev030401.html

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Cable Still Beats DSL
Mary Jander

Cable modems continue to outsell DSL access lines, giving cable operators a sizeable lead in the market for bundled services of voice, data, and video, according to a recent report from New Paradigm Resources Group Inc. (NPRG)

Over the past four years, the number of cable modem subscribers has outnumbered DSL access lines by a significant margin. While that doesn't mean DSL isn't growing fast (even faster than cable, by NPRG's reckoning), it raises the chance that cable providers will have a larger installed base from which to grow so-called "triple play" services.

What's more, it seems technology that supports video-on-demand (VOD) over the cable infrastructure (such as that announced by Internet Photonics Inc. yesterday -- see Internet Photonics Touts VOD ) could boost this advantage.

Technology for adding VOD to DSL networks seems to be moving more slowly, an observation of other industry reports as well (see We Want Our Packet TV! ).



NPRG sees the addition of VOD capabilities as potentially giving cable MSOs (multiple system operators) the means to offer triple-play services within three or four years -- about two years ahead of satellite and telecom providers, by the firm's lights.

There's just one catch -- telephony. NPRG indicates there's evidence that today's leading cable MSOs, including Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX - message board), Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR - message board), and Cox Communications Inc. (NYSE: COX - message board) -- which collectively owned over 65 percent of the cable market in 2002 -- aren't showing a high percentage of telephony or data customers.

In 2002, just 16 percent of 70.1 million cable subscribers had cable modems for Internet service; just 3 percent had IP telephony from their MSO, according to NPRG's report.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=30636

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Web Dial-Up Gains Speed, but at a Price
Saul Hansell

FOR those who are still in the Internet's slow lane, there are some new ways to step on the gas - for a price. Much of the talk on the Internet is about high-speed, or broadband, service. But a majority of Internet users - about three-quarters of households with Internet access - have found broadband service too expensive or unavailable, and connect instead over phone lines at speeds that are only 5 percent to 10 percent as fast as a broadband connection.

Now Earthlink and NetZero, two major providers of dial-up Internet service, are offering plans that they claim make dial-up connections as much as five times faster.

Both use technologies that compress text and images of Web pages into smaller files so that more information can be sent in less time. Earthlink's version stores copies of Web pages on the user's hard drive with software that allows it to download only changes since the last visit.

There are two catches: money and quality. Earthlink (www.earthlink.net) charges $28.95 for its speeded-up service, called Earthlink Plus, which is $7 a month more than its regular dial-up service. NetZero (www.netzero.net), a discount Internet provider, has introduced NetZero HiSpeed, for $14.95 a month, $5 more than its regular dial-up service. (Propel Software , the company providing the technology to Earthlink, also sells a stand-alone version of its accelerator service that works with any Internet provider. It costs $7.95 a month and is available at www.propel.com.)

Neither company mentions in its promotional material that the technology used to speed up surfing reduces the quality of images on Web pages. Pictures can be noticeably fuzzy. Both products give users controls to adjust the tradeoff between speed and image quality.

In addition, the technology does not speed file downloads, streaming audio or video programs, or e-mail in programs like Outlook. Moreover, even a turbocharged dial-up service will tie up a phone line, whereas broadband services do not. Indeed, many broadband users find their constant connection to the Internet as appealing as the faster speed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/03/te...ts/03dial.html

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AT&T Offers Prepaid Web Content
Press Release

AT&T today introduced the AT&T PrePaid Web Cents(SM) Service, a new, secure, payment alternative for consumer purchases of online digital content. AT&T's service enables digital content providers to offer consumers a way to prepay for online digital content by purchasing specialty cards in traditional retail outlets.

A variety of leading content providers -- Cellus USA, Disney Online, Shockwave.com GameBlast and Vindigo -- are joining a growing list of participating retailers as early adopters of the AT&T PrePaid Web Cents Service. Consumers will start seeing select specialty cards today in some participating outlets of the PRE Solutions, Inc. Retail Partner Network, Speedway SuperAmerica LLC and Uni-Marts, Inc. By the end of April, cards will be available in some 4,000 retail stores across the country, and many additional retail stores will be added in the coming months.

"Millions of consumers want to purchase compelling online content, but don't because they don't have a credit card or are hesitant to use one for security or privacy reasons," said John Polumbo, president of AT&T Consumer. "We're solving that dilemma today by expanding the capability of the most robust prepaid platform in communications to manage retail purchases of these leading companies' online digital content."

AT&T offers online content providers a full-service program. AT&T manages the retail supply chain: production, warehousing, inventory, fulfillment and point-of- sale activation of the content providers' specialty cards, as well as day-to-day management of vendor relationships and retail operations. AT&T also can handle all transaction processing functions: PIN database management, payment authentication, customer e-care and settlements with retailers.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=30619

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Peer-to-peer file sharing prompts media companies to complain to Minnesota University
Branden Peterson

Years after the rise and fall of Napster, record and movie companies are fighting copyright infringement by sending complaints to colleges, asking them to stop students from using peer-to-peer file-sharing services.

University network controllers receive more than 100 complaints each month, said Ken Hanna, the Office of Information Technology assurance and security director.

“It just seems like it’s going up and up,” he said.

Thanks to file-sharing programs like Morpheus and KaZaA, millions of students are using their colleges’ high-speed Internet networks to download billions of games, songs, pictures and movies through peer-to-peer networks.

Because universities host the network systems students are using to download the copyrighted material, companies are directing their complaints toward the universities.

Typically, they ask schools to resolve the situation internally.

At the University, administrators ask suspected downloaders to stop their illegal activity or face consequences, including being temporarily or permanently banned from the network.

Most illegal downloading occurs in University residence halls, where students have continual access to the high-speed ResNet network.

“We’ve got to either say that we’ve got permission or we have to remove it from the network,” Hanna said. “It’s not the case where we try to make life difficult for students, but we have to live to the law and the University contract.”

Hanna said the use of file-sharing services raises concern beyond copyright infringement.
http://www.mndaily.com/new_site/article.php?id=5439

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University warns students against file sharing
Dan Lewerenz

Sharing homework might get you in trouble, but sharing copyrighted material over the Internet could get you thrown in prison.

That was the message in an e-mail sent to more than 110,000 students, faculty and staff at Penn State University's main campus, along with more than 20 other campuses and centers around the state this week.

"You may have downloaded copyrighted materials and not been caught, so you think you're safe from prosecution. I urge you to think again," Rodney Erickson, Penn State's executive vice president and provost, wrote in a message delivered Monday that warned of heavy fines and prison time for those caught violating federal copyright laws. "Messing up your future is a steep price to pay for music or a video."

This is the second time Erickson has sent such an e-mail. He also sent one in 2000, when the now- defunct file-swapping service Napster was near the height of its popularity.

At a Congressional hearing on file sharing in February, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said that 16 percent of "peer-to-peer" file downloads - in which software allows users to share files directly instead of using a central server - were made by university students.

"Campuses are being more assertive about informing students of their rights and responsibilities - what you can do, what you can't do, who owns copyrights, and those things," said Kenneth C. Green, director of The Campus Computing Project, which studies computer use and information technology at U.S. colleges and universities.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...ss/5542907.htm


Downloads - Singles

BigChampange


Still Trying
RIAA Sues College File Swappers Running Internal Campus Networks
Reuters

A music industry group on Thursday said it has filed lawsuits against the operators of private computer networks on three college campuses where it claims the networks are being used to illegally trade copies of digital music files.

The Recording Industry Association of America said its member companies filed suit against two students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and against one student each at Princeton University and Michigan Technological University.

The RIAA has actively used the courts to pursue digital music pirates after a 9 percent dip in CD sales in 2002 that it blames for the most part on online file sharing.

In a statement, the association compared the file-sharing systems, which are open only to students on the universities' internal networks, as miniature versions of Napster -- the software and network that led to the explosion of music file swapping.

The four networks were offering nearly 2.5 million files, it said, including more than 1 million files on the largest network alone.

The complaints ask for the legal limit on damages in such cases, $150,000 per each copyright infringed.

The defendants named in the complaints are Daniel Peng at Princeton, Joseph Nievelt at Michigan Technical, and Jesse Jordan and Aaron Sherman of Rensselaer.

None of the four could be immediately reached by phone or e-mail. A personal Web site listed for Sherman on the Rensselaer site was not loading as of Thursday afternoon.

Last month the RIAA sent letters to 300 U.S. companies, across a variety of industries, warning them of specific evidence of illegal music swapping on their networks and the potential legal consequences of allowing it to continue.

The RIAA represents the world's major music companies, including Vivendi Universal, Sony Corp., AOL Time Warner, EMI Group Plc and Bertelsmann AG
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml...toryID=2505231

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World's media conned by April Fool
Joris Evers

Dutch P2P platform provider is a prank

Internet users hoping for a rush of new file-swapping services have been tricked. A February announcement from a Dutch company promising a platform for such services turns out to have been an April Fool's Day joke.

The project, called The Honest Thief, is a publicity stunt for a book with the same title, not an initiative to capitalise on a year- old Dutch court ruling that legitimised P2P (peer-to-peer) file- swapping services in the Netherlands, according to a statement on The Honest Thief's website posted yesterday, 1 April.

When launched late February, the company behind The Honest Thief said it would offer software, legal advice and a home base to file-sharing service providers. The announcement got worldwide media coverage, with The Wall Street Journal reporting it first.

"Well, guess what April Fools! The Honest Thief file-sharing venture was no more than a publicity stunt," the statement on www.thehonestthief.com reads.

In hindsight, there were a few clues in February that The Honest Thief was a prank. The software was due in the second quarter, which starts 1 April, and www.thehonestthief.com was previously used to promote a book with the same name.

"We did mislead and use people, but you can't have a joke of this size if you don't," said Pieter Plass, the man who concocted the story. "I don't believe we caused any harm or financial damage."

Plass said his "lying and deceiving" may have hurt the reputation of The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. "This does cast a shadow over the reputation of the press," he said. Still, Plass does not expect any legal action against him as a result of his trickery. "We really never did any business and came out on 1 April."
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/index.cfm...view&news=3200

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Cade Metz on Spyware

The first sign of trouble came when Marc Heatherington installed his personal firewall. Every few minutes, it warned him an application was sending Internet traffic. Initially, he ignored the warnings. Then his daughter noticed his browser launching new home pages, including xupiter.com. Worried that this was related to the outgoing traffic, Heatherington tracked down the offending DLLs, in a subdirectory labeled Xupiter. Web research told him he'd uncovered spyware—local software that surreptitiously tracks your behavior.

Xupiter is an advertising and marketing program that launches pop-up ads. It adds bookmarks to your browser's menu. And, as Heatherington discovered, it hijacks your browser's home page. More disturbing, to serve ads and sites tailored for you, Xupiter transmits information about your PC and your surfing habits to xupiter.com; hence Heatherington's suspicious traffic.

None of the Heatheringtons remembered downloading Xupiter—unsurprising, because Xupiter is a "drive-by download." If your Internet security controls aren't properly set, just visiting a Web site or clicking on a Web ad can install an app.

Your PC may well be similarly infested. According to a recent report from research firm GartnerG2, more than 20 million people have installed adware applications (adware being a type of spyware that reports back on a subject's activities to serve up targeted advertising), and this covers only a portion of the spyware on the loose. Companies like DoubleClick use small files called cookies to track you online. Others, like WinWhatWhere, sell key loggers, which let others see your every keystroke. Trojan horses like Back Orifice and NetBus let hackers not only track your behavior but even take control of your PC.

As Marc Heatherington found, spyware can reach your PC without your knowledge or explicit approval. This is always the case with ad cookies, yet another spyware subclass. More worrying are applications like Xupiter that install themselves on the sly. Trojans and certain key loggers weasel onto your system in much the same way. Some may be mailed to you disguised as something useful. And of course, anyone with access to your machine can install a system monitor.

Josh Liberman—the president of Net Sciences, a New Mexico business networking company—constantly encounters spyware. "I have never sat down at a client PC and not been able to pull spyware off of it," he says. Though he typically finds 20 to 30 spyware-related files, folders, and Registry values, one system at an Albuquerque law firm yielded over 300.

In all likelihood, however, you willingly installed much of your spyware yourself when downloading another application. Most file-sharing services—Napster-like tools for trading MP3s and other files across the Internet —are bundled with spyware. That's how file-sharing vendors make money while not charging for their products. In a sense, you are paying, but the coin is privacy, not money.

The Grokster service, for example, includes Gator eWallet. This program seems innocuous. It can learn user names, passwords, credit card numbers, addresses, and so on, to help fill in online forms. But it sends information about you, your computer, and your online behavior to Gator's Web site.
http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0...a=39276,00.asp


A Test - Is it easy to get infected? Let’s find out

Just how rampant is spyware? To find out, we did some spying of our own, with the help of several dozen PC Magazine readers. These volunteers neatly split into two groups: those who were enthusiastic users of free file-sharing software, such as Grokster, Kazaa, and Morpheus, and those who did little or no swapping.

We fitted each person's system with a spyware removal tool, along with a surveillance program we created called "Who's Spying on Me?" Once each day, our program launched the removal tool to delete any spyware on the system, analyzed the tool's log, and e-mailed the log and its analysis to us. Who's Spying on Me? also checked the Uninstall data in the Registry and the shortcuts in the Start menu and Desktop, reporting new installations it found. The testers were given an opportunity to add comments to the e-mail. Since in theory all spyware was removed each day, any spyware found after the initial cleanup would represent a new infestation.

To automate the spyware removal and logging process, we needed a removal tool that could be controlled through the command line. We began our tests using Lavasoft's Ad-aware 5.83. Since not all of Ad-aware's settings could be configured from the command line, Who's Spying on Me? tweaked the configuration settings directly in the Registry. After a week or so, it became clear that Ad-aware was not completely successful in removing spyware it detected. (Ad-aware has since updated to Version 6, reviewed in this story.) We arranged to get copies of PestPatrol 4.1.0.14 for our volunteers, and we rewrote the reporting program to analyze the log files from PestPatrol's command line utility—a module separate from the utility reviewed here.

Not surprisingly, the first logs we received from our testers were the biggest, because the software tools had just cleared out months or sometimes years of accumulated items. The majority of the removals were "tracking cookies" rather than true spyware. Advertisers claim they use these cookies to gather non individualized information about Web behavior. They can tell that someone saw one of their banner ads on a specific set of sites, but they can't tell who. Yet by sending an e-mail including a "Web bug," advertisers can associate a tracking cookie with a specific individual. Most advertisers say they don't use this technique, but the removal tools wipe out the tracking cookies anyway, just in case.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,977907,00.asp


Spyware Removers – Tested
Cade Metz

For this, our first head-to-head roundup of spyware detection and removal applications, we found that the space isn't as mature as we had expected: Many of the applications were unstable and seemed to cause more trouble (or at least more remarkable trouble) than they solved. Only one, PepiMK Software's SpyBot Search & Destroy (our Editors' Choice), actually managed to destroy the spyware and adware it detected without leaving much detritus behind.

We'd like to see this space evolve into a more organized, standardized field, as the antivirus field has done, where definitions of the offenders are known, agreed on, and perhaps shared by a central body. This would aid identification of offending applications—and perhaps free up the vendors to develop better methods of removing all the many files, folders, DLLs, and Registry keys that their unpleasant targets currently leave behind on people's systems.

In the meantime, SpyBot Search & Destroy is the best of the bunch. And as a free application (with a voluntary donation requested), it's far more worthy than competitors that cost upward of 30 dollars.

For test details, click link. http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0...a=39276,00.asp

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Copyrights and Japan
Nude Volleyball Angers Game Maker Who "Gets Tough" In Response

The makers of a video game which features cyber babes playing volleyball have been angered by attempts to remove the women's digital bikinis.

Japanese games developer Tecmo has warned of legal action against anyone who published information rendering the women in Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball completely nude during gameplay.

"We're watching you very closely! Please do not post things that infringe copyrights and other legal issues," said the firm on its official website.

This is not the first time that a video game featuring a cyber babe has been altered by game enthusiasts. Patches to remove the clothes of the most famous virtual heroine of all, Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider games, are widely available on the internet.

Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball for Microsoft's Xbox console features characters from the cast of the Dead or Alive fighting game series.



The title features voluptuous heroines who preen, sun themselves and play volleyball in bathing suits on a tropical island.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2904877.stm

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Group prepares MPEG-4 encryption
Paul Festa

Aiming to close a long-standing gap in digital rights management for MPEG-4, a streaming media consortium is seeking comments on an encryption specification slated for release in June.

The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA), whose members include Apple Computer, AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems, IBM and Sun Microsystems, said it would spend the next two months evaluating public review of the new digital rights management (DRM) specification.

The proposed specification is a way of encrypting streaming media files that would be compatible with existing methods for key encryption and DRM. That would give content providers more flexibility in pursuing their commercial goals, the ISMA said.

"In developing this specification, we spent a significant amount of time gathering feedback from major content owners," ISMA President Tom Jacobs said in a statement. "As a result, our specification does not bind them to utilize specific rights and key management systems or preselected solution vendors. This allows content owners to retain control over critical business processes and related decisions."

MPEG-4, a standard for compressing audio and video files for delivery over the Internet and other networks, is the work of the Moving Picture Experts Group, which also designed MPEG-2 for digital television and MP3 for music files.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025-994851.html

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Find Your State
State Super-DMCA Bills and Laws. The site summarizes the status of so-called "Super-DMCA" legislation in various U.S. states. http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/superdmca.html

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U.S. Eyes Personal Commercial Data in Terror Search
Andy Sullivan

The U.S. government has discovered a powerful resource in its war against terrorism -- credit-card records, hotel bills, grocery lists and other records detailing the private lives of its citizens.

Government investigators are turning to commercial databases to track down and isolate possible hijackers and suicide bombers before they strike, raising fear among privacy advocates that long- standing protections against government snooping may be eroded.

The Transportation Security Administration is developing an airline passenger-screening program that would check private records such as credit reports to assess risk, prompting a fierce debate about the merits of such "pattern recognition" systems.

Officials and many security experts say such "data mining" techniques are necessary to flush out a foe that does not wear a uniform but blends in with ordinary civilians to infiltrate and undermine American society.

Civil-liberties advocates on the left and the right say the tactic could lead back to the bad old days when law-enforcement agencies like the FBI conducted routine, unfettered surveillance on law- abiding citizens like civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"People in the government, very much so in the Justice Department, have been playing out a lust for information that is not consistent with who we have been as a nation," former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey said recently.

The connection between private and government surveillance is likely to be a hot topic as computer scientists, policy experts and government officials meet this week in New York at the 13th annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference.

Congress has imposed limits on one particularly controversial Defense Department program, but few doubt that investigators will increasingly rely on pattern-recognition techniques and private business records in their efforts to root out extremists.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=2473472

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Music Industry Meets Its Future
Ben Silverman

Ever since the MP3 format was widely adopted, the major recording labels have been scrambling to get a piece of the action online.

While the major labels have done battle with the digital music terrorists, musicians from around the world have appropriated new technology and created avenues of distribution and marketing.

Be it the ability to sell records through Amazon.com or a simple Web site to promote upcoming shows, artists have been empowered like never before. Their reliance on the traditional industry players and managers, lawyers and booking agents is no longer a given.

What is a given, however, is that there hasn't been a breakout artist who has risen from the routers, switches and fiber optics of the online world. But this may soon change.

Jonah Smith has been called "One of the most important voices in modern soul," something the Syracuse, N.Y.,-native and Brooklyn-based musician doesn't take for granted.

For the past few years, Smith has been hooked up withCornerBand.com, an online music firm whose goal it is to help artists remove the barriers to success set up by the traditional music industry.

The arrangement has paid off, as Smith's band has been able to tour steadily and push out close to one million downloads of its songs.

"Artists can be empowered to control their own destiny," said Scott Beck, chairman and chief executive officer of CornerBand.com.

CornerBand.com is, in one sense, the evolution of the online music industry. By combining secure digital distribution, traditional record sales, file-sharing, media partnerships and artist services, the company has created a package for do-it-yourself artists, who are becoming embraced and noticed.

"A lot of people in the business are number crunchers and don't have ears and vision, "Smith said. "It's very hard to break through, so you find friends where you can."

What CornerBand.com does is rather simple: Through an alliance with file-sharing service Kazaa, the company allows artists to distribute their music digitally and for free. Songs are encoded with copyright management software so an artist can control the music.
http://www.nypost.com/business/71542.htm

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DirecTV Wins Dismissal Of Suit On Piracy Letters
Bloomberg

DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite television service, has won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by people who contended that the company accused them of piracy in letters and tried to extort money. Judge Charles W. McCoy Jr. of California Superior Court in Los Angeles ruled that DirecTV's letters were sent in connection with litigation, which is constitutionally protected speech. The letters were sent to people whose names turned up on invoices of raided companies as purchasers of piracy equipment. DirecTV, owned by the Hughes Electronics Corporation, has filed 2,000 federal lawsuits against people who failed to respond to the letters. The court action preserves DirecTV's ability to pursue a tactic it says it needs to protect its proprietary interests. Signal pirates cost DirecTV millions in revenue last year, the company says, and it cut off service to at least 50,000 viewers who were improperly receiving its programming. The court found sufficient evidence "to show DirecTV sent its demand letters in serious contemplation of litigation," Judge McCoy wrote in a four-page ruling dated Tuesday. "I guarantee this will be appealed," said Jeff Wilens, a lawyer for the letter recipients who sued the company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/03/te...y/03TBRF3.html

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The Descendency of Columbia
Chuck Philips

Most global entertainment giants are looking for an exit from the battered music business.

But not Sony Corp., which today expects to tell employees of an ambitious plan to stick with music -- at a price.

The long-anticipated divisional blueprint from new music chief Andrew Lack relies heavily on job cuts and a restructuring to boost performance at an operation corporate brass has long criticized as bloated and out of touch.

Under the plan, two of the world's oldest and most successful music labels -- Columbia and Epic -- will undergo significant downsizing as Sony slashes $100 million in annual costs and about 1,000 of 10,000 jobs worldwide.

In a far-reaching management shake-up, expected in coming weeks, Columbia veteran Don Ienner will take charge of a consolidated Sony Music America division. Michele Anthony, executive vice president of the music group, will remain at her post and serve as one of Lack's top lieutenants.

"The company is in transition and the industry is in transition. The question is whether the company has been keeping up with the larger transition," Lack said Thursday. "Critics would say, no, we've been slow to react."

As rivals scramble to unload recording assets, Lack made it clear that the Japanese electronics behemoth is banking on music to play a continued role in a corporation that also sells CD burners, computers and portable MP3 players. Consumer electronics contribute more than 60% of Sony's $60-billion- plus annual sales, while music has slipped to less than 8%.

"Sony, the parent company in Japan, sees music as core to their basic business.... That's what this restructuring is all about," Lack said.

But Sony's renewed commitment to its record division comes joined with potentially disruptive cuts that follow similar reductions at Vivendi Universal, Bertelsmann, EMI Group and AOL Time Warner Inc. -- all of which have explored selling music assets.

About 350 corporate, label and support staff will be trimmed from Sony's operations in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville. About 100 employees in Southern California will get pink slips, executives said.

Outside the U.S., Sony will cut about 400 jobs in an international operation that remains under chief Bill Bowlin and lieutenant Rick Dobbis. An additional 300 jobs will be cut at manufacturing plants in the U.S. and abroad.

The two will have to calm employee jitters, for instance, over remarks in which Sony's Japanese brass appeared to see music as something that could be all but given away to promote other services or devices. In a recent interview in AlwaysOn magazine, Sony Chairman Nobuyuki Idei blasted his own music management team's resistance to Internet file-sharing.

"The music industry must reinvent itself," Idei said. "They have to change their mindset away from selling albums and think about selling singles over the Internet as cheap as possible -- even 20 cents or 10 cents -- and encourage file-sharing so they can also get micro-payments for these files. We can no longer control distribution the way we used to."
http://www.sunspot.net/business/bal-...ness-headlines










Until next week,

- js.








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Current Week In Review.

Recent WIRs -


http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15729 March 29th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15623 March 22nd
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15526 March 15th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15437 March 8th
http://www.p2p-zone.com/underground/...threadid=15348 March 1st




The Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts@lycos.com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.

[multi]

"Encourage file sharing"? Sell singles for "10 cents"? It was enough to put Hillary Rosen and Jack Valenti on life support

[TankGirl]

An excellent editorial, Jack (not to talk about the huge news package!)

- tg