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