August 25, 2003
Volume 1, Issue 7
SoBig on Heels of Blaster
Blaster
Follow-Up
Beyond SoBig.F
Protect
Yourself
Reports from several anti-virus suppliers
suggested that the W32.SoBig virus was more prevalent than anticipated,
but security officials insisted that they contained it. This virus propagated
via e-mail. Because of its mass-mailing capabilities, the W32.SoBig
virus devoured bandwidth and slowed network performance, but didn't
delete files or do other damage. It could open a port in infected
PCs, however, enabling a hacker to upload a Trojan, take control, and
mount attacks on other computers, which was the biggest concern. At
the appointed time on Friday afternoon for one such episode, infected
PCs visited a porn site. There are at least half a dozen variations
of the W32.SoBig virus in circulation.
Visit DCIA's Web Site
This week, Webmaster Adam Marcus unveiled
a major redesign of www.dcia.info.
The biggest enhancement is a search engine, available from the menu
bar at the top of each page. There is also information about becoming
a DCIA Member (“Join” on the menu bar) and the original industry letters
that inspired founder Derek Broes to form DCIA (“About” on the menu
bar, then go to “Origins” page). In addition to archiving each week's
DCINFO newsletters, the DCIA web site will provide details about activities
of DCIA and the distributed computing industry in general. If you have
problems or suggestions, please contact adam@dcia.info.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
Privacy
vs. Piracy
Ray
of Hope
 This
was a week of planning and preparation with several of our key constituents
for upcoming meetings and events. September's schedule is filling up
quickly. If you have a moment, please visit www.dcia.info and
sample Webmaster Adam Marcus' improvements. Also this week, a number
of very promising new companies requested Membership information, and
have much to offer the distributed computing industry.
As reported in Friday's
Variety, the legal confrontations afflicting the industry have not taken
a summer vacation:
“Both sides claimed to be gaining ground late Thursday when Sacramento
lawyers filed a motion challenging a recording industry subpoena, and
the Justice Dept. announced a guilty plea in a major criminal online
music file-swapping case.”
While the legal motion represents a new precedent, with a consumer
contesting an RIAA subpoena based on privacy grounds, to us it primarily
underscores the need for more constructive solutions.
Neither business nor consumer interests are being well served here.
The guilty plea of the former leader of the online piracy group Apocalypse
Crew, which made a business of distributing music prior its commercial
release, on the other hand, represents the kind of enforcement that
needs to be in place to protect industry interests as legitimate businesses
grow in this space.
It is important to point out, however, that this entity's illegal acts
abused peer-to-peer file-sharing technology -- and not to confuse the
distribution channel with the crime.
On a more positive note, Newsday's weekend report included this ray
of hope:
“The world will soon be a music lover's paradise - one where perfect
pop songs hang enticingly in the air like the aroma of Mom's home cooking,
one where slow-dance songs from generations of high school proms surprise
you like old friends. Any song you could ever want will be yours for
less than a buck, zooming into your life in a matter of seconds, summoned
with a few keystrokes or the push of some buttons.
Music - your music - will accompany you wherever you go, stored temporarily
in your cell phone or wristwatch or compressed meticulously into one of those
snazzy digital music players that will soon be able to hold the entire contents
of your CD collection on a device small enough to fit on your keychain.”
Read more about this and check out other articles of interest by clicking
on headlines. iTunes and DRM is
especially worthwhile.
More About “Perfectly Portable Content”
We've been invited to participate in the GartnerG2 and Harvard Berkman
Center for Internet & Scoiety September 18th event -- Digital
Media in Cyberspace -- along with key industry representatives
including Microsoft's Andy Moss. For background information, please
review GG2's special report Copyright & Digital
Media in a Post-Napster World.
One of the concepts being explored is “perfectly portable content (PPC),” that
allows copyrighted content to move from device to device without uncontrolled
copying. PPC is content for which there is, at any point, a fixed number
of instances, where it can be played on a PC, PDA or any other device
capable of being authenticated, based on rules established by the copyright
holder or publisher. Digital certificates used by PPC digital
rights management (DRM) protect it from piracy while supporting
portability and fair use.
PPC supports rights holder needs to control unauthorized and uncompensated
copies while allowing consumers a sense of ownership and the ability
to engage in fair use manipulation of their legitimate digital content.
GG2's seminar will explore ways to maintain the equilibrium between
technology providers, copyright holders and creators, media companies,
and consumers, and allow DCIA to obtain feedback on in-process business
solution proposals, as well as gather new input. If you would like to
attend, contact Gartner's Mark Fissell at 203-316-1714 or mark.fissell@gartner.com and,
because space is limited, please indicate that you are a DCIA participant.
Publications quote file sharing statistics
and other industry metrics from numerous syndicated research sources
(Nielsen NetRating, Jupiter, Forrester, etc.). DCIA would like
to know which of the services your organization subscribes to for measuring
the P2P climate. Please let us know by responding to rick@dcia.info. All responses will be
kept confidential.
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