May 2, 2005
Volume 8, Issue 11
Welcome New Member RightsLine
Please warmly welcome RightsLine, Inc. to the Platform Group. We look forward to providing valuable services to this newest DCIA Member and supporting its contributions to commercial development of the distributed computing industry. RightsLine is the leading provider of application software that merges business rights management with online sales and licensing.
RightsLine offers solutions to film, television, music, publishing, and other licensing & merchandising businesses active in the management of intellectual property (IP) assets. RightsLine enables companies to identify and organize their business rights, simplify the process of searching for assets, and automate the sales and licensing process. RightsLine's applications provide clients with peak value from their IP by increasing revenues, improving efficiency, reducing risks, and raising customer satisfaction.
RightsLine helps its customers to maximize revenues by managing the licensing of their IP libraries in all territories for all rights 24/7 using web-based software, increase efficiencies by closing deals in record time with software that automates the way they do business, reduce risks by accessing and tracking the complete terms of their intellectual property contracts from their desktops, and enhance customer satisfaction by conducting business with their customers quickly and efficiently around the clock.
The shift to digital media business models is impacting virtually all industries, including media & entertainment, telecommunications, publishing, manufacturing, and licensing & merchandising. As companies increasingly rely on digital technology, valuable IP, i.e. images, film, music tracks, books, characters, patents, brands, etc., must be accurately managed and fully leveraged. There is an overwhelming need to implement substantive rights management solutions, for both digital and physical assets, to replace the complex and limiting custom or internally developed systems. One system needs to be capable of handling all types of IP.
Failure to implement a timely solution can leave companies in the age of managing rights with file cabinets, while their competitors are establishing control over their operations with increased revenues, reduced risks, better customer retention and satisfaction, and overall improved efficiencies. The ability to leverage assets with real-time knowledge of underlying rights and permissions will propel businesses to new levels in the digital realm.
RightsLine's proprietary enterprise software suite enables companies to identify and organize their rights, simplify the process by which their customers can locate and license the rights to desired assets, automate licensing, and streamline the generation and management of contracts involved in acquisition or licensing.
DMI & Paste Offer Weed
Excerpted from Digital Music News
Digital Musicworks International (DMI) and Paste Magazine have teamed on a new promotional concept, with an upcoming sampler CD incorporating the Weed distribution technology.
DMI, a digital record label, will promote its current slate of artists in the upcoming issue of Paste, a "national magazine showcasing signs of life in music, film, and culture."
Users can then distribute the tracks using the Weed file-sharing technology, which allows a limited amount of free plays. Within the Weed incentive system, users are also rewarded for downstream purchases that result from file sharing.
DMI chief Mitchell Koulouris outlined the value proposition explaining that, "We're able to generate revenue for the artist while introducing new music to a very wide audience with the Paste readership."
The Weed system, designed by DCIA Member Shared Media Licensing, is an innovative concept that has so far bubbled beneath the surface. The idea attempts to harness the viral nature of file sharing while requiring users to eventually pay, a system that has gained some success with artists like Heart.
Mass acceptance could broaden as the digital music space matures, with music fans potentially embracing multiple discovery and playback systems.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Slyck.com reported last week that interest in file sharing is at an all time high, based on its tracking of major P2P software program usage.
Specifically, Slyck member Edström Frejman graphed a compilation of monthly user data from January 2003 through March 2005 for DirectConnect, eDonkey 2000, FastTrack, Gnutella and Overnet.
The results confirm what many industry observers already believe: during the past two-plus years, usage has steadily increased, even as market share has shifted among top P2P clients, almost doubling from approximately 4.5 million average users of these industry-leading competitors, at the beginning of this period, to nearly 9.0 million today.
Slyck points out that these statistics "do not include other important players in the file-sharing world, such as BitTorrent, WinMX, SoulSeek, Ares/Warez, Manolito, Sharaza, FileTopia or OpenFT," which if included would put the average number of P2P users any given time "well over 10 million."
Separately, BigChampagne, the DCIA's official data resource, compiled and analyzed recent reports from CacheLogic, IPSOS, and UCR, which, using very different methods, corroborated Slyck's finding that P2P usage is increasing.
Civilization is experiencing a profoundly significant digital conversion. The starting point was that voice communication was transmitted through telco lines or wireless cells, video content was transmitted through coaxial cable or satellite down-linking, audio content was transmitted over-the-air, and data was transmitted by dial-up modem or broadband service.
The endgame is that all of this will become merged into fungible digital bits that will all be available through a choice of pipelines whether fiber-optic plants owned by telco, cable, or power companies, and/or some combination of satellite and cellular wireless.
Reception will be on any networked device, with the consumer free to decide that they would like to do such iconoclastic activities as watch TV programs on their cell-phone screens or have long-distance conversations sitting in-front of their six-foot diagonal home-theater LCD screens using surround-sound speakers.
The source for content and vehicle for communications will be enhanced P2P, as exemplified by the most recent version of Kazaa Media Desktop that added Skype's VoIP offering, and swarming technologies like BitTorrent that break large files into thousands of tiny pieces for more efficient transmission.
The impact on entertainment industries is that viewers and listeners will have instant access to any prerecorded content ever produced and digitized and placed in a shared-folder, and the ability to be switched instantly to any live event, such as a newscast, sporting event, or musical concert, anywhere in the world.
We are encouraged by recent progress in what may seem small but could prove to be very significant steps – bilateral arrangements between pairings of companies that are ready to move ahead with relatively modest experiments – basically exploring business models for P2P distribution of licensed entertainment content that show promise.
The file-sharing medium is sufficiently robust to support simultaneous revenue generation from ad-supported, subscription, and a la carte offerings of copyrighted works. The technologies are there. The support infrastructures are proven. And the service providers are ready.
It is still too early to determine which of these or what combination of them will optimize the profitable response to this new channel, but clearly those who gain experience now will stand to be the most successful later when P2P achieves its full potential.
Rent or Buy… How About Both?
Excerpted from Online Spin Report by Shelly Palmer
Real Networks took out more than a few full page ads to tout its new semi-free, music rental service, Rhapsody25 – a revamped version of Rhapsody online that allows users to download and listen to 25 songs a month free of charge. A new twist on the age-old question: Is it cheaper to rent or to buy?
If the Napster numbers can be believed, they increased their anemic subscriber base by 54 percent to 410,000 in one quarter by offering an "all you can eat" rental plan. Real, which says it has over 1 million subs, really had no choice but to answer the challenge.
Short-term subscriber gains are interesting, but only sustained growth will translate to profits. And, more importantly, early adopters of this service are unquestionably core users of the products - the value proposition is too complicated to attract much new blood.
What will consumers choose - rent or own? Ownership is the American way. However, music downloads are still free for the most part and the "for-pay" download business makes up less than 2 percent of spending. Is renting a bridge to buying?
And to continue the thought experiment: Is collecting your favorite songs by your favorite artists something in your DNA or have you been trained by the old form factor and old sales model to do it?
At the end of the day, Real's announcement is probably too little, too late. There is nothing happening here that you can't already get somewhere else. However, competition being the mother of invention, the Real offering is certainly no worse than Napster's, and if they can enjoy an increase similar to Napster's, they will become a much more formidable player.
Microsoft's TV Challenge
Excerpted from Internet News Report by Susan Kuchinskas
Microsoft's grand vision for the digital home puts the Windows Media Center PC at the hub. The challenge is proving that Windows can lock down content once it's on the hard drive.
The company's goal is to sell more software by letting consumers move content to multiple devices around the home, including PCs, laptops and tablets, in different rooms of the house, high-definition digital television sets, premium television receivers, and stationary and portable music/video players.
But once that content moves to the PC hard drive, it becomes highly swappable. Microsoft's challenge isn't so much in encrypting the streams that come into the house, but rather keeping consumers from burning it onto DVD or uploading it to the Internet.
Microsoft plans to enforce playback rules on Windows devices via encryption, content-license generation, and an encryption profile. With Longhorn, it plans to ship Protected Video Path Output Protection Management (PVP-OPM), the successor to Windows XP's Certified Output Protection Protocol, which will protect content as it passes from the graphics subsystem to the motherboard. PVP-OPM will protect against content theft from the PC system or memory.
Microsoft will provide different implementations of Windows Media Digital Rights manager for TV receivers, physical media, portable devices, streaming devices and Internet-delivered content. But they won't be ready for Longhorn.
Post-Longhorn, Microsoft plans Protected Video Path User Accessible Bus (PVP-UAB), which will provide the encryption demanded by movie studios for any content that flows over a user-accessible bus.
True content security won't come until what Microsoft is calling "the post-Longhorn timeframe," that is, 2007 and beyond.
CPHotline.org Launch
The DCIA has entered into a service agreement with the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection to provide CPHotline.org, an online child protection hotline, for the DCIA-sponsored P2P PATROL (Peer-to-Peer Parents And Teens React On Line) initiative.
This offering will be discussed in detail at the quarterly working session of P2P PATROL being held at the headquarters of DCIA Member SVC Financial Services this week.
"ASACP knows that there are more distribution methods for illegal images on the Internet than just websites," said Joan Irvine, executive director, ASACP. "We felt it was important to help other associations and industries combat child pornography by sharing our recently developed technology platforms. This saved the DCIA years of development and provided an immediate method for P2P customers to report suspected child pornography."
Brandon Shalton, President of Cydata Services, and Marc Freedman, CEO of DCIA Member RazorPop, collaborated on this project.
The P2P PATROL initiative, which represents a voluntary collaboration of technology and related service companies along with government agencies and trade groups, offers programs focusing on education, deterrence, and enforcement for combating online child pornography, and operates the P2P PATROL website.
ASACP has provided a child pornography reporting hotline for websites since 1996 and sends validated reports to law enforcement agencies. In addition to working with the DCIA, it is offering the complimentary use of its technology platform to states' Attorney Generals.
ASACP also provides a self-regulatory vehicle for its members through a Code of Ethics that promotes the protection of children through responsible, professional business practices.
Support Public Knowledge
Public Knowledge (PK) has more than proven itself to be a tremendous ally in policy debates over copyright and technological innovation.
PK organized a group of private industry and public sector organizations that worked together to stop nearly every major legislative initiative that would give large media conglomerates even more control over information and technology.
It helped to increase coverage of copyright and technology policy in the press and to broaden the focus of the debate — rather than simply being about "piracy," consumer rights and technological innovation are now considered to be equally important.
Later this spring, PK will seek to shape the debate over the next Telecommunications Act. The rewrite of US communications laws will have an enormous impact on the rollout of affordable and open broadband technologies and their capability to empower consumers.
But to achieve its goals, PK is asking for help and last week launched a new membership drive.
Thanks to PK we're seeing an overall change in attitude among members of the public, the press, policymakers, and judges. What used to be a one-sided policy conversation favoring Hollywood interests is now one in which the viewpoints of consumers and technology companies are taken just as seriously.
With your help, PK will build on this momentum.
I2 Fallout Correction
The article entitled "Fallout on Internet2" has been retracted from last week's DCINFO at the request of and with apologies to the RIAA. The RIAA emphatically denies that it has made offers to universities to drop copyright infringement lawsuits in exchange for affiliating with RIAA-recommended solutions providers or that it has promoted a closed list of such providers.
The RIAA, furthermore, encourages an open competitive marketplace for P2P solutions providers to offer their products and services, and does not condone exclusionary practices. The DCIA apologizes for not checking facts with the RIAA before publishing this article based on unsubstantiated reports from third parties.
Coming Events of Interest
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P2P PATROL Spring Meeting – P2P PATROL (Peer-to-Peer Parents And Teens React On Line) will hold its quarterly working session for participating law enforcement and private sector representatives Tuesday May 3rd at 9:30 AM.
DCIA Member SVC Financial Services will host this meeting at its HQ in San Francisco, CA. For more information, please contact sari@dcia.info.
The P2P PATROL initiative, a voluntary collaboration of technology companies and government agencies, offers programs focusing on education, deterrence, and enforcement for combating online pornography, and operates the P2Ppatrol.com website.
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MGM v. Grokster Debate – The Los Angeles Chapter of the Federalist Society will sponsor a debate and discussion of MGM v. Grokster featuring representatives of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Distributed Computing Industry Association at 6:30 PM on Wednesday May 4th at Loeb & Loeb, 10100 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 2200, Los Angeles, CA 90067.
The Federalist Society is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be.
MPAA World Wide Anti-Piracy leader, John Malcolm, will represent the MPAA, and DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty will represent the DCIA. Those interested in attending should contact Jeremy Rosen at Horvitz & Levy (818-995-0800 or jrosen@horvitzlevy.com) to register or for more information.
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CONNECTIONS Digital Home Conference – This executive marketing conference, to be held May 11th-13th at the Hyatt Regency near the San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, CA combines Parks Associates' market and consumer expertise with insights from key industry strategists to provide a comprehensive analysis of current and future "Digital Living" technologies.
DCIA Members Digital Containers' CEO Chip Venters and Trymedia Systems' SVP Gabe Zichermann will be featured speakers.
Parks Associates' research shows that roughly one-third of all US households now have broadband access and nearly 20 million have a home network. The combination of these solutions is changing the paradigm for access to mainstream music, movies, television programs, and games. Currently one-third of all Internet households listen to online radio stations each month, and a comparable number download music files. Likewise, 10% of all Internet households access on-demand video content each month.
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e-Commerce in the Age of Spyware – The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) is hosting this event on May 12th at the Museum of Television & Radio in NYC focusing on the issue of spyware. NAI hopes to open a dialog from across the online spectrum that will lead to a balanced solution to the spyware problem. Panelists represent many of the players that will have an impact on the ultimate solution, including Jeff McFadden of DCIA Member Claria, Paul Martino of DCIA Member Alston & Bird, David Cavicke of the HR Commerce Committee, Lydia Parnes of the FTC, and Ari Schwartz of the CDT. NAI's objective is to establish and communicate clear standards for Internet advertising practices and to help protect consumer privacy online.
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Digital Media Conference – Mark your calendars! The 2nd Annual Digital Media Conference is now set for Friday, June 17th at the Hilton McLean in Tysons Corner, McLean, Virginia. This is a must-attend event for media, entertainment and technology businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies involved in the digital distribution of media, including information, education & entertainment products. More than 300 digital media industry decision-makers and policy-makers attended the 2004 conference, which was co-sponsored by the DCIA. Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) President & CEO Gary Shapiro will give the opening keynote at the 2005 event.
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