June 27, 2005
Volume 9, Issue 7
Welcome New DCIA Members
Please warmly welcome deviantART and Silverton Consulting, Inc. to the Content and Platform Groups respectively. We look forward to providing valuable services to these newest DCIA Members and supporting their contributions to the distributed computing industry.
DeviantART is an online community for artists and art lovers to interact, ranging from the submission of art to conversations on a number of topics. In its purest form, deviantART is a means for self-expression in a variety of ways.
The story of deviantART goes like this. "Once upon a time a yellow alien and a pug were sitting around thinking, 'Hey it would be great to create a massive online art community wouldn't it?' And then the alien went off and wrote thousands of lines of code, and the pug ran around telling all his friends about this great new art site they had to check out. And when the alien was done coding, he told all his friends to come too! Once they'd all arrived, this heavenly new community came about and we all lived happily ever after. Until people started 'first posting' and what not. But that's another story."
Silverton Consulting offers software management consulting, project assessments, reliability installation, and storage product evaluations. It is in the process of expanding into the storage end-user and general systems development market.
Silverton's software management covers the four domains of development, verification and validation (V&V), support, and program management. It provides independent reviews and assessments of software development and related processes, project schedules, technical feasibility, risk management, and change control.
Silverton believes that software reliability has emerged from research labs to be a useful adjunct to project management and should be embraced by all software projects. Its experience in the storage business has taught Silverton that products and technology change quickly. To stay ahead, you have to react fast with proper insight as to where the world is heading.
4Kids Entertainment Chooses RightsLine
DCIA Member RightsLine announced last week that 4Kids Entertainment (NYSE: KDE) selected RightsLine's Enterprise Rights Management solution. 4Kids is migrating off of an older contract licensing system that was not dynamic enough for its changing business needs.
RightsLine is expected to allow 4Kids Entertainment to manage all aspects of its licensing business including contracts, workflow, product approvals, and royalties in a single, integrated system.
According to 4Kids COO & CFO Joseph Garrity, "With RightsLine, we will have a single web enabled application to reference all information about a contract. RightsLine should streamline the deal process and integrate with our contract imaging, digital asset management and financial systems."
Sovereign Artists' Newest Release
Fusing folk, alt country, rock, and bluegrass, Chris Hillman's long-awaited new album "The Other Side" was released last week by DCIA Member Sovereign Artists. Featuring fourteen new recordings including amazing new interpretations of Eight Miles High, It Doesn't Matter, True Love and Missing You, "The Other Side" is a stunning collection with true musicianship that emanates from the heart.
Inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Americana Music Association last year, Chris Hillman has long been at the forefront of contemporary folk-rock and country music – from his founding years as a member of The Byrds to The Flying Burrito Brothers to Manassas to Souther, Hillman, Furay to The Desert Rose Band.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Thirty registered attendees representing the content, operations, and platform sectors participated in the DCIA Summer 2005 Meeting in McLean, VA on June 16th, held in conjunction with the second annual Washington Digital Media Conference (WDMC).
The DCIA announced that fifty (50) companies have joined the trade association since its inception in July 2003, and shared a summary of Member highlights.
Phil Corwin, chief lobbyist for Sharman Networks provided background on the MGM v. Grokster case. INTENT MediaWorks' Les Ottolenghi and RazorPop's Marc Freedman gave case studies of licensed content in P2P distribution. NARIP's Tess Taylor and Internet rock star Scooter Scudieri added perspectives of content creators and rights holders. RightsLine's Russ Reeder, Predixis' Marc Campbell, and P2P Cash's Tom Meredith described exemplary service-and-support offerings. The DCIA's Karen Kaplowitz and Doug Campbell led a discussion of recommendations for further commercial development for the duration of 2005.
Key takeaways from the meeting were that the distributed computing industry needs to generate more publicity to multiple constituencies about its accomplishments. The travel industry's embracing of P2P is an exciting example that could be promoted in the industrial sector. The importance of telling Senators and Members of Congress what is really going on in P2P was underscored – otherwise the only things they will hear are outdated negatives and misinformation from industry opponents.
The P2P "brand" has been tarnished by well-financed smear campaigns, and a tactic to counter this could be to deliver and support one or more clear and unequivocal win(s) – "that every Mom would accept." There was considerable discussion of demonstrating how P2P can be used as a vehicle for identifying and promoting new musical artists, and that perhaps one or more high-impact project(s) in this area, which would resonate at the consumer level, could serve that purpose. Several specific ideas were outlined for follow-up in coming weeks, and this work is now underway.
In terms of turning opponents into supporters, access to P2P's enormous user marketplace with its very attractive economics, along with the tools to securely exploit it, were stressed. In the upper echelons of leadership at some large established organizations, fear, uncertainty, and doubt have to be overcome in order for the requisite investments to be made to leverage these new technologies. Tracking and reporting the expansion of both absolute numbers and relative share of authorized distribution can help mitigate such a risk-averse mentality.
To newcomers, the passion of participants involved in a fundamental redefinition of digital rights aggregation was noteworthy, and additional recommendations were made to continue building a strong DCIA to serve as a clearinghouse for communicating successes of case studies, jobs creation, revenue growth, etc. to the financial and regulatory communities. Several related new projects, particularly in the education area, were suggested, and these will be announced as their development progresses. The DCIA is grateful to all who attended and contributed to a productive meeting.
The second annual WDMC, held the next day, was very stimulating. Opening keynote speaker Gary Shapiro of the CEA set the tone for the day with his energized multimedia presentation in support of continued progress and innovation in the digital media space.
Gary spoke of the renaissance in creativity that has been unleashed by digital technologies, including the launch of careers of more than one-hundred thousand independent performing artists enabled by new more cost-effective production and distribution technologies. He underscored the principles of the Declaration of Innovation Independence and encouraged the content community to embrace and harness new distribution opportunities for their works made possible by the conversion to digital technologies.
The National Journal's Drew Clark interviewed the MPAA's Fritz Attaway, who acknowledged that the Betamax decision, although initially opposed by Hollywood, has worked over time and that the entertainment industry is not opposed to P2P technologies per se and sees potential for advantages that they can provide with further development to address copyright owners' issues.
Digital Media Wire's Ned Sherman hosted EMI Music's Ted Cohen, who gave a spirited show-and-tell of multiple cool new mobile display-and-playback devices. Ted offered his personal view that the music industry has reached an inflection point, after an initial period of "shock-and-awe," and is now ready for significant new business models based on appropriate implementations of digital distribution technologies.
Ruckus Networks' William Raduchel, introduced by TechWire Media Group's Paul Sherman, added insights into the 18-24 year-old early adopters of digital media. College students have gone from an average of 1,000 songs in their collections to 6,000, using music as way to describe themselves – for prestige, community, and personality – as well as for entertainment. He recommended that interested parties read the Diamondback editorial Digital Debacle.
The closing business panel, featuring DCIA Members A Matter of Substance's (AMOS) Joey P, INTENT MediaWorks' Les Ottolenghi, P2P Cash's Tom Meredith, RazorPop's Marc Freedman, RightsLine's Russ Reeder, DCIA's Best Practices leader Elaine Reiss, and NARIP's Tess Taylor focused on P2P post-MGM-v.-Grokster, emphasizing the advent of new business models that empower artists, compensate content rights holders, and provide incentives for new investments in digital media. An area of great opportunity in P2P is in creative marketing to fully exploit exponentially increased shelf space with reduced infrastructure costs. P2P can profitably support works appealing to smaller niches than previous distribution channels.
City Canyons' Newest Release
DCIA Member City Canyons Records' newest release Peter Ulrich's "Enter The Mysterium," goes deeper into the very roots of folk music than most music that styles itself as folk.
The folk influences in "Enter The Mysterium," by the former percussionist for Dead Can Dance, are diverse, ranging from the mid-Eastern influences of Another Day, the native American influences of Kakatak Tamai, to the remarkable The Witchbottle of Suffolk, which takes as its subject matter the medieval English folklore tradition of making "witchbottles" to ward off evil spells.
"Enter The Mysterium" is presently available at CD Baby, City Canyons, and Indie CDs.
AMOS Teams with INTENT MediaWorks
Excerpted from Billboard Report
DCIA Members A Matter of Substance (AMOS) OmniMedia and INTENT MediaWorks have joined together to launch a state of the art encryption, tracking, and distribution system built to support licensed distribution of music and films on the Internet.
Their new consumer-friendly business model promises protection and distribution for all forms of media content on the Web - encrypting music and film files while launching them into P2P attached to sponsor-ads - essentially making tracks 'free gifts' from advertisers to consumers.
AMOS/INTENT say that all media they press and distribute will be protected - allowing the content to be intentionally distributed via the Internet. Being a record label and a Film/TV studio, AMOS believes that protecting artists' creative content in the current digital world is the most important change necessary in the industry.
And Justice for Grokster
Excerpted from Online Spin by Shelly Palmer
The Supreme Court will probably hand down its decision on the Grokster case very soon. Most pundits say the court will let the 1984 Betamax decision stand and single out Grokster's business model.
No matter how this case turns out, there are people who are going to be unhappy. If the court decides that peer-to-peer networks are inherently illegal, we'll have unhappy techno-people (who will not be stopped by this or any other means). If the court decides that peer-to-peer networks are inherently legal, the recorded music and movie industries are going to go insane (and take a huge hit). If the court decides on the pundits' choice, then nothing will change... or will it?
What I want you to think about - and write to me about - is the morality and ethics of the following:
Imagine you own a flea market. When vendors check in, your business checks the validity of vendors' credit cards (to ensure that booth fees are collectible) and does a background check to make sure they do not have criminal records.
When the authorities come and arrest several vendors who are buying and selling illegal wares at your flea market, your defense is, "We check every vendor's credit and make sure they do not have a criminal record; our business policies do not include checking their merchandise. Therefore, we are not responsible for what participants buy, sell, or trade."
In 1960, if you wanted to own a piece of music that you didn't pay for, you had to be a shoplifter, burglar, robber, or a thief. Today, there's nothing physical to shoplift and it seems like morality and ethics have not stood the test of time. Since we cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube, what's the answer?
Coming Events of Interest
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Senator Brownback Breakfast – Flanagan Consulting will host a breakfast for Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), Member of the Appropriations and Judiciary Committees, this Thursday June 30th, at 8:30 AM in the 8th floor Conference Room, 1317 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. $500 individual contributors, $1,000 PACs. Please make checks payable to "Sam Brownback for Senate" or "Restore America PAC."
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Marketing to Teens – Teenagers spend over $175 billion annually! If you want your share of this market, for which spending has doubled over the last 10 years, attend this conference July 12th at the Marriott Marquis, NYC. This VNU event gathers top-level global brand marketing executives in advertising and entertainment, and includes a cross section of youth culture experts and thought leaders.
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Scooter Scudieri Concert – Berkeley Springs State Park will host a free concert by DCIA Member Scooter Scudieri at 5:30 PM on July 23rd. Scooter is a self-taught guitarist who recently opened for Jewel on a national tour. He also has performed with Dave Mathews and Nils Lofgren. In April 2003, he was awarded Best of the New Writers and his song, "The Usual," was placed on Volume One: Best of the Songwriters Hall of Fame compilation CD.
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DRM Strategies Conference – Jupitermedia's comprehensive event on digital rights management business and technology issues will be held July 27th-28th at the Puck Building in NYC. This is a must-attend for those involved in content security in both consumer media distribution and information security. The conference will feature leading industry figures who will introduce the fundamentals of DRM, shed light on future DRM directions, and provide incendiary debate on today's controversial issues of online piracy and digital copyright.
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Kagan's Digital Media Summit – The theme of this year's conference, which will be held on September 12th-13th at the Four Seasons / Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV will be "New Opportunities For Monetizing Content." The DCIA will participate in the panel entitled "MIXING MEDIA'S POTION: Content Security Plus E-Commerce Fulfillment and On-Demand Delivery."
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Digital Hollywood Fall – "Transforming the Entertainment Industry." Scheduled for September 19th-21st at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. The preeminent digital media and entertainment conference in the country. This year featuring a series of special University Project workshops. The DCIA will moderate a P2P panel. DCIA Members are planning to host entertainment.
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Technology Law Institute – A Digital Media Rights panel will be featured September 20th at the Headquarters of the State Bar of Georgia, in downtown Atlanta, GA. Kilpatrick & Stockton's James Trigg will moderate with speakers Miles O'Brien from CNN, Kevin Lapidus from YellowBrixx, and Marty Lafferty from the DCIA.
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