August 7, 2006
Volume 14, Issue 5
Kazaa Affiliate Joins Anti-Piracy Brigade
Excerpted from Sydney Morning Herald Report by Louisa Hearn
Before the ink has even dried on Kazaa’s landmark settlement with the music industry, its affiliate company Altnet has unleashed a new technology intended to help file-sharing companies stamp out piracy across their networks.
Altnet is affiliated with DCIA Member Sharman Networks, the Sydney-based developer of the Kazaa file-sharing software, but this has not prevented its new technology initiative from attracting endorsement from some old-time foes in the entertainment industry that were, until recently, opposing it in court.
Last Thursday, Sharman reached an out-of-court settlement with the music and motion picture industries in Australia and the US over alleged piracy on its file-sharing network. As part of the settlement, Sharman vowed to work alongside the entertainment industry to protect copyright.
Less than a week later, Dan Glickman, Chairman & CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), issued a statement "applauding" the work of Sharman and Altnet to develop and deploy new filtering technology.
"Innovative companies like them are proving that getting movies and music conveniently and legitimately are not mutually exclusive concepts. Such endeavors are paving the way for the future of consumer choice and entertainment," he said.
The International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers, which represents the global music industry, also recently ran an anti-piracy "vision statement" authored by Altnet CEO, Kevin Bermeister on its website.
In another turn of the tables, Michael Speck, the former boss of music piracy investigation for the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has now been appointed as Altnet’s manager of enforcement programs.
Mr. Speck, who left Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) last year to start his own consulting business, described Altnet’s new Global File Registry (GFR) solution as "the technological answer to the problems content owners have online."
While existing anti-piracy systems currently deploy either audio fingerprinting or keyword and gold-file filtering, he said Altnet’s new technology offered a "revolutionary" solution that could be applied across applications and networks on a very specific basis.
The technology is built around a global file register that searches the unique identifiers attached to all files made available on a particular network. When a search for a particular track is conducted, the tool can render all unauthorized versions of a particular song or video clip unavailable.
"It will certainly be the technology of choice for businesses transitioning to a legitimate model. Rather than installing a filter that just drives users to other sites, this technology substitutes unauthorized search results with the opportunity to obtain a legitimate version," he said.
Although the technology has not yet been deployed on any commercial file-sharing networks – including Kazaa - Altnet is hoping to make some announcements in coming weeks.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 DCIA Member Altnet this week announced the official launch of its Global File Registry (GFR), the cornerstone of its online content protection and digital crime prevention strategy.
Developed by experts in online distribution, content protection, and anti-piracy, GFR represents a major advance for content owners and law enforcement agencies to control copyright infringement and criminal activity on the Internet.
GFR is a consolidator of infringing-file intelligence, which enables cooperating participants to electronically defend the legal rights of copyright owners and law enforcement authorities without impacting the privacy of users.
Kevin Bermeister, CEO of Altnet, said, "We believe GFR will usher in a new era of cooperation for online content and distribution industries, with artists and consumers standing to be the greatest beneficiaries."
GFR leverages the Altnet TrueNames patent portfolio by locating TrueNames (unique identifiers) in a centralized database so that known infringing files can be acted upon.
This next-generation solution for online copyright infringement, digital crime prevention, and content management provides benefits to copyright owners, peer-to-peer (P2P) application developers and distributors, Internet service providers (ISPs), law enforcement agencies, and consumers.
Content providers will benefit from a technology to unify anti-piracy efforts for continuous control over P2P and Internet-wide infringements.
P2P applications will benefit from a non-invasive solution that reduces P2P developer and distributor liability (for example by enabling DMCA compliance), while supporting a content-centric revenue stream.
ISPs will benefit from an integrated approach to file-transfer management, filtering, and billing, while protecting user privacy.
Law enforcement agencies will benefit from a proactive global solution to prevent digital crime.
Consumers will benefit from a content shield protecting them from inadvertent or spontaneous criminal or civil digital infringements by preventing downloading of known illicit files.
GFR is a dynamic, centralized database containing unique identifiers of millions of infringing files captured and collated on behalf of multiple content owners and interested parties. Real-time updates by providers of file intelligence ensure GFR’s accuracy and effectiveness.
In a world where the "know nothing, control nothing" approach is no longer acceptable, GFR’s ability to identify infringing files also extends to substitution of those files for legitimate content or advertising, thereby creating powerful incentives for adoption of business models that legitimately support copyright.
Michael Speck, recently appointed to manage Altnet’s enforcement programs said, "GFR will improve online distribution channels for content owners, while empowering consumers by increasing the number of legitimate access points to the content they choose."
GFR is operational today at www.globalfileregistry.com and stands ready to provide online content management and protection for all responsible participants in the digital marketplace.
The DCIA is facilitating a series of private US meetings for interested qualified parties to meet with senior-executive GFR representatives during late August. Please contact me at 410-476-7965 or marty@dcia.info for more information. Share wisely, and take care.
Former Kazaa Investigator Joins Altnet
Excerpted from ZDNet Report by Steven Deare
Former music piracy investigator Michael Speck, who spearheaded the record companies’ long-running campaign to shutdown Kazaa, has joined the P2P network’s business partner Altnet.
Speck was the public face of the Australian recording industry’s long court battle against the popular file-sharing software.
The legal battle came to an abrupt end last week when Sharman agreed to pay more than $100 million to four global record labels.
Speaking to ZDNet Australia following the launch of Altnet’s Global File Registry (GFR) product, Speck said he joined the company he pursued in the courts for so long out of his "moral position."
"My record in anti-piracy speaks for itself. I had a ten-year run where I didn’t lose a case," he said. Speck has been recruited to head Altnet’s enforcement programs.
"I always made it clear that P2P technologies needed to be used for legitimate distribution."
"I’d be walking away from my moral position if I didn’t support a technology that I believe is a quantum leap forward against unauthorized and infringing activity."
Altnet’s GFR is a database of millions of copyrighted files with unique identifiers which content owners can track and present would-be users of unauthorized versions of such files with the chance to obtain legitimate versions.
"Instead of sitting on their hands during the court case, Altnet developed a future-proof solution to the problem of online piracy," Speck said.
Altnet hopes content owners, P2P networks, ISPs, and law enforcement agencies will be interested in the product.
According to Speck, "Anyone who wants to be in this space can now create a legitimate online distribution business."
MPAA Endorses Altnet’s Approach
Excerpted from News.com Report by Simon Hayes
Less than a week after reaching a $115 million piracy settlement, the music industry and Kazaa business partner Altnet have launched a new anti-piracy tool.
Today the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) endorsed Altnet’s and Kazaa owner Sharman Networks’ efforts to develop special filtering technology.
With a marketing push headed by the music industry’s former head pirate hunter Michael Speck, Altnet’s Global File Registry (GFR) tool intercepts P2P search requests made using subscribing software applications and substitutes the opportunity to obtain licensed content for delivery of an unauthorized file.
"Altnet didn’t sit around and wait for the Kazaa case to finish, it set about developing a technical solution to the problem," said Mr. Speck, formerly the head of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI). "Altnet recognizes the full spectrum of issues in relation to online piracy."
Mr. Speck, who spent most of the past two years chasing Altnet and Sharman through the Federal Court, is now manager of Altnet’s enforcement program.
"No matter how clear the legal position was, there wasn’t a technical solution," he said. "The alternative was for the music industry to go from one site to another forever."
GFR uses the company’s patented TrueNames technology to manage a database of copyrighted files. When a request is made to a network that uses the software, the opportunity is provided to receive a legitimate version of the file.
Mr. Speck said the technology was a great business opportunity for P2P networks. "It’s a powerful way of creating opportunities for the beneficiaries of unauthorized traffic to create legitimate business models," he said.
Altnet CEO Kevin Bermeister is already winning kudos from the music industry over his work to stop piracy.
"We believe GFR will usher in a new era of cooperation for online content and distribution industries, with artists and consumers standing to be the greatest beneficiaries," he said.
The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) has published an article by Mr. Bermeister calling on the "silent beneficiaries of online piracy" to change their tune.
He argues in the article that the "know nothing, control nothing" approach – argued by a raft of ISPs and file-sharing networks in courts around the world – is no longer good enough.
MPAA Chairman & CEO Dan Glickman welcomed the technology.
"The MPAA applauds the work Sharman and Altnet have done to develop and deploy new filtering technology," he said. "We look forward to working with Altnet and other technology innovators to bring more choice to movie lovers around the world."
PlayFirst Launches PiEyeGames’ Sweetopia
Have a sweet tooth for casual games? DCIA Member PlayFirst has the perfect fix: Sweetopia, the new downloadable game from the artfully-innovative developer PiEyeGames. Launching this week, Sweetopia delivers a sure-fire sugar rush, taking players on a fast-paced, candy-popping adventure through a mysterious, labyrinthine candy factory.
"Sweetopia is packed with plenty of candy-blasting action, mouth-watering visuals, and delectable audio to satisfy any casual game craving," said Kenny Dinkin, VP & Executive Producer, PlayFirst. "We’re thrilled to indulge PlayFirst’s community of players with this beautifully done title and add it to our growing portfolio of top-notch casual games."
In the game, players join Kate and her sidekick, John, as they prepare for the grand reopening of the mysterious and magical Sweetopia Candy Factory following a twenty-year closure. But suddenly something in the factory goes dreadfully awry! Sweetopia’s latest sweet sensation becomes a candy catastrophe – a bad batch of Sherbet Sizzlers has explosive potential! To stop the volatile Sherbet Sizzlers from colliding, players must help Kate blast away crazy confections, like Banana Bangs and Marshmallow Melts, to safely return her beloved candy factory to the Sweetopia it once was.
Sweetopia is free to try for sixty minutes or purchase for $19.95.
Digital River Wants the World
Excerpted from MSNBC Report by Tom Tauli
Providing e-commerce technology is a healthy growth business for DCIA Member Digital River, especially as the company penetrates international markets.
In the second-quarter earnings report last week, revenues surged 39% to $71.3 million. About 42% of sales came from international markets. Net income was $13.3 million, or $0.30 per share (which includes $3.5 million for stock option expenses). Last year’s second quarter net income was $10.2 million, or $0.26 per share.
Basically, Digital River provides outsourced e-commerce services. This includes store design, development, merchandising, order management, fraud prevention, digital product delivery, and even web analytics. Clients include biggies like Autodesk, eBay, Microsoft, Symantec, and Hewlett-Packard.
And Digital River continues to invest in its offerings. There is, for example, the oneNetwork Marketplace. This is an efficient system that allows customers to offer products through affiliates (third-party websites that get a commission for providing e-commerce leads). Digital River has also invested heavily in making its services global. Basically, the company is developing a massive footprint for e-commerce, which can scale across complex markets such as China.
No doubt, this is a key competitive advantage for Digital River. In fact, this has been a significant factor in attracting new business. And, given the complexities of foreign e-commerce, it is something customers would rather outsource.
For the third quarter, Digital River projects revenues of $74 million and earnings of $0.38 per share. As for the full year, Digital River is projecting revenue of $305 million and earnings of $1.74 per share.
SkyRider P2P Start-Up Emerges
Excerpted from GigaOM Report by Om Malik
P2P is once again catching the imagination of the venture capital community in Silicon Valley. RedSwoosh, BitTorrent, Pando Networks, and dozens of others have come out with different twists on the core concept of P2P networking and have raised millions.
SkyRider, a Mountain View, CA-based start-up is the latest to join the party, having raised $8 million from white-shoe venture funds Sequoia Capital and Charles River Ventures.
SkyRider was started by telecom veterans Ori Cohen and Stas Khirman (also co-founders of packet-inspection companies Narus and VDOnet) in 2003, and has operated in stealth mode. The company is keeping mum about its technology and strategy, and will offer its first product in Fall 2006.
"We are developing a commercial grade P2P networking platform, which we will offer to other companies," said Ed Kozel, CEO of SkyRider, who previously worked for Cisco Systems and Yahoo.
He said that the four big P2P networks - Gnutella, Ares, Kazaa, and eDonkey – continue to grow in popularity, yet there has been very little innovation around these networks. They are essentially used for swapping either music or video files.
Among other issues around these networks is that they still remain silos. SkyRider has developed a technology that will allow it to act almost like a bridge among those networks. By doing so, the company is opening up an opportunity for cross-platform search rather than better P2P keyword search.
According to some estimates, there are 12 million simultaneous P2P users on the P2P networks, and there are nearly half-a-billion queries on these networks. That, according to ComScore data, is close to the number of daily searches on Google and Yahoo.
The big opportunity, Kozel says, is to bring web-like ease to the P2P networks, and looking beyond video and music file sharing. SkyRider also has plans to apply P2P technology to user-generated content.
Comcast & Turner Invest in Revver
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report
Revver, a video-sharing site that compensates uploaders of popular videos with a cut of ad revenue, announced Monday that it has expanded its second round of venture capital financing with new investments from Comcast Interactive Capital and Turner Broadcasting.
The company previously announced its $8.7 million financing in April, which was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. San Francisco-based Revver allows those who upload videos to the site to track when they are shared, and offers them a percentage of the revenue generated from advertising.
"The market for online user-generated video content is growing exponentially," said David Horowitz, a principal with Comcast Interactive Capital. "We are excited by Revver’s unique approach in helping content creators create value from their work."
Revver said the additional funding will aid in market expansion, team-building, and technology development.
Gotuit Media Debuts Broadband Video Portal
Gotuit Media launched its broadband video portal this week to a "fantastic response from viewers, the media, analysts, and blogsters," according to Gotuit Media senior advisor David Leibowitz.
Gotuit.com is a broadband video portal that features thousands of premium branded video titles in the categories of music, news, entertainment, and sports.
Gotuit enables viewers to watch what they want without annoying buffering and transmission delay experienced with other video sites; it’s fast and users can click from one video to the next without interruption.
Gotuit.com also makes it easy to navigate, find, and watch videos online. Viewers can ‘channel surf’ through thousands of videos, watch professionally programmed playlists, or create their own custom video playlists that they can e-mail to friends. Best of all – it’s completely FREE!
Record Labels Sue LimeWire
Excerpted from Washington Post Report by Nichola Groom
Some of the world’s biggest record labels sued the makers of the file-sharing program LimeWire on Friday, saying the software allows users to download music without paying for it.
The complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, is the latest in a string of lawsuits the music industry has filed in an attempt to curb Internet copyright infringement. That effort was bolstered last year when the US Supreme Court ruled that content companies can take legal action against technology firms that encourage copyright infringement.
Record labels owned by the world’s four major music companies – Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group, and Warner Music – brought the lawsuit against New York-based LimeWire LLC.
The suit seeks $150,000 in damages for every song "willfully infringed" by LimeWire. It also names LimeWire parent Lime Group LLC as well as chief executive Mark Gorton and chief operating officer Greg Bildson as defendants.
LimeWire officials could not be reached for comment.
In the complaint, the record companies accuse LimeWire of profiting from illicit downloads of their music, saying "the scope of infringement is massive."
LimeWire and its executives "have had a direct financial interest in, and derived substantial benefit from, the infringement of plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings," the complaint said.
In a statement, industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America said that "despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site’s corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model."
Last month, one of the world’s best known file-sharing networks, Kazaa, agreed to pay more than $100 million and commit to filtering content to settle two lawsuits brought by the movie and music industries.
Kazaa had emerged as the dominant file-sharing network after recording industry lawsuits brought about the collapse of the original Napster in 2001. Napster has since reemerged as a paid service.
Coming Events of Interest
▪ Building Blocks 2006 – August 15th–17th in San Jose, CA. The DCIA is pleased to participate in this premier event for transforming entertainment, communication technologies and the global communications network: TV, cable, telco, consumer electronics, mobile, broadband, search, e-mail, VoIP, RSS, blogs and websites: "Disruptive Thinking – Change Agents That Transform the World –Where Content is King and Technology Rules."
▪ The Bandwidth Conference – August 18th-19th at the Regency Center in San Francisco, CA. The DCIA is pleased to participate in this event for professionals in the music and technology industries. The focus of this conference is an exploration of current issues as well as future trends through panels, speakers, and opportunities to meet one-on-one with others.
▪ 2006 Word of Mouth Marketing Forum – September 21st–22nd in Arlington, VA. Learn the ins and outs of one of the most innovative and efficient marketing techniques. New tools and technology have made Word of Mouth Marketing one of the best strategic tools marketers can use to build brand awareness and customer loyalty.
▪ OMMA Awards– September 26th at the Marriot Marquis in New York, NY. The OMMA Awards honor the brand marketers, agencies and content providers who continue to push the potential of online advertising creative. The OMMA Awards celebrate the year's most innovative and brilliant creative work in 27 categories. Submission deadline is July 28th.
▪ 6th Annual Future of Music Policy Summit – October 5th–7th at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. FMC sees hosting this Summit in Canada as an opportunity to expand its perspective on a range of issues – from copyright, to sampling, to digital royalties, to radio, to how various musical communities are managing change. The music marketplace has become truly global, and some of the biggest challenges are navigating the assortment of legal and licensing schemes that encourage and/or impede the promotion and sale of music.
Kazaa Affiliate Joins Anti-Piracy Brigade
Excerpted from Sydney Morning Herald Report by Louisa Hearn
Before the ink has even dried on Kazaa’s landmark settlement with the music industry, its affiliate company Altnet has unleashed a new technology intended to help file-sharing companies stamp out piracy across their networks.
Altnet is affiliated with DCIA Member Sharman Networks, the Sydney-based developer of the Kazaa file-sharing software, but this has not prevented its new technology initiative from attracting endorsement from some old-time foes in the entertainment industry that were, until recently, opposing it in court.
Last Thursday, Sharman reached an out-of-court settlement with the music and motion picture industries in Australia and the US over alleged piracy on its file-sharing network. As part of the settlement, Sharman vowed to work alongside the entertainment industry to protect copyright.
Less than a week later, Dan Glickman, Chairman & CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), issued a statement "applauding" the work of Sharman and Altnet to develop and deploy new filtering technology.
"Innovative companies like them are proving that getting movies and music conveniently and legitimately are not mutually exclusive concepts. Such endeavors are paving the way for the future of consumer choice and entertainment," he said.
The International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers, which represents the global music industry, also recently ran an anti-piracy "vision statement" authored by Altnet CEO, Kevin Bermeister on its website.
In another turn of the tables, Michael Speck, the former boss of music piracy investigation for the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has now been appointed as Altnet’s manager of enforcement programs.
Mr. Speck, who left Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) last year to start his own consulting business, described Altnet’s new Global File Registry (GFR) solution as "the technological answer to the problems content owners have online."
While existing anti-piracy systems currently deploy either audio fingerprinting or keyword and gold-file filtering, he said Altnet’s new technology offered a "revolutionary" solution that could be applied across applications and networks on a very specific basis.
The technology is built around a global file register that searches the unique identifiers attached to all files made available on a particular network. When a search for a particular track is conducted, the tool can render all unauthorized versions of a particular song or video clip unavailable.
"It will certainly be the technology of choice for businesses transitioning to a legitimate model. Rather than installing a filter that just drives users to other sites, this technology substitutes unauthorized search results with the opportunity to obtain a legitimate version," he said.
Although the technology has not yet been deployed on any commercial file-sharing networks – including Kazaa - Altnet is hoping to make some announcements in coming weeks.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
DCIA Member Altnet this week announced the official launch of its Global File Registry (GFR), the cornerstone of its online content protection and digital crime prevention strategy.
Developed by experts in online distribution, content protection, and anti-piracy, GFR represents a major advance for content owners and law enforcement agencies to control copyright infringement and criminal activity on the Internet.
GFR is a consolidator of infringing-file intelligence, which enables cooperating participants to electronically defend the legal rights of copyright owners and law enforcement authorities without impacting the privacy of users.
Kevin Bermeister, CEO of Altnet, said, "We believe GFR will usher in a new era of cooperation for online content and distribution industries, with artists and consumers standing to be the greatest beneficiaries."
GFR leverages the Altnet TrueNames patent portfolio by locating TrueNames (unique identifiers) in a centralized database so that known infringing files can be acted upon.
This next-generation solution for online copyright infringement, digital crime prevention, and content management provides benefits to copyright owners, peer-to-peer (P2P) application developers and distributors, Internet service providers (ISPs), law enforcement agencies, and consumers.
Content providers will benefit from a technology to unify anti-piracy efforts for continuous control over P2P and Internet-wide infringements.
P2P applications will benefit from a non-invasive solution that reduces P2P developer and distributor liability (for example by enabling DMCA compliance), while supporting a content-centric revenue stream.
ISPs will benefit from an integrated approach to file-transfer management, filtering, and billing, while protecting user privacy.
Law enforcement agencies will benefit from a proactive global solution to prevent digital crime.
Consumers will benefit from a content shield protecting them from inadvertent or spontaneous criminal or civil digital infringements by preventing downloading of known illicit files.
GFR is a dynamic, centralized database containing unique identifiers of millions of infringing files captured and collated on behalf of multiple content owners and interested parties. Real-time updates by providers of file intelligence ensure GFR’s accuracy and effectiveness.
In a world where the "know nothing, control nothing" approach is no longer acceptable, GFR’s ability to identify infringing files also extends to substitution of those files for legitimate content or advertising, thereby creating powerful incentives for adoption of business models that legitimately support copyright.
Michael Speck, recently appointed to manage Altnet’s enforcement programs said, "GFR will improve online distribution channels for content owners, while empowering consumers by increasing the number of legitimate access points to the content they choose."
GFR is operational today at www.globalfileregistry.com and stands ready to provide online content management and protection for all responsible participants in the digital marketplace.
The DCIA is facilitating a series of private US meetings for interested qualified parties to meet with senior-executive GFR representatives during late August. Please contact me at 410-476-7965 or marty@dcia.info for more information. Share wisely, and take care.
Former Kazaa Investigator Joins Altnet
Excerpted from ZDNet Report by Steven Deare
Former music piracy investigator Michael Speck, who spearheaded the record companies’ long-running campaign to shutdown Kazaa, has joined the P2P network’s business partner Altnet.
Speck was the public face of the Australian recording industry’s long court battle against the popular file-sharing software.
The legal battle came to an abrupt end last week when Sharman agreed to pay more than $100 million to four global record labels.
Speaking to ZDNet Australia following the launch of Altnet’s Global File Registry (GFR) product, Speck said he joined the company he pursued in the courts for so long out of his "moral position."
"My record in anti-piracy speaks for itself. I had a ten-year run where I didn’t lose a case," he said. Speck has been recruited to head Altnet’s enforcement programs.
"I always made it clear that P2P technologies needed to be used for legitimate distribution."
"I’d be walking away from my moral position if I didn’t support a technology that I believe is a quantum leap forward against unauthorized and infringing activity."
Altnet’s GFR is a database of millions of copyrighted files with unique identifiers which content owners can track and present would-be users of unauthorized versions of such files with the chance to obtain legitimate versions.
"Instead of sitting on their hands during the court case, Altnet developed a future-proof solution to the problem of online piracy," Speck said.
Altnet hopes content owners, P2P networks, ISPs, and law enforcement agencies will be interested in the product.
According to Speck, "Anyone who wants to be in this space can now create a legitimate online distribution business."
MPAA Endorses Altnet’s Approach
Excerpted from News.com Report by Simon Hayes
Less than a week after reaching a $115 million piracy settlement, the music industry and Kazaa business partner Altnet have launched a new anti-piracy tool.
Today the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) endorsed Altnet’s and Kazaa owner Sharman Networks’ efforts to develop special filtering technology.
With a marketing push headed by the music industry’s former head pirate hunter Michael Speck, Altnet’s Global File Registry (GFR) tool intercepts P2P search requests made using subscribing software applications and substitutes the opportunity to obtain licensed content for delivery of an unauthorized file.
"Altnet didn’t sit around and wait for the Kazaa case to finish, it set about developing a technical solution to the problem," said Mr. Speck, formerly the head of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI). "Altnet recognizes the full spectrum of issues in relation to online piracy."
Mr. Speck, who spent most of the past two years chasing Altnet and Sharman through the Federal Court, is now manager of Altnet’s enforcement program.
"No matter how clear the legal position was, there wasn’t a technical solution," he said. "The alternative was for the music industry to go from one site to another forever."
GFR uses the company’s patented TrueNames technology to manage a database of copyrighted files. When a request is made to a network that uses the software, the opportunity is provided to receive a legitimate version of the file.
Mr. Speck said the technology was a great business opportunity for P2P networks. "It’s a powerful way of creating opportunities for the beneficiaries of unauthorized traffic to create legitimate business models," he said.
Altnet CEO Kevin Bermeister is already winning kudos from the music industry over his work to stop piracy.
"We believe GFR will usher in a new era of cooperation for online content and distribution industries, with artists and consumers standing to be the greatest beneficiaries," he said.
The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) has published an article by Mr. Bermeister calling on the "silent beneficiaries of online piracy" to change their tune.
He argues in the article that the "know nothing, control nothing" approach – argued by a raft of ISPs and file-sharing networks in courts around the world – is no longer good enough.
MPAA Chairman & CEO Dan Glickman welcomed the technology.
"The MPAA applauds the work Sharman and Altnet have done to develop and deploy new filtering technology," he said. "We look forward to working with Altnet and other technology innovators to bring more choice to movie lovers around the world."
PlayFirst Launches PiEyeGames’ Sweetopia
Have a sweet tooth for casual games? DCIA Member PlayFirst has the perfect fix: Sweetopia, the new downloadable game from the artfully-innovative developer PiEyeGames. Launching this week, Sweetopia delivers a sure-fire sugar rush, taking players on a fast-paced, candy-popping adventure through a mysterious, labyrinthine candy factory.
"Sweetopia is packed with plenty of candy-blasting action, mouth-watering visuals, and delectable audio to satisfy any casual game craving," said Kenny Dinkin, VP & Executive Producer, PlayFirst. "We’re thrilled to indulge PlayFirst’s community of players with this beautifully done title and add it to our growing portfolio of top-notch casual games."
In the game, players join Kate and her sidekick, John, as they prepare for the grand reopening of the mysterious and magical Sweetopia Candy Factory following a twenty-year closure. But suddenly something in the factory goes dreadfully awry! Sweetopia’s latest sweet sensation becomes a candy catastrophe – a bad batch of Sherbet Sizzlers has explosive potential! To stop the volatile Sherbet Sizzlers from colliding, players must help Kate blast away crazy confections, like Banana Bangs and Marshmallow Melts, to safely return her beloved candy factory to the Sweetopia it once was.
Sweetopia is free to try for sixty minutes or purchase for $19.95.
Digital River Wants the World
Excerpted from MSNBC Report by Tom Tauli
Providing e-commerce technology is a healthy growth business for DCIA Member Digital River, especially as the company penetrates international markets.
In the second-quarter earnings report last week, revenues surged 39% to $71.3 million. About 42% of sales came from international markets. Net income was $13.3 million, or $0.30 per share (which includes $3.5 million for stock option expenses). Last year’s second quarter net income was $10.2 million, or $0.26 per share.
Basically, Digital River provides outsourced e-commerce services. This includes store design, development, merchandising, order management, fraud prevention, digital product delivery, and even web analytics. Clients include biggies like Autodesk, eBay, Microsoft, Symantec, and Hewlett-Packard.
And Digital River continues to invest in its offerings. There is, for example, the oneNetwork Marketplace. This is an efficient system that allows customers to offer products through affiliates (third-party websites that get a commission for providing e-commerce leads). Digital River has also invested heavily in making its services global. Basically, the company is developing a massive footprint for e-commerce, which can scale across complex markets such as China.
No doubt, this is a key competitive advantage for Digital River. In fact, this has been a significant factor in attracting new business. And, given the complexities of foreign e-commerce, it is something customers would rather outsource.
For the third quarter, Digital River projects revenues of $74 million and earnings of $0.38 per share. As for the full year, Digital River is projecting revenue of $305 million and earnings of $1.74 per share.
SkyRider P2P Start-Up Emerges
Excerpted from GigaOM Report by Om Malik
P2P is once again catching the imagination of the venture capital community in Silicon Valley. RedSwoosh, BitTorrent, Pando Networks, and dozens of others have come out with different twists on the core concept of P2P networking and have raised millions.
SkyRider, a Mountain View, CA-based start-up is the latest to join the party, having raised $8 million from white-shoe venture funds Sequoia Capital and Charles River Ventures.
SkyRider was started by telecom veterans Ori Cohen and Stas Khirman (also co-founders of packet-inspection companies Narus and VDOnet) in 2003, and has operated in stealth mode. The company is keeping mum about its technology and strategy, and will offer its first product in Fall 2006.
"We are developing a commercial grade P2P networking platform, which we will offer to other companies," said Ed Kozel, CEO of SkyRider, who previously worked for Cisco Systems and Yahoo.
He said that the four big P2P networks - Gnutella, Ares, Kazaa, and eDonkey – continue to grow in popularity, yet there has been very little innovation around these networks. They are essentially used for swapping either music or video files.
Among other issues around these networks is that they still remain silos. SkyRider has developed a technology that will allow it to act almost like a bridge among those networks. By doing so, the company is opening up an opportunity for cross-platform search rather than better P2P keyword search.
According to some estimates, there are 12 million simultaneous P2P users on the P2P networks, and there are nearly half-a-billion queries on these networks. That, according to ComScore data, is close to the number of daily searches on Google and Yahoo.
The big opportunity, Kozel says, is to bring web-like ease to the P2P networks, and looking beyond video and music file sharing. SkyRider also has plans to apply P2P technology to user-generated content.
Comcast & Turner Invest in Revver
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report
Revver, a video-sharing site that compensates uploaders of popular videos with a cut of ad revenue, announced Monday that it has expanded its second round of venture capital financing with new investments from Comcast Interactive Capital and Turner Broadcasting.
The company previously announced its $8.7 million financing in April, which was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. San Francisco-based Revver allows those who upload videos to the site to track when they are shared, and offers them a percentage of the revenue generated from advertising.
"The market for online user-generated video content is growing exponentially," said David Horowitz, a principal with Comcast Interactive Capital. "We are excited by Revver’s unique approach in helping content creators create value from their work."
Revver said the additional funding will aid in market expansion, team-building, and technology development.
Gotuit Media Debuts Broadband Video Portal
Gotuit Media launched its broadband video portal this week to a "fantastic response from viewers, the media, analysts, and blogsters," according to Gotuit Media senior advisor David Leibowitz.
Gotuit.com is a broadband video portal that features thousands of premium branded video titles in the categories of music, news, entertainment, and sports.
Gotuit enables viewers to watch what they want without annoying buffering and transmission delay experienced with other video sites; it’s fast and users can click from one video to the next without interruption.
Gotuit.com also makes it easy to navigate, find, and watch videos online. Viewers can ‘channel surf’ through thousands of videos, watch professionally programmed playlists, or create their own custom video playlists that they can e-mail to friends. Best of all – it’s completely FREE!
Record Labels Sue LimeWire
Excerpted from Washington Post Report by Nichola Groom
Some of the world’s biggest record labels sued the makers of the file-sharing program LimeWire on Friday, saying the software allows users to download music without paying for it.
The complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, is the latest in a string of lawsuits the music industry has filed in an attempt to curb Internet copyright infringement. That effort was bolstered last year when the US Supreme Court ruled that content companies can take legal action against technology firms that encourage copyright infringement.
Record labels owned by the world’s four major music companies – Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group, and Warner Music – brought the lawsuit against New York-based LimeWire LLC.
The suit seeks $150,000 in damages for every song "willfully infringed" by LimeWire. It also names LimeWire parent Lime Group LLC as well as chief executive Mark Gorton and chief operating officer Greg Bildson as defendants.
LimeWire officials could not be reached for comment.
In the complaint, the record companies accuse LimeWire of profiting from illicit downloads of their music, saying "the scope of infringement is massive."
LimeWire and its executives "have had a direct financial interest in, and derived substantial benefit from, the infringement of plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings," the complaint said.
In a statement, industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America said that "despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site’s corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model."
Last month, one of the world’s best known file-sharing networks, Kazaa, agreed to pay more than $100 million and commit to filtering content to settle two lawsuits brought by the movie and music industries.
Kazaa had emerged as the dominant file-sharing network after recording industry lawsuits brought about the collapse of the original Napster in 2001. Napster has since reemerged as a paid service.
Coming Events of Interest
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Building Blocks 2006 – August 15th–17th in San Jose, CA. The DCIA is pleased to participate in this premier event for transforming entertainment, communication technologies and the global communications network: TV, cable, telco, consumer electronics, mobile, broadband, search, e-mail, VoIP, RSS, blogs and websites: "Disruptive Thinking – Change Agents That Transform the World –Where Content is King and Technology Rules."
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The Bandwidth Conference – August 18th-19th at the Regency Center in San Francisco, CA. The DCIA is pleased to participate in this event for professionals in the music and technology industries. The focus of this conference is an exploration of current issues as well as future trends through panels, speakers, and opportunities to meet one-on-one with others.
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2006 Word of Mouth Marketing Forum – September 21st–22nd in Arlington, VA. Learn the ins and outs of one of the most innovative and efficient marketing techniques. New tools and technology have made Word of Mouth Marketing one of the best strategic tools marketers can use to build brand awareness and customer loyalty.
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OMMA Awards– September 26th at the Marriot Marquis in New York, NY. The OMMA Awards honor the brand marketers, agencies and content providers who continue to push the potential of online advertising creative. The OMMA Awards celebrate the year's most innovative and brilliant creative work in 27 categories. Submission deadline is July 28th.
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6th Annual Future of Music Policy Summit – October 5th–7th at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. FMC sees hosting this Summit in Canada as an opportunity to expand its perspective on a range of issues – from copyright, to sampling, to digital royalties, to radio, to how various musical communities are managing change. The music marketplace has become truly global, and some of the biggest challenges are navigating the assortment of legal and licensing schemes that encourage and/or impede the promotion and sale of music.
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