October 6, 2006
Volume 15, Issue 3
Welcome RawFlow
Please warmly welcome RawFlow to the Operations 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.
RawFlow is a leading provider of live peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming technology that enables broadcasters, content delivery networks (CDNs), and webcasters to maximize the scalability of their Internet broadcasting without increasing risk or cost.
RawFlow’s Intelligent Content Delivery (ICD) solution creates an optimized network that is capable of delivering high-bit-rate content at a cost that permits widespread distribution.
RawFlow’s technology allows the Internet to become a viable infrastructure for delivery of rich media content. It eliminates the success penalty that is normally associated with Internet broadcasting.
RawFlow was founded by an experienced team of Internet entrepreneurs in 2000 and is funded by leading investment firm Benchmark Capital.
By forging partnerships with experts in streaming media, RawFlow offers broadcasters a range of offerings from simple installations to complete end-to-end solutions in support of streaming audio and video.
RawFlow provides its clients with a cost-effective broadcasting platform far superior to traditional streaming methods.
RawFlow’s CEO Mikkel Dissing is scheduled to be a principal speaker at the upcoming P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA on October 23rd.
Digimarc Patents P2P Watermarking
Digimarc Corporation has been issued a patent (US Patent No. 7,095,871) that describes ways to improve the identification and management of copyrighted digital assets. The patent, entitled "Digital asset management and linking media signals with related data using watermarks," teaches ways of identifying entertainment content with digital watermarks and linking it to multiple sources of valuable information or services.
As digital content continues to proliferate and be distributed across social networks and P2P environments on the Internet, identifying and managing copyrighted assets and related goods and services is becoming an increasing challenge. The problem is compounded by the fact that digital works can easily lose their identifying information during the distribution process, digital-to-analog conversion, or routine file-format changes.
Digital watermarking provides identifying and linking capabilities in an unobtrusive, persistent, format-independent fashion - giving images, movies, music or other digital content a digital identity that can help better manage content and associated rights and connect users to valuable information, relationships, and goods and services associated with the content.
Digimarc is also a founding member of the Digital Watermarking Alliance, an international group of industry leading companies that was recently formed to promote the value of digital watermarking to content owners, industry, policy makers and consumers.
Digimarc EVP Reed Stager, who was recently named Chairman of the Digital Watermarking Alliance, will be a luncheon speaker at the October 23rd P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA; and Nate Alvord, Director of Licensing and Market Development at Digimarc, will speak on the Solutions Development panel.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Special pre-registration discount rates for the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA end today.
Don’t miss this first-ever Los Angeles DCIA Conference & Exposition focused totally on the emerging P2P distribution channel and social networking phenomenon.
With copyright infringement settlements clearing the way for commercial development, P2P now accounts for more than seventy percent (70%) of Internet traffic.
The P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA is a must-attend event for content creators and rights holders, P2P application developers and distributors, solutions providers and service-and-support companies interested in profiting from the realization of the file-sharing and social-networking marketplace to its fullest potential.
The October 23rd Conference will feature keynotes from top P2P and social networking software distributors, panels of industry leaders, and a workshop on IPv6. There will be a continental breakfast, luncheon, and networking cocktail reception with live entertainment.
The October 24th-26th Exposition is being held in conjunction with the Digital Hollywood Fall conference. Pre-registration for the full Conference & Exposition also includes admission to Digital Hollywood Fall and represents a $200 savings over regular rates for these events individually.
Keynote speakers for the October 23rd DCIA Conference include Kontiki’s Todd Johnson, QTRAX’s Allan Klepfisz, and MyPeer’s Les Ottolenghi.
Conference luncheon speakers will be Digimarc’s EVP Reed Stager, who was recently named Chairman of the new Digital Watermarking Alliance, and Sony Pictures Entertainment’s EVP, Digital Policy Group, Mitch Singer.
The Policy Track features Dreier LLP’s Josh Wattles, Leading Ventures’ John Rodenrys, the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) Fritz Attaway, RazorPop’s Marc Freedman, and TAG Strategic’s Ted Cohen, and will address the post MGM v. Grokster world.
The Technology Track features Abacast’s Michael King, BigChampagne’s Eric Garland, Beyond Media’s John Kupice, CacheLogic’s Andrew Parker, and Digital Containers’ Chip Venters, and will address the evolving distribution chain.
The Marketing Track features FTI Consulting’s Bruce Benson, HackBack Media’s Bob Way, P2P.com’s Albe Angel, and Ultramercial’s Dana Jones, and will address business models – what’s working and what’s not.
The Content Distribution panel features EZTV’s Michael Masucci, Indie911’s Justin Goldberg, MediaPass Networks’ Daniel Harris, and Nettwerk Music Group’s Brent Muhle, and will address the perspective of artists and rights holders.
The Solutions Development panel features Altnet’s Anthony Rose, Digimarc’s Nate Alvord, PeerApp’s Frank Childs, and RawFlow’s Mikkel Dissing, and will address advancement – creating a commercial ecosystem.
The Support Services panel features BitPass’ Matt Graves, Javien’s Leslie Poole, P2P Cash’s Tom Meredith, and Rustic Canyons’ Nate Redmond, and will address accountability – tracking transactions and paying the players.
Command Information’s Yurie Rich, Keystone Tech Group’s Limor Schafman, and Seamless P2P’s Luke Rippy will conduct a special session on the impact of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) on this emerging high-growth industry.
Live showcase entertainers for the post-conference networking cocktail reception include Kirsten DeHaan and the "Internet’s First Rock Star" Scooter Scudieri.
Exhibits and demonstrations for the October 24th-26th DCIA Exposition, held in conjunction with the Digital Hollywood Fall Conference, feature industry-leading products and services.
Registration can be done online at www.dcia.info/P2PMSLA/register.html or by calling 410-476-7965. Special pre-registration discount rates expire October 16th. For sponsor packages and speaker information, please contact Karen Kaplowitz, DCIA Member Services, at 888-890-4240 or karen@dcia.info. Share wisely, and take care.
YouTube Daily Streams Approach 100 Million
Excerpted from Media Life Magazine Report
Yes, YouTube really is that popular. According to a newly released survey from ComScore Media Matrix, a web measurement company, YouTube had more than 63 million different people visit its site in July 2006.
In terms of video streaming activity, the site played an average 96 million streams per day. The site has recently been touting a similar number, 100 million. The actual number of streams played in July was about 3 billion.
Slightly less than one-fourth of the total streaming activity came from the United States, and about 16 million Americans visited the website each day. That same month, YouTube was the 17th-most trafficked website in the world. How new YouTube owner Google leverages that popularity remains to be seen.
User Generated Revenue
Excerpted from eMarketer Report
A new report from In-Stat asserts that over the next several years user generated content (UGC) will boost online revenue, mainly from advertising.
The research firm estimates the volume of views and downloads will surpass 65 billion by 2010, and at the same time revenues will exceed $850 million.
The bulk of the revenues will come from advertising — including banners, embedded video ads and branded channels or pages.
Among UGC leaders, the study found that currently YouTube has the highest market share for video, but MySpace has the most visitors.
In its latest ranking of online video sites, ComScore found that in July over 106.5 million people, about three out of every five US Internet users, streamed or downloaded video during the month of July.
In total, nearly 7.2 billion videos were streamed or downloaded in the US, an average of 67 streams per streamer, which means that the typical video streamer viewed more than two streams per day.
Yahoo ranked as the top online video-viewing site, followed closely by MySpace. Fast-rising YouTube ran third, trailed by Time Warner and Microsoft sites.
In a tracking study also conducted this summer, Nielsen/NetRatings found that UGC sites accounted for five of the top 10 fastest-growing web brands.
You Can Date Now Meet Later
Excerpted from LA Times Report by Alana Semuels
DCIA Member Skype’s Internet phone service lets singles hook up all over the world for free. Using webcams, some even watch each other sleep.
It started as so many relationships do – the long phone calls, the movie dates, the tentative introductions to family and friends.
But the courtship of Mark Passerby and Salwa Al-Saban was hardly ordinary. The two were separated by the Atlantic Ocean, a time difference of six hours and vast cultural contrasts. He lived in Lansing, MI; she in Cairo.
They say they fell in love over Skype, a service that allows people to call each other for free over the Internet.
In November 2005, one month after they first "clicked" online, they were married.
"Everyone around us thinks we’re crazy," said Salwa, a 25-year-old doctor who just moved to Lansing and took her new husband’s name. "But it is much more perfect than anything I could have ever wanted."
Software like Skype is creating a world of online dating that enables relationships between people who live all over the globe, some of whom may never meet in person. By allowing free phone calls between those who share a common language and a high-speed Internet hookup, Skype has spawned love connections between Belgians and Japanese, Germans and Israelis, Americans and Egyptians and even a Guatemalan nail technician and a Canadian member of the Raelians, a group that advocates human cloning.
The software routes calls over the data network, substituting voice for e-mail. Web mail services such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo also allow customers to make net phone calls, but Skype has kept a few steps ahead of its competitors by being one of the first to offer this for free. Skype also lets users put money in an account and call land-line phones and cell-phones.
Since it was founded in 2003, Skype has added features such as voice mail and video communication. The service says it has more than 100 million users.
Javien Supports MTV’s URGE
DCIA Member Javien Digital Payment Solutions is providing the base digital content commerce technology that manages the download and subscription sales of URGE, MTV Networks’ new digital music service.
"The music programming and discovery tools within URGE are designed to guide consumers’ musical exploration," said Leslie Poole, Javien CEO. "Javien’s solutions are an ideal foundation for URGE’s digital content sales."
The technical platform was shaped from a variety of components that enhance the core, transactional e-commerce engine, making it easily adaptable to meet the unique requirements of URGE. Javien’s technology provided the base technology for order fulfillment and management of online sales for the digital music service. The technology was built to be adapted easily for customers whether they prefer an enterprise or an ASP solution.
"Javien’s flexible e-commerce technologyenabled our team to customize asolution to createarobust consumer-friendly experience," said Michael Bloom,VicePresident ofDigitalMusic for MTV Networks andGeneralManager of URGE.
"Javien and MTVN worked together to create a powerful order and fulfillment management technology specifically built only for URGE," said Poole.
PlayFirst Partners with Brighter Minds
Brighter Minds Media, in conjunction with DCIA Member PlayFirst, is proud to announce the release of "Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue." The new software title, a sequel to the original smash hit "Diner Dash," is now being distributed online.
"We are extremely excited about ‘Diner Dash 2,’ considering the huge success of its prequel," said Vivian Antonangeli, CEO of Brighter Minds Media. "PlayFirst has provided yet another terrific title – ‘Diner Dash 2’ is a tremendous game for all ages."
Flo, the stockbroker turned entrepreneur who became one of the most popular video game heroines of 2005, returns in "Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue." Based on "Diner Dash," which sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, "Diner Dash 2" continues Flo’s story as she returns to save four friends from the nefarious Mr. Big. By working as fast as ever, Flo helps each of her friends upgrade their restaurants, expand their businesses, and pay their rent, all in the hopes of escaping the wrecking ball and a disastrous Mega Multiplex Food Plaza.
Seat customers, take orders, serve drinks, deliver food, and collect tips - expert scores earn you more décor upgrades! New quirky characters, challenges, and power-ups, await you in this sequel to the original smash hit. At the end of the game is a special surprise for all of Flo’s fans, a nice reward for a long day’s work.
Raketu Releases P2P Software
Raketu Communications, the global Internet communications, information, and entertainment company, has announced the production release of its flagship P2P product, Raketu.
Raketu provides the most comprehensive integrated communications, information and entertainment tool available, providing more options, more control, and more personal activity features than any other service. Raketu makes it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to have free worldwide communications, to access information and to be entertained.
Raketu’s communications features include high quality VoIP, dial-out calling to landline/mobile phones, Instant Messaging (supporting Raketu, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ, Google and Skype), SMS-text messaging, and file transfers/sharing.
Raketu’s information features include news, sports, weather, stock feeds, and an advanced Internet and travel searching facility.
Raketu’s entertainment features include a podcast reader/player, games, and a full featured multi-media player with karaoke. Raketu supports click-to-call, click-to-IM, click-to-SMS, global online presence, and enhanced social networking features.
Raketu’s unique P2P technology allows the highest quality of VoIP calling and the highest call-completion, without the security issues associated with supernodes and other traditional P2P technologies. And, unlike other P2P communications providers, Raketu does not utilize users’ computers for other users’ communications.
Today, users in over 150 countries are enjoying Raketu free global communications – and they are very impressed at Raketu’s voice quality and ease of use.
Raketu runs over any Internet connection. Anyone on the Internet with a Windows PC and a headset can start using Raketu immediately.
Damaka Debuts P2P Multimedia Service
Damaka, a leader in P2P standards-based communication and collaboration software, recently developed and released its best-in-class P2P multi-party video-conferencing (H.263/H.264) as the cornerstone of its video offering.
Voice Commands is a new addition to Damaka’s expanding suite of product offerings which already includes desktop share, voice/video conferencing, smart IM, dial-out, and many others. Voice Commands empowers users to make hands-free phone calls using Bluetooth, headsets, or PC microphones.
The voice activation feature is designed to allow users to work with Damaka while being away from the PC or while doing tasks like exercising, playing a musical instrument, or eating. Users simply have to train the system to understand their accent and they can start using the Voice Command feature.
Damaka provides voice, video, IM, file transfer, desktop sharing and other features in an easy-to-use, real-time environment. A technology pioneer in distributed soft-switching, Damaka offers its white-label solution to operators, enterprises and consumers.
The Damaka platform is based on industry standards and uses patent-pending technology to provide a very secure P2P environment for Internet users worldwide.
Aruba Installs World’s Largest LAN
Aruba Networks has deployed its mobile edge solution at Ohio State University in what is believed to be the world’s largest wireless LAN to date.
When the rollout is complete, the Aruba wireless network will cover OSU’s main campus – which comprises over 400 buildings and 25 million square feet, sitting on approximately 1,700 acres.
The Aruba network will provide ubiquitous wireless access to the university’s student population of over 50,000, in addition to over 27,000 faculty and staff. Ohio State has estimated that over 3,000 access points (APs) are required for minimal coverage – and up to 10,000 APs may be required for optimal coverage, along with over 40 mobility controllers distributed across their three core router points of presence (POPs).
The distributed computing environment at Ohio State University is composed of hundreds of different college and departmental networks of varying degrees of complexity, some of which included thick APs to provide wireless access. The university was seeing a steady increase of wireless usage, but in an unplanned manner, as each wireless network was a stand-alone island.
In addition, the legacy network was not able to provide access to all users within range of the APs due to the varying levels of security and authentication methods deployed by each college and departmental area. As a result, Ohio State had only pockets of wireless access, not a seamless mobility solution across the entire campus.
The Web’s Political Pull
Excerpted from eMarketer Report
The Internet is becoming an increasingly important part of political campaigns. If anyone has any doubt about that, all they have to do is glance at the numbers from a new survey conducted by Burst Media. When it comes to getting political information in the US, the web now surpasses all other media.
Surveying over 900 potential online voters, Burst found that more of them (26.8%) picked the Internet as the best place to learn about a candidate’s position on election issues or to research general election issues than any other medium.
Television ranked second, with 20.5% of potential voters stating it was the best place to learn about the issues, followed by newspapers, radio and pamphlets/brochures/direct mail. Magazines were in last place, picked as most important by only 2.8% of respondents.
Not only are voters going online to find information, online political ads are having an impact, too.
Nearly one-quarter (23.7%) of the likely voters in the Burst survey said they have clicked on a web advertisement for a political candidate or issue advocacy group.
Among these "clickers," 43.6% have clicked only on an advocacy group advertisement, 29.9% clicked only on a candidate’s advertisement and 26.45% clicked on both.
Men, at 27.4%, are somewhat more likely than women, at 20.1%, to have clicked on a political ad.
"This is a powerful argument for candidates and advocacy groups to use the Internet to communicate their ideas to potential voters," said Chuck Moran of Burst. "Their websites are important destinations to influence voters and ads are very effective at getting voters more actively involved with candidates and issues."
Backing that statement up, the survey found that two out of five likely voters have visited a candidate’s website during the current election season, and slightly more than a third have visited an issue advocacy group’s website.
Another strong argument for communicating to voters online rather than through other media is interactivity — the direct and immediate involvement it offers.
The survey found that of those who clicked on an advocacy group’s ad, over two-thirds read more about the group, and nearly half signed an online petition. And that is not all: 19% signed up to be a member, nearly 18% made a donation and almost 14% volunteered to aid the cause or candidate.
Grad Student Hits Jackpot with YouTube
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Miguel Helft
For Jawed Karim, the $100,000 or so he would have to spend on a master’s degree at Stanford was never daunting. He hit an Internet jackpot in 2002 when PayPal, the online payment company he had joined early on, was bought by eBay.
On Monday, still early in his studies for the fall term, he got lucky again. This time he may have hit the Internet equivalent of the multi-state PowerBall.
Mr. Karim is the third of the three founders of the video site YouTube, which Google has agreed to buy for $1.65 billion. He was present at YouTube’s creation, contributing some crucial ideas about a website where users could share video. But academia had more allure than the details of turning that idea into a business.
So while his partners Chad Hurley and Steven Chen built the company and went on to become Internet and media celebrities, he quietly went back to class, working toward a degree in computer science.
Mr. Karim, who is 27, became visibly uncomfortable when the subject turned to money, and he would not say what he stands to make when Google’s purchase of YouTube is completed. He said only that he is one of the company’s largest individual shareholders, though he owns less of the company than his two partners, whose stakes in the company are likely to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to some estimates. The deal was so enormous, he says, that his share was still plenty big.
"The sheer size of the acquisition almost makes the details irrelevant," Mr. Karim said.
On Wednesday, during a walk across campus and a visit to his dorm room and the computer sciences building where he takes classes, Mr. Karim described himself as a nerd who gets excited about learning. Nothing in his understated demeanor suggests he is anything other than an ordinary graduate student, and he attracted little attention on campus in jeans, a blue polo shirt, a tan jacket and black Puma sneakers.
Mr. Karim said he might keep a hand in entrepreneurship, and he dreams of having an impact on the way people use the Internet – something he has already done. Philanthropy may have some appeal, down the road. But mostly he just wants to be a professor. He said he simply hopes to follow in the footsteps of other Stanford academics who struck it rich in Silicon Valley and went back to teaching.
"There are a few billionaires in that building," he said, standing in front of the William Gates Computer Science Building. But his chosen path will not preclude another stint at a start-up. "If I see another opportunity like YouTube, I can always do that," he said.
Eight Ways to Revitalize P2P
Excerpted from Slyck.com Report by Tom Mennecke
Times have been slow in the file-sharing world. There’s no greater evidence than the obvious reduction in news production on Slyck.com. Ask any file-sharing veteran, and they’ll attest to the relative snail’s pace of P2P activity.
This of course has little impact on the P2P or file-sharing population, which continues to grow at its typical rate. Rather, the excitement and community atmosphere associated with the file-sharing community has been rather dull. Yet like many things in life, this situation has come full circle and just about everyone is now ready to get back into the P2P saddle.
While the P2P world can likely recuperate without any outside influence, there are several improvements the file-sharing community can directly involve itself with to expedite its return to greatness.
8) Challenge BitTorrent/eDonkey2000 indexing sites which enforce ratios.
It’s not often that Slyck.com and BitTorrent, Inc. are in direct harmony; however Bram Cohen is on the money when it comes to ratios. In a recent interview with ZeroPaid.com, a popular file-sharing news site, Bram expressed that he stands by his anti-ratio policy.
"Leechers are engaging in perfectly reasonable and non-destructive behavior and the site is trying to punish them for it, thus fostering the creation of clients which lie about their statistics. This is the site’s fault, and the result could do serious damage to the value of BitTorrent statistics generally. Sites which do this are being extremely destructive, and the way they grandstand about how they’re fostering sharing really ticks me off," Bram told ZeroPaid.
And Bram’s right. The BitTorrent protocol by its very nature forces the client to participate on the network, thereby negating any sophisticated argument to the contrary. In essence, the only tangible result of enforcing ratios is the development of BitTorrent clients which send falsified uploading data to trackers. In essence the implementation of ratio enforcement only forces those who have no intention to share beyond what they download to spoof clients; while the policy is irrelevant to those who naturally feel obligated to seed.
If the entertainment industry is having trouble enforcing its will online, how do tracker administrators feel justified their luck will be any better – especially when dealing with the same crowd?
7) Question BitTorrent/eDonkey2000 indexing sites which implement payment systems.
Contrary to popular belief, file sharing is not about piracy. Rather, it’s about community, the furtherance of technology and the pursuit of knowledge. Paramount to all these ideals is the concept that file sharing should be free. When individuals begin to charge for that information, or access to that information, it creates a system of privilege and rejects equality.
Few file sharers support the entertainment industry’s position on digital copyright enforcement, yet interestingly enough most file sharers accept the entertainment industry’s policy of aggressively pursuing physical pirates. Charging for information not owned by the seller is frowned upon not only in the physical world, but online as well.
6) Piolet – big up yourself!
Piolet was once called Blubster. The once famous P2P client generated legions of followers, and not just because it was a decent source of information. Rather, Blubster created a community environment that challenged Napster. It had a concise news section, and an entire .net domain dedicated to the sole purpose of furthering its large community.
Those days are long gone. Instead, Piolet.com is spit and polish and has the feel of a corporate website. Blubster.com was an inviting and homey location that welcomed new ideas and the exchange of information. The only thing Piolet.com invites is a quick click to another website. Most people still remember the old days of Blubster, and programmer Pablo Soto sits on a golden opportunity to give exactly what many in the P2P community seek.
5) Support open source networks and clients.
The commercial P2P scene has been wiped clean – at least nearly so. StreamCast’s Morpheus and LimeWire are the only two US based developers still fighting the good fight - however their longevity is in question.
Open source innovation has instead become the cornerstone of P2P and file-sharing development. Gnutella and eDonkey2000 once were controlled primarily by closed source, commercial operators. Yet because of the highly distributed nature of open source development, these networks still exist long after their commercial overlords were banished from ever looking at another P2P network again.
So when you fire up your next file-sharing client, ask yourself, "Is there an open source alternative? Is the longevity of this program dependent on a future court ruling?"
4) Support free content.
The entertainment industry is vehemently opposed to unauthorized file sharing. Fair enough. Instead, find similar genres that are distributed under Creative Commons or copy lefted. There’s an incalculable amount of content that is distributed at no cost and contains no DRM. Many alternative artists openly encourage their fans to redistribute, mix, or otherwise manipulate their work. Sites like Jamendo, Artist Server (some artists on Artist Server offer their music copyrighted) and SectionZ all offer large directories of Creative Commons licensed material.
Creative Commons isn’t limited to music though. Webcasters such as the Revision 3 crew, the TWiTcasters and many more utilize Creative Commons. Artists can use sites like Sample torrents to find legal samples for the purpose of creating music. The eMule Content Database offers a wide variety of legal share-able content through the eDonkey2000 network. Many movies such as "Star Wreck," "Elephants Dream," "The Piracy Documentary," and "Steal This Film" are offered through the BitTorrent protocol. The list of Creative Commons works is endless and this list of examples is just the beginning.
3) Forget about the minor issues.
Like the old saying goes, there are things in life we can change, and things we cannot. If you’re lucky, God will give you the serenity to tell the difference. Most file sharers are already well educated in the dealings of digital rights management (DRM), political issues, software, hardware, and numerous other issues facing the Internet and its netizens today.
However there’s an extensive population of individuals who do not. Make it a point to show friends, family, and even strangers the wide-ranging network of information available online. Web resources such as the EFF.org, Ares Technica, Boing Boing, Corante, AfterDawn, CD Freaks, and ZeroPaid have bustling communities filled with individuals who are more than willing to share information. There may not be anything an individual can do to protest the latest Senate Judiciary hearing on the implementation of broadcast flag technology, but you can certainly help people towards the path of enlightenment with information.
2) Perception is everything.
A positive attitude and confidence is a key to success. If faced with a difficult and challenging task, a defeatist point of view will almost always lead to failure. There are more than 10 million documented P2P users online at any given moment, with millions of additional users traversing BitTorrent. This number represents a value of more than 10-fold over Napster. Napster’s comparatively diminutive size reshaped the Internet and gave us the world we have today.
While the chips may seem down, they are anything but. The entertainment industry has been forced to refocus its enforcement efforts, music stores are beginning to experiment with DRM-free products, and iTunes is still a relatively small enterprise compared with an average P2P network.
1) Have fun!
There was a time when file sharing was inventive. During the early days of Gnutella, fans of this network used to race across IRC looking for gateway IP addresses. Without it, the client could not connect to the network (a la WinMX.) Although a bit annoying at the time, it helped build the community atmosphere and cooperation that made file sharing enjoyable and adventurous.
As file sharing stabilized, much of the magic that initially surrounded it has dissipated. Those around since the beginning may even question the relevance of file sharing. Maybe people are taking the whole deal too seriously. Sit back, relax, and see what’s happening out there.
Coming Events of Interest
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P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA – October 23rd-26th in Santa Monica, CA. The Fall DCIA Conference & Exposition will cover policy, marketing, and technology issues affecting commercial development of this emerging high-growth industry. Exhibits and demonstrations will feature industry-leading products and services. For sponsor packages and speaker information, please contact Karen Kaplowitz at 888-890-4240 or karen@dcia.info. Plan now to attend.
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Digital Hollywood Fall – October 24th-26th at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. The preeminent digital media and entertainment conference in the country. This year featuring more than 70 different sessions and over 450 speakers. The DCIA will moderate "Track I: Next Generation P2P Music and Film - DRM, Paid for Pass-Along and Other Legal Distributed Computing Models and the Entertainment Industries."
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Digital Hollywood Europe in London – November 29th - December 1st at ExCeL London, The Docklands. The DCIA will moderate two P2P panels featuring Ingjerd Jevnaker, Marketing Manager, RawFlow; Daniel Harris, Founder, Kendra Initiative; Bruce Benson, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting; Les Ottolenghi, Founder & CEO, INTENT MediaWorks; Chip Venters, CEO, Digital Containers; Daniel Klaus, CEO, Music Nation; Jonathan Friend, CTO, Friend Media Technology Systems (FMTS); Xavier Casanova, CEO, Perenety; Tom Meredith, CEO, P2P Cash; and Phil Morle, Director of Technology, Sharman Networks.
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