April 2 , 2007
Volume 17, Issue 3
Joost Boosts Internet TV
Excerpted from Now Toronto Report by David Silverberg
"Free Web TV." These words would make even the most spoiled tech nerd stiffen with joy. But the promise of a seamless Net-TV alliance has left us feeling limp: 10-minute clips on YouTube, network "webisodes" posted after their air date, South-Park-only sites that could do with some variety. Is this the best we can do?
Not if two Vikings have their way. If anyone can marry the Internet and TV without any awkward pre-nups, it’s the founders of Kazaa and Skype. Scandinavians Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are known as Internet pioneers (and now millionaires) who created the file-sharing powerhouse Kazaa and Net-phone combo Skype, the latter sold to eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005.
They’re not content to sleep on beds of money. They’d rather start a new company that uses the peer-to-peer (P2P) networking power of the Kazaa code, and instead of grabbing music from around the world, it displays streaming-video of DVD quality.
Joost, still in beta form and yet to be released, is a piece of software that could make everyone winners. The public can download the player app free and watch streamed programs on demand on their PC. Along with top-notch streaming through P2PTV technology, Joost allows viewers to chat using instant messenger (IM) programs or create branded channels with custom content. If these veteran web mavens have learned anything, it’s to let the public play with toys. TV can’t be inactive any more.
Two out of three major broadcasters signing with Joost are Toronto-based. JumpTV partnered with the new company to supply ethnic television from more than 70 countries. CHUM signed with Joost last week, offering content ranging from MuchMusic’s Live@Much to Fashion Television reportage.
So far, the only non-Canuck in the Joost camp is Viacom, weighing in with a hefty dose of stoner-approved Comedy Central and MTV shows.
Sounds like Joost is aiming for the coveted young-male demographic. And where there’s testosterone, expect advertisers to come looking for some action. Joost is attractive to advertisers because web TV can pinpoint people’s locations and viewing habits and create tailored advertising for them. Ad companies could buy The Colbert Report fans in a certain area code, for instance.
But here’s the beautiful part of the sales pitch: Joost plans to allow only one minute of advertising per hour of viewing. And with the software’s TiVo-like controls, ads are less of a nuisance than with the static boob tube.
So the Kazaa dudes want to introduce us to free TV through the Internet, completely legit, with barely any ads. If this doesn’t change mainstream media to the core, what will?
Unlike the file-sharing hoopla that scared industry execs, the online video trend is urging the major networks to get on board or miss out on the Next Big Thing.
"Joost is an on-demand experience that will help us get a new audience abroad," says Maria Hale, Vice President of Business Development for CHUM Television. "The model appeals to us, the lineage of the founders intrigued us and the technology definitely impressed us."
How does Joost work? Zennström and Friis realized that the best way to move files like MP3s across long distances is through a network of users or peers. So the Joost team will use their branded networking technology called Global Index to handle the millions of bits flowing among global users.
Add massive servers that can hold 80,000 half-hour TV episodes and Joost becomes a platform for more than just Ice T’s Rap School. It’s only a matter of time before Hollywood and more media giants start filling those servers with the fix every Net junkie needs.
The stage is set for Joost to ripple wider than Skype or Kazaa ever will. Broadband is spiking. Hooking up PCs to TV screens isn’t the head-scratcher it once was, and major networks are even creating their own online video portals.
Essentially, Joost could finally become our favorite way of watching prime-time: on our own terms, completely free, and without a commercial’s repetitive idiocy.
There’s nerd talk that 2007 will be the year of the iPhone. Or Nintendo Wii’s complete dominance. But the dark horse waiting in the shadows and poised to step into the limelight could be the most revolutionary piece of technology we’ve seen since YouTube served us tasty video fragments.
Instead of slices, though, Joost will be dishing out complete entrees, on the house.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 We look forward to seeing you at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB2007) in two weeks. The DCIA is proud to co-sponsor the Interactive Television Alliance’s ITA Content Incubator.
This year’s ITA Content Incubator is also co-sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter. The ITV Alliance has arranged special programming, meetings, and networking opportunities built around a 40’x40’ ITA Content Incubator Pavilion on the NAB2007 Show Floor in the Central Hall.
The 2007 theme is "Alternative Distribution" and the ITV Alliance will be showcasing new opportunities in mobile, IPTV, VOD, networked devices, and broadband television, plus peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) as represented by participating DCIA Members. If you haven’t made plans yet, please contact NAB@itvalliance.org for information on participation.
The ITV Alliance still has room for showcase sponsors in the ITA Content Incubator Pavilion, and is also offering discounted 10’x10’ booths around the perimeter of the pavilion. There will be a special NAB issue of The Hollywood Reporter, highlighting the ITA Content Incubator and participating companies. And special roundtable breakfasts and lunches with executive panels from the content community and technology companies.
High-definition (HD) broadcast technology is coming into its own this year, which augurs well for future adoption of P2PTV, the most efficient way to transmit large files such as television programs and feature-length films.
New cameras and servers are now routinely released with HD stickers, and thousand-dollar HD TV sets are robustly selling at retail. But as with all forms of information and entertainment media, the digital revolution promises more profound changes than just sharper pictures. Perhaps the most dramatic of these changes is represented by Internet protocol television (IPTV) and its most promising sub-category P2PTV.
As Susan Ashworth reports in TV Technology, the NAB recognizes that change is in the air.
"Without question, local broadcasters and our network partners air the most popular programming on television," said Dennis Wharton, NAB Executive Vice President of Media Relations. "With the majority of television stations now airing this high-value programming in digital, our opportunities to expand our offerings to new platforms on various gadgets is increasing. Our future is a broadcast signal on every new and yet-invented device out there."
Gerry Kaufhold, Principal Analyst with In-Stat, a technology research firm in Scottsdale, AZ concurs.
"Broadcast TV content is still the most highly viewed content on the planet," he said. "Broadcasters need to figure out how to negotiate from a position of strength when they move their content onto the Internet."
The DCIA intends to help broadcasters protect and efficiently distribute their content using P2PTV.
In terms of national and international distribution, P2PTV has already scored a significant win. Media giant Viacom, while litigating Google’s YouTube for facilitating copyright infringement, concluded a landmark content licensing deal with P2PTV service Joost, in part thanks to its stronger copyright protection.
Already "TV networks are seeing increased viewership of their traditional linear TV broadcasts as a result of putting their video onto the Internet," Kaufhold said.
P2PTV can also offer attractive solutions to local broadcasters. Asworth reports that Raleigh, NC CBS affiliate WRAL-TV is launching a pilot program that will allow viewers to access local WRAL programming as well as CBS network programming over the Internet.
The station has installed broadcast replication technology designed to allow the station to stream local, network, and syndicated content over the Internet within the bounds of its geographic area. That’s an important consideration for licensees who have permission to operate only within a specific geographic area.
"We want you to be able to get us live over the Internet," said Jim Goodman, President & CEO of Capital Broadcasting Company, parent of WRAL-TV. "There is going to be more viewing of television on computers, and we want to do it live."
"The broadcast industry has been searching for ways to serve local audiences via the Internet without jeopardizing protected content," said John Marino, Vice President of Science & Technology for NAB. "WRAL has found a way to do this and I suspect that other broadcasters will follow."
DCIA Members in attendance at NAB2007 will offer the most cost-effective and secure ways to implement this type of cross-platform conversion by using P2PTV.
"The trend toward portable media and consumers’ desire for content – when and where they want it – is driving big changes in our industry," Marino said. "The most important issue for broadcasters today is to stay educated on the changes taking place as new content distribution platforms continue to evolve."
DCIA Members look forward to offering their knowledge and new service offerings to broadcasters to help them succeed in porting their video transmissions to the Internet. The DCIA aims to facilitate securely protected and cost-effective distribution of video content by bringing together P2PTV leaders with broadcasters in mutually beneficial new relationships. Share wisely, and take care.
Broadband Penetration Surges
Excerpted from Just an Online Minute Report by Wendy Davis
Broadband penetration continues to surge, according to a new report by Magna Global. As of the end of last year, an estimated 55.6 million US households, or 74% of all Internet households, connected to the web via high-speed lines. That’s up significantly from 2005’s 43.9 million households and more than double 2003’s 26 million.
As broadband use has surged, the number of dial-up connections has shrunk. Last year, just 19.7 million, or 26% of all Internet households, went online via dial-up.
What’s more, broadband penetration is soon expected to surpass 90%, with an estimated 81 million US homes connecting via high-speed connections by 2008.
At the same time, one-in-three households lacks Internet access altogether, according to Magna estimates. Even by 2008, when the vast majority of Internet homes will be on broadband, 18% of all US homes still won’t be online at all.
Still, with broadband use continuing to increase so quickly, it’s no surprise that digital efforts are becoming more important to marketers. After all, broadband users not only tend to spend more time online, but they are also able to view more pages when connected. And, of course, broadband users can view video online, which opens the door to advertise using TV-like techniques.
Consider, The Wall Street Journal reported this week Nike is looking to move its account from Wieden+Kennedy, its agency since 1982, due to the shop’s perceived weakness in digital advertising. "Despite its top-notch ability in every other department, Wieden has been slow to adapt to the Internet – an important arena for a marketer as focused on the youth audience as Nike," the Journal writes.
Additionally, a recent survey of the Association of National Advertisers revealed that integrated marketing communications topped senior marketing execs’ list of the most important issues they currently confront. Last year, integrated marketing communications ranked as the fourth most important issue.
Is BitTorrent The Next Big IPO
Excerpted from CNN Money Report by Paul La Monica
Several Internet companies have gone public since Google did back in 2004. But none has made the kind of splash that Google has. Could P2P file-sharing service BitTorrent change this and be the next big dot-com IPO?
File-sharing service BitTorrent now has an online store that lets people buy or rent TV shows and movies from top Hollywood studios.
Content delivery company Akamai has been a Wall Street darling as of late. This, combined with an upcoming IPO from Limelight Networks, could bode well for BitTorrent.
BitTorrent develops free software that lets people download and share videos, music, or other files that have already been downloaded on other computers using BitTorrent’s program. The company says more than 135 million people have downloaded its software, and more than 30 million are active users.
The software is designed so that the more people there are downloading a certain file, the faster it is to retrieve it. That’s key for big files like movies, which can often take more than an hour to download.
So depending on the type of broadband connection a person has, the company says its software can cut the download time for a large file by anywhere between 10 percent and 50 percent.
"When downloading a movie, it should be faster than a pizza delivery. That’s a safe rule of thumb with us," said Ashwin Navin, President, COO, and Co-Founder of BitTorrent.
Last month, the company announced the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, a site that lets users download videos for a fee from studios such as News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Time Warner’s Warner Bros. and MGM, which is owned by a consortium that includes Sony and Comcast.
What’s more, MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures are also partners in the BitTorrent site. It’s worth noting that those studios are owned by Viacom, the entertainment giant that is suing Google and its subsidiary YouTube for copyright infringement.
Navin said his company always had the intention of working with big media firms.
"Getting validation from Hollywood was important," he said. "Tech companies really need to better understand how entertainment companies work. There clearly is going to need to be some hand-holding early on and the trick is going to be finding common ground."
And the fact that BitTorrent has gone legit, so to speak, is crucial, analysts said.
Navin would not disclose how much revenue BitTorrent is generating but he said that it will receive a cut of fees and advertising sales generated from the new BitTorrent Entertainment Network.
In addition, he said BitTorrent is going to unveil a corporate version of its P2P delivery network, dubbed BitTorrent DNA, sometime during the second quarter of this year. He said some companies are already testing it.
Since P2P file sharing cuts down on costs of maintaining central servers and also delivers files faster than typical downloads, Navin said he’s confident that BitTorrent will soon have a valuable new revenue stream from licensing its technology.
And it’s the BitTorrent DNA product, more so than the site that people can go to download videos, which has people excited about BitTorrent’s future. Setting up a destination where people can go to buy videos or watch them with ads is a highly competitive business.
In addition to YouTube and scores of other video sharing and download services like Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s Unbox, big media firms - including some BitTorrent partners - are also staking their claim online. Last week, News Corp. and GE-owned NBC Universal announced that they were forming a joint venture to showcase their content.
With this in mind, several analysts said that BitTorrent’s P2P network is the more lucrative business.
"As popular as content is, it’s a difficult marketplace to break into. But if you are a distribution platform, you can benefit from all the people jumping into broadband video," said Anton Denissov, an analyst focusing on broadband video with Yankee Group, an independent research firm in Boston. "Distribution deals will be springing up like mushrooms after a spring shower."
So what about BitTorrent’s chances for going public? The company has high profile venture capital backing – it completed a $20 million round in December from VC firms Accel and DCM.
Accel has invested in RealNetworks, popular social networking site Facebook and Groove Networks, a software developer acquired by Microsoft. DCM was an investor in About.com, which was bought by New York Times Company, Cisco competitor Foundry Networks, and Clearwire, the wireless service provider that recently went public.
William Wilson, an analyst with MorningNotes.com, a Boulder, CO-based independent research firm that tracks IPOs and secondary offerings, points out that another content delivery company, Limelight Networks, filed to go public earlier this month. If that deal performs well, he said a BitTorrent IPO could quickly follow.
"If BitTorrent went public, it would be a high interest deal. But it would probably be in the interest of BitTorrent to wait for the Limelight offering to set the bar," Wilson said.
But it seems safe to expect that Limelight could have a solid offering considering that one of its top competitors, Akamai Technologies, is doing extremely well. Analysts expect Akamai’s sales to increase 45 percent this year and profits are expected to jump 48 percent. The stock has increased more than 75 percent in the past 52-weeks.
And one analyst thinks that BitTorrent could be a tough competitor to both Akamai and Limelight because of the efficiency that comes from the nature of its P2P system.
"BitTorrent could be the evolutionary successor to Akamai in video content delivery so it could be a potential IPO. It has money, strong alliances, and superior technology," said Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media, an independent research firm based in Tampa, FL.
Navin was coy about the company’s intentions. But he conceded that BitTorrent was paying attention to Akamai’s Wall Street success and Limelight’s IPO and that as a venture-backed company, an IPO or sale for BitTorrent can’t be ruled out.
IIJ to Launch High-Definition P2PTV Service
Excerpted from Digital Media Asia Report by Parthajit
Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), an Internet access and network solutions provider, has announced the creation of a new high-definition content delivery platform in anticipation of the growing demand from PC and digital TV users.
In the first phase, IIJ will adopt the SkeedCast P2P delivery system and begin providing downloadable content delivery by April 2007.
With SkeedCast, IIJ hopes to construct a robust delivery architecture compared to conventional P2P systems, which use end-user terminals as delivery nodes.
IIJ plans to incorporate H.264 compatibility to create a platform with even broader applications than conventional streaming delivery services, and will actively develop its high-definition content delivery platform service.
Your Favorite Program Online with P2PTV
Excerpted from Cyber Sammy Report
No more cribbing when you are abroad in a country which does not speak your language; no more missing your favorite programs, movies, or sporting events.
P2PTV technology makes this possible. All you need is a P2PTV software application which helps in redistributing video streams on a P2PTV network.
P2PTV is not the old method of downloading movies, DVDs, or TV episodes by using BitTorrent or eDonkey or other file-sharing network, and then watching the videos after completing the download. Nor is it downloaded short video clips through shoutcast, etc.
P2PTV is freeware or free software which enables you to watch video streams, including live TV channels from pay cable or satellite TV. Potentially any or every channel in the world can be viewed.
This does not work the way normal video streaming works, where all the viewers connect to the streaming server, creating congestion on the server, thus slowing the speed of viewing considerably.
With P2PTV technology, only a few users need to connect to the main streaming server and users themselves become streaming servers that broadcast to other peers while at the same time receiving the streaming video from other peers’ streaming servers.
This greatly reduces the burden on the main video stream’s hosting server, and increases the sources where the media can be streamed from.
Thus, the download speed is higher, and so is the smoothness of media playing. Simply put, it proves the age-old saying "teamwork is the best way to work," so instead of one server, multiple PCs team up and help in the streaming process.
Each software specifies its own requirement, but a general rule of thumb for best streaming quality is to have at least the following: 1,500 Kbps download speed, Windows Media Player 9 and/or Real Player.
Available P2PTV applications include Cybersky-TV, Feidian, Octoshape, Open Media Network, Peercast, PPLive, ppStream, QQLive, TvAnts, and Tvkoo.
Winamp Remote BETA P2P Music Streaming
Excerpted from Zeropaid Report
On the road and wish you had your music? Well, Winamp just got a little bit cooler with the new Remote BETA P2P feature that allows you to stream your PC’s music files via the Internet browser of you choice.
Anybody who listens to music on his home PC will tell you that Winamp is one of the better media player programs around. From its relatively small memory footprint to its wide variety of plug-ins, visualizations, and enhancements, Winamp is a great program to have when it comes to playing music files on your home PC.
But, what if you aren’t at home and you still wish to access your home music library without having to setup any complicated FTP or remote access clients or programs? What if you’re using somebody else’s PC or laptop and all you have is a browser and Internet connection? Well, Winamp Remote BETA let’s you listen to all of your music anywhere, anytime without having to worry about any of this. Just leave the plug-in running when you leave home and then simply login using a browser and connection from wherever you like.
It’s perfect for when you’re on vacation or wanting to grab some decent tunes at a friend’s house whose collection is filled with one too many country-western or death-metal albums.
Napster for AT&T Wireless Customers
Excerpted from Associated Content Report by Elliot Feldman
This is no April Fools Day joke. New or existing AT&T wireless and high-speed Internet customers will be able to get unlimited free access for one-year to the over three-million songs in Napster to Go’s music library.
Napster to Go is Napster’s portable music service. Subscribers in turn will then be able to download and organize these songs, and create playlists to compatible wireless phones; and synch these songs to compatible portable MP3 players.
This one-year offer will save Napster to Go subscribers $180. It officially began on April 1, 2007.
As for AT&T, this 2007 partnership with Napster to Go is AT&T’s first gambit in its long-term goal of moving content seamlessly over three platforms: Internet, telephone, and portable MP3 devices.
Compatible MP3 players include the Napster MP3 player, Samsung YP-Z5, Creative Zen Vision: M, Toshiba Gigabet, and iRiver.
While this offer only applies to customers within AT&T’s 22-state broadband network, people living outside this territory will be able to get the same Napster to Go offer with a two-year contract using a Samsung SYNC cell phone or a Samsung Blackjack cell phone.
A qualifying order must be placed by July 21, 2007 through an AT&T sales channel. An active subscription is required to continue playing the downloaded Napster to Go tracks once the 12-month free period expires.
On the announcement of this one-year free offer, Napster shares climbed more than 10 percent on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
In 2004, Napster introduced a similar music offer except the unlimited access to the music library cost $14.95 a month.
In other news, AT&T also announced on Monday, March 26, 2007 that it would be offering coverage of the Masters golf tournament through its television, Internet, and mobile phone services.
Digital River E-Commerce for Skype
Digital River, a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, announced that it signed an e-commerce agreement with Skype, the global Internet communications company. For Skype’s US e-commerce store, located at www.skype.com/shop, Digital River has created a fresh new site design and added new features such as search-by-product and browse-by-category. In addition, Digital River is utilizing its new intelligent sourcing engine to support the physical delivery of Skype products, such as Internet phones, webcams, and headsets, from warehouses located across the US.
"As more and more consumers shop via the Internet, online merchants are searching for new ways to enhance their e-commerce sites and improve the buying experience," said Don Peterson, Digital River’s Senior Vice President of Global Client Development. "With its enhanced functionality and new shopping options, the new Skype Shop is delivering added conveniences and efficiencies for both Skype and its customers by handling orders in the most timely and cost-effective manner possible."
Based on the new agreement, Digital River is providing online order management and physical product fulfillment. Skype’s e-commerce site uses Digital River’s new physical fulfillment solution, which includes an intelligent sourcing engine that automatically determines the optimal warehouse source for physical product delivery based on factors such as real-time inventory status, cost of goods and shipping costs. In addition, Digital River is providing Skype with 24x7 customer service and fraud prevention as well as driving online product promotions for the newly enhanced site.
"Our goal in relaunching the Skype Shop is to make our online store the best and most convenient place for Skype users in the US to purchase Skype certified devices and accessories so they can enhance their experience using Skype," said Dave Beckwith, Director, Skype Global Stores. "Digital River presented us with a solution that is helping our customers find products more easily and enabling our business to drive increased sales."
Skype Founder Sees Opportunity in Joost
Excerpted from LA Times Report by James Granelli
They are legendary programmers whose software changed the way people make phone calls and swap music.
Skype made them rich. Kazaa for years kept them out of the US to avoid being served a lawsuit by the recording industry — then cost them millions to settle last summer.
Now the two Scandinavian entrepreneurs, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, are working on the future of television through their new online video service, Joost. They’re also rolling out features for Skype, the Internet phone service they created, that include its first major collaboration with parent company eBay.
In his second US appearance since the Kazaa suit was settled, Zennström talked with The Times at the Voice on the Net Conference last week.
Q: Skype recently petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for a ruling that would force cell-phone carriers to open their networks to Skype calls. What’s that about?
A: The Internet is the great equalizer and facilitator for communications, transactions, learning, everything. We think it’s important to try to do the same thing with the mobile Internet that you can do on your personal computer.
What we’ve seen so far is that the mobile Internet is very much a walled garden. And that’s removing the freedom of choice for consumers and also stifles innovation.
Q: Is it ironic that a maverick company known for disrupting the telephone industry is asking the government for help?
A: I wouldn’t think we’re a maverick. When we started Skype back in 2002, we had a vision that we could change the way people communicate and we thought we could build a great business around it. We have always had a good dialogue with regulators, trying to educate them on what we’re doing. This is just normal business for us.
Q: Your latest venture is called Joost. What are you trying to do with it?
A: The objective is to take the best from TV and the best from the Internet and mix them together. We’re liberating people from time schedules. There is a level of activity on the Internet that we want to bring to Joost. We have static channels and we have smart channels that are more adaptive to what you want to see.
Q: For instance?
A: The system can learn what things you like, what you don’t like. You can get more recommendations on what to watch. You can have much more collaboration with friends who are watching the same program in their homes. For example, if you want to watch basketball games with your friends, you can do it at the same time and you can chat, maybe even have a Skype conference call around it. You can comment; you can vote; you can annotate.
Q: When you say you put the best of television and the best of the Internet together, are you talking about specific shows, such as "Desperate Housewives"?
A: What I meant is the best in terms of the distribution of the product itself. Now about content: The objective of Joost is to get a lot of great quality content. It’s just a matter of getting agreements with content owners.
Q: Unlike Skype, Joost doesn’t appear to be very disruptive. What is new and different about it?
A: A lot of companies were doing voice over the Internet before Skype was. But what we did was to try to do something that was very easy to use and would appeal to a broad amount of users, and then we could create a very good business model on top of that.
I think we have the same approach with Joost. We see a great opportunity. We think the timing is right with so much proliferation of broadband. We have content owners who want to propagate their content on the Net. We have electronic devices which are much more intimately connected with the Internet, and there’s a huge opportunity for the advertising market.
So that’s what we’re going after. It doesn’t mean we’re the first ones who are doing Internet television.
Q: Are you repositioning Skype to promote eBay and its PayPal unit?
A: There’s a certain natural evolution to Skype. What’s been so fascinating is that every six months — now it’s almost like every three months — there’s always a new challenge, always new opportunities emerging. We are continuing to focus on the growth of the user base. Where we make the revenue today is really with SkypeOut and SkypeIn.
Then there are the synergies we are exploring, such as Send Money. I don’t think it’s a forced synergy. The approach we have with eBay is that we should do synergies when they make sense. If something’s not broken, you shouldn’t fix it. That could slow down your growth.
Q: Are some people dropping Skype for what may be the promoting of eBay and PayPal?
A: This is a very important question because it’s what we don’t want to do. What we could do is say, ‘OK, the only payment option is PayPal.’ That would be a bad business decision on my part because then people would leave because they would not want for some reason to sign up with PayPal.
That’s why we give people the option. If you go to the payment side, we put PayPal as the first payment option. But there’s nothing like, if you choose something else, you get something saying, ‘Are you really sure you don’t want to do PayPal?’ We need to be very respectful for our users because without our user community, we would not be where we are today.
Q: Will the price of voice calls in the coming years go to zero?
A: Eventually we will not pay for calling. Voice is something that gradually you cannot charge for. You pay for your Internet access but when voice is an Internet application like Skype, you can make unlimited calling for free all around the world, just like you send an e-mail for free. Companies like Skype need to make money on advertising or on value-added services. But the marginal cost of producing a phone call over the Internet is zero.
But when you’re talking about making a call to Africa, for example, that’s a different story. The whole world is not on the same level.
Security Products for IPv6 Called MIA
Excerpted from Smartbriefs Report by Ellen Messmer
The US government wants civilian and defense agencies to adapt their networks by mid-2008 to support IPv6-based traffic, but the lack of security products to support this transition is causing problems.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Gaithersburg, MD-based agency that sets information technology standards, is circulating a draft report that sounds the alarm over the absence of IPv6-based commercial security products in the market, including firewalls, intrusion-detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), and other kinds of security gear.
The NIST Special Publication 500-267, "A Profile for IPv6 in the US Government – Version 1.0" indicates NIST wants to take the lead in setting security requirements for IPv6 and require conformance testing for IPv6-based infrastructure, such as routers and security network devices.
"Additional efforts are required to ‘raise the bar’ in these areas to ensure the safety of IPv6 deployments and in operational Federal IT systems," NIST states.
The IPv6 protocol is over a decade old, and while applauded for benefits such as easier administration, tighter security, and an enhanced addressing scheme over IPv4, experts say what’s lacking is the constellation of security gear that protects IPv4 networks.
There’s no way to know exactly how much IPv6-based networking there is in the world, but it’s fair to say it’s still new, says Jim Bound, Chair of the North American IPv6 Task Force, a volunteer organization that promotes IPv6. The US government is making the most visible effort on IPv6 to date, but "hasn’t spent a lot of money yet," says Bound, who supports the idea of NIST evaluating IPv6 security and infrastructure gear if it can be done efficiently.
"Very few IDS/IPS vendors are supporting IPv6 natively," says John Pearce, Associate in the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. The way products inspect traffic is superficial at best because they don’t look at actual payloads and fail to determine whether traffic has been encapsulated multiple times. Encapsulation involves tunneling IPv6 traffic inside IPv4, or vice versa, in order to transfer data across mixed IPv4 and IPv6 networks coexisting together. Most industry observers anticipate so-called 4-to-6 and 6-to-4 networks will become a way of life for many years.
While Cisco has supported IPv6 in its routers for several years, the industry giant says it still has work to do to adapt its IDS/IPS, firewall and its Unified Communications, including VoIP, for IPv6.
"We have a basic architecture for the transition, and we are running that by our customers," says Jonathan Gohstand, director of product marketing at Cisco. "We are trying to figure out what customers want to implement."
Congress Flunks P2P Test
Excerpted from Internet News Report by Roy Mark
Congress still has knotted knickers over unauthorized P2P file sharing, once again showing how utterly out of touch lawmakers can be in a rapidly changing digital world.
So when Hollywood began bleating about the high rate of online infringement at colleges and universities, Congress decided to do something about it.
Our lawmakers seem utterly baffled that the widespread unlicensed distribution of copyrighted music didn’t immediately cease following the 2005 Supreme Court Grokster decision ruling P2P services that induce users to infringe are unlawful business models.
Of course, these are the same people who are still scratching their heads over why the CAN-SPAM Act has failed to staunch the tide of unsolicited e-mail. They are the same lawmakers whose attempts to curb pornography on the Internet are routinely rejected by the courts as violating the most basic of free-speech rights. And they are the same people whose campaign coffers are regularly filled by the entertainment industry.
As is the case when Congress tries to do something about a problem it can’t control, troubled logic becomes epidemic. It started this time with the bashing of college officials as being soft on intellectual property theft.
What got Congress riled up this time is a study by the University of Richmond’s Intellectual Property Institute claiming more than half of all college students download unlicensed music and movies. Another report from the research firm NPD said college students get more of their music from unauthorized P2P services than the rest of the population.
Therefore, Congress reasoned as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) whispered in its ear, colleges and universities are running a virtual bazaar in unlicensed music and movies.
"Unfortunately, many schools have turned a blind eye to piracy," Congressman "Hollywood Howard" Berman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, admonished administrators at a recent hearing. "Current law isn’t giving universities enough incentive to comply."
John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, complained campus infringement is still "rampant and widespread" and "too many schools do little or nothing about it. That’s an unacceptable response."
Berman and Conyers, in their new turns as committee chairmen, seem as in the dark as their Republican predecessors. And not because campus infringement isn’t a problem – it is. But because colleges and universities are not to blame.
When the graduating classes of 2007 began college, schools were already incorporating copyright-infringement issues as part of basic orientations. Student codes of conduct had already been written to expel infringers. Systems administrators were already shaping bandwidth by type of traffic to limit possible unauthorized P2P activity.
The schools are hardly paying mere lip service to campus infringement, willingly facilitating the RIAA’s thousands of lawsuits filed against students over the last few years.
What Congress can’t seem to grasp is this one simple truth: colleges and universities can’t do much about the infringement because large chunks of the unauthorized activity take place off campus. At most colleges and universities, the majority of students connect to the Internet using non-school computers and Internet service providers.
Lawmakers, though, must think every college student is using school systems to swap music files. After all, that’s what the RIAA told them at the last campaign fundraiser.
But not to fear, at least one lawmaker has a solution. Ric Keller, a Florida Republican, proposed this week to allow colleges and universities to apply for expensive filtering funding from the government. The systems can cost more than $1 million up front and require licensing fees of $250,000 or more annually.
There’s no real proof any of these systems work with any great efficiency. So as Rep. Keller would have it, millions of taxpayer dollars would be spent on filtering technology that may or may not work to use on systems that most students don’t use in the first place to swap tunes.
That knots my knickers.
Coming Events of Interest
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National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) – April 16th–19th in Las Vegas, NV. Whether you’re making the transition to HD; looking to invest in new technologies like P2PTV; seeking new tools to create content and build revenue streams; or just trying to stay ahead of the competition, NAB2007 is your essential destination. The DCIA is participating in the ITA Content Incubator.
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MUSEXPO – An unprecedented group of global entertainment executives will congregate in West Hollywood, CA April 29th - May 2nd for A&R WORLDWIDE’s international music and media forum. Designated "a united nations of the music industry," top tier music, media and technology global executives unite to participate in a series of timely industry forums kicked-off by a round-table keynote event moderated by Emmy Award-winning CNN host Larry King.
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Streaming Media East - The Business & Technology of Online Video - May 15th-16th at the Hilton New York, NY. Streaming Media East is the only trade show dedicated to coverage of both the business of video on the net and the technology of streaming, downloading, IPTV and mobile video delivery. The DCIA is a show sponsor, and DCIA Member BUYDRM’s Christopher Levy will speak on the P2P for Large Scale Video Delivery panel.
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P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA – June 11th in Santa Monica, CA. This is the DCIA’s must-attend event for everyone interested in P2P. Keynotes, panels, and workshops on the latest breakthroughs. Held in conjunction with the new Digital Hollywood Spring conference and exposition.
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International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) – September 6th-11th in Amsterdam, Holland. IBC is committed to providing the world’s best event for everyone involved in the creation, management, and delivery of content for the entertainment industry, including DCIA Members. Run by the industry for the industry, convention organizers are drawn from participating companies.
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PT/EXPO COMM – October 23rd-27th at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing, China. The largest telecommunications/IT industry event in the world’s fastest growing telecom sector. PT/EXPO COMM offers DCIA participants from all over the world a high profile promotional platform in a sales environment that is rich in capital investment.
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