October 15, 2007
Volume 19, Issue 7
BitTorrent Signs Brightcove for DNA Service
Excerpted from Broadcast Newsroom Report
BitTorrent, with peer-to-peer (P2P) network technology that has been used by millions of consumers to download television programming and other rich-media content, formally released a new commercial service, BitTorrent Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA), which it is marketing to content publishers including media companies, software firms, and videogame publishers.
Internet-TV specialist Brightcove, which delivers content for CBS News, Discovery Communications, and MTV Networks, will be the first BitTorrent DNA customer.
BitTorrent DNA is taking the San Francisco-based company's proven P2P technology – licensed by Warner Bros. and other major studios – and extending it to create a secure, managed peer network that will charge commercial customers for delivery on a per-gigabyte-delivered basis.
BitTorrent DNA is designed to improve the speed of downloading large media files by working with the existing web infrastructure and leveraging traditional content delivery networks (CDNs), origin servers, or data center solutions.
The result, BitTorrent Co-Founder & President Ashwin Navin said, is a better consumer experience at a lower delivery cost for content companies. "Brightcove will be pushing video quality up beyond anything in the past," Navin said. "It will be very fast downloads, with no buffering and no choppy video playback."
More important, he added, the technical approach behind DNA – which uses a distributed network of computers that store and deliver slices of a file that are then made whole by the software client – will lower delivery costs enough to make providing high-quality Internet video a viable business for content companies.
"The cost to deliver video, in many cases, is substantially greater than the revenue associated with it," Navin said, adding that the revenue opportunity for an hour-long stream of Internet video with five commercial inserts, even with the type of very high cost per thousand (CPM) homes enjoyed by the broadcast networks, is only around 20 cents.
"The bandwidth costs alone are in excess of the revenue opportunity, so the current architecture of the Internet clearly needs to change," Navin said. "This makes a very fundamental improvement on the infrastructure."
In addition to content companies, BitTorrent will also offer DNA to telcos and cable and satellite operators through its software-licensing arm. The company sees a large opportunity in placing its software client on "hybrid" digital set-tops that can use a broadband input to pull on-demand video through the Internet to supplement traditional video-delivery channels. Late-model TiVo boxes, for example, can already receive Internet video from Brightcove through a broadband connection, and some EchoStar Communications set-tops do likewise through AT&T's Homezone service.
BitTorrent's offering would be to use the hard-disk storage of digital video recorder (DVR) enabled broadband-connected set-tops to create a P2P network among a local or regional universe of cable or satellite subscribers. That would allow a viewer who forgot to record last night's episode of his or her favorite show, for example, to quickly receive a download of the program from multiple subscribers who did record it.
"A technology like DNA can restore broadcast economics to an on-demand video experience," BitTorrent Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Eric Klinker said. "It's that much more efficient than stacking up a bunch of servers in the headend and having to serve the entire community individual downloads."
Pando Lands ESPN Video Deal
Excerpted from Silicon Valley Insider Report by Dan Frommer
SoHo-based P2P content delivery network (CDN) Pando Networks is now distributing video for ESPN via its new ESPN Video to Go channel. As of today, browsers can look at several recent highlights and videos are playable on Windows PCs using BUYDRM's KeyOS Pay Media Platform.
Pando chief Robert Levitan says the companies are now working to expand the selection of videos offered on the service, as well as introducing new features such as sport-specific subscriptions.
BDE Licenses Patents to StreamCast
Brilliant Digital Entertainment and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Altnet and Kinetech, have settled their patent infringement dispute with StreamCast Networks, developer and distributor of Morpheus. Under terms of the settlement, StreamCast has taken a license to Kinetech's TrueName patents.
BDE is licensing the TrueName patents and technologies in a variety of fields and for various applications including P2P, application and service providers, ISPs, web caching and content management, and operators of large data bases for storage. In addition to StreamCast, the TrueName patents have been licensed to Digital Island, Cable & Wireless Internet Services, SAVVIS Communications, Level 3 Communications for content delivery networks (CDNs), Iron Mountain for data storage and backup systems, and Sharman Networks for P2P. Previous patent infringement cases against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), MediaSentry, and Overpeer were settled.
Altnet technology operates with affiliate websites and P2P applications to allow Internet users to simply and easily locate, download, sample, and purchase digital content. Altnet offers online anti-piracy solutions through its Global File Registry (GFR) product, a patented, industry endorsed, anti-piracy solution for the identification and removal of infringing content and replacement with licensed content on P2P networks, search engines and other websites.
Kinetech is an owner of the TrueName patent portfolio (US Patents Nos. 5,978,791, 6,415,280, and 6,928,442) representing the primary inventions that are the cornerstones of open P2P indexing and file-transfer protocols on the Internet. Among many stated uses, TrueName technology covers the use of file hashes in the identification and accessing of content used by P2P and fingerprinting applications, ISP web caching devices, and numerous others.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The DCIA proudly announces our second wave of speakers for the upcoming P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA. This first-of-its-kind marketing conference is scheduled for Monday October 29th at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, CA, and is being held in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Fall.
We are especially pleased to report that confirmed speakers now include Beat9.com's Jay Rifkin, Best New Agency's Michael Boh, Beyond Media's Tim Hogan & John Kupice, Brand Asset Group's Chris Lighty, Comedy Time's David Goldman, FTI Consulting's Roger Scadron, INTENT MediaWorks' Joey Patuleia, Interpublic Group's Scott Winsman, Javien Digital Payment Solutions' Bill Sheehan, Nettwerk Music Group's Brent Muhle, TAG Strategic's Ted Cohen, Veoh's Jennifer Betka, Walt Disney Internet Group's (WDIG) Rick Mandler, Wingman Media's David Shor.
These speakers join previously announced BitTorrent's Eric Patterson, Brilliant Technologies' Allan Klepfisz, BUYDRM's Christopher Levy, Catalyst's Cory Treffiletti, DeviantART's Steve Gonzalez, FTI Consulting's Bruce Benson, Fun Little Movies' David Lee, IFPI's Jay Berman, LimeWire's George Searle, LTDnetwork's Rick Riccobono, MediaPass Network's Daniel Harris, OKCupid's Sam Yagan, PeerApp's Mark Strangio, QTRAX's Christopher Roe, Rebel Digital's Lance Ford & Robin Kent, SafeNet's John Desmond, StreamCast Networks' Michael Weiss, Ultramercial's Dana Jones, Universal McCann's Elias Plishner, VeriSign's Stuart Cleary, and YuMe Networks' Jayant Kadambi.
The P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA Market Conference will highlight QTRAX, Catalyst, the LimeWire Music Store, and YuMe Networks, among other breakthrough advertising-based P2P efforts.
QTRAX is the world's first fully licensed, free, ad-supported, P2P music service. Showcasing an innovative downloading business model that easily directs revenue back to artists and rights holders, QTRAX is the first P2P to be embraced en masse by the music industry. QTRAX has signed licensing deals with the major labels, music publishers, and leading indies, including EMI Music, Warner Music Group, Sony/ATV Publishing, Universal Publishing, TVT, The Orchard, and V2. Hosted on the Gnutella network, the soon-to-commercially launch QTRAX will provide fans with access to a colorful and diverse catalog with tens of millions of high-quality, high-fidelity digital music files. Based in New York City, QTRAX is a subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies Corporation, a publicly traded global technology holding company.
Catalyst is a newly-launched marketing capital firm that helps companies of all sizes to develop and implement emerging digital media strategies resulting in the most effective, efficient, and direct means of conveying marketing messages to target audiences. The company already boasts leading P2P firm Azureus among its charter clients. Catalyst was co-founded by Cory Treffiletti, a well known and highly regarded online advertising industry player who previously served in senior executive roles at Carat Fusion, Freestyle Interactive, and IUMA.
LimeWire's open P2P application currently reaches a monthly cumulative audience of 60 million unique visitors – in turn generating 5 billion searches per month. The monetization of this traffic through innovative advertising-supported and paid download strategies will be the mission of the new LimeWire Music Store. Initially the store will be a stand-alone website accessible from links in the file-sharing software. Subsequent releases will enable users to browse and purchase music in the universally compatible MP3 format directly from within LimeWire. P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA attendees will get a first glimpse of this exciting new offering, which will feature many firsts for P2P advertising that will be executed in close collaboration with participating content owners and rights holders.
YuMe is the first dedicated broadband video advertising network built exclusively for the web video world, including the spate of new peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) offerings. YuMe provides advertisers and publishers with the unprecedented ability to identify, classify, and track content to ensure brand safety, contextual relevance, controlled syndication, and consistent delivery across all digital media platforms – web, downloads, mobile, and P2PTV. YuMe is already delivering new online video ad solutions for web publishing partners and advertisers across the Internet, including top P2P firms BitTorrent, Pando, and Vuze. Today, the company serves advertising in more than 100 million video segments every month and offers a suite of ad formats that go beyond traditional pre, mid, and post-roll ad placements.
The P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA is being held in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Fall (DHF), and registration for both events yields a substantial savings for attendees. For more information, please visit www.dcia.info/activities/p2p_advertising_upfront. Pre-registration rates, which save attendees up to $339, end October 19th. To register please visit www.dcia.info/activities/p2p_advertising_upfront/register.html.
P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA sponsors include FTI Consulting and Javien Digital Payment Solutions. 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.
FTI Consulting Surges on Outperform Rating
Excerpted from Market Intelligence Center Report
FTI Consulting stock has been steadily rising for the past year. Shares were surging in Friday's session after a Robert W. Baird analyst initiated coverage on the stock with an "Outperform" rating.
Technical indicators for the stock are bullish. If you're looking for a hedged play on this stock, consider a December bull-put credit spread below the $45 range. FTI Consulting stock could fall up to 18.1% before expiration and this position would still be profitable.
Javien to Earn MAE Patent
Javien Digital Payment Solutions has received a notice of allowance from the US Patent Office for its micro-payment aggregation technology.
The patent describes the micro-payment aggregation engine (MAE) that drives Javien Micropay. At its most basic level, it enables merchants to cost-effectively process charges for offerings with very low price points, such as $.99 MP3 downloads and $3.00 beverages.
In these cases, without a means for micro-payment aggregation, the cost for the merchant to process individual payments from credit cards and other cash alternatives often exceeds the total transaction. By combining multiple purchases per consumer in a single charge, Javien's merchants reduce their processing fees.
"This patent affirms the technology leadership the market has long recognized, whether measured by the number of awards our platform wins or by the number of blue-chip companies that count on the technology within their total commerce solution," said Leslie Poole, Javien CEO.
"Additionally, merchants looking for a micro-payment aggregation solution prefer an offering created by the innovators of the market and as such gain a proven and trusted technology."
"It's essential that every digital entertainment distributor take advantage of this technology," Poole continued. "A precedent has been established that proves consumers are willing to pay small increments for online and mobile content. Now merchants need to minimize transaction costs to maximize revenue."
Javien Micropay has continued to evolve since the original patent filing in 2000, with the current engine including adaptive technology that lets merchants establish business rules for payment processing that change based upon user history. The technology can employ various rules depending upon an individual buyer's behavior or the collective behavior of a category of individuals over time. Using this behavioral information, each merchant can establish the most appropriate thresholds for charges, or even create time-based rules for stored value offerings.
ISPs Should Tap P2PTV Popularity
Internet service providers (ISPs) should use the burgeoning popularity of the BBC iPlayer and similar peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) services as a valuable learning experience for IPTV, according to telecom test and measurement company Spirent Communications.
ISPs have recently started calling for content providers to cushion the cost of delivering bandwidth-intensive multimedia content to users; however, Ralph Daniels, Director of Systems Engineering at Spirent Communications, believes that ISPs are paying to upgrade their networks anyway and should use the delivery of P2PTV as a "crucial learning experience."
"ISPs are investing in their networks to deliver faster, more data-intensive broadband services with the intention of providing high quality IPTV to subscribers' living rooms," said Daniels. "Most ISPs should already be, or be in a position shortly, to handle the additional bandwidth demand generated by P2PTV without additional investment.
"IPTV will be a different story and represent an entirely different challenge for ISPs since they will need to deliver a constant, high-speed, bandwidth-heavy and uninterrupted data stream to customers. They will not be able to slow down traffic like they can now because it will directly affect the quality of the TV service and make it unacceptable to users, nor can they cap data for the same reason. As such ISPs will have to keep up with the vital demand for bandwidth which will rocket with IPTV."
Babelgum Launches Direct Upload Facility
Babelgum has launched a new direct upload facility for independent producers, rights owners, and program partners to manage their assets on the online P2PTV platform.
In addition, on October 29th, the facility's features will advance to provide for the simultaneous upload of entire content libraries, saving time and placing control in the hands of all pre-qualified professional content owners and distributors.
The service, believed to be the first of its kind on the web, is provided free of any charges and offers content owners the opportunity to dynamically manage the way their body of work is distributed online. Rights holders maintain complete control of their assets by placing material on Babelgum to suit their individual distribution requirements in contrast to the restrictive environment experienced in traditional broadcasting.
Content owners can operate autonomously and showcase their work when they choose without the constraints of working within traditional broadcast schedules. Using Babelgum's free upload facility, existing video assets can be immediately monetized either via a minimum revenue guarantee or through a share of advertising revenue after Babelgum's commercial launch in 2008. Full terms and conditions will be available on the Babelgum website.
Erik Schuit, Head of Distribution at leading production and distribution company Off the Fence, looks forward to the independence and freedom this facility offers. "Off the Fence sees massive potential in the Babelgum offering in terms of consumer reach. We have been a content partner for some time; however, facilities that give direct access to the platform and the ability to manage the timing of distribution of our content ourselves puts us back in control. This of course benefits consumers as they are given access to regularly changing content.
"Assia Grazioli-Venier, Head of Ministry of Sound TV added, "I have been hungry for a way to have control over how and when our content is distributed and targeted. This is an extremely useful facility which keeps our content fresh for consumers which can only benefit Ministry of Sound and Babelgum."
"Regarding the announcement, Valerio Zingarelli, CEO of Babelgum, said, "This direct upload facility is designed with the needs of the many independent small-to-medium sized professional producers in mind. It provides them with a global platform to showcase their work which may not be suited for traditional TV broadcast schedules due to length, format or genre. This presents an enormous opportunity to reach a previously untapped market of potential worldwide audience for content that might otherwise remain unseen."
Azureus & Babelgum Open to Indies
Excerpted from NewTeeVee Report by Liz Gannes
P2PTV platform providers are dividing into two camps: those whose content libraries are closed, like Joost and Zattoo, and those whose libraries are open. This week, Babelgum and Azureus are taking steps to make their respective platforms more open by allowing independent content producers to upload directly to their sites and monetize their content.
Azureus' Vuze platform is the more progressive of the two new offerings, as its self-service platform — which debuted at MIPCOM this week — will enable content producers to upload and get paid for their content via advertising or paid downloads. Producers will only have to consult with Azureus if they wish to add digital rights management (DRM) or geographic targeting to their videos.
Azureus also announced that Vuze — which launched in January — has been downloaded an impressive 10 million times, evidence that the company is starting to be successful in transitioning users of its popular BitTorrent client to its new commercial platform.
Babelgum guarantees $5 per 1,000 views until it fully launches advertising on its platform at the beginning of next year, at which point it will split ad revenues 50-50 with content producers. Currently producers have to upload each video individually, but at the end of this month Babelgum is launching a batch upload program.
Another provider whose platform is quite open is Veoh TV; it even enables viewers to watch content from outside video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Metacafe.
Joost CEO Mike Volpi told us recently that his platform will remain closed for the foreseeable future. Joost has been the most successful independent platform at securing top-tier content, due in part to its promise to keep unauthorized videos off its platform. Volpi said Joost will increase opportunities for content producers to upload their content (à la Babelgum), but that users can go elsewhere to watch non-approved content.
Joost Looks to Get into Live TV
Excerpted from Ars Technica Report by Jacqui Cheng
Joost is preparing to dive into the world of live TV starting in 2008, a move that would give the P2PTV service more leverage against its competitors in the world of online video.
Currently, Joost users can watch a variety of TV programs, streamed on-demand and for free. But those programs aren't live TV, so anyone who wants to watch something live still needs a TV or TV tuner to do so.
Joost's Content Strategy & Acquisition EVP, Yvette Alberdingkthijm, revealed that Joost would begin testing the service with select content owners during the first quarter of next year, indicating that she might sign European sports broadcasters to deals similar to the one signed with Major League Baseball (MLB) in the US last month.
She noted Joost's recently-inked deal with UK broadcaster Independent Television Network (ITN), which includes Premiership soccer highlights. "Obviously we're talking to everybody who has sports rights."
If Joost is able to begin offering live TV alongside its on-demand options, the service's appeal would increase dramatically. Signing on more partners to offer content at the same time or immediately after TV broadcast—particularly sports broadcasts—would be just the thing to attract a wider user base, not to mention ad dollars.
Live TV has likely been in the cards for Joost since its inception, as advertisers would much rather be seen during live broadcasts than during day, week, or month-old shows. And the plan could go even further than ad dollars—a marriage of live TV and the Internet could mark a huge shift away from traditional broadcasters in the same way that Google's new video units could turn web sites into mini-broadcasters.
People could start to shed their home cable and satellite connections like they already do with home landlines for phone service.
Raketu Introduces LaunchPad Version 2.0
Raketu Communications, the global Internet communications, information, and entertainment company, has introduced LaunchPad Version 2.0, the upgrade to its LaunchPad desktop application.
The LaunchPad interface is the first to integrate voice-over IP (VoIP) calling, P2PTV streamed television content, video-on-demand (VOD), and IM/SMS service in a single, easy-to-navigate desktop application. New features include enhanced social networking capabilities, and a detached TV-like remote control, which offers one-click P2PTV streamed channel changing and easy access to Raketu services like VoIP calling.
"Our new interface offers Raketu users a more flexible, easy-to-use application from which they can access not only the cost-effective communications services they rely on and use every day, but new entertainment services like live concerts, on-demand movies, and even karaoke," said Greg Parker, President of Raketu.
Raketu runs over any Internet connection. Anyone with an Internet connection and a PC can start using Raketu immediately. Through Raketu's new LaunchPad Version 2.0 interface, users have access to Raketu communications and entertainment services including streamed IPTV and VOD content from around the world from a single integrated application.
Jaman Rolls Out New Features
Excerpted from Wired News Report by Bryan Gardiner
Jaman, a new company offering high-definition (HD) international and independent movies for rental and download via a P2P client, is infusing social Web 2.0 magic into the process of finding and watching films.
Among other upgrades, Jaman now offers several improved search features with Movie Finder, a tool that lets visitors find movies in the library based on genre, personal tastes, and community feedback. "Entertainment has become more like food," Jaman CEO Gaurav Dhillon said. "People want personal feedback and recommendations from friends, not some algorithm or simplistic user rating system telling them what movies they'll like."
Dhillon maintains that the core idea behind "folksonomy" is essentially true. "Everybody does know more than anybody," he said. That especially holds true for a collection of independent and international films that haven't had the benefit of buzz or studio backing.
In addition to the Movie Finder, Jaman is also implementing a new Tagsoup function that lets visitors find groups of movies using keywords including terms like Bollywood, suspense, biography, and more.
And to encourage the Jaman community of members to provide feedback, Jaman is introducing Jamanaut Reputation, a kind of personal scorecard that highlights the more active members on the site and their personal tastes.
Earlier this month, Jaman also started offering a new service that allows AppleTV owners to find content on the Jaman client and sync it to their Apple boxes. The internal skunkworks project, as Dhillon describes it, won't stop with AppleTV. Dhillon said the plan is to introduce similar functionality in other devices in the very near future.
PEERmadness Releases Beta
PEERmadness has launched the beta version of the company's flagship P2P social networking application. PEERmadness beta provides a mechanism to block online advertisements and bypass security firewalls and restrictive filters. The final release will also include instant messaging (IM) and file sharing.
PEERmadness is a proprietary P2P architecture for joining a large number of unassociated computers into a grid to accomplish tasks that would otherwise be impossible or require massive infrastructure. In addition to offering enhanced services to individuals, the P2P nature of the program lends itself to cultivating and harboring logical social networks.
"The goal of PEERmadness is to create a huge grid of computers to perform tasks that can benefit from either the massively parallel or massively distributed nature of the grid," said Malcolm Toon, owner of the one-year old company. "The philosophy of PEERmadness is to join the users in a natural ‘community,' separated only by distance."
The PEERmadness program runs without installation on any Windows machine. Any browser can be coupled to the application. The program connects the computer to the PEERmadness grid, making it a node that can use and be used by any grid service. Grid services include: Firewall Avoidance, Instant Messaging, File Sharing and Ad Blocking.
Founding member Jason Manders is very excited about this release. "Finally anyone can browse the web at work and not feel like Big Brother is watching."
Wua.la Provides P2P Storage & Sharing
Excerpted from GigaOM Report by Om Malik
Dominik Grolimund has started Wua.la, a Zurich-based company, that is using principles of P2P networking and applying them to storage. Wua.la is offering a free online storage and sharing service that combines the best of Pando and Grouper. It is elegant, clever, and easy to use, and its sharing features alone are worthy of giving it a whirl.
Here is how it works. You download the Wua.la client (Windows, Mac, or Linux), and install it. Once you open the client after installation, you are logged into the Wua.la network. You get one gigabyte of storage capacity on its servers to get you going.
You can drag-and-drop files - images, videos, music, documents - onto the client. You can tag your files just like you would on Flickr or YouTube. You can search through files like you would normally search on a web-based service. You can even comment on the photos or videos.
All the metadata is stored locally on your drive. The storage space is divided into folders that are color-coded to indicate the level of privacy. You can share the folders with one person or almost anyone, by making them public.
If you need more storage, you have to contribute to the entire P2P cloud. And this is where it gets interesting: you can only join the cloud if you are online for at least five hours a day, and have a solid broadband connection. The system gives you an incentive to stay online.
If you kick in 10 GB of local storage to the "cloud" and are online 70 percent of the day, then the system gives you an additional 7 GB of online storage. The incentive for providing upload bandwidth is similar - the more upload bandwidth you provide, the faster your download speed will be. They also have super nodes, a.k.a. servers, that ensure that your files are available all the time.
Wua.la will make money by embedding small relevant ads or referral links in the client.
It remains to be seen if the service can scale - it has a less than 1,000 alpha users for now. Nevertheless, it is an attractive option for those who crave privacy and don't want to share personal videos and photos over the web.
Abacast & WhiteBlox Offer P2P Streaming
Excerpted from Sys-Con Media Report
WhiteBlox and Abacast have integrated their solutions to deliver a superior experience in Internet radio broadcasting.
WhiteBlox's Make Your Audio Visual platform allows radio stations to broadcast audio and video of live and on-demand programming over the Internet. When paired with Abacast's hybrid P2P video streaming technology, which provides a superior quality picture for a reduced price, stations now have a powerful new cost-effective way to reach audiences.
The WhiteBlox radio solution allows stations to engage viewers with video of favorite shows, popular DJs, celebrity guests, behind-the-scenes action, and on-location events. Viewers can interact with one another and show hosts in real time using chat features, polls, and surveys. Additionally, stations can monetize the solution by inviting on-air advertisers to be online sponsors in the media player.
"Providing audiences with a more immersive environment that includes video and interactive community features is the future of radio," said WhiteBlox Chairman & CEO Greg Demetriades. "Combining these features with Abacast's high-quality, cost effective solutions provide stations with a powerful new profit center, and the tools to drive radio station revenues and audience ratings."
Abacast offers radio stations a suite of products for simulcasting their audio online, from delivery options including unicast, P2P, and hybrid solutions to ad injection/replacement, detailed statistics, and royalty performance reporting.
"WhiteBlox's Make Your Audio Visual platform is an exciting next step in the evolution of radio entertainment online," said Abacast President, Michael King. "We have been streaming radio online for more than 6 years now and are very excited about working with WhiteBlox to again help radio more fully take advantage of all the Internet has to offer."
BitTorrent More Popular Than Ever
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
The number of new releases published on BitTorrent nearly tripled compared to last year according to research from the German P2P analysis company Evidenzia. The data shows that 25% of all new .torrent files are movie related.
The data supplied by Evidenzia is in line with TF Research from earlier this year showing that 25% of the .torrent files on public BitTorrent trackers were movies. However, these statistics say little about the popularity of the .torrent files and/or the number of people sharing the files, or for that matter what is defined as a movie (kvcd, Xvid, DVDr).
A more in-depth analysis that accounts for the number of people that actually share the files shows that TV-shows are far more popular. Close to 50% of all the people who use BitTorrent at any given point in time do this to download a TV-show, even though the number of available torrents is small compared to music or movies.
The popularity of TV-shows is enormous, series like "Heroes" and "Prison Break" are downloaded over a million times in any given week. This popularity hasn't gone unnoticed, with some TV-studios using BitTorrent as a marketing tool, and others leaking pilots.
Evidenzia also provides an interesting analysis of the number of files that have been released on BitTorrent since early 2004 showing that it's at its peak now - and even more impressive - the number of files released on BitTorrent nearly tripled compared to last year.
Together with the increase in torrents, most BitTorrent sites have noticed an increase in visitors too. Sites like Mininova, The Pirate Bay, and Torrentz more than doubled their traffic.
Grooveshark Ups Compensation
Excerpted from TechCrunch Report by Duncan Riley
P2P music-sharing and sales service Grooveshark has raised its level of compensation for sharing music from 10 cents to 25 cents a track.
Grooveshark is an interesting service that has been reviewed earlier by CrunchGear . Users upload their music to Grooveshark, and any member can listen to those tracks for free. If they want to download a song, they can purchase it DRM-free and the user who uploaded the song gets a cut of the sale; previously this was 10 cents and now its 25 cents.
The remainder of the 99-cent sale goes to the record companies; Grooveshark has agreements with the record companies to provide the service and to cover copyright obligations.
James Davis, VP of Communications for Grooveshark, told TechCrunch that the new deal was about gaining exposure for the service. "We are so confident that we have a good product that people will enjoy using, that we are willing to give away our entire profit margin to prove it."
Grooveshark has 3.5 million songs in its catalog.
New Payment Model for Recorded Music
A new payment model described by Generator Research, which is not a rental model, is based on collecting payment from consumers when they play their songs. This new approach would mean that the cash flow of a record label would more closely resemble that of a music publishing company.
Under the new model, consumers would be able to obtain digital song files for free, but they would pay each time they listened. Those who listened a lot would pay the most while occasional listeners would pay the least. Payments would be collected by retailers who would sell music service accounts on a pay-as-you-go or subscription basis.
The size of the user's personal music collection would be unimportant and users could own as much music as they wanted. The new payment model is based on an assumption that music would be provided without DRM while consumers and third-party developers would be free to copy and share digital music without restrictions.
Central to the new pricing model is an assumption about how much consumers would be willing to pay to listen to their music for one hour. Therefore, the report begins by using three different approaches to define a viable price range for one hour of ‘listening time.'
Taking the perspective of a record label, the report then presents the results of a financial modeling exercise that identifies the differences between the new payment model and the traditional model, where consumers pay to acquire music.
Revenue, cash flow and a range of other important metrics are included in two separate financial models where all the key assumptions are clearly explained and supported using primary data sources and consumer research.
RIAA Verdict under Fire
Excerpted from Online Minute Report by Wendy Davis
The record industry's courtroom victory over Jammie Thomas is continuing to cause waves among pundits, who are weighing in on both the bad publicity generated by the case and whether the judge in the case correctly interpreted copyright law.
As for the negative publicity, it's hard to debate that RIAA engendered bad will with this $222,000 verdict against a single mother who was found to have uploaded two dozen songs to Kazaa. Whether the RIAA feels that the message this case sends outweighs the bad PR is a decision only it can make – but the record industry surely is aware that its legal campaign against file sharing hasn't yet made a dent in the practice.
The more intriguing question – and one that will ultimately be answered by the courts – is whether making something available for copying really constitutes infringement. The judge in the Thomas trial thought the answer was yes, and instructed the jury that making material available was sufficient. The actual instruction read, "The act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a P2P network, without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners' exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown."
But this theory is far from universally accepted. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argues that the instruction misstated the law – and that at least one judge has come to a contrary decision in a high-profile case. In 2005, federal district court judge Marilyn Patel dismissed one of the counts in a lawsuit against the original Napster investors on the ground that the record labels had only shown that tracks were listed in an index, not that they were downloaded.
"Copyright holders have to prove that someone actually downloaded the file from you before you can be found liable for distributing," stated the EFF in a post about that decision. Patel ruled against Napster on other counts in the case, finding that "the sum of ... evidence strongly suggests that at least some of plaintiffs' copyrighted works were uploaded and downloaded by Napster users."
Arguably, the jury in the Thomas case could have decided that there was statistical and/or circumstantial evidence showing that files that Thomas allegedly uploaded were also downloaded. But we'll never know whether the jurors believed that – because the judge told the jury it could find copyright infringement regardless of whether the files were distributed. Given that instruction, it's far from clear-cut that the record labels' victory will hold up on appeal.
Madonna Exits from Major Label
In another blow to the record industry, Madonna is poised to defect from Warner Music Group, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The star, who first rose to fame with MTV, is about to sign a 10-year, $120 million deal with Live Nation, the Journal reports. That deal will give Live Nation the rights to sell three albums, promote concerts and sell Madonna merchandise, according to press reports.
The move comes the same week that Radiohead, now also without a major label, released its latest album online – and is letting consumers pay whatever they want for the tracks. Meanwhile, Nine Inch Nails parted ways with its label; Jamiroquai is mulling departing ways from its company; and Oasis is about to issue a web-only single through its website.
The Journal's Ben Worthen argues that record labels' distribution power is no longer as necessary in the Internet era.
While that's clearly true for superstars, record labels serve other functions, including promoting and marketing new, lesser-known groups. If the labels' business model does collapse, it's not clear that up-and-coming acts will ever achieve the popularity and fame that allow Madonna and Radiohead to sell directly to consumers on a large scale.
At the same time, the record labels don't help themselves on the public relations front – or the long-term business plan front – when they press court battles against people like Jammie Thomas, ordered to pay $222,000 after a jury found she uploaded 24 tracks to Kazaa. Populist support for the single mother is only growing since the verdict; freejammie.com, a site devoted to raising money for her legal expenses, had drawn more than $10,000 in donations since going live a few days ago.
Part of the rationale for Radiohead's pay-what-you-want plan and Madonna's deal with Live Nation is that much of the profits to musicians come from touring, and not record sales. Given that file sharing isn't likely to go away any time soon, the record industry would do well to refocus its energy on finding paths to profitability that don't revolve around CD sales.
Colleges Form P2P Activist Groups
Excerpted from MediaPost Report by Ross Fadner
The RIAA better watch out: a new kind of fraternity is popping up at college campuses that advocates looser copyright law restrictions and free information exchange over the Internet. Called Students for Free Culture (SFFC), the group has chapters at more than 35 colleges across the country. "We will listen to free music, look at free art, watch free film, and read free books," reads the manifesto from its website, freeculture.org. "We refuse to accept a future of digital feudalism."
Many founding members of the various chapters have been sued before by the RIAA for downloading unauthorized music. Said one, "The technology has outpaced the law," which means that it's time for Congress to revisit copyright law and come up with something new that makes sense.
As Cory Doctorow, Co-Editor of the technology blog Boing Boing, says the RIAA suits aren't "scaring students away from file sharing, but scaring them into political consciousness." As one SFFC member points out, students aren't protesting the Iraq war because there isn't a draft, but with copyright suits, they are directly affected.
For better or for worse, it's the ultimate in grassroots consumer politics: students are organizing demonstrations in front of record stores and hosting "iPod liberation" parties where they share software that breaks Apple's digital rights management (DRM).
Chapters hold forums to discuss copyright issues and developments, deconstructing the ethics of "stealing" music. Meanwhile, there's a war going on. Please click here for the full report from the NY Times.
Coming Events of Interest
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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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P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA – Sponsored by the DCIA October 29th in Los Angeles, CA in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Fall. The industry's premiere marketplace focused on the unique global advertising, sponsorship, and cross-promotional opportunities available in the steadily growing universe of open and closed P2P, file-sharing, P2PTV, and social networks, as well as peer-assisted content delivery networks (CDNs).
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Streaming Media West – November 6th–8th in San Jose, CA. Streaming Media conferences have become the premier online video events in the world. Streaming Media West is totally focused on the business and technology of online video. The DCIA will participate featuring industry leading P2PTV providers and support services.
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P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LV – January 6th in Las Vegas, NV. This is the DCIA's must-attend event for everyone interested in monetizing content using P2P and related technologies. Keynotes, panels, and workshops on the latest breakthroughs. The Conference will take place in N260 in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Conference Luncheon in N262-264. This DCIA flagship event is a Conference within CES – the Consumer Electronics Show.
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CCNC 2008 – The Fifth Annual IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference, January 10th-12th at Harrahs, Las Vegas, NV. Now co-promoted by the DCIA. The latest research developments and technical solutions in the areas of home networking, consumer networking, enabling technologies (including middleware), and novel applications and services. See www.ieee-ccnc.org for details.
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P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT NY – Sponsored by the DCIA March 11th in New York, NY in conjunction with the Media Summit New York (MSNY). The industry's premiere marketplace focused on the unique global advertising, sponsorship, and cross-promotional opportunities available in the steadily growing universe of open and closed P2P, file-sharing, P2PTV, and social networks, as well as peer-assisted content delivery networks (CDNs).
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