October 29, 2007
Volume XIX, Issue 9
P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA on Monday
Peer-to-peer (P2P) and social networks represent the fastest growing, most cutting-edge, and quantitatively largest unexploited revenue generation opportunity in the world today.
And advertising is the most expedient, consumer-centric, and highest ROI way to monetize P2P. Don’t miss your best chance to become profitably involved in this important media trend.
The P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA Marketing Conference takes place this Monday, October 29th at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Fall.
P2P now accounts for fifty-to-ninety percent (50-90%) of all Internet traffic and, along with social-networking services, delivers over a billion content files daily. Soon P2PTV will add exponentially more high-value viewer impressions. Sponsorship and interactive advertising forecasts in this space are staggering.
Please click here to register now.
Meet Beyond & INTENT Leaders at P2PAULA
Beyond Media and INTENT MediaWorks announced this week that they have merged to form a new company, whose integrated distribution platform will reach more than 320 million consumers and deliver over 50 million downloads per month.
“Through this merger, we are combining the best technologies and resources to enable content owners and advertisers to do far more than securely deliver digital media via the Internet,” said John Kupice, Beyond Media’s chief executive, who will become CEO of the new company.
The new company, which will officially debut Monday during the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA at Digital Hollywood Fall, will specialize in helping its customers utilize real-time user data to more effectively target market segments around digital media consumption.
Violator & Brand Asset Group CEO Chris Lighty will join company executives in making their inaugural presentation to the industry at 1:45 P.M.
The newly merged entity will assist content owners and advertisers in tapping into the greatest demand among consumers, monitoring activity across multiple Internet channels simultaneously, and creating deeper engagement opportunities for building brands, driving sales, and creating ad impressions.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 To get in on the ground floor of the next big thing in new media, come to the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA Marketing Conference on Monday.
This first-of-its-kind event is scheduled for October 29th at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, CA, and is being held in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Fall.
The revenue streams from ad-supported P2P distribution of multiple genres of content are potentially tsunami sized. A new gold rush is being fueled by fresh funding from venture capital firms; and major as well as leading independent media companies are at last finding their way into proof-of-concept tests, market trials, and bona fide business relationships with P2P technology firms.
We are very pleased that our roster of speakers brings together leading P2P software distributors, advertising agencies, content providers, brand custodians, and social network operators.
Morning speakers include BitTorrent’s Eric Patterson, Brilliant Technologies’ Allan Klepfisz, BUYDRM’s Christopher Levy, Comedy Time’s David Goldman, FTI Consulting’s Bruce Benson & Roger Scadron, IFPI’s Jay Berman, Interpublic Group’s Scott Winsman, Javien Digital Payment Solutions’ Bill Sheehan, LimeWire’s George Searle, MediaDefender’s Jonathan Lee, OKCupid’s Sam Yagan, PeerApp’s Mark Strangio, QTRAX’s Christopher Roe, Rebel Digital’s Lance Ford & Robin Kent, StreamCast Networks’ Michael Weiss, and Veoh’s Jennifer Betka.
Our conference luncheon speakers are Catalyst’s Cory Treffiletti and YuMe Networks’ Jayant Kadambi.
Afternoon speakers 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, DeviantART’s Steve Gonzalez, Fun Little Movies’ David Lee, INTENT MediaWorks’ Joey Patuleia, KPMG’s Paul Baguley, MediaPass Network’s Daniel Harris, Ultramercial’s Dana Jones, Universal McCann’s Elias Plishner, VeriSign’s Jeff Richards, Nettwerk Music Group’s Brent Muhle, TAG Strategic’s Ted Cohen, and Wingman Media’s David Shor.
The P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA Market Conference will highlight Veoh, QTRAX, Catalyst, the LimeWire Music Store, and YuMe Networks, along with the newly merged Beyond Media and INTENT MediaWorks, among other breakthrough advertising-based P2P efforts.
Veoh, the industry leader in ad-supported P2PTV, is the name for a suite of applications for collecting, publishing, and watching a vast selection of HD-quality video programming. Veoh is a diverse, virtual community of indie publishers coming together with their new audiences. VeohTV and Veoh.com combine as a virtual television network that organizes, showcases, and delivers clear, full-screen video programming to anyone with a broadband connection. With VeohTV, viewers can watch video from thousands of websites, in one easy-to-use full screen application. VeohTV offers streaming video ranging from major television network broadcasts to independently-produced content available on sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Veoh.com and MySpace. VeohTV is like a free DVR for web video.
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.
P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA sponsors include FTI Consulting and Javien Digital Payment Solutions.
Ad-supported P2P is an idea whose time has come, and we hope you will join us at the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA Monday to learn more about how to exploit the largest unexploited revenue generation opportunity in the world. Share wisely, and take care.
All Channels Lead to the Consumer
According to a new Forrester Research report, interactive marketing spending in the US will more than triple over the next five years, reaching $61 billion by 2012. This represents a 27 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years, and this category, which currently represents 8 percent of all ad spending, will grow to 18 percent of total ad budgets in five years.
Forrester Research Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk said, “As firms continue to make customer centricity a higher priority, they will recognize that maintaining separate marketing teams to manage different sets of channels that all target the same customers makes no sense. As interactive technologies gradually infiltrate such traditional paragons as television, billboards, and direct mail, the concept of a separate interactive marketing organization will disappear.”
More and more of the growth will be driven by P2P-based content distribution.
Online video ads, led by P2PTV, will significantly increase. Growing consumer adoption of online video will result in a dramatic 72 percent increase in online video ad spending to $7.1 billion by 2012. More customer-centric online video applications will increase the medium’s appeal for consumers and marketers.
Social media, primarily on P2P networks, will drive emerging channels to $10 billion by 2012. Mainstream adoption will boost spending in emerging channels such as social media, mobile, game marketing, widgets, podcasts, and RSS. Spending on social media alone will grow to $6.9 billion.
VanBoskirk added, “These changes will give interactive marketing professionals a more legitimate seat at the marketing table with their category gaining executive visibility for its popularity with young consumers as well as measurability and cost effectiveness.”
For the complete release, please click here and for the US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2007, please click here.
VeohTV to Rock World of Internet Video
Excerpted from TelevisionPoint Report
Dmitry Shapiro, CEO, Veoh Networks, recently launched a brand new model of peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) called VeohTV that analysts claim is about to rock the boat again in the world of Internet video. The software acts like a web browser but displays only Internet video, presenting full-length TV shows and popular clips from the web’s largest video sites, like NBC.com and YouTube.
It lists those videos in a program guide and plays them in a small window or across the entire screen. Once the software is downloaded to a computer, it offers an easy-to-navigate directory of 114 video channels, including listings for CBS, NBC, Fox, and YouTube. On the NBC channel, there are dozens of episodes of “Heroes,” “30 Rock,” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” On the Fox channel, there are several full-length episodes of the dramas “Bones” and “24.”
Those shows are free and available for streaming on the NBC and Fox sites. The VeohTV player, Shapiro said, is just giving them a new audience. For some video content, VeohTV can act as a digital video recorder (DVR), turning a video stream—meant to be viewed on the web—into a downloaded file on a user’s hard drive. VeohTV users can record a YouTube video, for example, even though YouTube, owned by Google, says its terms of service specify that videos uploaded to the site will only be streamed.
This disruptive product certainly has a potential to be a popular and practical way to watch online video. But like a long line of other innovative high-tech tools, VeohTV could also threaten and alienate traditional media companies.
Veoh SVP of Marketing Jennifer Betka will deliver a keynote address at the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA on Monday.
To P2P or Not to P2P
Akamai plans to announce its P2P-based delivery service, in an attempt to emulate the trail blazed by CacheLogic in recent years. CacheLogic was the first company to bring a new generation content delivery network (CDN), based on P2P technology, to market. CacheLogic’s view on Akamai’s move is – welcome to the P2P party… what took you so long to get here?
Akamai has finally realized what we have known all along; that a blend of CDN capabilities together with P2P technology is critical to the future growth and commercial success of Internet-delivered video content at broadcast and HD quality levels.
The problem for Akamai, apart from being late to the game, is that its network just wasn’t built with P2P in mind. It’s simply not possible to get the benefits of a true hybrid-P2P delivery network by just bolting P2P elements on as an afterthought to a traditionally-architected content delivery network. P2P technology needs to be built into the network’s core on day one, not retrofitted later – which is a bit like putting lipstick on a pig! Quite how bolting P2P elements onto a legacy CDN will impact performance and pricing is yet to be seen.
CacheLogic built its Velocix Digital Asset Delivery Network from scratch with P2P technology and concepts as the basis of our network design and architecture.
It’s taken a long time for the content delivery industry’s incumbent providers to bite the bullet and realize the breakthrough performance and economic benefits of hybrid-P2P networks for delivering a high quality video experience over the Internet. However, Akamai’s announcement adds fuel to an encouraging trend, providing a solid market validation of hybrid-P2P technology and a firm endorsement of CacheLogic’s approach from day one.
CacheLogic’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) John Dillon will be a featured speaker at the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA Marketing Conference on Monday.
BitTorrent Gets More Social with AllPeers
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
AllPeers is a social BitTorrent extension for Firefox. The ease of use and the appealing user interface make it especially popular among people who are relatively new to BitTorrent, but why do we need a social BitTorrent client?
We have been following AllPeers since it was a closed Beta project and lots of features have been added since then. The extension now has over 240,000 registered users and this number is growing rapidly.
Initially, AllPeers was not meant to replace traditional BitTorrent clients because it didn’t support .torrent downloads. However, this has now changed, BitTorrent support was added in their latest update, and they are now ready to compete with other BitTorrent clients and P2P Firefox extensions.
Still, the more advanced BitTorrent users don’t really see the need for a socialized BitTorrent client. In the first versions of AllPeers, some users also missed the more advanced settings and features that their regular BitTorrent client offered, yet this can hardly be an excuse anymore since AllPeers added most of the essentials.
We decided to have a chat with Matthew Gertner, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at AllPeers. Among other things we asked him why we need a social BitTorrent client, why we should use it and what the future brings for AllPeers.
TorrentFreak: What is so great about a social BitTorrent client?
Matthew: There are two issues that we want to address with Social BitTorrent. First of all, there are relatively high hurdles to getting up and running with BitTorrent as compared to watching a streaming video on YouTube or downloading a song from iTunes. To some degree this is a result of the relative technical complexity of BitTorrent clients. We’ve addressed this by integrating BitTorrent into the web browser so torrent downloads behave more like normal web downloads. We’ve also hidden a lot of the details of what’s going on in the background, while still making this available to the more technically savvy user who wants to know what their seeding ratio is or how many leechers they are connected to.
Social BitTorrent starts to kick in to help with the other big hurdle: the difficulty of finding content. Of course, experienced BitTorrent users don’t have any problem with this. But I can say from personal experience that it’s a big challenge for newbies. Most people I’ve tried to turn on to BT gave up quickly because they couldn’t figure out how to find files. With our client, it’s much easier to introduce your friends to BT because all they have to do is install AllPeers and wait. When you have a torrent file you think they’d enjoy, you share it with them using our Drag-n-Share feature, and they click on it to download. This saves everyone the time of going out and hunting for files themselves, and downloads are also much faster because you can download from the person who shared with you and from the torrent simultaneously. Once people catch the BT bug, they’ll be more motivated to figure out how to go and find files themselves.
The other aspect of Social BitTorrent is more forward-looking. To be competitive with media distribution websites like Flickr and YouTube, BitTorrent needs social features. I should be able to comment on or rate a torrent file and see other people comments and ratings. Of course, most torrent websites let you do this, but we think this should be built into the network, not dependent on a specific site. I also want to be able to tie my media consumption via BitTorrent with my social network, and we’re geared up to do this since managing a private contact list has always been central to our vision. In the longer term, it should be possible to set up ad hoc communities around various content offerings. For example, I’m a golf fan (some would say addict), so I’d like to be able to join a community where I can exchange golf-related content with other people using BT while discussing the content and just plain meeting like-minded folks.
TorrentFreak: Should people who are not interested in the social aspect of AllPeers try it anyway?
Matthew: I’ll be fired unless I say yes. :-) Seriously, I think anyone interested in BitTorrent should at least take a look at AllPeers because we’ve done something quite different from existing clients. That said, if it’s really important for you to be able to tweak every last parameter when configuring your downloads, it might not be for you since we’ve put such a heavy emphasis on simplicity. On the other hand, the convenience of downloading directly inside Firefox is a really significant factor and might attract a lot of people who don’t care about the social aspect.
TorrentFreak: Is AllPeers “feature-wise” ready for the more demanding BitTorrent user?
Matthew: It really depends on what you mean by demanding. If you want to make sure that downloads over 312Mb start automatically at 2 AM while consuming no more than 47Kb/s of upload bandwidth and using at most 50 half-open TCP/IP connections, then AllPeers is definitely not the client for you. (Although we leverage Firefox’s extension architecture so maybe one day people will be able to add more esoteric features as add-ons.)
That said, I consider myself to be a demanding BT user, but I’m also lazy and I don’t want to spend time tweaking anything. I just want downloads to be fast and reliable. For this reason we see advanced features like peer exchange and selecting individual files for download as necessities, whereas a lot of other companies left this type of thing out of early versions of their software. BitTorrent is a big part of my lifestyle because I live in Europe, so it’s the only way for me to get timely access to decent television (much as I enjoy watching Baywatch reruns dubbed in Czech). If AllPeers didn’t download as fast as other clients, I simply wouldn’t use it. As it transpires, I use it every day, so draw your own conclusions!
TorrentFreak: Will you release a light version of AllPeers that just adds BitTorrent support to Firefox?
Matthew: To some degree we already do this, since you don’t have to register to use the BT support, only if you want to use our social features. Note that currently about 75% of people who download the client do register.
As far as stripping out all the code except for the BT client, we don’t have plans currently to do this. Our client is open source so this is certainly something that a motivated outside developer could do himself. In the longer term, we’re interested in investigating whether some parts of AllPeers might make sense as built-in functionality for Firefox, and BitTorrent support is an obvious choice. I’m not affiliated with Mozilla in any official capacity, and this is pure speculation on my part, but perhaps one day we’ll see BT support in Firefox “out of the box”, and I’d be delighted if this support were based on our code.
TorrentFreak: AllPeers is maturing fast, have you ever considered to release it as a standalone application, so non-Firefox users can use it as well?
Matthew: This is a no brainer, especially since XULRunner (Mozilla’s platform for standalone applications) is maturing in parallel to AllPeers. I don’t even think the development effort would be that significant. Like every big, ambitious software project, we’ve constantly grappling with an ever-expanding to-do list, but a standalone version is slowly creeping its way to the top.
In the meantime, we do have a bundle called “Firefox with AllPeers” (produced in partnership with Mozilla) for people who want to install our client, but don’t have Firefox.
TorrentFreak: Can you tell us what the future brings for AllPeers? Any exciting features?
Matthew: I don’t want to ruin the suspense by giving away too many details, but we are focusing heavily on expanding the notion of social BitTorrent that I described earlier. We’ve already developed a feature to let you comment on files that people share with you, which we’re currently testing. We also have big plans for letting people create sharing communities. Right now, most people use AllPeers simply to send files to one or more people. In the future, we want to make it possible to continue to interact with content in interesting ways once it has been shared. I should be able to search for content in a given community that interests me, view comments and ratings, get recommendations for other files I might like, etc. Basically my dream would be to see an Amazon-like experience emerge, but completely open and based on BitTorrent.
BitTorrent Vice President & General Manager of Consumer Services Eric Patterson will be a featured speaker at the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA on Monday.
Microsoft Bets On Big Future For Facebook
Excerpted from MediaPost Report
Microsoft’s hard-fought victory for a 1.6% stake in Facebook has been laughed at by some critics, but not only is $240 million a mere pittance for a company the size of Microsoft, but the risk/reward for investing in an upstart with Facebook’s potential is very high.
The opportunity is highly targeted online advertising. Facebook is unique to other content providers because it collects very detailed information about its users: their hobbies, favorite books, movies, music, what schools they went to, etc., in addition to basic age, gender, and location information.
Perhaps most important, social networks link together people and their friends, dividing them into groups centered around common interests or affiliations. The social networking has become so powerful that some industry watchers believe sites like Facebook could eventually become “the central window consumers use to access the web.”
Given that possibility, Microsoft execs were more than happy to say, “We’re pleased with the economics of this deal.” It has purchased a 1.6% stake in Facebook along with the right to sell remnant inventory across international versions of its service. But what kind of information-sharing does it allow? And what role, if any, does the new deal play in Facebook’s forthcoming release of a targeted social advertising system? Please click here for the full Wall Street Journal report.
OKCupid Founder & CEO Sam Yagan will deliver a keynote address on social networks at the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA on Monday.
Verizon Discovers Symmetry, Offers 20/20 Service
Excerpted from Ars Technica Report by Nate Anderson
For years, the broadband wars have been largely fought over download speeds, but Verizon has just thrown down the gauntlet and declared that it’s going to fight over upstream speeds too, and in a big way. How does 20Mbps sound?
Some residents of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey who live inside the boundaries of Verizon’s FiOS network will be the first to be able to take advantage of Verizon’s new 20/20 FiOS service. As the name implies, 20/20 FiOS is a symmetrical 20Mbps connection (same speed in both directions), and it’s one of the first symmetrical services to target the consumer market.
Available today, 20/20 will cost $64.99 per month and will include Verizon’s Internet Security Suite and 1GB of online backup (up to 50GB can be purchased at “competitive rates”).
Susan Retta, the company’s VP of Broadband Solutions, was quick to compare the new plan to cable. “For more than a decade, the Internet has been defined by how quickly you can download content,” Retta said. “Our 20/20 FiOS service changes everything by creating an entirely new category of US broadband where ‘fast’ means fast in both directions.”
It’s a category of broadband that cable companies have yet to embrace. Although Comcast, Charter, Cox, and other cable ISPs have bumped download speeds in areas where they are facing direct competition from Verizon, they haven’t shown much love for upload speeds. Those typically remain stuck in the 256Kbps to 1.5Mbps range even as downloads soar above 10Mbps. If Verizon is able to effectively sell the advantages of symmetrical service to Joe Sixpack, cable companies may be forced to widen the upload pipe.
20Mbps upload speeds will enable a whole host of new services and can also be a boon to P2P networks. Uploading high-def video to friends and family, for instance, suddenly becomes a possibility instead of a nightmare. Online backup systems like Mozy have been gaining in popularity, but it currently takes days to back up a media collection or large photo set. Verizon, of course, also touts the standard example that’s always trotted out when speed claims are made: medical imaging.
FiOS now has more than half a million subscribers. How many of them actually need a 20Mbps upstream connection remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that the cool factor here is off the charts; we’re confident that “Hey baby, want to head back to my place to see to me stream high-def video from my Mac?” will soon be the hot new pick-up line at NYC nightclubs.
The Next Big Thing in Backup: P2P
Excerpted from PC World Report
Backing up your data is like flossing your teeth. You know you should do it often, but it’s a bit of a chore. You have to choose backup software, install it and set it up, and after that you still have to back up your files regularly. It’s so easy to procrastinate for a day and then another... till some dark night your tired old hard disk loses its bearings, or falls in love with a dashing young flash drive and runs off to Vegas. You’re left with nothing but your memories, your lonesome tears, and perhaps a few faded photographs.
I feel your pain; I’ve been there too. But your relationship with your data doesn’t have to end that way. Free local backup software is readily available, though it’s no help if you’ve stored your backups near your computer and the brush fires are approaching. You can get limited amounts of web-hosted backup storage on line for free, too, but do you really know who’s got your data?
A few companies are providing another solution, based on P2P networking technology similar to that used for sharing music and movies, and I think it could be the Next Big Thing in data security.
I have been trying out the latest beta version of Zoogmo, one of the more advanced P2P backup services. Using Zoogmo, you can set up a mutual aid society: you back up your files to your friends’ computers over the Internet, and they store their files on your computer. And it’s all completely free of charge.
Here’s how it works: You sign up at zoogmo.com and download the Zoogmo backup software. During installation, the Zoogmo wizard scans your hard disk and marks the usual candidates for backup (My Documents, Desktop, e-mails, favorites, music, and more). You can change Zoogmo’s choices and mark additional files individually or with a file type mask. Then you tell Zoogmo to invite your friend to sign up. After your friend signs up and installs the software, each of you allocates the amount of space you choose for the other’s backups, on your hard drive, an external drive, or even a flash disk.
Zoogmo encrypts your files on your computer and then sends them across the Internet to your friend’s computer, where they remain encrypted. One drawback of this system is that if your Zoogmo software gets hosed or Zoogmo itself is unavailable, you can’t retrieve those backup files. Zoogmo’s CEO told me that the company is examining ways to enable self-restoration of encrypted files.
The first backup can take a long time, depending on your upload bandwidth. After that, Zoogmo makes incremental backups, copying only the files that have changed since the last backup. You can schedule unattended backups for various intervals, and can instruct Zoogmo to work only when your computer is not busy. If a backup is interrupted (for instance, by a broken connection), it resumes where it left off whenever it is able (for instance, when the connection is restored).
At the moment, Zoogmo supports Windows XP and 2003, and allows only one friend on your P2P network. And I noticed a few minor bugs in the beta software. The company plans to eliminate these shortcomings and add other features in forthcoming versions. When Zoogmo allows you to network with multiple friends, you will enjoy backup redundancy (multiple copies of your files) and greater availability of your backups.
Zoogmo’s functionality and interface are impressive for a beta version, but it has competition already. Crashplan also relies on a friend-to-friend network, and works on Macintosh and Linux systems as well as Windows, but the basic software costs $20 ($60 for the pro version), whereas Zoogmo is free.
BuddyBackup (Windows XP only) works in similar fashion to Zoogmo, but the disk space you allocate to your friends equals the disk space they allocate to you. BuddyBackup also uses even more of your disk space to keep local copies of your backed-up files. The free, ad-supported version limits you to three buddies and 5 GB of storage.
Wuala (Windows only, version unspecified) is designed for file sharing rather than backing up. It stores your files on the computers of other Wuala members for free with ads, but the space you’re allowed is proportional to the space you allocate to other members and the time you stay online. Wuala currently is in closed alpha testing, but will become available for beta testing in the future.
Any backup regime takes a bit of work to set up at the beginning, but it’s well worth the effort to protect your irreplaceable data from disaster. And P2P backup networks are destined to make backups more accessible than ever before.
VIP Helps Users Fight Online Fraud
Excerpted from TMCnet Report by Prabhala Ranga Sai
VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) is becoming a popular tool to fight online fraud. Consumers and businesses alike seeking to arm themselves against online fraud are turning to VIP, which was launched by VeriSign in 2006. Users of PayPal and eBay were among the first and swiftest adopters of this authentication tool, and have since been joined by many others.
VeriSign this week highlighted the growing global acceptance of VIP by announcing several new VIP Network members and an increasingly diverse selection of authentication device options available to consumers. The company claims VIP is the most comprehensive suite of identity protection and authentication services designed to strengthen and protect consumers’ digital identities.
The PayPal Security Key is a small, hardware security credential that provides a one-time password during log-on, has been deployed in the US, Germany, and Australia. PayPal officially launched PayPal Security Key in June, 2007 after a successful pilot run.
“We’ve heard from our customers that they like the extra layer of protection that the PayPal Security Key provides,” said Mike Vergara, Director of Account Protections at PayPal. “We look forward to working with VeriSign to provide the PayPal Security Key to even more customers in additional markets – enhancing security on the Internet and confidence in shopping online.”
The results of a June survey of more than 650 attendees at the eBay Live user conference underscored some of the reasons consumers have adopted the PayPal Security Key. One in every three respondents said they already have a PayPal Security Key, and 81 percent said their key is easy to use. When asked about additional uses for the authentication device, 84 percent said they want to use the key to protect their online banking transactions.
Many users want to use the authentication key for online trading (52%), online interactions with their health care providers (49%), online shopping (48%), music or video downloads (35%), and online gaming (15%).
“When we announced VIP last year, we knew consumers and the businesses that serve them would rely on VIP to protect their transactions from online fraud, though we couldn’t have anticipated such a huge global demand for this groundbreaking service,” said Fran Rosch, Vice President of Authentication Services at VeriSign
“Today’s announcement highlights the broadening reach of VIP as leaders such as eBay and PayPal report successful deployments on three continents. Meanwhile, the VIP Network continues to welcome new members, and VeriSign offers more choices for consumers and businesses to conveniently protect themselves online.”
As more consumers have embraced VIP-enabled authentication, more online financial institutions and service providers have signed on to the VIP Network. For example, the government of Fairfax County, VA (serving more than 1 million residents) and OpHedge Investment Services, a fund operations/administration service provider, are both now VIP network members.
Customers can use VIP wherever they see the VIP logo displayed on a website. This shared credential model gives consumers additional value by protecting their online identities across the web, and gives enterprises the benefit of sharing transaction costs with other companies.
VeriSign VP of Broadband Content Services Jeff Richards will deliver a keynote address at the P2P ADVERTISING UPFRONT LA on Monday. VeriSign has just won the Streaming Media Award for Top Content Management Platform of 2007.
SafeNet Prevents Loss of Sensitive & Personal Data
Excerpted from HULIQ Report
SafeNet, a global leader in information security, announced the availability of ProtectDrive 8.2, the latest release of its full-disk encryption solution that protects organizations against potentially devastating data breaches, while meeting both corporate governance and industry-specific compliance.
Data and personal information breaches can be tremendously costly to organizations in terms of fines, lost revenue, irreparable damage to reputations, and can even put lives at risk. This combined with compliance mandate deadlines such as those under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) makes the protection of data, particularly data-at-rest, imperative.
“Both commercial and government organizations are experiencing the rising incidence of threats to sensitive information, through computer and laptop losses for example. Implementing suitable protection has been slow due in part to the complexity and high deployment costs of previous technologies,” said Andy Solterbeck, Vice President of Product Management, Commercial Security Division, SafeNet. “SafeNet ProtectDrive 8.2 is the ideal solution for full-disk encryption across the organization, providing independently validated [FIPS and Common Criteria] security at the lowest cost of ownership available in the industry today.”
ProtectDrive 8.2 is a full-disk encryption solution that encrypts the entire hard drive of laptops, workstations and servers, as well as USB flash drives and hard disks, to protect data in the case of the theft or loss of a hardware device. ProtectDrive 8.2 eliminates the need for costly proprietary administration by leveraging organizations’ investments in Active Directory, an implementation of LDAP directory services by Microsoft to provide central authentication and authorization services.
SafeNet’s ProtectDrive 8.2 was recently selected by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and US General Services Administration for use by all federal government agencies and select state and local governments under the Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) SmartBUY program. The DoD, US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and scores of other government agencies already entrust their security needs to SafeNet.
The integration of ProtectDrive 8.2 with Active Directory allows administrators to centrally assign security policies, deploy software, and apply critical updates to an entire organization, saving time, resources, and man-power. To further improve flexibility and lower total cost of ownership, ProtectDrive 8.2 also supports Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) for customers that prefer not to make an Active Directory schema change.
Blue Maze Hard Rock VCD
Digital music companies The Orchard and Blue Maze Entertainment have partnered to present a Virtual CD (VCD) for Hard Rock International’s All-Star Charity CD – “SERVE 2.” Through this alliance, the companies will be presenting turnkey music solutions for a variety of progressive brands.
This inaugural effort focuses on the second installment of the Hard Rock’s SERVE CD Series, aptly titled SERVE 2. The album features previously unreleased tracks from some of music’s most influential artists, including: Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Joss Stone, Jackson Browne, Citizen Cope, and KT Tunstall to name a few.
The Virtual-CD will be featured on the Hard Rock web site beginning in mid-November at www.HardRock.com/Serve2. The application will act as a sampler for the album; helping to showcase artists, songs, album artwork, and ultimately directing fans to e-commerce opportunities and additional information about the cause. Additionally, users can share the Virtual-CD sampler with friends, helping to spread the music, generate buzz and drive sales.
By capitalizing on new media platforms such as the Virtual-CD, and the celebrity of the participating artists, the contributing companies will be able to raise awareness and funds to help solve a global crisis. According to Mitch Towbin, Director of Marketing for Blue Maze Entertainment, “Virtual CDs make it easy for companies like Hard Rock to create compelling online initiatives and support critical causes such as World Hunger Year. Hard Rock, WHY, and The Orchard all have progressive perspectives on music promotion, and we’re excited to help them leverage their assets to make a difference.”
Senators Want Probe of Comcast
Excerpted from CNET Report by Anne Broache
Comcast’s aggressive filtering reportedly aggressive filtering of BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic is drawing calls for a US Senate hearing – and a renewed push for Net neutrality laws.
Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) on Friday sent a letter asking Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) to convene a hearing as soon as possible to investigate “the topic of service discrimination by phone and cable companies.”
The senators suggested the incidents indicate “Congress should consider adopting targeted regulations to protect consumers and ensure a vibrant and open communications platform.”
They’re referring, of course, to Net Neutrality rules, which Dorgan and Snowe proposed once again earlier this year after a similar effort failed to pass last year. That’s the idea that broadband operators like Comcast should not be allowed to block, impair, or discriminate against any content that crosses their pipes--or charge companies extra fees for the privilege of getting their traffic prioritized.
Many Democrats support the regulations, but Republicans have largely rejected them, claiming the market is sufficient to sort out perceived discrimination problems as they arise and that new regulations would stifle investment in new broadband services.
Comcast denied blocking access to any websites or online applications, including P2P services, but it acknowledged “delaying” some Internet traffic in the interest of improving other subscribers’ surfing experiences, particularly during highly congested periods.
Coming Events of Interest
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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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Digital Hollywood Fall – October 30th - November 1st in Los Angeles, CA. Now at a new Location in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highlands and the adjacent Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. Digital Hollywood is the premier entertainment and technology conference in the country. Many DCIA Member companies will be featured speakers and exhibitors at this major industry event.
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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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