November 19, 2007
Volume XIX, Issue 12
Vuze Petitions FCC on P2P Throttling
Vuze, a rapidly growing peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for professionally produced entertainment content with an established audience of more than 12 million users, this week asked the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt regulations preventing arbitrary interference by broadband carriers of P2P traffic carried over their networks.
By initiating a proceeding specifically focused on this issue, Vuze seeks to forge a long-term workable solution that is fair to all interested parties, including Internet service providers (ISPs), content providers, Internet technology companies, advertisers, and most importantly, consumers.
Vuze's Petition for Rulemaking urges the FCC to adopt regulations limiting Internet traffic throttling, a practice by which ISPs block or slow the speed at which a wide variety of Internet content, including video files, can be uploaded and downloaded by consumers and businesses alike.
Vuze believes a public discussion of the throttling issue is needed. Its petition will trigger such a discussion in a federal forum and lead to FCC rules, which are needed to provide clarity to companies trying to reach broadband consumers using innovative technologies.
Several ISPs have already admitted to throttling P2P Internet traffic, which is often accomplished with a "man-in-the-middle" technique used by hackers, whereby false computer messages cause Internet connections to shut down. These tactics have forced content providers and distributors to engage in a series of counter-measures - essentially playing a high-tech game of "cat-and-mouse" with ISPs - to keep their traffic flowing freely.
At issue is whether unrestricted "throttling," often characterized by ISPs as "network management" or "traffic shaping", which materially interferes with the consumer Internet experience, should be allowed. If these tactics continue unchecked, the openness and fairness of the public Internet could be called into question.
"Now is the time to embrace the sea changes in entertainment consumption that are occurring. The rapid convergence of the entertainment and Internet industries has enabled the delivery of high-quality video, and these throttling tactics represent growing pains as ISPs resist inevitable change," said Gilles BianRosa, CEO of Vuze.
"We hope our petition will trigger a public discussion, but we also need the FCC to act. The industry needs transparency into what ISPs are doing and an environment that fosters innovation in online entertainment.
Such an approach will benefit ISPs. Rather than resisting changes in Internet usage with counterproductive and arbitrary traffic throttling, we need to work together with the FCC to create a solution that ISPs, technology providers, consumers, content providers, and advertisers can all support."
Gilles BianRosa will deliver a keynote address at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LV, the DCIA's flagship event, which is now a Conference within CES, on January 6th in Las Vegas, NV.
Lawsuit Accuses Comcast of Blocking P2P
Excerpted from Computer World Report by Matt Hamblen
A lawsuit filed this week in Alameda County, CA, Superior Court alleges that Comcast intentionally interferes with Internet file sharing and blocks or slows some applications to a "mere crawl."
The 22-page complaint, filed in Superior Court on Tuesday on behalf of Comcast subscriber Jon Hart of the San Francisco Bay Area, said that Philadelphia-based Comcast has a practice of "severely limiting" the transmission speed of P2P file sharing and Lotus Notes e-mail. It calls the practice unlawful and fraudulent.
The complaint also said that Comcast's advertising, which claims its high-speed Internet service is "lightning fast" and "mind-blowing," is false and violates the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act.
Hart is represented by attorney Mark Todzo and other attorneys at San Francisco-based Lexington Law Group who have requested class-action status for the lawsuit on behalf of other affected Comcast customers.
A Comcast spokesman said Comcast has not yet been served with the complaint and did not comment on it directly. However, a Comcast spokesman said the provider does not block P2P services, although it does "manage the network to prevent heavy users from slowing down speeds over the entire network," which serves nearly 13 million subscribers.
"We engage in reasonable network management to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience, and we do so consistently with FCC policy," the spokesman said in a statement.
A coalition of consumer groups formally asked the FCC in early November to force Comcast to stop interfering with file sharing, and parties in the coalition urged the FCC to fine Comcast for each affected subscriber. The FCC has not issued any statements on the request.
The complaint does not indicate specific times or dates when file sharing or Lotus Notes was slowed down. However, the complaint does say that Comcast defendants "actively and intentionally slow and/or block the ... applications by sending hidden messages to computers that are running file-sharing applications.
These hidden messages appear to the computer as coming from the other computers with which it is sharing files, telling it to stop communicating. The result is that file-sharing applications are completely blocked or severely impeded."
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 We once again urge Comcast to join with other major carriers and leading P2P companies that are participating in the DCIA-sponsored P4P Working Group (P4PWG), which is focused on developing constructive and mutually beneficial alternatives to traffic throttling, a practice not in the best interests of consumers, content providers, technology firms, or ultimately ISPs themselves.
The P4PWG is co-chaired by Doug Pasko of Verizon Communications and Laird Popkin of Pando Networks. Laird will make a presentation on P4P at the European Peering Forum 2007, scheduled for November 28th-29th in Barcelona, Spain; and both Doug and Laird will discuss P4P at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LV, the DCIA's Conference within CES on January 6th.
P4PWG is currently engaged in network topology simulation studies and is planning field tests to commence in January. The working group also plans to hold an open meeting at CES to discuss its work and the potential value it offers to ISPs and P2Ps who choose to participate.
The mission of the P4PWG is to work jointly and cooperatively with leading ISPs, P2P software distributors, and technology researchers to ascertain appropriate and voluntary best practices for the use of P4P mechanisms to accelerate distribution of content and optimize utilization of ISP network resources in order to provide the best possible performance to end-user customers.
P4P is defined as a set of business practices and integrated network topology awareness models designed to optimize ISP network resources and enable P2P based content payload acceleration.
Key objectives of this focused initiative are to provide ISPs with the ability to optimize utilization of network resources while enhancing service levels for P2P traffic; and to provide P2P software distributors with the ability to accelerate content delivery while enhancing efficient usage of ISP bandwidth.
Other goals include providing researchers, who are developing P4P mechanisms, with the support to advance and the ability to publish their work; determining, validating, and encouraging the adoption of methods for ISPs and P2P software distributors to work together to enable and support consumer service improvements as P2P adoption and resultant traffic evolves while protecting the intellectual property (IP) of participating entities; and establishing appropriate and voluntary best practices for the deployment of P4P mechanisms to meet the above identified objectives in a way that can be sustained by all of the necessary participants.
The telecommunications, entertainment, and technology sectors are still at an early stage of defining new business models for digital distribution of content that will articulate roles and responsibilities - as well as define rewards - for each party that touches content in these new channels.
While these very major strategic undertakings are underway, it is important that parties engage in activities such as the P4PWG to establish the essential building blocks that will fit into such larger constructs.
In simple terms, content rights holders need to propose revenue-sharing terms and content-protection requirements for digital distribution of copyrighted works as a la carte paid downloads, packages and subscriptions, and in advertising-supported formats.
Revenue sharing needs to address two major channel participant classifications: 1) ISPs; and 2) distributors, including P2P firms.
ISPs perform a role akin to wholesalers: their network resources are used to deliver digital content much in the way that trucks deliver CDs and DVDs from manufacturers and warehouses to record stores and video-rental firms.
Distributors, including P2P firms, perform a role akin to retailers: their consumer-facing brands aggregate demand and facilitate content delivery transactions to end users.
Content protection needs to cover the responsibilities of these two classes of digital distribution channel participants.
ISPs need to propose terms-and-conditions for digital content distribution comparable to their other communications services - reflecting file-size, speed-of-delivery, and other considerations.
Such digital content distribution options in turn need to be provided to two categories of customers: 1) content providers; and 2) distributors, including P2P firms.
Content providers should be able to determine their costs and define the quality-of-service including security level(s) for their copyrighted works in transit to their licensed distributors (and where they also distribute directly, to consumers themselves).
Distributors, including P2P firms, should be able to make comparable choices regarding how they serve their customers.
And finally, distributors, including P2P firms, need to propose terms for network resource usage to ISPs and accountability to content providers - including scalability factors - in order that their roles, responsibilities, and rewards can also be properly established.
While resolution of the larger questions here necessarily moves at a somewhat glacial pace, the benefits of efforts like the P4PWG to optimize solutions for important underlying issues cannot be overstated. Share wisely, and take care.
Obama Supports Web Neutrality Laws
Excerpted from Online Media Daily Report by Wendy Davis
Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama Wednesday reiterated his support for new net neutrality laws that would prohibit Internet access providers from discriminating against web publishers by degrading service or blocking content.
In a move coinciding with his visit to Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters, his campaign issued a nine-page treatise, Barack Obama on Technology and Innovation, which also proposed appointing a chief technology officer and expanding broadband access.
The position paper warned that without net neutrality laws, there could be a "two-tier Internet in which websites with the best relationships with network providers can get the fastest access to consumers, while all competing websites remain in a slower lane."
"Such a result would threaten innovation, the open tradition, and architecture of the Internet, and competition among content and backbone providers," the paper continued.
Obama is not alone in proposing new laws protecting net neutrality. All of the Democratic candidates and at least one Republican, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, also have endorsed the concept.
Still, some net neutrality advocates view Obama's continued efforts to highlight the issue as grounds for optimism.
"It's encouraging because he seems to be making net neutrality a centerpiece of his campaign" says Craig Aaron, Communications Director of advocacy group Free Press. That organization, along with other advocates, recently filed a complaint with the FCC against Comcast, stemming from the company's interference with traffic to BitTorrent and other file-sharing sites.
This cycle marks the first time net neutrality has been an issue in a presidential election. Until recently, ISPs were prohibited from discriminating against websites. That changed in 2005 after the US Supreme Court decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X paved the way for the FCC to free broadband services from the common carrier rules that ban telecoms from restricting access to phone lines.
The campaign also proposes redefining broadband from the FCC's current "astonishingly low 200 kpbs" to "speeds demanded by 21st century business and communications." The paper says that people should have the same access to broadband service as to telephone lines and electricity.
The Obama campaign also urged the creation of the position of chief technology officer - who, in addition to other duties, would "focus on transparency" by making sure that government records are open and accessible.
StreamCast Networks Upgrades Morpheus
StreamCast Networks, developer and distributor of Morpheus, has upgraded its industry-leading P2P file-sharing application to provide greater value to Morpheus users by enhancing their security.
The new version of Morpheus includes an additional warning message to consumers who attempt to share their entire My Documents folder (similar to the way consumers are already warned about inadvertently sharing their entire drive directory).
The consumer alert, which appears if a user intentionally selects his or her My Documents folder and moves it into the Shared Folder Directory, reads:
"You have selected to share your entire My Documents folder and all its files. It is not advisable to do so unless you are certain you want to share all the contents, including possibly private documents.
Are you certain you want to proceed?"
The warning also features a dotted/shaded line by default around the "No" button (rather than the "Yes" button) on the warning screen message when consumers attempt to share either an entire drive or their My Documents folder.
If a consumer simply presses the "enter" key during this process, it will result in the default action choice - and that such choice will be "No."
On the Morpheus Start Page, StreamCast has also introduced an additional notice linking to the Morpheus Consumer Disclosures Guide where users can access the Disclosures, read them, and evaluate the software before or at any time after they download and install Morpheus.
StreamCast will continue to develop Morpheus to optimize its value and safety to consumers. StreamCast Networks CEO Michael Weiss will be a featured speaker at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LV, the DCIA's Conference within CES on January 6th.
K2 Picks Pando Networks to Power Games
Pando Networks, a leading provider of P2P distribution services, announced that K2 Network, a premier online game publisher, has agreed to use Pando technology to power the downloading of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) from the K2 Network website.
K2 Network publishes and services highly engaging online games and cultivates dynamic player environments to an audience of more than 16 million registered users. These games often exceed 3GB in size and so to provide their gamers with fast, secure, and reliable downloads, K2 Network has selected Pando's proven P2P technology, which accelerates the performance and reduces the cost of delivering high quality media.
With more than 14 million users worldwide, Pando's managed P2P network delivers more data daily than any P2P network of its kind. The Pando P2P architecture easily integrates into other applications and web services and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
K2 Network will use the Pando Publisher toolset to publish and track the distribution of its online games. In addition to downloading games from the K2 Network website, gamers will be able to subscribe to automatic delivery of newly issued games, game patches, and game updates.
"Online game delivery is a large and growing business. We are thrilled that K2 Network, an innovator in that market, has selected Pando to power delivery of its content," said Robert Levitan, CEO of Pando Networks. "As more games are distributed online, Pando is ready to provide faster and more reliable downloads for consumers while decreasing delivery costs for distributors."
"We are always looking for new and innovative download options to offer our gamers. With Pando's service they can quickly get through the download process and into the game," said Joshua Hong, CEO of K2 Network. "That coupled with Pando's ability to communicate updates and patches makes it a very convenient tool for K2 Network gamers."
Pando Networks CEO Robert Levitan will deliver at keynote address at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LV, the DCIA's Conference within CES on January 6th.
RawFlow launches Live P2P Streaming iCDN
RawFlow, a leader in the provision of live P2P Internet streaming technology, has launched its new managed live streaming service, iCDN.
RawFlow's iCDN combines the global presence and high performance of a global content delivery network (CDN) with the scalability and efficiency of state-of-the-art P2P technology, the first of its kind dedicated to live streaming.
Designed to cope with conditions specific to live streaming such as peak traffic volumes and network congestion, iCDN delivers more consistent, reliable and higher quality live streaming to customers.
Mikkel Dissing, President of RawFlow said, "Key to this service is the high performance it guarantees for live broadcasting over the unique P2P streaming technology at it's core. This ensures reliability, scalability and unequivocal value for money. We have no minimum monthly commitments, no hidden charges for flash crowds or peak usage. It's one low price making it possible for anyone to broadcast live on any budget".
In its quest to find a scalable and more cost effective means of broadcasting its new reality show "Secret Story" live on the Internet, French National broadcaster TF1 looked to RawFlow and its P2P assisted content delivery network, iCDN, to stream the event. The 24/7 show, broadcast during July and August of this year, proved to be one of the most successful live events of its type ever broadcast over the Internet. The show attracted a huge audience with RawFlow ´s iCDN streaming over 2 million hours of live content to more than six million viewers via the TF1 website. ICDN's scalability and low cost content delivery meant TF1 were able to reduce their streaming costs by as much as 50%, in comparison with traditional unicast methods, whilst maintaining quality of service.
Mikkel continued, "The TF1 case study highlights that we can easily stream to millions of viewers globally with our existing infrastructure. Our customers don't have to think about new hardware or extending their own infrastructure. They can sit back and reap the benefits and profits that iCDN will bring".
RawFlow is offering a 30-day trial of this product with 1,000gbytes bandwidth free to anyone wishing to try broadcasting using iCDN before Christmas.
Veoh Now Offers Full CBS Programs
Excerpted from YouBetterWatchIt Report
The world of online video syndication is changing everyday. NBC recently pulled its videos off YouTube in anticipation of the launch of Hulu.com.
CBS and industry-leading peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) service Veoh, which ranks among the top ten video distributors on the web, have now partnered to offer viewers full-length episodes of popular shows. It's really anyone's guess where all these partnerships are going to end up.
Hulu, which suffers first from a horrible name, has already drawn skepticism. YouTube seemed to be a better distribution channel for NBC, but apparently they wanted to keep things under their own roof.
We'll see how CBS does reaching out through Veoh.
Veoh SVP of Marketing Jennifer Betka will deliver a keynote address at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LV, the DCIA's Conference within CES on January 6th.
Coke Launches First Commercial Joost Widget
The Coca-Cola Company's European team announced that it has released the first commercial widget for Joost, the world's first broadcast-quality P2PTV service.
The widget, called Coke Bubbles, allows people to personalize and share specific moments from Joost with their friends. When the Coke Bubbles widget is installed in Joost, people can comment about specific scenes in a show by sending a Coke Bubble to anyone in their email address book. Coke Bubble recipients receive an email alerting them to the scene, and when they visit Joost to watch the scene, their friend's comment will appear in a transparent bubble on the screen.
"In creating Coke Bubbles, we wanted to give people a widget that would recreate the experience of chatting together with friends while watching TV- free from the constraints of time and space," said Stafford Green, head of interactive marketing for the Coca-Cola European Union Group. "We are always striving to become enthusiastic investors in interactive community innovations, and creating the first commercial widget has been a fun, collaborative project for both The Coca-Cola Company and our friends at Joost."
In addition to the launch of Coke Bubbles, the Coca-Cola European Union Group and Joost have announced a partnership to help widget developers create and launch more widgets and interactive innovations. Details of the initiative, including contest rules, guidelines and prizes will be disclosed at the first Joost Developer Days, which take place in Amsterdam on December 1st and New York on December 7th.
Thomas Barker, co-developer of the Coke Bubbles widget, said, "We're delighted to be able to work with The Coca-Cola Company to bring something so simple yet useful to the Joost community. The technical depth of the Joost platform has given us real scope to create a rich user experience."
Mike Volpi, CEO of Joost, said, "Introducing our first commercial widget marks an important milestone for Joost. We already have hours of great programming on Joost, and now, with Coke Bubbles, people are able to 'curate' and share their viewing experience. We look forward to working with The Coca-Cola Company, the developer community and all of our partners to make Joost even more customizable."
Groundbreaking P2PTV Service Launches
The groundbreaking free and open-source peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) application Miro launched version 1.0 this week.
The public release of Miro marks a major milestone for the application which has been growing rapidly during its beta period receiving more than 200,000 downloads per month.
Like Mozilla's Firefox, Miro is built by a non-profit organization, the Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF). Miro has received financial support from many notable individuals and organizations including: Mozilla, Mitch Kapor, Skyline Public Works, Surdna Foundation, Knight Foundation, and hundreds of individual users.
"We're not just trying to make a successful product, we're hoping to push the entire online video industry towards open standards," said Nicholas Reville, Executive Director.
"I love Miro because it just works, no other video on the web is like that," said John Lilly, COO of Mozilla and a PCF board member. "Miro represents a great blend between a web application and a desktop application."
"The future of P2PTV is too important to belong to one company. P2PTV needs to live atop something open and free, the way that the web lives on top of the open and free Firefox browser. That's why Miro is licensed under the GPL, the gold standard in open/free licensing, meaning that anyone can take Miro and run with it, improve it, sell it, or give it away." said Cory Doctorow of boingboing.net and a PCF Board Member.
Miro includes a built-in guide listing more than 2,700 free channels of online video. Users can subscribe to any channel with a single click, can rate channels, and get recommendations. Like podcasting, once a user subscribes, new videos in each channel will be downloaded automatically. Miro boasts more HD content than any other online video tool.
Miro's launch comes at a crucial time in the fight for open media. Net neutrality, media consolidation, and digital rights management (DRM) are all causing controversy online. Miro comes down firmly on the side of openness. PCF recently posted a chart comparing its feature set to industry-leading P2PTV service Joost.
"We expect to have more users than Joost by January," said Reville, "Miro has more content, better video quality, and more freedom for users. Miro is simply a better product."
P2P Health Signs MOU with BiteTV
P2P Health Systems is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bite Television (BiteTV) of Mississauga, Ontario.
P2P Health and BiteTV will negotiate the non-exclusive distribution of certain video content through the Reel Joe portal. A formal agreement will be announced upon signing and is subject to regulatory approval.
BiteTV is Canada's Emmy Award winning multi-platform television network delivering comical, sexy, and totally off-the-wall entertainment. BiteTV presents Canadian and International short content for the 18-34 year-old male with a short attention span and offers on-air interaction, online participation, wireless downloads, PC and mobile chat-to-screen, podcasts, and much more.
P2P Health is focused on continuing to commercialize the Reel Joe P2P streaming technology as it will be the major growth center for the coming decade. P2P Health has positioned itself in the forefront of the next generation of medical information, online content, and distribution companies which will offer innovative cutting-edge distribution models.
Reel Joe will enable viewers to watch secure on-demand video on their computer with no added investment for equipment or software. P2P streaming means content distributors will not need to invest in large expensive server networks in order to reach audiences.
PeerBox Introduces Mobile P2P to Thousands of Users
PeerBox by Nareos, a popular mobile social networking service, announced that it has expanded to Southeast Asia through a deal with leading wireless application service provider, Playwork Company, to offer mobile P2P access and social networking to thousands of users in Thailand.
"I am proud that PeerBox is expanding its reach into Southeast Asia," said Alexander Lazovsky, CEO of Nareos. "Through this partnership, we introduce Thai mobile users to on-the-go entertainment through PeerBox. For the first time, mobile users will be able to socialize, create, and share content without being tied to a computer!"
Through the PeerBox - Playwork partnership, Thai mobile phone users will be able to watch, upload and share pictures and videos through PeerBox Mobile. As the only mobile application incorporating P2P file-sharing, on-device access to millions of songs, videos and pictures, and a social networking platform, PeerBox Mobile enables users to access and share unlimited content.
The deal is supported by Advanced Info Service (AIS), the leading cellular carrier in Thailand with over 22 million subscribers. AIS will invest in direct to consumer marketing of the mobile service to promote it to its subscribers.
Sarita Watanachan, Mobile Services Marketing Manager of Playwork Company said, "As the leading wireless content provider in Thailand, we've identified PeerBox as the premier partner to bring our users an innovative mobile entertainment service."
This partnership comes on the heels of the recently announced partnership between PeerBox and Metacafe, the world's leading online entertainment site.
Playwork will distribute and promote PeerBox through its mobile portal, Bluetooth kiosks and printed advertising campaigns, expecting to bring over 20,000 new registered users monthly.
MTouche to Operate P2P Network with Telcos
Excerpted from Malaysia Star Report
MTouche Technology expects to operate its first-of-its-kind M-Bit Network with at least one major telecommunications company by March. MTouche is in talks with DiGi Telecommunications, Maxis Communications, and Telekom Malaysia, CEO Eugene Goh said without disclosing details.
"We hope to attract about 500,000 subscribers and anticipate M-Bit Network will contribute about 10% to our bottom line," he said. The company is also in talks with four major telcos in Japan, where it will have a M-Bit Network trial next month.
Goh said mTouche was negotiating a 50:50 profit-sharing relationship with potential partners but added, "We have yet to finalize the financial details and terms of the contracts."
M-Bit Network, launched in April, is the world's first P2P search-and-file-super-distribution network that allows the sharing of content files among mobile phones over wireless mobile networks.
MTouche will also be launching its 3G video application in Malaysia by March, said Goh.
"We hope to utilize the direct mobile connections we have with the 40 mobile operators across seven countries in the region," he said.
MTouche, which also operates mTouche Interactive TV, will be launching two new TV programs with Astro All Asia Networks next month. Goh said the group would not seek new markets for now but focus on its current markets in Japan and South-East Asia.
"However, we will be actively introducing new services and products to our existing markets next year. Malaysia is still the largest contributor to our group's earnings, with the remainder coming from overseas, including Indonesia and Thailand," he added.
Mininova Now Ranks Among Top 50 Sites
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
Today, Mininova reached another milestone by entering the list of fifty most visited websites on the Internet. Together with most other BitTorrent sites, Mininova has experienced some massive growth over the past year, which proves that BitTorrent's popularity continues to grow.
Making it to the top fifty websites on the Internet is impressive, especially if you consider that 9 out of 50 sites are local Google domains. Mininova currently ranks 46th; other sites included in the lists are Yahoo!, YouTube, Myspace, Wikipedia, and eBay.
To give an impression of how big it is, Mininova has well over 3,000,000 visits and 16,500,000 page-views per day, and this number is still growing.
Last month Mininova broke the 3 billion .torrent download barrier and we will probably see the 4 billionth download soon.
Niek, one of the founders of Mininova, told TorrentFreak that the increase in traffic is facilitated by new hardware that was recently installed. "The faster the site is, the more visitors we get," he said "However, more visitors make the site slower again, so we have to keep optimizing the site and hardware all the time."
Cisco and VeriSign Stocks Rise
Excerpted from Houston Chronicle Report
It was a choppy week for the tech sector, with some stocks regaining ground lost the week before.
Network equipment maker Cisco Systems, whose shares rose 4.8 percent during the week, on Friday increased the size of a share buyback plan by $10 billion, to $62 billion. The company had about 6.09 billion outstanding shares as of September 7th.
Elsewhere in the sector, VeriSign shares rose 9.8 percent over the week. The stock traded as high as $36.82 on Friday, its highest price in more than five years.
The company said on Wednesday that it plans to split into smaller companies. VeriSign is looking to sell divisions that aren't focused around its core products and services, which include managing the ".com" and ".net" domain name registry and securing online financial transactions and verifying consumers' identities on the web.
The company said the units it intends to sell include its communications business and a business that processes billing transactions for wireless providers.
Also during the week, Google - whose shares rose a week earlier - learned that European Union (EU) anti-trust regulators began an in-depth probe into the search engine operator's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of online ad broker DoubleClick. Regulators said their initial investigation showed the deal would raise competition concerns.
Our World Music Taps Blue Maze VCD
Music distributor Our World Music has released a new compilation album, Good Sounds, Volume 1, featuring top emerging soul, hip-hop, pop, and world music artists. Featured artists include Vassy, Little Brother, Kaze, Valencia Robinson, Peter Hadar, Kuku, Shae Fiol, and more. The album is being released as an online Virtual CD (VCD) with free music downloads while a hard-copy promotional CD will be distributed at select music venues.
This is all part of an evolving digital landscape, which is increasingly dependent on the Internet to drive new music promotion and distribution. According to Cedric Watkins of Our World Music, "Online promotion is now a primary way in which artists are exposed to new audiences."
The VCD, produced with Blue Maze Entertainment, is an emerging standard in online music and entertainment. The application is a digital representation of a physical CD (including artwork, jewel case and liner notes). Consumers are able to listen to music, view artwork and video, download tracks, and read about featured artists and songs. Evan Shapiro of Blue Maze Entertainment adds, "Working with Our World Music creates an exciting new release for neo-soul, hip-hop, and music fans."
House Bill on College Anti-Piracy Clears Committee
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
The US House Education and Labor Committee on Thursday approved a higher education bill that includes provisions urging schools to adopt anti-piracy programs on their campus networks.
However, it appears that the provisions - which include investigating "technology-based deterrents" to file-sharing and looking into alternative, legal download services - will not be directly tied to receiving federal financial aid.
"The provisions do ask colleges, to the extent practicable, to develop plans for offering students alternative legal ways to file share, as well as plans to prevent file sharing, but this would not be included in the financial aid program participation agreements colleges enter into with the US Department of Education," committee spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said.
"Contrary to what critics are saying, these provisions would not put students or colleges at risk for losing financial aid." The only provision that would be tied to financial aid is one that would require schools to inform users of their networks of "the policies and procedures related to the unauthorized downloading and distribution of copyrighted materials," Racusen said.
Still, some are skeptical that the bill won't provide some penalties for schools that don't adequately develop anti-piracy efforts. "If it had no teeth, the MPAA would be criticizing it," Gigi Sohn, President of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, said.
A similar bill was approved in the Senate this summer.
New Developments in P2P Incredible
Excerpted from Profy Report by Paul Glazowski
The latest bits of news to emerge about P2P file sharing are quite incredible. One involves a surprising play by an anti-net-neutrality party against a particular ISP's unsavory actions.
Another has to do with the RIAA and its seriously disturbing efforts to put into law - vicariously through American legislators, of course - a higher education bill that will give the recording industry the option to exercise power over the distribution of federal financial aid to universities and colleges based on the efforts (or lack thereof) of said educational institutions to halt P2P traffic on their networks and market industry-sanctioned alternatives to their respective student bodies.
Nate Anderson of Ars Technica reported the discovery of a letter sent by Hands off the Internet (HOTI), "a telco-backed group opposed to government network neutrality regulations," to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin essentially offering their support for an investigation into alleged BitTorrent blocking by Comcast, a US-based ISP.
Surprised? Count us among the amazed as well. Of course, if you look at the facts and scrutinize the basic mantra of "third-party" net neutrality proponents, it's evident that, logically speaking, they would indeed oppose outright measures to block digital traffic moving to and from various points on the web. Rather, they purport to promote prioritization, and ensure that those deemed operators of bandwidth-intensive applications and services be charged more for their usage than those entities that stream far fewer bits per second/minute/hour/day/month/year.
Nonetheless, it's quite astonishing that a group such as HOTI (if one didn't know any better, one could assume that an advocacy bloc with such a name were more "neutral" than not) would turn against its own, as it were. But alas, it has - though one might wonder whether
HOTI considers consumer groups' request for Comcast to be fined $195,000 for ever consumer affected by BitTorrent blocks legitimate or not.
The second item of this P2P double-whammy, involves a higher education bill (meaning it's yet to be put into law).
Spanning a total 750 pages in length with the most relevant points of controversy can be found at Sections 487 and 494, the bill "to amend and extend the Higher Education Act of 1965" is slated to enforce a proposition to stop university-based P2P traffic by way of a deeply troubling penal system.
That penal system, rather simply, involves stifling or halting completely the transfer of federal financial aid to uncooperative parties.
In short, any institution of higher education found not playing by the RIAA's rules, either through outright refusal or otherwise, could very well be shorted on aid payments. Which could spell insurmountable trouble for those institutions.
Never has a university been threatened with such a measure. Yes, the American higher-education-oriented financial aid system is a fluid one, involving malleable figures. But never has the entire university complex of the country had to face such a hurdle.
What's more, universities themselves haven't even yet been dealt a verdict holding them directly responsible for the actions of their students. Not such a vast national scale, anyway.
This bill won't be pushed through to law very easily, if at all. Perhaps if the RIAA manages to maintain a good deal of silence over the matter throughout the legislative process, and somehow keep it from the eyes of some particularly loud whistleblowers on Capitol Hill, it could, maybe see the light of day as official legal decree.
Want to stop the stupidity from moving further along in Washington? Let your Congressmen and/or Congresswomen know where you stand.
Coming Events of Interest
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.
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.
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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