November 10, 2008
Volume XXIV, Issue 3
Comcastic P4P: 80% Speed Boost for P2P Downloads
Excerpted from Ars Technica Report by Nate Anderson
Comcast engineers have just released the first-ever real-world data on P4P technology - and it appears to be a massive success. While only a trial, the results show that P4P's iTracker technology can increase P2P download speeds by 80% on ISP networks without materially increasing the network load.
P4P, which is being designed under the aegis of the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), is meant to "localize" peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers. P2P users generally grab data from all around the world, putting tremendous cost and bandwidth pressure on ISP peering and transit links with other networks.
P4P uses an iTracker server to keep those transfers within an ISP's own network when possible, with the goal of boosting speeds for users and lowering peering-point loads for ISPs.
Comcast engineers have filed the results of their first major P4P trial as an "Internet draft" with the IETF. The trial involved Pando Networks, Yale University, three other ISPs, and Comcast.
It used a special, Pando-provided P2P client that is set up to check in with "iTracker" servers when searching for download locations in a BitTorrent swarm. The test used a 21MB video file (which was licensed), and measured the results of using the P2P client in order to see how the use of iTrackers affected uploads and downloads.
Results were hugely positive. Compared to a random swarm, the use of any iTracker provided substantial speed boosts to Comcast network users, ranging from 57 to 85% above default behavior.
Further good news came from a close examination of the various iTrackers. The fine-grained tracker provided detailed topology information about Comcast's network, and it took significant time to set up. "It was a detailed mapping of Comcast backbone-connected network Autonomous System Numbers (ASN) to IP Aggregates which were weighted based on priority and distance from each other," says the report.
Win/win scenarios haven't been common in the P2P wars, and it's important to note that this was only a preliminary test. But if P4P shows the same promise in larger trials and if P2P clients start to embed the technology into their software, faster downloads and lower-traffic peering points could be had simply by running some inexpensive servers.
Global Budgets to Boost Online Advertising
Excerpted from MediaPost Report by Laurie Sullivan
Despite advertisers' cuts to traditional media budgets and a slowdown in the rate of growth, the total dollars spent on Internet advertising will continue to increase, according to a report from the Rubicon Project to be released this week.
The report suggests that millions of dollars are being shifted from traditional advertising budgets into online, and that web advertising has become a global industry no longer subject to any one country's economy. Please click here for the full report.
Former Major Label CEO Joins Brand Asset Digital Board
Brand Asset Digital (BAD), the distributed technologies company with a focus on P2P search marketing and efficient live streaming technology, announced this week that Jim Caparro, Founder and former CEO of EDC, Chairman/CEO of Island DefJam and Warner Music Group's WEA, has joined the company's Board of Advisors. Caparro is renowned as one of the entertainment industry's foremost distribution visionaries with a keen focus on technological evolution and consumer behavior.
Caparro has a history of pioneering new businesses with impeccable timing. He founded EDC Entertainment Distribution Company in 2004 as well as the Island DefJam Music Group in 1998, creating one of the largest and most profitable record labels in the industry. He was the Group's Chairman and CEO from 1999 to 2001. Prior to DefJam, Caparro created PolyGram Group Distribution, which under his leadership became one of the most respected full-service entertainment distribution companies in the US. He has also served as President and CEO of game-maker Atari.
"Jim is a master of distribution with over 25 years of experience in big picture thinking and business building. His grounding in digital distribution and new technology for the music industry further solidifies our P2Pwords product as a viable entertainment marketing platform. We are grateful to Jim for his close engagement and contributions to Brand Asset Digital," expressed Tim Hogan, Co-Founder & CEO of Brand Asset Digital.
Speaking about BAD's P2Pwords, the world's first and only Search Engine Marketing platform for P2P Search, Caparro stated: "Media is now digital, personal and controllable. Consumers are obtaining and configuring music and video on their terms and nothing will stop that. This shift in media consumption creates challenges for marketers and advertisers. The P2Pwords platform meets these challenges head-on and positions organizations to capitalize on new opportunities. P2Pwords(TM) will enable companies to significantly strengthen brand recognition and loyalty."
"As the entertainment industry comes to understand the vast potential of P2P, they'll see that the future of content distribution has already been decided by the P2P user community and that community is made accessible to them by P2Pwords. Brand Asset Digital's platform is the key to the commercialization of the next generation of the web," Caparro added.
"As one of the leading authorities on distribution of media, Jim Caparro brings an enormous amount of expertise to Brand Asset Digital," said Joey P., Co-founder of BAD. "When a product like P2Pwords makes it possible for companies to reach consumers where they want to be and on their terms, we've redefined digital media distribution. Since P2Pwords' successful launch, advertisers are now better able target and execute campaigns that build and enhance their relationship with customers."
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 With a great sense of hope for the future, we join the chorus congratulating US President-Elect Barack Obama on his campaign victory and offering support for his new administration.
According to INPUT's report on Technology in the Obama Administration, distributed computing will play a much more central role going forward, And as suggested by Diane Mermigas' insightful comments in her On Media report Media Needs Obama's Tech, Demo Savvy, there could be profound implications for the entertainment sector as well.
Following our report this week are a series of pieces raising key questions to be answered in the days ahead: How plugged-in is Obama on technology issues? What does the US election mean to cloud computing? Will we have copyright reform or chaos under Obama? What does the election mean for P2P file sharing? And what can marketers learn from Obama's campaign?
US Election 2008 - Implications for the Distributed Computing Industry, a live webinar on November 18th presented by Dow Lohnes exclusively for fellow DCIA Member companies and Working Group participants, will further address the issues of net neutrality, content filtering, contextual advertising, online privacy, Internet taxation, IP issues, and venture capital.
The Obama campaign, with its unprecedented grasp of Internet-related matters, "built an online momentum that shocked Clinton's handlers in the primaries and eventually rolled over McCain as well." We believe a new sensibility is coming to the US federal government that will take all of us out of our comfort zones.
We believe this can be a time for dramatic change in our industry. We have a new opportunity to address the one issue that, after eight years of failed initiatives, has continued to hold us back from realizing the full commercial potential of P2P: copyright infringement in open file-sharing applications.
Barack Obama understands that broadband produces a powerful multiplier for the economy and for investment. His campaign stressed the economy and growth and broadband is a big part of that.
Commercial offerings based on P2P technologies have grown from one to literally hundreds today. Against a backdrop of the US Supreme Court MGM v. Grokster decision and litigation settlements amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, there has been a dramatic shift from none to now the vast majority of such companies redistributing authorized content.
President-Elect Obama said, "We need to update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation, and investment while ensuring that intellectual property (IP) owners are fairly treated."
Indeed, with nearly two hundred organizations now actively involved in the DCIA as Member companies and/or Working Group participants, the percentage engaged in unfiltered content trading activity is now in the low single digits. This marks a reversal of the industry's profile at the inception of the DCIA in 2003. And many of these organizations support open-source technology.
Open-source technology makes government more transparent and interoperable, both characteristics that the President-Elect endorses. Barack Obama has sponsored multiple bills for government transparency and openness, both in Illinois and in the US Senate.
At the same time, technological innovations have expanded the breadth and depth of P2P offerings, such as content acceleration, caching, P2PTV, live P2P streaming, and most recently sophisticated peer-assisted hybrid content delivery networks (CDNs) and cloud computing.
Look what can be accomplished when diverse interests roll-up their sleeves to address potential problems, as exemplified by the collaboration of Internet service providers (ISPs) and P2P software distributors in the P4P Working Group (P4PWG), which this week will officially announce more of the astonishing results of its second round of field trials, in addition to those released by Comcast.
The percentage and absolute number of companies using P2P for authorized content redistribution have both skyrocketed in the last two years; and consumer adoption has helped P2P applications grow from virtually non-existent before 2000 to the largest aggregate category of Internet bandwidth utilization today.
But the relative amount of this traffic that is copyright-infringing has remained unacceptably high. Estimates place the number of unlicensed file transfers of copyrighted works now taking place each day from a low of hundreds of millions to a high of nearly two billion.
The entertainment industries have relied almost exclusively on enforcement efforts during the Bush administration to address this situation, but practically to no avail.
After legal sanctions against thirty-thousand consumers and several high-profile P2P company lawsuits, the number of file sharers continues steadily to increase as does the quantity and volume of their daily online transactions. And none of the post-litigation entertainment industry sanctioned filtered file-sharing services has yet achieved significant commercial success.
In an extreme example of the Paredo principle, while more than ninety percent of today's P2P software companies do not permit infringing traffic, more than ninety percent of consumer usage of P2P applications involves infringement.
What should be done at this juncture?
As Brand Asset Digital (BAD) affirms, we should "legitimize rather than stigmatize" the consumptive behavior of the legions of consumers using open file-sharing applications to discover new content - and monetize it. The sheer enormity of this untapped marketplace can make it even more lucrative than web search. And with P2PWords, BAD is, in fact, now bringing search ads to file sharing.
We ask that major content rights holders and their respective trade bodies join with us in a new cross-industry initiative narrowly focused on the issue of open file sharing. This will be the entertainment sector's equivalent of our highly successful P4P effort with the telecommunications sector.
Along with support for business models like BAD's - whether an industry-endorsed privatized compulsory-licensing model, a voluntary collective approach, or some other interim solution(s) to further monetize this traffic in a way that enables users - with a good-faith constructive approach, we should be able to generate substantial new revenue at the same time as helping the separately licensed ad-supported, subscription, and paid download P2P offerings to thrive.
Especially given a Democratic Congress, come January we will no doubt encounter a new technology policy that relies more on government subsidy and regulation than what we have had up until now. And while speculation mounts regarding who will be the nation's first "chief technology officer" and its initial "piracy czar," and even whether these roles will be merged into one, we should not wait to make private sector advances.
Above all, this week marked a rebirth of democracy, the culmination of an invigorating campaign that leveraged Internet-based technologies to foster a new spirit of involvement, enablement, and empowerment responsive to the needs of people for connectivity with their leaders.
Regardless of your political affiliation or your personal feelings about the President-Elect, it's important to acknowledge that the new administration will bring a much better understanding of the Internet and its awesome power to connect and effect change. Please join us in supporting this new direction. Share wisely, and take care.
How Plugged-In is Obama on Technology Issues?
Excerpted from Dow Jones Report by Fawn Johnson
US President-Elect Barack Obama is a fan of technology, but the attention his administration gives telecommunications and high-technology issues may well be overshadowed by his head-on confrontation of the global financial crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The incoming President of the United States this January will face the most difficult set of issues in terms of a nation's economic position of any President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt," said analyst Blair Levin, who worked at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Democratic Chairman Reed Hundt and was an early supporter of Obama.
Obama is a firm believer in high-speed Internet as a tool of change, which could drive early action in his administration toward blanketing the country with broadband networks.
For example, he favors giving government subsidies to Internet service providers (ISPs) that build networks in hard-to-reach areas. The idea has garnered bipartisan support in recent months, which may make it easier for the administration and Congress to take steps in that direction.
Obama favors more Internet regulation guaranteeing open access, a concept that sends shivers down the spines of large phone company executives. "The thing that scares the industry the most about a Democratic administration is regulating the one shining star that's working really, really well, and that's the Internet," said Sprint Nextel chief executive Dan Hesse.
Hesse and others who oppose net neutrality say putting restrictions on ISPs is dangerous because it thwarts innovation. Advocates for net neutrality say openness rules are essential for tapping the Internet's full potential.
Under the Obama administration, "Net neutrality will begin to be expressed in more definitive terms," predicted Douglas Jarrett, an FCC attorney with the law firm Keller & Heckman. But, he added, "You can't fault the commission for going on a case-by-case basis, because this is so new."
Obama's administration also is expected to pay closer attention to the consolidation of the media and subject merger proposals to harsher scrutiny.
Who Obama appoints as FCC chairman has been the subject of a Washington, DC, parlor game for months. Many of his closest advisors have worked at the FCC and in the telecom industry, but most aren't openly campaigning for the spot.
Obama could tap one of the current Democratic FCC commissioners - Jonathan Adelstein or Michael Copps - to be Chairman. Or he could ask one of those two to act as an interim Chairman in January while conducting a more thorough search for a permanent FCC head.
What Does the US Election Mean to Cloud Computing?
Excerpted from SYS-CON Media Report by Krishnan Subramanian
The technology blueprint of President-Elect Barack Obama, if implemented as promised, bodes well for the future of cloud computing. His proposals include:
Protecting the openness of the Internet: In other words, supporting net neutrality. This is crucial for innovation in the field of cloud computing and it is also very important for ensuring vendor diversity. In the absence of net neutrality, big vendors can easily crush smaller players and establish monopoly in the cloud computing marketplace including the SaaS marketplace.
Safeguarding our right to privacy: One of the biggest concerns for consumers and businesses when it comes to cloud computing is the issue of privacy. They are worried that their data will not be safe in the hands of cloud vendors, government might use the subpoena power to confiscate users' data, etc. By safeguarding our right to privacy, Barack Obama's administration can help remove this concern in the minds of users regarding putting their data on the clouds. Stronger regulations to protect the privacy of users' data will help develop the trust we need in the cloud computing marketplace.
Opening up government to its citizens and bringing the government to 21st century: In other words, this can also be construed as moving the government to the clouds. By moving important public government data to the cloud, it is possible to provide a more transparent form of government. This also helps in promoting a much wider adoption of cloud computing. If government can trust the cloud and put sensitive data on it, why not consumers, small businesses, and enterprises?
Deploying next generation broadband and extending it to every single American including those who live in rural areas: One of the important requirements for the success of cloud computing is the ubiquitous availability of broadband. If broadband is available everywhere in the country and if the providers are encouraged to offer much higher speeds with superior technologies, it is very easy for users to put their data in the cloud and use the SaaS apps from any part of the country. This will greatly enhance the adoption of cloud computing.
Broadly adopting standards-based health-record systems: This is nothing but a healthcare SaaS system. Companies like Google and Microsoft are already pushing such apps to the users. If the insurance companies and healthcare providers come on board and help put patients' data on the cloud, the way we do healthcare will change forever. It will help us get better healthcare as our data will always be accessible from anywhere in the country at anytime.
Developing and deploying climate-friendly energy: This will help drive the data-center costs down. A cheaper and climate friendly energy implies lower cost of deployment of cloud computing infrastructure. A lower cost of infrastructure means a much higher savings for the customers of cloud computing technologies. This also means a wider adoption of cloud computing in this country.
As is the case with any politician, we have to wait and see how effectively these policies are implemented.
Will We Have Copyright Reform or Chaos under Obama?
Excerpted from CD Freaks Report by Michael Hatamoto
The next President of the United States has an uphill climb when he takes over control of the country in January, with several different technology issues to deal with. Politics aside, tech industry analysts are speculating what impact Barack Obama will have in regards to copyright reform and other key tech issues.
Although Senator John McCain touted the need for copyright enforcement in the United States, Obama called for updating and reforming our copyright and patent systems.
Silicon Valley and other tech-friendly voters seemed to agree more with Obama's stance on issues, although we'll have to wait and see what he does. Only time will tell what kind of copyright strategy Obama will use, as he has been overly vague regarding his desire to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
When asked while campaigning if allowing content owners to make a legal backup of a computer game or DVD after purchase, he said he would back a DMCA change "in concept."
Regarding file sharing, Obama wishes to broaden the amount of online privacy Internet users have, which could lead to interesting times with the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
On a global scale, Obama realizes that China is a major copyright offender, and more enforcement is needed to combat the problem. Along with China, it'll be interesting to see how he deals with Russia and other eastern European nations, where piracy is rampant and continues to grow at a mind-boggling rate.
Even though issues relating to technology are important for a lot of people, the US has more pressing matters, and it is unknown when, if ever, Obama will worry about the DMCA, copyright infringement, and file sharing, and other issues discussed in the tech world.
What Does the Election Mean for P2P File Sharing?
Excerpted from Zeropaid Report
From BitTorrent throttling to net neutrality, it's important to see where our President-Elect stands so that we know what to expect in the future.
"Because most Americans only have a choice of only one or two broadband carriers, carriers are tempted to impose a toll charge on content and services, discriminating against websites that are unwilling to pay for equal treatment," read his position as initially outlined in Barack Obama on Technology and Innovation.
"Barack Obama supports the basic principle that network providers should not be allowed to charge fees to privilege the content or applications of some websites and Internet applications over others," the paper continues. "This principle will ensure that the new competitors, especially small or non-profit speakers, have the same opportunity as incumbents to innovate on the Internet and to reach large audiences."
It appeared that Obama was firmly on the side of an Internet that wouldn't single out certain sites or applications simply because they may use more bandwidth than others. This was good news for BitTorrent and other P2P file-sharing application users.
From Senator Obama's website: "Protect the Openness of the Internet - A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet. Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices. They have a right to receive accurate and honest information about service plans. But these guarantees are not enough to prevent network providers from discriminating in ways that limit the freedom of expression on the Internet."
This past September, however, the Obama campaign somewhat revised its technology positions after announcing that Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) would be his running mate. In response to concerns raised about this change, an Obama campaign representative responded, "There is absolutely no substantive change to our policy - folks who want more information can click here to get our full plan."
Joe Biden has been a longtime supporter of entertainment industry interests, most notably in 2002, when he asked the Justice Department to take a tougher stance on copyright infringers. His other more noteworthy efforts included the PROTECT Act of 2003. Another bill sponsored by Biden last year would limit how consumers would be able to record and play back digital content. Most telling is that he co-founded and co-chairs the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, which includes over 70 members from both houses of Congress, including former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton.
The next indication of where our country's technology policies are headed and to what extant Obama will fulfill his campaign pledges will be exemplified through the cabinet appointments he makes after taking his oath of office. With the new President also appointing a Piracy Czar, thanks to the recently enacted Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act (PRO-IP Act), we can only hope that Obama chooses the best minds in their respective fields.
What Can Marketers Learn From Obama's Campaign?
Excerpted from MediaPost Report
Al Ries' lead in his Ad Age column this morning is no less than: "November 4, 2008, will go down in history as the biggest day ever in the history of marketing."
While Hillary Clinton and John McCain tailored messages around the idea that they were "better," Obama held steady with the only positioning that really works in marketing. He was "different."
"When you're different, you can pre-empt the concept in consumers' minds so your competitors can never take it away from you," Reis maintains. Throughout the campaign, Obama focused like a laser beam on one simple, consistent and relevant promise: "change."
His competitors, as do many marketers, floundered with an ever-changing, laundry list of slogans. They were just like Pepsi, which has changed its slogans as often as its CMOs since 1975, but is still the No. 2 cola brand. BMW, in contrast, has been "the ultimate driving machine for 33 years and has zoomed from No. 11 in the US market to No. 1.
Reis also reminds us that the NY Times Magazine ran a cover story about John McCain's campaign on October 26th titled "The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate," and that Ad Age last month named Obama its "Marketer of the Year."
Included in the latter story is an observation about Obama's savvy media strategy from Business Week columnist Jon Fine: "It's the F-n' Web 2.0 thing."
Obama's Victory Speech Does Well on BitTorrent
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
Within 24 hours of President-elect Barack Obama delivering his victory speech to the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Chicago, IL, another hundred thousand gathered in a BitTorrent swarm to download a copy of the historic event.
The 2008 presidential campaign in the United States has been without doubt one of the most memorable in history. Already, Obama's victory speech has become a collector's item. A day after he was elected, his acceptance speech has been downloaded well over 100,000 times from various BitTorrent sites.
The most popular copy of the speech comes from the leading TV-torrent distribution group, EZTV. Novaking, one of the admins at EZTV said that they simply couldn't ignore this historic presidential election. "It would have been idiotic for us not to supply it," he said. EZTV had also distributed copies of the debates, but the demand for these didn't come close to that of Obama's victory speech.
Interest in the speech was not simply limited to the United States. A more detailed look at the geographical location of the people who downloaded the file via BitTorrent, shows that more than half of them come from outside the United States. However, the remaining 46.2% is a significantly greater share for US downloaders than for the average TV-show release.
Although the number of downloads for Obama's speech was way above that of an average TV show, it didn't come close to the numbers of the Olympic opening ceremonies earlier this year. Despite the massive file size of 5GB, the opening ceremonies were downloaded over a million times, mostly by Chinese.
The Vote: A Victory for Social Media, Too
Excerpted from Business Week Report by Arik Hesseldahl
The 2008 contest for the White House may go down in history as the first social media election. How else to explain the unprecedented role the web played in this Presidential contest, an influence scarcely imaginable just four years ago? In 2004 many social networking sites were just getting off the blocks.
It's not just that individual voters had access to a wider range of information about candidates and their positions on issues. Unlike in any other Presidential election, the electorate could harness a panoply of social media tools - blogs, social networks, photo, and video-sharing sites - to broadcast to the world their thoughts about the candidates and their experiences of the electoral process.
Voters' willingness to bring the democratic process to the web was made most plain on November 4th. While the act of voting has traditionally been considered a private activity, on this Election Day voters enthusiastically parted the voting booth curtain to share their experiences on the Internet.
Some wanted to advertise their support of a particular candidate or ballot measure. Others saw it as a chance to shine a light on flaws inherent to the election process. Whatever the reason, phone cameras and other multimedia devices were common at polling places, as many voters felt compelled to make a record of their experience in pictures and video and then upload and share them.
Many of their images recorded the unique characteristics of the 2008 election: huge numbers of young people and minorities casting ballots - some for the first time. Voters also encountered longer than usual lines. Many voters used social media sites simply to celebrate the voting process with friends.
Social media also made it easy for some voters to express their frustration with aspects of the electoral process. "I bet we'll see stories on election irregularities broken via social networks," said Josh Bernoff, a Vice President at Forrester Research.
Anyone surveying the digital political landscape would have to be struck by the apparent strength of Democrats online. A Forrester report from last December found Democrats to be at least 10% more likely to participate in all forms of online social activity than the average US adult. Yet even though fewer Republicans bother to consume social media than Democrats, nearly half of GOP members are social media regulars, Forrester found.
LimeWire 5.0 Introduces Social Features
Excerpted from LA Times Report by Jon Healey
LimeWire announced a new version of its popular file-sharing software today, advancing the company's vision of its software as a platform for services, not just a gateway to the Gnutella network. Clearly, the major record companies' lawsuit hasn't stopped the company from trying to develop its business - or pushing P2P to higher levels of functionality.
One of the main upgrades in the new version - due later this year - is the addition of social-networking features. Users will be able to create their own private file-sharing networks with friends and/or family members, with greater control over what gets shared with whom.
In a recent interview, Kevin Bradshaw, LimeWire's Chief Operating Officer, described it as the ability to create a "personal publishing platform" that delivers photos to family members or homework assignments to students.
Members can push items to each other through these networks and can watch what others in the group are sharing and experiencing, said Nathan Lovejoy, LimeWire's product manager. Those features should help make LimeWire, which has been mainly a tool for "directed search" (i.e., looking for and finding specific things), a more effective way to discover new content, Bradshaw said.
LimeWire's enormous audience is enough to also prod some content owners to focus on the opportunities. The company claims the software is downloaded 350,000 times daily, with 80-to-100 million users per month and 5 million at any given moment.
Its 8-month-old music store - an appendage to the LimeWire software, not a node on the network - has the support of two major indie-music aggregators (IODA and The Orchard) and a Viacom subsidiary (Comedy Central). Eventually, Lovejoy said, the company will try "to drive the right people to the right files" at the store, but today it's focused mainly on just making the store work. LimeWire is also exploring ways to monetize search by putting sponsored items into users' search results, although Brand Asset Digital beat it to the punch on that score.
Still, LimeWire may be racing the clock here. Online traffic counters say downloading is giving way to streaming as the consumption model of choice. Nevertheless, its enormous audience gives LimeWire considerable momentum. It's the tool millions of people use to acquire content, and the new version could attract even more.
European Broadcasting Union Recommends P2P Streaming
In 2006 the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decided to do an in-depth investigation of available P2P solutions. In the newly published final report, the technical department of the EBU concludes that Octoshape's solution is "scalable, reliable, and easy to manage."
In 2006, the technical department of the EBU set up a project to investigate P2P streaming by summarizing member experiences, hold conferences, and conduct trials. EBU is the largest broadcaster organization in the world with more than 100 members, including BBC and reaching an audience of 650 million people weekly.
In addition to solving the scalability and cost problem, Octoshape's unique solution also increases quality, as it eliminates buffering and plays instantly all the while using multiple point fail-over systems and source signal stabilization technology:
"We are exceptionally surprised by the high-session duration for the stream that further indicated a very high quality streaming experience without any interruptions." said Asaad Bagharib, Senior Vice-President of Mediacorp Technologies, having used the Octoshape solution to stream the Olympics in HD (2.5 mbps).
The main motivation for the investigation was the high cost of content delivery, and the wish to deliver high quality streaming to large audiences.
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), the largest non-sporting event in Europe, was hosted by a traditional CDN supplier in 2005. One of the major problems found with that solution was the high cost, which was explicitly mentioned in that year's report. As of 2006, Octoshape has powered the webcasts from the ESC to larger audiences (millions) than ever reached with traditional solutions.
"With the Octoshape P2P solution we are able to make our members content accessible to a large international audience on a low cost basis" said Nicoletta Iacobacci, Head of Eurovision TV Interactive.
Background information on the trial and the experiences gathered has been summarized in the newly published EBU Technical Review 2008-3, "Technical Trial of the EBU P2P Media Portal", by Franc Kozamernik, Senior Engineer at the EBU and Secretary of the EBU P2P investigation group. The report concludes that all requirements were successfully met.
"The main conclusion of the trial is that Octoshape is an excellent Internet distribution system for carrying audio and video streams to PC users. The system is scalable, reliable, easy to manage and interoperable with a number of codecs, operating systems, browsers and geolocation systems" the report states.
Ignite Technologies Leverages P2P for the Enterprise
Everyone now knows the power of video within the enterprise. Today's rich media, whether it's a live broadcast of a CEO town hall meeting, training modules with embedded audio and graphics, or video customer testimonials, offers a new way to capture the interest of employees.
Don't let technical hurdles such as bandwidth limit getting out a media rich message. Companies today are turning to Ignite Technologies to make sure they get the message.
With Ignite, anyone can send content to one person or a group by geographic region, department or function; track and report on who viewed the content and when; attach surveys and get feedback from employees.
Content can be viewed in the office, out of the office, at scheduled times or on demand; and podcasts can be delivered to mobile employees literally anywhere.
With Ignite, organizations can stage content to be viewed at one time around the globe; content can be expired when no longer valid; and emergency messages can be prioritized to be viewed immediately.
Please click here to learn more about content delivery using Ignite Technologies' advanced solutions.
BitTorrent Appoints New CEO
BitTorrent, the global standard technology for the delivery of rich media on the Internet, this week announced the appointment of Eric Klinker as the company's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). As a well-respected and recognized technologist, Klinker brings more than two decades of networking, content delivery, and management experience to BitTorrent. Klinker was also appointed to BitTorrent's Board of Directors.
"BitTorrent has revolutionized the way publishers and users distribute and consume rich media on the Internet and has an active user community with an install base north of 170 million clients around the world," said Eric Klinker, CEO of BitTorrent. "In my new role, I look forward to working with our management team to further propel BitTorrent's technology adoption, capitalize on the company's growth opportunities, and drive value for our robust ecosystem of partners, which includes consumers, content owners, hardware makers, software developers and network operators."
Klinker has served as the company's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) since Q2 2007 and has been instrumental to the continued development of the BitTorrent client, BitTorrent's Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA) content delivery service, BitTorrent's Software Development Kit (SDK), and BitTorrent's proprietary advanced congestion control technology.
The latter has been at the center of BitTorrent's influential discussions and well-publicized collaboration with Comcast Corporation as it seeks to deploy a protocol-agnostic network management solution. BitTorrent is active inside the global standards body for the Internet, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), to standardize this technology and allow other peer-to-peer (P2P) providers to leverage its profound benefits to both consumers and network partners.
"Eric is the right leader for BitTorrent," said Ping Li, partner at Accel Partners and BitTorrent Board Member. "Eric possesses the right combination of technology expertise and management experience. As a known innovator, he has what it takes to maintain, if not enhance, BitTorrent's status as the world's leading P2P technology provider and to drive even greater value for its global community of users, including end consumers, software developers, content publishers, hardware manufacturers, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs)."
David Chao, BitTorrent Board Member and co-founder at DCM, added, "Eric has a proven track record and has demonstrated clear leadership at the company since he joined, helping to lead BitTorrent's world-class engineering team and provide strategic vision for the company."
VIPeers Introduces Free BitTorrent Hosting
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
VIPeers has launched a new and totally free BitTorrent hosting service. With VIPeers, everyone can easily share large files up to 5 GB with as many people as they wish, without having to seed it themselves. The service can be best described as a mash-up between one-click hosting sites like Rapidshare and BitTorrent.
Although millions of people use BitTorrent on a daily basis, only a few are actually publishing content. When someone wants to share a large video file or a couple of photos, Rapidshare and similar file hosting services are often preferred.
With VIPeers, this might change, since it is one of the few sites that makes it really easy to share files over BitTorrent. The service eliminates the need to create a .torrent file, add trackers, and seed the file - which people often find cumbersome. All you need to do is use the web-based uploader, point to the file you want to share on your computer, and VIPeers takes care of the rest.
The whole process works very intuitively, and even people who have never heard of trackers, seeds or peers will be able use it without running into trouble. When the file has been uploaded to VIPeers, it will show a list of sharing options, including a direct link to the .torrent file. You can send this link to the people you want to share the file with, or upload the torrent file to any other BitTorrent site if you don't mind making it public.
In addition, VIPeers offers "widgets" for blogs, forums and other websites to make it even more easy to share files. The other option is to include a link to the download page, which also has a direct download link, and a link to download it via Podmailing.
VIPeers' Louis Choquel said that he has seen the highest speed with BitTorrent downloads, especially when more people are downloading the file. Another advantage of using BitTorrent is that the torrent can live on indefinitely. "The duration of hosting is limited to a maximum of 3 months. But after that, we continue tracking the torrent so that the swarm can live on and enable people to continue downloading it, even though it's not on our server anymore," Choquel said.
Jamendo Provides Free, Legal Downloads
Excerpted from Virginia Tech Report by Jonathan Yi
Jamendo (note the portmanteau of jam and crescendo) is a multi-dimensional music platform that offers free access and downloads of music tracks, published under Creative Commons licenses.
Based in Luxembourg and now making its way stateside, this community gives the artists the unique option of providing access to their music for free to users - all available to stream and download straight to music players. It fuses the file-sharing capabilities of Napster with artist control, accessible through websites similar to Pure Volume or MySpace.
So far, the site has 7,000 artists with more than 60,000 albums uploaded. It can be downloaded free via BitTorrent or eMule. Although fairly unfamiliar to the American front, Jamendo has received heavy advertising through YouTube and personal blogs. With such an international twist, the website is still growing stateside, with only around 380 American artists.
Miami University student Kylie Mooney, a junior liaison representative for the Jamendo marketing department, is trying to angle the website toward college students.
"We target both musicians and listeners, but primarily our task is to get it out there to American listeners," said Mooney. "It's great to be able to download music under the Creative Common License, a great alternative to paying 99 cents on iTunes."
As an artist this is good news. The Creative Commons license defines that you will always have authorization over your work, remain its author and keep all rights. Oh, and you get paid.
Ever since January 2007, Jamendo has provided an advertising revenue sharing model for artists. This means Jamendo lets artists keep 50% of the generated revenue.
"For a band, the website is great; you sign up, upload your music, it's free to download and people can post reviews," Mooney said. "There are many bands that have gained popularity on Jamendo and some have gone on tour."
The website also includes a ranking system and a remarkable recommendation system similar to Pandora. User ratings directly affect the visibility of well-received music on the site and it's easy to browse by keyword other people's customized playlists.
Tremendous collections of statistics are available on listener's demographics and download counts - all made possible by the Jamendo community who voluntarily add a little to the tip jar.
Store and Share Your Digital Content
Excerpted from Enterpriser Report
The Buffalo LinkStation Live is a solution for storing and sharing large amounts of digital content from any web browser. This NAS Solution has a built-in torrent client - a program that downloads files using a P2P file-sharing communication protocol.
With its built-in BitTorrent client, LinkStation can download content without the requirement to keep PCs powered up. A user can store content from network computers or using the one-touch direct copy function that is a means of taking pictures or movies from digital cameras, camcorders, and storage devices via a USB port directly.
Stored data can be shared on networks and a built-in Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) media server can stream it to a PC, a MAC, and other DLNA certified entertainment devices.
The web access feature of this product enables users to access data and media stored in the LinkStation via the Internet by computers and iPhones. LinkStation Live's built-in print server can also print documents from anywhere on one's network. Its setup does not require drivers and supports UPS connectivity via USB port.
BreakingPoint: Encrypted P2P Traffic at 10 Gbps
Excerpted from TMCnet Report by Raju Shanbhag
Ever since Napster started a phenomenon called P2P networking a few years ago, many Internet users have taken up some kind of file sharing. In a recent announcement, BreakingPoint Systems said P2P has a tendency to overload networks already strained by high-bandwidth traffic. This puts a direct pressure on the network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and service providers to supply equipment that can withstand this traffic.
BreakingPoint announced support for encrypted BitTorrent P2P traffic and claimed that this enables realistic testing for network equipment. The company has covered the P2P programs such as eDonkey, BitTorrent, Gnutella, and 60 other application protocols in the past. This gives NEMs and service providers the much-needed ability to test network devices using indigenously produced P2P application traffic.
In the vast sea of P2P networks, service providers often struggle to save the network traffic from malware or inappropriate P2P traffic. To provide better quality of experience (QoE), service providers are deploying devices that enhance performance and make sure that the show runs as planned.
With BreakingPoint's solution, NEMs and service providers can test network equipment with the help of P2P traffic accelerated to 10 Gigabits per second and faster. Recently, the company also provided extensive security tests for Microsoft's Patch.
RIAA Nemesis Defends Blog
Excerpted from Online Examiner Report by Wendy Davis
Ray Beckerman has been such a thorn in the side of the RIAA that the organization recently asked a court to sanction him for "vexatious" conduct in defending people the group has sued.
Beckerman's blog, Recording Industry vs. The People, where he posts publicly available motions in lawsuits involving the organization, especially troubled the RIAA. "Defendant's counsel has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs," the group wrote in its motion for sanctions.
This week, Beckerman fired back with an answer charging the RIAA with attempting to keep its litigation efforts as secretive as possible. "Plaintiffs' counsel are not candid about their real problem with the blog, which is that its existence interferes with their tactic of attempting to conceal the litigation events and prior inconsistent statements that they don't want others to know about from judges, litigants and law enforcement authorities."
The RIAA has sued or threatened to sue nearly 30,000 individuals for file-sharing. Many agreed to pay around $3,000-$5,000 to settle the allegations rather than risk a potentially ruinous lawsuit. Others chose to fight the charges but without counsel.
Beckerman's blog about the various lawsuits has helped rally an overworked defense bar. By posting information about legal tactics in one central location, Beckerman has made it easier for lawyers across the country to fight accusations of piracy - some of which have turned out to be unfounded.
With his blog, he's performed a valuable public service - one that would have been far more difficult even 10 years ago, before the Web 2.0 revolution made it easy for anyone to self-publish online. That the RIAA would think it's okay to ask for sanctions based on a blog shows just how reactionary the record industry has become.
The Pirate Bay: 22 Million Peers Worldwide
Excerpted from Digital Music News Report
BitTorrent giant The Pirate Bay now claims a massive user base of 22 million, up from 8 million just one year ago.
The Swedish company, a longtime nemesis of major media companies, hoisted the updated tally on Thursday. "We would like to thank all the great and persistent uploaders that dedicate time to share," the company blogged. "Together: uploaders, seeders, leechers, mods and admins, we are The Pirate Bay."
The claims could be challenged, though the Bay is clearly a massive force. And, if the figures are accurate, they represent a major shift towards BitTorrent-based, massive file-trading and acquisition, as well as a widening piracy problem for major studios.
Of course, it also spells a worsening problem for major labels, especially as music fans gobble larger helpings of complete albums, discographies, and artist DVDs. The increase may also trigger a broader level of enforcement and legal action against the Bay and similar BitTorrent trackers, especially as Hollywood becomes more threatened by the issue.
Coming Events of Interest
Optimizing Security and Carrier Network Performance - A live webinar event on November 12th at 2:00 PM ET sponsored by CloudShield and IBM. Presenters will include Bill Scull, Vice President of Marketing, CloudShield. The webinar is open to all and free to any interested attendees who register.
US Election 2008 - Implications for the Distributed Computing Industry - A live webinar on November 18th presented by Dow Lohnes exclusively for DCIA Member companies and Working Group participants. Topics will include net neutrality, content filtering, contextual advertising, online privacy, Internet taxation, IP issues, and venture capital - carried interest.
Future of Television Conference - November 18th-19th in New York, NY. Now in its 8th year, a 2-day executive conference, unlike any other, that brings together key decision-makers from cable and broadcast networks, cable and satellite operators, high-tech, Internet, mobile and advertising to focus on the future of television.
P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LV - January 7th 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. This DCIA flagship event is a Conference within CES - the Consumer Electronics Show.
International CES - January 8th-11th in Las Vegas, NV. With more than four decades of success, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) reaches across global markets, connects the industry and enables CE innovations to grow and thrive. CES is produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the consumer technology industry.
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