December 29, 2008
Volume XXIV, Issue 10
Start the New Year with the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT
Featuring global industry experts on today's most advanced digital distribution technologies, the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT is the best investment you can make at the start of the new year to learn about upcoming developments for 2009 and beyond.
This second annual DCIA Conference-within-CES is coming to Las Vegas, NV, next Wednesday January 7th.
The most cost-effective way to attend the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT is with an all-access pass to the 2009 International CES, which includes the summit at no extra charge.
DCIA Members now offer solutions for content delivery networks (CDNs), network operators, client applications, content providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and other participants in the rapidly emerging digital distribution marketplace. Several important industry announcements will be made at the summit.
The P2P MEDIA SUMMIT offers a dozen keynote addresses; policy, technology, and marketing tracks; plus panels on content distribution, solutions development, and best practices. There will be a continental breakfast, conference luncheon, and VIP networking reception.
Registration can be done online here or by calling 410-476-7965. For sponsor packages, please contact Karen Kaplowitz, DCIA Member Services, at 888-890-4240 or karen@dcia.info.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 We look forward with great anticipation to 2009, which promises to be a breakthrough year for P2P, cloud computing, P2PTV, live P2P streaming, grid computing, peer-assisted hybrids, and other innovative implementations of distributed computing.
This will be a time of dramatic growth for our industry.
We also have a new opportunity to address the one issue that has continued to hold us back from realizing the full commercial potential of P2P technologies: copyright infringement in open file-sharing applications.
Commercial P2P offerings have grown from one to literally hundreds today. And there has been a dramatic shift from none to now the vast majority of such companies not only redistributing authorized content over the Internet, but also, increasingly, being deployed in enterprise and other institutional environments.
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.
Consider 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 software distributors (P2Ps) in the P4P Working Group (P4PWG), which will present its latest achievements at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT Conference-within-CES next week.
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.
Despite legal sanctions against thirty-five-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.
How can we change this in 2009?
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.
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.
The DCIA is very hopeful that this will dramatically accelerate the commercial development of a robust distribution channel, having consistently worked, since our inception, to advance content provider interests in the P2P marketplace.
Examples include sponsoring demonstrations of P2P digital rights management (DRM), interdiction, and filtering solutions; initiating projects like the P2P Revenue Engine (P2PRE); conducting working groups such as the P2P Digital Watermark Working Group (PDWG); and producing special events like this Fall's P2P & MUSIC CONFERENCE at PopKomm and P2P & VIDEO CONFERENCE at Digital Hollywood Fall - all for the benefit of content providers.
To date, DCIA Content Group Membership has been comprised of progressive and forward-thinking independent music labels, video producers, and games publishers, as well as technologically adept individual artists. But more established media entities are now also considering the value of participation, an option that was not even possible until recently.
DCIA Membership benefits have never been greater nor have dues been more attractively priced than now for content providers to join the DCIA. For instance, DCIA Member companies are entitled as a privilege of their Membership to participate in DCIA-sponsored working groups, as well as to call for the establishment of new working groups.
There can be no question that commercial development will proceed most productively for all stakeholders if each representative group actively participates. That is the reason the DCIA was originally conceived with three equal Membership Groups - for Content, Operations, and Platform interests.
The DCIA Content Group must be as fully developed and have as prominent a role and voice as the other two key groups we have worked to help align - the Operations and Platform Groups - comprised of distributed computing software distributors (P2Ps) and Internet service providers (ISPs), respectively.
Content providers, from major motion picture studios and record labels, to television and radio programmers, to independent producers and singer-songwriters, are cordially welcomed and strongly encouraged to join the DCIA in 2009.
Take advantage of this opportunity to directly provide leadership and direction to our rapidly emerging industry. Help drive and accelerate progress towards the end that we all want, a robust P2P marketplace where every content transaction is monetized according to terms-and-conditions stipulated by its rights holders. Share wisely, and take care.
AT&T Encouraged by Early Indications from Obama Team
Excerpted from Investor's Business Daily Report by Reinhardt Krause
James Cicconi, AT&T's Senior Executive Vice President for External and Legislative Affairs, is optimistic about how the industry can work with new faces at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as well as a new cabinet-level Chief Technology Officer (CTO) President-Elect Obama plans to appoint.
And Cicconi says there might be some upside for AT&T in Obama's economic stimulus package, which is expected to support investment in broadband Internet infrastructure. Cicconi says that the FCC's existing "broadband principles," which lay out consumer Internet rights, are sufficient. Cicconi spoke with IBD about the new administration's agenda.
IBD: What trends do you see?
Cicconi: While the current administration basically punted on many of the key policy issues to the FCC to formulate, I suspect this administration, with Congress, will develop the policies, and then the FCC will implement them. The FCC is really designed to be a regulatory and enforcement agency. I'm encouraged that President-Elect Obama is focusing on big policy issues, such as a national broadband strategy.
IBD: What do you expect will happen with the new CTO position?
Cicconi: My sense is they're still fleshing out the CTO role. It appears to be oriented toward coordination. It may entail some policymaking, but they need to make sure it doesn't overlap with current government offices and agencies, such as the US Office of Science and Technology. Of course, it needs to be invested with some real authority to have an impact.
IBD: There's been a lot of talk about including some broadband infrastructure aspects in the economic stimulus package. Will that happen?
Cicconi: It remains to be seen. The Obama transition team is reaching out to everyone - business leaders, policy advocates, and other stakeholders - for thoughts and ideas. What is clear is that President-Elect Obama is sincerely looking to stimulate the economy and jobs.
IBD: Will this stimulus package include tax or other types of incentives to encourage service providers to provide more broadband?
Cicconi: These are the types of decisions they will have to make. A lot of ideas have been floated.
IBD: But are they more interested in bringing broadband service to rural, unserved areas? Or are they more interested in something like bringing faster broadband to consumers?
Cicconi: President-Elect Obama has been very public about ensuring all Americans are connected to a modern communications infrastructure. So we would expect his focus to include bringing broadband to unserved areas, as well as addressing the various issues on why citizens do not subscribe to broadband when it is available.
AT&T can assist in those efforts, as we are investing billions to make broadband access available and affordable. We hope that whatever mix is arrived at, that it will be technology-neutral and allow competition to drive innovation and consumer benefits.
IBD: Is there a concern that there will be more regulatory approaches to assuring a completely open Internet, or what's called net neutrality, which in some respects pits content providers against content distributors such as AT&T?
Cicconi: Not necessarily. We think, overall, the differences between the sides have narrowed. There's near-universal support for the FCC broadband principles. AT&T has been a long supporter of the principles, which aim to ensure an open Internet. And there is bite behind them. The FCC recently acted to punish a provider that was behaving outside the principles to manage network traffic. More importantly, there's more understanding on both sides.
IBD: What is still unresolved?
Cicconi: The debate now is whether anything more is needed beyond the FCC's broadband principles. Our view is that the FCC is fully capable of deciding, on a case-by-case basis, the zone of reasonable network management.
IBD: So, AT&T wants the status quo?
Cicconi: We feel the FCC has struck the right balance. The important thing is that the FCC's broadband principles are flexible enough to identify and rectify the abuses, while still allowing for companies to manage and invest in next-generation broadband networks. Some proposals out there would, unfortunately, chill the investments needed.
IBD: Is there a risk, from AT&T's point of view, of new legislation in this area, or that the FCC will become more active?
Cicconi: The concern is either (lawmakers or the FCC) will enact extreme measures (set new neutrality rules). Again, the FCC has struck the right balance. It has the flexibility to punish abuses, while allowing for companies to invest in networks. If it is proven that the FCC's principles are inadequate, the FCC could move to address (that) through the normal regulatory process, or clearly Congress could move. But we believe that it would not be wise to inject any uncertainty into this sector, which is investing and building next-generation networks and providing a platform for continued innovation.
IBD: What regulatory environment at the FCC do you expect under an Obama administration?
Cicconi: There will be different points of emphasis. And much will depend on who he appoints to the commission.
IBD: Will FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, one of the two Democratic holdovers, be named the interim FCC chairman?
Cicconi: In my years in Washington, I've learned it's rarely wise to speculate on Presidential decisions you'll have nothing to do with.
Cisco's Best Practices: Keeping Partners Satisfied
Excerpted from CRN Report
If only more vendors knew how to treat their value-added resellers (VARs), partner satisfaction scores would be through the roof. Unfortunately, some vendors have gotten lost in the process, with the end result being a disjointed solution provider program, communication efforts that rely primarily on newsletters, and revenue enhancement programs that amount to next to nothing.
However, not all vendors are clueless; the cream always rises to the top - and generally gets noticed. Cisco Systems is one vendor always singled out for praise by its partners.
Keith Goodwin, Senior Vice president of Cisco's Worldwide Channels organization discusses the best practices that have led to his company's successful partnerships.
Although it sounds intuitive that a vendor would take its partner profitability seriously, that's not always the case. Cisco focuses on top-line growth that helps partners not only grow revenue but also ensures that they have margin and profitability.
"We made changes several years ago when it became apparent that if we were going to invest in new technology, it had to improve profits for partners to invest in it," said Goodwin, who is responsible for the strategy supporting Cisco's business with more than 40,000 channel partners. "We looked at how they generate profitability and margin, and we launched programs to address those areas."
The Value Incentive Program (VIP) was one product of Cisco's internal evaluation. It's directly aimed at building profit and margin around unified communications wireless security. The vendor has written checks to partners for more than $2 million worth of training.
"Any partner you ask will say VIP supports profitability," Goodwin said.
Cisco partners in the Annual Report Card gave the vendor the highest marks in the Revenue Profit Potential criterion, beating the average industry competition in Wireless Infrastructure, VoIP, SMB Networking Hardware, Network Security Appliances, and Network Infrastructure.
According to Goodwin, partners recognize that Cisco has put effort into honing its communication, and often say Cisco is a good listener. For example, the company hosts Partner Executive Exchange twice annually over a three-day period.
"We use those forums to shape strategies, through forums and initiatives. We came up with VIP, but partners shaped the details of that program.
We use forums to shape ideas. But we also get responses to questions like, 'What can we do to help you grow faster?'" Goodwin said. "Last year, I got a consistent answer. Talent. So we're helping them find and develop talent."
According to VARs surveyed in the Annual Report Card, Cisco communicates well with its partners. Respondents gave the vendor the highest marks in the Communication criterion, beating out average industry competition in the category, in Wireless Infrastructure, VoIP, SMB Networking Hardware, and Network Infrastructure.
Partners want a program they can trust will lead them into providing the "next big thing" for customers, with a certain degree of support.
"We led the transition to the IP world. We led the transformation to Voice over IP and unified communications," Goodwin noted. "Today, we are leading with collaboration."
Vendors that lead technological transitions and have solid partner programs supporting that leadership position, are able to accelerate growth as markets move from startup to acceleration. "We want to enable partners to be in a position to take advantage of that acceleration. That's where the margin and profit are," Goodwin said. "We build channel programs to support partners to do that."
Cisco's Solution Provider program is well received by its channel. VARs surveyed for the Annual Report Card, gave Cisco the highest scores in the Solution Provider criterion, besting average industry competition in the following categories: Wireless Infrastructure, VoIP, SMB Networking Hardware, and Network Infrastructure.
Veoh in International Partnership
Excerpted from SocalTech Report
Veoh Networks, the industry leading provider of P2PTV video-sharing services, said this week that it has entered into a partnership with Axel Springer Digital TV Guide.
According to Veoh, Axel Springer is in a strategic international partnership with the firm, specifically in Germany. The deal includes both Axel Springer Media Impact, an advertising sales division of Axel Springer, as well as links to Axel Springer's electronic program guides (EPGs) and a service called "My Personal TV DIGITAL."
Veoh is venture backed by Shelter Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Tornante Company, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Intel Capital, and Adobe Systems.
Web Leaders Poised to Widen Gap
Excerpted from MediaPost Report
The economic downturn could turn out to be "a golden opportunity" for the web industry's leaders to solidify their dominant positions, says Dow Jones' Scott Morrison.
As smaller competitors simply try to survive, the likes of Google, Netflix, and Amazon can invest in reinforcing customer relationships with new products, services, and technologies, helping to grow their market share further.
In a recent research note, Barclays Capital Analyst Doug Anmuth said he likes Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Blue Nile because they have strong free cash flow that can be reinvested, giving them an opportunity to further distance themselves from competitors. "We believe certain segments within e-commerce and online advertising may actually be widening the gap with their competition more during this recession than if we were in a more favorable overall economic environment," Anmuth said.
That said, none of these companies will emerge from the recession unscathed: Amazon and Netflix both lowered their fourth quarter revenue guidance, while Wall Street analysts recently downgraded fourth quarter revenue and earnings expectations for Google and Blue Nile. Collectively, these companies' stock prices have tumbled this year, with Google off 55% for the year, Amazon down 44%, and Blue Nile down 61%. Netflix is up 6% for the year but down 31% since April.
BBC Releases Revamped iPlayer
Excerpted from GadgetSpy Report
A week ago, the BBC revealed its new version of the iPlayer, the broadcasting giant's very popular online catch-up TV service. What makes the announcement this week so much sweeter is that Mac and Linux users can now download versions for their respective systems. For over a year, only a Windows version was available.
The new iPlayer Desktop has been programmed using the AIR software from Adobe. Using Adobe's cross-platform software has allowed for the multi-system application, for which Mac and Linux users are very thankful.
The new version now loads on computers like any other application, a far cry from the previous version that was Flash-based and only ran on a browser.
The BBC has also addressed criticisms about the iPlayer - that the usage of the player seriously affected broadband networks. BBC is working with Velocix to create cache servers that ISPs can use to augment the usage of iPlayer users.
If you want to test this new version for yourself before it is officially launched this coming February, all you need to do is to sign up to be an iPlayer Labs tester on the iPlayer site.
And here's a great piece of news for kids. The BBC has also announced that it is releasing a customized version of the iPlayer that can be used for CBBC shows. This is great news for the kids who can now watch their favorite programs on-demand.
GridNetworks Bets on Internet Videos in the Living Room
Excerpted from Seattle Post Intelligencer Report
GridNetworks' new P2PTV offering, GridCast TV, allows Internet surfers to click a "Watch on TV" button adjacent to an online video and then instantly see it on their TVs.
A few caveats: For now, only a few online video sites work with GridCast TV. And you need to have a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360 hooked up to your television for it to work (and a broadband connection, too).
Still, GridNetworks CEO Anthony Naughtin says that's a lot easier than having to add an extra box, like Netflix or Vudu require for Internet video streaming.
"Yet another set-top box (STB) is not what consumers are looking for," Naughtin said in an interview last week at his company's Pioneer Square offices.
And, Naughtin says, as sales of next-generation video game consoles continue to rise, more and more customers will be able to use GridCast TV.
As for Internet content companies, Naughtin says, if they sign up for GridCast TV they can reach consumers' TVs directly, choosing exactly what content they want to make available.
Naughtin says the company has had interest from multiple content companies and will announce more content partners soon.
When customers click on the "Watch on TV" button adjacent to an online video on a site like Revision3, that triggers a one-time download of the GridNetworks software.
The software is free. Content providers will pay GridNetworks a fee. So far, there have been about 20,000 downloads of GridCast TV since it launched in mid-November.
Comcast, Panorama Capital, and Cisco invested about $9.5 million in the company last year.
BitTorrent Seeks to Make Popularity Equal Profit
Excerpted from San Francisco Business Times Report by Patrick Hoge
BitTorrent is adopting a new business model. Founded in 2004, BitTorrent offers a wildly popular technology that makes it easier to download large files - like video - over the Internet. Its free application has been downloaded 170 million times and widely used to distribute Hollywood movies.
Chief Scientist and Co-Founder Bram Cohen and recently appointed CEO Eric Klinker told The Business Times that BitTorrent is now focusing on marketing its core P2P technology to online content publishers, particularly gaming firms, to make downloading of their products easier and more reliable.
It licenses its Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA) content delivery technology to third parties and gets porting and license fees for software embedded on non-personal computer devices, like network attached storage (NAS) devices. The company also offers users premium fee-based services and sells advertising on its website.
Former President and Co-Founder Ashwin Navin had also managed to negotiate content agreements with some 40 companies to sell movies, TV shows, games, music, and software content through BitTorrent's online store. The Torrent Entertainment Network was launched in February 2007 with 10,000 titles in its inventory. However, that line of business has not proven to be profitable in the short term.
"In terms of the company's long-term prospects, we have a good technology and a huge user base," Cohen said.
uTorrent Grows to 28 Million Monthly Users
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
uTorrent - the client of choice for most BitTorrent users - has gathered a steady user base since it was first released three years ago; one which continues to expand. Last year the number of uTorrent users doubled, and in 2008 it continued to grow, up to 28 million monthly users.
uTorrent saw its first public release in September 2005. A year later this popular lightweight client was acquired by BitTorrent, which continued to develop the application, recently introducing a Mac version.
Despite its anecdotally reported popularity, up until now little has been known about the actual number of regular users of the client. Based on data from PC Pitstop, we reported in April that uTorrent was installed on 11.6% of all PCs in Europe, compared to 5.1% in the United States. However, the number of installs says little about the actual use of the application.
Trying to discover more about the number of regular users of uTorrent, we decided to consult Simon Morris, BitTorrent's VP of Product Management. Morris told us that every month, 28 million unique clients are actively used. "Client check-ins have continued to grow steadily in the course of 2008," he said, adding, "Clearly the ongoing demand for our freeware seems to be quite strong."
In comparison, Morris said that the mainline client - the second most popular BitTorrent client according to PC Pitstop - has 7 million active users a month. More interestingly perhaps, is that the usage statistics of uTorrent give us more insight into the number of BitTorrent users overall. If we know what the market share of uTorrent is, we could made a fairly accurate estimate of the number of active BitTorrent users a month.
Based on tracker reports, an estimated market share for uTorrent of between 40% and 60% seems fair, which would mean that there are between 50 and 70 million BitTorrent users active each month. If we assume that 70 million active BitTorrent users is an accurate estimate, this means that close to 5% of all people on the Internet are using BitTorrent monthly, which is quite impressive.
The Pirate Bay Launches ViO
Excerpted from TechWhack Report
The Pirate Bay is popular for being one of the largest BitTorrent trackers in the world.
It has now made available a new service named ViO, which is basically a video conversion utility.
The developers said that the application can reduce AVI, MPEG, MP4, WMV, and others videos to 20% of their original size without any reduction in image quality.
They are also claiming that this converter is ultra-fast in doing these file conversions.
It comes with pre-defined settings for various mobile devices like iPod, iPhone, PSP, cell-phone, PDA, Pocket PC, and PMP.
There is also a ViO browser toolbar which features exciting features.
Checkout: ViO from The Pirate Bay.
Creating "Informal" IP Norms
Excerpted from LiveMint Report by Shamnad Basheer
Current intellectual property (IP) regimes are excessively formalistic in their orientation. Not too surprising, given that their creation and sustenance has largely been the preserve of lawyers trained in formal legal thought, with little input from other disciplines such as science, sociology, or economics.
One watches with deep anguish as such regimes take on a life of their own, forgetting the simple yet hard truth that they are not ends unto themselves, but are mere means to help serve a greater end, i.e., fostering more innovation and creativity. In other words, patents are valuable to us only to the extent that they help engender more innovations for society.
Not only are IP rules excessively formalistic in their orientation, they also cater largely to what one might term as the "formal" economy. In other words, there is an assumption that innovation is the sole prerogative of a lone inventor who does her research within the closed walls of a formalistic entity that we call the "corporation". Similarly, copyright norms are premised on the assumption that content creation is the preserve of artists and writers who tie up with big media giants and publishing houses.
The open-source movement has shown how an informal network of programmers can be innovative. A close look at the nature of our economy today, characterized by Web 2.0 and the vast social/collaborative networks built on it leads one to seriously question the above assumptions.
Illustratively, the open-source movement has opened our eyes to the fact that an informal network of programmers can bring us highly innovative and free software products of a kind never thought possible under a proprietary model where coding was controlled by a single corporation and products placed on the market at monopoly prices.
Such collaborative/democratic/user innovation models are now being attempted in other technology areas such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. And they are bound to succeed, given that innovation is not a formal or linear process directed by a lone inventor, but a social process involving a multitude of different actors.
In the context of copyright law, the rise of user-generated content (UGC) has thrown archaic copyright norms into serious question. Content is being created and posted on social forums such as Facebook and YouTube at a pace that might soon rival the speed of light. Similarly, content is shared between millions of users through several online platforms such as BitTorrent and LimeWire.
Let me end this note by highlighting a paradox that characterizes IP regimes. Since their inception, most such regimes have been fairly static in their orientation, and have failed to reflect any "innovation" and "creativity," the very same values sought to be encouraged by such regimes.
Given the importance of our informal economy, can we take this opportunity to innovate within this space as well by conceptualizing a set of "informal" IP norms?
Australia Net filtering Trial Delayed
Excerpted from ABC News Report by Adrrian Crawford
In Australia, the federal opposition says it is not surprised the government's mandatory Internet filtering trial has been delayed. The trial has been postponed until mid-January, and the Internet service providers (ISPs) that will participate will not be announced until then.
ISPs iiNet and Optus both said they had not heard anything about their applications to participate in the trial, and doubted the government would meet its own deadline.
iiNet's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Mark White said he is skeptical about plans to filter the Internet, and said the company was only participating to show the system would not work.
Opposition communications spokesman Nick Minchin said the prior delay in the proposed National Broadband Network typifies the government's poor track record with communications projects. "I'm not surprised frankly, given this government's bungling over communications issues generally," he told Radio National.
"We've seen the National Broadband Network just fade off into the distance, bedevilled by delays and procrastination, and we're seeing the same thing with the trial.
"It's really the result of political manipulation prior to the election. The current government, then in opposition, made broad sweeping promises about a National Broadband Network and eliminating criminally obscene content from the Internet.
Now they've got to make good on their promise, and they're finding it difficult."
He said he has no issue with the trial going ahead, but says the burden of proof now rests on Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to establish that the trial is legitimate and that the results will be reliable.
Conroy was unavailable to speak to ABC today, but released a report commissioned by the Howard government on the subject of Internet filtering.
The Internet Industry Association report concluded that mandatory filtering would slow Internet speeds, be easy to get around, and would not block all undesirable material.
But Conroy said the report included no empirical testing, instead relying on literature review, interviews, and surveys.
Minchin says he disagrees with Conroy's attempt to devalue the report, saying, "It is an insult to those involved. They are leading experts in this field, particularly the lead author of the report."
"His frustration with the government in hiding this report led to the Fairfax newspapers having a detailed briefing on its content, forcing Conroy to release the report 10 months after he received it.
"The report does identify some very, very serious issues with any attempt to impose this mandatory ISP-level filtering system, but it leads me to believe it's almost impossible to do this with any degree of effectiveness."
Minchin said his government commissioned the report to assess the viability of a voluntary system of filtering.
"The motive is good; obviously we want to prevent access to criminally obscene content," he said.
"But we were more interested in whether you could have a system whereby ISPs offer this to their customers on a voluntary basis, an opt-in system.
"I don't think it ever occurred to us to mandate this, to force ISPs to impose this without their customers having any choice in the matter whatsoever."
Minchin said evidence that such a filtering system would drastically slow down Internet speeds is a major problem with the idea.
"The laboratory trial that the Government conducted this year showed the potential effect on speed of up to a 87% slowdown in the speed of the Internet," he said.
"And this is from the government that wants to install a National Broadband Network so we can all have high speed broadband," he added.
"I think that's a major flaw in the scheme; but there are many, many others."
Deep Packet Inspection: What You Need to Know
Excerpted from ZDNet Asia Report by Michael Kassner
Anyone who uses the Internet needs to be aware of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), its uses, and potential misuses.
You may recognize DPI as what ISPs use to conform to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), the US government-ordered Internet wire-tapping directive. If that's not enough, DPI, albeit behind the scenes, allows ISPs to block, shape, and prioritize traffic, which is now fueling the Net neutrality versus traffic priority debate.
So, what is DPI and how does it work?
DPI is next-generation technology that's capable of inspecting every byte of every packet that passes through the DPI device - that means packet headers, types of applications, and actual packet content.
Up until now, this wasn't possible with IDS/IPS systems or stateful firewalls. The difference being, DPI has the ability to inspect traffic at layers 2 through 7, hence the "deep" in DPI.
A simple analogy would be that of snail mail. IDS/IPS firewalls would be the mail sorters who just read the letter's address, knowing nothing about the letter's content. Inspecting Internet traffic from layers 2 through 7 would correspond to the person who actually reads the letter and understands the contents.
To recap, DPI allows people controlling the device to know everything, including the payload of each packet in the data stream. For example, if an unencrypted e-mail is scanned, the actual body of the e-mail can be reassembled and read.
DPI technology is unique in that as of now it's the only way to accomplish certain governmental security directives. DPI also has the potential to do a great deal of good.
For example, DDoS attacks are virtually impossible to thwart. Conceivably if DPI were in place and configured correctly it would detect the DDoS packets and filter them out. Some more potential uses are listed below:
Network security: DPI's ability to inspect data streams at such a granular level will prevent viruses and spyware from either gaining entrance to a network or leaving it.
Network access: DPI creates conditions where network access rules are easy to enforce due to the deep inspection of packets.
CALEA compliance: DPI technology augments traffic access points (TAP) technology used initially for governmental surveillance equipment.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) enforcement: ISPs can use DPI to ensure that their acceptable use policy is enforced. For example, DPI can locate illegal content or abnormal bandwidth usage.
QoS: P2P traffic gives ISPs a great deal of trouble. DPI would allow the ISP to instigate traffic control and bandwidth allocation.
Tailored service: DPI allows ISPs to create different services plans, which means users would pay for a certain amount of bandwidth and traffic priority. This one is controversial and affects Net Neutrality.
DRM enforcement: DPI has the ability to filter traffic to remove copyrighted material. There's immense pressure from the music and movie industries to make ISPs responsible for curtailing illegal distribution of copyrighted material.
The above applications have the potential to give users a better Internet experience. Yet it wouldn't take much mission creep to create major privacy concerns. I would feel remiss if I didn't point them out and help everyone understand the ramifications.
DPI is another innovative technology that has ISPs arguing with privacy advocates. ISPs and DPI developers are adamant that the technology is benign and will create a better Internet experience.
However, privacy groups have two major concerns: little or no oversight and the potential for losing still more individual privacy. Many experts find the following misuses of DPI to be especially troubling:
Traffic shaping: Traffic shaping is where certain traffic or entities get priority and a predetermined amount of bandwidth. With the increasing number of bandwidth-hungry applications, ISPs are having to make decisions on whether to increase available bandwidth with infrastructure build out or increase control of the existing bandwidth. Installing a DPI system is usually the choice as it's cheaper and has a more predictable RoI. Albeit cheaper, it's riskier, and I suspect that's why the Net Neutrality debate is going on right now.
Behavioral targeting (BT): BT uses DPI technology for the sole purpose of harvesting user information anonymously (supposedly) and selling it to interested parties who use the information to create ads that are targeted to the individual.
This is a very complex subject, having the potential to change everyone's view of the Internet. An optimist would say that DPI will help enhance the experience, even producing ads that are relevant to each individual user. Whereas a pessimist would say it's "big brother" technology that only benefits ISPs. I don't think anyone is sure how the Internet will look when the dust settles about DPI, but it should be interesting.
Pirate Party Polling 21% in Sweden
Excerpted from The Inquisitr Report Duncan Riley
The Swedish Pirate Party, the party set up to tackle copyright reform in Sweden has scored a 21% approval rating in a nationwide poll. And as TorrentFreak points out, the figures are even more remarkable among men aged 18-29, where The Pirate Party polls a staggering 55%.
If an election was to take place today, The Pirate Party would poll higher than the Greens, resulting in over 19 seats in the Swedish Parliament.
The Party, founded in 2006 aims to reform copyright laws, not abolish them. Their platform includes all non-commercial copying and use being completely free, and the encouragement of file sharing and P2P networking.
They don't, however, believe that copyright should be abolished, instead reformed so that copyright remains in place for a maximum of 5 years, as opposed to the death plus 70 years as is usually the case today.
Pirate Party's have been setup or are currently being setup throughout the world. Here are the links for the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia if you're interested in joining.
Outdated Copyright Laws Need a Do Over
Excerpted from DaniWeb Report
Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig, who recently published a book called Remix, says we should be able to use a song in a non-commercial creative work without incurring the wrath of the RIAA.
Lessig brings up a YouTube example. A mother took some video of her 13 month old dancing to a Prince song. The Mom uploaded the video to YouTube, and shortly thereafter Universal Music Group (UMG) contacted YouTube and told them to take down the video because she was violating the law by playing the song in the background of this video without permission.
Lessig says that sharing and mixing songs like this in a completely non-commercial way ought to be protected under fair-use policies.
In a case like the one cited above, YouTube is providing the tools to display this video and the server space to store it. In exchange, the Mom gets to post it and share it with her friends (and anyone else who wants to see it). It's a symbiotic relationship. When commercial questions come into play, it's more complicated.
As a commercial entity you need to weigh the cost/benefit of keeping the video up there versus ordering it down. If as, David Meerman Scott suggests, it could drive sales of your product, isn't it worth it to leave it up there and see what happens? In cases, like this Mom, it's just crazy to order it down. There is no question of money changing hands.
One way around this is to have a pool of money generated by fees in a similar fashion to ASCAP and BMI. If you play commercial music in your coffee shop, you need to pay yearly fee for that privilege. Lessig suggests a couple of similar models.
One is put forth by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the Collective License. So long as you buy this license and pay a small yearly fee (multiplied by millions of people presumably), you can use songs in a non-commercial manner without fear of prosecution. The money would be distributed based on how often the song is used to compensate the artist in a fair way.
In a second model, described by Lessig, the P2P networks and/or ISPs would pay a fee or tax for non-commercial use that would go into a pool in a similar fashion to the EFF's idea.
This is a complex and difficult problem, but it seems clear that Lessig is starting a necessary conversation to move the issue of copyright forward to cover 21st century content use. I want to make clear that I don't in any way sanction infringing content. As a writer, I understand my intellectual property (IP) is how I make my living, but I also understand that there should be clear lines where the ownership stops and fair-use begins and we need to update the laws to decriminalize the non-commercial sharing of content. It only makes sense.
ISPs Want to Get Paid to Police Users
Excerpted from ZDNet News by Richard Koman
Greg Sandoval blogs about a small ISP that doesn't take kindly to demands from representatives of the music industry. In response to their letters, Jerry Sroggin, owner of Bayou Internet and Communications, informs the reps that he will be billing for his services. Here's a typical response:
"I have asked for your billing information so we can have a contract signed and full understanding of what I do. If you want me to work for you, you should expect to pay. I don't work for free."
In a story on Scroggin's approach, the ISP says:
"They have the right to protect their songs or music or pictures," Scroggin said. "But they don't have the right to tell me I have to be the one protecting them. I don't want anyone doing anything illegal on my network, but we don't work for free."
If that's how Jerry Scroggin feels, you can imagine how AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon feel. They're not in the business of improving the recording industry's image or legal bills.
As RIAA prez Cary Sherman notes, the big ISPs want a piece of the content action, too. That means there is some serious quid pro quo going on behind the scenes. We'll see those deals - and their impact on Apple - over the course of 2009.
End the Copyright War
Excerpted from The Moderate Voice Report by Joe Windish
Larry Lessig likens the Hollywood content industry's battle against "P2P piracy" to the failed prohibition era battle against "intoxicating liquors." Lessig believes that prosecuting online file sharing is turning a generation criminal.
The copyright industry has used every legal means within its reach (and some that may not be so legal) to stop Internet "pirates" from "sharing" copyrighted content without permission.
These "copyright wars" - what the late Jack Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), called his own "terrorist war" in which apparently the "terrorists" are our kids - have consumed an ever-growing amount of legal resources.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) alone has sued some 35,000 individuals. These suits allege millions of dollars in damages. And schools across the nation have adopted strict policies to block activity that the Supreme Court in 2005 declared presumptively illegal.
The single certain consequence from this battle has been one our government is strangely oblivious to: its rendering a generation criminal. A concerted campaign by rights holders, politicians, school administrators, and increasingly parents has convinced kids that their behavior violates the law.
But that law breaking continues. We call our kids crooks; after a while, they believe it. And like black marketeers in Soviet Russia, they live life getting comfortable with the idea that what seems "obvious" and "reasonable" to them is a crime. They get used to being criminal.
This fact is deeply corrosive. As with prohibition, it is profoundly corrupting. And over time, it will only weaken our kids' respect for the law.
For its part the RIAA said last week it was abandoning its legal strategy of suing individuals for copyright infringement in favor of having the ISPs do the policing for them. Some of the ISPS are refusing to cooperate.
As to the RIAA claim that it has not initiated new litigation for months, Ray Beckerman at Recording Industry vs. The People was unable to find any evidence backing it up.
Rather, he pointed to dozens of RIAA lawsuits filed within the past few weeks.
Cara Duckworth, an RIAA spokeswoman, e-mailed Wired's Threat Level to say any suits recently filed were already in the "pipeline" for months.
Clearly, the war is not over. Rather, the battle lines have shifted some.
Coming Events of Interest
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 International 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.
MIDEM & MidemNet Forum - January 17th-21st in Cannes, France. MIDEM is the international music market from all genres for all professionals providing five days of business and and a global networking marketplace. MidemNet Forum focuses on digital distribution of music.
Upsizing: Reinventing Yourself and Your Career for the New Digital Economy – January 22nd in New York, NY. Shelly Palmer, President of NATAS-NY hosts this one-day course that will provide practical guidelines, ideas, techniques, and digital skills to help you become more competitive and make more money in the digital age.
Digital Music Forum East - February 25th-26th in New York, NY. Participants include top label execs, artists and reps, association heads, attorneys, investors, consumer electronics, plus technology leaders from social networks, payments companies, online retailers, mobile companies, technology start-ups and more.
East Coast Music Awards - February 26th - March 1st in Corner Brook, NL, Canada. Live, original music during a four-day festival. Terry McBride, Co-Founder & CEO of Nettwerk Music Group, will be the keynote speaker for the conference component of the ECMA weekend.
P2P MARKET CONFERENCE - March 17th in New York, NY. Strategies to fulfill the multi-billion dollar revenue potential of the P2P and social network channel for the distribution of entertainment content. Case studies of sponsorships, cross-promotion, interactive advertising, and exciting new hybrid business models.
Media Summit New York - March 18th-19th in New York, NY. Sponsored by McGraw-Hill and Digital Hollywood, the 2009 MSNY is the premier international conference on media, broadband, advertising, television, cable & satellite, mobile, publishing, radio, magazines, news & print media, and marketing.
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