January 12, 2009
Volume XXIV, Issue 12
Verizon Announces
CDN Incentives at P2P MEDIA SUMMIT
Continuing its aggressive approach to attracting more
broadband content and improving broadband customers' online experience, Verizon will now offer content owners like
online movie services, as well as content delivery network providers (CDNs),
significantly lower pricing to connect directly to the Verizon Internet
backbone network.
Verizon Senior Technologist Doug Pasko announced the new
Verizon Partner Port Program at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT at CES.
In addition, Boh Dupree, Group Marketing Manager for Verizon, discussed
architectural, CDN-related, and other technological solutions in development to
support peer-assisted deployments in a conference panel session.
The new pricing initiative gives content owners and CDNs
the benefit of a direct connection from their content storage devices to the
Verizon Internet backbone network. This allows content owners and CDNs to
bypass the traditional backbone peering process, which involves multi-carrier
delivery systems, when delivering content to the broadband end-users on
Verizon's network. The result is a faster, more responsive connection to
Verizon's networks, priced to be very competitive within the content delivery
market.
The Verizon Partner Port Program offers improved
connections to the Internet for purposes of providing content to customers on
Verizon's broadband network; but it does not prioritize any content delivered
over the Internet or prevent end-users on other broadband networks from
accessing the content delivered to Verizon's Internet backbone through this
program.
In addition to the Verizon Partner Port Program, Verizon
has been working in other ways to ensure a high-quality Internet experience for
its broadband customers. Verizon has improved the efficiency of content
delivered over the Internet through a new turnkey CDN managed by Velocix, which improves consumer video
delivery.
Verizon is also supporting P2P file transfers using the P4P Working Group's (P4PWG) network efficiency model, which improves the
efficiency of content transmission by reducing the number of "hops"
content must travel before delivery to the end-user.
Verizon has been a champion of this new content-delivery
option for P2P traffic proposed by the Distributed
Computing Industry Association (DCIA) as a solution to network capacity
challenges.
The new P4PWG solution, now awaiting formal standards
adoption, uses information about the design of networks to deliver content more
efficiently from local sources rather than from distant storage sites, lowering
long-haul network traffic and helping to control associated costs.
Cisco Intensifies Wooing of Entertainment Firms
Excerpted from Wall Street Journal Report by Bobby White
Cisco
Systems, stepping up its effort to court media and entertainment companies,
used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to deliver a high-profile service to manage social networks and to show off its
first home audio system.
Plans to develop Cisco's entertainment operating system
(EOS) offering were first discussed at CES a year ago. At this year's show,
Cisco announced the availability of the underlying software and service, which
are designed to help media companies to build online communities.
The company, known mainly for networking hardware, plans
to manage EOS on its own server systems, charging companies a monthly fee and
allowing them to avoid installing and managing the software. Executives at
Cisco said the service will be particularly suited to manage social networks
for consumers who favor certain musicians and watch certain television shows.
It can monitor consumers as they interact in the online communities and with
media, with the goal of eventually offering recommendations for other content
and services, the company said.
Dan Scheinman, who heads Cisco's Media Solutions Group,
said media companies are having a tough time developing business models that
take advantage of the growing number of fans on the Internet. "If you're a
music label or movie studio, how do you manage online content for 300 artists
or 50 new movie releases?" he asked.
Cisco has signed up Warner Music Group (WMG) as its first
user. Michael Nash, Warner's EVP for Digital Strategy and Business Development,
said the increasing impact of technology on his company made it important to
find an expert partner like Cisco to deal with the changes.
"Music companies aren't tech companies, although we
depend on tech innovation for the evolution of our business," Mr. Nash
said.
In addition to developing online communities for
musicians, the two companies plan to work on a variety of other services and
products, Mr. Nash said.
Meanwhile, Cisco's Linksys unit, known mainly for
networking gear used by homes and small businesses, announced plans to move
into audio. The company introduced a multi-component system that it designed to
send music over wireless networking connections to speakers in multiple rooms,
a category already served by companies such as Sonos.
Users of Cisco's Wireless Home Audio system can send
different music selections to separate rooms, including music drawn from
Apple's iPod devices, Cisco said. A bundle of products designed to serve two
rooms starts at $999.
Cisco also disclosed a Linksys product called the Media
Hub. The system allows consumers to access content remotely using a web
browser, Cisco said. The product line starts at $299 for a model with a disk
drive with 500 gigabytes of data-storage capacity.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Congratulations to Consumer
Electronics Association (CEA) chief executive Gary Shapiro and the
entire CEA team for a very stimulating 2009
International CES. We strongly support Gary's call to maintain a strong
focus on innovation rather than becoming distracted by the economic downturn.
We are part of a global economy, and the world looks to us for leadership, not
only for economic resiliency but for innovation and all its possibilities.
We thank all who contributed to the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT at CES,
which included some of the industry's best conference sessions to date.
Presentations from Hennigan Bennett & Dorman's Larry
Hadley, Pando Networks' Robert
Levitan, RedSwoosh's Travis
Kalanick, Interactive Media Strategies' Paul
Ritter, Harris Interactive's Milt
Ellis and Joe Porus, P4P Working Group's (P4PWG) Laird
Popkin and Doug Pasko, Verizon's Doug
Pasko, Velocix's David
Ferguson, Oversi's Eitan
Efron, and Microsoft's See-Mong
Tan, are now online here.
As others become available, they will be added to the archival
website. In the next week or so, the Abacast-produced digital video of the event will also be posted online and DCINFO
readers will be notified.
We are also grateful to speakers who participated in the Digital-Hollywood-at-CES Next Generation
P2P panel: Michael King, President, Abacast;
Ronny Golan, Founder & Co-CEO, HIRO
Media; Matt Cannard, VP of Marketing, Widevine;
Nathan Lovejoy, Product Manager, LimeWire;
and Stephane Herry, CEO, Gigatribe.
Michael described Abacast's hybrid P2P CDN solution that supports
both live and download content delivery in the most efficient and highest
quality ways possible. Abacast works exclusively with content licensors and
does not support unauthorized file redistribution. The open file-sharing
phenomenon, on the other hand, has been driven by content availability via P2P
services in advance of being made accessible elsewhere online.
Private sector initiatives to address outstanding industry issues,
such as the P4P Working Group
(P4PWG), which has brought ISPs and P2Ps together to proactively address network management issues, are superior to
regulatory actions in this complex and fast-moving space.
Within four-to-five years, the migration of video to IP
distribution will cause CDNs to adopt P2P for its greater efficiency. Abacast
looks forward to competing based on merit without the stigmas from which P2P
has suffered in the past. At the end of the day, consumers don't care how their
content is delivered. They want the highest quality at the fastest speed.
Mobile adoption of P2P commercially may outpace Internet adoption
in the near-term because mobile environments tend to be more like
walled-gardens.
Ronny described HIRO Media's offering for video ad delivery that
is agnostic with respect to distribution technology. P2P file-sharing programs
have been extremely successful with consumers because they offer massive
quantities of content from a single source.
When ad-supported licensed content is introduced into such
networks, copyright infringement can be dramatically reduced. HIRO demonstrated
a 90% conversion to licensed television programs with Channel 9 in Australia.
Never in history has a strategy of suing prospective customers
resulted in their buying more products or services from the litigant; offering
a legal alternative is a far better approach.
Governments should have a non-interference policy in this space as
innovation rapidly progresses. The economic downturn will further accelerate
commercial P2P adoption because of its cost benefits.
Matt outlined Widevine's content security approaches and his view
of P2P as a cost-saving delivery technology. Free-to-the-user ad-supported
business models are showing the greatest promise for online content
distribution, particularly video, but need to be supported with ubiquitous
digital rights management (DRM), including across P2P networks, to level the
playing field.
It is extremely important that all affected parties come to the
table to work together so that individual consumers, who have the rightful
access to content, are able enjoy that content without limitations, which has
not been the case with certain early DRM implementations.
Consumers seek freely available authorized content that they can
use across an array of devices; and industry needs to work to provide what they
want. In the fullness of time, ISPs will become more sophisticated value-added
providers, not just purveyors of raw capacity.
Nathan gave an overview of LimeWire's very popular P2P
file-sharing program, which currently cumes at 70 million users monthly.
LimeWire is increasingly attractive to marketers because it represents an
enormous aggregated audience.
The LimeWire Store, which in LimeWire 5.0 is integrated with the
network, represents an excellent first step in offering the right content at the
right price to a large user base.
Harsh enforcement measures such as litigation against consumers
and attempts at closing down file-sharing networks have failed to impede
wide-scale adoption of P2P. Regulatory activity will not be as effective as
marketing and technology solutions to respond to consumer demand.
The music industry needs to experiment more with business models
to optimize the right packaging and value proposition. User-centric approaches
are key.
Stephane introduced Gigatribe as a private P2P file-sharing
service where users invite friends to join in small exclusive communities to
securely share content. One of the benefits of sharing material among personal
contacts is that preferences can be more readily addressed than in large random
file-sharing universes.
However, users downloading content that they may not play does
serve to make P2P networks work more efficiently.
Litigation and legislation to address outstanding problems such as
copyright infringement will not work as well as encouraging private sector
initiatives based on affected parties working together. Digital content needs
to be priced better relative to value - more for less.
Audience Q&A included a discussion of Joost's evolution and
the related challenges of incentivizing consumers to accept plug-ins, which can
best be accomplished with more compelling and higher quality content than competing
alternatives. Share wisely, and take care.
LimeWire 5.0 Beta Launches at P2P MEDIA
SUMMIT
LimeWire introduced the beta version of
LimeWire 5.0 during a keynote address by company CEO George Searle at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT at CES. This highly anticipated release redefines sharing as a social
activity on the P2P network. With the new version, users can choose to set-up
personal networks based on existing contacts and exchange information
selectively with their friends.
"LimeWire
has always focused on delivering the best possible search results," said
Searle. With LimeWire 5.0, in addition to good search results, we're adding a
social element to deliver increased relevance and friend-driven discovery and
recommendations. Users will now be able to browse and navigate in more ways
than ever before."
LimeWire 5.0
allows users to set-up secure personal sharing networks based on existing
contacts; users can choose to limit distribution to their personal network
only. Users can also integrate buddy lists from Jabber-compatible services. In
addition, LimeWire 5.0 provides better anti-virus protection than previous
versions. It also interfaces with the LimeWire Store.
The new
version also allows users to navigate more easily with a new visual design of
both the website and application, offering users more security and better
ability to manage shared files, download, search, and connect with friends.
LimeWire is
the largest free P2P file-sharing software today with over 70 million unique
monthly users. It is downloaded over 350,000 times every day and boasts
approximately 5 million active users at any moment. It has been reported that
up to 25% of computers worldwide have downloaded LimeWire. To compare these
figures to the program's initial launch, a year after LimeWire was introduced
in 2000, it had been downloaded just over 3 million times.
Brand Asset Digital Receives Groundbreaker's Award
Brand Asset Digital (BAD) was presented with the 2008
DCIA Groundbreaker's Award at the second annual P2P MEDIA SUMMIT at CES conference on Wednesday. Accepting the award was Joey Patuleia, BAD's
Co-Founder.
The DCIA
Groundbreaker's Award is presented annually to that company which has achieved
the greatest breakthrough in attracting distribution partners to advance
distributed computing technologies for commercial purposes.
BAD's
first-and-only search-engine marketing platform for P2P search, P2Pwords, has
quickly become the "product of the year." This platform, which is the first
pay-per-click (PPC) for P2P search, gives advertisers the unique ability to
target and connect their branded content directly to consumers via P2P search.
P2Pwords applies
the highly successful business model of PPC keyword targeting to the 1.5
billion searches a day that comprise P2P traffic, a consumptive marketplace
accounting for almost 70% of Internet bandwidth. P2Pwords campaigns have
already generated over two billion impressions a day - over sixty billion a
month - across all P2P search engines.
The P2P MEDIA SUMMIT at CES featured
keynotes from top P2P software and digital video distributors, panels of
industry leaders, and special workshops.
Industry Views Obama as Open and Adept
Excerpted
from Congress Daily Report by Andrew Noyes
President-Elect Obama will have a greater interest in and appreciation for the
technology industry than has been the norm in the Bush administration, a panel
of public policy experts agreed Wednesday.
Obama's use of the Internet during the
campaign helped him mobilize supporters and win the election - and that
momentum has continued through his transition team's multifaceted, content-rich
Change.gov website. His plan to name the federal government's first chief
technology officer - a high-level White House staffer whose identity and job
description has not been disclosed but could come to light this week - is the
most significant
indicator of the importance Obama places on using technology to improve the
business of government, they said.
"It's safe to say that the President will be closer with those who are
mindful of all these high-tech issues and there will be direct advice given at the
White House," Dutko Worldwide's Louis Lehrman said at a Distributed
Computing Industry Association (DCIA) summit, which is affiliated with the
annual Consumer Electronics Show.
Joshua Wattles, an intellectual property attorney, said he hoped the incoming
administration will push back on recent efforts by some members of Congress
"to legislate technology rather than behavior." Bills aimed at
tackling issues from e-mail spam to online piracy would have imposed
technological restrictions - a prospect that riled First Amendment crusaders
and high-tech watchdogs.
Lawrence Hadley, a partner at Hennigan Bennett & Dorman, said he does not
believe the legal landscape for technology interests will change much under
Obama. The Supreme Court's 2005 MGM v. Grokster ruling, which held that
file-sharing sites could be held liable for the infringing actions of their
users, as well as other meaningful decisions, "strikes a fair balance
between the rights of technology providers and content owners," he said.
"The administration will be content with letting the courts further define
legal standards without getting into legislative fixes."
But content owners "will not be sleeping," Wattles said. Those with
an interest in preserving their markets and protecting their creations will
work to influence the incoming administration because "piracy, for them,
is still a huge issue. They have a whole new pack of people to convince,"
he said, noting that Obama this week nominated Tom Perelli - a well-known music
industry attorney - for a top spot in the Justice Department.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella organization for
the Motion Picture Association of America, Recording Industry Association of
America and others, recently sent suggestions to the transition team to address
Internet, optical disc and software piracy as well as crack down on illegal
movie theater camcording. The Copyright Alliance's Patrick Ross said his group
was slated to meet with transition officials this week.
Boucher Appointed to Key Legislative Post
Excerpted from MediaPost Report by Wendy Davis
Digital
rights advocates cheered the appointment of longtime copyright-reform champion
Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) as Chair of the House Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
Boucher
is taking over for Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), who will now head the Energy
and the Environment Subcommittee, the lawmakers announced Thursday.
Comcast Network Management Policies in Place
Excerpted from Extreme Tech Repot by Chloe Albanesius
Comcast seems to be off to the right start in
2009. The cable operator has fulfilled its pledge to put in place a protocol
agnostic network management policy by year's end, according to filings with the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
"Effective December 31, we have completed this
transition, which is now part of our daily business operations for managing
congestion on our network," said Comcast's website. "The approach is
designed to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that all our high-speed
Internet customers have fair and equal access to the Internet and to bandwidth
resources."
Comcast first made the move towards a protocol agnostic
system in March. Comcast and BitTorrent agreed to work together regarding P2P traffic management.
The company released an in-depth guide to its network management policies in September - a system that is now in
place.
"Comcast will continue to refine and optimize these
congestion management practices to deliver the best possible broadband
experience for our customers, and we will continue to provide our customers
with clear, concise, and useful information about the services we
provide," Comcast said in a Monday letter to the FCC.
Comcast has also published a revised Acceptable Use
Policy (AUP) and updated its network management web page.
Washington-based consumer interest group Public Knowledge
said that it was "pleased with the development."
Abacast Announces Record Revenue, New Management
For
the third consecutive year, Abacast has achieved
record revenue growth, with 2008 exceeding 2007 revenues by 38%. The company
has also appointed John Morris and Jim Kott as Co-Presidents and Kristy Surovic
as VP, Administration.
Revenue
growth was consistent across the full suite of Abacast's services including
unicast and peer-assisted streaming, revenue generation services such as Ad
Injection System, and user experience enhancements via Abacast Premier and
Custom Players.
Notably,
hybrid and peer-assisted streaming revenue comprised over 40% of Abacast's
total revenue, demonstrating the clear value proposition of a hybrid CDN
solution.
"Customers
are coming to Abacast for our full service solutions - from our rock-solid live
and on-demand unicast and hybrid streaming, to rich, branded user experiences
to optimized revenue generation," said Jim Kott. "Our focus this year on ROI
and revenue generation is also paying off and clearly attracting customers."
2008
also saw Abacast close in on the 50 million milestone for installs of its
industry-leading peer-assisted client. With over 48 million clients
installed to date, Abacast projects the 50 million mark will be reached in
early 2009.
"The
ability to achieve this growth rate in this challenging economic environment is
a testament to the value propositions and maturity of our hybrid delivery
solutions and to the overall growth of streaming video in the marketplace",
added Rob Green, Board Member and Managing Director.
John
Morris has been with Abacast since April 2001. He was a key member of the
company's initial technology development team, ultimately promoted to the
position of VP Engineering and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He
will continue to serve in that position.
Jim
Kott, formerly an officer at Tukati before that company was acquired by Abacast
in mid-2008, has been leading the company's marketing, sales administration,
and product management functions since joining Abacast. Jim will continue
to serve as VP, Sales, Marketing, and Product Management.
Kristy
Surovic has headed the company's administrative functions since joining Abacast
in early 2007.
Departing
President Mike King said, "Abacast is in solid financial condition having just
reported above industry-average growth, and I'm proud of the way the company
pulled together to accomplish all that we have. I've enjoyed leading Abacast
over the last five years."
NETGEAR Introduces BitTorrent-Enabled Net
TV Player
Excerpted from Zeropaid Report
Rather than
watching videos on a PC screen, users can now watch content from a variety of
different Internet sources, including BitTorrent,
on their living room TV.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), NETGEAR introduced
the Internet
TV Player (ITV2000) enabling consumers to enjoy the world of Internet
videos and digital entertainment content in a new way.
NETGEAR's Internet TV Player supports streaming of live TV
broadcasts from Internet sites around the world, and premium, paid movies
on-demand.
Users will also be able to download videos from BitTorrent
tracker sites using its built-in BitTorrent capability, putting a world of free
content at their fingertips.
Slightly larger than a deck of cards, the compact Internet
TV Player connects to the home network and the Internet via Ethernet or
wireless USB adapter. It does not require a PC to play Internet video, nor does
it require installing any PC software or setting up file sharing or firewall
settings.
The
NETGEAR Internet TV Player (ITV2000) is expected to be available by early
summer through leading retailers, e-commerce sites, and value-added resellers,
at an MSRP in the US of $199.
BitTorrent
Nominated for Interactive Marketing Award
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
Silence is Sexy, a Dutch band that
previously released its album through MiniNova's content distribution platform,
has been picked as one of the nominees for the 2009 Interactive Award. The
award is given to the best concept that utilizes the Internet to promote music
and engage fans.
Entitled Using
Torrents as a Successful Marketing Tool, the band's concept describes how BitTorrent can help musicians to get
noticed and build a fan base. "The music industry keeps fighting new ways to
distribute music. Silence is Sexy decided to do things differently and bring
its music to the place where people like to get their music these days: torrent
sites," it reads.
Last fall, the group published its latest album, This Ain't Hollywood, on
MiniNova. And it is not alone. Many artists are embracing BitTorrent. In fact,
Georgia Wonder, one of the other contenders for the award, also used MiniNova
to distribute its music and of course, no-one needs reminding of the success
enjoyed by Nine Inch Nails.
The free music experiment was a great success for Silence
is Sexy. With over 15,000 downloads on MiniNova and several positive responses
from the press and new fans, BitTorrent has proven to be a great marketing
tool. One of the band's songs was included in the popular Indie/Rock Playlist in November,
which provided some additional exposure.
The public now has the chance to decide which of the five
nominees wins the award. The winner will receive 5,000 euros and 2 days of
recording time in a Dutch studio. You can give 5 stars to Silence is Sexy
on the award site if you think that BitTorrent can help artists and bands. The
winner will be announced January 15th.
GigaTribe Version 3 Public Beta Available at CES
GigaTribe, the European company
revolutionizing file sharing, demonstrated a public beta of
GigaTribe Version 3, its free, community-based file-sharing
software at its exhibition booth during CES this week.
Available
now in public beta, with the final version available in the first quarter,
GigaTribe Version 3 lets users easily share unlimited amounts of photos,
videos, music, and other files with their "tribe" of personal contacts quickly
and securely in a private, fully-encrypted P2P environment.
GigaTribe
lets users set up communities of friends, family, and coworkers. When a
GigaTribe user invites a friend to his/her community, the friend can
access all
of the user's shared files. Community members can invite others, and
communities grow as each new user offers additional files for sharing.
There are no files to upload, no size limitations, and all transfers
are
encrypted, so sharing is fully secure. Users can share individual files
or entire folders, and file transfers can be resumed if a user goes
off-line.
New
features in GigaTribe Version 3 include an easier interface for a user-friendly
experience and more web community features, such as personal file sharing,
where users can comment or rate the files they share with friends; and a
Personal Blog, with content only available when you are connected for added
privacy. In addition, newly added content is more obvious to see -
recently added files are highlighted with a different color than older files.
Using
GigaTribe Version 3 is very simple; there are only three steps required: 1)
download the software and set-up a free user account; 2) invite friends and
family to join the community; and 3) share files and folders, and start
downloading.
GigaTribe's
over 1 million members know that GigaTribe is the best solution for sharing
files with friends and family. Unlike other photo and video sharing
sites, files shared through GigaTribe remain in their original size -
resolution is never lowered for posting, as required by most photo and video
sharing sites, such as Flickr and YouTube.
In
addition, with GigaTribe's instant messaging (IM) feature, users can chat with
friends to tell them about new updates or other projects.
GigaTribe
3 is free and available now for Windows in public beta. There is also an
upgrade available to the "Ultimate" version of GigaTribe, priced at $29.95 per
year, with additional features.
Spotify Review - A P2P Music Service to End All Others
Excerpted from Tech.Blorge Report by Dave Parrack
You may have heard of a new P2P music streaming service
currently making headlines around the various technology blogs on the web. Its
name is Spotify and it's being touted as
the latest and greatest thing to happen to the music industry and music lovers
since the Internet came along.
Spotify has three levels of use, free with adverts, a day
pass ($1.45), and a monthly pass ($12). It's currently only available in
European countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. That is
at least officially, but there's nothing a good proxy server can't solve.
A poster on Digg claims to have found a workaround that will allow anyone to sample the service
without restriction.
The download is small, and the P2P app is fast to load.
There's no fuss, no lengthy introduction, and no messing around before you can
start playing the songs you love. The library of content on offer is huge, with
all of the major record labels on board as well as some independents.
Spotify is very easy to use, with everything laid out
iTunes-style with the user in mind. It's not cluttered or busy, with simple and
easy-to-read lists of songs to choose from. Double-click on any song and it
immediately starts playing in high quality with no delay or stuttering. It's as
if the song is being played direct from your hard drive.
The search function works superbly, listing the results in
order of relevance. A click on the Track, Artist, Album, Popularity, or Time
tabs sorts the songs into a more manageable order. Right-clicking on any track
gives you the opportunity to add it to a playlist, queue it up, or even share
it with friends via a URL or a URI.
There is also a Pandora-style radio service built-in.
Genres and decades can be added to the mix so you can either have a very
fine-tuned station or an eclectic mix covering a wide range of music loves.
Despite the huge library of songs on offer, there are a
few important artists missing or not fully offered.
Apart from that, the only bad things about Spotify are
just minor bugbears. When you log out, you lose whatever is in your Queue. You
can't choose multiple decades on the radio service. And that's about it. Very
minor issues that wouldn't take much effort to cure.
Spotify is very, very accomplished and could be huge if
given a chance by the music industry. It's all legal, all paid for, and 99%
brilliant. It won't kill off infringement because people will still want to own
an album rather than stream it but it could go a long way to solving an issue
that has been present since the Internet became mainstream.
If Spotify can launch worldwide in the next year or so and
build its advertisers along with its users, it could be absolutely huge.
Revolutionary P2P
Data Storage Device Debuts at CES
This
week in Las Vegas, Datto debuted "Box
2 Box," a new P2P network attached storage device which synchronizes and shares
files among devices regardless of location or connection with no annual fee.
With
two years of development in Datto's R&D Department, Box 2 Box promises to
change the way data is transferred and stored. Important data will be
synchronized in real time between two locations.
Using
patent-pending Synapse technology created by Datto, devices connect across the
Internet regardless of firewalls or settings. Connect one box anywhere on the
Internet, and another at a separate location, and they will synchronize with
each other. Box 2 Box devices are easy to set-up and configure. Pre-linked
pairs will keep data synced right out of the box.
Box
2 Box devices are compatible with ALL major operating systems. All Datto
Products come with a five-year hardware warranty and 24/7 customer support.
Prior
to its launch, Datto offered customers two series of a products designed to
provide a reliable and secure method to backing up data. These series
effectively ensure all vital information will be duplicated at an off-site
location, therefore in the event of natural disaster or theft, all data may be
quickly restored using the company's 24 hour policy.
The
Datto G and Z series provide a simple and easy solution to the dilemma of
backing up data. The new line of Box 2 Box brings an innovative approach to
data backup by allowing consumers to backup data off-site without paying
monthly fees. In an increasingly digital world, Datto looks forwarding to
bringing consumers new options for secure reliable data storage and backup.
Turner Streaming Media
Gets the Edge with Octoshape
Turner
Broadcasting System (TBS) has incorporated Octoshape's P2P technology to meet unprecedented scale demands created by major political
events and live sports coverage. Octoshape provided TBS with a greatly enhanced
user experience by enabling high quality video with faster stream start times.
The
Octoshape Infinite Edge technology enables TBS to serve live content in TV
quality. Using the unique throughput-optimization technology that lies at the
heart of the Octoshape solution, streams start instantly, play for hours on
end, and buffering/dropouts are virtually a thing of the past. The streams are
available in multiple quality levels and automatically adapt to the network
conditions at the edge, achieving the best possible experience for each
individual viewer.
This
season, Turner Sports is using Octoshape to deliver high quality streams directly
on the users' desktop. "Octoshape enables us to reliably stream multiple
live games to the screen at once. Its detailed reporting gives us precise
information about how the audience is consuming our content." says Phil
Sharpe, SVP Technology, Turner Sports.
Octoshape
P2P technology breaks through today's scale limitations by keeping traffic
local in a network friendly way, thereby avoiding congestion in both the
backbone and at the edge.
The
solution was put to the test during the US Presidential Elections last year
using the Octoshape solution running on Highwinds CDN in which TBS and
Octoshape broke several streaming records. "Octoshape met the objectives
we set ourselves for quality, scale, reliability and transparency to the user
while providing the reporting and metrics which confirmed this," said
Scott Teissler, CTO, Turner Broadcasting System.
Along
with benefits for the user, the Octoshape solution adds unmatched usage
statistics detail. With down-to-the-second precision it is clear exactly when
and how the content is being consumed. Due to the high quality video, session
duration times have soared since the new solution was introduced.
Researchers Applying P2P
to Traffic Control
Excerpted from Network World Report
University of California, Irvine researchers are
applying lessons learned from music and video P2P file-transfer networks to a
system for reducing traffic jams on the roads.
Their Autonet plan would center around ad hoc networks of
vehicles and roadside monitoring posts supported by 802.11 technology (the
prototype uses 11b). The vehicles would essentially be the "clients" in such a
system and feature graphical user interfaces to pass along information to
drivers. They're building the system to be able to handle data on thousands of
traffic incidents and road conditions.
The effort is among a number of such projects to address
vehicle congestion via wireless technology. Wireless researchers at Rutgers
University also have collision avoidance in their sights. MIT's
CSAIL also is examining the role mobile sensors could play in smoothing car
traffic.
As for the California researchers, they've described their
work in a recent issue of the International
Journal of Vehicle Information and Communication Systems.
One challenge is that not many arterial road intersections
have any sort of electronic surveillance system that could be used to convey
information about traffic hotspots.
"Even if every highway were fully and accurately monitored,
drivers attempting to plot an alternative route around an incident would have
virtually no information about conditions on the arterial street network,"
according to the researchers.
New File-Sharing Program
Released - Shazzle
Shazzle, the creator of a new revolutionary
privatized group file-sharing program that uses P2P technology to fuse file
sharing, real-time chat, Internet browsing, and unprecedented community
features, is pleased to announce the release of the newest creation on the net:
Shazzle.
Shazzle is a groundbreaking group file-sharing application that allows users to
share any content with small groups of trusted friends and family. No more
unauthorized users coming onto others' hard drives. Only share with those whom
you trust. Create a community, get a community code and start sharing. It's
that simple.
Shazzle features privatized file sharing; absolutely no malware or adware;
instantaneous uploads; swarm downloading; community folders; scrolling
in-community announcements; content ratings; file storage; synchronized
community folders with shazzle's subscribe feature; user profiles; community
chat; plug-ins such as a media player, image viewer and message board;
integrated instant messenger (IM) that supports AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN
Messenger; and wireless photo frame connectivity to communities.
Shazzle is available now and is 100% free.
Veoh Gets Another DMCA Safe Harbor Win
Excerpted from TechDirt Report
You may recall that last year, the industry leading
peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) service Veoh had a big
win when a court ruled that the site was protected by Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbors from infringement committed by users.
Of course, that particular lawsuit was only one of a few
that Veoh is involved in. In a separate case, brought by Universal Music Group
(UMG), UMG made a number of somewhat twisted arguments as to why Veoh shouldn't
qualify for DMCA safe harbor protections.
Basically, it said that Veoh gave up its safe harbors by
creating copies of the video in transforming their format and creating copies
that were in smaller "chunks" than the original.
UMG also went out on a limb claiming that the fact that users
could stream videos and download whole videos also took away its safe harbor
protections.
It's hard to see how those arguments make any sense at
all, and it sounds like UMG lawyers were just throwing every possible argument
against the wall, knowing they had little to work with. The good news is that the judge has rejected all of those arguments, saying none of
them seemed to mean Veoh gave up its safe harbor protections.
The lawsuit isn't over yet, and the court hasn't ruled on
whether Veoh overall is protected by the DMCA, but in rejecting UMG's weakly
reasoned arguments for why Veoh had given up those protections, it suggests
that Veoh is likely to prevail here, too.
Top Internet Providers Cool to RIAA 3-Strikes Plan
Excerpted from Wired News Report by David Kravets
Two weeks after the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) announced it had struck deals with top Internet service
providers (ISPs) to cut off unrepentant music sharers, not a single major ISP
will acknowledge agreeing to the ambitious scheme, and one top broadband
company says it's not on board.
The RIAA's announcement came as it revealed it was closing
down its massive litigation campaign, which has targeted more than 30,000
individuals for allegedly sharing copyrighted music on the Internet. Instead of
federal lawsuits, the RIAA claims it would now rely on a series of accords it
had reached with "leading" ISPs, in which the ISPs have agreed to
terminate customers the RIAA catches uploading three times, the association
said.
But when contacted by Threat Level, none of the leading
ISPs acknowledged any such deal. "We are not working with them on
this," Verizon spokeswoman Ellen Yu
said in a telephone interview. Verizon, based in New York, has 8.5 million
broadband subscribers, making it the fourth largest ISP by customer base.
Comcast, the
nation's second largest ISP, declined to comment, and referred inquiries to the
National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). The group's Vice
President, Brian Dietz, said he could not confirm any deals between the RIAA
and his association's members, but "we look forward to working
constructively with the recording industry and other content providers."
The NCTA represents dozens of cable Internet providers.
Neither AT&T nor Verizon are represented
by the group.
AT&T, the nation's No. 1 ISP with about 14.8 million
customers, declined comment through a spokesman. Time Warner Cable, Cox
Communications, and Charter Communications did not return repeated phone calls
for comment.
But the RIAA says it really has negotiated an enforcement
deal with large ISPs. It just can't identify members of its coalition of the
willing.
"All I can tell you right now is that we have an
agreement in principle with several leading ISPs but not all, and the
agreement in principle is confidential," RIAA spokeswoman Cara
Duckworth said.
The recording industry began targeting individual file
sharers five years ago, suing about 30,000 alleged copyright scofflaws. Most of
the cases settled out of court for a few thousand dollars.
Only one case went to trial, which was ultimately declared
a mistrial after a federal judge said he erred when he instructed the jury that
"making available" copyrighted music on the Internet amounted to
unauthorized distribution - or copyright infringement - regardless of whether
actual downloading by others was shown.
The mistrial decision nullified a $222,000 jury verdict
against Jammie Thomas of Minnesota for sharing 24 songs on the Kazaa file-sharing network. A Thomas retrial
is set for March, as the RIAA said it was continuing with cases that were
already in the legal pipeline.
The RIAA's latest plan of enforcement with the ISPs, if it
comes to fruition, is also under attack as it only targets uploaders.
When Labels Fought the Digital, and the Digital Won
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Dwight Garner
"You can't roll a joint on an iPod," the singer-songwriter
Shelby Lynne told the New York Times
Magazine early last year. And, OK, I suppose that's among the iPod's
drawbacks. But it's hard to think of an electronic device released in recent
decades that's brought more pleasure to more people.
Should anyone care that in the process, the iPod has all
but killed the music industry as we've known it? Maybe not, Steve Knopper
writes in Appetite
for Self-Destruction, his stark accounting of the mistakes major record
labels have made since the end of the LP era and the arrival of digital music.
These dinosaurs, he suggests, are largely responsible for their own demise.
Mr. Knopper, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone,
provides a wide-angled, morally complicated view of the current state of the
music business. He doesn't let those rippers and burners among us - that is,
those who download digital songs without paying for them, and you know who you
are - entirely off the hook. But he suggests that with even a little foresight,
record companies could have adapted to the Internet's brutish and quizzical new
realities and thrived.
This is a story that begins in earnest in the early 1980s,
when digital music first arrived in the form of the compact disc. At first, Mr.
Knopper suggests, almost everyone was frightened of these small, shiny new
toys.
The labels worried about digital piracy and about
refitting the factories that made vinyl LPs. Record stores didn't want to buy
new sales racks. Producers worried about the effects on recording sessions, now
that every footstep and door click would be audible. A group called Musicians
Against Digital (MAD) quickly formed, and artists like Neil Young declared that
CDs were soulless.
"The mind has been tricked," Mr. Young said at the time,
sounding a bit like Yoda, "but the heart is sad."
The labels came around because they could jack up prices.
LPs at the time sold for about $9; most CDs went for almost twice that. Labels
could also renegotiate contracts with artists and force customers to buy entire
new album collections. According to Mr. Knopper, executives also thought it was
cool watching "that little drawer open and close" on CD players.
Producers and artists came around, Mr. Knopper says,
because the CD "just sounded better than the LP, no matter how much its
detractors complain to this day about losing the rich, warm analog sound." But
record stores remained resistant, and thus the existence of the much loathed
cardboard or plastic "longboxes" - remember those? - until the early 1990s. The
author reminds us that in the movie "Defending Your Life," Albert Brooks' character
dies as he tries to tear one open while driving.
"The CD boom lasted from 1984 to 2000," Mr. Knopper
writes. Then the residue of old mistakes and a wave of new realities began
hammering the music industry from all sides.
One of the first things the labels got wrong, Mr. Knopper
says, was the elimination of the single. It got young people out of the habit
of regularly visiting record stores and forced them to buy an entire CD to get
the one song they craved. In the short term this was good business practice. In
the long term it built up animosity. It was suicidal.
When Napster and other music-sharing websites showed up,
the single came back with a vengeance. Before long MP3 - the commonly used term
for digitally compressed and easily traded audio files - had replaced sex as
the most searched-for term on sites like Yahoo and AltaVista.
The record industry bungled the coming of Napster. Instead
of striking a deal with a service that had more than 26 million users, labels
sued, forcing it to close. A result, Mr. Knopper writes, was that users simply
splintered, fleeing to many other file-sharing sites. "That was the last
chance," he declares, "for the record industry as we know it to stave off
certain ruin."
Some of the seeds for this debacle were planted much
earlier, during an industry fight in the mid-1980s over Digital Audio Tape
(DAT). The labels, once again worried about illegal copying, installed a widget
on DATs that permitted songs to be copied only once. But they made a
short-sighted allowance for CD-rewrite drives on computers. Users could copy
music almost endlessly there. Oops. "They blew it," a Sony marketer says.
"Completely."
The final sections of "Appetite for Self-Destruction"
describe the arrival of Steve Jobs and Apple on the scene. The release of the
iPod was a kind of coup de grace for the struggling industry. Before long,
Apple became America's biggest music retailer. Music executives watched,
apoplectic and helpless. "Apple had basically taken over the entire music
business," Mr. Knopper writes.
He paints a devastating picture of the industry's
fumbling, corruption, greed, and bad faith over the decades. "The business ain't
full of Martin Luther Kings," one former music executive admits.
It's too bad his interesting arguments and observations
are wedged into such an uningratiating book. The prose in "Appetite for
Self-Destruction" is undercooked, packed with clichés - the stakes are always
high, people constantly take the fall, one-two punches are thrown - and awkward
descriptions. Michael Jackson "danced like a backwards angel, screeched, and
squealed"; the Sony executive Tommy Mottola "wore gold chains and purple
leather jackets and looked cool."
What's more, Mr. Knopper apparently did not get access to
many of the major players in this tale, including Mr. Jobs. His account
rehashes material covered in earlier, better books, including "Hit Men" by
Fredric Dannen and "The Perfect Thing" by Steven Levy.
The record labels have, in the last few years, found some
new reasons to believe. Ring tones have become serious business. Computer games
like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have taken off, and need to be fed with new
songs. And there's always the hope that Apple's near monopoly on music sales
will be broken by other devices and services, allowing the labels to bargain
for a better cut on song sales.
That could be a long wait. Apple will always be hard to
beat. Mr. Jobs is probably at work right now on an iPod that will roll Shelby
Lynne's joint for her.
Coming Events of Interest
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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