May 11, 2009
Volume XXVI, Issue 5
Solid State Networks Wins Trendsetter's Award
The Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) announced Monday that Solid State Networks is the recipient of its 2009 DCIA Trendsetter's Award.
The award was presented in a special ceremony to Rick Buonincontri, Solid State Networks' Founder & CEO during the Conference Luncheon at the fourth annual P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA.
The DCIA Trendsetter's Award is presented annually to that company which sets the pace in the advancement of distributed computing technologies for commercial purposes.
Solid State Networks has consistently demonstrated its strong leadership in the commercialization of P2P, particularly for games. The company has long been an advocate of consumers and for the responsible use of P2P technology for the long-term benefit of the distributed computing industry.
The P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA featured keynotes from top P2P and cloud computing software distributors, panels of industry leaders, and special workshops.
Solid State Networks is a leading developer of specialized, high performance content delivery solutions and a provider of managed CDN and P2P delivery services.
Since early 2007, Solid State Networks has steadily gained recognition within the games industry as a highly innovative company with reliable technology and versatile game delivery and patching solutions for companies such as Funcom, Acclaim Games, Wizards of the Coast, Abandon Interactive, and others.
IOM P2P Music Initiative Advances
Isle of Man (IOM) E-Commerce Advisor Ron Berry, who keynoted at the P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA Conference Luncheon and chaired Wednesday's P3P Working Group session at Digital Hollywood Spring, reported excellent progress on the IOM P2P music initiative coming out of these meetings and others facilitated by the DCIA and TAG Strategic this week in Los Angeles, CA.
"Our discussions with music industry representatives ranging from major labels to songwriter guilds, in addition to technology vendors and entities seeking to be instrumental in international expansion following successful test results on the Island, have been extremely encouraging," said Berry.
"The final blueprint for our initial trial will reflect the input from these and other key constituents, including Internet service providers (ISPs) and consumer interest groups," he added.
Beyond the market trial itself, now also in development is a DCIA-sponsored global conference, which will focus on test results and expansion plans, to take place in Douglas, Isle of Man in the spring of 2010. Stay tuned for more information.
Rob Green Joins BuyDRM Board of Advisors
BuyDRM has appointed digital media technology veteran Rob Green to the company's Board of Advisors. Rob is the former SVP of Business Development and Strategy for Nine Systems and member of the core senior management team that managed the sale of the company to Akamai. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Abacast and was recently selected by Streaming Media Magazine as a 2009 Streaming Media All Star.
"The addition of Rob Green as an Advisor adds valuable and deep experience for BuyDRM's business strategy and development. We are delighted to have the contribution of Rob's vast experience and knowledge," said Christopher Levy, BuyDRM Founder & CEO.
"BuyDRM is impressive and very well positioned to capture significant market share. It is clear that the digital media industry requires rich, well developed content protection platform solutions to capitalize on all of the existing and emerging distribution possibilities for both the PC and Mac platforms," said Mr. Green. "Content providers utilizing BuyDRM's KeyOS platform will be able to maximize revenue opportunities while ensuring a great user experience in more user scenarios than ever before. It is truly a win/win proposition for both content owners and consumers."
P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA Archival Website
Thanks to all who participated in the stimulating and informative fourth annual P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA and especially to Abacast for producing the live interactive webcast of what delegates called our industry's most fascinating conference to date.
For those who were unable to attend either in-person or virtually, several keynote presentations are now available on the event's archival website, with more slide-shows and fully produced video soon to follow.
Presentations by Jim Kott, Co-President, Abacast; Kevin Kuzas, Former VP & General Counsel, Comcast Interactive Media; Mitchell Edwards, General Counsel & CFO, BitTorrent; and Devon Copley, CTO, Noank Media are now posted.
Janko Roettgers provides additional coverage here.
Ignite Technologies' new whitepaper "2009 Best Practices for Enterprise Content Delivery," which all attendees received, is also now available for downloading here.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The US House of Representatives conducted a legislative hearing Tuesday on HR 1319, "The Informed P2P User Act," introduced in March by Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) along with Congressmen John Barrow (D-GA) and Joe Barton (R-TX).
The bill is intended to help protect users against inadvertently sharing confidential data via file-sharing software applications, a goal we fully support.
The session, convened by the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection also examined issues related to HR 2221, "The Data Accountability and Trust Act."
P2P has evolved greatly in the eight years since Napster first brought the term "P2P File Sharing" to prominence.
Fully licensed ad-supported P2P, subscription P2P, paid download P2P, commercial enterprise P2P, P2PTV, hybrid P2P, and live P2P streaming now deserve to be separated from the narrow sub-set of functionality associated with rudimentary "file sharing."
DCIA Member companies increasingly use P2P for the delivery of authorized entertainment and corporate communications content where rights-holders, rather than end-users, introduce files or live streams for online delivery.
We strongly urge the Subcommittee to apply the term "file sharing" - without the P2P prefix - as a more accurate descriptor for the focus of HR 1319.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on this topic in July 2007. Within weeks of that hearing, the DCIA established the Inadvertent Sharing Protection Working Group (ISPG). Over several months, we recruited participants among leading P2P and other tech-sector companies and engaged with FTC staff to address issues associated with unintended publishing of confidential data by file sharers.
This effort began by providing demonstrations for FTC staff of how current file-sharing programs work in terms of users uploading material for distribution. It continued through an iterative process involving private sector and regulatory participants to develop a program of voluntary best practices - for file-sharing-software developers - to protect users against inadvertently sharing personal or sensitive data.
This program was announced in July 2008. Its summary, included in our written testimony, begins by defining terms relevant to 1319, such as "recursive sharing," "sensitive file types," and "user-originated files." It then outlines seven steps that are required to be in compliance: 1) default settings, 2) file-sharing controls, 3) shared-folder configurations, 4) user-error protections, 5) sensitive-file-type restrictions, 6) file-sharing status communications, and 7) developer principles. The principles address feature disablement, uninstallation, new-version upgrades, and file-sharing settings.
In August 2008, the DCIA announced that compliance monitoring would begin in December to allow developers time to integrate required elements of the ISPG program into their planned upgrades and new releases. Compliance monitoring resulted in reports from top brands that use P2P for downloading, live streaming, open-environment sharing, and corporate intranet deployments, and for both user-generated and professionally produced content.
Specifically, seven leading representative P2P program distributors submitted detailed reports to FTC staff in February 2009. In March, the DCIA prepared and submitted a summary. We also noted that software implementations of the popular BitTorrent protocol typically require users to conduct a deliberate conversion process from whatever native file-format their content is in to a torrent file before it can be published, thus minimizing this risk of user-error.
The entire report plus data tables of individual company submissions are in our written testimony. Here are highlights: all respondents now have clearly-disclosed install default-settings that only permit sharing files downloaded from the network. They do not share user-originated files by default; 100% provide complete uninstallation of their file-sharing software that is simple to do and explained in plain language - for example, by using the standard "Add/Remove Program" in Windows; and 6 of out of 7 - all where this item is applicable - now offer a simple way to stop sharing any folder, subfolder, or file, by using easily accessed controls.
In April 2009, Subcommittee staff invited the DCIA to participate in redrafting HR 1319. We formed a DCIA Member sub-group to conduct this work. This process is now underway and we will continue to coordinate this effort with staff. Among our greatest concerns is that the bill as drafted would have unintended consequences.
The present draft goes way beyond the specific concerns discussed here and would apply to additional functionality and technologies that have nothing to do with "recursive sharing of sensitive file types." Applying these requirements to numerous products, services, and companies would be burdensome and counter-productive.
To the extent that legitimate consumer concerns persist in the area that the bill intends to address, we strongly believe they can best be handled by ongoing self-regulation - under the oversight of the appropriate federal authority - as we initiated with the ISPG.
As constructed, the bill would unnecessarily burden US-based technology firms with innovation-freezing constraints, while being unenforceable against overseas competitors whose software is available to US consumers.
Of great concern also is how it might stifle yet undeveloped new and potentially very useful and valuable software applications.
On the other hand, the DCIA has committed to industry self-regulation through the ISPG to address the subject matter of this bill and is making substantial progress. Rather than a problematic new legal measure, we believe that formalized requirements - for compliance with that process - will be more effective in achieving the stated purpose of the bill.
In any case, we look forward to working with the Subcommittee on these issues in a productive manner that will benefit all constituencies, and appreciate that HR 1319's original sponsor is very committed to fast-tracking this legislation. While we strongly support the intent of the measure, and in fact have exceeded it with the ISPG principles, we cannot support the bill's current language. Share wisely, and take care.
Know When You're Sharing Files, But Drown in Pop-Ups
Excerpted from Public Knowledge Report by Alex Curtis
The HR Energy and Commerce Committee webcast its hearing Tuesday on HR 1319 and HR 2221, which you can now stream or download, as well as read the written testimony of witnesses.
In regards to the P2P portion, frankly, the hearing went about as expected. The tech people said the intent of this bill was fine, but the statutory language was too broad.
Business Software Alliance's (BSA) Robert Holleyman said that the bill would implicate virus scanners, operating system updaters, and web browsers; Center for Democracy & Technology's (CDT) David Sohn argued similarly, said to call it "file sharing" instead of "P2P" and offered some ways to tighten up the definition. Distributed Computing Industry Association's (DCIA) Marty Lafferty touted his industry's record in working with government to get DCIA Member P2P companies to comply with standards - essentially "we self-regulate fine, no need for any legislation."
I don't think that HR 1319 will be one of those bills that gets a lot of attention, which can be good and bad. Good if it just goes away because not enough people support it. Bad if it doesn't get fixed, and people find it non-controversial enough, it might just pass or get attached to another bill without notice.
The tech industry should take note, there wasn't a single Member of Congress at that hearing that had their back - questioning the need for or the statutory language of this bill. They may exist, but they weren't at the hearing, and some of the tech-savvy-er members are actually listed as co-sponsors of the bill!
As is, it's a poorly drafted bill that if passed would make it more difficult for consumers to use common Internet-connected computer applications that have little to nothing to do with sharing private information with the public. Please click here for the full report.
New P2P Bill Focuses on Security, Not Copyright
Excerpted from PC Magazine Report by Chloe Albanesius
"Too often, when consumers download P2P programs onto their computers with the intent of sharing and downloading certain files on the network, they are unaware that they are also sharing other files they otherwise want to keep private," Congressman Bobby Rush, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, said at Tuesday's hearing.
The Subcommittee is currently considering two bills looking to prevent such activity. "The Data Accountability and Trust Act" would require companies that work with electronic data to ensure that that information is secure, and to inform customers immediately if their data is compromised.
"The Informed P2P User Act," meanwhile, would require makers of P2P programs to be more transparent about how their software works on computers, and require an opt-in function for the sharing of files. The legislative standards in the bill would be helpful to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said Eileen Harrington, Acting Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.
"We want the US P2P players to be the best players, so they continue to be the dominant players in the US and consumers can use them with confidence," Harrington said. "There's always a risk that overseas operators can gain some sort of competitive advantage over regulated entities in our marketplace, but that's not a worry right now that's keeping me awake at night."
The FTC has worked with the P2P industry to set up standards for disclosure and default settings, Harrington said. The agency has received performance reports from seven major P2P companies and plans to make those results public this summer.
Marty Lafferty, CEO of the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), the trade group representing P2P companies, urged restraint. "The bill would unnecessarily burden US-based technology firms with an innovation-freezing measure, while being unenforceable against overseas firms whose software is available to US consumers," Lafferty said.
The bill is also overbroad and, since it applies to the use of users' bandwidth without their knowledge, it could apply to almost any application that relies on distributed computing," he said. Please click here for the full report.
P2P Bill Could Regulate Web Browsers, FTP Clients
Excerpted from CNET News Report by Declan McCullagh
Tuesday's hearing focused on a bill introduced in March by Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA). The catch: while it appears intended to target only P2P applications, the measure sweeps in web browsers, FTP applications, instant messaging (IM) utilities, and other common programs, too.
Mack's "Informed P2P User Act" says that it will be "unlawful" for P2P software to cause files to be made available unless two rules are followed. First, the utility's installation process must provide "clear and conspicuous notice" of its features and obtain the user's "informed consent." Second, the program must step through that notice-and-consent process every time it runs.
Her bill defines P2P applications as software that let files be marked for transfer, transferred, and received. Every copy of Windows, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS X sold in recent memory includes a command-line FTP client fitting that definition but lacking the proposed warning. Does that mean that Microsoft, the Free Software Foundation, and Apple could be fined for "unlawful" activities? If the definition stretches to include the rsync utility and open-source software too, will volunteer maintainers and foreign citizens have to comply?
Another example: web browsers could also be regulated and subject to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement action unless "informed consent" is obtained each time the desktop icon is double-clicked. Every web browser allows the user to "designate" files to be uploaded - ever post a photo? - and request that files be downloaded.
It's true that forcing compliance - at least for those programmers who are paying attention to legislative proclamations from the US Congress - shouldn't be too difficult. A few warning messages and click-here-to-continue dialog boxes would suffice.
Still, the argument that a particular piece of proposed legislation "could be worse" is no argument at all. What the bill's drafters may not appreciate is that the Internet is, by definition, a peer-to-peer network. Restricting its P2Pishness, for lack of a better term, is difficult to do without restricting Internet access completely.
The point here is not that LimeWire and its rivals are without risk; misconfiguration probably would expose sensitive files to the public.
It's more that software is uniquely malleable, difficult to define, and better overseen by West Coast coders voluntarily adding warning messages than East Coast lawyers making it illegal not to do so. Please click here for the full report.
HR 1319 Would Impact Cloud Computing
Excerpted from IT World Report by Grant Gross
"The Informed P2P User Act," introduced in March by Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, would require that P2P software give users warnings that their files can be shared before installation and each time it's launched.
But Bono Mack's bill defines P2P as software that allows a computer to designate files available for transmission to another computer, to transmit those files, and to request that other computers transmit files to it. That definition could include web browsers, automatic updates, and streaming media services, said Robert Holleyman, President & CEO of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a trade group.
"We know that is not the intent of the bill" to force browsers to give file-sharing warnings every time a user launches one, Holleyman said. Some changes to the definition of P2P in the bill could fix the problems with the bill, he said. Bono Mack questioned why providing notice to consumers would be a problem for legitimate software vendors. "What is the harm?" she asked. "How is notice and consent an issue?"
Four other tech-related trade groups, including TechAmerica and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), also raised concerns about the bill in a letter sent to Bono Mack Monday. The bill's definition of P2P software could apply to e-mail providers, social networking sites, and cloud computing services, the groups wrote.
"Each of the above-referenced technologies allows a user's computer to share and request content from other computers," the letter said. "In fact, most services and applications on the Internet allow for such shared use. The vast majority of applications that utilize distributed computers to deliver or assist in the delivery of content do not contain the kind of recursive file-sharing features that the legislation seems intended to address." Bono Mack said she was willing to refine the definition of P2P services.
But the CEO of the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), a trade group representing P2P vendors and other companies involved in distributed computing, suggested no legislation was needed. In July 2008, the DCIA announced a program of voluntary best practices for P2P software vendors to avoid inadvertent file sharing, and seven leading P2P vendors have adopted the standards, said Marty Lafferty, DCIA's CEO.
The bill could stifle innovative new technologies and it would not cover overseas P2P software, he said. P2P vendors now provide software that does not share personal files by default, Lafferty said. "To the extent that legitimate consumer concerns persist in the area that the bill attempts to address, we strongly believe they can best be handled by ongoing self-regulation," he said. "The DCIA has committed to self-regulation and is making substantial progress." Please click here for the full report.
US P2P Bill Aims Shackles at Browsers, IM
Excerpted from The Register Report by Dan Goodin
Technology lobbying groups have pounced on proposed US legislation designed to prevent the accidental sharing of sensitive files over P2P networks, saying it is so broad that web browsers and even entire operating systems would also be covered.
"The Informed P2P User Act" would require makers of file-sharing software to add prominent warnings that files can be shared and require users to give their consent by clicking a button. The notice would appear once when the application is being installed and again when it is first run.
The problem is that the warning would be required for any program that allows a file to be uploaded or downloaded, a capability that's included in browsers, instant messaging (IM) programs, and indeed most operating systems, since they include FTP, or file transfer protocol.
"If legislation ends up sweeping in many kinds of software, there are likely to be a wider range of issues and complications to consider, as the bill's requirements might not prove appropriate in all contexts," David Sohn, Senior Policy Counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), wrote in prepared comments before a Subcommittee for the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Four technology trade groups voiced similar concerns.
The bill, introduced by Republican Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack of California, is aimed at preventing debacles like the one in March that exposed confidential blueprints detailing President Obama's Marine One helicopter. It was only the latest example of sensitive files being broadcast to the world through P2P networks. While most programs by default don't share the entire contents of a hard drive, careless users can override these settings.
Mack's bill is designed to save such users from themselves. But as written, it may create a whole new mess someone else will need to clean up.
European Parliament Rejects 3-Strikes P2P Legislation
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
The European Parliament has voted to make it illegal to disconnect repeat file-swappers' Internet connections, as one facet of a larger Telecoms Package that was approved this week.
"What we have done is to make it absolutely clear that the right to access the Internet is part of a European citizen's fundamental rights, and so the Convention on European Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (CERFF) will apply," said Malcolm Harbour, a British Member of European Parliament (MEP).
The vote saw 407 members of Parliament in favor of a version of the amendment, to 57 opposed.
The European Parliament's vote comes in stark contrast to France's pending "three-strikes" law, which has encountered some obstacles but is expected to eventually become law there. France was vocal in its opposition to the version of the Telecoms Package that was approved.
"This directive package has never been about copyright enforcement. The Parliament cannot impose on a country conditions about how it organizes its judicial system," added British MEP Harbour.
"Clearly the Internet has to be policed because it is being used for illicit activities such as terrorist activities, child pornography, child trafficking, and so on. The basic principle is that the Internet always has to be a free Internet, but it is not completely regulation free."
The Importance of Upholding Creativity
Excerpted from Huffington Post Report by Laura Tunberg
File sharing won't go away, and frankly, it shouldn't. Consumers want it and demand it and should have it. The entertainment industry needs to address it in a committed fashion.
But does the imprisonment of The Pirate Bay (TPB) owners accomplish anything? Absolutely.
I happen to know it has an impact first hand - While I was the VP of Intellectual Property Enforcement at MGM Studios, I found Randy Guthrie illegally selling MGM's prized franchise, boxed sets of James Bond movies, online.
As a result of my efforts to track him down with law enforcement, Guthrie, an American citizen, spent years in a Chinese prison and was extradited to the US to continue a long sentence in a Mississippi prison and pay a huge fine. This story reminds people that stealing movies is a crime and when you get caught, the penalty is steep.
What's the lesson here? It is important to protect creativity - and that just doesn't mean actors and directors. It means struggling writers, make-up artists, set designers, and assistants.
We need to actively pursue the bottom feeders that improperly exploit America's creativity for their own benefit while simultaneously educating our young people and challenging them to come up with new business models to match today's technology.
Our children should understand the relationship between technology and entertainment - they have always been intertwined and cannot live without each other.
While the relationship has been tense at times: the player piano, the television, the VCR - all predicted to "end the business..." and none did, what they did do was create new revenue streams and grow the business like never before.
And then along came Napster - and unfortunately the music business' reaction was to ignore and then once the technology was firmly in place, sue the consumer and the creators of the technology. And we all know how that has worked out.
History shows that major innovations create major opportunities. The visionaries benefit, the fearful resist and languish. The key has always been seeing the change and adapting. Something that music has failed to do, and something that the studios need to hasten.
There are so many legitimate video and music sites that compensate artists and the studios and labels that support them, using the very same technology that the pirates use - our job is to make sure the population knows the difference.
Evolve and educate. Please click here for the full report.
Mininova Filters Copyright-Infringing Torrents
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
Just a few days before its court appearance, Mininova, the largest BitTorrent site on the Internet, has started to filter content. The site is using a third-party content recognition system that will detect and remove torrent files that link to copyright-infringing files.
The system will also prevent the torrents from being re-uploaded to Mininova later on.
Mininova co-founder Niek said that the system will be tested for 12 weeks with only a few titles. For this trial, Mininova is collaborating with an association representing several TV/movie content owners.
The content removal system should be seen as an extension of Mininova's existing copyright policy according to Niek, who also said that the current trial will be used to find out whether the content recognition system is a workable and effective solution.
The system was selected by the copyright holders themselves who want an easier way to get torrent files removed than the current notice-and-takedown policy, and it is operated by an undisclosed third party. Interestingly, this collaboration does not mean that the upcoming court case against BREIN is off the table.
Later this month, BREIN hopes to convince the court that Mininova has to filter its search results, so that all .torrent files which may point to unauthorized content are removed. Up until now, Mininova refused to interfere with the search results, claiming that the DMCA take-down procedure they have is good enough. This has clearly changed now.
The response from Mininova's users is mostly negative, with one commenter saying, "Shame to see such a nice site decide to go hang itself," and another adding, "Wow, guess you guys are caving under the pressure. Too bad it's all over now."
The effectiveness of this filtering system, and how it will affect Mininova's popularity, are yet to be seen, but this is a radical development.
Cool Spotify Trick
Excerpted from Music Machinery Report
Ever wonder how deep the increasingly popular licensed P2P music service Spotify catalog is? Spotify won't tell you directly, but you can figure it out pretty easily. Spotify lets you search its catalog by date - so a search like this: spotify: search: year: 0-3000 will return the entire catalog, which lets you view their stats: total tracks: 3,586,179; total albums: 319,106; and total artists: 264,461.
Spotify orders its results by popularity, so the search results for this "all music" query not only show you the size of the Spotify catalog, they also show you what are the most popular tracks in the entire catalog, which happen to be topped by Lady Gaga, The Killers, Beyonce, and Coldplay.
This popularity sort is pretty handy when combined with the year-based search. You can quickly and easy listen to the most popular songs of any year - for example, here's the year I graduated from high school: 1977 at Spotify.
With 40,000 new users signing up every day, the phenomenal P2P entry Spotify is capturing the music world. It will be really amazing to see what happens if/when it opens its doors in the US.
Transmission for Linux Reaches 1.6.0
Excerpted from E-Linux Report
All BitTorrent users will be happy to hear that a new version of the popular Transmission client has been released, for both Linux and Mac platforms. Transmission 1.6.0 brings a beta client for the Qt framework as well as important new features and improvements.
Users will now be able to limit the seed ratio and prioritize transfers. Also, in 1.6.0, torrents can be individually configured to either follow the global bandwidth limits or use custom settings. Improvements have been done on the UPnP port forwarding option too, and support for file pre-allocation on XFS file systems was added.
Other highlights of Transmission 1.6.0 for Linux include: random port, including an optional randomization ability; a second set of speed limits can now be configured and applied or scheduled; the properties window can now display multiple torrents at the same time; torrents can now be arranged by size and estimated time of arrival (ETA); torrents will now display icons according to their contents; in the Transmission Daemon, folders can now be watched in order to auto-add torrents from them; the RPC/JSON interface in the Daemon has been improved; users can now manually specify addresses when listening for new peers in the Daemon; single files can now be selected and prioritized in the web client; a new option to verify local data was added to the web client; and the "Remove Data" bug has been fixed.
Transmission is an open-source, cross-platform, BitTorrent client that aims to provide a powerful, yet simple-to-use solution. The application is configured to work "out of the box" with the default settings, while more advanced features can also be easily accessed for a more in-depth set-up. Transmission was written in the C programming language and needs a lot fewer resources than most other clients. It is also the default BitTorrent client in the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.
Copyright Claims Clamp Down on Creativity
Excerpted from La Voz Weekly Report by James Chen
Comiket, quite possibly the world's largest comics convention, has hit Japan again. Describing it as "crowded" doesn't begin to cover it - tacking on adjectives like "stifling hot," "overwhelming," and so on merely scratch at the surface. It is often considered the Geek's Mecca, and not just half-seriously at that.
The most important thing, however, is that the dealers hawking comics, books, and games at the convention are technically amateurs. No corporate contracts, no authorship deals, and for the gross majority of them, no copyright ownership either. The gigantic monetary maelstrom of Comiket is, for all intents and purposes, a legal impossibility.
At least, it's an impossibility from our perspective. Copyright ownership and management is something of a big deal here in America: the RIAA, MPAA and even the various writers' guilds have been stirring up some serious muck about who can use what intellectual property (IP) when and how.
The measures they've taken have been both silly and deadly serious - it wasn't all that long ago that the RIAA was successfully suing P2P programs for millions, and just recently Amazon came under legal fire for the Kindle 2's ability to, horror of horrors, read books to its vision-impaired users.
The very concept of "underground" musician plays to this war between the owners and utilizers of IP: the suing of disc jockeys (DJs) for the unauthorized use of music clips, tracks, and sequences has cast a criminal, or underground, light upon an entire genre of art.
But contrast this against the Japanese "Doujinshi," or self-publishing culture, where the idea of "owning" a concept is more nebulous.
Often successful authors and artists were once doujinshi artists themselves. There is an unusual flourishing, unprecedented in any other culture, of artistic talent in otaku culture and in massively talented bands and DJs, exemplified by "CROW'S CLAW" and "RED ALiCE."
Copyright adherents argue that copyright enforcement encourages originality over derivations made solely for profit, at the expense of the innovator and without any artistic merit. But the harms they claim are by far in the minority in countries where enforcement is more lenient.
As long as there is some baseline on the difference between homage and rip-off, what happens is not a death of originality, but an outburst of art - and with it, a boon not just to the amateur artists, but also to the originator.
The best and fastest way to gain a loyal and, importantly, paying fan base is not to copyright your newest idea, but rather to "copyleft." To make public domain a part of your perceived "rights" to a fresh concept - to almost literally demand that you are not alone in its care. The fastest way to get audience loyalty is, indeed, to get them to feel that they, too, are committed to a concept's success.
LaCie Intros New NAS Devices with Integrated BitTorrent
Excerpted from Softpedia Report by Traian Teglet
LaCie, a leading vendor of computer storage solutions, has announced the expansion of its line of network attached storage (NAS) solutions.
Two new solutions have been designed to provide storage support in a convenient NAS device to users who are looking to store, share, and back-up files from any PC or Mac system, on a wired or wireless network. Designed to deliver a number of useful features, the new NAS devices from LaCie also integrate an internal BitTorrent client.
"Data storage needs are becoming increasingly significant in homes and small offices," said Edin Del Mar, LaCie Product Manager for Office Network Solutions. "Our new Big Disk and d2 Networks provide professional server functionality and large storage capacities that satisfy the needs of any workgroup environment, with superior design and better performance than comparable products on the market today."
Both drives have been featured with a USB port, allowing users to expand their storage capacity or easily back-up files from different USB-enabled devices. In addition to an integrated BitTorrent client, these new NAS solutions from LaCie are featured with a comprehensive management system, which includes a Wake-on-LAN (WOL) feature and the Genie Backup Manager Pro for Windows and Intego Backup Manager Pro for Mac users.
Both products have support for up to 50 users (15 at a time), who can access the data on the internal storage solution. The d2 Network is featured with an integrated 1.5TB hard drive, while the Big Disk Network can support two hard drives in RAID 0 for a maximum of 4TB of storage. Designed for both Mac and Windows users, the new d2 Network and Big Disk Network from LaCie are available now at starting prices of $189.99 and $379.99 respectively.
Octoshape Embedded
Excerpted from Contentinople Report by Ryan Lawler
P2P technology firm Octoshape is getting to some consumer televisions, with availability of its streaming video plug-in on set-top boxes (STBs) from CaptiveWorks.
CaptiveWorks, which makes digital STBs that can capture free-to-air satellite signals and Internet video streams, will use the Octoshape technology to enable P2P video streaming on its devices.
"We thoroughly believe that the home is where over-the-top video is going to pop," says Scott Brown, CEO of Octoshape's North American operations. "But the thing that's missing from over-the-top is live video."
Octoshape provides live streaming technology for large audiences of online video by reducing the cost of delivery and increasing the possible scale with a P2P client plug-in.
The technology has been used for the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) Korean broadcaster's Olympics coverage, as well as the European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) Eurovision Song Contest. Closer to home, the Octoshape plug-in has been chosen by CNN for its live video stream.
The CaptiveWorks partnership marks the first public example of Octoshape's technology being embedded on an STB, although the company is working with other consumer electronics manufacturers to embed the plug-in on other devices.
"STBs and CE devices far outnumber the number of viewers that are on computers today," Brown says.
Facebook Makes Another Privacy Blooper
Excerpted from the Online Examiner Report by Wendy Davis
It's safe to say that Facebook has had more than its share of privacy glitches. There was the infamous Beacon program, which told people about their friends' purchases at e-commerce sites. Then came the whole terms-of-service fiasco, in which Facebook found itself dealing with a mini-revolt after the site attempted to claim perpetual ownership over material posted by users.
Now, Wired reports that the company has been snooping on private messages and censoring ones that contain file-sharing links. Last month, TorrentFreak reported that Facebook had started blocking all links to torrents from The Pirate Bay (TPB) - including links in private messages.
Facebook told Wired it can do so because the site's terms-of-service allow it to filter unauthorized content from messages. But torrent files are not necessarily unauthorized. In fact a Wired journalist tested Facebook's system by sending a colleague a link to a torrent feed of a book in the public domain - meaning that no one owns the copyright. Facebook still didn't deliver the message.
Facebook's high-handed tactics also raise serious questions about whether the company is violating a federal wiretapping law. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) generally prohibits e-mail providers from snooping on messages.
To some extent, it's unsettled whether that law applies to messages sent through social networking sites. But Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney Kevin Bankston says that at least one judge has ruled that the wiretap law does indeed apply to messages hosted on social sites. In the Viacom/Google litigation, US District Court Judge Louis Stanton ruled Viacom wasn't entitled to view copies of videos that YouTube users had marked "private" because such clips were protected by EPCA.
Regardless of whether Facebook broke the law, users likely aren't going to be thrilled to learn that the site believes it can censor messages.
If the company wants to be taken seriously as a communications platform, executives are going to have to start giving more consideration to users' privacy rights.
The Economics of Internet File Sharing
Excerpted from Business World Report by Eduard Robleza and Arjay Bautista
The online community is divided over a report on the Swedish court handing down a guilty verdict to all four founders of popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay (TPB).
Supporters laud the decision, saying it is a significant step forward in the battle against online copyright infringement while those against it say the decision gives a hint on how the Internet will be regulated in the future.
The incident has put to the fore a number of questions. Among others, how did file sharing become unlawful? Why is file sharing over the Internet popular? Can traditional rival distributors reclaim lost ground? Perhaps economics can lend a hand in answering these questions.
To borrow a few words from Thomas Friedman, the world, in some respects, has become flat thanks to technology, especially the Internet.
What started as an informal interconnection of networks in the academe has evolved into a global empire of information and entertainment.
The Internet has revolutionized business models. Case in point: the fall of a number of newspaper companies in the United Sates after seeing their profits being gobbled up by their online counterparts.
But perhaps no business has taken a harder hit than the media and digital information industry, which spans from music record labels to giant software companies.
Central to this argument has been the issue of infringement of their copyrighted works, with the Internet acting as both the conduit and source.
Please click here for the full report.
Music File-Sharing Consumer Lawsuits Continue
Excerpted from Ars Technica Report by Nate Anderson
The RIAA's lawsuit campaign against individual file sharers never quite seems to wrap up, and as long as the music labels continue filing their suits, stories about how the RIAA is a lying collection of lying liars (who lie) aren't going to die either.
Such a story came yesterday from Ray Beckerman, the lawyer who runs the Recording Industry vs. The People blog. Beckerman noted that the music labels had filed new cases in April, despite their claim to Congress that they had stopped "initiating new lawsuits" in August 2008.
That claim, says Beckerman, was a "total fabrication," and the continued court filings prove it. There aren't many of these "new" cases; Beckerman found only three in New York. But why are they being filed at all?
The answer remains as it has every time we've covered this issue that the RIAA did not pledge to stop filing legal documents. The group's own definition of "new cases" does not include those that were already in process as "John Doe" cases or where settlement letters had already gone out.
This was the case in March, when the RIAA filed a case against an Omaha resident for file swapping. Those hypocrites! But the case had been detected in 2007, a "John Doe" lawsuit was filed months later, and once the necessary account information was subpoenaed from the ISP, the "John Doe" suit was replaced with a named lawsuit in March 2009.
An RIAA spokesperson said at the time that the issue was about fairness, though we raised some obvious questions about just how fair it was.
"We're obviously pleased to transition to a new program going forward but that doesn't mean we can give a free pass to those who downloaded music illegally in the past," we were told. "How fair would it be to the thousands of individuals who took responsibility for their actions and settled their cases while others are let off the hook? We're still in the business of deterrence and it must be credible." Please click here for the full report.
The Future of File Sharing
Excerpted from The Star Online by Syahrir Mat Ali
One-click hosting is commonly defined as a "web service that allows Internet users to easily upload one or more files from their hard drives onto the one-click host's server."
Two of the most popular one-click hosting service providers, RapidShare and MegaUpload provide huge amounts of free disk space on their servers for users to upload their files.
Both services automatically provide a URL link for the respective files; which uploaders can opt to announce to anybody anywhere they like or to strictly keep to themselves.
Both RapidShare and MegaUpload offer free and premium accounts. Free accounts differ from the premium ones in terms of the maximum file size that can be uploaded and downloaded and the expiration period of the files; the amount of files that can be downloaded simultaneously; the volume of downloads per stipulated time; and the download speed.
To protect themselves against lawsuits from copyright owners, one-click hosting providers publish disclaimers pertaining to the uploading of copyrighted content stating that such files will be immediately removed if copyright owners complain about them.
This can never be fully and effectively implemented, however, due to the fact that most one-click hosting providers do not allow listing and browsing the files they host.
Apart from the providers, only the original uploaders know the exact URLs that point to the uploaded files. Hence the burden of locating and reporting unauthorized uploaded files falls upon the copyright owners themselves.
And it is not a tenable feat considering that RapidShare, for instance, claims to have a storage capacity of several petabytes (1 petabyte equals 1,000 terabytes) and even the publicly announced URLs can be hidden anywhere in the countless number of file-sharing forums, blogs, and warez sites.
It does not look good for copyright owners, and they are indeed on the losing side because they are unlikely to find anything copyrighted very easily: only the most amateur of file sharers would name their files obviously. Instead, cunning uploaders devise obscure file-naming conventions in order to avoid being found out. Please click here for the full report.
The Legacy of Dying Media Conglomerates
Excerpted from Newsweek Report by Johnnie Roberts
After a prolonged decline, the long-suffering "vertically integrated media conglomerate," commonly called Big Media, seems to be passing away. It endured as the industry's prevailing business model for nearly a generation, spawning Viacom, News Corp, and NBC Universal.
But it essentially failed in its goal of giving a handful of companies unprecedented power and outsized profits. In the prime example of Big Media's demise, a scaled-down Time Warner will soon be left as a sharply focused, purebred content company comprised of filmed entertainment and news brands.
Basically, it will be a corporate reincarnation of its original form. So what is Big Media's legacy? Among its contributions: wireless broadband and DVDs. On the negative side, it gave us the modern mogul - outsize personalities with jet-setting lifestyles, a sense of corporate omnipotence and entitlement, "corporate America's most damaging form of management."
Big Media also revealed that synergy is overrated - "the most over-hyped concept in American business." Please click here for the full report.
Coming Events of Interest
Streaming Media East - May 12th-13th in New York, NY. The number-one place to see, learn, and discuss what is taking place with all forms of online video business models and technology. Content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, enterprise corporations, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, and educators.
World Copyright Summit - June 9th-10th in Washington, DC. The international forum that brings together all those directly involved in creative industries to openly debate the future of copyright and the distribution of creative works in the digital era. WCS is organized by CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.
Structure 09 - June 25th in San Francisco, CA. A world-class roster of speakers break down how to put cloud computing to work. Cloud computing's movers and shakers go beyond theory to discuss how they have leveraged cloud computing in their businesses.
PopKomm - September 16th-18th in Berlin, Germany. With more than 843 exhibitors from 52 countries, PopKomm is one of the leading international conferences and expos for the music and entertainment businessed worldwide.
New York Games Conference - September 30th in New York, NY. Join games industry leaders - including leading video game publishers and developers, carriers, portals, technology companies, advertising execs, venture capitalists, lawyers, analysts, and many more.
Digital Hollywood Fall - October 19th-22nd in Santa Monica, CA. With many new sessions and feature events, DHF has become the premiere digital entertainment conference and exposition. DCIA Member companies will exhibit and speak on a number of panels.
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