October 5, 2009
Volume XXVIII, Issue 2
P2P & GAMES CONFERENCE at Expanded Digital Hollywood
The first-ever P2P & GAMES CONFERENCE will take place Thursday October 22nd at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Los Angeles, CA in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Fall, which features an expanded event line-up with over a dozen new major sessions and special keynote address from Marc Graboff, Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios
The inaugural P2P & GAMES CONFERENCE will focus on business models, delivery services, and case studies that demonstrate the benefits of P2P and cloud computing for the distribution of games and game updates to networked devices. Many of the advances being made in P2P for games can also apply to video content and music.
Keynote speakers include Jim Kott, Co-President, Abacast; Norman Henderson, VP of Business Development, Asankya; Eric Klinker, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), BitTorrent; Arthur Pober, American Associate, European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA); Joe Porus & Milt Ellis, Vice Presidents, Harris Interactive; Scott Tilghman & Daniel Ernst, Principals, Hudson Square Research; Nicholas Longano, CEO & Founder, Music Mogul; Robert Levitan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pando Networks; and Chris Hennebery, Director of Software Distribution, Yummy Interactive.
Featured conference speakers include Aaron Markham, VP of Research & Development, BayTSP; Max Davis, Director, DataRevenue.Org; Jim Burger, Member, Dow Lohnes; Robert Hunter, Digital Rights Consultant, Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA); Chris Ullrich, Writer / Producer, The Flickcast; Steve Masur, Managing Partner, MasurLaw; Russell Frackman, Partner, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp; Seth Shapiro, Principal, New Amsterdam Media; Hal Bringman, Founder & President, NVPR; Michael Perricone, Principal, Omstream; Rich Roberts, VP of Sales & Business Development, PlayFirst; Mark Isherwood, Senior Consultant, Rightscom; and Laura Tunberg, Principal, We Get It Consulting.
In addition to a very exciting agenda of keynotes and panel sessions featuring industry leaders at the forefront of this new category, there will also be a continental breakfast and conference luncheon.
Pre-registration rates, which offer substantial savings, end October 15th. To register, please e-mail P2PGC@dcia.info for instructions.
Skype & Kazaa Founders Back New Online Gaming Force
Excerpted from Casual Gaming Biz News Report by Rob Crossley
Casual game outfit Zattikka has won a ringing vote of confidence from two prominent entrepreneurs who helped established some of biggest names on the net.
Atomico Ventures was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis; two net veterans who established the likes of Skype, Joost, Joltid and Kazaa.
Next in the VC firm's crosshairs is Zattikka, having provided the games company with its first major investment deal.
Zattikka CEO Tim Chaney revealed his delight in announcing the deal. "These are guys that changed the way the world communicates and have a vision beyond what most of us envisage as the future," he said. "At this point Atomico is our only corporate investor and we are delighted to have them on our side, inside."
Zattikka is focusing its talents on developing games for the iPhone, social networking sites, and online browsers. The firm only last month announced the purchase of popular flash game site Gimme5games.
Geoffrey Prentice, Partner at Atomico Ventures, spoke of the faith the firm has in Zattikka. "The online gaming industry offers a huge market opportunity to disruptive players," he said, "and in Zattikka we found a strong and passionate team with excellent credentials, sound plans, and structure that can make a determining difference in the sector."
File-Sharing Security Bill Clears House Committee
Excerpted from Internet News Report by Kenneth Corbin
A bill to protect users from inadvertently sharing files through file-sharing networks is headed to the House floor after clearing the Energy and Commerce Committee this week in a markup session.
The Informed P2P User Act would require file-sharing software providers to provide clear and meaningful notice before making the files on users' computers available to share, and to make it easier for users to block or disable file-sharing software.
The Lime Group has testified in Congress that it addressed the vulnerabilities this bill is designed to prevent in the most recent version of the LimeWire application.
The bill would allocate enforcement authority to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce met in open markup session this week to consider HR 2221, the Data Accountability and Trust Act and HR 1319, the Informed P2P User Act.
The session was relatively uneventful in that each of the bills passed the Committee by voice vote as "a bipartisan manager's amendment in the nature of a substitute" without further revision.
Reasons for HR 1319 given by Chairman Waxman were consistent with the prior public rationale for this measure: to help protect consumers from inadvertently sharing sensitive data like tax returns or medical records and to help protect classified government documents from exposure.
In his opening statement, Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) cautioned the Committee that there is still more work to be done on this bill to protect legitimate usage of P2P, a rapidly changing technology, whose commercial adoption is steadily expanding.
He noted that the bill as it stands would unintentionally sweep-up commercial P2P products that have significant value, both economically and to consumers. Congressman Inslee looks forward to helping make improvements that will narrow the scope of this bill before it reaches the House floor.
Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) noted that HR 1319 could have benefited from additional preliminary subcommittee work before being brought forward. And indeed, certain critical language in the bill as it currently stands is so vague as to make it unenforceable.
Nevertheless, officials praised the skillful work of Committee staff on this, led by Marc Groman and others, who facilitated a process where the input of stakeholders was gathered and processed efficiently and where bipartisan work was completed expeditiously. This bill was able to bypass the normal subcommittee markup procedure as a result of this work.
The Chairman and others also acknowledged the enormous benefits to business, academia, and individuals of file-sharing software, bringing great efficiencies to the distribution of data; and that the bill is not intended to impact negatively the technology itself, which is benign, or the distribution of programs that use it, or to impede ongoing innovation.
In a closing colloquy before the vote was taken, Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) echoed Congressman Inslee, and said that this bill was still too broad in terms of the kinds of software that would be covered.
In addition, he voiced concerns that the bill would result in "over-notification" to consumers, causing a flood of notices that would end up being ineffective because they would simply be ignored.
Most important, more work needs to be done to further narrow the definition of "covered file-sharing program," he said. (Indeed, even "cookies," for example, would probably be covered by this bill as currently written).
We are concerned in general that a number of members are not sufficiently informed about the subject software and its functionality - or even related industry activities - to facilitate high-quality decision making on this issue and that this bill would set a precedent that begins the descent down a slippery slope towards undesirable Internet regulation.
An incendiary example used by one member to rationalize the need for this bill was the reported finding of "Marine One schematics on P2P servers in Iran," when, as DCINFO readers know, file-sharing applications don't use servers. Rather, they rely on decentralized networks comprised of users' clients.
There was also the badly uninformed statement by a senior member that no industry consensus solution has been reached about how to address inadvertent file sharing, completely ignoring the valuable work of the Inadvertent Sharing Protection Working Group (ISPG).
The ISPG published its consensus solution in 2008. Today it is working closely with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on compliance with ISPG principles that address the precise concerns of HR 1319 in a concerted effort. By any reasonable criteria, the ISPG is making substantial progress.
We are also concerned that the rhetoric used by some members of the Committee is still laced with pejorative, biased terminology directed against what is in actuality a neutral technology and, based on an objective understanding of all relevant underlying facts, undeserving of such condemnation.
Examples include misrepresentations, over-simplifications, and outdated claims that are intended to incite fear, such as "folks who connect to these networks don't even realize that their most personal and private files are visible to everyone on the network at any time." Or the term "legitimate" being used as an adjective to modify other kinds of data-transfer technology - like web servers, e-mail, instant messaging (IM), and video and audio communications - but by implication inferring that file-sharing software is not "legitimate."
One of the bill's sponsors even attacked a software application by name, incorrectly attributing statements about it that are factually incorrect - apparently to fulfill a commitment to industry opponents who repeatedly attempt to demonize the most popular file-sharing programs in this way.
And finally, there was a defamatory accusation by one member that there has been a "deceitful practice" historically associated with file-sharing software installation procedures, even though this has never been seriously alleged because it is simply untrue.
We are following-up to address these concerns, set the record straight, and further narrow the definition of covered entities in HR 1319. Share wisely, and take care.
Critics Voice Concerns Over Proposed Legislation
Excerpted from NewTeeVee Report by Janko Roettgers
The House Energy & Commerce Committee marked up a bill dubbed The Informed P2P User Act (HR 1319) that aims to prevent accidental file-sharing by mandating the display of clear warnings during the installation and usage of file-sharing software.
Critics, however, fear that the final bill might end up going much further, regulating FTP clients, web browsers, and even complete operating systems.
The bill could also have implications for anyone trying to leverage P2P for video distribution via solutions like the Octoshape Flash plug-in that was used by CNN to handle the Obama inauguration live-stream traffic. The irony of the whole controversy is that much of the support for HR 1319 has been motivated by an almost religious disdain for one file-sharing program in particular.
"The Informed P2P User Act," which was introduced by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) in March, is supposed to prevent so-called inadvertent file sharing, which is usually caused by users accidentally sharing their documents folder or even their entire hard disk with everyone connected to the same file-sharing network.
The bill would force makers of file-sharing software to inform users about its file-sharing capabilities and get their informed consent before installing the software in question. Users would also have to acknowledge that they know what they're about to do before sharing any file. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?
It would be, except the bill defines file-sharing applications as anything that "designates files available for transmission to another computer" as well as transmits and receives files.
Of course, the same can be said for FTP clients - or your browser, for that matter. "There's little in this definition that limits the scope to an actual file-sharing application," wrote Alex Curtis from Public Knowledge.
Declan McCullagh from CNET agreed: "Every copy of Windows, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS X sold in recent memory includes a command-line FTP client fitting that definition." And the current definition would also affect P2P streaming solutions and BitTorrent clients, even though there is virtually no risk that anyone would share sensitive information through downloading a torrent or accessing a P2P video stream.
Online Gaming - Art Imitating Life
Excerpted from Adotas Report
As more and more gamers flock to join the ever-growing world of massively multiplayer online (MMO) videogames, case studies are being conducted in the form of virtual economies to track and model real-world economies according to a report in Reuters.
Since actual money is used to buy virtual items for all your gaming needs, it is similar to the real-world economy but can be observed more closely and manipulated in a trial-and-error fashion.
Edward Castronova, a researcher and Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University was quoted as saying, "We can do controlled experiments in virtual worlds, but we can't do that in reality. Controlled experimentation is the very best way to learn about cause-and-effect. We are on the verge of developing that capacity for human society as a whole."
Online's Slice of Ad Spending Grows Worldwide Excerpted from eMarketer Report
Online ad spending forecasts from GroupM put digital spending at 17% of total US ad spending in 2010, up from 15.4% this year and 13.9% in 2008.
The "Interaction 2009" report predicts 4% growth in US online ad spending in 2009, to $22.77 billion. Growth will ramp up to 7% next year. Worldwide, online spending is expected to climb 9% in 2009, returning to double-digit growth in 2010.
The rise in worldwide spending to $58.17 billion this year will mean online takes 13.2% of total ad dollars. GroupM predicts that share will increase to 14.6% in 2010.
According to the report, spending increases on search and mobile, along with the declining spending in traditional media, are fueling the gains online. GroupM found Internet spending outperformed all other media channels during the recession. Video, which the research firm said was succeeding social media as "the new digital darling," is also a driving force behind online spending in the US.
"Search is a critical component of paid media, but a tipping point has been reached," said Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM Interaction. "For several years the focus has been almost entirely on the rapid rise of Google and the implications of an auction-based marketplace for the advertising industry. But now a shift is under way to reclaim the world of 'intention marketing' from paid search to allocate investment, and return, more comprehensively across multiple disciplines."
Mr. Norman said a combination of paid and organic search, along with mobile and social media marketing, would "fulfill the original promise of search."
How Hollywood Handles the Internet
More than the advent of television or cable TV or even the VCR, the Internet is forcing Hollywood to rapidly adapt to technological change or risk obsolescence. The Internet is far more unpredictable, and more quickly evolving, than these earlier disruptions.
How Hollywood handles the Internet is therefore a matter of survival for the handful of companies, namely the top Hollywood studios, that current dominate the production and distribution of TV programming and theatrical films.
Emerging Media Dynamics is pleased to announce that the latest report in its New Video Dynamics series, How Hollywood Handles the Internet, is now available. This exclusive in-depth analysis spells out the shifting dynamics that Hollywood and other traditional TV program and film producers face as they adapt to the challenges, changes and opportunities posed by the Internet.
How Hollywood Handles the Internet delivers an easy-to-understand guide to the still-experimental efforts by top program and movie providers to develop new revenue streams from Internet-based outlets. As the report documents, Hollywood is maneuvering two parallel tracks as it navigates the Internet.
The studios are seeking to slow down the potential risks to revenues through legal battles to enforce what they contend are their existing intellectual property rights, through legislation aimed at strengthening intellectual property rights and through the development of content identification technologies aimed at detecting unauthorized use of copyrighted content. At the same time, Hollywood is also attempting to exploit the opportunities the Internet presents.
Obama Appoints Victoria Espinel as First Copyright Czar
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
President Obama announced the appointment of Victoria A. Espinel to the newly created position of Copyright Czar. She will be tasked with overseeing the nation's enforcement of intellectual property (IP) laws, and with protecting US IP abroad.
The position was created last year with the passage of the ProIP Act. Espinel's appointment was lauded by groups in favor of both looser and more restrictive copyright laws, including Public Knowledge and the US Chamber of Commerce.
Espinel is the Founder and President of Bridging the Innovation Divide, a nonprofit focused on empowering Americans "to obtain the full benefit of their creativity and ingenuity."
Previously, Espinel was a visiting Assistant Professor at the George Mason University School of Law, and was the first-ever Assistant US Trade Representative for Intellectual Property and Innovation. She has also served as an advisor on IP issues to the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Finance Committee, House Judiciary Committee, and House Ways and Means Committee.
Pros and Cons of Alternatives to Internet's Transport Protocol
Excerpted from Broadband Census Report by Drew Clark
Whether Internet service providers (ISPs) will accelerate early efforts to prioritize bandwidth, and what impact such measure might have upon the open Internet, were actively discussed by panelists at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference this week.
Traditionally, Internet traffic has been managed by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the engineering standard for almost all Internet transmissions. When there is a great demand for Internet content than is available to flow over the network at any given point in time, "each flow of the network gets a roughly equal share of the bottleneck capacity," according to Steve Bauer, a Professor of Computer Science at MIT.
Bauer was presenting a paper on "The Evolution of Internet Congestion," with Professor David Clark and William Lehr, also of MIT.
Such a standard for routing Internet traffic has been dubbed "TCP Fair," and this approach remains the standard for dealing with congestion. However, a variety of Internet providers have been experimenting with alternatives.
Bauer said that some broadband providers have been experimenting with changes to the "TCP Fair" approach because of changing expectation by end-users, changing composition of Internet traffic, and because of new ideas - ideas challenging the traditional notion of "end-to-end" Internet - emerging in the technical community.
Among the alternatives, or additions to, the "TCP Fair" approach include re-ECN, or a re-feedback of Explicit Congestion Notification, LEDBAT, and P4P, an approach to P2P communications that allows DSL providers to maximize the effectiveness of their networks.
Considering the validity of different approaches is particularly significant in light of Federal Communications Communication (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski's announcement, this past Monday, that the agency will begin implement Network Neutrality requirements
Bauer recommended that the academic community "obtain more data about traffic patterns, congestion and usage while also ensuring that transparency requirements don't discourage experimentation with new congestion management techniques."
Also speaking on the panel was Nicholas Weaver, a software expert at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. Weaver highlighted the unusual economics of P2P communications. Content providers save enormous amounts. He said CNN has saved up to 30% of bandwidth costs by aggressively using P2P.
"But the ISPs sees a magnification of costs," said Weaver. The economics can be changed, however, by the introduction of P2P "edge caches."
Next-Gen FutureGrid Research Network Under Way
Excerpted from Scientific Computing Report
A group of information technology (IT) researchers has been chosen by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to lead a four-year, $15-million project to develop new software to link together the supercomputers of tomorrow and to enable new approaches to scientific research for problems of massive scale. $10.1 million will come from the NSF, with project partners providing the balance.
The grant will enable construction of an experimental supercomputing network to be called FutureGrid, which will be made of almost 1,400 advanced computer processing units at six locations in the United States. The project's ultimate goal is to make it easier for scientists to conduct research projects that require enormous data processing capabilities, such as complex modeling of climate systems or analyzing and comparing DNA segments and complex organic molecules.
The network's processors will be located at IU Bloomington, the University of California San Diego, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the University of Chicago/Argonne National Labs, the University of Florida in Gainesville and University of Texas at Austin. They will be connected together through advanced research and education networks like National Lambda Rail and Internet2. FutureGrid also will connect to Purdue University via Indiana's I-Light and also to the High Performance Computing Center at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany.
"This project is so vitally important to the future of scientific research at all institutions of higher learning," said Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie. "The ultimate goal of this project is to create the next generation of investigative tools for scientific researchers whose computational needs often exceed the capabilities of a single institution or network."
Some of the NSF grant money will be used to expand supercomputers at IU, which will be housed in a new concrete-hardened data center in Bloomington alongside the "Big Red" supercomputer. Brad Wheeler, IU vice president for information technology, said a variety of supercomputers from IBM, Cray, Dell and others will be purchased for the network.
"Each type of supercomputer has a unique architecture and capabilities that make it ideal for certain types of uses," Wheeler said. "One of our goals in this project is to learn by conducting formal experiments for the best ways to put all these computers together for researchers."
Wheeler said one way of looking at the FutureGrid network is to think of it as "an experiment factory" in which supercomputers can be interconnected in a myriad of different ways to find out which connections and software combinations work together and which do not. The ultimate goal is to create a system that researchers can access for supercomputing projects without having to worry about the hardware design and capabilities.
The FutureGrid team will be led by Geoffrey C. Fox, director of the Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) Digital Science Center and a professor in the IU Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing.
"FutureGrid will serve as a proving ground for new, distributed computing systems and will open up exciting new avenues for scientific collaboration and research," Fox said. "We envision the grids and clouds of the future not as a single system, but as many linked systems. For this reason, we are engaging an incredible set of academic and commercial partners throughout the US and in Europe to participate in FutureGrid."
Acquisition of new computing equipment is already under way. The new network is expected to be installed and fully operational by spring 2010.
Kazaa Makes Music Download Search Easier
Kazaa is super-sizing of the company's search banner width. Subscribers will now have access to a more comprehensive tool that will assist in the locating of music files and individual song lyrics.
With the new upgrade, Kazaa is making good on the initial promise to keep rolling out a superior and adaptable download music service.
Company Search Manager Emanuel Krassenstein explained the latest release, "Even though this is a simple idea, it enormously enhances the service offered to customers. With millions of music search terms available, the ability to maximize the accessibility of files and lyrics to subscribers is paramount."
"Kazaa is an organism that is constantly evolving and there is no foreseeable end to our progress; currently the development team is working around the clock to make integral improvements that will enhance the usability of the site. Our research indicated that search capability should be a priority of a dedicated online music provider". Krassenstein also offered this insight into company research, "Consumer feedback has been highly beneficial in correlation with the intensive studies of the sites' navigational capabilities. With the growth of online services comes a greater customer expectation. By failing to make life easier for its users a company's web-life will cease. Our current mission is to build a firm foundation with customer satisfaction as its cornerstone."
Kazaa is a subscription-based service offered by Brilliant Digital Entertainment (BDE) a leading online distributor of licensed digital content. BDE provides the means for record labels, film studios, and software developers to market and sell their products to a worldwide audience of 70 million users. Kazaa offers unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of CD-quality tracks for one low monthly fee of $19.98 per month.
Spotify Adds Offline Play Feature & PayPal Payment Option
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
Ad-supported P2P streaming music service Spotify on Thursday announced a new offline mode, which will allow paying premium subscribers to sync playlists to their computers for offline play. The feature will allow users to store up to 3,333 tracks on their computers at a time.
Separately, the company said it added PayPal as a payment option for Spotify Premium, which costs about $15.94 per month, or $191 annually.
Spotify Director Disqualified From Hearing TPB Appeal
Excerpted from PaidContent Report by Robert Andrews
Sweden's Court of Appeal has removed Spotify's Product Development Director as a lay judge due to hear The Pirate Bay (TPB) administrators' appeal against their conviction - for obvious reasons.
The court explains, "It appears that the man is employed as a product developer and holds stock options in Spotify, and that some of the record labels also hold shares in that company." The man in question is Fredrik Niemela, who has been with Spotify since 2006, and has helped build the service from the start.
The first official confirmation, following silence from Spotify, that the majors hold equity and would have posed a clear conflict of interest, since it's the labels that brought the original case against TPB's caretakers. The court also said Niemela's position at Spotify itself conflicts, since it's in the business of offering copyrighted material online.
Niemela is currently on paternity leave and, the court said "did not consider that a conflict of interest exists" - but neither matter affects the court's view that there is a conflict, it said.
Responding to the matter last week, Spotify told PaidContent, "We don't have a comment on this matter as it involves a private individual and not Spotify."
The TPB administrators lost their bid for a retrial but an appeal hearing is due to start in November.
Pirate Bay Acquisition Deadline Passes
Excerpted from PaidContent Report
There seems to be as much chance of Global Gaming Factory (GGF) buying the Mary Celeste as it buying The Pirate Bay (PTB). The company's shaky, non-specific and uncertain $7.8 million attempt to buy the Swedish P2P tracker has been well documented, but now the game may finally be over.
The latest deadline for a deal to take place passed on Wednesday night and there has still been no announcement. GGF CEO Hans Pandeya isn't answering calls and gave us a simple "no comments" response via e-mail.
Pandeya has singlehandedly led his company through the process of building publicity for the deal, setting out some outlandish monetization plans (he expects a legal Bay to make $40 million from advertising a month) and convincing shareholders to back the deal.
But calamity has followed calamity: key advisors have walked out on the project citing its low chances of succeeding; the entertainment biz is still trying to shut down TPB and GGF was kicked off the Swedish stock exchange for not providing evidence of funds to seal the deal
Most recently, Pandeya reportedly had his personal assets seized after a bankruptcy filing from a former GGF Board Member Johan Sellstrom who claims he's owed $185,000. Pandeya says the claim is "bogus"-but in any case, his losing his assets means the TPB deal may now be impossible: he promised to put his own capital forward to finance the acquisition if needed.
Canadian Pirate Party Launches BitTorrent Tracker
Excerpted from Zeropaid Report
Formed back in early July of this year, one of the main goals of the Pirate Party of Canada (PPCA) is to "reform copyright and facilitate access to culture," and as part of that it wants to help music artists learn how to earn a living that's not dependent on the sale of albums alone.
It's pledge: "We want to adjust copyright so that artists can better build on previous works and chose the distribution and licensing model that allows them to make a living. We will also help music artists educate themselves about earning money through other means than selling records, for example by performing live shows and selling fan articles and where feasible, we will evaluate the introduction of levies to further compensate artists. In turn, we want to adjust copyright for consumers to make private, non-commercial copying of content legal. This will promote artists and help spread culture farther than ever before."
As part of that effort it has finally launched the previously alluded to pirate-y distribution method for helping music artists market their work to a global audience. Dubbed Captain, short for Canadian Pirate Tracker, The PPCA's Creative Commons torrent tracker will give them a quick, cheap, and easy access to a global distribution network.
"The current distribution model is dead, the market must evolve," it adds.
It currently has a number of artists available for download, and is always looking for more. It's not genre specific and takes about a day to get posted.
"We do have a slight moderation system, which is mainly me going through every track, just to make sure it isn't a copyright violation, but it shouldn't take more than 24 hours to get something posted," said Jake Daynes, a spokesperson for the PPCA.
It's a bold move for the PPCA. It's tough to argue that file sharing can be a positive thing for music artists unless one can show them clear statistics to the contrary. With UK pop singer Lily Allen having recently dubbed file-sharing a "disaster" for emerging artists it's important that the file-sharing community prove critics wrong.
The PPCA is the counterpart of the international Pirate Party movement, which has gained seats in both Sweden and Germany.
Record Label Embraces Pirate Party BitTorrent Tracker
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
Canadian record label Thorny Bleeder Records is showing its support for the Canadian Pirate Party and its new RivetTracker-based distribution system.
Thorny Bleeder Records is an independent record label and the fruits of a partnership between Art of Dying's Jonny Hetherington and Greg Bradley along with industry veteran Brian Thompson. They aim to offer artists new options in today's music business.
"As a show of support for the Pirate Party of Canada, Thorny Bleeder Records are proud to announce that our sixteen track, multi-artist Get Thorny compilation is now available for free on their website," announced the label.
TorrentFreak caught up with Brian Thompson to learn more about their decision to embrace the Pirate Party and their tracker.
"Thorny Bleeder Records strongly believes in the culture of file sharing as a benefit to an artist's development and to the growth of their fan base," Brian told TorrentFreak. "It's become increasingly difficult and expensive to have a band's single added to a radio station's playlist, so the Internet has quickly become the next best thing for new music discovery."
"As a an artist and a record label, your number one goal is to be heard by as many people as possible. BitTorrent provides the perfect distribution for music discovery to occur, it's today's version of the record store listening post. Pirate Party's new BitTorrent tracker provides us with the perfect avenue to expose our artists to an entire new audience that would otherwise be unaccessible," he added.
Brian told us that Thorny Bleeder also supports the Pirate Party in their fight for copyright reform.
"The world has changed dramatically since these laws were introduced eons ago and it makes no sense to continue adhering to these old laws that no longer support creativity and distribution in the digital reality of today and tomorrow," he added.
The compilation 'Get Thorny' can be downloaded here.
Report Asks Music Industry, 'Are Users Experienced?'
Excerpted from MediaPost Report by Gavin O'Malley
Forrester Research music analyst Mark Mulligan is calling for a radical overhaul of the music industry, beginning with a product manifesto of consumer rights.
"Future music products will need to adopt a platform-agnostic worldview that encompasses powerful and social interactivity to empower consumers to create their own unique experiences," Mulligan writes in a new report.
"In the post-media-meltdown world, product innovation will trump programming and marketing as media companies' most valuable asset - and the music industry is no exception," he adds. The recorded music sector is in desperate need of exciting new products upon which it can build a sounder future.
What is he proposing, exactly? For one, that consumers have the "right" to better user experiences. While far from perfect, on-demand P2P music-streaming software and service provider Spotify is cited as a good example of what happens when the user experience is the core focus.
Also, that consumers have the right to more "unique" music experiences, by giving music fans the ability to create their own individual social contexts, programming, and audiovisual "soundscapes."
Other suggestions include giving consumers the right to share in the creation process; the right to share their music; the right to fair use of new technology; and the right to be social.
According to Mulligan, multi-platform access will be at the heart of future music products. "The days of the living room revolving around one piece of proprietary music hardware are gone," he said. "Successful future music products will work across as many digital platforms as possible: PCs, mobiles, MP3 players, game consoles, connected TVs, etc."
UK Consumer Group Calls for Change of Focus on File Sharing
Excerpted from ISPReview Report
Consumer Focus (CF), a statutory organization campaigning for a fair deal for consumers in the UK, has called for the debate on unauthorized broadband file sharing to focus on the reform of the UK copyright licensing system, not on punitive enforcement measures (i.e., customer disconnection from ISPs). CF claims that, despite the existence of services like Spotify, the UK's copyright licensing system does not support the growth of licensed alternatives to unauthorized file sharing - such as streaming, all-you-can-eat, micro-payment, advertisement or subscription based models.
Jill Johnstone, Director, CF, said, "We need to be talking about solutions, not about slowing down people's broadband. Most people would happily pay a reasonable price for music they enjoy, but little is being done to take this forward. Consumers still have limited choice when it comes to online content. There is huge potential for our creative industries to take advantage of the online market, but reform of the copyright licensing system is needed to support this."
The call for reform comes in CF's response to the consultation on broadband ISP file sharing, which also calls on Government to reform the copyright licensing system to support the growth of the licensed market online; ensure that consumers' right to due process is not violated by any 'graduated response;' and not include account suspension in the list of possible technical measures.
It's worth remembering that the final Digital Britain report did raise the importance of providing effective licensed alternatives. However almost all of the forward push since then has concerned or focused upon punishment for those "suspected" of involvement with unauthorized downloading. Two small exceptions have been UK ISPs Sky Broadband and Virgin Media, where work towards alternative music services is being finalized.
It took rights-holders literally years to comprehend the importance of music file downloads, which began with the MP3 generation - years before Apple's first iPod surfaced. Today's situation is very much a result of that same failure to embrace new demand and technology, an issue that is also affecting films and games. Issues such as price, staggered release dates across different countries and the accessibility of content must also be tackled.
We don't all want to visit the cinema to watch a newly released movie, especially when so many people now have perfectly good cinema screens at home. Sadly part of the problem is the age old division between the desire to sustain old media in the face of new and more flexible solutions.
ISPs Protest as UK P2P Consultation Ends
Excerpted from Billboard Business News Report by Andre Paine
The music industry umbrella trade group UK Music has given its backing to suspension of Internet accounts of file sharers "as a last resort," while Internet service providers (ISPs) have shown their strong resistance to any technical sanctions.
The consultation process on the UK government's proposals concluded on September 29th and legislation to tackle file sharing is set to be announced in November.
UK Music has given its backing to the graduated response scheme set out by Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. The anti-infringement measures range from warning letters and technical sanctions to suspension of Internet accounts.
However, Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, has said he is prepared to take the government to court over the proposals to oblige ISPs to take action against customers. Carphone Warehouse owns TalkTalk, which has 4.25 million broadband customers. Dunstone said the proposal to suspend access for those suspected of file sharing was a "guilty until proven innocent" approach, and said he would "resist any attempts to make TalkTalk impose technical measures on its customers."
UK Music disagreed with the proposal for an equal split between ISPs and rights holders on costs of notifications, preferring that rights holders pay for detection and ISPs pay for communicating to their customers. But ISPs are even less happy about the costs involved.
BT said such technical measures would increase costs to the whole industry by $1.6 million a day, forcing all broadband consumers to pay an average $3.20 a month extra.
UK Music members are: Association of Independent Music (AIM), British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), BPI, Music Managers Forum (MMF), Music Publishers Association (MPA), Musicians Union (MU), Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) and PRS For Music.
"We support government's proposals which would see ISPs send notifications and apply technical measures to impede and discourage the distribution of copyrighted content via unlicensed file-sharing networks and encourage the use of legitimate services," states the UK Music submission to the consultation.
However, it also states that the level of infringement needs to be treated accordingly. "As an industry, we agree that a clear distinction should be made between how technical measures are applied to the casual infringer compared to how they are applied to the egregious or persistent infringer, with temporary suspension of broadband accounts being applicable only as a last resort against the latter," said UK Music. "Safeguards and functional definitions should be introduced to ensure that this distinction is made and maintained."
BT Blasts BPI's File-Sharing Evidence
Excerpted from PC Pro Report by Barry Collins
Britain's biggest ISP and the BPI are locked in a bitter battle of words over the treatment of allegedly unauthorized file sharers.
The music industry group launched a scathing attack on BT in the national press over the weekend, with BPI chief Geoff Taylor branding BT "shameless" for failing to tackle file sharers. The BPI claims it has identified more than 100,000 cases of unauthorized file sharing on BT's network since February, but that BT has "failed to act on a single one of those".
BT has reacted angrily the accusations. The ISP claims it agreed to send out warning letters to just 1,000 alleged file sharers under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed at the beginning of the year. However, BT claims the BPI deluged it with more than twenty times the agreed figure, many of which were inaccurate.
"During this period, the BPI sent us around 21,000 alleged cases, but less than two-thirds proved to be properly matched to an IP address of a BT customer and not a duplicate, so this could indicate that the true extent of this activity is much lower than the 100,000 number the BPI claim since February," BT claims in a statement.
"In addition, since none of the customers we wrote to during the trial were subsequently taken to court by the BPI, we don't know whether they were actually guilty of infringement."
BT admits that the BPI has continued to send reports of alleged file-sharing activity on its network, but says that there was no agreement to act beyond that initial 12-week trial.
"The 12-week agreement was brokered by the Government," a BT spokesman told PC Pro. "There was no agreement after the 12 weeks. There was supposed to be follow-up discussions over who should pay for enforcement in the future. That hasn't happened."
BT also claims the BPI failed to stick to its side of the bargain. "The rights holders were meant to be coming up with a public education program, which hasn't happened," the BT spokesman added. "The rights holders were meant to look at new business models, which hasn't happened."
The BPI says that BT has a duty to act upon its reports of alleged file sharing. "All ISPs know the exact proportion of overall traffic that is file sharing," a BPI spokesman told PC Pro. "It's a sizeable proportion of their traffic. It's very safe to say the overwhelming majority of that traffic is unauthorized."
"The evidence we are providing includes IP addresses, time and date stamps, and details of the individual files downloaded. The evidence is entirely robust - it's been accepted in more than 150 court cases.
"If you're aware your network is being used for copyright infringement, you have a moral obligation to act."
BT says it can't tell how much of the traffic passing over its network is unlicensed content. "We definitely do not know the extent of unauthorized file sharing on our network," it claims.
"Many P2P applications are perfectly legal, such as "World of Warcraft," BBC iPlayer and Skype. To investigate the exact nature of each packet would involve an intrusive level of inspection of people's traffic and customers would rightly complain about BT infringing their privacy where we to do it."
Billy Bragg Responds to France's Three-Strikes Law
Excerpted from Prefix Mag Report by Jenna Humphrey
Political activist and songwriter Billy Bragg has contributed his opinion to the international conversation about unauthorized file sharing. He has done so in the form of a letter to the Guardian. This letter is a response to France's new three-strikes law, which allows prosecutors to ban violators from using the Internet - or even to jail them.
Bragg discusses a statement that he and other members of the Featured Artist Coalition (FAC) have produced. He warns against a costly anti-infringement war that could undermine freedom and privacy while failing to restore cash to the industry and its artists.
"The successful music sites such as MySpace, YouTube, and Spotify all offer free access," writes Bragg. "The next step is to create 'feels like free' services. We need file-sharing networks licensed by record companies that give users access to all the music they want for a subscription fee. We need P2P communities that spread the word for new artists while offering advertising platforms so that an artist whose work is downloaded can receive reciprocal payment from advertising revenue. We can offer accessible, easy to use, fairly priced alternative business models that people will actually want to buy their music from."
Coming Events of Interest
FMC Policy Summit 2009 - October 4th-6th in Washington, DC. Future of Music's (FMC) annual event where, this year, music, technology, policy and law are going "back to the future." Early-bird discounts are now available.
BayTSP Online Trends & Insight Conference - October 14th-15th in Los Gatos, CA. Topics include advances in digital distribution of content, the state of TV piracy, new uses for business intelligence and monetization in the entertainment industry, graduated response, and anti-piracy litigation trends.
P2P & GAMES CONFERENCE - October 22nd in Santa Monica, CA. The DCIA's first-ever event focusing on the use of P2P and cloud computing technologies for the distribution of games and updates. Industry leaders from around the world will participate.
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.
Cloud Computing Expo - November 2nd-4th in Santa Clara, CA. Fourth international conference on this subject. Cloud computing is a game changer. The cloud is disrupting traditional software and hardware business models by disrupting how IT service gets delivered.
P2P MEDIA SUMMIT at CES - January 6th in Las Vegas, NV. The DCIA's seminal industry event, featuring keynotes from top P2P and cloud computing software companies; tracks on policy, technology, and marketing; panel discussions covering content distribution and solutions development.
2010 International CES - January 6th-10th in Las Vegas, NV. The industry's largest educational forum to help companies expand their businesses and understand new technology. Over 200 conferences and more than 300 expert speakers encompass International CES.
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