June 9, 2008
Volume XXII, Issue 5
Veoh Networks Secures $30 Million
Veoh Networks, one of the world's most commercially successful peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) services, this week announced an additional round of funding led by Intel Capital and joined by Adobe Systems and Gordon Crawford, SVP of Capital Research Global Investors.
The funding from these new investors - with support from existing investors Shelter Capital, Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Michael Eisner's Tornante Company, Time Warner Investments, and Jonathan Dolgen - totals $30 million.
Veoh will use the capital to further enhance its viewer offerings, strengthen its lead in video discovery, expand its advertising products and targeting capabilities, and extend its services across multiple platforms.
"The world of Internet television has changed dramatically in the past year. No longer limited to short-form video sharing, viewers are now tuning in online to watch long-form, quality entertainment," said Steve Mitgang, CEO of Veoh Networks.
"With a near-infinite universe of content now available online, the future of our industry will be led by those who help viewers easily discover new things they like to watch, enable portability, and provide effective targeting across all types of video audiences and all forms and lengths of content. Veoh is very happy to have the support of the most respected and innovative minds in media and technology as we drive forward on all of these fronts."
"The online video space is primed for market expansion, and technology will play an increasingly larger role in how we entertain ourselves," said Lucy McQuilken, Investment Manager, Intel Capital. "We are encouraged by Veoh's consumer adoption and believe that the technical capability Veoh provides, which enables consumers to watch video while online or offline, is an important factor in driving media consumption across the PC, TV, and mobile."
Over the last twelve months, Veoh successfully established itself as one of the top global P2PTV services. The company introduced multiple new community and social features for viewers, launched a proprietary behavioral ad targeting engine based on video consumption, and secured distribution relationships with major content owners including CBS, Viacom's MTV Networks, and FEARNet.
Veoh ended the first quarter of 2008 with a full roster of brand-name advertisers and more than 28 million highly-engaged viewers who spend an average of more than 100 minutes per month on Veoh.
"As the online video industry evolves, only a handful of companies will succeed in capturing a loyal viewer base and building a viable business around it," said Anton Denissov, Broadband Video & Pay Television Analyst, Yankee Group. "The path to success for these companies lies in engaging viewers to build them into a loyal audience and then helping advertisers connect with them in a non-intrusive way."
QTRAX Enters New Agreement with EMI Music
EMI Music, one of the big-four record labels, has entered into a new agreement with ad-supported digital music service QTRAX to make EMI's catalog of digital music available to music fans in the US and Canada.
As part of the agreement, EMI's music will be available free to registered QTRAX members for unlimited streaming or downloading to a PC. Fans can also load download tracks on up to three portable devices and play them while their membership remains active. Users maintain membership by visiting the site at least once every 60 days to keep downloads active on PCs or other networked devices.
Those who wish to permanently own tracks can do so via direct QTRAX links to participating digital retailers.
"This is a revolutionary time for the music industry," said Founder & Chairman of QTRAX Allan Klepfisz. "Guy Hands and EMI Music have demonstrated great vision and leadership, and we couldn't be more thrilled to have their support," he continued.
"Music fans will soon be able to legally download tracks from EMI's rich, storied catalog, giving them access to one of the world's largest repertoires of music." EMI Music is the recorded music division of EMI Group, one of the world's leading music companies. Its EMI Music division represents artists spanning all musical tastes and genres. EMI has been at the cutting edge of the rapidly growing digital music marketplace since it released David Bowie's "Hours" as the world's first-ever album to be offered as a digital download in 1999.
QTRAX is an innovative digital music service that is free to fans. QTRAX showcases an ad-supported delivery model that easily directs revenue back to artists and rights holders.
QTRAX is available for browsing now and soon will provide fans with access to a colorful and diverse catalog with millions of high-quality digital music files representing the broadest artist-based fan-directed array of products available anywhere. Based in New York, NY, QTRAX is a subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies Corporation, a publicly traded technology holding company.
D-Link NAS Device Enables BitTorrent Content
D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumer and business, this week announced a free upgrade for its best-selling network attached storage (NAS) device to enable BitTorrent file downloads and uploads independent of a PC.
Recognized by BitTorrent, provider of the global standard technology for high-quality content delivery on the Internet, the D-Link DNS-323 two-Bay Network Storage Enclosure now includes the latest BitTorrent Software Development Kit (SDK), making it possible for consumers to access, store, and share large amounts of media content through the Internet, without the need for a PC to be turned on or connected. The D-Link storage device connects directly to a home network and acts as a media hub for BitTorrent-enabled content.
Through the BitTorrent Device Partners technology licensing and certification program, BitTorrent has licensed the D-Link DNS-323 and certified the award-winning D-Link Xtreme N 802.11n Wi-Fi router (DIR-655). Consumers can use the products with confidence to manage BitTorrent multimedia content over their high-speed Internet connections.
"We recognize the benefits BitTorrent technology brings to its global user base and are pleased to be able to add that functionality to our products," said A.J. Wang, Chief Technology Officer, D-Link. "By integrating the latest BitTorrent SDK into our NAS devices and ensuring our routers are BitTorrent-certified, we provide our customers with the most highly optimized BitTorrent implementation for connected devices and an efficient way to control and access their NAS device via an intuitive web interface."
"D-Link is a valued member within our ecosystem of BitTorrent Device Partners, which is enabling a wide-range of industry-leading networking and storage devices optimized for BitTorrent, and certified to provide a great user experience for advanced network applications," said Ashwin Navin, President & Co-Founder of BitTorrent.
"Given the device partnerships we have forged, BitTorrent provides distributors of online video, games and software the best peer-accelerated content delivery platform to ensure millions of broadband users enjoy a seamless experience for Internet-delivered media."
Established in 2007, the goal of the BitTorrent Device Partners program is to work with a wide-array of hardware, middleware and application providers along the entire consumer electronics (CE) value chain to create next-generation consumer experiences that leverage BitTorrent's advanced peer delivery technology. The BitTorrent SDK for Devices is the official BitTorrent release for embedded devices; the BitTorrent SDK supports the latest protocol enhancements and is compatible with all standard PC clients. BitTorrent certification for routers seeks to ensure the best possible consumer experience by minimizing the need for users to actively manage their router settings.
D-Link is the global leader in connectivity for small, medium and large enterprise business networking. The company is an award-winning designer, developer and manufacturer of networking, broadband, digital electronics, voice, data and video communications solutions for the digital home, small-office/home-office (SOHO), small-to-medium business (SMB), and workgroup-to-enterprise (WE) environments. With millions of networking and connectivity products manufactured and shipped, D-Link is a dominant market participant and price/performance leader in the networking and communications market.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Congratulations to Advertising Age and Digital Hollywood for an auspicious inaugural Advertising 2.0 this week in New York, NY.
We are especially grateful to participants in the conference closing session, entitled P2P & Advertising: New Business Models, Services, and Approaches for Monetizing Peer-to-Peer Traffic.
Our speakers included Ultramercial's Dana Jones, Brand Asset Digital's Joey P, FTI Consulting's Bruce Benson, SafeNet's David Hahn, ARTISTdirect-MediaDefender's Chris Gillis, Pando Networks' Robert Levitan, Blacksmith Music's Al Smith, and GridNetworks' Jeffrey Payne.
Dana cited Ultramercial's steadily accelerating progress, most recently marked by its being granted a US patent, since its inception with Salon.com in 2000, and noted that P2P advertising is finally coming into its own. From Ultramercial's experience, accountability is an important attribute that P2P needs to demonstrate to be able to advance to the next level.
The Internet holds great promise in terms of interactivity and can also do a much better job of reporting than traditional media. For the P2P industry to attract major advertising dollars, it must conform to the ways of the advertising industry in terms of tracking and reporting - which should be very doable given available tools.
Joey outlined Brand Asset Digital's unique approach, which associates popular branded content with targeted sponsorship programs for distribution broadly across P2P networks. This is a new and highly differentiated "lifestyle" play, where demand for a particular artist or title or genre is leveraged through the entire search, discovery, and delivery process. Both advertisers and content creators can benefit from this new targeting opportunity, comparable in many ways to Google Ad Words, but for entertainment properties.
The P2P marketplace represents a cultural phenomenon. It is an untapped, uncrowded space for advertisers at this time, and one in which engagement with content is particularly high because P2P is a content-consumption as opposed to a web-browsing culture. For advertising to work, it must also be integrated, for example, into widgets, that are not dismissible, but rather a part of compelling and highly competitive content packages. A P2P upfront could be an idea whose time has come.
Bruce noted that as one of FTI Consulting's many strategic initiatives, it is working behind-the-scenes with the newly independent Kontiki on its P2P advertising platform. Key issues that must be addressed include content rights clearances: this process needs to be streamlined for P2P distribution; and format standardization: advertising agencies are tired of experimenting with a diversity of fragmented formats and want to be able to make large economic buys.
P2P is enormously valuable to the Internet marketplace because it solves the problem of cost-effective delivery; and P2P's ascendance is inevitable as is ad-supported content in this channel, conforming to the powerful global trend towards "free" on the web.
A critical issue for the movie industry to address is its siloed sequential distribution windows, which digital distribution profoundly disrupts. For the advertising industry, the paradigm that must change is daypart or program-tied advertising versus user-based advertising.
David explained SafeNet's relevant roles in working with content rights holders on anti-copyright-infringement programs and intelligence gathering, particularly in terms of P2P usage. SafeNet's research demonstrates overwhelming demand for premium video content; and that is where the most revenue will be generated. Currently distributing television programs online is at an 88% discount to reach the same number of viewers as via traditional means.
The unique value proposition to advertisers that P2P brings to the table is "community," in its various iterations. These tend to be international or global in nature, based on common areas of interest rather than geographically bound. Advertisers need to know and control where their ads are going within that environment to match their retail activities, which creates a paradox, but one that is workable.
Chris described ARTISTdirect's relatively new thrust in working with advertising agencies to place digital content into P2P distribution, explaining this approach as "fishing where the fish are" rather than trying to "chase the fish into new waters." A unique challenge that is now being addressed is helping advertisers become comfortable with non-trackable content to exploit the most popular file formats.
There are three P2P value propositions for advertisers: 1) billions of daily media searches, 2) large-scale sharing of media among network participants, and 3) a higher level of engagement with the media than competing channels.
P2P leads the Internet with more users committed to longer-form content. P2P user demographics are skewing older, with Gen X representing 23% of the total now, as audiences are growing up with the technology.
There will continue to be a spectrum of P2P utilization ranging from closed, where content providers exclusively control what is distributed, to open, where users also seed content into redistribution. ARTISTdirect's new PiCAST offering uses P2P.
Robert defined Pando Networks as a managed P2P delivery platform for media. The company has developed its technology over three years, during which time it has also provided and enhanced its consumer offering, Pando, while also developing its solution for content rights holders.
NBC Universal should be given a great deal of credit for leading the entertainment industry to utilize P2P. The largest online opportunity is clearly in video and much of that is not yet commercial. Few entities are yet taking advantage of the opportunities presented by refreshable download advertising. More revenue can be generated there than in higher-cost streaming-video-content advertising.
In the entertainment sector, many clamor to be "the first to be second," and that is what we should expect now that NBC has taken the risk to be first with P2P through its Pando agreement.
Al noted that Blacksmith Music and Productions have been pioneers in P2P, not only in terms of creating original content for distribution via P2P, but also in terms of advocacy and work on the Hill in Washington, DC.
As an independent music producer, Blacksmith relies on P2P to promote and distribute its music, and to discover new fans for its music. Cause-based marketing campaigns can be tailored to the P2P universe for phenomenal results with a high return on investment (ROI) at very low risk, taking advantage of the viral community nature of the medium.
Jeffrey provided the insight that GridNetworks evolved from an academic discussion four years ago about how to keep the Internet viable as rich media distribution began to proliferate.
There will probably be a fatigue factor that will set in from unusual behaviors that are part of the transition society is experiencing, such as viewing what is produced for large-screen consumption from two-feet away, and having to take too many steps or "clicks" to be able to view TV programs. It is important to appeal to the instant gratification factor that audiences demand.
The redistribution of broadcast content on P2P has not yet been sufficient enough to drive a major repurposing of television programming, as for example with vertical channels for cable. That will come, and will probably be based on individual titles or properties in an on-demand mode of delivery.
During Q&A, discussion centered on the fact that P2P has the potential to aggregate large, marketable communities of demand based on relevant cultural considerations, to build great formats that are more interactive and trackable than any that have preceded P2P, and to deliver on the promise that content has become the new storefront, more freely and independently distributed than ever before. Share wisely, and take care.
Comcast Tests Internet Traffic Management System
Excerpted from Washington Business Journal Report
Comcast began testing a way to manage Internet traffic at peak times in two markets on Thursday.
The Philadelphia, PA based cable-television, Internet, phone, and media company is testing a method of slowing Internet-access speeds for Internet customers who are using a lot of bandwidth at times when its network is congested.
Comcast began tests in Chambersburg, PA, and Warrenton, VA, on Thursday and will run them for 30 days. It will begin a similar test in Colorado Springs, CO, soon, but hasn't specified the start date.
Comcast had been trying to manage traffic on its network by slowing the transmission speed of P2P file sharing applications, which can be used to do things that take up a lot of bandwidth and slow traffic for other users, such as transmitting data files or entire movies.
In March, Comcast announced it would stop targeting specific file-sharing applications, such as the ones developed by San Francisco, CA based BitTorrent by the end of the year.
Instead, it plans to replace that practice with the one it began testing Thursday. That involves finding heavy users at times of network congestion and slowing their Internet access until the network traffic clears up.
In a letter to customers who will be part of the test, Comcast said the new procedure won't affect most users and may not affect anybody.
"At the busiest time of day on our network (which could occur at any time), those very few disproportionately heavy users, who are doing things like conducting numerous or continuous large transfers, may experience slightly longer response times for some online activities, until the period of network congestion ends," Comcast said in the letter, which was signed by Mitch Bowling, its General Manager for Online Services.
Time Warner Cable also began trying to address network congestion Thursday when it started measuring Internet usage of new subscribers in Beaumont, TX. The Stamford, CT based cable-TV company will charge them $1 a gigabyte for usage that exceeds a monthly allowance.
TVU Networks Wins Award as Top Private Company
TVU Networks has been selected as one of the OnHollywood 100 Top Private Companies. The OnHollywood 100 is a power list of the top private emerging technology companies in digital entertainment and media. TVU was handpicked by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on a set of five criteria - innovation, market potential, customer adoption, media buzz, and investor value creation.
TVU will be honored at the OnHollywood & Broadband Rights Marketplace (BRiM) event on June 10th-11th at the Sofitel Hotel in West Hollywood, CA with the other winners. OnHollywood gathers executives from the entertainment and the technology industries to identify and debate emerging trends, in addition to building relationships and taking advantage of potential new business partnerships. The first annual BRiM will launch an online network that supports new creative projects and offers a digital-rights exchange and auction.
"This year's OnHollywood 100 represents the brightest of the innovators in the new media space. We are enthusiastic about gathering the leaders in a collaborative environment that fuses these two industries together, culminating in the richest, most progressive conversations on Hollywood's digital movement," said Tony Perkins, Founder & CEO of AlwaysOn.
The OnHollywood 100 was selected from more than 1,000 companies, peer-nominated by leading venture capitalists, investment bankers, and industry analysts.
The live global P2PTV service offered by TVU is available at www.tvunetworks.com and through its downloadable application TVUPlayer, and to date has been downloaded by over 18 million viewers in 200 countries. TVU offers some 300 live Internet TV channels, with over 3,000 new shows added daily.
TVU Networks CEO Paul Shen said, "TVU is honored to have been chosen as an OnHollywood 100 Top Private Company Award Winner. We view our inclusion in this prestigious power list as recognition of our innovation and leadership role in the convergence of Hollywood and the Internet."
AT&T Embraces BitTorrent, May Consider Usage Pricing
Excerpted from Wired News Report by Dylan Tweney
AT&T's new Chief Technology Officer, John Donovan, wants you to know that his company does not, under any circumstances, slow down BitTorrent users or throw other monkey wrenches in the operation of specific applications.
"No. Never have. No interest in it. It's never been our policy," Donovan told Wired News when asked if AT&T engaged in packet shaping (the process of slowing down or blocking certain applications' data packets to render them less efficient).
The statement stands in contrast to other ISPs, such as Canada-based Rogers, which have been observed injecting their own content into Internet data, in order to modify the appearance of Google's homepage, for instance.
Donovan did, however, indicate that AT&T will begin testing usage-based pricing starting this Fall. That's driven by the economics of building network capacity, he says. According to Donovan, one percent of the company's customers account for 20% of the network usage; the top five percent account for 40% of the usage. Because the network must be able to accommodate peak traffic loads, AT&T - like other network providers - finds itself building far more capacity than most users need in order to support the most prolific users.
"It's almost a taxation issue," Donovan said, comparing the overhead required to support the top one percent with the annual taxes the corporation must pay. "Traffic on our backbone is growing 60% per year, but our revenue is not," he said.
Usage-based pricing trials will be, he says, an attempt to encourage greater efficiency in the way customers use capacity.
"I don't view any of our customers, under any circumstances, as pirates - I view them as users," Donovan said. "A heavy user is not a bad customer." What he wants to do is gently encourage more efficient usage of his network, and usage-based pricing may be one of the ways that happens.
Such measures may not even be necessary, as Donovan admits that users self-adjust their habits to take advantage of off-peak times. For instance, he said, BitTorrent on the company's network peaks around 4 AM, when other traffic is at an ebb. Overall P2P traffic accounts for about 20% of the network's usage, Donovan said.
But really, he'd rather talk about the massive increase in bandwidth that the company is planning.
On the wireless front, AT&T is currently in the midst of a 3-G upgrade, based on HSPA technology, that will take over-the-air download speeds from 1.7 Mbps now to 7 Mbps in the next phase and, finally, to 11 Mbps. Starting in 2012 or 2013, the company will begin its deployment of fourth-generation "Long-Term Evolution" (LTE) technology, which promises speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
For wired Internet access, Donovan boasted of a recently upgraded backbone that's now capable of 40 Mbps, and stated that the company is in the process of deploying fiber optic networks to people's homes, starting with all new housing developments.
It's not just about fat pipes, either. AT&T also wants to bring you content and applications. Top of the list is Internet video, with new interfaces that will let you watch any video content online - not just cable TV channels - on your television.
"We should be able to radically reshape the interface for TV," Donovan said. "The remote will be dead. The channels will be dead. If all the historical video is available online there's no reason we can't organize that for you."
Even though it aspires to become a content provider, the company is also open to allowing other companies to offer competitive content and applications over AT&T's data lines, Donovan said.
Ultramercial Seeks Publisher Licensees with Patent
Excerpted from ClickZ News Report by Kate Kaye
With firms like Amazon scoring so-called business method patents, Ultramercial Founder Dana Jones figured years ago he ought to apply for one, too. Jones has been awarded a US patent he applied for in 2000 for his firm's signature commercial break-style ad unit, which launched later in 2002. The company aims to license the patented "method and system" to large site publishers.
"Now we can license what we're doing," said Jones. "The whole point of the patent is the US government says you have a monopoly for the length of the patent," he added. Still, that doesn't mean Ultramercial is out to sue possible patent infringers.
"Are there companies out there that appear to be doing our model? Yeah," Jones told ClickZ News. "But that's not the point." Jones said his firm has never sued anyone and has no intention to do so. "We are not patent trolls," he stressed. "What we want to do is license what we're doing and teach people the benefits of doing this."
Some may argue the Ultramercial is too similar to a standard interstitial unit to warrant a patent. The main difference, as Jones described it, is more touchy-feely than techie. "We do change the way the viewer perceives and emotionally holds the advertiser," said Jones. While the typical full-page interstitial is served automatically to the user before a destination page loads, the Ultramercial is preceded by a page requiring the user to opt-in to view the ad.
"The decision page presents the value proposition," he said. According to Jones, that is key to the format's uniqueness, and part of the reason why it deserved to be patented. Also, the Ultramercial unit enables step-by-step interactions requiring the user to respond before proceeding to the next portion of the ad.
Jones would not say precisely how the company will structure future licensing deals, or how much fees will be. However, he told ClickZ News the firm most likely will look to other licensing deals as a basis for its own. "It will probably be a combination of Ultramercial collecting a piece of the revenue that this product generates," with other forms of compensation, he said.
Jones also indicated Ultramercial may no longer actually serve ads using its formats in some cases, particularly when licensing the product to large publishers such as TV networks and large newspaper publishers. Indeed, those are the types of companies Jones hopes to score as licensees.
"We'll actively pursue newspapers," he said.
Ultramercial continues to work with Salon.com, in addition to publishers of Economist.com, TheStreet.com, and ABC News. Advertisers such as apparel retailer H&M, hair care brand SunSilk, clothing brands Champion and Levis, as well as record labels and film studios have run the firm's ads online and in SMS form on Virgin Mobile phones through a relationship with the carrier. The SugarMama program allows Virgin Mobile subscribers, who tend to skew younger, to swap ad-watching for free phone minutes.
The ad company also works with WiFi access providers, allowing airport travelers and cafe goers to view ads in exchange for free web access. Ford, Microsoft, and online shoe seller Zappos have advertised through Ultramercial's WiFi access offerings.
The company has its sights set on distributing its ads in non-Internet environments such as cable TV, VOD, and in-store kiosks. A patent was filed recently by Ultramercial for that very purpose. But, calling the US Patent system "like molasses," Jones doesn't expect it to be awarded anytime soon.
PeerApp Support Pando's P2P Protocol
PeerApp, an industry-leading company in intelligent media caching and content acceleration, this week announced its support for Pando Networks' P2P protocol. The collaboration between PeerApp and Pando further enables Internet service providers (ISPs) and content owners together to improve delivery of P2P content over the Internet.
Pando provides a commercial P2P-based content delivery service, which is used by large broadcasters such as NBC Universal to distribute high-quality video over the Internet. Pando is also a leading provider of a managed personal digital media service, with over 20 million subscribers using the P2P Pando Mail service to share large-sized user-generated content such as family photos and home videos.
PeerApp's support of Pando's protocol will allow ISPs to optimize the delivery of Pando customers' video and other multi-media. PeerApp's UltraBand systems let ISPs localize traffic, lower the cost of supporting P2P applications, and alleviate last-mile congestion.
PeerApp has led the market in development of infrastructure-based solutions for delivery of bandwidth intensive applications, including HTTP video and P2P.
Pando protocol support is available in the most recent release of PeerApp's UltraBand systems. PeerApp and Pando collaborated in integrating their two products as part of a strategic partnership announced in December 2007.
Pando Networks is a market leader in using P2P technology to scale delivery of video over the Internet. As part of its efforts to foster cooperation between ISPs and P2P application vendors, Pando co-founded the P4P Working Group (P4PWG) consisting of ISPs, P2P software distributors, and network infrastructure providers, including PeerApp.
As a core member of the P4PWPG, PeerApp is leading the efforts to incorporate caching with the P4P architecture. "Combining P2P delivery with P2P caching provides the highest quality of experience for consumers of Internet video and the most efficient network results for ISPs," said Robert Levitan, CEO of Pando Networks.
"Pando is a pioneer in P2P content delivery and in promoting new industry standards, such as the P4P initiative," said Robert Mayer, PeerApp's CEO. "We share Pando's commitment to making the Internet a robust platform for multimedia content, and look forward to working further with the Pando team on enabling technologies and standards."
In recent months, ISPs have been heavily criticized for their network management practices for P2P video content. As an alternative to traffic mitigation and throttling that can degrade P2P services, PeerApp's media caching technology provides a positive bandwidth management solution that both reduces the network cost of support for rich media applications and improves application performance through content caching and acceleration. Deployed globally since 2006, PeerApp's technology is already improving the quality of experience for millions of broadband consumers.
Rhever Takes Center Stage in P2P Download Arena
Rhever this week announced the launch of its premium file-sharing service. Ease-of-use and improved features distinguish Rhever from its P2P competition, according to the company.
"While the legal aspect of file sharing is an ongoing issue, there's no denying that this method is the natural progression for watching the latest movies or listening to the newest music," said a Rhever spokesman.
"Our software allows users to easily search from over 25 million files; our servers also allow download speeds of up to 25MB/s. We're confident that Rhever will offer users the best and most practical solution available today."
In addition to fast download speeds and a large decentralized directory of files, subscribers to the service offered by Rhever will also benefit from 2,000 GBs of new files added daily; access to high-speed servers run by government, colleges, university research departments, and NASA; a proprietary decentralized index of files; censor-free indexing and resources; no adware/spyware; and no peer/leecher system.
Members of the Rhever community will be allocated 15GBs of monthly download bandwidth. Potential users can sign up for a free trial, with 2GBs of download bandwidth allocated for the trial period.
Rhever's servers ensure that no viruses or fake files are uploaded to the service. Each of its 60,000 servers is run by an administrative team that monitors its server for any rogue files. Viruses, fake uploads, and other negative features are removed instantly. This allows Rhever to maintain a clean index of files that results in direct downloads without interruption.
Future enhancements to the Rhever service include integrated file and comment rating systems; file previews with full video, audio, image, and document preview support; and network specific information regarding files and the fastest download servers.
Located in Corona, CA, Rhever is leading the way in premium file sharing using proprietary indexing technology. The company offers the fastest download speeds and largest file directory of any file-sharing host.
Raketu Offers Unlimited Long-Distance Calling
Raketu, a leading global P2P communications, information, entertainment, and social-networking company, this week launched its unlimited international calling subscription plan.
The new subscription has no long-term contract. Users can make calls whenever they want - at any time of the day, on any day of the week. Raketu is making this subscription available for both PC-to-phone and phone-to-phone calling - PC-to-PC calls are always free.
"With our new unlimited calling subscription plan for only $7.95 per month, Raketu users can call mobile and landline phones in Raketu's free zones located in 46 countries - which is less expensive and to more locations than our competitor Skype offers," said Greg Parker, President & CEO of Raketu.
"And unlike Skype, with the Raketu subscription service, our users can choose to make PC-to-phone and phone-to-phone calls, giving them even more flexibility. With the recent addition of our mobile services, there are now more ways than ever for consumers and businesses to take advantage of our subscription and discounted calling and text rates."
With Raketu's new unlimited calling subscription, Raketu users around the world pay one flat monthly fee of $7.95. There are no hidden costs or additional connection charges.
In addition to its new subscriptions, Raketu will continue to offer its pre-payment option. Put as little as $9.95 on your Raketu account and you can call and text message whomever you want, whenever you want at the lowest rates anywhere. See www.Raketu.com/en/unlimited.php for details.
Consumers who purchase three-month subscriptions before July 1st will also receive a free three-month subscription for Raketu Media Drive, which allows users to store and share pictures and videos with friends and family, or choose to keep them private.
Free File-Sharing Program Shazzle Launches Beta
Shazzle, the creator of a revolutionary new free file-sharing program that uses P2P technology to fuse social-networking, real-time chat, Internet browsing, file sharing and community creation, is pleased to announce the release of a public beta product to be available in the mid to late summer.
Shazzle will be distributing an executable of this enrapturing product to a select group , who will be chosen from those who sign up to be considered for the Beta Test Group at www.shazzle.com/download.html.
Shazzle will be actively seeking feedback from these early adopters, who will have the opportunity to shape what is sure to become the next hot buzzword in technological circles. All selected users from the continental US will receive free Shazzle T-Shirts for their participation in the Beta.
Shazzle is a free program that synchronizes, streamlines, and enriches all of the things people do online. Shazzle presents users with a hybrid of P2P music sharing, live chat, and enhanced web browser and social networking functionality. Shazzle consolidates these diverse e-functions and makes them all accessible from a single easy-to-manipulate screen.
Shazzle's elegant user-interface and multifaceted utility can be applied to business, e-commerce, e-learning, old and new inter-personal connections, and much more.
QNAP Adds BitTorrent Engine to NAS Family
QNAP is using Computex to announce a new P2P download engine in cooperation with BitTorrent.
The engine will be embedded within its TS-109 II, TS-209 II, and TS-409 devices, and should enhance download performance as well as add support for DHT / TCP / UDP tracker protocols.
Beyond that, the firm is kicking out an all new Turbo NAS: the 1U rack-mountable US-409U. The unit is based on a Linux-embedded system and includes a 500MHz SoC CPU, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, four hot-swappable bays, online RAID capacity expansion and RAID 0/1/5/6/5+spare disk redundancy support.
Indie Film Creators Launch P2P Donation Platform
Excerpted from NewTeeVee Report by Janko Roettgers
Creators of the copyright-critical movie Steal This Film are building a platform aimed at helping filmmakers get paid for releasing their works on file-sharing networks. The project, which is called VODO (for "voluntary donations"), is based on lessons the two filmmakers have learned from publishing their own movies for free on the Internet.
The "Steal This Film" Project was partially underwritten by grants from the British Documentary Film Foundation, but the filmmakers also asked their audience for donations. The duo was recently quoted as saying that an estimated 0.1% of "Steal This Film's" audience ended up donating within the first two months of its release. Their hope for VODO is to get a response rate of up to 15%.
So how do they want to reach this lofty goal? By plugging themselves right into the P2P distribution chain. The idea is to make VODO a feature of P2P clients as well as media players, so users can donate right when they download or watch a movie. VODO also wants to use video fingerprinting to reliably recognize downloaded movies so that filmmakers can get their fair share.
"VODO benefits lie in distributing payments out to players and downloading software, making it as trivial as possible for donors to initiate voluntary donations when they feel most 'connected' to the artist: at the point of enjoyment of the media."
The project just started, and VODO's website doesn't go into a lot of detail. One way such a system could be implemented is through plug-ins. The popular BitTorrent client Vuze already features plug-in architecture that could be used to add a donation button of some sort.
The video fingerprinting idea is little more ambitious. VODO's website states that it wants to develop an open-source video fingerprinting solution this summer, but is still looking for developers to do so.
Video fingerprinting is a task that has proven to be difficult in the past: many video-hosting websites have started to implement commercial fingerprinting solutions in recent months, but our own tests have shown that these solutions generally don't work all that well, resulting in many clips falling through the cracks.
It's also unclear how successful a P2P donation service would be. The "Steal This Film" team points to the recent online experiments by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, which show that donations can work, but one could argue that those were singular instances of highly successful bands leveraging their existing communities.
In fact, P2P advocates have had little success with similar ideas in the past: A few fans of the original music-swapping service Napster founded a donation service called Fairtunes back in 2000. The idea was to collect donations for bands that were popular on the file-swapping service.
Fairtunes even built a donation plug-in for the then-popular MP3 software Winamp, much in the same way VODO wants to become part of video players.
The service got some major press coverage, including an article in Time Magazine, but attracted only little spare change. Overall, Fairtunes made about $20,000 and closed down a year after its launch.
P2P Pressure Whitepaper Offers New ISP Model
Epitiro, a leader in broadband benchmarking, this week published Peer-to-Peer Pressure, Evolution of the ISP Network Management Model, a visionary network management whitepaper for ISPs keen to address the increasing demand for P2P broadband services. Epitiro's "absolute coverage" model aspires to capture metrics concerning both network performance and customer experience for applications including client/server data transfer, P2P file sharing, VoIP, and video streaming. "Consumer and business expectations will evolve from being satisfied with mere access to broadband, to choosing the best broadband service for their personal requirements." said JP Curley, CTO, Epitiro.
"Our vision for network management provides ISPs with an understanding of every subscriber's experience, plus a comprehensive view of how the competition is performing." The whitepaper contrasts the full scope of the new absolute coverage model with the shortcomings of today's typical network management methodology that fails to capture customer-experience details or provide insight into competitor performance.
The wealth of intelligence gathered with the absolute coverage model enhances the ability to operate traffic management schemes in addition to providing key data to improve network planning, customer support and marketing functions. The paper also explores the anti-piracy, regulatory, and consumer activities associated with surging popularity of P2P file sharing in both the US and the EU. Clients such as BT, Orange, Virgin, Telecom New Zealand, Ofcom, Tiscali, Telefonica O2, and many others benefit from Epitiro's coverage of fixed and wireless broadband performance. Founded in 2000, Epitiro is the chief source of intelligence for the Internet Service Provider Association (ISPA) awards, and is based in Cardiff, Wales, UK.
Safe Peer-to-Peer Sharing
Excerpted from MSN India Report
Whether based on Gnutella or BitTorrent, P2P networks are a popular way of sharing files among users. Music, videos, movies - people pick them all from P2P networks.
Many offices also use P2P networking to connect users' PCs with each other and with common office resources such as the printer or scanner. But P2P networking has some inherent security threats, which you need to beware of, whether you're a user of a P2P application or a workplace user.
In P2P networking, PCs are connected to each other and each user sets permissions on what content on the PC should be shared with other users on the network. This is different from a client-server architecture, where all PCs (called clients) are connected to a central server - the server hosts all the applications that the users on the network need, such as mail, printing, and file-sharing applications. In a P2P network, on the other hand, each PC acts as both client and server.
The advantage of a P2P network is that the computing resources, hard drives, and bandwidth of computers on the network are used by all the users. There is no need to install, configure, and manage an expensive server for this task. P2P networks also make it easier and more convenient for you to collaborate and share information. Some companies use P2P networks to share assets and information among users in separate locations. Workgroup collaboration using instant messaging (IM) and other collaboration software is one of the most popular uses of P2P networks.
Many P2P networks use the Internet for file sharing; users on these networks are in different regions of the world. If you want to become part of such a network, such as Kazaa, you need to run an application every time you want to connect to the network.
The architecture of a P2P network holds some security threats.
Improper authentication: A client-server network has fairly strong authentication procedures, which are not there in P2P networks. Especially in the case of corporate P2P networks, if users share their passwords with people who are not part of the corporate setup, it could lead to loss of intellectual property and confidential data.
Bypassing firewalls: To enable file-sharing on some P2P networks, you have to bypass any firewall that you may have installed on your PC or corporate network. Once this happens, you are open to the dangers of downloading malicious code unknowingly.
Unsafe downloads: When you download any file or utility from a P2P network, you effectively accept it from someone who's a stranger to you. In fact, the user who has shared the file with you may not even be who he/she purports to be. Therefore, such downloaded files could potentially contain spyware, adware, viruses, Trojans and other such malicious software.
P2P application threat: In some public P2P networks, the application you use to connect to the network could lead to security issues. The application itself could be improperly written or buggy, which could harm your PC's performance. Secondly, since the application is hosted on other users' machines, there is no way of knowing whether the genuine application has been substituted with a malicious file, such as a Trojan, which could lead to more serious security issues for your system and the confidential information in it. This, however, is usually difficult to do.
There are several steps you can take to ensure that you use P2P networks safely.
Use good P2P products: If you are setting up a corporate P2P network, use products that have integrated security features. There are several products from different vendors available for this.
Scan each download: If you use Internet file-sharing on a P2P network, scan everything you download using anti-virus software, before you install and use it. This will ensure that you don't install any malicious software on your PC.
Scan your PC: Use anti-virus software to scan your PC periodically, to ensure that you haven't unwittingly installed any adware or malicious software.
Be careful of what you share: When you use a P2P network, a default folder is usually created, where you can store files that you want to share with other users. Ensure that you have shared only that folder with other users, and not the entire hard drive or other confidential folders.
Have a security policy: P2P networks need you to create a separate security policy and train everyone to use it.
Make users aware of the risks: On a corporate P2P network, all users should be made aware of the risks of sharing their passwords and other security risks of sharing information over P2P networks.
Avoid Internet P2P file-sharing on corporate networks: Internet P2P file-sharing should be avoided on office networks. It clogs bandwidth and puts the security of all the network users at risk. The implications of some malicious software getting installed on the network would be very dangerous and far-reaching for the company.
Intellon Demonstrates OTT Video Streaming
Intellon, a leading provider of HomePlug-compatible integrated circuits (ICs) for home networking, networked entertainment, Ethernet-over-Coax (EoC) and smart grid applications, will demonstrate over-the-top (OTT) video streaming over a home powerline (AC electrical wiring) network in conjunction with Computex.
In the demonstration, OTT video will be streamed over existing electrical wiring to an AppleTV unit and then to an HD television. The demonstration will be one of several Intellon will present to guests at its Grand Hyatt exhibition suite in Taipei.
OTT Internet video content is growing in popularity as new OTT sources launch. YouTube attracts millions of regular users who view hundreds of millions and upload hundreds of thousands of videos each day. MySpace features original, user-uploaded content along with primetime TV shows. P2PTV entrants Joost and Babelgum are preparing to launch professional video services paid for by advertising or by the consumer.
"People now want to view OTT video on the big screen in living or family rooms, but there's no broadband Internet connection there and that's where Intellon's HomePlug powerline solution provides the answer," said Rick Furtney, President & COO of Intellon. "In addition, people want to pull family photos and video combined with favorite music from their PC library and show this content on home entertainment systems; again, Intellon's HomePlug technology makes all this possible."
Although most homes have a broadband or CAT-5 connection in only one room, electrical outlets are plentiful throughout. Intellon's powerline networking puts the broadband network on the home's existing electrical wiring so every outlet provides a port for accessing OTT video, P2PTV, iTunes, Internet services, and computers or peripherals in other rooms. With no new wires to install and an easy, plug-and-play set-up, Intellon's standards-based HomePlug AV technology makes it easy to stream video content from an Internet modem or gateway to digital media adapters, television sets, video recorders, and personal computers.
Showdown in Spain: Promusicae Sues P2P Pioneer
Excerpted from Digital Music News Report by Alexandra Osorio
Major labels in Spain are now suing file-sharing company MP2P Technologies, according to details shared by the defendant. The lawsuit adds to an already-litigious climate, one that has pitted majors against technology companies and consumers for most of the decade.
The latest suit is being spearheaded by Spanish label group Promusicae, and targets MP2P founder Pablo Soto, a leading developer of file-swapping technologies.
Majors are pursuing damages of $20 million, though Soto vowed to fight back. "We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this shakedown attempt by the major label cabal," Soto declared.
"Litigation is in itself not a valid business model for them, however, it has been a dogged and futile pursuit of theirs since the advent of P2P."
Soto outlined a litigation path that started with consumers, but ultimately landed in his lap. "Promusicae tried to proceed with civil suits against users of P2P networks in Spain and, after being halted by the Court of Justice of the EU, it has now decided to go against a neutral communication tool such as P2P technology," Soto explained.
MP2P is an umbrella group for a number of file-sharing services, including Piolet, Omemo, and Blubster.
Leaked ACTA Treaty Would Outlaw P2P
Excerpted from The Consumerist Report
The misleadingly named "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)" is a worldwide copyright treaty being negotiated behind closed doors that would create a sort of global DMCA if it continues in its current state.
Wikileaks has posted a draft of the treaty, and Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow gives his take:
"Among other things, ACTA will outlaw P2P even when used to share works that are legally available, and crack down on things like region-free DVD players. All of this is taking place out of the public eye, presumably with the intention of presenting it as a fait accompli just as the ink is drying on the treaty."
Wikileaks points out that the US politician behind ACTA is Howard Berman (D-CA), whose top four campaign contributors for 2006 were Time Warner ($21,000), News Corp. ($15,000), Sony Corp of America ($14,000), and the Walt Disney Co ($13,550).
So what can you do, other than shake your head in disgust? Well, here's a list of members of the subcommittee overseeing the US side of things, so you could start by seeing if your rep is listed and contacting him or her directly.
One reader suggests contacting your representative regardless of committee membership - you can find the correct contact information here using your zip code or address.
Coming Events of Interest
eMerging Media Forum - June 19th in New York, NY. BMO Capital Markets invites you to a one-day investor summit focusing on the evolving “eVideo & eMusic” spaces, hosted by senior research analyst Lee Westerfield. The DCIA and Member companies BitTorrent and GridNetworks will participate.
Voice Peering Forum - June 23rd-24th in San Francisco, CA. This conference brings together over one-hundred organizations from the information technology (IT) and telecommunications industry to network and discuss the latest in peering, routing, and interconnection of networks and the applications they support. DCIA Member company Kontiki is participating with a special session.
P2P MEDIA SUMMIT SV - August 4th in San Jose, CA. The first-ever P2P MEDIA SUMMIT in Silicon Valley. Featuring keynotes from industry-leading P2P and social network operators; tracks on policy, technology and marketing; panel discussions covering content distribution and solutions development; valuable workshops; networking opportunities; and more.
Building Blocks 2008 - August 5th-7th in San Jose, CA. The premier event for transforming entertainment, consumer electronics, social media & web application technologies & the global communications network: TV, cable, telco, consumer electronics, mobile, broadband, search, games and the digital home.
International Broadcasting Convention - September 11th-16th in Amsterdam, Holland. IBC is committed to providing the world's best event for everyone involved in the creation, management, and delivery of content for the entertainment industry. Uniquely, the key executives and committees who control the convention are drawn from the industry, bringing with them experience and expertise in all aspects.
Streaming Media West - September 23rd-25th in San Jose, CA. The only show that covers both the business of online video and the technology of P2PTV, streaming, downloading, webcasting, Internet TV, IPTV, and mobile video. Covering both corporate and consumer business, technology, and content issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast, and education markets. The DCIA will conduct a P2P session.
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