March 30, 2009
Volume XXV, Issue 11
Vuze Now Playing on All Screens
Excerpted from IGN Report by Scott Lowe
The process of streaming computer-based media to your television has certainly been simplified by programs and hardware like Apple TV and Windows Media Center, but few products have been able to create one, all-encompassing solution - until now.
The latest version of Vuze, a popular media and BitTorrent client for both Mac and PC, was released this week and with it a brand new media streaming/downloading feature for a variety of devices, including the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Part media server, part video conversion software, the new streaming media feature on Vuze allows users to effortlessly deliver their downloaded or ripped media to external devices via a simple drag-and-drop system.
For those unfamiliar with the program, Vuze organizes your downloaded or imported media, and is capable of in-software viewing so you don't have to have six programs running at once.
The team at Vuze has taken this all-in-one prospect a step further and now enables users to automatically identify devices using the same wireless network as their PC. To view computer-based media on your PS3 or Xbox 360 using Vuze, all you have to do is enable a connection through the corresponding hardware, drag the desired media to the preferred device in Vuze, and the program does the rest.
In real-time the video is converted to the necessary viewing format for that device, and downloaded/streamed immediately thereafter. Depending on their networks' bandwidth, users can opt to have their media streamed in a standard definition compression or 720p high-definition (HD) video for faster data transmission. What makes this latest feature compelling is the total ease of use - instead of having to memorize the necessary codecs and have dedicated streaming software for each device, users of Vuze can relax and enjoy their media without the headaches.
Vuze began as a simple BitTorrent client but has since expanded to include a hub of officially distributed HD video content, such as movie trailers and TV shows. The new streaming feature will support all content distributed through Vuze's video portal, as well as user-downloaded content. The latest version of Vuze with device streaming/downloading is available now for download. To find out more about the new feature, please click here. To download the software, click here.
Oversi Selected as Red Herring 100 Finalist
Red Herring this week announced that Oversi was named a Finalist of Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region each year.
"This year's impressive list of submissions from companies demonstrates Europe's growing role as a major center of innovation in the global technology sector," said Red Herring Publisher Alex Vieux. "The exceptional accomplishments of European technology start-ups and entrepreneurs are a testament to the rapid advancements being made in building the European innovation ecosystem."
"We are honored to be included in this prestigious list of companies. As a pioneer in caching technology for P2P and Internet video, we are proud that our commitment to innovation has been recognized in this way. Our goal is to bring true benefits to service providers worldwide by helping them to save on OpEx and CapEx while delivering the best Internet video experience to their subscribers," said Oversi's President & CEO, David Tolub.
Red Herring's lists of top private companies are an important part of the publication's tradition of identifying new and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs. Companies like Google, eBay, and Skype were spotted in their early days by Red Herring editors, and touted as leaders that would change the way we live and work.
Red Herring's editorial staff rigorously evaluated several hundred private companies through a careful analysis of financial data and subjective criteria, including quality of management, execution of strategy, and dedication to research and development.
Akamai Gets Serious About P2P
Excerpted from Contentinople Report by Ryan Lawler
Content delivery network (CDN) Akamai Technologies is beginning to talk to its customers more seriously about offering client-side - or peer-to-peer (P2P) - file-transfer technology, according to sources in the industry.
Sources that work in the P2P delivery space say that Akamai has been pitching a client-based distribution technology to some of its customers over the past few months, most notably to gaming and media companies that offer large file downloads. Those same sources expect that Akamai could soon make the offering public.
Some digging on the Akamai website reveals that the company offers a product called the Akamai NetSession Interface, which it describes as a "secure client-side networking technology that enhances networking protocols for delivery of software and media, improving the speed, reliability, and efficiency of content downloaded from the web."
A source within the company says that the NetSession Interface is based on the P2P technology that the company received as part of the Red Swoosh acquisition in April 2007.
While Red Swoosh Founder Travis Kalanick left last year, Akamai has been hiring to increase its client-side credentials. The company hired Haiyong Xie, the primary Yale researcher behind the P4P Working Group (P4PWG) last year. Akamai also recently picked up Kontiki's former Vice President of Marketing, Bill Wishon, as a product specialist, earlier this year.
For Akamai, the addition of P2P or client-side delivery could help bolster its product suite, particularly as companies like Pando Networks have gained more traction with large file downloads powered by hybrid P2P delivery.
The question is, at what point will Akamai, by offering a product that offloads traditional CDN bandwidth, begin to further commoditize or cannibalize its core delivery business by offering lower-cost client-side services?
While there's the possibility that Akamai could lose some revenue in the short term, some people in the industry think it makes sense for Akamai to get into the P2P game.
Pando CEO Robert Levitan said, "I think it's smart for Akamai to offer P2P services. You should disrupt your own business before someone else does it."
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Please plan now to attend the DCIA's fourth annual P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA. This seminal industry event is scheduled for Monday May 4th at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Santa Monica, CA.
Our 2009 conference will focus on data gathering and analytics in the P2P marketplace, featuring keynotes from top P2P and social networking software distributors, panels of industry leaders, and more. There will be a continental breakfast, conference luncheon, and networking cocktail reception.
The event is being held in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Spring and your combined early registration represents a $360 savings over regular rates. DHS has become the industry's premier entertainment and technology conference. This spring's expanded line-up, with an increased emphasis on the genre of reality TV, reflects current viewership trends.
P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA keynote speakers include Jim Kott, Co-President, Abacast; Eric Garland, CEO, BigChampagne; Mitchell Edwards, General Counsel & CFO, BitTorrent; Joey Patuleia, Co-Founder, Brand Asset Digital; Rex Wong, Founder & CEO, DAVE Networks; Clark Siegel, Partner, Hughes, Hubbard, and Reed; Adam Fisk, Founder & CEO, LittleShoot; Rick Sizemore, CEO, MultiMedia Intelligence; Paul Hoffert, Founder & CEO, Noank Media; and Travis Kalanick, Founder, Red Swoosh.
The Usage Data panel will examine utilization trends and address the key question, what information has value to key constituencies?
Who are the key constituencies that have interest in P2P usage statistics? Which types of information should be gathered and analyzed for each group? What are the concerns associated with developing and exploiting this data, and how can they be mitigated? Which figures have the highest potential to be monetized and why? What can be learned from prior and parallel experience?
Panelists will include Ted Cohen, Managing Director, TAG Strategic; Jonathan Feinstein, Partner, Krasilovsky & Gross; Ryan Lawler, Senior Editor, Contentinople; Steve Masur, Managing Partner, MasurLaw; and Cory Mitchell, Consultant, Motion Picture Industry.
The Analytical Tools panel will explore technological solutions, and address the question, what measurement products and services are available?
What metrics, demographics, tracking, and other offerings are now available to commercially optimize P2P for the benefit of all participants in the distribution chain? How is P2P usage data being exploited and by whom to benefit the success of the channel? What else is in the works and what more is needed, analytically, to fully realize the potential of the enormous consumer traffic generated by P2P?
Panelists will include David Klein, Executive Vice President, Centris; Daniel Leon, SVP, Business Development, DigiMeld; Steve Lerner, Founder & CEO, P2P Cleaner; Alex Limberis, COO, Syabas Technology; and Yangbin Wang, CEO, Vobile.
The Relevant Trends panel will examine digital convergence, and address the question, what can be learned from related activities?
What has been the experience of related digital distribution platforms with data measurement? How can lessons from these areas be applied to P2P? Which business models that involve a significant analytic component are showing the most promise? How can comparable approaches be developed for P2P implementation? How should P2P relate to other distribution channels?
Panelists include Jonathan Anderson, Founder & CEO, SelfBank Financial; Larry Gerbrandt, Partner, Media Valuation; Donald A. Jasko, Founder & CEO, Digital Economics; Benjamin Masse, Founder & CEO, AdSong; and John Rudolph, Founder, Music Analytics.
The Future Opportunities panel will explore transactional accountability, and address the question, how can participants optimize the channel?
What can the industry do to ensure that appropriate analytics are married to the benefits of P2P scale and efficiency for the distribution of copyrighted works? How can participants at various levels of this channel gain support of rights holders? Which identification techniques (e.g., watermarking and/or fingerprinting) should be used to protect content and enhance the ecosystem? What new solutions will impact P2P software developers and distributors to the greatest degree?
Panelists will include Larry Hadley, Partner, Hennigan Bennett & Dorman; Daniel Harris, Founder & CEO, MediaPass Gigantic; Dana Jones, CEO & Founder, Ultramercial; Colin Sebastian, SVP, Equity Research, Lazard Capital Markets; and Bo Yang, Founder & CEO, Veetle.
More speakers will be announced. For P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA sponsorship information, please contact Laura Tunberg at 310-415-0330 or laura@dcia.info. For DCIA Membership and P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA speaker information, please contact Karen Kaplowitz at 888-890-4240 or karen@dcia.info. Share wisely, and take care.
Spark Capital to Seed-Fund Digital Media Firms
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
Spark Capital announced on Wednesday the launch of Start@Spark, an initiative focused on seed stage investments in the New York, NY and Boston, MA areas. The firm focuses on businesses in the media, entertainment, and technology sectors. Its new fund will offer seed-stage investments of up to $250,000.
"Yes, we are in a global economic recession and yes the new media markets are being impacted," the announcement said. "So, this must be a terrible time to fund a start-up company. Correct? Au contraire. This may be the best time in the last eight years to start a company. While capital is scarce, the tectonic plates continue to shift creating major rifts. The walls are coming down and the barriers to entering new markets are falling along-side."
Past Spark Capital investments have included Akamai, thePlatform, and Twitter.
Digital Media MBA Career Event in NYC
Digital Media MBA and Columbia Business School (CBS) are hosting a career event and cocktail reception at the The Gansevoort Hotel in New York City's meatpacking district on April 14th.
The event's sponsors want to make sure that DCINFO readers don't miss an opportunity to interview candidates from one of the country's top business schools. Attendees will be able to put together an interview schedule of CBS students and recent alumni looking for career opportunities in the digital media and software industries.
After an afternoon of formal interviews by participating companies, the event will open up into a large networking cocktail party that brings together all the MBA candidates and digital media execs.
Meet students that were not on your interview schedule. Exchange business cards with leaders from other innovative digital start-ups. Enjoy the food and drink and maybe find some compelling business opportunities at the same time. Nothing's out of bounds.
More information and updates, please click here.
Media Companies Struggle to Keep Up
Excerpted from MediaPost Report
A new study from IBM says there's a "growing rift" between advertisers, consumers, and content owners, fueled by media companies' struggle with new digital demands from users and advertisers.
As such, report author Saul Berman, IBM's Global Leader for Strategy and Change Consulting Services, is calling on content owners to "fundamentally" change the way information is delivered to audiences. He writes: "To succeed - especially in the current economic environment - media companies will need to develop a new set of capabilities to support the industry's evolving demands, which include micro targeting, real-time ROI measurement, and cross-platform integration."
Berman cites consumers' adoption of new file-sharing and social networking platforms as being particularly disruptive to the media business.
Some figures: between 2007 and 2008, consumer adoption of social networking tools soared to 60% from 33%; the penetration of mobile Internet data plans nearly tripled to 41% from 15%, and access to mobile music and video quadrupled to 35% from 7%. These are huge changes, so how can advertisers benefit? According to Bill Battino, co-author of the IBM study, "Consumers are willing to trade knowledge about their usage and preferences for content and associated targeted marketing offers. Companies that excel in permission-based advertising will take share of marketing dollars."
Please click here for the full report in World Screen News.
Labels Out of Tune as Pirates Rule Sound Waves
Excerpted from The Age Report by Andrew Murfett
Music labels are struggling to monetize digital growth.
For a business built on marketing and manufacturing shiny metal discs, it was a telling moment. Last year, Atlantic Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, became the first major label to witness digital music revenue surpass CD sales. It's sure not to be the last.
CD sales continue to slide, and according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), world digital sales rose by 25% last year, to $3.7 billion. They accounted for 20% of worldwide industry revenue.
However, the same organization estimates 95% of music downloaded globally is done so without authorization.
In fact, BigChampagne, an organization tracking digital downloads, says unauthorized downloading on the most recent blockbuster music release, U2's "No Line On The Horizon," was rampant. The album was leaked online two weeks before its scheduled release and 445,000 people downloaded it before it hit stores.
As the 23rd annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference came to a close, the discussion around the industry's challenge - to monetize digital growth and stem copyright infringement - continued unabated.
At a panel on the future of digital music, aggrieved artists clashed with label managers. Music, they insist, has never been more popular with the greater public; however, consumers have become unaccustomed to paying for it.
The industry is looking for solutions and new distribution streams. When you look at digital, there has not been that much innovation over the years in digital models.
Universal Music Managing Director George Ash says labels need to be open to new concepts, but also guarantee that the value of music is realized by consumers. The value has been eroded, he says, by rampant unauthorized downloading.
"Music is a great experience and an incredible product," Mr. Ash says.
The major labels appear to have given up pursuing through the courts individuals downloading unlicensed music.
SXSW Panel Debates Monetizing P2Ps
Excerpted from Billboard Business News Report by Cortney Harding
A rousing panel debated the merits of methods for monetizing P2P networks at SXSW on Saturday. Speaking at the "Is Collective Licensing For P2P File Sharing A Future Source For The Music Industry?" discussion, Warner Music Group consultant Jim Griffin, who is currently working on college project Choruss, said that his program offers schools the ability to customize programs to make sure students are shielded from liability if they download music.
But Sandy Pearlman, Schulich Distinguished Chair at McGill University, pointed out traditional methods like adding taxes and levies to Internet bills, might already be outdated, as the so-called "dark Internet" grows and the cost of storing music shrinks.
Rick Carnes, the President of the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA), said those to seek to monetize P2P traffic should consider the broader questions of the value of music. "If music is free, you don't get music that is good, you get music that is free," he told the audience.
Dina LaPolt, an industry lawyer, raised issues of how P2P monetization programs would effect emerging artists, and also discussed the challenges the industry faces dealing with the millennial generation, who believe everything should be immediate and free.
The Net Helps Music Sing New Songs
Excerpted from BBC News Report by Ewan Spence
If the SXSW Music Conference is any guide, Internet technologies are changing almost every aspect of music, and many are struggling to accommodate the change.
Eight years ago, Napster introduced the world to the first of many P2P services via which people could find almost any track they wanted - but Napster gave no money back to artists or copyright holders.
"They said the Internet was a fad five years ago," joked George Searle from LimeWire, a P2P service, which includes a music store. "Now it appears that major labels are a fad. The Internet has totally changed the game."
He believes that sharing music on the Internet will become the default; and the objective for successful music companies is not to control, but to understand and monetize the sharing.
Some would argue that with an international reach and incredibly low entry costs, that the Internet itself is the newest "major" label.
Countless bands continue to stay unsigned, while using their websites, Facebook profiles and MySpace Pages to stay in touch with their fans, market their music, and sell merchandise. The music is the sample, but capturing and nurturing fans so they are happy to support the band is key.
Belladonna is a noir rock band from Italy, which made its way to Austin to play to an international audience and promote its second album. It's had a number of offers to sign for a label but has turned them down every time.
"It's about control," says Dani Macchi of the band. "Every time it happened we had to put on the table all our integrity, and we were not prepared to do that. To do our music our way is the most important thing."
While most bands still look to being signed as the main goal, there are many that are following the route taken by Belladonna.
The Internet allows bands to promote themselves and get the word out not just to their fans, but music lovers in general.
Please click here for the rest of the report.
Songwriters Rewrite Bid for Legalized File Sharing
Excerpted from Toronto Star Report by Michael Geist
In November 2007, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) shocked the music industry and many Canadians by proposing that music file sharing be legalized. The proposal was based on the premise that file sharing was not going away, that lawsuits do more harm than good, and the continued emphasis on digital locks to control copying has failed completely.
To thousands of Canadian songwriters, the better way forward is to encourage music sharing by monetizing it. The SAC proposal envisioned a modest levy to compensate creators for the sharing. In return, Canadians would be entitled to freely share music for non-commercial purposes.
Reaction was generally critical. The recording industry rejected it, arguing it violated international copyright law. Consumer groups were also skeptical, noting a mandatory universal levy would result in payments by non-music sharers, who would effectively subsidize those sharing music.
Notwithstanding the criticism, SAC persisted. Last week, it unveiled a revised proposal at a public copyright forum in Toronto. The new version, which addresses many of the earlier criticisms, is far more promising and there are indications SAC's pursuit of a legalization strategy may be joined by other creator groups.
The foundation of the proposal remains the same - the creation of a new right of remuneration for music file sharing in return for the consumer freedom to share an unlimited amount of music across all platforms including P2P networks, mobile devices, instant messaging (IM), and even e-mail. SAC notes that downloading music for non-commercial purposes is arguably already lawful in Canada due to the private copying levy, but that its proposal would cover more broadly all music file sharing.
The most important change to the SAC proposal is that it would now be voluntary for both creators and consumers. Artists could choose to participate, thereby addressing international copyright law concerns about mandated participation. The proposal also envisions providing consumers with the right to opt out if they do not share music files.
The voluntary approach - which resembles elements of a plan the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) began promoting in 2003 - should remove the consumer concerns associated with stiff monthly fees for non-music sharers. While some artists may reject the plan, SAC is betting most will participate given the opportunity to benefit from a new source of revenue.
SAC has also made changes to the pricing model, leaving the issue in the hands of the Copyright Board of Canada. The board would set the fee after holding public hearings.
Digital Music Model: All You Can Eat
Excerpted from Nashville Business Journal Report by Jeannie Naujeck
The struggling music industry is looking to new technology solutions that could help it regain some lost ground and make music consumption more convenient and affordable for fans.
They include a new delivery model that could eventually offer music downloading as an add-on to one's Internet bill. The idea, called Choruss, is being developed for use at universities by music industry consultant Jim Griffin in conjunction with Warner Music Group.
A large portion of unauthorized music sharing activity has occurred on college campuses. Choruss essentially would place a music royalty fee on students' tuition bills in exchange for unrestricted access to songs for downloading on university networks.
The monies would then be distributed to the copyright holders by an independent, non-profit organization as compensation for use, a licensing model similar to the method used to collect royalty money from radio stations.
Griffin will present his plan for Choruss next Tuesday during Nashville's Digital Summit, a two-day conference that will bring together dozens of speakers from media, marketing, technology, telecommunications, music and entertainment at Belmont University.
The project appears to have gained support of most major record labels, now that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has dropped a five-year strategy of suing individuals for downloading unlicensed music.
Music consumers swap about 1 billion files each month on P2P networks, according to the tracking service BigChampagne. And CD sales, likely the last physical music format that will be sold in stores, have fallen 45% from their peak, to 428 million last year.
The idea could be expanded to the mass market, by adding an optional monthly fee onto customers' monthly cable or phone bills. The fee would be voluntary for consumers and would protect them from legal action by copyright holders.
While Warner says the proposal is probably months from implementation, it's been discussed among the Internet cognoscenti for several years.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a California-based non-profit founded in 1990, has come out strongly in favor of such an "all you can eat" subscription model, saying it fairly compensates creators.
NIN Launches BitTorrent Tracker for New Release
Excerpted from 3 News NZ Report
Trent Reznor, the front-man for Nine Inch Nails (NIN) has always been pro file-sharing. Unlike others in the music business, the NIN members are no strangers to BitTorrent.
"We use torrents ourselves, and we know that most NIN fans are tech-savvy and familiar with file-sharing, so we want to experiment with ways to use that to our advantage, instead of making the mistake of trying to fight or ignore it, as so many artists and labels do," NIN's Art Director Rob Sheridan explained.
In fact, when they released the album "Ghosts" for free last year, their server couldn't handle the high traffic numbers and downloads, so they linked the torrents they had uploaded to The Pirate Bay (TPB) instead. Thanks to TPB, many fans didn't have to wait till the server recovered, and the torrent quickly became one of the most downloaded files on the tracker.
With the release of their tour promo "NIN/JA," NIN decided to prevent similar server troubles, and the band now offers torrent downloads for the higher quality and size downloads. The tracker used for the torrents is hosted by the band itself on the www.tracker.nin.com sub-domain. The tracker was being used by thousands of fans just hours after it went up.
Self-hosted BitTorrent trackers may become a new phenomenon. Two weeks ago, the government-owned Norwegian Broadcasting company (NRK) set-up its very own BitTorrent tracker to distribute some of its TV shows.
Solid State Networks Plug-and-Play for Game Updates
Content delivery software maker Solid State Networks, the leading developer of digital game and patch delivery solutions, this week announced the availability of Solid Axis CURRENT Publisher Edition (PE), a standalone plug-and-play patching solution for Windows games. CURRENT is designed to improve the user experience associated with updating games while reducing the costs of preparing and delivering those updates.
CURRENT PE is designed to work with existing titles and provides publishers with a robust feature set that can be implemented without custom coding or programming. Other features include one-step updating from any previous version; progressive downloading; advanced data compression; wizard-based patch creation; and configurable delivery and downloading options including optional hybrid CDN/P2P delivery technology.
Solid State evaluated many of the frequently updated game titles and found that most would realize reductions in delivery costs ranging from 20% to 70%. These savings do not include the further cost reductions made possible by using the optional hybrid HTTP/P2P delivery capabilities available in CURRENT PE. In addition to cost reductions, publishers will deliver faster updates which will result in a better user experience for players.
"As we listened to the unique challenges that each of our gaming customers have, we saw a big need to develop a simplified version of our patching solution that eliminated the need for valuable programmer resources to be devoted to patching and delivery," said Travis Hilterbrand, Senior Developer for Solid State Networks. "CURRENT PE gives game publishers an easy-to-configure patching solution that is fast to deploy, but works seamlessly to deliver game updates in such a way that does not disrupt game play."
Damaka Offers SIP-Based UC Solution for iPhone
Excerpted from TMCnet Report by Jayashree Adkoli
Damaka, a P2P provider of SIP-based unified communications software, has launched its collaborative product suite for iPhone.
Providing support for multiple mobile devices such as smart-phones, pocket-PCs, and PDAs that are running on iPhone, Symbian, and Windows Mobile operating systems, the UCC solution also works on other mobile devices that support different networks such as 3G, WiFi, WiMAX, and LTE. The suite is ideal for VoIP operators with SIP infrastructure, IMS deployments, and enterprises.
All the features supported by the Damaka laptop version are also supported in the Damaka mobile application, which is device and network neutral.
"We are excited to launch presence, IM, voice, and application sharing features on iPhone," said Ramesh Chaturvedi, Damaka's Chief Strategy Officer. "Unlike claims from other applications, Damaka truly provides a holistic solution where these collaboration features are integrated within one single application without the need for any external voice/video conference bridges."
Damaka also has plans to launch a live video conferencing feature - in the next phase release for iPhone. This feature is already present in Windows Mobile devices and Symbian OS-based devices. With the addition of such a feature, Damaka anticipates an increase in the number of devices that can inter-operate with the Damaka application.
Damaka's UCC solution is cost effective and could be completely hosted and managed by an operator or enterprise in either P2P or existing standard deployment models via a softswitch or SIP IP/PBX. A sales executive with his mobile device who is on-the-go will be able to remotely join an online live application sharing, meeting with his sales team along with a voice session - all on a single application with the help of the UCC suite.
BarTor Enters BitTorrent Barcode Scanning Market
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
A few weeks ago we introduced Torrent Droid, an application for Android-based phones that allows users to take a photo of a barcode and look-up torrents for the associated product. While Torrent Droid is still being developed, a similar app is now on the market and available for download.
The idea behind BarTor is simple but brilliant. The application allows users to scan the barcodes of products they come across, and use these to search for torrents that match the product. If a corresponding torrent is found, it can be directly and remotely added to uTorrent or Vuze through the BitTorrent client's web interface.
BarTor uses the web interface of the BitTorrent client running on your computer, and it even supports multiple clients for people who have more than one BitTorrent client to which they need to send torrents.
The torrents start downloading right away and when you arrive at home, the music, movie, or software will be done downloading and ready to use. It can't get much easier. BarTor's functionality is very similar to the Torrent Droid app we reported on before, but BarTor is the first to become available to the public.
The only downside is that the app is not available for free. It's currently being sold in the Android Market for $2.99. Justin, the developer of the application said, "I feel that there are a lot of people out there who will be willing to pay the nominal fee for this app."
Grooveshark Starts Packing Some Serious Partnerships
Excerpted from Digital Music News Report by Alexandra Osorio
Miami, FL is now playing host to another Winter Music Conference, a throng of electronica, beats, dealmaking, and hedonism. But 350 miles north, in the less-assuming Gainesville, Grooveshark is now unveiling a number of artist-focused partnerships.
Grooveshark is a site that allows users to share and discover music through an on-demand streaming application, one that features paid downloads, recommendations, shared collections, and networking. The now-launching Grooveshark Artists is designed to help artists better find and connect with fans.
That includes analytics, as well as pointers to a number of career-building partners.
Incoming partners include ticket sales provider Showclix, fund-raising ally SellaBand, interactive storefront generator Bandcamp, Lyrics.com, Creative Commons, and the Next Big Sound. The company pointed to more partnerships ahead, following the initial launch today.
The Pirate Bay Launches Anonymous VPN
Excerpted from Tom's Guide Report by Kevin Parrish
The world's largest BitTorrent file-sharing site, The Pirate Bay (TPB), is back in the limelight again, or at least, a few members are behind the curtains, as plans of a virtual private network (VPN) aimed to hide BitTorrent users - a tunneling service so to speak - have surfaced.
Called IPREDator, the name stems from the controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) in Sweden that will allow copyright holders to retrieve personal details of suspected copyright infringers.
To virtually "hide" those individuals using BitTorrent, the upcoming VPN will offer anonymous transfers while charging a $6.80 monthly fee.
The IPREDator service actually seems like a retaliation of sorts, making its public debut - in beta form - at the same time Sweden's IPRED law comes into play.
Back in May 2006, Swedish police raided TPB servers located in Stockholm, confiscating 180 units, thus bringing the website offline for three days.
Then, in January 2008, several TPB operators were charged with "promoting other people's infringement of copyright laws." Currently four operators - Fredrik Neij, Per Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom - await a final verdict, set for April 17th. If convicted, the defendants face up to two years in prison and SEK 1.2 million in restitution.
The new VPN won't leave subscribers completely invisible, but it will make the BitTorrent users hard to track down.
According to The New Zealand Herald, the new service will provide a secure and encrypted point-to-point connection, accessible only by authorized users.
Thus, IP addresses and downloaded data will be extremely difficult to intercept - but not entirely impossible. Still, the IPREDator website clearly says that it will not store any traffic data, a practice usually unheard of with VPNs.
Presently, no other details are available; however, the IPREDator website indicates that potential subscribers can sign-up for the free beta currently in progress, although there is a 500-user limit.
European Parliament Rejects Three-Strikes P2P Policy
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
The European Parliament has rejected the notion of terminating the Internet accounts of those alleged to have committed copyright infringement on file-sharing networks.
"Governments or private companies should not see the denial of such access as a means of imposing sanctions, as proposed in some countries in the union," reads a report on the matter adopted by the Parliament, referring to the "three-strikes" policy implemented in France.
The Parliament adopted the report with a vote of 481 in favor to 25 opposed. It's unclear whether France will choose to abandon its graduated response system in light of the vote.
"While ensuring that the Internet is more secure is a legitimate goal for our societies, we must monitor and restrict the use of surveillance and control techniques that threaten our freedoms, especially in cases which question its necessity, proportionality, and effectiveness," reads the report from Greek MPE Stavros Lambrinidis.
American ISPs Deny Three-Strikes Plans
Excerpted from Online Examiner Report by Wendy Davis
When the major record labels said they would stop suing file sharers in favor of working directly with Internet service providers (ISPs) to squelch copyright infringement, the move raised many questions.
At the time, there was talk of graduated sanctions, but no one would clarify what that meant. If ISPs planned on alerting people that they were suspected of file sharing, that was one thing. But if they were contemplating cutting off users, that was quite another, presenting a host of issues. What kind of evidence would be used to sanction users? Would they have the opportunity to challenge the allegations? And who would decide whether infringement had occurred?
Completely apart from the procedural issues, some industry observers also wondered whether ISPs were really about to cut-off paying customers. After all, broadband providers typically try to sign-up subscribers, not turn them away.
The ISPs haven't done the best job of answering these questions in the last three months. So it's not surprising that rumors have been swirling. This week, some of those rumors took on a life of their own after it was reported that Comcast had sent 2 million "warning" notices to subscribers. Those reports were based on a mistaken interpretation of comments made by Comcast Senior Vice President Joe Waz at a music industry event in Nashville, TN.
Waz was actually referring to the total number of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices that Comcast has sent since it launched its broadband service. When a copyright holder complains to an ISP about alleged infringement, the ISP forwards that complaint to the user.
"Comcast, like other major ISPs, forwards notices of alleged infringement that we receive from music, movie, videogame, and other content owners to our customers. This is the same process we've had in place for years - nothing has changed," a company spokesman clarified. "While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce infringement under the DMCA, and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy."
Meantime, comments by AT&T's Jim Cicconi also raised concern. Cicconi said that the company was now sending warnings to alleged file sharers. AT&T later clarified that it had no intention of disconnecting users without a court order, according to press reports.
The RIAA and ISPs could do everyone a big favor by shedding light on what, exactly, they have in store for people.
Three-Strikes Law Scrapped in New Zealand
Excerpted from National Business Review Report by Chris Keall
Prime Minister John Key has announced the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act and start again. Commerce and Justice Minister Simon Power will now meet with officials and rewrite Section 92A (S92) of the Act from the ground up.
"Section 92a is not going to come into force as originally written. We have now asked the Minister of Commerce to start work on a replacement section," the Prime Minister said. No timeframe has been set for amending S92.
In a follow-up to Mr. Key's Beehive press conference announcing the move, Mr. Power released a statement saying, "Allowing section 92A to come into force in its current format would not be appropriate given the level of uncertainty around its operation."
"This legislation was put in place to combat unlawful file-sharing which facilitates copyright infringement on a large scale. While the government remains intent on tackling this problem, the legislation itself needs to be re-examined and reworked to address concerns held by stakeholders and the government."
S92 - which requires ISPs to have a code of practice to disconnect "repeat" copyright infringers - was due to go into force at the end of last month, but at the last minute was suspended by Prime Minister John Key until March 27th. Mr. Key had asked industry groups to come to a workable solution before that date.
Since then, the Telecommunications Carriers Forum (TCF), representing all major ISPs, has being working on a draft code of practice, and discussing it with copyright holders, lead by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ).
The TCF's effort was dealt a major blow on March 11th when TelstraClear bailed on the TCF talks, saying it was not its job to fix bad legislation.
TCF chief executive Ralph Chivers told NBR that given the key constraint the S92 working party was under - that all members had to agree on the code, in UN Security Council 100%-consensus-or-nothing style - "the document must now, by definition, fail."
The failure to find consensus would mean that key S92 infrastructure - such as an independent moderator standing between ISPs and rights holders like RIANZ who would lay complaints against their users - was now impossible, said Mr. Chivers.
WorldXChange owner Paul Clarken - a member of the TCF's working party - told NBR the ISP industry consensus was that S92 should be thrown out and rewritten from the ground up rather than be band-aided.
Observations from the Three-Strikes Rumor Storm
Excerpted from Electronic Frontier Foundation Report by Richard Esquerra
Earlier this week, reports that ISPs were going to be cooperating with the RIAA's "three-strikes" plans triggered alarm bells. Three-strikes proposals to kick customers off the Internet for alleged file-sharing have struggled to find acceptance across the world, so it seemed unusual for American ISPs to be contemplating plans that would result in the termination of paying customers.
Major ISPs must have seen the storm clouds of user dissent brewing as well, as AT&T and Comcast quickly issued emphatic denials to the rumors that they were interested in becoming IP enforcers for copyright holders. Though there appears to be no need for immediate concern that you, the customer, could be targeted for disconnection, the rumors and subsequent responses from ISPs reveal important information about the state of play for three strikes, or "graduated response," as the entertainment industry prefers to call it.
The worries began when ISP representatives at a digital music conference talked about cooperating with the RIAA and forwarding copyright infringement notices from the RIAA onwards to customers. Soon after, clarifications came spilling forth: AT&T is participating in the RIAA plan, but the notice-forwarding scheme is a geographically limited trial program that has no punishment component; Comcast has been forwarding notices of alleged infringement for years, but won't be disconnecting users; Cox has been forwarding notices and occasionally limits or disconnects users, but not because of the RIAA.
For now, it seems like most major ISPs are not interested in disconnecting customers' Internet connections at the entertainment industry's request. Comcast said, "While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy." Similarly, an AT&T spokesman told Wired, "We are not suspending or terminating our customers. We are not testing a three-strikes plan."
It's a good thing that ISPs don't seem to be considering customer termination, and ISPs are right to suspect that cooperating with the RIAA's desires for three strikes will make them incredibly unpopular with the public. But though there's no specific reason to think that ISPs will escalate to sanctions and termination, we've heard early denials before that turned out to have masked some bad behavior. So, now might be a good time to reiterate that transparency is the best policy - we shouldn't have to reach the point of protest before learning about ISP policies that affect our rights as users and customers.
The fact that there's an RIAA "program" being architected means that broadband providers are already facing considerable pressure from the music industry to turn on their customers. But from this episode alone, it's clear that all eyes are on the ISPs. They should carefully consider the business consequences of cooperation with the RIAA's whims.
Coming Events of Interest
Digital Media MBA Career Event - April 14th in New York, NY. Digital Media MBA and Columbia Business School (CBS) are hosting a career event and cocktail reception at the The Gansevoort Hotel in New York City's meatpacking district.
Les Rencontres - April 15th-16th in Montreal, Canada. The fourteenth annual meeting of the music industry sponsored by ADISQ in Quebec for professionals from the world of recorded music. The event gives industry players the opportunity to discuss defining issues including new media, regulatory framework, and new business models.
LA Games Conference - April 28th-29th in Los Angeles, CA. Focused on business, finance and creative developments in the games industry, including mobile, online and console markets and the increasing intersection of Madison Avenue and Hollywood with the industry.
P2P MEDIA SUMMIT LA - May 4th in Santa Monica, CA. The fourth annual P2PMSLA, the DCIA's flagship event, 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.
Digital Hollywood Spring - May 5th-7th in Santa Monica, CA. With many new sessions and feature events, DHS has become the premiere digital entertainment conference and exposition. DCIA Member companies will exhibit and speak on a number of panels.
Streaming Media East - May 12th-13th in New York, NY. The number-one place to see, learn, and discuss what is taking place with all forms of online video business models and technology. Content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, enterprise corporations, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, and educators.
World Copyright Summit - June 9th-10th in Washington, DC. The international forum that brings together all those directly involved in creative industries to openly debate the future of copyright and the distribution of creative works in the digital era. WCS is organized by CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.
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