April 19, 2010
Volume XXX, Issue 6
FTI Consulting Sponsors P2P & Cloud Policy Discussion at P2PCMS
FTI Consulting is sponsoring the POLICY TRACK at 9:30 AM on Thursday May 6th during the upcoming P2P & CLOUD MEDIA SUMMIT (P2PCMS) at Digital Hollywood Spring (DHS) in Santa Monica, CA.
The panel discussion, moderated by FTI's Managing Director Roger Scadron, will offer a global perspective on changing rules for P2P and cloud computing.
Speakers will include Consulting, Legal, Mediation & Strategy Services' Matt Neco, Principal; Digital Media Analyst Jason Roks; Dow Lohnes' Jim Burger, Member; Hughes Hubbard & Reed's Dan Schnapp, Partner; MasurLaw's Steve Masur, Managing Director; Morrison & Foerster's Melody Torbati, Of Counsel; and St. Edwards University's Gregg Perry, Assistant Professor.
Pre-registration for P2PCMS as a full-day stand-alone conference is $399 through April 30th, or DHS delegates can add registration to P2PCMS for just $100. Please call 410-476-7964 or click here to register.
The US federal government itself spends nearly $76 billion each year on information technology (IT), and $20 billion of that is devoted to hardware, software, and file servers. Traditionally, computing services have been delivered through desktops or laptops operated by proprietary software. But new advances in cloud computing have made it possible for public and private sector agencies to access software, services, and data storage through remote file servers.
The panel will answer such questions as: what are the key laws and regulations that P2P and cloud computing software developers and distributors need to observe in various jurisdictions? What changes are taking place in the regulatory environment affecting P2P and cloud-computing technologies? What will be the impact of recent lawmaking actions and court rulings? What else has to happen from a legal and policy standpoint to foster investment and commercial development of P2P and cloud computing?
To evaluate the possible cost savings of migrating to the cloud, Darrell West of the Brookings Institution has written a paper on Saving Money Through Cloud Computing. It offers case studies of government agencies that have moved to the cloud, and finds that agencies generally saw 25-50% savings in moving to the cloud. For the federal government as a whole, this translates into billions in cost savings, depending on the scope of the transition.
West writes that, "Privacy and security remain important areas of emphasis in cloud computing. Government agencies need to develop safeguards appropriate to the mission of each organization. And Congress should update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (EPCA) that was written 24 years ago, before the dawn of the Internet and cloud computing."
The report continues, "A Digital Due Process coalition backed by Google, Microsoft, AT&T, and many non-profit organizations," including the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), "is pushing for legislation on how to strengthen online privacy."
The Constitutional Issues of Cloud Computing
Excerpted from MSNBC Report by Bob Sullivan
What would the Founding Fathers think about Internet-based "cloud" computing?
Would James Madison, for example, agree with some current interpretations of the Fourth Amendment, which hold that old-fashioned letters stored in a dresser drawer enjoy stronger legal protection against search-and-seizure than an e-mail stored on the web or a private post left for a friend on Facebook?
In a world where every computer is connected, where it doesn't matter whether your e-mail is on the hard drive in your bedroom or a server half a world away, where your critical company documents can be viewed from anywhere, where would the Founding Fathers draw the line for law enforcement? The "cloud," already well formed with Hotmail and Google docs, is a potential treasure trove for police investigators. But how can we make sure the cloud doesn't rain all over Americans' Fourth Amendment rights to avoid unfair searches?
That's the goal of a new coalition called Digital Due Process. The group includes strange bedfellows, ranging from the right-leaning Americans for Tax Reform and the Competitive Enterprise Institute to the liberal American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Google, Microsoft, Intel and a host of other technology companies are also involved. Their main goal is a rewrite of the outdated Electronic Privacy Communications Act (EPCA) of 1986 for the 21st Century.
"Technology has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, but the law has not," said Jim Dempsey, Vice President for Public Policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), another member of the coalition. "The traditional standard for the government to search your home or office and read your mail or seize your personal papers is a judicial warrant. The law needs to be clear that the same standard applies to e-mail and documents stored with a service provider while at the same time be flexible enough to meet law enforcement needs."
Descriptions vary, but cloud computing generally refers to storing information or software on computer servers that can be accessed from multiple locations around the world - Gmail is a good example - as opposed to data that must be accessed by someone who has physical access to a local computer or hard drive. Today, the rules of evidence gathering apply differently to data in the cloud.
Ryan Radia, a spokesman for the libertarian think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that there is plenty of judicial confusion about application of search and seizure laws to electronic communication - in fact, federal courts have issued contradictory rulings. But in general, many Internet service providers turn over electronic records to investigators in response to a simple subpoena, while old-fashioned paper records require the higher standard of a judge-issued warrant. Just because information travels over a wire and sits on a server doesn't mean it should be less protected by the Constitution, Radia argued.
"If you get a letter from a friend or relative in the mail and leave it in the file cabinet in the basement, if law enforcement wants to read it they have to get a search warrant," he said. "But with cloud computing, judges have interpreted that the information has been handed over to third parties and is no longer considered to be private. Federal law ought to protect that information in the modern age."
More than theoretical constitutional issues are at stake. There's also real money. Tech companies like Microsoft and Intel are worried that concerns about privacy could stunt the growth of cloud computing, and recent research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project seems to validate this concern.
The report found that 69% of online Americans use at least one cloud service, such as web-based e-mail, and 64% of them said they were concerned that law enforcement agencies could access their files. Only 22% said they weren't concerned.
"We run the risk of users lacking trust in cloud computing and in many information services if a user cannot be confident their information will remain secure," Radia said. "If cloud computing is going to realize its full potential, if the industry is going to succeed, we need to be sure there is privacy protection. We can't expect the technology to work around the limitations of federal law."
Among the group's top goals: members want federal law to be "technologically neutral," meaning that search and seizure requirement would apply uniformly, regardless of the technology involved. That would mean a private communication - be it handwritten or electronic - would be governed by the same rules of evidence gathering. They also want to clear up inconsistencies in the application of federal law. Currently, in some cases, there's a lower legal standard for law enforcement to intercept an e-mail in transit than for that same agency to read an e-mail stored on a recipient's computer. In other words, a single e-mail can be governed by various different legal standards during its life-cycle.
"A particular category of information should be afforded the same level of protection whether it is in transit or in storage," the group says in its "guiding principles."
While the group has gone to some pains to avoid sounding as if they are attacking law enforcement agencies, don't expect them to hop on board the effort. Updates to the Electronics Communications Privacy Act would almost certainly curtail use of some evidence-gathering tools, such as the FBI's much-maligned Carnivore software, which was designed to capture e-mail and Web transmissions going into and out of Internet Service Provider servers.
The group has already received a relatively warm welcome on Capitol Hill. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Michigan, has said he would hold hearings this spring on potential updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
"Many Americans take for granted the protections of the Bill of Rights that prevent the government from coming into people's homes without a valid search warrant. The rise of cloud computing should not diminish these privacy safeguards," said Mike Hintze, Microsoft's associate general counsel in a blog post.
Change will not be easy, however, and isn't expected this year. Americans have a rather tortured relationship with privacy. They often say one thing ("Privacy is important to me") but do another ("Sure, thanks for the coupon, here's my Social Security Number") noted Lee Rainie, head of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And when it comes to law enforcement issues, their opinions are even more contradictory, particularly since Sept. 11, 2001.
"Americans are concerned with bad actors doing bad things, and if you ask them if they are comfortable with law enforcement checking (online data) related to people who, for example, are going to hurt children, by and large they are," he said. On the other hand, they really value privacy, and are not comfortable with government agents having broad access to their data, he said. "The way people think about privacy is very context sensitive," he added.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 We are very pleased to announce that Alcatel-Lucent (A-L) will sponsor the CONFERENCE LUNCHEON at the upcoming P2P & CLOUD MEDIA SUMMIT (P2PCMS).
A-L Vice President of Business Development Mark Peterson will KEYNOTE this session with industry-advancing news of major significance.
A panel discussion will complete the CONFERENCE LUNCHEON featuring a candid discussion on how to do business with leading media firms. What are the 'do's and dont's' for approaching major entertainment companies with new technology solutions? What are the absolute musts for succeeding in such endeavors? What are the most serious pitfalls to avoid?
Participants will include Foresee Entertainment's John Penney, President (formerly HBO); Loeb & Loeb's Larry Kenswil, Of Counsel (formerly Universal Music Group); Pepperdine University School of Law's John Malcolm, Distinguished Practitioner in Residence (formerly MPAA); Priority Digital Media's Amy Friedlander-Hoffman, President (formerly AT&T); TAG Strategic's Ted Cohen, Managing Partner (formerly EMI Music); and Ubiquity Broadcasting's Steve Jacobs, President (formerly SONY).
This first-ever conference focused totally on the intersection of P2P and cloud computing with the entertainment sector is scheduled for Thursday May 6th at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and is the fifth annual DCIA conference being held in conjunction with Digital Hollywood Spring (DHS). DHS delegates can add registration for P2PCMS for just $100.
Pre-registration for P2PCMS is $399 from now through April 30th. Please call 410-476-7964 or click here to register.
P2PCMS will explore current policy, technology, and content issues as well as next-generation business opportunities related to P2P and cloud based commercial offerings.
KEYNOTES will include Akamai's Stuart Cleary, Director of Product Marketing, Media & CDN; BitTorrent's Claude Tolbert, Vice President of Business Development; Cisco Systems' Geng Lin, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Cisco-IBM Alliance; Giraffic's Assaf Benjamin, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development; HD Cloud's Nicholas Butterworth, Chief Executive Officer (CEO); KPMG's Mark Lundin, Senior Manager; and MediaUnbound's Michael Papish, Founder and CEO.
The full-day event features keynotes and panels of industry leaders from the forefront of innovation. There will be a continental breakfast in addition to the conference luncheon.
The POLICY TRACK, sponsored by FTI Consulting, is described above.
The TECHNOLOGY TRACK will zero in on how P2P and cloud computing are affecting the evolving distribution chain and answer questions such as what is the current landscape for P2P and cloud-based content distribution? What trends are emerging among participants in the distribution chain and in consumer usage? What impact do advances in digital rights management (DRM), compression, caching, content acceleration, swarming, streaming, and other distributed computing technologies have?
Panelists will include Asankya's Norman Henderson, VP of Business Development; Joyent's Steve Tuck, Director of Enterprise Sales; PacketExchange's Chuck Stormon, VP, Strategic Accounts & Alliances; Sivoo's Rich Moreno, Principal; Verimatrix's Neerav Shah, VP of Business Development; and Yummy Interactive's Christopher Hennebery, VP of Software Distribution.
The CONTENT TRACK will focus on how to balance monetization and anti-piracy efforts to maximize profitability and will answer questions such as what business models show the greatest promise for P2P and cloud-based content delivery? What changes are needed to more effectively harness file-sharing and related technologies? What content-security solutions are now in development that will optimize P2P, cloud computing, and hybrid peer-assisted deployments for the benefit of all participants in the distribution chain?
Panelists will include BayTSP's Lawrence Low, VP of Product Management & Strategy; BUZZMedia's Mike Lewis, EVP, Product; Copyright Clearance Center's Chris Kenneally, Director of Author Relations; Free Speech Coalition's Diane Duke, Executive Director; Game-Based Marketing's Gabe Zichermann, Author; and Independent Producer Melike Amjarv.
The NEXT GENERATION P2P & CLOUD PANEL will discuss the prospects for "content in the cloud," including music, TV, and film. Many distributed computing solutions are on the way, from live streaming to HD content downloading, with associated business models ranging from ad-supported, to subscription, to paid download. This session will go into the practical applications of P2P and cloud computing in the marketplace
Panelists will include Aleric's Vincent Hsieh, CEO; Ascent Media's Mick Bass, VP of Alliance Management; Grab Networks' Marcien Jenckes, President of Media and Content; Panvidea's Doug Heise, VP of Marketing; RedThorne Media's Ian Donahue, President; and TVU Networks' Jim O'Brien, Senior Advisor.
P2P & CLOUD MEDIA SUMMIT early registration rates, which offer substantial savings, end April 30th. For more information, please visit www.dcia.info/activities.
Registration can be done online here or by calling 410-476-7964. For sponsor packages and speaker information, please contact Karen Kaplowitz, DCIA Member Services, at 888-890-4240. Share wisely, and take care.
Verizon Business Expands Cloud Services Platform
Excerpted from eWeek Report by Jeffrey Burt
Verizon Business is upgrading its hosted cloud computing service with a server-cloning feature, support for SUSE Linux, and greater flexibility in networking capabilities. Verizon also said that a third-party audit showed that it had the proper controls and processes in place to manage the cloud platform.
Verizon Business is enhancing its cloud computing offering with such capabilities as server cloning and greater operating system support.
Verizon announced the enhancements to its Cloud as a Service-or CaaS-solution April 15th.
The server-cloning feature enables IT administrators to customize a virtual server within CAAS and then create a reference-or "golden"-server image that can then be used to more quickly deploy other virtual machines (VMs), according to Verizon officials.
Server cloning will reduce the need to manually create the same server image every time an administrator wants to deploy a VM.
In addition, CaaS-which was launched in June 2009-now supports Novell's SUSE Linux operating system as a standard offering. In addition, Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 is now a "click to provision" database option, according to the company.
Verizon also is offering greater networking options. Such options include virtual routers and shared virtual private networks (VPNs), including Verizon Private IP, which will enable IT administrators to more easily connect back-end servers to Verizon CAAS through an online portal.
Enterprises also can get extra networking capacity on-demand by buying metered bandwidth up to 1Gbps to meet the demands created when temporary computing capacity goes online.
Verizon officials also said a third-party audit done using the SAS 70 Type II examination method showed that they had the necessary controls and processes to manage their CaaS platform.
"With the addition of new features and the completion of the SAS 70 Type II data center audit, we're continuing the investment in our flagship cloud offering as enterprise clients increasingly look to cloud computing to fundamentally change the way they consume IT resources," Joseph Crawford, Executive Director of IT Solutions at Verizon business, said in a statement.
Verizon officials said the cloud computing space will continue to grow, quoting an IDC report that said cloud services market revenues will increase from $46.4 billion in 2010 to $150.1 billion by 2013.
Verizon in March teamed up with IBM to launch Managed Data Vault, a cloud server and software offering that does secure daily backups for any amount of business data.
Adobe Flash Adds P2P for VoIP, Social Networking, IM
Excerpted from TMC Net Report
The latest version of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 adds support for Real Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP) Groups. This is huge because it enables clients to easily communicate with other clients in a network in order to share the transport of media and communications without maintaining a connection to every peer in the group.
Groups can be defined by their functionality and access can be controlled by the client application, whether it's a VoIP app, chat app, or a social networking app. Adobe also added support for Directed Routing, which enables a developer to create communication applications and send data messages to a specific peer in the group.
Critical features of RTMFP include low latency (critical for VoIP), end-to-end peering capability, security, and scalability. In the past, in order to scale you had to add additional Flash Media Servers, but with RTMFP Groups you can instead have application-level multicast for increased scalability.
With Flash 10.1, you can have a very scalable 1-to-many (mesh architecture) leveraging the RTMF protocol, Status 2.0, and P2P communication. According to the Flash Player 10.1 release notes, peer-assisted networking requires "Stratus", which you can read about on Adobe Labs. Because the RTMF protocol now supports groups, this enables an application to segment its users to send messages and data only between members of the group.
Application level multicast provides one (or a few)-to-many streaming of continuous live video and audio live video chat using RTMFP groups. Thus, you can imagine that you can build a scalable Skype P2P VoIP network using Flash Player 10.1 along with Stratus. You could even build a videoconferencing application that can scale to dozens or hundreds of video participants. Considering Skype isn't known for its multi-party videoconferencing, this could have huge implications for videoconferencing service providers.
According to Adobe, Stratus is a hosted peer introduction service that facilitates establishing communication between Flash Player clients or Adobe AIR endpoints using RTMFP. Flash Player endpoints must stay connected to the server during the entire time of communications. Unlike Flash Media Server, Stratus does not stream video or support media relay, shared objects, or scripting. Stratus is being made available as a beta service through Adobe Labs to allow the developer community to begin building applications using RTMFP.
RTMFP communication is UDP based. It is always encrypted, and can traverse NATs and firewalls. Alexey from Flaphone.com said, "With new features of Flash Player 10.1 (RTMFP groups), everything changes, now peers from RTMFP group will help you to do P2P media transfer if direct P2P connection between some 2 peers from the group isn't possible. If you think a little it will become obvious that Flash Player (FP) can be used to create P2P-networks like Skype's one, root servers will only deal with signaling and will help clients to join groups with peers that can help in media delivery."
It'll be interesting to see the adoption of Adobe's P2P technology.
Mobile Networking Looks to M2M Apps for Future Growth
Excerpted from TechTarget Report by Richard Chirgwin
With mobile adoption already beyond saturation, both carriers and vendors are keen to identify the user communities and applications able to drive the next phase of industry growth. Hence the industry's new enthusiasm for the once-neglected machine-to-machine (M2M) market, which is the mobile equivalent of P2P.
Five years ago, M2M was considered the poor cousin of the mobile network. Extremely rapid growth in mobile-phone sales kept carriers focused on more lucrative customers and traffic types. A device that carried with it all the overhead of account management and billing, but which generated few calls and comparatively little revenue had little to offer carriers.
However, in developed markets such as Australia, there are now more mobile devices than people, and even with a growing number of "multi-SIM" customers (for example, individuals who own both a mobile phone and a 3G data device), there's concern that consumer mobile growth will reach a saturation plateau.
For Ericsson, this leads to its faith in a world of fifty billion devices, in which most will be carrying M2M traffic for applications like smart metering, industrial controls - and others that the company expects to develop once the networks, services and devices are more widely available.
The growth in both traffic and devices that would be driven by adoption of M2M technologies and applications would also underpin the rollout and business models needed to drive new network technologies such as LTE+ / EPC (Long Term Evolution, and the Enhanced Packet Core).
By changing the way the technology behaves, the combination of these technologies far improves the viability of M2M applications for network operators. In particular, the always-on nature of the LTE+/EPC network means sessions do not have to be initiated (or tracked for billing purposes) for discrete communications.
Sierra Wireless is also tracking the possibilities of the M2M market. Dieter Dutronc, Sierra's Senior VP of Global Marketing, says his company sees the M2M market as offering the opportunity of more balanced revenue streams.
He also told SearchNetworking that it's a market with a more stable and less frantic product life cycle.
"The mobile broadband consumer product market has very short product life cycle - about six to nine months. M2M product life cycles can be three-to-five years."
M2M applications have also changed over recent years. The typical application of three-to0five years ago was typically based on low volumes of small messages, but as the networks have developed, so have the applications.
Transparency and Trust: Vital Concepts in Cloud Computing
Excerpted from Information Week Report by John Soat
Transparency is a much-abused word these days. In government circles, it seems, transparency is both a promise and a dare. The debate over health care, and the political machinations it put on display, showed how it's possible to have too little transparency and too much at the same time, at least in the political context.
Be that as it may, transparency is a vital concept when it comes to cloud computing. Indeed, at this stage in the evolution of the cloud, transparency is one of the most important criteria by which to judge a cloud computing engagement. That's because performance and security are two of cloud computing's most elemental and essential offerings.
There is another political punch line that is appropriate to the discussion of cloud computing, and it relates directly to transparency. "Trust but verify" is a phrase President Ronald Reagan adopted from a Russian proverb, and used as a negotiating philosophy.
Trust is the first threshold cloud computing had to cross, at the conceptual level: Will the business model work? Will it last? Now that cloud computing has proved its mettle, the trust imperative has more to do more with partnership: Whom should I work with, and why?
Transparency (the verification part) is how you get there. It's important to understand how your potential partner's cloud environment is designed in terms of redundancy, scalability, and how services are provisioned. A way to monitor performance on a real-time basis also helps. It's also important to know the level of security your partner is operating at, and how it is determined.
Transparency and trust may be Machiavellian ploys in politics, but they are vital elements of a successful cloud computing strategy.
Government Backs Down in E-Mail Privacy Case
Excerpted from EFF Blog Report by Kevin Bankston
In the face of stiff resistance from Yahoo and a coalition - led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - of privacy groups, Internet companies, and industry trade bodies including the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), the US government backed down from its request that a federal magistrate judge in Denver compel Yahoo to turn over the contents of a Yahoo user's e-mail account without the government first obtaining a search warrant based on probable cause.
The EFF-led coalition filed an amicus brief Tuesday in support of Yahoo's opposition to the government's motion, agreeing with Yahoo that the government's warrantless seizure of an e-mail account would violate both federal privacy law and the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. In response, the Government today filed a brief claiming that it no longer had an investigative need for the demanded e-mails and withdrawing the government's motion.
While this is a great victory for that Yahoo subscriber, it's disappointing to those of us who wanted a clear ruling on the legality and constitutionality of the government's overreaching demand. Such demands are apparently a routine law enforcement technique. If the government withdraws its demand whenever an objection is raised by an e-mail provider or a friend of the court like EFF, however, it robs the courts of the ability to issue opinions on whether the government's warrantless e-mail surveillance practices are legal.
This is not the first time the government has evaded court rulings in this area. Most notably, although many federal magistrate judges and district courts have ruled that the government may not conduct real-time mobile-phone tracking without a warrant, the government has never appealed any of those decisions to a Circuit Court of Appeals, thereby preventing the appeals courts from ruling on the issue.
Similarly, a federal magistrate judge in New York, Magistrate Judge Michael Dolinger, has twice invited EFF to brief the court on applications by the government to obtain private electronic communications without a warrant, and in each case, the government withdrew its application rather than risk a ruling against it (in one case the government went so far as to file a brief anticipating EFF's opposition before finally dropping the case).
The government's unwillingness to face off with EFF in these cases is certainly flattering, and it speaks volumes about their view of whether what they are doing is actually legal. But the right answer here is to let the courts decide, not to have the government turn tail and run whenever someone seeks real judicial review of their positions.
So while it is a big victory for the Yahoo customer, today's capitulation by the government is a profound disappointment to those of us seeking to clarify and strengthen the legal protections for your private data.
Court rulings are needed to keep the government within its legal bounds when it comes to warrantless communications and location surveillance. Next time, the government should stay in the fight, because EFF isn't going to back down when it comes to protecting consumer privacy.
Young People Do Care About Online Privacy
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
Contrary to conventional wisdom, young people are concerned about online privacy issues, according to a new survey conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported.
Eighty-eight percent of all those surveyed, and 82% of young adults, said they have refused to give out information to a business when they deemed it too revealing or unnecessary. Most believe that uploaders should get permission from the subject of a photo or video before posting it online - 86% of the total survey, and 84% of young adults ages 18-to-24 agreed.
About 40% of the 18-to-24 and 35-to-44 demographics alike also said they believe executives whose companies use personal information without permission should face jail time.
"Yes, there are some young people who are posting racy photographs and personal information. But those anecdotes might not represent what the average young person is doing online," Chris Hoofnagle, co-author of the study and Director of Information Privacy Programs at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, told AP.
P2P Search Engine Opera Opens Second Beta for Macs
Excerpted from CNET News Report by Seth Rosenblatt
Opera 10.52 beta 2 introduces new features. The Carakan JavaScript engine has received several performance tweaks, and many of the bugs that affected scrolling have been addressed. Smooth scrolling is now enabled by default. Most notably, Opera has decided to make its P2P-based browser compatible with older Macs. Unlike the previous beta, this version will work on legacy PowerPC machines. Both this beta and the first one worked on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and later.
In casual testing on a Mac Mini with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, a 1.83Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, and 1GB of RAM, using the SunSpider JavaScript test to compare Opera 10.52 beta 2 to Google Chrome 5.0.375.6, the latest development version of Google Chrome still finished slightly faster than the latest Opera beta.
Opera scored an average of 545.8 milliseconds over three runs, while Chrome averaged 477.0 ms over three runs. Chrome's speed increased by 85.53 ms as compared to the version tested in February, while Opera's was 52.53 ms faster than its previous version. If you're a Mac user looking to give your browsing a kick in the pants, one of these two browsers is clearly the way to go.
Multi-touch trackpad gestures are supported in this beta, too. You can now take advantage of pinch-to-zoom, two-finger swipe to scroll, three-finger swipe to navigate your browser history, and one that Opera claims will make the browser window transparent. The full change-log for Opera 10.52 beta 2 can be read here.
Although the company hasn't explicitly stated this, it's clear that Opera hopes that getting a speedy and fully synchronizable browser onto phones plays a big part in reinvigorating interest in their desktop version, which was quickly surpassed by Google Chrome in browser market share.
LimeWire Store Offers Exclusive Record Store Day CD Release
LimeWire Store has announced a test partnership with Record Store Day in conjunction with the Yep Roc label and Redeye Distribution. Live at Lime with The Soundtrack of Our Lives EP will be released on CD on Record Store Day. This is the first time any of the Live at Lime digital titles have been made available in physical format.
Record Store Day is a global event boasting the participation of more than 1,000 independent record stores worldwide in recognition and celebration of the profound impact indie music retail has had on the music you hear today.
Michael Kurtz, Co-Founder of Record Store Day, says, "I don't think anyone expects Record Store Day to partner with an online entity like LimeWire Store but we love experimentation. Especially if the experiment pushes people to real record stores and helps the artists we love and the labels who support them. In this case, Record Store Day is helping to bring attention to the Soundtrack of Our Lives latest album, Communion, while giving fans of record stores a special release from the band and LimeWire Store."
Tom Monday, LimeWire Store's Director of Partner Relations, says "Anyone working in the music industry should be supporting Record Store Day - it's an amazing event that not only celebrates indie record stores, but benefits artists, fans, and the entire industry, really. We're supporting the cause because it just makes sense - today's music consumer is a fairly hybrid creature, discovering and purchasing music in a mixture of ways - both online and off - so why not add to the festivities?"
Josh Wittman, Director of Label Marketing, Yep Roc Records says "The Soundtrack of Our Lives blew the doors off the Live at Lime session, so Yep Roc is very pleased that this recording can make it to physical form! We are fans of music fans, whether they buy physical or digital and we're extremely excited to reward some of our best independent stores and their customers, through this special Record Store Day promotion. Thanks to LimeWire Store and Record Store Day for partnering."
Saturday, April 17th was the third annual Record Store Day, organized by the Music Monitor Network, the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS), Alliance of Independent Media Store (AIMS) and sponsored this year by Crosley Radio, EMI Distribution, Fontana Distribution, Gotta Groove, NARM, RED Distribution, Sony Music, Universal Music Distribution, Vivendi Entertainment, WEA Distribution, and Warner Bros. Records.
P2PTV Leader TVU Networks Highlights TVUPack at NAB
Excerpted from Broadcast Engineering Report
Peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) industry leader TVU Networks showcased its TVUPack backpack mobile newsgathering solution at this week's 2010 NAB Show
TVUPack is a self-contained content capture and live video streaming solution for transport of mobile newsgathering footage via 3G, 4G, WiMAX, and WiFi network connections.
TVUPack delivers HD quality at 5Mb/s by relying on mobile broadband wireless circuit aggregation.
Weighing 13lbs, TVUPack can be used anywhere, including from moving vehicles traveling between skyscrapers. TVUPack includes solid-state storage to support full-resolution capture of video in the event that an Internet connection is unavailable.
Set-up is simple. All that is necessary is to plug in a camera and turn the unit on; no configuration is required. Transmission of footage to the newsroom, live over wireless Internet, can begin while the event is still happening.
Senators Press FCC Chair on Broadband at Hearing
Excerpted from Online Examiner Report by Wendy Davis
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski went to the Senate Commerce Committee this week to discuss the broadband plan. But some lawmakers were more focused on the FCC's recent defeat in the Comcast case, where an appellate court ruled that the FCC lacked authority to regulate the Internet under Title I of the Communications Act.
At the hearing, Senator after Senator asked Genachowski if the FCC intends to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act. If the FCC does so, providers would be subject to common carrier rules.
Genachowski refused to give any clues about his plans. Instead, he repeatedly responded in the vaguest possible terms, with comments like, "There are legal issues now that we have to address in light of the decision," and "lawyers now working hard in good faith," and "anything that we do ... will have a solid legal foundation."
Senators who grilled Genachowski appeared divided on whether the FCC should reclassify broadband. Net neutrality proponent Senator Bryon Dorgan (D-ND) implored Genachowski to take whatever steps were necessary to preserve an open Internet - including declaring broadband a telecommunications service, as it was before the Bush administration FCC reclassified it in 2002.
Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) advocated the opposite. He warned that any attempt to return to the pre-2002 classification "will only buy greater litigation." He added, "And you'll be stopped in the end.'
Federal Researchers Point to Problems with Piracy Numbers
Excerpted from Public Knowledge Blog Report by Rashmi Rangnath
As Public Knowledge and other public interest advocates have pointed out, experts agree that entertainment industry studies highlighting losses due to intellectual property (IP) infringement use questionable methodology.
Now the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is making the same point in a report titled Observations on Efforts to Quantify the Economic Effects of Counterfeit and Pirated Goods.
The report notes that one key assumption underlying many infringement studies is that a consumer who downloads unauthorized entertainment content would pay the full price for a licensed version. Thus, the acquisition of a pirated product represents a lost sale to the owner of the IP. A blanket substitution of the value of the licensed good for the unauthorized version, presents an extremely high estimate of the level of loss from infringement.
Further, the report notes that estimates of the effect of piracy on IP industries do not take into account the two-fold effect: 1) that infringement leaves the consumer with extra disposable income; and 2) this extra income goes back into the US economy.
Despite these problems, the GAO points out that government agencies, including the Department of Commerce, have relied on industry studies even when entertainment industry trade associations have refused to divulge their data sources and methods.
What is worse, the report notes that three widely cited estimates of piracy losses sourced to US government agencies - the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - cannot be substantiated.
The report buttresses our argument that IP policy should be based on evidence and not faith in rights-holder assertions. The GAO report points to a disconnect within the government, with some pointing to problems with estimates of IP infringement, while others place blind reliance on industry studies and assertions and make policy and law based on it.
What is ironic is that the report is a result of a mandate under the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act directing the GAO to conduct such a study. That Act cites studies similar to the ones examined by the GAO and uses their findings as one of the justifications for its passage.
Public interest would have been served better had Congress first commissioned a study similar to the GAO study and then passed legislation.
Instead, the PRO IP Act subjects ordinary Americans to increased penalties for all manner of IP infringement based on industry assertions. Further, rhetoric such as "harms to consumer safety" was used to justify treating all forms of IP infringement under the same banner and with the same severity.
While it is likely that herculean efforts will be required to change current laws, we hope that going forward, the government's IP policy will be based on sound data. Current processes such as the ongoing IP enforcement review by the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) and the Special 301 process should take note of the GAO report.
The Music and Film Industries Want to Criminalize Us All
Excerpted from The Inquirer Report by Asavin Wattanajantra
The big entertainment companies in Britain certainly have their claws in the policy makers. Money talks the loudest, and governments are willing to listen without even asking what people want.
The Digital Economy Bill has been rushed through with wealthy and powerful music and film industry bosses sliming their way to influence those in the corridors of power.
They have gotten rich for years ripping us off on CDs and DVDs, and they aren't going to accept any change in their profit margins.
Instead of working with the Internet industry to create solutions to the problem of downloading, they have instead decided that the best way to deal with it is to treat people like criminals.
In the end, all we wanted was the Digital Economy Bill to be looked at with a bit of care and attention. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was very impressive at the election debates, and he was a voice of reason when asked about the Bill recently.
He said, "We did our best to prevent the Digital Economy Bill from being rushed through at the last moment. It badly needed more debate and amendment, and we are extremely worried that it will now lead to completely innocent people having their Internet connections cut off."
"It was far too heavily weighted in favor of the big corporations and those who are worried about too much information becoming available. It badly needs to be repealed, and the issues revisited."
So the entertainment industry has already won a big victory in the UK, but new proposals by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) show just how far the entertainment industry wants to go if it isn't checked.
In a joint filing, they are in support of actions which many would consider an attack on the freedom of the Internet and very close to creating an Internet Big Brother regime that many fear.
For example, they are in favor of technologies and methods that network administrators can use on consumers' computers to manage copyright infringement. In other words, spyware.
Sony Music has already gotten into trouble for putting software on music CDs that tracked what customers were listening to as well as installing hidden files that left some users under attack. It shows that in the chase for big bucks, big business has no qualms about intrusions on consumer privacy.
But it's more than that. The MPAA and RIAA also think that people should be discouraged from carrying downloaded music into the US. In practice it sounds stupid, but what could happen is that the electronic devices of travelers might be checked for copies of music or film files.
That's not as outlandish as it sounds - people with actual hard copies of CDs would be stopped, so what's the difference between that and someone carrying the same content in digital form?
The MPAA and RIAA also don't want BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay (TPB) to escape their wrath.
They see a future where the US pressures other countries to put its own concerns about copyright over policies that may be improving innovation and competition.
The music and film industries do need to do something, but this really isn't the way. It's not the place of big industry's to dictate to us how and what we can do on the Internet - it belongs to everybody and it is just as much, or more, ours as it is theirs.
Debate, a dialog, solutions, a compromise that most of us will be happy with is needed, but we do not want to be criminalized and we will react hard against that.
There's one thing we can do very soon to make the policy makers listen, and that is to vote in the general election.
Legalize File Sharing
Excerpted from Canada Report by Eddie Schwartz
According to Eddie Schwartz, President of the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC), as you read this, 10 million songs are being file-shared.
Now, that's not exactly new. It's been going on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for most of the last 10 years. Ten million songs at any given moment are being shared.
Despite years of lawsuits and other repressive measures against "pirates" to force them to stop sharing, there is no end in sight.
So while iTunes may sell a billion or so tunes this year, something like 40 billion songs will find their way across LimeWire, Transmission, and other file-sharing networks, as well as be e-mailed, instant messaged (IM'd), and shared using other easily available technologies. Over 95% of the music people acquire over the internet gets to them by way of file sharing; a ratio of 40 unauthorized file shares for every licensed download.
And the folks who write, perform, and produce songs for a living won't be receiving a red cent for all that wonderful music being enjoyed by so many millions of people.
As one of those creators of music, what do I think of all this? It's almost all good, and with one small condition, it certainly should be a perfectly legal activity.
First of all, those of us who actually write and perform and produce the music don't call people who share music "pirates" or "criminals." We call them our "audience" and our "fans." And we like file sharing. Here's why:
Music file sharing is the freest, greenest, largest global distribution system for music of all kinds that has ever been invented. Nothing has ever delivered more music to more people in a more efficient and environmentally friendly manner.
Also, it's a completely open system. Any artist can share their work and thereby offer it to the world. For the aspiring artist and songwriter it is a free, worldwide distribution system. No gatekeepers required.
For the music fan, what's not to like about being able to access the world's entire repertoire of music, something approaching 100 million unique songs? Every song you can think of, and many millions you can't, are available for download. By contrast, iTunes offers fewer than 10 million songs.
In addition, music-sharing networks are the greatest living repository of music of all kinds in the history of the world. Record labels go bankrupt, warehouses full of tapes burn down, master recordings are thrown away or just fall apart through neglect and age. But the fans preserve and share the music they love. And so it survives for new generations to share and enjoy. So, what's missing?
A few dollars a month. A license fee of as little as $4 or $5 could be bundled into monthly Internet access fees. People who don't music file-share could opt out. The money would go into a pool to be distributed pro rata to the artists, songwriters, and rights holders whose songs are being shared.
Canada's world-respected performance rights society, SOCAN, has been licensing broadcasters and making distributions using similar methodology for decades and could easily handle this new source of desperately needed revenue for creators.
If every Canadian household that houses music sharers paid that small license fee, something wonderful would happen: music creators could once again make a living.
And that's the problem now. The vast majority of songwriters and artists are not rock stars and sadly don't make anything remotely close to a living. This is particularly true of the new generation of music creators coming up. Because CD sales have fallen off a cliff, record labels have no money to sign and develop new artists.
By licensing music file sharing, the collapse of the music industry would give way to a musical renaissance, and artists and songwriters could spend their days writing and producing more great Canadian music to share with the world.
Coming Events of Interest
Cloud Expo - April 19th-21st in New York, NY. Co-located with the 8th international Virtualization Conference & Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City with more than 5,000 delegates and over 100 sponsors and exhibitors participating in the conference.
LA Games Conference - April 29th in Los Angeles, CA. Over 300 of the most influential decision-makers in the games industry gather for the LA Games Conference to network, do deals, and share ideas about the future of console, PC, online and mobile games. LA Games Conference - now in its 4th year - features a lively and fun debate on timely cutting-edge business topics
Digital Hollywood Spring - May 3rd-6th in Santa Monica, CA. Digital Hollywood Spring (DHS) is the premier entertainment and technology conference in the country covering the convergence of entertainment, the web, television, and technology.
P2P & CLOUD MEDIA SUMMIT - May 6th in Santa Monica, CA. The DCIA presents its fifth annual seminal industry event as a conference within DHS, with the subject matter now expanded for the first time to include cloud computing, the most advanced and rapidly growing distributed computing technology.
Cloud Computing for Government Conference - June 7th-9th in Washington, DC. Learn how to cut costs and create a more efficient, scalable and secure IT infrastructure. In addition, learn how to develop a cloud computing strategy, along with helpful tools, tips, and techniques to get started. Hear practical advice, firsthand, from leading experts including the NASA Ames Research Center, US Department of Energy, Silicon Valley Education Foundation, and many more. Mention "DCIA" to receive a $200 registration discount.
Broadband Policy Summit VI - June 10th-11th in Washington, DC. The most comprehensive, in-depth update about the implementation of the FCC's National Broadband Plan. No other forum provides the detailed coverage, expert insight and networking opportunities you'll receive at Broadband Policy Summit VI. The expanded program includes top-notch faculty who will address the most pressing broadband issues in six panel discussions, two debates and four keynote addresses.
Digital Media Conference East - June 25th in McLean, VA. The Washington Post calls this Digital Media Wire flagship event "a confab of powerful communicators and content providers in the region." This conference explores the current state of digital media and the directions in which the industry is heading.
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