if only i lived in cali...i could vote for this guy. :D
I'll just have to email my friends about this one.

California polilics are so insane. The 'direct democracy'
parts encourage voters who don't think through their actions
to make their voice known, and encourage state elected officals
to shy away from hard decisions.

Instead of the state assembly voting to raise taxes, the
assembly votes to make a tax increase a ballot proposition.
Instead of the state assembly voting to spend $X billion dollars
on $PROJECT, the state assembly votes to a ballot proposition
that uses state bonds ("paid for out of general fund, not
new taxes") to raise $X billion dollars for $PROJECT.

Well gee, where does the "general fund" get that money?
Well gee, is Davis so bad that CA should spend how much on
a special election to recall him less than a year from his
last election?

Add that the Florida voting fiasco encouraged many areas of
CA to go from punchcards to Diebold voting machines.

I've known Travis for many years now. This guy has the spunk, wit, and connections to make anything happen. I'm surprised, but not, that he'd be making such a move. Travis has what it takes to be an incredible governor.

Like David Weekly, I have also met Travis and he has my vote. The sense and energy of today's youth yet grounded in experience.

Given that the whole recall effort is funded by a rich Republican with his eye on the governor's mansion and a criminal record, I can't really get behind any alternate candidates...

But if it didn't matter wheather the far right captured the gov.'s office of the nation's largest state, sure, this guy's rhetoric sounds more interesting than most...

Do we really need a right-winger like him running CA? I think we have enough problems already.

Also entering the fray is none other than Larry Flynt.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...tate0535EDT0037.DTL

I know Travis is a great intellectual and with that said...has he completely lost his mind? He's got my vote.

Travis, like always, talks a good line, but from what I heard he did not register in time, and had a hard time raising the money (Red Swoosh with it's one employee does not make that much)...

Day late and a dollar short, but his web site is still up... www.travis4gov.com.

This is as pathetic as it is disgusting.

As redswoosh.net, Travis can't even pay simple monthly bills
ontime, tarnishing his company's reputation within the
LA business community.

How can he in good conscience even suggest the possibility
of him being placed in public office?

Dear Travis4wanker...Do you have a cock or did your boyfriend swallow it when it got lost in his mouth? You obviously have serious issues with people who are better looking and wealthier than yourself. I would help you out and fuck you, but I am female. Do yourself a favor and get a job.

Veronica...

Clearly Wanker is a bit caustic, but many of his points are based in fact.

Travis proclaims in his own words on his Ryze profile (http://new.ryze.com/go/tkalanick):

-- That he is a UCLA grad: False, he never finished his undergraduate degree.

-- He was an Associate a Boston Consulting: False, he interned there for several months. (call BC HR)

-- He was a co-founder of Scour: False, he joined the company over a year after it had been founded... He had less than 1% of Scour at the end of bankruptcy (bankruptcy records are public documents), and at the time was being paid less than $90,000 a year... Lives with 2 roomates...in a rented condo.

-- He was an Engineer at Intel: False again, internship. (Call Intel HR)

-- He is somehow wealthy... to my understanding his only major assets are a '99 M3 BMW which apparently he is still paying for..., no house, no condo. (County Property Records)... its not too hard to be wealthier than him.

-- Red Swoosh is, from a number of close sources, swimming in debt, and has 0-1 employees.

I did this research as part of an article for a business magazine (which will remain un-named) regarding his run for governor... all this info is relatively easy to get.

In any case, he has pulled out of the race... so my article is in the trash... On to more productive pursuits.

Edited by author 09-07-2003 05:43 AM
why the fuck were you even doing an article in the first place. . . .


get

a

life

loser


do

us

all

a

favor

and

go

spend

some

time

jerking

off

to

a

picture

of

him

P2P is here to stay. . .

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Down with the RIAA

Somebody needs to do something about this (see story and link below). I'm not sure who that will be, it doesn't appear that Mr. Kalanick is running, but we need a leader to find a balance here.


http://news.com.com/2100-1023_3-5072564.html?tag=fd_lede1_hed

RIAA sues 261 file swappers


By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 8, 2003, 10:57 AM PT


update The Recording Industry Association of America said it has filed 261 lawsuits against alleged file swappers Monday, charging the computer users with "egregious" copyright infringement potentially worth millions of dollars.
The long-awaited barrage of lawsuits marks a turning point in the industry's three-year fight against online song-trading services like Kazaa and the now-defunct Napster, and one of the most controversial moments in the recording industry's digital history.

After long years avoiding direct conflict with file swappers who might also be record buyers, industry executives said they have lost patience. Monday's lawsuits are just the first wave of what the group said ultimately could be "thousands more" lawsuits filed over the next few months.

 

"Our goal is not to be vindictive or punitive," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "It is simply to get peer-to-peer users to stop offering music that does not belong to them."

The lawsuits mark the first time that copyright laws have been used on a mass scale against individual Internet users. Legal actions have been taken on a sporadic basis against operators of pirate servers or sites, but ordinary computer users have never before been at serious risk of liability for widespread behavior.

The RIAA said that's the point it's underlining with the unprecedented legal action. From the rise of Napster until today, tens of millions of people have started trading songs, movies and software online through services such as Kazaa with little thought for the legality of their actions. Even as the threat of Monday's lawsuits loomed, more than 2.8 million copies of the Kazaa software were downloaded last week, according to Download.com, a software aggregation site operated by CNET News.com publisher CNET Networks.

Indeed, a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 67 percent of people downloading music said they did not care whether the music was copyrighted or not.

The slew of suits will put a serious price tag on those actions for the first time. Under copyright law, violators can be held liable for up to $150,000 per violation--a measure that could result in stunningly high damage figures for some of the defendants in this round of suits. According to the RIAA, most of the people sued Monday were sharing 1,000 songs or more on the file-swapping networks.

Few of the suits are likely to go to trial, however. In the RIAA's previous round of copyright suits, filed against four university students in April, each defendant quickly settled, agreeing to pay damages of between $12,000 and $17,000. Many of today's defendants are also likely to settle.

Sherman said "a handful" of defendants had already agreed to preliminary settlement agreements, averaging payments of about $3,000 apiece.

Later settlements will likely have a higher price tag, since they will be coming after the lawsuits have been filed, Sherman said. However, each suit is being filed with information advising defendants whom to contact if they want a settlement.

Attorneys not involved in the dispute say the defendants will be hard-pressed to make a convincing case if the RIAA's evidence holds up in court. The industry trade group has collected long lists of files being shared by each defendant, traced those files to a specific network address and used subpoenas to link that address to a specific Internet account.

Copyright law forbids distributing unauthorized copies of protected works, as well as actually making unauthorized copies. People who have shared considerable amounts of copyrighted files on file-swapping networks are likely to be seen as distributors, many attorneys say.

"This will be an uphill battle for anyone to defend," said Evan Cox, an intellectual property attorney with Covington and Burling in San Francisco. "When people put that many files in a shared folder and allow that to be exposed to the Internet, it's a pretty sure thing that they're distributing those copies."

Critics of the RIAA actions, including most notably the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said that the RIAA might have made mistakes in some cases, including those where an Internet subscriber's account is held by several people, where parents were unaware of their children's behavior or where the Net account is connected to a wireless network being made available to the public.

"You have to assume that the recording industry actually got the right person," EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann said. "It's Mom and Dad's name on the ISP account, for example, but that doesn't mean it's Mom and Dad using Kazaa. There are going to be a lot of complications."

The suits were filed across the United States, and included users of Kazaa, Blubster, Grokster and several other file-swapping software programs.

Several related lawsuits remain open as these go to court. A handful of Internet service providers, including Pacific Bell Internet Services, a division of SBC Communications, in California, have challenged the validity of the subpoenas used by the RIAA to collect file swappers' identities. One individual, who as yet remains anonymous, has also challenged the subpoena process, saying it violates her right to privacy.

Alongside the lawsuits, the RIAA also released details of an online amnesty campaign, offering worried file swappers a provisional shield against being sued if they turn themselves in before a suit is filed.

Under the "Clean Slate" program, file swappers must destroy any copies of copyrighted works they have downloaded from services such as Kazaa, and sign a notarized affidavit pledging never to trade copyrighted works online again.

Anybody who signs and returns the document will not be targeted by the RIAA based on past infringement, Sherman said. However, if their names come up in future file-swapping sweeps, any amnesty seekers could be liable for potentially higher damages based on "willful infringement."

The group said it would not use the information gathered for marketing purposes or share it with any other group of copyright holders. Critics such as the EFF's von Lohmann dismissed the assurances, saying that the RIAA's privacy policy allowed the information to be shared if "required by law," a clause which could allow groups such as music publishers or Hollywood studios to subpoena the information from the RIAA to use in their own lawsuits.

It just keeps getting worse. 12 year-old girls getting sued??!! Something is wrong here BIG TIME!! The punishment definitely doesn't fit the crime.

http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5073717.html?tag=nl

RIAA settles with 12-year-old girl


By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 9, 2003, 4:05 PM PT


Barely 24 hours after suing alleged file swappers around the United States, the recording industry has settled its first case, agreeing to drop its case against a 12-year-old New York girl in exchange for $2,000.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed 261 lawsuits Monday against computer users it said were exclusively "egregious" file swappers. One of the targets wound up being Brianna Lahara, who was identified by the New York Post as a 12-year-old honors student who lives in a New York City Housing Authority apartment.

The trade group said Tuesday that it had agreed to settle with the preteen's mother for a sum considerably lower than previous settlement arrangements.

 

"We understand now that file sharing the music was illegal," Sylvia Torres, Brianna's mother, said in a statement. "You can be sure Brianna won't be doing it anymore."

The quick settlement points both to the public relations dangers of the RIAA's shotgun lawsuit approach and to its simultaneous effectiveness. Other sympathetic defendants are likely to emerge, but the group is setting a fast precedent of pushing people toward settlement.

"We're trying to send a strong message that you are not anonymous when you participate in peer-to-peer file sharing and that the illegal distribution of copyrighted music has consequences," RIAA chief executive Mitch Bainwol said in a statement. "And as this case illustrates, parents need to be aware of what their children are doing on their computers."

The RIAA had previously settled with four college students sued in April for between $12,000 and $17,000. The group said Monday that it had already reached agreements with some of the latest round of defendants to settle for about $3,000, but that future agreements would likely carry a higher price tag.

It sure would be nice if the RIAA is not allowed to take the law into their own hands:


http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5077240.html

Court scrutinizes P2P subpoena process
Last modified: September 16, 2003, 10:53 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

           
WASHINGTON--A federal appeals court on Tuesday scrutinized the details of a 1998 copyright law, wondering whether it permits the wide-scale unmasking of alleged peer-to-peer pirates by the music industry.

The three-judge panel gave little indication of whether it would continue to permit the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to exploit the law's turbocharged subpoena procedures in its campaign against file-trading networks. But the judges did seem to lend more credence to Verizon Communications' arguments than did U.S. District Judge John Bates, who ruled in January that the RIAA's use of the law was valid.

Judge John Roberts questioned the RIAA's expansive interpretation of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which allows copyright holders to glean the identity of alleged infringers without filing a lawsuit first. Roberts said that if he left the door to his library ajar and someone entered, "that doesn't make me liable for copyright infringement."

The case is key to the RIAA's legal strategy, which now involves suing individuals suspected of copyright infringement. If the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturns the lower court's decision, the RIAA could be forced to file thousands of "John Doe" lawsuits instead--a more expensive strategy that could lead to additional negative publicity.

All three members of the appeals court appeared to accept the RIAA's contention that peer-to-peer networks are rife with piracy. "This case is about a fellow who made available 600 copyrighted works," Roberts said. "Is there any legitimate purpose for making available for copying 600 copyrighted works?"

Roberts also suggested that Verizon makes extra money from home customers who pay more for broadband services that accelerate file-swapping. Verizon lawyer Andrew McBride, a partner at Wiley Rein & Fielding, replied by saying that Verizon has inked deals with commercial services that sell music.

Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg took issue with Roberts' argument that DMCA subpoenas were only intended to target files that an Internet provider hosts and not those stored on its users' computers.

Ginsburg said Congress must have intended for the DMCA to extend to end users, reading from a Salon.com article that appeared half a year before the law was enacted. "The vehicle then was the File Transfer Protocol," Ginsburg said. "But it was the exact same problem. You suggested (end-user piracy) was not even part of the universe in 1998."

The three judges spent little time on Verizon's sweeping claims that the expedited subpoenas could endanger privacy and free speech, instead choosing to examine the minutiae of the DMCA, what Congress intended to say when drafting the law, and whether permitting subpoenas in the absence of a lawsuit agreed with the U.S. Constitution's requirement of an actual "case or controversy." Scott McIntosh, an appellate lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department, assured the court that "we don't think the constitutional questions are substantial ones."

Tuesday's arguments come as scrutiny of the DMCA subpoena process is growing. During a hearing Sept. 9, some senators said they were paying close attention to how it was being used, and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has indicated he may introduce a bill on Tuesday to amend the DMCA to immunize Internet service providers from such subpoenas.

http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5081071.html


Kazaa blasts Hollywood 'conspiracy'
Last modified: September 23, 2003, 4:38 PM PDT
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

           
File-swapping company Sharman Networks filed new antitrust charges against record labels and Hollywood studios, hoping to deflect copyright infringement claims still pending over the popular Kazaa software.

The suit, which claims record labels and movie studios have conspired to drive Sharman Networks out of business in order to monopolize digital distribution, is virtually identical to charges first raised by the file-swapping company in January. Those charges were largely dismissed by a federal judge in July. The new suit, filed late Monday, addresses the judge's concerns that Sharman was not directly harmed by the labels' and studios' actions.

The revised suit lists the precise "conspiratorial" behavior that Kazaa says took place, including names of record executives who expressed interest in peer-to-peer distribution, but who then backed out.

The "monopolistic purpose of this conspiratorial conduct is to drive distributors of content using peer-to-peer platforms out of business," Sharman's suit alleges. The copyright holders' "purpose is to limit the means for future digital distribution of either music or major theatrical works in a way that the (studios and record labels) can in the future more directly control the relevant markets."

The lawsuit is the latest twist in file-swapping companies' attempts to defend against copyright infringement charges by turning scrutiny on the business practices of the corporate record labels and movie studios.

Those companies have walked a fine line throughout the development of legal Internet distribution and antipiracy lawsuits, often acting together through trade associations and investing together in Internet businesses.

Complaints by a first generation of wounded Internet companies were enough to trigger a federal antitrust investigation into the big record labels' online activities in 2001, although no charges were ultimately filed. An independent broadband movie distributor also has sued the big studios on antitrust grounds related to their support of the Movielink on-demand Web site. The service is a joint project of MGM Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios.

In the course of the case against Napster, federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel cast a critical eye on music labels' joint activities, saying they "look bad, sound bad, smell bad." However, Napster dissolved before the antitrust angle in that case could be pursued in full.

The new suit goes over considerable ground already covered in January but details why Sharman itself, instead of simply business partner Altnet, was harmed. Judge Steven Wilson dismissed much of Sharman's claim in July, saying that the file-swapping company was only indirectly affected by the copyright holders' business decisions.

To cement Sharman's claim, the suit details for the first time the creation in 2002 of a joint venture between Sharman and Brilliant Digital Entertainment subsidiary Altnet, which distributes copy-protected and other authorized files through Kazaa. The two companies agreed to share revenue and information and to conduct joint negotiations in seeking content for distribution through Kazaa, Sharman said. That joint venture meant that Sharman, not just Altnet, was directly harmed by the "conspiracy" to keep authorized content off Kazaa, according to the suit.

Plan to push out piracy
The suit claims that Sharman ultimately planned to push its tens of millions of users toward downloading authorized files, making pirated copyrighted work difficult to find or unattractive.

"By relegating non-(copy protected) files to a subordinate and comparatively unattractive access location...Sharman intended to promote and encourage only business appropriate file sharing and to share the net payments for (copy protected) works lawfully exchanged by users of the (Kazaa) software with Altnet," the suit says.

However, negotiations with record companies and movie studios fell through, the suit says. It names executives at Universal Music, Warner Brothers Records, Warner Music and Interscope Music as having been interested in testing the Altnet-Sharman technology. All backed out after being told by lawyers or other unnamed individuals to cut off conversations, the suit claims.

Representatives for Universal and Warner declined to comment. A representative for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations in the revised suit.

"Sharman Networks' newfound admiration for the importance of copyright law is ironic to say the least," an RIAA representative said. "Too bad this self-serving respect stops at its headquarters' door in Vanuatu, and doesn't extend to preventing the rampant piracy on their networks or lifting a finger to educate their users about the consequences of illegal file sharing."

The revised suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, underlines Sharman's tenuous legal position at a time when some other file-swapping companies have found a reprieve--even if only temporary--from legal pressure.

In April, Wilson dismissed copyright charges against Sharman rivals Grokster and StreamCast Networks, saying distributing their peer-to-peer software packages did not make them liable for copyright infringement by people using the software. The judge compared the companies to Xerox or Sony, which are not held responsible for people making illegal copies of works using photocopiers or videocassette recorders.

Sharman, which is part of the same overall lawsuit, has not yet been dismissed, in part because of legal procedural delays specific to that company's case. The recording industry and movie studios are appealing Wilson's earlier ruling on Grokster, saying the judge misapplied copyright law. Last week, record labels sued iMesh, another file-swapping company.

RIAA's case of mistaken identity?
Last modified: September 24, 2003, 11:54 AM PDT
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

           
The Recording Industry Association of America has withdrawn a file-swapping lawsuits after a possible case of mistaken identity.

The trade association confirmed Wednesday that it had withdrawn its suit against Boston-area senior citizen Sarah Ward, who claimed that she could not possibly have been involved in the file-swapping incident attributed to her. Among other objections, Ward is a Macintosh computer user, and there is no Apple version of the Kazaa file-trading software she is supposed to have used, according to attorneys who have spoken to the woman.

An RIAA spokeswoman said the group did not believe it had made a mistake in identifying the ISP account used by Ward, but that it was dismissing the case for now.

"We are being as careful as we can be and are giving her the benefit of the doubt," spokeswoman Amy Weiss said. "We think if someone has a credible argument, we will withdraw and ask questions later."

Ward's case highlights concerns vociferously expressed by RIAA critics, who have long predicted that the trade association would ultimately catch innocent computer users in its file-trading dragnet. Lawyers say the incident is not likely to carry immediate damage to the group's legal efforts, but it does raise questions about the fallibility of the recording industry's investigative procedures.

The RIAA filed the lawsuit against Ward two weeks ago as part of the first wave of 261 copyright infringement suits leveled against computer users deemed by the RIAA to be "egregious" file swappers. Other stories varying widely from that of the stereotypical file swapper came out quickly, including 12-year-old New York public housing resident Brianna Lahara and a 71-year-old Texan grandfather.

The RIAA settled its case against Lahara for $2,000 just a day after filing the suit. Attorneys involved in the issue say other lawsuit targets have also been settled, but the RIAA declined to release information on these cases.

According to attorneys who have spoken to Ward, she is a sculptor and a former early childhood educator who lives at home with her husband. Her children and grandchildren do not live with her and would not have used her account to trade files on a PC, they say.

Nor is Ward likely to have downloaded many of the files allegedly on her computer, such as songs by rapper Busta Rhymes, said Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Cindy Cohn, who helped Ward with her case.

"One phone call to Sarah Ward would have let anyone figure out they had the wrong person," Cohn said. "This really brings home the recklessness of the RIAA's crusade."

Cohn speculated that some mistake might have been made by Comcast or the RIAA in identifying the Internet Protocol address associated with a file swapper's account, leading to the mistaken identification of Ward. Comcast, like most other cable Internet service providers, provides "dynamic" or temporary IP addresses to subscribers that change as they log in and disconnect.

RIAA's Weiss said the organization was confident about the information provided by Comcast and in its own data. In a letter sent to Ward's attorney late last week, an attorney for the labels said the case would be dismissed. However, the group will continue to investigate the case, and could refile the claim against Ward at a later date, the letter said.

Neither Weiss nor the letter said what additional evidence the group would seek in its additional scrutiny of Ward's case.

Outside attorneys said the incident would likely have little bearing on other file-swapping cases, but that it would be a black eye for the RIAA in political circles and among the public if it did indeed turn out to be a case of mistaken identity.

"Every case will be judged on its own merits," said Morrison & Foerster attorney Jonathan Band. "A defendant could try to challenge the methodology used by the RIAA and could say, 'Look at the mistakes that were made (in Ward's case),' but he would still have to prove that the same kinds of mistakes were made."

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/artic...try_withdraws_suit/


Recording industry withdraws suit





Mistaken identity raises questions on legal strategy

By Chris Gaither, Globe Staff, 9/24/2003

The recording industry has withdrawn a lawsuit against a Newbury woman because it falsely accused her of illegally sharing music -- possibly the first case of mistaken identity in the battle against Internet file-traders.

Privacy advocates said the suit against Sarah Seabury Ward, a sculptor who said she has never downloaded or digitally shared a song, revealed flaws in the Recording Industry Association of America's legal strategy. Ward was caught up in a flood of 261 lawsuits filed two weeks ago that targeted people who, through software programs like Kazaa, make copyrighted songs available for others to download over the Internet.

"When the RIAA announced they were going on this litigation crusade, we knew there was going to be someone like Sarah Ward," said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet privacy group in San Francisco that has advised Ward and others sued by the music industry. "And we think were will be more."

The lawsuit claimed that Ward had illegally shared more than 2,000 songs through Kazaa and threatened to hold her liable for up to $150,000 for each song. The plaintiffs were Sony Music, BMG, Virgin, Interscope, Atlantic, Warner Brothers, and Arista.

Among the songs she was accused of sharing: "I'm a Thug," by the rapper Trick Daddy.

But Ward, 66, is a "computer neophyte" who never installed file-sharing software, let alone downloaded hard-core rap about baggy jeans and gold teeth, according to letters sent to the recording industry's agents by her lawyer, Jeffrey Beeler.

Other defendants have blamed their children for using file-sharing software, but Ward has no children living with her, Beeler said.

Moreover, Ward uses a Macintosh computer at home. Kazaa runs only on Windows-based personal computers.

Beeler complained to the RIAA, demanding an apology and "dismissal with prejudice" of the lawsuit, which would prohibit future lawsuits against her. Foley Hoag, the Boston firm representing the record labels, on Friday dropped the case, but without prejudice.

"Please note, however, that we will continue our review of the issues you raised and we reserve the right to refile the complaint against Mrs. Ward if and when circumstances warrant," Colin J. Zick, the Foley Hoag lawyer, wrote to Beeler.

The trade group released Zick's letter late yesterday and said it would have no other comment.

It is unclear where the apparent mistake originated.

According to the lawsuit, recording industry investigators tracked the file-sharing activities of a Kazaa user with the moniker Heath7 and found the unique numeric identifier, known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, that was assigned to the user by the Internet service provider at the time.

The recording industry then issued a subpoena to Comcast, the user's Internet service provider, demanding the name, address, and e-mail address of the person behind the IP address.

Evan Cox, a partner with Covington & Burling in San Francisco who is not involved with the case, said the error most likely happened in one of two ways: Either Comcast matched the wrong customer with the IP address, or the recording industry requested information about the wrong IP address, which is usually more than nine digits.

"If any of those [IP address] numbers are wrong or transposed, you're going to get the wrong person," Cohn said.

Whatever the source of the apparent error, it illustrates how difficult it can be to definitively match a person to an online screen name.

A Comcast spokeswoman, Sarah Eder, would not comment, citing customer privacy concerns. Comcast always notifies its customers after a subpoena compels the company to release information about them, she said.

Mistakes are likely, given the number of cases the recording industry has filed, Cox said. The industry's reputation could hang on how many mistakes surface.

"If there turns out to be a lot of them, it will cast some doubt on [the industry's] evidence-gathering," he said. "They'll have to either strengthen their efforts or back off."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has counseled about 30 of the 261 people sued, Cohn said, adding that some have settled for fear of spending too much money fighting powerful corporations.

Jonathan Zittrain, an associate professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School, said the dismissal shows that the record companies may find it tough to prevail if their lawsuits go to court. Their legal strategy assumes that most defendants will settle rather than fight, and the lawsuits are so damaging to their public image that they cannot afford protracted legal battles with alleged file-swappers, he added.

"This is a very high-stakes strategy for the record companies," he said. "It's either going to work in the short term, or they're going to have to pull the plug on it."

Chris Gaither can be reached at gaither@globe.com. Hiawatha Bray of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

Edited by author 10-03-2003 11:18 AM
Travis 4 Gov, web page now links to http://launch.yahoo.com/.

You don't believe me try it yourself: http://www.kalanick4gov.com

Also here is a link to the google cache of the site, which is also simply a page of launch.yahoo.com:
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:cTJyH...nick&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The dude isn't running for governor. . . .

What are you guys talking about. . .

Edited by author 10-08-2003 04:30 PM
He was running for governor... but pulled out. He use to have a web site...

There was even a guy doing a story about him:
http://www.quicktopic.com/23/H/GNgaZXcpUuPz/m12

It appears the site is still running but simply redirecting. I doubt that the bill for bandwidth forced him to not pay. My point is only that people are focusing on the wrong thing. The P2P movement needs someone to lead it, regardless of who's running for governor and who's not.

And fyi, it appears that this guy received papers but never ran for governor.

What do you mean by P2P?
The technology?
The copying of music?
The copying of movies?

Where does it need to be lead?

http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3558933,00.html


 
New Napster Busts Out of Beta
      

Napster 2.0 lives as new music service tailored for the masses.
 
By Steve Enders, Tech Live Web producer
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Napster is back!


Stop us if you've heard this one before.


OK, Napster 2.0 was back on Oct. 9, but only as a beta test version for a select and lucky few to play with. But as of Wednesday, Oct. 29, Napster 2.0 really is back for the masses.


Tonight, get the latest from Napster's star-studded Los Angeles launch party. Also, see the exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour "Tech Live" took of the Napster factory. One thing's for certain: Napster's all grown up, and the service is a far cry from the Shawn Fanning-created free-for-all that sparked a music revolution, industry outrage, and legal attacks back in 1999.


Grown-up cat fight


Napster is the fourth major music download service to launch specifically for PC users since the recording industry began its crackdown on online music swapping. Musicmatch, BuyMusic.com, and Apple's iTunes Music Store have all launched offerings for music-starved Windows lovers. It's a huge market considering Windows' overwhelming market share on personal computers. Each of the four services offers its own distinct features -- both good and not so good -- for music fans. Still, all four are arguably better than getting a subpoena from the RIAA.


"We think we've got the model, we think we've got the brand," said Chris Gorog, CEO and chairman of Roxio. "We think we have the best experience out there, so we feel very confident in competing with anyone."


Gorog told TechTV that Hollywood-based Napster brought in "hard-core illegal file sharers" to test the new service. Turns out, they liked what they saw.


"These kids go absolutely nuts because they are so sick of dealing with KaZaA or Morpheus and pop-up ads and spyware," he said.


Napster may very well be in a unique position to gain traction quickly in this crowded field. When Roxio, Napster's new parent company, announced the availability of the beta version of Napster 2.0, some analysts said they expected the service to do well.


"If you look at the brand, the Napster brand dwarfs all others. So I think this is a situation where the dark horse is going to actually win," said Gene Munster, senior research analyst with US Bancorp Piper Jaffray.


The combination of Napster's legal download offerings, subscription-based model adopted from Roxio's former pressplay service, and familiar features from the Napster of old could position Napster above the likes of Apple's iTunes. Both iTunes and Napster include an MP3 jukebox, the ability to buy songs online, CD burning, and various other features.


The iTunes Music Store almost instantly earned recognition from industry watchers after its launch in mid-October because of its flexibility with downloaded tracks and user-friendly interface. Apple also has in its pocket the iPod, the best-selling MP3 player on the planet. (Needless to say, the iPod works seamlessly with iTunes.) Apple said that in its first three days of operation, Windows users downloaded more than a million songs from the iTunes Music Store.


Answering competition


Napster is hoping to tip the scales in its favor. Roxio has partnered with Samsung on the Samsung Napster player, which is advertised as the player to use with Napster 2.0. (TechTV Labs is currently reviewing the gadget.) The player will be sold exclusively through Best Buy stores. A special version of Napster 2.0 will also be available to consumers using the new Microsoft XP Media Center 2004, the new operating system designed to run home entertainment systems.


Napster has also announced the availability of Napster Cards, pre-paid cards that will sell for $14.85 at more than 14,000 retail locations across America, from drugstores to department stores. The cards work like pre-paid phone cards and will give card holders the ability to buy 15 music downloads from the service.


When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iTunes Music Store for Windows last week, he also unveiled new iTunes gift certificates users can give to friends, and music "allowance" credits that parents can use to authorize downloads for their music-hungry kids.


Napster 2.0 at a glance


TechTV Labs has reviewed the beta version of Napster 2.0 and found the service to be easy to use. It's a solid music service overall. Tracks download in the WMA file format and can be used on just about any WMA-supported portable player. Here's a quick look at what else Napster 2.0 holds in store.



People using Napster 2.0 on a Windows PC can download any one of about 500,000 songs for 99 cents per track. Whole albums will generally cost $9.99.

For an additional $9.95 per month users can take advantage of Napster community features, including unlimited streaming and downloading, listening to streaming radio, and discussing music on message boards.

Users can integrate tracks downloaded from Napster with existing MP3 collections.

Users can send downloaded music to friends, and they can browse other Napster members' MP3 collections.

Users won't be able to use Napster to rip CDs, but they can use it to burn CDs with downloaded tracks.

Finally, look for Napster's launch to raise the possibility of a format war. Apple uses AAC encoding to compress its digital music, while others, including Napster, use WMA. If you really want an iPod, you're going to have to use iTunes -- a choice that's obviously not an issue for 1.3 million iPod owners. But if you're a PC user who really likes your WMA files from ripped CDs, you should know that they're useless on an iPod.


More legitimate music download services are rumored to be in the works from Dell and even Amazon.com. The music wars aren't nearly over yet.


The music industry will certainly be keeping a watchful eye on music sales to see if the availability of legal, for-pay music services can make a dent in illegal activity.


"Tech Live" reporter Lindsey Arent contributed to this story.
Interested in the Samsung Napster player?
Buy this product at Amazon.com

 

Originally aired October 28, 2003

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=4973


    First Impressions of Napster 2.0
  By Eugenia Loli-Queru - Posted on 2003-10-30 07:25:48
Two weeks ago we featured an early pick on iTunes for Windows, but today iTunes' main competitor Napster 2.0 was released for a free download. We had a play with it and here is what we think about it and how it compares to iTunes.


 The installation went over without a hitch. It installed both the Roxio burner software as well as the application itself. When you start Napster, you are asked to create a free account. Without it, Napster won't connect to anything. I don't know how secure it is to give your email address and name, but I did so for the sake of this article, and immediately afterwards, I was able to browse the home page of the app. Napster 2.0.6.1 is using IE and Macromedia Flash to render its pages.
Napster's UI has three categories: Home, Browse and Library. Clicking on any of these buttons will reveal a set of subcategory buttons. For example, for Home, it will reveal, "Music", Radio, Magazine and "Message Boards". Under Music, you can browse the homepages of each kind of music (e.g. classical, alternative, pop etc), while the front page has a link in the footer about "Videos". Clicking on this link (for example) will take you to a page where you have options to choose from as many as 40-50 full-length video clips. I found myself wishing that there were more.

 Clicking on "Radio" will do absolutely nothing until you pay Napster and become a subscription member. The Magazine has a few interesting articles, but it is mainly a marketing tool and will probably not be considered very relevant to the media player/purchaser. To some, this feature become handy for company/product announcements. Clicking on the "message boards" tab again asks the visitor to become a *full* Napster member.

The "Browse" family of buttons are a "live" representation of Napster's status. There, you can browse artists and albums, you can search for the latest added songs, see what people are streaming most at any given time and also check out the charts and the Napster member collections. The software allows you to browse according to the music genre, which makes it easy to locate the kind of music you want. It is important to note here that I really liked the ability to view Charts, as it can search "live" both Napster's most downlodable, most streamed, top artists and top albums. There is also an option to do the same for.. Billboard's charts! When in Billboard mode, you can search by year and find the song you like, then see the numbers of weeks in the US charts, its position etc. This was among my most favorite features, as it turned Napster into a music "encyclopedia" of sorts. When in "Members' collection", you can view again by a whole list of Napster users by genre then browse their collections and their favorites. I am not as sure about the usefulness of this feature per se, but it might come handy if you're actually part of the Napster community and know some of these people as online buddies.

 The third main button, the "Library", includes a list of your personal favorites. These include artists, albums, Playlists, your purchased tracks. You also get a download status, your History of the tracks you played, your buddy's nicknames, as well as a messaging service. (looks like email between you and your Napster buddies). Additionally, you get a way to copy your songs to the Napster portable device, the DRM-enabled "Samsung Napster Player."

On the right side of the window, you get a mini player (this is where your 30-second songs are previewed.) Quality seemed pretty good utilizing 96 kbit WMA. Every time you click on a song to preview it, the image changes into the picture of the album or single. Below the image, you get a list of all the songs you ever previewed with Napster 2. You can save it as a playlist, shuffle it, or clear it and start all over again. On the same sub-window, you can also select Radio stations (if you are subscribed). Clicking on any song in that list will start playing it, while you can also drag-n-drop them to your Library's tree-view.

 Napster 2 has two views: the full view and the mini-player one. The mini-player view is a disaster in my opinion. It takes the whole screen horizontally, as you can see from the shot below. On my 1600x1200 screen, it is just not a "mini" mode, but a long ugly strip. And when I am out of the mini mode, I have to resize back my windows manually (I always have OE at 800x1170 and IE at 800x1170, side by side, that's my default setup on Windows daily).

Burning with the embedded Roxio engine is actually very easy, you just drag-n-drop entries from any of your views (from the Library, or the Browse pages) and then you hit "Burn". Searching for artists also seems to work well, it finds more songs than iTunes does (e.g. Napster has at least one Madonna song), but it has a bad categorization. For example, I don't consider "I will always love you" from W. Houston to be Dance, but I did find it under that category when searching. However, overall, the experience is similar to iTunes in terms of searching for artists, listening to tracks, as well as finding the most popular of a specific artist. Prices are comparable to iTunes as well: $0.99 for a song, $9.99 for a whole album.

Napster was very stable for me, the only problem I noticed was that I wasn't able to connect to the server for some specific song previews (Vangelis, EarthWind&Fire etc). It would tell me that the server is busy and that I should try again later. I never had such a problem with iTunes.

 Napster is more of a "community"-driven music store, while iTunes is more of a personal music player with the addition of a Store. iTunes' primary function is to play all music, while Napster's is to sell. That's the biggest difference I found between the two apps. For example, when I installed iTunes, it found my local Music folder and it automatically added it to its Library. The software also allowed me to play several radio stations and have visual effects. Napster on the other hand is tied to the store, you can only listen to what you purchased from it or its previews, and you have to pay for radio support. It feels a lot like "use Napster to buy a song, and then play it with Winamp". Napster is a fine shop, it has a few enhancements over iTunes (mostly on charts abilities, community support -- plus it seemed to have a much faster UI than iTunes'), but it would never be my default music player. Plus, it has very weird memory consumption patterns. When Napster is minimized or in the background doing nothing, it only takes 3-8 MB of RAM (and that's nice), but when you use it a bit and play a few songs, the RAM usage skyrockets to between 33 and 48 MB. That's too much in my opinion, I have never seen iTunes using more than 32 MB on the same PC.

Napster works well and seems to be a complete product. However, the competition with the popular iTunes might prove troublesome to Napster LLC.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113133,00.asp

Three Minutes With RIAA Chief Cary Sherman
 
New music industry leader wants to embrace online opportunity as well as quash piracy.

Tom Spring, PCWorld.com
Thursday, October 30, 2003
 To millions of people, Cary Sherman is about as popular as the New York Yankees are in Boston. As president of the Recording Industry Association of America, Sherman has vigorously prosecuted online music pirates, as the archenemy of popular file-swapping services from Napster to Kazaa.

Sherman, 55, coordinates the RIAA's legal, policy, and business objectives. Before joining the RIAA in 1997, Sherman worked at the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter, where he headed the firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group. Sherman not only represents musicians and songwriters, he is one as well.

  
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His challenges today are daunting. He wants to wean millions of people off freewheeling file-swapping networks and steer them toward legitimate online music services. Sherman also says he aims to lead the music industry into wholeheartedly embracing the Internet and uploading its entire repertoire for legal online distribution.

PC World invited Sherman to weigh in on a variety of hot topics, from suing music fans to buying songs online. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

PCW: How are your efforts to protect your members' copyrights going?

Sherman: Good. People are more aware now than ever before that uploading and downloading other people's copyrighted music without permission is illegal. They're thinking twice about doing it.

Having taken the action we have--namely, going after individual infringers--it looks preliminarily as though we are seeing a beneficial impact.

PCW: How have enforcement efforts evolved over time, and how might they change in the future?

Sherman: We started with an education campaign, and have been running it for a number of years. Next we combined education with litigation against the peer-to-peer services for facilitating infringers.

But it became obvious that it would be necessary to go after the individual infringers once the courts ruled that Grokster and Morpheus couldn't be held liable for the copyright infringements.

We will continue to pursue infringers. Anything less is like telling people that there won't be anymore cops looking for speeders.

But the most significant component of our strategy is to offer legitimate alternatives. Unfortunately, some people feel they have an inalienable right to steal music.

PCW: So protecting copyrights includes offering new services like Apple ITunes.

Sherman: That's right. It's very difficult for legitimate services to compete with stolen copies of the same product. The RIAA is, in effect, taking action against a shoplifter in order to preserve the retailers' market.

PCW: Don't you risk perpetuating a decline in CD sales by suing music fans?

Sherman: People need to understand enforcement actions are intended to support the legitimate alternatives. If consumers gravitate toward those legal services, we will have done our job.

The only people who will not buy CDs because we are taking action against infringers are the people stealing music. That's not a very good customer base.

Retailers sue shoplifters. DirecTV has filed over 10,000 cases against people who steal their satellite signal. It just surprises me that when record companies do precisely the same thing, people think that it will alienate their customers.

PCW: What's the public's biggest misconception of the RIAA?

Sherman: People think the RIAA is insensitive to what consumers want and assume we are trying to preserve old business models. That couldn't be further from the reality.

The record industry has woken up to the reality of the new Internet marketplace. We are excited about the prospects that the Internet offers for an entirely new distribution mechanism for music.

We just have to bring the piracy under control to enable new business models to take root and prosper.

PCW: What kind of new business models are you talking about?

Sherman: We are already making a lot of new business models. Just look at the past month, with the opening of Apple ITunes [for Windows], Napster is launching, and BuyMusic.com is only a couple months old. The number of legal download and subscription services that are getting really good reviews right now is staggering.

PCW: When do you think consumers will embrace legitimate services? I keep trying these services out, and am disappointed because of restrictions--and I still can't find all the music I want.

Sherman: First off, artists have an obligation to support the rest of the artistic community by licensing their works. Music services have not been able to get licenses from superstar artists like the Beatles. When an artist refuses to license their work, I think that is a vote in favor of piracy instead of the legitimate marketplace.

PCW: Do you feel like you need to improve the RIAA's image with music fans?

Sherman: We aren't trying to win a popularity contest. This is about whether you're going to have a vibrant music industry and an investment to support artists' careers. If somebody has to be the heavy on this, better that it be the RIAA than the artists whose livelihoods are at stake.

PCW: Do you believe that the RIAA's interests come before the interests of Silicon Valley companies that are trying to market tools that give consumers the ability to do more with their media?

Sherman: No. This is not a question of one industry's interests being more important than another's. It's a question of finding the right balance.

We love new technologies and have inevitably prospered from them.

What we are opposed to is businesses built on infringing other people's copyrighted products. We love peer-to-peer technology; we hate businesses that are built on using peer-to-peer to sell advertising with the draw of stealing other people's works.

There are legitimate ways to use technology, and then there are abuses of technology, and just because you go after the abusers doesn't mean that you have a problem with the technology.

PCW: Do you support mandating copyright protection mechanisms in PCs, CD players, or anything else that can play, record, or manipulate data?

Sherman: We actually were not supporters of the Hollings bill that called for just such measures. We thought it was an important means of emphasizing the problem of digital piracy. But technical mandates are not the best way to fix the piracy problem. These issues are best addressed voluntarily in the marketplace.

PCW: You mean makers of computer software and devices should voluntarily put restrictions on equipment?

Sherman: Look at the DVD model, where multiple industries worked together to come up with some form of protection that was sufficient to encourage the motion picture studios to release their content on this new format, and consumer electronics and IT companies have been able to support [the medium] because they thought that these were reasonable protections.

PCW: Do you sense that your lawsuits have changed any file-swapper's attitudes?

Sherman: I believe we have. We certainly have received a large number of letters from people commenting how they hadn't thought about peer-to-peer as piracy before. They understand why we're doing what we're doing.

PCW: Senator Sam Brownback [R-Kansas] is concerned that the RIAA is overstepping its bounds, such as when you issued subpoenas for downloaders' names. He and other critics argue that you are invading people's privacy. What do you say?

Sherman: We expect to have those kinds of issues raised. We're fighting with ISPs about this issue right now. I'm not surprised that a senator or two would take the side of the ISPs.

But I think that you really have to look at the big picture. Is Senator Brownback, or any other senator, going to say we shouldn't be able to protect our interests against thieves that are decimating our industry? The answer to that is no.

PCW: In the age of digital distribution, some argue that the RIAA is obsolete. Why should the RIAA, which is composed primarily of five music companies, control 80 percent of the music?

Sherman: We have no problem with a music industry that is more diversified, that gives new opportunities for new labels and new artists. This is not about maintaining control; it's about being fair in regards to the ability of people to get paid for their work.





Related Topics: Online Entertainment, Legal Issues

WASTE ROCKS !!!!

http://www.apcmag.com/apc/v3.nsf/0/D6C25C2...7EFCA256DCD0082A79A

No fear peer-to-peer

Thursday 30, October 2003

By Dan Warne

Software tutorial

Truly secure P2P deploys military-grade encryption. Dan Warne shows how to share files among friends without anyone else snooping on you.

 This article is featured in APC October 2003 Back issues
SubscribeWith the copyright police increasing its monitoring of popular file-sharing networks like KaZaA and eDonkey, savvy users are turning to WASTE, a new program that relies on file encryption and ad hoc networks of trusted members to escape prying eyes.

Our feature story on page 28 of this issue explains the “why” of WASTE; but here you’ll find the “how”.

What makes WASTE different from other file-swapping systems is that it has no central server. Instead it operates as a mesh in which each user connects to a few other users to form a loosely-structured P2P network. However, this group is virtually impenetrable to anyone who hasn’t been specifically authorised to join the group using PKE (public/private key encryption) technology.

PKE encryption in general works like this: each user has two keys — a private key and a public key. The public key can be given out to anyone, because it only allows them to encrypt a message to you. The same public key cannot be used to decrypt that message. Once you’ve received the message, you decrypt it with your private key, which you never disclose.

WASTE uses public keys to ensure that each user is known on the network, and bona-fide. As each public key is unique, and linked to the private key stored in your copy of WASTE, there’s no chance that someone can pretend to be you in order to gain access to the network.

The initial setup of WASTE guides you through creating a unique username and a private key, as well as automatically generating a matching public key.

To be accepted onto a network of WASTE users, a member of that group has to email you their public key, which is simply a block of what looks like random letters and numbers. This is entered into your WASTE client software through the Preferences panel’s Public Keys section — the same location to which you export your own public key so it can be shared with someone else.

If you’re not too concerned with security and are just curious, there’s a database of public keys at www.s4s.ip3.com/wasteb. You’ll also need to submit your public key there and wait for at least one other user to manually add your key to their system.

Alternatively, you can chat to other WASTE users on IRC. Join the WASTE channel on the http://irc2.p2pchat.net server and swap your public key with anyone who’s online at the time.

To connect to a network of WASTE users, enter the IP address of one user with whom you’ve swapped public keys into the WASTE connect box.

You’ll also need to open port 1337 on your firewall, which is the port used by WASTE (this is a joke on the part of WASTE creator Justin Frankel, as 1337 is hacker-speak for “leet” — shorthand for “elite”).

Once you’ve both swapped keys, you’ll be accepted as a trusted member of the network and permitted to make connections to other people on the same network, because your key is automatically broadcast to the rest of the group and added into their copy of WASTE.

You can browse other users’ directories, search for specific files, and also chat using the WASTE chat client. Chat sessions and file swapping goes directly between the active computers rather than via a central server.

When you start a file transfer it’s encrypted using the fast but secure, open source “Blowfish” model to protect you from monitoring. Even 128-bit encryption is virtually crack-proof through brute-force, so you can be certain that any files you transfer, and any discussions you have with other users, are completely secure.

Of course, one weakness in WASTE’s security model is that it’s easy for other users on the same network to get hold of your public key. If you’re worried about this, simply reject other users’ public keys. Remember: if both of you don’t have each other’s public keys, neither of you can connect and view what’s on the other’s computer.

To do this, open Preferences, select Pending keys, then remove the tick from Auto-accept broadcasted public keys.

The latest WASTE client for Windows is included on this month’s cover CD set. There’s a Mac OS X client in development that allows encrypted chat and file serving but not downloading from other users (you can find it at hummusandpita.com/waste). A command-line Linux version is in alpha development at grazzy.mjoelkbar.net/waste.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031029/dcw026_1.html

Sharman Networks Launches Kazaa v2.6 Beta
Wednesday October 29, 11:13 am ET
New Beta Version Introduces Magnet Links and Kapsules


SYDNEY, Australia, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Sharman Networks Limited today launched the Beta of Kazaa v2.6, the latest update of the world's most popular file sharing software. The new version presents users and the entertainment industry with features such as Magnet Links, Kazaa Kapsules, single click purchasing and the option to run multiple searches at the same time.
Magnet Links connect Kazaa users outside the application directly to peer- to-peer technology. This means that through their websites, entertainment companies are able to offer files to Kazaa users, downloaded via peer-to-peer. This offers significant bandwidth savings for companies like computer game manufacturers who often sell games that are over 500 megabytes in size. By utilizing Magnet Links, these content providers can efficiently promote and sell their products. This also enables consumers to benefit from faster, cheaper and more varied content as a result of the efficiency of peer-to-peer technology.

"Magnet Links combine Kazaa, the world's most popular peer-to-peer application, with the world's most popular Internet browsers," said Nikki Hemming, CEO of Sharman Networks. "The links are available to anyone who wants to benefit from the cost savings of peer-to-peer and the popularity of Kazaa. Magnet Links are a further example of our efforts to bring artists and consumers closer together in the most powerful way."

With Kazaa v2.6, users can purchase individual files with a single click. This delivers content providers a seamless consumer purchasing system that compliments the distribution power of the application. In addition, v2.6 improves searching functionality with the ability to run multiple searches at the same time.

The launch of Kazaa Kapsules 1.0 in this latest version is designed to enable artists to offer music, video and promotional material in a digital package or "Kapsule." This gives consumers a single purchase point for multiple files of varying formats combined together as a compelling offering. For example, musicians will now be able to offer a much greater variety of material, such as images, audio, video, lyrics, tour dates, and band information in one place. Equally, computer game companies can include game guides and hints, and movie distributors can include 'behind the scenes' footage.

Kapsules are designed for maximum usability with two areas: Interactive windows, which contain information about the offered content, and Kapsule windows, which contain the actual files. Users will be able to view both windows at the same time, so that information on the contents (files, price, and exclusive elements) will appear alongside the content itself.

Magnet Links, Kapsules and single click buying further cement Kazaa's position as the world's leading peer-to-peer software and build on its partnership with Altnet, the world's largest distributor of licensed, secure content on the Internet. Every month, Kazaa users download millions of licensed computer games, music, videos and software applications through Sharman Networks' relationship with Altnet.

"The advances in version 2.6 have been designed to meet the needs of consumers and content owners, who are the key forces in the success of digital distribution over the Internet. It is encouraging to see content such as videogames, that can be up to 100 times larger and cost 30 times more than a single music file, being purchased by Kazaa users every day," said Hemming. "Seamless purchasing is an important step forward and these advances that tap into powerful peer-to-peer technology will be welcomed by consumers and artists alike."

Kazaa v2.6 Beta is available to test in unlimited numbers at www.kazaa.com. Please see the kazaa.com site for important technical information about this release. The final version will be available in the coming weeks.

ENDS
About Sharman Networks Limited
Sharman Networks Limited distributes the popular Kazaa Media Desktop

software, the leading peer-to-peer application that allows users to search,
download, organize and interact with a variety of file types. Founded in
2002, Sharman Networks is a private company committed to distributing
computing software applications that are pioneering the digital revolution.
Sharman Networks is a worldwide operation. For more information about Kazaa
Media Desktop, Sharman Network's leading P2P software application, please
visit Kazaa.com.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5099738.html

RIAA files 80 new file-swapping suits
 
By John Borland
CNET News.com
October 30, 2003, 2:13 PM PT
 
 Add your opinion

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The Recording Industry Association of America on Thursday said it filed 80 new lawsuits against alleged file swappers, a move that comes after a wave of letters it sent earlier this month that warned targets of their legal risk.
The action marks a second round of suits against computer users who, record label investigators say, have made hundreds or even thousands of copyrighted songs available for download through peer-to-peer services such as Kazaa. The first round, filed in early September, targeted 261 individuals accused of putting "egregious" amounts of music online.

That first wave of suits helped dramatically raise awareness of the legal risks of file swapping, but also drew considerable criticism from lawmakers and consumer groups who said the RIAA risked violating individuals' rights or had sued the wrong people. In response, the group agreed to notify the potential targets of its lawsuits before filing.


 

It subsequently sent warning letters to 204 people early in October, saying they had been identified as likely targets of a new round of suits. On Thursday, the group said that 124 of those people decided to try to resolve the issue without going to court.

"We are pleased that our efforts to extend illegal file sharers an additional chance to come clean and work out settlements are proving successful," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "The fact that the overwhelming majority of those who received the notification letter contacted us and were eager to resolve the claims is another clear signal that the music community's education and enforcement campaign is getting the message out."

There is some evidence that the controversial RIAA lawsuits against ordinary computer users are making a dent in the file-swapping world. According to Web analysis firm Nielsen/NetRatings, weekly usage of the Kazaa software in the United States plummeted from a high of 7 million people in early June to just 3.2 million people in late October.

"Use of the application has been on a rapid decline and has not recovered since the RIAA announced its lawsuits and started going after individuals," said Max Heiniman, a Nielsen/NetRatings spokesman.

Evidence of considerable consumer interest does remain. According to Download.com, a software aggregation site operated by News.com publisher CNET Networks, nearly 2.1 million people around the world downloaded the Kazaa software last week alone. That's significantly lower than the 2.5 million Kazaa downloads per week posted in early May, but represents strong ongoing momentum despite the lawsuits.

The RIAA said that a total of 156 people have agreed in principle to settle the lawsuits, a figure that may include some people who received the warning letters in the latest round. The group did not provide an average settlement amount, but the first such agreement, with 12-year-old New York public housing resident Brianna Lahara, totaled just $2,000. Other settlements have ranged near $3,000, according to sources familiar with the agreements.

Several groups, including the P2P United file-swapping software trade association, offered to pay Lahara's settlement costs.

The RIAA also said it had received 1,000 applications for amnesty from lawsuits under its "Clean Slate" program. Under that offer, people who believe they may be at risk of a lawsuit must fill out a form promising not to download or upload copyrighted music without permission and swear they have deleted any illegally obtained songs from their computers.

Critics, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have lambasted the program as holding potential dangers to participants' privacy and legal rights.




Forward in Format for

http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-5106684.html?tag=nefd_top

Share "True Crime," do the time
Last modified: November 12, 2003, 4:20 PM PST
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

           
A forthcoming copyright bill backed by key U.S. senators would place file swappers in prison for up to three years if they have a copy of even one prerelease movie in their shared folders.

In addition to the prison term, the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act would punish making such movies available on a public "computer network" as a federal felony with a fine of up to $250,000. It would not require that any copyright infringement actually take place.

Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plan to introduce the legislation at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Joining them at the event will be actress Bo Derek, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) President Jack Valenti, and Mitch Bainwol, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America.

Hollywood studios have fretted for years about Internet distribution of prerelease movies, meaning films that have not appeared on DVD or in theaters. Footage of "Star Wars: Episode II," "Tomb Raider" and "The Hulk," has reportedly surfaced on peer-to-peer networks before their commercial distribution. In September, the major studios responded by halting their normal practice of sending DVD "screeners" to Academy Award judges.

A copy of the bill seen by CNET News.com, marked "Discussion Draft," represents one of the fiercest attacks yet on peer-to-peer networks from copyright holders' allies on Capitol Hill.

The threat of a three-year prison term kicks in when anyone makes an illicit copy of a movie "available on a computer network accessible to members of the public" when the film "was intended for commercial distribution but had not been so distributed at the time." Once the film is commercially distributed, the felony penalties appear to no longer apply.

Peter Jaszi, a professor at American University who teaches copyright law, said he is "deeply troubled" by the wording of the draft legislation because it does not say that any actual copyright infringement must take place--only that the file be available in a shared folder, Web site or FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site. "It says we don't care if anybody got any of these copies," Jaszi said. "We're going to conclude that at least 10 people did. It relieves the copyright owner of having to prove that any violation of their rights actually happened."

MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor said that "this legislation will go a long way toward targeting one of the most serious contributors to piracy right now, which is the practice of camcording motion pictures. It's the first time the U.S. Senate has had legislation that specifically addresses the threat of camcording."

"Piracy for too long has been high reward and low risk," Taylor said. "Legislation such as that being introduced tomorrow will go a long way toward changing that equation."

The Cornyn-Feinstein bill also creates another federal felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, for using "an audiovisual recording device" in a movie theater to make a copy of a film and boosts civil penalties available to MPAA member companies when suing over prerelease movies placed on the Internet.

Cornyn's office did not respond to a request for comment. "Copyright piracy is a serious threat not only to the entertainment industry, but also to a U.S. economy struggling to get back on its feet," Cornyn said in a statement. Senators Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are co-sponsors of the bill.

A related proposal has been introduced in the House of Representatives. It covers surreptitious recording in theaters but does not include the three-year prison term for making a prerelease movie available online.

http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5106581.html?tag=st_lh

Kazaa to launch P2P print ads
Last modified: November 12, 2003, 3:13 PM PST
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

           
Kazaa parent Sharman Networks plans to unveil its first offline advertising campaign next week, in which it will exhort computer users to defend file swapping and tell entertainment companies they can make money too.

The Australian company has been scrambling for months to find a way to convince record companies and movie studios that it is sincerely interested in becoming a legitimate, licensed distributor of mainstream entertainment content. It hasn't yet been successful--Sharman and Kazaa, its file-swapping software, are still the target of lawsuits from the entertainment companies. Sharman hasn't struck any large-scale distribution deals with major studios or record labels.

According to a brief statement previewing the campaign, the print ads will be a "call to action to peer to peer (software) users to communicate the message that, given the chance, users will pay a fair price for movies, music and games from P2P networks."

The ads are also intended to tell traditional entertainment companies that they are "missing a huge opportunity" to reach file-swapping communities, according to the statement.

For much of its two-year existence, Sharman has been pursuing two goals that many see as mutually exclusive. Its Kazaa software has created far and away the largest file-swapping community online, built in great part on the unauthorized and unregulated exchange of copyrighted works, such as music and movies.

But it also has worked increasingly closely with Altnet, a division of Brilliant Digital Entertainment, to persuade the file-swapping community to buy or download authorized versions of entertainment content such as music or video games. Ultimately, the company has claimed in lawsuits filed against the recording industry and Hollywood studios, it intended to push unauthorized sharing almost wholly off the network.

"By relegating non-(copy protected) files to a subordinate and comparatively unattractive access location...Sharman intended to promote and encourage only business appropriate file sharing and to share the net payments for (copy protected) works lawfully exchanged by users of the (Kazaa) software with Altnet," court papers filed by Sharman in September said.

Sharman and Altnet have also been working though a trade association they started, the Distributed Computing Industry Alliance, to try to create a forum where entertainment companies, Internet service providers and file-swapping companies can agree on business models that serve all three interests. To date, that group has found it difficult to attract other parties into serious discussions, however.

The Sharman print ad campaign will launch on Nov. 19, the company said.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=7251

P2P Euro law 'will make crooks of us all'
By Macworld staff

 
Also in the news
- Poll: 50% of Macworld readers MacExpo-bound
- UK broadband rollout 'bound by red tape'
- G5, iTunes take 2003-innovation crown
- US inquiry fuels Web-patent row
- The Times in Mac/PC head-to-head
- 640MB iBook RAM barrier smashed
- Flash MX update posted
- Top music school in free-lesson bonanza
- Toshiba to double iPod-drive production
- MS face-off with EC regulators
- Adobe buy-out is XML tonic
- iPods seal clubbing fame
- Music ISP poses iTunes threat
- P2P Euro law 'will make crooks of us all'
- Sony CD-protection tool on-test
 
 
A proposed European law will turn millions of file sharers into criminals, a top technology analyst has warned.


The European Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive will target those who use peer-to-peer networking software to share unlicensed copies of music, movies and other products. and even argues that file sharers should be sent to prison.


Bill Thompson, a technology analyst writing for BBC News who admits to using file-sharing service KaZaA, said: "That means me, and it probably mean you as well, if you're a regular Internet user who has realised that there is a lot of old music out there that you simply can't find in record stores, but is easily available over one or other of the P2P networks."


"If passed, this law means that anyone who thinks that their copyrights are being breached could use the courts to obtain personal information from internet service providers or web hosting companies.


"But it also means that breaking technical copyright protection measures for any reason, even if it is to make a legally-permissible copy of a file for backup purposes, would itself be illegal.


"It's important to press for changes before the Directive is finalised, since national governments have limited scope for changing things after that point."
 
P2P Euro law 'will make crooks of us all'
By Macworld staff

 
Also in the news
- Poll: 50% of Macworld readers MacExpo-bound
- UK broadband rollout 'bound by red tape'
- G5, iTunes take 2003-innovation crown
- US inquiry fuels Web-patent row
- The Times in Mac/PC head-to-head
- 640MB iBook RAM barrier smashed
- Flash MX update posted
- Top music school in free-lesson bonanza
- Toshiba to double iPod-drive production
- MS face-off with EC regulators
- Adobe buy-out is XML tonic
- iPods seal clubbing fame
- Music ISP poses iTunes threat
- P2P Euro law 'will make crooks of us all'
- Sony CD-protection tool on-test
 
 
A proposed European law will turn millions of file sharers into criminals, a top technology analyst has warned.


The European Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive will target those who use peer-to-peer networking software to share unlicensed copies of music, movies and other products. and even argues that file sharers should be sent to prison.


Bill Thompson, a technology analyst writing for BBC News who admits to using file-sharing service KaZaA, said: "That means me, and it probably mean you as well, if you're a regular Internet user who has realised that there is a lot of old music out there that you simply can't find in record stores, but is easily available over one or other of the P2P networks."


"If passed, this law means that anyone who thinks that their copyrights are being breached could use the courts to obtain personal information from internet service providers or web hosting companies.


"But it also means that breaking technical copyright protection measures for any reason, even if it is to make a legally-permissible copy of a file for backup purposes, would itself be illegal.


"It's important to press for changes before the Directive is finalised, since national governments have limited scope for changing things after that point."

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5101550.html

Media companies quietly using P2P networks
 
Reuters
November 3, 2003, 3:40 PM PT
 
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 Even as entertainment companies remain locked in legal battles against file-sharing services, some are quietly experimenting with ways to use the networks to their advantage.
One company, called BigChampagne, is tracking music downloads for radio giant Clear Channel. Another, Jun Group, is deliberately releasing music to Web file sharers in order to generate buzz.

Jun Group's Mitchell Reichgut, a former advertising executive, said his service provides record labels with the means to transform their decades-old model for selling music.


 

"Basically, the labels have a choice. They can fight and continue losing money or try to tweak this 100-year-old model and get immediate results for artists, consumers and sponsors," Reichgut said.

Jun Group recently reached agreements with a songwriter, a beverage company and a TV network--entities that would normally be very careful to protect their products--to release their content onto peer-to-peer networks.

BigChampagne also tracks song-swapping networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus for record labels, which in turn use the data to persuade radio stations to play their songs.

Tracking downloading activity can predict a hit before a song gets radio airplay. If a particular song is heavily downloaded, a record label could use that as a selling point to ask radio stations to put the song in a heavier rotation.

"At any particular moment, we're working with most of the labels. This is an industry that relies on immediate data on consumer reaction," said Eric Garland, BigChampagne's chief executive officer.

Label executives say BigChampagne provides both a gauge of consumer tastes and an indication of piracy trends.

"We're definitely using it as a tool. It's just part of a bigger trend of the labels using real data to figure out marketing plans--as opposed to radio charts that are not tied directly to consumer information," said Jeremy Welt, head of new media at Maverick Records, a Time Warner label.

Undercutting the legal battle
Many labels are hesitant to admit that they are talking with Jun Group or using BigChampagne, due to the industry's antipiracy fight. The industry's argument in court battles against file sharing hinges in large part on the argument that file-sharing networks serve no purpose other than to foster copyright infringement.

Record labels' use of file-sharing networks for market research or promotion purposes could undercut that legal claim.

"It's remarkable, the disparity between the labels' legal battle and their understanding that product is moving online and a desire to be at the fore of the movement," Garland said.

While BigChampagne uses music download data for market research, Jun's promotion method is more direct. It distributes material to the top levels of the file-sharing universe--the more technical users who trade files on Internet Relay Chat and Usenet.

"Known as the Internet arbiters of cool, they get the content first and distribute it through the rest of the community, creating a buzz. That is why it is such a powerful vehicle for marketing," Reichgut said.

From this top tier of Internet hipsters, the content potentially trickles down to millions of people on networks like Kazaa.

Reichgut said Jun used this method to boost ratings for a daytime program on a TV network that wished to remain anonymous.

"The show had a spike in ratings after Jun made a clip available on file-sharing networks," said Reichgut, who formed Jun with a former Harvard University physics professor, Mitch Golden, and antipiracy consultant Bruce Forest.

Jun detailed another deal with chocolate drink maker Yoo-hoo, which is owned by Cadbury Schweppes, and Kevin Martin, former front man for the rock band Candlebox.

Under the deal, Yoo-hoo sponsored a five-song release by Martin's new band, Kevin Martin & the HiWatts, which involved giving the songs away online. Unlike typical record deals, the songs carry no restrictions and can be freely copied. The catch is that, when played, they display a message on listeners' computers that credits Yoo-hoo.

Under the deal, Martin got a fee from Yoo-hoo and financial support for his tour, while Yoo-hoo gained access to millions of file sharers.

Jun and Yoo-hoo now have a patent that's pending on Jun's proprietary method for distributing content.

Jun expects to announce more deals with recording artists and movie companies, while BigChampagne recently signed a deal to provide data to Clear Channel Communications' Premiere Radio Networks, which runs the airplay-tracking system Mediabase.

Maverick Records' Welt said there were still mixed feelings about using the services.

"It's unfortunate that all this file sharing is happening, and we have to see all the music that is being taken, but at the same time, we have to look at it from every angle. We'd rather get this data from legitimate digital sales and stores, but we're in a transition phase right now," he said.


Story Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151320

WHERE ARE YOU?
Personal computing /Internet /News

RIAA issues new lawsuits in P2P fight
By Dinah Greek [05-12-2003]
Total number of suits filed closes in on 400

 
  

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed its third batch of lawsuits against music file swappers.
This latest onslaught against users of peer-to-peer sites sees subpoenas issued to 41 people accused of uploading copyrighted music files.

While far fewer than the first two rounds, the new suits brings the total number of individuals sued by the RIAA to 382.

But the RIAA warns that there may be more to come as it has also sent letters to a further 90 people who are allegedly swapping files on sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.

The letters give these swappers the chance to reach a settlement with the RIAA before the cases go to trial.

Groupe Archambault, the Canadian equivalent to the RIAA, is also mulling over a similar initiative.

"This is an ongoing strategy, and the way to let people know that there is a risk of consequences is to continue the programme," RIAA president Cary Sherman said in a statement.

"You don't set up a speed trap for one day and stop enforcement thereafter. It has to be consistent."

The RIAA has reportedly settled for around $3,000 per person and has reached agreement with 220 people so far.

It said that this figure is made up of people who have already been sued, people who received notification letters and settled, and people who have decided to 'come clean' after warnings from their ISPs.

Users who signed up for the RIAA's amnesty will not be sued for file swapping in the past - provided they agree not to do it again.

But not everything is going the RIAA's way. Many ISPs are continuing to fight against the subpoenas, which will require them to identify file swappers who use their services.

http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5113638.html

Should ISP subscribers pay for P2P?
Last modified: December 4, 2003, 4:55 PM PST
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

           
Several proposals to collect money from Internet service subscribers to pay for online music swapping are bubbling to public attention in the United States and Canada.

A trade group representing Canadian songwriters and music publishers argued in front of that country's Supreme Court on Wednesday that ISPs should pay into a nationwide pool--similar to a tax now imposed on blank tapes and CDs--to compensate copyright holders for widespread music downloading.

On Tuesday in Los Angeles, the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), a peer-to-peer industry trade group, proposed a related idea that would ultimately give file-swapping networks a service model similar to cable television. Under the early stages of the DCIA proposal, ISPs would collect a fee from anybody using file-trading software and distribute that pool of money to record labels, artists and music publishers.

The DCIA's suggestion was the second in a planned series of three alternative business models aimed at turning file-swapping networks into profitable distribution channels for music. The group is trying to bring record labels, ISPs and file-swapping companies together to discuss an end to the legal wrangling that has dominated the peer-to-peer world to date.

"We're conduits for other people's ideas," said Marty Lafferty, executive director of the DCIA. "We're trying to get three strong proposals together and start wrestling with them by January. We want to get a critical mass of ISPs, music companies and software companies who can say, 'Yes, let's move ahead with one of these.'"

The separate proposals each represent aspects of file-swapping ideas that have been widely discussed in academic circles, but largely rejected by the major music companies.

Dubbed "compulsory licensing," the broad idea would treat online music swapping more like radio listening than retail music buying. Record companies would be required to allow people to trade music but, in turn, would be compensated, much as music songwriters are paid when their songs are heard on the radio in the United States.

The proposal in the Canadian court, backed by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, is more limited than this. Rather than explicitly legalizing file swapping, the proposal would simply implement a fee to provide songwriters ISP-collected royalties as a way to ameliorate potential losses from piracy. The idea has already been partially approved by a lower Canadian court, but only for those cases in which ISPs make temporary local copies or "caches" of content to speed downloads.

The proposal is bitterly opposed by telecommunications companies and ISPs in Canada, which say they are simply conduits of information, not distributors, and so should play no role in collecting royalties. They say the fee would increase Internet costs across the country.

The court is expected to take at least six months to rule on the case.

The DCIA plan is more ambitious. The group suggested putting a $5 surcharge on file swappers' monthly ISP bills in the initial stage and distributing that money largely to copyright holders. Even if some peer-to-peer users decided to stop using the software, the plan could raise nearly $2.5 billion a year, Lafferty said.

Under the plan, ISPs would have to install software such as that from Packeteer or other network-management companies that can identify which applications subscribers are using. Some portion of the fee would go to fund those activities, Lafferty said.

Later stages of the plan would evolve into a structure more like cable television. File swappers could subscribe to "channels" of encrypted content focused on a specific type of music for an extra fee. Ultimately, a top tier of service would be added in which subscribers could pay for individual, tightly copy-protected songs that would not be available at the free-trading lower service levels until a later date.

Both future phases of the plan would require strong encryption and digital rights management technology to be developed that would block the songs from finding their way into the unregulated file-swapping networks.

A previous plan floated by the DCIA looked more like the business model currently used by Brilliant Digital Entertainment subsidiary Altnet, one of the DCIA's founders. Under that plan, copy-protected files would be sold on file-swapping networks in early stages, but ultimately ISPs would install file-identification software inside their networks and bill file swappers for every song downloaded.

A third DCIA-proposed business model that focuses more on entertainment company interests, rather than ISPs or file-swapping software companies, will be released later.

The group's efforts have previously met with skepticism from a different file-swapping trade association, P2P United, which represents companies including Lime Wire, Streamcast Networks, Grokster and Blubster.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/4754.cfm

RIAA sues yet another 41 P2P users

 
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Related articles
· New lawsuits filed by RIAA (10/30/2003)
· RIAA warns 204 P2P users (10/17/2003)
· RIAA settles P2P lawsuits (9/30/2003)
· SBC challenges RIAA's subpoenas (9/16/2003)
· 12-year-old's mom settles with RIAA, P2P association pays the bill (9/10/2003)
· RIAA sues a 12-year-old (9/9/2003)
· Over 250 file swappers sued by RIAA (9/8/2003)
· RIAA wins over 800 subpoenas against P2P users (7/21/2003)
· Verizon forced to hand out subscriber details to RIAA (6/5/2003)
· RIAA contacts 300 U.S. companies (3/19/2003)
· RIAA files a lawsuit against Napster (11/15/1999)
 
 
  Recording Industry Association of America told to press that it has sued yet another 41 P2P users over alleged copyright infringements.
   
  RIAA started its latest manhunt against P2P network users in September and since sued almost 400 American P2P users.
   
  "This is an ongoing strategy, and the way to let people know that there is a risk of consequences is to continue the program," RIAA President Cary Sherman said. "You don't set up a speed trap for one day and stop enforcement thereafter. It has to be consistent."
   
  RIAA also stated that it has reached out-of-court settlements with 220 accused P2P users. This figure includes people who have settled with RIAA, whether they've have been sued or just threatened with RIAA's DMCA letters.

They're trying to show that even anonymous networks are susceptible. . . yeah right, not for long.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/4753.cfm

Two users of Freenet-based P2P network arrested

 
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  Japanese P2P network, Winny, was based on super-secure Freenet network and was supposed to hide all marks of its users' IP addresses, making it impossible to crack down. But now it seems that this network has failed its promise as well. According to CNetAsia, two Japanese users of Winny have been arrested and home of the Winny's developer has been searched by Japanese police.
   
  Creator of Freenet, British Ian Clarke, has stated that he doubts whether Winny used all the Freenet's identity-cloaking and cryptographic features, as these features should make the network truly anonymous.
   
  Two arrested men, aged 41 and 19, are being sued by several companies for making available through P2P network various copyrighted items, including Hollywood movies and Nintendo's games.
   
  Source: CNETAsia

Written by dRD (12/3/2003 18:27)

Discuss this article!
Posted Message
signal

4 Dec 2003 5:08 PM boohooo, some one f!@#$% up..... HACKING FOR DUMMIES BOOK...... its a freenet, that cant be to hard for anyform of goverment to get into. duh....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/32305.html

The Future of P2P File-Sharing Networks
 
By Paul Korzeniowski
TechNewsWorld
December 4, 2003

While the positive uses of file-sharing networks are unquestionable, P2P software seems to have gained most of its popularity by helping individuals illegally download pirated music files.




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The debate about whether peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, which were first made popular with the Napster file-sharing network, should be legitimate or illegitimate continues to rage.
On one side are applications like Morpheus and Kazaa, whose makers say their products have many uses -- adding that they promote the legitimate ones and are not responsible for any illegitimate activities. On the other side are entertainment companies, such as Sony and Disney, which see those products as taking revenue from music labels and artists. The two sides have waged an ongoing war in the courtroom, a battle that continues unabated, and one in which consumers now find themselves as participants.

One can argue about the legality of such applications, but there is no debating their popularity. Sharman Networks, which makes the Kazaa P2P application, claims to have 20 million downloads per month, and StreamCast Networks, which makes Morpheus, says it has 115 million users worldwide.

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The firms note that their products can serve many useful purposes, such as helping the U.S. Army distribute recruiting information and enabling the British Broadcasting Corp. to place a catalog of its databases online.
While the positive uses of file-sharing networks are unquestionable, P2P software seems to have gained most of its popularity by helping individuals illegally download pirated music files and, to a lesser degree, movies. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a lobbying group for entertainment firms, notes that record sales have dropped 31 percent during the last three years, from more than US$14 billion in 2001 to less than $12 billion this year, a change it views as stemming from widespread illegal duplication.

In response, the organization has waged an aggressive, ongoing legal battle to stop inappropriate uses of the software, and a ruling in its favor in 2001 was the reason why Napster closed down. Rather than end the debate, the ruling simply changed the way it was waged. "After the court made its ruling, P2P vendors examined it and delivered products that did not break the law," said Michael Goodman, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group.

A Step Ahead of the Law

The Napster system was declared illegal because it was a shared network with a centralized file-search system. Because company officials therefore had some control over what information flowed over the network, they were deemed responsible for copyright infringements.
Most of the current P2P vendors do not operate networks but instead provide software that others can use to build ad hoc, distributed networks. In these networks, users do not send files directly to others; instead, they let individuals download those files themselves.

Media companies argue that there is little difference between first-generation and second-generation P2P vendors. In both cases, the media companies argue, the vendors know their products are being used for illegal activities.
"We provided evidence to companies like Sharman Networks that their software was knowingly used for copyright infringements, but they did not seem to care," said Jonathan Lamy, a spokesperson for the RIAA.

Advantage P2P
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07-Nov-03As a result of the impasse, the groups have found themselves continually in court during the past few years. The most recent decision, made by the Ninth District Court of California, went in favor of the P2P vendors. The judge, citing a 1980 case involving Sony's VCR, noted that the company was not responsible for any copyright infringements undertaken by its consumers. The RIAA has appealed the most recent P2P ruling, a process that is expected to be completed by February 2004.

In addition to going after the software suppliers, the RIAA decided to bring action directly against individuals who illegally download music. In September, the RIAA served subpoenas to 241 people who each had made hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of songs available over the Internet, and the organization went after 80 more individuals in October.
The group reached settlement with about half of those charged. In addition, the organization offered an amnesty program for individuals who wanted to avoid potential prosecution. As a result, more than 1 million illegal items have been deleted, and the P2P networks have seen significant drops in traffic: Kazaa's traffic is down by as much as 40 percent.

Potential for Compromise
While the vendors and the RIAA have been adversarial during the past few years, there is potential for a compromise. "Neither side wants to continue with the lawsuits, so the real challenge is to develop a new distribution model that satisfies both sides," the Yankee Group's Goodman told TechNewsWorld.

Apple Computer's iTunes service illustrates a case in which performers and vendors have worked together to make music less expensive and more accessible to a wider range of potential customers while ensuring that producers and performers are compensated. Meanwhile, Altnet and Sharman Networks have released a secure commercial P2P service over the Kazaa network that lets users distribute authorized music, movie and game files to paying clients.
The industry is generating many ideas about how the two groups could work together. "We favor compulsory licensing where the government implements a tax on items, such as blank CDs or monthly Internet Service Provider fees, and that money is earmarked as compensation for artists and media companies," said Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, an organization that represents the application-developer interests.

However, the RIAA views such an approach as creating unnecessary government intervention that in fact would be illegal under existing copyright laws. As a result, it seems as if the two sides will look to the courts to settle their dispute for the immediate future.

huge story from Japan on Slashdot

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/12/04/03472...=123&tid=158&tid=99

Posted by simoniker on Thursday December 04, @06:43AM
from the stomp-the-miscreants dept.
nutznboltz writes "According to a story on CNET Asia, two Japanese users of the Winny P2P application have been arrested for copyright violations, and the developer of the P2P software has also had his home searched by police. Winny was 'supposedly anonymous', and purported to be based on Freenet, although Freenet creator Ian Clarke is claiming that Winny is not really like Freenet, and that he's 'not concerned that the Japanese police have somehow found a way to compromise Freenet's security'."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34504.html


Canada OKs P2P music downloads
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 13/12/2003 at 02:25 GMT


   
Canada's copyright agency has OK'd the downloading of copyrighted music from Peer to Peer networks - for now, at least - slapping a small tax onto MP3 music players. The Copyright Board of Canada declined to extend existing levies on blank audio and CD recordable media to DVD recordables, or to removable memory, such as Compact Flash or MMC cards.

While uploading and distributing copyrighted music remains illegal, Canada's simple solution provides copyright holders with some compensation through existing royalty distribution channels.

Three years ago Canada's copyright board imposed a levies on blank media. The cost is 21 cents per blank CD-R data or CD-RW disk, or 77 cents per blank CD-R Audio disc. The new fees for fixed media players are $2 for each device under 1 GB, $15 for devices 1-10 Gbs, and $25 for devices over 10 Gbs.

Two thirds of these levies are shared between agencies representing songwriters (SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada), mechanical copyright holders (SODRAC, the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada), and performers (SOGEDAM). The rest is divided amongst other collection agencies. There are wide exemptions for education and law enforcement.

The one-off fee for music players is small: typically less than what manufacturers budget for exchange rate fluctuations. However the move was opposed by an alliance of big box retailers and beige box PC manufacturers including HP, Dell and Apple. Those three, co-incidentally, have either launched or plan to launch online music stores selling locked music on royalty terms set by the Recording Industry Association of America, the RIAA. In the neighboring the RIAA has been much more successful in passing draconian legislation and criminalizes fair use. While no scheme is likely to please everyone, Canada's example shows that alternatives do exist, and are gathering pace.

Ironically, we've seen vociferous lobbying recently from those with a curiously lop-sided view of 'freedom', seeking to promote technologies that inhibit fair use, eager extend the freedom of large manufacturers to make er, zero profits from their online stores.

A range of other alternative revenue models are discussed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, here. ®




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http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5121479.html

Canada deems P2P downloading legal
Last modified: December 12, 2003, 2:20 PM PST
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

           
update Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian copyright regulators said in a ruling released Friday.

In the same decision, the Copyright Board of Canada imposed a government fee of as much as $25 on iPod-like MP3 players, putting the devices in the same category as audio tapes and blank CDs. The money collected from levies on "recording mediums" goes into a fund to pay musicians and songwriters for revenues lost from consumers' personal copying. Manufacturers are responsible for paying the fees and often pass the cost on to consumers.

The peer-to-peer component of the decision was prompted by questions from consumer and entertainment groups about ambiguous elements of Canadian law. Previously, most analysts had said uploading was illegal but that downloading for personal use might be allowed.

"As far as computer hard drives are concerned, we say that for the time being, it is still legal," said Claude Majeau, secretary general of the Copyright Board.

The decision is likely to ruffle feathers on many sides, from consumer-electronics sellers worried about declining sales to international entertainment companies worried about the spread of peer-to-peer networks.

Copyright holder groups such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had already been critical of Canada's copyright laws, in large part because the country has not instituted provisions similar to those found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. One portion of that law makes it illegal to break, or to distribute tools for breaking, digital copy protection mechanisms, such as the technology used to protect DVDs from piracy.

A lawyer for the Canadian record industry's trade association said the group still believed downloading was illegal, despite the decision.

"Our position is that under Canadian law, downloading is also prohibited," said Richard Pfohl, general counsel for the Canadian Recording Industry Association. "This is the opinion of the Copyright Board, but Canadian courts will decide this issue."

In its decision Friday, the Copyright Board said uploading or distributing copyrighted works online appeared to be prohibited under current Canadian law.

However, the country's copyright law does allow making a copy for personal use and does not address the source of that copy or whether the original has to be an authorized or noninfringing version, the board said.

Under those laws, certain media are designated as appropriate for making personal copies of music, and producers pay a per-unit fee into a pool designed to compensate musicians and songwriters. Most audio tapes and CDs, and now MP3 players, are included in that category. Other mediums, such as DVDs, are not deemed appropriate for personal copying.

Computer hard drives have never been reviewed under that provision, however. In its decision Friday, the board decided to allow personal copies on a hard drive until a fee ruling is made specifically on that medium or until the courts or legislature tell regulators to rule otherwise.

"Until such time, as a decision is made on hard drives, for the time being, (we are ruling) in favor of consumers," Majeau said.

Legal analysts said that courts would likely rule on the file-swapping issue later, despite Friday's opinion.

"I think it is pretty significant," Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said. "It's not that the issue is resolved...I think that sooner or later, courts will sound off on the issue. But one thing they will take into consideration is the Copyright Board ruling."

Friday's decision will also impose a substantial surcharge on hard drive-based music players such as Apple Computer's iPod or the new Samsung Napster player for the first time. MP3 players with up to 10GB of memory will have an added levy of $15 added to their price, while larger players will see $25 added on top of the wholesale price.

MP3 players with less than 1GB of memory will have only a $2 surcharge added to their cost.

With a population of about 31 million people, Canada is approximately one-tenth the size of the United States. But Canadians are relatively heavy users of high-speed Internet connections, which make it easy to download music files. About 4.1 million Canadians were using a broadband connection at home as of the end of June 2003, according to U.K.-based research firm Point Topic. By comparison, U.S. cable and DSL (digital subscriber line) subscribers totaled 22.7 million at the end of September, according to Leichtman Research Group.

Canada has already raised the hackles of some copyright holders through its reluctance to enact measures that significantly expand digital copyright protection, as the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has done in the United States. As a result, Canada could become a model for countries seeking to find a balance between protecting copyright holders' rights and providing consumers with more liberal rights to copyrighted works. For now, it remains unclear how other countries might be influenced by Friday's ruling.

Geist said he believes the tariff decision could be just the tip of the iceberg for hardware makers, as Canadian regulators grapple with the full implications of the policy. Other devices, including PCs, may eventually be brought under the tariff scheme, he predicted.

"Given that they've made a strong stand on (peer-to-peer matters), if the policy remains the same, there's little choice but to move ahead on personal computers," Geist said.

However, a representative of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the group of music copyright holders that typically petitions for new media types to be added to the list, said computers were not on its agenda.

"We have never sought a levy on computer hard drives and do not intend to do so in the future," Lucie Beaucheni, vice chair of the CPCC, said.


Dig deeper: Copyright | Piracy | Peer to peer

 
Group wants P2P files to pay

December 10, 2003
Should ISP subscribers pay for P2P?

December 4, 2003
Network tool reins in music downloads

December 2, 2003
Cyberpiracy north of the border

October 27, 2003
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So much for their scare tactics. . .

http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/3288481

 

December 12, 2003
GAO: P2P Porn no Worse Than on Web
By Roy Mark

Contradicting lurid testimony at several congressional hearings earlier this year, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) insists that pornography available on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is "not necessarily" more dangerous than what is readily available on Web sites.

In a letter to Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, director of Information Management Issues at the GAO Linda D. Koontz says "pornography is also easily accessible through other electronic means, such as Web sites, and the risk of children's inadvertent exposure to pornography exists on these other mediums as well."

The GAO stance comes on the heels of Hatch's statement that the easy availability of pornography on P2P networks presented many risks. At a September Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Hatch said, "I am currently considering legislative solutions to the many risks inherent in the use of peer-to-peer networks. Recent studies have shown that millions and millions of pornographic files are available for downloading on these networks at any given time."

Hatch based his remarks on a March GAO report entitled, File-Sharing Programs: Peer-to-Peer Networks Provide Ready Access to Child Pornography. While the courts have ruled pornography is protected free speech, child pornography is illegal in almost every civilized nation.

Koontz's letter to Hatch points out the GAO report was based on tips received by National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The NCMEC, a federally funded non-profit organization that serves as a national resource center for information related to crimes against children, operates a CyberTipline that receives child pornography tips provided by the public and ISPs.

Last year, the NCMEC CyberTiplines received more than 62,000 Internet-related reports of child pornography. Of these, 840, or about 1.4 percent, were related to peer-to-peer networks.

"However, we do not know if the number of reports received by NCMEC accurately reflects the volume of child pornography on peer-to-peer networks or on the Internet in general, since the reports are based on tips that the public or system users submit rather than a systematic analysis of network content," Koontz wrote.

The GAO calculates the actual introduction of child pornography on P2P networks would be difficult to detect or stop, but it is possible for law enforcement officials to discover the identities of individuals sharing child pornography and other illegal material on P2P networks.

Unlike traditional Web sites, which have centralized content management, users control the content available on P2P networks, and the users of the network are constantly changing.

"Nonetheless, law enforcement agencies can search peer-to-peer networks for child pornography and investigate reports of illegal material submitted to the NCMEC and other agencies," Koontz wrote. "Once child pornography files are identified on a peer-to-peer network, legal mechanisms can be used to identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals sharing the illegal files."

The GAO letter comes as Congress is considering a number of bills that could have an impact on the P2P business, which also includes instant messaging, collaborative meeting applications and distributed computing.

In July, Joe Pitts, R.-Pa., introduced legislation requiring file-swapping services to obtain parental consent before allowing children to use P2P network software. The Protecting Children from Peer-to-Peer Pornography Act (H.R. 2885) would also mandate that distributors of P2P software provide notice that pornographic material can be accessed through the networks and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to develop "do-not-install beacons" to block downloading of P2P software.

P2P United, the new trade group of the file-sharing industry, claims Pitts' bill is based "factually flawed premises" and discriminatory since it does apply to any and all software which affords internet connectivity in general, such as Web browsers and search engines.

"Singling out peer-to-peer programs will do little if anything to increase the safety and security of children or adults," P2P United states in a position paper. "Indeed, such ineffectual 'feel good' legislation runs a significant risk of providing parents and others with a false sense of security."



 



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Good luck on this shit. . .

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5119365.html
  
News Software
 

Group wants P2P files to pay
 
By John Borland
CNET News.com
December 10, 2003, 12:52 PM PT
 
 Add your opinion

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A new standards group, anchored by Microsoft and Universal Music Group, is developing a technology that members hope will let music, movies and other content be distributed more efficiently online.
The Content Reference Forum is hoping to create a kind of intelligent file that can be distributed through file-sharing networks like Kazaa, Web pages, e-mail or almost anywhere else online.

Instead of containing a song or movie itself, the file would set up a process that automatically delivers files in the right format and potentially triggers an automatic payment system that could be changed moment to moment by the content distributor.


 

"This would essentially say, if you have the rights to this piece of content, we don't care what kind of device you're using," said Albhy Galuten, chairman of the new group and former senior vice president for advanced technology at Universal Music. "It would say, tell me the device, and we'll send you the correct file."

The group is hoping to make online content distribution more flexible and help break down barriers between incompatible formats and copy-protection technologies. Currently, people who send files through file-trading networks, or via e-mail or instant messaging, are largely locked in to sending a specific file that may not be readable by people who lack the appropriate software or hardware.

Most entertainment content sold online is encoded in proprietary formats and wrapped in anticopying technologies such as Microsoft's Windows Media or Apple Computer's FairPlay. That means that someone who wants to share a Windows Media-encoded song purchased through Napster's online song store can't share it with someone who wants to buy it and play it on an Apple iPod, for example.

Under the new technology, people would share the "Content Reference" file instead, which would point them to authorized versions of the content that would automatically fit whatever device or computer software the recipient is using.

Other plans for encouraging people to share authorized content though file-sharing networks are already in place. Altnet, a content distribution system that plugs in to the Kazaa network, offers copy-protected games, music and movies to file sharers, who can download the authorized versions and pay for them instead of seeking free versions. The company has been unsuccessful in winning support from major music labels or movie studios, however.

The Content Reference project was started by Galuten and others while he was at Universal in an effort to create a content distribution system more flexible than what exists today. The group's membership currently includes Microsoft, ContentGuard, VeriSign, Macrovision, ARM and NTT. Galuten said he expects other companies to join over time.

The forum said it will act as a standards group similar to the World Wide Web Consortium or the Motion Picture Experts Group. It has drawn on technology standards developed by both, but has added new technology specifications for its specific purposes, Galuten said.

The initial version of the Content Reference specifications are available at the forum's Web site. A test version of the technology will be operating in early 2004, Galuten said.




Forward in Format for

Taiwan is looking more like its mainland brethren every day.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.c..._story.php?id=51249



Taiwanese P2P service faces criminal charges
[PC Pro] 12:41

Kuro, a Taiwanese file sharing service, is to face criminal charges after record label representatives filed a complaint with the public prosecutors' office.
Kuro's management team has been charged with violating Copyright Law. Separate charges have been brought against some of its subscribers.

The service charges users of its P2P network for access to shared files and claims to have some 500,000 subscribers. Taiwanese record label representatives described it as 'in essence a Napster for money'.

Kuro's website appears to be having some problems at present but it is not known whether this is related to the prosecutions.

Simon Aughton

http://www.boardwatch.com/document.asp?doc_id=45395

Report Points to P2P Problems



Light Reading and Boardwatch today published a report on peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic, focusing on two aspects of it -- how to prevent it becoming a problem, and how to actually make money from it (see Controlling P2P Traffic).

The report, by Geoff Bennett, Heavy Reading Chief Technologist, starts by demonstrating why P2P traffic is a big issue for a lot of service providers, namely:

It now accounts for 50 to 70 percent of all Internet traffic, according to P-Cube Inc., a developer of P2P management technology. ISPs often don’t realize how much P2P traffic they’re handling because P2P protocols deliberately disguise themselves to sidestep efforts to control traffic volumes.


A high proportion of P2P traffic goes “off net.” In other words, it doesn’t stay on an ISP’s own network. ISPs end up having to pay transit charges to other operators for carrying traffic that isn’t even earning them a profit.


P2P traffic is symmetrical, so it makes awkward use of asymmetrical DSL lines. P2P traffic also runs continuously. There’s no periods of high and low demand, which rules out trying to accommodate it in off-peak periods.
The report reviews ways of controlling P2P traffic without upsetting users. One example is to cap upstream bandwidth but not downstream. This not only suits ADSL technology but also means that users experience good performance on the aspect of the service they can see -- incoming files. They’re less like to be aware that outgoing files are suffering delays.

Finally, the report looks at how service providers can generate new revenues from P2P, typically by offering a two-tier Internet access service -- a basic one with capped P2P bandwidth and a premium one in which specific channels (for gaming, for instance) get more bandwidth. The article points out that service providers have mastered the business of billing people for small amounts of money, and should leverage this when working with content providers.

More details in the report: Controlling P2P Traffic.

— Peter Heywood, Founding Editor, Light Reading



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archives of Related Light Reading Webinars:

Controlling P2P: Who’s Stealing Your Bandwidth?
Flow-Based Networking: A Better Business Model for IP?
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BEST OF ECT NEWS:
The Future of P2P File-Sharing Networks
 
By Paul Korzeniowski
TechNewsWorld
January 2, 2004

This story was originally published on December 4, 2003, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series.




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The debate about whether peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, which were first made popular with the Napster file-sharing network, should be legitimate or illegitimate continues to rage.
On one side are applications like Morpheus and Kazaa, whose makers say their products have many uses -- adding that they promote the legitimate ones and are not responsible for any illegitimate activities. On the other side are entertainment companies, such as Sony and Disney, which see those products as taking revenue from music labels and artists. The two sides have waged an ongoing war in the courtroom, a battle that continues unabated, and one in which consumers now find themselves as participants.

One can argue about the legality of such applications, but there is no debating their popularity. Sharman Networks, which makes the Kazaa P2P application, claims to have 20 million downloads per month, and StreamCast Networks, which makes Morpheus, says it has 115 million users worldwide.

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The firms note that their products can serve many useful purposes, such as helping the U.S. Army distribute recruiting information and enabling the British Broadcasting Corp. to place a catalog of its databases online.
While the positive uses of file-sharing networks are unquestionable, P2P software seems to have gained most of its popularity by helping individuals illegally download pirated music files and, to a lesser degree, movies. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a lobbying group for entertainment firms, notes that record sales have dropped 31 percent during the last three years, from more than US$14 billion in 2001 to less than $12 billion this year, a change it views as stemming from widespread illegal duplication.

In response, the organization has waged an aggressive, ongoing legal battle to stop inappropriate uses of the software, and a ruling in its favor in 2001 was the reason why Napster closed down. Rather than end the debate, the ruling simply changed the way it was waged. "After the court made its ruling, P2P vendors examined it and delivered products that did not break the law," said Michael Goodman, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group.

A Step Ahead of the Law

The Napster system was declared illegal because it was a shared network with a centralized file-search system. Because company officials therefore had some control over what information flowed over the network, they were deemed responsible for copyright infringements.
Most of the current P2P vendors do not operate networks but instead provide software that others can use to build ad hoc, distributed networks. In these networks, users do not send files directly to others; instead, they let individuals download those files themselves.

Media companies argue that there is little difference between first-generation and second-generation P2P vendors. In both cases, the media companies argue, the vendors know their products are being used for illegal activities.
"We provided evidence to companies like Sharman Networks that their software was knowingly used for copyright infringements, but they did not seem to care," said Jonathan Lamy, a spokesperson for the RIAA.

Advantage P2P
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07-Nov-03As a result of the impasse, the groups have found themselves continually in court during the past few years. The most recent decision, made by the Ninth District Court of California, went in favor of the P2P vendors. The judge, citing a 1980 case involving Sony's VCR, noted that the company was not responsible for any copyright infringements undertaken by its consumers. The RIAA has appealed the most recent P2P ruling, a process that is expected to be completed by February 2004.

In addition to going after the software suppliers, the RIAA decided to bring action directly against individuals who illegally download music. In September, the RIAA served subpoenas to 241 people who each had made hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of songs available over the Internet, and the organization went after 80 more individuals in October.
The group reached settlement with about half of those charged. In addition, the organization offered an amnesty program for individuals who wanted to avoid potential prosecution. As a result, more than 1 million illegal items have been deleted, and the P2P networks have seen significant drops in traffic: Kazaa's traffic is down by as much as 40 percent.

Potential for Compromise
While the vendors and the RIAA have been adversarial during the past few years, there is potential for a compromise. "Neither side wants to continue with the lawsuits, so the real challenge is to develop a new distribution model that satisfies both sides," the Yankee Group's Goodman told TechNewsWorld.

Apple Computer's iTunes service illustrates a case in which performers and vendors have worked together to make music less expensive and more accessible to a wider range of potential customers while ensuring that producers and performers are compensated. Meanwhile, Altnet and Sharman Networks have released a secure commercial P2P service over the Kazaa network that lets users distribute authorized music, movie and game files to paying clients.
The industry is generating many ideas about how the two groups could work together. "We favor compulsory licensing where the government implements a tax on items, such as blank CDs or monthly Internet Service Provider fees, and that money is earmarked as compensation for artists and media companies," said Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, an organization that represents the application-developer interests.

However, the RIAA views such an approach as creating unnecessary government intervention that in fact would be illegal under existing copyright laws. As a result, it seems as if the two sides will look to the courts to settle their dispute for the immediate future.
Other stories by Paul Korzeniowski
The Most Destructive Viruses of All Time
2003-12-19 05:00:00
VoIP's Guerilla Effort To Supplant Traditional Telcos
2003-12-10 06:43:54
The Future of P2P File-Sharing Networks
2003-12-04 09:07:13
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