Auditor general’s office says it’s OK to link to, but not host, its reports Winnipeg Free Press
The office of Canada’s auditor general says it’s perfectly OK – and much appreciated – if websites link to reports on its government site, but warns they should not be hosted elsewhere. Advocates for copyright reform expressed concern Thursday when the auditor general’s office demanded the Globe and Mail newspaper remove a copy of a report that had been attached to one of its online articles. The Globe was displaying the report with a web application called Scribd, which allows large documents to be embedded on a web page without the need for an external program like Adobe Reader. It also keeps readers on the same web page, rather than sending them off to another site to read the document.

Fudge Messaging: A new open source encoding for messaging Heise Online
Kirk Wylie and the OpenGamma team have announced the Fudge Messaging Project, an open source message encoding protocol. Fudge (Fast Unstructured Data Generic Encoding) is designed to be a self-describing, type-safe, binary hierarchical encoding suitable for use in messaging layers in middleware. The project is in its early days, but already has Java and C# reference implementations. The Java implementation is in daily use at OpenGamma and is, according to Wylie, “rock-solid in stability and very good in performance”. What is still to come is “polished releases” says Wylie, but the developers wanted to get the code out as soon as they reasonably could.

We couldn’t disconnect clients: Malone The Australian
iiNet chief Michael Malone has told the NSW Federal Court that the ISP’s service agreements did not provide it with sufficient contractual rights to take action against customers who infringe copyright online. Mr Malone made the comments during his third day of cross-examination by lawyers representing a loose coalition of 34 entertainment companies – represented by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft — pursuing a landmark copyright claim against the ISP. The studios claim that iiNet authorised its customers to illegally share movies on its network by refusing to act on a series of infringement notices the studios’ online piracy investigators began sending to the company in July 2008. However, Mr Malone told the court he believed that laws regulating the way that carriers can use customer information prevented iiNet from helping content owners enforce their copyrights.

Backdoor in top iPhone games stole user data, suit claims The Register
A maker of some of the most popular games for the iPhone has been surreptitiously collecting users’ cell numbers without their permission, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. The complaint claims best-selling games made by Storm8 contained secret code that bypassed safeguards built into the iPhone to prevent the unauthorized snooping of user information. The Redwood City, California, company, which claims its games have been downloaded more than 20 million times, has no need to collect the numbers.

Gadget problems divide the sexes BBC
Men and women have different approaches to dealing with technology problems, according to a gadget helpline. The service found that 64% of its male callers and 24% of its female callers had not read the instruction manual before ringing up. 12% of male and 7% of female customers simply needed to plug in or turn on their appliance. The company, Gadget Helpline, surveyed 75,000 calls received between 25 September and 23 October 2009.

Confirmed: Skype Founders Settle With eBay And Others, Get 14% Stake In Skype, Not 10% TechCrunch
eBay has just announced that it has reached a settlement with the founders of Skype, clearing the way for the sale of the Internet communication company to a consortium formed by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Index Ventures, a historical investor in Skype, is not going to be part of that buying party after all, and its partner Mike Volpi is definitely out of the picture (no surprises there).

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November, 2009

‘Butt’ is Royal Canadian Legion spokesman Bob Butt, and he’s quoted in a Toronto Sun story on how the Dutch Oven Bakery in Coburg, Ontario, crossed bayonets with the legion over, Yes, alleged copyright infringement.

It’d been “fulfilling the order of some poppy cookies for the family of a fallen Canadian soldier from the Afghanistan conflict,” says the story.

But, “That would be a violation of the trademark,” explained Butt.

He apparently said the legion understood people are “well meaning” when they use the poppy and unaware of the rules.

“But rules are rules.”

Butt “points out that the legion has the right to do with the poppy what it feels is in its best interest and that none of it has ever been for commercial use,” says the story.

Ah SO!

Poppyrights, anyone?

(Cheers, Marc)

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Toronto Sun – Bakery told to nix poppy tribute, November 6, 2009

But it is — just like some quack medical practitioner or snakeoil salesman who simply moves on somewhere else every time he’s found to be a fake.

Fired by the RIAA, it showed up in Australia where, thanks to its ‘evidence,’ a Brisbane student was thrown out of his dormitory.

And it’s still there, and still being paid to cause trouble.

We’ve seen numerous examples of threats, but we’ve never heard of any actual follow-up legal actions.

Meanwhile, “I received smiliar email from TPG,” said a Reader’s Write yesterday, going on, “this was my reply thanks to G Thompson [NOTE - an ever-helpful Australian p2net reader]   »»»

Hi:

I can categorically state that Media Sentry are NOT authorised to operate within Australia nor to Intercept communications within Australia no matter what they state in the email. In fact stating they can and making published allegations against a specific user with identifiers attached so that the user is made known to other organisations ie: an Australian ISP, Educational Institution, and Rental Accommodation Manager(s) could result in action on defamatory grounds being taken against them if the publication of the information causes damage (which in this case seems likely that it has).

And thinking they are immune since they are outside Australian jurisdiction would be a folly on their behalf and I kindly draw their attention to “Dow Jones and Company Inc v Gutnick [2002] HCA 56? (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2002/56.htmlsure yet they bought the tickets are)

My understanding is that MediaSentry is covertly monitoring telecommunications without authorisation from an Australian court. Not only has MediaSentry defamed us to an ISP, I believe they’re risking charges of illegal surveillance.

Please let me know your action steps

Should it be not favorable, I may see fit to change to a more suitable ISP

your thoughts guys?

Stay tuned.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

discredited so many times – MediaSentry and RIAA: government probe?, April 5, 2009
thrown out - MediaSentry operates in Australia: confirmed, May 23, 2009

November, 2009

As a p2pnet reader kindly pointed out yesterday, “The songs are 25c a piece, 30c processing charge PER ORDER.

“So if you only buy one mp3 its 55c, but if you buy 100 songs its $25.30.”

But that would now be ‘were’ 25c a piece because EMI has won a temporary restraining order effective immediately, and valid until November 20 when arguments will be heard from both sides in a court hearing, says Billboard, going on:

“The service’s owner, Hank Risan, claims he doesn’t need to license the music as the service is using re-recorded versions of the songs using a technology called “psycho-acoustic simulation” and obtained new copyrights as a result.”

At 7:40 am Pacific, Bluebeat was still offering what seems to be the full range of Beatles tunes, said p2pnet, going on:

“Not only but also, it’s continuing to stream Beatles albums, including the new remastered versions, for free.”

However it was offline at 10:45 amp Pacific today.

“This doesn’t, of course, make any kind of difference to the online availability of songs from the Fab Four,” we oted.

“They’ve  been downloadable from the various P2P networks since the year dot.”

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Billboard – EMI Wins Temporary Injunction Against BlueBeat, November 5, 2009

“ISPs around the world may be forced to snoop on their subscribers and cut them off if they are found to have shared copyright-protected music on the Internet, under an international agreement being promoted by the U.S.,” said the IDG News Service.

Promoted by America, Yes, we said, “but on behalf of the entertainment industry”.

Because as we’ve stressed repeatedly, the Three Strikes and you’re Off The Net ‘initiative’ touted around the world as individual plans is nothing but a part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to coerce milquetoast governments into  acting as corporate copyright agents  with taxpayers footing the bill, and local ISPs acting as enforcement cops against their own customers.

And leading the way at the moment is Britain, with secretary of state for business Peter Mandelson as the front-man, and the Digital Economy Bill slated for debate by the UK parliament.

However, Spain has now joined Germany in refusing to adopt the scheme.

It does not intend to disconnect Internet users who repeatedly ignore warnings not to download copyright protected content, Billboard has culture minister Angeles González-Sinde (right) saying.

The government “is not considering punitive measures for the end user of Internet,” González-Sinde stated during a TV show,  says the story, going on »»»

This ruled out following the three-strikes tendencies of France or the United Kingdom against illegal downloaders.

González-Sinde said the first thing to do is “attack the origin of all these products that are on the Web sites, as well as those who benefit from them.” She added that Internet piracy was “a very complex matter,” and would surely be very present in debates during Spain’s six-month presidency of the European Union that begins Jan. 1.

Meanwhile in the UK, First Secretary of State, Lord Mandelson, has been pushing the government’s plans to disconnect illegal file-sharers in legislation similar to the French “three-strikes” Hadopi laws passed earlier this year.

Mandelson said that the days of “consequence-free” web file-sharing are over, although he promises internet disconnections would only be used as a last resort.

Jane and John Q. Public

We’ll never know how many hundreds of millions of dollars Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music have squandered on their vicious worldwide media blitz designed to paint the men, women and children who share music  online as hardcore criminals and thieves — money which rightfully should have gone to paying and promoting contracted artists,  not to mention shareholders and investors.

In an ideal world, they’d now be reaping the vast financial benefits of tapping into the  burgeoning world of online digital music.

Instead, they’re reporting diminishing sales, which is hardly surprising given their sue ‘em all campaigns have been  publicising and promoting file sharing, the very thing they’ve been failing at enormous cost to crush.

Using ‘copyright infringement’ as their justification, they’ve attacked young children, dead grandmothers, people with serious medica conditions for whom undue pressure could cause potential fatal repercussions, all to no avail.

And their willing parners throughout have been, and continue to be, mainstream print and electronic news outlets.

The only people who haven’t had any say at all have been the ones who keep everyone in business — Jane and John Q. Public.

However the net and P2P are changing that.

Jane and John now have online voices which can’t be muted.

Stay tuned.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

IDG News Service – Trade Talks Hone in on Internet Abuse and ISP Liability, November 3, 2009
coerce milquetoast governments – Three strikes world-wide, and a global DMCA, November 4, 2009
joined Germany – Germany says ‘No!’ to 3 strikes law, October 28, 2009
Billboard – Spanish Govt Rules Out Three-Strikes Law, November 5, 2009

“Having spent the first day focused on the now-leaked Internet provisions and the second day on the leaked criminal provisions, negotiators will spend this morning discussing whether they should make the draft treaty public,” he blogged.

Now, “As the ACTA story begins to capture mainstream media attention (front page of the Ottawa Citizen, coverage from the Washington Post, NZ Herald, the Atlantic, Wired), the press release from the now-concluded Seoul talks should be released shortly,” he says today, going on:

” If the past releases are any indication, it will thank the Korean government and blandly describe the talks on Internet and criminal provisions.

And in an update, ” release out, exactly as predicted“.

We’ve reproduced it in full below, for what it’s worth, which is nothing »»»

The 6th Round of Negotiations on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

The 6th round of negotiations on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was held in Seoul on November 4th to 6th, 2009, hosted by the Republic of Korea. Participants in the negotiations included Australia, Canada, the European Union, represented by the European Commission, the EU Presidency (Sweden), and EU Member States, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States of America (alphabetically ordered).

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Gheewhan Kim, Director-General, and Ms. Miyon Lee, Director, Multilateral Trade Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Participants underlined the importance of ACTA as an agreement which shall provide for an enhanced framework to fight global infringement of intellectual property rights, particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy.

The discussions at the meeting were productive and focused on enforcement of rights in the digital environment and criminal enforcement. Participants also discussed the importance of transparency including the availability of opportunities for stakeholders and the public in general to provide meaningful input into the negotiating process.

Participants in the meeting agreed that the next meeting would be hosted by Mexico in January 2010. Participants also reaffirmed their commitment to continue their work with the aim of concluding the agreement as soon as possible in 2010.

However, says Geist, “More informative is the actual document that served as the basis for my postings earlier this week …

He has the documet embedded on his blog, pointing out a login is required for PDF download.

Definitely stay tuned.

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summed up – ACTA in Korea: ’secret talks on transparency’, November 5, 2009
blogged – ACTA Negotiations, Day Three: Secret Talks on Transparency, November 5, 2009

She says on her website posted, obviously, before she was named as an MEP  »»»

My name is Amelia Andersdotter and I am 21 years old. I study Economics and Spanish at Lund University in southern Sweden. I am one of the top candidates in the 2009 European Parliament elections for Piratpartiet (the Swedish Pirate Party).

My political ambitions include a thorough revision and change of the copyright legislation, a complete removal of the patent system and a more balanced approach to security, safety and the market versus privacy, where the latter in particular needs to be taken much more into consideration.

I believe in strong civil rights, even in a digital environment.

I have been working toward this end for some three years, beginning in the spring of 2006.

During that period of time I have managed to take an active part in the development of Ung Pirat, the political youth organisation associated with Piratpartiet.

I have also taken an active role in the development of the party’s European political programme and the co-operation between Pirate Parties and Young Pirates organisations in Europe and around the world.

We’ll stay tuned, Amelia.

Good luck.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

Unfortunately, the ‘report’ originates with McAfee, not the most reliable of sources.

It regularly produces schlock-horror PR puff pieces disguised as press statements, and experiences difficulty distinguishing real problems from unreal ones.

A new report, “shows a spike in the number of websites hosting copyright infringing content in the month that infamous file-sharing website The Pirate Bay was shut down,” says the story.

It goes on »»»

The site was forced offline in August by a Swedish court order following a legal battle with motion picture and music industry groups.

The Pirate Bay came back online a short time later, but, according to McAfee, there was a significant jump in new file-sharing sites during the downtime.

“The Pirate Bay example shows how difficult it is to ’stop’ data once it is on the web,” the report said, noting »»»

Although a website can be shut down, anyone who has accessed the content (pictures, games, text, movies, etc) may still have some and be able to redistribute it.

Oh, Really ?!

No need to stay tuned.

(Cheers, Andrew)

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news.com.au – Piracy increased in days after Pirate Bay closed, November 3, 2009
schlock-horror PR puff pieces – New McAfee ‘report’, October 20, 2009
experiences difficulty – McAfee targets p2pnet. Again., August 28, 2008

I was referring to the creation of a2f2a.com,  launched by UK music artist Billy Bragg and myself a little over a month ago following the not-so-close combat between Allen and P2P file sharers.

The site is doing really well to the extent it quickly became evident we needed someone to keep track of input that’s continuing to flood in and Devil’s Advocate took on the task of digest editor. Below is the bottom line from the first entry »»»

1. Industry propaganda has been spread all around, leaving artists and fans inappropriately pitted against each other, when in fact both want good music released in a convenient format, at a fair price, and with fair remunerations.
2. Trust has to be rebuilt on both fronts.
3. File sharers are not “criminals” or “thieves”.
4. Artists are not “gold-diggers” looking to gain maximum wealth from minimal effort.
5. Artists want to be paid, and the fans want to pay them.
6. The Recording Industry is no longer essential to either produce or distribute music, however currently still owns and controls virtually everything that shapes the scene.

Yesterday afternoon I was re-reading some of the posts in a2f2a when my phone rang. It was a friend from the UK.

“Joss Stone is having a go at Lily Allen over the fie sharing thing,” she said.

She is?

Later, I also found a Reader’s Write on p2pnet saying the same thing.

Sorting the weeds from the flowers

“File sharing’s not okay for British music,” Allen had blogged in a post  picked up by the mainstream media and trumpeted around the world. “We need to find new ways to help consumers access and buy music legally, but saying file sharing’s fine is not helping anyone — and definitely not helping British music,” she’d delared. “I want to get people working together to use new digital opportunities to encourage new artists.”

I’d definitely agree with the last part. It’s one of the reasons Billy and I started a2f2a.com. The other is: contrary to corporate music industry  statements, online music fans would love to pay artists, as long as they know the money is going to them.

Now Stone, a UK soul singer who played Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s wife # 4 in The Tudors series, has thrown herself into the file sharing mêlée telling the Press Association »»»

She’s [Lily Allen] not going to win [the] fight [over downloads]. None of us will win that fight. So let’s just accept it and see it as something that can be beautiful and might change music for the better. It might sort the weeds from the flowers.

That’s good.

Not so good is the fact she also launched a personal attack against Allen who, according to Stone in the Guardian, “needs to sell records because she’s not a singer, and that’s not an offence to her because I think that she knows that too”.

Allen is “more of a personality than she is a singer”, Stone said in a “response to Allen’s increasingly militant stance against illegal filesharers,” says the story, which goes on »»»

For Stone, musicians shouldn’t seek to amass as big a fortune as possible – but simply support themselves. “Who said that musicians have to be millionaires?” she asked. “Who made this a rule? We don’t need that much money. We only need enough to make music, eat and go on tour.

“Of course, that’s all for her to say,” it says, adding, “Stone’s contract with EMI is worth a reported £7.5m.”

And back in 2005, “EMI felt able to give Joss Stone, a teenager it has under contract, $100,000 worth of uncut diamonds as a birthday present,” said p2pnet.

‘… we can work together to disarm the industry …’

Bragg, as a board member of Britain’s new Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), set up to represent the interests of recording artists, wants to see musicians and fans working together instead of against each other.

He was recently at a meeting with Intellectual Property Office officials in London.

“Talking afterwards we all felt that was very significant, a tacit acceptance of the FAC argument that non-commercial behaviour needs to be lifted out of copyright law,” he said in a comment post on a2f2a.com

Now he’s looking for support to break the cycle from file sharers, “particularly in the big fight that we will have next month when the government publish their Digital Britain Bill,” he said, adding:

“Copyright is the stick that they use to beat you and I believe that, as it is being debated at the highest level over the next six months, as governments ask for submissions on the subject, we can work together to disarm the industry to such an extent that they can no longer beat you up over non-commercial use.”

Stay tuned.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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not-so-close combat – Lily Allen disses P2P file sharing, September 17, 2009
Guardian – Joss Stone: Lily Allen is not a singer, November 4, 2009
p2pnet – Big Music sings the blues, April 19, 2005

She also runs the music, culture and technology blog zed equals zee.

Er, zed equals zee?

An assistant professor of materials science at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in the US, turns out she’s  Canadian, like me. Which, as she said in an email, explains the name of her blog.

Not only but also, she’s just finished a sabbatical in Seattle, close my part of the world, spending time on Gabriola, one of the islands near my home on Vancouver Island, about one-and-a-half hours  by ferry off the coast of mainland British Columbia.

Small world.

And she wrote this originally on zed to zee, reprising it later on on the Music Think Tank blog as What are music fans willing to pay for?

She had this as the intro: »»»

I’m not a musician.

I’m a fan.

And from my perspective, it’s clear that fans do want to support artists that they like.

“Here’s a list of things that fans will pay for, even if they can get your music for free,” she says, going on »»»

The music. First and foremost, many people will (and do) voluntarily pay for digital music, even if they don’t have to. This might be because it’s easier to use iTunes than BitTorrent. Or it might be because they want to support the artist. Or both.

CDs and merch. Atoms, not bits. You can listen to NPR for free. Do you pledge them money to support the programming, or for the This American Life DVD? I regularly buy merchandise as a way to support artists. I buy CDs at concerts, because I know the money goes directly to the artists (and because I can listen to them in my car).

Relationships. Anything signed or limited-edition is not just about the article itself — it’s about expressing a relationship with the artist. And relationships aren’t fungible. Jonathan Coulton and Amanda Palmer are two excellent artists who have close relationships with their fans, who in turn support them.

An experience. The canonical example of this is, of course, the concert — whether it’s $5 to see your favorite local band or hundreds of dollars for an arena show. But this also includes things like doing ’shrooms in a Lamborghini with your favorite drummer.

Something unique. A commissioned song is one-of-a-kind. It’s certainly worth something to the recipient.

A narrative. What’s a story worth? Apparently, quite a bit. The Significant Objects art project posts thrift-store finds for auction on eBay, along with the back stories. But the back stories are fictional, and are described as such. Nevertheless,  the items go for substantially more than their market value.

In conclusion, “What are you willing to pay for?” – she asks.

What have you offered to your fans? Other thoughts?”

Stay tuned.

Jon Newton - p2pnet

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November, 2009

Does the RIAA let defaulters off the hook? Ars Technica
Judging by the number of times it has happened, plenty of accused file-swappers believe they’re better off not showing up to court than even talking to the RIAA—especially if the recording industry doesn’t bother to collect on the default judgments it eventually wins. Unfortunately for the file-swappers, it’s not true.

Warning over Facebook FarmVille game The Guardian
FarmVille, a free online farm simulation game available through Facebook, has been accused of generating “hundreds of millions of dollars” from unsuspecting players, many of whom are children.FarmVille has soared in popularity in the UK and US since its launch in June and has 63 million users, many of who are young teenagers. The game, which is the largest on Facebook, allows members to manage a virtual farm by planting, growing and harvesting crops, trees and livestock. According to Zynga, the company which developed the game, users have built more than 40m virtual farms, more than 20 times the number of actual farms in the US, and on an average day purchase 500,000 tractors to till their land. On the surface, it seems a harmless, even beneficial, game, encouraging social networking, budgeting and planning. But Michael Arrington, founder of the Techcrunch blog, has criticised Zynga for “monetising” FarmVille. He said it encouraged players to buy in-game currency, Farm Cash, which allows players to progress faster. New users are given some virtual coins, but users who are desperate to buy the tractors, seeds, cows and sheep more quickly can click on the “Add Farm Coins and Cash” link to buy virtual money with real cash. FarmVille makes clear in its terms and conditions that Farm Cash cannot be redeemed for “real world” money, goods or other items of monetary value from Zynga or any other party. Once real money has been used to buy virtual money, it is gone.

Congress may require ISPs to block fraud sites CNet News
For the last decade or so, Internet service providers have been dealing with requests to block access to pornographic or copyright-infringing Web sites, or in China, ones that dare to criticize the government. Now a U.S. House of Representatives bill is taking the unusual step of requiring Internet providers to block access to online financial scams that fraudulently invoke the Securities Investor Protection Corporation–or face fines and federal court injunctions. The House Financial Services Committee approved the legislation on Wednesday by a 41 to 28 vote. If you’ve never heard of the SIPC, you’re not alone. It’s a government-linked entity that aids investors when funds are missing from their accounts, up to a limit of $500,000 for stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Only investor accounts that investors have opened with members of the SIPC–here’s a list–qualify for its protection.

Mozilla plans major Firefox interface overhaul Computerworld
Mozilla plans to overhaul the look and feel of Firefox for Windows, a redesign that will resemble Google’s Chrome in several key elements, according to screenshots and discussions on the open-source developer’s Web site. The visual refresh for Windows Vista and Windows 7 will likely take place in two stages. Part of the redesign will land in Firefox 3.7, a minor update now slated to ship in the first half of 2010, while the remaining pieces will wait for Firefox 4.0, a major revision tentatively set for release late next year.

Outrage as civic ‘angel’ sent to prison The Local
Per-Anders Pettersson intervened to save a 66-year-old woman from assault. But instead of being lauded for exercising his civic duty he is now about to start a prison sentence in a case that has sparked outrage in Sweden. Pettersson saw how Gärd Forsgren, now 69-years-old, was being attacked in her car in the vicinity of Nås in the county of Dalarna in central Sweden. It was then that he took a decision that would change his life and intervened. Pettersson dragged the assailant from the car and hit him twice with a jack. His plea of self-defence was rejected by the Svea Court of Appeal which confirmed a Mora District Court ruling from June 2007 to convict him of aggravated assault.

The Latest Lawsuit: Consortium of TV Stations Suing SESAC… Digital Music News
And the latest lawsuit? According to paperwork filed with the US District Court in New York, a consortium of local television broadcasters is suing performance rights group SESAC on charges of anti-competitive behavior. The class action asserts that SESAC is charging too much, using the dirty levers of ‘price-fixing and other anti-competitive acts’ to achieve its ends.

Bringing back Mickey Mouse’s dark side CNet News
In a world in which Disney defines its brand and the content it releases under its own name as being aimed at the broadest possible audience, Mickey Mouse is known largely as a feel-good, happy-go-lucky cartoon character. But that’s not how Mickey was in the early days. Back in 1928, when he first hit the world stage, he was a very badly behaved mouse. And now, one of the best-known video game designers in the world wants to bring back a little of bit of Mickey’s dark side. And he’ll get his chance to make that a reality. Warren Spector, the game designer behind the Deus Ex franchise, is working on a new game, Disney’s Epic Mickey, which is being positioned, in part, as a “re-imagining” of Mickey Mouse.

Giant crack in Africa formed in just days New Scientist
A crack in the Earth’s crust – which could be the forerunner to a new ocean – ripped open in just days in 2005, a new study suggests. The opening, located in the Afar region of Ethiopia, presents a unique opportunity for geologists to study how mid-ocean ridges form. The crack is the surface component of a continental riftMovie Camera forming as the Arabian and African plates drift away from one another. It began to open up in September 2005, when a volcano at the northern end of the rift, called Dabbahu, erupted.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

As things stand, an EC “use it or lose it” copyright clause means recordings revert to performers if the producer or label no longer wants to market the recording — but only  after half a century, I said, adding:

“However, FAC members, including Billy Bragg, today met with senior civil servants at the Intellectual Property Office in London in a bid to get the cause whittled down to 35 years”

Now, “I agree with the artists,” says Paul Kamp, vice president, business development and corporate counsel at Backbone Networks, a company specializing in internet radio automation services.

He goes on »»»

The act would reduce the term from 50 years to 35 years seems like a lot but with life expectancy being 70 years or so 35 years is half a lifetime.  I would push for a shorter term than 35 years.

Here is my rationale:

• In the past there was a significant cost associated with publishing.  This ranged from recording the work, manufacturing the record, distributing it to record stores, accounting for the inventory, selling off returns.  With these costs in place the record companies were able to determine how economically viable it was to continue publishing because of the associated expense.
• Since the work is already recorded those costs are no longer part of the equation, they are sunk costs.  Everything is about distribution.  Yes, I know there is some cost associated with promotion but I think the critical thing is some type of availability.  Further, it is often the artist that would do the promotion.
• In the age of digital distribution there is no reason for a producer or label to not publish a work.  You can go to a “record service” like TuneCore and get the work published through digital distribution outlets like Amazon’s MP3 Store, Apple’s iTunes, etc.  All for a cost of a little over $100/year.
• Promotion in the digital world could be fairly inexpensive too.  The artist or record company could provide the works to Internet radio stations for broadcasting with links to purchase in the digital stores.  All the Internet radio stations I know provide links to the digital works for purchase. For example, listen to Pandora on your iPhone, there is a link to purchase the track from the iTunes store.  This is also true for Radio Paradise, Soma FM, AccuRadio , BAGeL Radio and all the stations on the networks we run.  Pretty straight forward distribution and free promotion.  Seems like there is no need to hold back on distribution after a work is recorded.

As a compromise, perhaps push for a shorter term, i.e. 15 years and have the artists pay for publishing and distribution.  If it means something to the record companies  I am sure they can come up with the fee to pay the digital distributor.  There seems to be no reason to hold back on publishing the older works.

At least none that I can come up with.

Is there a reason to maintain these extended periods when the company is doing nothing to benefit from the work?

The switch to digital has impacted the whole music ecosystem from record companies to radio stations to record stores to promotion to bands to how everything gets packaged.

“Enabling the distribution rights to revert back to the artists would enable them to experiment with promotion and distribution,” says Paul, adding:

“The record companies, by their inaction on certain works, should relinquish their right over those works and let the artists who created those works benefit.”

He promises to post an article on the Backbone Networks blog about how “costs have transitioned dramatically”.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

The two are currently washing their dirty linen in public. And it’s all over a game.

But not just any game.

“The firefight broke out after GAPP decided Monday night to suspend its approval of the World of WarCraft online game,” says China Daily, from whence came the pic.

WoW  has more than a million players on the Chinese mainland, says the story, going on, “In effect, the GAPP decision ran against a State Council circular issued last July that declared the MOC was in charge of regulating the multi-billion dollar online gaming industry.”

GAPP  used to be in charge, but the MOC insists online games are within its portfolio.

Now the former has ordered NetEase.com, which holds with World of WarCraft license in China, not to charge users, says he story, continuing:

“GAPP has also told the company to power off its servers and refuse to accept new account registratio  license to run ns.”

Emergency press briefing

GAPP is responsible for reviewing and approving “publications” and the department contends that online games are a form of “online publication,” says China Daily, stating »»»

The MOC called an emergency press briefing yesterday afternoon in Beijing to respond to GAPP’s decision to suspend approval on the popular online game.

Li Xiong, head of the MOC’s department of cultural markets, insisted the ministry had the sole right to regulate online games.

GAPP allowed NetEase to begin testing World of WarCraft on July 30 on the condition that it didn’t charge gamers and didn’t allow the registration of new accounts, says the story, “But NetEase allegedly began to break those conditions on Sept 19.”

GAPP responded oby saying it’d pulled approval of the game.

‘WoW fans vented their anger … ‘

WoW was released in 2005.

Chinese online games operator NetEase.com won the battle waged against the former cntroller, The9, for possession of Blizzard’s WoW, p2pnet reported.

It was subsequently suspended while the companies and government departments finished re-registration, and while it, “received new official approvals from the Ministry of Culture and GAPP,” said Peoples’ Daily.

Anxious gamers who’d been missing WoW  were expected to gather the opening of Chinajoy, an online game carnival in Shanghai, “to demand the game be made available again,” it said, adding:

“WoW fans vented their anger by logging on to servers belonging to Netease on July 11. After 5,000 signed on at the same time, they succeeded in paralyzing seven servers.”

Players also left nearly 3,000 complaints on the official website of China Consumers’ Association, and some players said they planned to sue.

WoW is serious.

Stay tuned.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

China Daily – Battle breaks out over online game WoW, November 4, 2009
p2pnet – NetEase triumphs in WoW battle, April 18, 2009
Peoples’ Daily – Battle set to end for WoW fans, July, 2009

Many countries continue to face pressure on the transparency issue, with KEI posting a public letter to U.S. President Barack Obama this week on the issue. Past indications are that there is a split – some countries favour making the draft available immediately, while others prefer ongoing secrecy until the treaty is completed.  Compromise positions apparently include allowing individual countries to make available text for which they are responsible.

At this stage, even ACTA supporters should be supportive of greater transparency.

First, everything seems to leak anyways, so the substance of the treaty is already broadly known.  Of course, there are specifics that have been shielded from public view, but there is enough out there to have generated an enormous backlash.

Second, ACTA is quickly becoming so broadly discredited that it will be nearly impossible to garner public support for the treaty. “The secret copyright treaty” is hardly a selling feature for a treaty that may be dead-on-arrival in the minds of citizens around the world.

Third, it is time for countries to make transparency a condition of participation.

I have my doubts about the treaty as a whole — the recent Internet leaks should make it a non-starter from a Canadian perspective — but even if the substance is put to the side, governments should not be supporting secretive copyright talks.

The talks will end at 12:30 (Seoul time) with the release of a joint statement describing who participated along with a generic statement indicating discussions focused on Internet enforcement, criminal provisions, and transparency matters.

It will conclude by indicating that the next round will be hosted by Mexico (most likely) in early 2010.

But on a day devoted to secret talks on transparency, governments should drop the diplomatic language and be prepared to open up or get out.

Michael Geist – Michael Geist’s Blog
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist @ uottawa dot ca]

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

Or if it isn’t now, it soon will be — and possibly “around the time the markets open tomorrow,” says the story.

A settlement “between a consortium of private equity investors, who successfully bid for Skype in September, and the original founders of Skype, who have filed several lawsuits in an effort to scuttle the consortium’s $1.9 billion deal to buy a majority of Skype from eBay,” was on the verge f being agreed, p2pnet posted yesterday, quoting the New York Times.

The deal would “restructure the group that is buying Skype,” it said, aso noting, “Index Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm whose partner, Michelangelo Volpi, was at the center of litigation over the Skype sale, is most likely withdrawing from the deal”.

All Things Digital has sources sayng, “lawyers are apparently putting the finishing touches on the paperwork and have signature papers completed by both sides to be able to wrap it up quickly.”

So, “while nothing is ever over until it is over, it looks like it is over,” and, “Sources also said that as part of the deal to end the legal madness, Zennström and Friis will get 10 percent of Skype back for rights to key software technology they control, an option to pay $83 million for another three percent of the Internet telephony service and two seats on the 23-member board.”

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All Things Digital – I Love the Smell of Settlement in the Morning: Skype Founders Set to Get 10 Percent, Option to Buy Three Percent More and Two Board Seats, November 4, 2009
p2pnet – Zennstrom and Friis: Skype, the sequel, November 4, 2009
New York Times – End to a Fight Over Skype May Be Near, November 3, 2009

She says it on her sleeping alone and starting out early blog where she also says, “I studied creative writing and published some poems. Then I decided to get all up in education’s grill.”

But she’s still writing, thankfully.

“Actually,” she goes on, still talking about  her  failure to be in front of the mass culture curve,  instead of behind it, “this appears to be true only about a subgroup of TV shows that we might label THE MOST AWESOME TV SHOWS EVER MADE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.”

Among the TV shows she “got around to watching after they’d finished their first time around” were Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly / Serenity, Jericho, Battlestar Galactica, she says .

Currently, Jenna is five episodes into the first Dr Who season and, “I’m head over heels. (the special effects! the character development! the joy with which Rose and the Doctor thrust themselves toward adventure! those radiant, radiant smiles!).”

“But enough about me,” she says, going on, Let’s talk about Hulu »»»

More specifically, let’s talk about the cheap and free media-streaming services that offer a kind of on-demand programming experience–movies, TV shows, digital shorts–to anyone with a computer and a moderately reliable internet connection.

Hulu, a joint venture funded by NBC and Fox, is the second most popular video viewing site on the web. (YouTube was tops, but then again it’s hard to beat the king.) It’s not hard to figure out why. Hulu features a deep vault of new shows and older classics, and it offers links to streams of shows not hosted on Hulu. (Because it’s affiliated with its parent networks, the Hulu-hosted offerings stick mainly to those owned by NBC, Fox and Hulu-affiliated networks.)

I still watch a few shows on TV so I can have that old-time “community of fans, in this together” experience (SAMCRO FTW), and I subscribe to Netflix, through which I receive about 2 DVDs a month and watch up to a dozen shows and movies online. But the rest — the rest comes for free, mainly through Hulu and other franchise-sponsored media sites.

Which is why I was so sad to hear that Hulu is considering a switch to a paid format for at least some of its content, at least according to News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey (News Corp. is a part-owner of Hulu). Here’s what he said recently about the struggles of making content available for free online:

I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that. It needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business.

Hulu does have a revenue stream in the form of ads, and back in June the big news was that for the first time, it cost more to run a commercial during the Hulu version of The Simpsons than to air one on TV. Presumably, then, this could be a functional business model: On-air advertising + Hulu advertising = the cost of TV broadcast + streaming the show on Hulu.

Either it’s not enough revenue, or it’s not enough revenue to pay for the hulking television industry whose very structure willfully ignores that the 3-party entertainment system (ABC, CBS, NBC) is decades behind us, never to return.

The manager of a laundromat near my house has posted a sign informing customers something to the effect that “heating & electricity costs went up by $60,000 last year. We have to pass that cost on to our customers.” I wonder if the 17th Street Coin Laundry has tried cutting its own costs, as well: installing energy-efficient dryers, insulating doors and windows, sealing up the leaky washing machines. (Or maybe they’re trying to save money through the marked lack of laundry baskets, chairs, and bike racks.) Since there’s a rececssion on, though, it’s likely that long-term fixes have been shunned in favor of the immediate payoff of passing costs on to the customer.

I wonder if the same is true of the entertainment industry. Couple the recession with the tension over how to leverage new, cheaper technologies for mass circulation of media, and what you get is a morass so profound it’ll take years to dig out. We made TV content available almost for free once before, during the soft spot when TVs got so cheap that almost every American household had one and cable hadn’t yet taken hold. Doing that again will take time, money, and a commitment to free that Big Media hasn’t demonstrated.

I have previously written about the difference between “news” and “the news,” and have argued that making news (if not the news) available to everyone for free is an undergirding principle of a democratic society founded on the tenets of free speech and a free press. There is no similar right to entertainment, but it’s not a stretch to argue that making media content freely available to all citizens can be democratizing in ways that free news alone cannot achieve. Especially in an increasingly participatory culture, where civic engagement is as likely to focus on electoral politics as on the politics of entertainment, corporate control, and popular culture, more access to more content can mean more democracy.

But making this happen requires a commitment to sustainable economic models and revenue streams. And the work of establishing these appears to be out of the purview of many media types. Indeed, many — including Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes — are pursuing another approach: Offering flat-rate subscriptions to TV content across multiple media platforms. Presumably, a subscriber to this “TV Everywhere” program would have access to ‘premium’ Hulu material in addition to more traditional cable content.

I wonder if newspapers are getting on board with this. It seems likely that the bundling system we’re seeing in cable subscriptions might be a palatable model for news sites, which can make premium content accessible to subscribers on some sort of graduated system. A $29.95 monthly fee might, for example, get you basic cable, HBO, Hulu and the Washington Post. They might even offer a discount for the first year, with an option to renew!

“We stand together, poised at the edge,” says Jenna, adding:

” We can, together, walk the path toward greatness by embracing the free-access, free-content, free-communication model of the internet, and by devising alternate revenue strategies that pass the costs of such a model on to corporations and advertisers; or we can take the darker path, the one bordered by pay walls, peppered with the stones of micropayments, and clouded over by limited-access news sites.

“For a short while, the paths will run nearly parallel, so close that it will seem as if they’re practically the same; but eventually the paths will diverge too much and there will be no turning back.”

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

sleeping alone and starting out early – I worry that the internet will kill everything I love, November 3, 2009

Starting December 1, the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia  wanted to boost tariffs it demanded from all Oz clubs, hotels, restaurants and cafes wanting to play background music.

By how much?

The Bendigo Club, with a “bistro capacity” of about 50, would see its fees soar from $62.04 to a mind boggling $3,075.80, says the Advertiser.

But rather than fork out, businesses have decided to switch off.

And indie artists will be the ones to benefit.

“Clubs Australia announced at its annual general meeting a new scheme that would allow clubs to bypass the license fee charged by record companies,” says the story, continuing:”

“Clubs Australia will set up a program to source and distribute the music of artists not signed to major record labels and who are consequently exempt from the restaurant tariff.

“As part of the new scheme, local musicians will be given the opportunity to sell their music in clubs, while money earned from the sale of background music CDs will be used to establish a fund for talented Australian musicians.”

Two years ago, “the PPCA increased the fee for recorded music in nightclubs by 1400 per cent as well as announcing it is increasing the fee for music played in gyms by 5000 per cent,” thas lubs Australia chief executive officer David Costello saying, adding:

“The music labels are working their way through the dozens of music tariffs paid by small businesses.

“It seems only a matter of time before the PPCA increases fees for music on hold, jukeboxes, conference and pool rooms, squash courts and even swimming pools.

“Clubs are today drawing a line in the sand … ”

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

“In photographs shown to China Daily, Deng’s body is pictured with bruises and his face is covered in blood,” says the story.

Now a “front-line advocate of treating Internet addiction” says “net addicts” should be taken to “qualified health institutions rather than rehab camps,” says China state news agency Xinhua.

China’s Ministry of Health has been soliciting public opinions on a draft guidance to juveniles on Internet use, says the story, which has Tao Ran, “initiator of the definition on Internet addiction and director of the country’s first Internet addiction clinic under the Beijing Military Command General Hospital,” stating:

“Internet addiction is a disease, which can not be cured by military training or physical punishment.”

According to Tao, the health ministry has”adopted the expression of ‘inappropriate use of Internet’ instead of ‘Internet addiction, saying that its precise definition had not been settled yet, and going on:

“The guidance is a strong signal that the ministry has recognized Internet addiction as a mental disease, even it doesn’t call it ‘Internet addiction’ in a straight way.

“It’s dangerous that the treatment market is in a total mess. We need standards and guidelines.”

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p2pnet – Teen dies in China net addiction camp, August 27, 2009
China Daily – Camp closed, 13 detained over death of teenage Net addict, August 10, 2009
Xinhua – Expert calls for standardized treatment for Net addicts, November 5, 2009

And the votes, says Reuters, “came from the very people who made her a star, tweens and teens”.

“Cyrus, 16, took 42 percent of votes in the poll for AOL’s JSYK.com (Just So You Know) website aimed at 9-15 year-olds, pushing Britney Spears and rapper Kanye West into second and third places, respectively, in a section on worst celebrity influences of the year,” it says, going on:

“No reasons were given for the poor showing of the singer-actress and the popular star of Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana” television series.

“But the ranking follows a year which has seen Cyrus controversially dating a 20 year-old model, making ’slant eyes’ in an informal snapshot criticized as mocking Asians, and being accused of pole-dancing on a teen awards show.”

Elsewhere, the story adds, “the stars of vampire movies ‘Twilight’ and its forthcoming sequel ‘New Moon’ dominated the JSYK.com poll.”

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Reuters – Miley Cyrus voted worst celebrity influence of ‘09, October 29, 2009

Under the scheme, gullible students would pay Warner $5 a month for music downloads, said p2pnet recently.

TechDirt’s Mike Masnick called it a Bait-And-Switch operation and Griffin, hired by Warner to make it happen and convince people it should, told p2pnet Masnick’s story was “factually incorrect in every respect“.

Last month, however, “At least one university system on the East Coast is safe from Warner Music’s  bait-and-switch music licensing scheme,” said p2pnet, reporting the school’s decision to distance itself from Warner and Choruss.

Now, “Under a blanket of secrecy, six colleges have begun testing an experimental service from major recording labels that lets students legally download all the music they want and put it on any device,” says the Chronicle of Higher Education, going on »»»

But some innovative features have been stripped from the service since it was proposed, leaving it similar to existing services that have not made much of a dent in illicit file-sharing.

The experimental service, led by Warner Music Group, is called Choruss. It has no informational Web site, no brochure, and almost nothing in writing to describe it, even though it is slated to be up and running for students on the six campuses in January.

The participating colleges have asked not to be identified, in part because the music industry’s efforts have been criticized in the past and the issue is a political land mine for campus officials.

The only source of public information about Choruss is Jim Griffin, the Warner Music adviser leading the effort.

Taking the ‘voluntary’ out of ‘voluntary’

“Despite Griffin’s repeated accusations of factual inaccuracies in reports on the ill-intentioned ’service’ … Griffin failed to provide any substantial information to refute the claims,” p2pnet was told for the story on the departure of the East Coast university.

The source continued »»»

Given the collapse of this deal it is safe to say that at least some of the previously-stated concerns are true.

Choruss was an attempt by Griffin and the Big Music gang to get universities around the country to pay a monthly tax to keep the lawyers away, a cost that would be passed along to students.

Essentially, Griffin wanted to take the “voluntary” out of the EFF’s “Voluntary Collective Licensing” proposal, forcing all students to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to their favorite tunes. The money would be distributed amongst the rights-holders, with left-overs trickling down to the pockets of the biggest-name artists.

Yet as more details emerged in closed-door discussions, it became apparent that Griffin and company planned on stripping away any semblance of “licensing.”

Students paying the (mandatory) fee could download songs most likely from “pre-approved” sources, and only from the Warner Music label.

They could not upload these songs to filesharing networks, blogs, or use the songs in any way other than on their personal headphones.

What’s more, the “deal” would be conductedas “covenant not to sue,” with Choruss partners promising not to sue students for downloading so long as the protection money was paid – a promise with about as much weight as the RIAA’s decision to stop lawsuits against individuals last year.

Of course, nearly every filesharing case against university students has revolved around students uploading material, not downloading it, so music-loving students buying into Choruss would be as much at risk as they were before.

On top of all that, suggested methods for tracking the popularity of downloaded songs seemed like dangerous invasions of privacy.

From installing AudibleMagic “fingerprinting” boxes on school networks to software clients telling Choruss which songs were played when, universities and students trying to “get legit,” could be getting a lot more than they bargained for.

At least one state has made the right decision in rejecting Griffin’s sneaky plan to trick universities into using student money to buy into yet another one-way deal that does nothing for students or artists, serving only to line his and other industry executive’s pockets with cash in exchange for, well, nothing.

‘Covenant not to sue’

Griffin has now told The Chronicle the model for Choruss has changed.

On the covenant not to sue, “We’d initially considered the idea but have now decided to use a traditional license approach,” it has Griffin saying. “Another substantial change is that the licenses now would be with individual students rather than with colleges — although on some campuses, student governments or other groups may agree to pay the fee on behalf of students,” it says.

Adds the story »»»

As Mr. Griffin described the current plan, it sounded much like previous efforts to sell digital music to students. Account holders would log into a Web site, enter a user name and password, and be granted access to a catalog of millions of songs from major and independent labels. “They can then access a large pool of songs for a flat fee,” he said.

Each of the six campuses will test a different price to see which attracts the most usage. “The most exciting question for me is what terms and conditions and price points will optimize the revenue to the rights holder,” Mr. Griffin said. That is key to making sure artists get compensated for their creative work, he said.

The most unusual feature of Choruss is that users would be able to download any song in the collection to their own computers, with no restrictions. Unlike Apple’s iTunes, which charges about a dollar per song for unrestricted downloads, this would be an all-you-can-grab song buffet. Want to make CD’s? Sure. Put thousands of songs on your iPod? No problem. Even after students stop paying the Choruss subscription fee, they will be able to keep all the songs they have downloaded. “They get to keep them the rest of their lives,” as Mr. Griffin put it. That differs from some subscription music services, which allow access only while users are active members of the service.

So what’s to stop students from paying for a month and then downloading everything?

“Nothing,” the story has Griffin admitting.

The “basic premise” is that it’s “so easy to download music from unauthorized Web sites that some model has to be developed to persuade users to do the right thing and pay for the content instead,” he says

“If you find a way to make it faster, easier, and simpler to pay, we think people will pay,” he said. “Our gut tell us that the right model is flat fee, unlimited use.”

Really?

Adds the Chronicle »»»

Many campus-technology leaders wonder just who the secret beta testers are. Cornell University officials have denied a report that they are involved, as have officials at Pennsylvania State University, Illinois State University, and the University of Chicago.

Why the secrecy? A college official familiar with the discussions, who asked not to be named, said colleges just don’t want to be attacked by critics of the music industry, especially since they may choose not to participate after the initial experimentation phase. “They’ve been burned before by premature discussion about this and other proj ects,” said the official. “So, up until the point at which they have their own message nailed down, there’s no upside to discussing it and plenty of potential downside.”

“More details apparently will be made public this spring, when students on the test-bed campuses will be asked to pay a monthly fee to try it out,” it says.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Portfolio.com – Fee for All, March 27, 2008
p2pnet – Say No! to Choruss, says Ray Beckerman, March 20, 2009
TechDirt – Choruss’ Music Tax Plan: Bait-And-Switch, March 18, 2009
actually incorrect in every respect – TechDirt Choruss story ‘factually incorrect’, March 19, 2009
Chronicle of Higher Education – Music Industry Changes Tune of New Program to Fight File Sharing, November 3, 2009
p2pnet – Choruss, and the sound of silence, October 16, 2009