Music file-sharers get boost in top EU court — pdf

Telecoms companies in Europe are not required to hand over information on clients believed to be running music-sharing Web sites in civil cases, an adviser to the European Union’s top court said on Wednesday.

[...] But advocate general Juliane Kokott, whose role is to advise the judges, said on Wednesday that it is compatible with EU law for European countries to exclude communication of personal data in the context of a civil, as distinct from criminal, action.

whack·a·mole — def: Trying to distribute millions of copies of the Harry Potter finale while simultaneously suppressing any revelation of plot elements in an era of inexpensive and semi-anonymous global distribution channels: Harry hits the Internet — pdf

It was a plot twist even J.K. Rowling did not see coming. Days before Saturday’s release of the eagerly awaited “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the final installment in the British author’s hugely popular series, news of the book’s content spread across the Internet on Tuesday in the form of digital photographs of pages from the 700-plus-page novel.

[...] Throughout the day, photos of pages from the book had spread from more sophisticated personal file-sharing sites — which do not store copies of the illegal material but rather offer much smaller “torrent” files that are pieced together by computer — to the Web’s mainstream.

By afternoon, one anonymous posting, on http://www.zendurl.com/h/hallows , which included photos of chapter titles and the entirety of an epilogue, was linked from across the Web.

Although the photographs of individual pages were blurred or poorly lit, they were readable. The site also had bullet-pointed text that claimed to offer detailed information about Rowling’s final installment, including the fate of Harry Potter and other key characters.

If the online material is genuine, it would represent a major breach of the security that publishers in America and Britain have been working feverishly to preserve.

And yet, other mechanisms of control (in this case, culture, to borrow Larry Lessig’s framing) step in:

First there was confusion. (Was it real?) Then there were legal threats. (Publisher Scholastic Inc. went after the alleged online spoilers.) And finally there was outrage as fans staged a revolt of their own against the leak, vowing to remain in the dark about what happens until Saturday.

“Not cool,” said Max Slavkin, 19, a USC junior, summing up fan response to the online revelations.

Later: U.S. publisher takes action over Harry Potter leak — pdf

But Scholastic is unable to remove all the photographs, which first appeared on Monday on BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing system that links personal computers.

Unlike the Napster music-sharing service that was shut down by authorities several years ago, such exchanges do not go through a central service, which makes it almost impossible for the book’s publishers to stop the file from being traded.

BigChampagne Media Measurement estimated that by Wednesday about one copy of the Harry Potter photographs was being downloaded per second and that 50,000 had been exchanged since Monday.

Even later (July 19): NYT reviews Potter before publication — pdf. The review: An Epic Showdown as Harry Potter Is Initiated Into Adulthood

Even later: count on the LATimes to speak of the unmentionable — Embargoes on ‘Harry Potter’ boil down to money — pdf

And not in a good way. A look at the Massachusetts efforts to ensure universal access to broadband in an era of telecommunications deregulation and the institutional dysfunction arising from the persistent, if archaic, conceptual split between voice and data services: Towns left scrambling for touch of broadband — pdf

On any given day in this rural town of about 1,000, a few people park their cars in front of Town Hall while they log onto the Internet.

But they aren’t typical WiFi poachers. They are dial-up refugees.
In a high-tech state known for its knowledge economy, residents of Goshen and 31 other towns are living in a telecommunications Third World, relying on the equivalent of a horse and buggy to ride the information superhighway.

“We are creating a new kind of ghetto,” said Don Dubendorf , president of Berkshire Connect Inc., which works to bring high-speed Internet connections to Western Massachusetts businesses and institutions. “It’s morally wrong. It’s stupid economically, it’s dangerous from a public safety point of view, it’s absurd from a public education point of view.”

[...] The Legislature has created a new position, director of wireless and broadband development, to identify solutions for unserved communities.

And Governor Deval Patrick’s cable commissioner, Sharon Gillett, has said making broadband ubiquitous is her top priority.

Verizon, Comcast, and others offer high-speed Internet in 90 percent of Massachusetts communities, but no providers offer broadband Internet access in 32 towns, and an additional 63 municipalities have limited service areas, according to a study by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s John Adams Innovation Institute. (The study did not include satellite Internet.)

It can be extremely expensive to build systems in areas where houses are often miles apart. But as everything from pop culture to presidential campaigns plays out on the Web, people who use dial-up are left out a lot. [...]

Microsoft Copy Protection Cracked Again

Microsoft Corp. is once again on the defensive against hackers after the launch of a new program that gives average PC users tools to unlock copy-protected digital music and movies.

The latest version of the FairUse4M program, which can crack Microsoft’s digital rights management system for Windows Media audio and video files, was published online late Friday. In the past year, Microsoft plugged holes exploited by two earlier versions of the program and filed a federal lawsuit against its anonymous authors. Microsoft dropped the lawsuit after failing to identify them.

Rolling Stone asks the question, Is Apple Planning to Out-Zune Competitors With Wireless iPod? (pdf), based on patent application #20070161402: Media data exchange, transfer or delivery for portable electronic devices.

Abstract: Methods and systems that facilitate data delivery to electronic devices are disclosed. One aspect pertains to data delivery to electronic devices that are portable, such as, mobile devices. In one embodiment, one mobile device discovers another mobile device within its vicinity. The mobile devices can then wirelessly transmit data from one mobile device to the other. The mobile devices, or their users, can control, request or influence the particular data content being delivered.

Rolling Stone’s best line:

This sounds like the technology that Microsoft’s Zune utterly failed to get anybody interested in last year, but — no surprise — Apple does it right: While Microsoft hobbled Zune’s wireless capability with strict limits on song sharing, Apple’s technology allows users to peruse the catalogs and playlists of nearby devices and pick tracks to download.

See also Apple patenting Zune-like sharing, wireless buying.Of course, it’s just an application….

For News Buffs, World Events on Instant DVDs

In a seller’s ideal world, the product is paid for first, then manufactured and shipped. The sellers of television on DVD are trying to create that world: ABC Television, Amazon.com and a subsidiary, CustomFlix Labs, a DVD manufacturer, announced Thursday that they were going to make shows from the archives of ABC News available on demand.

So when a history buff wants to buy a DVD about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, they will order it on Amazon.com or ABC.com, pay for it, then wait two or three days for delivery. The DVD will be copied from digital files stored at CustomFlix only when the order has been placed, and the seller incurs none of the costs of inventory and warehousing.

The market potential for on-demand DVD sales is considerable. [...]

Or, is it “baldly?” The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped

On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog — or the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company.

Or so thought John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods Market, who used a fictional identity on the Yahoo message boards for nearly eight years to assail competition and promote his supermarket chain’s stock, according to documents released last week by the Federal Trade Commission.

[...] “We have the most protected, covered, cautious and public relations-barricaded generation of leaders in history,” said Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a professor of corporate governance at Yale. Today’s tightly controlled, artfully packaged executives, he said, “want to release and spout off, and they somehow think this is a forum where they’ll be held less accountable.”

But in many cases, that promise of anonymity is an illusion. Recently caught promoting themselves or their causes have been a handful of chief executives and political operatives, a critic for a major magazine, as well as dozens of lesser-known bloggers, authors and entrepreneurs who sneak changes onto their own entries on Wikipedia or the reviews of their books on Amazon.com.

This digital-age deception has a name, “sock-puppeting,” and a precise definition — the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one’s self, allies or company.

Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man? The cellphone knows: When the Trill of a Cellphone Brings the Clang of Prison Doors

Examining cellphone data is a technique that has moved from being a masterful surprise in trials to being a standard tool in the investigative arsenal of the police and prosecutors, with records routinely provided by cellphone companies in response to subpoenas. Its use in prosecutions is often challenged, for privacy reasons and for technical reasons, especially when the data comes during the morning or evening rush, when circuits are crowded and calls can be redirected to other towers. But it is often allowed and is used by both prosecutors and defense attorneys to buttress their cases.

“It’s one of the most important developments in technology in the courtroom in the last five years,” said Mark J. Geragos, a Los Angeles defense lawyer known for his celebrity clients, who challenged cell tower data while defending Scott Peterson, a Modesto, Calif., fertilizer salesman sentenced to death in 2005 for killing his pregnant wife, Laci.

Many people know that cellphones can be used as global positioning devices in real time. Yet few are aware that phone companies keep records from transmitters for months or longer that can be used to trace approximately where a caller was at the time a crime was committed.

Writers Guild readies for key negotiations — pdf

[The Writer's Guild's David] Young’s first go-round will be unusually complex and volatile compared with past contract talks. Hollywood is grappling with the rise of digital distribution and entertainment on the Internet that promises opportunity for new revenue as well as threat in the form of electronic piracy.

“Clearly, this is a seminal and critical negotiation for us,” Young said. “When writers think that their possible income is going to depend 20 years from now on what happens in these negotiations, the stakes and the anxiety level are exponentially increased.”

Guild leaders have vowed to secure fair pay for members across all new media. Studios, however, have balked at setting pay rates until business models are more firmly established.

Instead, they proposed a study, an idea the union has already rejected. Studio executives favor overhauling the entire system of residuals, the fees actors, writers and directors get when movies and TV shows are reused, saying pay formulas don’t reflect economic reality.

Related, insofar as business model development: Chief of Universal Finds Success at the Back of the Pack

Sony offers a big break for Internet video stars — pdf

Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is trying to attract Web-video auteurs with a pitch straight out of central casting: We’re gonna make you a star, baby.

Sony today is relaunching the video-sharing site it bought last year, changing the name from Grouper to Crackle.

But the movie and TV studio is trying to separate Crackle from YouTube and the other amateur-video sites by dangling cash, a chance to perform stand-up at the Improv or a possible Oscar nomination in front of those who submit clips.

Online video is entering a new phase: The media companies that snapped up video start-ups over the last few years are now touting the possibility of the “big break” to attract more polished submissions than pratfalls and pet tricks.

It was wrenching, but a worthwhile Moyers show this weekend: Bill Moyers Journal; Tough Talk on Impeachment.

He followed through: Newspaper gives away Prince CDs

“It’s direct marketing and I don’t have to be in the speculation business of the record industry which is going through a lot of tumultuous times right now,” said the Minneapolis musician when asked why he was giving the CD away.

“Prince has done this because he makes most of his money these days as a performing artist,” the Mail on Sunday’s editor, Peter Wright, told BBC Five Live.

[...] Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the [Entertainment Retailers Association ], said the decision “beggars belief”.

“The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores,” said Mr Quirk, referring to a period in the 1990s when Prince famously stopped using his name in favour of a symbol.

However, music chain HMV has decided to stock Sunday’s Mail, even though chief executive Simon Fox previously called the giveaway “absolutely nuts”.

A look at the patent debate; what’s broken, what might be fixed, and what else to consider: A Patent Is Worth Having, Right? Well, Maybe Not

“Today, over all, patents don’t work; for the information technology industry especially, they don’t work,” said James Bessen, who became a lecturer at Boston University’s law school after a career in business. In 1983, he created the first computer publishing software with Wysiwyg (an acronym for “what you see is what you get”) printing abilities. He also founded a desktop publishing company, Bestinfo, later acquired by Intergraph.

Neither Mr. Bessen nor his company patented anything, in part because his lawyers told him that software couldn’t be patented at the time. He ultimately became interested in whether patents spurred innovation, since the software industry for years innovated steadily without using many patents. He and a colleague, Michael J. Meurer, are readying a book on the topic, “Do Patents Work?,” due in 2008. (A synopsis and sample chapters are at researchoninnovation.org/dopatentswork/.)

The two researchers have analyzed data from 1976 to 1999, the most recent year with complete data. They found that starting in the late 1990s, publicly traded companies saw patent litigation costs outstrip patent profits. Specifically, they estimate that about $8.4 billion in global profits came directly from patents held by publicly traded United States companies in 1997, rising to about $9.3 billion in 1999, with two-thirds of the profits going to chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Domestic litigation costs alone, meanwhile, soared to $16 billion in 1999 from $8 billion in 1997.

Things have probably become worse since then. [...]

This time, the Potter parties wont fly — pdf

Midnight launch parties at bookstores have become a tradition with Harry Potter novels. But with the approach of next Saturday’s publication of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the last book in the series, many of those throwing parties are being forced to revise their plans, including some intended to benefit charities.

[...] In the past few weeks, Warner’s London legal office has sent e-mails to booksellers and party organizers around the country, warning them against unauthorized celebrating, under the threat of legal action. “[Your event] appears to fall outside our guidelines,” said one e-mail. “Therefore, HARRY POTTER cannot be used as a theme for your event.”

Warner Bros. says it’s only trying to protect young Potter fans from inappropriate, non-family-friendly celebrating. But to many booksellers, it looks like an excessive effort to make sure no one benefits financially from its trademarks.

If so, what could possibly be wrong with this? Auction of Software Flaws Stirs Concerns — pdf

A Swiss Internet start-up is raising the ire of the computer security community with the launch of an online auction house where software vulnerabilities are sold to the highest bidder.

The founders of WabiSabiLabi.com (pronounced wobby-sobby-lobby) say they hope the new service offers a legitimate alternative for security researchers who might otherwise be tempted to sell their discoveries to criminals. Vulnerabilities that could be sold on the site range from those present in hardware that supports critical information infrastructure, such as Internet routers, to flaws in common desktop applications, such as Web browsers and instant messenger and e-mail programs.

Music giant settles suit against Imeem — pdf

Warner Music Group Corp. said Thursday that it had settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against the social-networking website Imeem by agreeing to license its music and video content to the site for a slice of its ad revenue. Financial details of the settlement were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, Imeem Inc. can carry music and videos from all of the record company’s artists, who include Madonna, Linkin Park and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And the likely stifling, if not elimination, of independent webcasters: Judges clear way for higher Internet radio royalties — pdf

A federal appeals panel has declined to delay a substantial increase in royalties that Internet radio stations must pay for playing music, clearing the way for the rates to take effect Sunday.

Webcasters had sought an emergency stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that the higher rates would drive many of them out of business.

[...] Big webcasters such as Yahoo Inc. and RealNetworks Inc. also are fighting the new rates, as are National Public Radio stations and other traditional broadcasters that stream music online.

[...] The Copyright Royalty Board, an obscure group of federal judges, set the new rates in March, eliminating a provision that allowed small webcasters to pay 10% to 12% of their revenue instead of a set per-song fee for every listener. The current rate of .0762 of a cent each time a song is played will more than double by 2010, and many Internet radio stations will face royalty payments greater than their revenue.

Many broadcasters earn little or no money from their online stations, so the decision makes webcasting prohibitively expensive.

Although the appeals panel declined to stop the rate hike before it kicked in, an appeal was still pending before the court. Congress also is considering legislation that would halt the increase, although it could be months before a bill comes up for a vote.

In the meantime, webcasters are negotiating with SoundExchange, the organization that collects and distributes Internet music royalties. It has the power to strike separate deals.

See also Shaken Internet Radio Stations Face Specter of New Fees Sunday — pdf

Michael Huppe, SoundExchange’s general counsel, said it was still negotiating with Internet broadcasters to reduce the burden on small and non-commercial webcasters. Yesterday during a meeting of both sides organized by members of Congress, SoundExchange offered an annual fee cap of $50,000, if the broadcaster reports everything that is played and adopts technology that limits the ability of listeners to copy broadcasts. The annual fee can be deducted from the royalties paid to artists and record labels.

But as it stands now, starting Sunday, webcasters will retroactively pay artists and record labels the difference between the new and old royalty rates for 2006.

“Nobody wins when Internet radio gets shut down, including artists who ostensibly are being represented by SoundExchange, the organization pushing for high rates,” [Pandora founder Tim] Westergren said. “It’s ironic. If SoundExchange gets their way, it means less money for musicians because people will cease to pay royalties all together.”

[...] Royalties for Internet radio differ greatly from its satellite and terrestrial counterparts. Internet companies 0.000762 of a cent per song, per listener. Satellite radio companies pay a percentage of their revenue. Under copyright laws, land-based radio stations, traditional AM and FM radio, pay nothing.

Later: gamesmanship, or something else? SoundExchange Tells Webcasters to Keep Streaming (citing HR 3015) and Net Radio Wins Partial Reprieve as Royalties Loom; also Public Outcry Staves Off Destruction of Internet Radio - pdf; later Reprieve on Royalty Increase Being Pursued for Internet Radio

If this APWire article is to be believed, Commissioner Martin has caved in to the incumbent carriers: Questions Raised Over Broadband Plan — pdf

If they’re lucky, Americans have two choices for getting high-speed Internet access: the local cable company or the local telephone company.

Hoping to increase competition, regulators have promised that a third choice will become available when TV broadcasters abandon part of the airwaves as part of the digital revolution.

But a proposal previewed this week by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission suggests that dreams of a ”third pipe” for broadband is really a pipe dream.

A critical provision that some say is needed to attract a new broadband competitor did not make it into the draft.

Some technology companies like Google, as well as a number of public interest groups, want the FCC to require licensees in at least one swath of the 700 MHz spectrum being auctioned to offer wireless services on a ”wholesale basis.”

Also offering some insight into the real nature of the fight: How to Sell the Airwaves? - pdf

Ensuring that the deep-pocketed carriers pay top dollar for the spectrum is a high priority for FCC commissioners because the auction proceeds have already been allocated by Congress, according to two commission staff members who spoke on the condition on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

That could reduce support for Martin’s proposal for an open network, which appeals to the two Democratic commissioners, the staff members said.

But the open access conditions could strengthen Martin’s chances of gaining majority support for his preference for large geographic licenses — an idea he’s had a hard time selling to the Democratic commissioners. [...]

See also Carving Up The Wireless Spectrum (pdf) on Reed Hundt and the Frontline proposal.

Also, the LATimes editorial on the current draft: Access on the airwaves — pdf

Critics in the mobile phone industry complain that Martin’s rules favor Google at the taxpayers’ expense. And they’re probably right about the cost — attaching regulatory strings to the frequencies will almost certainly reduce what they fetch at auction. But the point isn’t to raise the most money for the Treasury, it’s to generate the broadest public benefit from these valuable public airwaves. Martin’s proposal could inspire the same kind of inventiveness that’s been a hallmark of the Web. Still, his draft doesn’t go far enough. The FCC should also require winning bidders to provide wholesale access to their networks, at least for the frequencies in question. That’s the best way to increase competition in broadband.

The subcommittee hearing of July 11 — Wireless Innovation and Consumer Protection — Tim Wu testified (local copy) (Washpost coverage — FCC Auction Should Allow for Open Wireless Network, Say Lawmakers — pdf)

But, I guess this is progress — but, really! Private online photos really aren’t — pdf

Theresa O’Neill, a career counselor at Rutgers University-Newark, urges students to take down their online photos while looking for a job.

“Think of it as being in a very large, public place like Yankee Stadium, taking the microphone and broadcasting your personal information to 50,000 people there,” she said. “If you don’t want everyone in the stadium to know the details of your personal life, then keep them to yourself.”

At least some people are listening. A survey last year by the Web site CollegeGrad.com found that 47 percent of recent graduates had changed or planned to change their Web pages because they were looking for a job.

Hey, they’ll probably figure out how to subsidize the work by selling names to mailing lists: FBI Plans Initiative To Profile Terrorists — pdf

The Federal Bureau of Investigations is developing a computer-profiling system that would enable investigators to target possible terror suspects, according to a Justice Department report submitted to Congress yesterday.

[...] “STAR does not label anyone a terrorist,” the report said. “Only individuals considered emergent foreign threats (as opposed to other criminal activity such as U.S. bank robbery threats) will be analyzed.”

Some lawmakers said, however, that the report raises new questions about the government’s power to use personal information and intelligence without accountability.

[...] The STAR system would be subject to a privacy-impact assessment before launched in final form.

And I’d like to know how someone even goes about doing, much less defending, a “privacy impact assessment.”