Darknet

Pulling the plug on corporate radio

High school student Robby Valderrama in today's San Jose Merc: Pulling the plug on corporate radio.

... When flipping through your favorite radio stations, do you realize that 75 percent of the music you hear is owned by four corporations? According to a recent Yahoo.com report, ``Sony BMG, Vivendi's Universal Music, EMI Group and Warner Music account for about three out of every four records sold around the world.'' Artists ranging from Chingy to Eric Clapton all record for one of these four groups.

Then you add the ``corporatization'' of radio. Companies like Clear Channel -- which owns Bay Area stations KMEL (106.1), KYLD (94.9) and others -- have a network of stations across the United States and can control what goes on playlists.

For groups like MFS and their fans, this all translates to one thing: They're getting shoved out of radio play by acts that are backed by big corporations. ...

Many have turned to Internet radio, visiting Web sites like Launch.com and Purevolume.com.

``The only radio I listen to is Launchcast radio,'' said Rodolfo Sclafani, a freshman at the University of California-San Diego. ``It gives variety.''

Battling the copyright big boys

My pal Katie Dean in Wired News: Battling the Copyright Big Boys. IPac pledges to support candidates and elected officials who fight for a balance in copyright law: The group will support those who advocate for laws that will pay creators without limiting political expression, innovation or research and education, and back laws that foster new creativity.

Fighting for file-swapping on Capitol Hill

CNET's Declan McCullagh has a Q&A with Philip Corwin, who has one of the least enviable jobs in Washington, D.C.: He defends file-swapping networks.

Studios endorse new DVD format

San Jose Merc: Studios endorse new DVD format. By late next year, consumers will be able to buy HD DVD players that take full advantage of their digital televisions, offering enhanced sound and five times the picture quality of current DVDs.

They'll also be locked down with industrial-strength encryption. But at least our old DVDs will play on the new machines.

Trouble for TiVo

Peter Rojas in Engadget today: DirecTV prepping new digital video recorder, which spells trouble for TiVo.

Trial to unmask Kazaa owners

Wired News: In a copyright-infringement trial under way this week in an Australian federal court, music industry representatives say they plan to make public the secretive ownership structure of the Kazaa file-trading network.

Why TV will never be the same

BusinessWeek Online has a three-part report:

Why TV will never be the same. Digital technologies mean more than just sharper pictures. Here's a look at three major trends they'll make possible.

TV meets IP. Internet technologies promise to soon take couch potatoes to worlds far beyond TiVo.

TV's spectrum showdown. In a deal originally made in 1996, broadcasters may soon be forced to return airwaves now used to transmit analog signals.

New DRM consortiums continue to form

Robin Berger in TVTechnology.com:

Consumers continue to be assured that the promise of digital technology's "any time, any place" access to the media they crave is just around the corner--the wheels are in motion. At the same time, a considerable backspin continues to be provided by those who currently control its dissemination--and fear the boogeyman behind remote devices.

Yet another tech and media, anti-privacy consortium was formed last month. This one--Coral--includes Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Philips Electronics, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Samsung, Twentieth Century Fox, RealNetworks and digital rights management company InterTrust Technologies. Apple Computer and Microsoft are notably absent.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the FCC continues to mediate the fate of "digital output protection technology and recording method" providers. The commission certified the following 13 technologies in August:

- MagicGateType-R (four types from Sony Corp.)
- SmartRight (developed by a conglomerate headed by Thomson)
- Vidi Recordable DBD Protection System (Philips Electronics and Hewlett-Packard)
- High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (Digital Content Protection, LLC)
- Content Protection Recordable Media for Video Content (4C, LLC)
- TiVoGuard Digital Output Protection Technology
- Digital Transmission Content Protection (Digital Transmission Licensing Administration)
- Helix DRM Trusted Recorder (Real)
- Windows Media Digital Rights Management (Microsoft Corp.)
- D-VHS (Victor Company of Japan, aka JVC)

The FCC's docket indicates that these technologies have been under commission review since at least February, to ensure that content marked with the Broadcast Flag is protected. ...

According to Jim Burger, a partner at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, the Washington, DC-based law firm representing TiVo, the DVR company's technology "has the most robust protection system of any of them out there. The MPAA just doesn't like remote access." ...

I interviewed Burger -- an eminently reasonable guy -- three times for Darknet. What's disturbing is that digital rights management never flourished in the marketplace -- more than 90 percent of employees who worked at DRM companies five years ago are now unemployed -- and so the DRM vendors are now turning to Washington to enforce their copy protection lockdown schemes by regulatory fiat.

TV piracy growing

The next big craze in illegal file sharing is not music or movies but television.

New TiVo features worry consumers

Associated Press: New TiVo features worry consumers. Excerpt:

"Consumers are very distrustful of technologies that seize yet another opportunity to offer up advertising," said Mike Godwin, legal director of Public Knowledge.

TiVo officials say that starting in March users will begin to see static images, such as a company logo, appear on their television screens as they fast-forward through commercials. The billboard-like ads -- which will last about four seconds for a fast-forwarded 30-second spot -- may offer giveaways or links to other ads. ...

Some skeptics also worry that TiVo's planned use of Macrovision Corp.'s new copy-protection scheme signals more boundaries on what shows they can or cannot record - even as TiVo prepares to unveil a new service later this year, called TiVoToGo, that will let users record shows onto DVDs or transfer them to computers.

Macrovision has developed a feature that will allow content providers - the people who produce television shows - to place restrictions on how long a digital video recorder such as TiVo can save certain kinds of programming. For instance, movies could disappear after seven days.