Darknet

Shooting down satellite radio?

BusinessWeek Online: Shooting Down Satellite Radio? Terrestrial broadcasters are going for an FCC-aided kill in their long-raging fight with XM and Sirius.

MySpace will review uploaded music on site

San Jose Mercury News: MySpace.com will use ``audio fingerprinting'' technology to block users from uploading copyrighted music to the social networking site, the company said.

Sharecrow dedicated to alternative DVD commentaries

Here's an email I recently received from Steve Concotelli, co-founder of Sharecrow.com:

I wanted to let you know that I co-created a new website, www.sharecrow.com, which picks up where DVDTracks left off.

Sharecrow is the world's largest website dedicated to alternative DVD commentaries. We have links to over 400 commentaries, with more being added every day. Many of these are fan-created submissions, but the number of officially endorsed commentaries is increasing.

In addition, we created the world's first DVD player that allows you to play these downloaded commentaries in sync with a DVD. With our software, users can now play a DVD and commentary together on their computer, without recording anything onto the DVD. Users simply assign an audio file to a DVD, and from that point on both will play in sync -- even as you skip around the DVD. It's the first player of its kind and Sharecrow's popularity is growing.

We are working to re-define the relationship movie fans have with their DVD's. With Sharecrow, movie viewers can now be active content creators for their favorite (or not-so-favorite) movies and tv shows.

Creative Commons values

Lawrence Lessig at Creative Commons:

In the four years since we launched CC, the Internet, and the world's understanding of the Internet, have changed dramatically. In 2002, the media was obsessed by something called "piracy." Today, they call it "user-generated content." Just around the time we launched, Wikipedia crossed 100,000 articles; today it is the most important testament to the Internet's potential to enable something different and extraordinary.

When we started, none of us had any real idea about what the Internet would become. But we all had dreams. Mine was that the Internet would offer something different from the world of analog culture. While many were obsessed with how new technologies would radically change old businesses, I was eager to see the new ways of creating and interacting that would develop. iTunes does better what Tower Records did pretty well. But what would the Internet create in 2010 that didn't exist (in any significant sense) in 1990? ...

Hacker targets iPod, iTunes restrictions

This is getting a little old.

AP: A hacker known for cracking the copy-protection technology in DVDs claims to have unlocked the playback restrictions of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod and iTunes music products and plans to license his code to others.

'Child Internet Act' deserves to die

Associated Press: Online publishers, advocates argue against the ill-conceived Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

CEA to unveil Digital Freedom effort

San Jose Mercury News: Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro is taking the fight over unreasonable copyright laws to consumers. Excerpt:

The CEA on Wednesday plans to announce an advertising campaign to try to convince consumers they have a stake in the copyright fight. Ultimately, the group hopes the effort, dubbed Digital Freedom, will result in a loosening of the laws and more protections for consumers and manufacturers from charges of copyright infringement.

Legal experts are divided on whether the law has gone too far to protect content owners.

``What we've seen is a radical expansion of protection for right holders,'' argued Jack Lerner, a fellow at UC-Berkeley's School of Law, noting recent laws that have extended copyright terms and limited consumers' ability to copy digital files. ``Copyright is a set of limited rights. It's not a carte blanche to control every single use of that content.''

Was it smart for YouTube to make labels partners in crime?

Digital Media Wire: Analysis: Was It a Smart Move of YouTube To Make Labels Partners in Crime?

Crackdown on video sharing sites

LA Times: Universal Sues Video Sharing Websites. The record label's move against Grouper and Bolt opens a new front in copyright litigation.

Support EFF

In a few weeks, the Electronic Frontier Foundation will once again play a key leadership role in the Election Protection Coalition, where it will deploy a team of more than 40 lawyers across the country to document and respond to problems with electronic voting machines on Election Day. In 2004, EFF attorneys helped people assert their rights to vote on paper ballots and filed lawsuits when machines prohibited people from exercising one of their most basic democratic rights--the right to vote.

Over the past year, member contributions have helped EFF:

• Sue AT&T for violating the privacy rights of its customers by collaborating with the NSA's secret spying programs

• Hold Sony BMG accountable for infecting music fans' computers with flawed, privacy-invasive copy protection software

• Protect innovation and beat back legislation that would cripple your digital media devices, like TiVos and iPods

• Stand up for your rights in global forums like the World Intellectual Property Organization

But the fight is far from over, and the EFF is looking for financial donations, so they can continue the fight to protect our rights. Please join!

Recording industry files 8,000 new lawsuits

Reuters Register UK: Recording Industry Files 8,000 New File-Sharing Lawsuits in 17 countries. (IFPI press release.)

Internet privacy options are few

Associated Press: Internet privacy options are few.

TV networks get with the online program

San Jose Mercury News: TV industry latching on to evolving technologies.

Video killed the tv star?

Vision Blog: Video killed the tv star? L'intervista integrale a JD Lasica. A Q&A in Italiano.

Cuts.com: Mash up a Hollywood video

Someone just alerted me to Cuts.com, an interesting startup that demoed at DemoFall:

Product Description

Cuts lets everyday people edit, share and watch personalized versions of copyrighted video. Parents can take control by removing inappropriate or scary scenes. Friends can insert and share commentary, re-arrange scenes or add to the videos they own. By creating Cutlists, which are virtual edits separated from the content itself, users can share their creations over the Internet. Now everyone can watch their videos their way, legally.

Market Opportunity

All over the world people are taking control of their viewing experiences: TVGuardian has sold 7 million devices, 4 million people viewed Brokeback Mountain satires on YouTube, The Shining trailer re-cut was the most popular blog link for two weeks. Cuts enables these uses and much more, legally.

Demo Says

Film directors everywhere will cringe at Cuts, but parents, educators and digital media geeks are going to love it. By enabling individuals to create their own film edits and sequencing, Cuts lets you watch a film the way you wish it had been made (for example, much shorter, for parents forced to endure any barney video for the 356th time), add commentary to elucidate key scenes, or simply watch that favorite moment again and again and again. Cuts puts film fans in control of their movie-watching experience.

Kennedy supports Net Neutrality

YouTube video: Sen. Ted Kennedy supports Net Neutrality.

Who killed TiVoToGo?

EFF: Who Killed TiVoToGo? Digital Cable and Satellite DRM Harms TV Fans and Innovators.

It's the latest digital media murder mystery: TiVo Series2's TiVoToGo enabled limited portability of recorded content to PCs and other devices, but the TiVo Series3 HD did not include this feature when recently released.2 In other words, if you want to upgrade to HD, you have to downgrade your TiVo's features.

You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to guess that this story somehow involves Hollywood, the FCC, and "digital rights management" (DRM) restrictions. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has opposed these restrictions every step of the way, and, in this article, we'll explain digital cable DRM's sordid history, how digital cable and satellite DRM may affect you, and what you can do to fight back.

In short, get ready for copying limits on cable and satellite content that won't stop "Internet piracy"3 but will stop you from making legitimate use of lawfully acquired content. You'll be forced to only buy devices with limited features, and restricted digital outputs could break compatibility with your current HD displays and receivers, even though you may have already invested thousands of dollars in them. Innovators will have to beg permission before inventing new digital devices that help you get more from your satellite and cable content.

Unfortunately, TiVoToGo's disappearance is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is exactly what Darknet was all about.

Steven Levy on a free Internet

Steve Levy in Newsweek: Celebrating a Web That's Free—For Now. Fearing an assault on the egalitarian principle that helped make the Web what it is.

[Susan] Crawford and [Craig] Newmark—along with almost all the early people who helped get the Web underway—are concerned about its future. Specifically, they feel threatened by a looming assault on the egalitarian principle that has helped make the Web what it is—the principle of "Net neutrality."

It's a snoozeworthy term, but a useful one. Neutrality describes the way the Internet works now. All the digital bits that move on the Net, whether they are podcasts, SEC filings or articles in NEWSWEEK, are treated the same, with no fear or favor. This allows a level playing field that promotes innovation, as the humblest start-up or the most modest nonprofit organization can be assured that its content gets the same access to an audience as anyone else's does.

But recently the big telcos and cable companies that basically hold a duopoly on Internet service in a given area indicated they'd like a new scheme. They would charge big companies like Google and Yahoo big fees to guarantee that their content got to customers at higher speeds. In other words, there'd be an elite toll road alongside a free but crowded interstate. This loss of neutrality is what upsets the Net community. Google might be able to afford to pay extra, but what about craigslist, which serves millions of people on minimal revenues? Nonprofits and government couldn't come up with the dough to get their content treated favorably. And an innovative start-up like YouTube would never have gotten its audience if its video clips ran in slow motion compared with those of its competitors.

Though some lawmakers are interested in writing legislation to preserve Net neutrality, in the Senate the effort failed. A key opponent is Ted Stevens (Republican of Alaska), who heads the Commerce Committee. "[Legislating] Net neutrality is unnecessary government regulation," says Stevens via e-mail, "and is an attempt to shift the high cost of innovations from large companies to everyday Americans who log onto the Web." Stevens's committee is touting a survey that claims that consumers don't care about neutrality—but the respondents to the survey weren't told what neutrality meant, or that it is the current standard. Nor were they asked to consider what would happen if nonprofits, activists, start-ups and citizen journalists lost their audiences because they were stuck in a digital traffic jam—while the big guys paid their way out of it by fattening the wallets of companies like Verizon, which funded the survey.

We Own the Internet: Net Neutrality for the disengaged

Amy Gahran at E-Media Tidbits:

If you haven't yet managed to start caring about net neutrality, check out this hilarious advocacy site: We Own the Internet. It features several great bits of Flash video -- enthusiastic speeches by "Richard P. Merryweather, president & CEO of CT&TCOM American Communications."

A few choice excerpts from "Merryweather's" home page speech:

"[We're] the largest telephone company in the U.S. I want to make one thing perfectly clear: We own the internet. We acquired it last year with the help of the federal government, and now we're about to make some exciting changes. Some people object to this. ...But you see, an open internet is just too confusing for consumers, and not nearly as profitable for us. ...Who better to provide you with a 21st-century technology than a 19th-century monopoly?"

And that's just the home page! Definitely explore the site to see more videos. Regardless of your views on net neutrality, these videos are a riot. Especially the "Why You Really Count" page, and the phrasing of the references to real recent news coverage of this issue on the "Latest News" page. ...

YouTube and the DMCA

O'Reilly Radar: YouTube and the DMCA.

Yahoo! Mail opened to mash-up makers

ITWire: The world's number one internet company Yahoo has opened up the code to its popular web-based email system Yahoo! Mail to enable outside developers to create web-based applications based on the platform.

Tom Evslin on net neutrality

Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media has a 39-minute audio interview with Tom Evslin, a tech industry CEO who has become a leading proponent of net neutrality.

Trademark bully stalks Santa Cruz

San Jose Mercury News: Trademark bully stalks Santa Cruz. Huntington Beach tries to intimidate foe over 'Surf City' title.