MediaSentry Role In RIAA Lawsuit Comes Under Scrutiny
By Eric Bangeman
February 03, 2008 - 10:26PM CT

A key component of all of the RIAA's lawsuits against suspected file-sharers is supplied by MediaSentry, the company that goes hunting for targets on KaZaA and other P2P networks.

MediaSentry's role in the RIAA's cases is coming under new scrutiny in Lava v. Amurao, with the defendant's attorney arguing that the testimony from the company be excluded on the grounds that Media Sentry is operating as a private investigator without the license that is required by New York state law.

MediaSentry has acted as the RIAA's investigative arm throughout the music industry's legal campaign against file-sharers. The exhibits attached to the RIAA's complaints invariably contain screenshots of KaZaA users' share folders as well as a list of the 20 to 30 songs downloaded by MediaSentry in their entirety.

In Lava v. Amurao, defendant's attorney Richard A. Altman is arguing that MediaSentry's testimony should be barred. Calling the firm "plaintiffs' private investigator," Altman argues that the company's activities violate New York State law. As a result, "no testimony or evidence gathered in the course of their investigation should be admissible."

Ars Technica
complete article

Qtrax: The Most Jacked-Up, Disappointing Launch In Years
By Ken Fisher
January 29, 2008 - 08:15PM CT

We've been chronicling our experience and take on Qtrax, a new "free" P2P service that leverages DRM to push ads at users. Originally slated to launch this last weekend, the whole thing came unraveled when it was revealed that Qtrax didn't even have the licenses it needed to open its doors.

Then they did the inexplicable: they posted the beta client 24 hours ago and opened up the service. The only problem? You can't download or play any music from the service. You download the client, install it, go through a registration process, and shazzam: hurry up and wait for "Downloads coming soon!" Installation was not easy, either.

I cannot determine why, but when Songbird searches my disks for audio tracks to add to its built-in library, it causes my RAID array to flip out. The test machine was an nForce 4 board with NVIDIA's RAID, and once Songbird started scanning, Windows Vista and then the NVIDIA monitoring tool both reported that the RAID array was inaccessible.

I then had five minutes of "RAID Access Failure" notifications before it stopped. Running diagnostics, I could find nothing wrong with the array. With all that behind me, I hopped on the service to check it out. Performance was painfully slow; browsing the Qtrax service via its Songbird-based player application is an exercise in frustration.

Ars Technica
complete article

Legal P2P Site Doesnt Have What It Takes
by Greg Sandoval
January 28, 2008 11:47 AM PST

At first blush, Qtrax seemed like a good idea. Executives there wooed reporters by promising to corral illegal file sharing. They built an interface on top of the Gnutella network where millions of songs are pirated. They pledged to offer users a legal way to download and share music.

Qtrax managers said they had convinced the big record labels that it could turn file sharing into a cash cow for them. They said all four of the most powerful labels were on board. But on Monday, Qtrax was more than 12 hours late launching its music service. A day earlier, the big record companies made news by contradicting Qtrax.

They said the company was not authorized to sell their music. What was once an eagerly awaited debut is turning into a fiasco for the New York-based start-up, which has tried for more than a year to get off the ground. The issues with Qtrax illustrate two things. First, the labels have clearly signaled that they are willing to give ad-supported music a try--just not with downloads.

Secondly, Qtrax executives should know better than to announce deals when they don't have ink. Qtrax CEO Allan Klepfisz told CNET News.com on Sunday that the company had agreements, but acknowledged that they just weren't signed. But everybody knows that without signed contracts, there is no deal.

CNET Blogs
complete article

Amazon plans to take its DRM-free music offering worldwide
By Jacqui Cheng
January 28, 2008 - 11:56AM CT

Online music buyers around the world will soon be able to partake in Amazon's offerings, as the company plans to roll out its DRM-free music store internationally throughout 2008. The company, however, did not details on which regions it planned to target, nor did it give a specific time frame for when the rollout would begin.

Considering that the company already has localized sites set up for countries like Japan, Canada, and the UK, though, it's probably safe to assume that those will be some of the countries that will get access to the music store first. Amazon has been on the anti-DRM warpath lately, having just launched its music store in late September of last year. Since then, it has been signing on label after label to offer their music in 256kbps MP3 format, which it brags is compatible with practically every music-playing device under the sun.

Amazon topped off its collection earlier this month by signing on Sony BMG, and now offers music from all the Big Four (Universal, EMI, Warner Music, and Sony BMG) plus 33,000 independent labels. No other DRM-free store has as wide a selection as Amazon does, making Amazon a major force to reckon with in today's online music market. iTunes, the long-time leader in online music, still only offers DRM-free tracks from EMI, and not in MP3 format (all iTunes tracks are encoded as AAC files).

And the others—such as eMusic, 7digital, PureTracks, and Amie Street—have just a sprinkling of bigger names with their smaller labels. Amazon also offers slightly more competitive prices than its number one rival (iTunes), with most tracks going for 89¢ apiece instead of iTunes' standard 99¢. Yahoo is, however, apparently planning its own DRM-free music store that could potentially rival Amazon's.

Ars Technica
complete article

New Bond movie is Quantum of Solace
By Lester Haines
January 24 2008 14:19 GMT

Bond 22 is now officially Quantum of Solace, the film's producers announced today. The movie - whose title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1960 For Your Eyes Only - has already begun shooting at Pinewood and will later go on location in Austria, Italy and Panama. It's Daniel Craig's second outing as 007, following the laudable Casino Royale.

He's joined by old hand Judi Dench as M, plus newbies Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton as Bond girls, playing the "mysterious" Camille and MI6 Agent Fields, respectively. Also on board is Mathieu Amarilic, who'll take the role of villain Dominic Greene. As previously reported, Quantum of Solace will follow on from Casino Royale, with 007 "picking up the pieces after being double-crossed by Treasury agent Vesper Lynd". The film is due for US release on 7 November.

The Register

HP signs up Sony Pictures for made-on-demand DVDs
January 23, 2008, 11:50 PM PST

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has become the first major studio to license niche and older DVD titles for production and distribution through Hewlett-Packard's year-old DVD manufactured-on-demand service, the two companies said Thursday.

The MOD service allows Sony to offer a wider choice of catalog titles to consumers because HP can press and ship single discs as they are ordered through affiliated Web sites.

Sony has not released some of the content--including classic television shows, foreign and independent movies, specialty programming such as religious or food shows, and local sporting events--because of the cost of maintaining inventory and the difficulties of gauging demand, said David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

"We know there is strong consumer demand for these titles, and by working with HP we can monetize our deep product library and help give retailers the means to bring a wider offering of Sony Pictures products to consumers without a significant investment in inventory," Bishop said in a statement.

CNET News/REUTERS
complete article

MPAA admits mistake on downloading study
By Justin Pope
January 23, 9:06 AM EST

Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong. In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.

The MPAA has used the study to pressure colleges to take tougher steps to prevent illegal file-sharing and to back legislation currently before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so. But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a "human error" in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.

The MPAA says that's still significant, and justifies a major effort by colleges and universities to crack down on illegal file-sharing. But Mark Luker, vice president of campus IT group Educause, says it doesn't account for the fact that more than 80 percent of college students live off campus and aren't necessarily using college networks. He says 3 percent is a more reasonable estimate for the percentage of revenue that might be at stake on campus networks.

"The 44 percent figure was used to show that if college campuses could somehow solve this problem on this campus, then it would make a tremendous difference in the business of the motion picture industry," Luker said. The new figures prove "any solution on campus will have only a small impact on the industry itself."

Associated Press
complete article

HD DVD player sales share slumps
By Tony Smith
January 23, 2008 - 11:43 GMT

This month hasn't just seen a relative decline in US HD DVD software sales - purchases of players appear to be down to, the latest figures from market watcher NPD suggest.

The numbers, relayed by website The Digital Bits, cover weekly sales of dedicated players - so the PS3 and the Xbox 360 add-on are not included - from the end of December 2007 through to the end of the second week of January.

For the week ending 29 December 2007, the two formats player marketshare stood at 39.81 per cent HD DVD and 60.19 per cent Blu-ray. The following week, ended 5 January 2008, HD DVD's share rose to 48.83 per cent, undoubtedly a result of Toshiba's player price cuts. Blu-ray accounted for 51.17 per cent of the market.

On the penultimate day of that week, Friday, 4 January, Warner Home Video went public on its plan to stop supporting HD DVD. The result: HD DVD's share of player sales in the following week plunged to less than ten per cent of the total - 7.47 per cent, to be precise.

The Register Hardware
complete article

Canadian labels: We get "absolutely zero credit" for not suing fans
By Nate Anderson
January 22, 2008 - 02:35PM CT

The heads of several Canadian content trade groups (including the CRIA, which represents the four major labels) recently sat down with the editorial board of the Ottawa Citizen for an hour of conversation about the copyright reform bill soon coming to Canada and what content owners want to see changed.

Despite the poor recording quality, the bad questions, and the general "I'm just going to talk over you" approach of the content owners, the conversation is worth a listen to anyone (not just Canadians) who wants to understand where content owners are coming from. Or you could just let me sum it up for you in two words: they're coming from Frustration Junction.

Graham Henderson, the boss of CRIA, comes across as a man not out to screw the world (as CRIA is sometimes portrayed), but as a man about ready to tear out his own hair in frustration over the fact that the music industry is so consistently demonized by consumers even as those consumers take its core product without paying.

A skilled talker, Henderson is the most interesting person at the table, and it's actually quite humanizing to listen as his polished façade cracks a bit. He points out that Canadian labels have not chosen to sue their fans, but then goes plaintive for a moment, saying, "We get absolutely zero credit for that."

Ars Technica
complete article

Thousands Sign Online Petition to "Save HD-DVD"
January 23, 2008

Anyone ever sign a petition at PetitionOnline.com? It's a site that "provides free online hosting of public petitions for responsible public advocacy." Once Warner Bros. said they were switching to Blu-ray only, a petition to save HD-DVD was opened by Tudor Cacenco, who says on the site:

Dear High Def movie fans, I'm starting this petition in order to support HD-DVD and hopefully save it, and to show Warner Brothers that the consumer has not "clearly" chosen Blu-Ray. Warner Brothers switched to Blu-Ray exclusive claiming that its the best thing for the consumer, but how about all the consumers that bought HD-DVD movies and hardware for the holidays, or all the loyal HD-DVD fans like myself that own Warner HD-DVDs? Warner just screwed them all.

At the time of this writing, the total number of signatures is 14,555. Not exactly a huge number, but something to make people take notice at least.

While when Warner Bros. originally made their statement that the consumer had chosen Blu-ray, it may not have been true, it may be true now. Two weeks ago, Blu-ray outsold HD DVD by six to one, as people may be beginning to realize HD-DVD could end up being the "new" Betamax.

Technology Expert
complete article

February 6, 2008, 4:20 AM PST

Web search leader Google is planning to boost its presence in China by tying up with a Chinese online music company to provide free music downloads, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The report, quoting people close to the situation, said Google was in the late planning stages of a venture and will likely offer access to tunes from three global music companies as well as dozens of smaller brands. The service could start in the next several weeks barring any last-minute problems, it said.

The move would come as Google struggles to wrestle market share from Baidu.com, which dominates the Chinese search market and offers music search. Google representatives were not immediately available for comment. China’s search engine market reached $131 million in the fourth quarter–almost double from a year earlier, according to a research firm.

Baidu led the market in the fourth quarter with a 60.1 percent share, said Analysys International, while Google came in second with a 25.9 percent share, followed by Yahoo China with 9.6 percent.

Star Trek XI teaser trailer beams onto web
By Scott Snowden
January 22 2008 12:43 GMT

A teaser trailer for much-anticipated new Star Trek film has finally found its way onto the web. Directed by JJ Abrams - the man behind Lost and more recently, the mysterious and virally marketed Cloverfield - Star Trek XI will detail the early days of James T Kirk and his crew and will chronologically sit after the TV series Enterprise, starring Scott "oh boy" Bakula.

Due for release in December of this year, the cast includes Winona Ryder as a young Spock's mum (she's responsible for his human half) the little-known Chris Pine as James T Kirk and Simon Pegg to play the young Engineer Montgomery Scott.

Reg Hardware

HBO Putting Shows Online, at No Additional Charge
By Brian Stelter
January 21 2008

HBO, cable’s most popular premium channel, is carefully entering the arena of Internet video. The channel, a subsidiary of Time Warner, will introduce HBO on Broadband starting this week to subscribers in Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wis., then spread the service slowly to other parts of the country.

The free service will allow access to about 400 hours of movies and original programming each month. It will be made available only to people already subscribing to HBO, and it will be marketed and delivered through cable operators.

“There are a lot of people, particularly young people, who are watching TV through the PC. We wanted to create a product for them,” said Eric Kessler, a co-president of HBO.

Most major television networks already make much of their programming available free on the Internet. But as a channel with 29 million subscribers, HBO cannot afford to bypass its cable partners.

New York Times
complete article

Perspective: Recording industry should brace for more bad news
By Wayne Rosso
January 16, 2008 - 1:49 PM PST

The recording industry is facing yet more bad news. Forget about Warner Music Group's plummeting stock price, or the shrinking retail floor space. Forget about EMI's announcement this week that it's cutting 1,500 to 2,000 jobs.

At least the new owners of EMI are recognizing that they bought into a dead industry and are trying to confront it head-on with significant changes in business strategy. It remains to be seen if the suits who now own EMI can navigate the shark-infested waters of a business that feeds on schadenfreude.

The big problem that EMI, and by extension the rest of the industry, faces is the sudden stampede of brand-name artists away from the traditional recording companies. The Eagles are with Wal-Mart, Madonna left Warner for Live Nation, a concert promotion company. EMI has lost Paul McCartney and Radiohead, and Coldplay is said to be threatening to leave.

Last week, the label's biggest seller, Robbie Williams, announced that he too would be leaving the label. All pretty devastating. Record companies have always depended on the revenue and cash flow generated from platinum-selling artists to finance new talent. If that revenue stream disappears, how can they compete?

CNET News
complete article

Swedish prosecutors dump 4,000 legal docs on The Pirate Bay
By Eric Bangeman
January 14, 2008 - 11:33PM CT

As the calendar pages turned from 2007 to 2008, one constant remained for the motion picture and music industries: The Pirate Bay's willingness to ignore their threats (and copyrights) to the point that the Swedish group's site has become the go-to destination for torrented content on the Internet.

But there may be dark clouds looming on the horizon for The Pirate Bay. Swedish prosecutors are close to bringing charges against admins Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm. In May 2006, Swedish law enforcement officials seized The Pirate Bay's servers and took a couple of the site's operators into custody. They were soon released, and just a couple of days later, the web site for the Swedish national police was taken down by a DDoS attack.

But while the raid may have won Sweden some friends from the world of Big Content, it angered many Swedes. They were upset about reports that the Swedish government carried out the raid at the behest of the US government. In fact, many Swedes are nonchalant about copyright, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription).

A 2006 report showed that 87 percent of all films viewed illegally in Sweden were acquired via P2P networks, rather than via bootlegged physical media (France was second at 62 percent and the figure is just 34 percent in the US), and the Journal describes the country as a "file-sharing free-for-all."

Ars Technica
complete article