May 27, 2008
By Sharon Gaudin

A Brooklyn, N.Y., man was convicted of copyright infringement late last week in the largest criminal music piracy case in the United States. Barry Gitarts, 25, was convicted by a jury in federal court in Alexandria, Va., for his role in the so-called Apocalypse Production Crew, an online piracy group that specialized in stealing and disseminating not-yet-released music.

Gitarts, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He was also ordered to make full restitution. He is slated to be sentenced on Aug. 8. Gitarts, who used the alias Dextro, was the 15th member of the group to be convicted on piracy charges. All were charged in early 2004 when law enforcement agents around the world acted on search warrants aimed at several online piracy groups.

The other 14 members of the Apocalypse Production Crew who were charged have pleaded guilty."Our hope is that it will deter people from pirating material on the Internet," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay V. Prabhu, who prosecuted the case. "The intellectual property industry has estimated that the money [lost] to piracy and is in the billions of dollars.

There are hundreds of groups like this, but these guys were a significant provider." Gitarts, according to court records, paid for and maintained the server that the piracy group used. The server was based at a Houston hosting provider but Gitarts controlled it from his home. APC, and other online piracy groups work by stealing music, movies, software and video games before they're released for sale.

By Nate Anderson
May 22, 2008 - 08:38PM CT

When AOL released "anonymized" search results from more than 500,000 users back in 2006, the resulting firestorm even blew into the mainstream media, which managed to track down and identify some of the "anonymous" users simply from their search queries.

Now, two years later, a seedling emerges from those ashes as a Philadelphia theater company launches USER 927, a new play based on one user's rather unorthodox set of queries. Ars spoke to writer Katharine Clark Gray about the piece and what led her to create it.

A play about search queries might sound as enjoyable as listening to Winnie Ille Pu read entirely in Latin (I speak from experience), but AOL user 927 was no ordinary searcher. The Consumerist picked 927's queries from the complete archive and published them online in 2006, which inspired director Michael Alltop to pitch Gray on the idea of doing "a play about it."

The queries start harmlessly enough. Sure, user 927 has some medical problems ("heal time for broken legs," "human mold," "mold on humans," "skin mold") but who has the time these days to keep themselves entirely fungi-free? But things quickly take a turn for the worse with the sudden appearance of "dog sex" at 9:28 PM one evening.

By Nate Anderson
May 21, 2008 - 10:50PM CT

Pre-twentieth century music all exists in the public domain, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get access either to recordings or sheet music. Want to include a Beethoven sonata as background music in your wedding video, documentary, or indie feature film?

You'll need to pay unless you can dig up an ancient recorded copy from the early 1900s (and can live with the sound quality). Want to pass out sheet music of that same sonata to your high school band? Again, you will need to pay unless you can track down an ancient, out-of-copyright score. One web site has the ambitious goal of doing away with such restrictions, putting both classical recordings and sheet music into the public domain for use by anyone in the world.

Musopen has been around for a couple of years but has recently rolled out a new version of its web site, added freely-downloadable sheet music, and raised enough cash to professionally record the entire set of 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and place them in the public domain. One of the site's innovative features is its bidding system, in which users can pledge contributions toward specific pieces. When they necessary amount is raised, a professional musician is hired to perform, say, Bach's Goldberg Variations (currently the top request).

Most of the money used to fund the Beethoven Sonatas was also raised from users in small increments, with a $5 average contribution. While individuals can spend that same money purchasing their own copies of such works, a donation to Musopen helps fund a musical commons that makes the pieces available worldwide and for any application. Aaron Dunn, who started the project while in college, tells Ars that big projects are in the works for the site, including deals with the Internet Archive and the OLPC project.

by John P. Falcone
May 19, 2008 9:00 PM PDT

The Netflix box is finally a reality. The Netflix Player by Roku is the first product that allows subscribers to have movies and TV shows from the service's Instant Viewing feature (aka "Watch Now") to be streamed directly to their TV screen. Previously, Instant Viewing was available only to Windows PC users through the Internet Explorer browser.

With the release of the Netflix Player, subscribers need only have a wired or wireless broadband connection to access the entire Instant Viewing catalog through their TV. The full review--with hands-on video--is available at CNET Reviews. But for those who prefer to cut right to the chase, here's the short and sweet version: We've been playing with the Netflix Player for about two weeks, and--for the most part--we found a lot to like.

Setup is simple, and--if you've got a solid broadband connection--picture quality is acceptable and streaming performance was almost entirely lag-free. Those looking for the HD video quality and polished interface of Apple TV and Vudu will be disappointed. The Netflix Player is strictly barebones--you're not intended to do anything more than just dive in and watch the movies and TV shows you've already queued up via your online Netflix account.

The biggest drawback--for now at least--is the dearth of quality content. Thanks to Hollywood's byzantine licensing system, less than 10 percent of Netflix's 100,000-plus library of titles is available for streaming to the Player. That means, for now, that only two of Netflix's top 100 DVDs are available for streaming: March of the Penguins and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

by Greg Sandoval
May 12, 2008 4:00 AM PDT

The emergence of online video has begun enticing Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to Hollywood, and unlike an earlier migration during the dot-com era, the film industry is rolling out red carpets. After spending three days at the Digital Hollywood conference, where I spoke with dozens of entertainment executives as well as tech CEOs, it's easy to spot what's going on: studio executives are more comfortable with online video and clip-playing gadgets than in the past.

The entertainment sector also needs help figuring out how to make money from digital. On the other side, the geeks seem less dismissive of studio's copyright concerns and are much impressed with the film industry's glamor and riches. "The new group descended so quickly on Los Angeles," said Philip Lelyveld, a former Disney executive who is now on his own as an entertainment-technology adviser, and has been a member of Hollywood's tech community for over a decade.

"It's been in the last six or seven months where we suddenly saw a huge (spike) in activity. The reason for that is people are seeing startups built around content are suddenly becoming economically viable. The studios have also made their content more available. In some cases, they have made it clear that there are things that can be done with content that were still in dispute a few years ago." Indeed, the film industry has begun galloping into the digital age.

News Corp. and NBC Universal launched Web video-portal Hulu in March. Earlier this month, the top movie studios agreed to allow Apple to offer flicks via iTunes the same day they're released on DVD. Two weeks ago, Warner Bros. Television announced it was bringing back the WB channel, the TV network shuttered 18 months ago, as an online-only play. According to one Warner Bros. executive, "the TV network of tomorrow won't be found on TV."

By Egan Orion
09 May 2008 - 11:50 AM

THE MPAA says it will be demanding $15.4 million from Pirate Bay when its lawsuit goes to trial. The content mafiaa plans to claim damages for just four movies -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Syriana, The Pink Panther and Walk the Line -- and 13 episodes of the recent TV series Prison Break.

It's demanding between 222.50 and 261.50 kronor ($37 to $43) for each film download and 416 kronor ($68) for Prison Break's first season. According to the MPAA's law firm MAQS, Pirate Bay's users downloaded The Pink Panther 49,593 times and Syriana 3,679 times. MAQS calls the damage claim amounts "not unreasonable" of course. It says the distributed files were made available by Pirate Bay prior to the release of DVDs or legal downloads.

Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde (Brokep) told Torrent Freak he wasn't impressed by the Hollywood companies' claims, saying "They know they are losing, and try to make us look like big criminals by adding some zeros to a claim for a made-up crime." He went on, "The worst thing is that I lost 100 kronor on a bet on the number they would come up with. And, it sucks that they didn't claim more than for Napster and the other sites. It's cooler to break the record."

However, monetary claims against Pirate Bay are piling up. Last month IFPI claimed damages of $2.5 million. Earlier Thursday, Antipiratbyrån requested $1.1 million. And prosecutor Håkan Roswall asked the court in January for $188,000 in fines against Fredrik Neij (TiAMO), Gottfrid Svartholm (Anakata), Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström.

By Drew Cullen
5th May 2008 16:35 GMT

Peter Gabriel's online music empire is reduced to a holding page, following the theft of servers from his web host over the weekend. According to the web monitoring firm Netcraft, Gabriel's servers are hosted by Rednet Ltd, although that appears to be a defunct brand of a UK company called Opal Telecom, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse. But details are sketchy and as it's a public holiday in the UK, we'll fill in the gaps tomorrow. In the meantime here is the message posted at time of writing on the web-savvy musician's site, PeterGabriel.com.

Real World, Peter Gabriel and WOMAD web services are currently off-line. Our servers were stolen from our ISP's data centre on Sunday night - Monday morning. We are working on restoring normal service as soon as possible.

By Jacqui Cheng
April 29, 2008 - 01:27PM CT

Blockbuster could be looking to get in on the new, premium movie channel being planned by Viacom, Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate. As an investment partner, Blockbuster would be granted digital rights to programming on the still-unnamed channel, and if the talks result in a deal, then the venture will join the handful of other projects that Blockbuster is hoping will breathe new life into its struggling video business.

The news comes courtesy of "people familiar with the situation," who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. The insiders noted that Blockbuster has been in talks about partnering with the studios for several weeks, although a Blockbuster spokeswoman would not comment directly on any specific plans. "We are busy transforming Blockbuster into a multiplatform provider of convenient access to media entertainment," she said. "To that end, we're exploring our options so it's not surprising there are rumors out there."

The channel will offer exclusive video-on-demand access to a number of movies from Paramount, MGM Studios, United Artists, and Lionsgate in addition to original TV series created by the studios. Viacom, the main investor in the venture, has apparently signed exclusive contracts with all parties involved, meaning that competitor Showtime will soon be losing out on content (it currently has contracts that are ready to expire with the same studios).

If successful, the new movie channel will provide some serious competition to big names like HBO, Showtime, and Starz, but critics have noted that there could still be some challenges ahead. For example, Showtime CEO Matthew Blank said earlier this month that he felt movie studios aren't worth as much as they used to be, and others have noted that cable companies might resist adding yet another channel to their already-massive lineups.

By Eric Bangeman
April 18, 2008 - 12:05PM CT

So far we've had grandmothers, dead people, disabled single mothers, and today, we can add another category to the list of those targeted by the RIAA: the homeless. Earlier this week, the RIAA decided to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit against Chaz Berry after learning he was living in a homeless shelter—but not until after a magistrate judge denied an earlier motion for summary judgment and recommended sanctions against the RIAA's attorneys.

Berry was sued by the RIAA in February 2007 for copyright infringement after an IP address logged by MediaSentry on a P2P network was traced back to his AOL account. When the time came for Berry to be served with a copy of the complaint, the RIAA discovered that he had vacated his apartment. A pretrial conference scheduled for April 19, 2007 was postponed for 60 days at the labels' request, due to the RIAA's professed inability to serve Berry with a summons at his last-known address.

The RIAA said in its April 17 filing that it was "conducting a thorough address investigation" so it could serve Berry with a copy of the summons. But that wasn't quite right: it turns out that the RIAA's process server slapped a copy of the summons "in a conspicuous place" at Berry's last known address on April 9—a full eight days before the RIAA said it couldn't locate him. The process server's attempts were detailed in an April 25, 2007 affidavit completed by the process server, who also said that a copy was sent via first-class mail to the same address.

In June 2007, the RIAA moved for a default judgment against Berry. In his Report and Recommendation issued in February of this year, Magistrate Judge Kevin N. Fox criticized the RIAA, calling its representation that it had made every effort to locate Berry "disingenuous." He found that the RIAA's statements were "not made in good faith" and recommended the imposition of sanctions against the RIAA's attorneys.

by Greg Sandoval
April 15, 2008 10:16 AM PDT

LAS VEGAS--Director Doug Liman pulled no punches when sizing up the quality of storytelling on the Web. The Internet simply hasn't produced any truly compelling stories, Liman, director of such hits as The Bourne Identity and Swingers, told an audience of several hundred Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters 2008 conference here.

But that doesn't mean it won't. He told the audience he believes it's just a matter of time before a star filmmaker bubbles up from YouTube, iFilm, or one of the other online video sites. "The reality is that the quality content isn't there yet," Liman said in an interview following the speech. "It's no different than going to Sundance (Film Festival) this year and people saying, 'The great independent film wasn't there this year.'

That doesn't mean it won't be there next year. Given the direction the Internet's going-- with more and more people working in that arena--you're going to see an Internet equivalent of Swingers." Swingers, starring actors Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, launched the then-unknown Liman's career. The 1996 film, about a group of unemployed actors trying to make it big in Hollywood, was made for $250,000 and grossed $6.5 million worldwide.

Had the Internet been more of an entertainment force then, perhaps Liman would have made his mark online first. He said the Web is tailor made for helping talented filmmakers with limited funds build a reputation. Liman, who said he might have gone into technology if he hadn't stumbled onto a movie camera at the age of 8, encouraged Web videographers in the audience by noting that "sometimes greatness comes from not having resources."

By Jacqui Cheng
April 15, 2008 - 11:31AM CT

Amazon MP3 has made quite a splash since it launched last September. Its wide selection of DRM-free content (the widest selection when it comes to the Big Four labels) and relative ease-of-use have made it a favorite among those who buy music online. It turns out, though, that Amazon's growth has not come at the expense of the iTunes Store, according to a new report by the NPD Group.

The data shows that Amazon may be able to continue growing alongside iTunes, although the two will probably butt heads one day if they want to compete for the top spot among music retailers. The market research firm said today that only 10 percent of Amazon MP3 customers had previously bought music through iTunes, showing that Amazon is building its own user base that is independent of the ones patronizing other stores.

In fact, there are a number of demographics that differ between Amazon MP3 and iTunes users, NPD says. Amazon has a stronger following among male users (64 percent, compared to iTunes' 44 percent), although iTunes is more popular among teenagers between 13 and 17 (18 percent, compared to Amazon's measly three percent). NPD believes that the difference in demographics is proof that the market for digital music is bigger than we think.

"The fact that Amazon’s early growth does not appear to be at the expense of Apple iTunes is a healthy indication that the digital music customer pool can expand into new consumer groups who have not yet joined the iTunes community," NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said in a statement. "Based on US CD sales, Amazon is among the largest sellers of physical music and boasts a substantial and loyal buyer base—many of whom may not be in the iTunes market sweet spot."

April 15, 2008
By Roger Friedman

Ruggedly handsome actor Jason Beghe was best man at the wedding of "X Files" star David Duchovny (his childhood pal) and actress Tea Leoni. In 1998, he starred as Demi Moore’s love interest in “G.I. Jane.” He’s been featured in numerous TV dramas such as 'Criminal Minds,' 'Numb3rs', and 'CSI.'

In 2005, Beghe appeared in promotional spots for the Church of Scientology. But now Beghe has escaped the Church after taking courses since 1994. He’s made a video that’s up on YouTube. This is what he has to say: “Scientology is destructive and a rip off.” He also says: “It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. If Scientology is real, then something’s messed up.”

ou can see from the video that Beghe does not mince words. But his refreshing candor about the religion he joined in 1994 should shake the Celebrity Center to its core. “It ain’t deliverin’ what it’s promised. It sure has not. “ The video is billed as a three-minute teaser to a longer interview with Beghe that’s on its way. But the short video packs a powerful punch. Beghe still uses a lot of Scientology lingo like “OT” and “clear.”

Still, it’s quite easy to understand the point he’s making. After 14 years and a tremendous amount of money, he’s seeing Scientology in a different light. Beghe has completed so many courses that he’s considered a top Scientologist, or “OT 5”—similar to Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. But Beghe reveals: “The further up the bridge the worse you get.”

By Eric Bangeman
April 11, 2008 - 11:03AM CT

Is MediaSentry violating a cease-and-desist order prohibiting it from conducting private investigations in the state of Massachusetts? That's what it looks like at first glance.

On January 2, 2008, the Massachusetts State Police Certification Unit sent a letter to MediaSentry's corporate parent SafeNet informing the company that an investigation revealed that it is "advertising and operating a Private Detective company" and that review of state records indicates that the company is "not licensed to conduct investigations" in the state.

Ray Beckerman over at Recording Industry vs. The People has unearthed an exhibit (PDF) in LaFace v. Does 1-17 that shows that MediaSentry has continued to catch Massachusetts residents in its investigatory driftnet. The exhibit, which is a standard part of all of the file-sharing lawsuits filed by the RIAA, lists the IP addresses, dates, and times that the 17 Does were observed on a P2P network by MediaSentry employees.

Does 15 through 17, who were on the GnutellaUS network, were spotted by MediaSentry on January 22, January 31, and February 4, 2008, respectively. In the case of Doe 17, that's over a month after the cease-and-desist letter was sent. Earlier this week, we noted an RIAA filing in another case in which it argued that MediaSentry shouldn't be subject to state laws in part because MediaSentry "can have no way of knowing... the location from where [the files] are being distributed."

By Sylvie Barak
April 10, 2008 - 9:55 PM

IT SEEMS THAT Blockbuster could soon be giving Apple TV a run for its money in the online film streaming market. The video company is rumoured to be developing direct streaming to be sent directly to TVs via a set top device. Blockbuster is remaining tight lipped about it, but it’s widely expected that they will confirm the announcement later this month.

The move is probably also another desperate bid by the faltering giant to compete with its more successful rival, Netflix, which has also pitched in and said that it will be coming out with a comparable device, being developed by LG Electronics, very soon indeed. The fact that Blockbuster is finally actually dipping its toe in trepidation into the waters of online media content, shouldn’t really come as too much of a shock.

In August last year, the company bought film download outfit Movielink for an undisclosed sum, and its new set top will probably be an offshoot of the service, which already allows customers to watch major studio licensed films on their computers. But Blockbuster could be taking a risk in sacrificing its core brick-and-mortar business for a slice of the online pie. For one thing, it hardly seems as if they’re offering a new alternative to existing content-enabled devices.

The company will also have to hope that its customers won’t mind shelling out for a box and then coughing up even more cash every time they want to watch a film. But on the other hand, maybe Blockbuster doesn’t really have much choice. In January, when Apple announced that Itunes would be launching a video rental service, Blockbuster's shares dropped a whopping 17 per cent to $2.69, its lowest ever rate.

By Eric Bangeman
April 02, 2008 - 10:45PM CT

Over the past few years, we have watched Apple climb the music sales chart courtesy of the iTunes. Last month we learned that Apple passed Best Buy to become the number two retailer in the the US. Now, Apple has ascended to the top of the charts, surpassing Wal-Mart for the first time ever, according to the NPD MusicWatch Survey.

The news was announced in an e-mail sent this afternoon to some Apple employees, a copy of which was seen by Ars Technica. It includes a screenshot of an Excel file showing the top ten music retailers in the US for January 2008, and Apple is at the top of the list. The iTunes Store leads the pack with 19 percent, Wal-Mart (which includes the brick-and-mortar stores as well as its online properties) is second with 15 percent, and Best Buy is third with 13 percent.

Amazon is a distant fourth at 6 percent, trailed by the likes of Borders, Circuit City, and Barnes & Noble. Rhapsody is in the tenth slot with 1 percent. The fact that a digital-only retailer has ascended to the top of the sales charts is not unexpected, but it does demonstrate just how much the music landscape has changed since the beginning of the decade. The NPD Group has been tracking a "sharp increase" in digital downloads over the past several months as physical sales dry up.

According to NPD's research, 48 percent of US teens didn't buy a single CD in 2007, compared to 38 percent in 2006. It has been a dizzying climb for Apple, which only managed to pass Amazon to become the number three music retailer in June 2007. The biggest surprise is Amazon's drop to the number four slot, which might be explained by consumers using iTunes, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy gift cards to buy music after the holiday season.