BlogDrome

Register of copyrights: a national embarrassment

Cory Doctorow: Ernest sez, "The Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters, who previously has testified before Congress that the Betamax decision should be overturned testified today before the Senate IP subcommitee that: 1) Int'l copyright infringement was funding terrorism, although she had only rumors and sketchy evidence; 2) Some 'like-minded' countries seek to undermine existing int'l copyright and couch their arguments in terms of 'cultural diversity' and 'encouraging development'; 3) claming that unnamed American commentators on copyright law provide rationalizations for commercial copyright infringement by criminal organizations; and, 4) that we need the INDUCE Act domestically otherwise other nations won't take our arguments about copyright enforcement seriously." Link (Thanks Ernest!)

Pepsi faces a Blogstorm

Public Domain Enhancement Act

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Public Domain Enhancement Act in the 109th Congress as H.R. 2048. The bill is intended to allow abandoned copyrighted works to enter the public domain after 50 years.

The bill would let copyright owners pay a $1 maintenance fee to maintain copyright protection of a work beyond 50 years of the date of publication. It would add section 306 to the Copyright Act:

(a) Fee- The Register of Copyrights shall charge a fee of $1 for maintaining in force the copyright in any published United States work. The fee shall be due 50 years after the date of first publication or on December 31, 2006, whichever occurs later, and every 10 years thereafter until the end of the copyright term. Unless payment of the applicable maintenance fee is received in the Copyright Office on or before the date the fee is due or within a grace period of 6 months thereafter, the copyright shall expire as of the end of that grace period.

This bill was first introduced in the 108th Congress, as H.R. 2601 in 2003 and "didn't go anywhere."

Via INDUCE Act Blog

Looking for Organs Online

According to BusinessWeek in "Meet Your Organ Match Online," about 88,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for living organs and expecting a transplant. But more than 60,000 patients will die before a liver or a kidney becomes available.

Enter MatchingDonors.com, a non-profit corporation run by volunteers who take no salaries. If you're a potential donor, you tell them that you're ready to give an organ (not sell, it's illegal!). If you're a patient, you register for $295 per month -- 100% of the money paid for patient memberships is applied to running the site.

Then you have access to the full list of potential donors -- more than 2,000 today -- and you look for what you need. Read more for other details and references.

RFID Bracelets to Track Inmates in L.A. County

According to RFID Journal, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is about to launch a pilot program to track 1,800 inmates using RFID devices. If the test is successful, the technology will be deployed for the 18,000 inmates of the L.A. county jails.

With this system, inmates carry a wrist bracelet which issues a signal every two seconds and is caught by RFID readers installed everywhere in the prison. Officers and staff also carry a RFID device attached to their belts. And a central server keeps track in real time of the position of all prisoners and guardians. Besides tracking locations, the system also intends to reduce violence within the jail and to avoid escapes.

If this system works as its promoters think, the potential market to equip all federal, state and county jails in the U.S. exceeds $1 billion. This overview contains other details and references, including a picture of a wristwatch transmitter worn by inmates.

SkypeSee - The Next Skype Feature

Skype Journal reports on the progress of SkypeSee, which is the video conferencing feature that is on Skype's product roadmap (as mentioned here in Toronto during VON Canada last month).  Basically, the latest 17w version beta (IMHO, the product is already in beta, not alpha quality) is pretty light (only 359k) with good video refresh rates and crisp resolution (users can read 11pt. text from the other site - that is impressive).  The GUI still needs some refinements, but the hacker in me finds it OK.  Funny enough, thus far, they are calling this product wigiwigi, and it already has its own forum.

BP, Morgan Stanley have "zero tolerance" for bad coverage

By Richard Koman for SiliconValleyWatcher

BP, following on the heels of Morgan Stanley, has adopted a policy of pulling advertising from publications that give the company bad press, and requiring publications to give BP prepub look-sees if it is mentioned in cover stories, AdWeek reports.

This strikes me as unbelievably stupid and abusive, since magazines are in a very weak position to reject major ad buys from these guys. It's funny that there is so much talk about journalistic ethics, and about how Newsweek must hate America, when corporations are free to abuse the power of the buck.

AdWeek quotes an unnamed publishing exec: "I think it's OK to have systems in place to pull advertisers out, but clearly we don't show them stories ahead of time. ... It's a stupid request. It makes you think these guys are hiding something."

Syndicate Conference (May 17-18, 2005): Themed RSS: Risk, Reward and Revolution, a strategic event not to be missed by publishers, marketers, advertising and PR executives. www.syndicateconference.com Continued reading TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)

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Who's Hot Today? Seattle!

My home town launches a free Wi-Fi pilot in today's who's hot round-up.

Seattle, Wash.: The city turned on free Wi-Fi access in the business districts of Columbia City and the University District, both areas that could use a bit of a boost. In the next month, four city parks will get free Wi-Fi, too: Occidental, Freeway, Westlake, and Victor Steinbrueck.

Police go big with victim picture

"A 60ft high picture of a murdered prostitute has been projected onto a derelict block of flats in Glasgow."

SkypeWatch: How Big will the Skype Empire Become?

In today’s comments at the VON ‘05 conference in Stockholm, Niklas Zennstrom gave some interesting clues as to his ambitions for Skype. I’ve long suspected Skype of wanting to essentially take over and replace the public telephone network, but now it’s coming from the horse’s mouth (from the Inquirer):

Zennstrom revealed that he was particularly keen on an embedded Linux version of his product. The goal appears to bring out devices which contain a dedicated Sykpe client. He almost certainly appears to be thinking of Wi-Fi handsets.

Embedded Skype means  third-party devices can gain interoperability with (and possibly dependence upon) the Skype peer-to-peer network. Like the Skype API, only not restricted to Windows PCs. Imagine that. Licensed embedded endpoints accessing a proprietary network. Kind of sounds like the Microsoft of the early 1990s, doesn’t it?

But that’s not even the most revealing tidbit. Niklas also said that an open standard should be developed to solve the E911 call-routing problem, since, at least at this point, it doesn’t look like Skype is going to be able to avoid regulation (they’re a PSTN-connected carrier, after all).  Skype, of course, does not use an open standard such as SIP or Dundi for its own call-signaling, so it’s somewhat ironic that Mr. Zennstrom is calling upon the community to solve his E911 dilemma with open standards.

For the record, I agree with Zennstrom on that point—an open standard for emergency dispatch calling should be created. But not merely for Skype’s sake.  Of course, if Skype were to embrace an open 911 standard, but not play nice with all the other truly open interop standards out there, it would be a shame.   Since Skype clearly has its focus set on rebuilding the international telecom system as we know it,  I sure hope Skype doesn’t become the “Windows of telephony”.

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Municipality wants to ban famous hacker gathering

The mayor of Boxtel, the municipality where the Dutch outdoor hacker conferences What The Hack resides, seems to be refusing a permit for the conference, citing "grave fear that the organisation of this event will endanger law and order as well as public safety".

Previous instances of this event have seen no incidents of any kind. We feel this matter needs public attention to get resolved, and we issued a press statement today.

Via The Lunatic Fringe. Press Release.

Cox to Offer 15Mbps Speeds

But so far only in Northern Virginia. Cox has confirmed something our resident rumor-mongers predicted last week: Cox will soon start offering a new 15Mbps/2Mbps tier to "Premier" customers in Northern Virginia for $55 (bundled price), as well as boosting their standard downstream "prefe..

Using PGP Implies Criminal Intent?

Minnesota ruling seems to hint so. A rather troublesome ruling in a Minnesota court would indicate that simply having encryption tools on your PC could indicate criminal intent, reports CNET. While the man was guilty of criminal conduct, the use of encryption itself is obviously perf..

How to set up multiple homepages in Firefox

If there's more than one site you always visit after starting up Firefox, you can set your homepage to open several tabs of different web sites at once automatically.

From Firefox's Tools menu, Options, General, enter the addresses of sites separated by a pipe |, as shown above. Or, you can open up all the sites in tabs and hit the "Use Current Pages" button. Thanks, Robert!

Online brokerage price war continues: Fidelity cuts options prices

From Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Patick's note to clients:

Fidelity Cuts Rates for Online Options Trades

Quick Comment: Fidelity Investments announced today reduced base commissions and per contract fees for options trades. Effective immediately, Fidelity has lowered the per contract fee for all online options trades to $0.75 from $1.50-2.25 previously, depending upon customer tier. In addition, the company has aligned its base commission rates for online options trades with its rates for equity trades. As such, the base commission for an option trade executed by a Bronze customer (i.e., no minimum trading or asset requirements) declined to $19.95 from $25, while that for the mid-tier Silver customer (i.e., $50,000+ in assets, $25,000+ in assets and 36+ trades in a rolling 12-month period, or 72+ trades in a 12-month period) fell to $10.95 from $20. Meanwhile, for active traders and those with $1 million or more in assets, the base commission for option trades remained unchanged at $8. Though the cuts in base commission for online option trades were quite significant in some instances, the decision to bring base rates in line with the company's equity base rates is consistent with the industry standard. Meanwhile, the new flat per contract fee of $0.75 is in line with Ameritrade's fee, but now undercuts per contract fees at Schwab and those for all but the most active customers at E*Trade.

Options remain a key area of competition among online brokers. Fidelity's substantial cuts in option trading rates highlight the drive among online brokers to gain share in lucrative options trades. To put the opportunity in perspective, an average retail options trade of 15 contracts or so executed by an active trader at Fidelity would generate commission revenue of $19.25, nearly 2.5 times the $8 commission the company would collect for an equity trade. Meanwhile, we do not believe that the expense differential for an options trade versus a cash equity trade is substantial for online brokers. While we believe that Fidelity's cuts could drive some pricing tweaks among the competition in the coming months, the company's pricing changes, in our view, were much more about bringing pricing in line with the industry than about setting new price points (which mitigates any risk of significant moves from other brokers in response to Fidelity's announcement).

With a meaningful convergence in industry pricing at rather low levels, we continue to expect pricing to stabilize (though we do still expect long-term pricing erosion in the industry). Though we think that aligning pricing schedules within the general range of broader industry pricing is a competitive imperative, we nonetheless think that the focal points of competition are increasingly shifting toward factors such as functionality, speed, execution quality, value-added tools, and customer service, rather than price. Indeed, we simply do not believe that demand is generally elastic enough at this point to move substantial numbers of customers for $1 or $2 per trade. Importantly, in the environment of eroding pricing (rather than falling pricing) that we see, we believe that online brokerage companies can continue to improve profitability through technological efficiencies and scale.

Overweight-V rated International Securities Exchange ($25.44) should be a key beneficiary of any acceleration in retail options trading related to recent pricing cuts. While the push among retail brokers to drive higher options trading volumes among their customers should benefit options exchanges more generally, we believe that ISE's all-electronic platform and deeper liquidity pools makes ISE a natural destination for this liquidity.

The Yahoo Music Business Model

A few days have passed since I used and published my initial impressions of Yahoo Unlimited, and during that time, I have come a conclusion, though that word has such finality to it. Yahoo Unlimited is an ad-supported personal radio network.

There, I said it. Now let me explain. Radio networks normally have preset play lists, and deejays that manage those play lists. The songs, which are broadcast in a one-size fit all model, are interspersed with advertisements. Ads bring in the dollars, and keep large terrestrial radio network owners in gravy.

In case of Yahoo Unlimited, the online company offers up a million songs, turns you into a deejay and charges you $5 a month. (As long as you don’t download the tunes to devices!) If people transfer music subscriptions to a device, they cost Yahoo about $6 a month, and as a result the whole model is unprofitable to begin with. (Business Week reported that Yahoo could be paying around $8 a month to the music industry, but my sources are saying its $6 per subscriber per month.)

Given the state of the MP3 player device market, and the minimal support for devices as of now, in reality Yahoo’s music service is all about making customers sign-up and listed to music on their PCs. It makes most economic sense of the company.

Of that $5-a-month subscription fees, Yahoo is going to send about $3.50 goes to the music industry, a number of industry sources have told me. (Business week put this figure at $6 a month.) As long as folks don’t start moving songs over to their devices! Lets assume it costs Yahoo spends about $1 per user on infrastructure, hosting and bandwidth costs. Its total costs are about $4.50 or so.

In other words, the money to be made for Yahoo here is about $0.50 per user per month or about $6 a year. Even with a million subscribers, that works out to about $6 million a year. That’s not enough to even cause a blip on Yahoo’s bottom-line.

Enter advertising. If Yahoo can sell ads worth $2 a month on its PC-only service, the monthly profits can swiftly climb. More ad-dollars will mean even more cash in the bank for Yahoo! In other words, you play the deejay; create your play lists and ad dollars make it all happen. Just like a radio network, except one with extreme personalization.

Hypothetical scenario: what if Yahoo turned this into a free service, and decided to eat all the costs, that is $4.50 a month – within days it would have more than 20 million users who will sign-up. $6.50 a month of advertising minus the costs of $4.50 every month, on every user means $130 million a month or $1.56 billion a year. Even with costs hovering around $1.08 billion, Yahoo could make some serious cash here. Has the record industry hoisted by its own petard?

The problem is that this model won’t work for Napster or Real Networks – they just don’t have the scale of Yahoo, or the audiences to cherry pick from 176 million registered users. Yahoo will become their single biggest nightmare. And while that is happening, Apple will continue to sell its iTunes! Think of it this way – if Yahoo Unlimited is Infinity Broadcasting, then Apple is Virgin.

There are a couple of issues, I admit.

1. It’s going be tough to sell advertising in an area that right now at least is subscription only and actually convincing consumers would be most difficult aspect of my theory.
2. Given the level of greed at the record labels, they are most likely to demand a cut of any money Yahoo makes on advertising.

But despite that Yahoo has got to be thinking that advertising is their endgame, for sure, or Steve wins his bet. Though I would say, Jerry has better odds. On Yahoo Music every time you look at a bio or something else you end up on a page with a (surprise!) banner ad.

Morgan Stanley's Roach on a China slowdown

Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach believes the world should prepare for the increasing possibility of a meaningful slowdown of the Chinese economy. Here are the key points from Roach's May 23rd piece entitled "What if China Slows?":

Economic Growth

• Supply-side numbers remain strong.
• Re-acceleration of industrial output growth to 16.0% year-over-year (y-o-y) in April 2005.
• Chinese GDP growth trajectory held at 9.5% in Q1 2005.
• Momentum continues to be driven by surging Chinese exports.
• Industrial output for exports estimated to have risen 29.9% y-o-y in April.
• Chinese exports grew 32% y-o-y in April.
  
• Fixed investment grew 26% this year through April.
• While fixed investment growth is lower than the 40% comparisons of a year ago, they exceed the government’s official 16% growth target for the sector.
• Fixed investment sector on track to exceed 50% of Chinese GDP this year.

Demand Side Shows Discomforting Signs

• Evidence of a sharp slowdown in Chinese import growth.
• From Jan-April 2005 y-o-y import growth was 13.5% versus 36% in all of 2004.
  
• This has implications for the rest of the region, which provides China with capital equipment and intermediate inputs for its export businesses.

Chinese Import Growth Fuels Pan-Asian Exports

• 20% of total exports from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan go to China (Singapore - 10%).
• Slowdown in Chinese import growth is already affecting Asia.
  
• In Taiwan, export growth slipped to just 1.2% y-o-y in Q1 2005.
• Japan's exports showed a -0.8% q-o-q, annualized export decline in Q1 2005.
• Hong Kong (+3.5% y-o-y in March), Korea (+7.4% in Q1 2005), and Singapore (+6.2% in March for non-oil domestic exports). 
• In all of the countries mentioned above, the latest export comparisons represent a sharp deceleration from gains six months ago, when the Chinese import boom was cresting.

China's Import Slowdown Affecting Commodity Inflation

• This reflects China’s dominant role in driving world demand for industrial materials. 
• Morgan estimates that China accounted for 8% of global consumption of crude oil, 20% of aluminum, and 30-35% of steel, iron, and coal. 
• Deceleration of Chinese imports has been accompanied by a sharp deceleration of non-oil commodity inflation.
• The Journal of Commerce composite index of industrial materials is now down 3% y-o-y through May 20. Peak increases of close to 35% in early 2004. 
• Commodity prices are one of the best real-time gauges of the interplay between global supply and demand.
• Emergence of negative comparisons for industrial commodity prices could well be a good leading indicator of further weakness to come in Chinese industrial activity.

Efforts to Curb the Property Bubble

• China's recent restraints on both supply and demand could finally lead to a bursting of coastal China’s property bubble.
• This could also lead to a meaningful slowing of growth in fixed asset investment. 
• Fixed asset investment accounted for 44% of total Chinese GDP in 2004.
• Fixed asset investment was still growing at a 26.5% y-o-y rate in April 2005. 
• Like exports, fixed asset investment is also accounting for about 11 percentage points of annualized Chinese GDP growth. 
• Every ten percentage points of slowing in residential property investment could knock about one percentage point off total Chinese GDP growth.

Chinese GDP Growth Risks

• Externally-imposed constraints on exports.
• Internally-imposed restraints on property investment. 

Roach Believes China's Policymakers will be Cautious

• Could mean a delay on currency reform. 
• China’s new export taxes on textile products suggests that it may prefer tax policy over revaluation in order to restrain exports. 
• Despite China’s intentions to manage its export problems, the US, which accounts for about 33% of total Chinese exports, seems prepared to make changes themselves.

Key Deficiencies of China’s Growth Model

• Excess reliance on exports and fixed investment.
• With little private consumption, the Chinese economy is vulnerable to shortfalls in either of these sectors.
• Private consumption accounts for only 42% of China's GDP.

Conclusion

• Conceivable there could be a meaningful slowing of the Chinese economy.
• It is likely to be driven by China’s internal measures as well as by anti-China actions.
• If that occurs, China’s Asian supply chain should be especially hard hit.
• A China slowdown could also result in further downward pressures on commodity prices of oil and non-oil industrial materials. 
• Could also temper inflationary expectations embedded in global bond markets. 
• If there is a delay in revaluation, pressure on the US dollar could be tempered.

Why Now

• New and more difficult challenges today than before. 
• Property bubble is an increasingly worrisome source of internal instability. 
• The currency-export nexus has become an increasingly intractable source of external instability. 
• China faces growing pressures to make change. 

According to Roach:

....This time, it will be much tougher for China to avoid a meaningful slowdown.  It’s time for the rest of the world to prepare for just such a possibility.

Comment: Full article here.

Ourmedia Surpasses 5,000th Upload Milestone

Ourmedia.org, which "provide free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text or software. Forever. No catches.", has surpassed its 5,000th upload in a little over two months of operation (Ourmedia.org Surpasses 5,000 Uploads). Congrats!...

CNN.com switching to free video

In part of a growing trend, MediaDailyNews reports that CNN will soon offer free video on its website, abandoning their subscription service in place since March 2002 that cost users $4.95 a month. In addition, CNN.com will be producing specialized two-minute newscasts every hour called "Now in the News." The new service will launch June 20th and be ad-supported, although CNN does plan to launch a separate subscription service in the fall that will give users access to multiple live video streams and CNN's video archives, but a price for that hasn't been set yet.

New York Times to charge for some content

The New York Times announced yesterday that they'll soon be charging for access to some content on its website, in particular its Op-Ed and news columnists. The subscription service will start in September and cost readers $49.95 a year. Not suprisingly, reaction from bloggers has been swift. Meg Hourihan pretty much sums up the general sentiment with the headline to her post on the subject: The NY Times wants less links.

Download of the Day: MSN Search Toolbar

The just-released MSN Search Toolbar adds desktop search to Windows, email search to Outlook and web search to Internet Explorer.

The MSN Search Toolbar adds a search box to four places: your Windows task bar, your Outlook toolbar (not including Outlook Express), Internet Explorer and Windows File Explorer. The initial index takes awhile to build on large hard drives with lots of files, but the search is fast and the results complete, for a much better alternative to Windows' built-in search. The bummer, of course, is the Outlook/IE-exclusive support for web and email search. (Note: both the free Copernic and Google Desktop search support Thunderbird and Eudora email.) So, final verdict? The MSN Search Toolbar is perfect for IE and Outlook users, and ok for others looking for a quick built-in desktop search. Free download, Windows only.

Google Maps Chicago Crime

Just-unveiled ChicagoCrime.org is a free database of criminal activity reported in Chicago which uses Google Maps to display where bad things happen.

For example, here's a map of reported armed robberies with a handgun, here are wrongdoings reported between 2 and 3 AM on May 5th, and this is a list of misdeeds that occurred in a bowling alley. It's the Chicago police blotter on crack! (Pun intended). Chicagoans, RSS feeds for your neighborhood crimes available so your newsreader can scare you out of your wits. The data ranges from Februrary of this year until May 5th, and presumably will be updated. Thanks, Jason!

FCC to make e911 mandatory

LightReading’s unnamed sources say that The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is going to make basic e911 mandatory requirement for all VoIP providers, and the decision could come as soon as May 19th. e911 is a politically charged issue, and many in FCC and Congress are worried about a consumer backlash, which might affect future election results. The VoIP service providers will have till early November to comply. In other words, nothing much they can do about it. “This could quickly put a monkey wrench into some of these startups’ plans,” Jon Arnold of Arnold & Associates told LR. This is going to force VoIP providers to spend some serious dollars, and could possibly be the first step in the much awaited shakeout in the market. The bells, in many ways could one again emerge winners. I think this does prove out the age old telecom theory: those with infrastructure are going to win. Or something to that effect.

Clay Shirky's : Ontology is Overrated - Categories, Links, and Tags

Clay Shirky comes out with a very comprehensive paper on web content ontology and he goes to the extent of analyzing the likes of Periodic table classification, yahoo information architecture, del.icio.us mechanisms to come to the conclusion that ontology is overrated. Extracts with edits and comments from a near 25 page heavy stuff article.
On Tagging :Many of the ways we're attempting to apply categorization to the digital world are actually a bad fit, because we've adopted habits of mind that are left over from earlier strategies. What we're seeing when we see the Web is actually a radical break with previous categorization strategies, rather than an extension of them. Our current categorization schemes allow, based on two units - the link, which can point to anything, and the tag, which is a way of attaching labels to links. The strategy of tagging – free form labeling, without regard to categorical constraints - seems like a recipe for disaster, but as the Web has shown , one can extract a surprising amount of value from big messy data sets.
On Browse Vs Search :Browse versus search is a radical increase in the trust we put in link infrastructure, and in the degree of power derived from that link structure. Browse says the people making the ontology, the people doing the categorization, have the responsibility to organize the world in advance. Given this requirement, the views of the catalogers necessarily override the user's needs and the user's view of the world. If you want something that hasn't been categorized in the way you think about it, you're out of luck. The search paradigm says the reverse. It says nobody gets to tell you in advance what it is you need. Search says that, at the moment that you are looking for it, we will do our best to service it based on this link structure, because we believe we can build a world where we don't need the hierarchy to coexist with the link structure.
On Categorisation :A lot of the conversation that's going on now about categorization starts at a second step - "Since categorization is a good way to organize the world, we should..." But the first step is to ask the critical question: Is categorization a good idea? We can see, from the Yahoo versus Google example, that there are a number of cases where you get significant value out of not categorizing. Even Google adopted DMOZ, the open source version of the Yahoo directory, and later they downgraded its presence on the site, because almost no one was using it. When people were offered search and categorization side-by-side, fewer and fewer people were using categorization to find things.
On Tags: As you can see here, the characteristics of a del.icio.us entry are a link, an optional extended description, and a set of tags, which are words or phrases users attach to a link. Each user who adds a link to the system can give it a set of tags - some do, some don't. Attached to each link on the home page are the tags, the username of the person who added it, the number of other people who have added that same link, and the time. Tags are simply labels for URLs, selected to help the user in later retrieval of those URLs. Tags have the additional effect of grouping related URLs together. There is no fixed set of categories or officially approved choices. You can use words, acronyms, numbers, whatever makes sense to you, without regard for anyone else's needs, interests, or requirements.
On Tags & Conclusion:The addition of a few simple labels hardly seems so momentous, but the surprise here, as so often with the Web, is the surprise of simplicity. Tags are important mainly for what they leave out. By forgoing formal classification, tags enable a huge amount of user-produced organizational value, at vanishingly small cost. The tag overlap is in the system, but the tag semantics are in the users. This is not a way to inject linguistic meaning into the machine. It's all dependent on human context. This is what we're starting to see with del.icio.us, with Flickr, with systems that are allowing for and aggregating tags. The signal benefit of these systems is that they don't recreate the structured, hierarchical categorization so often forced onto us by our physical systems. Instead, we're dealing with a significant break - by letting users tag URLs and then aggregating those tags, we're going to be able to build alternate organizational systems, systems that, like the Web itself, do a better job of letting individuals create value for one another, often without realizing it.

Category : Tags

Google AdSense for Feeds

Google is now offering Google AdSense ads for RSS feeds of blogs and such. You can apply to participate in the public beta. This is what the help page states, verifying recent rumors: "We're currently beta testing AdSense for feeds, a program that ...

OpenRAW

So there's this pattern of maturity in a technology -- from proprietary to "open" -- as players in the industry resolve they can't bet their future on trusting one particular player. And so it is happening in the digital camera industry, as users and developers demand an OpenRAW standard.

How Battlestar Galactica Killed TV

Don Melanson writes "Following up on the MPAA going after torrent sites, you may be interested in Mindjack's latest feature - Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV by Mark Pesce. It includes a post-script written in reponse to the recent Torrent site shutdowns." From the article: "While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for 'word-of-mouth' to spread about Battlestar Galactica."

Download of the Day: Audacity

The free sound editor software Audacity lets you record and edit digital audio, convert tapes and records into MP3's or CDs, cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together or change the speed or pitch of a recording.

If you've got some old mix tapes laying around you'd like to digitize, or you're up for jumping on the podcasting wagon, Audacity's the way to go. Free as in speech, Windows/Mac/Linux.

Does Skype have Infrastructure?

Some sleuthing shows that it does…

One of the most amazing aspects of Skype has been this unshakeable belief that the company does not have any network infrastructure, barring a few directory servers and other more web-related boxes. In the early days Vonage offered same arguments – we don’t have network infrastructure – thus we are more efficient. More subscribers signed on, network outages began, and well there is infrastructure. And increasingly it costs money.

How can Skype be any different? After all despite its P2P nature, there needs to be some management. The edge can be smart, but hyper-smart? And given that it’s growing like weeds after a monsoon shower, I wondered how could Skype sustain the quality that endears Skype to its users.

I admit, after contemplating about this road, I put this on the back burner. I have been lately distracted by other stuff I am keen on these days, and have largely ignored the nuanced stuff lately. I am trying to rectify that. Fortunately for all of us, there are three men who did not believe - Aswath Rao, DG Lewis, and James Enck.

Lewis thinks that now that Skype had SkypeIn and SkypeOut, it needs to connect with PSTN, and that means hardware that would interface with partners like Colt, iBasis, and Cable & Wireless. He argued that since Skype uses a proprietary technology, it would at some point need to convert signals to more commonly used protocols.

Somewhere, SkypeOut traffic has to be converted from G.729a packets to G.711 A-law or mu-law TDM (and the reverse for SkypeIn). And somewhere, call control signaling has to be converted to some standard PSTN signaling for network interconnection.

Aswath then theorized:

My theory is that they treat the media gateways as Skype clients and so they “register” with a supernode, which are Skype’s own computers. These supernodes map Skype protocol to SIP. Here SIP is only a “trunking” protocol. So the mapping is not complex.

James, did more work, and chatted with his sources within the company and came up with this argument:

“It is my understanding from recent conversations with the company itself that Skype has built and deployed its own-spec gateways, and that supernode designation is far from a random selection process. Also, the now-famous “authentication server in Denmark” is not the only one of its kind.”

In final conclusion, there are signs that Skype has infrastructure, though details on it are hazy. Aswath puts it best when he writes,

For a long time Vonage and its apologists were claiming that they do not have any network infrastructure and are still able to offer voice service. It has stopped as the network failures became well known. Slowly it is becoming Skype’s turn.

Every Search Engine Is Different!!

We recently covered Phil Windley's collection of search engines which Phil says he uses on a regular basis when looking for different types of information.In a study of Internet searches, only 3% of results were shared by Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo, demonstrating the differences between the major engines.Dogpile research shows that the search results delivered by Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo differ substantially from one another. Using a random sampling taken from query logs, the study found that just over 3% of the returned results were shared by Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo. Some 12% of the returned results were listed by two of the three search engines. And 85% of the results were unique to one of the three search engines.
Major search engines are not interchangeable and that metasearch engines offer a broader range of top-ranked results.As a metasearch engine, Dogpile aggregates search results from Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo.Beyond simply gathering search results from several sources in one place, Dogpile tries to make the results more relevant by combining sponsored and algorithmic results in a single ranked list. The text label "Sponsored by" distinguishes one kind of result from another. This is a significant departure from Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo, all of which separate paid links from unpaid ones more clearly using color, graphics, and position on the page. Dogpile also adjusts the order in which search results appear using its own search technology. While Dogpile's self-sponsored survey-in which a metasearch engine finds there's value in metasearch engines-makes a strong case for using the site, consumer usage patterns have a logic all their own

Category :Search Engines

Bit Torrent + RSS & The Deathknell For Prime Ad Slots!!

Guy Brightonpoints to Ntro' amazing insight about the evolution of Web TV. By combining RSS with BitTorrent we'll have sort of mini-Tivos on our PC - able to select the content we want at a micro level. With Bittorrent and RSS, one can easily create an internet-based periodical broadcast of huge files with almost zero distribution cost. With MythTV and Torrentocracy, one can create a set-top box such as a Tivo or VCR that consumes such a broadcast. It’s possible to replace (or complement)a satellite receiver and DVD player with a cheap PC running MythTV, and still stay up to date on Desperate Housewives.
Most popular TV programs are available via BitTorrent within hours (sometimes minutes) of their debut. That’s not revolutionary– Tivo has provided that ability (sans BitTorrent) for years. What makes this device truly revolutionary is this: Not only will this be able to download scheduled network programs, it will be able to download multimedia content from any feed to which you decide to subscribe. BitTorrent, unlike most file transfer mechanisms, performs best when there is high demand for a resource, because the load is distributed across all clients, including the ones that have not completed the download. Through RSS, a feed provider can announce a new resource to all subscribers as soon as it available, thereby immediately creating high demand for the file, and fast downloads for all. BitTorrent’s biggest weakness is the inability to view partial content, thus making it suboptimal for on-demand videos, since you can’t start watching the video until you’ve finished downloading it. That’s what makes RSS and BitTorrent such a happy couple– if configured properly, files can be downloaded as they are announced (say, in the middle of the night or while you are at work), and will be complete by the time you are ready to watch them, eliminating the need to stream content.

The effect Guy brighton says would be the final deathnell for the 30 second spot. The ads, they won't even be there - the TV & Ad industry will have to work together to find new ways to support each other.
Category :Emerging Trends, Emerging Technolgies

Dogpile Learns New Tricks

Dogpile has released a significant upgrade to its meta search engine, allowing easy comparison of search results across the major search engines. Dogpile has also introduced a new comparison tool that visually illustrates search engine overlap (or lack thereof) in...

Where the Audience Is

Online, of course. From Mediapost's coverage of a Burst study:

Asked about their media consumption habits over the past year, 61 percent of the respondents said they spend more time on the Internet today than a year ago, with 32 percent saying they spend "much more time," and 29 percent claiming to spend "somewhat more time" online.

Also, Fathom reports keyword prices are up 11% in April.

Mother Jones on Tri-Cities Muni Battle in Full

Read the full Mother Jones article on municipal broadband (enter code MJZL6Y to read full article): The fine folks at Mother Jones sent me an access code and permission to post it so you can read the full article they published in this month's issue about the Tri-Cities, Illinois, battle with SBC and Comcast on one side and the city's business-backed goals of providing municipal broadband on the other.

Interestingly, the Tri-Cities now have substantially greater broadband services: the two incumbents spent hundreds of thousands to defeat two ballot initiatives, and then probably tens of millions to upgrade their networks.

Details Come Out Concerning Lawsuits Over Verizon's Aggressive Email Filtering

Late last year, Verizon customers discovered that the company had implemented an extremely aggressive anti-spam filter that was blocking (without notice!) almost all foreign emails. A lot of small business people claimed they lost business from this. Verizon's oh-so-friendly response was that those people should learn to use a phone instead. Of course, this is the same company that mocks people for expecting their mobile phones to work at home, so it's cavalier attitude towards customer complaints doesn't seem out of character. In January, there was talk of a class action suit against the company, and it appears that's moving forward. Currently, a lawyer is trying to negotiate a settlement, but says he's willing to take it to court. Verizon continues to stand by the filter, with vague statements about how important it is to stop spam. The article also notes that at least one person has sued Verizon in small claims court, saying that he's lost business because of Verizon's policy. Verizon told him he can apply to be put on a whitelist, but his email request to have that happen bounced, because Verizon claimed it was spam. There's nothing wrong with trying to fight spam, but it seems clear that Verizon's filter is way too aggressive, and without any realistic way for customers to make sure they're not losing emails, it seems that Verizon's "suck it up and deal with it" attitude isn't going to do them any favors.

Firefox 1.0.4 Official

Hits Mozilla front-page. While users have been tinkering with the unofficial build for a few days, Mozilla today officially released Firefox 1.0.4, which tackles the arbitrary code execution vulnerability that recently made headlines. Users in our Mozilla forum share their ..

Broadband through Gas, Seriously

For starters, guys I would like to say, that I am not making this up. A San Diego-start-up, Nethercomm Corp., which has no trial partners or no known venture capital backers, is promising that it can deliver up to 10 gigabits per second broadband using natural gas pipelines.

The idea here is to encode the broadband signals using ultra wideband and beam them through the pipeline, and then at the gas meter, the signal is offloaded (using Nethercomm equipment off course) to on-the-premise wireline or wireless networks. The company, which lists Patrick and Ann Munally as co-founders, thinks this is a neat work around the current restrictions on the UWB for now. Since the wireless transmitters are in the pipeline, it is a closed environment. The company explains that its technology needs no modifications to the existing natural gas distribution infrastructures.

Still, I find the whole concept a little baffling. The biggest concern is UWB itself. I understand this as a short-range technology, which can deliver great speeds. Here is what wikipedia has to say about UWB.

Ultra-wideband or UWB is a developing communication technology that delivers very high-speed network data exchange rates across relatively short distances with a low power source. Although the connection speed decreases quickly as a function of distance, UWB has the potential to replace the cables that currently connect devices.

If that is the case, then it means that a substantial number of UWB modules would need to embedded in a pipeline, and that could make the project a tad expensive. In other words, it would need some serious dollar commitment from gas companies. For instance installing the hardware inside the pipes would entail shutting off gas supplies. That alone could be a cost prohibitive affair. In addition, the energy companies are still recovering from their ill-conceived affair with fiber and broadband networks, led by the king-con of them all, Enron. Ann Nunally, President and COO of the San Diego-based Nethercomm Corporation in a press statement was quick to say, that they “have been extremely tight-lipped about this innovation until our Patent Portfolio foundation was completely in place.”

Having said that, energy and gas companies use wireless sensors for meter readings and monitoring the health of the pipelines.

More from Techdirt and Corante

Wired News statement on contributor Michelle Delio

Xeni Jardin: A number of blogs and publications are discussing a controversy surrounding the veracity of sources cited by freelance writer Michelle Delio. Her work has appeared in online venues including MIT's Technology Review (which ran this retraction two weeks ago) and Wired News -- which has just issued a statement on the matter.

MIT Technology Review Online on March 21 retracted two stories written in whole or in part by Michelle Delio, citing the publication's inability to confirm a source. On April 4, InfoWorld edited four articles by Delio to remove anonymous quotes. Wired News has published more than 700 news stories written by Delio (under the names Michelle Delio and Michelle Finley) since 2000. In April, we assigned journalism professor and Wired News columnist Adam Penenberg to review recent articles written by Delio for Wired News.

Penenberg and his staff of graduate students at New York University reviewed 160 articles, largely from 2004, but some earlier stories were also checked. Penenberg provided Wired News with a list of 24 stories that contained sources he could not confirm (links are included at the end of this story). Penenberg's report to Wired News can be downloaded here (PDF). Delio, in communications with Penenberg and Wired News, stands by her reporting and the existence and accuracy of her sources. Most of Delio's sources were in fact located and confirmed by Penenberg.

The unconfirmed sources affect the content of these stories to varying degrees. For example, the Florida network tax story contains only one quote from a source Penenberg could not confirm, but the quote does not materially affect the rest of the story. However, there are four articles in which unconfirmed sources arguably play a more prominent role.

ws Releases Source Review" (Disclosure: I am a contributor to Wired News).

A new wrinkle for Eddie Bauer

Blogger's note: Here's the raw, infiltered press release from the anti-nano protesters we just can't keep our eyes off of. The pictures are a NanoBot exclusive.

CHICAGO, Ill. — On Saturday, at 1 pm, dozens of concerned citizens joined the public health group THONG outside of the Eddie Bauer flagship store on Michigan Avenue to protest the company’s use of untested “nano-fibers” in their “nanotex” clothing line which also boasts the “Teflon” label and are “wrinkle free”. THONG is a local Chicago public-interest group that uses nudity to educate people on detrimental threats to human health and the environment.

“We’re out here naked so people can SEE THE PROBLEM, nanotech is such a radical and unpredictable new technology, like biotech, that it takes something highly visible, like a naked body, to get people to focus on the need to stop corporations from using humans as guinea pigs for new, untested, and unstable new technologies!” said Kiki Walters of THONG.

“The Royal Society in the UK has issued their own report, recommending regulation to control exposure to nanotechnologies. We believe they have a point to make. We just wanted to make it even more obvious to people.”

Eddie Bauer’s line of water and stain resistant clothing utilizes nanotechnology, a radically new and untested technology that involves the manipulation of matter at the scale of the nanometer (nm), which is one-billionth of a meter. At this scale, materials behave differently than their larger counterparts, and can possibly be more reactive and toxic, posing unknown risks to human health and the environment. Though nanoparticles are not regulated by any government in the world, many products containing them are already on the market, including food, clothing, cosmetics and sunscreens, without proper safety testing for toxicity, posing risks to the health of consumers and retail workers.  Nano-Tex™ clothing contains nano-fibers coated with Teflon particles. Nanoparticles have been found to penetrate the blood brain barrier. Inhalation of many types of nanoparticles have been proven to be toxic to animals in lab tests. 

“Even the largest re-insurance company in the world, Swiss RE, has stated that they will not insure nanotech at this time.  At least this major financial player has openly admitted the potential toxicity of nanoproducts, and that these products present what they call long latent unforeseen claims.” said Natalie Eggs, another THONG member.

Update: For those who prefer video over stills, a previous THONG protest is included in this Quicktime movie.

This just in: Nano-Tex Adds Knits, Outerwear to Its Performance Apparel Roster (MarketWire)

Backgrounder
Resistance is nubile
Nano industry hits bottom
NanoVlog
UK misses chance to defuse nanotox issue
Pogue does the pants
Playing hardball with nano pants
UK sets up a fragmented nanopolicy
Nanopants miss the Bullseye

CNet steals Engadget pictures

Tech portal Cnet has been accused of stealing snap shots of the new XBox 360 game console from Weblogsinc’s Engadget, and not giving credit on their origin.

The move follows recents attempts by CNet to descredit blogs, and Engadget in particualar.

WeblogsInc CEO Jason Calacanis writes that there is a “really classy operation over there at CNET” and “Really CNET… where is your sense of fair play?”.

Calacanis also highlights gaming portal Gamespot as having also stolen the pics without due credit.

Will the Broadcast Flag Rise Again? (Donna Wentworth)

Mike Godwin @ Godwin's Law, explaining why he believes Congress will find it hard to reinstate the broadcast flag: "It turns out that the broadcast-flag scheme is so fundamentally brain-damaged, conceptually, that there's no way to implement it without the FCC's reaching out to regulate all sorts of consumer devices and information technology. And this factor is what links the jurisdictional argument that sank the regulation to the substantive argument against the flag -- the only way to make the regulation work at all is for the FCC to assume (or have Congress grant) broad jurisdiction that the Commission has never had before.

It would be ironic to see a Republican Administration and a Republican-dominated Congress turn the FCC into a massive tool of industrial policy, but that's precisely what will happen if any version of the broadcast flag scheme is approved by Congress and sent back to the FCC."

Analysis of Google Patent To Determine Relevancy

An article from wwwcoder.com discussing a patent application recently filed by Google reportedly covering part of its relevancy algorithm.  The author draws the following conclusions as to how Google determines freshness, one of the components of relevancy:

• The frequency of all web page changes
• The actual amount of the change itself… whether it is a substantial change redundant or superfluous
• Changes in keyword distribution or density
• The actual number of new web pages that link to a web page
• The change or update of anchor text (the text that is used to link to a web page)
• The numbers of new links to low trust web sites (for example, a domain may be considered low trust for having too many affiliate links on one web page).
Although there is no specific number of links indicated in the patent it might be advisable to limit affiliate links on new web pages. Caution should also be used in linking to pages with multiple affiliate links.

REAL ID

The United States is getting a national ID card. The REAL ID Act (text of the bill and the Congressional Research Services analysis of the bill) establishes uniform standards for state driver's licenses, effectively creating a national ID card. It's a bad idea, and is going to make us all less safe. It's also very expensive. And it's all happening without any serious debate in Congress.

I've already written about national IDs. I've written about the fallacies of identification as a security tool. I'm not going to repeat myself here, and I urge everyone who is interested to read those two essays (and even this older essay). A national ID is a lousy security trade-off, and everyone needs to understand why.

Aside from those generalities, there are specifics about REAL ID that make for bad security.

The REAL ID Act requires driver's licenses to include a "common machine-readable technology." This will, of course, make identity theft easier. Assume that this information will be collected by bars and other businesses, and that it will be resold to companies like ChoicePoint and Acxiom. It actually doesn't matter how well the states and federal government protect the data on driver's licenses, as there will be parallel commercial databases with the same information.

Even worse, the same specification for RFID chips embedded in passports includes details about embedding RFID chips in driver's licenses. I expect the federal government will require states to do this, with all of the associated security problems (e.g., surreptitious access).

REAL ID requires that driver's licenses contain actual addresses, and no post office boxes. There are no exceptions made for judges or police -- even undercover police officers. This seems like a major unnecessary security risk.

REAL ID also prohibits states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens. This makes no sense, and will only result in these illegal aliens driving without licenses -- which isn't going to help anyone's security. (This is an interesting insecurity, and is a direct result of trying to take a document that is a specific permission to drive an automobile, and turning it into a general identification device.)

REAL ID is expensive. It's an unfunded mandate: the federal government is forcing the states to spend their own money to comply with the act. I've seen estimates that the cost to the states of complying with REAL ID will be $120 million. That's $120 million that can't be spent on actual security.

And the wackiest thing is that none of this is required. In October 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 was signed into law. That law included stronger security measures for driver's licenses, the security measures recommended by the 9/11 Commission Report. That's already done. It's already law.

REAL ID goes way beyond that. It's a huge power-grab by the federal government over the states' systems for issuing driver's licenses.

REAL ID doesn't go into effect until three years after it becomes law, but I expect things to be much worse by then. One of my fears is that this new uniform driver's license will bring a new level of "show me your papers" checks by the government. Already you can't fly without an ID, even though no one has ever explained how that ID check makes airplane terrorism any harder. I have previously written about Secure Flight, another lousy security system that tries to match airline passengers against terrorist watch lists. I've already heard rumblings about requiring states to check identities against "government databases" before issuing driver's licenses. I'm sure Secure Flight will be used for cruise ships, trains, and possibly even subways. Combine REAL ID with Secure Flight and you have an unprecedented system for broad surveillance of the population.

Is there anyone who would feel safer under this kind of police state?

Americans overwhelmingly reject national IDs in general, and there's an enormous amount of opposition to the REAL ID Act. This is from the EPIC page on REAL ID and National IDs:

More than 600 organizations have expressed opposition to the Real ID Act. Only two groups--Coalition for a Secure Driver's License and Numbers USA--support the controversial national ID plan. Organizations such as the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, National Association of Evangelicals, American Library Association, Association for Computing Machinery (pdf), National Council of State Legislatures, American Immigration Lawyers Association (pdf), and National Governors Association are among those against the legislation.

And this site is trying to coordinate individual action against the REAL ID Act, although time is running short. It's already passed in the House, and the Senate votes tomorrow.

If you haven't heard much about REAL ID in the newspapers, that's not an accident. The politics of REAL ID is almost surreal. It was voted down last fall, but has been reintroduced and attached to legislation that funds military actions in Iraq. This is a "must-pass" piece of legislation, which means that there has been no debate on REAL ID. No hearings, no debates in committees, no debates on the floor. Nothing.

Near as I can tell, this whole thing is being pushed by Wisconsin Rep. Sensenbrenner primarily as an anti-immigration measure. The huge insecurities this will cause to everyone else in the United States seem to be collateral damage.

Unfortunately, I think this is a done deal. The legislation REAL ID is attached to must pass, and it will pass. Which means REAL ID will become law. But it can be fought in other ways: via funding, in the courts, etc. Those seriously interested in this issue are invited to attend an EPIC-sponsored event in Washington, DC, on the topic on June 6th. I'll be there.

Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization

Ok, so what am I doing with the repititive search engine optimization title above? Well, in the grand old world of search engine optimization, it is called keyword stuffing. So, where do we stand on that sensitive topic today? What are the ground rules? What is allowed and what is not allowed? Read this interesting article on keyword repitition (lets not call it stuffing) and its relation to search engine optimization in this excellent article by Shari Thurow, who always writes the greatest articles.

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Related Research Reports:

How Greasemonkey Blows Up Business Models

Nivi expands nicely on my prior praise of Greasemonkey (in the context of Book Burro) as a venture-category wrecker and says the following:Greasemonkey will blow up business models (as well as your mind) May 8, 2005 First, browsers that don’t...

Firefox Security Bugs?

The Register is running a report about two unpatched vulnerabilities in Firefox. A Danish security firm, Secunia, describes the vulnerabilites as "extremely critical" and are actually advising you to...[]

VoIP, Vonage, Qwest and Skype

Om Malik must not be sleeping these days, as he's on a telephonic roll over the past few days, which is one of the reasons I've laid back on the Vonage announcement of their new money.

If you start to look at things both Skype and Vonage have in common one also has to look at what is the end game. For Skype it's change and likely move forward. For Vonage the investors need a pay out. That pay out can only come from a few places. Here's my picks.

1. Microsoft--if you look at their history they start working on software then acquire. Given they own parts of cable companies a Microsoft and Vonage combo means the ATA can be a Media Center and X-Box on/off ramp. They also have the money or stock value to buy Vonage at the blink of an eye.

2. Bell South-They've been really quiet when it comes to VoIP. They have a growing broadband base and already market well.

3. Qwest-Originally the leader of the pack when it came to fiber and IP, when they were US West. The post dot.com bubble and some lousy sales directions led them off the right track, but they still have one of the largest territories. Vonage and Qwest would be an interesting move, especially if Qwest is done fighting over Verizon.

4.Sprint/Nextel--A marketing machine they both know how to sell and own customers. Vonage could get them back into the home in a neat way. If anyone has the thinking to bridge the home and mobile. Vonage could be the missing link, because what they lack most of all, technology, has been Sprint's strong suit.

Osaka is quickly becoming the robot capital of the world

Japan has emerged as a leading maker of `next-generation' robots, or those that can act independently to perform complex tasks in various different areas

Spitzer Insists on Naked DSL

As condition of Verizon/MCI Merger. Fresh off his lawsuit of adware vendor Intermix, NY Attorney General Eliiot Spitzer is urging the FCC impose some conditions on the mergers between SBC & AT&T, and Verizon and MCI. Spitzer isn't outright objecting to the deals, but he is suggesting ..

Firefox 1.04

Tackles Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability. On the heels of two significant exploits comes the release of Firefox 1.04, which just minutes ago popped up on the Mozilla servers for download. This article over at Mozillazine discusses the Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability that was discover..

A Win for Fair Use, Consumer Rights

CNet: Court says FCC's 'broadcast flag' is toast. In a stunning victory for television buffs and hardware makers, a federal appeals court has tossed out government rules that would have outlawed many digital TV receivers and tuner cards starting July 1.

Now the entertainment cartel will have to get its wishes the old-fashioned way. It will have to attempt to verbally bludgeon or buy enough members of Congress to get an actual law passed, as opposed to the end run it pulled with its friends at the Federal Communications Commission, which enacted a rule giving the cartel what it wanted.

rule was an amazingly brazen piece of work. It would force manufacturers of anything that could be used to receive or display a digital broadcast video signal to refuse to redistribute the video. In other words, you could watch the show but, if the copyright holder wished, you could not record it on your VCR or send it to another TV set.

The idea was to prevent unauthorized distribution, obviously, and it's easy to understand why the cartel worries about this. But the broadcast flag sent a message both to customers and innovative technologists: We are in a pay-per-view world of hyper-controlled media, if the copyright decrees it, and you may not do anything to save your fair use or other traditional rights unless we approve.

Librarians and others concerned with restoring some balance in copyright sued to block the FCC's rule, and the court has agreed (here's a PDF of the ruling; 116k). From the ruling:

The FCC argues that the Commission has “discretion” to
exercise “broad authority” over equipment used in connection
with radio and wire transmissions, “when the need arises, even
if it has not previously regulated in a particular area.” FCC Br.
at 17. This is an extraordinary proposition. “The
[Commission’s] position in this case amounts to the bare
suggestion that it possesses plenary authority to act within a
given area simply because Congress has endowed it with some
authority to act in that area. We categorically reject that
suggestion.

Good stuff. Now it's back to Congress, where the battles will continue -- and where this belonged in the first place.

How to create your own podcast

Aspiring internet DJ's, the Washington Post's got a crash course in how to record your own podcast (downloadable audio show). Now anyone with an internet connection can listen to the sound of you making lunch! Don't you just love the internet? (Photo by Make magazine's Phillip Torrone.)

China ETF update

At present, there are two ETFs that offer US investors an opportunity to invest in China - iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund (ticker: FXI), and Golden Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio Index Fund (ticker: PGJ). Here is a quick performance update:

FXI and PGJ - Year-to-Date (YTD) Stock Market Performances:
(FXI in green, PGJ in brown)

Since the beginning of Q2 (As of April 1, 2005):

Comment: More on China ETFs FXI and PGJ here.

Barron's on China currency revaluation developments

Here are the key points:

Ronald Liesching, chief research officer for currency-manager Pareto Partners:

• There is consensus that China will re-value its currency.
• Investors should not expect a free float because it increases the risk of a hard landing for the economy.
• Most expect either a widening of the trading band, a slight upward adjustment to the peg, or a replacement of the fixed relationship with the US dollar to one with a fixed relationship to a basket of currencies, including the euro.
• The dollar's recent advance is reducing pressure on China to revalue.
• It is also reducing China's need to accumulate dollar reserves to maintain the peg.
• Europe is pushing most for revaluation.
• Worst case scenario: a 6% revaluation, which could lead to loss of confidence in the dollar.

Developments:

• Last week, the currency peg of RMB 8.28 : US $1 remained unchanged.
• At the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting on Friday, China's vice finance minister, Li Yong, said that there was no timeframe to float the currency.
• He expressed concern that "too much hot money is flowing into China".
• But investors continue to bet on currency appreciation.
• On Friday, 3-month yuan nondeliverable forward contracts were factoring in 2.5% appreciation, versus 2% a day earlier.

According to Bear Stearns:

• Money inflows slowed significantly in Q1.
• China's foreign exchange reserves grew $49.2 billion in Q1 versus $95.4 billion in Q4.
• "Illicit 'hot money' inflows to China" totaled $6.4 billion in Q1 versus barely one third of Q4's $18.2 billion a month. (This might have changed due to recent speculation.)

According to BCA Strategist:

• A 5-8% revaluation is "politically acceptable for the U.S. and economically affordable for China".

For those who expect a yuan revaluation, JP Morgan recommends these to remain firm:

• China Mobile (ticker: CHL).
• Airlines.
• Toll roads.
• Diversified real-estate plays like China Vanke (Pink Sheet Listed).

Note: Read the rest of the Barron's article here (subscription required).

Tech: A hostile environment for US Programmers?

On Dave Farber's IP list, Jonathan Shapiro makes some insightful comments on software outsourcing, and the inevitability of the economic trends driving outsourcing. He says, "The right question isn't 'How do we keep programmers employed?' The right question is: 'How do we change the economics of software?'"

Shapiro ends up sounding many themes you've heard from me before -- how open source and free software teach us that the value isn't in the software anyway, and how as a result we need to move up the stack to new sources of value. ("Invest in the free software process, since that price cannot be undercut. Shift our business attention to other parts of the value chain.") He also points out that if we want to keep our lead in innovation, we need to fix the software patent system. But that's not all. He suggests rethinking the way we train programmers, with a focus on engineering discipline and programmer productivity.

He also suggests, counter-intutively, removing liability protection for software vendors. "No better way to employ programmers than to finally force us to rebuild everything correctly --and for that matter, to discover *how* to rebuild things correctly." Eloquent and thoughtul. Very well worth a read.

Dive Into Greasemonkey

Mark Pilgrim's online about the Greasemonkey "Edit Source" environment for Mozilla/Firefox....

YOUR last chance to save all human history from destruction

Cory Doctorow: The US Copyright Office sought comments on "orphan works" that are still in copyright but have no identifiable rights-holders, and the problems this presents to culture, scholarship and free speech.

Reply comments are due on Monday, May 9. This may be your last chance to help the government craft a solution that doesn't doom 99 percent of human creation to the scrapheap of history in order to sell a couple more copies of the precious few works that are still commerically viable decades after their creation.

Here's an example of the kind of comment the Copyright Office received -- it's heartbreaking (12K PDF Link):

Several years ago I was doing antarctic research, and was looking to compile a history of the McMurdue station and it's researchers. There are MANY sources for information, ranging from newspaper articles to journals to personal memoirs. Most of the larger sources, e.g. newspapers, are easily contacted for permissions etc. I found that many of the photographs etc. I was most interested in using were poorly attributed, and even if attributed, the was often considerable confusion regarding whom should be be contacted. For example, if a researcher takes a number of photos of his living quarters, while working for a university, and funded my multiple partners, who owns the copyright to the photo? Can I use it, 50 years later, to illustrate poorly documented historical details, or will the third-cousin of the current owner of one of the groups funding the original expidition sue me?

The lawyers I contacted assured me that there was no legally-safe way to handle such questions, and strongly advised I abandon all hope of documenting a facinating piece of history, due to our idiotic "intellectual property" laws. Not having a desire to be sued, I took their advice and abandoned the project.

Here's /a> the Copyright Office received.

Here's the Orphan Works project, where you can submit reply comments to the Copyright Office.

Here's Kat Hanna's email address: she's volunteered her services to help you get your comments in and in a form that will do the most good. Kat sez, "I have volunteered to help people publicize the orphan works issue by sending them good stories we've culled from the 700+ comments. Information on submitting reply comments is on www.orphanworks.org; I don't really have the expertise to help people draft reply comments. Thanks!" (Thanks, Kat!)

The Dual-Core War - Is Intel in Trouble?

michaelMSFT writes "Cooltechzone has a column stating that Intel has already lost the dual-core war against AMD. From the article: 'From the performance numbers published on numerous online publications, Intel has lost the Dual-Core War. The only competing factor that Intel has right now is the possibility to keep their prices low enough to attract those with strict budget...I would like to forward a special note to Intel: Please make sure your next generation of processors aren't as atrocious as the Prescott, as AMD is making you look pretty silly right now.'"

Contagious Media Workshop: New York, NY - May 7, 2005

Saturday at high noon join in of a day of workshops and lectures about tactical media making with some of the web’s most notorious pioneers and players. Join special guests from The Yes Men, the Electronic Freedom Foundation and creators of Subservient Chicken (Crispin Porter + Bogusky), Black People Love Us, Rejection Line, FundRace, How to Dance Properly, del.icio.us, Blogdex, Nike Sweatshop Email, Dog Island and Pizza Party to learn the tips and tricks to win the Showdown.

Western Europe will have as many cellphone lines as people by 2007

Sweden already got there last year, now Analysys Research predicts that western Europe is only two short years away from a cellphone penetration rate of 100%. That means there will be as many cellphone lines as people, but it doesn’t mean that every single man, woman, and child will have their own cellie (though it’ll probably seem that way), since some people will own multiple phones and SIM cards. You people know who you are.

Ads by Google

Google Blogoscoped Bigfooted by SEO Inc.

Over at Google Blogoscoped, one of my favorite sites on search, blogger Philipp Lenssen reports that he has been threatened by SEO Inc., a SEO company, for posting widely known facts about the company. He does not have the money to pay for his defense, so he has taken down his original post, which noted that SEO Inc. has apparently been blacklisted from Google's index, at least as it relates to particular terms like "search engine optimization." (In fact, a search in Google for "SEO Inc." does not yield the company's URL in the first set of results, which is certainly odd.)

If Lenssen, who is based in Germany, had the money to fight these bigfoot tactics, he'd certainly win. Instead of fight, he decided to report what has happened, in the hope others will pick up the flag for him. I found his original post, titled "Fall of SEOInc" in Google's Cache. I have a PDF of it as well, should the cache get rinsed in time. From the piece, which, in case the SEOInc. lawyers are reading, I quote under principles of fair use, newsworthiness, and commentary:

It’s kind of ironic that SEOInc.com, a search engine optimization company which for a while was on the Google number 1 spot for the highly competitive query “search engine optimization”, is now nowhere to be found in the Google results. This is likely due to the recent PageRank update and even more algorithm tweaks implemented by Google. Enter “SEOinc” into Google.com, and SEOInc.com is nowhere in the top 10; and the SEOInc.com PageRank has dropped to “none”. Only by entering “site:seoinc.com” into Google will you see the site is still indexed in some way.

e a low or non-existent Google ranking is bad enough for sites outside the SEO industry, it hits everyone in the SEO business twice as hard: not only are SEOInc not being found with search engines anymore, they’ve also lost their biggest proof their services are worth paying for.

Of course, the fact this site has seen the Google death penalty hints that they’ve overoptimized using “black hat” search engine optimization (such as linkfarms, for example). In either case, these days it pays out more than ever to optimize your content and to deliver valid, accessible HTML, without spending a second thought on what search engines may like. They’re just too flaky to be trusted.

As far as I can tell, Philipp's big crime, according to SEO Inc, was telling the truth. It's no secret that in some significant way, SEO Inc, which claims on its home page that it can "rank more sites in more top positions than anyone in the business," has been banned from Google. It's the title of a thread in Webmasterworld, for example.

p>

Philipp has posted a copy of the threatening letter SEO Inc. sent him here. My two cents: The cat is out of the bag, SEO Inc. Bigfoot letters can't change the truth.

Funny aside from SEO Inc's own site (at least last time I checked):

"Want proof? Take the Search Engine Optimization Inc challenge. Go
to Google and search for the term "search engine optimization" or
"search engine placement"! You are going to learn the same technology
and techniques that get us ranked!"

Not any more....

Yahoo! Research gives the Buzz Game a REST

The Yahoo! Research Labs / O'Reilly Buzz Game is now available via read-only RESTian web service interface. Here are the results of a request for information on the SAFARI stock in the BROWSER market:

<!DOCTYPE ResultSet>
<ResultSet xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
xmlns="urn:yahoo:research" xsi:schemaLocation="urn:yahoo:research 
http://buzz.research.yahoo.com/bk/rest/info.xsd" >

<Stock id="2071" symbol="SAFARI" name="Safari">
<Price>4.45</Price>
<Buzz>0.12</Buzz>
<Shares>12390</Shares>
</Stock>

</ResultSet>

The URL http://buzz.research.yahoo.com/bk/rest/allinfo.xml provides a dump of all stocks, all markets.

The API is fully documented on the Buzz Game site.

EFF public meeting on anonymizing software in San Fran next Tues

Cory Doctorow: If you're in San Francisco next Tuesday and you care about anonymity on the Internet, you should show up for the next BayFF -- an EFF-affiliated public meeting where they'll be talking about a practical tool that provides anonymous infrastructure online.

Where: 111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 974-1719

When: Tuesday, May 10th, 2005, 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Tor: A Brief History of the Most Important Privacy Software Since PGP

Tor is a free/open source software project to create an anonymous communication system on the Internet. Tor runs on all major platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux/UNIX).

://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/boingboing/iBag?a=Ff3Fs2">

Zuckerman on How to Blog Anonymously (Donna Wentworth)

Ethan Zuckerman, founder of Geekcorps, Berkman fellow, and all-around great guy, has written a terrific technical complement to EFF's recent white paper, How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else). Zuckerman's guide approaches anonymous blogging from the perspective of a government whistleblower in a country with a less-than-transparent government -- the kind of person for whom the promise of the Internet as a vehicle for democratic speech is especially desirable and important. Though the guide is about using technology, it's one-hundred per cent accessible to the non-geek -- Zuckerman's hypothetical "Sarah" walks the reader step-by-step through a set of increasingly challenging technical strategies for keeping your identity private on the Internet:

Sarah starts to wonder what happens if the proxy servers she's using get compromised? What if the Minister convinces the operator of a proxy server - either through legal means or through bribery - to keep records and see whether anyone from his country is using the proxy, and what sites they're using. She's relying on the proxy administrator to protect her, and she doesn't even know who the administrator is!

long time with the local geek this time, she explores a new option: Invisiblog. Run by an anonymous group of Australians called vigilant.tv, Invisiblog is a site designed for and by the truly paranoid. You can't post to Invisiblog via the web, as you do with most blog servers. You post to it using specially formatted email, sent through the MixMaster remailer system, signed cryptographically.

It took Sarah a few tries to understand that last sentence. Eventually, she set up GPG - the GNU implementation of Pretty Good Privacy, a public-key encryption system. ...She generates a keypair that she will use to post to the blog - by signing a post with her "private key," the blog server will be able to use her "public key" to check that a post is coming from her, and then put it on the blog.

She then sets up MixMaster, a mailing system designed to obscure the origins of an email message. ...She sends a first MixMaster message to Invisiblog, which includes her public key.

Ethan has asked for a thorough de-bugging; if you care about freedom of speech on the Internet and have expertise to share, drop by Global Voices and lend a hand.

Clickable Broadband USA Map

C/Net has a feature story on municipal broadband in the USA and has created A clickable map which makes it fast and easy to see which states have imposed restrictive legislation, fiber to the home or wireless clouds.

Across the country, acrimonious conflicts have erupted as local governments attempt to create publicly funded broadband services with faster connections and cheaper rates for all citizens, narrowing the so-called digital divide. The Bells and cable companies, for their part, argue that government intervention in their business is not justified and say they are far better equipped to operate complex and far-flung data networks.

CNET's interactive municipal broadband legislative map details the major battlegrounds on the issue. At stake is the fate of high-speed Internet access for millions of Americans, hinging on a fundamental question of civics and economics--whether the government or private industries should take the leading role in building out what's considered this generation's critical infrastructure challenge.

Additional sections include; Cities brace for broadband war, Tangled up in fiber, A question of independence, and Photos from the broadband trenches.

Other recent articles on municipal broadband have appeared in Broadband 2.0, e-Week, Newsweek, Mother Jones and Telephony Magazine.

MuniWireless has the most consolidated coverage. DailyWireless has perhaps close to 1,000 "city cloud" related articles on-line (search "city clouds").

Share and Enjoy!

Via Daily Wireless

French Appeals Court Rules DVD Copy Protection Violates Privacy Rights

This extraordinary story from the AP just out: that a French appeals court has ordered a DVD with digital rights management pulled off the shelves, saying that the DRM violates consumer privacy rights. A customer bought the movie on DVD and then tried to transfer it onto a video cassette so he could show his mother the movie at her home. The DRM wouldn't let it happen:"This ruling means that 80 percent of DVDs now on the French market are equipped with illegal mechanisms," said Julien Dourgnon, spokesman for consumer advocacy group UFC-Que Choisir, which brought the case."Stores will probably not have to send back products already in stock," Dourgnon said Tuesday. "But in the future, no DVD or CD that has the device can be sold."France, along with other European Union members including Germany and Spain, has laws guaranteeing the right of consumers to copy recordings they have purchased for private use. The defendants in the litigation are Alain Sarde Films and Studio Canal and distributor Universal, who were also were found guilty of violating French consumer protection laws, because the only notice that there was such copy prevention software on the DVD were the letters "CP", standing for copy protection. The law is that consumers must be clearly notified of a product's "essential characteristics". How amazing, and reassuring, to find that the rights of consumers are finally being given some weight.

Mother Jones Covers Muni Battle

Mother Jones magazine looks into the push polls and heavy spending in Illinois that defeated a municipal network: The article, outlined by Esme Vos over at Muniwireless.com, walks through how SBC and Comcast tried to scare local voters who then thinly voted against a broadband initiative. It apparently also delves into the politics of The Heartland Institute and its sock puppetry.

"Case got Bast to admit that he never studied enough cases to show that most municipal networks operate at a loss," Esme writes. As I wrote about extensively and have continued to show, most of the case studies that Heartland used are derived from a Beacon Hill Institute report that relied on out of date information and misinterpreted details. Ashland, Oregon, appears to be the only network actually running in the red, while the others cited are doing quite nicely, especially Tacoma Power's Click! Network.

Future of Retailing?

The Pondering Primate writes:

I’ve been pondering the fight that will be coming up between retailers and brands once the physical world is connected. Huh? Well it won’t be long before you will be able to click on a barcode and be directed to a targeted site. The question is whose site should it be based on where you click.

my opinion, revolutionary. It will also create access to more information than some would like.

I’m going to use an example of what I mean. I’m walking through a Barnes and Noble store and I see this great book on “Pictures Of History” priced at $45.00. I like the book but $45 seems steep. I take out my camera phone, click on the barcode, and I am taken to Amazon.com where the price is $39.95. I can either order right there through my phone, or wait till I get home.

Barnes and Noble lost “control” of their customer by allowing an outside application in the store. Every retailer is scared at the thought of a price comparison/outside application being allowed in their store via cell phone.

A $45 book is one thing, but imagine a $5000 Sony LCD TV in Best Buy. Think Best Buy might object to a Froogle like application in their store?

How can they stop this?

Australian broadband users exceed 50% of all internet users

TV loses its edge as broadband access multiplies. The insatiable appetite for fast internet access pushed the number of Australian broadband home users through the critical 50 per cent threshold for the first time last month. [Yahoo Search: Grokster]

40 Miles of Free Wi-Fi

Tempe's mega-mesh network. The city of Tempe, Arizona is building a wireless mesh network that will offer broadband to anyone within its 40 mile square area (they call it WazTempe). The "double duty" network will offer free Wi-Fi to residents (for a limited time), while linki..

The Internet Danger List: stocks at risk from Spitzer's attack on Adware

The attack on the illegal disemination of spyware and adware may not end with Eliot Spitzer's suit against Intermix Media (ticker: MIX). This report outlines why and provides a tentative list of other Internet stocks at risk. Stocks mentioned: ASKJ, CD, CNET, FLWS, FWHT, IACI, ICGE, INPC, SPRK, TFSM, THK, TSG, VLCK, and YHOO.

Why the attack on Adware and Spyware won't stop with MIX

1. A win against Intermix will set a precedent for suing other companies.
2. The attack on adware and spyware will be politically popular.
3. There's a lot of Adware and Spyware about. Note this excerpt from the press release issued by the NY AG's office:

Ari Schwartz, the Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington D.C. said, "One of Internet users' biggest frustrations today is unwanted software that sneaks onto computers without their owner's consent and cannot be uninstalled. Companies have gotten away with unethical and illegal software download practices for too long. The practices alleged in this case are widespread on the Internet and we hope that both federal and state authorities follow Attorney General Spitzer's lead in making this a priority, "

A tentative list of other stocks that could be impacted

1. Other creators of Adware and Spyware

Ask Jeeves (ticker: ASKJ, being acquired by IAC, ticker: IACI) purchased Interactive Holdings for $343 million in March 2004. According to Spyware Confidential, "Interactive Holdings was a front for iWon, My Search, My Way, and My Web Search", making Ask Jeeves "a fairly big player in the adware market".

Could this pose a problem for the IAC-ASKJ merger? The merger agreement states:

To the Knowledge of the Company, neither the Company nor any of its Subsidiaries distributes Spyware or Adware in connection with the businesses they conduct. " Spyware " means any software that covertly gathers information regarding user online activity through the user's Internet connection ( i.e, without notice that such information may be gathered), whether or not such software is bundled as a hidden component of the Company's toolbar or like applications, other than information (i) reasonably gathered in connection with services or information provided by Company or its Subsidiaries to such users, or (ii) that is not associated with personally identifiable information. " Adware " means any software that causes advertising to pop-up as a new window (over or under) on the user's computer based on the user's online activity (other than advertisements that Company serves to visitors to the Company's web site domains while those customers are visiting or exiting such domains) or which is used to distribute Spyware. Each of the Company's applications can be readily uninstalled by users using commercially available uninstall utilities, and no such application, if uninstalled, can reinstall itself without the consent of such users; provided that Company makes no representation or warranty that such uninstall process will always operate without error.

FindWhat (ticker: FWHT) owns Comet Systems. According to Computer Associates' Spyware Information Center, Comet's software falls into the following categories: hijacker, browser helper object and search hijacker. Details here.

Of note: Potential damages and penalties for the Adware vendors are signficant. Eliot Spitzer is suing Intermix for $500 damages per user who unknowingly downloaded Adware/Spyware, plus penalties. His initial estimate is that Intermix infected over 60,000 users' PCs in New York alone.

2. Distributors of Adware and Spyware

CNET Networks (ticker: CNET) owns Download.com, which until now was used by numerous Adware and Spyware vendors to disseminate their products. CNET recently announced that it was removing over 500 products from the site and instituting a "zero tolerance Adware policy". 

Two questions: (1)  Does CNET have any liability for its tolerance of Adware on Download.com until now? (2) Will association with legal action against Spyware and Adware damage CNET's brand and reduce traffic to Download.com and other sites?   

3. Providers of paid search and affiliate ads to Spyware and Adware creators

The larger producers of Adware and Spyware, such as Claria, deal directly with advertisers. But smaller vendors use providers of paid search and affiliate marketing programs to monetize their products. Adware may redirect you to a paid search page, or generate popups ads that generate revenue through affiliate programs, for example.

It's not clear that providers of paid search and affiliate ads to the Adware companies have legal liability, in addition to the Adware providers themselves. Claria's S-1 describes law suits it faces, for example for providing competitors' ads to be superimposed on companies' web sites. The S-1 states:

The claims asserted by the various Claimants essentially allege that the display of our advertisements at the same time as our users are viewing the Claimants’ web pages and the means by which those advertisements are displayed violate federal laws relating to trademark, copyright and unfair competition, as well as similar state laws. Under the trademark infringement claims, the Claimants allege that our use of website addresses, or URLs, to trigger the display of advertisements, regardless of the form of the advertisement, is an unauthorized use of the Claimants’ trademarks to the extent those URLs also include the Claimants’ trademark terms, and also that the display of the advertisements is likely to cause confusion in the marketplace or that they constitute false advertising, resulting either in direct or contributory infringement and unfair competition by us.

Whatever the legal exposure, it is possible that the  providers of paid search and affiliate ads receive a potentially significant amount of revenue from Adware customers. The following stocks may have exposure in this way:

• FindWhat (ticker: FWHT) for paid search.
• Yahoo/Overture (ticker: YHOO) for paid search.
• CGI Holding (ticker: THK) for affiliate marketing.
• ValueClick (ticker: VCLK) for affiliate marketing.
• 24/7 Media (ticker: TFSM) for affiliate marketing.
• Think Partership (ticker: THK) for affiliate marketing.
• LinkShare (partially owned by Internet Capital Group, ticker: ICGE) for affiliate marketing.

Of the paid search providers, YHOO seems to have particularly notable exposure. Adware company Claria's S-1 states:

Key Strategic Relationships

Overture Services

Beginning in March 2003, we entered into agreements with Overture, which was subsequently acquired by Yahoo!, under which Overture provides us with paid listings for our SearchScout service. We share the advertising revenue generated by Overture when a user clicks on one of these paid listings. These agreements expire in September 2007, and the parties may terminate the agreements prior to expiration under certain circumstances, including failure to achieve specified levels of performance, breach of the agreement and litigation. For 2003, we derived approximately 31% of our revenue from Overture.

The affilate marketing network providers - VCLK, TFSM, THK and ICGE partially-owned LinkShare - are also exposed in another way. According to Ben Edelman,

Some web sites ("merchants") pay commissions to independent third-party web publishers ("affiliates") who recommend and link to merchants' products. Proper tabulation of affiliate commissions relies on a multi-step process, requiring coordination by merchants, affiliates, and (often) affiliate networks who help track the transactions... Software from 180solutions (also known as MetricsDirect [an Adware/Spyware provider]) interferes with this tracking process, seizing affiliate commissions for 180's benefit and for 180's advertiser partners.

In my testing, 180 software specifically and systematically causes merchants' tracking systems to conclude that users reached merchants' sites thanks to 180's efforts, even when users actually reached merchants on their own or through other affiliates. As a result, merchants pay commissions to 180 even when no commission is properly payable (under affiliate program rules), i.e. when users reach merchants' sites without receiving bona fide recommendations from independent affiliate web sites.

In other words, Spyware providers like 180Solutions generate artificial affiliate commissions. Those commissions go through the affiliate networks, generating revenue for the network operators. Shut down the Spyware, and that revenue disappears.

THK seems to face particular risk. It acquired an affilate network company called PrimaryAds this month, and according to Jeff Molander, " PrimaryAds is well known to be partnered with [Adware provider] MetricsDirect / 180Solutions".

4. Advertisers via Adware

Some advertisers probably advertise via Adware unknowingly; but others do it intentionally. While it's not clear that advertisers via illegally propagated Adware bear legal liability, they do face the risk of negative PR and the closure of a relatively effective customer acquisition channel. How do we know who are the leading advertisers via Adware? Adware provider Claria filed an S-1 which contains a list of its top advertiser customers in 2003. Ben Edelman has also compiled a list of Gator advertisers. Together, they include the following Internet (or Internet-related) companies:

• 1-800 Flowers (ticker: FLWS)
• AmericanSingles.com, owned by Spark Networks (GDR ticker: SPKFF.PK, filed for IPO under ticker SPRK)
• Cendant (ticker: CD)
• Expedia, owned by IAC (ticker: IACI)
• InPhonic (ticker: INPC)
• Netflix (ticker: NFLX)
• Orbitz, now owned by Cendant (ticker: CD)
• Priceline (ticker: PCLN)
• Shopping.com (ticker: SHOP)
• Travelocity (owned by The Sabre Group, ticker: TSG)

This discussion is the result of my initial research into the Adware issue. I'd greatly welcome readers' comments plus suggestions of other publicly-traded companies that might have exposure. Thanks to Jeff Molander of ReveNews.com for help with research, and to Ben Edelman for his outstanding web site.

Full disclosure: at the time of writing I'm long SHOP and short CNET and VCLK.

Related resources for institutional investors:

• Nitron Advisors arranges conference calls for institutional investors with frontline industry experts. Its panel of experts includes hundreds of Internet professionals with direct knowledge of new search technologies, auction methodologies, pay-per-click advertising, web partnership structures, e-commerce, and other Internet technologies. To be contacted with more info, please email nitron@techuncovered.com.

RSS -Revolutionises The Web World!!

U.S. Rejects Canadian Rejection of DMCA

P Starrson writes " Slashdot readers may recall that last month Canadian policy makers rejected the DMCA for Canada. Not so fast apparently -- the U.S. Trade Representative has released the annual Section 301 report which each year tells the rest of the world that they need stronger intellectual property protection. This year Canada is a particular target -- the U.S. plans to conduct a special review of Canadian policies and explicitly rejects Canada's rejection of the DMCA. A good summary on what this means from Canadian law professor Michael Geist."

Microsoft -- Can We Talk?

According to eWeek, Microsoft would like to talk to the Open Source community about how they can work better with the community. Is this the embrace part? The article quotes attorney Brad Smith: "We're going to have to figure out how to build some bridges between the various parts of our industry," he continued. "We're going to have to figure out how we can bring the various parts of our industry closer together. Not necessarily in the sense of changing the way software is developed, but building bridges so that we all have the ability to collaborate with each other. And that will mean we will need some new rotations, I think, in how we work together, in how we license, in how we share technology or intellectual property rights with each other." Let me guess. They'd like us to toss the GPL overboard, perchance? Here's a suggestion to anyone who takes them up on their invitation and believes this is a true olive branch: Ask them why the EU threatened to fine them this week. What was the sticking point exactly? And just a reminder: Linux, their number one competition, is licensed under the GPL. That isn't changing. Larry Rosen is quoted in the article, and that reminds me to tell you that his book on Open Source Licensing --Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law is now available online.

The Borrowers

The Fed's New Clothes: Stephen Roach, Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley, on the Maestro's historic drive to devalue income and savings and push speculation. The ownership society lurks in the background. Via Cunning Realist.

Security by obscurity my ass

Interesting followup on this story previously posted here concerning the killing of an italian senior intelligence agent by U.S. Forces during an hostage rescue mission (a.k.a. the Sgregna Case). Yesterday the italian public received this PDF file containing an extremely detailed U.S. military report on the alleged accident. Many lines in the report were "blacked out" as the author probably considered them unclassified, yet sensible information (like the name who the guy who shot the car). It turns out the author don't know jack about pdf and here is the unblackened report[DOC Format] in all its details, most probably exposed by some computer savy guy in italian media.

Damning leak for Blair / Bush!

Damning leak for Blair / Bush! A leaked transcript of a senior British government meeting indicates that the Bush administration viewed war with Iraq as "inevitable" as of July 2002, even though the rationale for war was "thin" and that "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran." It further states that the desire to bring about regime change was "not a legal base for military action", and that the only legitimate reason to declare war was with UNSCOM approval. Most disturbingly, it indicates that there were "strategies for dealing with Libya and Iran. If the political context were right, people would support regime change."

Longhorn Sneak Preview

Flexbeta has many cool screen captures of Longhorn, the latest Microsoft operating system.  These shots are from build 5048, which is apparently stable despite some work still needed for driver support.

global consciousness

the global consciousness project is an international & multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers & artists to look for patterns in many, physically remote random number generators. this initiative searches for subtle correlations in continuous, computationally generated random data streams that could reflect the presence & activity of 'consciousness' in the world (e.g. forewarning 9/11 or the asian tsunami). various real-time visualizations of these random data streams have been developed, such as tapestries, block diagrams and data-driven music. [princeton.edu]

Time Travelers' Convention

usermilk writes "Some folks at MIT are holding a time-travelers' convention. The idea is to make it so famous and so widely-known that even thousands of years in the future, people will still know exactly when and where this time-traveler convention went down, and will all come travel to it at some point in their illustrious time-traveling careers. For those interested in attending, it's on May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC) in the East Campus Courtyard at MIT. 42:21:36.025N, 71:05:16.332W (42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)."

5 Things To Do When You Receive A Cease and Desist Letter

1. Do not contact the other side and discuss the case.

2.  Do not contact the other side and discuss the case.

3.  Do not contact the other side and discuss the case.

4.  Consult experienced counsel and receive an evaluation of your rights.

5.  Do not contact the other side and discuss the case.

Singapore blogger shut down, Reporters Without Borders reports

Reporters Without Borders today expressed support for a student in Singapore forced to shut down his blog on 26 April for fear of a libel action by the head of a government body and warned that "such intimidation could make the country's blogs as timid and obedient as the traditional media."

"Threatening a libel suit is an effective way to silence criticism and this case highlights the lack of free expression in Singapore, which is among the 20 lowest-scoring countries in our worldwide press freedom index," it said. "We especially support bloggers because they often exercise a freedom not seen in the rest of a country's media."

Syndicate Conference (May 17-18, 2005): Themed RSS: Risk, Reward and Revolution, a strategic event not to be missed by publishers, marketers, advertising and PR executives. www.syndicateconference.com Continued reading TrackBack (1) | Comments (0)

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Online Ad Market Nears $10 Billion Mark

: The IAB issued its analysis of online advertising in 2004, reporting revenues up totaling over $9.6 billion, nearly 33 percent over 2003. The 4Q04 revenues hit a record $2.69 billion -- the highest quarter ever reported. Consumer advertising made up nearly half of all internet advertising in 2004, up from 37 percent in 2003. Looking at types of advertising, search made up 40 percent of the mix.

Spitzer's Attack on Adware: Who's Vulnerable?

: David Jackson goes beyond the news of Eliot Spitzer's suit against Intermix Media and digs out Internet companies which may be exposed to similar conditions: among them, Ask Jeeves, CNET Networks (which just banned adware on Download.com), and others...

European Content Market To Reach $3.86 Billion This Year

: Western European revenues for consumer online content will nearly double in 2005, reaching over Euro 3bn and up to Euro 16bn in 2008, according to figures from EITO, the European IT Observatory.
Within three years, consumer online content revenues are expected to be higher than those in the business segment. More than a third of the present consumer online content market is based on online video, which will pass the Euro 1 billion mark this year.
Online games revenues in Western Europe are forecast to amount to Euro 929m in 2005, on the way to drawing level with online video revenues.
Full details of the study are available in this PDF by EITO..
In a related story, in Germany, sales volume of digital content via the Internet will increase in Germany this year by 137 percent to 484 million euros, this year...

LA Report on City-wide Wi-Fi, WiMax

L.A. mayor releases committee report on filling gaps in broadband coverage (PDF): The committee includes a few academics and the rest are incumbent telco and cable company folk. That's why the report's tone is quite extraordinary. It mostly evenhandedly lays out the scope of the problem, looks into what approaches might be taken to solve it (including all the models out there), and reaches conclusions that aren't unreasonable.

Pro-municipal advocates won't find the report anything to cheer about except the scope of the problem as stated, but I don't find anything misrepresented--except the definition of Moore's law.

The Emergence of a Global Infrastructure for Mass Registration and Surveillance

The International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance has issued a report (dated April 2005): "The Emergence of a Global Infrastructure for Mass Registration and Surveillance." It's a chilling assessment of the current international trends towards global surveillance. Most of it you will have seen before, although it's good to have everything in one place. I am particularly pleased that the report explicitly states that these measures do not make us any safer, but only create the illusion of security.

The global surveillance initiatives that governments have embarked upon do not make us more secure. They create only the illusion of security.

Sifting through an ocean of information with a net of bias and faulty logic, they yield outrageous numbers of false positives ­ and false negatives. The dragnet approach might make the public feel that something is being done, but the dragnet is easily circumvented by determined terrorists who are either not known to authorities, or who use identity theft to evade them.

For the statistically large number of people that will be wrongly identified or wrongly assessed as a risk under the system, the consequences can be dire.

At the same time, the democratic institutions and protections, which would be the safeguards of individuals’ personal security, are being weakened. And national sovereignty and the ability of national governments to protect citizens against the actions of other states (when they are willing) are being compromised as security functions become more and more deeply integrated.

The global surveillance dragnet diverts crucial resources and efforts away from the kind of investments that would make people safer. What is required is good information about specific threats, not crude racial profiling and useless information on the nearly 100 percent of the population that poses no threat whatsoever.

Firefox: 50 Million Downloads

Not too shabby for open source. According to the Spread Firefox website, the open-source browser crossed the 50,000,000 download mark this morning. "They said open source would never penetrate the mainstream. But you've never cared much for rules, have you? And now we're blazing a..

RIAA Lawsuits Top 10,000

And not one of them has been convicted. RIAA lawsuits against broadband music file-traders has now topped 10,000, after 725 new users were sued last week. Something not mentioned by the RIAA is that not one of those 10,000 people has been convicted of any crime. Despite the lawsuits, p2p..