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Posts Tagged ‘P2p’

Tenenbaum: $675,000 is absurd when I caused $21 in losses

Joel Tenenbaum, the second P2P defendant to take his case all the way through trial, is on the hook for $675,000 in damages. But according to his lawyer, Tenenbaum only caused the record labels $21 in damages.

The disparity between these two figures is, in the words of Harvard Law’s Charles Nesson, “monstrous and shocking.”

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RIAA needs more time to ponder bad choices

The federal judge overseeing the Jammie Thomas-Rasset P2P case gave the recording industry a week to decide if it would accept his decision to slash Thomas-Rasset’s damages from $80,000 to $2,250 per song. But the labels haven’t decided yet, and they have just asked the judge for more time. In the meantime, they’re telling her that she can wipe her hands clean of the whole situation for $25,000.

The “Unopposed Motion for Extension of Time to Notify Court Regarding Plaintiffs’ Position on Remittitur” asks Judge Michael Davis to give the labels another 10 days to ponder the matter. The defense attorneys have already agreed to the request, which will likely be approved.

At the same time, the RIAA has given Thomas-Rasset a final settlement offer of $25,000, the totality of which would go to a musician’s charity. Otherwise, the RIAA will go ahead with the appeal. Thomas-Rasset has already chosen to challenge the damage award and one of her attorneys told CNET that she is going to decline the settlement offer.

So it appears that the case is far from over. Even if the recording industry were to accept the $54,000 in total damages; it made a point in its new filing of talking about its appeals court shot clock, reminding us that it might well accept remittitur (thus ending the trial phase of the case) but then appeal Judge Davis’ actions. Given the precedent-setting nature of the case, this would be expensive, exhausting, but not at all surprising.

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iPhone as RFID Tag & Reader: Coming Soon

We began our Mobile Web Meets Internet of Things series yesterday with a look at barcode scanning. We wrote that smartphones are increasingly being deployed as readers for barcodes – in particular via apps available on iPhone and Android. These applications, such as RedLaser on iPhone and ShopSavvy on Android, allow you to scan a barcode on a product or object and get more information about it.

We noted however that RFID tags are more functional and flexible than barcodes. While barcodes are cheaper and getting traction in the U.S. with the QR format, the potential for RFID tags is even greater. Apple knows this and if rumors are to believed, RFID will be integrated into the iPhone 4G later this year.

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According to a number of believable blog reports, RFID is set to be a part of the as yet unannounced iPhone 4G. Apple holds a patent for a touch screen RFID tag reader and is said to be testing an RFID-enabled iPhone currently. So RFID could be a feature of the iPhone 4G as soon as Spring 2010.

As MacRumors succinctly explained in November, mobile phone usage of RFID technology will come in the form of Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a new standard based on RFID and it has three use cases: the phone as an RFID tag; the phone as RFID Reader; and peer to peer communication (P2P) between two NFC-enabled phones.

The first two use cases are most interesting. Using the iPhone as an RFID tag means it can be a deployed as a payment device (similar to a credit card), identity card, security device, and more. This type of functionality is already happening in Japan, where the RFID Suica chip is installed in some mobile phones.

Using the phone as an RFID Reader allows the iPhone to interact with RFID-enabled objects in the real world. Check out this prototype from a Norwegian research organization called Touch, using the iPhone as a Media Player:

Timo Arnall from Touch noted in a follow-up post in November that RFID and NFC peripherals are beginning to be released for the iPhone.

2010 could be a great year for RFID in the consumer market, if it is to be a feature of the next iPhone. Expect to see it in Android devices too.

Will mobile phones provide the tipping point for adoption of the Internet of Things? We’ve seen now that mobile phones are a big driver of consumer adoption of both barcodes and RFID tags, so we wouldn’t be surprised.

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Downloading Frenzy in China: Gov’t Blocking All Torrent Sites Soon?

Over the past 10 days, Chinese downloaders have flooded – and in some cases, crashed – major P2P and torrent sites after rumors that the government would be effectively disabling all media downloads in the country.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has closed hundreds of file-sharing sites since last week as part of an ongoing effort to fight piracy and porn. However, many users say these sources are one of few ways to access films, books, and music banned in China, whether the media is lewd or merely politically dissident. What will media-seeking Chinese citizens do when their links to the wider world are finally severed?

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A document called Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Communication through Information, created by SARFT in 2006, was posted on its website late last week, just before the agency rounded up and shut down around 530 bittorrent sites, including the 50-million-users-strong BTChina. SARFT states that websites are not allowed to provide audio or video products without specific licenses.

SARFT rep Cao Yunxia told China Tech News that “illegal audio-visual service websites have brought great harm to the media industry and the administration will continue to seek and destroy illegal Internet audio-visual program providers.”

Following these sudden and unforeseen website closures, many Chinese rushed to download what may be their final foreign films and albums.

“I may never be able to download Hollywood movies or classical records again,” one college student told China Daily.

When China’s largest file-sharing site, VeryCD, has server issues yesterday, many speculated that the government had shut that website down, as well. However, VeryCD’s users still have time to continue downloading content, although it is unclear how much time may actually remain.

While VeryCD has applied for a license to distribute its content, it has not yet received official sanction from the Chinese government and has been warned by SARFT about allowing the distribution of unauthorized multimedia content throughout the country.

The site’s owners hace said they may suspend downloads over the coming weekend to avoid further trouble with SARFT, and they were unable to comment on the long-term future of the website.

As our loyal readers may recall, China’s ongoing censorship of content and restriction of free speech earned it a spot on our Top 10 Failures of 2009 list. Although it is hardly the in the domain of a humble blogger to dictate national policies on media, we feel a great deal of empathy for those who download content not only because it’s free online but because they have no other way to access it.

From Ben-Hur to Brokeback Mountain, check out this list of some of the films banned in China. What would you do as an Internet user if illegal downloads were your only way to see content like these films or to listen to many kinds of Western music? What work-arounds would you recommend to Chinese citizens? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Widespread availability of online video means less P2P use

P2P use is down this year, possibly thanks to the growing availability of online video. Network equipment provider Sandvine observed these two trends in its “2009 Global Broadband Phenomena” report (via Broadband Reports), noting that there was a “dramatic increase” in realtime video consumption while users are moving away from bulk downloads that they can’t consume right now. While this doesn’t mean P2P is dead just yet, it reflects a shifting user focus as more content providers give people what they want the legal way.

“Realtime entertainment traffic”—which includes video and audio streaming, Flash media, and other various webcasts—grew to more than 26 percent in 2009, according to Sandvine. This reflected a 12.6 percent growth, or a near doubling of the numbers from last year. YouTube, of course, remains a top destination for those looking for video entertainment, and North Americans consume the most videos (per subscriber) globally. Europeans, however, consume the most YouTube minutes out of any region.

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FCC enforcing imaginary laws in P2P ruling, says Comcast

Almost a year ago, Comcast pledged that it would sue the Federal Communications Commission over its Order sanctioning the cable ISP for peer-to-peer throttling. Now, the company has filed its case with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Although Comcast’s legal arguments are complex, the crux is simple: there were and still are no statutes or credible regulations that support the Commission’s authority to act on this matter, the company says.

“For the FCC to conclude that an entity has acted in violation of federal law and to take enforcement action for such a violation, there must have been ‘law’ to violate,” Comcast’s Opening Brief to the court contends. “Here, no such law existed.”

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Tenenbaum P2P trial features prophetic warnings of doom

Joel Tenenbaum downloaded and distributed thousands of songs without paying for them, and continued to do so for years after he was sued by the major record labels for this very activity, charged Tim Reynolds, the record labels’ lead attorney, as the trial of the 25-year old physics grad student got underway in earnest today in a Boston federal courtroom.

“We are here to ask you to hold the defendant responsible for his actions,” said Reynolds, a partner in the Boulder, Colorado office of Holme, Robert & Owen. “Filesharing isn’t like sharing that we teach our children. This isn’t sharing with your friends.”

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Streaming, not P2P, behind mobile broadband data usage surge

Tremendous sales of both smartphones and laptop data cards mean tremendous data surging through cell networks, and a new report says that mobile data growth grew 30 percent over the course of the second quarter 2009. But (for once) don’t blame P2P.

Allot, a vendor deep packet inspection (DPI) and other network monitoring gear, has just released its Global Mobile Broadband Traffic Report for Q2 2009, using data gathered from wireless network operators. It found that the most popular use for mobile data is HTTP browsing, though HTTP streaming is by far the fastest-growing (58 percent over the quarter).

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