Posts from — November 2006

On the heals of raising $25 million in capital, BitTorrent has reportedly signed video downloading deals with 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Lionsgate, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, Palm Pictures, G4, Kadokawa and Stars Media. Last year BitTorrent had done a similar deal with Warner. The service will use BitTorrent's proven peer-to-peer technology. The technology makes the distribution of large video files faster and less expensive by offloading much of the bandwidth requirements to its users. Pricing details have not yet been announced.

Starting next February you'll* be able to download-to-own (DTO) films and TV shows, or rent films on a video on-demand (VOD) basis. Most of the entertainment content in question will be made available on the day it is released on DVD or shown on television. These videos will be playable on PCs, laptops or other portable devices.

The service's DRM will limit playback to the device you originally record the content on. So recorded DVDs will not play on consumer DVD players. Some titles will only be viewable a limited number of times before the central DRM store disables your key. For this, you'll likely be paying full DVD retail prices.

So far as I know, BitTorrent has no such deal with consumer electronics companies like TiVo, Microsoft, Sony or Apple for downloads to a TV-connected device. 

Dale's Comment:  While any news story like this is heartening, insomuch as Hollywood is slowly advancing into the future, I agree with ars technica that DVD-purchasing consumers will not be impressed with this service. As with iTunes, it limits the user's right to use the content to the device it was downloaded on - hardly useful for long term video purchasers.  But, for one-time viewing, the method by which the vast majority of video consumers consume such content, this will probably have limited success for those wanting to view such content on laptops, PCs and portable devices.  But, as I have contended for years, downloadable media sales will only really take off once consumers can purchase/rent the content for viewing on their TVs - just as Microsoft is now doing with its Xbox 360 Marketplace movie/TV show service and as Apple has announced it will do with its forthcoming iTV product.

*Caveat:  While I have not yet had my suspicions confirmed, my guess is that this service will ONLY be available to U.S. consumers at launch.  This seems to be the way of the world these days!

Sources:  Information Week | Gizmodo | ars technica | Hollywood Reporter | Wired Blogs | USA Today | Forbes (AP) | TechWeb  Playfuls | LA Times | BitTorrent Pres Release

Related BitTorrent Posts:

• BitTorrent to Purchase µTorrent (December 8, 2006)
• BitTorrent Signs More Download Deals with Major Hollywood Movie & TV Studios (November 30, 2006)
• Techcrunch » BitTorrent Raises $25 Million (November 29, 2006)
• Warner Bros. and BitTorrent Partner to Download Movies (May 9 2006)
• BitTorrent and MPAA Reach Agreement (November 23, 2005)

Categories: Big Media Makes Progress, iVOD/iTV

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Text of Agreement
Visa and Mastercard halting service to AllofMP3 effectively shut it down. In the face of the credit card departures, AllofMP3.com said it would move to an advertising supported model. Now Russia and the U.S. appear to have reached an agreement to shut it down - or did they?  

ars technica and others are reporting that AllofMP3 says it will not be shut down. Instead it says Russia agreed to certain copyright reforms that AllofMP3.com says it will comply with. Even if this is true, AllofMP3 could never be what it was. If the reported agreement is implemented by Russia, any new AllofMP3.com would be as close to its current incarnation as today's Napster is to its original form.

As of the time of this post, AllofMP3.com was still up and running.

Dale's Comment: This is a sad day of sorts. While the legality of AllofMP3 was always murky, its success (second in world-wide sales only to iTunes) was a clear example of the fact that consumers are willing to pay a fair price for music from a site that services the users needs, if they are given fair rights to use the music they purchase. In the case of AllofMP3.com the user could chose the format they wished to purchase and there were no restrictions on the use they could make of the music.  I look forward to the day the major labels learn this lesson and start offering DRM-free music for sale to honest users under fair terms.

Sources: TechCrunch | CNet | ars technica | Inquirer | The Register | ABC News | ComputerWorld | PC Magazine | MOSNews | MP3.com | Techwhack | Techdirt | ZDNet | Macworld | DailyTech

Related Posts:

• AllofMP3.com Lives On Despite U.S./Russian WTO Agreement (December 10, 2006)
• Russia Agrees to Shut Down AllofMP3.com at U.S. Request (November 29, 2006)
• Danish Court Blocks AllofMP3.com (October 25, 2006)
• Visa and Mastercard Stop Servicing AllofMP3.com (October 18, 2006)
• Russia Implements Internet Piracy Law in Gambit to Join WTO (September 1, 2006)
• BPI to Sue AllofMP3.com (July 5, 2006)
• AllofMP3.com Responds to Recent Scrutiny (June 6, 2006)
• Russia-based AllofMP3 Launches DRM-free allTunes (March 29, 2006)
• RIAA's Next Big Target: Russia (December 27, 2005)

Categories: Big Media v Internet, Copyright, DRM-Free Services, International Legal Reform, Lobbying, New Business Models, Piracy

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Source: Techcrunch 

Related BitTorrent Posts:

• BitTorrent to Purchase µTorrent (December 8, 2006)
• BitTorrent Signs More Download Deals with Major Hollywood Movie & TV Studios (November 30, 2006)
• Techcrunch » BitTorrent Raises $25 Million (November 29, 2006)
• Warner Bros. and BitTorrent Partner to Download Movies (May 9 2006)
• BitTorrent and MPAA Reach Agreement (November 23, 2005)

Categories: Big Media Makes Progress, Financings, iVOD/iTV

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I don't know what is in the air these days, but Internet-TV aggregators seem to be popping up all over the Internet. I recently blogged about Tioti and the TVUPlayer, each of which have received substantial press coverage owing to their controversial nature. 

Over the last few days, I have become aware of dozens of online TV, movie and other aggregators running the gamut from sites streaming literally hundreds of live TV channels over the Internet to others indexing and hosting thousands of TV shows and movies for instant viewing over the Internet. 

Many of the live broadcast feeds are likely accessed from Internet feeds supplied by the content owners themselves. But, I'm guessing, others are likely redirected Slingbox or similar streams. As you can read in my TVUPlayer post, the company's CEO, Paul Shen, believes he can escape U.S. copyright infringement liability using the DMCA's ISP safe harbor. He argues that the streams are made available from the service's users and not hosted directly by his company.   

peekvid and QuickSilverScreen in particular, seem to be the most blatantly infringing services of the lot. They directly index over a thousand TV shows, movies, cartoons etc. for instant viewing. Users can select a particular TV series from a list and then directly view selected episodes - on demand. Movies can similarly be selected and viewed on demand. If peekvid is located in the U.S., I suspect it won't be long before the link fails to work owing to NAB and MPAA legal actions. QuickSilverScreen was located in the U.S. until Fox sent it a cease and desist letter. The proprietor has sold it to someone offshore and it continues to operate unabated from an offshore location. 

In no particular order, here are only a few of the dozens of live TV aggregation sites that have popped up recently.

• ChooseAndWatch
• Streamick.com
• Freetube
• ChannelKing
• Channelchooser.com
• Worldtvpc
• OMGfreeTV
• wwiTV
• medinalia.com

• They all actually worked when I tried them
• Of the dozens of other aggregators available, these sites required no prior signups or passwords. 
• Unlike Tioti and the TVUPlayer, no plugins or downloads were required for these sites to work - simply show up, click and watch.
• My browser, Firefox 2.0, is set to disable popups and redirects - all worked without popups or redirects 
• Many of the video streams were resizable - even to full screen in many contexts

Categories: Big Media v Internet, BigMedia v NewTech, New Tech, Piracy, iVOD/iTV

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I just came across this New Music Strategies blog post quoting Paul Birch, Managing Director of indie-label, Revolver Records, and independent member of the ifpi's board of directors, as saying the following in an e-mail:

DRM as we know it is over. There may be Son of DRM but that’s another matter. Right now its dead, the majors are moving towards the new model. The one thing you can be sure of is they will still be at the centre of the world music industry whatever happens. The independents are another matter. As our sector’s share has fallen by almost half in just over twelve months, the new model for us is partnership. It always was, I’m just not sure we got it.

The ifpi is Europe's version of the RIAA. This from the man who, on the ifpi's website, is quoted as saying:

"I hate what's happening with illegal downloading. People who love music shouldn't do this. The music industry provides huge choice. By stealing music you deny other people that choice in the future. Some may say it does not affect new and eclectic music. The fact is that it is precisely this kind of music which gets displaced. For small businesses it's particularly tough. Most of us came into this business not to get rich but because we love music. No one who loves music would steal it."

Later in the comments portion of the blog post Mr. Birch confirmed he made this statement but qualifies it as a prediction based on rumblings at board meetings - rather than known fact.

Dale's Comment: If Mr. Birch is quoted accurately and his predictions are true, much of my work here would be done. Ha! I'll believe it when I see it!

Sources New Music Strategies

Related Posts:

• Steve Jobs Calls for the End of DRM for Online Music Sales (February 7, 2007)
• Wired Article: Signs Music Industry May be Abandoning DRM (January 8, 2007)
• EMusic Sells 100 Millionth Song without DRM (December 15, 2006)
• EMI's Blue Note & Yahoo! Music Sell a Few More Songs DRM Free (December 6, 2006)
• ifpi Board Member Quoted as Saying Major Labels About to Abandon DRM (November 27, 2006)
• First a Song, Now a DRM-Free Album - Yahoo! (September 19, 2006)
• Weird Al Yankovic's New Single: Don't Download this Song (August 23, 2006)
• Yahoo! Offers DRM-Free Jessica Simpson Song (July 20, 2006)
• Yahoo! Exec Says Labels Should Sell Music Without DRM (February 24, 2006)

Categories: Big Media Makes Progress, DRM-Free Services, New Business Models

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For years I have been looking for a convenient way to stream my videos (movies, video clips, video game trailers etc.) from PCs on my home network to my HDTV in the living room. Today I have had my first success using the new video streaming functionality built into the most recent XBox 360 Dashboard software update.

This Arne360 blog entry describes the basics of setting up the new Windows Media Player 11, sharing media directories with the 360 and setting up the 360 so it can access content from a home network. That was all well and good, but a continuing basic problem was that the Microsoft video streaming solution only supports their proprietary (but still very good) .wmv codec. Most of my video content is not in the .wmv format - or at least it wasn't.

Today I stumbled across this Joystiq post about the freeware transcoding program called VLC (download here) (official website). This program is butt-simple to use.

• Download and install the VLC program.
• Download and save this text onto your desktop into a batch file (ie: Copy and paste it into Notepad and save it as VLC.bat onto your desktop).
• Then simply drag and drop most any video in any format (or at least any format I use) onto the batch file's icon on the desktop, and it will automatically be transcoded into the .wmv format.

When done, a WMV version of the video will be saved in the same directory of the source file and, assuming that directory is accessible to your Xbox 360, it will be accessible and playable on the 360 with  no further effort. It's THAT simple.

All is not peaches and cream though. There's good news and bad news.

CONTINUE READING →

Categories: New Tech

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Universal Music Group has sued Myspace for providing a transcoding service. Myspace users upload videos to their MySpace account and Myspace transcodes them into formats playable by its users. Alleging that MySpace "encourages, facilitates and participates in the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation, distribution and public performance,", UMG is seeking an injunction and unspecified damages, including up to $150,000 for each unauthorized music video or song posted on the Web site. Until last week the two were in licensing discussions. To paraphrase Clausewitz, lawsuits such as this are just business negotiations by another means.

Dale's Comment: This is an interesting claim. It may very well turn on the facts. As I understand them, MySpace is agnostic as to what the content is. It has taken some steps to limit infringing uploads. In this case its servers accept user video uploads, examine the format, if not a supported format they then transcodes it into a playable format. This seems to be similar to what YouTube and other video hosting sites do. But YouTube signed a licensing agreement with Universal (and others) after being threatened with a lawsuit. If Myspace fights this, it will likely argue that it is an ISP, and all they are providing is a tool that can be used by their users for legitimate or illegitimate purposes. Assuming that MySpace is otherwise responding to Universal's DMCA take-down notices, this transcoding service may very well fall within the DMCA's safe harbour.

Sources: TechCrunch | Reuters | Yahoo! News (AP) | Forbes | *Law.com | VNUNet | MTV | CIO Today | Out-law.com | PCPro | Silicon.com | BBC | CNet | DRM Watch

Categories: Big Media v Internet, BigMedia v NewTech, Cases, Copyright, Piracy

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  Text of Barrett v. Rosenthal (Nov. 20, 2006)
The California Supreme Court, in overturning a San Francisco appeals court decision, unanimously concluded that the 1996 Communications Decency Act insulates Internet providers and Web sites against lawsuits for the defamatory statements of others. The Act provides:

“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

In this case, the plaintiff doctors operated Web sites devoted to exposing health care fraud. Rosenthal, a woman's health advocate, posted a third party's e-mail that included harsh remarks about the doctors, calling them “quacks'' and “dishonest,''. The doctors sued for defamation, arguing that Rosenthal should be held responsible for posting the allegedly libelous material, along with the author of the e-mail.

"The prospect of blanket immunity for those who intentionally redistribute defamatory statements on the Internet has disturbing implications," writes Associate Justice Carol A. Corrigan in the majority opinion. "Nevertheless … statutory immunity serves to protect online freedom of expression and to encourage self-regulation, as Congress intended."

While an important victory for the likes of AOL and Google, it is also important for the growing Bloggosphere as it represents the first time an individual has sought, and obtained, the same immunity from defamation liability that is provided to ISPs under this Act.

Dale's Comment: OK, so I guess this means I'm off the hook for the silly things you might post in the comment section of this blog - at least in California.

Sources: New York Times | MSNBC | San Jose Mercury News | BBC | Inquirer | Forbes (AP) | LA Times | ZD Net | Washington Times | Red Herring | USA Today | SiliconValley.com | Washington Post | Toronto Star | Reuters | Bloomberg | EFF | Silicon.com

Categories: Blog - Podcast Law, Decisions

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I couldn’t resist. These kids are hilarious!

Categories: Humour

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When you buy DRM’d Music, someone else decides what devices you can play it on.

Categories: Copy Restrictions, DRM Analysis, DRM Restricting Use, DRM as Market Lock

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My apologies. I’m still working out the kinks with my new blogging tool - WordPress.

I noticed that RSS feed subscriptions to my iMedia Law Blog were off the charts but nobody was subscribing to my Video Game Law Blog RSS feed. It turns out that a faulty cut-and-paste on my part redirected everyone attempting to subscribe to the Video Game Law RSS feed to my iMedia Law Blog feed by mistake. Oops! For those wanting to subscribe to my video game law blog RSS feed, the proper link is below:

Proper Link: RSS Feed to Video Game Law Blog

Categories: Notices

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Text of Greubel's Answer to RIAA Complaint

This is an intriguing and novel defense. In addition to David Greubel Argues that Kazaa's $100M+ Settlement with the music industry in July covers any copyright infringement he might have be involved with as a user of KaZaa. He is also arguing, as in the Lindor case, that $750 per song damages per downloaded song is excessive in light of the 70¢ per song lost revenue actually suffered by the recording industry.

Sources: Recording Industry v. The People |ars technica | P2PNet | TechDirt

Related Kazaa Posts:

• RIAA P2P Defendant Brings Class Action Suit Against Kazaa Creator Sharman Networks (December 12, 2006)
• P2P Download Defendant Argues Kazaa Settlement Covers Him (Greubel) (November 20, 2006)
• Kazaa Settles for $100M+ and Goes 'Legit' (July 27, 2006)
• Kazaa, Record Company Lawyers Ready for Australian Appeal (February 20, 2006)
• Australian High Court Rules Against Kazaa (September 5, 2005)

Categories: BigMedia v. P2P Users

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Text of Complaint (Nov 3, 2006)

This one doesn't surprise me. It is more of the same - big media bites off its nose to spite its face by bringing lawsuits against any new business model that they don't sanction. In this case, Boston's Load 'N Go offers a service to their DVD-purchasing customers, by copying their purchased movie onto an iPod. You would think Paramount would appreciate vendors adding value for customers buying Paramount's products. But no, they choose to sue, presumably to force honest purchasers to purchase the movie twice, once on DVD and again as a download. The DMCA makes such copying, even for what otherwise would be fair use, illegal. So, thanks to the DMCA, Paramount seems to have a case. Chalk another one up for Paramount and another loss for honest consumers. This is precisely the thing that drives honest consumers to BitTorrent.

[Nov 29 Update: No doubt Paramount wishes to do what Warner Bros is now doing with videos sold at Walmart. According to CNN, Techcrunch and others, if you buy Warner's “Superman Returns” at Wal-Mart, you can pay an additional $1.97 to play it on portable devices, $2.97 more to play it on PCs or laptops, or $3.97 to play it on either portable devices or PCs/laptops. Ah, the old Big Media nickel and diming profit strategy. Don't you love it!]

[Nov 30 Update: Ha! It appears the EFF has come to the same conclusion - I wonder if they read my blog before writing this.]

Sources: Engadget | ars technica | ComputerWorld | TechWeb | NeoSeeker | Information Week | MacWorld | Torrentfreak | CNet | PC Advisor | EFF | EFF 2

Categories: BigMedia v NewTech, Cases, DMCA-like Laws, Fair Use/Dealing, New Business Models

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I have discovered two new iMedia law-related podcasts that I can recommend.  

TWiL (This Week in Law) is part of Leo LaPorte's ever expanding TWiT.TV network of podcasts. Denise Howell, and regular panel and special guests discuss breaking news and issues in technology law. This Silicon Valley-based podcast is scheduled to be "aired" twice monthly.

OUT-LAW Radio is a weekly, UK-based, 10 minute podcast brought to you by the folks from the terrific technology law website OUT-LAW.com

References: TWiL (This Week in Law) | OUT-LAW Radio 

Categories: FYI

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As I had previously done with this iMedia Law Blog, I spent most of my spare time over the last 4 weeks converting my proprietary video game law site into a new WordPress-based Video Game Law Blog. Video game law is, of course, a subset of interactive media law. A subset that I care enough about to create an entirely separate blog for.

To date my Video Game Law Blog has more than 400 posts, categorized and tagged into 80ish topic groups down the right side. As with this blog it is fully searchable, users can comment on each post. A unique RSS feed for that blog (and unique feeds fore each of its individual categories/topics) is also available.

Please take a look if the video game industry is of interest to you. I hope you like it.

Link: Video Game Law Blog

Categories: Notices

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TIOTI (Tape it of the Internet) is another web service in beta that intends to provide legitimate TV and pointers to TV show torrents for download through BitTorrent clients such as uTorrent and Azureus. According to the TIOTI Website:

We currently index 1,600+ TV shows - 90,000+ episodes - and we are matching everything up with content sources like iTunes, AOL and Amazon Unbox - with more to come.

Our beta feature set allows you to do exactly what it says on the tin and do it in style. With integrated message boards, groups, personalised badges and an extensive API, we have lots more great stuff coming soon too.

Dale's Comment: It appears the TIOTI founders believe they can steer clear of the many recent lawsuits brought against torrent host sites by including only pointers to torrents hosted elsewhere rather than the torrents themselves. I have little doubt that this presumed 'safe harbour' will be quickly tested in the courts if TIOTI becomes at all successful.

I have added myself to the waiting list to test this out once it expands its beta. I'll report back what I see if/when I join the beta.

Sources: TIOTI's Website | Techcrunch 1 | Techcrunch 2 - Paul Cleghorn (Founder) Interview | PVRWIre | TorrentFreak Interview with founder Paul Pod | Guardian Unlimited

Related Posts:

• TIOTI - Another Web-based TV Service Combining Legitimate TV with BitTorrent Feeds (November 15, 2006)
• TVUPlayer - Watch Most Any TV Station Anywhere (October 19, 2006)
• Judge Shuts Down UK-based Streaming Football Site (June 14, 2006)
• Canada Blocks Free Net TV - iCrave TV (January 17, 2003)

 

Categories: Big Media v Internet, New Tech, Piracy, iVOD/iTV

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WestLaw Version of Decision - (2006 WL 3335048 (E.D.N.Y.)) (Nov 9, 2006)
Decision Granting Leave to Amend Answer (Nov 9, 2006)
RIAA Response
Text Constitutional Challenge
The standard RIAA consumer file-copying suit seeks $750 damager per illegally downloaded song. As I reported last May, Marie Lindor argued that this amount is unconscionable when the average download price per song is 99¢ per song. Judge David Tragger agreed and has permitted the defendant to amend her defense to include that argument.

Texas Law Review Article on the Topic by: J. Cam Barker

Sources: Recording Industry vs The People | ars technica | afterdawn | the Inquirer | P2PNet | Howard Knopf

Related Posts:

• Judge Allows RIAA Defendant to Argue $750-per-song Damages are Unconscionable (November 15, 2006)
• Constitutionality of $750-Per-Song Damages Challenged in UMG v. Lindor (May 4, 2006)

Categories: BigMedia v. P2P Users, Cases

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Garyl Tan Jia Luo faces a $10,000 Singapore Dollar (U.S. $6,425) fine and up to three years in jail under the Singapore Computer Misues Act simply for accessing the Internet through his neighbors open WiFi port. Luo did not engage in any malicious activity.

Dale's Comment: For the reason's I've already discussed in related posts (see below), this is completely nuts! Simple, non-malicious Internet access via open WiFi ports should be universally exempt from prosecution. The universal adoption of open WiFi ports would be an ENORMOUS social good - making the Internet freely available to anyone wherever they travel around the globe. Yes, hotspot owners need to make sure they are usuing proper firewalls to safeguard against malicious behavior, but, to my mind, the legal system, hardware specifications and WiFi users should all encourage open and safe universal open WiFi. In my ideal world WiFi routers would be user configurable so that the hotspot owner can pre-set how much bandwidth he/she wishes to make available for external use. The owner could adjust such permitted use at will, eg via a slider control, or the system could automatically adjust external use rights up or down depending on the hotspot owner's current usage, the time of day, etc.  Yes, I understand that this would run afoul of most current ISP terms of service contracts. But should it? Should laws be adopted to nullify this form of contractual prohibition. I argue that yes they should. With adequate technological safeguards in place, hotspot owners would be protected and ISPs would not face a sudden upsurge of system usage. Universal accessibility would spread such freeload usage around with minimal impact on any given ISP with a corresponding significantly positive social good. Among the many obvious social advantages, this would go a long way to bridging the digital-divide.

Sources: OUT-LAW.com | Engadget | The Register | TechSpot

Related Posts:

• Singapore Teen Faces Fine and Jail-time for Using Neighbors WiFi (November 14, 2006)
• Another WiFi Arrest - This time in Vancouver Washington (June 22, 2006)
• Illinois WiFi 'Freeloader' fined $US$250 (March 23, 2006)
• Paramount Sues Man for Piracy - But Can't Find any Evidence (December 14, 2005) - a man cleverly used his unsecured wireless connection as an affirmative defense to allegations that he was pirating movies from Paramount Pictures.
• 'Stealing' Your Neighbor's Net (August 10, 2005)
• UK Man Fined £500 for Using Neighborhood WiFi (July 25, 2005)
• Florida Man Charged with Felony for Accessing Third-party WiFi (July 7, 2005)

Categories: WiFi Access

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Text of Microsoft v. Viodentia Complaint (Sept 22, 2006)
Engadget replicates an article from the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review entitled "Microsoft's War Waged with FairUse4WM". It provides a good history of DRM circumvention, Microsoft's suit and the DMCA.

What's new to me from this piece is that Judge John Coughenour granted a motion request to subpoena e-mail providers Yahoo! and Google in search of Viodentia's identity. If that yields a relevant IP address, Microsoft is permitted to issue subpoenas to the ISP that operates or issued that IP address in order to determine the identity of Viodentia. Engadget says Viodentia claims to live outside of the U.S. If this is true, none of these subpoenas should amount to anything.

Soucrces: Engadget

Related Posts:

• Law Review Article - Microsoft's War Waged with FairUse4WM (November 13, 2006)
• Microsoft Sues Viodentia - Viodentia Responds with a Software Update (September 26, 2006)
• Microsoft Issues Takedown Notices for Sites Hosting FairUse4WM (September 17, 2006)
• Microsoft & Viodentia Play Cat & Mouse with DRM-Circumvention Tool FairUse4WM (September 14, 2006)
• Hymn is Back with QTFairUse in an Ongoing Tit-for-Tat with Apple Over iTunes DRM (September 13, 2006)
• Microsoft's PlayForSure DRM Successfully Hacked (August 25, 2006)
• iTunes Locks out DRM-Free Purchases - Breaks PyMusique (March 21, 2005)
• Apple Brings Discord to Hymn (January 13, 2005)
• Apple Blocks Music Sales to Older iTunes - Forces Upgrade to Copy-Degraded Version (November 3, 2004)
• Hacker Takes Bite out of Apple's iTunes (August 12, 2004)
• Is Real's Hacking of iPod Legal? (July 30, 2004)
• RealNetworks Breaks Apple's Hold on iPod (July 26, 2004)
• iTunes DRM Cracked Wide Open for GNU/Linux (January 25, 2004)

Categories: DRM Arms Race, FYI, Policy Analysis

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If you follow Major Nelson’s (Larry Herb’s) day-to-day missives about what is available for download through the Xbox 360 Marketplace, you’ll note that many arcade games, game demos, trailers and other downloadable content is only available in certain regions of the world. This has lead to much consternation among Microsoft’s international customers. But the issue was brought to a head recently when, for the first time, North American XBox Owners were initially restricted from downloading a Rainbow Six: Las Vegas demo that was available for download by European users. This doesn’t happen very often to U.S. customers.

As a result, some clever users found a way around Microsoft’s XBox 360 region-specific MarketPlace download restrictions. You can read about them in the linked articles below.

Dale’s Comment: Just as Sony had legitimate legal reasons for opposing Lik-Sang’s import of PSP systems into the UK, no doubt Microsoft has legitimate legal reasons for restricting access to content on a country by country basis. For example, game publishers/developers that provide downloadable content to Microsoft probably have granted exclusive distribution/marketing and other rights to that content in the prohibited regions to others. My hope/expectation is that over time licensing and distribution deals will be structured to recognize the increasingly globalized nature of the market so as to anticipate and, indeed, facilitate global distribution/downloads without this kind of constraint.

Sources: Gizmodo | SAGN

Categories: DRM Arms Race, DRM Circumvention, Region Coding

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Text of Decision [.doc]
Logan Airport had told Continental Airlines that it may not provide free WiFi in its Logan Airport President Club frequent-flier lounge. Logan had claimed Continental's WiFi interfered with navigational instruments and was therefore a safety concern. However, when pressed Logan Airport could not provide any evidence that WiFi networks had ever caused harm. Meanwhile Logan sold its own WiFi access service to customers at the airport.

Bottom-line: Logan's restrictions had nothing to do with safety. It wanted to retain the lucrative WiFi revenue stream to itself and its licensees. With this FCC ruling, the FCC reasserted that its "Over-the-air Reception Devices" rules preempt local restrictions.

Dale's Comment: This decision has broader implications than restriction-free WiFi services at airports. For example, if Logan had prevailed, a landlord could have asserted the right to be the exclusive WiFi provider in its building, precluding home owners or businesses, for instance, from setting up their own internal WiFi hotsposts.

Sources: Government Tech | Information Week | Boston Herald | Engadget | Broadcasting and Cable | Boston Globe

Related Posts:

• FCC Rules Logan Airport Can't Restrict WiFi (November 6 , 2006)
• Schwarzenegger Signs Mandatory WiFi Equipment Warning Bill (October 3, 2006)
• Westchester County NY Law Requires Some Businesses to Secure Their WiFi Networks (April 21, 2006)

Categories: WiFi Access

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