News written by Rich Fiscus (February, 2010)

It's nothing new to see copyright lobbyists making absurd claims about the evils of piracy, but a group called the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has sunk to a new low. In a report to the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) they claim that merely encouraging the use of free or open source software by government agencies promotes piracy.

The report was submitted as part of the USTR's annual review of international intellectual property enforcement issues. The purpose of this process is supposed to be identifying countries which aren't doing enough to combat IP infringement.

One solution that's becoming popular is promoting free and open source software. Such a solution addresses the economic reality that the price of software is a leading cause of piracy, especially in poorer countries.

In their 498 page report the IIPA urges the USTR to bully countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand into discarding policies giving preference to open source software. It even goes so far as to say just promoting the use of such software "encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations."

Last year, in the US, a law known as PRO-IP was signed into law. It mandated the creation of a Justice Department position responsible for the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The second part of that law, requesting comments about IP enforcement issues from the public, is now underway.

Specifically, they are looking for "written submissions from the public identifying the costs to the U.S. economy resulting from infringement of intellectual property rights, both direct and indirect, including any impact on the creation or maintenance of jobs."

Comments should be emailed to the Office of Management & Budget (intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov) and must be received by March 24.

Comments received by the deadline will be published on a government webpage, so make sure you don't include anything you wouldn't want available to the general public.

PRO-IP (the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008) is a thinly veiled excuse to divert government resources to the entertainment industry's war against P2P file sharing.

After the lawsuit over Harriton High School's alleged webcam surveillance triggered an FBI investigation, you would hope school officials would come clean about what they characterize as completely legitimate security activities. Yet Lower Merion School District's response to parents seems to raise more questions than it answers.

In a statement on the district's website, Superintendent Dr. Christopher W. McGinley seems to imply it was against school policy for students to take the laptops home. He wrote "this feature was limited to taking a still image of the computer user and an image of the desktop in order to help locate the reported missing, lost, or stolen computer (this includes tracking down a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus)."

A FAQ on the district's website clearly states that laptops may be taken off campus as long as the student has paid for the optional insurance offered by the district.

A man arrested for recording 2008's mega-hit movie The Dark Knight has been sentenced to 2 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $25,000 in restitution.

The sentence isn't exactly surprising. Recording movies in a theater has been a federal felony in the US since 2005, when the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act was passed.

What's much more interesting in this case is the MPAA's official statement on the sentence (PDF). They're calling it "an appropriate sentence for a very serious crime." And the reason given? It's because "The theft of films by camcording is a serious threat to the health of the motion picture industry."

Perhaps this case isn't the best one for making those sorts of arguments. Despite widespread availability of the movie through P2P networks, The Dark Knight was the top grossing movie in the US for all of 2008 by a wide margin.

With more than half a billion dollars in box office receipts, it beat the number two movie, Iron Man, by more than $200 million according to the MPAA's own figures (PDF). In fact despite slightly lower theater attendance for the year, The Dark Knight eventually became the fifth highest grossing movie of all time.

Nearly a third of all Netflix subscribers with broadband internet connections stream video to their TVs using the company's Watch Instantly service according to a new report from TDG.

That figure includes 24.6% who use both their computer and TV for Netflix streaming and 7.2% who watch exclusively on a TV. Another 30.7% only use their computer.

Even though the remaining 37.5% don't use the service at all, the majority are at least familiar with it.

The increasing number of viewers streaming video to TVs is a reflection of the company's long term thinking. In fact Netflix has taken a smart approach to the streaming business from the very beginning, when it was little more than a novelty.

Perhaps the most important detail of their strategy has been the understanding that some things are worth more when you give them away.

That's not to say streaming video has no value. But its value hasn't been in producing a unique revenue stream. Instead they've used it to promote their DVD by mail business and help them continue to increase their subscriber base.

The decision not to charge extra for streaming has allowed them to make other good decisions, such as avoiding overpriced content deals.

According to a lawsuit filed recently in US District Court, administrators at Lower Merion School District in Rosemont, PA used the webcam on a school issued laptop to illegally spy on a student. School officials are accused of violating federal wiretapping laws, as well as the student's civil rights.

The laptop is one of more than 2,000 issued to district high school students in order to give them access to school resources at all times. Each of the laptops is equipped with remote access software for locating the computers and secretly activating the onboard webcam in case they're stolen.

But that's not all it was used for according to the parents of Blake Robbins. They say their son was disciplined late last year for "improper behavior" based on a picture taken secretly by someone at the school who was monitoring him remotely.

Rather than admitting improper activities of their own, the school district appears to be going into full denial mode.

According to a new report from The Nielsen Group, most people aren't willing to pay for the online content they get for free now.

At first glance the report looks favorable for proponents of locking content behind paywalls. More than 40% of the 27,000 survey respondents in 52 countries said they either have paid for or would consider paying for newspaper content online. About 35% indicated said the same about online (music) radio.

But The Devil is in the details. When it comes to paying for content the most important detail seems to be quality.

More than 70% of people surveyed indicated they would only pay for content if it's better than what they currently get for free. More than 60% would expect the freedom to copy, share or otherwise use paid content in whatever way they choose.

This would seem to be at odds with what's actually being proposed in the entertainment and news industries.

News providers who favor paywalls routinely bully people for daring to copy short passages from their articles. Even when it's clearly fair use.

TV executives who favor charging for online video don't even want viewers watching their officially approved streams (including ads) using a program like Boxee or a game console like the PS3.

A Danish man's house was recently raided by representatives of Antipiratgruppen in cooperation with court officials after they tracked him down by IP address. Antipiratgruppen is sponsored by companies in the movie and music industries.

After identifying his IP address through torrents found via The Pirate Bay they were able to to persuade the court to force his ISP to reveal his identity.

Although the group only claims to have foudn evidence from their initial investigation that the man shared a handful of files, Antipiratgruppen claims hard drives seized in the raid will show he is guilty of significantly more acts of copyright infringement.

This is the second high profile raid by the anti-piracy group this year. Last month their target was the admin of a private BitTorrent tracker called EliteBits.

Last week an amendment to their trademark on the iPhone name which suggests a bigger emphasis on making it a dominant gaming platform. The amendment expands the trademark to include handheld units for playing electronic games.

There have been many game apps, both free and commercial, available for the iPhone since the App Store launched in July of 2008. So why extend the trademark now?

One possible explanation is the success of Google Android. Android phones are still far behind the iPhone in market share, but the gap is slowly closing.

In order for the iPhone to continue its stellar growth in the face of increasingly stiff competition Apple needs to emphasize what they offer that competitors don't.

The most obvious area where the iPhone leads competitors is the number of apps available. Out of all the app categories, games are probably the easiest to market to the masses. Handheld gaming is already popular enough to make the Nintendo DS possibly the most successful game platform of the last 3 years.

Although it's perhaps not as universally popular as music playback and mobile email or as innovative as GPS services, games are more dependent on attracting third party developers, which is arguably the biggest advantage Apple has.

Today DivX announced a new licensing agreement with mobile phone manufacturer Pantech to develop DivX Certified devices. They will also be working with Qualcomm to certify the Snapdragon IC platform.

Since the inception of the DivX certification program in 2007 more than 60 different phones have been certified. Last year alone they certified 41.

In total more than 250 million DivX Certified devices, ranging from mobile phones to Blu-ray players, have been sold.

In addition they've recently introduced DivX TV, a streaming video solution, for the Android OS. They are demonstrating DivX TV at the Mobile World Congress, going on now in Barcelona, Spain.

"The explosion of video capability on mobile phones clearly illustrates that consumers are seeking out new devices that will allow them to easily move and share the video content they care about across all the screens in their lifestyle," said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. "We believe that mobile devices will play an incredibly important role in the future of video distribution and consumption, and we're pleased that multiple manufacturers recognize the importance of the DivX brand in providing their consumers a seamless, high-quality video experience."

The latest version of the Symbian smartphone platform was unveiled today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Named Symbian^3, or S^3 for short, it is expected to be completed by the end of March.

The first devices featuring S^3 should start shipping from Nokia in the third quarter of this year.

New features in Symbian^3 include a multi-touch interface, integrated online music store support, HDMI output capabilities at full HD (1080p) resolution, and a new graphics architecture which takes advantage of hardware acceleration.

Nokia has also released a video previewing what Symbian^3 will look like.


Despite competition from newer platforms such as Apple's iPhone OS and Google Android, Symbian continues to make up about 50% of the global smartphone market.

Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr recently told analysts the company will not be entering into any new licensing deals for ad-supported music.

"Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry, and as far as Warner Music is concerned will not be licensed." said Bronfman during a conference call. He indicated that giving away music with the goal of enticing customers to pay was a losing business strategy.

Bronfman cited the growth of subscription-based services offered by mobile phone providers as the way of the future. These involve device-dependent, DRM-laden files which require a monthly subscription just so music you've already downloaded will continue to play.

The problem is an apparent lack of recognition by Bronfman of how his company grew to the size it is today. Record labels have always used free music to drive sales. The best known of these free services is terrestrial radio.

Non-traditional revenue

Voddler, an internet-based on demand video service, has just received 2.6 million euros in venture capital. Based out of Sweden, Voddler offers video streams for a variety of TV and movie titles.

Voddler has been in business since 2005. Currently their service is in beta and boasts 400,000 users in Sweden who had watched 1 million titles as of January.

They plan to expand into Norway in the first quarter of this year, followed by launches in Denmark and Finland.

Voddler is similar to Spotify, a streaming music service also based out of Sweden. Titles can be viewed for free, paid for by advertising.

In the future Voddler will also begin offering a premium service where users can pay directly to avoid the ads.

Sometimes seems like Netflix and Hulu are the only serious streaming video services because they get so much press. But competition from companies like Voddler will be essential for the market to grow, particularly outside the US.