Archive for September 2004
Netflix and Tivo Partner to Deliver Digital Entertainment
"Netflix and TiVo are about to join forces making it possible for customers to download movies over the Net to their television. Later this month the companies plan to unveil a simple but significant partnership that could shake up the media world. Subscribers who belong to both services will be able to download their Netflix DVDs over the Internet directly into the TiVo boxes in their homes, instead of receiving them in the mail.
"Hollywood will be watching closely to make sure copyright protections aren’t hacked, which could lead to its biggest nightmare: high-quality versions of its movies released freely onto the Internet.
"Cable customers could prefer the larger Netflix selection and download movies to their TiVo boxes using cable’s own pipes. Unlike the phone companies, which are regulated as ‘common carriers’ and forbidden from discriminating against customers or content, cable firms don’t have to accommodate their rivals’ traffic on their networks. But if cable closes the door to the Netflix downloads, customers could migrate to the phone industry’s broadband offering, DSL."
Brad Stone. I Want a Movie! Now!. Newsweek. Sept. 13, 2004.
Proposal for Free Access to Research
"The National Institutes of Health has proposed a major policy change that would require all scientists who receive funding from the agency to make the results of their research available to the public for free.
"The proposal would mark a significant departure from current practice, in which the scientific journals that publish those results retain control over that information.
"Pressure to make publicly financed research results more available to the public has been building for years but gained new momentum this summer with report language by the House Appropriations Committee.
"’The committee is very concerned that there is insufficient public access to reports and data resulting from NIH-funded research,’ it read. ‘This situation . . . is contrary to the best interests of the U.S. taxpayers who paid for this research.’"
Rick Weiss. NIH Proposes Free Access For Public to Research Data. WashingtonPost.com. Sept. 6, 2004.
See also:
Peter Suber. NIH Open-Access Plan Frequently Asked Questions. Sept. 6, 2004.
Susan Morrissey. NIH Weighs Open Access. Chemical & Engineering News. Sept. 6, 2004.
(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)
BBC May Charge Access Fee
"The BBC may consider offering paid access to its website for overseas users, according to Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s director of new media and technology.
"Speaking to media and technology magazine Digital Lifestyles, Mr Highfield said pay-per-view or pay-per-play options might be possible off the back of the BBC’s Creative Archive project.
"The archive will be an extensive library of BBC radio and TV programmes, available free of charge in the UK for non-commercial use. The first stage of the archive goes live this autumn and will include natural history footage."
Jemima Kiss. Global BBC site Could be Pay Per Play. dotJournalism. Sept. 2, 2004.
Copyright Office Drafts New Version of P2P Bill
"A hotly contested wrangle in Congress over how to outlaw file-swapping networks just took a new twist.
"The U.S. Copyright Office has drafted a new version of the Induce Act that it believes will ban networks like Kazaa and Morpheus while not putting hardware such as portable hard drives and MP3 players on the wrong side of the law.
"The Copyright Office’s four-page ‘discussion draft,’ appears to back away from the broad sweep of the original Induce Act by making it more difficult for companies to be found liable for copyright violations. It says anyone who ‘intentionally induces’ copyright violations can be found liable, with ‘induce’ defined as one or more ‘affirmative, overt acts that are reasonably expected to cause or persuade another person or persons’ to violate copyright law."
Declan McCullagh. Copyright Office Pitches Anti-P2P Bill. News.com. Sept. 2, 2004.
See also:
Mike Godwin. Sept. 3 Letter to Copyright Office Regarding S2560. Public Knowledge. Sept. 3, 2004.
IDC Recommends Leveraging Lessons Learned to Reduce Spam
"Rising tides of spam are drowning the usefulness of e-mail, according to a new report from IDC. Spam has accounted for 38 percent of the 31 billion e-mails sent each day in North America in 2004, up from 24 percent in 2002.
"IDC researcher Mark Levitt said the biggest challenge is to use the lessons learned so far and the investments made to help screen all inbound and outbound e-mails without compromising worker efficiency, corporate governance and regulatory compliance requirements."
CNET staff. Spam Volume Keeps Rising. News.com. Sept. 1, 2004.
FSU Tunes Up Its Student Body
"In an effort to prevent illegal file sharing on campus, Florida State University is on the verge of finalizing a deal with Apple Computer, Inc. — a deal that would provide free iTunes software to students and allow them to download music for 99 cents per song.
"Carl Baker, the director of university computer systems at the FSU Academic Computing and Network Services Department, was appointed chair of a committee charged with finding a way to stop illegal file sharing on campus. The committee, known as the Online Music Committee, was created this spring semester and is made up of members of FSU’s administration and a small group of students."
Erica Rodriguez. FSU to sign deal with Apple. FSU View. Aug. 26, 2004.
FTC Seeks Civil Penalties for Violation of Do-Not-Call-List
"The Federal Trade Commission, seeking its first civil penalties against a telemarketer for violating the federal do-not-call list, has sued a Las Vegas firm, saying it called more than 300,000 numbers on the registry to sell time-share properties in Atlantic City.
"In a lawsuit filed Monday in a Nevada federal court, the agency said Braglia Marketing Group LLC also broke federal rules governing the use of automated dialers. If consumers answer such calls, they must be connected to a sales representative within two seconds.
"More than 63 million telephone numbers have been registered on the national do-not-call list and more than 100,000 complaints have been filed at the FTC since enforcement began in October 2003."
Caroline E. Mayer. Marketer Sued for Do-Not-Call Violation. WashingtonPost.com. Sept. 1, 2004.
(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)
COPYCENSE 