P2P Causes Upswing in Bandwidth Usage
"Internet users consumed more bandwidth than ever last year, driven by the growing popularity of peer-to-peer networks and heightened demand for video files.
"Burgeoning demand also prompted internet carriers to upgrade their network capacity to handle the upswing in traffic, a new report indicates.
"According to TeleGeography, a telecommunications research firm, international demand for bandwidth grew 42 percent in 2004, with the largest upswing in usage coming from Asian nations."
Joanna Glasner. P2P Fuels Global Bandwidth Binge. Wired News. April 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Comcast Customer Sues Over Privacy Breach
"Comcast Corp., the top U.S. cable television network operator, is being sued by a Seattle-area woman for disclosing her name and contact information, court records showed on Thursday.
"In a lawsuit filed in King County, Washington, Dawnell Leadbetter said that she was contacted by a debt collection agency in January and told to pay a $4,500 for downloading copyright-protected music or face a lawsuit for hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Reuters. Comcast Customer Sues Over Disclosure. MSNBC News. April 14, 2005.
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BBC Adds 20 Podcasts to Lineup
"The BBC is making 20 more radio shows available for listeners to download onto their digital music players.
"People will be able to download shows, such as technology programme Go Digital and some Radio 1 audio, in a trial."
BBC News. BBC Radio Podcasts 20 More Shows. April 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Grouper Twists P2P Debate
"Jennifer Urban, a law professor at USC, wanted to watch home movies of her 7-month-old nephew Peter in England, but nothing seemed to work. The videotapes and DVDs were in the wrong format, and the digital movie files were too big to e-mail. Then Urban hit on a software program called Grouper. And in addition to movies of her nephew, Grouper offers Urban, who specializes in copyright law, insight into how technology is testing the boundaries of copyright in a digital age.
"Grouper allows Urban to copy movies and pictures of young Peter directly from her brother and sister-in-law’s computer without worrying about formats or oversized e-mail attachments. Unlike those global networks with millions of users, though, Grouper also lets Urban pick and choose with whom she shares online — and sets a strict limit of 30 people per group.
"What makes Grouper troubling to some entertainment industry executives are the other things people can do with it."
Jon Healey. Testing Copyright Limits. LATimes.com. April 12, 2005.
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Analysis of Issues in Supreme Court P2P Case
Although some people may not like it, copyright laws and regulations exist. Those who engage in mass copying and distribution of copyrighted works typically must pay licensing fees, or at least enter into an agreement with the owner of the content. That makes the free, unauthorized trading of massive numbers of music or video files over peer-to-peer networks illegal.
So far, the situation is clear.
What is not clear is the circumstances under which a technology company should be held liable if its product can be used to violate copyright restrictions. What standard should be used to judge this liability? How can one craft that standard so that the threat of liability is not so broad that it discourages beneficial technological innovation?
Anush Yegyazarian. Supreme Court Standards for Peer-to-Peer and Beyond. PC World. April 12, 2005.
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U. Minnesota Conference on Open Access
Scholarship means little without publication. But the definitions of ‘publication’ are undergoing major changes.
The digital age has brought unprecedented opportunities to share research discoveries with a global audience, prompting a revolution some have compared to post-Gutenberg times. Yet as the Internet and World Wide Web have unleashed new resources and capabilities, they have also challenged the conventions of how research is published and shared.
Featuring presentations by leading thinkers from the scholarly community, this conference explores:
- Current challenges in scholarly communication and publication
- The ways in which research is shared and exchanged
- The role of the public university in sharing the products of research
- Alternative publication systems, including “open access” publishing
- Recent movements to legislate free access to the products of research
- The changing landscape of copyright and intellectual property
and
University of Minnesota. Publication, the Public University and the Public Interest. Tuesday, April 19, 2005, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota (East Bank Campus), 300 Washington Avenue S.E., Minneapolis, MN.
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Book Bites at Meet the Author
Book Bites provide webcasts featuring streaming video of authors talking about their works.
"Book Bites are NOT reviews, they are NOT written by the marketing departments of publishers – these are authors speaking from their heart – to YOU."
Meet the Author. Bringing Books to Life!
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
COPYCENSE 