Month: July 2004

iMesh Pays Out, Changes Business Model

iMesh.com have just paid out US$4.1 million (€3.34 million) in compensation to the US music industry to settle a lawsuit on their P2P software. The iMesh client software was accused of helping internet users to download music illegally, and so record companies pursued them for US$150,000 (€122,400) per song plus legal fees.

iMesh are now operating under Bridgemar Services and have promised to introduce a new, non-infringing, service. No details are forthcoming on what the service might be, though. Their website simply states: “Don’t worry — we are not going anywhere. We have been doing this for a very long time and are very good at what we do. So, we anticipate no gaps in service while we transition to the new model. The new model will launch later this year.”

The company is upbeat about settling the case, however: “iMesh views this as a historic opportunity. We agreed to settle in order to ensure our ability to provide you with more content and better technology than any of our competitors. Under the New iMesh model, which will launch later this year, you will be able to find and share the content you want without fear of being sued.”

There’s the issue: there’s nothing to prevent the RIAA now suing the music sharers and downloaders who used the iMesh service.

Whether iMesh will be successful in relaunching itself as a legitimate P2P service, much like Napster’s moderately successful reinvention, remains to be seen.

iMesh

ICANN Adds IPv6 to Root Servers

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has added IPv6 to its root servers – meaning that every object on the planet can now have its own IP address. Vinton Cerf from ICANN confirmed the news at their annual conference in Malaysia.

Every device needs a unique internet protocol address to be able to connect to the internet – this applies to computers, phones, printers, web cameras, your robot dog, everything. IPv4 is limited to only 4.3 billion addresses, and already two thirds of them have been assigned.

“This is a big, big step,” Cerf said. He’s not joking: IPv6 can potentially accommodate 2^128 (2 to the power of 128) unique addresses. To give it some scale, that would allow 100 million IP addresses per square meter of the Earth’s surface. I guess engineers really do think ahead. Though my nanobot army might use them all up fairly quickly.

IPv4 will continue to run alongside v6 for about 20 years to ensure ease of migration and stability, so don’t throw that old Ethernet card away yet.

ICANN

Duke University Gives Away iPods

There was a time the idea of handing out a device capable of holding 5,000 MP3s free to students would have caused sweating, outcry and at least a couple of writs from the music industry, but Duke University have made this into a unique opportunity.

New freshmen at Duke will receive a 20 gig iPod loaded with course information, calendars, and maps – and students will be able to download language lessons, music, recorded lectures and audio books from the university’s website. They’ll even be able to buy music from their own music store. Students get to keep the iPod, but will have to pay for its replacement if they lose it.

Duke will be handing out 1,650 iPods on August 19th during the freshmen orientation sessions.

Apple have long had a relationship with academia, from donating Macintoshes and equipment to schools to offering iTunes on Campus. This new version of iTunes dissuades students from downloading music illegally by giving them branded alternative whilst at the same time giving academic institutions another communications channel with their students.

iTunes on Campus

Samsung’s Vixlim – World’s Thinnest CRT

The cathode ray tube will be with us for a while longer – Samsung have developed a new display that’s less than half the thickness of a traditional CRT, and is as thin as some LCD panels on the market.

The 81cm Vixlim is only 35cm thick, and Samsung claim it has a far higher picture quality than a comparable LCD. A standard 81cm CRT-based display is generally about 50 to 60cm deep, often more.

The company are promoting their technology for use in digital televisions, stating that their new tube could reduce the price of a digital television by about a third. They will begin mass production early next year, with a view to replacing all of their large CRT products with this tube by the end of 2005.

The Vixlim may not be as light as a TFT display, but it is considerably cheaper – and may well prolong the use of cathode ray tubes as a display technology for some time.

Samsung

European Commission Gives the Nod to Sony BMG

The European Commission has granted regulatory approval to the creation of Sony BMG, a joint venture bringing together the music divisions of the two companies.

The Commission did warn, however, that it would be keeping a close eye on the industry as it becomes more concentrated within a small number of companies, and would “very carefully scrutinise any further major concentration in the industry.”

The venture is a 50/50 project and covers the discovery and development of artists, plus the recording and marketing of music. It doesn’t cover music publishing, manufacturing or distribution.

The Commission was initially concerned about the venture as it reduced the number of music majors to four – but was satisfied that Sony BMG would not be larger than some one of the companies in the market at the moment. The top spot is still held by Universal.

Sony Music UK

BBC May Launch Broadband Service

The BBC had planning meetings to explore the possibility of providing a cheap broadband service to UK homes. Ashley Highfield told the Guardian newspaper: “A few people have come together to see if we could put a low-end connected PC into the market. Could we do it? I don’t know, but we would have to be clear about why.”

This is something that’s obviously been on Ashley Highfield’s mind as he hinted at a service in response to a question from our own Simon Perry at the FT New Media and Broadcasting conference back in March.

Mr Highfield is determined to overcome the UK’s perceived “digital divide” by perhaps offering a low-cost terminal and connection, in a similar fashion to the successful Freeview service.

Highfield also has plans for a new BBC search engine, to help break up the American dominance of the search engine field. With all major search engines owned by American organisations, a British internet search funded by the license fee was welcomed by the Graf report.

BBC

The Guardian

Wanadoo Broadband Home Gateway

Wanadoo, owned by France Télécom, will launch a broadband gateway for home subscribers in August, featuring a unit called Livebox.

Livebox is essentially a router, and its initial selling point will be to allow home users to set up a wireless network easily – but the box has other uses lurking inside. For example, the UK£80 (€120) box is Bluetooth enabled and will soon offer a phone service that will compete with BT’s own Bluephone.

Wanadoo will offer VoIP calls using Livebox from next year and once the local loop is unbundled then they’ll be able to offer fatter broadband pipes – and then video on demand. Subscribers will then be able to watch TV on demand on PCs around their home, wirelessly. Livebox is not a set top box, so will not be muscling in too far on Sky+ territory.

BT are still doing their “yes we are, no we’re not” dance with regards to being a broadband content provider, and have talked down their broadcasting ambitions in the last couple of weeks.

Wanadoo

Advertising Through Games – Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA)

The Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA) is hosting an event that will feature case studies from advertisers as well as games industry professionals and ‘advergaming’ experts.

  • The impact that games are gaving on the media consumptions of consumers
  • The potential of games as advertising
  • How games can be used by different industries, from FMCG to financial services

6-7pm Drinks
7-9pm Presentations & Debate
9pm Drinks and networking

Tickets are £125 plus VAT (or join), or free to BCMA members

PDF leaflet

The Century Club
61-63 Shaftesbury Avenue
London W1 http://www.thebcma.info

Microsoft’s Media/Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group

No-one could have predicted that Microsoft would evolve from selling DOS to being a company whose technologies shape many of the industries around us. Microsoft’s media products such as its Windows Media 9 platform are used throughout the media and entertainment industries from authoring, distribution and viewing. As the company’s relationship with the media and entertainment industries has grown very complex indeed, Microsoft have created a group to manage and develop these alliances: the Media/Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group.

The group aims to drive the company’s strategies for the digital convergence of home entertainment technologies, personal computing and media with a focus on market development, policy and standards.

The former chairman of the Universal Television & Networks Group, Blair Westlake, will join Microsoft and be the group’s new vice president.

“The creation of the Media/Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group and Blair Westlake’s appointment underscore Microsoft’s strong commitment to delivering cutting-edge products for the digital networked home and continuing to build mutually productive and profitable relationships with the media and entertainment industries,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Microsoft on the new group

Virgin’s Portable Music Plans

But where do you keep your headphones?Virgin Electronics, a new division of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group have opened new offices and launched a new product: the Virgin Electronics Wearable 128mb MP3 Player.

The US$99 (€80) player isn’t competing with the iPod as it only holds about 40 songs. Instead, it’s going for convenience, size and simplicity.

“When we called it the Wearable 128MB MP3 player, we meant wearable. The product is so small and light it can be worn comfortably around the neck, arm—anywhere. No pockets required.” said Joe Sipher, senior vice president of marketing for Virgin Electronics.

The device doesn’t require a power adaptor – it charges from the USB connection to Mac or PC. The user interface is extremely simple too – two buttons control everything. Virgin’s digital music store is expected to launch later on in the summer, and no doubt there will be interesting tie-ins between the new player and the store.

Virgin Electronics’ second release is a pair of noise-cancelling headphone – you can see where they’re going with this can’t you? The US$40 headphones are amongst the cheapest available, but Virgin are keen to stress that they are high quality devices. No doubt both pieces of equipment will be coming to an in-flight magazine near you soon.

Virgin Electronics have also just moved into new offices in Silicon Valley, upping sticks from New York. Virgin’s new appointments will be filling those nice premises – Greg Woock as CEO (formerly Handspring and Creative Labs) and Joe Sipher was once an exec at Handspring and Palm.

Virgin Electronics