Author: Berni Dwan

MailMender: Putting 1,000+ Vi@gra spams straight

While spam may no longer be on the menu of any self-respecting restaurant, it is taking a free ride on the coat tails of millions of legitimate emails every day.

One of the main groups of offenders is the purveyor of that substance that straightens you right out – not fine coffee but that other drug, Viagra. Now spam filter companies are constantly touting their wares from the rooftops, but it seems that lots of them can do one or two things really successfully, but not one of them can do everything successfully.

MailMender – a new spam filter on the block from Savannah Software, has just received the top award from WhichSpamFilter.com, a spam filter review site. MailMender introduces a clever new technology that automatically finds all variations of words commonly used by spammers, like our friend Viagra, and foils all attempts by spammers to get past it.

The problem is, over the years, spammers have been aware that their messages were being killed by these content filters and began resorting to ever more desperate tricks to try to fool the content filters using spellings like “Vi@gra”, “Mort.gage”, or “L|0|a|n|$”. In fact, a lot of spam messages now are virtually illegible because of their attempts to fool content-based filters, but MailMender can not only see through these methods, but detect that they are being employed in the first place.

WhichSpamFilter.com tested MailMender and found that it fended off 1,009 variations of the word that most frequents our in box, “Viagra”. It was sent every possible permutation and strange combination ranging from “V1@gra” to “V|l|a|q|r@” in an attempt to get it past the filter, but was blocked on each occasion.

MailMender is a content-based filter that works as a proxy, meaning that it filters your e-mail behind the scenes before it reaches your inbox. Its “intelligent search” functionality detects and beats the spammer’s attempts at “obfuscating” words and can automatically perform challenge/response filtering on subject e-mails, requiring that the user confirm any suspect messages.

MailMender
WhichSpamFilter

Sony Eyes P2P Venture

A new partnership of opposites may be in the offing, one that will allow you to download pay-for and free songs from the Internet. The partnership called Mashboxxx, first reported in Friday’s Los Angeles Times, will happen between Sony BMG Music Entertainment and online peer-to-peer software distributor Grokster. This is quite an historical venture really, being the first earnest public partnership between a major recording company and an established file-sharing outfit. There have been many rumours (whispered behind the hand) of these schemes already being run.

Yes, Sony BMG has broken ranks with the rest of the entertainment industry by embarking on this venture with Grokster, that combines free music sampling with paid downloads. The free downloads will be promotional versions of songs by Sony BMG acts, and / or you can buy licensed, higher quality versions. Punters already use Grokster to search, download and distribute a wide variety of music files, but most of these are only copies of CD-quality recordings.

To many, this looks like a case of joining the enemy when you can’t beat them – a tactic that has worked well in many instances throughout history. As it happens, Grokster only recently settled a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against them by recording companies, over a Spanish Web site that was selling music downloads without permission.

But why go down the expensive and lengthy road of litigation when, like Sony BMG and Grokster, you can settle on a legitimate business model that allows you to work together, using each other’s expertise in a mutually beneficial way?

Well finally the music industry is starting to acknowledge that Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are very efficient at distributing files. Not only that, but they get to save money by not paying all of the bandwidth charges for distributing the files, as the consumer bandwidth is used to share the files around.

Mashboxxx is expected to employ some kind of digital fingerprinting technology that will be able to filter out unauthorized song copies from file-sharing networks, and a version of this type of filtering technology has been developed by San Francisco-based Snocap Inc.

RIAA Files 750 New File-trading Lawsuits in the US & CD sales up 10%

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of the major record companies, has just issued a new round of copyright infringement lawsuits against 750 illegal file sharers using peer-to-peer (P2P) software. Including 25 users on 13 different university campuses, who used their university servers to perform the dreaded deed. This brings the total number of lawsuits filed by the RIAA against alleged file sharers since September 2003 to over 6,200.

The file sharers that were sued were using (P2P) services such as eDonkey, Kazaa, LimeWire and Grokster, although maybe Grokster miscreants will receive universal absolution if the deal between Grokster and Sony BMG to make file sharing respectable goes ahead. In keeping with practice used in previous cases, the RIAA suits have been filed against ‘John Doe’ defendants – a method used to sue defendants whose names are not known. They will instead be identified by their numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address. Names can only be obtained by music company lawyers’ issuing subpoenas to Internet access providers.

In addition to the 750 ‘John Doe’ litigations, 213 separate lawsuits were filed against named defendants who were already identified through the litigation process but then declined or ignored an RIAA offer to settle the case before it proceeded any further.

This is despite the fact, that legitimate downloading services seem to be doing rather nicely, with the RIAA’s recently released mid-year figures showing that 58 million single tracks were downloaded or burned from a licensed service for the first half of 2004.

Furthermore, the figures also show that full-length CD shipments to retail outlets increased by 10.2 percent this year, compared to the amount of shipments over the same time period in 2003 – the first time in five years that the first half of the year has experienced such an increase.

People are still flocking to the record store to buy their music, as overall, CDs and all other audio and video music products shipped to retailers increased by 8.5 percent in the first six months of 2004 compared to the same period in 2003.

It’s a funny thing that while all this litigation is going on, that the RIAA has just given out the first-ever Gold and Platinum awards for digital downloads, albeit for legally sold ones.

RIAA
Subpoena Defense site

Broadband BBC – Ashley Highfield

Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of New Media and Technology, outlined the BBC’s plans to harness broadband technology to reduce the digital divide in Britain in a speech to the Broadband Britain Summit in London.

Alluding to Harold Wilson’s prophetic comments over forty years ago where he described a ‘new’ Britain forged from ‘the white heat of technology’, Highfield asks, “Can we move this ‘linear’ digital content leadership into the broadband ‘on demand’ world? Or will the white-heat prove to be nothing but hot air?”

Highfield describes “a new world of media consumption only made possible by a faster always-on connection.” He outlined the corporation’s vision for a broadband Britain, and urged the cooperation of Government and industry to avoid a digital underclass.

It is obviously hoped that the BBC’s interactive media player, iMP, which has just undergone a technical trial, will be a leading protagonist in the unfolding broadband drama. “iMP enables people to download television and radio programmes, choose to record whole series such as EastEnders, catch up on programmes they have missed and watch or listen to them on any device they want – all through peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing on a broadband connection”, explained Highfield.

“iMP is just one of a suite of products in development that makes up our BBC On Demand strategy”, says Highfield, “including the Creative Archive, the Radio Player, and the Broadband Console, with the express aim of finding the right content and services to put the British media industry at the forefront of this technology tidal wave and narrow the digital divide.”

The creation of “Underclasses” are not a healthy development in any environment, including the digital one, and Highfield outlined some proposals that should help to avoid this – the BBC’s planned scheme ‘Music for All’ and a ‘Get Britain Connected’ week.

The ‘Music for All’, will be firmly rooted in broadband. It aims to “transform music education giving children the opportunity to hear live performances, experience master classes in all music genres, create and perform their own pieces and work alongside leading musicians who can help them to develop their musical passions.”

Highfield also floated the idea of FreeBand (in the mode of the BBC’s FreeView and FreeSat). The BBC would supply broadband ready material, “compelling content” in his words, that would be delivered via services providers to UK citizens. Sadly he didn’t go in to any more detail, so it’s not clear how this would differ from services they currently freely deliver, or have spoken about publicly previously. It is perhaps just a new catchy way to label it.

In his speech, Highfield also proposed a ‘Get Britain Connected’ week to happen later next year. He envisaged this as being “a joint initiative with Government, players in the broadband supply chain (both commercial and public sector) and the BBC with its airwaves and cross-promotional opportunities to target those members of society who might find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

Harold Wilson was the first British Prime Minister to successfully use television as a political tool. Hopefully the ‘white heat’ Wilson referred to forty years ago will indeed prove to be more than hot air.

Text of Ashley Highfields speech

BT helps small businesses join the VoIP revolution

BT has seen its fixed-line base erode steadily over the past few years, while tariffs have fallen, making it hard for it to increase revenue. But it looks like BT is grabbing the nettle rather than shying away from it.

That means sniffing around for new market opportunities in a rapidly changing technological landscape. And in the case of BT, instigating the first Internet phone service specifically for UK SMEs, and launching next year the Bluephone, which will allow you to make VoIP, mobile or landline calls from the same handset.

Small businesses across the UK now have access to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), with the launch of BT Business Broadband Voice. Subscribers simply plug BT’s Broadband Voice box into their high-speed Internet connection and then use a standard telephone handset to make calls, rather than having to connect via a computer. This means that Internet calls can be made from anywhere that has a broadband connection, enabling employees to keep the same number, whether they’re working from the office or remotely.

It can’t be easy for a lumbering giant having nimble little gnat-like competitors such as Carphone Warehouse and Centrica’s OneTel snapping at it haunches, especially if you lost about half a million fixed-line customers during the July-to-September quarter to some of those competitors. Only last week, Ofcom said that Carphone Warehouse and Centrica’s OneTel, had expanded their customer base to 4.2 million at the end of September from 3.7 million at the end of June.

BT’s proposed Bluephone acts like a mobile, but it has better reception, better voice quality and is cheaper to use than a mobile, because it operates over BTs fixed line network. When you use it near your home or office, the call is routed using your landline connection, if you are out and about it will use the mobile network, and if you are within a Wi-Fi hotspot it will automatically use VoIP to route the call.

Ofcom reported the number of UK broadband connections passed the 5 million point during September, with around 50,000 new subscriptions added every week. So, while fixed voice telecoms use continues to decline slowly, broadband uptake continues apace, which might start to mean more of a shift rather than a loss in business for telcos who grasp the nettle.

BT Broadbandvoice.

TiVo to Restrict Content Usage

In the very near future, your TiVo machine will surreptitiously download a patch that will put restrictions on how long your DVR can save certain kinds of TV programmes. It’s the first time since its inception that your TiVo won’t let you watch whatever you want, whenever you want.

The slippery slope started when Macrovision became concerned about TiVo’s imminent TiVoToGo service, which will allow users to transfer programming from the TiVo to a PC. One patch will cause TiVos to automatically delete pay-per-view content after a preset period of time, while another change affects TiVo viewers’ ability to view National Football League broadcasts.

NFL was concerned that TiVo’s new remote access service would somehow circumvent the league’s broadcast regulations by playing real-time retransmission outside of the subscriber’s local television market. A new agreement with the NFL prevents TiVo owners from doing this.

In a recent interview with J. D. Lasica on endgaget, Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo said, “When you are a slave to television it screws up your life.”  It would seem though that TiVo might be assuming the mantle of slavery by being too deferential to the broadcasters.

TiVo say they are changing because Macrovision is changing, and that it’s a case of having a more restrictive Macrovision licence or no licence at all, especially since the restrictions are limited to pay-per-view and video-on-demand – so far.

The thing is, TiVo is not legally required to have copy protection, and in an interview with Lucas Graves in the latest issue of Wired, Graves asks TiVo’s general counsel, Matthew Zinn why TiVo just don’t tell Macrovision to stuff it?  Zinn replies, “That was an option. But if there was no Macrovision license, we would run into a lot of copyright problems with things like remote access and “TiVo to Go” functionality. To innovate and give people more flexibility with broadcast content, we decided it was acceptable to allow content owners to apply protections to higher-value content.”

Having an arbitrary expiration date set after which your copy gets wiped cannot be good for customer morale, the risk being that they may find non-legal ways to get what they want.

Tivo
Engadget interview with Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo
Wired interview – Lucas Graves, general counsel, TiVo

ShowCenter 1000g Gets UK Launch from Pinnacle

Pinnacle ShowCenter is by no means a new kid on the block but its latest version, ShowCenter v1.7 has some new features that make it worth revisiting since it has just been released in the UK.

For starters, Pinnacle ShowCenter is now 802.11g wireless network ready, and includes a compatible wireless module, making it easy to set up ShowCenter on a wired Ethernet, 802.11b or 802.11g home network, and giving it a realistic chance of supporting wireless delivery of audio and video.

Funky new features include the ability to listen to music without turning on the television – users can now assign radio stations or play lists to individual buttons on the ShowCenter remote control. But coolest of all, you can now pause live TV and schedule recordings on your PC.

For the uninitiated, Pinnacle ShowCenter is a set-top device that connects to wireless and wired home local area networks (LAN) allowing streaming of multimedia files from any PC on the network to any television or home entertainment system in the house. It’s really a complete media management software suite for organising and managing media files. Unknown file formats are automatically converted and streamed to the ShowCenter in a recognisable format, while you can control the PVR features on your PCTV tuner from the ShowCenter unit – if you have Pinnacle PCTV Pro, PCTV Stereo, PCTV USB2 or PCTV MediaCenter products.

The ShowCenter software has now been updated with audio and media management enhancements and from early 2005 users in the UK will have online music access via RealNetworks Rhapsody Internet jukebox service.

Pinnacle ShowCenter 1000g carries a suggested retail price of £199.99, while current ShowCenter owners can download v1.7 software-only features for free. Existing customers who wish to add 802.11g functionality to their units, can return them for retooling at a cost of £69.

“Digital media receivers such as Pinnacle ShowCenter are allowing customers to enjoy their PC-based digital music, photos and movies to the fullest extent — throughout the home,” said William Chien, director of product management, digital home products, Pinnacle Systems. “Customers have tremendous flexibility with the option to browse and use the ShowCenter media manager on the PC or from the comfort of their sofa on the television monitor with a remote control.”

http://shop.pinnaclesys.com
www.pinnaclesys.com

UK Gov Opens Door to Open Source

Gerald M. Weinberg, author of The Psychology of Computer Programming, came to an interesting conclusion back in 1971 – “If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilisation.” So who do government departments trust when it comes to creating software? The proprietary software giants or the open source software alternative?
The UK government’s central procurement agency, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), recently field-tested open-source software in the public sector with results that will please Tux lovers everywhere. The open-source pilots were run at various government agencies using software from IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. The subsequent report cites progress in desktop products, such as OpenOffice and Sun Microsystems Inc.’s StarOffice, for routine, low level work, but not for “knowledge” or “power users” who require more advanced capabilities.

The softening in attitude towards open source comes not only from an acceptance of its maturing functionality on the desktop – it’s been around a while now, it also comes down to cost. Open-source software requires less memory and a slower processor speed for the same functionality offered by the proprietary applications that are always demanding hardware upgrades to work to their full potential. So, if open source were taken on board soon it would delay expensive hardware replacement.

The report comes just as the OGC is finalising a three-year extension to its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Microsoft Corp., which has basked in the warmth of a long and cosy partnership with the UK government. Now that cash strapped government departments all over the world start taking a closer look at open-source alternatives, companies like Microsoft have to be a little worried.

Could OGC have just been hoping that Microsoft would cut its licensing costs? Hardly, you wouldn’t conduct a major study just for that. Although Microsoft did recently launch a major advertising campaign, ‘Get the Facts’, to repudiate the idea that open source has a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) than proprietary software.

SBC’s $20 DSL Red Herring

Baby Bell phone company SBC Communications has launched a promotion that breaks a barrier of sorts. It’s offering DSL for $19.95 (£11) a month. It only comes in a bundle though. You must also subscribe for one year to SBC’s unlimited calling plan at $48 (£26) a month.

The DSL service promises download speeds of between 384kbps and 1.5mbps, and an upload speed of up to 384kbps. It also includes increased e-mail account storage, safety and security features and a parental control package.

SBC Communications, who markets DSL high-speed services in partnership with Yahoo, say the $19.95 (£11) a month plan, effective from 1st November, is available to new broadband subscribers or for customers who want to change from cable to DSL.

It’s a regular tussle between the phone companies and the cable companies. Approximately 60% of US homes with broadband access, use cable modems, but broadband penetration nationwide has not yet hit 50%. By the end of 2004 roughly 30 million of the 110 million US households will have broadband access – still only 30%.

At the end of the second quarter (2004) UBS said cable firms had 16.7 million Internet customers, while phone companies had 11.3 million DSL customers – still a considerable gap.

Looking ahead, Local Bells plan to replace ageing copper wiring in affluent urban areas with fibre-optic wiring that will also handle video, hoping obviously to stop wireless and cable service providers at the pass. Indeed, only last week SBC granted Alcatel a $1.7 billion contract to install fibre-optic lines in its network infrastructure, so that it can eventually handle video, while Motorola will supply equipment to Verizon for their video service.

But cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable remain the market leaders for household broadband customers. While phone companies like SBC, Verizon Communications, BellSouth and Qwest Communications are upgrading their networks to handle higher bandwidth applications such as video.

While SBC added 402,000 DSL customers in the third quarter and Verizon added 309,000 DSL customers, cable firm Comcast signed up 549,000 broadband customers in the same period. Comcast did target college students though with a $19.95 (£11), six-month promotion, which may go some way towards explaining their third quarter success.

Report: Euro Music Download Market $5.7 Billion by 2009

A new report by research and analysis firm Generator, predicts that the digital song download market in Europe will reach $5.7 billion (€4.5 billion) by 2009. If this figure pans out, it will mean that the download market will account for about 40% of the total recorded music market.

The report also predicts that the mobile channel will figure largely in this market growth, up to $777 million (€610 million), 13.5% of the total by 2009 – and that’s not including huge ringtone market. But Europe first needs to change its usage-based mobile data tariffs and adopt flat-rate 3G tariffs like DoCoMo in Japan to encourage the successful use of the mobile channel, says the report’s author, Andrew Sheehy.

Operators will also need to develop their WAP portal strategies, so consumers can directly access existing Internet music resources, such as artist Web sites and digital music stores.

The Generator report, ‘Digital Music Meets Mobile Music’, differs considerably from last months Jupiter Research report, ‘European Digital Music: Identifying Opportunity’, which predicts that digital music revenue will reach €836 million, or 8% of the total market, by 2009. With a difference of 32% between Generator and Jupiter, one perhaps slightly conservative and one perhaps slightly ambitious, it might be safest to pitch the predicted figure somewhere between the two.

Only one year into the legal digital music industry, but in real terms more than a few years in, it has permeated the world of commercial music consumption far quicker than happened with the CD.

While both Generator and Jupiter agree that sales of downloaded digital music in Europe will continue to grow steadily for the forseeable future, Jupiter says the trend but will not replace the CD anytime soon, while Generator says it will be largely replaced within ten years.

Don’t throw anything away yet!