Legal – Page 19 – Digital-Lifestyles

Dead Granny sued by RIAA – A Serious Own Goal

RIAA issues legal action to dead woman If they weren’t already unpopular enough with a large part of the online music file sharers, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has managed to score a spectacular PR own goal by suing a dead woman for swapping music files.

The Associated Press reported that investigators at the RIAA identified Gertrude Walton as a prolific sharer known as “smittenedkitten” and set about bringing this evil distributor of music to justice.

A federal lawsuit was duly filed, with the RIAA claiming that Mrs Walton had shared more than 700 songs through P2P networks.

But there was a slight problem: the defendant was a computer-illiterate 83-year-old grandmother who has never owned a computer.

And there was an even bigger problem: she had died the month before the lawsuit was filed.

After being notified of the upcoming legal action, the dead woman’s daughter, Robin Chianumba, faxed a copy of her mother’s death certificate to RIAA adding, “I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park (where she is buried) to attend the hearing”.

This king size cock-up does nothing to RIAA’s bully boy reputation. In 2003 the association successfully sued a twelve year-old girl for copyright infringement after her hard drive was found to be harbouring an MP3 file of her favourite TV show. Her working class parents were forced to shell out two thousand dollars in a settlement.

RIAA
Boycott RIAA

Easymusic.com Aims to Shakeup Music Downloads

EasyMusic Cheaper legal download sites will shake up the online music industry, according to Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Last month Haji-Ioannou launched his easyMusic.com download site, in collaboration with online music service Wippit, and predicts that cost-efficient digital downloads will take over from CDs.

He told the BBC World Service’s The Music Biz programme: “There were people who said when I started Easyjet that £29 ($54, €42) would ruin the airline industry. Far from it – it has made some companies less profitable, but it has forced them to compete, and therefore become leaner and more competitive.”

The easyMusic.com site includes tracks from more than 200 labels, including Universal, Warner, BMG, Sony and EMI, with single downloads starting at 25p, ($0.47, €0.36) and UK users can also pay by SMS.

It also plans to includes downloads on a ‘copyleft’ – the opposite of copyright – basis, giving downloaders access to new music for free.

But easyMusic.com is just one of number of new legal download sites launched in the last 12 months to take on market leaders such as iTunes.com.

According to figures from recording industry association IFPI, legal music sites quadrupled to over 230 in 2004, and the available music catalogue has doubled in 12 months to 1 million songs.
And while IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy may say it is now the “priority” of the record industry to licence music “to as many services, for as many consumers, on as many formats and devices for use in as many places and countries as it can”, music sites may struggle to cut the cost of downloads unless they can persuade the record companies to cut back on their margins.

And of course many consumers still prefer to get their music for free – IFPI calculates there are 870 million pirate tracks on the Internet.
easymusic.com

HP Blur Photos with Camera Privacy Patent

HP Digital Camera HP is making an interesting move in the digital camera market. The company’s latest technical wizardry is a system in which digital cameras could be equipped with circuits that could be remotely triggered to blur the face of those who don’t want to have their photo taken.

This story originally came around in November last year after HP had been granted the patent. We didn’t cover it then, so are pleased that our friends at News.com have brought it up again.

The design for paparazzi-proof cameras is covered under US patent application 20040202382, which was filed in April 2003 and published in October 2004, and describes a system in which an image captured by a camera could be automatically modified based on commands sent by a remote device.

It covers technology that would have to be incorporated both into digital cameras and the ‘image inhibitor modules’. Cameras would be equipped with facial recognition software sophisticated enough to single out faces for the blur treatment. The repercussions for this technology are outstanding, allowing anyone who doesn’t want their photo taken at a particular time to trigger a ‘clicker’ (image inhibitor module) to ensure that any cameras or camera-equipped gadgets in range produced only a fuzzy outline of their face. This story takes us back to the classic science fiction TV show, Thunderbirds, when Thunderbird 1 was fitted with a camera detector to stop their advanced technology being copied. At the time such an idea seemed impossible, strange how science fiction becomes science fact.

With the prevalence of digital recording devices, one of which is cameras, people will either have to become used to having their actions and utterances captured, employ impractical draconian measures such as banning them, or throw technology at it.

At Digital Lifestyles we’re keen on audio recordings and have been wondering for some time if, by identifying vocal patterns, people could opt out of being recorded.

The move comes following the proliferation of digital imaging capabilities with growing concerns about privacy, especially as the number of subjects who would prefer not to be photographed has increased thanks to mobile phones with built-in digital cameras and video functionality. However, when we spoke to HP they told us they had no current plans to commercialise the technology, which would require widespread adoption by camera makers and possibly government mandates to be practical. For now, the company is keeping the patent as part of its IP portfolio.

HP
HP focuses on paparazzi-proof cameras – News.com
Badge keeps paparazzi out of the picture – The Times, November 2005

EU Software Patent Causes Controversy

Plans to introduce European-wide laws on computer software patents have caused controversy because of the impact they could have on the cost and availability of commercial and open-source software. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates put the case rather more strongly, describing opponents of the legislation as ‘modern-day sort of communists’ who want to damage industrial innovation.

The software Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions aims to clarify existing European laws on patenting software, but could create legal hurdles for IT departments wanting to develop their own software. In the worst-case scenario, the patents could force smaller suppliers and open-source specialists out of business, restricting competition and the choice of software available to users.

To be patented, software has to have a ‘technical application’. This basically means that a company that develops software to control a DVD recorder can patent it, as controlling a DVD recorder is a technical application. However, a company that develops software to automate an accounting system would not be granted a patent. This is because accounting systems are regarded as a business process rather than a technical application. The whole process is governed by European Patent Convention, an international treaty which has so far been implemented in slightly different ways in each country.

The bill has sparked a debate on whether the EU should follow the US model of granting patents to Internet business methods, such as online bookseller Amazon’s ‘one-click shopping,’ or instead restrict patents for computer software. Poland, a large EU member whose backing is crucial for the adoption of the proposed rules, told Reuters last week that it was not ready to back the legislation amid fears it could open the door to the patenting of pure computer software.

The major benefits of the bill is that it would provide European companies with protection for their ideas and encourage innovation, create a level playing-field for patents across all European countries, and clarify existing patent laws, rather than introducing major changes. However, small suppliers will not have enough financial muscle to obtain and enforce patents, thereby reducing choice for IT departments. It could also restrict the availability and functions of open source software, and IT departments may have to conduct patent searches to make sure they are not infringing rights. The saga continues, with adoption of the bill now scheduled for next week.

Ofcom Strategic Review of Telecommunications Gets UK Parliament Inquiry

The UK House of Commons launched an inquiry into Ofcom’s Strategic Review of Telecommunications (SRT) yesterday.

Ofcom, the uber-regulator that among other things, oversees telecoms in the UK, started its SRT in January 2004. It was long overdue in the eyes of many, as it was the first comprehensive strategic review of the UK telecommunications sector for 13 years.

Now the UK House of Commons, Trade and Industry Committee will be looking into the workings and results of the SRT, in particular how it relates to the “extensiveness and competitiveness” of broadband in the UK.

The SRT is divided in to three phases; Current position and prospects for the telecommunications sector; Options for Ofcom’s strategic approach to telecommunications regulation; and Proposals; the first phase was published at the end of April.

Ofcom identified two key problems in Phase One; an unstable market structure in fixed telecoms, dominated by BT and with alternative providers that are, in the main, fragmented and of limited scale; BT’s control of the UK-wide access network hadn’t been addressed to date. They then posed some questions; primarily about the future of BT.

Phase Two was published in November 04 and used some relatively strong language (pretty diplomatic in the normal, non-Quango world), which we summarised as “Ofcom to BT: Equivalence or else”. It’s still open for public consultation until 3 February 2005.

Yesterdays announcement from the Trade and Industry Committee, said in the light of the Committee’s Report on the UK Broadband Market, the inquiry will be looking into OfCom’s STR process to date, the interim conclusions reached in the Phase Two document, and the direction of the remainder of the Review. They’ll be paying particular attention how it relates to the competitiveness of the broadband market in the UK, including local loop unbundling, and the “functional separation of British Telecom”.

A spokeperson at OfCom told us that they “had already briefed the Committee” and “welcomed their interest” in the SRT. When we asked about the previously expected Spring delivery of SRT Phase 3, we were told that they “still planned” to meet it. Frankly they were playing their cards pretty close to their chest.

We called the office of the Committee, but given the 21 enquiries they have on currently, no one was available for comment at the time of publishing the story.

If you have any view on the area covered by the Committee, they’re asking for written evidence on these or any other related issues by Friday 18 February 2005 via email ([email protected]). If you do write please CC ([email protected]) us in, we’d be interested in see the issues raised.

Alerted by OfcomWatch
Trade and Industry Select Committee
Ofcom – Strategic Review of Telecommunications

Microsoft Media Player-free Windows in Europe from January

Microsoft has lost its appeal to block antitrust sanctions, originally imposed by the European Commission (EC) in March this year.

Back then, along with a record-breaking near 500m Euro fine, the EC insisted that Microsoft should release two version of their Windows operating system, one without the media player built in and one without. The EC see Windows as the dominant computer operating system and want to try to ensure a more level playing field with the playback of digitally held audio and video. Some networking communication protocols were also opened up to compulsory licensing.

The ruling won’t be a surprise to Microsoft but an unhappy result all the same. When we spoke to senior European Microsoft people back in September, they felt this action was likely, but were spinning a line saying that two version of the OS would confuse the public.

It’s possible that the impact on the consumer may be close to zero. Philip Carnelley, research director with Ovum pointed out an interesting possible problem, “The way that part of the ruling was phrased doesn’t prohibit Microsoft from supplying Windows with Media Player at the same price as the version without, so there’s very little room for competition in the market place. If you can get something for free, why would you not take it?” The pricing issue was confirmed in a teleconference held with Microsoft general counsel, Brad Smith.

Smith revealed that company lawyers wanted to look more closely at the 90-page decision before deciding whether to appeal. Smith confirmed that Microsoft would begin complying with the decision immediately, with a version of Windows that doesn’t include Media Player software being made available to European PC manufacturers in January and to resellers by February. Outside of Europe they have no plans to offer a version of Windows without Media Player.

One long term worry for Microsoft could be that this ruling leaves it open for Europe able to question which extra bundled software could or should be included with Windows.

We’ve got a couple of question about the impact of this ruling:-

The Media player part of the ruling appears to only cover “Client PC’s” versions of Windows, not PDA’s or mobile phone version. We think the EC missed a trick here. If anything, the PDA or mobile player would be of more value to change, given its relative high market demand, than the less-than-furiously fought “Client PC’s” space. This oversight could be due to the age of the original legal action, instigated four years ago, when having media play back on a portable device wasn’t at the forefront of peoples minds.

It is not immediately obvious which media player company will benefit from the removal of Microsoft media player. The only major PC maker to currently install Apple’s QuickTime player is HP, following their iPod deal. As far as we’re aware, Real player doesn’t have deals with major computer maker. Perhaps given this ruling they will accelerate their efforts and other entrants will be stimulated to enter.

A confusing thought for you over the holiday period – will there be version of Windows Media Center Edition available Europe without Windows Media player! FYI – When we contacted the Microsoft team in Brussels said they didn’t think so.

Microsoft ruling, Court of First Instance Order on Interim Measures – Court of Justice of the European

SuprNova.org closed in MPAA, BitTorrent Action

For the last six months or so, the film industry has been gearing up to take on file-sharers exchanging video content online. The owners of the films are not very happy about people around the world freely swapping their content, and them not making any money about it.

The first legal actions were against individuals who were sharing films. Next they mounted their assault on BitTorrent, an application that can be used to download video content. Most recently they have passed their attention to sites that point users to content distributed using BitTorrent.

Their first move has been to take down the most popular of these, such as the self-described Universal Bit Torrent Source, SuprNova.org and TorrentBits.com.

The sites targeted do not contain the actual video files. Because of the way bitTorrent works, they simply contain a list of pointers to the content held in the bitTorrent format. The video files are themselves fragmented around the network of people running the bitTorrent application.

There are other sites, like TVTorrents, still continuing to make content accessible.

While BitTorrent, in and of itself, is not evil, the film companies are very putout that their films are travelling through it. BitTorrent also has legitimate uses. It is used to distribute many type of material. Digital Lifestyles has used it to distribute audio recordings in the past.

We hope that while pursuing their legal action to regain control of the distribution of their content, the film companies are also keeping their eyes open to the opportunities of this type of technology.

As we’ve commented previously, when video content, distributed over a shared network, is combined with a new content alert technology like RSS, the result is a blueprint for a form of TV delivery. Content automatically arrives at the viewer machine when it’s been published alowing them to chose which they will watch.

MPAA
BitTorrent

RAJAR defeat TWG Audience Court Case

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research), the organisation that monitors UK radio audience size and listening habits, has defeated a case against them brought by The Wireless Group (TWG).

Kelvin MacKenzie’s TWG launched the case back in March, claiming £66m in compensation for lost advertising revenues. TWG’s case came from the frustration at the alleged inaccuracy of the paper diary methods, and results of RAJAR audience monitoring. They felt the RAJAR figures for the their TalkSPORT radio station were not representative and this in turn left TWG’s advertising under-valued.

TWG claimed RAJAR has abused competition laws when it decided against the immediate introduction of audiometers in June 2003, which they felt would give a more accurate, and therefore better, audience numbers for them.

Today’s judgment was handed down after a two-day High Court hearing in early November 2004. RAJAR’s application to strike out the claim brought by The Wireless Group (TWG) in March of this year was upheld. Mr Justice Lloyd ruled that TWG’s description of RAJAR’s decision in June 2003 “does not match the reality of the case”.

MacKenzie’s response? “RAJAR may have won a legal skirmish, but the war goes on until technology-based audience measurement is adopted”.

RAJAR current method of understanding listener’s habits uses a paper diary system distributed to a listener panel. It is widely thought that this measuring method, while giving broad habits, does not account well for smaller stations – measuring widespread niche audience is challenging.

To address this RAJAR has also set a target date for the introduction of a new audience measurement methodology, potentially including audiometers, of January 2007.

Digital Lifestyles attended their extensive testing of three competing audiometers back in a November. RAJAR had taken over the whole floor of a London hotel, setting up different situations where people might be listening to such as with the TV on; another music source playing; a shower on. Each scenario would be gone through in strict rotation and at set times, the testers would flood into the halls ways to locate their next room for testing. It was clearly comprehensive and was the largest trial carried out to date.

All eyes of radio audience measuring authorities from around the world are on RAJAR, awaiting the results.

RAJAR

BlackBerry Patent Case Swings Away from RIM to NTP

There will be furrowed brows over at Research in Motion Ltd (RIM), the Canadian company behind the ever-popular wireless email device, BlackBerry.

The US Court of Appeals has just ruled against them in a case brought by intellectual property holding company NTP Inc, that alleged RIM have violated patents owned by NTP that cover the transmission of email over a radio network.

The only slight cause for relief for RIM will come from the court ruling that they will be able to continue selling their products until final judgement is reached.

The history of the case goes back to 2000 when NTP first notified RIM of the alleged infringement. In a series of cases since then, the case has been batted between the two of them and over the period, the courts have ordered RIM to pay over $70m to NTP.

Back in November 2002, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ordered re-examinations of all NTP patents litigated in this matter.

Although this ruling only has jurisdiction in the USA, it is unclear if there will be any impact on RIM’s deals with non-US mobile operators. RIM has done deals with a number of operators around the world, the product of which have now made it to market. One example, being two months ago Vodafone UK launched the 7100v that has BlackBerry functionality built into a more compressed form.

Research In Motion

UK Film Council Launches “Film Theft in the UK” report

This morning the UK Film council launched a 94-page report containing 30 measures they feel will help defeat the spread of unauthorised film copying in the UK.

Compiled by the Anti-Piracy Taskforce convened by the UK Film Council, it contains suggestions of short, medium and long-term actions aimed at the UK Government, the UK film industry and, what they call, “Government-backed and other film sector stakeholders”. Started in Summer 2003, it has taken nearly 18-months to complete.

The report is being forwarded to The Creative Industries Forum on Intellectual Property, which was launched by the UK Government in July this year. Headed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department of Trade and Industry and Patent Office, the group contains Ministers from eight Government Departments including the Treasury and Home Office.

There is clearly a large problem with DVD’s being commercially copied and offered for sale in the UK. We’ve been surprised in the past, when offered copied DVD’s of many feature films. A while back one of the writers at Digital Lifestyles was offered the then unreleased Incredibles, a Pixar film, by an Oriental lady with a bulging bag of DVD’s with colour photo copied covers. The price for this unreleased film? Just five pounds. This was made all the more cheeky by us being a stones throw from the centre of the UK film industry.

For research we bought one, and found the audio quality to be terrible at the start of the film. Persisting, we were later amused to see the classic “Bloke off to the toilet” head raise up and pass in front of the screen, only to return 10 mins later. From the size of the mystery person, it was clear that this has been shot in a small private screening room, probably during a preview, possibly from within the projector room. The likelihood was that this wasn’t shot by a member of the public, but by someone within the industry.

When discussing the availability of commercially copied DVDs with others, we heard that there are regularly stalls on the high street in Kilburn, London that are openly selling copied DVDs, with the police walking past not taking any notice.

Based on figures from Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the report estimates the value of black market in pirate DVDs in the UK to be £400-£500 million in 2003 and they expected it to exceed £1 billion within three years, based on their retail price. In the full report (yes, we read it) they list the main sources of copied DVD’s to be Pakistan (36%), Malaysia (31%) and China (14%).

We found it very confusing that the authorities or the film companies didn’t appear to be taking, or even publicly threatening, actions against commercial copiers, when there was considerable noise being made about the imminent death of the film industry being caused by file sharing networks. It’s more than obvious that the current installed base of DVD players is significantly bigger than those with computers and a broadband connection.

Down to their suggested actions. They felt that trading standards don’t have enough powers to combat trading in copied films and would like them to have more. There are a couple of suggestions to clamp down on car boot fairs (public markets where individuals turn up, pay a fee and sell their goods) including; ensuring that people registering to sell be over 18 (they say that currently children under 14 are being registered as the stall holders, and legal action cannot be taken against a child under 14); making the registration of car boot fairs compulsary; and there being powers to close down car boot sales where pirate DVDs are persistently sold, which they told us would be a “last resort measure.”

Some of the points mimicked ideas running in the USA, such as making the act of camcording in a cinema a clear criminal offence (it is currently a civil offence) and providing incentives for cinema staff to look for unauthorised camcorder usage.

It was encouraging that some of the problems that are normally glossed over were addressed. To this end, one of their short-term suggestions is to conduct a thorough review of security risks in the film making process, looking to develop improved security procedures for the handling of film prints and digital materials.

Despite a whole chapter in the reports appendix “Learning from the music industry”, we were disappointed to see that “Developing clear commercial strategies in relation to Internet Film Distribution” was only listed as a medium-term goal. Indeed, when we spoke to the UK Film Council, we were further disappointed to hear the same old delaying arguments of “when the technology is in place and the broadband market is significant” being rolled out. It’s clear to all who pay any attention to this area that this point has already been reached otherwise, people wouldn’t be swapping films online, was met with a blanket, non-committal response.

UK Film Council