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Mossberg: Congress Must Make Clear Copyright Laws To Protect Consumers (Monty Solomon) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:11:59 -0400 From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] FCC may drop plan allowing cell calls in-flight To: medianews@twiar.org Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed FCC may drop plan allowing cell calls in-flight http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17739316 Cites recent wireless industry comments it might disrupt ground networks WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that the agency is considering dropping a proposal that would have lifted the ban on in-flight cell phone use. The commission began considering removal of the ban in late 2004. FCC Chair Kevin Martin told reporters after a board meeting Thursday that the wireless telecommunications industry indicated in recent comments to the FCC that mobile phone calls in flying planes would interfere with their networks on the ground. Two agencies claim regulatory jurisdiction over the issue. The FCC is focused on whether in-flight calling interferes with ground-based networks, while the Federal Aviation Administration considers safety issues. Both agencies would have to approve lifting the ban for passengers to be able legally to make calls while in-flight, an FCC spokeswoman said. -- Greg Williams K4HSM [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.twiar.org http://www.etskywarn.net ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:31:29 -0400 From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] HP to hack its customers To: medianews@twiar.org Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39160104,00.htm HP to hack its customers By Tom Espiner Published: Wednesday 5 July 2006 HP is to launch a penetration-testing service for businesses in October but has denied reports it will unleash worms on its customers. The company said on Tuesday it would use the same techniques as hackers to gain access to its customers' machines. However, the exploit code it will use will be controlled and will not propagate itself, HP said. Richard Brown, threat management department manager at HP Labs, said: "We use hacking techniques to gain access to the system but once we have control we make the system safe. We don't unleash a worm - we don't use worm-propagation techniques." The penetration-testing service, HP Active Countermeasures (HPAC), will use a single server and eight to 10 scanning clients per 250,000 connected devices. Each of the clients will be given a range of IP addresses to scan, and will move through the range scanning for particular vulnerabilities. Brown said: "We try to exploit vulnerabilities by sending malformed protocol messages to open ports. For example, Code Red exploited a vulnerability in MS IIS web service software - we would exploit the same vulnerability." The HPAC team will use hacking techniques such as the use of malformed code to create buffer overflows, heap overflows, and stack overflows to gain control of clients' systems. They will use exploit code for known vulnerabilities found on the internet, or write their own exploit code. Brown said: "If the code is unavailable we will generate our own exploit code." The HPAC team won't fix problems themselves but will alert customers and work with them if necessary until the issue is resolved. Brown said: "If we do manage to get control of a machine, we will do mitigating actions - supply a temporary fix until a patch can be applied in a proper manner. We could do as little as pop up a window saying 'this machine is vulnerable to Sasser' but we can escalate the mitigation if necessary to take the system completely offline. "In the worst case we can shut the machine down, so it's no longer a threat to the infrastructure." The company has been using these techniques to test its own networks since 2001, and has now decided to offer HPAC as a service. Within HP, the corporate IT team already monitors bulletin boards and alerts from computer emergency response teams and vendors. As new threats are reported, the team will conduct a risk assessment and investigate the most serious vulnerabilities. Brown said: "There are thousands of vulnerabilities but in most cases they can be dealt with through normal patch management. We're most concerned with 'wormable' vulnerabilities - ones that can be exploited using worms, as they have the largest impact on business." Customers must give permission for HP to scan their systems, and can specify that certain servers or devices are not included in the scan, if concerned the scan will cause disruption. HP promised "aggressive pricing" for the service, saying its fixed price would cost "a few dollars per user per year" for those customers with fewer than 20,000 active IP addresses. -- Greg Williams K4HSM [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.twiar.org http://www.etskywarn.net ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 00:38:23 -0400 From: Greg Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] Raytheon Develops World's First Polymorphic Computer To: medianews@twiar.org Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Raytheon Develops World's First Polymorphic Computer http://www.mil-embedded.com/news/db/?5784 EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 20, 2007 -- The world's first computers whose architecture can adopt different forms depending on their application have been developed by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN). Dubbed MONARCH (Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture) and developed to address the large data volume of sensor systems as well as their signal and data processing throughput requirements, it is the most adaptable processor ever built for the Department of Defense, reducing the number of processor types required. It performs as a single system on a chip, resulting in a significant reduction of the number of processors required for computing systems, and it performs in an array of chips for teraflop throughput. "Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing," explained Nick Uros, vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond state-of-the-art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable." In addition to the ability to adapt its architecture for a particular objective, the MONARCH computer is also believed to be the most power- efficient processor available. "In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, the principal investigator for the company's MONARCH technology. MONARCH's polymorphic capability and super efficiency enable the development of DoD systems that need very small size, low power, and in some cases radiation tolerance for such purposes as global positioning systems, airborne and space radar and video processing systems. The company has begun tests on prototypes of the polymorphic MONARCH processors to verify they'll function as designed and to establish their maximum throughput and power efficiency. MONARCH, containing six microprocessors and a highly interconnected reconfigurable computing array, provides 64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth. The MONARCH processor was developed under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) polymorphous computing architecture contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems led an industry team with the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California to create the integrated large-scale system on a chip with a suite of software development tools for programs of high value to the Department of Defense and commercial applications. Besides USC major subcontractors included Georgia Institute of Technology, Mercury Computer Systems and IBM's Global Engineering Solutions division. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems is the leading provider of sensor systems giving military forces the most accurate and timely information available for the network-centric battlefield. With 2006 revenues of $4.3 billion and 12,000 employees, SAS is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif. Additional facilities are in Goleta, Calif.; Forest, Miss.; Dallas, McKinney and Plano, Texas; and several international locations. Raytheon Company, with 2006 sales of $20.3 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide. -- Greg Williams K4HSM [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.twiar.org http://www.etskywarn.net ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:21:35 -0600 From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] Cablevision loses network DVR court case To: medianews@twiar.org Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Cablevision loses network DVR court case Reuters Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:23AM EDT http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN2337855720070323 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said it lost a legal battle against several Hollywood studios and television networks to introduce a network-based digital video recorder service to its subscribers. The New York-based cable operator said in a statement late on Thursday it is currently considering an appeal against the ruling by Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Cablevision was sued last May by several Hollywood studios and television networks, including those owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), News Corp. (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research), CBS Corp. (CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and WaltDisney Co. (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which charged that the planned service would violate U.S. copyright laws. Cablevision had hoped a network-based DVR system, called Remote Storage DVR or RS-DVR, would have done away with the need for the deployment of hundreds of thousands of digital set-top boxes to subscribers' homes. This would potentially have saved Cablevision significant administration and maintenance costs. Other cable operators had been vocal in their support for such a system. But the studios and TV networks argued in two suits filed at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan that because the proposed service would allow subscribers to store television programs on the cable operator's own computer servers, it would be breaking copyright agreements by effectively retransmitting the programs. "We are disappointed by the judge's decision, and continue to believe that remote-storage DVRs are consistent with copyright law and offer compelling benefits for consumers - including lower costs and broader availability of this popular technology, Cablevision said in the statement. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:31:43 -0600 From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] New firm makes Blu-ray DVDs for indie filmmakers To: medianews@twiar.org Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed New firm makes Blu-ray DVDs for indie filmmakers Reuters Thu Mar 22, 2007 6:19PM EDT http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN2239149920070322 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A respected Hollywood movie producer and a DVD pioneer said they have formed a company to make and distribute DVDs in the new Blu-ray digital format for independent film and video makers. The unveiling of Edge of Light Media by John Daly, executive producer of movies such as "The Terminator," and Erick Hansen of Blue Ray Technologies Inc. on Thursday marks another step forward for Blu-ray as it seeks to gain a foothold in the home entertainment market and eclipse the current DVD format. Blu-ray's high-definition digital technology, which is backed by Sony Corp, offers crisper pictures and more room for special features than current DVDs. Movies on the Blu-ray DVD format have only recently begun reaching homes through Hollywood's major studios. For the most part, independent filmmakers and owners of TV shows, exercise videos or other home video products have been shut out of the emerging high-definition market unless their producers already have distribution deals with a major studio. Edge of Light expects to open the Blu-ray market for the independents, which is important because the home entertainment arena is a lucrative one for them. "It is a solution for indies, because they can't raise the money to have a big Blu-ray release," Hansen told Reuters. Edge of Light also could help broaden consumer adoption of Blu-ray DVDs, because the titles that many consumers seek such as old movies, videos and TV shows will now be available in the new technology. Hansen said even these so-called "B" and "C" titles look far better on screen in Blu-ray than the older DVDs. "It's like a Model T versus a brand new mustang," he said. Hansen said the company will not produce DVDs in the competing high-definition format known as HD-DVD, which is backed by Toshiba Corp. and which he expects will soon be transcended by the capabilities of Blu-ray. But while Hansen sees Blu-ray as a superior technology, the two high-definition standards continue to compete in the marketplace for dominance, with no clear winner yet. Edge of Light Media will be headquartered in Los Angeles and will operate a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Spokane, Washington. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:15:37 -0600 From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] LA area Time Warner cable unit could face fine To: medianews@twiar.org Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-cable23mar23,1,6709132.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business Time Warner cable unit could face fine By James S. Granelli LA Times Staff Writer March 23, 2007 Moorpark became the second city this week to demand that Time Warner Cable Inc. comply with customer service standards ? and the first to threaten a fine of as much as $25,000 or more. Exercising its waning local control on the cable TV industry, the City Council late Wednesday initiated a procedure that could result in fines next month for the company's prolonged difficulty in merging pay TV and Internet systems. Time Warner has struggled to combine operations it acquired last summer from Comcast Corp. and Adelphia Communications Corp. "Time Warner either had actual knowledge of its inability to provide adequate customer service or it completely mismanaged this merger. Either situation is unjustifiable," Councilman Keith F. Millhouse said. Moorpark has 7,400 Time Warner customers. A state law that took effect this year is removing much of the control that municipalities have in overseeing cable TV. Starting next year, cable firms can shed local contracts after new competitors, mainly AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., enter their markets. Once it receives a formal notice from Moorpark, Time Warner will "respond accordingly" and will "work with the city to resolve the issues satisfactorily," spokeswoman Patricia Rockenwagner said. "Moorpark started a formal process, but there are no fines and no findings yet," she said. On Monday, the city of Los Angeles asked Time Warner to explain what went wrong and how and when it would solve the problems. Cities in the company's five-county service region, and Time Warner itself, have been inundated with complaints since October when work on integrating the systems began. The merger propelled the company from one of the smallest operations in Southern California to the region's dominant cable firm, with 1.9 million customers. But complaints nearly tripled in Los Angeles alone as customers cited service outages, long wait times, shabby customer service, channel lineup changes and pressure to buy higher-priced digital service. The company lost more than 10,000 subscribers. At Wednesday night's Moorpark council meeting, Benjamin Hall of neighboring Simi Valley told the council members that to get the same channels he had with Adelphia, he said, he paid Time Warner about $20 more a month because he had to move from analog to digital service and get a new device that lets him record the way his old videocassette recorder did. Millhouse, the councilman, said he waited on hold an hour for a Time Warner agent last month. He said a fine could total $200 a day for every incident. He said he hoped Moorpark would spur other Southern California cities to take action against the company. As part of its contract with Moorpark, Adelphia set up a $25,000 line of credit that the city could tap to collect fines for such breaches as poor customer service. Once that money is gone, the cable company, now Time Warner, is required to replenish the credit line. Rockenwagner said few cities had similar terms. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:19:10 -0600 From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] Hollywood's big online rival: the little guy To: medianews@twiar.org Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-calco23mar23,1,5197214.column?coll=la-headlines-pe-business Hollywood's big online rival: the little guy Rick Wartzman LA Times March 23, 2007 The latest brouhaha over alleged copyright infringement on the Internet has pitted some of the biggest names in corporate America against each other: Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone versus Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. But you'd be wise to keep your eyes on two other guys who, in a small way, are helping to transform the media landscape: Christopher Allan Smith and Ryan Neisz. They're the creators and co-stars of an online comedy series called "Snowmen Hunters," which was nominated this week by Google's YouTube website for one of its inaugural video awards, which seek to honor user-generated content. It's tempting to dismiss these awards as promotional fluff. And their announcement obviously pales in importance to last week's news that Viacom was suing Google for $1 billion, contending that YouTube hadn't tried hard enough to stop people from posting unauthorized clips of TV shows and movies owned by the Hollywood giant, including "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Mean Girls." Yet if I were running Viacom, I'd be nearly as concerned about shows such as "Snowmen Hunters" as I'd be about ensuring that my own stuff wasn't misappropriated. In the long term ? which in Web time means, like, five years ? these sorts of amateur offerings could wind up playing their own significant role in squeezing profits of the leading TV and film studios. "I don't think there's any doubt," says Mike McGuire, an analyst at technology research firm Gartner Inc., that such material "is shaking things up." This is not to suggest that the top entertainment companies are suddenly going to disappear. What's more, these conglomerates are all feverishly pursuing their own Web strategies ? in some cases by partnering with YouTube, in others by challenging it. On Thursday, News Corp. and NBC Universal, with the help of some of Google's main rivals, said they were launching an online video site stocked with TV shows and movies, plus clips that users can modify and share with friends. They're confident that a slick, professionally produced collection will win out over "Snowmen Hunters" and other shows like it. But I don't buy that it's going to be so easy to roll over this form of competition. Already, McGuire notes, there's a generation of online watchers who are inclined to spend the evening in front of the computer, clicking on one two-minute video after another ? part of a wider phenomenon that Wired magazine recently dubbed "snack-o-tainment." "Ultimately, it's a matter of time share," McGuire says. In other words, the more that somebody is glued to a skit on the merits of folding toilet paper instead of crumpling it, the less their eyeballs are fixed to CBS or MTV. For Big Media, the real threat will emerge as more and more advertisers, attracted by the millions of viewers who genuinely enjoy this homespun programming, gravitate toward the sites hosting these productions and, in turn, more and more money starts finding its way to the talent behind them. Already, a handful of companies are venturing down this path, including Revver Inc., a Los Angeles-based enterprise that will attach a targeted advertisement to your video and then split the revenue with you, 50-50. Its slogan: "What if creativity could pay the rent?" Of course, most folks who fancy themselves the next Steven Spielberg or J.J. Abrams are looking for more than a way to make rent. They want a mansion in Bel-Air, with a pool out back and a Jag in the driveway. And it's this impulse, some believe, that will keep the very best of the lot coming Hollywood's way. "Many of these people are just auditioning to be pros," says Jupiter Research analyst David Card. YouTube counts at least nine acts that have gone on to mainstream success thanks to their exposure on the website, including comedian Lisa Donovan (a.k.a. Lisa Nova) and musician Terra Naomi. But others, such as Smith and Neisz, insist that they're not so eager to make the leap. The two were arranging plans this week to meet with agents in L.A., and they certainly wouldn't spurn an offer from one of the major networks. What gets them most excited, though, is the notion that they might be able to earn a decent living from "Snowmen Hunters" or some other program they've put together all on their own, operating completely outside the traditional Hollywood system. "We're not doing this just to make a bank shot into a studio writing job," Smith says. "We'd love to have YouTube figure out an alternative model" that pays well. Smith grew up in Concord, Calif., and Neisz in Merced. The cousins would spend their school vacations making videos ? "silly, little films," Neisz says, involving Lego building blocks, GI Joes and setting things on fire. Eventually, they landed in Los Angeles, where they tried to break in as screenwriters, but that didn't pan out. Today, each runs a modest video production business ? the 35-year-old Smith in Chico, the 31-year-old Neisz in Burbank ? that cranks out 30-second spots for local colleges and other banal fare. They reserve their real passion for "Snowmen Hunters." The show, which I watched for the first time this week and found amusing in a sick and twisted sort of way, features the exploits of a psychotic beer guzzler named Sherman Rance (Neisz) and his moronic sidekick Everett Van der Sloot (Smith) as they gun down, machete, strangle and otherwise assassinate every snowman they can find. The show debuted last September, and so far they've produced 24 episodes, ranging from 2 1/2 minutes to nearly 10 minutes in length. The production values are pretty decent ? better than a lot of what you see on YouTube ? because they're able to use the equipment from their day jobs. That also helps keep costs to a bare minimum. Smith says "Snowmen Hunters" has been viewed about 1.7 million times ? not an astronomical number, but enough to qualify as a cult hit. And "our audience grows every week," Neisz notes. Only a year ago, most producers of homemade entertainment "had a goal to cross over" into a regular Hollywood gig, says Jamie Byrne, YouTube's head of product marketing. But increasingly, "their vision is to stay on YouTube" and to continue to develop short-form programs right there. YouTube has said that it expects to introduce a payment formula sometime this year to compensate its content creators. Just how it will work ? and how much of the advertising pie will actually be shared ? is unclear. YouTube also needs to be careful: Depending on how future ads are integrated into the site, it could turn off its loyal fans. Smith, for one, is cautiously optimistic. "We're betting that videos like 'Snowmen Hunters' will still be on the Net when the real money comes calling," he says. Wednesday's introduction of Apple Inc.'s online-video-to-TV device, he adds, should only help. No doubt. Things are moving so fast, he and Neisz may very well be blowing away Frosty and his friends today and taking on Comedy Central tomorrow. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu ------------------------------ Message: 8 Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:32:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Medianews] Mossberg: Congress Must Make Clear Copyright Laws To Protect Consumers To: undisclosed-recipient:; Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20070322.html March 22, 2007 Congress Must Make Clear Copyright Laws To Protect Consumers By Walter S. Mossberg Here comes another in the long line of lawsuits between media companies and Internet companies over who gets to distribute content. This time it's Viacom, the enormously rich owner of properties like Paramount Pictures and Comedy Central, suing Google, the enormously rich owner of YouTube. The issue: Viacom wants to get paid more than Google wants to pay it for all of those fuzzy, two-minute clips from programs like "The Daily Show" that users post to YouTube. The companies tried to negotiate a deal, but the talks failed, so Viacom is suing for $1 billion. I am not a lawyer, and I have no idea how this lawsuit will wind up. I suspect it is mainly a bargaining tactic by Viacom. But I know one thing: This fight isn't primarily about consumers and their rights, and its outcome won't necessarily make things better for Internet users. Consumers won't be a party to this case any more than they were in the room when the latest major copyright law was passed by Congress. That law, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, was enacted at the behest of record labels and movie studios. Their purpose was to stop people from using computers and the Internet to distribute digital copies of material to which they didn't hold either the copyright or a distribution license. That idea makes sense. Unlike some Internet zealots, I believe that intellectual property is real and that some form of copyright is appropriate to protect it. I am against the unlicensed copying of DVDs for sale on street corners, or the mass uploading of songs to so-called sharing sites. The Internet and technology companies managed to insert a clause in the DMCA sparing them from penalties for carrying copyright content on grounds they were just innocent conduits. That will be a big issue in the Viacom case. But consumers got no such get-out-of-jail-free card. In fact, the DMCA, and other recent laws and regulations passed under pressure from media companies, are pretty hostile when it comes to consumers. They turn essentially innocent actions into unlawful behavior, because they define copyright infringement too broadly. They have given rise to a technology called Digital Rights Management that causes too many hassles for honest people and discriminates against the new digital forms of distribution. Even Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who created a DRM system for music that actually has worked, recently called for an end to copy protection of legally sold music, mainly because the record labels apply that protection only to online sales, not to physical compact discs. Most honest people wouldn't consider it piracy to buy a CD, copy it to a computer and email one of the song files to a spouse or friend. But the record industry, backed by the laws it essentially wrote, does. Most honest people wouldn't think that uploading to YouTube a two-minute TV clip, which they paid their cable company to receive, is piracy. But Viacom, backed by the laws its industry essentially wrote, is demanding that Google remove all such clips. To be fair, Viacom, unlike the misguided record labels, isn't suing the actual consumers who posted these clips. It's suing Google because it claims Google is making money from them and refusing to pay for that privilege. Google isn't blameless here, either. It does make money, at least indirectly, from other companies' copyright material, for which it didn't pay, even though it has negotiated some paid deals and says it is willing to negotiate others. And while Google says it diligently removes all copyright clips for which it hasn't secured paid rights, every YouTube visitor knows that this system is, at best, imperfect. As a nonlawyer, I think these clips seem like "fair use," an old copyright concept that seems to have weakened under the advent of the new laws. Under fair use, as most nonlawyers have understood it, you could quote this sentence in another publication without permission, though you'd need the permission of the newspaper to reprint the entire column or a large part of it. A two-minute portion of a 30-minute TV show seems like the same thing to me. But why should I have to guess about that? What consumers need is real clarity on the whole issue of what is or isn't permissible use of the digital content they have legally obtained. And that can come only from Congress. Congress is the real villain here, for having failed to pass a modern copyright law that protects average consumers, not just big content companies. We need a new digital copyright law that would draw a line between modest sharing of a few songs or video clips and the real piracy of mass distribution. We need a new law that would define fair use for the digital era and lay out clearly the rights of consumers who pay for digital content, as well as the rights and responsibilities of Internet companies. If you don't like all of the restrictions on the use of digital content, the solution isn't to steal the stuff. A better course is to pressure Congress to pass a new copyright law, one that protects the little guy and the Internet itself. Email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list Medianews@twiar.org http://twiar.org/mailman/listinfo/medianews_twiar.org End of Medianews Digest, Vol 212, Issue 1 *****************************************