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Five Tech Giants Unite to Deter File Sharing

January 6, 2004

by John Markoff

The technology and entertainment industries have long been at odds over the best way to secure intellectual property rights as digital technology advances.

Now, five of what industry executives say are the world's most powerful computer, cell phone and electronics companies are planning a new system for protecting digital music, video and software from illicit file sharing that they hope will at least narrow that gap.

A global consortium of technology companies is laying the groundwork for a campaign to convince Hollywood and the recording industry that it has finally found an acceptable way not just to limit the copying of music CDs and movie DVDs, but to protect digital content in the fast-growing market for hand-held devices capable of playing music, video clips and computer games while wirelessly connected to the Internet.

As these groups prepare to converge on Las Vegas this week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show--by far the biggest trade show for the makers of digital devices and the shapers of what goes into them--the fight over what has come to be known as "digital rights management'' is expected to move to the back burner, at least briefly.

That way everyone can celebrate the long-awaited recovery for the consumer-electronics and entertainment businesses that manifested itself in their best holiday buying season since the late 1990s. But the issue will not go away. The consortium--known as Project Hudson and made up of Intel, Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba and Matshushita--plans to announce its new approach in early February to precede the Grammy music awards and the movie industry's Academy Awards ceremony, executives say. Unlike the system used to protect DVD content, an Internet-based wireless protection plan could permit users of hand-held devices to share movie or music files on a limited basis or permit files to be shared for promotional purposes. Users could also hear a song before deciding whether to buy it.

For the entertainment industry, the Internet has often been viewed primarily as a threat because it makes it possible to transmit copies of just about any original work that can be converted to digital code to just about anyone in the world. But it is increasingly being viewed more positively by some entertainment strategists, who recognize that the Internet's nature as an "always on" medium makes it possible to refine new "digital leashes" to help ensure that copy-protection plans are not subverted.

Beyond trying to convince Hollywood and the recording industry that new technology can prevent illegal sharing of digital content without unduly restricting use, the consortium's approach represents an effort to control the standards and garner the rewards from developing a successful system. Project Hudson pits the new group against other copy-protection systems being advanced by Sony and Royal Philips Electronics, Apple Computer, RealNetworks and others. But the most important target is probably Microsoft.

"They would say they are anti-Microsoft forces," a recording industry executive close to the companies said. "The alternative is to sign up with Redmond."

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., is promoting its own plan, known as the Windows Media Rights Manager. But it has been held back, in part, by a legal challenge over infringing on software patents belonging to a smaller American company, Intertrust, which was acquired in late 2002 by Sony and Philips.

Fears in Hollywood and the recording industry over Microsoft's potential control had also stalled the software maker's thrust into the world of digital media. But those fears have lessened lately, in part because of the emergence of competing technologies from Apple, RealNetworks, Roxio and others. Digital content providers are increasingly finding ways to use some of Microsoft's technology without giving up control of their content.

"There had been a general fear that Microsoft would own the entire security stack," said William Randolph Hearst III, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm in Menlo Park, Calif. But companies are starting to tell Microsoft that they are willing to use only part of its software protection technologies, he said.

Another new consortium of companies is engaged in an effort to create a set of standards that will make it possible to universally distribute digital content across different platforms and technologies. That group, known as the Content Reference Forum and backed by Microsoft, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Universal Music Group, VeriSign and others, announced its effort in December.

The group cites an example of a personal computer user who wishes to share a digital video file with a friend. Instead of sending the file directly, the file owner would first send a "content reference," a digital pointer that permits the file to be downloaded tailored to the receiver's own country as well as the specific computer or other playback device. If the file needed to be purchased, the system would perform the commercial transaction before sending the file.

The interest in new copy-protection approaches has also been spurred by Apple's successful iTunes music store, which has shown that consumers are willing to put up with digital copy-protection plans that do not seriously interfere with their ability to enjoy entertainment products easily when and wherever they want and, within limits, share what they buy.

"If you put up the right kind of speed bump people will generally honor it," said Mike Godwin, a lawyer who represents Public Knowledge, a group in Washington that advocates giving consumers greater weight in the struggle with business interests over intellectual property rights.

Adding to the interest in developing new copy-protection approaches was Sony's announcement last May that it expects to introduce a new wireless hand-held device in time for the 2004 holiday buying season.

Sony, with its Walkman line, was once the leading force in the field of portable electronics, but it has lost a lot of ground by not keeping up with innovations from others, particularly Apple's increasingly popular iPod digital music player.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
R G V  N E W S L E T T E R


JANUARY 2004

Welcome to the Rockbridge Global Village, Inc. Newsletter. We hope that you find information and topics within this newsletter interesting and useful.

Topics in this newsletter:

Government Improves Recruitment Online
Five Tech Giants Unite to Deter File Sharing
AOL Uncloaks Anti-Spyware Software
FCC Fines Fax.com Millions for Ads

Government Improves Recruitment Online
January 2004 Submission
By Ron Levine

A decade ago, human resource administrators responsible for meeting government employment needs realized the potential advantages for recruiting that the Internet, still relatively unknown, afforded. Using this medium as a recruiting tool, job postings could reach many more potential applicants, expanding the selection pool. The hiring agency would also benefit by more efficiently collecting and reviewing application and resume submissions, thus speeding up the entire recruitment process.

By the mid-1990s, as the public was becoming “Internet-savvy,” visionary HR administrators in the government sector jumped on the bandwagon to post job openings for public viewing. It wasn’t long until online recruiting innovations began popping up, attracting job seekers to suitable government service openings. The early versions of these online recruiting sites provided job postings and downloadable applications, although they often had to be returned by either fax or mail.

Today, online recruitment core functionality is more advanced and includes:

  • Postings of job openings with full descriptions
  • Online availability of applications and submissions
  • 24/7 access
  • Resume building with the options to submit online or by mail

However, despite these advances a new Gartner Research Note analysis finds “most e-recruitment applications simply automate in a Web-based environment the manual recruiting processes that they are designed to replace.”

The report continues, “They do not yet exploit the Web’s opportunities for rich media, personalization, streaming video, speed, collaborative interviewing, distance recruiting and same-time, different-place interviewing—all would enable enterprises to reach a broad, dispersed, and diverse population.”

Gartner believes that e-recruitment clients should focus on a horizon of two to four years and seek broader function and support for the changing workplace. By 2007, a number of forces will impel e-recruitment vendors to look beyond candidate tracking and hiring functionality.

Streamlining Recruitment The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Web site (usajobs.opm.gov) is the Federal Government’s official one-stop, centralized source for federal jobs and employment information. Initially launched in 1996 to streamline the federal job search, it now lists approximately 17,000 open federal positions daily. Last year the site received more than 22 million unique visitors.

The site is the front-end piece providing the public with notice of federal job openings. Applications and resumes are filled out and submitted online before going directly to each hiring agency. “Everything is decentralized; each agency does its own hiring according to its own rules. They collect and review the forms,” notes Michael Orenstein, OPM spokesperson. “We provide the centralized employment posting for the entire federal government, making it easy for job seekers to apply without searching individual Web sites or making multiple phone calls. The cumbersome task of paper filings has been eliminated, resulting in a faster hiring process.”

Special features of the federal job site above the core functions include:

  • User selection of job searches by agency, position title, or profession
  • A “hot jobs” section, where agencies feature hard-to-fill positions
  • A chance to explore specific career interests by investigating jobs of interest
  • USAJobs by e-mail, where job seekers can register to automatically receive new job listings which meet individual search criteria. The e-mails provide a direct link to the vacancy’s information.

The USAJobs site is hosted at the OPM’s Technology Support Center in Macon, Ga. The software was mostly written in-house with contract support for a few of the individual applications. Later this year, hosting and daily maintenance of the site will be turned over to TMP Worldwide Government Services (the parent company of Monster.com) under a contract calling for a major redesign.

According to Tina Strickland, project manager for USAJobs, “The Bush Administration wants to improve the clarity and readability of job announcements for non-federal employees.” The overhaul includes making the site more eye-catching, user-friendly, and informative, while clearing up the jargon for the public. The popular Monster.com Web site will include a link to USAJobs, increasing the number of visitors and benefiting federal recruitment efforts, according to Orenstein.

Competing for Talent
Santa Barbara County (SB County) must not only vie with businesses for job candidates, but it must also deal with being in an area with some of the highest housing costs in California. Yet, it has managed to increase the number of employment applications by 10 percent while making sure that only high-quality candidates are referred. For this, Theresa Duer, deputy HR director for the county, credits their JobAps.com online recruitment system. “I cannot imagine how we managed without it,” comments Duer.

Operational since December 1999, the recruitment site is a joint effort between the county’s HR department and JobAps.com, a Santa Barbara-based company that specializes in online recruitment applications customized for government agencies. “SB County didn’t want a resume-based system like those used by most businesses because its hiring criteria is different due to civil service rules and regulations,” says Jenna Berg, JobAps.com’s president. “SB County envisioned a unique solution, and we partnered to make it happen.” It wanted a private database and a distinct employment application. It also wanted to ensure that applicants were not redirected to a competitor’s Web site and to have an online application system customized to match the agency’s existing Web site. Having the flexibility to design its own supplemental questionnaires without database programming was also of high importance. Chief among its goals was to fill vacancies as efficiently as possible, something they have been able to do without “disadvantaging” or losing applicants who did not apply online. The addition of an integrated document imaging system has made this possible. All applications, both paper and electronic, are now available for review on the same Web-based electronic database. SB County now has the ability to quickly refer all qualified, tested, and ranked applicants to hiring departments without sacrificing merit-system principles or violating civil service rules. It has also streamlined its internal processes and kept applicants informed of their status throughout the selection process. Wayward pieces of paper such as resumes, transcripts, certificates, and other materials that straggle in after the initial application is filed have all been integrated into the online system. It has also eliminated paper documents previously used to develop and plan recruitment. All job information is now entered into the system electronically; job postings are automatically created and recruitment information disseminated with varying access rights to applicants, administrators, and hiring departments.

The system consists of an Online Employment Center, which posts jobs, accepts applications, and permits review and communications directly with the hiring department. The Smart Scan module combines paper-based and electronic forms into a single database. The Application Tracking module updates applicants’ status throughout the hiring process, sends notices, and refers them to a hiring department. Finally, there are miscellaneous modules, which include a key-word search functionality and the ability to create supplemental questionnaires for a specific job.

JobAps.com hosts and maintains the SB County site on a 24/7 basis for a monthly fee. The recruitment application runs from the Web; nothing is installed on the desktops, only a Web-browser and an Internet connection are required. “Typically, a mid-sized client like Santa Barbara County [45,000 employees] will have its investment returned in one year,” says Berg. The system saves time when collecting and screening applications, sending out notifications, and arranging testing and interviews. SB County saves about $13,000 a year by eliminating paper mailings and now receives about 76 percent of its applications online. “Lots of recruiting software can’t do electronic notices. We can,” says Berg.

By the end of this year, 32.5 percent of the U.S. population will own one, if not several, wireless Internet-connected devices. This is on top of the millions of Internet users on the standard PC. This opens prime opportunities to better reach job seekers and improve internal recruiting procedures.

Employing an online recruiting system makes the process of applying for a government job easy and understandable, and it helps a public agency in its talent battle with the private sector.

FCC Fines Fax.com Millions for Ads
January 6, 2004
By CNET Staff

FCC fines Fax.com nearly $5.4 million
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said Monday that it has fined Fax.com almost $5.4 million for sending unsolicited advertisements via facsimile machines, the largest fine ever imposed for such a violation. The FCC said that on 489 occasions the California-based company, which faxes messages for clients for a fee, violated the law and regulations that prohibit companies from sending junk faxes. Fax.com had told the commission that the ban on junk faxes was unconstitutional and that the fine, proposed in August 2002, was excessive. The agency fined the company $11,000 per incident.

The FCC ordered Fax.com to file a report within 30 days informing regulators whether it has complied with the law and regulations barring junk faxes. An attempt to contact Fax.com was not immediately successful.

Rockbridge Global Village, Inc.
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Spyware
 


January 6, 2004
By Jim Hu

AOL Unloaks Anti-Spyware Software

update America Online on Tuesday announced the addition of anti-spyware software as part of future upgrades to its flagship online service.

As previously reported, AOL will introduce its anti-spyware programs into upcoming versions of its AOL 9.0 Optimized software for both narrowband and broadband users.

The software will disable programs that are unknowingly installed on one's computer to monitor Web surfing behavior. There are many different forms of spyware and its more common relative "adware."

Many of these programs are installed along with digital video viewers and file-swapping programs. Some of the malicious types of software can record keystrokes and sensitive information and then send the data to a third party.

In the past three years, the number of spyware programs on the Net has shot up 13-fold, according to security software company PestPatrol.

Offering anti-spyware software is another way for AOL to differentiate itself from competitors and boost the appeal of its online service. The changes come at a time when AOL has lost millions of its dial-up subscribers to cheaper alternatives and to broadband services. In the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2003, AOL lost 688,000 dial up subscribers.

In response, AOL is launching variations of its service, such as its Netscape ISP, to cater to discount Internet service provider customers. AOL has also been beefing up its online service with flashier graphics and more rich media to appeal to broadband users.