This Week in Sharing-Files

The week started off with some interesting news from ipoque, a bandwidth management firm that also invests considerable time and effort into studying P2P usage. from their 2008 study shows there’s a shift of sorts taking place in the file-sharing community. Instead of utilizing P2P networks for media, people may be shifting towards iTunes – ha just kidding. Actually, the masses are gravitating towards online storage sites such as RapidShare and MegaUpload. According to the preliminary data, these sites have seen a surge in traffic at P2P’s expense.

The explanation for this is their ease of use. RapidShare and MegaUpload are direct download sites, meaning all one has to do is point and click at the file he or she wants. There is no network to consider, no uploading, and no sharing. This method is much easier, and to some extent, more popular than many P2P methods.

But the growth of these sites may come at a cost. The great advantage of P2P networking is the inherent invulnerability of a decentralized community. Consider the loss of most of the major eDonkey2000 servers, yet the network remains strong thanks to its Kademilia component. There’s already some evidence of in RapidShare’s armor, as a German court ruled the site is not doing enough to prevent copyright infringement. The court also ruled that RapidShare must take a proactive role in preventing copyrighted material from being uploaded from known piracy sources. Considering that RapidShare’s intentions are not to contribute to copyright infringement, it will be interesting to see how this site reacts to the ruling and the repercussions throughout this burgeoning file-sharing method.

Just when the issue of DVD copying would remain an underground issue, RealNetworks managed to provoke a universal “HUH?” when they released RealDVD. RealNetwork’s foray into the DVD copying realm was a surprising move, considering the notable attempts by DVD X Copy earlier this decade. But DVDs are still very popular, as Blu-Ray continues to scream “look at me!” With that popularity comes the desire to rip and transfer DVD titles onto one’s computer, as the need for physical media has become so 1998. RealDVD attempted to avoid the pitfalls of its predecessors by retaining the DRM, which only allows the end user to copy the DVD image to his or her hard drive – and that’s it. No copying, no burning, and no P2P or MegaUpload networks. RealNetworks managed to pull this off by retaining the CSS (Content Scrambling System) DRM on the DVD image, but when it was apparent that the entertainment industry wasn’t impressed, RealNetworks filed a in an attempt to establish fair use rights.
"In response to threats made by the major movie studios, RealNetworks this morning plans to file an action for a declaratory judgment against DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., Disney Enterprises, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., NBC Universal, Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., and Viacom, Inc., in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit asks the court to rule that RealNetworks Home Entertainment, Inc.'s RealDVD software, made available to consumers today at www.realdvd.com, fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement."

Remember when Michael Moore said “Slacker Uprising” would be available for free? Well the caveat “US and Canada only” appears to be the credibility of this “free” giveaway. Let’s see what Michael Moor had to say initially:

"I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). I want you to use 'Slacker Uprising' in any way you see fit to help with the election or to do the work that you do in your community. You can show my film in your local theater, your high school classroom, your college auditorium, your church, union hall or community center. You can have your friends and neighbors over to the house for a viewing. You can broadcast it on TV, on cable access, on regular channels or on the web. It's completely free -- I don't want to see a dime from this. And if you want, you can charge admission or ask for a donation if it's to raise money for a candidate, a voter drive, or for any non-profit or educational purpose. In other words -- it's yours!”

When such permission is given, even if it’s only applicable to US and Canadian citizens, it’s next to impossible to keep a file contained in just one continent. How can a BitTorrent user in the US prevent the movie from uploading to someone in Sweden? In a short time, the file became widespread on BitTorrent. When the file became indexed on BTJunkie, the lawyers representing Moore sent a cease and desist letter to , BT Junkie’s DNS provider – not their web provider. The C&D letter was withdrawn when the error was discovered, but by then it was too late, the impossible nature of such a US & Canada constraint was already evident, and made Michael Moore’s “blanket permission” seem a bit ridiculous.

Nokia’s iPhone killer, the 5800, will have to wait to do some killing season in the United States. Although the associated ‘Comes with Music’ store has launched in Europe, the US will have to wait until 2009 for that as well. The 5800 is seen as viable competitor to the iPhone, and the music store allows the end user to keep the music purchased even if the subscription ends. However, transportability seems limited since the music files are protected with Windows DRM.

Finally, mechanical royalty rates for sites like iTunes and Rhapsody exactly where they are. Prior to the Copyright Royalty Board’s ruling, Apple hinted that iTunes may no longer be a viable business option if royalty rates depart from the current 9.1 cents per track price tag. That doesn’t appear to be a concern for iTunes fans any time soon, as the board voted to extend the same royalty price of physical media to digital. The issue will be revisited in 2012.


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