P2P News Archive from Meerkat

Tomorrow, the future of the Internet gets set in court A bunch of my EFF co-workers are in Hollywood tomorrow, fighting for your rights and mine. Today is the day that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hears the Morpheus appeal, fighting the studios who say that the toolmakers who build P2P networks should be on the hook for what their users do with those networks (like saying that Bank of America should be able to sue Ford if they get stuck up by someone driving a Mustang getaway car). <p> Good luck to them. We've won this fight in the lower court, and we'd all better hope we win it again on appeal, too: otherwise, you can kiss the idea of general-purpose networks goodbye: network operators will have to build their systems to police their users' activities, using fallible human judgement or even more fallible algorithms to grant or forbid access to the network depending on the file you're trying to share. <blockquote> "This is not just a case about peer-to-peer," countered Fred von Lohmann, who represents Streamcast and is senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It is a case that will determine whether technology companies are allowed to innovate or whether they have to ask permission from copyright owners before they build new products." <p> The legal doctrine tested in this case is the same one that protects companies like Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft from being held liable when someone uses HP CD burners or Internet Explorer to commit copyright infringement, von Lohmann said. <p> "It's important to protect the Betamax doctrine, so the price of innovation doesn't become a huge lawsuit from the entertainment industry," he said. <p> In the landmark Sony Betamax case in 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that Sony was not liable for contributory copyright infringement for selling VCRs that allowed consumers to tape content from their televisions. </blockquote> This will be an important day in the history of the future. Hold your breath and hope. And <a href="https://secure.eff.org/">give to EFF</a> -- someone's got to fight this fight. <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62112,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1">Link</a> [Source: Boing Boing]

Court to Hear Landmark P2P Case Slashdot Feb 2 2004 7:40PM GMT [Source: Moreover Web developer news]

Court to Hear Landmark P2P Case CrystalFalcon writes "Wired News reports that a federal appeals court is poised to hear arguments in a landmark case involving Grokster and Morpheus that could ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

Course in googling comes to UW Seattle LIS department The UW Seattle Library and Information Science program is offering a course in Google -- in Microsoft's back-yard, no less, and just a few days since Bill Gates said that MSFT was going to un-break its search offerings: <blockquote> 'Our strategy was to do a good job on the 80 percent of common queries and ignore the other stuff,' he said. But 'it's the remaining 20 percent that counts,' he added, 'because that's where the quality perception is.' </blockquote> This was by far the most interesting thing I've read about Google in 2004: the value proposition is in the 20 percent that represents the least-frequent queries in the service. It's the same reason that PirateNapster, with millions of songs (most of which you didn't care about) was a million times better than LegitNapster, with a few hundred thousand songs, most of which you can hear by turning on the radio. It's the difference between an ASCII ebook that you can print of turn into a PDF or run through text-to-speech or any of a million tasks that most of us don't care about and a frozen ebook in a DRM format that you can only use in the ways that the publisher's research has indicated are most popular. <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001848831_google02.html">Link</a> (<i>via <a href="http://battellemedia.com/archives/000294.php">Battelle</a></i>) [Source: Boing Boing]

Today, the future of the Internet gets set in court A bunch of my EFF co-workers are in Hollywood today, fighting for your rights and mine. Today is the day that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hears the Morpheus appeal, fighting the studios who say that the toolmakers who build P2P networks should be on the hook for what their users do with those networks (like saying that Bank of America should be able to sue Ford if they get stuck up by someone driving a Mustang getaway car). <p> Good luck to them. We've won this fight in the lower court, and we'd all better hope we win it again on appeal, too: otherwise, you can kiss the idea of general-purpose networks goodbye: network operators will have to build their systems to police their users' activities, using fallible human judgement or even more fallible algorithms to grant or forbid access to the network depending on the file you're trying to share. <blockquote> "This is not just a case about peer-to-peer," countered Fred von Lohmann, who represents Streamcast and is senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It is a case that will determine whether technology companies are allowed to innovate or whether they have to ask permission from copyright owners before they build new products." <p> The legal doctrine tested in this case is the same one that protects companies like Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft from being held liable when someone uses HP CD burners or Internet Explorer to commit copyright infringement, von Lohmann said. <p> "It's important to protect the Betamax doctrine, so the price of innovation doesn't become a huge lawsuit from the entertainment industry," he said. <p> In the landmark Sony Betamax case in 1984, the Supreme Court ruled that Sony was not liable for contributory copyright infringement for selling VCRs that allowed consumers to tape content from their televisions. </blockquote> This is an important day in the history of the future. Hold your breath and hope. And <a href="https://secure.eff.org/">give to EFF</a> -- someone's got to fight this fight. <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62112,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1">Link</a> [Source: Boing Boing]

Court to Hear Landmark P2P Case A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments in a case questioning whether peer-to-peer sites Grokster and Morpheus should be held liable for the illegal file trading on their networks. By Katie Dean. [Source: Wired News]

Sun makes room for JXTA Sun Microsystems is planning to incorporate software developed through its peer-to-peer computing initiative, Project Jxta, into its commercial software products. The open source project has been going for 3 years now, and Sun is planning to "slip Jxta tools into its own server and desktop product lines". [Source: TheServerSide.com]

Roxio, Napster to consolidate in LA Toast and Jam maker <a href="http://www.roxio.com">Roxio Inc.</a> has hedged a good deal of its future financial bets on the success of its relaunched, now legitimate commercial music download service Napster. Now the company is putting its money where its mouth is by relocating its corporate headquarters to Los Angeles, site of the Napster offices. [Source: Mac Central latest headlines]

Lindows puts software on P2P nets globetechnology.com Jan 31 2004 7:38AM GMT [Source: Moreover OS news]

Orkut it out <p>Emailed declarations of <a href="http://orkut.com/">Orkut</a> friendship now outnumber spams in my mailbox. And the durn thing is... it's fun. Orkut is an amazing thing. Highly viral, very artfully designed. (Even though I'm going to turn off the email feature. I can find these people on the site too.)</p><p>Truth is, all these "friend" systems aren't about friendship but <i>acquaintenceship</i>. A minority of the named friends reallly are real-life friends in the generally accepted use of the noun. Most are acquaintences. They're people I know, and who know me. Add a little "like" and you've crossed Orkut's friendship threshold.</p><p><a href="http://epeus.blogspot.com/">Kevin</a> just called it "baseball card collecting." How many can <i>you</i> collect? (Hmm. Can you trade them?)</p><p><a href="http://napsterization.org/stories/">Mary</a> says I'm the only card in the deck who's wearing a tie. She also compares Orkut to a video game. (Earth to Google: There's your revenue model.)</p><p>Still some scaling issues... since it seems to be down about 1/4 of the times I try to log into it.</p><p>Has me thinking... Google was about the 7th mover in search, the 300,000th mover in advertising, and now the 8th mover in social networking. Not sure there's a betting line there, but it's... interesting.</p> [Source: The Doc Searls Weblog]

Lindows offers software for free over P2P ZDNet Jan 30 2004 6:57PM GMT [Source: Moreover OS news]

Roxio, Napster to consolidate in LA Toast and Jam maker <a href="http://www.roxio.com">Roxio Inc.</a> has hedged a good deal of its future financial bets on the success of its relaunched, now legitimate commercial music download service Napster. Now the company is putting its money where its mouth is by relocating its corporate headquarters to Los Angeles, site of the Napster offices. [Source: Mac Central latest headlines]

MyDoom Virus and the Dangers of Peer-to-Peer PC Magazine Jan 30 2004 6:20PM GMT [Source: Moreover computer security stories]

Lindows offers software for free over P2P CNET Jan 30 2004 6:14PM GMT [Source: Moreover OS news]

Lindows offers software for free over P2P The Linux software seller plans to distribute its LindowsLive operating system, which retails for $29.95, for free via peer-to-peer networks. [Source: CNET News.com: Enterprise]

ZDNet Australia: Lindows Offers OS for Free Over p2p "Lindows has announced it plans to distribute its LindowsLive operating system for free via peer-to-peer networks..." [Source: Linux Today]

developerWorks: Grid computing -- Next-Generation Distributed Computing "In this first of a series of articles, Matt Haynos provides a cursory analysis of the similarities and differences between grid computing and such distributed computing systems as P2P, CORBA, cluster computing, and DCE..." [Source: Linux Today]

EFF Updates P2P Developers Legal Guide Slyck Jan 30 2004 3:27AM GMT [Source: Moreover developer stories]

P2P Developers Cannot Block Copyrighted Material Slyck Jan 30 2004 3:27AM GMT [Source: Moreover developer stories]

Wired hotseat: Altnet CEO Kevin Bermeister For this month's issue of <em>Wired Magazine</em>, I interviewed Kevin Bermeister, CEO of <a href="http://www.altnet.com/">Altnet</a>: <blockquote> The latest P2P flap comes from within the tech world. Altnet, which provides DRM-encoded files for distribution on Kazaa, has issued cease-and-desist notices to eight P2P companies, including MediaDefender and Overpeer. Altnet accuses them of violating the patent on its TrueNames technology, which calculates a unique number, or hash, based on a digital file's contents. Developers say the patent is fluff; the tech is old and generic. Wired asked Altnet's CEO about his bullying ways. <p> WIRED: What right do you have to a technology that has been around for decades?<br> BERMEISTER: In the 1980s, the chief scientist of Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Altnet's parent company, invented a specific use of file hash as it relates to the distribution of content on a widely distributed network. With P2P, dynamic nodes are automatically established and files are indexed by hash to improve network efficiency. This way, users can seek a file from a number of sources and have a better chance of getting it.<br> WIRED: Why are you suddenly claiming ownership?<br> BERMEISTER: Right now, P2P is the Wild West of the Internet, and we see an opportunity to commercialize it. Without that patent, a series of claims would inevitably be made not only on Altnet, but on other parties. We want to use the patent to create partnerships. </blockquote> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/view.html?pg=3">Link</a> [Source: Boing Boing]

Message to Napster: Put Up or Shut Up It seems these days there is no shortage of people saying something stupid. [Source: O'Reilly Weblogs]

Music stores, drink makers follow Pepsi-iTunes promo Following the media buzz of Pepsi and Apple's iTunes promotion, several digital music stores and drink companies have formed alliances recently, including: Coke and MusicMatch; RealNetworks and Heineken; Napster and Miller Brewing; and BuyMusic.com and South Beach Beverage, maker of SoBe... [Source: MacMinute.com: Up-to-the-Minute Apple Mac News]

Sun sees JXTA "gathering steam" After passing the 2-million download mark, Sun's peer-to-peer technology is rumored to start appearing in some of Sun's products, including Sun's Java Enterprise System (formerly Sun ONE). And apparently Sun's not alone: the article cites JXTA projects by Verizon, iobi, and Nokia. [Source: TheServerSide.com]

P2P Companies Say They Can't Filter P2P Companies Say They Can't Filter [Source: O'Reilly Network Developer News]

InfoWorld: Sun Sees Jxta Gathering Steam "Sun Microsystems Inc. says its Jxta technology for peer-to-peer computing is gathering steam and may soon make its way into some of its own products..." [Source: Linux Today]

Sun makes room for Jxta After spending three years seeding the market for Jxta, Sun has plans to use the open-source peer-to-peer software in its own server and desktop lines. [Source: CNET News.com: Enterprise]

p2pnet.net: Justin Frankel Quits AOL "Winamp's [and Gnutella's] inventor Justin Frankel has quit AOL, reports CNET, confirming rumours that have been floating around since last week..." [Source: Linux Today]

p2pnet.net: Justin Frankel Quits AOL "Winamp's [and Gnutella's] inventor Justin Frankel has quit AOL, reports CNET, confirming rumours that have been floating around since last week..." [Source: Linux Today]

IAR Bits and Bytes for January 28, 2004 Espotting snags freenet search and an Ohio lawmaker proposes a tough new anti-spam law. [Source: Internet Advertising Report]

BusinessWeek: RIAA Threats Driving Anonynous P2P - More File Trading BusinessWeek: RIAA Threats Driving Anonynous P2P - More File Trading [Source: O'Reilly Network Developer News]

2004: The Year Of The Online Music Stores; Napster Chief Slams Apple Mac Observer Jan 28 2004 1:17PM GMT [Source: Moreover pc industry stories]

'Steer clear of Apple', urges Napster boss Napster CEO Chris Gorog has warned music delegates at the Midem international music fair in Cannes t... [Source: MacNN]

Napster: Stay Away from the Mac Platform Insanely Great Mac Jan 27 2004 10:56PM GMT [Source: Moreover pc industry stories]

Protect your investment: buy open Scoble has written a weblog entry about, among other things, iTunes DRM and Microsoft DRM, and whether you should get an iPod. Scoble works for Microsoft, as do a number of good, sharp, ethical people that I know, and I know him in passing, and he seems to be a good guy. With that disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I think that this blog entry of his epitomizes the sloppiest, worst thinking about digital-media in the field today. <p> Scoble's point, if I understand it, is that we are going to spend a bundle acquiring music from "legit" services like the iTunes Music Store and the upcoming Microsoft music store. If we spend hundreds of dollars on digital music, we should be on the lookout to protect and maximise that investment. I agree. <p> Well, says Scoble, all of the music that we buy from these legit services is going to have DRM use-restriction technology ("See, when you buy music from a service like Apple's iTunes or Napster (or MSN), it comes with DRM attached."). So the issue becomes "choosing between two competing lockin schemes." <p> And in that choice, says Scoble, Microsoft wins, because it has more licensees of its proprietary, lock-in format. That means that when you want to play your music in your car, it's more likely that you'll find a car-stereo manufacturer that has paid Microsoft to play Microsoft music than that you'll find one that has coughed up to Apple to play Apple music. <p> And this is the problem with Scoble's reasoning. We have a world today where we can buy CDs, we can download DRM-music, we can download non-DRM music from legit services, we can download "pirate" music from various services, and we can sometimes defeat DRM using off-the-shelf apps for Linux (which has a CD recovery tool that handily defeats CD DRM), the Mac (with tools like AudioHijack that make it easy to convert DRM music to MP3s or other open formats) and Windows (I assume, since I don't use Windows, but as Scoble points out, there's <em>lots</em> of Windows software out there.). <p> In this world where we have consumer choices to make, Scoble argues that our best buy is to pick the lock-in company that will have the largest number of licensees. <p> That's just about the worst choice you can make. <p> If I'm going to protect my investment in digital music, my best choice is <em>clearly</em> to invest in buying music in a format that <em>anyone</em> can make a player for. I should buy films, not kinetoscopes. I should buy VHS, not Betamax. I should buy analog tape, not DAT. <p> Because Scoble's right. If you buy Apple Music or if you buy Microsoft Music, you're screwed if you want to so something with that music that Apple or Microsoft doesn't like. <p> Copyright law has never said that the guy who makes the records gets to tell you what kind of record player you can use. If Scoble and his employer want to offer a product with "features" that their customers want, those features should reflect <em>what their customers want</em>: No Windows user rolled out of bed this morning and said, "I wish there was a way that I could get Microsoft to deliver me tools that allow me to do <em>less</em> with the music I buy." <p> No, the "customer" for Microsoft DRM is the guy who makes the records: the music industry; and not the gal who buys the records: you. That customer has already told Microsoft how it feels about its products: in the Broadcast Flag negotiation, the movie companies locked Microsoft DRM out of consideration for use in next-generation PVRs in favor of DRM that Sony (also a movie company, surprise, surprise) had a patent for. <p> Microsoft is selling out its customers to people who <em>aren't even buying</em>. Scoble points out that Microsoft licensed the hell out of its OS to hardware vendors, pioneering a new kind of open-ness. He's <em>right</em>. Microsoft set a good example that Apple has been too stupid to follow, and it's time for the company to do it again. When Microsoft shipped its first search-engine (which makes a copy of every page it searches), it violated the letter of copyright law. When Microsoft made its first proxy server (which makes a copy of every page it caches), it broke copyright law. When Microsoft shipped its first CD-ripping technology, it broke copyright law. <p> It broke copyright law because copyright law was <em>broken</em>. Copyright law changes <em>all the time</em> to reflect the new tools that companies like Microsoft invent. If Microsoft wants to deliver a compelling service to its customers, let it make general-purpose tools that have the side-effect of breaking Sony and Apple's DRM, giving its customers <em>more choice</em> in the players they use. Microsoft has shown its willingness to go head-to-head with antitrust people to defend its bottom line: next to them, the copyright courts and lawmakers are pantywaists, Microsoft could eat those guys for lunch, exactly the way Sony kicked their asses in 1984 when they defended their right to build and sell VCRs, even though some people might do bad things with them. Just like the early MP3 player makers did when they ate Sony's lunch by shipping product when Sony wouldn't. <p> But forget Microsoft, because Scoble's not talking about the best thing for Microsoft, he's talking about the best thing for <em>you</em>. The best way to protect <em>your</em> investment in music. Without a doubt, the best way to protect that investment is to only buy music that <em>isn't</em> in a lock-in format, and to break the locks on any music you do own, while you can. Scoble asks what you will do if "Apple doesn't make a system that plays its AAC format in a car stereo?" I'll tell you what you should do: you should get yourself tools to turn AACs into OGGs or MP3s right now, so that you can buy any car stereo you want and play your music on it. If you can't get those tools, you shouldn't buy AACs (Student: "What do I do if three thugs follow me down a dark deserted street in the middle of the night?" "Master: Don't walk down a dark deserted street in the middle of the night.") <p> Microsoft can pursue the bone-stupid strategy of kowtowing to the music labels instead of delivering the tools its customers want, but it's a dead end. When Sony invented the VCR, it did so <em>after</em> the movie companies had already decreed that they would only license their movies for use on the "Discovision," a hunk of shit best forgotten on the trashheap of history (much like the products that Sony later delivered instead of MP3 walkmen). With the VCR, though, Sony delivered what its customers wanted, and the movie companies got rich off of it, dragged kicking and screaming to the money-tree again. <p> Now, <em>that's</em> grandiose. Now <em>that's</em> visionary. Next to that, Microsoft's fraidy-cat technology is suicidally stupid, and so are you if you invest in it. Protect your investment. Vote with your wallet. Buy open. <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/01/26.html#a6361">Link</a> [Source: Boing Boing]

Industry Expert Analyzes Nomadix Patent Jim Thompson of NetGate wrote a short analysis of the Nomadix gateway redirection patent, which he gave us permission to reproduce: Jim is the former CTO of Wayport, and an engineer with many years standing in the Wi-Fi industry. He writes about Rob Flickenger's response to the Nomadix patent on the NoCat mailing list. NoCat is an open-source authentication gateway project. Here's Jim's email to myself and a Freenetworks.org list. Some of the terminology may be obscure to those of you not in the industry, but I hope we can start a dialog to explain these parts. (Disclaimer: Jim is representing his own opinion on his own time and his opinion doesn't represent the view of this site or any of his employers past and present.) Jim writes: [Rob writes] specifically: I think the critical phrase from the press release is: "This redirection takes place regardless of the host computer's settings and without altering the user's browser settings." Unfortunately, that has little or nothing to do with the patent. When one reads patents, one has to read the claims. The other text is basically fluff. [Patent number] 6,636,894 has 11 claims. Of these, 2 are so-called "independent claims", and the other 9 depend on one of these two independent claims (or on another dependent claim.) The two independent claims are #1 and #6. 1. A method for redirecting an original destination address access request to a redirected destination address, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, at a gateway device, all original destination address access requests originating from a computer; determining, at the gateway device, which of the original destination address requests require redirection;storing the original destination address if redirection is required; modifying, at the gateway device, the original destination address access request and communicating the modified request to a redirection server if redirection is required;responding, at the redirection server, to the modified request with a browser redirect message that reassigns the modified request to an administrator-specified, redirected destination address;intercepting, at the gateway device, the browser redirect message and modifying it with the stored original destination address; andsending the modified browser redirect message to the computer, which automatically redirects the computer to the redirected destination address. and 6. A system for redirecting an original destination address access request to a redirected destination address, the system comprising:a computer that initiates original destination address requests;a gateway device in communication with the computer,... [Source: 802.11b News]

MyDoom virus hammering Windows systems UPDATED A new Windows virus, called MyDoom (officially, W32/Mydoom@MM) and circulating in the form of a 32K Zip file, began hitting corporate and private e-mail boxes Monday at about 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. It masquerades as a Kazaa P2P component and tries to embed itself in the Kazaa shared folder for music and other file-swapping. [Source: NewsForge]

MyDoom virus starts hammering Windows systems UPDATED A new Windows virus, called MyDoom (officially, W32/Mydoom@MM) and circulating in the form of a 32K Zip file, began hitting corporate and private e-mail boxes Monday at about 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. It masquerades as a Kazaa P2P component and tries to embed itself in the Kazaa shared folder for music and other file-swapping. [Source: NewsForge]

MyDoom virus starts hammering email boxes UPDATED A new Windows virus, called MyDoom (officially, W32/Mydoom@MM) and circulating in the form of a 32K Zip file, began hitting corporate and private e-mail boxes Monday at about 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. It masquerades as a Kazaa P2P component and tries to embed itself in the Kazaa shared folder for music and other file-swapping. [Source: NewsForge]

Updated gtk-gnutella to 0.93.3 [adam 2004-01-26] [Source: NetBSD Packages]

Study: P2P and Legal Downloads Will Kill CDs [Source: CIO Today]

Quick and Easy IPv6 for Debian 25 Jan 2004: The ChangeLog brings us: Quick and Easy IPv6 for Debian."Here's how to set up your own 6to4 tunnel in about 5 minutes (assuming your kernel is IPV6-ready), without the need of freenet6 or any other tunnel broker. You need only a real IP address (static is best) and a basic understanding of IPv6 to proceed. This article will configure your host or your router." [Source: RootPrompt.org -- Nothing but Unix]

Peer-To-Peer Theory behind file sharing [Source: Cool Tools]

Home Network Basis: Transmission Environments and Wired/Wireless Protocols This complete technical guide to home network media, protocols, and implementation is the first systematic technical guide to all leading transmission media and communication protocols for in-home networking. Using detailed simulation techniques provided as MATLAB files and SIMULINK models (downloadable from the companion website), Walter Y. Chen covers the technical challenges and implementation of twisted-pair telephone wiring, coax, powerline, and RF transmission. Next, Chen thoroughly reviews each leading communications protocol: Ethernet, HomePNA 1.0/2.0, FireWire, X-10, CEBus, HomePlug, Wireless LAN, and HomeRF. Finally, he covers today&#8217;s leading mechanisms and protocols for linking the Internet with home networks. Coverage includes: Transmission potentials for each medium, including channel and noise models, and channel capacity calculation Key features of each standard, with corresponding implementation approaches Standardized transmission protocols, corresponding transceiver structures, and performance estimates Home network topologies and interconnection protocols, including Peer-to-Peer, NAT, and MAC Bridging [Source: O'Reilly Safari]

Beyond Hacking the Xbox OpenP2P.com Jan 23 2004 1:53AM GMT [Source: Moreover computer games stories]

Brewster Kahle on the Internet Archive and People's Technology As founder and digital librarian for the Internet Archive (IA), Brewster Khale wants to provide universal access to all human knowledge. He also wants the Internet and access to it to remain in the hands of everyday people. In this interview by Lisa Rein, Khale talks about the IA, SF WiFi rooftops, and the impact of technology on society. [Source: OpenP2P.com]

http://archive.scripting.com/2004/01/22#When:4:41:50PM Napster CEO and Silicon Valley VC Hank Barry is our special guest tonight at Berkman Center. 7PM. Will be webcast. [Source: Scripting News]

Small ISP Uses Sandvine to Manage P2P Traffic Slyck Jan 22 2004 8:50PM GMT [Source: Moreover online access stories]

Morpheus Infiltrates Other P2P Networks Slashdot Jan 22 2004 5:06PM GMT [Source: Moreover Web developer news]

Morpheus Infiltrates Other P2P Networks Morpheus Infiltrates Other P2P Networks [Source: O'Reilly Network Developer News]

Deaniancy <p>On Howard Stern this morning: <i>That's what I like about Dean's so-called meltdown. He has passion.</i> </p><p>Dig <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/lileks/.cv/lileks/Public/Yeagh.mp3-link.mp3">this Remix of The Speech</a>, which comes to us from <a href="http://www.lileks.com/">Lileks</a>, I think, <a href="http://www.bigrick.fm/blog/2004_01_18_archive.html#107475176487582747">by way</a> of <a href="http://www.bigrick.fm/blog/blog1.html">Big Rick</a>, who today <a href="http://www.bigrick.fm/blog/2004_01_18_archive.html#107475874416525768">discovered</a> <a href="http://www.giantmicrobes.com/health/stomachache.html">stuffed microbes</a> by <a href="http://www.deepfun.com/weblog/2004_01_20_blogger.html#107365728663502194">way</a> of <a href="http://www.deepfun.com/weblog/">Bernie's Blog 'o Fun</a>.</p><p>All major mediations aside, this peer-to-peer shit <i>does</i> work.</p> [Source: The Doc Searls Weblog]

Morpheus Infiltrates Other P2P Networks An anonymous reader writes "Morpheus was the number one post-Napster P2P app until Sharman Networks took over KaZaa and got them bumped off the FastTrack ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

Justin Frankel On AOL, Subverting The Status Quo linuxbaby writes "Rolling Stone has an excellent feature on Justin Frankel, the creator of Winamp, Gnutella, Shoutcast, Waste, and other projects. The article ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

magnetlink p2p file distribution platform interesting that kazaa's been reaching out to bloggers so much, and maybe this can solve the popularity penalty for syndication feeds [Source: anil dash's daily links]

Peer-to-Peer Hotspot Settlement Instead of building complicated authentication systems, why not employ agents and tokens in a peer-to-peer model?: Elias Efstathiou, a Ph.D. candidate at the Athens (Greece) University of Economics and Business in computer science, wrote to point to a paper he and George C. Polyzos co-authored entitled "A Peer-to-Peer Approach to Wireless LAN Roaming" (PDF download). The two authors propose a peer-to-peer system in which autonomous agents store authentication and pricing information (although pricing can be more of a concept than actual monetary value), and use tokens to exchange access units. In this system, you don't need a monolithic back-end, because each entity has its own database, however large or small. Instead, the burden is shifted to managed token-based authentication. It's an interesting idea, and certainly collapses complexity. However, it would have to be implemented and adopted through the same business realities that limit roaming today. Their paper presents ideas to cut through technological complexity, but you still have to have networks willing to buy into the notion of unhindered roaming to participate.... [Source: 802.11b News]

Dcube: Portable Audio With Ogg And A Scroll Wheel Slowtreme writes "There have been many attempts recently to cash in on Apple's iPod success. Napster, Dell, and others have made iPod clones. This Korean Dcube ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

Going to bat for NAT <p>Back on the 14th I <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2004/01/14#execution">pointed</a> to John Walker's thoughtful criticisms of NAT (Network Address Translation). The original document seems to be gone, but John's points are also made at his essay <a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/">The Digital Imprimatur</a>.</p><p>This morning <a href="http://blog.notice.nu/notice/site.nsf/wwr?OpenPage">Jeroen Meijer</a> pointed me to his own <a href="http://blog.notice.nu/notice/site.nsf/blog/0401#1762D128BBE95800C1256E1F00551BA1">equally thoughtful disagreements</a> with John.</p><blockquote><p><i>So, are the lights going out on the internet? Most certainly not, at least not because of NAT. Does it affect the addressability of end-users? Most certainly yes and with that it added greatly improved security; personally, I'm very nervous to use the phone to connect instead of the NATted connection I use at home because I <b>know</b> what's being blocked and I'm never certain about which programs on XP respond to certain incoming colored envelopes. Is it circumventable? Oh yes, if one use centralized <b>or</b> dynamically assigned servers. John Walker shouldn't whine but take a look at Skype or other P2P systems.</i></p></blockquote> [Source: The Doc Searls Weblog]

Can P2P Filter Copyrighted Content? Slashdot Jan 19 2004 7:21PM GMT [Source: Moreover Web developer news]

US Senator calls for P2P Summit BoingBoing pal <a href="http://www.parres.com/john">John Parres</a> says: <blockquote> Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) is back in the news. Last fall the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he chairs, scrutinized the RIAA's crackdown on file-sharers. Last week during a Consumer Electronics Show panel he said, "With the advent of technology such as peer-to-peer networking, law, technology and ethics are now not in synch. We need to find other ways to solve the problems rather than issuing lawsuits and lobbying Congress to pass tougher laws." Now, lo and behold, he is planning to convene a peer-to-peer (P2P) summit within the next two months. (<a href="http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3299511">Story link</a>) <p> The Senator says, "I believe we need the technology experts, the computer industry, the peer-to-peer industry, the software industry, the entertainment industry, the privacy experts and the business experts to come together and discuss positive and meaningful solutions to this challenge facing a major segment of our economy." A voice of reason in the Senate? I for one am hopeful. </blockquote> [Source: Boing Boing]

Can P2P Filter Copyrighted Content? scubacuda writes "DRMwatch reports that technologists acting on behalf of porn publisher Titan Media reported to Congress that P2P networks could (if they ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

P2P Networks Start Tapping Interoperability P2P Networks Start Tapping Interoperability [Source: O'Reilly Network Developer News]

ISPs Ignore RIAA's New P2P Ploy ISPs Ignore RIAA's New P2P Ploy [Source: O'Reilly Network Developer News]

File Swapping Resurging The RIAA had enjoyed a brief respite in file trading</a> resulting from recent legal threats, but a <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5142382.html?tag=nefd_top">new study suggests that these scare s are wearing off and people are embracing P2P</a> networks again. "The NPD Group, an independent market research firm, reported on Friday that peer-to-peer usage was up 14 percent in November 2003 from September. This upturn comes after six straight months of declines in digital file sharing. Usage dropped dramatically starting in April 2003, when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began its well-publicized campaign of threatening individual file sharers with legal action." [Source: O'Reilly Network Developer News]

P2P File Swapping on the Rise Again? Slashdot Jan 18 2004 1:28AM GMT [Source: Moreover Web developer news]

P2P File Swapping on the Rise Again? asdf 101 writes "News.com reports today that 'After six months of declines, peer-to-peer usage recently climbed 14 percent.' Their bottomline: 'The decline ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

ISPs Ignore RIAA's New P2P Ploy A cold shoulder so far for a proposal that ISPs become agents in the battle against copyright infringement. [Source: ISP News headlines]

Crypto plan to anonymise P2P, thwart RIAA [Source: CIO Today]

Crypto plan to anonymise P2P, thwart RIAA The Register Jan 16 2004 4:53PM GMT [Source: Moreover internet europe stories]

ISPs Ignore RIAA's New P2P Ploy A cold shoulder so far for a proposal that ISP's become agents in the battle against copyright infringement. [Source: internetnews.com: Top News]

Senator Plans P2P Summit Slashdot Jan 16 2004 12:28PM GMT [Source: Moreover Web developer news]

Senator Plans P2P Summit ClickTheVote writes "Last fall Senator Norm Coleman held hearings on the RIAA subpoena process, now he is going to convene a P2P Summit. At CES last week he ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

Is the war on file sharing over? The music biz is declaring success, citing lawsuits and Apple's iTunes. But to music fans who recall the glory days of Napster, the fight goes on. [Source: Salon.com]

Senator Plans P2P Summit Senator Plans P2P Summit [Source: O'Reilly Network Developer News]

CodeCon program online The speakers for CodeCon -- the grassroots P2P hackers conference in San Francisco this February -- have been posted, along with their talk descriptions and links to a lot of source, docs, and running code. <blockquote> ida-x86emu - The x86 Emulator Plugin for IDA Pro<br> presenters Chris Eagle<br> history This tool was developed to assist in reverse engineering shiva, an anti reverse engineering tool developed for Linux platforms. Initial development took place in September 2003 and new capabilities are constantly being added. The tool played a supporting role in my BlackHat Federal presentation detailing the reversing of shiva, but it has not been formally presented in its own right. </blockquote> <a href="http://www.codecon.org/2004/program.html">Link</a> (<i>via <a href="http://www.infoanarchy.org/">Infoanarchy</a></i>) [Source: Boing Boing]

A Slashdot post about how Penn State students log on to Napster 2.0 <a href="http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=92751&cid=7972564">A Slashdot post about how Penn State students log on to Napster 2.0</a> gives a glimpse of one possible future of identity management, and it's damn complicated. [Source: Hack the Planet]

PEER GUARDIAN (free): Petite firewall application especially designed for P2P users and anyone else who wants to protect his or her computer from unauthorized searches instigated by private agencies a [Source: Shell Extension City]

Senator Plans P2P Summit Hoping to avoid online piracy legislation, Coleman is pushing for technological solutions. [Source: internetnews.com: Top News]

Senator Plans P2P Summit [Source: CIO Today]

Penn State Launches Napster Music Service Slashdot Jan 14 2004 1:46PM ET [Source: Moreover Web developer news]

Execution <p>Speak Freely, John Walker's original VoIP creation, is <a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/speakfree/eol/">slated to die</a> tomorrow:</p><blockquote><p><i>On January 15th, 2004 all Speak Freely documentation and program downloads, along with links to them on the site navigation pages, will be removed from the <a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/">www.fourmilab.ch</a> site.</i></p></blockquote><p>He gives many reasons. The one that creeps me is this:</p><blockquote><p><i>The Internet, regardless of its state of development, is in the process of metamorphosing into something very different from the Internet we've known over the lifetime of Speak Freely. The Internet of the near future will be something never contemplated when Speak Freely was designed, inherently hostile to such peer-to-peer applications.</i></p><p><i>I am not using the phrase "peer to peer" as a euphemism for "file sharing" or other related activities, but in its original architectural sense, where all hosts on the Internet were fundamentally equal. Certainly, Internet connections differed in bandwidth, latency, and reliability, but apart from those physical properties any machine connected to the Internet could act as a client, server, or (in the case of datagram traffic such as Speak Freelyaudio) neither--simply a peer of those with which it communicated. Any Internet host could provide any service to any other and access services provided by them. New kinds of services could be invented as required, subject only to compatibility with the higher level transport protocols (such as TCP and UDP). Unfortunately, this era is coming to an end.</i></p><p><i>One need only read discussions on the Speak Freely mailing list and Forum over the last year to see how many users, after switching from slow, unreliable dial-up Internet connections to broadband, persistent access via DSL or cable television modems discover, to their dismay, that they can no longer receive calls from other Speak Freely users. The vast majority of such connections use Network Address Translation (NAT) in the router connected to the broadband link, which allows multiple machines on a local network to share the broadband Internet access. But NAT does a lot more than that.</i></p><p><i>A user behind a NAT box is no longer a peer to other sites on the Internet. Since the user no longer has an externally visible Internet Protocol (IP) address (fixed or variable), there is no way (in the general case--there may be "workarounds" for specific NAT boxes, but they're basically exploiting bugs which will probably eventually be fixed) for sites to open connections or address packets to his machine. The user is demoted to acting exclusively as a client. While the user can contact and freely exchange packets with sites not behind NAT boxes, he cannot be reached by connections which originate at other sites. In economic terms, the NATted user has become a consumer of services provided by a higher-ranking class of sites, producers or publishers, not subject to NAT.</i></p><p><i>There are powerful forces, including government, large media organisations, and music publishers who think this situation is just fine. In essence, every time a user--they love the word "consumer"--goes behind a NAT box, a site which was formerly a peer to their own sites goes dark, no longer accessible to others on the Internet, while their privileged sites remain. The lights are going out all over the Internet. My paper, <a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/">The Digital Imprimatur</a>, discusses the technical background, economic motivations, and social consequences of this in much more (some will say tedious) detail. Suffice it to say that, as the current migration of individual Internet users to broadband connections with NAT proceeds, the population of users who can use a peer to peer telephony product like Speak Freely will shrink apace. It is irresponsible to encourage people to buy into a technology which will soon cease to work.</i></p></blockquote><p>Read <a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/">The Digital Imprimatur</a>, and then <a href="http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/ces04.html">Carly Fiorina's keynote</a> at CES. Especially this item here:</p><blockquote><p><i>Starting this year, HP will strive to build every one of our consumer devices to respect digital rights. In fact, we are already implementing this commitment in products such as our DVD Movie Writer, which protects digital rights today. If a consumer for example, tries to copy protected VHS tapes, the DVD Movie Writer has HP-developed technology that won't copy it ­ instead, it displays a message that states, "The source content is copyrighted material. Copying is not permitted." And soon, that same kind of technology will be in every one of our products. HP will also work constructively with technology and content industries to implement Broadcast Flag into some of our products this year.</i></p><p><i>Later this year, we¹ll also introduce a new protection technology that encrypts recorded content. Going forward, we will actively promote the interoperability of content protection technologies to ensure that content protection becomes the enabler it was intended to be ­ not the obstacle to compelling content that many fear. And we will also step up our efforts to work with anti-piracy industry advocates and consumer advocates.</i></p></blockquote> [Source: The Doc Searls Weblog]

Penn State launches Napster service [Source: geeknews]

Penn State Launches Napster Music Service Owner of Azkaban writes "CNN has a story about PSU launching Napster for its own students." Also at live.psu.edu." This is the service we posted about last ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

MIT Technology Review Slams IPv6 <li class="itemNewsArticle"><span class="itemNewsPub">Slashdot | </span><span class="itemNewsHL">MIT Technology Review Slams IPv6</span>. <p><A HREF="http://fatalexception.org">PCM2</A> writes "In the MIT Technology Review , Simson Garfinkel, noted author of <A HREF="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/puis3/index.html">Internet security books</a>, writes that "the next version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6, will supply the world with addresses by the trillions. Too bad it will also make the Net slower and less secure." <A HREF="http://technologyreview.com/articles/wo_garfinkel010704.asp">His article</a> goes on to explain that all IPv6 code is untested and therefore insecure; that IPv6 makes encourages 'peer-to-peer based copyright violation systems'; and of course, that the switch is never going to happen anyway (and yet, somehow, the United States is 'falling behind'). " </p> </li> [Source: Privacy Digest]

p2p + firewall/pf [Source: BSD Forums and News]

PRIVARIA (free): Open-source, firewall-friendly platform for encrypted, private, peer-to-peer networking [Source: Shell Extension City]

Et Cetera: someone put a bullet in Comcast's service Round up including Googles news, the Athlon 64 3400+, and a complaint about Napster 2.0. [Source: Ars Technica]

Music piracy down: who gets the credit? A recent study shows that P2P traffic has dropped dramatically since September 2003. Is it the result of the RIAA's strategy, or the availability of online music stores? [Source: Ars Technica]

From Anti-Spam to Anti-Spyware <li class="itemNewsArticle"><span class="itemNewsPub">internetnews.com - </span><span class="itemNewsHL">From Anti-Spam to Anti-Spyware</span>. <p>EarthLink spokesman Jerry Grasso says consumers want two things from an Internet service provider: secure connections and tools to that cut through the clutter. </p> <p>>As the nation's largest consumer ISPs -- America Online, the Microsoft Network (MSN) and EarthLink -- scramble to grab new customers, reduce churn and differentiate their offerings in an increasingly similar world marked only by pricing, promotion of "safety and security" tools is the current hot marketing ticket. </p> <p>Firewalls, e-mail filters, anti-virus programs, lockout features for parents and software for blocking pop-up ads are now standard with most ISPs. </p> <p>[ ... ]</p> <p>As a general rule, spyware is not thought to be a threat to the security of a computer. Sundwall is not aware of any instances of spyware spreading viruses and characterized it as a "nuisance" that raises questions of privacy and potentially opens the door for all sorts of potential abuses, including identity theft. </p> <p>The National Cyber Security Alliance last year said more than 90 percent of all broadband users have spyware programs on their computers. Most of the programs found their way into users' computers through music and file-sharing programs. The same study showed 94 percent of broadband users did not know that spyware is often bundled with P2P programs. </p> </li> [Source: Privacy Digest]

Aaron Swartz's unexpurgated file-sharing editorial Aaron Swartz was invited by the New York Times to write an editorial explaining why he thinks that file-sharing is ethical, but before the piece ran, the Times edited it, because they "had decided not to tell kids to break the law." Aaron has published the whole piece on his blog: <blockquote> Downloading may be illegal. But 60 million people used Napster and only 50 million voted for Bush or Gore. We live in a democracy. If the people want to share files then the law should be changed to let them. <p> And there’s a fair way to change it. A Harvard professor found that a $60/yr. charge for broadband users would make up for all lost revenues. The government would give it to the affected artists and, in return, make downloading legal, sparking easier-to-use systems and more shared music. The artists get more money and you get more music. What’s unethical about that? </blockquote> <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/001112">Link</a> [Source: Boing Boing]

iTunes At Your Local Record Store With the success of the iTunes Music Store, traditional record stores are starting to get worried. There has been a decline in CD sales for a quite a few years now. With illegal music downloading sites starting with Napster and with Kazaa, record stores with their $17 cds just simply could not compete. The one saving grace that stores had, however, were the PC users and the music shoppers who had a conscience. This has all changed. iTunes is available to Windows users and AOL users. It is... [Source: AppleMatters]

ASP2PHP (free): The name says it all [Source: Shell Extension City]

Linksys's new WiFi convergence box-thingy Linksys has shipeed a WiFi box with a built-in DVD player to move AV stuff (movies, pix, songs) from your PC to your home theater. <blockquote> The DVD Player with Wireless-G Media Link sits by the television and stereo and connects to them using standard composite, component A/V or S-Video cables. Then it connects to your home network by Wireless-G (802.11g) networking, or if users prefer, it can be connected via standard Ethernet cabling. The Media Link also works in peer-to-peer mode (direct connection between the media adapter and wired or wireless enabled computer) so no Internet service is required, unless Internet radio is desired. </blockquote> <a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040108/lath036_1.html">Link</a> (<i>via <a href="http://slashdot.org">/.</a></i>) [Source: Boing Boing]

Napster Burnpak encroaches on Apple's digital music dominance Computer Weekly Jan 8 2004 6:21AM ET [Source: Moreover pc industry stories]

Napster to sell digital music products through Targets stores and web site InternetRetailer.com Jan 7 2004 5:01PM ET [Source: Moreover e commerce stories]

What do lower P2P numbers mean? A new Pew study reports that 50% fewer Americans reported that they are engaged in P2P file-sharing, and a lot of people are claiming that this is some kind of victory for the recording industry's campaign of indiscriminate lawsuits against their customers. <p> Lemme offer an alternative interpretation, which comes out of some discussions that we've been having at EFF: <p> * For starters, it's not hard to imagine why someone might be reluctant to tell a survey-taker that he is file-sharing in a climate where the RIAA is confiscating the life's-savings of little girls who download cartoon themesongs. <p> * And even with that chilling effect, the Pew study still has one in seven American Internet users file-sharing -- in other words, file-sharing is still solidly mainstream and nowhere near being "driven underground." <p> * It's ironic that this survey comes out right after a court has said that the RIAA's lawsuit campaign relied on an abuse of federal subpoena powers that put the privacy of all American internet users in jeopardy. Other fallout: developers are reluctant to ship new P2P apps, investors are reluctant to invest in them, and broadband growth is stalled. <p> * Pew's numbers suggest that roughly 18 million Americans stopped downloading in the last three months. But iTunes probably would be lucky to have a million total customers. Where did the rest go? Has the recording industry acquired any new customers, or just alienated a bunch of die-hard fans? <p> * There's a better way -- why can't the American music fan get the same deal that radio stations get? Pay a reasonable blanket fee, and play whatever music they like on whatever equipment suits them? That's the way that live performance, cover music and radio all work: the recording industry could be flexing its might and creating a <a href="http://eff.org/share">blanket license regime</a> that would leverage the fastest-adopted technology in the history of the world, P2P file-sharing. <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=109">Link</a> [Source: Boing Boing]

RDS - Peer-to-Peer File Replication Cross platform, scheduled file replication and content synchronization system for enterprises running heterogeneous server environments (Windows, UNIX). [Source: New Entries at Internet Product Watch]

http://archive.scripting.com/2004/01/06#When:4:31:29AM <a href="http://tomalak.weblogs.com/stories/storyReader$59"></a>As you might imagine, there's a <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thursdaymeetings/">weblog</a> just for Thursday meetings. This Thursday's meeting is <i>on.</i> And January 22 is <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/berkman-thursday/message/211">Hank Barry Thursday</a>. Hank is the former CEO of Napster, an expert on technology and politics, a <a href="http://www.humwin.com/team.html#barry">VC</a>, a lawyer, and a nice guy. If you're in the Boston area any Thursday night, please stop by. 7PM. [Source: Scripting News]

How to rip vinyl, per the NYT The NYT has published a detailed how-to for converting vinyl LPs to MP3s or CDs. When Napster started, it solved two distinct problems. The obvious one was that you might not have the CD handy that you wanted to listen to (either because you hadn't bought it or because you'd left it somewhere else, i.e., at your parents' place while you went to college), but the more subtle one was that ripping CDs used to be <em>really hard</em>. You needed specialied software, tons of hard-drive space, and you had to title all those tracks by hand. <p> This meant that once one person had gone to the trouble of ripping a disc, it made a lot of sense not to replicate that effort: better to download someone else's rips from her Napster share than to go through that fooforaw on your own. <p> Today, ripping CDs is literally a one-click operation, but ripping vinyl is still very freaking hard. Newsgroups like alt.binaries.sounds.78-era often get nice payloads of ripped wax, shellac and vinyl, but the general attack on P2P means that this stuff is getting harder and harder to find on demand, which means that more and more of us are having to individually rip our music, one side at a time, in order to transfer and preserve it (80% of the music ever recorded isn't available for sale -- if you want to hear the song on that groovy LP through your iPod's headphones, you're gonna have to get ripping). <blockquote> Some LP restoration software suites, including Pinnacle Clean Plus ($100), come with an external preamp that plugs into a U.S.B. port and works with your existing sound card. (Clean Plus and other software choices are described in more detail in the accompanying article.) There is also the iMic from Griffin Technologies ($40, www.griffintechnologies.com), a small input device that converts analog signals to digital outside of the computer, eliminating the possibility of electronic interference from other computer components... <p> You also need lots of hard-drive space, because sound files occupy about 10 megabytes per minute; that would be almost a gigabyte for all 77 minutes of Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band's "Trout Mask Replica." </blockquote> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/01/technology/circuits/01basi.html?pagewanted=all&position=">Link</a> [Source: Boing Boing]

Sterling opinions <p>John Lebkowski elicits a <a href="http://engaged.well.com/engaged.cgi?c=inkwell.vue&f=0&t=204">State of the World address, point by point</a>, from Bruce Sterling. Very provocative. My fave point(s):</p><blockquote><p><i>I don't believe in "War on Terror," but there's definitely a titanic struggle going on. One side, the New World Order side, has a capacity to wage war, so that's what they do, even though that's not one of their best moves. The other side is the New World Disorder, and they're too disordered to throw any real wars, so they commit mayhem on the tribal and individual level. An individual wrapped in a belt-bomb, that's their cruise missile. Their great hope is that War creates more Terror and not less. It certainly worked for them in Chechnya and Afghanistan. The two worlds interpenetrate. They even breed one another.</i></p></blockquote><p>That puts an interesting spin on a New World Order (a Bush the Elder term, no?) that appears, from its inside perspecive, to be working — at least <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107283269271744900,00.html?mod=opinion%5Feurope%5Freview%5Fand%5Foutlooks">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>:</p><blockquote><p><i>The year that began with global controversy over war in Iraq has ended with the capture of Saddam Hussein and the capitulation of Moammar Gadhafi on weapons of mass destruction. While a final judgment on the war won't be possible for years, a fair year-end assessment shows that both the U.S. and the world are better and safer because of it.</i>..</p><p><i>Beyond American troops, more and more Iraqis are also now joining the fight for their own country. The Bush Administration's biggest mistake of the war was not trusting the Iraqis early enough with this task, but the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps is now large enough to make a difference. These Iraqis are one reason U.S. forces now have better intelligence against the insurgents.</i></p><p><i>What about the Middle East, and beyond? The instability that was also widely feared has not appeared, and if anything the opposite is true. No one has been more impressed by the U.S. invasion than the Saudis, who are finally cooperating seriously against al Qaeda. Colonel Gadhafi got the message that playing with WMD is a bad career choice, while Iran is at least meeting with the U.N. again in order to dodge sanctions, or worse, and to preserve its nuclear program. The latter remains a Bush nettle for 2004.</i></p><p><i>Much as Bernard Lewis predicted, in short, respect for America has only increased with this demonstration of strength and purpose. The invasion and its aftermath have gone far toward purging the ghosts of Beirut and Mogadishu, which Osama bin Laden spun into legends of American weakness. As destructive as they are, the truck bombs in Iraq are only strategically notable because this time they are not driving the U.S. home. Much still depends on the kind of Iraqi government that emerges in 2004 and beyond, but the mere possibility that a democratic Arab and Islamic state might exist is already reshaping the region.</i></p><p><i>Another global benefit of the war is the end of illusions about the United Nations and a certain kind of "multilateralism." The U.N. couldn't enforce its own resolutions before the war, and afterward it fled Iraq the first time it was targeted by terrorists. The latter was a special insult to the brave U.N. officials who died trying to rebuild Iraq. The lesson of Iraq, as before in Kosovo, is that only the U.S. has the political will and military means to defeat global threats. American Presidents in the future will likewise have to build coalitions on an ad hoc basis, often working around a U.N. Security Council obstructed by France.</i></p><p><i>The most important Iraq result, however, has been the demonstration of U.S. public support. Even amid the worst of the casualty reports in November, some 60% of Americans said the war was worth fighting. This support is all the more remarkable because it has held despite the loud and relentless opposition of most of the country's liberal elite.</i></p></blockquote><p>The piece also contains this helpful exchange between Jon and <a href="http://www.brianstorms.com/">Brian Dear</a>:</p><blockquote><p>Jon: <i>The Internet seems to be transitional at the moment. We're at a point where whole countries and very heavy commercial interests want to tweak the system to fit their biases. Media industries see their control of distribution mechanisms challenged by network-savvy kids building p2p networks faster than the RIAA/MPAA can slam 'em down. What's the future of the relatively dumb network that has served us so well?</i></p><p>Brian: <i>One might argue the "relatively dumb network" stays relatively dumb, but the relatively harmless devices connected to it become more and more evil. "Devices" in the sense of PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, etc. "Harmless" in the sense that historically they've been personal devices that did what you told them to do and didn't do stuff you didn't tell them to do. And "Evil" in the sense that they start doing stuff you haven't given them permission to do, or stuff that prevents you from doing what you want or making your own choices or sharing your private information without permission.</i></p></blockquote><p>In other words, don't mistake the ends for the means.</p> [Source: The Doc Searls Weblog]

75% of Network Connections Not From Browsers Trailwalker writes "An article at BigBlueBall.com states that 75% of web connections do not use a browser. IM and P2P applications are used instead." While ... [Source: Slashdot Org latest news headlines]

101 Ways to Save the Internet WIRED: 101 Ways to Save the Internet. Paul Boutin. Desperate solutions range from abandoning email to requiring a license to log on. Halt, fools! The Internet's problems stem from the same virtues that make it great: open architecture, the free flow of information, peer-to-peer cooperation, and a bias for linking strangers, not disconnecting them. [Source: Tomalak's Realm latest news]