CourseCast of the Week

Episode 0080, 12/20/2008

Title/Description: RIAA Ends Assault, and News Briefs

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 80, recorded December 20th, 2008. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Story 1 - RIAA Ends Its Assault

How's that for a happy holiday headline! Yes, the Recording Industry Association of America has announced that it plans to discontinue its legal assault on illegal file sharers. Since 2003, the RIAA has opened legal proceedings against roughly 35,000 people, mostly college students, for downloading and sharing music files over P2P networks. Most people being sued, settled out of court for $5,000, but others that elected to fight it out, like the current case of Joel Tenenbaum accused of sharing seven songs, wind up losing hundred of thousands or even over a million dollars.

It turns out that suing your customers isn't very good for your image. So, the recording industry has learned. Also, it turns out that suing its customers hasn't had much an effect on the amount of music illegally downloaded. Music sales have continued to drop over the past four years.

The new approach that the RIAA is pursuing involves working with Internet Service Providers. In the past, the RIAA would pressure an Internet Service Provider to cough up the name of a user assigned to an IP addresses involved in illegal activities. Under the new plan, the RIAA would send a notice to the Internet Service Provider who would forward it on to the user involved. SO, for example, if you have Internet service with Comcast, you might get an email from Comcast stating that the RIAA has implicated you in illegal file sharing and asking that you please cease and deists. If you ignore warnings, you may eventually have your Internet access disabled.

The RIAA plans to continue current court battles in which it is engaged. The RIAA also says that it reserves its right to sue individuals that ignore warnings or are serious offenders.

Several ISP's have already signed on to the new plan. It is assumed that they see it as a way to reduce the traffic across their networks. Details on the arrangements have yet to be released, but it appears that 2009 will have a lot fewer news stories about RIAA law suites. Thank goodness!

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits [Wall Street Journal]
No more lawsuits: ISPs to work with RIAA, cut off P2P users [Ars Technica]
RIAA Seeking $1 Million in Damages from a Student for Sharing 7 Songs on Kazaa [Profy

And that brings us to News Briefs.

  • The security flaw in Internet Explorer that I warned about in last weeks Coursecast, is being pounded by attacks. Security experts, and even some at Microsoft, are advising that Internet Explorer users switch to an alternate Web browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome. until the flaw can be fixed.
    Microsoft sees 'huge increase' in IE attacks [Computerworld]
  • An undersea telecommunications cable was severed resulting in Internet outages across Europe, Asia abd Africa. The cause of the break is unknown.
    New undersea cable cuts lead to Internet outages [Ars Technica]
  • It looks like 2009 will be the year of Internet connected air travel. Delta is launching its in-air wireless Internet service this week in seven planes and promises the service in 330 of its planes by late 2009. Northwest airlines which merged with Delta this year promises the same for hundred of its planes. The service costs between $9.95 and $12.95 depending on the length of the flight.
    Delta's 3Mbps in-flight WiFi is Go(go) on first seven planes [Ars Technica]
  • Apple shocked many Mac fans when it announced that Steve Jobs will not be providing the Keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo next month. Jobs keynote typically make headline news with announcements of anticipated new products. Jobs, last minute pull out, has caused many to wonder about his health, and speculate about the future of the company. Apple stocks dropped 2.6 percent upon the release of the news.
    Apple: No Jobs keynote at Macworld '09 [Computerworld]
  • The amount of homes ditching their landlines in favor of cell phones has increased by ten percent over the past year. It is expected that businesses will soon be doing the same. Gartner predicts that by 2011 cell phones will outnumber landline phones in businesses.
    Number of landline-free households up 10% in US [Ars Technica]
    Gartner: Mobile phones to overtake landlines in business by 2011 [Computerworld]
  • Yahoo! has made the bold statement that it will delete the search data that it collects from users after 90 days. Microsoft says that it isn't able to make such a policy without sacrificing its quality of service. Some believe that stricter laws that may come under the new Obama administration may force Internet companies to stop collecting user identifiable data all together.
    Microsoft: Zero Data Retention Not Possible to Keep Search Engines Viable [eweek]
  • Toshiba has announced the release of the first 512 GB solid-state drive that it will show at the Consumer Electronics Show next month. Might 2009 be the year of the SSD?
    Toshiba Announces First 512GB Solid-State Drive [NewsFactor]
  • China has announced that it will invest $41 billion in building 3G networks over the next two years to provide high-speed wireless Internet to its citizens.
    China says $41 billion to be spent on 3G [Reuters]
  • A group of Japanese lawyers and professionals, concerned about issues of privacy, are pressuring Google to stop providing its Street View images of Japanese streets.
    Japanese Group Asks Google to Stop Map Service [New York Times]
  • Panasonic is acquiring rival Sanyo for $9 billion.
    Panasonic to Buy Sanyo in $9 Billion Deal [New York Times]
  • An Egyptian engineering student at the University of South Florida has been sentenced to 15 years for publishing a video on YouTube describing a method of converting a remote-control toy car into a bomb detonator.
    Student Sentenced to 15 Years for YouTube Terror Video [Wired]

That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at coursecasts.course.com. Email us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time, Happy Holidays and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!