Home Media Magazine - October 7-13, 2007 - (Page 19) www.homemediamagazine.com ELECTRONIC DELIVERY Sonic, Pioneer Partner on Burn Technology By Chris Tribbey ioneer Corp. and Sonic Solutions have teamed up on a worldwide licensing program of patents for the encryption and burning of videos to DVD. “The program will broadly license the companies’ combined intellectual property that allows DVD recording technologies to use CSS (Content Scramble System), which is the same content production found on commercially released DVD movies,” the companies announced. It’s the latest move by Sonic Solutions in the wake of the DVD Copy Control Association’s action Sept. 20 to allow its CSS software to be licensed out to others. Sonic Solutions already has announced several agreements with other companies. The partnership between Sonic Solutions and Pioneer aims to let consumers download video and burn it legally, provide security for content providers, and offer reliable playback options for standard DVD players. “Pioneer and Sonic have worked together with the goal of opening an exciting new channel for the distribution of video content,” said Sumitaka Matsumura, executive officer of Pioneer. New Avenue for Viruses Experts warn of danger at Georgia Tech Information Security summit By Erik Gruenwedel he popularity of community Web sites such as YouTube and MySpace has the potential to introduce a Pandora’s Box of cyber viruses and illicit codes to users’ video players and computers, said a panel of Internet experts. The panel — which included Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet now working for Google — was the feature presentation in the Georgia Tech Information Security Center’s annual summit meeting last week in Atlanta. Panelists said Internet hackers are now focusing on the end-user through infected videos, PDF and Excel files, and emails. Although the incidences of corrupted videos sent through the Internet remain small, panelists said the success of videosharing sites, fueled by the reality that most people will view video files sent to them, will make these distribution chan- Panel: Video nels a more common threat in near future. “There are going to be various types of new threats … due in part to the openness of the Internet,” Cerf said. Panelists said hackers have the ability to P T «NOW WE ARE DEALING WITH ANONYMOUS DECENTRALIZED ADVERSARIES. ATTACKERS ARE TRYING TO BE WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING.» PAUL JUDGE send viruses, take over a PC and query personal information via video clips. Panelists said traditional phishing scams (hoax e-mails sent to steal identities and gather personal information) are giving way to more permanent threats whereby hackers install malware on end-users’ computers. “Attackers will continue to post malicious links as part of the user’s everyday online activity — at the end of an instant message [IM], hidden in a YouTube video or embedded in an Excel spreadsheet,” said Paul Judge, SVP and CTO with Secure Computing. Judge said 90% of all e-mails are unwanted and considered spam. He said hundreds of thousands of new Zombies (computers attached to the Web that have been compromised by a hacker) come online annually to deliver unwanted traffic to networks. “That is four new computers coming online every four seconds sending unwanted attacks,” he said. “Now we are dealing with anonymous decentralized adversaries. Attackers are trying to be wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Panelists said upwards of 11% of all computers linked to the Internet are corrupted. About 40% of illegal hacks go undetected by traditional signature and other safety protocols. BRIEFS I IMEEM USERS GET ACCESS TO SONY BMG CONTENT Imeem and Sony BMG Music Entertainment have a new distribution agreement under which Imeem users will be able to access Sony BMG’s digital catalog of music and videos. “We’re excited to be working with Imeem as they develop a new social media model focused on ad-supported, interactive streaming of music and video,” said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business and U.S. sales for Sony BMG. “We think that Imeem’s focus on community and social networking will make it an exciting entertainment option, and an important means of connecting fans and artists.” Imeem is a social media community whose 18 million members can create music, make videos, write blogs, post slideshows and more. – Chris Tribbey shows produced by studios other than NBC Universal, such as “Chuck” (Warner Bros. Television) and “Journeyman” (Fox Television), still are available for purchase on Apple’s iTunes service. Shows such as “Heroes” and “30 Rock” remain unavailable since they are produced by NBC Universal. In August NBC announced it will not renew its contract with Apple, which would have expired in December, to sell downloads of its shows on iTunes. Apple countered by saying it wouldn’t offer new episodes of NBC shows on its service by September. – Billy Gil more. The service also integrates IPTV with voice-over IP (VoIP) calling and other P2P communication services to allow users to communicate. “We are extremely pleased to be partnering with Eye Music Network, offering one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse music video selections of any cable or Internet music video channel we have seen,” said Greg Parker, president of Raketu. – Billy Gil thanks to its unlimited subscription model.” – Chris Tribbey I RIAA FILE-SHARING TRIAL BEGINS The trial of a 30-year-old mother of two, accused of illegally sharing music online and violating copyrights, began in Duluth, Minn., Oct. 2. Sony BMG, Capitol Records Inc., Warner Bros. Records Inc. and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have sued 26,000 people for similar violations. However, Jammie Thomas is the first whose case has gone to trial and will be argued before a jury, the Associated Press reported. Thomas is accused of sharing more than 1,700 songs on a file-sharing network. Most people sued for the violations, which carry fines from $750 to $30,000, settle out of court for a few thousand dollars, the AP reported. “She came into my office and was willing to pay a retainer of pretty much what they wanted to settle for,” Thomas’ Lawyer, Brian Toder, told the AP, adding the RIAA and companies can’t prove Thomas shared the songs. “And if someone’s willing to pay a lawyer rather than pay to make it go away, that says a lot.” – Chris Tribbey Knocked Up TOP ONLINE TITLES Week ended October 1, 2007 TITLE STUDIO ELECTRONIC SELLTHROUGH I VONGO NABS MORE THAN 100 FILMS FROM SCREEN MEDIA VENTURES Starz Entertainment has landed another 100-plus films from Screen Media Ventures for its Vongo online movie subscription service. Vongo users can watch the new films, which include Piranha, by Joe Dante, and Mojave Moon, with Angelina Jolie, for 24 hours via the rental service. Eventually users will be able to purchase other titles once Vongo adds a downloadto-burn function. “These SMV films are sure to find a new audience on Vongo,” said Nancy Silverstone, VP of program acquisitions for Starz Entertainment. “The Vongo experience encourages experimentation and sampling of movie content of all kinds I RAKETU TEAMS WITH EYE MUSIC NETWORK Raketu Communications Inc., a New York-based Internet communications, information and entertainment company, is adding content from music video provider Eye Music Network to its Web sites Raketu.com and Raketu.tv. The Eye Music Network Video Music Channel will feature music videos from oldies to current popular music. Raketu currently has more than 30 channels of free IPTV streamed TV content, including music, film, news and Knocked Up RENTAL DOWNLOADS Universal Warner Week ended September 30, 2007 TITLE STUDIO ELECTRONIC SELLTHROUGH I SOME NBC SHOWS ARE STILL ON ITUNES Some, but not all, of NBC TV shows are still are available on Apple’s iTunes, according to The Unofficial Apple Weblog, www.tuaw.com. The blog reported Sept. 26 that NBC Next RENTAL DOWNLOADS Paramount Warner We Are Marshall FOR COMPLETE CHARTS, PLEASE SEE PAGE 34 October 7–13, 2007 Home Media Magazine http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://Raketu.com http://Raketu.com http://Raketu.tv http://www.tuaw.com
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