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November 17, 2005
Sony Rootkit Contains Open Source?
Adding insult to injury: After releasing a stealth DRM application that has spawned a new series of exploits, there are now reports that parts of the Sony Rootkit DRM were built on top of the LAME encoder, which is open source technology.
In the "I can't make up stuff like this department", Sony actually said that the rootkit was
...an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists.
One might conclude that it is important for Sony to protect their IP, and only their IP. Too bad the LAME encoder is LGPL -- if only Sony had taken the time to read my post on Open Source Licenses and Intellectual Property.
Tags: sony, open source, intellectual property, LGPL
Posted by davehod at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2005
PME: Audible Annoucement and the Aftermath
A ton of comments/linkage flying around about the Audible announcement saga, made much worse by Mitch Ratcliffe attacking anyone and everyone (and then trying to do some damage control).
My thoughts about it all:
I was at the PME on Friday and I spent quite a bit of time in the Audible booth asking a ton of questions about the product. There is a ton of heat around this announcement (thanks to Mitch), but trying to avoid the pungent crap fest, I found a few items very interesting:
- Audible is trying to respond to podcasting - we all knew it, but here is some more validation for the space.
- The new product ("WordCast") allows for ad insertion to help monetize podcasting (even more validation), however, Audible does not currently have anything in place to help Podcasters and Advertisers find each other (see Podtrac or FruitCast for that)
- As you might have guessed, Audible has no plans to have their ad insertion technology kick out mp3 files (yes, this would reduce the value as true metrics would be harder to acquire. However, MP3 *is* the de-facto standard). Again - see Podtrac/FruitCast
- In addition to the charges ($0.03 per download, etc), podcasts that have a per episode or subscription fee, Audible is charging 20% per transaction, or $1, whichever is more! (A transaction being the sale of a yearly subscription, the sale of a single episode etc). I found this to be an extremely high cost for basically handling a credit card transaction via their Merchant account.
This may turn out to be an interesting case study - I'll be looking for the Seth Godin and Steve Rubel write-ups.
Tags: podcast, ipod, portablemediaexpo, audible
Posted by davehod at 02:26 AM | Comments (1)
November 11, 2005
PME: Jason Calcanis Keynote
Jason Calcanis gave the opening keynote at the PME. At least it was billed as a keynote. If I had to categorize it, I'd say it was more of a stand-up routine. He was pretty funny.
During his keynote, Jason analyzed different entreprenurial opportunities in podcasting using sounds from Pacman. He probably upset a few folks in the room as he ticked off the areas in podcasting to avoid including directory services, search and advertising.
His advice was to find the areas that caused the most pain and move forward from there.
Tags: podcast, ipod, portablemediaexpo
Posted by davehod at 01:26 AM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2005
Portable Media Expo
I'll be attending the Portable Media Expo this Friday and Saturday in Ontario.
Looking forward to a few people breaking their "No Damn Announcements" silence :-)
Update: Wired has a good article about the conference, with a memorable quote at the end "... this is going to be the Woodstock of Podcasting"
Tags: podcast, ipod, portablemediaexpo
Posted by davehod at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)
Big Sur Half Marathon on Monterey Bay 2005
On Sunday, we ran the Big Sur Half Marathon on Monterey Bay. From a scenic point of view, this is my favorite race.
The race started at 7am, with 4500 runners in downtown Monterey. The weather was much warmer than the previous time I had run this race (2003), approximately 65 degrees.
We ran north for a quick three mile loop and then along the Bay past Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Once we reached Pacific Grove, we ran along the water on a Ocean View Blvd, which included a new (to me at least) set of turns and hills that took me by surprise. After the brief detour through town, we then continued South past Lover's Point and Asilomar Beach, then to the turnaround at Mile 8. The remaining five miles retraced our steps and we ended the race at Custom House Plaza next to Fisherman's Wharf.
Overall, here's how the run rates in my book:
Organization - The race was very well organized - clearly marked and staffed. Grade: A
Course - About as scenic as it gets. Grade: A+
Aid-stations - Located as billed - each had water and Gatorade. Gu available at mile 10. Grade: A
Swag - Long-sleeve dri-fit shirt, nice Finisher's medal. Grade: A
Tags: running, marathon, bigsur, monterey
Posted by davehod at 07:14 AM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2005
iTunes: 1 Million Video Downloads
Hot on the heels of Podtech.net's 2 million download month, Apple has hit the 1 million mark for video purchases/downloads via iTunes. The 1 million downloads were done in the last 19 days.
This is pretty amazing if you think about a few things:
* The video library on iTunes has only 2,000 titles, compared to 2 million songs
* There are only a few big "hits" in the video section: Lost, Desperate Housewives
* A good portion of the traffic is probably word of mouth, as Apple's media campaign has barely begun
I ran into Clint Sharp at the airport last week and he had good things to say about the the Video iPod (and that is coming from a guy that knows the vlogging space very well).
If I own a network affiliate (ABC, NBC, etc), this development has me worried. If I don't control the distribution of exclusive content anymore, what is my value add? How does this affect the value of my FCC license?
The impact of time-shifted media isn't limited to audio only - the shift in video will be very interesting to watch over the next year or so.
Posted by davehod at 08:16 AM | Comments (0)