Unable to agree on terms for a new contract, more than a dozen Viacom channels were pulled from DirecTV on Wednesday.
DirecTV customers lost access to Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and other cable channels owned by Viacom.
Viacom claims it is seeking “only a couple pennies per day, per subscriber,” while DirecTV has countered that Viacom is pushing for “customers to pay more than a 30 percent increase, which equates to an extra $1 billion.”
“On DirecTV’s side, it’s claiming it sent proposals but never heard anything back and as such was forced to pull the channels,” reports Engadget. “Viacom has been running ads and notices all day to make sure kids big and little call DirecTV to apply pressure about missing their television shows.”
“The two companies blamed each other for the blackout, which began around midnight as a result of a dispute over a new carriage contract for the Viacom-owned channels,” reports The New York Times. “About 20 million households are affected, representing one-fifth of all the nation’s subscribers to cable or satellite television service.”
DirecTV is suggesting that customers access Viacom content online and via services such as Amazon Prime or Netflix until the situation can be resolved.
“Viacom took action to make that more difficult Wednesday afternoon — not just for DirecTV customers, but for all Internet users,” according to NYT. “The company took episodes of ‘The Daily Show,’ ‘The Colbert Report’ and some other popular shows off its Web sites.”
In an effort to rally public support, Viacom posted an image of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants on Facebook with the accompanying quote, “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? I don’t know. I have DirecTV.” However, initial public complaints seem to be directed at both companies.
“The U.S. judge who tossed out one of the biggest court cases in Apple Inc’s smartphone technology battle is questioning whether patents should cover software or most other industries at all,” reports Reuters.
“Richard Posner, a prolific jurist who sits on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, told Reuters this week that the technology industry’s high profits and volatility made patent litigation attractive for companies looking to wound competitors.”
Posner effectively ended Apple’s lawsuit against Google’s Motorola Mobility last month. “He canceled a closely anticipated trial between the two and rejected the iPhone maker’s request for an injunction barring the sale of Motorola products using Apple’s patented technology,” explains the article.
Posner suggests that the proliferation of patents in the software realm is a problem. “It’s not clear that we really need patents in most industries,” he says.
However, he notes that some industries, such as pharmaceuticals, “had a better claim to intellectual property protection because of the enormous investment it takes to create a successful drug,” reports Reuters.
In canceling the Apple-Motorola trial, “Posner said an injunction barring the sale of Motorola phones would harm consumers. He also rejected the idea of trying to ban an entire phone based on patents that cover individual features like the smooth operation of streaming video,” according to the report.
Posner wrote that Apple’s patent “is not a claim to a monopoly of streaming video!”
Not all judges share Posner’s view of the patent wars. Last week, for example, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in California granted Apple two pretrial injunctions against Samsung regarding the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Nexus phone, specifically citing Apple’s patent for the Siri search feature. Samsung is appealing the injunctions.
U.S. Representative Lamar Smith of Texas has introduced the Intellectual Property Attache Act, which “revives one of the sneakier portions of SOPA to create a global intellectual property task force, charged with aggressively promoting anti-piracy law around the world,” reports TechCrunch.
Open Internet advocates are concerned the new proposal may represent some of the over-reaching principles that served as the basis of SOPA. Proponents of the bill have suggested it would streamline a complex system of management.
Additional concern has been expressed that the bill is being fast-tracked without time for public debate. And several public advocacy groups have suggested that we already have enough federal entities that address IP regulations.
“The specifics of the bill appear to go further than the version in SOPA,” suggests Techdirt in a related post. “It is clear that the bill itself is framed from the maximalist perspective. There is nothing about the rights of the public, or of other countries to design their own IP regimes.”
“The bill also ‘elevates’ the IP attaches out of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and sets them up as their own agency, including a new role: the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property,” adds Techdirt.
According to an email from one of Smith’s aides, the bill is not a follow-up to SOPA. “The bill that the Committee currently is working on is a narrow piece of legislation to ensure better use of Patent and Trademark Office funds,” states the e-mail. “The current draft increases organizational efficiency at the PTO and moves the IP attache program squarely within the PTO to ensure direct accountability of the IP attaches.”
Surprising to some, Representative Darrell Issa (who we earlier reported had posted a proposed Digital Bill of Rights online and was recently the first politician to sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom), has announced his support of the IP Attache Act, but is seeking to exempt “clear IP exceptions like fair use,” according to a statement from his office.
Issa was a vocal opponent to SOPA and similar proposed legislation.
Congressman Darrell Issa of California has become the first elected official to sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom, a broad document that hopes to keep the Internet free and open.
As previously reported via ETCentric, the document currently has an eclectic group of supporters and addresses areas such as expression, access, openness, innovation and privacy.
Issa, a vocal opponent to the earlier proposed SOPA legislation, recently posted his own suggested 10-point digital Bill of Rights.
“We need to frame a digital Bill of Rights,” he wrote on KeepTheWebOpen.com, which uses a new tool called Madison to open the legislative and treaty process. “This is my first draft. I need your help to get this right, so I published it here in Madison for everyone to comment, criticize and collaborate. I look forward to hearing from you and continuing to work together to keep the Web open.”
The Declaration of Internet Freedom “is very broad and vague, most likely by design,” explains TechCrunch. “As the Atlantic Wire points out, this language makes it very difficult for the government and citizens behind the Declaration to reach a solution. Perhaps having a government official cross sides and sign the Declaration will help move things along.”
Walt Mossberg offers his take on the $199 Nexus 7, an Android tablet from Google set to launch next week. The new tablet, built by Asus, is Wi-Fi-only and features a 7-inch screen.
“After testing the Nexus 7 for a couple of weeks, I consider it the best Android tablet I’ve used,” he writes. “It’s a serious alternative to both Apple’s larger $499 iPad and to a more direct rival: Amazon’s $199, Android-based, 7-inch Kindle Fire. I prefer the Nexus 7 to 7-inch models from Google partners like Samsung, whose comparable product costs $250.”
Mossberg notes ways in which the Nexus 7 does not keep up with the iPad: no cellular connectivity option, no rear camera, less screen resolution, less memory, fewer content choices and fewer available apps.
“But Google’s tablet is a better choice than the iPad for people on a budget; for those who prefer a lighter, more compact tablet that’s easier to carry and operate with one hand; and for those who prefer Google’s ecosystem of apps, services and content to Apple’s,” he notes, adding that he found the Nexus 7 battery life to be better than that of the iPad.
The Nexus 7 touts an artificial-intelligence feature that “presents a screen, called Google Now, with information it considers relevant to you at your present location and time — like the weather, traffic conditions between home and work, your next calendar appointment, and information for flights you’ve been researching,” writes Mossberg.
He also points out that “Apple is rumored to be planning a smaller, less costly iPad, which could give the Nexus 7 a run for its money.”
The post includes a 6-minute video report from Mossberg.
CBS, NBC and Fox have won the first round in the battle over Dish Network’s ad-skipping technology known as AutoHop.
“A New York federal court Monday denied Dish’s request for a declaratory ruling that the AutoHop does not violate copyright law,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
The networks had filed suit to block AutoHop (launched in May), which lets Dish customers bypass commercials on recorded versions of their shows.
“Now we move on to the real issue at hand — demonstrating that Dish Network has created and marketed a product with the clear goal of breaching its license with Fox, violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television business,” Fox said in a statement.
“We look forward to proceeding with this case, recognizing that it has been 28 years since the Supreme Court’s ‘Betamax’ decision held that a viewer, in the privacy of their home, could record a television show to watch later,” said R. Stanton Dodge, Dish’s general counsel. “Dish will stand behind consumers and their right to skip commercials, something they have been doing since the invention of the remote control.”
Forbes contributor Shel Israel addresses the hype behind Google’s Project Glass and what he anticipates will occur when the glasses become available to third-party developers next year.
“I think that there are very complex unanticipated consequences coming down the line,” he writes. “There are obvious ones such as privacy, but there are also strange ones coming when the technology we use starts becoming our intimate advisor, when machines have personalities and start reminding us of R2D2 and the robots we have known in fiction.”
Israel lists some interesting applications in the consumer, military and medical sectors — and how the possibilities (and implications) will expand when the glasses are connected to big data.
“In short, they will be a multimedia, networked computer that serve as also as a Siri-type personal assistant that you wear in the guise of glasses,” he predicts, adding that the concept is actually part of something larger in personal tech that will eventually impact us professionally and personally.
“Wearable computers are a subset of a larger category — Contextual Computing,” says Israel. “The name may be boring, but the concept is very large and it rests at the point where the SciFi that entertained us yesterday become the essential tools our lives.”
Contextual computing will dramatically affect the way humans work, live and communicate — especially as the technology improves and machines merge more with people.
“Where is it all going? I have absolutely no idea,” concludes Israel. “Are their dangerous unintended consequences looming? Of course there are. Have we hit the point when [Dr. Frankenstein] should not be allowed to create the next sentient monster? Not a chance.”
Engadget reviews the Nexus Q, Google’s recently announced social media streamer. The $299 sphere-shaped device is priced higher than similar products from Apple, Roku and even the company’s own Google TV.
Features include micro-HDMI, micro-USB, TOSLINK, 10/100 Ethernet and powered stereo outputs. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, NFC and dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n.
Engadget points out that the Nexus Q is easy to set up, but is generally lacking in functionality when compared to its competitors. The review also suggests the device is in need of a Web-based interface.
“The Nexus Q is an impressive piece of hardware that, given time and a serious augmentation of capability, could mature into a very exciting little thing,” concludes the post. “Right now, though, the Q feels like a high-priced novelty.”
The hands-on review includes two videos and analysis of hardware, setup and performance.
CNNMoney contributor Dan Mitchell suggests that the same social media forces that helped stop the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills have also led to the European Parliament’s rejection of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
The agreement “would have created standards for enforcing intellectual property rights across borders. ACTA would have applied not only to copyrights on media products like music and movies transmitted over the Internet, but also to trademarks and patents,” writes Mitchell. “So it also targeted people trying to move knockoff Gucci handbags and fake pharmaceuticals from one country to another.”
“There are two essential reasons for the widespread public outcry that ACTA has met with: the initial secrecy of the negotiations and the stunning vagueness of the agreement’s language,” he adds. “The negotiations were held behind closed doors, without input from either the general public or from public-interest groups. And the terms were so murky that it was impossible to tell what enforcement tactics would and would not be allowed.”
Opponents were to quick to warn that ACTA would lead to what the Free Software Foundation described as “a culture of surveillance and suspicion.”
The speedy organization of online protests that resulted once ACTA was revealed shows the growing power of social tools such as Facebook and Twitter.
“Politicians and owners of intellectual property would do well to keep that in mind as they try to create enforcement policies,” suggests Mitchell. “A good start would be to more directly target profiteers rather than innocent third parties, and to ensure that any laws or trade agreements adhere to basic democratic principles, such as due process of law.”
Amazon is reportedly developing a smartphone aimed at competing with Apple’s iPhone and Android devices.
Sources say Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Foxconn will work with Amazon. Additionally, Amazon is acquiring wireless technology patents. The sources do not mention what operating system Amazon plans to use to run the device.
“A smartphone would give Amazon a wider range of low-priced hardware devices that bolster its strategy of making money from digital books, songs and movies,” suggests Bloomberg.
“It would help Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos — who made a foray into tablets with the Kindle Fire — carve out a slice of the market for advanced wireless handsets,” notes the article.
In a related Bloomberg TV video interview, analyst Victor Anthony suggests the move is not necessarily about competing with leaders such as Samsung and Apple, but rather to provide a thin-margin device like the Kindle Fire.
“I do think it’s the next logical step for Amazon to follow,” he says. “I think what they want to do is really come out with a device that will allow them to increase the number of Amazon Store touch points whereas consumers could actually buy digital media content, they could buy physical goods. I think that’s the focus for Amazon launching a smartphone.”
According to IDC, manufacturers shipped 398.4 million smartphones and other mobile devices worldwide in Q1 2012.
Japanese camera maker Olympus has announced yet another prototype for a glasses-mounted heads-up display. The company has been working on prototypes in this space since 2005 and has shown several augmented reality concept devices in the past, none of which made it to market.
“Dubbed MEG4.0, the display features Bluetooth connectivity for interfacing with smartphones and uses Olympus’ own ‘proprietary optical technology’ to maximize the visibility of the outside world,” reports The Verge. “Unlike Project Glass, however, Olympus’ device doesn’t appear to include a camera — an odd choice for a company built on imaging products.”
Features include: QVGA 320×240 display, up to eight hours of battery life, and built-in accelerometer. The small wearable display is designed to fit on most glasses.
“The HMD (Head Mounted Display) renders information using Olympus’ proprietary Pupil Division Optical System, which, according to Olympus, is bright enough to be seen outdoors without sacrificing battery life,” notes Wired in a related post.
For those interested in the development of augmented reality glasses, Wired published an overview in April describing six glasses with integrated displays currently available. The report — which details the Vuzix Star 1200, Recon Mod Live Alpine Goggles, Brother AiRScouter, Epson Moverio BT-100, Sony HMZ T1 and Silicon Micro Display ST1080 — includes images and videos.
In addition to a range of consumer-based products and services demonstrated at the recent Google I/O conference, the company announced some compelling solutions intended for enterprise customers.
“At the top of the list was the launch of Google Compute Engine, an infrastructure-as-a-service product that lets developers run their applications on Google’s high-performance servers,” reports CNNMoney.
“This is an area which is core to us, and we are making a deep, long investment here,” says Sundar Pichai, senior VP for Chrome and Apps. “We think for the long haul.”
“The company also unveiled a few business-friendly upgrades to Google Apps, like the ability to edit documents offline, and the availability of the Chrome browser on Apple iPhones and iPads,” notes the article.
Google now has an enterprise sales and marketing team that is focusing on an evolving market and the crossover of consumer and business.
The company says its Android operating system is showing signs of acceptance in the workplace and the majority of its Gmail customers are now small businesses (five million in the U.S.).
Google and the UK’s PRS for Music have released a new study entitled “The six business models for copyright infringement.”
The research, conducted by BAE Systems Detica, finds that live television is the fastest-growing segment of copyright infringement. “Global page views of live TV sites were up 61 percent for the year ending May 2012,” notes paidContent.
The other business models featured in the report include P2P Community, Subscription Community, Music Transaction, Rewarded Freemium and Embedded Streaming.
“This study provides data-driven insight into how copyright infringement operates as a business across a range of business models,” explains the executive summary. “It shows that websites are most commonly funded in part or in combination by either advertising or payments.”
“For each segment, this study helps to identify which are the significant economic drivers. This data is likely to prove useful and insightful to industry and policymakers who seek to tackle infringement by ‘following the money.'”
The report notes that live TV sites link to a mixture of illegal streams and paid television, with a third based in the U.S. Two-thirds of these Live TV Gateway sites are funded by advertisers. Additionally, they are more likely than the other business models mentioned above to have mobile sites and a significant social network presence.
“Our research shows there are many different business models for online infringement which can be tackled if we work together,” said Theo Bertram, Google’s UK policy manager. “The evidence suggests that one of the most effective ways to do this is to follow the money, targeting the advertisers who choose to make money from these sites and working with payment providers to ensure they know where their services are being used.”
The article includes a graphic from the study that offers an excellent overview of the different categories. The full report is available for download from PRS for Music.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire has been the strongest competitor to Apple’s iPad and Google’s slew of Android devices. Amazon may now take on Apple and Google in the area of 3D mapping with its purchase of UpNext.
Amazon purchased the New York-based 3D map developer for an undisclosed sum. “UpNext offers interactive, detailed three-dimensional maps of cities and venues,” according to GigaOM.
“Currently, Kindle Fire owners must use third-party apps or access Google Maps (or another service) through the Web browser,” reports VentureBeat. “We could see UpNext’s mapping platform show up on Amazon.com or see it integrated with Amazon’s mobile apps.”
The purchase will allow Amazon to move away from its reliance on Google Maps for its new line of Kindle Fire tablets. “The Kindle Fire doesn’t currently include a GPS radio but the UpNext acquisition, which would help Amazon offer native mapping capabilities, potentially points to a more robust Kindle Fire in the future, as well as an Amazon smartphone,” notes GigaOM.
The VentureBeat post features two videos demonstrating UpNext’s 3D maps on the iPhone and iPad.
Reports indicate that an issue with Apple’s App Store was causing problems for its users this week. According to CNET, “Marco Arment, the creator of Instapaper, reported…that he was ‘deluged’ earlier this week by users who had downloaded Instapaper 4.2.3 and found that upon opening it, the application ‘crashed immediately.'”
The issue continued to plague users even after uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Arment also suggested that he’d heard of other app developers having similar issues.
“Arment found that the problem was due to what he said was a corrupt update Apple distributed through its App Store. According to Arment, the update he sent over worked just fine, so he quickly complained to Apple about the issue. Within a couple of hours, a new, reliable update was distributed and the problem was addressed,” reports CNET.
“I haven’t yet received a response from App Review, so I don’t know whether the fix was because I made noise, or simply because time passed, which may, for instance, expire a cache with the bad data,” Arment wrote in a blog post. “The only fix for people with bad copies, once good copies are being served again by the App Store, is to delete and reinstall the app.”
TechCrunch reports that Apple is aware of the problem and has been working to resolve it. “The short of it is that corrupt app store binaries, and possibly some problem related to Apple’s FairPlay DRM, is at the root of these mysterious crashes,” notes the post.
Apple issued an update late last night: “We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded. The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again.”
In a related report from International Business Times, Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab has reported an app named “Find and Call,” which it suggests is the first case of malware to enter Apple’s App Store. Reportedly also found in the Android Google Play store, the malware “steals your phonebook details and sends spam SMS messages to all your contacts, claiming to be from you,” explains the article.
Unable to agree on terms for a new contract, more than a dozen Viacom channels were pulled from DirecTV on Wednesday.
