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The Motion Picture Association of America has helped convict an administrator for EliteTorrents.org, a peer-to-peer site, of felony copyright infringement and conspiracy, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday.

Daniel Dove, 26, of Clintwood, Va., was the first criminal conviction after jury trial for peer-to-peer copyright infringement and the eighth overall resulting from a federal crackdown called Operation D-Elite that targeted administrators and people who provided content that was distributed through the BitTorrents hub.

The case began in 2005, when federal agents raided and shut down the popular Web site that had distributed copyrighted music and movies, including Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. At that time, Homeland Security agents from several divisions served search warrants on 10 people around the country suspected of being involved with the Elite Torrents site, and took over the group's main server.

According to prosecutors, EliteTorrents attracted more than 125,000 members and assisted in the illegal distribution of about 700 movies, which were downloaded more than 1.1 million times. According to the Justice Department, Dove led a group of "uploaders" that supplied pirated content to the group, as well as recruiting members with ultra-fast broadband connections to become uploaders. Prosecutors also said Dove operated a high-speed server himself.

The MPAA "provided substantial assistance" to the investigation, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Dove faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in September, the Justice Department said.

Scott McCausland, who used to be an administrator of the EliteTorrents server before the raid, pleaded guilty in 2006 to two copyright-related charges over the uploading of Star Wars: Episode III to the Internet. As a result, he was sentenced to five months in jail and five months' home confinement.

McCausland--a Linux user--reported in 2007 that the terms of his sentence meant he would have to install Windows if he wanted to use a computer during his probation.

Qtrax, a company that stumbled badly out of the gate, appears to be on the road to recovery.

The legal P2P music service has signed a licensing deal with Warner/Chappell music publishing, according to a spokeswoman with Warner Music Group. The move comes a week after Qtrax inked a deal with Universal Music Group, the largest recording company.

If you remember, Qtrax was the company that claimed in January when it launched the site to have signed all four of the top music labels, only to see the companies deny such agreements existed. Since then Qtrax has continued to plug along at the negotiating table.

But the contract with Warner/Chappell doesn't mean Qtrax can start offering music from Warner Music. In the convoluted way music licenses are handled, an online music store must secure publishing and recording rights. In this case, the recording rights are of course owned by Warner Music and the company's spokeswoman had no idea when a deal might be reached with the fledgling service.

The entertainment industry's controversial efforts to get universities to be more proactive about policing peer-to-peer piracy have begun to spread from Capitol Hill to the states.

Earlier this year, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a Hollywood-backed proposal buried in a higher education reauthorization bill that would require universities receiving federal financial aid funding to devise plans for "alternative" offerings to unlawful downloading--such as subscription-based services--or "technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity."

That otherwise wide-ranging bill won't become law until House and Senate politicians agree upon a compromise version. Meanwhile, the debate over the proper role of higher education institutions in fighting piracy has shifted to some state legislatures.

On Thursday, what appears to be the first such proposal in the country became law in Tennessee--home to Nashville, the country music capital of the world. A similar measure is currently being considered in Illinois. And California held an "informational hearing" last month featuring a Recording Industry Association of America representative, although no legislation has been introduced there yet.

RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth declined to divulge where else the industry may be planning to push such policies, but she insisted the group views new laws as a last resort.

"If we're asked to participate in conversations by lawmakers, of course we will," she said in an e-mail interview. "But we prefer to be working directly with schools on a collaborative approach to reduce theft."

Still, university administrators gathered at a policy conference in Arlington, Va., this week sponsored by the nonprofit group Educause, which represents higher education institution technologists, suggested they're bracing for the quiet appearance of new bills proposing what they view as overly burdensome and overreaching network management mandates.

"If there is a trend here anywhere, it's that these things tend to fly under the radar," Steve Worona, Educause's director of policy and networking programs, told conference attendees. "Let me alert you once again to raise the consciousness of whoever in your state is tracking (legislation)."

"Technological deterrents" vs. Copyright 101
That was the experience related by Thomas Danford, chief information officer for the Tennessee Board of Regents, a governance organization that covers 19 public colleges and universities inside the state. If it weren't for the close scrutiny of his organization's legislative committee, Tennessee universities may have been stuck with much less savory obligations related to managing peer-to-peer file sharers on their network, he said.

The original version of the Tennessee bill (PDF), which Danford said was penned by a local RIAA lobbyist, would have required universities to effectively play copyright cops on their networks. It dictated that they must employ "effective technology-based deterrents, to prevent the infringement of copyrighted works over the school's computer and network resources, including over local area and internal networks."

That requirement was problematic not only because of its cost, which Danford said was estimated at $14 million, but because many university administrators still question the effectiveness of filtering programs and other technological means designed to detect and block copyrighted works from being exchanged.

"I'm convinced that had we not had this (committee), they probably would've been able to get this through the state house before anyone caught wind of it," putting universities in the tough position of trying to fight the law after the fact, Danford said.

In the end, the Tennessee governor signed into law an amended version of state senate bill 3974 (PDF) that Danford said is more palatable to universities and addresses many of the concerns he outlined.

It requires any higher education institution in the state, whether public or private, to develop and enforce a policy that prohibits its students, staff, and faculty from committing copyright infringement. It also requires schools to make "reasonable" attempts to prevent copyright infringement on their networks if they receive 50 or more infringement notices during a preceding year, but it does not explicitly define what those steps are.

Similar legislation is pending in the Illinois state legislature, except it appears to be stricter at this point. It would require universities to "undertake reasonable efforts to install and implement a technology-based deterrent system to attempt to prevent the infringement of copyrighted works" over its networks if it receives at least 10 infringement notices in a given year. That measure has only been considered in one chamber so far.

University representatives like Educause and fair use advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation oppose mandatory use of so-called infringement suppression technologies--such as those made by Red Lambda, SafeMedia, and Audible Magic--because of the cost and perceived flaws associated with those products.

Charles Leonhardt, Georgetown University's principal technologist, told conference attendees that a coalition of 28 schools and higher education consortia known as the Common Solutions Group has vetted those three main vendors of network filtering software and came to the following conclusion: "The current products cannot stop all or even most unauthorized copyrighted material without interfering with networks essential to research and teaching on our campuses."

The solutions on the market today are undesirable because they suppress legitimate network traffic along with pirated works, degrade network performance, and are "very expensive," particularly considering their flaws, Leonhardt said.

Both Leonhardt and Ken Wada, director of IT strategic policy for the University of California at Los Angeles, said the best recipe lies not in technological fixes, but in publicizing and enforcing the university's acceptable network use policy and offering a healthy dose of education about copyright for students.

After all, it bears repeating that universities and the entertainment industry do share one major distinction, Wada said: "We're both creators and consumers of intellectual property."

AT&T on Friday denied using forged reset packets to interfere with network connections of Vuze file-sharing platform users, as Comcast has been accused of doing with BitTorrent traffic.

The statement came in response to a report released earlier this week (PDF) by Vuze, which offers a BitTorrent-based client primarily used for distributing video. The start-up has asked the Federal Communications Commission to impose regulations prohibiting broadband operators from blocking or degrading peer-to-peer traffic.

Vuze's report claimed to document the median reset rates experienced by more than 1,200 "autonomous system numbers," which are unique identifiers for individual IP networks and routers, as monitored using a plug-in Vuze began offering last month. (It tracks all possible network interruptions, not just ones related to the Vuze platform.)

According to Vuze's data, a number of Comcast connections recorded the most frequent interruptions, but the top 20 highest reset rates also included users with Cablevision, BellSouth (an AT&T property), and AOL subscriptions.

Vuze said it planned to ask those Internet service providers to be more transparent about the cause of those reset packets and disclose whether they are using a "false reset message" technique. Meanwhile, it filed its preliminary report with the FCC, acknowledging that its results weren't definitive and that the documented disruptions could have occurred for a multitude of reasons.

AT&T bit back on Friday, denying using "false reset messages" to manage its network and arguing that Vuze's measurements were "misleading."

Here's a snippet from the letter:

In response to your specific question about AT&T's network management practices, AT&T does not use "false reset messages" to manage its network. We agree with Vuze that the use of the Vuze Plug-In to measure network traffic has numerous limitations and deficiencies, and does not demonstrate whether any particular network providers or their customers are using TCP Reset messages for network management purposes. Given that Vuze itself has recognized these problems with the measurements generated by its Plug-In, we believe that Vuze should not have published these misleading measurements, nor filed them with the FCC. Moreover, as Vuze and others have acknowledged, TCP resets are generated for many reasons wholly unrelated to the network management practices of broadband network providers, which explains why resets may appear on networks of companies such as AT&T who do not use TCP resets for network management.

Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa sent CNET News.com the following response to AT&T's letter on Friday afternoon:

"Our data suggests that the reset rates for Bell South, which is owned by AT&T, were higher than for many other ISPs. Our data collection was credible and transparent, but not conclusive. Therefore, we decided that it was best to simply ask AT&T and others if they use reset messages as a network management technique. AT&T has now answered that they do not. We appreciate their response and hope all network operators will be as forthcoming. It is easy to debate methodology, but, given the shortage of facts and the gravity of the issues to our user base, it is difficult to criticize the asking of a fair question--what network management practices are you using?"

Comcast, of course, has admitted to delaying "excessive" peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic at "peak hours" of network congestion in the name of keeping the network running smoothly for all its users. In a report last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it had conducted tests confirming that the company was using forged reset packets to throttle certain BitTorrent and Gnutella sessions.

Under fire from consumer advocates and investigation by the FCC, the cable operator has since pledged to migrate to a "protocol agnostic" network management technique by the end of the year.

First, it was a very public detente with BitTorrent.

Then, on Tuesday, Comcast continued its make-nice-with-P2P campaign by announcing a new collaboration with P2P software maker Pando Networks. Specifically, they're leading the development of a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities," driven by input from "industry experts, other ISPs and P2P companies, content providers and others."

"By having this framework in place, we will help P2P companies, ISPs and content owners find common ground to support consumers who want to use P2P applications to deliver legal content," Comcast Chief Technology Officer Tony Werner said in a statement.

The companies also plan to test Pando technology designed to capture and analyze the flow of P2P traffic on Comcast's fiber-optic network and other Internet service providers' networks. The idea is to publish the results of the tests--which will measure "performance, speed, distance and geography as well as bandwidth consumption impact to the ISP"--so that other ISPs can learn how P2P applications might be optimized on their networks.

Pando, for its part, has already worked with Verizon and Yale University researchers to test "smarter" P2P routing techniques that have been found to drastically reduce network utilization and speed up downloads for subscribers.

a screen shot of Pando's P2P software

(Credit: Pando Networks)

Comcast drew public criticism and a Federal Communications Commission probe after reports that it was delaying uploads of peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic on the BitTorrent protocol. Comcast has defended the move as necessary to keep its network running smoothly at peak hours for all users. But there have been allegations, including from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, that the company didn't do enough to inform its users about those activities.

The subject is likely to come up again this Thursday during a second FCC hearing at Stanford University, as well as at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on the "future of the Internet" scheduled for next week.

Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association--the industry group of which Comcast is a member--called the announcement "further evidence that private sector collaboration, not government intervention, is the most appropriate way to address complicated technological issues."

Proponents of Net neutrality rules--that is, barring network operators from prioritizing Internet content based on its ownership or type--have asked the FCC to declare that Comcast's peer-to-peer traffic management is not reasonable and therefore off limits.

One such group, Public Knowledge, called the agreement "long on rhetoric," "short on detail," and "ludicrous." Another group, Free Press, was similarly unimpressed by the company's latest overtures, saying the need for Net neutrality rules "remains urgent."

"Slick press releases by a dishonest would-be gatekeeper do nothing to protect consumers," said Marvin Ammori, the group's general counsel. "Comcast's announcement is little more than the fox telling the farmer, 'I'll guard the henhouse, you can go home.' And that's all the attention it deserves."

Update 7:57 AM PDT: Comcast and BitTorrent have made it official, announcing that they are working together "and with the broader Internet and ISP community" to address issues of rich media and network management. One specific result of the talks: Comcast says that, by the end of 2008, it will have adopted a "capacity management technique that is protocol agnostic."

Are Comcast and BitTorrent secretly an old married couple, prone to bickering over their peccadilloes and never quite comfortable together in public, but still joined tightly by an abiding sense of union and shared purpose?

So it would seem. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reports a deal in the works between the cable provider and the file-sharing company that would have the pair collaborating on ways to make their technologies more compatible. Comcast, of course, has been on the hot seat in recent weeks over its practice of stymieing the peer-to-peer traffic of BitTorrent users.

Top executives at the two companies told the newspaper that Comcast will look for better ways to manage peak traffic on its network, slowing things down for those users who consume the most bandwidth, rather than by types of applications, such as BitTorrent. The new policy, which would also factor in additional data capacity, could take effect by the end of the year--if lab tests show it to be feasible.

The talks are also aimed at helping Comcast shore up video traffic on its network.

Public disputes aside, collaboration between the companies is nothing new, as CNET News.com's Marguerite Reardon reported recently. Her Q&A earlier this month with BitTorrent CEO Doug Walker, "BitTorrent to Comcast: Let's be friends," offers a wealth of detail and insight about the relationship, Comcast's issues with Internet video, and potential solutions.

"We have reached out to them. Actually, Tony Werner, who is the CTO of Comcast, is an adviser to BitTorrent," Walker told News.com. "And very few people know that."

Walker goes on: "We are continuing to have a dialogue. I am hopeful that we are going to be able to work together in the future as this whole thing works itself out and takes its natural course. If there is anyway we can help Comcast make its network more efficient, we'd like to be a part of that solution."

And that's in spite of the fact that the Q&A starts out with Walker saying that Comcast had unfairly singled out BitTorrent.

A Seattle man has been sentenced to more than four years in prison in what prosecutors say was the first federal case against someone using file-sharing software to steal identities.

Gregory Kopiloff, 35, was sentenced Monday to 51 months in prison, according to a report in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Kopiloff pleaded guilty in November to mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and accessing a protected computer without authorization to further fraud. Kopiloff used programs such as LimeWire to gain access to personal information in tax returns, credit reports, bank statements, and student financial-aid applications of more than 50 people, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. He then used the information to buy and resell more than $73,000 in merchandise, the release said.

While music and movie piracy cases are common, the Justice Department called Kopiloff's prosecution its first case against someone accused of using peer-to-peer programs to commit identity theft.

A real-world Internet test reveals that "intelligent" routing of peer-to-peer traffic can drastically reduce network utilization and speed up downloads for subscribers, according to a new study.

Verizon Communications, which participated in the study headed by researchers at Yale University, plans to release the data on Friday at the Distributed Computing Industry Association's P2P Market Conference in New York City.

Using network topology data from Verizon and Telefonica, Yale University tested a software enhancement to the peer-to-peer protocol that it developed with software developer Pando Networks.

What the researchers discovered was that when using the so-called P4P software they were able to reduce the impact of peer-to-peer traffic on Verizon's network by more than 50 percent. This is significant because peer-to-peer traffic makes up roughly half of all traffic traveling over Verizon's network.

The P2P protocol, which is used to distribute large data files, works by requesting pieces of a single file from different hosts all over the Internet. The technology has become popular for distributing high-definition video.

But applications that use P2P eat up a lot of bandwidth, which some service providers say is a problem. Cable operator Comcast has slowed down certain kinds of peer-to-peer traffic in an effort to manage its network. And Time Warner Cable is experimenting with a tiered usage model to deter people from sharing P2P files.

Traditionally, the P2P protocol has requested bits and pieces of content randomly, without considering the physical location of the data. This often results in some pieces of the content traveling over long distances across the network. For example, a user in New Jersey downloading a movie might get some bits of the file from New York and others from China or California.

The P4P software enhancements add intelligence to this process so that the bits are served from local hosts.

Douglas Pasko is Verizon senior technologist and co-chair of the P4P Working Group, which was formed by Verizon, Pando Networks, and the university to develop P4P. He said that when the P4P software was used on the Verizon network it found that 58 percent of its peer-to-peer network traffic stayed local. Using regular P2P technology, only 6 percent of the traffic stayed local.

Reducing the number of hops is key
Pasko said that keeping the traffic local is important because every link that a bit passes through costs the operator something. This means that if a Fios subscriber in New Jersey can get bits of content from Verizon customers in New York City instead of getting them from Singapore or Taiwan, Verizon can save money.

The key is reducing the number of routers or hops the traffic has to go through to get to its destination. On average, Pasko said that regular P2P traffic makes 5.5 hops to get its destination. Using the P4P protocol, those same files took an average of 0.89 hops.

Reducing hops means that Verizon can cut its network costs. Exactly how much the company saves depends on the individual links, but Pasko said the savings are significant.

Verizon broadband subscribers also saw a benefit when the P4P protocol was used. Customers using Verizon's all-fiber network called Fios saw movies downloading on average twice as fast as when they used the traditional P2P software. Some customers saw as much as a 6x improvement in download speeds, Pasko said.

For customers on regular DSL service, the improvement in download speeds wasn't as great because these customers don't have high bandwidth connections anyway.

This real-world field trial validates the value of P2P content providers working closely with Internet service providers to provide the most efficient service for customers, Pasko said. There are already 50 members in the DCIA's P4P Working Group, including some cable operators, such as Comcast, Cablevision, and Time Warner, he said.

"We hope this shows that using P2P in an intelligent way can benefit everyone," he said. "It allows us to use fewer resources on our network and get better performance for our customers."

Rapper Flo Rida

(Credit: Chad Griffith )

You won't hear up-and-coming rap star Flo Rida griping about fans pilfering his songs on P2P sites, or complain that technology is hurting the music industry. Don't talk to him about so-called digital divides either.

As one of rap music's fastest rising stars, Rida, 28, is new enough to music success that fans are still precious to him. This is a guy who used to shout out his cell number during performances.

This "personal touch" has helped, he says. His song "Low," recently spent 13 weeks as the top-selling ringtone in the country, a new record for consecutive weeks, according to Nielsen RingScan chart. According to his music label, Poe Boy/Atlantic Records, Rida (a name he chose to honor his home state and his rap style) is also the first ever debut artist to have two Top 10 digital singles prior to an album release. His debut album, Mail On Sunday goes on sale March 18.

Rida is one of a growing number of young performers who are trying to break into a music business dominated by technology.

In an interview Tuesday with CNET News.com, Rida revealed himself to be a bit of a gadget geek (he's got two MacBook Pros and four flat screens) and said he sees more computers and high-tech gadgetry in inner cities than ever. He also sent a message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He once accidentally dropped his iPod in the toilet and "if they can make them waterproof, that'd be great."

Q: Are you one of the people that despises file sharing?
Rida: If you're really in touch with your fans on a personal level then you don't have to worry about things like that. A lot of times I make sure I go onto MySpace and holler at my fans, looking at them on YouTube, showing love, making sure that I'm in tune more so on a personal level than just having a hot song...cause these are people who just might want to go to the store to get the album as well as download. These are people who might want to put your poster on the wall or see your (album) art.

Q: Tell me about ringtones. How do those royalty checks look?
Rida: Oh man, oh man. It's a blessing. I can do a whole lot of things that I couldn't do before right now you know? I just put down on another house, got a couple of cars from all my fans and the ringtones. I definitely bought like four flat screens. I got two MacPros...

Q: Have you had the chance to hear some stranger's phone go off and heard your music?
Rida: Oh yeah, sometimes I might go to Wal-Mart and hear it and say to myself: "That's my song right there and it's his ringtone playing." In October last year, I heard it for the first time. I just told the guy "Thank you." I never knew the song was going to be this big.

Q: The technology sector has heard much about the digital divide, and how urban areas lack enough computers and other technologies. Is that your experience?
Rida: In the schools around my (South Florida) neighborhood, they definitely got tons more computers. Before now, they didn't have anything. The students now, a lot of them have laptops at home...

Q: What kind of technology do you see a need for? What does someone need to come up with to make your life easier?
Rida: I remember one time, I accidentally dropped my first iPod into the toilet. If they can make them waterproof, that'd be great.