TPP will bring a ‘book famine’ for blind people

A summit with leaders of the member states of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP). Pictured, from left, are Naoto Kan (Japan), Nguyễn Minh Triết (Vietnam), Julia Gillard (Australia), Sebastián Piñera (Chile), Lee Hsien Loong (Signapore), Barack Obama (United States), John Key (New Zealand), Hassanal Bolkiah (Brunei), Alan García (Peru), and Muhyiddin Yassin (Malaysia). Six of these leaders represent countries that are currently negotiating to join the group.

‘Copyright cartel attempts to ‘ride roughshod’ over vulnerable groups

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /LONDON/ +++ The Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP) is a set of secretive trade negotiations whose IP clauses have much in common with the reviled ACTA and SOPA treaties, accordint to privacy advocacy group the Pirate Party UK.

Book search case threatens librarians’ access to information

Hugh D’Andrade’s design to commemorate Electronic Frontier Foundation’s 20th Birthday.

Ignoring fair use doctrine, Authors Guild suit tries to block valuable resource

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus /London/ +++ The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed an amicus brief urging a federal court to find that the ‘fair use doctrine’ shelters Google’s Book Search “snippet” project from copyright infringement claims from the Authors Guild.

EFF was joined by three associations representing over 100,000 libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Library Association, and the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Judicial hearing in Megaupload user data case

Former federal judge Abraham Sofaer joins with EFF in fight for return of property

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ The Electronic Frontier Foundation, ssisted by retired federal judge and former State Department legal adviser Abraham D. Sofaer, asked a federal judge Friday to order the return of data to Kyle Goodwin, a Megaupload user who lost all access to his files when the cloud storage service was shut down by the U.S. government.

WEEKEND PLUS: Free eBooks help schools in wake of state-slashed expenditure

Free ebooks for students. Image: chrisjohnbeckett

Free eBooks for A Level studies welcomed by cash-strapped schools

By ECM Plus

ECM Plus +++ A new survey conducted by OCR has revealed that school teachers now facing tight budgets are welcoming the offer of free A Level eBooks from next September to help with their pupils’ school curricula.

Righthaven copyright troll lawsuit dismissed as a ‘sham’

Righthaven case thrown out as a 'sham' - that they never owned the copyright in the first place

Court finds Righthaven had ‘no authority to bring claims against political forum’

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ In a decision with likely wide-ranging impact, a judge in Las Vegas dismissed as a sham an infringement case filed by copyright troll Righthaven LLC. The judge ruled that Righthaven did not have the legal authorization to bring a copyright lawsuit against the political forum Democratic Underground, because it had never owned the copyright in the first place.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Fenwick & West LLP, and Las Vegas attorney Chad Bowers are defending Democratic Underground.

WEEKEND PLUS: Unlawful streaming of content gets top billing

Senator John Cornyn

Senate Bill calls for tougher penalties for unlawful streaming of content

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Senate Judiciary Committee members Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) this week introduced S. 978, a bipartisan bill aimed at more effectively combating the online theft of copyrighted works by classifying the illicit streaming of music, movies and other content as a felony.

Under current law, illegal uploading and downloading of protected works is already a felony but not streaming. The bill follows upon the recommendations of U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel who in March outlined several steps Congress should take to improve intellectual property protection in the America.

Blog moves to dismiss sham copyright troll lawsuit

American Bar Association Magna Carta Tribute. Image: donnamarijne

Unsealed documents show Righthaven not true owner of news article’s copyright

The publisher of a criminal justice blog that provides resources for difficult-to-prosecute murder cases has asked a judge to dismiss the sham infringement lawsuit filed against him by copyright troll Righthaven LLC.

Recently unsealed documents show that Righthaven is not the true owner of the copyright of the news article that is the basis for the lawsuit.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati are representing former prosecutor Thomas DiBiase. In this case, as in many others, Righthaven sued over the use of a Las Vegas Review-Journal article, claiming that the newspaper had transferred the copyright to Righthaven before filing the suit.

Hollywood is dead? Long live online content – Ollie Stone

From silver screen to touchscreen, online video causing a revolution in the the movie industry. (Picture: L-R: vzaar’s Ken Moss, Oliver Stone, vzaar CEO Stephen McCluskey. (c) ECM Plus)

British online video platform streaming hits HD

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ Hollywood film director Oliver Stone, npw a shareholder in the British-based online video delivery platform vzaar, said this week he now believes the internet is becoming an rising ‘force in the world of film’.

Sony taps T3 for content and metadata monetization

Content cornucopia set for advanced, custom search availability

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus +++ Thought Equity Motion, specialist providers of video platform and footage licensing is to partner with Sony Pictures in a bid to monetize content in its gargantuan library of content using Thought Equity Motion’s T3 Metadata Editor.

Peter Ward, SVP of information ops and content licensing for Sony Picture said the massive amount of visual data the company works with in movies and TV shows had to be textually searchable and mapped to a huge amount of other information, such as clearances, rights and restrictions, as well as music cue sheets. “The more easily we can store and access that information, the smarter we can be in using it” he said. 

Document asset management enters new Daminion

Stavropol-based Russian firm Daminion moves into document asset management

New version of ‘document asset management with image, video, and document management support for creatives and small teams

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus – Russian software firm Daminion, who claims to specialise in so-called ‘media document management’ has just released Version 0.8 beta of its ‘Document Asset Management’ software.

According to the firm, Daminion 0.8 beta is a pre-release version that will be made available for public testing before the company finally releases the final version of the program.

EFF demands quashing ‘copyright troll’ litigation

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Film companies are abusing the law to pressure defendants to settle

ECM Plus – The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the EFF, has asked an Illinois judge to quash subpoenas issued in predatory lawsuits involving alleged illegal downloading of pornography.

According to the EFF, In an amicus brief filed last week, EFF said it has argued that the adult film companies were abusing the law in order to coerce settlement payments – despite serious problems with the underlying claims. Charles Lee Mudd Jr. of Mudd Law Offices assisted EFF with the filing of this brief.

The Foundation said that its brief submitted last week was the latest in its efforts to stop so-called ‘copyright trolls’ – content owners and lawyers who team up to extract settlements from thousands of defendants at a time.

Allegedly, tactics employed by these ‘copyright trolls’ include improperly lumping defendants together into one case and filing it in a court far away from most of the accused people’s homes and Internet connections.

EFF said that when these adult film companies file these predatory lawsuits, there is the added pressure of embarrassment associated with pornography. All of these factors can, EFF stated, convince those ensnared in the suits to quickly pay what is being demanded instead of arguing the merits of their case in court.

“Copyright owners have a right to protect their works, but they can’t use shoddy and unfair tactics to do so” said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. “We’re asking the court to protect the rights of each and every defendant, instead of allowing these copyright trolls to game the system.”

Last month, a judge in West Virginia blocked an attempt to unmask accused pornography file-sharers in seven predatory lawsuits.

EFF said that this was closely following the reasoning from an EFF amicus brief, the judge ordered the plaintiffs to file against each defendant individually. In December 2010, a judge in the District of Columbia dismissed hundreds of individuals named in the U.S. Copyright Group troll campaign because of lack of personal jurisdiction. EFF said it had filed an amicus brief in that case as well.

“As judges start to force copyright trolls to play by rules, this kind of mass litigation will no longer be a good business model. That helps protect the rights of Internet users everywhere” McSherry added.

The full amicus brief can be downloaded from

Click to access effamicus11411.pdf

For more on copyright trolls, visit
https://www.eff.org/issues/copyright-trolls

Much ado about something in video content monetization

Much ado about something...

AdoTube partners with FreeWheel for monetization of premium video content

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECMPlus – In-video platform specialist AdoTube has just been named by video monetization technology company FreeWheel as a one partner to stream ad formats and premium ads in conjunction with FreeWheel’s monetization rights management.

AdoTube helps publishers use their own sales teams to sell AdoTube’s multiple innovative in-stream ad formats, while also enabling them to opt-in to AdoTube’s premium ad network.

“The result should be higher standards and improved operations industry-wide.”
.Certified Partner status further ensures that AdoTube has met a substantial set of criteria that allows FreeWheel to vouch for AdoTube’s technology and solutions. FreeWheel requires companies to fully adhere to industry standards set forth by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, as well as an additional set of FreeWheel-specified criteria.

“This program is a way for us to work with our valued partners like AdoTube to continue to strive for the best levels of support, integration, and operational excellence on behalf of our mutual clients,” said Brent Horowitz, vice president of business development at FreeWheel. “The result should be higher standards and improved operations industry-wide.”

AdoTube has a systems integration in place with FreeWheel giving shared clients access to its robust advertising platform as a way to help monetize inventory and power in-video advertising.

“FreeWheel Certified Partner status highlights our continued commitment to creating the best possible advertising platform for publishers, validating our goal to help clients make the most of their in-video inventory” added Craig Aron, VP Business Development at AdoTube.



Tarsin and Media Exchange ink mobile licensing deal

Mobile web standards evolution

Firms partner for push into mobility publishing markets

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECMPlus – Media Exchange Group and Tarsin have executed a definitive Capsa Platform Licensing Agreement, giving Media Exchange Group access to the mobile publishing world.

Tarsin, a mobile publisher, provides a widget-like framework to design mobile offerings.

According to the companies, Tarsin’s Capsa platform will provide a versatile framework for brands to design and deliver mobile experiences to the mobile marketplace. Capsa is a mobile content delivery solution available that is based on web-standards and is carrier, operating system, and device agnostic.

“The services and social networking solutions that Media Exchange Group are developing for release globally are needed in the market place, and needed by the online and mobile consumer,” said John Osborne, CEO of Tarsin.

“As mobile becomes the priority for 2011, we are excited about the opportunities and potential the Capsa platform now provides to Media Exchange Group, a one stop shop for turn key multi-platform mobile solutions company,” said Baer.

Mobtron touts mobile business website creator

Size isn't everything

Free site product for businness users for mobile advertising, marketing

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECMPlus – Mobile web development platform Mobtron.com has just launched a new module which enables any enterprise to create their mobile site for free, together with free hosting and backups.

According to the firm, anyone willing will also be provided professional advice by experienced mobile sites developers – and free of charge.

Mobtron provides mobile website developers with detailed statistics, access to a range of monetization functions, from mobile advertising networks integration to SMS payments.

“Our goal is to make the mobile website development simple and accessible to all” commented Mobtron’s technical development manager Sarunas Davalga. “Users select the desired option, drops it into the site and at once may observe how the site has changed. Thousands of individual users have successfully used the platform already, but with our latest add-on Mobtron has become an excellent tool for companies and businesses.”

Mobtron can be used both by companies wishing to create a representative mobile site of their business and especially by media agencies looking for means to offer their customers unique and cost-effective online mobile advertising solutions.

According to the company, all sites created using Mobtron are optimized for search engines and adapted for various models of mobile devices – including the most modern smart phones. Sites can also be created or edited using mobile phone only.

EFF wins landmark ruling freeing promo CDs for resale

US Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit

Victory for consumers’ fIrst sale rights – EFF

ECM Plus – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has shot down bogus copyright infringement allegations from Universal Music Group (UMG), affirming an eBay seller’s right to resell promotional CDs that he buys from secondhand stores and rejecting UMG’s attempt to claim that a sticker on a CD created a license agreement forbidding resale.

Troy Augusto, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the law firm Durie Tangri LLP, was sued by UMG for offering promo CDs for auction on eBay.

At issue was whether the labels on the CDs, some of which stated that they were “promotional use only, not for sale,” trumped Augusto’s right to resell the CDs that he bought.

Copyright’s “first sale” doctrine prevents a copyright owner from restricting further sales or uses of a work once title has passed.

The appeals court held: “UMG transferred title to the particular copies of its promotional CDs and cannot maintain an infringement action against Augusto for his subsequent sale of those copies.”

The court noted that UMG did not maintain control of the CDs once it mailed them out, did not require the recipients to agree to the “conditions” it sought to impose with the not-for-sale label, and did not require return of the CDs if the recipient did not consent.

“This ruling frees promotional CDs from the shadow of copyright infringement claims, which is good news for music lovers,” said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. “But it also has broader ramifications. The court flatly rejected the argument that merely slapping a notice on a copyrighted work prevents the work from ever being sold. It eliminates the risk of copyright infringement claims against later recipients — regardless of whether they paid for the work.”

“The Ninth Circuit recognized an important principle: that you can’t eliminate consumers’ rights just by claiming there’s a ‘license agreement,'” said Joe Gratz of Durie Tangri, lead counsel for Mr. Augusto. “Once a copyrighted work is freely given, the copyright holder isn’t in charge anymore. The copyright owner can’t stop you from selling it or lending it to a friend.”

For the full opinion in UMG v. Augusto:
https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/umg_v_augusto/UMGvAugusto9thCircuitOp…



Clarion call for Digital Content Monetisation Show

DCM Europe 2011 – 24-26 January 2011, Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London

ECM Plus – Receive a 10% discount when you register with promotional code ‘ECM’. Register online at http://www.dcm-eu.com, call +44 20 7067 1867 or email info@dcm-eu.com

Digital Content Monetisation is the only event in Europe to focus on key changes you can make to your digital value chain to contribute to solid digital ROI.

Join over 114 senior experts from across TV, gaming, music, film, broadcasting, publishing, and sports to uncover successful strategies.

You’ll meet key speakers from content owners and media services including:
TV4, ITV, Bauer, Turner, Channel 4, SKAI, BSkyB, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, LoveFILM, FilmFlex, News International, le Figaro, The Telegraph Group, The Guardian, Konami, Electronic Arts, SEGA, SCEE, Blitz Games, Penguin, Pan MacMillan, Random House, Real Madrid, Euroleague Basketball, WTA, Rugby Football League, Facebook, Mumsnet.com, Youtube, Spotify, SeeSaw and We7.

We have recently done a series of interviews with DCM speakers. Get an insight into what they have to say on the issues affecting media and content owners in monetising their content:

Henning Lindblad, VP Digital Marketing, WTA – discussing expanding the global reach of a sports brand, plus the critical role of social media in monetisation

Cosmo Lush, VP Digital Business Development, EMI Music – speaking about what devices excite him right now, how paywalls will revolutionise the way we pay for content and how the music industry has responded to piracy.

Trevor Albery, VP EMEA, Anti-Piracy Operations, Warner Bros – explaining how commercial, legal and anti-piracy teams can work together to combat illegal file-sharing.

Keep checking back as we will be adding more speaker interviews over the next few weeks.

You can also get a flavour for our DCM events by viewing video footage from our DCM New York event which took place in October. You can view – for free – the best panel sessions from the first day of the conference. This is a great opportunity to get your hands on some of the stories and tactics under discussion.

Register:

Online: http://www.dcm-eu.com
Email: info@dcm-eu.com
Tel: +44 (0)207 067 1867

www.dcm-eu.com

Amazon and WikiLeaks: Online speech is only as strong as the weakest intermediary

Image by Aldaron via Flickr

by Rainey Reitman and Marcia Hofmann

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression against government encroachment — but that doesn’t help if the censorship doesn’t come from the government.

The controversial whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, which has begun to publish a trove of over 250,000 classified diplomatic cables, found itself kicked off of Amazon’s servers earlier this week. WikiLeaks had apparently moved from a hosting platform in Sweden to the cloud hosting services available through Amazon in an attempt to ward off ongoing distributed denial of service attacks.

According to Amazon, WikiLeaks violated the site’s terms of service, resulting in Amazon pulling the plug on hosting services. However, news sources have also reported that Amazon cut off WikiLeaks after being questioned by members of the staff of Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman. While it’s impossible to know whether or not Amazon’s decision was directly caused by the call from the senator’s office, we do know that Lieberman has proposed “anti-WikiLeaks legislation” and that he has a history of pushing for online censorship in the name of “security.”

Importantly, the government itself can’t take official action to silence WikiLeaks’ ongoing publications –  that would be an unconstitutional prior restraint, or censorship of speech before it can be communicated to the public. No government actor can nix WikiLeaks’ right to publish content any more than the government could stop the New York Times and Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers, which were also stolen secret government documents.

But a web hosting company isn’t the government. It’s a private actor and it certainly can choose what to publish and what not to publish. Indeed, Amazon has its own First Amendment right to do so. That makes it all the more unfortunate that Amazon caved to unofficial government pressure to squelch core political speech. Amazon had an opportunity to stand up for its customer’s right to free expression. Instead, Amazon ran away with its tail between its legs.

In the end, it’s not just WikiLeaks that suffers from corporate policies that suppress free speech, here on matters of intense public importance. It’s also readers, who lose out on their First Amendment right to read the information WikiLeaks publishes. And it’s also the other Internet speakers who can’t confidently sign up for Amazon’s hosting services without knowing that the company has a history of bowing to pressure to remove unpopular content.

Today Amazon sells many things, but its roots are in books, which historically have been a lightning rod for political censorship campaigns. These campaigns tried and failed to suppress Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, Nabokov’s Lolita, and even Orwell’s 1984. And it’s the book industry – including writers, publishers, booksellers and libraries – that has championed the rights of readers and helped America maintain a proud history of free speech in the written word, even when faced with physical danger.

While it’s frustrating to think of any hosting provider cutting services to a website because it considers the content too politically volatile or controversial, it’s especially disheartening to see Amazon knuckle under to pressure from a single senator. Other Internet intermediaries should now expect to receive a phone call when some other member of Congress is unhappy with speech they are hosting. After all, it worked on Amazon.

Information Commissioner: Street View breaches data protection laws

Commissioner Graham finds Street View broke law

Government watchtdog finds search engine giant of unlawful Street snooping in private data dredge

ECM Plus – The UK Government Information Commissioner has found search engine behemoth Google will be subject to audit and must sign an undertaking not to breach data protection laws again.

The Information Commissioner further stated that if the search engine company were to undertake such an unlawful data breach in the UK again, they would ‘face enforcement action’ the ICO said in a statement.

Commissioner Christopher Graham said: “…there was a significant breach of the Data Protection Act when Google Street View cars collected payload data as part of their wi-fi mapping exercise in the UK.”

Commissioner Graham has instructed Google to sign an undertaking in which the company commits to take action to ensure that breaches of this kind cannot happen again.

Furthermore, in light of the breach of data protection, an audit of Google UK’s Data Protection practices will also be undertaken.

However, the Information Commissioner rejected calls for a financial penalty to be imposed on the search engine giant, but said that it was ‘well placed to take further regulatory action if the undertaking is not fully complied with.’

According to the ICO statement, iInternational data protection authorities that undertook in-depth investigations into Google’s activities found fragments of personal data, including emails, complete URLs – and passwords.

ICO said that following the admission by Google that personal data had indeed been collected, and the fact that Google used the same technology in the UK, the Commissioner decided that formal action was necessary.

Commissioner Graham is also requiring Google to delete the payload data collected in the UK as soon as it is legally cleared to do so.

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, added: “It is my view that the collection of this information was not fair or lawful and constitutes a significant breach of the first principle of the Data Protection Act.”

Said Graham: “The most appropriate and proportionate regulatory action in these circumstances is to get written legal assurance from Google that this will not happen again – and to follow this up with an ICO audit.”

THQ taps MediaBox for digital media workflow

Improved workflow aids games developers

Licensing management systems help online product approvals, rich media flow

ECM Plus – Game developer THQ has just licensed Conecture’s Mediabox-PA product approvals and Mediabox-DAM digital asset management.

According to the company, it will be using the two systems for licensees and manufacturers to submit product design artwork as digital media to licensors via a central online system.

The Mediabox-PA system also enables licensors to review submitted artwork online, link comments with each artwork file and manage workflow’s order of projects and submissions between licensee-customers and their own staff.

The app can also be used by licensees to log in and review licensor comments and submit revised product designs online.

Analytics and metrics, such as data traffic, milestones, and activity are tracked and reported in real-time are also supported.

THQ said it will now be using Mediabox-DAM system to manage and deliver style guide assets related to their video games.

All products are available only as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and are pre-configured to work for specific industries.

Media tap digital rights management for secure streaming

Image via CrunchBase

Media monetizing despite DRM debacles

ECM Plus – Verimatrix has licensed Intertrust’s Marlin digital rights management technology in a bid to secure and enhancing revenue for multi-screen digital TV services.

The company said it will provide a Marlin broadband system as part of its MultiRights product, integrated with its single security authority VCAS architecture.

Verimatrix said that the solution also includes support for secure multicast, download and streaming service delivery, incorporating the Marlin Secure Streaming Specification (MS3).

According to the company, Verimatrix is a long-term supporter of Marlin DRM via membership in the Marlin Developer Community (MDC) and the Open IPTV Forum, and a member of the founding set of partners for Marlin Partner Program (MPP) in 2008.

“Verimatrix…has played a significant role in enabling the growth of IP-based video businesses globally” commented Talal Shamoon, Intertrust CEO. “We have worked together as partners in numerous initiatives, and are delighted to see them deploying commercial solutions based on our Marlin technologies.”

Marlin is an open standard for content protection and management. Marlin is the sole security technology for numerous video services worldwide, including the AcTVila and Hikari services in Japan, Sony’s PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and more recently, the YouView video platform in the United Kingdom. In addition, Marlin DRM is being evaluated as the DRM for several other national video distribution consortia such as Singapore’s Next Generation Interactive Media Applications and Services (NIMS) project. Other standards bodies such as the Open IPTV Forum have adopted Marlin as their DRM system.

“The digital TV industry requires standards-based technology developments with solid commercial vendor follow through to fully realize the fruits of its key initiatives. We are the first digital TV revenue security company to offer a commercially-supported Marlin DRM solution for this growing range of video services worldwide,” added Tom Munro, CEO of Verimatrix.

Fordela gives a DAM about video content management

The true object of all human life is play - G.K.Chesterton

Fordela Enterprise Video Management Platform 3.2 Released

ECM Plus – Enterprise video management company Fordela has just released Version 3.2 of its cloud-based enterprise video management product, EVM 3.2.

According to the company, this new release is spearheaded by Fordela’s secure Virtual Screening Rooms (VSR’s). These highly-customisable and secure environments enable clients to quickly create, customise and distribute high-quality secure video screening rooms to their employees, partners and customers.

Fordela said that each VSR can be individually customised with client branding, player skins, metadata and attached documents. In addition, Content managers can preview and generate embedded Lightbox players with a look and feel that fits the specific design attributes of their clients and partners. All VSR’s are enabled with single user sign-on security, built-in analytics and annotation functionality for collaboration.

Fordela’s EVM 3.2’s dashboard enables content managers to see at a glance the total number of assets, storage and monthly bandwidth used – improving transparency and reporting. Additional upgrades include: Media RSS (MRSS) feeds for syndicating multimedia files; improved Social Network site embeds; improved custom ingest profile transcoding and version control; and importable and exportable custom metadata fields.

The Fordela EVM 3.2 further enhances the high-powered, highly-scalable cloud-based Fordela platform enabling organisations to safely and securely upload, manage, edit, transcode and distribute video, audio and image content globally.

The EVM platform is offered as a service and is also available as a white-label solution to partners.

Fordela was founded by video content professionals to solve real world everyday workflow problems arising around the management of digital assets. The company’s delivers the best of enterprise class digital asset management, as a service, from the cloud.

Apple app dev chink will make Android malfunction

Dead, or just pining for the fjords?

Apple ‘ground rules’ opening loosens stranglehold, dooms competition

ECMPlus – by Paul Quigley – News that Big Stevie Jobs has decided to open the kimono on Apps for developers, albeit a limited exposure to a ‘virtual open source’ paradigm for software content and app development, is tantamount to a change in religion to the Cupertino control freakery extant until today.

The commercial upshot? Android is dead. Death by a thousand cuts, the apps will always play second fiddle to the Apple corps, and what’s more, people find iXXX sexier.

Much as when Windows apps flourished back in the day, post Windows 3.0/3.1 into Workgroup era, the floodgate for apps is about to open. Bye bye Android. Competition can be cruel.

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Publishers clamping down on licensing audits

 

FAST auditing software asset management

Survey finds compliance top of priorities

ECM Plus – According to the 2010 FAST Customer Survey, the number of organisations that have received software audits over the last year has risen by almost 100 percent

Software asset management and compliance body FAST has taken the wraps off its findings from its 2010 FAST customer survey which shows what it calls are alarming results revealing that software audits continue to rise, and more than half – 55 percent – of respondents have been audited by a software publisher or other body in the past 12 months alone.

According to FAST, this figure has almost doubled since the 2009 FAST survey, which showed 30 percent of organisations had been audited by a software publisher or other body in 2008 to 2009.

The FAST survey revealed that two thirds of respondents (66 percent) cite “Licence Compliance”, and two fifths (42 percent) cite SAM as being extremely important to their organisation.

With the threat of being non-compliant becoming a prominent issue for IT departments it is not surprising that, “Identifying current assets and the licensing position” was ranked as the biggest challenge (55 percent) that organisations faced in relation to SAM and IT compliance, FAST said.

The survey, which also tracks customer’s adoption of the FAST Compliance Programme showed that nearly three quarters (69 percent) of respondents identified that the main reason for joining the programme was to “Understand the company licence situation”. This statistic represents a 50 percent increase from the 2009 results.

Matt Barnes, managing director at FAST said: “The survey shows that software licensing should be at the top of the senior manager’s agenda, because with so many publishers clamping down on software licensing, this is not an issue that they can afford to ignore. With many more businesses now adopting Software-as-a-Service, Cloud Computing and Virtualisation the licensing requirements of businesses are not only changing but becoming more complex. This increase reflects the message that the legal implications of being non-compliant are greater than ever.”

“The FAST Compliance Programme has a proven track record of helping UK organisations realise the benefits of software compliance and effective SAM. We can help organisations at every step of the way in implementing a rigorous IT management regime that will ensure they are software compliant. Effective SAM enables businesses’ to make significant cost savings by accurately understanding their licensing position and being aware of areas within the business that are over-licensed, and by reducing the risk of receiving hefty fines for being non-compliant.”

The 2010 FAST Ltd Customer survey also showed that 45 percent of organisations were now “Planning licensing requirements moving forward” and that 48 percent of organisations were “Focusing on being able to respond to software audits”.

FAST said that organisations were now beginning to realise the importance and the significant benefits of being software compliant – in the foreseeable future almost half (48 percent) of respondents are working towards gaining accreditation and completing the FAST Compliance Programme. The top three features of the FAST Compliance Programme were having “Access to expert knowledge” (55 percent), “Planning future asset/licensing requirements” (41 percent), and because they felt their organisation had “Poor asset inventory data” (34 percent).

Nearly three quarters (71 percent) of respondents have attended a FAST Software Management course in the past, and looking ahead, more than a third of respondents (31 percent) are interested in attending SAM training courses offered by FAST in the future.

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