THE WINDOWSFORDEVICES.COM WEEKLY NEWSLETTER WindowsForDevices.com Newsletter -- January 20, 2003 

THE WINDOWSFORDEVICES.COM WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 


Monday, January 20, 2003

By Alexander Wolfe, executive editor
 

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***************************TOP STORIES******************************

1) DIGITAL CONTENT IS IN THE EYE OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER

It's all about content. That would be the message to take away from
the flurry of recent news about CD and DVD copyrights and anti-
piracy schemes which could impact the distribution of video and 
audio to smart devices.

Smart devices developers and consumer electronics vendors will see 
their bills of material increase because they have to incorporate 
encryption circuitry. That's bad because it increases end user 
prices and could drive away consumers in a down economy. 

Software  developers, on the other hand, might benefit from laws 
which would have the effect of requiring most digital content to 
pass through at least one anti-copying black box on its way from 
creator to customer. Here, Microsoft sees an opportunity and is 
going for it with a copy protection toolkit that's just been added 
to the code base of Windows Media 9 code, which is the centerpiece 
of its digital media strategy.

As for content creators, they're currently are sitting pretty atop 
an additional 20-year revenue stream as a result of a court 
decision that retroactively extends existing copyright terms from 
75 years to 95 years. (A related issue relating to who controls 
what contend is currently being fought in the music industry. 
Several established performers--notably Sheryl Crow--are lobbying 
heavily to change long-time practices under which record companies 
have muscled copyrights away from artists desperate to sign a 
contract.)

Then there are the record companies themselves. They're looking to 
copy protection as their redemption from years of billion-dollar 
losses due to illegal downloading. But some music industry analysts
instead see this as the last of a dying business model, where and
industry built around physical media hasn't come to terms with 
digital distribution.

The simplest of all the issues currently in play is probably the 
one involving copyright extension. Here, the specifics are that the
Supreme Court decided to uphold a 20-year extension which 
Congress granted to all existing copyrights in 1998.

The organization which lobbied most heavily in support of the 
extension was Walt Disney studios. Their lucrative "Mickey Mouse" 
character, created in the 1930s, had been set to fall into the 
public domain where anyone could reproduce it for free.

Lined up against the extension was the Consumer Electronics 
Association, the Free Software Foundation, and Intel Corp., among 
others.

Consumer electronics vendors are unhappy about the extension 
because it will increase pressure on them to incorporate encryption
and other copy protection schemes, raising costs and possibly 
stanching sales.

As for Web operations, there's something of a split. Major 
corporate operations which own lots of content support the court's 
move. Smaller site, bloggers, and Web libertarian groups such as 
the Electronic Freedom Foundation oppose the extension, arguing it 
unfairly enriches the Disneys at the expense of broader public 
interest considerations specified in the Constitution.

However, the 20-year extension is the smaller of two copyright 
issues currently the subject of industry battles. The far larger 
fight revolves around digital piracy and copyright protection. 
Here, the Recording Industry Association of America, the umbrella 
trade ground of the major record companies, is seeking to legislate
tight anti-copying controls. 

Today, things seem to be at an inflection point. A new market for 
copy protection code appears ripe for an explosion, because the 
needs of the record companies and the capabilities of software 
designers have finally converged. The record companies have bled 
billions from illegal copying. Meanwhile, software developers 
finally seem able to provide robust protection schemes that are 
less vulnerable to cracking than the first-generation efforts 
tested on CDs two years ago.

Even though that market for anti piracy software is really still in
its gestational stage, a battle for control is shaping up. That's 
where Microsoft has weighed in with its tools for Media 9.

The question for the ages remains: are any of these schemes going 
to resist cracking in the long run anyway?

2) NEXT REV OF WINDOWS CE.NET TAKES SHAPE

The rest of the computer press is finally catching up to news 
WindowsForDevices.com already reported about the coming of 
"McKendric," the next rev of CE.NET. McKendric will fold in support
for VoIP and residential gateways.

We've long been mystified by Microsoft's CE taxonomy. Thankfully, 
it's become much clearer over the past year. Still, we refer to our
trustry "CE decoder ring" whenever we need to resolve some OS name 
confusion. Here goes: The first release of CE.NET is sometimes 
referred to as CE 4.0. Prior to its release, it was known by the 
code name 'Talisker.' It is the successor to CE 3.0 The latest 
release, which came out this past July, is CE.NET 4.1, also known 
as 'Jamison.' 

Currently in the works, for a planned release in the first half of 
2003, is 'McKendric'. A major new CE release, dubbed 'Macallan', 
is upcoming in 2004. Support for the x86, ARM (XScale), SH, and 
MIPS processor architectures will continue. (XP embedded, in 
contrast, supports x86 only.)

3)  IT'S A WALKMAN, IT'S AN iPOD,...IT'S A PERSONAL MEDIA PLAYER

Microsoft's on an embedded roll. That's the big take-away we got 
from the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas. First, 
Microsoft rolled out its smart personal objects technology (SPOT). 
Next, Bill Gates showed off a prototype of a personal media player 
(PMP), powered by the Windows CE operating system, that's code-
named "Media2Go."

The device can best be described as an iPOD on steriods--and indeed
may constitute a potent market challenge to Apple's popular take-
along music player. But in addition to mp3 music files, the 
Walkman-like PMP will enable users to download, store and play back
digital media content including video and photos.

Microsoft said it is working with Intel to prepare a "Media2Go" 
hardware reference design developed on the Intel XScale-based 
processors. Already on board as OEMs planning their own PMP 
products are Samsung, ViewSonic and Sanyo. The first of these 
offerings are due to hit the market in time for the 2003 Christmas 
shopping season.

4)WI-FI TAKES TO THE SKY

Personally, we don't much care for flying these days, period. But 
at least you can still take your computer on board. Now, with a new
satellite service from Boeing, there will be even more pressure to 
prop up your laptop on the knees in front of you and get to work.

The Boeing-designed service--called "Connexion by Boeing"  delivers
3 Mbps downstream and 128 Kbps upstream data between the ground and
in-flight commercial airliners. The last leg of the link to 
customers (fiber to the cabin?) is  via Wi-Fi, obviating the need 
for passengers to explain additional cabling to airport security.

Lufthansa is currently conducting trials.

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