The 463: Inside Tech

Final Thoughts on Aspen

Some three-dot quick reflections after getting readjusted to sea-level....  PFF's Aspen Summit is still the best tech policy conference of the year.   Tier-one speakers, well-polished organization by PFF and, best of all, high-quality relaxed schmoozing with a great representation of quality people from the content, distribution, tech and policymaking worlds.... The Congressional Internet Caucus puts on a very good mini-conference in DC every February, but the location is so close to the Hill that it feels like an extension of everyday Washington life/chatter.... We do wonder if there is room for another tech policy conference that is both away from the daily DC grind and is perhaps more "democratic" than a $4000 shindig in lovely Aspen (though, kudos to PFF for the free Web casts of the proceedings available to all)....

Others on Aspen

Other voices:

From the debonaire John Earnhardt of Cisco.

From the extremely helpful Patrick Ross at PFF.  I don't know how he and Amy Smorordin managed to write so many press releases while also assisting quote hungry reporters and annoying PR folks like me.

And, more from the PFF blog.

"The War is Over"

Edgar Bronfman, CEO of Warner Music, said yesterday in his Aspen Summit keynote that the war between the content industry and consumers is over. And consumers won.

Given this, he said that it’s high time that they content and tech industries “stop pointing guns at each other.” This was much of the theme of digital entertainment policy discussions in Aspen this week.

In his blunt, frequently starkly honest speech, Bronfman said that Warner is highly opposed to the government intervening in efforts to create compulsory license mechanisms, DRM standards, and interoperability. However, just as quickly, Bronfman admitted that when government regulations favor his business, he’s all for them (and these could including P2P filtering legislations, levies on blank CDs., etc) He also said that he wouldn’t be pushing for this and, instead will be focusing on creating new business models that takes advantage of the Internet – including Warner’s eLabel that was announced in Aspen.

After listening to the post-Grokster decision panel and similar working dinner, you get the sense that the content industries not only are beginning to gain better clarity into the opportunities that digital distribution offer, but that they are also battle-fatigued from the P2P “war” that Bronfman referenced. It was said more than once by the content folks here that the Grokster decision gave them an opportunity to breath for the first time in five years – instead of reloading their weapons for the lobbying/legal/rhetorical warfare....

A Broadband Bill of Rights?

That’s what Vonage’s Jeffrey Citron pushed for during the Aspen Summit’s telecom roundtable, and he wants it be the Law of the Land. This Bill of Rights would place into law what types of Internet access and service a broadband user could expect.

Citron has a vested interest because in a few instances Vonage’s VOIP services have been blocked by ISPs that offered a competing service. On one level, he has a point. There would probably be a hue and cry if Google blocked access to Yahoo! Or of a phone company’s 411 service blocked access to phone numbers of its competitors.

So, in this Bill of Rights, the law would prohibit an ISP from blocking access to a website. Sounds good, right? Well, dig a little deeper and it gets tricky....

Dare to DReaM

Last night's opening Aspen Summit keynote was delivered by Sun Microsystems president and COO Jonathan Schwartz.

He didn't give the typical "welcome-to-Aspen-I-hope-your-conference-is-fruitful" spiel.  Instead, he dived right into the DRM debate -- one of the more contentious issues that has faced the assembled masses ever since Napster popped onto the scene in 1999.

Schwartz challenged the audience of executives, government affairs folks and lawyers from the content, distribution and tech industries to do two things:

Back Blogging & in Aspen

After a relatively short blogging respite, The 463 is back and blogging from the Progress & Freedom Foundation Aspen Summit.

The event is probably the top tech policy gabfest of the year and brings out a couple of hundred of folks from mostly Washington, D.C.  You can't miss them in Aspen.  They are the ones in the blue blazers, khaki pants and loafers dressing "casual."

The attendees break down pretty evenly between the content, distribution and tech industries.  It makes for interesting conversation and conflict in a rapidly converging technological world.

Special thanks to the RIAA and various music industry government affairs folks who picked-up the substantial tab of post-conference reception last night.   It was such a good time that dozens of partygoers uninstalled BitTorrent on the laptops after their seventh drink.

More on the conference sessions soon....

Business Groups Launch Push to Double Number of Math/Science Grads

Thanks to TechNet, the Business Roundtable and other business and trade groups, there's a renewed effort to raise the quality of math/science education in America and therefore improve our innovation standing.

TechNet's CEO Lezlee Westine:

“The United States has been the world’s technology leader because of our past investments in education, research and development and technology talent. But today, other nations are taking bold steps to catch up to – and even surpass – the in science, technology, engineering and math achievement. We cannot take for granted America’s continued technological and economic preeminence. If we are to maintain our nation’s global leadership in this new era, we must redouble our commitment to innovation.”

The press release is continued below...

 

Why You Can't Find EBN-OZN

We just dove deep into how music licensing issues could hinder the mobile music market (See The Ringtone Money Grab).  The WSJ Online has a column this week about why licensing issues, technical difficulties and label priorities are (still) keeping many bands offline.  This unfortunate state of affairs is impeding the fight against unsanctioned distribution networks deep into 2005.

We wonder if a central clearinghouse for music needs to be created.

Before we get to that, the WSJ piece notes:

Whatever artist tops your want list, you've probably wondered: Shouldn't this be easier? What's going on over there at the labels, anyway? Can't the interns be any faster about ripping CDs or transferring master tapes or whatever else it is they have to do? And, of course, there's the awareness that those unavailable songs are somewhere on the various file-sharing services, where they'll cost you nothing -- except the possibility of winding up with a virus, caught by the RIAA, or living with the knowledge that you're breaking the law.

Yet: