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Congress Puts PIPA And SOPA On The Back Burner
Senator Harry Reid's Statement on PIPA Intellectual Property Bill
Acer, Asustek, And Lenovo To Offer Thunderbolt Ultrabook PCs in 2Q12
Thunderbolt Gets The Nod From Acer, Asus, Lenovo, But Can It Unseat USB 3.0's Dominance?
NeXT: The Software
Dear Congress, Guess What? We Already Have Copyright Laws
FrostWire Distributes 2.5 Million Free Albums Licensed Under Creative Commons Over BitTorrent
SOPA Serves as Wake Up Call to Entrepreneurs
Congress Puts PIPA And SOPA On The Back Burner
The Register's Iain Thomson reports that U.S. political leaders have cancelled plans to vote on the SOPA and PIPA legislation currently before Congress, saying more time is needed to examine the issue.
But keep the champagne corked. Thompson observes that the legislation is currently only on hold, and suggests that there has been too much money spent on campaign contributions for the big business content industries and their fellow-travelers in government to give up now.
He cites OPEN Act co-sponsor and SOPA critic, Congressman Darrell Issa, commenting: "Supporters of the Internet deserve credit for pressing advocates of SOPA and PIPA to back away from an effort to ram through controversial legislation. Over the last two months, the intense popular effort to stop SOPA and PIPA has defeated an effort that once looked unstoppable but lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work. Postponing the Senate vote on PIPA removes the imminent threat to the Internet, but it's not over yet."
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/yS2Iyv
Senator Harry Reid's Statement on PIPA Intellectual Property Bill
Washington, D.C., January 20, 2012 - Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement today on the Senate's PROTECT I.P. Act:
"In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act.
"There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices. We live in a country where people rightfully expect to be fairly compensated for a day's work, whether that person is a miner in the high desert of Nevada, an independent band in New York City, or a union worker on the back lots of a California movie studio.
"I admire the work that Chairman Leahy has put into this bill. I encourage him to continue engaging with all stakeholders to forge a balance between protecting Americans' intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the internet. We made good progress through the discussions we've held in recent days, and I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming week."
Source:
http://1.usa.gov/A1NOT4
Acer, Asustek, And Lenovo To Offer Thunderbolt Ultrabook PCs in 2Q12
Digitimes' Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai report that according unnamed industry sources, PC makers Acer, Asustek Computer and Lenovo are expected to offer Ultrabook notebooks based on Intel's Ivy Bridge platform, which supports Thunderbolt in the second quarter of 2012, while Gigabyte Technology will take the initiative to offer Thunderbolt-enabled motherboards,.
Chen and Tsai note that Ivy Bridge already natively supports USB 3.0 technology, but due to its greater cost, Thunderbolt technology is only expected to be supported on high-end notebooks or desktops in 2012.
Thunderbolt technology, which has been supported by Apple machines for nearly a year now, leverages two major data communication protocols: PCI Express for data transmission, and DisplayPort for image display, allowing users to only use one port to connect to many different devices.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120120PD207.html
Thunderbolt Gets The Nod From Acer, Asus, Lenovo, But Can It Unseat USB 3.0's Dominance?
DigitalTrends' Jeffrey Van Camp says that the battle over which data cable standard will dominate in the years ahead is beginning to heat up, and with USB 3.0 beginning to take off, the fate of Intel's high-speed Thunderbolt data-transfer protocol is coming under scrutiny as of late. Van Camp notes that while everything PC runs on USB, Apple has been a huge contrarian proponent of Thunderbolt, including it rather than USB 3 as the principal data port in its entire line of MacBook computers. Van Camp cautions that support from the world's most popular tech manufacturer doesn't necessarily guarantee success, citing the fate of technically and functionally superior FireWire, which faltered as the PC world embraced USB 2.0.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://bit.ly/yP26cI
NeXT: The Software
512 Pixels blogger Stephen Hackett says of Mac OS X's direct antecedent:
NeXTStep1 is the operating system built by NeXT to power the companys line of computer hardware. It is widely regarded to have been ahead of its time, and boasted these features:
• The Mach microkernel
• Display PostScript and a windowing engine
• The Objective-C language and runtime
• An object-oriented application layer, complete with robust development tools
Compared to Mac OS, NeXTStep looked like the future. It had full-color icons2 and modern typography and included technologies like protected memory and multitasking.
My mini-series on NeXT Computer:
Installment 1: On the Creation of NeXT
Installment 2: NeXT: The Hardware
Installment 3: NeXT: The Software
Installment 4: NeXT: The Apple Purchase
Installment 5: Why Did NeXT Fail?
You can check it out at:
http://512pixels.net/next-the-software/
Dear Congress, Guess What? We Already Have Copyright Laws
ZNet's David Gewirtz says politicians need to stop listening to lobbyists and start listening to innovators, addressing them thus:
I know some of you in Congress are baffled by all the fuss us Internet geeks are making about your precious little SOPA and PIPA. I know some of you think youre protecting intellectual property and all us digital types just want to freely do whatever we want online, without regard to who owns what.
You are incorrect and misinformed.....
.....So let me make it clear that we, the people of the Internet, understand software piracy and we hate the scum who steal our work. But just because we dislike the people who steal our work doesnt mean we want you to dismantle the foundations of the most astounding human creation since the wheel.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://zd.net/xlOK1J
FrostWire Distributes 2.5 Million Free Albums Licensed Under Creative Commons Over BitTorrent
FrostWire proves BitTorrent file sharing empowers artists and levels the playing field for new comers giving them a zero cost distribution channel in front of a world wide audience that demands free music.
Celebrating 2.5 Million Free and Legal Creative Commons licensed album downloads via FrostWire promotions in less than a year, FrostClick.com presents the FrostWire Creative Commons Mixtape 2.
Side A of the Mixtape contains a track from each one of the albums featured on FrostWire during 2011 from vibrant hip-hop beats, through catchy pop to powerful electronic synths, anybody can find their new favorite artist.
Featuring Kellee Maize, Bryyn, Azoora, Elemint, Baiyu and many others, both new and established artists who understand that the future of the music industry lies in setting their music free to roam the world. This ever-growing distribution model brings even more opportunities for monetization, reputation build up, culture creation and establishes stronger and more meaningful connections between artists and their fans.
Narrowed down to the best of the best Creative Commons licensed songs, Side B contains 12 additional tracks hand-chosen out of hundreds of amazing free albums reviewed by the FrostClick team last year. Its a gem in itself, showcasing the breadth and quality of free and legal content available online under Creative Commons.
Music speaks for itself FrostWire just gives it a louder voice.
"It was by far the most valuable promotion I've ever done for my music career. I've done over 50 online marketing endeavors for my music, and none compare to the exposure I've gained through FrostWire." says Kellee Maize, an independent female rapper.
When asked for comparison with other digital distribution channels and its costs Kelle Maize goes on to say: "FrostWire jump-started my music career by giving away my album for free to over 130,000 people. Paying for that type of exposure would have cost me over $50,000 on other outlets such as taking out FaceBook ads or Google PPC"
After sharing her music for free on FrostWire, Kellee Maize talks about how she is connecting with her fan-base on social networks "Because of FrostWire I've accumulated over 100,000 Facebook and Twitter followers."
FrostWire, one of the leading open source peer-2-peer file sharing applications, works with FrostClick.com, a free and legal content review website, to actively promote and help distribute Creative Commons Licensed content to its wide user base. FrostWire is available absolutely for free for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.
For more information, visit:
http://www.frostwire.com/
SOPA Serves as Wake Up Call to Entrepreneurs
On January 19, thousands of protestors celebrated the tentative victory over SOPA helping to ease the concerns that, if SOPA passed, thousands of innocent and legitimate websites could be taken down, with no recourse, no chance for appeal and with a guilty until proven innocent mentality due to any foolhardy accusation of a copyright violation. Marketing expert Charles Gaudet believes this was a much needed lesson for entrepreneurs that rely too heavily on the Internet for their livelihood.
Countless entrepreneurs feared that if the SOPA legislation passed, theyd be out of business," says Gaudet. "What people dont realize is that the Internet, by itself, for most people, isn't a business - it's simply a source for distributing information. It's a medium. And, anytime you rely on only one medium (such as the Internet) as your sole source of generating income, you're opening yourself and your business to becoming vulnerable."
Gaudet says that a common threat among small business owners is the dependency on one or two sources of income rather than taking advantage of additional sources either because of a lack of strategic thinking or from getting too comfortable with their current cash-flow. But it's threats like SOPA and other economic, societal, political, environmental and personal changes that can also effect a businesss cash flow.
Some additional sources of income Gaudet suggests entrepreneurs may want to incorporate inside of their business include (but are not limited to):
• Testing various lead generating marketing systems,
• Having a system for stimulating word-of-mouth referrals,
• Using Direct mail,
• Advertising through multiple sources (not just one),
• Marketing to past customers who stopped doing business with you (but who would easily buy from you again if given the chance),
• Leveraging partnerships and joint venture relationships,
• Using special promotions / events,
• Offering incentives for increasing purchase frequency and size
When things are going well, its easy for entrepreneurs to slip into the trap of being comfortable instead of thinking strategically, Gaudet says, and events like SOPA should remind entrepreneurs that depend on the internet for income that they need to begin looking at how many other ways they can grow their business without the dependency on one media or one source of income.
For more information on how to improve the relationship with your clients and position your company as a leader in the market, visit:
http://www.PredictableProfits.com
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