SAN JOSE -- An industry group set an ambitious schedule to produce a protocol for capturing and sharing usage data records on IPTV networks. The data are needed for international standards for everything from rights management and content decisions to network management and accounting, said Kelly Anderson, pres. of the group, IPDR.org (Internet Protocol Data Record).

Early Wed. reporting on trapped W.Va. miners was “one of the most disturbing and disgraceful media performances of this type in recent years,” Editor & Publisher said. All media online, broadcast, cable, print -- uniformly blew the quickly-changing story of an explosion that trapped 13 coal miners, E&P said. Editors and anchors blamed local officials and the governor for announcing falsely that 12 of 13 miners were found alive when 11 had been found with no confirmed vital signs; one made it out alive and is in critical condition. Several news websites posted the erroneously upbeat reports late Tues. (for West Coast papers) and early Wed. The coverage displayed no ambiguity; for example a NYTimes.com headline said “12 Miners Found Alive 41 Hours After Explosion.” A later print edition of the paper bore a headline tracing the claim to miners’ relatives. ChicagoTribune.com ducked responsibility for its wrong report in a followup, saying 12 miners had been “believed alive.” In a timeline of headlines from the AP wire, E&P showed the last false report at 2:49 a.m. EST, with the first correct news at 3:06 a.m. Some papers had hit the street before presses paused for remake; originals are at Newseum.org. Online/TV convergence site LostRemote.com shellacked ABC News, whose webcast preview of World News Tonight debuted Tues. afternoon, before the mine story broke. ABC had touted the webcast’s capacity for real-time updates as a tool for drawing viewers to the evening broadcast. But as the W.Va. story evolved, the webcast stayed static, with no coverage at all of the tragedy. “ABC News found it’s hard to update your webcast when you're scrambling on your newscast,” LostRemote.com blogger Steve Safran said. By Wed. morning, the webcast’s Tues. posting had been halved, and still didn’t mention the miners, “which is worse than having a dated story,” the New England Cable News online producer said: “Newspapers can be excused for getting it wrong this morning -- but webcasts that promise updates?”

Early Wed. reporting on trapped W.Va. miners was “one of the most disturbing and disgraceful media performances of this type in recent years,” Editor & Publisher said. All media online, broadcast, cable, print -- uniformly blew the quickly-changing story of an explosion that trapped 13 coal miners, E&P said. Editors and anchors blamed local officials and the governor for announcing falsely that 12 of 13 miners were found alive when 11 had been found with no confirmed vital signs; one made it out alive and is now in critical condition. Several news websites posted the erroneously upbeat reports late Tues. (for West Coast papers) and early Wed. The coverage displayed no ambiguity; for example a NYTimes.com headline said “12 Miners Found Alive 41 Hours After Explosion.” A later print edition of the paper bore a headline tracing the claim to miners’ relatives. ChicagoTribune.com ducked responsibility for its wrong report in a followup, saying 12 miners had been “believed alive.” In a timeline of headlines from the AP wire, E&P showed the last false report at 2:49 a.m. EST, with the first correct news at 3:06 a.m. Some papers had hit on the street before presses paused for remake; originals are at Newseum.org. Online/TV convergence site LostRemote.com shellacked ABC News, whose webcast preview of World News Tonight debuted Tues. afternoon, before the mine story broke. ABC had touted the webcast’s capacity for real-time updates as a tool for drawing viewers to the evening broadcast. But as the W.Va. story evolved, the webcast stayed static, with no coverage at all of the tragedy. “ABC News found it’s hard to update your webcast when you're scrambling on your newscast,” LostRemote.com blogger Steve Safran said. By Wed. morning, the webcast’s Tues. posting had been halved, and still didn’t mention the miners, “which is worse than having a dated story,” the New England Cable News online producer said: “Newspapers can be excused for getting it wrong this morning -- but webcasts that promise updates?”

Sony BMG has settled class-action claims against 2 copy-protection technologies used on some of its CDs. The damages awarded are slightly different for buyers of CDs with First4Internet’s XCP technology, which drew notice for its “rootkit” installation that created PC vulnerabilities, and SunnComm’s MediaMax, which installed itself on PCs without user consent. Patches to fix vulnerabilities in XCP and MediaMax created their own vulnerabilities.

Sony BMG settled class-action claims against 2 copy- protection technologies used on some of its CDs. The damages awarded are slightly different for buyers of CDs with First4Internet’s XCP technology, which drew notice for its “rootkit” installation that created PC vulnerabilities (WID Nov 3 p7), and SunnComm’s MediaMax, which installed itself on PCs without user consent (WID Nov 16 p8). Patches to fix vulnerabilities in XCP and MediaMax created their own vulnerabilities.

Patent 6,973,669 was approved for Microsoft to pause TV programming in response to clicking on a hypertext link, said the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO). “It’s a software patent on an idea so obvious that most people wouldn’t even bother thinking about it. If you're going to include an interactive functionality within a video where someone would click on something, of course you'd want to pause the video playback when someone clicked,” said Rick Nydegger, chmn. of the PTO’s Patent Public Advisory Committee.

Firewire, a.k.a. IEEE-1394, is being resurrected as the sinew of HD home networks hoped to be easy for consumers to connect but hard to crack for content piracy. The proposal comes from a multi-industry group that introduced itself Wed. and will reveal other members and plans at the upcoming CES, with the goal having compliant products at the Las Vegas show in 2007.

FireWire, a.k.a. IEEE-1394, is being resurrected as the sinew of HD home networks hoped to be easy for consumers to connect but hard to crack for content piracy. The proposal comes from a multi-industry group that introduced itself Wed. and will reveal other members and plans at the upcoming CES, with the goal having compliant products at the Las Vegas show in 2007.

LOS ANGELES -- Recent fallout over Sony BMG’s use of XCP content protection on music CDs is “irrelevant” to Blu-ray’s roll-out, and, as such, Blu-ray runs no risk of a like fiasco, Andy Setos, Fox Home Entertainment pres. of engineering, told a Blu-ray news briefing Tues. on the Fox Studios lot here.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) unveiled its final guidelines for broadband video commercials on Tues. The recommendations were established after an extensive review of industry feedback over several months, the group said. The IAB has also developed a compliance program to assist advertisers in flagging publishers and technology providers who are compliant with the guidelines. The group’s guidelines aim to “further enhance the user experience without constraining creative opportunities for marketers” and will improve efficiency of planning, buying and creating Web media. IAB defines broadband video commercials as ads that appear before, during and after content including, but not limited to, streaming video, animation, gaming and music videos. Guideline highlights include: (1) In-stream commercials may be up to 30 sec. long for pre- and midroll commercials. Publishers may offer custom lengths for post roll. (2) A recommended minimum of 200 kbps for encoded bit rates. (3) The minimum player controls should be start/stop and volume on/off and softer/louder. Other recommended buttons include fast forward/rewind, pause and zoom.