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.
Congress “explicitly excluded” the Internet from the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act’s (CALEA’s)scope, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Leahy (D-Vt.) said Wed. Leahy, CALEA’s main sponsor in 1994, had harsh words for an FCC order bringing broadband and VoIP under the law’s purview. Congress wants “to re- visit the appropriateness of such an expansion as the Internet developed,” he said: Building wiretaps into the public switched telephone network was approved only “after careful analysis over several years by the Congress of the costs, burdens, alternatives and security risks posed by a new regulatory scheme.” Echoing a petition filed Tues. by several groups to overturn the FCC order (WID Oct 26 p3), Leahy said law enforcement hasn’t said what problems, if any, it’s having with interception on the Internet. “Congressional hearings are a good place to start” discussing solutions for existing problems, he said. “The FBI’s own mishaps” with technology should give the FCC pause about giving it and other agencies authority to set technology mandates, Leahy said. A Senate Judiciary spokeswoman told us Leahy and other panel Democrats hadn’t decided whether to ask in their own petition that the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., overturn the FCC order.
Congress “explicitly excluded” the Internet from the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act’s (CALEA’s)scope, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Leahy (D-Vt.) said Wed. Leahy, CALEA’s main sponsor in 1994, had harsh words for an FCC order bringing broadband and VoIP under the law’s purview. Congress wants “to re- visit the appropriateness of such an expansion as the Internet developed,” he said: Building wiretaps into the public switched telephone network was approved only “after careful analysis over several years by the Congress of the costs, burdens, alternatives and security risks posed by a new regulatory scheme.” Echoing a petition filed Tues. by several groups to overturn the FCC order (CD Oct 26 p3), Leahy said law enforcement hasn’t said what problems, if any, it’s having with interception on the Internet. “Congressional hearings are a good place to start” discussing solutions for existing problems, he said. “The FBI’s own mishaps” with technology should give the FCC pause about giving it and other agencies authority to set technology mandates, Leahy said. A Senate Judiciary spokeswoman told us Leahy and other panel Democrats hadn’t decided whether to ask in their own petition that the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., overturn the FCC order.
A DTV tuner/decoder card for PCs is shipping from ADS Tech at $129, the aftermarket accessories company said Tues. It described its Instant HDTV as an add-in PCI card that turns a standard Windows XP PC into a terrestrial DTV receiver, with recording possible on hard drives or DVD/CD burners. Besides providing over-air DTV reception, the card acts as an analog cable TV tuner. The card comes bundled with SnapStream’s Beyond TV, which can produce overlays that provide information about the show as it’s being viewed, ADS Tech said. The application also lets users search for future broadcasts by title or keyword, and program them for time-shift recording. It also provides PVR-like functions such as letting users pause, fast forward and rewind live TV as well as recorded programs. The Instant HDTV card also comes with NeroVision Express, a DVD authoring program that automates the process of compressing the HD content stored on the hard drive for SD archiving on DVDs. The card is designed for PCs running Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.
Largely ignoring copyright infringement, BitTorrent (BT) creator Bram Cohen told ISPs how to manage heavy file-swapping traffic and said his P2P application can help push on-demand downloads over live streaming. Cohen, whose creation is said to facilitate at least 35% of Internet traffic, also addressed content industries’ plight at the Next Generation Networks (NGN) conference Tues.
INDIANAPOLIS Sony will make a million SXRD microdisplay panels at its Kumamoto, Japan, plant this year, SXRD Development Dept. Gen. Mgr. Shunichi Hasimoto told us. Most panels will be the 0.61” size used in 50W ($3,999) and 60W ($4,999) rear-projection TVs and the new VPL-VW100 ($10,000) front projector unveiled at the CEDIA show here, Hashimoto told us. With a 3-chip design employed, projected output translates to some 330,000 finished products, officials said. Sony has said it expects by year’s end the plant will be able to make 3 million units annually (CED Aug 17 p1).
With data-breach scandals fading in public memory, data brokers and federal officials Thurs. came to the defense of the industry as crucial for investigations and massive efforts such as Hurricane Katrina relief. They spoke on the first day of 2 of a workshop by the Dept. of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Privacy Office. Civil liberties groups and technology experts countered their arguments, ranging from skepticism of the usefulness of young data- mining technologies to criticisms of federal agencies’ implementations of decades-old Privacy Act provisions in contracting with data brokers.
A nonprofit publishers group continues to attack Google’s Print Library Project. In an statement last week, the Assn. of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) said that “in cases where the works digitized are still in copyright, the law does not permit making a complete digital copy for such purposes.” ALPSP voiced willingness to work with Google but said Google’s proposal to pause its digitization program until Nov. 1 isn’t an appropriate response (WID Aug 15 p2). ALPSP, whose members publish more than 8,000 journals, says Google should get permission before digitizing copyrighted work and including it in the program. Collective licensing agencies in the U.S. and U.K. might simplify the permissions process, ALPSP CEO Sally Morris said in the memo. ALPSP wants to keep discussing an opt-in solution with Google, saying it wants to avoid litigation. Meanwhile, the group is telling members that if they're unsure about Google’s venture, they should exclude all their works for now.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel announced Wed. a major push into home entertainment, including creation of a Centrino- style PC brand for the purpose: “Viiv,” pronounced as in “five.” The machines should be available starting first quarter 2006 from multiple system makers “worldwide” in “various shapes and sizes to fit different styles and sizes of homes,” the firm said at the Intel Developer Forum here. They will be suitable for games, movies, music, photos and other media, Intel said.
TiVo’s motion for summary judgment that its PVRs don’t violate Pause Technology patents was granted correctly, the U.S. Appeals Court, Federal Circuit, ruled Tues. The appeals court said the U.S. Dist. Court, Boston, was right to construe the “circular storage buffer” and “time interval of predetermined duration” PVR limitations central to TiVo’s defense.