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Feb 03, `08 — This Slashdot article writes about Time Warner internet access subscribers in Texas complaining of connectivity issues on Apple’s iTunes support forum.

“Starting on Thursday, January 31st, Time Warner subscribers in Texas starting experiencing connectivity issues to the iTunes store to the point where the service wasn’t usable. General internet traffic issues haven’t coincided with these problems, and many folks have reported that the store works as normal when they head to the nearest mega-bookstore and use their ISP instead. Time Warner has announced that they’re going to begin trials of tiered pricing in one local Texas market, but I’ll be darn sure to switch my provider if I hear the slightest hint of destination/content based tiers instead of bandwidth tiers.”

Excerpts from the Apple - Support - Discussions:

Thread starter post by user “kmcippant”:

iTunes Store Very Slow Posted: Jan 31, 2008 8:33 PM

I was impressed last week when I downloaded an entire album in under 10 minutes, now the store is very sluggish. I could not preview any tracks without it buffering 8 times and now it is taking me 10 minutes just to download one song. The rest of my internet is working fine.

Please check on your servers.

User “ranpritch” writes:
Same problem here in Euless, Tx (suburb DFW). Started to buy movie last night. Estimated download 36 hours. Stopped & started the download several times, but to no avail. Now, almost 24 hrs later the movie is half the way downloaded! I have checked my Time Warner cable speed & get pings from west & east coast from 4.8 to 6.0 mbps. I can normally download movies from ITunes in 15 to 20 minutes. Downloads from other sites are normal. What gives?!

User “hondo01″ writes:
I am also experiencing the same issues with iTunes. It keeps trying to rebuffer the stream with songs or videos. I am using iTunes 7.6 (29) with Mac OSX 10.5.1. I also have a windows machine with iTunes 7.5 loaded and it now does the same thing. I have tried taking both systems off the wireless router and plugging directly into the broadband router and still get the same problems. I have noticed that most all of these threads are from users in Texas. Is everyone using Time Warner Roadrunner? Just curious if this could be an ISP problem.

User “sundevil86″ writes:
I’m a Roadrunner user from Texas too! And I did NOT upgrade to 7.6 yet. Same problem as everyone else, VERY sluggish iTunes performance–but NO problems with streaming media from any other sites. So it may be an ISP problem in part, but is still only affecting iTunes.

User “bdskip” writes:
Experiencing the same issue with TWC in Arlington as well…did notice that a 10:00 podcast downloaded in about 7 seconds, yet a single 3:00 song purchase takes 15 minutes or longer to download.

Not sure what any of that means, but I’m beginning to think TWC is somehow throttling bandwidth related to music and video content on iTunes.

More at Slashdot, Apple Support Discussions.

Los Angeles, CA — Nov 20, ‘07 – Sony BMG Music Entertainment has signed a licensing deal with Yahoo that clears the way for people to upload files with music or video content by the record company’s artists to Yahoo, the companies said Tuesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Like similar deals, the agreement calls for Sony BMG to receive a cut of advertising revenue, Yahoo said. The deal also covers the distribution of music videos via Yahoo player applications and widgets that computer users can place on other Web sites.

The agreement marks the first time Sunnyvale-based Yahoo has reached a deal with a major recording company over licensing content in user-created videos. Sony BMG, home to recording artists such as Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen and Slayer, reached a similar licensing deal with Google Inc. last year. That agreement also includes Google subsidiary YouTube.

Sony BMG is a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG. The Sony BMG-Yahoo deal reflects the popularity of computer user-created videos, which often include copyrighted content.

Last month, a coalition of major media and Internet companies issued a set of guidelines requiring Web portals that host user-generated videos — as Yahoo does — to use filtering technology to block clips with unauthorized content from being posted.

Independently, Yahoo is deploying video identification and filtering technology early next year, the company said.

Viacom, Microsoft and other media companies unveils copyright guidelines just as earlier reports have indicated. Here is the formal declaration from Viacom, which sounds like a joint leader in the pack with Microsoft. Internet and Media Industry Leaders Unveil Principles to Foster Online Innovation While Protecting Copyrights. LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK-October 18, 2007 -Several of the world’s leading Internet and media companies today announced their joint support for a set of collaborative principles that enable the continued growth and development of user-generated content online and respect the intellectual property of content owners.

The principles serve as a comprehensive set of guidelines to help user-generated content (UGC) services and content creators work together towards their collective goal of bringing more content to more consumers through legitimate channels. The principles acknowledge a collective respect for protecting copyrights and recognize that filtering technologies must be effective and are only a part of what is necessary to achieve this goal.

The companies supporting these principles include CBS Corp., Dailymotion, Fox Entertainment Group, Microsoft Corp., MySpace, NBC Universal, Veoh Networks Inc., Viacom Inc. and The Walt Disney Company.

The principles, which are attached and available in full at www.ugcprinciples.com, call for a broad range of constructive and cooperative efforts by copyright owners and UGC services. They include:

• Implementation of state of the art filtering technology with the goal to eliminate infringing content on UGC services, including blocking infringing uploads before they are made available to the public;
• Upgrading technology when commercially reasonable;
• Cooperating to ensure that the technology is implemented in a manner that effectively balances legitimate interests, including fair use;
• Cooperation in developing procedures for promptly addressing claims that content was blocked in error;
• Regularly using the technology to remove infringing content that was uploaded before the technology could block it;
• Identification and removal of links to sites that are clearly dedicated to, and predominantly used for, the dissemination of infringing content; and,
• Promotion of content-rich, infringement-free services by continuing to cooperatively test new technologies and by collaboratively updating these principles as appropriate to keep current with evolving developments.

The ease of uploading video content on the Internet has led to the creation of millions of original works by new creators – works that range from scripted programs, to virtuoso musical performances and to humorous skits and social parody. It also has resulted in the proliferation of uploaded content that infringes copyrighted works.

The companies backing these principles believe that they can collectively find a path that fosters creativity while respecting the rights of copyright owners. Distributors of copyright-infringing content stifle both technological innovation and artistic creation in ways that ultimately will hurt the consumer and hinder the digital economy.

These principles also reflect a strongly-held commitment to work cooperatively and constructively across industries to address the challenge of developing new modes of distribution while protecting intellectual property and, with a shared goal of promoting a rich, legitimate, and compelling environment for consumers of online content. While the supporters‘ current practices may not strictly adhere to each and every principle, they are all committed to fully implementing these principles by year‘s end.

The companies believe that adopting such principles is essential to achieving the enormous potential opened up by the Internet through UGC services. Widespread adoption of these principles will encourage innovation, enable new creative expression and further the goal of eliminating infringing content from UGC services. It will allow innovative business models to develop. Most importantly, it will benefit consumers by encouraging further cooperation between the creators of content — from the largest entertainment company to the individual artist — and the companies that distribute their works.

The supporters urge others to embrace these principles. While recognizing that adhering to these principles may require each company to yield some from positions it has held, at the end of the day the supporters believe all will benefit from such compromise. The supporters look forward to further discussions with other parties to attain their support.

More at Viacom and at UGC Principles

October 18, ‘07 — Reuters and The WSJ are reporting on a group of Media companies, Microsoft, Viacom, NBC, CBS, News Corp’s Fox and MySpace, Walt Disney Co and others, that have agreed to a set of guidelines aimed at protecting copyrights online. Notably absent is Google, which had been in discussions about possibly joining the group.

The guidelines are meant to address copyright-related issues that have flared up as user posting of content — particularly video — to the Web has boomed. The agreed-upon principles include using technology to eliminate copyright-infringing content uploaded by users to Web sites, and blocking any infringing material before it is publicly accessible, says the person familiar with the matter.

Google on Monday unveiled technology it has been testing to automate the identification of copyrighted material on its YouTube video-sharing service. It said the technology cannot yet prevent infringing content from being posted initially, though it can pull flagged content off the site “in a matter of a few minutes.”

To curb video piracy and to prevent itself from copyright violation lawsuits, Google is introducing ‘YouTube Video Identification’. A YouTube page explaining video identification says, ”Thanks to the continued cooperation of content owners large and small, YouTube is able to develop, test, and implement increasingly effective content management tools. Today, we are proud to launch, in beta form, our latest innovation in online video: YouTube Video Identification.

Like our other content policies and tools, YouTube Video Identification goes well above and beyond our legal responsibilities. And like those other tools and policies, Video Identification aims for three main goals: accurate identification, choice for copyright holders, and a great user experience.”

YouTube further elaborates, “YouTube Video Identification will be available to all kinds of copyright holders all over the world, whether they want their content to appear on YouTube or not” and “No matter how accurate the tools get, it is important to remember that no technology can tell legal from infringing material without the cooperation of the content owners themselves. This means that copyright holders who want to use and help us refine our Video ID system will be providing the necessary information to help us recognize their work.”

More at YouTube