Un FAI interdit l'utilisation de logiciels d'échanges dans son contrat

Cablevision Takes Aim at Napster's Successors

By Richard J. Dalton Jr
STAFF WRITER

December 30, 2002


Napster is dead, and now 20 of its successors could bring trouble. Cablevision's high-speed Internet service, Optimum Online, has warned its customers that uploading files using baby Napsters could violate the terms of service.

Optimum Online's warning emphasizes that Napster's successors strain its network. But, without even mentioning the word "copyright," the advisory also satisifies the recording industry's growing concerns about copyright infringement.

Services such as Kazaa and Morpheus, allow Internet users to download not only music but also movies and software - potentially huge files - from the computers of others who participate in the service.

To obtain music, a computer user generally enters a song title or singer and then downloads the music file from the hard drive of another user of the software. The file is usually stored in a shared directory, available to other users through an upload.

Cablevision says the setup essentially makes a home computer a server - a violation of the contract. A server is a computer that receives and sends information upon request, much like a waiter takes an order and brings the food to the table.

Optimum Online's acceptable use policy prohibits "abuse of a resource," and the terms of service forbids running any server, including "multi-user forums." In an e-mail and a posting online, the company recommended turning off the file sharing on the software - or Optimum Online might temporarily reduce upload speeds.

If users of Optimum and other Interent service providers heed such warnings, it could put a brake on music-sharing. And that would be fine with the recording industry.

Matt Oppenheim, a lawyer for the Recording Industry Association of America, said the warning effectively addresses copyright infringement. "They choose to communicate it in a way that will work best with their customers," he said.

A Cablevision spokesman said the policy is not new, though he said the recent advisory sent to all customers focuses on uploading. He would not elaborate.

While many people using Kazaa may have the same songs, music-seekers will first tap those with high-speed connections such as Optimum Online because they'll receive the song faster.

"It really puts a tax on the broadband infrastructure," said Wilson Craig, spokesman for Cupertino, Calif.-based Packeteer Inc., which offers network management software.

Part of the reason uploads are taxing is that a pipe carrying Internet traffic can only send or receive at any given time. Like turning a beer bottle upside down, either beer flows out or air comes in. With cable Internet access, centrally located equipment is configured to give priority to downloads, traditionally the bulk of traffic. But music-sharing software involves significant uploading.

Like a security guard at the entrance to a gated community, cable providers control the traffic coming and going into the neighborhood. If someone is giving away free CDs at a home, people would flock there, possibly causing a traffic jam.

To accommodate the use of the software, the companies can add more equipment and bandwidth - like adding more lanes to the information highway, said Jerald Murphy, senior vice president of META Group, a research and consulting company based in Stamford, Conn. Or they can limit access to the on-ramps, in other words, reduce upload speeds, a cheaper option, he said.

The Optimum Online warning comes despite Cablevision advertising that touts the ability to download music.

"With Optimum Online, you can access and download MP3s ... in just minutes," Cablevision says on its Web site.

The advisory against using the service annoys an otherwise satisfied customer in Port Chester. "I don't know how they can say it's an unlimited usage thing and then say they can limit your upload rate," said the 26-year-old, who asked not to be identified.

But customer Joe Ponzo, 25, of Emerson, N.J., appreciates the company's quandary. "I understand they're trying to protect their service," he said.

Cablevision isn't the only broadband company concerned about file-sharing software. Earlier, Time Warner Cable's broadband Internet service, Road Runner, limited upload speeds in Texas for some customers, a spokesman said.

Music-sharing hasn't taxed the Road Runner in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island, the spokesman said. But he said the company would limit upload speeds, if necessary.

Universities, offering high-speed Internet access for years, were the first to be overwhelmed with music-sharing.