Buzzsonic.com

Here’s a great example of buzzword overkill. Tioti ( acronym: Tape It off the Internet) apparently started as an online joke back in November last year hyped as an electronic TV guide for the world - with links to BitTorrent files and also social applications for P2P discussion and sharing. The idea was taken seriously by some and went into proper development.

The homepage right now is little more than some basic info and the ubiquitous “give us your email address and we’ll tell you when we’re ready” invite box.

“Built using the robust J2EE Spring framework and making use of AJAX interface hotness, TIOTI brings Wiki-style content editing for you guys, plus tagging and RSS up the yazoo. We currently index 16,000+ TV shows - 88,000+ episodes - and we are matching everything up with an ever increasing number of content sources.”

So basically another You Tube wannabee with a bit of Tivo and BitTorrent thrown in for good measure. Throw in a site built on Ruby On Rails and Ajax, promised RSS feeds, IM and VOiP and you have a veritable quilt of Web 2.0 buzzwords.

Mashable.com have a more indepth look at the beta including screenshots. But there’s going to be thorny copyright issues for sure (as with You Tube). Om Malik mentioned the problems online video companies like Google Video and You Tube have with policing content earlier this year.

“I am not sure if this is a problem that is going to go away. Online video companies will have to figure out a policing mechanism… after all if CSI shows start showing up on Google video (not the store), Google’s partners at Viacom are not going to be too thrilled. Similarly SNL videos now for sale on iTunes store, available for free are going to become a headache of sorts for folks at You Tube.”
Related Reading

BitTorrent Meets YouTube (Mashable.com) July 14 2006
The RIAA Says No Dancing to Music on You Tube (TechDirt.com) June 14 2006
A Video Clip Goes Viral, and a TV Network Wants to Control It (NY Times) Feb 20 2006
Google, YouTube & the Darkside of Online Video (GigaOm.com) Jan 15 2006
What is Web 2.0 (oreillynet.com) Sept. 30 2005

Lots of chatter in the blogosphere these past few days with the news that Chinese programmers have managed to reverse engineer the Skype protocol.

Charlie Paglee at VoipWiki.com seems to be the first off the block with this one with his post revealing how a business contact in China had contacted him on a beta version of the software.

Charlie explains it better than I can in the post thus:

“Right now every computer with Skype installed on it can be used as a relay to carry data between two other computers when both of those computers are only allowed to make outgoing TCP calls. This means that very soon Skype users will have an alternative client which will not hijack their computer. This could eventually have a very negative effect on the Skype network if too many people choose not to act as Skype Super Nodes and the network starts to deteriorate.”

In laymans terms this means that users could access the Skype VOIP network without using the Skype client, calls could be made through third party software directly to and from Skype users. Users would also not have the resource drain that often comes with running Skype.

This will certainly be raising eyebrows at Ebay who paid $2.6bn for the Internet telephony company last September. Though in a Skype PR statement published on TechCrunch the company dont seem unduly concerned.

“Skype is aware of the claim made by a small group of Chinese engineers that they have reverse engineered Skype software. We have no evidence to suggest that this is true. Even if it was possible to do this, the software code would lack the feature set and reliability of Skype which is enjoyed by over 100m users today. Moreover, no amount of reverse engineering would threaten Skype’s cryptographic security or integrity”

Skype’s software lets PC users talk to each other for free and make cut-price calls to mobiles and landlines.
Related Reading

Skypes Been Cracked? (Engadget.com) July 16th
Skype Cracked? (GigaOm.com) July 13th
Skype Protocol Has Been Cracked (Voipwiki.com) July 13th
Ebay to Buy Skype in $2.6bn Deal (BBC News) Sept 12th 2005

Sydney, Australia based P2P company Sharman Networks today launched version 3 of its of controversial file sharing software Kazaa, this time integrated with VoiP application Skype which enables users with the software (and a headset and microphone) to make free phone calls worldwide. The newest edition of the file-sharing software, also sports enhanced search capabilities and a trial membership with blog service provider TypePad.

Kazaa claim that over 300 million people have already downloaded the Kazaa application and are using P2P technology legally to purchase licensed music files, videos, games and ring tones, though the percentage of that 300 million that actually use Kazaa to buy legal content wasn’t released. Recent research from Comscore Media Metrix suggest that Kazaa’s once all conquering user base of 30 million has dwindled down to 16 million in the face of the increasing legal action and the popularity of more anonymous P2P apps like Bit Torrent and eDonkey.

Kazaa has been heamoraging users in their droves in the last year under sustained legal action from the RIAA who have been targetting users of the software for illegally sharing music files with other users of the software.

Luxembourg based Skype was created by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who famously also authored Kazaa, part of the underlying FastTrack file sharing network (which included Morpheus and Grokster) before selling the Kazaa software to Sharman in January 2002 after being blocked by copyright action in the Dutch courts in December 2001.

Related Reading

Kazaa’s Latest Version Enables Free Internet Voice Calls [NewsFactor.com]
Kazaa Offers Unlimited Free Internet Phone Calls [ZDnet News]
Kazaa Most Scanned in RIAA Subpoena War [P2PNet.net]
Peer to Peer Kazaa’s Offices Raided [TechWeb.com]
Kazaa Raid Stirs up P2P Rivalries [PCWorld.com]
Kazaa Loses P2P Crown [CNet News]
Putting the Hype in VoIP [the Register]
How Not To Get Sued By The RIAA For File-Sharing [EFF.org]
Kazaa Owner Complains of Copyright Infringement [Chilling Effects]