11:05 AM - 12:20 PM
Track I:
Next Generation P2P Music and Film - DRM, Paid for Pass-Along and Other Legal Distributed Computing Models and the Entertainment Industries
While the debate over legal issues in music and movie distribution of content continues, the P2P and distributed computing industry is making strides in taking its technologies into the mainstream. With many evolving solutions on the way from paid-for-pass-along along with various DRM solutions and advertiser based options - and now an active trade association for P2P exists to enhance the solutions in the marketplace - we are pleased to hold a standalone solution session on the topic. In this session we will attempt to go beyond the legal issues into the practical applications of P2P in the marketplace. P2P advocates make claim to a major share of the market that will play a central force in the future of the music and film industries. In this session, we will hear the case for P2P - understanding it strengths and weaknesses.
Srivats Sampath, President & CEO, MERCORA
Chip Venters, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Containers
John Beezer, President, Shared Media Licensing, Inc.
Les Ottolenghi, President, INTENT MediaWorks, LLC
Talmon Marco, co-founder, iMesh
Randall Crockett, Vice President of Operations, DRM Networks
Marty Lafferty, Chief Executive Officer, Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), Moderator
Chip Venters, Chief Executive Officer, DigitalContainers, Inc., is a
career entrepreneur with experience in the startup, product development and marketing of information services and software. DigitalContainers has technologies and patents that enable an entirely new digital content distribution and sales system where all intellectual property has a profitable business model. With this system, the creators of digital media, documents, software, games and other intellectual property can quickly and easily monetize their digital goods by creating, packaging, registering and releasing them into the global market in just a few easy steps. Previously he was Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development of SiteScape, Inc., a start-up teamware and community software company that grew to a position of industry leadership and 350 enterprise customers in just 18 months. Chip authored numerous white papers and was a frequent presenter at international conferences on teamware and communities of practice while at SiteScape. Chip was a founder of DeskGate Technologies, the original inventors of the DigitalContainers technology. DeskGate’s pioneering systems for the sale of digital goods, lead to major industry awards within the first two years of the company’s inception, (Best New Company, Internet World, 1998). Many of DigitalContainers patents are based on the technologies developed by Deskgate. Venters was the founder of Smart Communications, an electronic communication service bureau serving the trade associating industry. Smart was parent company of TotalFax, a major provider of enhanced fax services, which was sold to Premiere Communications, Inc., TotalAccess Communications, another Smart company was an Internet service provider in DC who combined with Interpath, now owned by Progress Energy.Les Ottolenghi, Founding Partner & CEO, INTENT MediaWorks: Les Otto
lenghi has more than 20 years of experience in executive management, information technology and marketing with both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding Intent MediaWorks, Ottolenghi was CEO of AgentWare, Ottolenghi, responsible for setting the overall strategic direction of the company as well as managing all major contract relationships. Prior to co-founding AgentWare, Ottolenghi served as Vice President of Information Technology and Electronic Commerce for Carlson Wagonlit Travel. His accomplishments at Carlson included leading a team that custom-designed critical middleware for networking 10,000 travel agents over the Internet. Ottolenghi is also a former executive at Holiday Inn Worldwide, where he led the successful launch of the first Internet-based reservations system in the travel industry. In 1998, Information Week and Microsoft nominated Ottolenghi for CIO of the Year. Ottolenghi has served as the chief strategist for the Greater 15 Nations (G15) of the United Nations, and is on the board of directors for the Berkeley Center for Marketing and Technology. Ottolenghi is an undergraduate of Duke University and M.B.A. graduate of Emory University's Goizueta School of Business, where he received a Woodruff Fellowship and graduated Beta Gamma Sigma. He continues his relationship with Emory by serving as an adjunct professor and writing a book regarding technology and business strategy.John Beezer, President, Shared Media Licensing, Inc.: John may be best known for his role in the award-winning 1996 documentary Hype!, which still turns up on high-numbered cable channels from time to time. The film investigates the media prank turned pop culture phenomenon that came to be known as grunge music. It highlights John's role as one of the movement's few unrepentant instigators. As the grunge music media frenzy crested in the early 90's, John concluded that his unique skill set would be most valuable in the field of advertising. However, John was quickly disappointed by the constricted thinking he encountered. Taking a long-term view, he became fascinated by the opportunity to develop emerging communications technologies for commercial purposes. Initially, this led to a series of experiments with new media, including sponsored videocassettes and the distribution of interactive brochures on floppy discs. When the Internet emerged as a commercial medium in the early 90's, John co-founded Brazil Design Group (aptly named for Terry Gilliam's dystopian comedy). In 1995, Brazil Design developed the marketing campaign for the launch of Real Audio 1.0 which became the most successful software introduction to date. Most of Brazil Design Group was then absorbed into RealNetworks. John remained a digital media consultant until 1998 when he was hired by Microsoft Research to work on the development of Microsoft Reader, Microsoft's e-Book software and a forerunner to Tablet PC. When the group's focus shifted from the development of new features to content security issues, John chose to move on. Upon leaving Microsoft in 2000, John worked as Internet Director for Maria Cantwell's successful US Senate campaign. Shortly thereafter, John and a few friends developed the idea for Weed and together they founded Shared Media Licensing. The Weed software was launched in December of 2003. John's role as President of Shared Media Licensing is the culmination of a career that has consistently promoted innovation in music, marketing and technology.
Talmon Marco, Co-Founder, President and CMO, Mr. Marco is a rare combination: savvy businessman and a technology pioneer. Before the age of 30, he has brought to market multiple innovative technologies. Starting 1993, Mr. Marco served as CIO for the Israeli Defense Forces Central Command. In 1995, Mr. Marco Co-Founded Nortex Software, a developer of Civil Engineering software. In 1997 he Co-founded Expand Networks, a privately held, venture back, world leader in Application Traffic Management. Mr. Marco served as President at Expand Networks until 2004, at which point the company reached a run-rate of $20M/yr. In 1998, Mr. Marco co-founded iMesh. Following the RIAA settlement, Mr. Marco joined iMesh as President and Chief Marketing Officer in order to help propel iMesh forward. Mr. Marco holds a degree in Computer Science and Management from the Tel-Aviv University.
Randall Crockett, Vice President of Operations, DRM Networks: With
over 25 years of experience promoting products through the entertainment industry, Randall Crockett has recently worked to develop methods of distributing entertainment and information to the masses through the use of the Internet. As a director of DRM Networks, he now uses his expertise to promote secure methods of distribution that allow for new and innovative business models. Randall began his career in entertainment by promoting events in Southern California for the legendary Mickey Thompson where he managed the Off-Road Championship Grand Prix and the Superbowl of Motocross. After the death of Mickey Thompson, Randall founded one of the worlds first event marketing firms, PR Crockett in Irvine, California. PR Crockett topped out at 75 employees and worked closely with both events and the sponsors of those events including, Coors, Proctor and Gamble, Dodge, The City of Los Angeles Marathon, Long Beach Grand Prix, American Heart Association and many more. In all, PR Crockett provided resources and sponsorships for over 100 events annually. PR Crockett was eventually sold and Randall moved to Aspen, Colorado with the intention of skiing and relaxing for a bit but quickly found himself engaged in the start up of many other businesses centered on the recreation market. Eventually this brought him again to involvement with live events though this time focused on concert and festival promotions. In 1998, Randall was recruited to join the newly established management team at the Celebrity Theatre, a world class entertainment venue in Phoenix, Arizona. Utilizing his expertise in marketing, the Celebrity Theatre quickly grew to over 100 shows a year most of which sold out. Provided with that success, Randall partnered with other visionaries and founded a new concept in entertainment to bring live concerts and sporting events to audiences via the internet. Though early adoption for the Web Theatre concept was limited, Randall continued to pursue and analogize the importance of online media and has been vigilant in developing resources that can accommodate users much like himself, to make online digitals media a accessible to anyone with content. In 2001, Randall took over a division of CWIE Holdings company, the parent company of CCBill where he continued to develop an idea that online media sales would lead the way of digital content sales. Today DRM Networks boast such clientele as Disney, ABC, Peer Impact (which represents the Big 4 Record Labels), Hewlett Packard and many more. Through the DRM system, over 6,000,000 digital media files are distributed and sold monthly. Mr. Crockett is active with many organizations both professionally and as a volunteer that cover a fast area including Broadcasting, Internet Deployment and civic organization.Marty Lafferty, Chief Executive Officer, Distributed Computing Ind
ustry Association (DCIA): As DCIA’s CEO, Marty Lafferty is responsible for industry outreach, strategic development and management of all association initiatives. He is an accomplished new media industry leader with a track record of successful multi-business collaboration and excellence in pioneering the distribution of content via new technologies. Throughout his career, Lafferty has served in senior leadership positions for some of the world’s most innovative technology and entertainment companies. Lafferty joined DCIA from Lafferty Media Partners LLC (LMP) where he served as Managing Partner. Prior to LMP, he was CEO of Zoom Culture, which he transformed from a year-old dotcom into a thriving digital television and new media firm within 24 months, working with partners including NBC and PAX TV. He also led Zoom’s software development team and partnered with Apple engineers to serve as the first Beta client for Scale 8’s advanced global storage network and edge content distribution system. Previously he served as CMO for StreamSearch.com, where he oversaw the conversion of streaming video search engines from a technological to an entertainment market focus, working with and for major studios such as Paramount and Artisan. While there, he also led the creation of the interactive multimedia site for Sundance Film Festival. During his tenure as Microsoft TV VP of Corporate & Service Marketing, Lafferty supported the strategic refocus of Microsoft’s WebTV acquisition from a purely B2C niche subscription offering to a B2B application suite for multichannel service distributors and their set-top suppliers, in addition to introducing plans for the Xbox game console. While serving as President of FutureVision, Lafferty supervised the redesign and rollout of the industry’s first true switched digital network service offering and the company’s acquisition by Verizon. Before FutureVision, as VP of TV Answer, he led the development of numerous technically diverse simulcast interactive applications using IVDS over-the-air transmission spectrum, and secured affiliations with PBS and commercial broadcast station groups, culminating in a strategic alliance with CapCities/ ABC. Lafferty was also CEO of NBC’s Olympics joint venture, where he led multiple vendors to develop alternative security solutions for a satellite-delivered mini-subscription PPV signal, as well as oversaw cable and broadcast affiliate marketing. Prior to that, as GE Americom VP of Cable Services, he contributed to GE Astro’s new fleet development and deployment, generating $445 million in sales to television programmers in 18 months. As VP of TDBS, he led Turner Broadcasting’s internal and GI engineering teams to develop and deploy the industry’s first signal-scrambling security technology for basic programming services. Lafferty has received recognition from, and held leadership positions in, numerous industry organizations throughout his career. He was awarded the Council for Entrepreneurial Development Award as a top-fifty new company. He served as Membership Chairman of the Interactive Services Association, and was named Chairman of the International Digital Satellite Television Symposium. Lafferty also co-founded the Satellite Broadcasting Communications Association and served as its first Vice Chairman. Lafferty holds a Master’s degree from Yale University and Bachelors with honors from Williams College. He has received the NCTA’s President’s Award and a CTAM TAMI Award for industry service.