[iwar] [fc:Uncle.Sam.Wants.Napster]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-11-08 10:24:03
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 10:24:03 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Uncle.Sam.Wants.Napster]
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Uncle Sam Wants Napster 
By Leslie Walker, Washington Post, 11/8/2001
<a href="http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171981.html">http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171981.html>

The Pentagon is taking a friendlier view of Napster's file-sharing
concept than are America's big entertainment companies, which have
repeatedly sued tech upstarts to stop people from swapping songs, movies
and other copyrighted material. 
Rather than trying to shut down the new computer networks that allow
people to directly connect other personal computers, the military wants
to enlist their creators in the war against terrorism. 
"You guys could help us," Lt. Col. Robert Wardell, special assistant to
Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told
technologists at an industry conference in Washington this week. 
Indeed, the technology behind Napster, the music-sharing network that
record companies sued for copyright infringement, may be getting a
public relations boost in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Public anxiety over flying, a desire to cut travel costs and growing
awareness of the need for secure communication appear to be heightening
interest in Napster-like collaboration tools. 
The technology often is called peer-to-peer because it enables personal
computers to directly connect with each other, bypassing the central
computers that normally serve up Web pages. But these still-experimental
networks, the focus of a conference organized by O'Reilly &amp; Associates,
can be used for many purposes besides song swapping. 
Wardell said the technology might help the military share information on
the fly across its many branches, agencies, ships, airplanes, tanks and
ground troops -- here and around the world. 
Wardell recalled how incompatible computer systems forced an F-14 Tomcat
pilot flying over Kosovo to shut down his secure radio system in order
to talk freely to officers aboard a B-52 bomber and tell them the
location of ground targets. 
Several times, he said, the targets were able to move faster than their
attackers after the enemy apparently intercepted their radio talk. 
More recently, he said the USS Kitty Hawk, an aircraft carrier whose
computers are set up to communicate primarily with Navy planes, found
itself facing communication troubles when it suddenly had to carry Army
helicopters to Afghanistan. 
Soldiers need a communication system that will be more nimble and
flexible if they are to counter the threat from international
terrorists, Wardell said: "You have a dispersed enemy who basically is
operating on a peer-to-peer system, at a very low level. How are we
going to attack that? Probably the same way." 
Some analysts think the peer-to-peer concept could lead to a more
powerful Internet if large corporations, fearing the loss of control
over intellectual property, don't squash them first. Last month, 28
record and movie companies sued new file-sharing networks with names
like MusicCity, Grokster and Kazaa. And last week the big three
television networks filed suit against SonicBlue, which is preparing to
launch avideo recorder that allows people to swap their recorded TV
programs online. 
Other entrepreneurs are fashioning similar tools for legitimate use in
the workplace. Their makers report a spike in interest from corporate
customers in the past month, as well as a revival of interest from
venture capitalists, who largely withdrew funding for peer-to-peer
systems in the wake of February's court decision shutting down Napster. 
Now the military is sending a message that it, too, is shopping for
cutting-edge software with some of the $40 billion in emergency spending
Congress authorized to beef up national defense. 
The U.S. Joint Forces Command last week began testing new commercial
software called Groove, developed by the creator of Lotus Notes. About
20 large corporations also are using the program, which allows people to
create ad hoc computing groups, send instant messages, mark up files and
do other collaborative work online without help from system
administrators. 
Makers of similar "groupware" products got in line this week to take the
military up on its appeal for help. EZmeeting chief executive Charlie
White said he made an appointment at the Pentagon for Friday to show off
his new software, which lets as many as 32 people simultaneously
annotate documents, see one another's changes and message one another --
instantly. Falls Church-based Cincro Communications Corp. also was
showing off its Looking Glass product, to be released in February,
allowing people to collaborate online through a virtual whiteboard. 
"This sector is so hot," said White, who sent e-mail to every member of
Congress, the White House and Pentagon offering to let the government
use EZmeeting for free through 2003. 
Michael Macedonia, the Army's chief scientist for simulated training,
said the Army envisions using peer-to-peer systems in wireless networks
on the ground for mission rehearsal in the future. Sony Corp., for
example, collaborated with the Army to develop C-Force, a networked
computer game that runs on Microsoft's new Xbox and simulates warfare in
hostile urban environments. 
Wardell said the military is seeking ways to help soldiers on the ground
in places such as Afghanistan get information faster. The idea is to let
them establish ad hoc computer connections with forces, say, inside
helicopters in Uzbekistan, or with officers back home and even with
allies abroad, without getting bogged down in multiple security levels
and incompatible software systems. 
"You have to empower the fringes if you are going to . . . be able to
make decisions faster than the bad guy," Wardell said. "You can't do it
through the hierarchical systems. It just takes too long." 
Wardell held up a copy of the "Joint Vision 2020" report the Pentagon
released last year, which identified "asymmetric" approaches by smaller
enemies using novel styles of warfare as "perhaps the most serious
danger the United States faces in the immediate future." 
But he acknowledged change comes slowly in the military, especially
since many ranking commanders aren't familiar with the fast-changing
information technology in the private sector. 
"For us it is a massive culture shock," he concluded. "That's why we are
here asking you to help."

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