Jacques Vabre Transat Carnage

Transat Carnage Puts Multihulls in Question by Bruce Gain This year’s Transat Jacques Vabre was often more about survival than it was about racing. Fortunately, there were no tragedies. But the crews and boats certainly took a beating, especially in the Multi 50 class. Only two of the six Multi 50 entries that set out from Le Havre, France, made it to the finishing poles off Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. Click here to read the full article in Sailing World: http://www.sailingworld.com/blogs/racing/transat-carnage-puts-multihulls-in-question

Risk, Voyeurism, and Near Disaster

Risk, Voyeurism, and Near Disaster

by Bruce Gain

© Alexis Courcoux

The 2011 Transat Jacques Vabre started two days late due to very strong winds and rough seas.

The weather report was ugly. With less than 48 hours before the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre, sailors were looking at heading into the Atlantic from Le Havre, France, in steady, 40-knot side winds with 60-knot gusts and confused seas of well over 30 feet. There was a chance the fleet of Multi 50s, IMOCA Open 60s, and Class 40s could've slogged through the nastiness and made its way across the ocean to Costa Rica, but that was far from certain.

Why You Should Worry About the ISP Copyright Fight

Why You Should Worry About the ISP Copyright Fight

By Bruce Gain, PCWorld

Millions of small business owners may soon realize that their Internet service could be disrupted if they're wrongly accused of illegal file sharing or downloading under the "six strikes" plan entertainment media groups announced this week.

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Initiated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and other media groups, participating ISPs will shortly begin sending warning letters to users or companies whose accounts are allegedly used to illegally share files. ISPs will send a series of up to six notices to account holders whose IP addresses are allegedly used for the "online content theft of film, TV shows, or music" as part of the Center for Copyright Information initiative. After six notices, the ISP could begin a series of "mitigation measures"--which for all intents and purposes would likely lead to the disruption of Internet services on which most small businesses depend.

The announcement is the most important of its kind since the RIAA announced it was ending its litigation campaign in 2008 to thwart illegal file sharing. So now, instead of suing alleged digital copyright infringers, participating ISPs including AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon will carry the stick intended to curb illegal file sharing on behalf of the media companies.

Here are four things that small businesses should be concerned about.

1. Losing Internet Access

The Center for Copyright Information does not come out and say that ISPs will suspend accounts. It also specifies that participating ISPs may even decide not to institute the "mitigation measures." However, possible steps that ISPs could take include reductions in Internet speeds and blocking access to Websites by redirecting users to a landing page.

If you or one of your office users is blatantly using an account to download movies and films, that's one thing. But what remains unclear is exactly how copyright holders will determine whether they think their copyright-protected content has been illegally accesses or shared.

During the RIAA's litigation campaign, many people were wrongly sued when hackers hijacked users' IP addresses. It is thus likely that hijacked IP addresses associated with file sharing will erroneously fall in the line of fire.

Illustration: Joe ZeffProving that a subscriber account was not used for illegal file sharing when issued a court summons was difficult in the past. Those accused usually paid lawyers fees or damages of a few thousand dollars for those who did not contest the damages as a remedy. However, for many small businesses, a disruption in Internet access would mean nothing less than the end of their business, which is certainly more costly than paying a few thousand dollars to settle legal claims, whether they are erroneous or not.

2. Time and Expense to Respond

A small business that erroneously receives a warning letter will have to devote time and resources to contest the claim. According to the Center for Copyright Information, subscribers can pay $35 for an "independent review" if they feel they are wrongly accused. However, besides placing the future of your company's Internet access in the hands of a supposed independent review committee, what kind of evidence will those wrongly accused have to gather? A small business owner already working 80 hours a week might not be able to squeeze the extra resources required to prove a negative--which, as in criminal law, is harder than proving a positive--that an account was not used for illegal file sharing.

3. Wi-Fi Hijacking Risks

Small businesses that offer customers free Wi-Fi service can only claim that a customer and not the business owner illegally shared or accessed copyright-protected content one time. This means that your business could risk connectivity problems if customers repeatedly share or download copy-right protected content. Policing your customers to make sure they are not illegally accessing or sharing files, besides raising privacy concerns, would require extra resources that small business may not have.

4. Defending Fair Use Claims

Suppose copyright owner X informs the ISP that your business is infringing on its copyright claims, even though your legal counsel says it is not. The ISP will almost certainly not adjudicate this claim and will likely follow through with sending alerts that claim your business is stealing content. What do you do then?

Also, if your business claims that it is allowed to share or access content under fair use policies and disagrees with the copyright holder's claims, your business or name must be communicated to the copyright holder to do that, which raises privacy concerns.

What To Do?

Small businesses as well as subscribers can react by contacting their ISPs and congressional representatives to express why they think this development is a bad idea. Some participating ISPs may decide to opt out of the initiative if enough subscribers complain.

Bruce covers tech trends in the United States and Europe and can be reached through his Website at www.brucegain.com.

Is All Mobile Technology in the Car Dangerous?

By Bruce Gain, PCWorld

Luxury carmaker BMW is launching a nationwide campaign to build awareness about the hazards associated with driver distraction, and especially the dangers of texting while behind the wheel.

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  Is All Mobile Technology in the Car Dangerous?

You're likely to see BMW's public-awareness commercial or online and print ads sometime this year. The TV spot is particularly frightening, as it effectively shows how children are all too often innocent victims of careless and negligent drivers who text while driving.

BMW's campaign follows a meeting held in December between BMW of North America CEO Jim O'Donnell and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has been consulting with automotive representatives to discuss initiatives carmakers can take to help prevent distracted driving.

O'Donnell has also applauded BMW's safety campaign. "With this initiative, launched just in time for the summer driving season, BMW has really stepped up to the plate," O'Donnell wrote on this blog earlier this month.

But what is left unsaid in the media campaign is that along with most of the world's carmakers, BMW wants to make mobile tech available to drivers.

Automakers also generally contend that hands-free applications are relatively safe. The consensus is that using your hands to write and send a text message is dangerous, but a hands-free solution is okay.

"We proactively offer technology in a safe way and one example of how we do that is by offering technology that allows people to keep their hands on the wheel while staying focused on the road," a BMW spokeswoman told PCWorld. "People want to be connected, so we are allowing drivers to be connected in a safe manner."

BMW's voice-to-text e-mail technology complements options that BMW already offers. With BMW's ConnectedDrive, for example, you can connect your Blackberry to the dashboard console with a Bluetooth connection and the audio system reads e-mail or text messages out loud as you drive. When the car is not in motion, it is possible to read the full texts of the emails from a Blackberry inbox on the car's dashboard screen.

However, there has been an outcry among consumer groups and government organizations that claim hands-free car tech is not safe, despite carmakers' claims

Despite his accolades for BMW's safety campaign, O'Donnell has long maintained in his blog that even hands-free calling is just as dangerous as holding your cell phone to your ear while talking and driving. He recently told the Wall Street Journal that "there's absolutely no reason for any person to download their Facebook into the car."

However, safety experts generally agree that more studies are required to prove conclusively whether hand-free "infotainment" and communications technology for drivers is safe or not. The potential benefits are considerable--being able to use office apps in your car while driving can be a tremendous productivity booster, especially for drivers who have long commutes to make every day in their cars.

Bluetooth headsets can reduce the dangers of distracted driving.But what remains abundantly clear is that texting and talking while holding a phone to your ear is extremely dangerous while driving. Indeed, U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show nearly 5500 people died in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2009, although the study did not indicate to what extent cell phone use and texting were the cause. Still, for whatever reason, many states have yet to ban either activity in the United States. By contrast, Western Europe has long since outlawed non-hands-free cell phone use and texting while driving.

In the best-case scenario, the United States would legislate a nationwide ban on texting and handheld cell phone use while driving. And , I hope, it will stiffen penalties by imposing mandatory jail sentences on those who needlessly endanger the lives of others by engaging in these activities. Meanwhile, I still hold much faith in technology and believe that automakers just might be able to develop very useful in-car tech that is also safe to use.

Bruce covers tech trends in the United States and Europe and can be reached through his Website at www.brucegain.com.

Here is a link to a TruTV story about a wife who hired an impersonator to replace her dead husband, whose body she had hidden in a rather gruesome way

Here is a link to a TruTV story about a wife who hired an impersonator to replace her dead husband, whose body she had hidden in a rather gruesome way: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/scams/waltraud-gruseck/small-village-sensationalistic-crime.html

Who Can Afford the Vendée Globe Around-The-World Solo Race?

Photo: Valérie Reynaud

Who Can Afford the Vendée Globe?

by Bruce Gain

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a small community event in Les Sables-d'Olonne, a resort town on France’s West Coast that hosts the start and finish of the Vendee Globe. There, Luc Van Den Heede, who placed third in the first Vendée Globe in 1989 and then second in 1993, and up-and-comer Arnaud Boissières, who placed seventh in the last race, were on hand to speak to a crowd of just a hundred or so at the local community center about their adventures.

Despite spy-claim fiasco, Ghosn maintains his hero poise

Despite spy-claim fiasco, Ghosn maintains his hero poise

Link to the article in Automotive News Europe: http://www.autonews.com/article/20110504/BLOG15/304309979/1503

Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn emerged largely unscathed from the company's annual shareholders meeting after portraying himself as the victim of the the spy-claim fiasco that has rocked the French carmaker.

Shareholders expressed much less anger than expected at the meeting and Ghosn made a strong case that the company has done everything needed to put the affair behind it.

A poised Ghosn conveyed that he is not only still fully in control, but he has also saved Renault from a major crisis. He told shareholders at the meeting on Friday that he and Renault had responded "courageously and responsibly" by accepting the consequences of the affair, including compensating wrongfully dismissed executives and accepting the recommendations of an audit committee that proposed sweeping changes in Renault's checks-and-balances structure.

Shareholders applauded when one of their number asked why Ghosn did not quit because of the affair, like his No. 2 Patrick Pelata, who resigned as chief operating officer and will move to a lesser role within the Renault-Nissan alliance.

Ghosn deftly referred the query to Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, chairman of the carmaker's appointments and governance committee, who said that the committee unanimously agreed that it would not be in the company's interest to ask for Ghosn's resignation.

The consensus among several shareholders with whom I spoke at the meeting was that executives who ranked below Ghosn were responsible for the spy debacle and that Ghosn was too far removed to share blame.

Stephen Norman, Renault's head of marketing , told the meeting that surveys carried out since the spy scandal broke in mid January showed that the affair has not affected Renault's image as a carmaker in France or abroad. However, Norman said those surveyed were split 50-50 on whether it had had a negative effect on Renault's corporate image. Still, the results suggest that Renault's brand image new car sales will not be hit by the scandal.

But Ghosn has more than just his image as a competent CEO to worry about — his legacy-status as an industry hero is also at stake. Ghosn is seen as having orchestrated the rescue of Japan's Nissan from bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

Ghosn has other challenges to worry about now. He must contend with the public outcry in France that Renault continues to boost its investments in production and new jobs outside of France at the expense of French jobs. The company also is faced with the monumental task of establishing the presence of Renault-brand cars in China and whether its huge bet on becoming a leader in electric cars will pay off.

Renault has an image problem, especially outside of France and particularly with reliability issues. It is also often seen as the French-equivalent of a large welfare project that could not run on its own without government aid (the French government has a 15 percent stake in Renault).

If Ghosn could somehow engineer a way for Renault to overcome the obstacles it faces, he would be a hero indeed.

Contact Automotive News

Death By Drowning?

Death By Drowning?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07eZjbsIJJ4

Interview: For Loïck Peyron, winning the Barcelona World Race was "just a matter of handling the boat like you need to."

Click here to access the Sailing World Interview: For Loïck Peyron, winning the Barcelona World Race was "just a matter of handling the boat like you need to."

Renault Concept

Voitures de l'avenir: Un essaie des voitures concepts de Renault (Cars of the future: driving Renault's concept cars)

Renault's Zoe electric car could be a winner (Le Zoe peut marccher; article en anglais)

Renault's Zoe electric car could be a winner

Renault's big bet on the Zoe, the small hatchback that will be the volume seller among the company's four-model electric car lineup, could pay off. But in order for it to do so, Renault must prove that it can deliver on its promise that it can offer an affordable and reliable electric car that will save drivers money.

Renault believes it should not be difficult to convince a large segment of European consumers that EVs can make much more sense price-wise and environmentally compared with combustion-engine cars.

The French automaker will market the Zoe as an alternative to the upcoming Clio, which Renault will launch at about the same time as the Zoe in 2012.

The Zoe will retail in France for about 15,000 euros after French government rebates, which will be the same price as the diesel version of the Clio. Comparatively, the Nissan Leaf retails for about 31,000 euros in France after the rebate.

Renault is targeting mainstream buyers, which is reflected in the Zoe's conservative rather than futuristic design. Renault hopes that fuel-cost savings will represent Zoe's main selling point for drivers who desire the same drivability and size that the Clio offers but want to save a lot of money. The Zoe has a range of about 160km on a full charge that costs about 2 euros. It can easily cost five times more in diesel fuel to drive the equivalent distance in a Clio.

When I drove a concept version of the Zoe, the steering wheel felt very stiff and the seats were hard. It felt more like driving a riding lawnmower than a street car. However, Renault says the production version of the concept I drove will drive as smoothly as any production-model Clio when it launches.

Renault plans annual sales of 150,000 units for the Zoe, a volume Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata says could be doubled quickly if needed.

A negative is that you can't take the car on vacation. Renault says it will make cars available for weekend or vacation trips, but I wonder how that will go given the not-so-great aftersale services among carmakers in France.

Customers will also be wary of Renault's less-than-stellar reputation for reliability. EVs in general should require less maintenance, but that can't compensate for faulty builds and defective components. Many previous Renault owners have been burned badly and will hesitate to take a risk on something so new that Renault is offering.

According to Warranty Direct, a UK-based consumer warranty company, the Renault Espace ranks third from last in the reliability rankings of all cars in Europe and is the only mainstream model to be in the bottom five. There is a saying in France that goes, "If you drive with a Renault, then you come back on a bike."

Still, I am convinced that the Zoe could offer a lot for mainstream buyers if they do not drive more than 150km a day. Maintenance costs will likely be lower, providing even more cost savings. For a retail price of 15,000 euros new with the government rebates, you can potentially save a lot of money, unless repair costs add up after the car is no longer under warranty. However, Renault has an opportunity to prove that it can match the potential cost savings with a reliable build.

Special Report: Music Industry’s Lavish Lobby Campaign For Digital Rights

Special Report: Music Industry’s Lavish Lobby Campaign For Digital Rights

By Bruce Gain for Intellectual Property Watch @ 4:38 pm

The music industry has spent tens of millions of dollars to lobby government officials worldwide during the past decade, but whether or not the initiative has helped to shape a viable legal and commercial framework is a subject of debate.

According to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis based on data collected from the United States Secretary of the Senate Office of Public Records (SOPR), the recorded music industry and the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) have spent over $90 million in lobbying efforts in the United States alone since 2000.