Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled P2P services such as Grokster are liable for the actions of their users, a big will be the impact will be on MP3 players. Whether anyone wants to admit it, MP3 players such as iPods have become popular because people can load them up with free hundreds, if not thousands, of free songs downloaded using P2P services. Anyone who thinks all that music has been dutifully ripped off CDs or bought legally is delusional. If the "pipeline" to free music disappears or shrinks will this make MP3 players less compelling? If this happens, will the iPod suddenly become yesterday's story? I'm willing to bet Apple will attempt to downplay this scenario as far-fetched while talking up the success of iTunes. Maybe the legal downloading music business will receive a much-needed boost from the court decision. I suspect it may cause some people to think twice about using a P2P service. Then again, the concept of music for free is still very much alive and well - especially within the key 15 to 24 year-old demographic - if you look at the number of users and songs available on Kazaa, Limewire, BitTorrent, et al. You may be able to wound the P2P beast but killing it is going to be extremely difficult - even with highest court in the U.S. weighing in. Addendum: Michael Geist, who has become a go-to P2P legal expert, believes the court ruling has no impact on P2P users because there are already laws that address downloading. Instead, he said the decision makes it clear P2P service providers are now legally vulnerable. For people still intent on downloading, the challenge may be finding a service if Grokster, Limewire, etc. decide it's not worth the legal hassle. Then again, I'm sure someone could easily set up a P2P service in a country not adhering to WIPO, and snub their nose at the U.S. Supreme Court.

In-Stat has a report suggesting carriers are taking a more aggressive marketing approach to ethnic groups. The company cites Qwest's low-cost LD calling plans for Mexico, and Sprint's launch of Movida Communications, which also targets the large Hispanic community. The report is intriguing as carriers try to penetrate new niches while protecting their existing customer base from cablecos. I'm a firm believer VOIP is the ideal service to be sold into ethnic and special interest groups. This can be done by large service providers such as Vonage or Cablevision, as well as small niche players looking to establish a viable and profitable market foothold. The big challenge facing large companies is ethnic marketing requires particular focus and may not be worth it if the audience isn't big enough. This, in theory, leaves room for small and nimble rivals to jump into unserved or under-served markets.

I don't usually use this forum to complain about technology but I have little choice after two weeks of frustration trying to get a D-Link range expander to work with my wireless network. They sell the product as essentially plug n' play. You take it out of the box, go to a Web site to configure it, and it is supposed to work. Well, it didn't work despite many calls to customer service. I even purchased a new wireless router after a second D-Link customer rep happened to mention my existing D-Link router was not compatible. (Strange, it didn't say anything about that on the range expander box). Finally, another customer rep suggested the expander was defective, and I should return it, which will likely take several weeks. Arghhh! There, that feels much better.

Ottawa-based Meriton Networks, which scored a huge coup last month when it won part of BT's US $19-billion next-generation network contract, has raised US$54 million in private equity. This the biggest VC deal done by a Canadian company this year. It also suggests VC money is starting flow back into the Canadian telecom sector in a big way. In April, Solace Systems, which develops multiservice message router technology provides intelligent routing of application traffic, raised some serious cash from a group of investors that includes Terry Matthews.
Meriton was originally targeting about US$30-million but strong demand from investors and growing interest in the metro-optical market persuaded Meriton that adopting a more aggressive approach was a better route. The company, which plans to double its workforce over the next 12 to 18 months, develops technology that helps carriers make their fiber-optic networks more efficient - a key issue as demand for broadband services increases traffic. Meriton's "secret sauce" is software that lets carrier tweak their networks from a central location rather than having to do a truck roll. This gives carriers more control while reducing costs. The BT deal was major breakthrough from Meriton, which had mostly done deals with second and third-tier carriers. The latest financing round was led by two new investors - VantagePoint and Nomura. If Nortel is looking to make a technology-related acquisition, it should loook close to home at Meriton. Nortel also plays in the metro optical market but Meriton clearly ha something carriers want. Two key questions, however, are whether Nortel has the cash and the strategic appetite to get into the acquisition of start-ups again given its terrible track record during the telecom boom.