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ESPN Starts Opening The Doors To Its Data With Developer Center, First API Program

Rip Empson — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:07:14 PST

Geeks and sports together? It’s a beautiful thing. Well, at least that’s what ESPN is hoping with the announcement of its brand, spanking new Developer Center, which marks the first time that it will open its doors to third-party developers and provide access to its enormous array of editorial content, stats, and other data.

As Y Combinator Founder Paul Graham tweeted recently, APIs are self-serve business development. Many startups are catching on to the business development catalyst that APIs can be, but certainly few would say that ESPN, the self-tagged “world leader in sports,” needs as much help in that department as the many startups out there just trying to get off the ground.

That being said, this marks a big step forward for ESPN, and all those entrepreneurs and developers who have been itching to gain access to ESPN’s content. As one would guess, the sports behemoth’s new Developer Center is a web resource that allows developers to join the company’s API program for the purpose of gaining access to ESPN data to create new web and mobile apps for the rabid, sports-consuming public.

As part of the launch, ESPN is making its “Headlines API” available to the public, which will allow third-parties to tap into the site’s daily news stories and headlines, find content related to any ESPN story, create a “Top Stories” summary, etc.

The Developer Center also includes a Research Notes API, which is now only available for strategic partners, giving them access to ESPN’s archive of facts and figures compiled by the stats geeks in the ESPN Stats and Information Group.

It will also be launching several other APIs in private beta (only for select partners at this point), including its Scores and Schedules API that provides start times, venues, competiros, scores, and stats across every major sport, as well as a set of other APIs that offer standings, team, and athlete information.

Developers looking for access to an ESPN API can head over to the Developer Center now to request a developer key. access to an ESPN API can now go to the ESPN Developer Center and request a developer key. The ESPN crew will be at SXSW to meet with developers and give a tour of its new resources.

The launch of the Developer Center, Jason Guenther, Vice President of ESPN Digital Media Technology, tell us, is the culmination of 7-months of effort. The Developer Center has been in private beta since last fall, in testing internally and with a few select partners. Foursquare, one of these early partners, has been testing ESPN’s Research Notes API, allowing its users to check in to sports-related events to receive relevant factoids powered by ESPN.

What’s more, as MG reported back in August, Pulse became one of the first partners with which ESPN syndicated its content — other than its own, and the team tells us that Pulse — as well as Flipboard — have been instrumental as early adopters in helping to test its Headlines API while in beta.

Chris Jason, director of ESPN’s API program, and Guenther said that its new Developer Center is “fundamental to its business strategy going forward,” and that they view its API program as “transformational.” And that’s not only because third-parties will be able to access its data to create a mind-numbing array of sports apps replete with ESPN data, but to ESPN’s internal development as well. The company now has one distinct resource it can point to when asked about its data resources, both internally and externally.

“As digital and TV are really starting to collide,” Guenther said, “making sure that we have a comprensive data strategy is extremely important.”

ESPN has been hosting a number hackathons to give developers an opportunity to access its data and create cool, sports-related apps, which you can check out here.

The team said that it is going to continue to pushing forward with its APIs, and will at some point in the not-so-distant future be launching a “Labs” section that will list products and product enhancements, and give fans opportunities to weigh in on what types of products or features they would like to see become part of the ESPN app ecosystem.

But, for now, ESPN is just concerned with lowering the barriers to innovation, and when asked about its plans for the future, Jason said, “first and foremost is to set our content free.” And what’s better than free data?

ATP I'll Be Your Mirror NJ -- initial 2012 lineup (Louis CK, Make-Up, Mark Lanegan, Dirty Three, Hot Snakes, Antlers, Roots, more!)

brooklynvegan — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:59:01 PST

They say:

ATP are very pleased to confirm our return to Asbury Park, New Jersey USA with a new I'll Be Your Mirror event, the Saturday night of which will be headlined by The Afghan Whigs (who have reunited after a 13 year hiatus) and curated by their frontman Greg Dulli. Formed in 1986, the bands career from then until 2001 saw them release six critically acclaimed albums during their career. Fusing classic rock with grunge-era distortion and a heavy soul influence, The Afghan Whigs were one of the most renowned live bands of their time and ATP is excited to be a part of this long awaited reformation.

We are also very excited to present Grammy Award winner LOUIS C.K. (handpicked by Greg Dulli) who will be making a rare festival appearance, the fantastic THE ROOTS, JOSE GONZALEZ, a show from the reformed THE MAKE-UP and many others, see below for full line-up confirmed so far.

After previous years in upstate New York, ATP moved to the iconic Asbury Park waterfront in 2011 for a hugely successful I'll Be Your Mirror event co-curated and headlined by Portishead, and we are very happy to return to this very special location in September. The Convention Hall has seen the likes of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Rolling Stones grace its stage and the Paramount Theatre has welcomed stars such as Tony Bennett who often insists on playing a song with all the electrics turned off to demonstrate the amazing acoustics of the room. Once again the ATP experience will be taking over the boardwalk, with the main shows taking place at the Convention Hall and Paramount Theatre, and other events happening at the Berkeley hotel (former home of Johnny Cash).

As well as the live music line-up of 35+ acts across the weekend, Friday will feature a Comedy stage, and we're very pleased to announce that our friends at The Criterion Collection will return to run the Cinema across the weekend. All three days feature DJs and other activities to be confirmed in the months ahead. Performances take place indoors with great soundsystems, so you have no need to worry about the weather, and Asbury Park is easily accessible via public transport from nearby cities.

Tickets, which were slightly delayed from original estimates, go on sale Monday at 10am (but are on PRESALE NOW). Initial lineup below...

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Twitter Begins Self-Serve Ad Sign-Ups, Offers $100 In Free Advertising

Anthony Ha — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:36:30 PST

Twitter is now accepting sign-ups from small businesses that want to participate in its self-serve ad program.

The self-serve rollout was reported this afternoon by Ad Age and others, and the sign-up page is now live. In a promotion with American Express, Twitter is offering a $100 credit for free advertising to the first 10,000 businesses that register — you just have to accept American Express cards, or be a cardholder yourself. Oh, and the sign-up process also requires you to follow American Express on Twitter.

Twitter has been talking about expanding its advertising program to a self-serve model for a while now. Ad Age reports that the company currently works with 3,000 advertisers, so even the first wave of self-serve customers will mark a big expansion of the program. The self-serve platform is supposed go live in late March.

A Twitter spokesperson says the company will be making a more formal announcement on Friday.

Frankie Rose, Dr. Dog, Sharon Van Etten, Shearwater, Islands, Tennis & other new album streams

brooklynvegan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:17:45 PST

Frankie Rose releases Interstellar this month (2/21) and as Bill points out, she's left the garage pop of her debut behind in favor of synthy, jangly pop. It's a huge step up from her last album and you can stream the entire thing at SPIN. She plays a record release show for the album at Knitting Factory on February 21 with Dive and Night Manager.

The new album from Dr. Dog, Be The Void, is out this week (2/7) and streaming at Conan O'Brien's website Team Coco. Watch the video of their performance on the show last night (2/8) below. Also, don't forget to grab your tickets for their Terminal 5 show on 3/23 while they're still available. More tour dates HERE.

Sharon Van Etten and Shearwater are touring together in support of their upcoming albums which are both currently streaming on NPR. Listen to Sharon's HERE and Shearwater's HERE. Their tour hits NYC on 2/24 at MHOW and 2/25 at Bowery Ballroom. Both shows are sold out but Sharon plays Bowery again the next night (2/26) and tickets are still available.

Islands' new album, A Sleep & A Forgetting, is due out February 14 via ANTI- and you can stream the entire thing below. Their tour in support of it hits NYC on 2/25 at LPR. Tickets are still available.

Instrumental hip hop producer Mux Mool released his new album, Planet High School, digitally this week and that can be streamed in full below (via FADER).

Field Music will release their new album, Plumb, on February 14 via Memphis Industries. You can stream the whole thing at NPR.

Tennis's new album, Young and Old, is due out February 14 via Fat Possum and you can stream it in full below (via P4K). Their tour in support of it hits NYC on 3/3 at Bowery Ballroom and 3/5 at MHOW. The Bowery show is sold out but tickets for MHOW are still on sale.

Air's new album, Le Voyage Dans La Lune, which features a collaboration with Beach House's Victoria Legrand, and as mentioned is a soundtrack, is out this week and streaming in full on NPR.

It's not exactly an album, but Fucked Up's 15+ minute "Year of the Tiger" single which features Jim Jarmusch, Austra, and Annie-Claude Deschênes of Duchess Says, can be streamed below.

Streams below...

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Judge Refuses to Shut Down Online Market for Used MP3s

David Kravets — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:34:26 PST

A one-of-a-kind website enabling the online sale of pre-owned digital-music files got a legal boost late Monday when a federal judge refused to shutter it at the request of Capitol Records.

It could be short-lived boost, however.

ReDigi, which opened in October, says it’s a modern-day, used-record store that provides account holders with a platform to buy and sell used MP3s that were purchased lawfully through iTunes. The platform’s technology does not support other digital files such as those purchased from Amazon or ripped from a CD.

The brief ruling (.pdf) by U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan of New York did not clearly outline the reason for the decision. But in a transcript (.pdf) of a court proceeding Monday, he said that Capitol is likely to prevail at trial.

“I think (the) liklihood of success on the merits is something that plaintiffs have demonstrated,” Judge Sullivan said from the bench.

Among others, the legal questions before the judge included the first-sale doctrine, the legal theory that people in lawful possession of copyrighted material have the right to sell it.

Sullivan’s decision means that the case is still headed to trial, where Capitol will attempt to prove its allegations that ReDigi facilitates wanton copyright infringement and is not protected by the first-sale doctrine.

John Ossenmacher, ReDigi’s founder, blasted Capitol in a statement. “We hope Capitol can get back to their business and find a way to catch up to the times instead of trying to stop the innovation process, denying rights to their paying customers along the way,” he said.

Richard Mandel, Capitol’s attorney, said in a telephone interview that “We are confident we will prevail at trial.”

A different federal judge sided with the first-sale principle in 2008, when it debunked UMG Recordings’ claim that it retained perpetual ownership of promotional CDs it releases before an album’s debut. Last year, however, a different court ruled against now-defunct online service Zediva, which streamed movies to customers via DVDs that Zediva had purchased.

In the ReDigi case, Capitol Records sued the Massachusetts-based startup last month in New York federal court. Claiming ReDigi was not the used record store as it said it was, Capitol said ReDigi was liable for contributing to copyright infringement.

The label was demanding U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan immediately order ReDigi to remove Capitol-owned material, (.pdf) and to also award damages of up to $150,000 per track against the startup. ReDigi would have gone defunct had the judge sided with Capitol.

ReDigi explained to Sullivan in court papers (.pdf) that its undisclosed number of account holders have a right to upload their purchased iTunes files into ReDigi’s cloud. And when a file is sold to another ReDigi account holder, no copy is made. What’s more, because of ReDigi’s technology, the original uploaded file that is sold cannot be accessed by the seller any more through ReDigi or via the seller’s iTunes account.

Prices for songs vary on ReDigi, with some files having asking prices as high as 87 cents — just 12 cents less than what many songs retail for on iTunes. The company, which earns up to 15 percent per sale, also offers cloud-storage music streaming.

Keen On… Larry Downes: Why Best Buy Is Going Out Of Business (Not So Gradually)

Andrew Keen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:41:05 PST

Sometimes it’s the quiet ones who end up doing the most damage. I always thought of Larry Downes, the co-author of the mega-selling Unleashing the Killer App, as an unusually gentle and wise soul. But this was before Downes unleashed his all-too-critical powers on Best Buy, transforming himself from a cerebral author into a bomb throwing critic of America’s leading consumer electronics retailer. In Why Best Buy is Going out of Business…Gradually, a brilliant article he published at Forbes last month, Downes finally told the truth about the terrible customer service at Best Buy. And the article went viral, of course, amassing close to 3 million page views and even forcing Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn, to issue a response.

Best Buy is committing a “huge strategic blunder” in thinking their service is any good, Downes told me when he came into our San Francisco studio last week. The retailer, he explained, offers neither the lowest price nor provides decent customer service. It’s thus stuck in retail no man’s land – caught in that dead zone between big box retailers like Walmart and high-end operations like the Apple stores. Worse still, Downes explained, Best Buy’s service stinks so badly because it trains its staff in how to sell rather than in making customers happy; thus, these staff are trained in up selling and cross selling which explains, he says, why most of their carefully scripted encounters with customers are so unpleasant.

So what is to be done? Downes laid out three solutions to reinvent Best Buy: 1) Integrating their on and offline operations; 2) Making the stores fun; 3) Radically changing the in store product mix. But can Best Buy really be saved? I wonder whether its business model might be so antiquated and the experience of shopping in its stores so miserable that its demise might be even more imminent that even Larry Downes predicts.

TechCrunch Gadgets editor John Biggs wrote about whether Best Buy is really finished last month.

Archers of Loaf schedule 2 NYC shows, 2 in CA & Primavera

brooklynvegan — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:04:47 PST

Archers of Loaf at Webster Hall (more by Chris Gersbeck)

Archers of Loaf, still reunited, have a handful of dates scheduled in 2012 so far. The seminal 90s band has a pair of West Coast dates: LA and San Francisco (as part of Noise Pop), and two East Coast dates: Bowery Ballroom on April 26th and Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on April 29th ~~that same week~~ (~~date TBA shortly~~). Tickets for the NYC shows go on sale at noon on 2/3. The last time that Archers of Loaf played NYC it was over two nights at Webster Hall and Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Archers will also be at Primavera fest in Spain in May. More dates will be announced soon, as Merge is getting ready to release more remasters...

On February 21, Merge will re-issue Archers of Loaf's sophomore release Vee Vee on dbl-CD, limited edition mossy-green LP and digital download.

Re-mastered by Bob Weston and featuring new liner notes by Magnet Magazine editor Eric Miller, Vee Vee will include sixteen bonus tracks and new cover art re-imagined by graphic artist Jay Ryan. Reissues of All the Nation's Airports and White Trash Heroes will follow later in 2012..In related news, Eric Bachmann's other project Crooked Fingers will play LA a few days after the Archers of Loaf appearance, at the Hotel Cafe on Feb 29. The band was recently featured on NPR's World Cafe.

All known tour dates and a couple of videos below...

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The unhappiness of technology

Jason Kottke — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:39:51 PST

Over at The Wirecutter, Brian Lam writes about technology, journalism, happiness, and why "clicking the like button 1 billion times will never give you an orgasm or a hug or a high five".

The first thing I did was to take back my time. I quit all the online content that was id-provoking and knee jerk. I stopped reading the stupid hyped up news stories that are press releases or rants about things that will get fixed in a week. I stopped reading the junk and about the junk that was new, but not good. I stopped reading blogs that write stories like "top 17 photos of awesome clouds by iphone" and "EXCLUSIVE ANGRY BIRDS COMING TO FACEBOOK ON VALENTINES DAY." And corporate news that only affects the 1%. Most days, I feel like most internet writers and editors are engaging in the kind of vapid conversation you find at parties that is neither enlightening or entertaining, and where everyone is shouting and no one is saying anything. I don't have time for this.

Tags: Brian Lam

The Fast, Fabulous, Allegedly Fraudulent Life of Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom

Sean Gallagher — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:36:49 PST

Image: Photo illustration by Aurich Lawson (After Pen & Pixel)

Since the shutdown of Megaupload, stories have erupted about the life and exploits of the company’s founder, a self-styled “Dr. Evil” of file sharing. Kim Dotcom’s opulent digs, high-end cars, fondness for models and other Bond-villain-esque behaviors have been splashed across websites and have confused evening newscasts for the last week.

The man once known as Kim Schmitz (and as Kimble, and as Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and finally as Kim Dotcom), now awaiting extradition from New Zealand to face charges of conspiracy, money laundering and copyright crimes in the US, has enveloped his actual life in a cloud of hype and bluster that echo the worst of the dot-com bubble from which he took his new surname. In 2001, the Telegraph called Schmitz “a PR man’s nightmare and a journalist’s dream.”

Schmitz wrote recently that all that’s behind him a now; a family man, he’s even happy to meet the neighbors for coffee. But when New Zealand police arrived at his mansion outside Auckland last week with helicopters, they cut their way through various locks and then into the home’s safe room, where Dotcom was reportedly standing close to a sawed-off shotgun, and they took him into custody. The worldwide raids, in which hundreds of servers were also seized in the U.S. and in which 100 officers raided homes and offices in Hong Kong, have just added another layer to the legend Dotcom has been building since he was a teenager: god of hackers, Midas-touch Internet investor, Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer champion.

Dotcom has gone out of his way since the early 1990s to put himself at the center of media attention. He’s certainly got it now. But who, really, is this guy?

The rise of Kimble

Born in Kiel, Germany to a Finnish mother (the source of his dual citizenship), Schmitz has made a career out of being larger than life, which seems appropriate for a six foot, six inch man (give or take an inch—his height seems to change with every report) who can fill a room with his 300+ pound presence.

In the early 1990s, Schmitz used a little hacker cred and the growing paranoia over the powers of computer hackers and phreakers to launch a media-powered cybersecurity career. He got his first shot at media stardom in 1992, when he was interviewed by the German press and then featured in a December Forbes article on the “computer hacker crime wave.” Schmitz took advantage of the complete lack of technical credibility of reporters and the growing “hacker mystique” to create a sexier, more dangerous version of himself—if not James Bond, then Dr. No.

Giving his hacker handle “Kimble” (which he later claimed was taken from the name of the main character in the film The Fugitive), and claiming to be the leader of an international hacker group called Dope, Schmitz said he had hacked hundreds of US companies’ PBX systems and was selling the access codes at $200 a pop, bragging that “every PBX is an open door to me.” He also claimed to have developed an encrypted phone that could not be tapped, and to have sold a hundred of them.

In his 2001 interview with the Telegraph, he also claimed to have hacked Citibank and transferred $20 million to Greenpeace, a claim refuted by Greenpeace, which had a total operating budget of just twice that in the mid-1990s. (While Citi was hacked in 1996, it was by a group of Russian hackers—and they certainly didn’t donate the money to charity.) He also claimed to have hacked NASA and said that he had accessed Pentagon systems to read top-secret information on Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War.

There’s no record to substantiate most of this; perhaps some of it is true. What he did do was steal phone calling card codes and conduct a premium number fraud similar to the recent rash of Filipino phreaking frauds. He bought stolen phone card account information from American hackers. After setting up premium toll chat lines in Hong Kong and in the Caribbean, he used a “war dialer” program to call the lines using the stolen card numbers—ringing up €61,000 in ill-gained profits.

Schmitz was also playing pirate in other ways. Andreas Bogk, a member of the Chaos Computer Club, recently told the Wall Street Journal that Schmitz set up a computer system for the uploading and downloading of pirated PC software, charging people for access. (Schmitz exposed the scheme in an interview with a German television news program, and it was subsequently shut down by Deutsche Telekom.)

Schmitz’s efforts to branch into the “legit” world of security consulting with his security company Data Protect initially backfired by exposing his real identity—and by allowing it to be connected to his hacker credentials. In March of 1994, he was arrested by police for trafficking in stolen phone calling card numbers. He was held in custody for a month, then arrested again on additional hacking charges shortly afterward — and again released. In 1998, he was convicted of 11 counts of computer fraud, 10 counts of data espionage, and an assortment of other charges. He received a two-year suspended sentence—because, at just 20, he was declared “under age” at the time the crimes were committed.

But Schmitz used the notoriety to boost his security business. He soon landed a security contract for Data Protect with the airline Lufthansa by demonstrating an apparent security vulnerability—though according to claims by others in the German hacking community, his connection to the airline was thanks to collaboration with an insider there, and to the hacking skills of an accomplice.

The influx of cash began to fuel Schmitz’s fantasy fulfillment engine, funding his love of fast cars and outrageous antics. He promoted his new bad-boy rich hacker genius image through a bizarre Flash movie called Kimble, Special Agent, in which his cartoon alter-ego drives a “Megacar” and then a “Megaboat” before breaking into Bill Gates’ compound and riddling the wall behind Gates with a machine gun (spelling out “Linux” with bullet holes). The cartoon was the first public demonstration of Schmitz’s obsession with all things Mega.

Rags to riches

A year after the slap on the wrist, Schmitz shifted his focus from phone fraud to Internet start-ups. Almost from the beginning, he made an effort to portray himself as someone who was Germany’s answer to Silicon Valley — even if he was closer to Pets.com than to Yahoo.

His first effort tied together two of the great loves of his life: the Internet and expensive cars. Schmitz and Data Protect led the development of a real Megacar, an Internet-connected luxury car system with its own Pentium III Windows NT on-board computer, router, multi-camera video conferencing system, and 17-inch display. To get the broadband bandwidth required, the car had 16 multiplexed GSM cellular connections.The sticker price started at $90,000.

Scenes from "Kimble Goes Monaco," Schmitz's self-financed documentary of a lavish trip to the Monaco Grand Prix.

While it went nowhere, the press it received helped raise the profile of Data Protect—and of Schmitz. Schmitz was also making other efforts to create his persona. In 1999, according to New Zealand’s Investigate magazine (PDF), he was spotted at the airport in Munich getting his picture taken inside parked airplanes, which he then used to suggest that he owned them.

In 2000, Schmitz sold an 80 percent stake in Data Protect to the German conglomerate TÜV Rheinland, which bought the company for its “in-depth network expertise.” Schmitz held the remaining stake through his new holding company, Kimvestor.

Flush with at least some cash, Schmitz was quick to burn some of it by waving his own particular brand of freak flag. He hired a German centerfold, a collection of other actors, a film crew, and fast car aficionados for a self-produced film called Kimble Goes Monaco — a road movie about a lavish trip to Monaco, including a cruise on a rented yacht. The movie was punctuated with Schmitz playing with expensive toys, and featured a bizarre Bill-Gates-is-spying-on-me subplot.

The image Schmitz was selling was embraced by the press, as a 2001 Guardian report on his “rags to riches” tale shows:

The 6’4″, 18-stone giant has since divided his time between growing Kimvestor – which he values at 200m euros – and spending his money on top models, fast cars and expensive boats. He now owns a Challenger jet, a helicopter, several sports cars and a yacht. Last May he spent $1m (£684,000) chartering a 240-foot luxury yacht for a week, mooring it in Monte Carlo harbour for the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix and throwing lavish parties for guests including Prince Ranier of Monaco.

A closer look

While Schmitz reveled in the attention, it wasn’t long before TÜV was wondering what, exactly, it had bought. First, there was LetsBuyIt.com, a failing Internet retail site. In January 2001, as the dot-com crash was starting to gain momentum, LetsBuyIt was close to bankruptcy. Schmitz bought 375,000 euros in the company’s shares — and then announced he was preparing to invest an additional 50 million Euros. “I’m completely convinced LetsBuyIt can reach profitability despite its current problems,” he told the Guardian.

The news hit the market, and the stock price of LetsBuyIt surged. Schmitz cashed out, making a profit of €1.5 million. Perhaps Schmitz was just ignorant of the legal ramifications of what he had done— insider trading wasn’t even a crime in Germany until 1995.

Regardless, he didn’t waste time rolling the money into building his persona — part of the profit was burned buying his Mercedes Brabus EV12 Megacar that April, in which he finished first in the 2001 Gumball 3000 road rally.

But as an investigation began into Schmitz’s shady investment strategy, another pet project was getting ready to crater. Schmitz had launched Monkey AG and Monkeybank, an e-payment company with venture capital from German private equity company BMP (which held a 35 percent stake). Monkey also shared the address, and most of the employees, of Data Protect—which was owned by TÜV.

By June of 2001, BMP and TÜV went into damage control mode, cutting Schmitz’s management involvement in Monkey and the rest of the companies. “Everything that has grown up around Mr. Schmitz is, to say the least, somewhat dubious,” TÜV spokesman Tobias Kerchoff told the German business site Handelsblatt.com. And there was plenty of reason for that dubiousness: somewhere in the confusion, Schmitz got €280,000 in the form of an unsecured loan to Kimvestor. He would later claim to have been “dazzled,” unaware that he would be unable to repay the loan.

In the meantime, Schmitz was busy trying to brush up on his hacker cred to improve his Dr. Evil image. In the wake of the September 11, attacks, he claimed to be launching a group called Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism (YIHAT), and to have hacked Sudanese bank accounts belonging to Osama Bin Laden. (He also offered a $10 million reward for information leading to Osama’s capture on his now-defunct kimble.org site.)

But the pressure was mounting. In September of 2001, he claimed his net worth was $100 million. By November, his companies were all circling the drain. The hacker community had turned on him—one hacker, with the moniker of Fluffy Bunny, had defaced his site and the site of YIHAT.

With insider trading charges pending over LetsBuyIt, Schmitz decided it was time to lay low (by his standards); “in fear for his life,” he fled to Thailand in January of 2002. On his website, he hinted at possible suicide, saying he would be crossing “to a new world,” Hale-Bopp cult style. But instead of offing himself, he declared that he wanted to be known as “King Kimble the First, Ruler of the Kimpire” — a label he would apply to his future projects. (It’s listed as his title on LinkedIn.)

As it turned out, Thailand wasn’t happy to see him. He was promptly arrested and fast-track deported to Germany to stand trial. However, the few nights in a Thai jail turned out to be the worst of it, as fears of prison in Germany were unfounded—he was sentenced to 20 months probation and slapped with a €100,000 fine. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges over the Monkey “loan” and received another two years of probation.

After the law’s repeated lashes with a wet noodle, Schmitz left Germany and moved to Hong Kong to start the next level of Mega-insanity.

Mission Kimpossible

Once free of the innovation-squelching German laws of finance and regulation, Schmitz set up a network of interlinked companies. He registered Kimpire Limited in December 2002, soon after moving to Hong Kong. The holding company’s first offspring was Trendax, “the money making machine” — an allegedly artificial intelligence-driven hedge fund that mostly got attention for its Flash-heavy homepage. For a $50,000 investment, the fund offered the promise of untold riches — an annual return of at least 25 percent on investments—generated through “a complex combination of sophisticated technical analysis, real-time content analysis of news feeds, multi-dimensional statistical analysis and advanced proprietary mathematical techniques.”

Schmitz apparently invested $250,000 into the company — much of it spent on the site design. Trendax’s registered address is The Lee Gardens, a “heaven of luxury” in Hong Kong with high-end retail establishments like Louis Vuitton and Hermés. However, the address given within Lee Gardens — the 45th floor — is occupied by Regus, a “virtual office” company. And as New Zealand’s Investigate Magazine discovered, the fax line given for the company was a shared one.

Trendax was registered as a business in Hong Kong in February 2003, but never registered with the SEC or with Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission. Despite Schmitz’s claims that the AI had managed to increase the value of the fund by 130 percent from 2000 (before the company had even hired programmers) to 2003 — during a period when the Dow Jones dropped 25 percent—the company never was allowed to accept investments and conduct trades, at least legally.

At about the same time he was trying to get investors to bite on Trendax, Schmitz was building a virtual business empire by recycling his old company names in Hong Kong. In February of 2003, according to Hong Kong government company registry data obtained by Ars—at the same time he registered Trendax— he set up the business entity Data Protect Limited, the company that would later become Megaupload. He also registered Kimvestor Limited and in March registered Monkey Limited. Kimvestor and Monkey shared the same virtual address with Trendax; Data Protect (and later Megaupload) had a post-office box as a point of contact.

Whatever money was actually being made at this point is unclear, but Schmitz continued to live in grand style — or at least keep up the appearance of it. He kept adding to his collection of exotic and high-end cars, and also ran into trouble across Europe for his involvement in illegal street racing. He returned to race in the Gumball 3000 in 2003, pumping up his “Dr. Evil” image by bragging about bribing Moroccan police to stop a competitor — and then bumping that car when he discovered it was ahead of him.

During all these exploits, Schmitz was using his Web presence to attempt to recruit volunteers to power his new Kimpire, offering promises of future wealth to those who made it to his “Hall of Fame,” begging on his kimble.org site for translation services, Web referrals, and even free Web hosting:

Every Kimpire profit will be shared between everybody who made it to the Hall of Fame. If you make substantial contributions to the Kimpire, your name will appear in the Hall of Fame. Earn respect, friendship, wisdom and money with your support for the Kimpire. The Kimpire can make you rich and the other way around. The Kimpire will rule the world, so better be a part of it ;-)… If you know cool words that include “KIM”, send them. Some examples: Kimpire, Kimply the Best, Kimasutra, Kimmercial, Kimpany, Kimvestor, Kim Kong, Mission Kimpossible, Kimsalabim, etc. The best words will make it to the upcoming release of the Kimpire Lexicon.

A “Kimpire” might sound ridiculous, but it was about to become a reality — thanks to file hosting.

Mega Millions

All this was prelude to what would become Schmitz’s biggest actual moneymaking scheme—the file-sharing business. To get the project rolling, Schmitz decided it was time to make a full break from his highly dubious reputation. In 2005, the name of Data Protect was changed to Megaupload, and Schmitz registered yet another company—Vestor Limited—as its owner.

That wasn’t the only obscuring going on. About the same time, Schmitz officially changed his legal name to Kim Dotcom—and used his Finnish heritage to register a passport under the name “Kim Tim Jim Vestor” as well, using the address of a step-sibling in Turku, Finland. The Vestor persona was used in the creation of Vestor Limited. It wasn’t until 2007 that Kim Dotcom was revealed to be connected in any way to Megaupload, and his role as founder wasn’t revealed until 2011 by the company.

But as Megaupload’s profits mounted—both from legitimate use and from the alleged piracy of content ranging from music to porn—Dotcom’s 68 percent share of the business finally made him the sort of money he had always acted like he had.

The US government, in its indictment against the “Mega Conspiracy,” said that the company had pulled in US $175 million since its inception, most coming from users who paid for premium download accounts. The money was spent lavishly. By the time of the raid on Megaupload, Hong Kong police said that Schmitz had been renting an actual office in a luxury Hong Kong hotel suite that went for US$12,800 — per day.

Kim Schmitz poses beside a car in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

Married with three children, Dotcom eventually decided to move to New Zealand to better enjoy his wealth and toys. He attempted to purchase a US$24 million mansion outside Auckland and smooth his path to residency through a NZ$10 million investment in government bonds, putting him into the “high investment” category for immigration. He donated heavily to the Christchurch earthquake relief fund and even paid for a half-million dollar fireworks display on New Year’s Eve 2011 in Auckland.

While waiting for the paperwork to clear, Dotcom arranged a lease of the desired Coatsville mansion from a company set up by the mansion’s previous owner, the founder of the “Christmas hamper” layaway business Chrisco.

In the meantime, he erected a sign at the gate to the mansion’s property declaring it to be “Dotcom Mansion,” and started strewing the property with his toys — including cars with the now-infamous collection of vanity plates.

Kim Dotcom's Rolls, minus its vanity tag. Photo: Handout

But the warmth of his welcome waned quickly once government ministers started to dig into his past. As Megaupload was fueling the entertainment industry’s push for SOPA and PIPA in the US, Dotcom was told he couldn’t actually buy the mansion he had leased because of his prior convictions in Germany and his deportation from Thailand. Dotcom called the decision by New Zealand finance minister Simon Power and land information minister Maurice Williams “small-minded and unreasonable,” considering that he had already been approved for residency.

Neighbors too were wary. The New Zealand Herald obtained an e-mail sent from Dotcom to his new neighbors in which he tries to reassure them about his past through humor. “First of all let me assure you that having a criminal Neighbor like me comes with benefits,” he writes. “Our newly opened local money laundering facility can help you with your tax fraud optimization. Our network of international insiders can provide you with valuable stock tips.”

But, Dotcom goes on to say, he is now a changed man. “In all seriousness: my wife, two kids and myself love New Zealand and ‘We come in peace.’ 15 years ago I was a hacker and 10 years ago I was convicted for insider trading. Hardly the kind of crimes you need to start a witch hunt for. Since then I have been a good boy, my criminal records have been cleared, and I created a successful Internet company that employs 100+ people. All the media has to report are old news. Why? Because I have chosen to avoid the media. Just look what the media did to this Neighborhood. Scary.”

The local change of mood apparently caused Dotcom’s wife Mona to return to Hong Kong to deliver another child—a move that probably turned out to be for the best, given the New Zealand police helicopters that were about to descend on the mansion.

Dotcom now awaits an extradition hearing in a New Zealand jail after being denied bail during an initial hearing. He strongly denies all allegations against him.

Sharon Van Etten played her new album @ Mercury Lounge (pics, video & review)

brooklynvegan — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:54:26 PST

photos by Jessica Amaya, words by Christopher Paragraph

You know that moment at the end of a tied basketball game when someone puts up a three at the buzzer and the whole crowd is fixated and breathless? That's basically how the crowd was as Sharon Van Etten took the stage Wednesday night at Mercury Lounge (1/18), silently focused as the band set up, as if waiting for some kind of historic proclamation. Though it provided some initial awkwardness, the crowd loosened up as the set moved on, though never really losing that initial fixation. Clearly, this was an audience already enamored with her and eager to hear new songs, which she provided, running seamlessly through her upcoming Jagjaguwar debut "Tramp," from top to bottom.

Many of these songs were played live for the first time, though clearly the band had nailed down their parts from recording and/or rehearsing. This was no practice run-through. It came across more as a showcase of what they've accomplished. The band seemed totally at ease with the songs, as if they could easily play them drunk and backwards (which may be necessary seeing as they are about to embark on a two month tour with Shearwater and The War On Drugs). They make the most out of what they have, frequently switching off between harmonies, bass, guitar, keys, and organ, never overplaying and tastefully articulating the well-composed parts. In particular, Zeke Hutchins (drums) provided the perfect amount of "power without powering." His style is musical and fits the songs in a way that (unfortunately) is kind of rare these days.

The opening song "Warsaw" initially felt like a departure, hinged on a heavy churning drone, with a keyboard bassline that made the song feel far more electronic than any of her past work. But the following song, "Give Out," quickly recalled the lyrical, emotional power than Van Etten has come to be known for. In fact, it may be the best example of this yet. Now settled in, and blown away, the audience erupted and was fully in the palm of her hand, where they stayed for the duration of the set. The last time I saw a crowd so silent was A.A. Bondy at Bowery Ballroom (who happened to be the house music after the Sharon show. Coinicidence? Yes.) It was one of those shows where people, shockingly, weren't constantly checking their cell phones. As if looking down for a second might cause them to miss an important moment.

After seeing this show, not just musically but in terms of Van Etten's appearance and demeanor, it makes all her work to-date more relevant, or at least puts it in a clearer perspective. Her past songs, and I'm a big fan of them, now seem to be mere skeletons of this new record. They clue the listener in, like signposts on the road to where she currently is artistically: a definite peak, but by no means at her capacity. She was bigger than Mercury Lounge Wednesday night and everyone there knew it. On this new material, Van Etten has a voice that can reel you in like Mazzy Star, but with the songwriting of someone like David Bazan.

Miraculously, not a single person called out requesting any of her old songs. The crowd was more than content getting an intimate preview of what's to come. And if this show was any indication, we can expect big things.

Speaking of big things, Sharon's next THREE NYC SHOWS are at Bowery Ballroom (twice) and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets are now on sale for all three.

More pictures, the setlist (aka the new album tracklist), and a video from Mercury Lounge below...

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Sal Khan's explanation of SOPA and PIPA

(author unknown) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:59:28 PST

hands down, the fairest and clearest explanation of the goals and risks I've seen for the layperson

Turntable.fm’s Anti-SOPA Message Is Subtle, But Wonderfully Symbolic

Greg Kumparak — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:03:54 PST

Regardless of where you stand on the SOPA battle, you’ve got to agree: seeing what seems to be the entire Internet come together to stand against something is incredible. Each company has a different approach, but their goal is the same: make sure everyone goes to sleep knowing what SOPA is.

While I don’t want to turn today’s protests into a who-did-it-best battle (that’s not at all the point), I’ve got to highlight Turntable.fm’s approach. It’s about as simple as could be, but it just oozes with symbolism.

If the goal is to raise awareness, the most effective form of peaceful protest is the one that spreads your message without inconveniencing those you’re trying to inform. Wikipedia’s approach, as a counter-example, brings a ton of attention to the issue — but it also pisses a lot of people off. It’s a hugely powerful move, but it taints the message for the huge chunk of people who just leave angry and confused.

Now, take a look at the screenshot above. Notice the anti-SOPA/PIPA stickers on each DJ’s laptop lid? That’s Turntable’s approach.

“Wait, what? That’s it?”

Yep, that’s it.

Here’s the thing: on any other day of the year, each DJ’s laptop generally represents which OS they’re using. On a Windows machine? It’ll have a Windows flag. Mac? It’ll have an Apple. Ubuntu? It’ll show Ubuntu’s… logo… thing. It actually becomes something of a point of contention, with OS flamewars breaking out on the regular and “Of COURSE a platform-X user would play this song” stereotyping abound.

Today, everyone playing music on Turntable stands behind the same message: Stop SOPA/PIPA. It’s the very first thing you notice when you enter the room — and if you don’t already know what SOPA/PIPA are, curiosity will almost certainly make you turn to Google, where the information is quite literally front and center. There’s no inconvenience introduced, no damning of the user experience… and yet, it spreads the message just as well as anything else. Add in the headbobbing of the crowd and the inherent power of music, and it comes together into something not only powerful, but also positive. Good job, Turntable.

A SOPA/PIPA Blackout Explainer

David Kravets — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:30:46 PST

A message Tuesday on Wikipedia giving notice of its self-imposed censorship Wednesday

Hundreds, if not thousands, of websites are expected to go dark or alter themselves Wednesday to protest proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation that many believe goes too far fighting online copyright and trademark infringement.

Josh Levy, campaign manager for Free Press, said in a Tuesday conference call supporting the protest that “This is the biggest revolt we’ve seen online” against U.S. legislation.

The websites are expected to participate in the protest against the Senate’s Protect IP Act and the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act. They include brand names like Wikipedia, Wired, BoingBoing and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to little-known sites likes political action committee DemocracyForAmerica.

But what’s all the fuss about? Here’s an explainer of the basics of the bills, the protests and how you make your voice heard.

What prompted the protest?

*The expected protest comes despite the White House announcing Saturday it would not support the bills if they mandate changes to internet infrastructure, which was the most egregious provision in the measures that prompted the protests.

Leaders in the House and Senate also buckled to widespread pressure and announced they would at least temporarily remove those DNS-redirecting requirements. That provision would have required ISPs to prevent Americans from visiting blacklisted sites by altering the system known as DNS that turns site names like Google.com into IP addresses such as 174.35.23.56. Instead, for the blacklisted sites, ISPs would have to lie to their customers and tell their browsers that the site doesn’t exist.

Unfortunately, that has serious security implications and undermines government-led efforts to prevent hackers from hijacking the net’s naming system in order to scam users. Those sites would disappear in a process that security experts said would damage internet security.

The SOPA and PIPA measures are now being reworked behind closed doors and are expected to exclude the DNS language.

If DNS blacklisting is off the table, why the protest?

While DNS blacklisting was the most egregious portion of the bill and a clear indicator that Congress didn’t know what it was doing, what’s left in the bills continue to have serious implications on the First Amendment and online freedom.

The bills give the Justice Department the power to seek court orders requiring search engines like Google not to render search results for infringing websites. (The proposals are vague and broad when it comes to defining an infringing site.)

The bills also allow the Justice Department to order internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T to block their users from visiting blacklisted sites. That would be unprecedented in the United States, though it’s a common tactic used in countries like Syria, Iran and China to clamp down on political dissent and adult content.

The SOPA proposal bars the distribution of tools and services designed to get around such blacklists. The ban could arguably cover tools such as VPNs and Tor used by human rights groups, government officials and businesses to protect their communications and evade online spying and filtering.

The proposals grant rights holders the ability to demand that judges order ad networks and financial institutions to refrain from doing business with sites right holders say are infringing.

The measures also give out legal immunity to ad networks and financial institutions that choose, without a court order, to stop placing ads or processing transactions for websites they deem are dedicated to infringing activity.

Copyright holders would face little penalty for filing takedown claims without doing due diligence or considering “fair use,” encouraging even more abuse of copyright takedown lawsuits.

Why are these bills on the table?

They are in response to Big Content’s (.pdf) arguments that hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost every year due to pirate websites. These numbers are largely unsubstantiated and rest on the assumption that if a person had not gotten a copy of a movie online, they would have paid full price for a DVD or CD.

On the other side, much of the tech world maintains that the open nature of the internet has created millions of jobs, that millions of people pay for content online and that copyright and trademark holders already have the legal tools to fight infringement.

Does the government or Big Content have a history of abusing the takedown process?

Unfortunately, copyright holders don’t always play fair. Universal Music already believes it does not have to consider fair use when sending YouTube a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The U.S. government has seized and shut down a website for a year before giving it back to a New York music blogger falsely accused of facilitating copyright infringement.

What sites are targeted?
The legislation for the most part is directed at foreign websites dedicated to infringing activities. Think the Pirate Bay, for one, which supports itself with advertising. Sites ending in .com, .org or .net generally are not targeted, but the government says it already has the power to seize and shut down sites on those top-level domains in a program known as “Operation in Our Sites.”

However, the orders to block infringing sites will go to U.S.-based search engines, ad networks, payment processors and ISPs.

What’s the status of the bills?

The House bill is expected to return next month to the Judiciary Committee for a vote or possibly more testimony. The Senate bill could either go back to committee or it could just be replaced and voted on by the full Senate. No announcement has been made.

Who has sponsored these measures and who is against them?

These measures are not a partisan issue. SOPA’s chief sponsor is Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the House Judiciary Committee chairman and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure’s biggest critics include Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Reps. Darrell Issa (R-California) and Zoe Lofgren (D-California).

The War on Drugs played Fallon w/ help from Questlove (video)

brooklynvegan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:43:23 PST

The War On Drugs played Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday (1/10), their TV debut. They performed "Baby Missiles" off of their 2011 LP, Slave Ambient, which was one of our favorite records of 2011. ?uestlove, who DJs Brooklyn Bowl tonight (1/12) joined the band on drums, playing in unison with the band's actual drummer. Check out the video of their performance below.

The War On Drugs will head out on a tour soon, which brings them to NYC on April 6 at MHOW. Tickets are still available. The tour includes some dates with White Rabbits, who just announced their own tour, which hits NYC on April 12 at Webster Hall. Tickets for that show are on AmEx presale and go on sale to the general public Friday (1/13) at noon.

Their tour also includes many dates with Sharon Van Etten who also just played Fallon and has a MHOW show of her own coming up as well (but one at Mercury Lounge even sooner).

Questlove DJs Brooklyn Bowl tonight (1/12).

TWOD video below...

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Sharon Van Etten schedules small show happening soon

brooklynvegan — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:53:03 PST

Sharon Van Etten at Maxwell's, New Year's Eve (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Sharon Van Etten, who recently appeared on Fallon, will release her great new album, Tramp on February 7 via Jagjaguwar (preorder it) and tour in support of it, hitting NYC on 2/24 at MHOW and 2/25 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for both are still on sale.

Sharon will play NYC way sooner though, at the smaller Mercury Lounge on January 18 and tickets for that show go on sale at noon today (1/11).

As previously mentioned, you can also catch a short Sharon performance one day earlier at the Greene Space (if you already have a ticket because it is now sold out).

Updated dates below...

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Girl Walk // All Day online for free

Jason Kottke — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:45:49 PST

Thanks to Gothamist, you can watch the entirety of Jacob Krupnick's Girl Walk // All Day online. GWAD is a feature-length music video set to Girl Talk's All Day.

Tags: dance Girl Walk All Day Jacob Krupnick movies NYC

January 5, 2012: Afternoon

(author unknown) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:00:27 PST

British Heart Foundation teaches CPR to the masses by encouraging disco-beat chest compressions.

In Israel, anyone who registers as an organ donor is eligible immediately for high priority to obtain an organ.

Chart: Libya’s economy will be the fastest-growing in 2012, Sudan’s the fastest-shrinking.

Craze in South Africa for fish and chips.

Game we endorse: “Don’t Be A Di*k During Meals With Friends.”

Vegan bodybuilders become Times trend story that includes line about “antibeef beefcakes.”

Public intellectual beefcake Francis Fukuyama is blogging again.

To understand why the distinction between them still matters, we need to remind ourselves what the terms “conservative” and “reactionary” originally meant.

Postcard guide to cracking “Cupid’s code” of stamp placement.

Bizarre just to write the headline: Paypal policy requires antique violin destroyed. via

Two centuries later, French botanist who was forced to dress like a man recognized as first woman to circumnavigate the globe. via

Tintin leaves the uncanny valley behind for hyperreality. #opinions

Supercut of Gene Shalit’s puns.

Michel Gondry swedes Taxi Driver. #video

Splay a bream and tusk a barbel: proper terms for carving meat.

Whether it’s souvlaki or hot dogs, baklava or peanut butter pie, Greeks in Birmingham have perfectly melded their own food traditions with those of the Deep South. Oral histories of Southern foodstuffs. via

Bjork playing 10 NYC shows! Six at the New York Hall of Science! (four at Roseland) (in the round!)

brooklynvegan — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:42:40 PST

Not only is Bjork playing those four shows at Roseland, but they are in the round, and she's also playing six more at The New York Hall of Science in Queens in February. That's 10 NYC shows total! More details and exact dates below...

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Paypal hates violins

(author unknown) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:18:27 PST

bizarre policy, I wonder what else they've ordered destroyed?

Louis CK on the success of his $5 video sales experiment

(author unknown) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:32:33 PST

$200k in profit in the first three days, $500k sales so far