The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) again filed an array of lawsuits aimed at bringing down sites that can help thousands of Internet users find copyrighted movies online. In total, 7 lawsuits were filed against BitTorrent sites, eDonkey2000 indexing sites and Newsgroup NZB indexing sites. Of course, the first thing that strikes as odd, is the targeting of Newsgroup NZB sites, since Newsgroups have been considered an immune resource.
NZB files exist to simplify the locating of files on Newsgroups without having to manually search through groups and headers to find what you need. The sites targeted are SOHunt, TorrentSpy, NiteShadow.com, BTHub.com and TorrentBox.com, Ed2k-It.com, NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net. Isohunt.com, BTHub.com and TorrentBox.com all owned by one individual
Another couple of interesting cases here are TorrentSpy and ISOHunt, because they are search engines. The legality of hosting torrent files instead of pirated material still has never been fully tested, but both these sites don't even host torrent files. They search other sites torrent archives and display search results, just like how any search engine works.
Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music store reached a major milestone a few days ago when a teenager in the US unknowingly bought the billionth track sold from the site. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the billionth download represented "a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet". The teenager, Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield in Michigan won a lot of goodies from Apple for buying Coldplay: Speed of Sound.
The 16 year old won a 20-inch Mac computer, 10 iPods and a US$10,000 gift certificate for iTunes. Apple will also establish a scholarship in his name to New York's Juilliard School of Music. Hate or love Apple, you have to give credit for the figure of downloads. You cannot compare legal downloads to file sharing, considering each track from iTunes sold worldwide cost about 99c, and file sharing is free and generally easier to use.
While this is good news for the music industry, it also did take a chunk out of CD sales, according to official data. 618.9 million albums were sold in 2005, down from 762.8 million in 2001, a drop which the music industry blames almost completely on file sharing. Now about 14% of Internet users have used iTunes, with teenagers being the biggest visitors to the service and most likely to purchase tracks.
Students of Swarthmore plan to stand up against the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection on audio CDs at the Tower Records store on South Street. The students claim DRM is putting unfair digital locks on CDs that restrict consumers from exercising their fair use rights under U.S. Copyright Law. DRM protected CDs limit the number of backups and how you may "rip the CD", which means DRM crippled in general, cannot be copied to an iPod music player.
The aim according to record companies is to reduce copyright infringement, something the students say simply isn't working. Free Culture co-founder and President Nelson Pavlosky said, "these sneaky DRM schemes endanger users and stop you from doing perfectly legal things like putting your music onto your iPod. It’s ridiculous; consumers don’t even know that they’re buying a broken record." The protest will take place Saturday, February 25th at noon at the Tower Records Store on South Street. It will continue into early afternoon. Free Culture wants to inform consumers of their fair use rights and warn them about the DRM threat.
BigPond has launched a movie download service in Sydney, which is backed by Australian actor Toni Collette. It is the country's first "movies-on-demand Internet service". "I'm really excited about this - it gives film fans a new way to access and watch films," Collette said. "It also provides bigger potential audiences for small film makers and, importantly, as the first legal download service, it ensures the rights of artists and studios are protected in the online world."
Everything from new releases to feature films and classic TV series will be offered by the service. It is actually a movie rental service, as customers will have to install the BigPond Media Manager on their PCs to manage their downloads. The service also offers downloadable music videos and a variety of video for children. More than 1,000 titles are available including SpiderMan & Bewitched and some foreign favorites like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
"Similar to a video store, customers can 'rent' content to view as many times as they want in 24 hours or on a weekly basis,"Justin Milne, BigPond's group managing director said. "Once the rental period is over, the content is automatically deleted from their PC."
Any big users of the eDonkey2000 network will already have noticed that huge servers such as Razorback2 seem to have disappeared. The Federal Belgian Police raided and seized the servers yesterday. For those not familiar with how an ed2k server works, it does not host any files, either copyrighted or other, but it does index their location on the network. The eDonkey2000 network consists of many servers located around the world that work in a similar way.
In addition to the servers being seized, Swiss authorities arrested the site's operator at his residence in Switzerland and searched his home. The push behind the legal action came from the Motion Picture Association (MPA). "This is a major victory in our fight to cut off the supply of illegal materials being circulated on the Internet via peer-to-peer networks," said Motion Picture Association (MPA) Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman. "By shaving the illegal traffic of copyrighted works facilitated by Razorback2, we are depleting other illegal networks of their ability to supply Internet pirates with copyrighted works which is a positive step in our international effort to fight piracy."
Sony has said that it is still aiming for a Spring launch of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console, but that if certain industry specifications for some of its technology are not finalized soon, the launch may have to be put back. The PS3 is expected to use some of the latest cutting edge technology to provide the best possible graphics and gameplay, as well as offering consumers the ability to play music and watch films. It will compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Revolution console.
"We're aiming for spring, but we haven't announced specific regions," a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment said. As has been speculated for some time, one factor that may push back the PS3 launch is its included Blu-Ray Disc drive. Sony awaits for final specifications from industry consortiums on several aspects of the technology used in the PS3. "We're waiting for them until the last possible minute, but the launch could be pushed back if they're not decided soon," the spokesman said.
Yuta Sakurai, a senior analyst at Nomura Securities, believes that Sony may instead aim for a July release in Japan to be in time for school holidays. Other analysts believe there won't be a release in the US until November, with Europe following in early 2007. "If the launch is delayed, it will be beneficial in the short term, but will be negative from the standpoint of share price," said Merrill Lynch analyst Hitoshi Kuriyama in a research note. "If it is on time, the PS3 will weigh on the company's profitability."
The band Franz Ferdinand, recently gave some opinions on iPods and music downloading during an interview with Playboy. It is interesting to see what bands have to say about how consumers enjoy their music, whether its legitimately by buying a CD or paying 99c per download, or by downloading it for free from the Internet. The interview saw two answers that are most interesting. They were asked by Playboy for their view on the iPod music player.
NICK: I’m not quite sure. I think if you’re in one place, it’s nice to have an actual album, a record sleeve, the lyrics. So there will always be that element of wanting to own something and not just have a song on a hard drive. But I know I travel a lot - and I’ve always liked to travel light - I don’t like to have a lot of posessions. What I do is buy a CD and stick it in and rip it. Then I can listen to it and have it with me even if I lose the CD or give it away.
ALEX: I like the idea that, because of downloading, people are going to buy songs only if they are good. I think that’s a positive thing. It means lazy bands aren’t going to get away with giving you one hit single and an album full of filler. We like the idea that every song should stand up in its own right so you don’t have to listen to a song in the context of an album to understand it. I suppose that’s why I’m sympathetic to the download environment.
The fact that the comment by Alex mentions "trying before you buy" would indicate that he is talking about P2P users, as opposed to talking about users of services such as iTunes. An interesting point of view indeed. One of the main complaints by consumers about music these days, is the lack of breathtaking albums. Sure, you can easily find amazing tracks, but more often than not, they are on an album with 12 other average or less than average tracks.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed seven lawsuits in Los Angeles federal court against online auctioneers who allegedly were caught selling pirated copies of Hollywood movies including "Batman Begins" and "Million Dollar Baby.""People who abuse online auction sites like eBay to sell counterfeit DVDs are not only cheating their buyers, they are committing a crime and will be held accountable," said John G. Malcolm, the MPAA's executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations.
Individuals sued come from four states including New York, Illinois, Texas and California. They used auction sites like eBay to sell counterfeit copies of movies, a move that's not very clever. "What this shows is if you are going to try and break the law by selling pirated DVDs, eBay is probably not the place to do it because you are probably going to get caught and we'll help catch you," said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.
These lawsuits are part of the MPAA's overall efforts against piracy on the Internet. "Our goal is to raise awareness and protect unsuspecting consumers from dishonest auctioneers in the online marketplace," Malcolm said. "Profiting from the sale of someone else's creative property is illegal, and we will not tolerate any form of copyright theft." Other movie titles involved in the lawsuits include "Sideways,""Stealth,""13 Going On 30,""Scooby Doo," and "Ice Age."
Even though the number of P2P users connected to networks continues to rise despite litigation, and more and more BitTorrent sites pop up despite raids and lawsuits, studio officials and others involved in combating piracy say there is reason for optimism. This claim comes from the reality that more and more consumer electronics companies and even Internet service providers become interested in developing new methods of distributing digital content.
"Since the Grokster case was decided, there has been a significant shift in mindset,"Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) executive VP Fritz Attaway said at the Media Summit sponsored by McGraw Hill. "I think there’s much more of a sense of shared interest in doing something about the problem, not just among the companies I represent but among many of the technology companies that used to oppose us. Look at Verizon, they were on the other side of the Grokster case, but now they’re a content provider and they share interests with us."
Consumer Electronics Assn. VP government affairs Michael Petricone concurred. "Both the studios and the consumer electronics companies share a massive interest in moving forward in developing new digital distribution businesses," he said. Also agreeing, but itching to point out that the movie industry is only really beginning to get an idea about digital distribution now, Michael Weiss, CEO of Grokster's co-defendant Streamcast Networks, says that P2P companies were always willing to work closely with Studios.
It must come as somewhat of a small blow to Apple Computer Inc. that Motorola has announced it will soon offer a line up of music phones that are compatible with Windows MediaDRM technology. Until now, Motorola made phones that were iTunes compatible only, such as the disappointing ROKR that was released alongside the iPod Nano last year or the slightly better SLVR handset. The one thing that both these models still lack however, is the ability to download music "over the air".
According to Motorola, this functionality will be available with its line-up of Windows Media based phones, which the company has stated will remain separate from the iTunes phone products. Operators would prefer that a music phone would feature over the air downloads as that would entitle them to a cut of the music sales. The downside of this delivery method is the cost.
The cost is possibly the reason why Apple didn't rush to support this method of music delivery to the iTunes phones released by Motorola. The question is whether or not consumers will buy enough songs through this delivery method, if they are in fact cheaper to get using a PC and Internet connection. Still though, music phones are just evolving so it is indeed time to take risks now.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has challenged a patent held by Clear Channel Recording because the foundation believes it is "illegitimate". The patent - for a system and method of creating digital recordings of live performances - effectively locks musical acts into using Clear Channel technology and blocks innovations by others, the EFF claims on its site. Clear Channel is using the patent to bands like The Pixies into using the company's proprietary technology for making like recordings.
It has threatened to sue anybody who makes a recording using different technology. "Clear Channel shouldn't be able to intimidate artists with bogus intellectual property," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "We hope the Patent Office will take a hard look at Clear Channel's patent and agree that it should be revoked." The EFF's request for re-examination filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows that a company had already developed similar technology.
This company, Telex, apparently developed the technology over a year before Clear Channel filed its patent request. The challenge to the patent is part of the EFF's Patent Busting Project, which aims to combat the chilling effects bad patents have on public and consumer interests. Illegitimate patents currently in effect could prevent you from building a hobbyist website or even streaming a wedding video to your friends. The Patent Busting Project seeks to document the threats and fight back by filing requests for reexamination against the worst offenders.
A research firm has revealed that despite only having limited availability, about 56 of adults in the United States said they knew about IPTV, and a substantial number of those people said they would consider having it on their home TVs and computers. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive. The firm said that the findings pose somewhat of a threat to existing cable and satellite TV services. 17% of the interested people said they would cancel their existing services.
Two thirds of those who were interested said they would keep their current services running and trial IPTV. Only 7% said they would add IPTV to their existing services. It seems that so many people are aware of IPTV as it would be less expensive (apparently) than cable or satellite services. It would also have the technical ability to delivery programming on demand instead of on schedule.
A quarter of the people said they would want IPTV for their televisions and one in five said they would consider adopting it to watch on computers. Less than 4% would be interested in viewing IPTV content on a mobile phone however. Overall, 12% claimed they'd be ready to sign up for IPTV immediately for the PC now, and 18% said they would be if it was available for PC and could be sent to the TV using a set-top box.
Virgin Mobile has confirmed that it will offer a Mobile TV service to customers later this year following a tie-up with BT Wholesale. The two companies had been working together in trials of BT Movio, which piggybacks the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) network to deliver the picture to mobile phones. Five channels will be made available to subscribers along with about 350 digital radio stations. BT is also in talks with content companies to see what else can be put on offer.
For a limited time, as part of the deal Virgin will be the sole user of the Movio serve. It is unknown for how long this is, but apparently, BT is already int talks with other operators. Details on pricing for the service have not been given yet, but it is expected to cost subscribers about £8 per month.
"Virgin Mobile customers will be the first people in Europe to watch real broadcast TV over their mobile phones. It's not downloaded, it's not looped, it's real TV just like you get at home, and it's real DAB digital radio - crystal clear sound." said Graeme Hutchinson, Virgin Mobile director of sales and marketing.
Sony Ericsson has revealed that it has sold more than three million Walkman phones since they were introduced six months ago. "Bringing the Walkman brand to Sony Ericsson phones was one of our achievements in 2005 and we have now sold more than 3 million Walkman phones," Sony Ericsson President Miles Flint said in a statement. The company was the fifth biggest handset maker in 2005. Along with announcing the figures, the company also unveiled a new Walkman phone.
The sixth Walkman phone from the company will feature a 4GB flash memory-based capacity to store up to 1,000 songs. The W950 phone will cost between 300 and 400 euros ($357-476). "This certainly ups the ante in the battle between Apple and the phone makers for mobile music," said analyst Ben Wood at market research group Gartner.
The phone uses the Symbian operating system. It chose Symbian because it said the company now caters to the needs of consumers and doesn't just make software for expensive smartphones for business users.
Both Seagate and Cornice have unveiled new minidrives in the competition to get more storage capacity on mobile phones. Seagate's new offering, the ST1.3 Series, has a a 12GB capacity in a one-inch format that is smaller than previous CE drives. The product was shown at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. It also offers a new optional drop sensor for increased robustness, the company said in a statement. It is thought that soon, high capacity mobile phones will give MP3 players severe competition if consumers can be drawn to them.
"Portable, on-demand video is driving the next wave of revenue opportunity for the mobile phone and entertainment communities. As consumer adoption drives the demand for the availability of video content anytime and anywhere, the need for tiny, high-capacity hard drives becomes more apparent," said Brodie Keast, Seagate's general manager of consumer electronics. Cornice also unveiled a new drive, which the company says focuses on compactness more than capacity.
It has shown 8GB and 10GB versions of its Dragon Series drives which are smaller than the Seagate drives. "Cornice's storage is a natural fit for the mobile phone market", said Samsung, as it offers "both the thinnest available storage solution, which is important for compact-sized mobile phones, and the extreme durability of Crash Guard technology, crucial to the consumer." Samsung uses a 3GB Dragon Series drive in its i300 Mobile Smartphone, which will be shown at 3GSM.
No, you did not misread the headline, and I did not make a mistake. There is yet another group that has joined the list of the enemies of the Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto games. The Sex Workers Outreach Project USA (SWOP) says that Grand Theft Auto games "accrues points to players for the depiction of rape and murder of prostitutes." The group is reaching out the educate parents of the dangers violent video games pose to their children. They say they are doing this "as concerned parents themselves".
The group did say that it is "adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship," but it is "opposed to the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes." According to its Web site, SWOP USA is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of sex industry workers and the promotion of a safe working environment for the industry. So a group concerned about prostitutes wants to warn parents about the influence GTA may have on their children.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has called on the U.S. Government to recognize serious copyright violations in Russia and to designate the country for possible sanctions. The IIPA represents copyright-based industries. The recommendation was made as part of an annual submission by the IIPA to the U.S. Trade Representative ahead of the USTR's "Special 301" review of piracy worldwide. The review gets its name from provisions of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 and allows the U.S. to impose penalties on countries judged to not be offering effective protection of intellectual property rights.
The IIPA wants Russia to be named a "Priority Foreign Country", a designation reserved for states that are judged to "have the most onerous and egregious acts, policies, and practices that have the greatest adverse impact on U.S. products". "Russia's copyright piracy problem remains one of the world's most serious," the IIPA said in its submission. The group claims software piracy is at 85%, music piracy is at 67%, movie piracy is at 81% and entertainment software piracy is at 82%.
The report also says Russia is home to "some of the world's most open and notorious Web sites selling unauthorized materials". As an example, allofmp3.com was criticised for selling MP3 downloads for a few cents per track. Last year, Russia was also recommended for the Priority Foreign Country list, but it turned out that only Ukraine was on the list when the report was published in April.
Kalediescape, an American company, is planning to bring its home DVD servers to the UK in March. The selling point of these servers is that they can store about 660 movies which can be accessed then from any room. The company gave no exact details on the server models it will bring, but Pocket-Lint.co.uk is hoping to see the Kaleidescape System 3000 or Kaleidescape System 3500 home entertainment servers offered in the UK. These servers are like a dream to every movie buff.
The KSERVER-3500 provides 100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and stores up to 660 DVDs on twelve 400GB disk cartridges, amounting to 4.4 terabytes of RAID-protected storage capacity. You can also connect multiple KSERVER-3500's together to store thousands of movies. The System KS3000 model, the cheaper solution, provides simultaneous playback in up to 5 zones compared to the KS3500's 25 zones.
Fan Jingma, a Chinese opera singer, is one artist who has seen piracy from all angles in his time. He explains that as he is ready to release his first CD with a major record label, he has mixed feelings about piracy. "I don't like it, but I'm not worried about it," he said. He sees the spread of cheap pirate copies of movies and music and other works in China as good also, as it gives exposure. Fan himself, has bought many pirated goods in the past, and even pirated his own music for money to eat.
He lived in Europe and the United States for 15 years before moving back to China. When he returned he had a new release DVD with him called "The Great Singers of the Century," that he bought in Paris. When he showed it to his friends, they all told him they had seen it a long time ago. This new release had been available in China for just a fraction of what he paid for it.
"They said, 'Oh, we had that a long time ago,'" Fan recalled. "They showed me a whole wall of CDs. My jaw dropped. For me, an American citizen, I can only dream about it." He immediately went out and bought about 80 pirated DVDs for about $100 - "what I have missed and could never afford to watch," he said. He then spent a week as a couch potato. "It's such an indulgence but such a wonderful feeling," he said.
An interesting blog entry over at Boing Boing focuses on how computers made by the likes of Dell and Sony will be really the only computers capable of playing back high definition movies on next generation discs. Many consumers have already gone out and bought high end video cards that claim to be "HDCP compatible" but in the case of Blu-Ray and HD DVD movies, this is simply not the truth. The problem is that HDCP compatibility is controlled by an inter-industry consortium of giant consumer electronics companies and Hollywood studios.
This means that any of you who decide to build a PC from scratch with an expensive high end video card, will be angry to see the content on your HD discs being "locked out" by HDCP. Only systems designed from the ground up by OEMs (such as members of the consortium) will be able to gain access to these videos.
We've been able to confirm that none of the Built-by-ATI Radeons support HDCP. If you've just spent $1000 on a pair of Radeon X1900 XT graphics cards expecting to be able to playback HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movies at 1920x1080 resolution in the future, you've just wasted your money.
Ericsson has signed a deal with Napster to offer content including full track downloads, ringtones and artist images to mobile phone users. The service, dubbed Napster Mobile, will be offered by the manufacturer as a hosted hosted service to mobile operators that, in turn, make the offering available to their customers. Users will be able to purchase content using WAP or by installing software on their handsets. It is expected to be available in the first half of this year.
"The Napster Mobile service is designed to provide consumers with a simple way to search and browse Napster's huge music catalog," Ericsson said. "They can preview, purchase and download songs on their mobile handsets through an integrated music player." The service automatically delivers content to both handsets and PCs, enabling users to manage their music collection through one interface.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson is in charge of wireless application development, operator integration, hosting, and content settlement and Napster is responsible for music programming and back-end integration to the service.
iPod fans have a dilemma; they love iPods, but Apple will keep making improved iPods so their own iPods will go out of fashion in very little time. When you decide to invest in a new iPod and sell on your old iPod, will you first delete all the music tracks from it? The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) better not catch you deciding not to delete the files first. Yes, the lobbying group behind thousands of lawsuits against P2P users, has found a new target.
"Selling an iPod preloaded with music is no different than selling a DVD onto which you have burned your entire music collection," the RIAA said in a statement. "Either act is a clear violation of U.S. copyright law. The RIAA is monitoring this means of infringement. In short: seller beware." Of course, the RIAA doesn't have enough man power to monitor every exchange of an old iPod from one person to another, but it can keep its eyes on auction sites.
A search on Craigslist and eBay brings up dozens of users selling old iPods that are full of music they had stored on it. Andrew Bridges, a lawyer who specializes in copyright and trademark law and who is one of eBay's many attorneys, believes there is no easy answer. "It really depends on the individual circumstances," he said. Of course a company set up to sell preloaded iPods or any other MP3 players on the market probably would be found in violation of the law.
AT&T holds several video compression related patents which the company claims are an essential component of the MPEG-4 video technology, and the company has accused Apple Computer, Inc., CyberLink Corp., DivX, Inc., InterVideo, Inc., and Sonic Solutions of infringement. All these companies offer products that utilize MPEG-4 technology. AT&T has also written to national retailers and warned them that they may be held liable for infringement while selling certain products from these companies.
"Each of these companies has been advised that they are offering infringing products, that AT&T can provide proof of infringement, and that AT&T is offering a license under reasonable on non-discriminatory terms,"Michael J. Robinson, licensing director of AT&T Intellectual Property Management, wrote in a letter sent in December 2005. The strongly worded letter made sure to inform the retailers of the possible damages could face.
"If your company obtains MPEG-4 products or software from any of these companies, or any other unlicensed company, you are responsible for obtaining a license directly from AT&T or run the risk of distributing infringing products," Robinson wrote. "Damages resulting from the distribution of infringing products can include AT&T's lost profits, royalties and, in the case of willful infringement, treble damages and attorneys fees and costs."
According to Bill Gates, Microsoft and its partners in digital media will continue to develop products aimed at dethroning Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player. He made his comments speaking to a group of minority students. "I don't think what's out on the market today is the final answer," he said. "Between us and our partners, you can expect some pretty hot products coming out over the next few years." He did however decide to bite the bullet and praise Apple's iTunes music store.
Praise isn't enough to stop him from thinking about competition of course. He said Microsoft and its partners will focus on creating devices that are less expensive and easier to connect and can handle pictures and video better. He said that the share of portable players compatible with Microsoft software is about 20%, a figure he admits he's unhappy with.
Microsoft has just sat back and watched companies make devices that are compatible with it software and then promoted them as being better for consumers. According to an article in BusinessWeek, Microsoft is mulling its own media device in an effort to cut into Apple's nearly 70% U.S. market share. Gates declined to comment on the article however.
Dutch anti-piracy foundation BREIN is touting the closure of 16 BitTorrent sites. The group claims it is part of its effort to "serve and protect authors, artists, producers and distributors of creative entertainment product against commercially significant theft of copyright and neighbouring rights". Among the sites involved are NLexperience.com, DikkeDonder.nl, vplaza.nl, zerocool.nl and torrentmonkey.com.
"Owners of illegal P2P sites knowingly breach copyright laws and take part in it. They know they are causing great damages. They take their advantage and do not do anything to stop the breach. This has to end," explains BREIN director Tim Tuik in a Dutch press release. BREIN claims to have seized assets of DikkeDonder's owner, including a bank account and car, to ensure damages are paid. The group estimates damages of at least €200,000.
In the case of NLexperience.com, the site was previously forced to relocate to Russia after BREIN pressured its ISP. The site ran a private tracker with 10,000 members. BREIN decided to visit the home of the domain owner, on the forth anniversary of his daughter's death, a matter that the site's team says is more than coincidence, since this date was well known among the members of the site. NLexperience currently has a message up explaining it will return under a different name due to intimidation against the domain owner.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) boss Dan Glickman has a pretty radical view on why Digital Rights Management (DRM) and copy protection exist. One would guess that besides using copy protection and DRM to effectively control how people can enjoy their movies and other content, it is there to stop pirates from mass producing pirate copies and selling them for a small fraction of the retail price. Of course, this does work sometimes, but still movies do end up on P2P networks quite fast, and on the street even faster; so what use is DRM?
Well according to Dan Glickman, DRM is here to protect vulnerable consumers from themselves. "Content owners use DRMs because it provides casual, honest users with guidelines for using and consuming content based on the usage rights that were acquired. Without the use of DRMs, honest consumers would have no guidelines and might eventually come to totally disregard copyright and therefore become a pirate, resulting in great harm to content creators," he said.
I would guess that I'm not the only consumer, and customer of the movie industry, that is somewhat offended by this comment. Why? Because I feel that Mr. Glickman feels it's OK to "look down on consumers". I don't like to be treated like a "possible pirate" when I purchase content. I don't like the movie industry feeling it can police how I use content that I purchase, or that Mr. Glickman feels like he is somehow above consumers, and can comment on us like we are a big bunch of children that he needs to educate.
If you are a Halo fan and would like to play the best-selling Halo 2 game on your PC, then you will be forced to upgrade your PC to Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system. The decision to make the game Vista-only is driven by the Redmond-based software company's desire to get as many people as possible upgraded to Windows Vista quickly. This could prove to be an expensive upgrade for gamers.
While Microsoft has not yet published any minimum requirements for Windows Vista, information gathered from pre-release versions detail a resource hungry and power demanding operating system. At the very least, users will need an advanced video card, as Microsoft has made major changes to how the operating system will handle graphics. It will also be Memory hungry, and will require a sizable hard disk drive.
Tying Halo 2 to Vista could seriously stunt the game's appeal, at least on the PC platform. The Vista edition of Halo 2 will offer single and multi-player versions of the game, extra maps from add-on packs as well as software tools to create new places to play. 14.5 million copies of the Halo games have been sold, and gamers have spent over 600 million hours collectively playing the game on Xbox Live. Windows Vista is expected to be released later this year.
Toshiba and LG have agreed to share their optical disc patent portfolios in a bid to further each company's product development budget. Interestingly, the deal extends past discs to players and recorders too. It also includes the Toshiba-developed HD DVD next generation format. What makes this more interesting is LG's preference for the Blu-Ray Disc format. Of course, Toshiba will also have access to any Blu-ray technology-related intellectual property that LG holds.
Some experts have claimed the move is very beneficial for the HD DVD format in the run up to the upcoming next generation format war. LG said it would ship its first BD player, the BD199, in Q2. Pushing next generation technology aside, the patent sharing is most beneficial to both companies in the recordable and re-writable CD and DVD area, as they will continue to be bigger interests than next generation discs for some time yet. Specific details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Apple Computer Inc. has yet again been hit by a lawsuit concerning the company's iPod music players and again, this lawsuit concerns the easily scratched iPod Nano. The company is being sued by a consumer group that claims the company is breaking product warranty by charging $25 for replacement of defective Nano players. Los Angeles-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights claims that the device cannot endure normal usage without getting scratched to the point where it becomes unusable.
The suit was filed Thursday in San Mateo County Superior Court. It demands that Apple replace defective units for free or refund the purchase price if the customer wants it, and it also demands that Apple add scratching and cracking to its warranty coverage. An Apple spokesman declined to give any comments as it is company policy not to comment on pending litigation.
Over 42 million iPods have been sold worldwide; 30 million of those units were sold last year. The law firm behind the latest Nano suit, Cotchett, Pitre, Simon & McCarthy of Burlingame, is seeking class-action certification. The same firm won a settlement last August over old model iPod batteries.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed more lawsuits against file sharers in the run up to the Academy Awards ceremony. The MPAA is specifically targeting sharers of nominated movies including "Good Night and Good Luck", "Walk the Line", "Batman Begins", and "Memoirs of a Geisha." About 10 alleged pirates have been sued by the MPAA for sharing these movies. Of course, the MPAA hasn't been as active in the P2P crackdown as the RIAA, opting instead to devote most attention to physical piracy.
"In the wake of the Grokster decision last June, online users should know people who steal movies using peer-to-peer software are not above the law. There are plenty of legal ways to get movies online and through other means, like pay per view or satellite," said MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman. Users who are sued are given the chance to settle for a few thousand dollars. The only other options is to fight the suit, which could end up with a user paying $30,000 per violation.
NTL and BitTorrent Inc. have signed a deal to test a new service that will let Internet users download movies and music videos legally. This deal comes as BitTorrent is attempting to push its popular software as a legitimate way to distribute content. BitTorrent is widely used to share large files, including movies, software and games quickly. It has many legitimate purposes already, allowing developers to distribute software without huge bandwidth costs for example.
BitTorrent has been in talks with Hollywood studios and in November made a deal with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to filter out results of torrent files used to share movies illegally from the BitTorrent.com search engine. Overall, BitTorrent accounts for about a third of all Internet bandwidth. The excessive use of bandwidth has been expensive for ISPs.
In the deal with NTL, additional technology from CacheLogic Inc. will be used. It will will store frequently downloaded files within the NTL network, speeding up downloads and reducing expensive interconnect charges. NTL said the test will begin next month with about 100 homes initially. "We're working with rightsholders and ISPs because we view ourselves at the centre of a lot of the activity going on here," said BitTorrent Inc. Chief Operating Officer Ashwin Navin.
I have added a short and simple guide to converting video files (AVI, MPEG, WMV, RM, RMVB, DivX, ASF, VOB etc.) to MP4 files to watch on a video iPod. This will be the first addition of several guides and other content I will be adding for portable audio / video players over the coming weeks. For this guide I chose Free iPod Video Converter v1.32. I'll be adding more iPod video guides for both freeware and commercial software soon, and hopefully then a comparison between them.
This guide is for the people who have gotten an iPod recently, know their way around iTunes but don't know how to add their video files (a surprisingly large group of people). It won't be much help to more experienced users like Lethal_B, who has been very active and helpful in our iPod discussion forum (thanks) amongst other knowledgeable members. Still though, hopefully it'll make life a little easier for those who haven't tried it before.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has become the first major movie studio to give pricing details on Blu-ray Disc movie releases. The discs are expected to become available in stores in the United States around summer this year. Catalog Blu-Ray titles will wholesale for $17.99, mirroring the cost of DVDs when the format first hit stores 9 years ago in 1997. New release titles will wholesale for about $23.45, about a 15% - 20% increase compared to when DVDs were first released.
"The higher pricing structure for new releases is meant to accommodate the sell-through and rental markets" said Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. "The premium is for a way better format and to remind retailers that at the time we launched DVD, VHS was selling for $55 wholesale in the first window". He added that Sony will not suggest any prices for the initially released discs, saying the company believed in a free market.
"From the retail perspective, this is going to be a hot product, and retailers will no doubt determine their own margin structure," he said. The company also gave details on another selling point for Blu-ray; bundling multiple formats to accommodate consumer needs. This is like Sony's offering of DVD / UMD releases.
In a bid to make its smart-phone operating system look more attractive to mobile phone manufacturers, Symbian has announced it will halve the cost of the software for phone makers. The move could see manufacturers paying just $2.50 per unit. Currently, handset manufacturers pay $7.50 per unit for the first 2 million units shipped, and then $5 each for every unit after that. After July, it will be introducing two new schemes that vendors can avail of.
Vendors can either choose to pay a percentage of the trade price of the devices they're offering or adopt "scaleable pricing that reduces as the licensee's total volume of shipments increase within a one-year period". Vendors will have to commit to either of these options for just a one year period, at the end of which they can choose to change or continue with the current scheme.
Symbian pointed out that this offer is available to all licensee's equally, obviously ensuring concerned vendors that the new system wasn't created to benefit Nokia solely, which owns 47.9% of the company. Some vendors that might have chosen Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system could now opt for Symbian software instead. During the third quarter of 2005, approximately 8.54m phones shipped with Symbian software, up 131% on the 3.7m units that shipped in the third quarter of 2004.
Indications from the recording industry would have you believing that P2P use overall is declining due to litigation again music file sharers in countries around the world. However, this is not the truth. In fact, overall, there has been a 13.28% increase in users since January 2005. The figures represent simultaneously connected users but only on P2P networks, BitTorrent users are not counted. This brings the P2P population even higher.
Figures from BigChampagne show that in August 2005, a new record of 9.62 million users was set. In the US alone, a record of 6.97 million users was reached in December. According to BigChampagne both of these records set last year were broken in January 2006 with the addition of 116,000 P2P users. This brings the global total to a record 9,670,552 simultaneous users. The US contributed 8,265 to this number, and reached its own record of 6.98 million users.
This gives you an idea of the steady growth P2P networks see each year, despite increased litigation, but not even just lawsuits against sharers this time round. 2005 was a bad year for P2P software developers too, especially in the United States when the Supreme Court ruled that owners of P2P networks/software could be held liable under some circumstances for copyright infringement taking place by its users.
PortalPlayer, a chip-maker behind Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player, will be working with UK-based Bluetooth chip design pioneer Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR), to add WiFi and Bluetooth support to its products. PortalPlayer's PP5022 audio chip family will be integrated with CSR's UniFi Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controller to bring wireless support to PortalPlayer-based gadgets. For iPod fans, this is good news as it brings the possibility of a wireless iPod a step closer.
At the 3GSM show in Barcelona next week, the companies have said they will demonstrate a reference platform based on the combined technology. This would allow PortalPlayer-based gadgets to access music archives on computers, and connect directly to music download services through WiFi hotspots. It also adds the possibility of using Bluetooth stereo headsets.
Apple is also rumored to be hosting a "music event" only a week after the 3GSM show. Apparently the invite contains an image of an Airport Express Wi-Fi adapter's power light, suggesting it has something to do with wireless music distribution. However it is unlikely that Apple is preparing to unveil any wireless iPod's this early.
A French ruling made in December but just publicised now, regarded the use of P2P networks as legal as long as it was for personal and not commercial use. The ruling applied to both downloading and uploading copyrighted files. It started when Anthony G was taken to court by lobby group Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques (SCPP) for allegedly making 1,875 copyrighted music and movie files available on the FastTrack network (through use of Kazaa software) during 2004.
Another lobby group, L'Association des Audionautes, defended the user. "On September 21, 2004, the prosecutor's office found 1,875 MP3 and DivX files on the defendant's hard drive. Based on this discovery, a French record producer association known as the SCPP (Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques) sued him for downloading and uploading 1,212 music tracks." the group said.
"The District Court of Paris, however, refused to agree with the SCPP's argument. Following the line of reasoning utilised by the ADA for nearly two years, the Judges decided that these acts of downloading and uploading qualified as 'private copying'", it added. This decision is being publicised as the French parliament meets to discuss whether P2P use will be legalised as long as a fee of about 5 euro is paid each month.
Showtime, CBS's premium movie channel has added three of its TV shows to the 50 existing shows available via Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes service. They will sell for $1.99 each and new episodes will be available one day after they are shown on TV. Company executives made the move in attempt to drag in more viewers. Showtime will make the first seasons of Weeds, Sleeper Cell and Fat Actress available via iTunes. It is believed that it will bring in more subscribers to the channel.
"iTunes allows fans of these hit Showtime programs to purchase and watch them in an innovative way," Showtime chairman Matthew Blank said. "It is also a tremendous opportunity for non-subscribers to sample Showtime's programming." Indeed, some shows that already exist in the iTunes store line-up have enjoyed higher ratings, and the 12 million videos Apple has sold so far proves there is significant demand for content.
While Showtime is actually owned by CBS, no agreement between the network and Apple to offer content via iTunes has been announced yet, despite President Larry Kramer admitting CBS was in talks with Apple.
The creators of BitTorrent, a popular tool used to share large files safely and quickly through a network are soon to take steps to protect how software developers use the BitTorrent name. President of the BitTorrent company, Ashwin Navin, made the announcement on Monday. For the last few years, developers have been using BitTorrent technology freely under an open-source software license. This has led to an explosion of software titles that claim to be compatible with BitTorrent downloads.
The company will soon start to enforce a trademark policy as it is attempting to become a legitimate distributor for movies online. "We're sensitive to people calling their software BitTorrent to achieve a certain level of popularity in order to distribute spyware and adware," Navin said. Due to its high speed and reliability, BitTorrent has become one of the most popular ways to share pirated movies, software, music and games online.
People who want to use the BitTorrent trademark while marketing products will have to pay a nominal fee to the company. The company will also review the software to ensure compliance with a set of security standards.
Apple Computer Inc. is to celebrate a huge milestone in digital music sales by awarding prizes to music downloaders as the iTunes store approaches sales of 1 billion songs. This competition is similar to last July's countdown to 500 million tracks sold. In this competition, the purchaser of every 100,000th track will receive a 4GB iPod Nano and a $100 iTunes Music Card. A nice gift indeed, but nothing in comparison to what the 1 billionth downloader will get.
The grand prize winner will receive a 20-inch iMac, ten 60GB iPods (5 white & 5 black), and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card. Along with the new goodies, Apple will also create a full-ride scholarship in the name of the grand-prize winner to a world-renowned music school. "Just think: You could help launch the careers of an entire generation of musicians," the company wrote on its Web site.
iTunes operates in 21 countries around the world and continues to dominate the market for music downloads. The company also unveiled a new 1GB version of the iPod Nano music player that will sell for $149 and cut the prices of iPod Shuffle players to $69 for the 512MB version and $99 for the 1GB model.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued thousands of file sharers in the United States for copyright infringement for distributing music through P2P networks. These distributors are better known in the P2P community as "uploaders", which, judging by how P2P works, effectively should make 99.9% of P2P users "distributors". Of course, that sounds ridiculous when you think of the amount of people who don't realise that uploading is considered distributing, or don't even know they are uploading at all.
According to "Recording Industry vs. The People", in November 2004, the RIAA admitted that most P2P end users whose files are in a "shared files folder" don't even know that their files are in a shared files folder. The RIAA made this claim in testimony before the Federal Trade Commission. So it appears, even knowing that most P2P users don't know they are doing wrong, the RIAA has no problem labeling them "thieves" and suing them. The exact wording by the RIAA is below...
"As an initial matter, P2P software may, upon installation, automatically search a user’s entire hard drive for content. Files that users have no intention of sharing may end up being offered to the entire P2P network. Continued sharing of personal information is hard to avoid and is facilitated by confusing and complicated instructions for designating shared items. A study by Nathaniel S. Good and Aaron Krekelberg at HP Laboratories showed that "the majority of the users…were unable to tell what files they were sharing, and sometimes incorrectly assumed they were not sharing any files when in fact they were sharing all files on their hard drive."
Yes, that does indeed sound like the RIAA has admitted that most P2P users have no idea of what they're really sharing, or what they are sharing at all. This is yet another example of how the RIAA continues to put its foot in its mouth and contradict itself as it tries to put a stop to music file sharing.
Following a raid on his work premises back in May 2003, William Agnew, a 50 year old ice cream man from South Lanarkshire, has been convicted for running a piracy operation from his van. Agnew would sell vast amounts of pirated movie DVDs, music CDs and games when he did his rounds in the ice cream van. He admitted to trademark offenses and was sentenced to serve 200 hours community service at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
The raid on his premises in 2003 turned up 4,000 pirated discs. The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (Elspa) has publicised the man's conviction and has estimated that the seized material would have been worth £100,000 if it were sold as new. His business premises were located in Blantyre.
The movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", was recently banned in China by the government over fears the movie would spur anti-Japan sentiment because Chinese actresses play Japanese geishas. But how many people know or care that the movie was banned? Pirates are making a mockery of the government's efforts to control what its citizens see by selling copies of it, and pretty much any other banned Hollywood movie, for very cheap prices.
You don't need to venture far to find a seller who has the movie, or who can get it. "It's a good copy," one street vendor said while showing the copies he had available, "Of course it's been banned, but it doesn't really matter. All of my supply is pirated." He added that he had enjoyed the movie immensely and offered it for a mere 7 yuan (about US$0.85). Another man did not have a copy on hand, but said he could get it easily.
"I don't have it in yet, but I should be able to get you a copy in about two days if you like," he offered. This particular man had absolutely no idea that the movie was even banned, and judging by his offer, he doesn't exactly care. These guys simply take orders from people. Pass them a piece of paper with the movie you desire written on it, and within a few days they will have it for you, and for much cheaper than stores will.
Apple Computer Inc. has launched a new 1GB version of the popular iPod Nano music player. The Nano's size and design are key to its amazing success in the portable audio player market. Apple had indicated that it may release 1GB version of the Nano, to help provide a player for users who needed less capacity than the 2GB and 4GB models that are also available. The model is priced at $149. The popularity of the Nano is driving profits up for Apple and helping to extend the dominance of the iPod in the market.
In addition to the new player to the iPod line-up, the company also announced that iPod Shuffle players will now cost $69 for the 512MB version and $99 for the 1GB model. The company saw huge sales of iPods over the holiday season last year, and is attempting to boost profits again by introducing a new Nano which it claims can store 240 songs or 15,000 pictures. The price reduction for iPod Shuffle players will help it to compete more with other low capacity flash-based players.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has found yet another strange case amongst the thousands of copyright infringement suits it has launched against file sharers in the United States. In this case, the accused woman, Marie Lindor actually has never bought or used a PC. Attorneys for the Brooklyn, New York-based health aide sent a letter on Thursday to Judge David G. Trager of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York asking for a summary judgment dismissing the RIAA's complaint, along with attorney fees.
So how could it be possible that a woman without a computer could be accused of sharing music illegally? It turns out that while she had no computer, and claims to never have owned one, there was an insecure wireless router operating in her apartment. Additionally, there once was a computer in her apartment, but the dates provided in the RIAA suit are after that computer was gone.
"She personally has never used a computer in her life,"Ray Beckerman, an attorney with Beldock Levine & Hoffman said. "She paid for the Internet access in her apartment, which the last I heard, is not a copyright infringement." Of course it is possible that someone outside the apartment used her Internet connection via the wireless router to download and share music files.
Electronic Arts, the world's largest video game maker, has reported a drop in profits as the company feels the pressure of next generation game development costs. The company reported a 31% drop in profits with net income in the three months to December falling to $259 million from $375 million over the same period in 2004. EA warned that 2006 will remain a challenging year for the firm. The video game industry is currently at the start of a transition to the next generation of gaming and console technology.
Microsoft was the first to launch it's next generation console, the Xbox 360, last November. Sony Corp. is expected to roll out the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console "sometime" this year, while Nintendo has indicated that the Revolution console will be released late in 2006. Electronic Arts, whose past gaming hits include The Sims, said total sales dropped by 11% to $1.27bn in the third quarter, from $1.43bn in the previous year.
The company said it will continue to invest in next generation games development but expects software sales across the industry to be flat over the coming year.
SunnComm, a company that specializes in content protection software, has responded to an open letter written by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that details what the company had done, and will do to address potential security problems caused by its MediaMax CD copy-protection software and to help protect against future vulnerabilities. CDs that contained MediaMax DRM were sold by Sony BMG and several independent music labels.
SunnComm promised that future versions of MediaMax will not install any software when a user does not agree with an End User License Agreement (EULA) that is displayed with a CD is first entered into a CD-ROM drive. It will provide uninstallers for the MediaMax software also. Additionally the company will submit future versions of MediaMax to an independent security firm for analysis and make public the results of tests.
The EFF also received a promise from SunnComm ensuring that legitimate security researchers who have been, are, or will be working to identify security problems with MediaMax will not be accused of copyright violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In January, SunnComm released a full list of CDs that contain MediaMax and alerted several independent labels about a discovered security vulnerability in MediaMax 5.
iMesh, the only remaining legal P2P service in North America, has launched its legal music download service in Canada. This is the first expansion made by the company after it relaunched with a legal service in the United States last year. It boasts to have the largest selection of music tracks to download legally on the Internet. It claims to have over 15 million tracks available, which includes 2 million tracks from major and independent music labels.
Content provided by the Gnutella network makes up the rest of the figure. These extra tracks are what the company likes to call "unclaimed" works. "With the availability of iMesh to users in Canada, we continue our commitment to providing rightsholders with a comprehensive solution to internee music piracy," iMesh executive chairman Robert Summer said in a statement.
iMesh offers music tracks as single downloads or you can subscribe to download and listen to all the music you want for a fee of $8.95 CDN. You can take advantage of a free 30 day trial of the subscription service, and to add another 30 days onto the trial you need to pay just $1.
Two of the biggest names in the music industry's recent history, Hilary Rosen and Jay Berman, are to start their very own anti-piracy consulting agency that will be called "Berman Rosen Global Strategies". They will focus on intellectual property protection, international trade issues, digital media technology and anti-piracy strategies, and their history in the entertainment industry is key to their efforts' credibility.
Hilary Rosen was chief of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) around the time that Napster kicked off a huge fuss within the music industry that has just kept escalating these past years. At that time, Jay Berman was head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The pair have said they plan to act as a consultancy rather than a lobbying firm.
"Digital delivery and acquisition of entertainment is changing with lightening speed and so is the need to protect and promote the creative expressions that provide this entertainment," Berman said. "We can help guide businesses in the entertainment space on a variety of important issues such as licensing, public policy and anti-piracy tactics, both in the U.S. and internationally."
CBS has confirmed that it is in talks with iTunes owner Apple Computer Inc., over the possibility of adding CBS programming to the current list of TV shows that iTunes offers to its customers. The talks were confirmed by CBS Digital Media president Larry Kramer in an interview with MarketWatch. This is part of a wider initiative by the company to attract new viewers of its content by making it available in a variety of formats.
This is more good news for Apple, as the company seeks to corner the demand for legal TV show downloading. The increasing interest in legal TV show downloading comes from years of rampant "TV piracy" on the Internet. The MPAA has targeted lawsuits at file sharers suspected of sharing copyrighted shows, even before any "real legal alternative" was offered to consumers.
CBS would probably prefer to be closer to Apple if its success in TV shows downloads will mirror in any way, the success of iTunes in music downloads. CBS will begin offering episodes of "Survivor" on the CBS website for $1.99 each, but unlike iTunes, you will only be able to view the content within 24 hours after ordering it.
Anti-piracy efforts in China are looking up, at least on the Internet, as it has been announced that 172 cases have been cracked and 76 websites shut down across the country. This was the result of a three month crackdown to attempt to target massive online piracy in the country. The announcement was made by the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC). 137 sites were forced to remove illegal content and 29 owners of the sites have been fined a sum of 789,000 yuan (US$98,625).
The move against Internet piracy came from the Ministry of Public Security, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Information Industry as well as other relevant departments since September 2005. The areas best affected following the actions are Beijing, Hainan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Shanghai, Shandong and Guangdong. 8 of the cases have been handed over to the judicial departments for criminal investigation.
A customer has filed a class action complaint against Apple in California court claiming that Apple's mega-popular portable audio player, iPod, does allow too high level of music volume and doesn't state it clearly enough that using the product in high volume levels can cause hearing loss.
iPods sold in Europe are limited by device's firmware to maximum of 100 decibels, but units sold in States can produce sound levels of up to 115 decibels. According to the complaint "millions of consumers have had their hearing put at risk by Apple's conduct".
However, iPod manuals already state it clearly that using player's headphones at high volume levels can potentially cause permanent hearing loss. The complaint tries to override this by stating that Apple did not advise users about what constituted a high volume or a safe level of noise.
As a sidenote: the first portable audio player, that produces the same effect as iPods -- high audio levels via headphones, was called Sony Walkman and was first sold in 1979.
I guess if you don't like what everyone says about your harmful anti-consumer products, you can always attempt to shut them up by threatening to sue them and contact the FBI for apparent "harassment". At least that's how StarForce does business. StarForce copy protection can be found mainly on PC games, which are then referred to as "StarForce crippled" by some of its critics, including Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, who's latest posts about StarForce brought him a lawsuit threat...
A company that was criticized on Boing Boing has threatened to sue me, and claims to have sworn out a complaint against me with the FBI.
Yesterday, I posted about StarForce, a harmful technology used by game companies to restrict their customers' freedom. StarForce attempts to stop game customers from copying their property, but it has the side-effects of destabilizing and crashing the computers on which it is installed.
Someone identifying himself as "Dennis Zhidkov, PR-manager, StarForce Inc." contacted me this morning and threatened to sue me, and told me that he had contacted the FBI to complain about my "harassment."
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has continued its fight against music file sharing by filing another 750 "John Doe" lawsuits against individuals Cary Sherman would describe as "songlifters". There was a drop of CD sales in the United States as well as worldwide in 2005, and once again file sharing has taken a large portion of the blame from major music labels. However, there is still no solid evidence that these lawsuits are working.
Slyck, one of the world's biggest and most respected P2P community websites, has pointed out oddities in both the RIAA press release and comments made by Cary Sherman. As most of you know, these lawsuits target individuals that "distribute" music illegally - meaning uploaders. So why is it that Cary Sherman seems to think that these lawsuits target "downloaders". Of course, you can argue that most uploaders are uploading music they already downloaded, but that's not what they are being sued for.
"While the music companies continue to innovate and develop new digital ways to offer music to fans, we will do our part to hold illegal downloaders accountable. Prosecuting songlifting is integral to helping protect the ability of record companies to invest in the up-and-coming bands of tomorrow and level the playing field for legal online services," said Cary Sherman, President, RIAA. "The illegal downloading of music is just as wrong as shoplifting from a local store. It's against the law, and breaking the law must carry consequences."
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has sued many file sharers in the UK that it accuses of uploading copyrighted music on P2P networks. Now it's the software industry's turn to begin litigation against file sharers. Ten Internet service providers have been ordered by a court to hand over personal information on 150 consumers that are suspected of sharing pirated software online. The ISPs include BT, NTL, Telewest and Tiscali.
This follows a twelve month investigation by the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST). An investigator working for FAST on "Operation Tracker" identified the 150 suspects by little more than IP addresses they were assigned by their ISPs. To get the real subscriber information, FAST had to turn to the High Court. To set an example, once it has received the information, it will hand it over to the police and Crown Prosecution Service.
"We can easily take down links, but this does not tackle the root causes of software piracy, because the links will reappear elsewhere in a matter of hours," said John Lovelock, director general at Fast. "Instead, we plan to take action a lot further, making an example of the perpetrators to stop them from stealing and passing on the intellectual property of our members for good." Penalties for this crime include up to two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
Another "extremely critical" security flaw has been found in AOL's Winamp digital media player. It relates to how the player handles filenames that include a computer name. The vulnerability "can be exploited to cause a buffer overflow via a specially crafted playlist containing a filename starting with an overly long computer name," according to an advisory by Secunia. An attack can lead to arbitrary code being run on a user's computer. An exploit has already surfaced for the flaw, which affects version 5 of the software.
Winamp users will be happy to know that there was no time wasted in fixing this flaw. Winamp v5.13 has been released and all users are advised to update immediately. The exploit was created by ATmaCA, and uses a specially crafted playlist file to overflow the player. The PLS file can simply be loaded remotely through an IFRAME on a Web site.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) again filed an array of lawsuits aimed at bringing down sites that can help thousands of Internet users find copyrighted movies online. In total, 7 lawsuits were filed against BitTorrent sites, eDonkey2000 indexing sites and Newsgroup NZB indexing sites. Of course, the first thing that strikes as odd, is the targeting of Newsgroup NZB sites, since Newsgroups have been considered an immune resource.
Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music store reached a major milestone a few days ago when a teenager in the US unknowingly bought the billionth track sold from the site. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the billionth download represented "a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet". The teenager, Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield in Michigan won a lot of goodies from Apple for buying Coldplay: Speed of Sound.
BigPond has launched a movie download service in Sydney, which is backed by Australian actor Toni Collette. It is the country's first "movies-on-demand Internet service". "I'm really excited about this - it gives film fans a new way to access and watch films," Collette said. "It also provides bigger potential audiences for small film makers and, importantly, as the first legal download service, it ensures the rights of artists and studios are protected in the online world."
