News written by James Delahunty (October, 2007)

RealNetworks Inc. has announced that a fix will be made available for a critical unpatched vulnerability in the RealPlayer software. Symantec Corp. researchers discovered yesterday that the vulnerability was already being exploited by malware authors. "Real has created a patch for RealPlayer 10.5 and RealPlayer 11 that addresses the vulnerability identified by Symantec," wrote RealNetworks General Manager of Product Development Russ Ryan, in a Friday blog posting.

He added: "Real will make this patch available to users via this blog and our security update page later today." He said that users of RealOne Player, RealOne Player v2, and RealPlayer 10 should upgrade to the 10.5 version or the RealPlayer 11 beta code and install the patch. The attack exploits a flaw in an ActiveX browser helper object, affecting only Internet Explorer users running Windows.

"The exploit itself is embedded in advertisements that were being served by 247realmedia.com," Symantec said in a note on its DeepSight threat management system. "The redirection to the exploit page... was accomplished through an iFrame embedded in each advertisement."

CyberLink Corp. has announced that the powerful PowerDVD media player has been verified by the Sony Verification Center to support playback of rewritable Blu-ray Discs BD-RE 3.0 (BDMV format on BD-RE). Continuing its tradition of delivering superb quality for movie playback on the PC, CyberLink PowerDVD's support for BD-RE 3.0 allows users to play the BDMV content they have authored on rewritable Blu-ray Discs, and navigate the advanced interactive menus of the Blu-ray Disc format.

"As a world leader in developing digital multimedia for PCs and CE devices, CyberLink continues to provide leading quality for the latest disc authoring and playback formats," said Alice H. Chang. "The Blu-ray Disc logo is a symbol of exceptional movie quality, while PowerDVD's ability to carry this logo is an endorsement of CyberLink's technological expertise in ensuring the very best high-definition movie experience on the PC."

PowerDVD has already been certified for BD-ROM Profile 1.0, BD+, AVCHD, and HD DVD. It supports Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD technologies for audio and offers optimized performance for playing high-definition video content using graphics cards featuring NVIDIA PureVideo, ATI Avivo, and Intel Clear Video technology. It supports the interactivity features of HD DVD and Blu-ray by supporting the underlying BD-J and HDi technology.

Sonic Solutions' Roxio division has launched BackOnTrack 3, a comprehensive suite of applications that provide consumers a straightforward way to safeguard their irreplaceable personal media and critical documents. BackOnTrack 3 offers three layers of protection including instant system restoration in the event of a major system crash, disaster recovery in case of a lost or damaged hard drive, and automated data backup to secure important files such as treasured family photos, videos and financial records.

"Computers have become the keepers of our digital identities; storing everything from our treasured photos and music to critical personal and financial information," said Michael Demeyer, vice president product marketing, Roxio division of Sonic Solutions. "Until now, protecting this vital data has been time consuming and complicated. Roxio changes this with the launch of BackOnTrack, an innovative suite that provides consumers everything they need to quickly and easily secure their digital lives."

BackOnTrack features a unique component called Instant Restore that enables consumers to go from a complete system failure or blue-screen crash to a fully functioning system in minutes. Instant Restore provides real-time protection from system corruption caused by viruses, rogue web sites or accidental user actions. Complementing Instant Restore is the Disaster Recovery component that provides added security in case the hard drive is physically damaged or stolen. Disaster Recovery allows users to save a complete copy of their hard drive to a disc or an external drive that can be stored separately and used in case of an emergency.

On October 2nd, 2007, several search warrants were executed in the infamous "La Salada" market area in the province of Buenos Aires. The searches were carried out by a Special Tactical Operations Unit consisting of 300 police officers from the Gendarmería, Argentina's equivalent of a Homeland Security Agency. The raids led to the seizure of about 136,067 recorded CD-Rs.

Police officers also seized 273 burners, 8.6 million in-lays, 45,000 jewel boxes and 120,000 blank CD-Rs and made four arrests. La Salada is well known for its diverse pirating activities that include retail sales, wholesale distribution and replication labs. The authorities had already identified some organized crime syndicates that were in control of the market.

"We offer congratulations to the Argentine authorities and our national group Apdif Argentina for a job well done. More than one in three CDs sold worldwide is a pirate disc and we need to continue to crack down on the problem of music piracy," Raul Vazquez, IFPI Regional Director for Latin America.

Source:
Press Release

Panasonic, the brand name used for marketing by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., has started sample shipments of a new-generation UniPhier system LSI in October. It applies next-generation AV data compression/decompression (codec) technology to Panasonic's original digital consumer electronics integration platform, UniPhier.

Using the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video format, the compression option of choice for the next-generation of HD video products, the LSI can compress full-HD large image data down to one third to half that of the conventional methods while keeping high level definition. It also extends the recordable time significantly for the same media, and can realize smooth image data communication.




Using 45-nm semiconductor micro processing technology, Panasonic has crammed an alarming 250 million transistors into the low-power-consumption LSI. It features an advanced user interface and easy connectivity to digital electronics, realized by high-performance 3D graphics processing technology and symmetry-type multiprocessor technology.

Sigma Designs has announced that Samsung's third-generation Blu-ray Disc player, the BD-P1400, will be powered by Sigma's SMP8634 media processor. The BD-P1400 offers full compatibility with 24 movie frames per second playback, matching the native filming format for most movies and reducing artifacts. The new BD player also supports 60 frame/second output for enhanced compatibility with many of today's HDTVs.

Focusing also on sound quality, Samsung's new BD player completes consumers' HD total home theater experience with advanced HD audio decoding featuring the industry's first HD audio bit-stream pass-through on HDMI 1.3 for formats DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High resolution Audio, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Digital Plus, enabling a variety of clear, full-bodied sound options.Samsung's BD-P1400 also features support for the optional HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) system.

SlySoft has announced the release of GameJackal Enterprise, a network version of GameJackal Pro, after months of development. The Enterprise Edition of Game Jackal has all the features of the basic product plus some fantastic additions to enhance the manageability of a no CD gaming environment for cybercafe owners and other network environments.

Enterprise Edition seamlessly integrates with other third-party launchers and cybercafé applications such as SmartLaunch and CyberCafe Enterprise. Pricing is from $15 to $29 per client license. Owners of old Jacal Enterprise licenses can upgrade their license packs for a $50 flat fee.

Along with the release of GameJackal Enterprise, SlySoft is offering a discount on all of its products over Halloween. Entering the coupon code "halloween" (without quotes) at the checkout will provide a 20% discount on all products (excluding upgrades). The offer is valid until November, 5th 2007.

On October 10th, the Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) arm of the ARIA worked with the New South Wales Police to carry out a raid on the home of an illegal trader of country music in Kelso near Bathurst. The raid led to the seizure of about 2,000 pirate CDs, extensive burning equipment, a computer and printing equipment. The male trader was allegedly selling burnt country music CDs to unsuspecting market goers at the Bathurst and Orange markets.

MIPI received tips from members of the public that had bought the counterfeit products unknowingly and attempted to contact the market operator. However, the market operator refused to take any steps to identify the trader of the pirate CDs and so MIPI traced the man to an address at Kelso near Bathurst. The matter was referred to the Chifley Target Action Group of the NSW Police who acted promptly to apply and execute the search warrant.

"Market operators need to take responsibility for the sale of pirate music at their markets, particularly in circumstances such as this where it has been brought to their immediate attention. It's not okay to turn a blind eye to illegal conduct that denies artists and songwriters the income they deserve and allows pirates to profit from other people's hard work," Sabiene Heindl, General Manager of MIPI said.

Pinnacle Systems, Inc., the consumer division of Avid Technology, Inc., has expanded its Pinnacle PCTV line of TV tuners. The new Pinnacle PCTV HD Ultimate Stick is the industry's only USB 2.0 TV tuner stick that provides plug-and-watch TV viewing on a PC without any installation. The Pinnacle PCTV HD Card is a HDTV tuner card which includes support for FM radio. The company is also offering a Pinnacle PCTV Remote Kit for Windows Media Center.

According to estimates by research analysts at In-Stat/MDR, worldwide sales of PC-TV tuners will increase from approximately 15.8 million in 2006 to 50.8 million in 2011. With the increased amount of HD content available, the market for robust TV tuners that will let consumers watch HDTV on a PC is growing rapidly.

The Pinnacle PCTV HD Ultimate Stick requires no installation as the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) software runs from the stick. Pinnacle TVCenter Pro, a complete PVR application, and FlashPVR, a technology that allows TVCenter Pro software to run from the stick's on-board flash memory, come with the stick. Video can be captured in MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (optimized for iPod or PSP), DivX, or even direct-to-DVD.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc., today announced that the Fujitsu IP-9500 MPEG-4 AVC HD Encoder, pitching it at the broadcasting industry in a time when demand for high definition (HD) content is soaring. The IP-9500, which is being showcased at HD World this week, offers broadcast quality video transmission at low bit-rates and low latency, enabling HD news content to be transmitted in the same satellite bandwidth as standard definition (SD), at a fraction of the cost of competing products.

"The IP-9500 is ideal for today's HD satellite news gathering. As a result of using innovative MPEG-4 AVC compression algorithms developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, the IP-9500 delivers HD quality at a very low latency, encoding and decoding video content at less than 300 milliseconds," said Vic Herring, senior director, new products group, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.

Herring added: "Fujitsu anticipates that MPEG-4 AVC will become the industry standard to replace MPEG-2 for demanding HD applications such as SNG, pushing us to innovate products for a rapidly growing HD market. We're inviting major broadcast, satellite and cable networks to review and qualify our product." The IP-9500 encoder is already available in Japan.

Verbatim Corporation has brought recordable and rewritable Mini Blu-ray media (BD-R/BD-RE) to the European market. The 8cm discs store 7.5GB of data, which is advertised as being capable of storing one hour of high definition (1920x1080) video on a single side, or approximately two hours with a lower resolution of 1440x1080. The new Mini BD media have been launched in Japan simultaneously with the new Hitachi BD-compatible camcorder in August.

In Europe, the Verbatim Mini Blu-ray media will be available at the beginning of November. "Verbatim Mini BD media combined with a BD-compatible camcorder provides consumers with convenience features that hard disk camcorders cannot offer", says Torsten Leye, Marketing Manager Optical Verbatim EUMEA. "Therefore, the Verbatim high quality media are perfect for the reliable shooting and long-term storing of holiday and family videos."

Like Verbatim's standard (12 cm) BD media, the new 8 cm Mini BD media delivers the highest read/write performance and unsurpassed longevity. Advanced technologies developed by Verbatim´s parent company, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), guard against deterioration in picture and sound quality ? even with repeated recording and playback. The proprietary hard-coat finish on Verbatim BD media has superior anti-static and anti-scratch properties for added protection against scratches, fingerprints and dust particles that can occur during normal camcorder and home use.

Japan-based KDDI Corporation has struck a license agreement with Corel Corporation to use Corel's DVD burning technology in a new movie download service. KDDI will use its high speed broadband network to provide a new service that enables consumers to download a full two-hour movie from the Internet and burn it directly to a DVD disc in as few as 11 minutes. Launched on September 27, the KDDI DVD Burning service will only be available in Japan.

KDDI's service is the first of its kind to be launched, and uses CPRM security for network downloading. By incorporating Corel's DVD burning technology with KDDI's unique movie download service, consumers can enjoy the movies they want, whenever they want without having to visit a video rental outlet or purchase online and wait for delivery.

There are no subscription or monthly fees, no buy/wait/return problems; only a single, low-cost transaction for each movie selected from KDDI's robust library of titles. KDDI's new movie distribution service will appeal to consumers, content providers and ISPs. Consumers can quickly purchase and burn movies from the comfort of their own home. Content providers can increase their exposure and sell directly to consumers. ISPs on the KDDI IP network can become more competitive by offering the latest broadband offerings. Any other ISP user can enjoy the server as well.

Jammie Thomas, the first person to be found guilty of copyright infringement by a jury for allegedly sharing music using P2P software, is to appeal the decision. The woman was left with a bill of $220,000 following the guilty verdict, which was considered appropriate damages for "making" 24 songs "available" for download, and not actually proving that copyright infringement took place.

Not only did the jury not find her guilty of uploading any songs, it also didn't find her guilty of downloading the 24 songs (of the 1702 in total she was accused of sharing) beforehand; the verdict was delivered because the files were "made available". Thomas announced that she has decided to appeal the decision on CNN.

Her attorney, Brian Toder, will appeal based on the jury's finding that making files available online violates copyright. "This would stop the RIAA dead in their tracks," Thomas wrote on her blog. "Every single suit they have brought has been based on this making-available theory, and if we can win this appeal, they would actually have to prove a file was shared."

Apple Inc. has once again become the target of a lawsuit over its iPhone. Specifically, the company is being sued for the exclusive tie between the iPhone and AT&T, and how Apple has chosen to enforce that lock. The iPhone v1.1.1 update literally disabled (iBricked) hacked or unlocked iPhone models, sparking outcry and bringing up the question of unlocking and the DMCA.

Timothy P. Smith and the legal team of M. Van Smith and Damian R. Fernandez filed for a class action lawsuit against Apple over the issues. The suit alleges that Apple violated antitrust laws by tying the iPhone to the AT&T provider network in the U.S., and disabling the unlocked phones of users who installed the update.

Smith's complaint acknowledges that Apple warned that the iPhone update could result in unlocked iPhones becoming "permanently inoperable," but it alleges that the company acted "in defiance and without sufficient consideration of consumers' rights" because the company "took no steps to issue an update with unlocked firmware or otherwise issue its update to prevent damage to unlocked iPhones."

Swarmcast announced that it has been awarded US Patent 7,277,950, which Swarmcast is referring to as the "File Swarming Patent." The pioneering patent, authored by Swarmcast founder and CEO Justin Chapweske in 2000 and entitled "Packet Transfer Mechanism Over a Peer-to-Peer Network," describes file swarming, which is a class of data transfer technology whereby data is broken up, distributed to other sources and then reassembled at an endpoint.

These core algorithms form the foundation of many common modes of next-generation network data transfer, including peer-to-peer, grid content delivery and multi-source streaming. File swarming provides the ability to harness unused network capacity by distributing and exchanging small pieces of data between servers, network routers or personal computers.

"The File Swarming Patent contributes a powerful concept to computer science knowledge. It is the first system to approach the mathematical bounds of efficient utilization of the capacity of a complex network. It reflects Swarmcast's expertise and thought-leadership in the field of Internet content delivery and is a major milestone in the company's history," said Justin Chapweske, founder and CEO of Swarmcast.

According to rumors doing the rounds, Facebook is currently working on a project that would rival Apple Inc.'s successful iTunes multimedia download store. According to AllFacebook blogger Nick O'Neill, the company is in the process of looking for an executive to head the division and is already in talks with record companies.

It's unclear whether such a service would be for just music downloads or also for movie and video downloads. Recent developments with DRM, combined with disputes between Apple and content providers, has hit iTunes pretty hard, with some companies like NBC Universal walking away from the service completely.

The fact that many record company executives are displeased with Apple's business model for iTunes is not much of a secret either. Facebook could serve as a good rival for iTunes, and could certainly use the new business venture to ensure future profitability. Industry experts have agreed that Facebook needs to come up with innovative ways to make money for its future financial health.

Source:
News.com

According to the Bush administration, the recent jury decision that left a woman with a $220,000 bill for allegedly illegally sharing 24 files shows that the legal process is working against P2P-based piracy. Chris Israel, a former Time Warner employee, was appointed by President George W. Bush as the U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement in July 2005.

"Cases such as this remind us strong enforcement is a significant part of the effort to eliminate piracy, and that we have an effective legal system in the U.S. that enables rights holders to protect their intellectual property," Israel stated. He made the comments a day after the controversial decision.

The Bush administration has written trade deals that include anti-circumvention restrictions and in 2005, President Bush signed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, which strengthened punishment for file sharers. "Piracy impacts many of our most innovative industries, costs American jobs and is a huge threat to our economic competitiveness," Israel said.

Source:
News.com

RD&IP, L.L.C. is aiming to provide technology that will cut manufacturing costs of FED and the troubled SED display technology significantly. The technology is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 20070146241 and in an international patent application under Patent Cooperation Treaty.

RD&IP's technology enables FED and SED televisions to be manufactured with a variety of less expensive cathode materials and types. The technology adjusts the output of the cathodes by monitoring the emission current from each cathode in real time.

With this technology, almost any kinds of cathodes can be used in making display panels that have image quality as good as display panels made from carbon nano-tube (CNT) cathodes. In addition, if very cheap manufacturing processes for any kind of cathode are developed in the future, this technology can be combined with the cheaper processes to make high-quality FED/SED televisions.

Due to legal disputes over SED television technology, the promising bright powerful displays promised at the 2006 consumer electronics show has been evasive to the market.

Source:
Press Release

According to research carried out by the Nielsen Company, consumers with HDTV's and high definition television services in their homes are very enthusiastic about the picture quality benefits, but a lot less enthusiastic about the number of HD channels and type of content being provided. A huge 85% of respondents gave the picture quality a 4 or 5 rating (5 being excellent, 1 being very poor).

However, only about 39% gave the same rating for the type of content that is available to them in HD. Interestingly, there was no difference in responses between users of cable services and users of satellite services. Women were more optimistic than men about both quality and content, while owners of HD DVR's were the least satisfied customers.

"Nielsen's High Definition Survey shows that HD technology is outpacing content, although a few networks do score high in consumer satisfaction," said Steve McGowan, Nielsen Senior Vice President Client Research Initiatives. "Television owners clearly feel that HD viewing is a more intense experience than standard television and there are early indications that the acquisition of an HD television can, initially at least, stimulate the type of television that is viewed."

Pinnacle Systems, Inc, announced late last month the latest editions of Pinnacle Studio MovieBox with HDV and AVCHD support. The new Pinnacle Studio MovieBox Plus and MovieBox Ultimate include a high-speed USB 2.0 video capture device and a full version of Pinnacle Studio Plus version 11 and Studio Ultimate version 11 respectively—the software that has been reaping awards for delivering robust HDV/AVCHD video editing and authoring capabilities.

With the new AVCHD support, users can capture video from the new Sony and Panasonic AVCHD camcorders and can edit their content directly, in its native format. Completed videos can then be burned to an HD DVD or AVCHD format disc using standard DVD media that can be played back by the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray players. The AVCHD standard stores the same amount of video in half the space required by the MPEG-2 format.

Apple Inc. is rumored (from a fairly credible source) to be planning an "iTunes HD" store to offer high-definition videos in an effort to boost uptake of its Apple TV device. The service would include a selection of the movies and TV shows currently available on the iTunes multimedia store with a higher resolution than the current offering of 640x480.

The resolution of 640x480 is supported by the iPod video models, the iPhone, and of course, the Apple TV, which uses a home network to bridge the gap between multimedia content stored on a PC and a proper television set. Apple is reportedly stockpiling its Apple TV in anticipation of a sales boost when the iTunes HD content becomes available.

The refreshed line-up of the iPod models last month also added a component cable which is technically able to output HD video if support was added through updates for the devices. Apple TV can output with resolutions up to 720p (higher need to be downgraded). If the iTunes HD rumors are true, the company is expected to announce it sometime before the end of the month.

Lite-ON IT has reportedly gotten more orders from Microsoft Corp. for DVD-ROM drives used in the Xbox 360 games console. In response, the company has given top priority to Microsoft, allocating its total production capacity for the optical disc reader drives, according to sources from the ODD components industry in Taiwan. Lite-ON's policy is to not comment on any reports about its orders.

Following tremendous sales performances for the mega-popular Halo 3 title, which pushed the Xbox 360 console sales significantly in its launch week, Microsoft is now focusing on promoting its games console for the peak holiday season, leading to a surge in OEM orders.

Lite-ON has allocated production capacity to output one million Xbox 360 DVD-ROM drives a month. The company is the third OEM maker of DVD-ROM drives for the Xbox 360, having started shipments in June-July, initially with a volume of 300k - 500k per month. Shipments in September were close to 1 million drives.

Source:
DigiTimes

Danny Williams, an employee of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, recently was reminded that even the smallest of consumer electronics gear can be dangerous in its own way when his two year old iPod Nano caught fire in his pants pocket. According to his mother, speaking in a telephone interview, the fire lasted about 15 seconds and the flames reached up to his chest.

Apple Inc. has not commented on the incident, but has reportedly sent a package to Danny to return the damaged iPod Nano. Local news reported that Danny may have been saved from serious burns by glossy paper he had in his pocket. However, considering the fears of the times, and his place of employment, he doesn't seem to really think the threat to him was the flames themselves, but rather what they looked like at the time.

"If TSA had come by and seen me smoking, they could have honestly thought I was a terrorist," local news quoted the man as saying. The device contains a lithium-ion battery, which has a history of nasty events in consumer and PC products. Last year, several manufacturers, including Apple, Dell and Lenovo were forced to recall millions of the batteries. They have been blamed for meltdowns and fires in several computers.

Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have announced their plans to form the Advanced Interactivity Consortium (AIC), an open forum aimed at the promotion of superior interactivity for a wide range of next-generation consumer devices, digital content and distribution scenarios. The newly formed organization's mission is to maximize consumer satisfaction worldwide by accelerating industry-wide adoption of advanced interactivity and interoperability across a broad array of HD DVD products.

HD DVD is the first platform to include advanced interactivity as a basic feature in high-definition movies and players, substantially expanding the possibilities of high-definition home entertainment. AIC will also focus attention on ways to bring these advanced scenarios to other services and platforms, including digital downloads to DVD players, PCs, TVs, Cell phones, portable media players and game consoles.

"Creating attractive consumer experiences with advanced interactivity is critical to bringing digital home entertainment to the next level," said Hisatsugu Nonaka, corporate executive vice president at Toshiba. "In order to create these ecosystems, we wanted to bring together a group of companies committed to extending these scenarios across a wide variety of platforms. The Advanced Interactivity Consortium will advocate for these platforms as well as help ensure interoperability of HD DVD players and services."

MPEG LA has announced that the first meeting of essential HD DVD patent owners took place in Los Angeles on September 11th. The group consisted of 16 companies seeking to a joint license providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory access to essential patents, as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses.

"MPEG LA applauds the extraordinary cooperation of so many diverse companies working together to come up with an efficient way for users of the multitude of patents employed in HD DVD devices, discs and related implementations to address their licensing needs," said MPEG LA CEO Larry Horn.

Horn added: "And the substantial progress made in this initial meeting bodes well for achieving it." The objective is for the license to reflect both relevant conditions in the marketplace and the value of the licensed technology in order to strike a balance between patent users' interest in reasonable access to this advanced optical disc technology and patent holders' interest in a reasonable return on their research and development investment that enables a joint license to be offered for the convenience of the marketplace as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses.

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. is demonstrating its latest professional audio tools and technologies at the 123rd Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention, through October 8th (booth 400). Highlights include the Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer which is used with Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) like Digidesign ProTools, the new Mac Universal applications of all four Dolby Media Producer software products and a major new software release for the Dolby Lake Processor.

The Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer is a powerful, intelligent, and automated system designed for file-based environments for postproduction and broadcast applications. With the new Neyrinck SoundCode for Broadcast plug-in for Digidesign Pro Tools and other DAWs, the company will demonstrate how the DP600 is used for audio postproduction.

Integrated Dolby E encoding, decoding, loudness analysis, and correction within the Pro Tools environment will be shown. In addition, the DP600-C version also supports faster-than-real-time encoding, decoding, and transcoding of Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby E, and MPEG-1 LII bitstreams that can be contained within several broadcast media file formats.

Jammie Thomas, the first person to be found guilty of willful copyright infringement by a jury as a result of an RIAA P2P lawsuit, said that she will not seek any financial help to pay the $220,000 judgment. "I'm not going to ask for financial help," she told The Associated Press on Friday. "If it comes, I'm not going to turn it down, either." Over 26,000 people have been sued by the RIAA for sharing music online.

Thomas' case was the first to make it to trial. She was accused of sharing 1,702 songs using the Kazaa P2P client, but only 24 of those songs were subject at the trial. The jury found that Thomas willfully violated the copyright of all the tracks, and awarded damages of $9,250 per song to the record companies.

This verdict has given the RIAA stronger legal precedence to use in future cases. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis had wanted to instruct the jury that the record companies would have to prove that actual copying took place in order to show copyright infringement. However, record company attorney Richard Gabriel argued that in other cases, simply making files available was found to be infringement, forcing the Judge to change his mind.

The University of California at Berkeley - which in the past has striven to offer its students the ability to consume lectures and other educational material by digital means - has joined the ranks of YouTube's content partners. The university has loaded its brand new YouTube channel with full course lectures and other footage of special events. Among the videos are lectures on bioengineering, physics, chemistry, peace and conflict studies and also a lecture by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Berkeley is now the first University to make its lectures available to the public through YouTube, a natural progression for a facility that has been offering webcasts of courses and events online since 2001, and delved into podcasts in 2006. It also offers video content through iTunes U on topics such as art, history, computer science and mechanical engineering.

Such efforts can only be met with approval and applause as they are progressive means to utilize video-sharing services and the video revolution itself for educational purposes. Even though YouTube is a huge resource of most likely infringing popular entertainment content, a look at which videos are most popular on social networking / index sites such as Digg.com shows that a large number of Internet users want to use their extra bandwidth for something with a better educational value than a Diet Coke + Mentos experiment.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has issued a press statement with regard to yesterday's jury decision which left Duluth resident Jammie Thomas with a $220,000 bill for illegally sharing music files using the Kazaa P2P client. Thomas was found guilty of illegally sharing 24 music files owned by members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) trade organization.

IFPI President and CEO, John Kennedy, had these remarks on behalf of the global recording industry.

"We have always made it clear we are reluctant litigators. We do everything possible to persuade people not to leave themselves exposed to litigation. We educate, we warn, we even try and settle before a case gets to court. We derive no great satisfaction from this but hope it will prove a deterrent to others. Our message is: we don't want to litigate - don't leave yourself exposed to litigation."

Shareholders of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, the only two satellite radio providers in the United States, are to vote on Sirius' proposed multi-billion dollar acquisition of XM. The deal has not yet been given approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), nor the Justice Department, whom are looking into the proposed merger for potential antitrust implications that could raise prices for consumers.

On November 13th, XM shareholders will vote whether or not to be bought out by Sirius, while Sirius investors must approve the issuance of shares and related matters. Under the deal, XM shareholders would get 4.6 Sirius shares for each XM share. In 1997, both companies were granted licenses by the FCC, but had to agree that there would never be a merger between the two in case a satellite radio monopoly was created.

Nowadays however, the companies claim that new technology that has been introduced in the last 10 years, including HD Radio and even MP3 and iPods, serve as competition for Satellite Radio. It's up to the FCC to decide whether transferring both licenses to one company is in the public interest.

Broadcom has announced sampling of a world's first for HD; a low power multimedia processor that enables a high definition (HD) video camcorder and playback in cell phones and portable media players. The Broadcom VideoCore III multimedia processor also supports an up to 12 megapixel digital camera and delivers high performance yet ultra-low power 3D graphics for a world-class gaming experience.

HD video, 3D games and high resolution 12 megapixel pictures can be displayed at top quality on full-sized HD televisions and monitors using an on-chip industry standard HDMI interface. "Mobile handsets with compelling multimedia features are capturing the imagination of consumers and phone developers alike, driving the industry to push the limits of what a handset can do," said Will Strauss, Principal Analyst from Forward Concepts.

Strauss added: "Enabling HD quality video without draining the battery will provide another leap forward for mobile devices, taking high definition multimedia from novelty to must-have feature." The BCM2727 mobile multimedia processor is the first in the industry to support mobile phone HD camcorder functionality by providing 720p HD video encode and decode with H.264 main profile compression at low power levels. Consumers will now be able to capture video on their cell phones with the same quality used in high definition broadcast television.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd's Kazuhiro Tsuga, has promised at CEATAC that Blu-ray backers will go on a binge of price cuts and promotions during the holiday season to push the format. Matsushita is known worldwide for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics products, and is an avid backer of the Blu-ray Disc format. Tsuga doubts that the "format war" will be seen for any more than another year, with this holiday season being a big decider.

"The BD (Blu-ray disc) companies will try to do our best to promote Blu-ray," he said. "The studios want us to put money in to promote it." He added: "By the end of the year, you will see good products with very good promotion." The Blu-ray backers are also working to make the drives slimmer to make them more suitable for notebooks and PC use.

Matsushita has brand new Blu-ray recorders coming soon, which will record up to 18 hours of Full HD content to a dual-layer Blu-ray disc. Tsuga does not approve of dual format players however, which have been produced by LG and Samsung, and referred to the idea last year as "stupid, stupid." This year he said that Matsushita still has no plans for such a device.

CyberLink Corp. announced late last month, the availability of CyberLink MakeDisc 3. The latest version of MakeDisc enables authoring of video and photos, and the burning of data and music files on Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. MakeDisc 3 with support for Blu-ray Discs is available to OEM customers that are developing solutions for the digital home, while a version supporting DVD authoring and burning is now available on the CyberLink website.

"CyberLink MakeDisc 3 enriches the digital home experience by enabling point-and-click burning of data, videos, music, and photos," said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. "With auto-detection of recorded TV display ratios, a library of DVD menus, and easy steps for authoring, MakeDisc is the perfect enhancer of Windows Vista Media Center and CyberLink PowerCinema."

MakeDisc is the ideal solution for burning recorded TV. It automatically detects whether a recorded TV program contains most of its content broadcast in widescreen (16:9) or standard (4:3) display ratio, then selects the appropriate size for authoring and burning to DVD.

According to the newspaper Les Echos, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) will announce lower prices for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) home entertainment console ahead of the holiday season, in an effort to boost sales. The report claimed that the company will offer price drops between €100 and €200, although the latter rate more-so refers to the availability of the 40GB PS3 model, which would sell for €399.

The 60GB version of the PS3 console, the most expensive in the territory, would see a price cut of up to €100, according to the report. A Sony spokesman declined to confirm the price cut details from the report, but did say that an important announcement for Europe was "imminent."

In the United States, Sony replaced the 60GB PS3 model with an 80GB model (with some extra upgrades) for the same price. The company is hoping to offer a more attractive price tag for consumers over the holiday season to ramp up competition with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's market-leading Wii console.

Source:
Google (AFP)

Apple Inc. has issued updates that address security concerns with the Quicktime multimedia software for the Windows operating systems. The patch is for users of QuickTime v7.2 software, running Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2. It addresses the vulnerability in CVE-2007-4673 which could allow an attacker to take control of a victim's PC.

The vulnerability is exploited with maliciously crafted files which are opened with QuickTime by unsuspecting users, leading to arbitrary code execution. "A command injection issue exists in QuickTime's handling of URLs in the qtnext field> in files with QTL content. By enticing a user to open a specially crafted file, an attacker may cause an application to be launched with controlled command line arguments, which may lead to arbitrary code execution," Apple describes.

The update is available at: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/

Source:
News.com

Cyberlink Corp. has announced the new release of CyberLink Power2Go 6, the all-media disc burning software, adding drag-and-drop burning support for Windows Vista. The latest version of Cyberlink's software also improved support for blue-laser disc burning, supporting CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and HD DVD data burning.

The update adds drag-and-drop burning using Power2Go's Windows Sidebar gadget, enabling easy burning via Windows Vista, instant location of files by searching using file name or tag information, drag-and-drop thumbnail layout for creating discs of photo slideshows and videos, password protection and encryption for data burning and unlimited MP3 ripping, file conversion, and other music CD utilities.

"CyberLink Power2Go 6 offers easy-to-use, yet extremely powerful, burning features," said Alice H. Chang, CyberLink CEO. "With the new instant search capability plus password protection for data burning, users can locate and then securely store files faster than ever before." Power2Go 6 is available new for $39.95 or €39.99 or as an upgrade for $29.95 or €29.99.

Hackers of Apple Inc.'s iPhone are making progress in reversing the effects the iPhone v1.1.1 firmware update had on unlocked or hacked models. Apple fought back against hacking by disabling phones that were unlocked from the tie with AT&T with a firmware update. Now hackers are posting instructions on how to reverse back some of the effects, but getting a model to make phone calls again has not yet happened.

The iPhone Dev Wiki has posted instructions on how to regain the use of the iPhone's iPod functionalities and WiFi capabilities, but the race is still on to find a solution to use the device as an actual mobile phone again. Hackers need to find a way to roll back firmware of the iPhone's baseband chip, which is used to make calls.

"So far all attempts to downgrade the baseband have been unsuccessful," the Wiki said. "There have been several reports of successful baseband downgrades online, but these haven't been confirmed." Of course, rolling back is not the only option, and the race is also on to find a method to unlock iPhones with v1.1.1 firmware installed.

Toshiba Corp. appears to have brought its expectations for bigger OLED screens a few years closer, saying it will have a 30-inch OLED screen on the market in 2009. OLED screens offer benefits that will in some ways, be on par with the switch many consumers made from CRT TV sets to LCD or Plasma models. Sony announced this month that it will offer its first OLED screen, a small 11-inch screen, in Japan with a price tag of about $1,744 USD.

Not to be outdone, Toshiba President and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida, announced that the company would have its own 30-inch OLED screen on the market in 2009, while it previously had slated such availability of Toshiba OLED screens for 2015 or 2016. OLED offers incredible benefits, but the panels are hard to manufacture and right now they degrade too quickly with a lifespan of approximately 30,000 hours, compared to an average 50,000 hours for LCD.

OLED offers benefits in power consumption as it does not require backlighting like LCD technology. It also offers much higher contrast ratio for noticeably better picture quality and the screens are extremely thin. Toshiba's previous big plans to make waves in the multi-billion market for flat-panel television was SED. Unfortunately SED has been left almost dead due to legal issues with Canon and Nano-Proprietary. Hopefully Toshiba will have more luck with OLED goals.

While Hollywood insists on only tapping its feet in the waters of the digital download market while it continues to milk physical movie sales to feel safer, major retailers are starting to upset the movie studios by offering ultra-low-price DVDs, even outside of the fourth quarter. With physical movie sales declining, retailers are trying to keep the DVD buyers coming to the stores by offering DVDs as cheap as $3.99.

Target and Circuit City are two retailers that are offering DVDs at this "rental" price. Target customers can buy such movies as The Nutty Professor and Along Came Polly for $3.99, while customers at Circuit City can pick up The Bourne Identity and S.W.A.T for the same price. VideoBusiness points out that 0.8 percent of catalog sales were in the $3 to $4 range as of 2007, compared to 0.4% as of 2005 and 4.6 percent of catalog sales in 2007 were in the $4 to $5 range, compared to 0.7 in 2005.

However, movie studio executives don't agree with what the major retailers are doing for DVD prices. "It's a negative precedent in the business to do that type of lower budget pricing outside of the fourth quarter," Warner senior VP Jeff Baker said. "You would need to see some uplift in unit volume velocity to compensate for that lower pricing to maintain profit margins, and I have not uniformly seen at retailers the necessary uplift in volume."

Microsoft Corp. has updated its line of Zune MP3 players, showing off three new models it hopes will cut somewhat into Apple's dominant share of the market for MP3 players. A new black Zune model is thinner than the original, and comes with a new 80GB hard disk drive (HDD), replacing the 30GB unit released less than one year ago.

The black Zune has a 3.2-inch screen and like the original Zune, it sports WiFi capabilities for sharing music with other Zunes and an FM receivers. The new Zunes sport shiny glass screens and a new touch-pad for navigation. As well as the HDD model, Microsoft is also offering flash memory-based models. Similar in shape and size to the original iPod Nano, the new pink, green, black and red flash-based Zune models offer 4GB or 8GB of storage.

The new models will go on sale in mid-November, with the 80GB model selling for $249, 4GB model selling for $149 and 8GB model selling for $199. The prices match the iPod line-up. "There's nothing earth-shattering there," said Van Baker, an analyst at the research group Gartner. "Maybe next year they can make an aggressive push against Apple."

After more than 26,000 Internet users have been targeted by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for alleged copyright infringement, a case has finally ended in a proper trial. Capital vs. Thomas will challenge the recording industry's evidence against file sharers as well as fines levied by music companies for sharing copyrighted music online. Jammie Thomas refused to settle with the RIAA, saying she was wrongfully targeted by SafeNet.

SafeNet is contracted by the record companies to monitor file sharing activity and find sharers of copyrighted material. "I did not download or upload any music, period," Thomas, 30, said outside the federal courthouse in Duluth. A 12-member jury was empaneled on Tuesday. Her lawyer said that she will end up paying over $60,000 in attorney's fees because she refused to be bullied by the trade group.

"No one can prove which computer actually did this," defense attorney Brian Toder said in his opening statement. He argued that in this day and age, malicious individuals can easily hijack computers and use the Internet connections to distribute copyrighted material. However, the record companies claim that there is clear evidence that Thomas shared over 1,700 songs with potentially millions of file sharers.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, which produces the Panasonic brand of consumer electronics equipment, has shown off its advanced Blu-ray disc recorders that will store more Full HD programming per disc than any other. Matsushita is an exclusive Blu-ray disc backer, which competes with the rival HD DVD format for dominance in the market for HD home entertainment content.

Matsushita has also revealed that it will sell the first DVD recorders that store Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 resolution) content on conventional DVD discs next month. The new Blu-ray recorders will go on sale on November 1st, advertised as being capable of recording 18 hours of Full HD to a single dual-layer BD disc.

A model we previously reported on that will sport a huge 1TB hard disk drive (HDD) will sell for 300,000 yen ($2,600). The 1TB HDD is advertised as being capable of storing 381 hours of full high definition content. Three new DVD recorder models that will record Full HD to conventional DVD discs will also go on sale on November 1, with the high-end model sporting a 500GB HDD selling for about 130,000 yen.

Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced the availability of Adobe Flash Lite 3 software. It supports Adobe Flash Player compatible video and enables the delivery of dynamic Web content on mobile devices. Flash Lite 3 allows mobile device manufacturers, operators and content providers to differentiate their offerings by giving users the ability to watch Flash Player compatible video, the world's most popular video format, and browse Flash enabled Web sites when integrated with a mobile Web browser.

NTT DoCoMo and Nokia have committed to deliver Flash Lite 3 enabled devices in upcoming releases of handsets. Over 300 million Flash-enabled phones have shipped so far and Adobe expects the number to balloon to 1 billion by 2010. "With Flash Lite 3 and its support for video, we’ve passed a major milestone in bringing a desktop experience to mobile and transforming the wireless industry," said Al Ramadan, senior vice president for Mobile and Devices at Adobe.

Ramadan added: "Today, mobile users experience amazing Flash based user interfaces and applications with handsets like the LG Prada, the LG Chocolate or the Samsung D900. With Flash Lite 3, tomorrow's devices will offer even richer, more engaging experiences." Forum Nokia launched a new community for creative professionals today, providing Flash developers and designers with the tools to bring their products to billions of mobile customers. Forum Nokia is the largest mobile development community in the world with 3.4 million members.

In keeping its word earlier this year that it would push the HD DVD format through sales of its computer equipment, Toshiba Corp. has announced the new Satellite brand A205 laptop that comes equipped with a HD DVD drive. Along with the HD DVD drive, the model will include an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5250, running at 1.50 GHz, 2GB of RAM, and a 200 GB 4200RPM hard disk drive.

The screen offers a WXGA resolution (1280x800) 15.4-inch diagonal widescreen display featuring Toshiba's TruBrite technology. The first Toshiba laptop to feature the HD DVD format was the Qosmio AV notebook PC, which was notably heavy at over 10 pounds (4.5kg) weight in certain configurations. A Satellite laptop that doesn't feature HD DVD weighs in at around 6 pounds (2.72 kg).

The new A205 laptop will sell for a retail price of $1,149.99 USD, about 30 percent higher than a model without HD DVD. Until February 28th, 2008, customers who purchase an A205 laptop also receive a mail-in offer for five free HD DVD titles.

Adobe has offered up its new Adobe Media Player, and has already announced that leading content publishers including CBS, PBS, Yahoo! Video, Meredith Corporation, Blip.tv, Fora.tv, Motionbox, MyToons and StimTV have pledged support for the player. Adobe Media Player enables viewers to enjoy content from these broadcast television and Web video providers, giving them control to watch their favorite shows both online and offline in an engaging, customized video experience.

"As a pioneer in rich interactive Web video experiences, Adobe is committed to driving the next generation of video delivery and accelerating the fusion of TV and the Internet," said Jim Guerard, vice president for Dynamic Media at Adobe. "Adobe Media Player enables us to work with content publishers and offer them innovative ways to create, deliver, and monetize high-quality video experiences that are supported both by streaming and download. By collaborating with these media and entertainment industry giants, we will be able to provide viewers an extensive catalog of their favorite shows for viewing at their convenience."

Now that computer users are more wise to email-delivered spam and other conventional methods in use to deliver Malware to unsuspecting or naive users, malicious software authors are looking for newer ways to fool us all. One of its prime goals now is to deliver Malware by exploiting the huge demand for video content online. You might have already noticed some spam emails use HTML links to fool users into thinking they are clicking on YouTube links (usually claiming they are recordings of the user that another individual uploaded).

The Georgia Tech Information Security Center has released a report on Internet threats as it is holding its its annual summit. The summit has gathered over 300 scholars and security experts to discuss emerging threats for 2008 and how they may be fought off. "Just as we see an evolution in messaging, we also see an evolution in threats," said Chris Rouland, the chief technology officer for IBM Corp.'s Internet Security Systems

Rouland added: "As companies have gotten better blocking e-mails, we see people move to more creative techniques." Rouland said in the report that the, "next logical step seems to be media players". There have been a few cases so far that have involved video content, like a worm found in 2006 that launches a corrupt Web site without prompting after a user opens a media file in a player.

According to a Tech.co.uk report, Nintendo has managed to sell over 50 million units of the DS handheld console in less than three years since its initial launch, almost matching the speed of Apple's quest to 100 million iPods. Of the 50 million DS units sold, 40 percent of them have been sold in Japan, meaning approximately one in six people own a DS in the country.

Only a handful of CE tech products ever reach the huge 100 million unit milestone. Apple Inc. announced that it had sold 100 million iPods earlier this year since its first iPods were launched in 2001. Sony took 13.5 years to sell 100 million Walkman players and 10 years to sell 100 million original PlayStations. The still-strong PlayStation 2 (PS2) reached the 100 million milestone in five and a half years.

Nintendo's personal best continues to be the Gameboy, which reached 100 million unit sales in 11 years. The DS seems set to reach the milestone in much less time. The original DS went on sale in 2004 and in 2006, Nintendo offered up the DS Lite to consumers. Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) has sold 25 million worldwide since its 2004 launch.

Dolby Laboratories, Inc., infamous for its role in high quality surround sound audio systems, has shown off some of its new video imagining technologies at CEATEC today. The company is previewing Dolby Contrast and Dolby Vision at the event in room 201B. "Dolby is committed to providing innovative entertainment technology solutions. At CEATEC, we are demonstrating new video technologies that could transform LCD picture quality," said Francois Modarresse, Vice President, Marketing, Dolby Laboratories.

He added: "Dolby's surround sound technologies are world renowned, and our imaging capabilities are already modernizing how we see entertainment. For example, Dolby Digital Cinema systems deliver movies with opening-night quality every night." Dolby Contrast, leveraging light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with local dimming, provides outstanding contrast ratio and improvements to the overall image quality.

Dolby Vision adds to LED backlight units with local dimming advanced high-dynamic range algorithms, which deliver stunning images, by providing simultaneously high brightness and high contrast ratio. In demonstrations, LCD displays with Dolby Vision deliver picture quality that virtually matches real-world visual perception of depth, detail, and color.

Recently, the Turkish arm of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), known as Mu Yap, purchased a pirate CD with music from a popular Turkish singer, Serder Ortac, whom has had several best-selling albums there. A check by IFPI London tracked the pirate disc back to a Turkish replication plant in Istanbul, which lead to Mu Yap making a criminal complaint to the authorities.

As a result, on September 20th, shortly after midnight, the plant was raided by 20 Turkish police officers, accompanied by Mu Yap. They recovered 13,000 suspected infringing units, by the popular Turkish artist Ibrahim Tatlise, together with 2,000 inlays and jewel boxes marked with Turkish Government banderols.

The Police are liaising with the Ministry of Culture to establish the issuing chain of the banderols and Mu Yap is assisting with preparation of prosecution documents.

Source:
Press Release

Google Inc.'s video sharing giant YouTube has teamed up with Hewlett-Packard (HP) to bring a competition to amateur video makers. User shave to submit films between two and seven minutes in length. A total of 20 finalists will be chosen by Jason Reitman, director of Thank You For Smoking, and the overall winner will be decided by YouTube users.

There are a couple of interesting requirements being asked for however. Firstly, a character in the video must face a situation "above his or her maturity level," and a line must be included in the dialogue: "I demand an explanation for these shenanigans. What do you have to say?". A scene must also include one character passing a photograph to another.

The contest runs from October 7th to November 9th, and is available for users in Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. "While we wish we could include residents of all countries in Project Direct, many countries have different laws about running contests and we weren't able to devise a contest with rules that are fair and work the same for everyone around the world," a YouTube spokesperson said of the seven country limitation.

A New York woman was so upset about Apple Inc.'s decision to cut a large $200 from the 8GB iPhone price, and drop the 4GB model completely, that she has filed a lawsuit against the company alleging violation of price discrimination laws. Dongmei LiL of Queens is seeking $1 million in damages over the company's decision to make such drastic price reduction within a few short months of the items launch.

Hundreds of early adopters complained about such a sudden price reduction. Those who bought an 8GB iPhone at $599 in the two weeks before the price cut were offered the $200 back as a refund, and for all of those that purchased the iPhone earlier, the company offered up $100 credit for Apple stores.

According to Li's complaint, the price cut injured customers like her because they cannot resell the product for the same profit as those who bought the iPhone following the price cut. As an owner of a 4GB iPhone model, Li claims that owners of the $499 model were given less favorable terms than those who bought the 8GB model at the premium price.

The lawsuit also alleges that Apple and AT&T are taking part in unfair business practices with the required 2-year service contract for the iPhone

Italian police have struck out at administrators and users of the Discotequezone DirectConnect (DC) file sharing hub. Police have confirmed that the network administrators, plus seven people who uploaded large volumes of copyrighted music, are now being prosecuted. The raids, carried out during the past weeks by the Fiscal Police for Bergamo, were coordinated by the Public Prosecutor from Brescia, with assistance from the music industry anti-piracy organization FPM.

This is the second stage of the operation which started in March with several servers seized by the police. A total of 11 computers and more than 110,000 illegal MP3 music files were seized in the operation which was carried out between Rome, Milan and Brescia. The sharers may now face fines up to €8.5 million according to Italian copyright laws.

Some 170 Italian file-sharers and illegal network administrators have been criminally prosecuted for music piracy in Italy in the last two years.

Source:
Press Release

The popular burning/multimedia suite Nero Burning ROM has been updated today to version v8.1.1.0. Nero Burning ROM is one of the most popular all-in-one CDR/DVDR application on the market. Nero combines huge amounts of features in a compact and easy to use package. It handles disc duplicating and pre-mastering with ease, supported by a cover designer and even an audio file editor.

Enhancements to Nero 8 include Windows Vista support, a brand new project launcher that lets you easily access features and perform one-click functions, new security tools to protect and preserve your digital content and increased support for the latest blue laser technology.

Nero has been downloaded from AfterDawn over 4,252,798 times.

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