News written by Ben Reid (June, 2006)

French lawmakers have given approval to the watered-down version of a controversial law that would have allowed people to crack Digital Rights Management (DRM) protections & force online music outlets such as Apple's iTunes Music Store to open up DRM systems, so that consumers can play the songs purchased on all portable MP3 devices and computers that are designed to work with another music store.

Apple had always strongly opposed the original draft of the bill, branding it "state sponsored piracy", and there were even suggestions it might disconnect all iTunes operations from France completely if the bill was passed, rather than share DRM secrets with the likes of Microsoft.

Whilst the revised bill still says that all systems must inter-operate, it doesn't have to be enforced if the online music stores have the permission to use DRM from the rights holders, such as musicians and record labels.

The law could, in France at least, spark a power shift between Apple and the major labels. Until now, Apple has held the upper hand as it runs the hugely popular iTunes service, which sells all music at the same price - something which the labels do not like. But if Apple were to require permission from music labels to carry on trading under the same terms in France, that could shift the balance of power, according to industry observers.

Popular online film rental service Netflix is planning to introduce a proprietary set-top box with an Internet connection capable of downloading movies overnight, according to the company's Vice President of original programming, Eric Besner.

Speaking promisingly at an Independent Film & Television Alliance production conference in Beverly Hills, Besner said the business model for the service, which could launch as early as this year, is currently being worked out, however it is likely the subscription service would be offered in return for the subscription fee members pay for conventional DVD rentals at the moment.

The concept would be that users could add movies they want to watch to their rental queue online much like they do now, except those movies would then be conveniently downloaded to the boxes overnight rather than shipped through the mail.

He also added that the set-top box is just one of the Internet plans Netflix is working on.

Source
Variety.com

The CEO of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) believes that the illegal swapping of copyrighted music online has been "contained," saying the legal digital downloads continues to expand while unorthorized music trading online has seen flat growth.

"The problem has not been eliminated," says RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol. "But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat."

The Supreme Court Ruling back in June of last year ruled that P2P services could be held accountable for the activites of users. As a result, several P2P networks were closed including WinMX in September and Grokster last November.

Despite the closure of many P2P networks, the trading of music files online still remains popular. According to Internet analysis firm BigChampagne, 10 million users now swap files, which is an increase from 8.7 million last year. But the firm also added that the rapid rise in Internet piracy is now beginning to level off as a result of the music industry's continued enforcement and education programs. Additionally, the success of legit online music stores such as Apple's iTunes Music Store (which has sold over one billion tracks), has greatly assisted the rise of digital music, according to industry executives.

Last month, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) hit out at popular Russian music download service AllOfMP3.com, claiming it fails to pay artist royalties, and is therefore an illegal service.

In a press release on 2nd June, entitled 'Setting The Record Straight', the IFPI made claims that, "Allofmp3.com is not a legal service either in Russia or anywhere else. It is distributing music without any permission from the artists or copyright holders. Unlike all the legitimate sites, it does not pay artists or copyright holders so it is effectively stealing from those who create music. Like most things that appear to be too good to be true, allofmp3.com is not what it seems."

Up until now, AllofMP3 remained silent on the issue, refusing to answer any inquiries from virtually every media source. Now, however, AllofMp3.com has decided to set the record straight from its own point of view.

Point number five is particularly intriguing, as it implies that AllofMP3 may be negotiating a settlement on changing its popular cheap price structure:

THE ALLOFMP3.COM STATEMENT Read more...

Pioneer Corp. is to discontinue the production of DVD recorders on its own, as fierce price competition is causing losses to the firm in this segment, and it is now looking to link up with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co to reduce costs, company sources said Saturday.

Pioneer plans to continue developing next-generation Blu-ray format, promoted by Sony Corp. and Matsushita, by purchasing key microchips and software from Matsushita.

Back in 1999, Pioneer became the world's first company to commercialize DVD recorders, and is, to this day, its' fourth-largest supplier. Pioneer aim to eliminate unprofitable businesses and focus on its lucrative car-navigation equipment and other vehicle-electronics operations.

Source:
Forbes.com

Japanese magazine Ultra One has revealed that Sony plan to include the Playstation 2 chipset with each of their up and coming Playstation 3 consoles - at least until a proper PS2 emulator is developed.

When Sony initially announced the PlayStation 3's backwards compatibility with both the PS2 and PSone, the indication was given that the it would be provided through emulation. But this new report in the Japanese technology magazine Ultra One (partially translated by IGN) suggests that PS2 emulation is actually achieved through physical hardware, and not emulation.

The PS3 hardware is currently designed to include the PS2 chipset, (the Emotion Engine CPU and Graphic Synthesizer combo chip that is found in the slim model PS2), according to the magazine. With the PS3 already being expensive to manufacture, the inclusion of another chipset can only increase costs. In the same breath, however, the report goes on to say that Sony intends to remove the PS2 chipset from the PS3 once work on an efficient PS2 emulator is completed by its engineers.

Izumi Kawanishi, head of Sony's Software Platform Development Division, told the Ultra One that the PS3 as announced is, "nothing more than just the basic system." It is possible that Sony may release models with even larger hard disks/upgraded network features, but the CPU clock speed and memory specs will not change, as all PS3s must run the same games. The PS3 is also equipped with a "large amount of flash memory," which will be used to house the operating system and all future system updates.

Disney is planning to start selling movies over the internet via CinemaNow - including new films on the day of release. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's home video arm, is to make the films available on a download-to-own basis.

This move will give downloaders the ability to purchase films, new and old, for viewing on personal computers and portable devices. Films downloaded using this new service will, however be copy-protected using some form of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Disney's service, scheduled to begin on 6th June, follows a similar move by five of its' Hollywood rivals, who launched similar services back in April. Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures collectively created a download-to-own movie service via Movielink.

Up until April of this year, Hollywoods' major studios had been reluctant to distribute their films on the internet, as they feared that it would encourage illegal copying of their films and harm revenue from box office and video rental sales. But now, it appears they are ready to cash in on the lucrative online market.

As the Recording Industry continues in its battle to combat rife online music piracy on P2P networks, blogs and other viral distribution channels, it appears to have a new problem in the form of music videos.

Content on sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Google Video and iFilm is user-generated, which has given a whole new dimension to the viral sharing of music videos across the web. Such websites allow music videos to be distributed without any approval from the recording companies.

This has caught the attention of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and in recent weeks, it has been stepping up its efforts to stop sharing of popular videos on YouTube. The site, which boasts over 6 million visitors and 40 million streams per day, has become a harbor for unlicensed music videos, much of which is coming from MTV broadcasts which are recorded by users with TiVo and other digital video recorders and posted onto the site.

The RIAA recently dealt cease-and-desist letters to some YouTube users caught sharing unlicensed music videos of popular artists. Links to videos taken down by the RIAA now give the greeting, "This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner the RIAA because its content was used without permission."

As you are probably aware by now, Swedish Police confiscated the servers of popular Bittorrent index ThePirateBay.org earlier this week, accusing it of being a source of global internet piracy. Now the operators of the site have stated that they intend to claim damages from the Swedish authorities if their innocence can be proved.

The statement, posted up on The Pirate Bays' website, said that those behind the site, "can receive compensation from the Swedish state [if] the upcoming legal processes show that [Piratebay] is indeed legal".

The Pirate Bay has always maintained that its' servers contain no actual media files, but links to BitTorrent files containing material. Christopher Wallin of the IT group of Swedish law firm Delphi & Co doesn't believe this is likely to be seen as an adequate defence. "Our opinion is that that is silly. That is an argument they have been making for the last two or three years," he said. "They have committed a contributory offence, it is a contribution to copyright infringement."

Update 3.6: After three days' downtime, The Pirate Bay is now back online sporting a new logo (pictured above), although doesn't appear to be fully functional just yet.