Oct 16, 2007 | audio, DRM, file_sharing, law, video
The first rule of Usenet is, you don’t talk about Usenet.Careful observation of that rule has allowed Internet newsgroups to avoid getting involved in the entertainment industry’s freakish litigation war on its customers. Now a new lawsuit suggests that...
Sep 25, 2007 | Apple, audio, DRM, mobile, phone
Apple’s rollout of the iPhone and updated iPod line generated impressive buzz, giving the impression that Apple is an unstoppable force. At the same time, though, Apple’s efforts to lock down its control over its users created uneasiness.Two things...
Sep 18, 2007 | Apple, audio, DRM, Microsoft, phone
It’s hard to make the stereotypes fit.Microsoft is reviled as the big monopoly. I don’t want to suggest that Microsoft is a huggable teddy bear, but it’s worth noting that much of its success comes from the work of thousands and thousands of hardware...
Aug 30, 2007 | audio, business, DRM
Sony is killing ATRAC, its proprietary format for music files. Here’s a brief news article about today’s death notice.This isn’t important – no one every downloaded any files from Sony’s store in the ATRAC format. (The store is being...
Aug 28, 2007 | audio, DRM, file_sharing, law, video
The world of copyright protection is a mess, and each day brings new craziness. A Federal District Court judge granted a ruling for summary judgment against a family that had run Kazaa on a computer with copyrighted material in a shared folder – with no evidence...
Aug 21, 2007 | DRM, Google, video
An interesting collection of news about Google projects today.As the new owner of YouTube, Google will introduce scrolling advertisements to YouTube videos today. They promise the ads will be unobtrusive, nearly-transparent banners that will appear at the bottom of...
