DVD-Ripping Man Dane Turns Self in to Prove Piracy Point
Turning yourself into the police is never all that fun. Unless, that is, you're on a crusade to catch the government in a sticky web of legal contradiction.A
drm posts
Turning yourself into the police is never all that fun. Unless, that is, you're on a crusade to catch the government in a sticky web of legal contradiction.A
Amazon Apologizes For Its 'Big Brother' Move on Kindle
When Amazon.com went into Kindle devices across the country to delete unauthorized copies of 'Animal Farm' and '1984' by George Orwell, the irony was certainly not lost on users. A Big Brother move, no doubt, especially because no one was informed of the invasion of privacy -- and customers thought the reclaimed content had been legally purchased. Amazon did issue refunds, but the blogosphere earlier this month took the story up en masse. Customers, feeling betrayed, came out of the woodwork to express their frustration. Charles Slater, an exec with a Philadelphia sheet-music company, told the New York Times, "I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased."Although Amazon released a lackluster apology on July 17th (its explanation was that a distributor uploaded the material without permission), the online mega-retailer did little to stop the bleeding. The anti-digital rights management (DRM) crowd protested the remote deletion and claimed this type of infraction was the core problem with rights-controlled media.
'Casual' Pirates Courted by Legal Music Streaming Sites
According to the New York Times, that's exactly what's happening in Britain with young music-streaming start-ups like Spotify and We7, which stream music for free and make revenue through site advertising. These sites have found immense growth in a fairly short amount of time (Spotify's revenues have doubled every month since launching this past February), while studies conducted by research firms Music Ally and Leading Question show that piracy among British teens has dropped almost in half since December 2007. While in no way a full solution to music piracy, the results so far are promising.
Amazon Suspends Kindle Account After Too Many Product Returns
The Kindle should be a pretty straight forward proposition, but this just goes to show you how sometimes folks can stir up controversy even with something as innocuous as an e-book reader. First there was the hassle with the Writers Guild over text-to-speech, and then Amazon threatened MobileRead with legal action for merely linking to software they didn't take kindly too. And now we're hearing alarming tales of Kindle owners who have had their accounts turned off when inadvertently running afoul of company policy. Case in point, a user on the MobileRead forums reports being locked out of his account for what was termed an "extraordinary" rate of returns (that is, he returned electronics that arrived damaged or defective). Because of this, our man was unable to purchase new books for his device, or even check out magazine / newspaper / blog subscriptions he had already paid for. Luckily, this gentleman was able to plead his case and get his account reactivated -- but other users haven't been quite so fortunate. We'll be keeping an eye on you, Amazon -- so let's try and play nice for now on.
[Via Channel Web]
[Via Channel Web]
iTunes Store Now Infected with Variable Pricing, Amazon Still $0.99
in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points-69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29-with many more songs priced at 69 cents than $1.29.Regardless, we know where we'll be purchasing our Miley Cyrus from now on.
[Thanks, Jesse]
Read -- January "Changes Coming to the iTunes Store" press release
Read -- iTunes top songs [Warning: iTunes App link]
Read -- Amazon top songs
91% of Americans Want the Ability to Copy DVDs Onto Their PCs, Study Finds
This should come as no surprise to those who have witnessed the gradual digitalization (moving away from physical products and towards computer files) of music, songs and albums. Just as many music fans now use their computers as their primary sound systems, 69-percent of those surveyed attested to watching DVDs on their computers. Is it any surprise, then, that they'd want the ability to save the disc on their video player of choice? It shouldn't be, particularly when you consider that nearly 40-percent of the respondents claimed to have, at some point, repurchased a DVD due to loss or damage.
For the most part, folks in the "biz" aren't too fond of this trend, since importing media onto a computer renders computer files that are more easily pirated than are physical discs. That being said, with the economy in such dire straits, and folks' once disposable income becoming increasingly indispensable, DVD sales have suffered (55-percent are purchasing fewer DVDs than they were last year). That being said, 40-percent of the respondents said that the ability to import DVDs onto their computers would stimulate their purchasing of the discs.
Bob Barr Takes a Stand on DVD-Copying
The MPAA claims that the software violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by encouraging DVD piracy. Conversely, RealNetworks says that the software merely allows DVD owners to save their discs to their own personal hard drives, a practice fully in line with DMCA stipulations. Currently, the court has issued an injunction against the sale of RealDVD. Meanwhile, the MPAA is accusing the company of destroying evidence that would show the software is "based in part on the work of ... hackers."
The case has attracted the attention of 2008 Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, who, in a San Francisco Chronicle editorial, called the suit "knee-jerk, anti-technology litigation" that should concern those who hope for "fair play and innovation to remain valued commodities in 21st-century America." He believes the product would actually benefit the MPAA by encouraging the legal use of DVDs, saying that RealNetworks has "the law, the facts and common sense on its side." We have to agree, although it would seem like an easy way to copy your Netflix rentals. Either way, we'll certainly keep an eye on the case. [From: SFGate and Wired]
Audio/Video, Computers, Celebrities
Neil Young Not Happy With YouTube
According to Young's blog (cleverly titled 'NY Times'), YouTube has underpaid Warner artists, whose peers on other record labels have been getting larger licensing checks. Young points out that, because Warner Reprise was one of the first labels to cooperate with YouTube, its contract did not wind up being as attractive as those signed later on by more cautious labels.
Looking for something in the way of a solution, Young wrote, "If all artists were compensated equally, and the people decided who had the hits and misses by virtue of number of downloads and plays, there would be no grounds for disagreement that would cause the facilitator of the art to break the conduit between an artist and an audience."
Apple Rumored To Be Turning iTunes Into a DRM-Free Music Store
We can't count the number of times we've heard from one random source or another that Apple was about to pull the trigger on a subscription-based / 100-percent DRM-free music service, and given how those have worked out in the past, we'd highly recommend taking this one with a huge dose of salt. French site ElectronLibre has it that Apple will finally offer up all of its music in DRM-free form starting as early as today, specifically calling out Sony, Universal and Warner as outfits who would join the protection-free cause. Should this happen, it would obviously be a dream come true for ole Steve, but we're still left to wonder what would happen to bitrates, prices and (potentially most important) all other iTMS content. Something tells us Hollywood isn't quite as ready to release its death grip. [Via AppleInsider]
Wal-Mart-Purchased Music Will Cease to Play on October 9
As noted in an e-mail to customers, Wally World will be making the final transition into a fully DRM-free MP3 store on October 9th, and in order to keep those DRM-laden files playable on anything, it's recommended that you burn protected files on a CD on the double.
If you choose to ignore this message, you'll be unable to "transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash." Heed the warning, kids.
RealDVD Lets You Legally Copy DVDs
Real thinks that the use of the additional DRM coupled with Kaleidescape's legal victory -- a ruling that seemingly authorizes users to copy DVDs for their own personal use -- will help it escape the wrath of the MPAA. Not that RealNetworks has ever been afraid of a fight as demonstrated by its 2004 scuffle with Apple when it began offering software that allowed iPods to play Real's DRM'd content. Good thing too because we're pretty sure that shutting down the planned start of RealDVD's sales at the end of this month is the number one topic around the bunny-juice dispensers at the MPAA offices this morning.
[From: NYTimes via cnet]
Yahoo! Offers Refunds to Music Store Customers
If you woke up this morning worried about what Yahoo! is planning to do for its Music Store customers who are about to be left in the lurch with its DRM server shut-down, have no fear. Yahoo! has announced that it will offer customers coupons or refunds for those songs you bought. Basically, you'll get a coupon that you can use at RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody download service. Their songs, of course, are DRM-free. For those of you who have "serious problems with this arrangement" (their words, not ours), refunds will be available. The servers go down on September 30, so start combing your collections, kids.Rhapsody, Verizon Finally Selling DRM-Free MP3s
Rhapsody's catalog of four million songs will also be available through partners like Yahoo! Music and Verizon Wireless' VCAST Music service, which will be selling DRM-free MP3s for $1.99 over-the-air (or 99 cents on your PC). This will certainly be a boon to Verizon VCAST Music customers, who heretofore were stuck with heavily-DRM-laden WMA files that were hard to move from one player or computer to another.
While the move from competing with Apple to embracing MP3s and the iPod may sound good on paper, the Web is scattered with the remains of those who tried to take on Apple's store and its iconic media player. Wal-Mart, Amazon, Napster, E-Music, and now Rhapsody, are all stuck fighting for the table scraps left over from iTunes' more than 70 percent market share. [Source: Reuters]
10 Laws You're Probably Breaking With Your Computer
Check out the list of laws you're probably breaking right now at TechRepublic. And don't worry too much -- the chances of you going to jail for breaking any of them are pretty slim. [Source: TechRepublic]
Re-Re-Launched Napster Offers 6M Songs Free of Copyright Protection
For many, the name Napster still evokes memories of the carefree early days of music downloading, when songs were free and illegal, but nobody seemed to mind. Those days, of course, didn't last long, with the service being effectively shut down by pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was later re-launched as a legal download service, but never quite regained the sort of attention it had in its previous life.
Now, the site is being re-launched yet again as an MP3 download store designed to directly take on the competition from Amazon and Apple.
Apple's iTunes is, of course, the reigning leader in the music download space. Lately, though, online music buyers have been rebelling against the restrictive copy protection that Apple still forces on many of its tracks, and the proprietary format that only really works on Apple's iPods isn't helping, either. Apple last year launched a DRM-free store last year -- DRM- or copyright-free means that the tracks can be played on any MP3 player -- but the majority of the iTunes offerings still have copy restrictions. Similarly, Amazon launched its amazonmp3 service last year, featuring songs in the industry-standard MP3 format and no copy protection.
Now, Napter is also offering MP3 downloads free of copy protection, with most tracks priced at $.99, or $9.95 per album, which is slightly higher than Amazon's offerings. Even so, Amazon can't compare to Napster's six million copyright-free tracks available for download right away, which makes it the world's largest MP3 store. The two services will surely keep competing, which is good news for consumers, and it remains to be seen what iTunes will do to keep up. [Source: AOL News]
