China has signed an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Business Software Alliance, Association of American Publishers and Britain’s Publishers Association that states that the country will do more to address online piracy of intellectual property, Reuters reported, citing the official Xihnua news agency. Under the agreement, the country’s National Copyright Administration […]

Online sales of TV shows, movies and other pre-recorded video programming are expected to grow from $298 million this year to reach $1.5 billion in 2007, according to a report from market research firm Strategy Analytics. By 2010, the firm predicts, global revenue from online video sales, rentals and subscriptions will surge to $5.9 billion, […]

In the first case of its kind, a Japanese court has found the developer of a peer-to-peer service called Winny guilty of abetting copyright infringement, and ordered him to pay nearly $13,000 in fines, Variety reported. Isamu Kaneko developed and launched Winny in 2002 while studying at the University of Tokyo. The site was then […]

Apple has faced a fair amount of scrutiny in recent weeks concerning the Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology tied to its online music store, iTunes. It now appears that the company is in for a legal battle over its DRM practices as well. A lawsuit, filed back in July, is over Apple’s use of DRM […]

The “professionally paranoid” Peter Gutmann at Auckland University has ripped into Windows Vista Content Protection (VCP) and written a paper, well, a web page then, called A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection that makes for worrying reading. I’ve seen a number of pieces on the Digital Rights Management “features” that Microsoft has built […]

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has stated that there are “huge problems” with current digital rights management (DRM) systems, and has advised that the best strategy is just to “buy a CD and rip it”. Speaking at a conference in Seattle, Gates was scathing about current DRM practices, especially those that tried to limit the number […]

Music entertainment giants Sony BMG Entertainment will pay the sum of $1.5 million in addition to thousands of consumer refunds to settle out of court. A lawsuit brought up in California and Texas courts was filed over Sony putting DRM and anti-piracy software on their music CDs which would then become installed on the consumer’s […]

Attributor, a company looking at new ways to provide DRM (digital rights management), is promising to release a technology that will scan the Internet for unauthorized uses of copyright digital media. Attributor, founded in 2005, plans to release a product in early 2007. The second round of funding was led by Sigma Partners, a venture […]

SafeNet on Wednesday announced the launch of its (first) digital rights management system for mobile TV. The DRM Fusion Toolkit4TV protects broadcast mobile content and services from unauthorized use and distribution. The system supports all major, open broadcast digital rights management standards, including Windows Media DRM; DVB 18Crypt; MBMS; OMA BCAST DRM; and OMA BCAST […]

Record labels have so far resisted offering popular artists in the format, citing piracy concerns. But with the iPod and its closed DRM ecosystem becoming ever more prevalent, industry executives are looking for ways to continue the growth of digital music. The market does need some help - for the last two quarters digital music […]

The Recording Academy on Wednesday introduced its “What’s the Download Music Survival Guide,” part of a public education campaign that offers “constructive solutions to tackle illegal downloading.” The guide was written from the viewpoint of young consumers, and “outlines relevant court cases and perceptions of the music industry that have led to illegal downloading,” while […]

A judge in Spain has ruled that those who download free music off the Internet for personal use are not criminals, The Register reported. Judge Paz Aldecoa, of Santander in northern Spain, called file-sharing “a practiced behavior where the aim is not to gain wealth but to obtain private copies.” The judge dismissed charges against […]

Microsoft Corp. said it has filed more than 50 lawsuits and other legal actions worldwide against people it says sold pirated copies of its software using online auction sites such as eBay. The legal actions announced last week are the latest in a broad effort Microsoft has taken to curb widespread piracy of programs including […]

Owners of Creative Zen digital audio players have been expressing their displeasure at a series of new firmware updates that remove the ability of their players to record FM radio broadcasts. Reports of the functionality-killing firmware updates first began surfacing in Creative’s forums towards the end of August; the latest updates to deep-six radio recording […]

Sweden’s Pirate Party failed to garner the 4% of votes in the country’s national elections over the weekend that were necessary for a seat in Sweden’s Parliament, Wired News reported. The political party was founded on a single issue — copyright reform — and gained much notoriety on the Internet following the Swedish government’s attempts […]