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 […]

Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp Corp. said on Tuesday it has started the commercial production of blue laser diodes, taking aim at a market with strong growth potential. Sharp in November began volume output of blue laser diodes, used to read and write data on high-definition optical discs, at 150,000 units a month at its […]

We’ve decided to limit the functionality of the Audio Mixer filter, at least for the first version. Some of the previously announced features, such as volume meters, speed adjustment and audio buffering, will be removed and most likely implemented in separate filters, which will probably be later available as a filter pack. We’ve decided […]

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 […]

The U.S. Senate on Friday approved a bill that would outlaw the practice of “pretexting,” or obtaining the phone records of someone without their permission, CNET News.com reported. The action follows revelations that executives at HP used the practice to obtain the cell phone records of several journalists and board members in order to identify […]

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 […]

Sales at Apple’s iTunes Store fell 65% in the first six months of 2006, according to a survey of U.S. iTunes debit and credit card purchases conducted by Forrester Research. The number of monthly iTunes transactions dropped 58% in the first half of 2006, while the average size of purchase also declined by 17%, the […]

The International Mozart Foundation in Austria has published the entirety of the composer’s more than 600 works on its website. In addition to 24,000 pages of music, the free site includes more than 8,000 pages of critical reports and commentary on Mozart. The site is essentially a digitized version of the “New Mozart Edition,” a […]

This extension lens for your camera phone will give you quite a bit more zoomage, 6x zoom. For Nokia or Sony Ericsson, available for $20

People are beginning to worry more an more about the possible hazards of exposure to wireless network signals. In a recent article by The Times, Dr Michael Clark, of the Health Protection Agency says, “a year sitting in a classroom near a wireless network is roughly equivalent to 20 minutes on a mobile. If wi-fi […]

The batteries use natural gas, methanol, and other mother nature-friendly liquified fuel. This concept notebook actually received a Red Dot Award nomination for “Best Concept Design” for 2006 according to the report. The laptop comes with a carrying handle for transporting and equipped with 4 OLED displays in 4 sides. As you can see from […]

The U.S. Supreme Court approved a new rule that require companies to keep track of all emails, instant messages, and other electronic documents generated by employees. The reason for this is if companies are involved in federal litigation to produce “electronically stored information” as part of the discovery process, before a trial. Snippet from the report: The […]

Less than a month after the troubled launch of its PlayStation 3, Sony has rolled out its new high definition DVD recorder in Japan as it struggles to restore its tarnished reputation. Sony’s BDZ-V9 Blu-ray machine went on sale here Friday in time for the crucial year-end holiday shopping season with a price tag of […]

I-O Data of Japan launched its new HDMC rugged USB hard drive that is tough as you can get. Available in 8GB and 12GB capaciities, the USB hard drive is rugged enough to withstand drops from 48-inches and remain submerged in water for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. To eliminate clutter, the […]