Managing Rights Management

Skype Deconstructed / Hacked

[tip o' the hat to Dave Farber's IP list]. Phillipe Biondi and Fabrice Desclaux have reversed engineed Skype. The details are in a highly technical presentation online here. Skype apparently makes use of several software obsfucation techniques and defensive security mechanisms. For those interesting in details, worth the read. Read more →

Recently Issued Patents

The US Patent Office issues new patents on Tuesdays. Issued patents and published applications may be early indicators of the kinds of issues being addressed by inventors and/or the companies for whom they work. Assigned to Microsoft, the first patent addresses ways of activating a rendering device in a multi-level... Read more →

Point Taken

Dennis notes that the podcasting licensing blogicle posted here this morning might have made the point that the licensing applied to music, not talk. Point taken; the blogicle has been slightly edited. Read more →

The Podcasting Rule Book (UK)

The Register (UK) has an article reporting a licensing scheme for those podcasting music involving The Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS). In addition to a licensing fee, the agreement itemizes detailed requirements and prohibitions. Podcasters will be obliged not to: produce podcasts that contain recordings... Read more →

Gates, BBC On DRM, TV

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media and technology did a Q/A at the Mix06 Conference in Las Vegas, this according to an article published on Informitv.com. Topics included DRM. Snippets: Some form of digital rights management or DRM is necessary to protect programming,... Read more →

DRM Kills Battery Life

MP3.com says that DRAM reduces battery life for certain portable MP3 players. Snippet: Those who belong to subscription services such as Napster or Rhapsody have it worse. Music rented from these services arrive in the WMA DRM 10 format, and it takes extra processing power to ensure that the licenses... Read more →

France: Easy on The Downloaders, Harsh On the Crackers

Red Herring reports that France has passed a law that goes easy on downloaders but defines much harsher penalties for those who break security technologies. Snippets: The National Assembly voted Wednesday night to approve a maximum fine of about €40 ($48.51) for those who illegally download music or other files,... Read more →

DRM at the Library

John M. Moran's article in the Hartford (CT) Courant's Courant.com web site describes his library's use of DRM for loaning audio books. Snippets: But the burning process is a bit cumbersome. My audio book needed five CDs to hold it. Burning all of those discs took more than an hour.... Read more →

Blu-Ray

As is widely reported, Sony says that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) will be delayed until November. A Forbes article says that the stated reason having to do with copy protection technology in the Blu-ray next-gen DVD may not be the real reason for the delay. But the supposed reason for... Read more →

Recently Published Patent Applications

Every Thursday, the US Patent and Trademark Office publishes pending patent applications. Publication has no bearing on whether a patent will eventually be issued based on the application. Still, issued patents and published applications are often indicators of what people have been thinking about and the kinds of things that... Read more →