Managing Rights Management

AACS Fixed For Now

AACS LA, the licensing authority for AACS copy protection on Blu-ray and HD-DVDs, has announced a fix for the recently discovered vulnerabilities in computer applications that play next-gen DVDs. According to an AP article: Companies such as Corel Corp., which owns InterVideo, makers of a popular PC-based playback software, will... 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 deals with roaming licenses over plural devices. Also assigned to... Read more →

Reigning In The RIAA and MPAA

The LA Times [registration required] is reporting that the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America are lobbying the California legislature for an exemption to proposed laws that would outlaw pretexting, the practice of misrepresenting one's identity in order to gain access to confidential or... Read more →

Will Video Be Different?

The Independent (UK) is reporting that EMI rivals are concerned about EMI's decision to abandon DRM for high quality music. But what about digital video? Mr Jobs, who had a second career running Pixar film studios and now sits on the board of Disney, which acquired it, insisted last week... Read more →

IPTV - Is Security Holding Back Deployment

Having solved DRM issues, the lack of security has been holding back deployment of IPTV, this according to Tim Wilson, site editor for Dark Reading: The high cost of securing the IPTV network has essentially broken the service's business model, Southwell [director of IPTV technology at Juniper Networks] observes. "The... Read more →

Hollywood Crackdown

KGO-TV reports that Hollywood is cracking down on piracy using content tracking techniques rather than DRM or watermarking techniques. One company actively involved is BAY TSP. The men and women at BAY TSP are the Web version of undercover cops, posing as pirates, seeking copyrighted material. Their company issues one... Read more →

Rights Are Territorial

E-Commerce Times and other outlets report the latest brouhaha involving Apple and the European Union over national online iTunes stores rather than a single store for the EU. The EC's "Statement of Objections" against Apple and the major music labels whose wares are sold in Apple's online iTunes store is... Read more →

Goldman Does DRM

Bank Technology News reports that Goldman Sachs is implementing Liquid Machine's Enterprise Rights Management for both security and compliance. (Goldman is an investor in Liquid). ...Although it provides an audit trail for document use, ERM doesn't supply compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley financial record dictums, and is overkill for a bank looking... 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 →

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. Today's patents address watermarking. Assigned to Microsoft, the first discloses a way of using dual audio... Read more →