Managing Rights Management

The iTunes User Mark - Risks and Hacks

Chris Maxcer has written an informative article on iTunes embedding buyer information in each file and on the possible consequences of sharing such files with others. It's been recently discovered, though, that each song sold through iTunes Plus --the section of iTunes that sells the higher-quality, DRM-free music -- is... 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 →

The Alleged Sins of the RIAA and Media Sentry

As readers know, I am, in general, favorably disposed to the preventatitve use of DRM and other anti-piracy technologies. A Wired blog posting reports on a law suit filed on behalf of Tanya Andersen, who had been defending herself against the RIAA. The compliant should be required reading for all... Read more →

HiDef Format Wars

Business Week has useful review of the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format wars. Blockbuster had announced that they would only support Blu-ray. Sales of HD-DVD players, however, jumped after Toshiba slashed prices. With so much money at stake, anyone betting on the wrong camp might pay a heavy price. Universal Studios... Read more →

CableBox liberation and DRM

The long delayed requirement to allow consumers to purchase cable boxes will soon be upon us. Mark Fleichman has a useful posting on DigitalTrends.com regarding the July1 CableCARD requirements that also addresses DRM issues. Foes of digital rights management should note that there’s a DRM angle here, as the Electronic... Read more →

Vista, DRM, and Virtualization

Over the weekend, Eric Lai wrote in PCWORLD that Microsoft had decided not to remove restrictions on consumers virtualizing its Vista operating system. The reason given by Lai is that DRM may not work with a virtualized OS. When a user creates a VM, the virtualization software takes a snapshot... Read more →

RealPlayer 11 Beta now available

At the end of an earlier posting on media software that captures streaming media, I noted that the Realplayer 11 beta was not yet available. It is now downloadable. 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 Fraunhofer, the first patent addresses was of authenticating executable code. Assigned to Macrovision, the... Read more →

Online video recorders stoke piracy concerns

This according to a Reuter's article picked up by several media outlets, including the Boston Globe. Media companies fear that video recording software will facilitate piracy and rob them of lucrative advertising revenue just as they are making more TV shows, movies and video available online. Stream rippers, or software... Read more →

Responsibility for Blu-ray's BD+ Moved June 1

With little public fanfare, responsibility for licensing the BD+ component of Blu-ray ROM disc security was moved from the Blu-ray licensing authority to BD+ Technologies, LLC. BD+ provides a Virtual Machine-based security capability that supplements AACS key management and revocation technologies. The move implies that the Blu-ray group of CE... Read more →