Managing Rights Management

Apple Updates iPhone Frustrating Hackers

Apple provided updates to its popular iPhone that frustrates those who have hacked the phone in order to be able to use a network other than AT&T and/or to run unapproved applications. The NYTimes' Saul Hansell writes: David Pogue, our technology reviewer, received a cautionary message last night from a... Read more →

Watermarking Patent Applications

Recently published patent applications often indicate what individuals or companies are thinking about and perhaps how DRM and related technologies may be evolving. Both of today's applications deal with aspects of watermarking. Assigned to Wistaria Trading, Inc., the first application discloses optimization methods for the insertion, protection, and detection of... Read more →

Hollywood Tests Watermark Technologies

Brad Stone reports in the NYTimes on Movielab's testing of several watermarking technologies. According to Prof. Leonard Kleinrock, one firm's technology was better than the rest. Goodness was judged by maximizing true positives (detecting a watermark when present) and minimizing false negatives (failing to detect when present) and false positives... Read more →

Promotional Albums Can't Be Resold?

[Tip o'the hat to gigalaw] The Washington Post reports that the Universal Music Group is suing Troy Augusto, a seller for offering CDs on eBay. Some of the CDs are marked "For Promotional Use Only" . The EFF has taken up the case in order to protect the "first sale"... Read more →

Broken CSS To Be Used on Recordable DVDs

Several sources including Variety and IGN.com report that the DVD Copy Control Association gave final approval for the use of the broken CSS (Content Scramble System) on recordable DVDs. Variety's Ben Fritz says: Physical and on line retailers are expected to use the CSS application to burn obscure DVDs that... Read more →

DRM and Executables Security Patent Applications

Recently published patent applications often indicate what individuals or companies are thinking about and perhaps how DRM and related technologies may be evolving. The first of today's published applications discloses a digital rights management system with diversified content protection processes, no assignee given. Assigned to HP, the second application discloses... Read more →

Podcast with Jan Samzelius, CEO of ByteShield

I spoke recently with Jan Samzelius, Chairman and CEO of ByteShield, which provides anti-piracy technologies and services to business and game software markets. An earlier blogicle described how the ByteShield solution works. Here's the Podcast file (7:11 Minutes, MP3): Download jan_samzelius_ceo_byteshield_podcast_91907.mp3 Index: 0:00 Introductions 0:11 Overview of ByteShield, brief history... Read more →

NYTimes To Liberate Paid Content

The New York Times announced yesterday that its TimesSelect paid content service for opinion articles will end tomorrow. Instead, the Times will convert to an advertising based model. According to a MarketWatch article, the Times concluded that revenue growth from vertising would be greater than revenue growth from paid subscriptions.... Read more →

Web ad blocking may not be legal

[tip o'the hat to GigaLaw] A CNET article says that there may be litigation over ad blocking. The article is worth a read. It doesn't mention security products like Norton Internet Security 2006 from Symantec (haven't looked closely at the 2008 version) which has a very effective ad blocking capability... Read more →

Watermarking and USB Personal Key Patents

We continue our series on Issued Patents. Assigned to InterDigital Technologies, the first of today's patents addresses ways of generating, sensing, and adjusting watermarks. Assigned to SafeNet, the second patent concerns a USB-compliant personal key with integral input and output devices. 7,272,240, "Method and apparatus for generating, sensing, and adjusting... Read more →

Porn, Piracy, and DRM

Earlier in September, AVN columnist Mark Kernes published a detailed account of an industry meeting called to discuss the adult video business and piracy. According to Kernes, the meeting was attended by "about 65 content producers, attorneys and other interested parties." Attorney Greg Piccionelli, a speaker at the meeting, is... Read more →

DRM Patent Applications

Every Thursday, the US Patent and Trademark Office publishes pending patent applications, two of which are usually noted here each week. (Selected issued patents are noted here.) Application publication has no bearing on whether a patent will eventually be issued based on the application. Still, issued patents and published applications... Read more →

Podcast With Larry Roth, VP, Cinea

Recently, I spoke by phone with Larry Roth, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, of Cinea, a division of Dolby. The conversation focused on Ciena's Running Marks Forensic Watermarking solution. [The Podcast is a lightly edited version of our conversation.] Here's the Podcast: Download larry_roth_vp_cinea_podcast_91207.mp3 Index: 0:00 Introductions 0:20 Brief... Read more →

Uncrackable Watermarking - Another View Of The Microsoft Patent

A PC World article by IDG News' Elizabeth Montalbano gets the story right regarding Microsoft's recently issued watermarking patent. Forensic digital watermarking technology, like the technology Microsoft has patented, doesn't encrypt files the way DRM technology does or prevent people from unauthorized use. However, it can be used to prove... Read more →

Why the CEA Supports The Digital Freedom Campaign

Via email I asked Jason Oxman, Vice President, Communications, of the Consumer Electronics Association, why the CEA was supporting the Digital Freedom Campaign? Thanks for your note. CEA believes that fair use and customary home recording rights must be preserved in the digital age. The Supreme Court’s holding in the... Read more →

Watermarking Patents

Having noted yesterday Microsoft's watermarking patent, today's Recently Issued Patents continues the watermarking theme. Assigned to ContentGuard, the first patent addresses instance specific digital watermarks. Assigned to Digimarc, the second patent concerns invisible digital watermarks. 7,269,735, "Instance specific digital watermarks," assigned to ContentGuard. Abstract A method and apparatus for dynamically... Read more →

Digital Freedom Campaign's Bill of Sights and Sounds

The Digital Freedom Campaign is trying to find a balance between the rights of consumers and the rights of content producers and distributors. The DFC has an interesting list of partners, including the Consumer Electronics Association, EFF, and the ALA. Following a Preamble that references the Sony Betamax decision, which... Read more →

Uncrackable Watermarking - Microsoft

Alexander Wolfe says in an Information Week article that MSFT has received a patent on uncrackable DRM. Well, uncrackable watermarking perhaps. Rights Management should, in my view, be used to refer to the association of rules governing use of digital information and the enforcement of those rules at a distance... Read more →

The Dangers of Humor and Other Thoughts

Sorry that Wil Wheaton was offended at my arguably poor attempt at punny humor. No offense intended. Although I did not make it clear in my post, I was more interested in the reaction of the blogosphere to Mr. Wheaton's problem in getting DirecTV to work with his display. Sorry... Read more →

Ed Bott's Blu-ray HD DVD Update

ZDNet's Ed Bott report on his experiences with Blu-ray and HD DVD under Vista is worth a read. Snippet: Oh, and about that DRM? CyberLink’s PowerDVD software doesn’t use Microsoft’s Media Foundation Protected Pipeline (Mfpmp.exe). The PowerDVD software is perfectly able to enforce the restrictions encoded on the media by... 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 →

Wesley Crusher Crushed By DirecTV HDMI Problem - Not

The blogosphere (e.g., Wired, P2PNet, and various comments appended thereto) was beginning to trash DirecTV and copy protection for HDTV signals. This following a post on Wil Wheaton's blog indicating that his HDTV failed to work when connected to DirecTV through a HDMI interface. Instead of crystal clear TV, he... Read more →

InformationWeek - Coupon-Gate

in an Information Week article says that security researcher Ben Edelman has accused online coupon site Coupons.com of deceptive business practices for using digital rights management (DRM) techniques. Edelman likens Coupons.com's actions to Sony BMG's disastrous attempt to conceal its DRM software using a rootkit. "Just as Sony had to... Read more →

Sony Confirms Rootkit-like Security Flaw

The BBC is reporting that Sony has confirmed a security problem reported last week involving three models of its Microvault USB devices with fingerprint readers. Sony said it was conducting an internal investigation into the problem and would offer a fix "by mid-September".... A Sony spokesperson said of the latest... Read more →

Recently Issued Patents

Assigned to Intertrust, the first of today's patents describes a network communications security agent. Assigned to General Instrument, the second patent addresses the secure decryption of streaming content and Internet Protocol rights management. 7,266,681, "Network communications security agent," assigned to Intertrust. Abstract One embodiment of an inventive networking environment includes... Read more →