Managing Rights Management

Coalition of Media Companies Issues Rules: Block UPloading of Their Videos

[tip o' the hat to gigalaw.com] Earlier this week, YouTube announced it content filtering technologies. Now USAToday reports that a coalition of major media and Internet companies published a set of guidelines for handling copyright-protected videos on large user-generated sites. YouTube, which is being sued by Viacom for allowing copyrighted... Read more →

Comcast Blocking Or Delaying P2P Traffic

The Associated Press reports that Comcast blocks and/or delays P2P traffic when its subscribers try to upload an entire file to another Comcast subscriber. Comcast's technology kicks in, though not consistently, when one BitTorrent user attempts to share a complete file with another user. Each PC gets a message invisible... Read more →

Watermarking Patent Applications

Today's patent applications deal with various aspects of watermarking. Assigned to AT&T, the first discloses natural language watermarks. Assigned to Kaleidescape, Inc., the second discloses techniques for watermarking and fingerprinting digital content using alternative blocks to embed information. 20070244693, "Natural Language Watermarking," assigned to AT&T. Abstract A method, system and... Read more →

Apple Opens iPhone To 3rd Party Applications

According to the AP (via Excite), Apple that it is opening the iPhone platform to 3rd party developers and applications. Now their applications will be able to run directly on the iphone. Apple infuriated developers and some iPhone users when it issued a software update September 27 that disabled unofficial... Read more →

YouTube Content Matching

Writing on PublicKnowledge.org, Gigi Sohn provides a more detailed description of the YouTube content matching process. Here is how the system works: A copyright holder uploads its works into a reference database, which then generates identification files by which uploaded videos are matched. When a user uploads a video onto... Read more →

Toshiba and Sony Watermarking Patents Issued

Every Tuesday the US Patent and Trademark Office issues new patents. This weeks selection address various aspects of watermarking. Assigned to Toshiba, the first patent address techniques for watermark detection. Assigned to Sony, the second patent addresses the use of two watermarks. 7,284,130, "Digital watermark detection method and apparatus," assigned... Read more →

YouTube Using Watermarks For Studio Content

The Associated Press (via Excite.com) reports that Google and YouTube have rolled out technologies to identify and filter video clips from at least some of the major movie studios, including Disney and Warner. According to the article, YouTube has also been using audio watermarking technologies from Audible Magic to identify... Read more →

AACS Key Changes, BD+ Confirmed - Sorta

An article in yesterday's WSJ all but confirmed that that latest Fox releases are protected by BD+, a second, virtual machine based security layer used by Blu-ray and not HD-DVD discs. The WSJ article also noted that the AACS licensing authority has released a new key for AACS, the renewable... Read more →

Music Label Victory Case Appealed

A variety of news sources report that the verdict in favor of the major music labels in the Thomas downloading case will be appealed. Declan McCullagh has a good analysis of why they won. Among his points: 3. "Making available." Jury Instruction 15 is more important. It says that the... Read more →

Secure Electronic Delivery and Media Distribution Patents

Assigned to InterTrust, the first of today's patents discloses techniques for secure and trusted delivery and execution. Assigned to LMP Media, the second patent discloses an electronic media distribution system. 7,281,133, "Trusted and secure techniques, systems and methods for item delivery and execution," assigned to InterTrust. Abstract Documents and other... Read more →