Managing Rights Management

Ericsson and CEA Smart Contracts and Rights Management Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published on Thursdays. This week's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of smart contracts (blockchains, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Ericsson (SE), the first application discloses techniques for managing service access authorization using smart contracts. Assigned to Commissioner For Atomic Energy And... Read more →

Verizon and Telepathy Labs Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Verizon, the first patent addresses techniques for using blockchains in conjunction with virtual SIM cards. Assigned to Telepathy Labs, the second patent... Read more →

AT&T and SonicWall Digital Fingerprinting Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to AT&T, the first patent addresses techniques for sharing timed fingerprint location information. Assigned to SonicWall, the second patent addresses techniques for image based spam blocking. 10,206,113, "Sharing timed fingerprint... Read more →

CES 2010: DRM Is Alive And Well - Part 1

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show was very upbeat, perhaps more so than two years ago (last year doesn't count given the economic implosion resulting in widespread malaise and depression). Of course the purpose of the these shows is to drum up excitement. 3D TV (not quite ready for prime time... Read more →

RIAA Stops Suing Consumers - Not!

The NYTimes and other outlets reported that the RIAA is ending its lawsuits individual music downloaders. Not so, says Slashdot: According to a report on Wired.com, the RIAA spokesman claims that the RIAA has not filed any new lawsuits "for months"; according to the Wall Street Journal report the RIAA... Read more →

CNET: The RIAA's Letter to ISPs

cnet.com has obtained a copy of letters sent by the RIAA to ISPs regarding P2P downloading of music files. Please bear in mind that this letter serves as an official notice to you that this network user may be liable for the illegal activity occurring on your network. This letter... Read more →

Backdooring Skype

[tip o' the hat to Dave Farber's IP list] Speculation abounds that Skype has incorporated backdoors so that national security agencies can listen in on Skype calls. So much for privacy. An article posted by Daniel AJ Sokolov on the heise security site says in part: At a meeting with... Read more →

ISP Targeted Advertising

One example of the current discussion regarding ISP efforts to participate in revenue streams based on advertising is this overview article that appeared in MediaPost. Charter and others are looking into ad insertion based on capturing information about the web browsing behavior of their customers. In the U.S., ad company... Read more →

Warner Music Hires Jim Griffin To Herd Music Industry "Cats"

Sam Gustin reports on Conde Naste's Portfolio.com site that Warner Music's head honcho Edgar Bronfman, Jr. has hired noted music industry exec Jim Griffin, formerly Geffen Music's digital chief, to lead Warner's drive to fix the music industry's business model. Griffin will reportedly focus on getting the ISPs to add... Read more →

Comcast Capitulates On Net Neutrality

According to this NYTimes article and other sources, Comcast has said that it will move to application neutral network management and disclose publicly its bandwidth management techniques. Tests by the Associated Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (among others) showed that Comcast was disrupting P2P traffic with forged packets. The... Read more →