Managing Rights Management

DigitalQuick

I've started using DigitalQuick from Fasoo (a spinout from Samsung). Very smart guys. App addresses a problem that's kept me off the cloud. Read more →

CES 2012: The Afterview Overview

There's a ZDNet post by Jason Perlow suggesting that the show has 3 years to live given that APPL doesn't participate and that MSFT has withdrawn starting next year. May be correct despite this year's apparent high energy and positive tone. It seems like a lot of "also rans" chasing... Read more →

Kachingle and Wibu added to vendor lists

Kachingle has been added to the "Related/Adjacent" list and Wibu has been added to the "DRM Components" list. Read more →

Vendor and Organization Lists Updated, Corrected

The lists of vendors and rights related organizations have been updated or corrected as necessary. I believe that they are now accurate. Please let me know of further additions, deletions, corrections. Read more →

Kindle Orwellian Bruhaha Revisited

As noted yesterday, Amazon had deleted copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm and issued a credit to purchasers. In an Information Week article, EFF attorney Fred Von Lohmann considers the Kindle EULA: The incident, he said, highlighted the gap in understanding about rights in the digital world and... Read more →

MiniTrue: Orwell Unperson

The Ministry of Truth to Records Department: George Orwell unperson; revise immediately. Doubleplusbad 1984 and Animal Farm down "memory hole." This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had... Read more →

Macrovision Becomes Rovi

As part of its evolving corporate strategy, Macrovision, the owners of Blu-ray BD+ security technologies, has changed its name to Rovi. Broadcast and Cable says: Macrovision, the analog copy-protection giant which shifted strategy last year by acquiring interactive program guide leader Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.8 billion, is now rebranding itself... Read more →

Macrovision (MSVN) Earnings Call, Blu-ray, and BD+ Adoption

Macrovision (MSVM) recently conducted its quarterly earnings call. The complete transcript is at SeekingAlpha.com here. Here are selected excerpts that deal with Blu-ray and BD+: In our other category, we continue to expect fairly linear growth, with the fourth quarter likely the strongest, assuming we continue to successfully broaden our... Read more →

Paramount Licenses Macrovion Technologies Including BD+ For Blu-Ray

Macrovision has announced that Paramount Home Entertainment has licensed copy protection technologies including BD+, the programmable security and DRM technology used with Blu-ray optical discs. ...Paramount Home Entertainment has agreed to license Macrovision’s content protection products, ACP and RipGuard. ACP and RipGuard provide protection against unauthorized copying of content across... Read more →

How To DRM? Byteshield's FTC Submission

ByteShield, the San Francisco-based software and game DRM company, submitted comments in advance of the FTC's hearing on DRM and the consumer. Submitted by CEO Jan Samzelius, the document provides a terrific list of DRM features, functions, and capabilities that would probably delight game and software publishers and provide a... Read more →

AACS Interim License Agreement Expiring?

Tyler Pruitt points out that the AACS-LA interim licensing agreement expires on February 27th. AACS is one of the security standards used in Blu-ray discs and players (and in the now defunct HD-DVD format). The thing that makes this important is the much lauded “Managed Copy” technology specifications are set... Read more →

Macrovision (MSVN), Blu-ray, and BD+

Macrovision held it's quarterly earnings call for analysts and investors on Tuesday. Here are a few selected excerpts from different parts of the transcript that deal with BD+ security for Blu-ray discs and players and the uptake of Blu-ray players in the marketplace. In other category, while we expect to... Read more →

Getting Rid of iTunes DRM

In a comment, Dave Sprogis asks about what happens to iTunes tracks that people have already purchased now that Apple has dropped its FairPlay DRM? In addition to lots of freeware software for stripping out FairPlay DRM available on the Internet, Apple will remove it for a fee (says Tom's... Read more →

AirZip ERM, Acresso, EMC Updates

AirZip has been added to the list ERM providers. Interware has been acquired by Acresso, and belatedly, the EMC acquisition of Authentica has been noted to the right under Enterprise. Read more →

HD and DRM

Writing in Personal Computer World, Barry Fox has a useful article on the dilemmas facing both consumers, studios, and networks over protecting HD video from capture, copying, and redistribution. The studios would prefer that consumers use HDMI compliant connections, but there are extensive legacy devices that only accept analog inputs.... Read more →

DVD Assoc Changes Name, Petitions For Less Expensive Licensing

The DVD Association is now the International Digital Media Alliance (IDMA). They are petitioning the Blu-ray Disc Association and AACS-LC for better licensing terms for blu-ray disc providers: 1 - make BDA/AACS licensing simpler; 2 - make AACS per-title licensing less expensive; 3 - reduce the AACS CPA fee to... Read more →

Adobe Opens Up RTMP But Keeps DRM Under Wraps

Ars Technica reports that Adobe is opening up its Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), its widely used streaming media protocol. At the same time, Adobe is taking legal steps to protect the DRM components used in conjunction with RTMP. Adobe has declined publish details about RTMP's DRM mechanism and will expressly... Read more →

Subscriber's Email Address Remains In DRM-Free Tracks From iTunes

Writing on CNet.UK, Nate Lanxon says that all though DRM has been removed from iTunes tracks, consumers should be aware that these files do still have the email address of the iTunes subscriber. Although iTunes Plus files feature no copy protection, files downloaded still contain the email address you have... Read more →

Apple Retains DRM As Well

EFF Activist Richard Esguerra has a useful blog posting on Apple's remaining DRM and DRM-related technologies, although I fundamentally disagree with the EFF and Esguerra on DRM outside of the music industry. Still, Esguerra's blogicle is worth a read. He points out that Apple still uses DRM: In fact, an... Read more →

Apple Drops DRM, Adopts Variable Pricing

Apple has dropped the use of its FairPlay DRM that restricted the number of copies that could be made of music tracks while adopted variable pricing and giving pricing control back to the labels. This Variety article has a good summary of the situation. Since the labels are throwing in... Read more →

WSJ: RIAA Drops MediaSentry, Picks Up DtecNet

The Wall Street Journal reports that the RIAA has dropped MediaSentry (Safenet), an application that finds and documents copyrighted music on consumer and student PCs. The information is then used as evidence in the RIAA-instigated lawsuits against individuals. Instead, the RIAA will use software or servies from Danish software provider... Read more →

BD+ Broken Yet Again

As many news outlets (e.g., CDRInfo, ) have noted, the latest version of BD+, the virtual machine based software that protects movies and games on Blu-ray discs. The cat and mouse game continues. Read more →

Blu-ray BD+ Resealed, At Least For A While

Slashdot, Engadget, and others are reporting that there are now at least 16 Blu-ray titles that cannot be cracked by SlySoft because of updated / upgraded BD+ programming on the optical disc. The Engadget article also presents a useful BD+ architecture drawing. As I've noted earlier, the BD+ VM-based programmable... Read more →

Jobs: Blu-ray A "Bag of Hurt"

Paul Sweeting's article on ContentAgenda is worth a read. The royalty stack for Blu-ray and implementation issues, especially on laptops where battery life is critical, seem to have pushed Apple away from Blu-ray and toward iTunes High Def downloads. Between the new intellectual property in the physical format, BD-Java, AACS... Read more →

Intel Added to List of Blu-ray BD+ Developers

The Blu-ray BD+ licensing authority maintains a list of BD+ adopters. BD+ is the virtual machine-based programmable security component of the Blu-ray security architecture. Since I last checked, four companies have been added to the list of adopters: Intel, Lite-On IT Corp., MIT Technology, and Quatius Ltd. have been added... Read more →

Norway Pressures Apple to Drop DRM from iPhone

It's now well understood that DRM is being used to enforce business models by protecting content from being used without authorization or on unauthorized devices. Now Norway is being pressured by consumer advocates to force Apple to open their iTunes platform, so says the Romow Science and Technology Blog. The... Read more →

"Open Market" DRM Interoperability

TechCrunch reports that the Sony-backed Open Market proposal for interoperability among various DRM schemes may be gathering support and momentum apart from Apple and Disney. Open Market is a set of policy decisions and a software and services framework that will allow interoperability of various formats and DRM schemes that... Read more →

Blu-ray Player Producers Sued For Patent Infringement

The Patent Prospector blog is reporting that patent assertion company Acacia has filed a patent infringement suit in plaintiff-friendly Eastern (federal) District of Texas. According to the report, defendants named in the suit include Samsung, Best Buy, Denon, Funai, LG, Matsushita, Panasonic, Phillips, Pioneer, and Sharp. Apparently missing is Sony.... Read more →

Macrovision Conference Call: BD+ Security

Macrovision's quarterly earnings call was held last Thursday afternoon. In the Q/A following the standard presentation of results and management's comments, Sasa Zorovic, who covers Macrovision for Goldman Sachs, asked about BD+ security for Blu-ray. Here's a rough transcript of that portion of the call. "2C" refers to the BD+... Read more →

What's Up With CH DVD, Blu-Ray, BD+

Writing on FormatWarCentral, Mehar Gill has a useful article on the Chinese DVD format, CH DVD and a potential battle with Blu-ray. Drawing in part on a ZDNET China article, Gill says: [The ZDNet article takes] the opportunity to talk about Blu-ray and BD+ by stating it may slow down... Read more →