Copyright issues

It's back!
Apple nemesis PlayFair, the software that helps create DRM-free versions of song files downloaded from iTunes, is back on a... May 12, 2004

SealedMedia 3.2 DRM system available
Digital rights management software provider SealedMedia has released version 3.2 of its namesake product. While targeted more at enterprise document... April 15, 2004

ContentGuard DRM SDK available
ContentGuard is delivering a software development kit for ISVs that want to add MPEG Rights Expression Language (REL) to their... April 14, 2004

Companies get behind MPEG REL
Twenty-four companies from the world of entertainment, consumer electronics and technology today pledged support for the new MPEG Rights Expression... March 31, 2004

DRM in the news
There's a couple pieces of digital rights management news this week as HP announced its working on DRM scheme for... March 04, 2004

Disney licenses with Acacia
This is not a good sign for those that believe Acacia is late to the party on its streaming media... February 26, 2004

Intel wants global DRM
Intel chief Craig Barrett has called for a global DRM system that allows consumers to flexibly use content to suit... February 24, 2004

New DRM standard for mobile devices
The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) this week announced a new standard dubbed DRM 2.0 Enabler Release for protecting digital music,... February 03, 2004

Bad move, RIAA
BusinessWeek Online's Alex Salkever says the recent filing of 532 lawsuits by the RIAA against alleged file swappers could do... January 27, 2004

Making lemonade out of lemons
As part of its kick off to offer 100 million free iTunes downloads to its customers, Pepsi will use 20... January 26, 2004

Live concert recordings online
Today's New York Times has a great story on how some bands are making money from posting their live shows... January 22, 2004

Dear MPAA
Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson pens a "letter" to the next head of the Motion Picture Association pleading them to embrace... January 07, 2004

Group pushing DRM at CES
A group of technology companies this week will start unveiling a new system for protecting digital content, including music and... January 06, 2004

E-learning could be patent-fight loser
The Sydney Morning Herald sees e-learning, which relies heavily on streaming and applets, as the biggest potential loser in the... December 16, 2003

A new way to share (meta) content
A new industry group has proposed a new way to share digital content across multiple networks and services (peer-to-peer, music... December 11, 2003

Universities wary of Acacia
After chasing porn operators and music sites, Acacia Research is turning its patent lawyers on universities, according to this article... November 26, 2003

Whose 99 cents is it?
According to an article in The Register, Apple admitted that it makes no revenue off of the 99-cents per song... November 12, 2003

Here today, gone tomorrow
Last week I mention the new campus jukebox system available at MIT where students can request music online and hear... November 03, 2003

Music service roundup
The New York Time's "State of the Art: Paying the Piper, Round 2: The Repertory Grows" article looks at and... October 31, 2003

iTunes for Windows is here
As expected, Apple launched its iTunes for Windows service today, giving Windows users the same access Mac aficionados have had... October 16, 2003

DIY DRM
ContentGuard has created a Web site for users to explore the intricacies of the MPEG Rights Express Language (REL), a... October 08, 2003

Thanks for playing ... try again!
Another CD copy protection scheme is easily defeated: Researcher John Halderman of the Princeton University Department of Computer Science has...

You know what the say about assume
Poor Lorraine Sullivan. She assumed that because Kazaa is still operating, it is perfectly legal to download songs off of... October 02, 2003

Music download frustrations
A colleague creating a PowerPoint presentation for a department meeting wanted to add Pink Floyd's "Money" to one of the... September 30, 2003

Turnabout is fair play
In the battle of copyright protection this is a funny twist: Sharman Networks, Kazaa's owner, is suing the RIAA for... September 25, 2003

New DRM player
DigitalContainers has come full circle with this week's announcement that is has bought patent rights to certain Digital Rights Management... September 24, 2003

History repeating itself
The New York Times looks at the parallels between battle over cryptography technology a few years back and today's battle... September 23, 2003

Senator challenges RIAA
A new bill that challenges the RIAA's subpoena campaign was introduced Tuesday by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas). The jist of... September 17, 2003

Pot calling the kettle black?
While the movie industry runs around looking for people who put illegal copies of films on the 'Net, it should... September 16, 2003

Summing up the RIAA's tactics
I came across a couple of great columns that reflect on the RIAA's filing of 261 lawsuits against alleged music... September 12, 2003

Equal access to legal music?
One Yale alum believes the school should hurry up and provide an equal-opportunity alternative to illegal music downloads to help... September 10, 2003

New source to buy music
With RealNetworks claiming its Rhapsody service is streaming over 500,000 songs per day and news that the RIAA has filed... September 09, 2003

File-swapper amnesty program chided
Police departments hold gun buyback programs, states have tax amnesty periods for delinquents and now the RIAA is hoping a... September 08, 2003

Auctioning a downloaded song
An iTunes user is auctioning off a song he bought through the service. It sounds like an attempt to test... September 03, 2003

Colleges to create on music service?
According to a report in today's Boston Globe, a handful of colleges and universities are looking to offer a licensed...

Mainstream DRM still a ways down the road
It seems like a few weeks ago since we did our "Managing digital rights" (or 10 things you should know... September 02, 2003

As the RIAA world turns
More today on the RIAA's battle against those that illegally download copyright-protected music. First, a study by Pew Internet claims... August 01, 2003

PacBell sues RIAA
About time someone with some muscle (read: deep financial pockets) stands up to the RIAA and its use of the... July 31, 2003

iTunes changing the rules of listening?
BusinessWeek's Charles Haddad takes a look at Apple's iTunes service and points out that it puts fans in control, not... July 30, 2003

MPEG-21 Rights Expression Language white paper
For those interested in Digital Rights Management technologies, Rightscom has a new white paper (PDF file) out on MPEG-21 Rights... July 29, 2003

Metallica sounds more like John Denver
In an attempt to limit piracy of its new album "St. Anger" via peer-to-peer networks, Metallica has seeded various file... June 17, 2003

iTunes file sharing
Maybe the the iTunes file-sharing-over-the-Internet feature is not dead afterall. [And yes, I am catching up on my geek.com reading... June 11, 2003

Media moguls continue to fear digital piracy
The movie and music industry are still hesitant to produce more digital on-demand services for fear of piracy. Until security... June 10, 2003

Maybe there's still heat in the debate
Yesterday I mentioned the settlement between the RIAA and Internet radio broadcasters that puts an end to the debate over... June 05, 2003

RIAA and college Webcasters strike deal
The licensing saga that had some non-profit Internet radio Webcasters running for cover has been resolved. Under a deal reached... June 04, 2003

Colleges to charge for online music?
Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University, has come up with a plan to combat music piracy on college campuses:... May 27, 2003

The RIAA and technology
Who wrote this: It's a necessary part of the job, and also the right thing to do -- if you... May 15, 2003

IEEE examines copy protection issues
The IEEE's Spectrum magazine has a cover story on protecting digital media content from piracy. The piece examines how various... May 08, 2003

Verizon loses another round
Peer-to-peer file-sharing network users beware: Verizon has lost another round in its fight against the Recording Industry Association of America.... April 26, 2003

Taking a look at copyright laws
Esteemed Network World columnists Scott Bradner and Mark Gibbs are on the same page (metaphorically speaking) when it comes to... April 07, 2003

Students beware...
The recording industry's trade group is going after four college students for setting up intra-campus music swapping networks. In addition... April 04, 2003

Streaming sites fight patent claim
Looks like Acacia's attempt at claiming royalties based on its patent of basic audio and video streaming technology is back... April 03, 2003

ISMA's Content Protection spec out for review
The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) has released its Content Protection specification for peer review. The specification, once finalized, is... April 01, 2003

Students and pirated music
The Associated Press recently surveyed students from The Art Institute of California-San Francisco on their views regarding downloading copyright-protected music.... March 21, 2003

ISMA adds advisory panel
The Internet Streaming Media Alliance, a group of vendors dedicated to creating a standards-based framework for encoding, delivering and managing... February 27, 2003

When an MIT grad student as too much time on their hands
Looking to refute the claims of the Motion Picture Association that a 12-year-old could pirate a show around the globe... February 20, 2003

Listen.com cuts fees
Listen.com's Rhapsody online music service says it is cutting it's fee for burning a song to CD down to $.49... February 13, 2003

RIAA, tech companies agree on copyright plan
Copying music, even from a CD you bought to your own MP3 player, has been a contentious issue for the... January 14, 2003

Company tries to lay claim to streaming patents
Acacia Research Corp. is attempting to make money the old fashioned way - lawsuits. The company claims its patent on... January 02, 2003

Pros and cons of digital copyrights
Meetings and lots of walking dominated my day here at Comdex yesterday, but my colleague Paul Roberts at the IDG... November 20, 2002

Microsoft reverses copy protection stance
Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP Media Center Edition release just got a whole lot better and not because of technology, but... October 10, 2002

Inappropriate use of the Internet at work?!?
Can you believe employees take advantage of their high-speed Internet connections at work to sometimes download illegal copies of videos... October 08, 2002

House approves Webcaster royalty deal
Small Webcasters are another step closer to the finish line in their battle against the music industry over royalty payments...

Record industry and Webcasters reach deal
An Associated Press report this past weekend says the recording industry and small Webcasters have reached a deal over royalty... October 07, 2002

Online Webcasters may get royalty rate reprieve
One of the big controversies in online streaming is rates set by the Library of Congress that Webcasters must pay... September 30, 2002

Record labels must get a clue
A story on DigitalMass.com today reports the record labels are looking for a Congressional 'ok' to start going after peer-to-peer... September 27, 2002