Tag archive: DRM

Borrowing e-books from libraries is a nifty idea. Not only are the titles digital (and thus searchable, sync-able, available on a wide range of devices and capable of scaling to match user's displays and devices), but readers and libraries don't have to deal with the overhead of managing, storing, cataloging, repairing, and replacing physical books. Digital editions are perpetually brand new. Even better, there are no late fees with… Read More

Previously announced during early November, Sony rolled out a revised version of the PlayStation Network digital rights management policy for owners of the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable. The policy change will also apply to the Vita when it launches in North America next year. All new game purchases made on the PlayStation Network as of November 18 can only be accessed on two devices at any given time. Sony previous allowed users… Read More

After the movie studios botched the initial launch of UltraViolet before the Blu-ray release of Horrible Bosses last month, the collective group of UltraViolet backers has finally enabled the ability to stream and download standard definition movies. With Universal Pictures, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. all pushing the technology, the studios… Read More

Owned by Best Buy, CinemaNow is in the process of upgrading its movie library to 1080p quality and has already updated several hundred titles. However, not all users will be able to take advantage of the new streaming quality. Based on a new partnership with Intel, only users running on a second generation Core i3, i5, or i7 processor will be able to access the high definition stream. Owners of computers with the first generation processor or… Read More

Walmart has issued a memo to all music licensing partners and informed them that the digital music store at “mp3.walmart.com” will be shutting down on August 28, 2011. All music content will no longer be available for download and users are urged to download DRM-free tracks before becoming unavailable. After the store closes up, tracks containing DRM will still be supported and will continue to work as the DRM servers are being kept… Read More

The first UltraViolet-enabled devices and titles are cleared for release this fall. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem alliance has begun the licensing process making UltraViolet available to the consumer as early as October. If a consumer purchases a new Blu-ray or DVD movie, UltraViolet allows the consumer to create an account to own the digital rights of the content. With a digital locker of content in the cloud, consumers can… Read More

In a small sign that Android 3.0 is nearing release, Google has created a preview page and SDK for Honeycomb (its internal codename) developers. Digging around, some coders even found the new logo (seen above). From the new logo and design, it's clear that Google's designers saw Tron Legacy and thoroughly enjoyed the futuristic, neon, cyan computer world of the film. Honeycomb is the first tablet version of Android. Everything from… Read More

It took the Mac App Store just one day to rack up over one million downloaded apps, and considerably less time time for hackers to crack the store's digital rights management (DRM) technology. The Mac App Store launched yesterday and features a range of third-party developed apps as well as Apple apps that include the popular programs iPhoto, Garageband, and Aperture 3. Apple designed the store to make use of DRM encryption to eliminate… Read More

Last summer the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) announced a project dubbed UltraViolet, intended to serve as a digital media locker for consumers, enabling users to pull up any digital media they owned—DVDs, Blu-ray discs, digital video downloads, whatever—on any computer, device, or platform they liked, without having to have the physical media onhand, and regardless of technology or format. UltraViolet wanted to… Read More

Online music store eMusic has always struggled against the iTunes, Amazon MP3s, Napsters, and RealNetworks of the world by offering literally millions of tracks from independent musicians and music distributors at cut-rate prices via a monthly subscription service. And, while many commercial digital music stores have been swallowed by the sands of time (and misbegotten DRM technologies) eMusic successfully evaded the DRM nightmare and is still… Read More

Netflix is already available on Windows Phone 7, yet the app is missing from Android phones. In a blog post Friday, Greg Peters, VP of product development, said that Netflix will be coming to select Android phones in early 2011, but explained why the company can't release its movie streaming app on all Android devices. The problem comes down to DRM. “We are eager to launch on these devices and are disappointed that we haven’t been… Read More

Hackers have cracked the antipiracy code commonly used in set-top boxes, and Blu-ray and DVD players, Intel told several news outlets yesterday. Rumors flew Tuesday that the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) technology was compromised. Intel confirmed the news yesterday. Intel spokesman Tom Waldrop said the code published online “appears” to be a master key. Users can derive keys from this published master key that will work on… Read More

Back in 2008, Real Networks promised to usher in a new era in digital entertainment with RealDVD, which claimed to offer 100 percent legal copying of DVDs for personal use so owners could enjoy them on their PCs, portable media devices, and other digital technology. Of course, it took Hollywood—in the form of the MPAA—only a short time to slam a lawsuit on RealNetworks claiming RealDVD amounted to little more than… Read More

“No two ways about it: Piracy is legally and morally wrong.” We’ve all heard it a million times. We’ve heard the analogies to walking out of a store with a CD under your jacket, sending software developers straight to the unemployment line or ripping food right out of a poor key grip’s mouth. And for some of us, we’ve even seen people we know ensnared by the law when they finally get caught gorging on free motion pictures and music. Like… Read More