Posts from — January 2006

On January 10th, Paris District Court ruled against the presence of DRM mechanisms on Warner Music’s “Testify” CD from Phil Collins. Warner Music will have to pay 59,50 euros in remedies for the plaintiff’s damages, and 5000 euros as a punitive fine.

Sources: audionaughts.net  |  Afterdawn.com

Categories: Decisions, Intrusive TPMs - Rootkits

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Text of Amended Defense and Countersuit
Tanya Andersen’s defense and counterclaim against the RIIA was amended. Since the original post the RIAA has made a motion to dismiss Ms. Andersen’s counterclaim.

Source: Recording Industry vs The People

Related Stories:

• 42 Year Old, Disabled, Single Mother Amends Defense and Countersuit Against the RIAA (January 27, 2006)
• 42 Year Old, Disabled, Single Single Mother Countersues RIAA Under RICO Act (October 1, 2005)

Categories: BigMedia v. P2P Users, Cases

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation is continuing its crusade against CD copy protection. After having participated in legal actions against the two vendors of the technology used by Sony/BMG Music, it is now going after the third major supplier in this market: Macrovision, whose CD copy protection technology is used by EMI.

Sources: DRM Watch | EFF

Categories: BigMedia v NewTech, Copy Restrictions

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Canadian-based artist label and management company Nettwerk Music Group (representing Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan and others) has joined the fight against the RIAA on behalf of consumers who wish to download music.

Sources: CBC  |  ars technica  |  Toronto Star  |  Information Week  |  MTV.com  |  Marketwire  |  Hour  |  The Gate  |  top40-charts.com  |  Canada.com

Categories: Artists Against DRM

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This year may be the year that gadget makers finally conquer the living room, replacing DVD players, VCRs and personal video recorders with all-in-one media devices that serve up HDTV, pre-recorded movies and digital music. If so, it will likely also be the year that people learn the meaning of DRM, an acronym the industry says stands for digital rights management, but critics say should stand for digital restrictions mongering.

Source: Wired

Categories: DRM Analysis, Policy Analysis

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Going to a restaurant. Going to a sporting event. Going shopping. Cabin Fever is alive and well. Wanting to get away from your parents, your kids, your job, your apartment, your house, your problems will never, ever go out of style. For the next thousand years the question will be asked. What do you want to do tonight ? For the next thousand years, people will want to get the heck out of the house. The question is where to and why.

Source: Mark Cuban’s Blog

Categories: BigMedia v NewTech, New Business Models

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Text of GPLv3 Draft
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) on Monday released a draft version of its new GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 3 software license designed to address two increasingly important issues in the software industry: software patents and digital rights management (DRM).

Sources: Computer World | Wired | ZDNet | Information Week | Techtonic

Categories: DRM & TPMs, Open Source, Patents

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Text of NCC submission to all-party Internet group inquiry into DRM
The UK’s National Consumer Council (NCC) is calling for new laws to better protect consumer rights when it comes to enjoying digital content.

Sources: PC Pro | vnunet.com | Inquirer | BBC | Macworld | Politics.co.uk

Categories: DMCA-like Laws, DRM Analysis, International Legal Reform, Policy Analysis

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Last year, the RIAA began proposing a broadcast flag type system and now they are in negotiations with satellite radio companies, such as XM about controlling what their listeners can do. According to the music industry, if consumers are given the opportunity to record music from digital radio, they will likely start recording songs
instead of purchasing them.

Sources: CD Freaks | ZDNet | CNet

Related Post:

• Sirius S50 has been (siriusly) crippled by the RIAA (December 2, 2005)

Categories: BigMedia v NewTech, Copy Restrictions, Satellite Radio

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The movie is Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble." But the persistent buzz around its release has less to do with the film's artistic merits than with the fact that it will be broadcast on the high-definition network HDNet the night of its full theatrical release, Jan. 27, and also made available on DVD just four days later.

Sources: CNet | RealTechNews | Spokesman Reveiw | USA Today | ars technica | The Ledger

Note: This is not unprecedented. Mark Cuban-produced "Good Night and Good Luck" was also released on Cuban's HDNet simultaneously with it theatrical release.

Categories: BigMedia v NewTech, Milestones, New Business Models

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[At CES] … we often got is the word “can’t” applied to the things we really wanted to legally do. If we wanted to put our DVD into a storage device and manage them like we do our music files, well there are a number of illegal ways to do that but no real legal ways today. If we wanted to take music we purchased from iTunes and listen to it on the leading home player the Sonos we can’t do that at all. If we wanted to take music we legally downloaded using a Microsoft “Plays for Sure” service and play it in every room in the house at the same time for a party, well we can’t do that either even if we use all Microsoft offerings.

Source: TG Daily

Categories: BigMedia v NewTech, DRM Restricting Use

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Google has created its own DRM (digital rights management) system for its CES announced video download service, but will support rival systems as well. Not that the world needed another DRM mechanism.

Sources: MacDailyNews  |  The Register  |  Information Week  |  InfoWorld  |  TechDirt  |  CIO Today

Related Stories About Google’s Newly Announced Download Service: CNet  |  PC World  |  L.A. Times  |  Reuters  |  Business Week  |  Washington Post  |  Wired  |  Forbes  |  MSN Money  |  Hexus

Categories: DRM as Market Lock

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Text of Open Letter
EFF Urges EMI in an open letter not to assert any claims under EULAs or the DMCA against security researchers who have been, are, or will be working to identify security problems with copy protection technologies used on EMI compact discs.

Sources: EFF  |  Reuters  |  ars technica  |  Internet News  |  P2PNet  |  Digital Copyright Canada

Categories: DRM & Research, Lobbying

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Michael Geist chronicles the broadcast lobby’s funding of Canadian federal candidates and urges party leaders to take the following pledge:

No Member of Parliament who has accepted financial contributions or other benefits from (i) a copyright lobby group, (ii) its corporate members, or (iii) senior executives as well as (iv) a copyright collective shall serve as Minister of Canadian Heritage or as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, nor sit on any legislative committee (parliamentary or standing committees) conducting hearings or deliberations on copyright matters.

Source: Michael Geist

Categories: Copyright, Legal Reform, Lobbying

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Coldplay’s new CD comes with onerous DRM limitations

Sources: Consumer Affairs | Murmurs | Red Herring | PC Pro | CD Freaks | DVD-Recordable

Categories: Artists Against DRM, BigMedia v NewTech, DRM Restricting Use

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