We reported last week that Methlabs.org had been "hijacked" and that the team had moved to sourceforge. Now it appears that the site has been returned to the proper owners, who now have changed name from Methlabs to Phoenix Labs. This is the news posted on the site...
The old domains are now under possession of Phoenix Labs and should redirect here shortly (along with http://peerguardian.sf.net).
We’ll have our new design up soon. For now, this works. Our new name is Phoenix Labs.
It's good to see everything is returning to normal. I'm sure we will all see some more excellent work from Phoenix Labs as time goes on :-)
U.S. software giant Microsoft and chip-maker Intel have pledged support for the HD-DVD format; a competing format to become the next generation standard to replace DVDs. The format, developed by Toshiba is going head to head with Blu-Ray which was developed by Sony Corp. and is promoted by the Blu-Ray Disc Association. Both formats, which depend on blue lasers can store much more data than ordinary DVDs which makes them perfect to store high definition movies and next generation videogames.
Possibly billions of dollars is being fought for by both sides, whom also both have major backing. Blu-Ray has scored a lot of support especially from Hollywood, being backed by such studios as Walt Disney Co., Sony Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox. Many experts have long being saying that it seemed Blu-Ray has advantage in the format war, but the added support from Intel and Microsoft for HD-DVD was a blow to Blu-Ray.
This might give HD-DVD the edge over Blu-Ray at least in North America, Intel and Microsoft's strongest market. "We wanted to choose the format that has the highest probability of this market taking off," said Stephen Balogh, director of optical media standards and technologies at Intel. HD-DVD also has support from Hollywood studios including Universal and Paramount.
One of the biggest annoyances to European gamers who bought a PSP earlier this month is the fact that you can't run homebrew apps on Firmware v.1.52 or 2.0 which came on a demo disc with the PSP. Originally, everyone had been hoping for a downgrader to be written so that PSPs could downgrade to either 1.00 or 1.50 firmware; allowing homebrew code to be run on the PSP. Unfortunately a working safe downgrader just never showed up (yet), despite claims and promises by certain groups.
However, many will be glad to know that there has been progress made with 2.0 firmware. This news is a few days old so many of you may have already noticed the buffer overflow exploit that was discovered to exist in libtiff in the photo viewer on PSP 2.0. The first custom code to be run on PSP 2.0 simply made the screen colour change. Two files were needed, frame_buffer.png and overflow.tif.
The framebuffer.png had to be set as wallpaper, then the overflow.tif file had to be placed in the PHOTO directory on the Memory Stick. Once opened in the photo viewer, the colour of the screen changed. It's not something you would really have use for but it is simply proof of concept, that an exploit exists and could be used for more useful code.
Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. has hit back at the comments made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs earlier this week that accused major music labels of being greedy for demanding that the prices of some music downloads should be pushed up. Apple has a policy of selling songs for 99c. It's simple and it's easy and good for an emerging market to have set prices, but the music labels believe that variable pricing should be used based on the popularity of tracks.
"There’s no content that I know of that does not have variable pricing," said Mr. Bronfman at an investors conference in New York. "Not all songs are created equal—not all time periods are created equal. We want, and will insist upon having, variable pricing." Steve Jobs worries that increasing the price of music will simply turn many users of legal net music stores back to piracy on P2P networks. Mr. Bronfman believes that Apple's one price for all tracks is not just unfair to the labels, but also to artists.
"To have only one price point is not fair to our artists, and I dare say not appropriate to consumers. The market should decide, not a single retailer," he said. "Some songs should be $0.99 and some songs should be more. I don't want to give anyone the impression that $0.99 is a thing of the past." One thing the music industry needs to adjust to is the difference in selling music on CDs as full albums and selling music as Internet downloads; most consumers are only interested in a few tracks.
So it seems that copyright laws in Finland might make it impossible for consumers to move their music to a MAC or Linux OS but according to Tommi Kyyrä of IFPI Finland, this is fine because listening to music on a computer is simply a "privilege". So what advice would this man or organisation give to users of either Macs or Linux? Consider purchasing a regular CD player.
This was said in a quote from Tommi Kyyrä on tietokone.fi. It was a response given after a question of whether the copyright protection schemes would work on operating systems other than windows was asked. Since it is in Finnish, here's a rough English translation of his reply I got from a blog at tigert.com:
"Now, we need to understand that listening to music on your computer is an extra privilege. Normally people listen to music on their car or through their home stereos", says Kyyrä and continues; "If you are a Linux or Mac user, you should consider purchasing a regular CD player."
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has unveiled yet another mobile phone/music player. The Nokia 6630 Music Edition phone is a special music version of the iconic 3G smartphone. It supports playback of the MP3, AAC and WMA audio formats and comes bundled with a 256MB memory card to store the tracks. You can transfer music to the Nokia 6630 Music Edition quickly and easily, with the included Nokia PC Suite software or with the bundled Nokia USB MMC/SD reader.
Connecting your favourite headphones is a snap with the Nokia Audio Adapter and its 3.5 mm stereo jack. Nokia also launched the Nokia Music Pack, a bundled package of enhancements that makes it easy to enjoy your music collection on your mobile device. The package includes the Nokia Audio Adapter, the Nokia 256 MB MMC Card, the Nokia USB MMC/SD reader and Nokia Stereo Audio Cable.
Of course along with its audio capabilities, it also has all the other features you would expect from a Smartphone including a 1.3 megapixel camera, mobile broadband access with WCDMA networks, mobile email, streaming video and much more. The phone is available in either Rustic Red or Aluminium Grey. It will ship later this month and is available for European, Middle Eastern and African markets.
Apple Computers CEO Steve Jobs has attacked major record companies, claiming that the world's biggest labels have begun demanding that the iTunes music store prices are raised. Speculation regarding iTMS price hikes has been around ever since the store launched with a strict music pricing policy. Jobs believes that these record companies are simply getting greedy and a price hike could damage their competition with online piracy.
"We're trying to compete with piracy," he said. "We're trying to pull people away from piracy and say, 'You can buy these songs legally for a fair price'. If the price goes up people will go back to piracy, then everybody loses." Jobs also reminded the labels of the sweet deal they are receiving from the iTunes store.
"The labels make more money from selling tracks on iTunes than when they sell a CD. There are no marketing costs for them." he said. "If they want to raise the prices it just means they're getting a little greedy." For months now more and more businessmen from labels have been anonymously complaining about Apple's pricing policies.
Some believed that Apple shouldn't have the right to set the prices of the music tracks they provide to the service. iTunes has sold over half a billion songs and the sales increase daily, so it's no wonder the businessmen over at the worlds largest record companies want to increase prices. Even a few cents extra per track multiplied by millions makes a whole lot of difference.
RealNetworks and Sprint are to work together to compete with the iTunes phone that was unveiled by Apple earlier this month -- Rhapsody Radio. In order to compete the pair have moved one tiny step closer to the ultimate goal; music downloads over cellular networks. That's one problem with the Motorola ROKR phone for many people, it lacks the ability to download tracks over the air and still relies on a PC and music purchases over the Internet.
So how did RealNetworks and Sprint work together to compete with the iTunes phone? Firstly live music can be streamed over the air in a radio-type format to some subscribers. In some cases, subscribers wont need a new phone and will not need to have lots of storage capacity for music. The iTunes phone, launched by Cingular Wireless is limited to 100 tracks.
"The great thing about Streaming is that there's no memory requirement," said Kevin Nakao, RealNetworks' general manager of mobile services. "There's not a lot of handsets with memory out there. This is an easy and convenient way for customers to get and hear the music." The Rhapsody Radio service is similar to a service offered by RealNetworks to PC users, allowing them to listen to a selection of music channels. The mobile version will allow access to music channels, podcasts, music news and videos.
Grokster Ltd. is reportedly in talks with Mashboxx over the possibility of Mashboxx acquiring the company. The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources for the report. Grokster is currently involved in a copyright infringement lawsuit mess after the June ruling by the Supreme Court that ruled under some circumstances, owners and operators of P2P services could be held liable for copyright infringements by third parties.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Mashboxx would most likely work out a revenue-sharing arrangement with Grokster. However, before any deal could be met between the two companies, the lawsuits pending against Grokster by record labels would have to be dropped or settled the sources said. Mashboxx is a new P2P service that will offer legal music downloads and possibly the sharing of music not subject to copyright restrictions.
Mashboxx interestingly is headed by format Grokster president Wayne Rosso. Mashboxx has a deal with Shawn Fanning's SnoCap to facilitate authorized content distribution.
Jon Newton at p2pnet has been busy lately covering RIAA lawsuit victims who continue to claim their innocence and are willing to stand up to the big four major record labels instead of being forced to settle. He has completed an excellent article covering several lawsuit victims and their situations. It's an excellent read for anyone on either side of the music downloading debate. Here's an extract of the introduction...
An unusual, extremely expensive, international online club is starting to form.
Its first member was Patricia Santangelo, a single New York mother of five.
Next came Dawnell Leadbetter, another single mother, this time from the Seattle area. If you’re a regular p2pnet reader, you’ll recognize both of the above names.
The third member was someone you haven't met before: Tanya Andersen (right), a single mother who's living in Oregon and who's seriously disabled with a painful medical condition. She and her eight-year-old daughter get by on social security payments.
By now, you'll have probably guessed the club members are all women being brutally victimized by EMI, Universal, Warner and Sony BMG, the huge, multi-billion-dollar record label cartel that's using its immense financial and political weight and deep, dark connections to law enforcement agencies in a bizarre marketing scheme.
Sometimes when we encounter copy protection on CDs that make it a pain in the ass to rip the CDs, we often make a major mistake by blaming the artists because their work is protected with copy protection. However, in a lot of cases, artists who are signed to major labels like Sony that use copy protection on CDs don't agree with it and often become angered about it. Tim Foreman of Switchfoot has become the latest artist to speak out against Digital Rights Management Technology at a music forum.
He expressed his anger at DRM after the band received numerous complaints from fans that they could not import the music to programs like iTunes. "My heart is heavy with this whole copy-protection thing." Foreman said. "We were horrified when we first heard about the new copy-protection policy that is being implemented by most major labels, including Sony (our own label), and immediately looked into all our options for removing this from our new album." he added.
"Unfortunately, this is the new policy for all new major releases from these record companies. It is heartbreaking to see our blood, sweat and tears over the past two years blurred by the confusion and frustration surrounding this new technology." He also expressed his feelings about criticism being misdirected to artists over copy protection. "It is also unfortunate when bands such as ourselves, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, etc. are the target of this criticism, when there is no possible way to avoid this new industry policy." he said.
In co-operation with Digital-Digest.com, BitBurners.com, owned by whom many of you know as "CD-RW.org" (his AfterDawn forum nick) has become an official host for The High Definition DVD FAQ. The comprehensive document will explain what the future of optical recording and digital media looks like. The FAQ is copyright Xiao Fang of Digital Digest. The document covers Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, Xbox360, PlayStation 3, video compression issues and more.
The FAQ will be updated regularly by Xiao Fang who demonstrates excellent knowledge of High Definition by giving simple, easy to understand answers to the many questions that plague consumers and will continue to plague more over the coming years. It is recommended that all users read the FAQ -- it is better to know now than play a game of catch up later!
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sent cease and desist letters to seven P2P companies demanding that they halt their "practice of encouraging users to illegally distribute copyrighted material". This is the first action taken by the group which represents major record companies since the Grokster decision earlier this year in which the Supreme Court ruled that operators of P2P services could be held liable for copyright infringement by third parties under some circumstances.
For example a company that encouraged or incited copyright infringement using its services could be held liable for the actions of third-parties. "Companies situated similarly to Grokster have been given ample opportunity to do the right thing," a RIAA spokesperson said. "Those businesses that continue to knowingly operate on the wrong side of that line do so at their own risk."
The RIAA refused to name the companies that have received letters. "We demand that you immediately cease-and-desist from enabling and inducing the infringement of RIAA member sound recordings. If you wish to discuss pre-litigation resolution of these claims against you, please contact us immediately." the RIAA states in a copy of a letter that News.com managed to obtain.
Microsoft has revealed the release dates for the Xbox 360 gaming console. In the U.S. the console will be available on November 22nd. European gamers will have to wait until December 2nd to get their hands on the console and 8 days later on December 10th, the console will be available in Japan. Unfortunately for gamers in Australia, Colombia, Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan there will be no late 2005 release of the console as the only details Microsoft gave concerning those locations is the console will arrive sometime in 2006.
The company also announced that the console will cost ¥37,900 ($344) in Japan. That price includes the consoles removable 20GB HDD, wireless controller, remote control, headset and Ethernet + AV cables. The company already revealed the U.S. and E.U. prices for the console in August, (US$299 and €299 (£209 in UK). The release dates were revealed by Microsoft at the Tokyo Games Show.
Microsoft is hoping to steal some of Sony's Japanese market share with the Xbox 360 as it failed to make a dent with the launch of the first Xbox console. Now the company is back for a second attempt and has ensured it will take the "first mover advantage" which it hopes will boost sales and help it to dethrone Sony's Playstation dominance.
Today we came across an interesting article in a student online newspaper called The Phoenix, (Swarthmore College's Online Newspaper). It's not uncommon to browse through our forums and hear many complaints about copy control and the restrictions placed on us by the Movie Industry concerning importing DVDs. On this particular College Campus, there is an entertainment club called "Film of Fury", which is dedicated to showing martial arts movies.
Matt Singleton, treasurer of Films of Fury explained to the author that restrictions placed on DVDs can make it a daunting task to import a definitive version of Fist of Legend, a classic Jet Li movie. While the movie is available to buy in the United States, it is missing several minutes of the movie including an opium scene which is vital to character development. The subtitles also supplied with the U.S. version are apparently less understandable than those supplied with the Taiwan version of the movie.
However, the complaints from the group about importing the DVD concern the copy protection mechanisms on the disc, including Content Scrambling System (CSS) and Region Coding which is designed to ensure that DVDs can only be playable in certain regions of the world where they have been bought. Fortunately, mainly because of Norwegian hacker, Jon Lech Johansen, these restrictions can be removed from the DVDs making them viewable in other regions and you no longer are required to use a "licensed" DVD player.
Sony has recalled over 3.5m power adapters that were sold with the slimline version of the console between August and December 2004. The faulty adapters in question could overheat causing damage or injury. The specific models in question are SCPH70002, 70003 and 70004. People who think they may have one of the faulty adaptors are urged to go to www.ps2ac.com for more information. Sony said that customers should not return the faulty adapters to the place they bought the console.
Sony has received 40 complaints in the U.S. related to the adapters. Over two thirds of the affected consoles were sold in Europe, 960,000 of the units were sold in the US, 210,000 in Asia and 60,000 in Japan. The company has also admitted that it is a possibility that some affected adapters may have been bought after December 2004.
The Bundesverfassungsgericht, the federal constitutional court in Germany has rejected a complaint by a consumer that copy protection mechanisms on DVDs and CDs are a major disadvantage to consumers and conflict with private copying rights. The court didn't recognise a disadvantage to consumers because of copy protection on DVDs and CDs so gave no decision before the consumer would have to follow normal civil procedure against the manufacturer.
However, the worrying part is that the court also commented on fair-use rights of entertainment products purchased; it doubted that the constitution provides a right which would make home copying of movies legal. The problem is that in most countries, copying for private use is considered legal, but circumventing copy protection mechanisms isn't. For this reason, both conflict in many situations as most of the DVDs you buy are copy protected.
The consumer was contesting about provision 95a German Copyright Law which gave rightsholders the right to include copy protection on their products and also prohibits the circumvention of such protections. However, just back in April a French court came to a completely different decision and ruled copy protection measures on DVDs were incompatible with private use and were prohibited, overturning an earlier decision that denied private copying was a right.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have become the two latest members of the ultra high speed internet project Internet2. Both groups joined the research network as a way of experimenting delivering content with Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection as very high speeds. Internet2 is a network setup across the US connecting over 200 academic institutions.
The network is capable of speeds of up to 10Gbps across the mainland United States, and last year, 859GB of data was transferred across Geneva, Switzerland and Pasadena, California using Internet2 with a recorded transfer rate as high as 6.63 Gbits/s. The transfer took under 17 minutes in total.
"Both leading industry associations plan to collaborate with the Internet2 community to consider innovative content distribution and digital rights management technologies, and to study emerging trends on high-performance networks to enable future business models," the two groups said in a statement. Earlier in 2005, the RIAA sued more than 400 Internet2 users for copyright infringement, as they were using the network to swap copyrighted music much faster than Internet users can.
Apple Computers has finally unveiled the much anticipated iTunes phone and also a brand new smaller iPod called the iPod Nano. Rumours had run round the web last week when it was revealed that Apple was to make a big September announcement. Most tech sites had already guessed that the announcement had to be about the iTunes phone, but other possibilities circulated to like the possibility of a video-compatible iPod.
iTunes Phone
Let's take a look at the iTunes phone first and see whether or not it is worth the $249.99 price tag that accompanies it (for customers who sign up for a two-year service contract). The Motorola ROKR phone is capable of storing about 100 songs and comes loaded with Apple's iTunes software. This makes the device the first mobile phone that can play downloads from Apple's iTunes music store, which currently has the majority of the worldwide market for music downloads.
"It’s an iPod shuffle right on your phone," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Cingular Wireless, a venture of SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., will be the exclusive U.S. carrier of the phone. The phone also displays album art when you play a certain song. It has side lights that sync with games, ringtones, music and ambient sounds. It has an integrated Digital VGA Camera with 4x Digital Zoom and supports video Capture and playback.
Apple Computers has boasted that its iTunes music store has 80% of the music download market share in the UK. However, Apple didn't release the market share details just for fun, the company may be a tad bit worried about the new competition it has with HMV and Virgin. Both high street retailers launched their own music download services and Apple is worried that the credit both stores have from selling music in the UK, could mean that both might take a chunk out of Apple 80% market share.
Apple also announced that the iTunes music store has now got 1.7 million songs on offer for UK customers, putting it ahead of Napster that has 1.6 million songs available for download. Even Napster felt it necessary to release a statement after the recent launch of the HMV and Virgin music stores, releasing the statistics of its 15 month history of availability in the UK.
The reason that both services are slightly worried about the new stores, is that both HMV and Virgin sell massive amounts of music stored on physical media in the UK, and customers who still have never purchased music might be more interested in purchasing from a company that they purchased music from in the past.
South Korean Electronics giant Samsung is going to be cautious during the transition from the current DVD format to the next generation DVD format(s). The company has said if both sides do ultimately fail to reach some sort of arrangement for a unified standard the company will develop players that are capable of playing both blue laser formats. "We would welcome a unified standard but if this doesn’t come, which looks likely, we’ll bring a unified solution to market," Samsung President of Digital Media Choi Gee Sung told the Financial Times Deutschland.
"It won’t be simple but you’ll see our solution in the coming year," he added. "Consumers will be too confused otherwise."Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are battling it out currently for support to become the next generation DVD standard. Both formats use blue lasers, which have shorter wavelength than red lasers allowing data storing at high densities. Both formats have heavy backing from tech firms and movie studios, so right now it appears that the future market for next generation formats is already split in two.
The real fight is not simply to fulfil ego's either, it is to fill bank accounts with potentially billions of dollars as both these formats offer much greater storage capacity than standard DVD discs. This extra capacity is needed for high definition material and next generation video games. Samsung is making a wise choice in offering players for both formats, but there are also still some complications to making a player for both.
Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) console has become the fastest selling handheld console in the UK, with more than 185,000 units since the device's launch on September 1st. The details were released by Chart Track, a group that keeps tabs on retail sales in the entertainment sector in the UK and Ireland. Previously the biggest selling handheld console in the UK was the Nintendo DS console.
87,000 DS consoles were sold at launch when it was released in UK in March earlier this year. Across the world both consoles are going head to head to dominate the market for handheld gaming consoles. The PSP has gotten off to a better start in the UK than the DS console did but in Japan, the DS had better success.
In the U.S. the PSP sold more in its first weeks on the market than the DS console did but the DS has sold more united overall. PSP game sales are doing very well.
We informed our users two weeks ago that we're looking for new AfterDawn admins and set the deadline for applications to 16th of September. As we'd like to see as many good applications as possible, we encourage everybody to think whether they'd fit to any of these two roles available:
Game technology writer/analyst
We're looking for people who are enthustiast about gaming technology (consoles, PC, handhelds, etc), gaming industry (mergers, analysing about the gaming trends, etc) and games themselves.
The person who applies to this position must have very good written English skills. I'd like to stress that we're not necessarily looking for people who are native English speakers, but rather people who can write clear, witty and easy-to-read news articles and columns in English
We require appx. 15 hours per week dedicated to the job, ideally few hours each business day to write about that day's breaking news in gaming technology, etc
This is the primary position we're looking to fill now.
Digital multimedia writer/analyst
If you've ever read news, guides and articles published on AfterDawn.com, you should have a good idea what our "style" is and what we are looking for.
As above, good English skills are mandatory. I'd also like to stress that it doesn't make you a good writer if your grammar is perfect and you don't make any spelling errors (although these do help obviously) -- its about the text itself.
Again, the person must be able to dedicate appx. 15 hours each week to the job, ideally few hours each and every business day.
The infamous Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon has hacked encryption coding in Microsoft's Windows Media Player that may open content broadcasting to alternative platforms. He reverse engineered a proprietary algorithm that is used to wrap Media Player NSC files that is supposed to protect them from hackers who go snooping to discover the IP address and port of the source. He has made a decoder for the files available.
He did it because it was requested but he also doesn't believe that there is a good reason why NSC files should be encrypted, as the source IP address and port can be found simply using Netstat. It is his hope that this hack will make content streamed to Media Player more available on non-Windows platforms.
DVD Jon is also responsible for developing work around for Apple's iTunes music service that allowed users to purchase music without the additional DRM protection and without having to use the iTunes software. However, the Norwegian is mostly known for his best work, which was his part in the creation of DeCSS, which effectively allows DVDs to be watched on Linux because it descrambles the Content Scrambling System (CSS) protection on a DVD disc.
Some of you may remember that recently we wrote a story about a divorced mom of five, Patricia Santangelo who decided she didn't want to settle with the RIAA and was prepared to fight against the lawsuit in court. Well, the good people over at p2pnet have had a Q&A session with Patricia that will show the P2P community that this woman has absolutely no intent to stand down and settle now.
Here's an extract...
p2pnet: Have you personally heard from the RIAA again since this all began?
Santangelo: I've heard from them once since I went to court in May. It wasn't really the RIAA but the settlement center representing them and I explained to them what Judge McMahon had said in court about me finding an attorney and that I would not be settling with them.
p2pnet: You've already had Pay Us Or Else threats leveled at you. If you lose this case, you could end up facing a lot more than $7,500. What's your reaction to that?
We received word a few days ago that Nero 7 will be available for purchase on approximately October 10th. It will be available at retail stores and of course through the Nero webshop in the second week of October. No details on price or any new features to Nero have yet been disclosed. Those users who have purchased a copy of Nero 6 from Sept 1st until November 30th 2005 will be eligible for a free upgrade to Nero 7.
To take advantage of the upgrade those users will have to register their current serial number on the Nero website to receive information and instructions on getting the upgrade. This registration will have to take place before December 31st 2005. Customers who purchased their full version of Nero 6 before September 1st 2005 will be eligible for a discount offer for a Nero 7 purchase.
As well as with past versions of Nero, further updates after Nero 7's initial release will remain free of charge top those who purchased Nero 7. Nero 6 updates will continue for the next few months but demo versions of Nero 6 will not be provided.
Peer-to-peer software maker Kazaa has been ordered by the Australian court to implement filters to its software. Kazaa's owners will also have to pay damages to the Australian music industry. Sharman Networks, the owners of Kazaa, were ordered to pay 90% of the record companies' legal costs. The amount of damages will be determined later.
According to the courts ruling Kazaa, its owners and executives had knowingly allowed Kazaa users to illegally swap copyrighted songs. The court found the defendants guilty of copyright infringement even though the infringements were carried out by Kazaa users.
Kazaa must now implement filters to block the sharing of copyrighted content. They must also apply "maximum pressure" to the users of the software to upgrade their software to the filtered version. How the filters will be implemented remains to be seen.
Sharman Networks has announced it will appeal the ruling on some parts.
In June US supreme court saw that Grokster and Morpheus promoted their products as a device for copyright infringement and ruled against them. The European Commission is also preparing a directive that would criminalise indirect copyright infringement.
Nero, leaders in digital media technology, and KiSS technology, one of the worlds leading manufacturers of consumer electronics products will introduce a new Nero Digital AVC capable High Definition Media player. The DP-700 is to become the first consumer electronics device to playback Nero Digital AVC files. MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding), ITU-T H.264, or AVC more than doubles the compression efficiency of earlier standards.
"This is a significant step in the evolution of Nero Digital™, and KiSS has provided the vehicle to deliver this innovative technology to the consumer," said Jim Corbett, Executive Director of Nero AG. Finally end users can experience high quality AVC files on consumer electronics devices." KiSS is also proud to be producing a player with support for Nero Digital.
"Nero Digital™ AVC is the top of the line when it comes to quality, compression and innovation," said Martin Manniche, COO KiSS. "KiSS customers will be given the tools and technology to create their own Nero Digital™ AVC files, experiencing first hand this next generation technology." Along with the DP-700, 30 day trials of Nero Recode, Nero Showtime and Nero MediaHome will be bundled.
Nero, leaders in digital media technology, will showcase software with support for the Blu-ray format the Philips booth at the IFA show in Berlin. The IFA Show takes place from September 2nd to September 7th. Nero 6 Reloaded, the all in one burning solution for CD/DVD/blur laser, has the ability to burn data with a blue laser onto Blu-Ray recordable media. Nero ShowTime 2 allows users to playback all digital recordings, including video recorded into Blu-Ray discs.
Blu-Ray is a competing format for next generation DVD technology being jointly developed and backed by the Blu-ray Disc Association. The Blu-ray disc association consists of a group of leading electronics and PC companies. The difference between the Blu-ray format and the current DVD recordable media available is that Blu-ray uses a blue laser instead of red. Blue lasers have shorter wavelength than red lasers allowing data storing at high densities.
This results in much higher available capacity on a disc the same size as a DVD disc which is needed for the emerging market for high definition material and next generation games that will be used with consoles like the upcoming Playstation 3. The high-definition (HD) movie features achieved by using Blu-ray single-layer media with Nero applications include six hours of HD movie playback, 11 hours of standard content playback, and Dolby Digital multichannel surround playback with 40 Mbps maximum bit rate for ultra high quality.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Wednesday filed yet another 754 lawsuits against P2P users it alleges to be illegally uploading copyrighted music on the networks. This is not surprising news anymore as the RIAA continues to believe that these sue-em-all tactics are actually working. They were filed in district courts all across the U.S.
On the RIAA hitlist to date have been some strange candidates for pirates, including a 12 year old girl and a dead grandmother (83). This has made many experts uneasy and sceptical about the tactics the RIAA is using to gather the information required to file a lawsuit. Some legal experts even believe that an IP address is simply not enough evidence to sustain a lawsuit, and that's all the RIAA has to go on while filing these John Doe suits.
There has also been numerous concerns raised about privacy and whether spying on people's shared folders on P2P networks is actually legal. Nevertheless, the RIAA's infamous lawsuits against 10,000+ Americans have never been challenged by even 1 single person who was sued.
It's now time to add two more big names to the list of firms offering music download services. This time it is two High Street music stores from the UK, HMV and Virgin. Their aim is to take a slice out of the ever-growing market for downloaded digital content. However, it must seem strange to both these companies when their biggest challenge is with software companies like Apple and Microsoft who just managed to get into the download business before them.
While now music downloads in the UK account for just 2% of all music sales (5% worldwide) the coming years, according to analysts, will show the rise of digital purchases above purchases of a physical product. These two latest services are going down the same road as Napster with a music subscription service. As long as customers keep the monthly fee coming, they have access to over one million tracks.
Music can be stored on compatible portable digital music players but will cease to work if the monthly fee disappears. The subscription fees will be £14.99 but Virgin is also offering a £9.99 a month package for people who will not be storing music on portable players. An additional fee is required to hold onto tracks permanently. This will be around 79p but HMV is offering to allow record labels to se cheaper prices for new artists to help promote them.
Toshiba Corp. said on Thursday that the launch of next generation HD-DVD players might be delayed until 2006. Such a move may be costly to the company as it affects the first mover advantage position that Toshiba has with its deadline to launch HD-DVD players by the end of the year. The company did say however that any change in schedule would be intended to maximise potential demand for the company's products.
The company also assured its support of HD-DVD for the next generation DVD technology has not changed. In the race for next generation DVD formats, there is HD-DVD and also Blu-Ray Disc from Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Both formats utilize the use of blue lasers, which have shorter wavelength than red lasers allowing data storing at high densities.
Blu-Ray is to be used in the upcoming Playstation 3 console, which is Sony's next generation gaming console expected to become available in spring 2006. Toshiba had planned to launch HD-DVD players in the fourth quarter of 2005 in Japan and the United States, but now its a possibility that products will not be available anywhere in the world until after December.
We reported last week that Methlabs.org had been "hijacked" and that the team had moved to sourceforge. Now it appears that the site has been returned to the proper owners, who now have changed name from Methlabs to Phoenix Labs. This is the news posted on the site...
U.S. software giant Microsoft and chip-maker Intel have pledged support for the 
One of the biggest annoyances to European gamers who bought a 
Let's take a look at the iTunes phone first and see whether or not it is worth the $249.99 price tag that accompanies it (for customers who sign up for a two-year service contract). The Motorola ROKR phone is capable of storing about 100 songs and comes loaded with Apple's iTunes software. This makes the device the first mobile phone that can play downloads from Apple's iTunes music store, which currently has the majority of the worldwide market for music downloads.
