Alright, so, its official now. We have now removed the last remaining so-called "pop ads" from our site. We did so to our forums few months ago without notifying anyone about it and now the transition is complete for the main site as well. No more annoying pop-unders.
To know the history of our site's advertisement decisions, we need to go back in time. Our site was founded in 1999 and our aim right from the beginning was to keep the site easy to use and friendly for users. Unfortunately, back in 2001 or so, our site was experiencing the aftershock of the dotcom collapse and advertising money spent on banners by big companies simply vanished, almost overnight. As our site was a small entity back (not a company, just an obsession run by seven guys) then, only about half a million page impressions each month and only few thousand registered users, we were struggling to keep the site running -- to even cover the hosting fees. Thus, we, like thousands of other sites -- ranging from goliaths of Net to small hobby sites -- had to adopt the much-hated "popping ad" advertising to our site. However, we wanted to spare our users from the worst and have never actually accepted "pop up" ads, but instead, we always used "pop under" ads -- simply put, ads that (in pre-tabbed browsing world) opened in a separate window, behind the active window. Additionally, we forced our advertisers and ad networks to set the limits so that one user could only be annoyed by one pop-under, not more than that.
Our indie band service, MP3Lizard.com, just reached one of its big milestones, when the 10,000th track was added to the site.
MP3Lizard.com has been online since late 2000, but its roots are older than that -- the original version of AfterDawn.com offered an option for independent artists to promote their music via our site and allowed artists to upload royalty-free music to our site in order to distribute it free of charge to our users. Since then, AfterDawn.com's focus has changed and we moved the music service to its own domain, MP3Lizard.com.
MP3Lizard continues to attract thousands of music enthusiasts each day and the selection of music grows on daily basis. We are also planning to introduce new features to the site soon, so hopefully it wont take long to reach yet another large milestone for MP3Lizard.
Nintendo decided to surprise us with an announcement which revealed the name of its upcoming console formerly known as Revolution. The new name is "Wii" and is said to be the answer to the direction represented by the code name Revolution.
"Wii as in we", said official statement, the name should be easy to remember no matter what language they'll speak. It should also be mentioned that the "ii" in the name means "good" in Japanese. The company's "slogan" for the console paints more the aspect of we, "So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because, it's really not about you or me. It's about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything."
The name has already divided people in two, the people either see the short, sharp and memorable name or the flat and meaningless "weeee". Nintendo has also used code names in previous products, for example GameCube used to be Dolphin, but this time many question whether the console was Revolution for too long, people simply got used to it as the name of upcoming Nintendo console. Nintendo however believes that the shock wears off and people will accept the name without any pain. That remains to be seen.
The software engineers at Electronic Arts have won $14.9 million in a settlement for unpaid overtime work. The world's largest video game publisher denied overtime pay from newly joined employees, which was settled in California class-action lawsuit in favor of the employees. The settlement covers work during a five year period between Feb. 14, 2001 and Feb. 14, 2006.
EA assures that it is changing practices and almost 200 employees that were denied the overtime pay, will be reclassified as hour workers which makes them eligible for the benefit. "We took progressive steps to address those issues. Our priority is to fairly compensate people for their work. We're going to continue to do things to make people successful and be an attractive employer and a strong competitor," EA spokeswoman Trudy Muller addressed past years' work management.
Having a reputation of overworking employees, this isn't the first time to see lawsuits of this kind. Since the summer of 2004 there have been at least six lawsuits concerning the unpaid overtime including EA, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Vivendi Universal Games, nowadays Vivendi Games.
Warner Home Video announced that it plans to bring hybrid DVD / HD DVD movie titles to the market next month. On one side of the disc there will be a standard DVD-Video compilation with 480p video content, and on the other side, HD DVD content with true high definition 1080p video content. However, the disappointing part for early HD DVD adopters, is the first title on a hybrid disc will be "Rumor Has It", featuring Jennifer Anniston and Kevin Kostner.
Despite the choice of movie to be the the first title, the results of this experiment will be interesting. It is unknown if consumers will be willing to pay the recommended $40 price for a hybrid DVD / HD DVD disc. That price is about $10 more than the standard HD DVD version of the movie. Warner should probably not rely too much on the numbers from movies like Rumor Has It however, and try offering more popular titles on hybrid discs to see real results.
The TDK Corporation and Primera Technology showed off the world's first inkjet printable Blu-Ray Disc recordable write-once (BD-R) media. The discs are designed to be compatible with CD/DVD-compatible inkjet printers. The discs will incorporate Durabis 2, TDKs hard coating technology to protect the disc from scratching. The discs are on display at TDK booth #C10741 and Primera booth #SL1233 at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas.
"Composed of copper and silicon, TDK's exclusive recording material delivers remarkable, long-lasting performance," stated Bruce Youmans, TDK Vice President of Marketing. "We see many applications that will benefit immensely from its long life and massive data capacity. Being able to print direct-to-disc with Primera's disc publishing equipment allows the media to be used with many new and exciting applications."
The 25GB discs will be available in the third quarter of 2006, and it is hoped the 50GB versions will be available during the same period. "Primera is pleased to partner with TDK to bring the first inkjet printable BD-R to market," said Mark D. Strobel, Primera Technology's vice president of sales and marketing. "TDK BD-R is the perfect solution for our customers who will be using high-capacity BD-R media for backup and archival, data storage, high-definition video and a host of other cutting-edge applications."
Microsoft Corp. and Universal Pictures said they have collaborated on creating high definition discs that utilize the VC-1codec, which was just standardized by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) at the beginning of this month. VC-1 is one of the mandatory codecs in the HD DVD specification. Microsoft Corp. made that, and several other announcements at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2006 conference in Las Vegas.
The HD DVD format uses iHD for interactive features, allowing Universal Pictures to create discs that include interactive menus that won't interrupt playback, offer picture-in-picture commentaries and a whole host of other improvements. Microsoft will also showcase features included in the upcoming Windows Vista operating system at NAB.
Media Foundation, a new set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), will offer a "glitch-resilience architecture based on audio and video feedback" giving higher priority to the processing infrastructure for streaming video, which will ensure frames are not dropped and that jittery playback is avoided.
Microsoft has stepped up its Windows Genuine Advantage Desktop Notifications trial by including the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. The Desktop notifications tool displays a message saying "This copy of Windows is not genuine; you may be a victim of software counterfeiting" if the installation doesn't pass the security test. The message displays at startup, login and randomly during use of the operating system.
People can decline the tool or completely uninstall it if they wish. To suppress messages, you need to right click on them. Since it's lunch in 2004, Windows Genuine Advantage has been beaten by simple workarounds discovered and spread by hackers. Microsoft setup WGA to try find suppliers of pirated copies of Windows XP and give a user a chance to buy a legitimate copy instead.
Over 150 million PCs participated in the program so far. PCs found with a pirated installation will be blocked from downloading tools such as Windows Defender and Windows Media Player. Security updates are not blocked under any circumstances however. Microsoft's next operating system, Windows Vista, will include similar security checks that will disable several of the operating systems features if it isn't found to be a legitimate installation.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has made yet another mistake in its war against file sharers. This time, the group has sued the Walls family from Rockmart, GA. They are accused of sharing music by Whitney Houston, TLC and Bob Seger. Considering the popularity of the music, that sounds like it could be a valid charge by the RIAA - if the family actually had any Internet access... or a computer for that matter.
"I don't understand this," James Walls told his local paper, the Rockmart Journal. "How can they sue us when we don't even have a computer?" The confused family believes that the copyright infringement must have been the work of their home's previous occupant, as they have lived there for less than a year. It's not hard to believe however, as the RIAA has in the past filed a lawsuit against a dead woman.
In the past, several other people sued by the RIAA have claimed they don't own a computer also. "Music and other copyrighted materials are some of America's most important, cherished and visible exports," said the RIAA in a statement this month. "However, pirated sales of our members' recordings topped $4.6bn in 2004." Perhaps going after the correct targets will help fight piracy. It would be a step, at least.
Next year Microsoft's Xbox 360 console will switch to a 65nm Xenon CPU due to an agreement between Microsoft and Chartered Semiconductor in Singapore. This will provide a more powerful and less power hungry processor for the console. One of the biggest complaints about the console since it was launched is the heat it produces. Microsoft hopes that the change of processor will eradicate this problem in the coming years - also a CPU change might help it to compete with Sony's PS3.
"We look forward to working with Chartered on the production of such an important component of our Xbox 360 system," said Larry Yang, General Manager of Xbox console development at Microsoft in a prepared statement. "We plan to continue with our strategy of dual sourcing from Chartered and IBM's fabs, which are operationally aligned and compatible, to give us the consistent product quality and flexibility we will need."
It has been reported that negotiations between Apple Computer Inc. and the big four record labels Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music and Universal have reached breaking point with Apple refusing to change its stance on variable pricing. The argument is over iTunes' single price for all tracks (99c in U.S.). Record labels would prefer to set the prices per track themselves, upping the price of more popular music and lowering that of less popular. However, Steve Jobs believes it's too early to make such a change now.
Last year, Jobs had enough of the complaining and publicly commented that record labels are getting greedy. Edgar Bronfman Jr, head of Warner, retaliated by saying the pricing on iTunes was unfair to artists and commented that record labels should even get a cut out of the sale of iPods. Steve Jobs believes that when there is an alternative to legal download services that offers music for free, upping the price of any tracks is pushing it.
Of course, threats that some record labels could pull their catalogue from iTunes have circulated but to Apple, at this stage, they are empty threat. iTunes has sold over 1 billion songs since it first launched and holds over three quarters of the music download market.
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) officially opened a new joint research facility in MIT's Kendall Square neighborhood on April 20th. Both hope the research and development effort can speed up the process of product innovation. The two told the media that the facility will improve the organisations ability to share wireless technology breakthroughs. Nokia and MIT have teamed up for research efforts since the 1980's.
Officials said that the facility will allow for the daily interaction necessary to push forward the pace of development efforts. It will lead to new technologies being pushed into Nokia's handsets much sooner. "We're moving from a world where we look at the device as a phone into a world where we view devices as mobile gateways," said Dr. Bob Iannucci, head of Nokia Research Center.
"This is one of the most exciting areas for innovation and new technologies, but it represents its own world of challenges; we want to create real information gateways that move information from the desktop into the pocket." he added. MIT officials see it as a chance for their researchers to remain on top of the field and keep focused on projects involving types of applications that customers will demand. "We must understand what the issues are at companies like this or we will become irrelevant," said Prof. Rodney Brooks, director of CSAIL. "I think we've had good results working together so far, but we're really only starting to understand the issues."
This week, the first HD DVD players from Toshiba Corp. appeared in stores across the United States. While the format did beat the rival Blu-Ray Disc format to release, the selection of HD DVD movies was incredibly poor, resulting in the launch coming and then disappearing quickly. However, it is worth mentioning that all the players are reportedly sold out, but that wouldn't be too hard with just around 10,000 - 15,000 players being available at launch.
The line-up of high definition movies that very early adopters had to choose from consisted of just three titles; The Last Samurai, Phantom of the Opera and Serenity. The titles are selling rather well on Amazon, and the HD discs are also part of Netflix' selection. Now it's on the HD DVD camp to get as many HD DVD movies out as possible before the Blu-ray launch, the ensure holding a lead for at least a while.
The first Blu-ray players will be priced at $1,000+ compared to Toshiba's $499 and $799 players that have sold out. The Blu-ray camp has many advantages over the HD DVD camp however, including more support from Hollywood studios and the upcoming PlayStation 3 launch. The PS3 includes a Blu-ray drive, so a good launch for the PS3 is even better for the Blu-ray format.
Vivendi Universal and its gaming division VU Games has changed their names. The company held an annual meeting where shareholders approved the name change from Vivendi Universal to plain Vivendi. The gaming division formerly known as VU Games followed the mother and now calls itself Vivendi Games. The company also presented a new logo for the new company name, "Vivendi's new logo and visual identity reflect the company's strength and ambition. A strength founded on its ability to be creative, innovative, and dynamic and the ambition to offer customers the best products and services."
The company also revealed its first quarter profit. The gaming division was the leader with revenue gone up 18.6 percent from the first quarter in 2005. The obvious reason for this is the huge, continuing success of World of Warcraft, but other games were also cited as making contributions including Ice Age 2, 50 Cent: Bulletproof and Crash Tag Team Racing.
The other divisions didn't compare to what Vivendi Games managed, the Vivendi Universal Music Group had a 8.4 percent "bump" and Canal+ Group film division went up 7.7 percent making it overall rise of 5.7 percent for Vivendi, a total revenue of 4.77 billion euros ($5.87 billion).
Despite the requirement made by Ken Kutagari at the PlayStation Business Briefing in Tokyo in March, that his beloved console, PlayStation 2, should not have any forthcoming price drops, Sony has announced to cut the price of PlayStation 2 by $20 making it $129. This price cut is only for the US and the company denies any plans to redo it in Europe.
After the Business Briefing in Tokyo, analysts predicted a price drops from $149 to $129 shortly. This time they were pinpoint accurate. After less than a month Sony announced the exact cut in PS2 price. "Now even more consumers, as well as casual gamers, can experience what the PlayStation 2 platform has to offer at a new value price," said the president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Kaz Hirai.
This might give a small boost for the console, although the PS2's success doesn't really even need a boost, as reported by GameSpot, "By Sony's estimates, the PS2 is currently the top console in the US, holding a 55.6 percent market share."
South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has released a new 2GB mobile MultiMediaCard. The company claims that the the device is the smallest, fastest and highest capacity memory card available for mobile phones today. The tiny card measures about 12mm x 14mm x 1.1mm. Samsung claims it can transfer data 3.5 times faster than other card available on the market. It is advertised as being able to store 12 hours of mobile video.
Three hours of mobile video can be transfered to the card in less than two minutes, the company claims. The MMC Micro can operate at either 1.8v or 3.3v. An adapter also makes it possible to plug the card into any multimedia card slot. The MultiMediaCard format has been standardized by the MultiMediaCard Association.
Apple Computer Inc. has been hit with a countersuit issued by Burst.com. Burst had sworn to respond to an lawsuit brought against it in January by Apple with a counterclaim for patent infringement. Burst approached Apple in 2004 in an attempt to agree licenses for the use of its technology. The company's legal team informed Apple that it is infringing its patents, and that it would launch action. Of course, Apple denied that it is infringing the patents.
The company sued Burst in the US District Court in San Francisco requesting declaratory relief to determine the patents invalid. Now Burst claims that Apple's iTunes store, iPod line-up and software titles infringe at least four of the company's patents. The patents in question are US Patents 4,963,995; 5,995,705; 5,057,932 and 5,164,839.
Burst settled its patent and antitrust suit against Microsoft last year, which saw Microsoft taking a licence to Burst's patents and paying $60 million. The company now claims that its technol0ogy is the reason behind Apple's growing success in the past few years, and now it wants a cut.
This news is a few days old, but one of those items we can't have missing from our collection. Streamcast Networks has broken off settlement negotiations with record labels and movie studios and now intends to take its chances in court. After the MGM vs. Grokster ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, the RIAA & MPAA informed several companies of their intention to sue them. Streamcast planned to settle the case, but now has decided to fight it out in court.
Streamcast CEO Michael Weiss said in a statement that he was disappointed that Streamcast and the entertainment companies could not come to an agreement, and now Streamcast wants its "day in court." Streamcast had aimed to create a legal service in co-operation with the entertainment companies but Weiss said that the talks turned from "a full-on partnership into a one-sided, unworkable deal."
Streamcast believes it can win because it does not encourage copyright infringement. Lower courts have recognized the substantial legitimate uses of P2P networks and acknowledged how little control companies have over how their applications are used by consumers. If Streamcast can convince a jury, it could walk away from the lawsuit brought against it with its business model intact.
As many of you should already know, Ubisoft has officially confirmed rumours that it had ended its business relationship with Starforce. Starforce produces copy protection software that has been highly criticised by gamers in the past. "Ubisoft has decided to use an alternative copy-protection system to Starforce for upcoming releases," said a rep for the company. This confirms that the anticipated Heroes of Might and Magic V title will not include Starforce software.
Ubisoft was hit by a $5 million lawsuit by gamers who claimed that Starforce software comprised the security of their computers. "We are currently investigating complaints about alleged problems with Starforce's software," said the Ubisoft rep. Starforce copy protection technology is one of the biggest receivers of criticism and complaints.
Back in February, the company decided to deal with criticism from Cory Doctorow with a lawsuit threat and a claim the FBI had been contacted over harassment. Threats like this to silence critics have to raise alarm bells.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is continuing its excellent work with the publication of its latest article, "Unintended Consequences: Seven Years under the DMCA". It is a collection of real-life examples of how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been mis-used in the United States to chill free expression and scientific research, jeopardize fair-use and impede competition and innovation. The article succeeds in proving that the DMCA is not being used as Congress had intended it to be.
Here are some extracts of the examples given by the Electronic Frontier Foundation...
DMCA Delays Disclosure of Sony-BMG "Rootkit" Vulnerability J. Alex Halderman, a graduate student at Princeton University, discovered the existence of several security vulnerabilities in the CD copy-protection software on dozens of Sony-BMG titles. He delayed publishing his discovery for several weeks while consulting with lawyers in order to avoid DMCA pitfalls. This left millions of music fans at risk longer than necessary.5 The security flaws inherent in Sony-BMG's "rootkit" copy-protection software were subsequently publicized by another researcher who was apparently unaware of the legal risks created by the DMCA.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is behind thousands of lawsuits against file sharers around the world, but in analyzing its victims, the group has changed its tone a little in an effort to save it from a "bad guy" image. The IFPI is now playing the "we're concerned about your children" game in Hong Kong. It's efforts in Hong Kong targeted an unemployed father of two and reportedly has led at least one teenage girl to depression.
"The Internet is full of information, but it's also full of danger. We feel it's a social cause to call on parents to look after their children," said Ricky Fung of the IFPI. In the UK, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) also claimed last year that it "felt sorry" for parents it had sued for copyright infringement. In Hong Kong and everywhere else in the world, a large portion (often the majority) of lawsuits are aimed at parents of children.
Lawsuits against residents in Hong Kong usually change direction towards a HK$24,000 settlement. "The work we're trying to do now is to face Hong Kong parents and tell them to watch their kids and their online behavior," Fung said. "Many parents buy a computer for their children to do their homework, and they're happy that their children are not out in the streets late at night. But they don't know what their kids are doing behind closed doors."
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is planning a large-scale campaign against Digital Rights Management (DRM). Peter Brown, the executive director of the Free Software Foundation, said a campaign will be organised to target both consumers and manufacturers after the second draft of GPL 3 is released. GPL 3 will include provisions against Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology.
"We haven't got the campaign organised yet, but we're going to be employing a professional campaigner," he said. "There is a real potential for people power, whether it's boycotting devices, or picketing certain places — there are a lot of lovely targets out there. We have thousands and thousands of free software supporters out there and they will be deeply involved in the campaign."
Brown hopes that people will increasingly understand the need for Free software. "When you ask people about free software they should instinctively believe in free software. Just like people say 'I recycle my cans,' but don't understand the process behind it, you don't need to have read the GPL, or been a programmer to understand that a computer should be under your control. The typical computer user can't change the software, but then again my mum can't change what the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank is doing, but these issues still matter to her," he said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, News Corps' Fox Network has come to a deal with its 187 affiliated stations to show reruns of television shows on the Internet. The agreement will allow Fox to make 60% of its programming available online one day after it originally airs. By the agreement, stations essentially will get a 12.5 percent cut after costs. Fox is home to many mega-popular TV shows including American Idol.
Making television programming available on the Internet helps stations to claim a new stream of revenue for their programming, or to experiment with new ways to attract viewers. This is one of the aims of ABC's latest project which will put TV shows online for free on an advertising-supported Web service. Disney's ABC is home to popular shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives.
TV show piracy on the Internet is rampant. P2P networks, BitTorrent sites, IRC and Newsgroups are most used to download the latest shows just hours after they air. American Hit TV shows are available then to viewers in countries where shows tend to fall months behind (often whole seasons behind the US). Networks need to find ways to compete with this piracy and gain even more revenue from the Internet.
The story of "The Beatles" is one of the greatest success stories in the recording industry's history. With millions of fans worldwide and continued demand for the music, the group's record company is about to finally sell music downloads. Neil Aspinall, managing director of Apple Corps, said that the company was digitally remastering the entire Beatles catalog, which will lead to the tracks being sold online. "I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters," he said in a written statement.
"It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc," he continued. His comments were confirmed by a spokeswoman for Apple Corps. The songs will be available through popular online music download services, but it's not clear when. "There's no firm date on any of this at the moment. There are a lot of projects that Apple are working on at the moment," the spokeswoman said.
Apple Corps sued Apple Computer Inc. for the use of an Apple logo on iTunes; an act which the record company claims breaches a 1991 agreement between both companies. A decision in that case is expected after Easter.
Microsoft has made a collaboration deal with Paramouth Pictures to deliver movie content for Xbox Live. This downloadable content will include high-definition trailers, movie themes, picture packs and more. The program will launch on Wednesday with free, high-definition content from Paramount Pictures' Mission: Impossible III and Nacho Libre.
Paramount has already included two of its upcoming movies to feature graphics and trailers for the Xbox Live. Mission: Impossible III starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Nacho Libre starring Jack Black as a cook in an orphanage trying out as a wrestler.
In addition to themes and trailers Microsoft will bring new downloadable contests in which the winner will have the chance to play against a movie star, including Nacho Libre star Jack Black. The Xbox Movie Showcase will also feature downloads that will change the Xbox 360 interface to match the movie.
Since the launch of Xbox 360, Xbox Live has spawned over 10 million downloads and has a daily audience of over 2 million people.
After only demoing a prototype 100GB Blu-ray disc in May last year, TDK has confirmed its plan to develop discs with 200GB storage capacity. The disc would have four times the capacity of the highest capacity Blu-ray discs currently available. The 100GB BD prototype disc is made up of four data storage layers. It supports a write speed up to 216MBPS, double that of 50GB BD-Rs. That disc is expected to come to the market next year.
Manufacturers are now ready to spread 25GB write-once and re-writable Blu-ray discs around the globe, and they certainly aren't cheap. The single-layer 25GB discs from TDK will cost $19.99 for write-once and $24.99 for rewritable for example. Later this year the company hopes to launch 50GB write-once and re-writable media, priced at $47.99 and $59.99 respectively.
Not many details have been given about 200GB discs, but any expected launch time frame would be uncertain at least. Presuming the disc would contain eight data storage layers, it would be a long time before devices that support the discs would appear, as well as the discs becoming any way affordable to the average consumer.
Companies that specialize in Inflight Entertainment (IFE) systems have revealed they are in talks with Apple to integrate iPod and iTunes into IFE systems. In plans would be seatback-based iPod docks with USB and charging ports. Passengers could charge song and video purchases to frequent-flyer miles. "Our interests are wider – not just Apple, but enabling any e-commerce on the aircraft. Music is one thing in that category we are working on," said an executive with Panasonic Avionics.
There are some obvious issues with Inflight downloads. The main issue would be licensing and payment problems while a plane is in international airspace. Passengers would also have to be able to transfer songs that were downloaded directly to their iPods while in the air, back to their HDDs when they get home.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is demanding that the period of copyright protection applied to music tracks be almost doubled. Currently copyright protection on music tracks in the UK and the rest of Europe is 50 years. The BPI wants this extended to 95 years; the length of copyright protection enjoyed by American music recordings. In comparison, composers of music and authors of books have copyright protection for their lifetime plus an additional 70 years.
The EMI group should be particularly interested in getting the extension brought to Europe within the next few years as the company owns much of the rights to Beatles tracks. In 2012, the group's copyright will begin to run out. "This is a risky business. Nine out of 10 music releases fail. Revenues generated by artists like the Beatles pay for the up-and-coming acts of today," said Steve Redmond at the BPI.
Once the copyright for tracks runs out, there is no control over how the recordings are used. So if nothing changed by 2012, a lot of advertisements would probably have some of the Beatles' early tracks promoting products for example. "We operate in a pop music world in which the US is dominant. The UK provides the only credible competition to the US. So why should we be hampered by protection of just 50 years? And who's to say that the recording is worth less [protection] than the composition," said Mr. Redmond.
Computer Manufacturer Fujitsu has announced it will become the first company to ship computers with integrated Blu-ray Disc drives. They will be available in Japan in June. The company also will release notebook PCs that include HD DVD drives; a safe move as it caters for both camps. The new desktop PC from Fujitsu will include a 37-inch LCD screen and will sell for around 600,000 yen ($5,063) according to a Fujitsu spokesman. The notebook will sell for 400,000 yen ($3,371).
Toshiba also unveiled plans this week to begin shipping HD DVD-enabled laptops by mid-May. They are expected to cost around the same as the Fujitsu models. NEC Corp. also revealed that it hopes to launch HD DVD-compatible personal computers by autumn this year and that it would consider offering PCs equipped with Blu-ray drives as well if there was demand.
The transition to next generation optical disc technology will be slow with very few early adopters, mainly due to the high cost of the new technologies. Most consumers will find switching to blue laser discs frustrating, especially since DVD has been so successful. The fact that there is a war between two competing formats doesn't help much either.
The TDK Corporation has announced that it is ready to ship single layer Blu-ray recordable media to retailers. They provide a 25GB storage capacity in both write-once (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RW) media. The company claims they will be the first publicly available Blu-ray recordable discs. The blank media will be available for the launch of Blu-ray devices which is expected to begin in June. Dual-layer 50GB recordable media will not be available then however.
TDK expects its 50GB recordable media to be available later this year, priced at $47.99 for write-once and $59.99 for rewritable. The 25GB discs will cost $19.99 for write-once and $24.99 for rewritable. The Blu-ray camp believes the 25GB storage capacity is sufficient for recording a single video at 1080p. There will also be recordable HD-DVD media available very soon.
The HD DVD camp will roll out dual layer 30GB recordable media before dual layer recordable BD media arrives. The first generation of Blu-ray recorders will not support dual layer discs. It will take a number of years before recordable media for both formats will become widely used, when it becomes more affordable and when components for both evolve further.
Soon after the Internet had swollen with reports claiming that the vice president of SCEE, Georges Fornay, had revealed the price spot for PlayStation 3, Sony called a timeout and started to rectify what actually was told.
Sony says that the reported price fork from 499 to 599 euros was simply mistranslated or misunderstood. What Fornay meant, according to Sony, was that the value of Blu-ray drive would be somewhere around 500 euros. "He summarised by saying that PS3 would be expensive when one looked at the current price of a video games machine, at far below 500 Euros, but extremely good value when looking at the BD and HD technology inside," corrected Nick Sharples from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
The quick and rather strict commenting on the price reports still doesn't shed much light to PS3 price speculations, as it could go both ways from here. Now we are looking at a price spread between 200 and 800 euros. Maybe E3 will finally clarify this.
After numerous estimates the expected price of PlayStation has been addressed. Vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe revels in a French radio program Générations Europe 1 that the price for PS3 will be around 500 euros.
The vide president of SCEE Georges Fornay agrees with the rather expensive console, but reminds that PS3 carries high technology worth much more, referring mostly to the Blu-ray drive. "It will be expensive if we only look at the game aspect of the machine, but it will be very cheap if we account for the set of technologies that it will integrate."
Fornay also said that Sony is sticking with the plan of releasing PS3 simultaneously in Asia, Europe and North America in November.
The calculations of PS3 price in your own currency will be anything but accurate at this time as we know that console prices vary a lot in different regions. However 500 euros would be about $615 or £350. Wait until price tag appears on stores this Autumn to see the exact price.
After being submitted for standardisation in 2003, Microsoft's VC-1codec has been officially released by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). The event paves the way for the technology's use on next generation DVDs and other things. Adoption of Windows Media will now be easier for companies as the need to negotiate directly with Microsoft is gone. Microsoft's approval is no longer needed for devices to natively support VC-1.
SMPTE will collect the licensing fees and Microsoft will be paid for the use of its patents. The Redmond-based company embraced standards to provide the industry with better and easier access to high quality video compression. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc include VC-1 in their specs and at least Warner Bros. plans to encode and release movies using the VC-1 format.
Disney is launching a mobile phone service in the US which will allow parents monitor their children's communication and locate then through a global positioning system. Parents will be able to track SMS messages, multimedia messages, calls, video messages etc. and set limitations on their children's calls. Disney is looking to tap a growing market for mobile phone using children between 10 and 15 years old. The company hopes to lure the children to its service by offering the monitoring features.
According to research, about two thirds of U.S. parents pay for their teenagers mobile phones. 70% of U.S. population already own a phone. About 45% to 50% of 13 year olds have a mobile phone, according to Jupiter Research. Disney has not given any specific details as to how much it will charge for parents to add children to the service, but rivals charge around $10 a month for each new family member.
The phones will be sold over the Internet and are expected to be available around June. "There is certainly a big market for teenagers and parents adding them to their [mobile] phone plan," said Jupiter analyst Julie Ask. Teens would probably prefer not to be spied on by their parents, but I guess when it's the parents paying for their service, they have no choice.
Apple Computer Inc. has defended its use of the Apple logo on iTunes advertisements and on the iTunes store itself. Apple Corps claims that Apple Computer is in violation of a 1991 agreement that limited how the company could use an Apple logo in the music business. Apple Corps is owned by former Beatles stars Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison. The label is seeking unspecified damages and wants the logo dropped from iTunes.
However, Apple Computer fought back against the claim saying that under the 1991 agreement, it is allowed to use the logo to indicate "the source or origin of the hardware". Judgment in the case has been reserved and is expected after thew Easter holiday. "We say that Apple Computer has been using the Apple mark in connection with musical content," said Geoffrey Vos, a lawyer for Apple Corps. "It uses those marks on its music store site at the point of sale of the music content. It signs artists on its site in just the way a record company would."
However, Anthony Grabiner, acting for Apple Computer, stressed that the logo is not used to promote the music tracks, but the iTunes store and its download services. The company claims that it sells digital transfers and not physical music products and that means it is not breaching the 1991 agreement. "Apple Computer has the exclusive right to use the apple mark [in iTunes advertisements] if used to indicate the source or origin of the hardware and downloading services mentioned in the advert" said Mr Grabiner.
Netflix, a popular online DVD rental service with over 5 million subscribers, has filed a lawsuit against competitor Blockbuster alleging basically that the rental chain stole its ideas. Netflix has patents protecting the way its service works from how customers use its website to receive movies while paying a monthly subscription to how customers can keep movies for as long as they want without late fees and how they can rejig a "preferred film" list on the site.
Blockbuster is the world's largest video rental chain, but the company launched a Netflix-like service as demand for the store-based business began to decline due to Netflix and other online services becoming more popular. Now Netflix wants Blockbuster's similar service immediately halted and the court to award damages. Netflix was founded in 1999 as one of the first online DVD rental services.
Blockbuster is hoping that this year the number of subscribers to its service will increase to 2 million. Analysts predict that the challenge by Netflix will be complicated as it may be tricky to enforce their patents.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has claimed that illegal file sharing of copyrighted music has cost the British music industry around £1.1 billion but that the percentage of Internet users using file sharing has dropped slightly. These claims have come as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) unleashed a further 2,000 lawsuits against P2P users it alleges to be sharing thousands of copyrighted tracks on "unauthorised networks".
File sharing networks are completely legal so don't get confused by how iTunes and Napster are dubbed "legal services". The IFPI's latest action which include individuals in 10 countries bring the total number of lawsuits against people in Europe to over 5,000. Additionally the IFPI is also now using a new method; forcing ISPs to cut Internet access from people found to be sharing music.
In the UK, 100 people have settled with the BPI. The group's estimate of a £1.1 billion (approx £650m trade value) loss cites research from TNS Worldpanel, an independent research company. It estimated that file sharing cost the music industry £414m in 2005, £376m in 2004 and £278m in 2003. The film relies on a survey for the conclusion that the percentage of people downloading illegally has fallen to 15.4% in 2005 from 16% in 2004.
A U.S. District Court judge has struck down yet another law that banned the sale of violent or sexually explicit video games to minors. The Michigan law was signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm last year. It imposes both civil and criminal penalties to anyone who is found to have distributed a violent video game to a minor. Federal District Judge George Caram Steeh issued his ruling in Detroit today saying that video games were protected under the first and fourteenth amendments.
He said that the state "lacked substantial evidence to show violent video games cause minors to have aggressive feelings or engage in aggressive behavior." The law was challenged last September in a suit filed by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the Video Software Dealers Association and the Michigan Retailers Association. This is just one of several laws in the U.S. which aimed to cut the supply of violent games to minors.
In 2005 alone the gaming industry witnessed an enormous amount of pressure from critics over titles such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The emergence of a patch for San Andreas that unlocked a hidden sex minigame gave critics like Hilary Clinton the weapon they needed to show how inappropriate some games can be for minors; even though without the patch (which Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive had nothing to do with) the hidden games were inaccessible. The game was given an AO (Adult Only) rating and dropped from retailers around the U.S.
The last year has produced Nintendo the largest profit for Nintendo since 2001. The net income of 95 billion yen or $807 million which is an 8,7% rise from the last year, much more than Nintendo had in their forecasts. In Nintendo's reports there were two main reasons for this huge improvement, weak yen which allowed Europe and US sales to boost more than usual and the comet of portable gaming, Nintendo DS.
As Nintedo DS was to be released in 2004, many were suspicious about this future phenomenon. "The so-called "innovative machine" was unlike anything that had been seen before, and a lot of detractors laughed off its dual screens as a gimmick." After selling over 5 million units in Japan alone, it's easy to say that it was worth the dual screens.
This also meant that the company's per-share payout rose from estimated 270 to 370 yen ($3.15).
South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has announced that the launch of its first Blu-ray Disc player will be delayed until June 25th, mainly to complete testing. The original date had been set for May 23rd. The BD-P1000 will cost a whopping $999. About fourteen titles are expected to be available from Sony for the launch, including Kung Fu Hustle, Stealth and Species. Prices are expected to range from $29 - $39.
Samsung expects to add support for the Memory Stick Pro Duo flash card and Mini-SD format in the extra month it has to finalize the player. The BD-P1000 will be able to upconvert standard DVD to 1080p on TVs or monitors that support High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). Toshiba Corp. released the first HD DVD player in Japan last week, ensuring that HD DVD was the first next generation format off the starting line.
Internet rumors declare that Microsoft is planning a relaunch in Japan for its console flag bearer, Xbox 360. The launch in Japan was shadowed by hype from Sony's and Nintendo's next-generation consoles, and as expected was rather hard to hit it big. As the German website GameFront reports are stated in ComputerAndVideoGames.com, "MS is planning a major relaunch for the console in the Land of the Rising Sun beginning on June 29."
Microsoft is trying to get the hoped momentum to Xbox 360 before the launch of two its competitors Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution, and by giving a relaunch June 29, it might just get enough attention due to launch of several big game releases close to the date.
Even though it was expected that Microsoft will have hard time selling Xbox 360 in Japan, it could be considered an underachiever as it has sold only just over 27,000 Xbox 360s since Christmas, considering that Nintendo and Sony sell more in a week.
This rumor could actually have some truth in it, as four major "Japanese-friendly" game titles have release dates changed to June 29. These games include Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Idea Factory's Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage.
Two men have pleaded guilty to several charges after what was called the largest bust of pirated music and software CDs in America. The individuals, Ye Teng Wen, 30, and Hao He, 30, both of Union City, California, each pleaded guilty to 5 criminal counts on Monday. They admitted to making at least 200,000 pirated CDs, most of it Latin music, and to other offenses such as trafficking in counterfeit labels. A third man, Yaobin Zhai, 33, did not plead guilty and is due to appear in court in May.
The three were indicted in October of copying music CDs and software from popular companies such as Symantec Corp. and Adobe. Officials had seized nearly half a million pirated CDs and 5,500 stampers used to make the bootleg products. The software discs even came complete with an anti-piracy seal. "This is the largest case involving CD manufacturing piracy uncovered in the United States to date,"Kevin Ryan, U.S. Attorney for Northern California told a news conference. "The theft associated with this kind of piracy, copyright infringement, is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, I believe, on a yearly basis."
Each of the five counts against the men carry a maximum sentence of five years. The music industry is blaming piracy for a large drop in CD sales over the past seven years. As commercial piracy operations become more hidden as technology advances, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has stepped up efforts against this form of piracy.
The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) helped to extend the prison sentence of a man convicted of handling stolen goods by one month after assisting investigators in proving the man had committed "chipping" offenses. The individual in question, David Hoang, owned a shop called DH Wings, which was raided by the police resulting in his arrest on 23rd February 2006. The police raided the shop for stolen goods and then called on ELSPA for help when the man pleaded not guilty to additional chipping offenses.
"We're pleased we could assist in this case," commented Michael Rawlinson, deputy director general of ELSPA. "The modification of games consoles, more commonly known as 'chipping', is a criminal offence and so is the possession of modified chips. The successful resolution of this case highlights the very real threat of prosecution and a criminal record to anyone tempted to become involved." Huang received 18 months overall for his crimes, although only one month can really be credited to chipping offenses.
Modchips are illegal in the United Kingdom. They can be used for purposes such as running homebrew code on a console, bypassing region restrictions which will allow you to play imported games and bypassing security measures intended to stop copies of games from being played. It is just the last feature that has made modchips illegal in the UK. The other abilities that modchips provide have kept them legal in other parts of the world.
It's no secret that Apple Computer Inc. and the world's largest record labels are caught up in a dispute over the price of a single track music download. Currently, songs sold through iTunes are at a fixed price of 99c and at similar fixed prices in international iTunes stores. Apple CEO Steve Jobs believes that this price is good for the market in these early stages and good for consumers. Record label executives do not agree however; they want variable prices introduced - specifically, more popular music will be priced higher than less popular music.
So far Apple has refused to have its hands pushed and Steve Jobs publicly said what everybody was thinking: "So if they want to raise the prices, it just means they're getting a little greedy." He made this comment after pointing out that record labels make more profit from a sale of a download than a sale of a single CD. For each download that iTunes sells for 99c, labels snatch up the largest figure; 70c. When you consider iTunes has sold over 1 billion music downloads and the frequency and figure of downloads are increasing rapidly, you can see why the extra cents are being called for by record companies.
MovieLink and CinemaNow have become the first two sources for legal movie downloads (not rental-based) in the United States. Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Warner Brothers are backing MovieLink (interestingly, most are also joint owners). CinemaNow will be carrying Sony studio films. This experiment is being done very close to the studios, so it is not surprising that the prices seem ridiculously high.
To ensure that legal movie downloads pose little or no threat to retail DVDs, the prices have been set similar, or in many cases, higher. For example, classic movies would be priced around $13.99 (some will go for $9.99). Newer movies will sell for around the same price as retail DVDs. King Kong will be sold for $19.99 as a download while Amazon offers the retail DVD for $14.99. The pricing is not the only problem however.
The movies are protected by Microsoft's Windows MediaDRM software. They will not be compatible with iPods or PSPs and consumers will also "not" be able to create a DVD-Video from these files to play back in a regular DVD player. Additionally, most downloads will not feature any additional "extras" like retail DVDs to. With all these facts in mind, it is hard to see the benefit of actually using either of these services.
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia said today that 6 of it's newest phones missed their target Q1 release due to software issues. One of these phones is Nokia's premium music phone, the N91. Nokia Multimedia division spokesman Kari Tuutti said that the N91 model, which includes a 4GB HDD, will start shipping this week. He also said that the N71 and N80 phones would start deliveries in the next two weeks or so. The N91 was intended for release before Christmas last year, but the company had to delay due to software problems.
Nokia had said that a primary reason for the delay of the N91's release was ensuring a solid implementation of Microsoft's Windows MediaDRM software. The company wants the phone to be compatible with as many music providers as possible. The phone supports the MP3, M4A, AAC and WMA formats. "Because the devices are pocketable computers, we need to make sure of the software," Tuutti said.
Adult film company Vivid Entertainment is to start selling pornographic DVDs as downloads over the Internet. The service is interesting in that the customer is buying the actual "DVD" - it is just being delivered completely through the net. When the download has finished, a Digital Rights Managements (DRM) protection kicks in and allows it to be burned to disc only one time. Everything that is on the retail disc (menus etc.) is included with the download and the prices are around the same (like buying online without a delivery charge).
The service will initially start with about 30 DVDs on offer. However, taking a few moments to think about it, some questions are easily raised. Firstly, since the DRM will only allow it to be burned once, what will happen if the burning process is interrupted resulting in a defective burn? Another interesting question is will there be any copy protection on the resulting DVD stopping it from simply being ripped unprotected to a HDD?
Even with these issues in mind, it is another step in selling digital content online. It's likely that the rest of the adult industry and the major movie studios will keep an eye on how this service evolves.
Alright, so, its official now. We have now removed the last remaining so-called "pop ads" from our site. We did so to our forums few months ago without notifying anyone about it and now the transition is complete for the main site as well. No more annoying pop-unders.
Our indie band service, MP3Lizard.com, just reached one of its big milestones, when the 10,000th track was added to the site.
Nintendo decided to surprise us with an announcement which revealed the name of its upcoming console formerly known as Revolution. The new name is "Wii" and is said to be the answer to the direction represented by the code name Revolution.
