Recent news has shown some possible insight as to the price point of Sony's newest gaming console, the PS3. At the gaming industry trade show known as E3, Sony shocked the world when it announced it's new PS3 will go on sale for an astounding $599. Could it be that this inflated price may have been a foreshadow of their financial outlook?
The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau notified Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc that a reassessment of reported profits for the financial year ending March 2000 through to March 2005 resulted in a 74.4 billion Yen difference in their taxes. The tax bureau then ordered Sony to pay an additional 27.9 billion yen ($243 million) in taxes related to transactions between its game unit and its U.S. subsidiary.
"Sony and SCEI believe that their allocation of income for the periods in question was appropriate and that they have paid the proper amount of taxes in each of the jurisdictions," Sony has said in a statement.
Spanish Congress announced a new legislation that outlaws all P2P file sharing on personal computers owned and operated in the country of Spain. Congress unanimously approved this legislation as a civil offense where users caught downloading anything via P2P for personal or commercial use will be fined the amount lost by the licensee due to the download.
The government has also stated that they will single out the ISPs who facilitate the use of P2P file sharing. They believe they have the technology to block P2P traffic and will fine ISPs who allow this traffic to go through.
Spain has also suggested a tax levy in which most forms of digital media will receive a higher tax. CDs, DVDs, flash drives and even mobile phones will get hit with a tax penalty merely for the ability to load illegal content. They have said that the money collected by these taxes will go towards paying back owners of copyrighted materials. This begs the question, if you tax media prior to copyright material being loaded on it, who determines where the tax goes? Appears to be a situation of putting the cart before the horse, so to speak.
The homebrew scene has reason to rejoice as PSP Updates has officially found an exploit within the PSP 2.6 firmware that gives them access to the kernel.
What this means for "normal users" is that once this exploit is fine tuned, homebrew applications will be able to reside safely on 2.5 and 2.6 versions of the PSP. Its said that you will still need a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories to access the exploit, however it is progress.
The developer that found the exploit urges against anyone but the highly experienced PSP modders look into this exploit until a more stable means of implimentation can be developed.
The French arm of media giant Virgin Records, VirginMega France is being sued for illegally obtaining a copy of Madonna's song "Hung Up" and redistributing it for sale on their website.
The courts found VirginMega in clear violation of an exclusive deal reached by Warner Music France with France Telecom and Orange. With the courts ruling, VirginMega has been ordered to pay fines in excess of 600,000 euros ($754,266; £414,147).
Herve Payan of France's Telecom stated "This is an amazing case of simple piracy by a respected company.
Virgin behaved in a surreal manner by downloading the song, cracking protection measures and then selling it from their own web site." VirginMega however says it broke the terms of the agreement to serve the best interests of it's consumers.
The Entertainment Software Association and the Entertainment Merchants Association have filed a suit in Oklahoma against the bill HB3004, a law which redefines the harmful material for minors in video games to include video games with "inappropriate violence."
The law would strictly deny harmful material from minors, not even parents or guardians of the minor can neither show or give a video game containing "inappropriate violence." Neither would game retailers be able to show footage of a game of this type, unless the violence was hidden behind "blinder racks" used in sexually explicit magazines.
EMA president Bo Andersen was against the non-specific definitions of "inappropriate violence", but this wasn't enough for the president of the ESA, Douglas Lowenstein, who decried the bill in his statement. "They know the bill will be struck down, they know it's based on bad science, and they know it won't help parents do their jobs. What they won't tell voters: We just picked your pocket to the tune of a half-million dollars, the amount the state will have to reimburse the ESA after the inevitable decision is made to strike down the law."
Last week, the leader in portable music devices, Apple denied to the press that it was in any violation of labor laws for their production factories based in China. Hon Hai Precision Industry's Foxconn factory, production partner for Apple's iPod, has now stepped up to the plate and admitted to keeping workers under unfair conditions. It seems the factory turned its back on Chinese law and had workers that were overworked and underpaid.
In their defense, Foxxconn has stated that even though workers were forced to work some 80 extra hours per month, they were compensated for those hours. The 80 extra hours takes these workers 44 more hours than is allowed by law.
Apple has commented that it will investigate these issues and comment further when they have more information.
French lawmakers have given approval to the watered-down version of a controversial law that would have allowed people to crack Digital Rights Management (DRM) protections & force online music outlets such as Apple's iTunes Music Store to open up DRM systems, so that consumers can play the songs purchased on all portable MP3 devices and computers that are designed to work with another music store.
Apple had always strongly opposed the original draft of the bill, branding it "state sponsored piracy", and there were even suggestions it might disconnect all iTunes operations from France completely if the bill was passed, rather than share DRM secrets with the likes of Microsoft.
Whilst the revised bill still says that all systems must inter-operate, it doesn't have to be enforced if the online music stores have the permission to use DRM from the rights holders, such as musicians and record labels.
The law could, in France at least, spark a power shift between Apple and the major labels. Until now, Apple has held the upper hand as it runs the hugely popular iTunes service, which sells all music at the same price - something which the labels do not like. But if Apple were to require permission from music labels to carry on trading under the same terms in France, that could shift the balance of power, according to industry observers.
The self proclaimed arch-nemesis of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the group collectively known as DefectiveByDesign is looking to bombard the RIAA with anti-DRM techniques to let them know that consumers will not stand for it.
The group has already led several marches and protests outside prominent executive offices dressed in yellow biohazard suits clearly making their statements. Their most recent action is to call-to-arms all consumers who oppose the use of DRM in commercially available products by allowing people to sign up and join their fight. Upon entry into the group, new users will receive all the contact information for the top dogs in charge of the RIAA (US), IFPI (Germany), BPI (UK), SNEP (France) and CRIA (Canada). This information enables you to speak out against DRM and let "the man" know exactly how you, the consumer, feels about it.
The original BitTorrent client that had at one point set the Internet world on it's ear has received a facelift. This time it addresses issues ISPs have with the amount of traffic dedicated to the BitTorrent P2P network.
A growing concern among ISPs has been that 60% of their network bandwidth is used for the BitTorrent protocol. This has led to an increase in cost for the ISP due to growing network needs. To remedy this, ISPs have been forced to take action in a couple of ways. Early adopters used a bandwidth throttling technique which searched out the BitTorrent protocol and intentionally cut back the amount of available bandwidth issued to users in the BitTorrent community. Although this technique seemed to relenquish some of the burden for ISPs, paying customers were outraged and demanded action.
A more viable solution is the use of traffic caching. What this technique does is caches popular download paths in internal network servers, thereby making BitTorrent traffic route through internal networks, rather than rely on their external network usage. This allows speeds to remain constant and its much cheaper for ISPs to operate within their internal network.
BitTorrent 4.20 impliments the latter, a traffic caching feature called Cache Discovery Protocol. The feature within the client allows ISPs to detect that the client can understand how to route through cached servers and makes both parties happy.
Blazing it's own trail in the war of the next generation standards, Toshiba has announced that it's RD-A1 HD DVD recorder will go on sale in Japan on July 14th.
Boasting more specs than the average high-def geek can shake a stick at, this recorder seems to have everything one might want out of a digital media recorder. A few of these specs include TV Tuner for high definition and analog signals, Ethernet port for network streaming, HDMI support for 1080p resolution, support for all the latest audio codecs including Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD. Probably the most appealing feature is the built in 1Tb hard disk drive for saving up to 92 hours of high definition recordings or an astounding 74 days of standard definition.
There is a downside to all things new, bright and shiny. The launch in Japan is set to set people back some ¥398,000 which is right around $3,464 (2,757€ or 1,893£).
The HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connection standard has been updated with the finalized version of HDMI 1.3. Seven companies have backed this upgrade including Sony's PS3 console.
HDMI 1.3 adds a number of enhancements over the last version, for example, it is capable of higher data transfer rates from 4.95Gbps to 10.2Gbps by making the clock speed climb to 340Mhz from the previous 165Mhz. This increase in bandwidth allows capable devices to display 30, 36 and 48-bit color in both RGB and luminance-chrominance (YCbCr) color spectrums. It also supports the emerging color spectrum, xvYCC.
The new version will also add support for automatic synching of audio and video streams on the fly while also handling new audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.
The owner of ShareConnector, a popular ed2k link indexing site that was shut down in late 2004, is to appear in court charged with "professionally (complicity) copyright violation and participation in a criminal organization." The eDonkey2000 network, which relies on a number of ed2k servers, remains very popular to this day even facing rivals such as BitTorrent.
ShareConnector was not an eD2K server, nor did it offer any files either legitimate or otherwise. It offered a simple service to its users; sharing and indexing of "eD2K links" which basically point an eD2K client like eMule to a particular file on the network. Just like clicking a hyperlink to go to another website, a simple click on a link would fire up your eD2K client, which would then use the data to search for the particular file on the network.
Dutch anti-piracy foundation BREIN was behind action taken against ShareConnector in 2004. Now, finally this case will go ahead and the legality of eD2K links can be determined. The administrator and owner of ShareConnector is to appear in a Rotterdam court this Friday. The defense will tackle some major holes in the prosecution's case.
We wanted to cheer up the summer a bit by opening a free-for-all summer contest where you can win prizes from our business partners by simply being creative.
The contest is open to all our users (old and new), but obviously it requires you to have or create an (free, again :-) account to our site. Your task is simply to come up with a new slogan for AfterDawn.com website. You can enter the competition as many times as you wish -- obviously with a different suggestion each time.
This contest closes on 16th of July, 2006 and the winners will be announced by 8th of August. To take part in the contest and to see the list of prizes available (alongside the detailed rules of the contest), please go to this address:
Popular online film rental service Netflix is planning to introduce a proprietary set-top box with an Internet connection capable of downloading movies overnight, according to the company's Vice President of original programming, Eric Besner.
Speaking promisingly at an Independent Film & Television Alliance production conference in Beverly Hills, Besner said the business model for the service, which could launch as early as this year, is currently being worked out, however it is likely the subscription service would be offered in return for the subscription fee members pay for conventional DVD rentals at the moment.
The concept would be that users could add movies they want to watch to their rental queue online much like they do now, except those movies would then be conveniently downloaded to the boxes overnight rather than shipped through the mail.
He also added that the set-top box is just one of the Internet plans Netflix is working on.
Today's day and age is a glorious time to marvel in our own accomplishments. With the advent of the Internet, we have given birth to technological, political and ethical conflicts that we had never dreamed possible before. As a result of such technology, even a private correspondence between two professionals cannot remain hidden forever.
As most of you are well aware, the MPAA, Swedish Officials and even the U.S. Embassy all rejoiced as they raided and took down (for 3 days) their self-proclaimed nemesis, The Pirate Bay. Now circulating around the Internet is the actual letter sent from MPAA executive John G. Malcom to Swedish State Secretary, Dan Eliasson prior to the raid of The Pirate Bay.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has been working closely with developers from the Georgia Institute of Technology to produce a device aimed at blinding people who record movies illegally in theaters.
While not looking to physically harm any individuals, a team of engineers have developed a prototype device that is able to scan theaters and look for recording devices such as personal camcorders. With this prototype, connected to a computer, they can scan the theater looking for a digital recorder's charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor. Each CCD inside all digital recorders are retroreflective, meaning they reflect light directly back at the point of origin. Once found, this prototype will flood the target with a blinding white light rendering the recording useless.
This prototype is still early in the developmental phase and the researchers still haven't figured out how to weed out false positives from shiny objects in the room. However, with the MPAA claiming a $1.2 billion loss due to recorded movies in Asia, they hope to have this technology up and running soon.
Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana has turned against rental sale of violent video and computer games to minors. The original bill was sponsored by Rep. Roy A. Burrell with an activist and Florida attorney Jack Thompson, who is known for his previous acts against video game industry. The "violent" content here is defined by the Miller obscenity test, which states that "whether speech or expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and can be prohibited."
The law, signed by Blanco, takes effect immediately, but the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) will fight the law in federal court. The law, or Act 441, denies the sales of video games to minors in case,
"The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the video or computer game, taken as a whole, appeals to the minor's morbid interest in violence." "The game depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors." "The game, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artist, political or scientific value for minors."
Sources within the film industry have said that a version of Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes store that will sell full length feature films should debut by the end of the year at the latest. Not a lot of new information has been made available on Apple's push to start selling major Hollywood movies, but it is believed that the company is still locked in a debate over pricing.
It was reported that Apple CEO Steve Jobs approached the studios with an offer to sell movies for a flat $9.99 each. As expected, this proposal was trashed immediately by the movie studios. "We can't be put in a position where we lose the ability to price our most popular content higher than less popular stuff," said a studio exec close to the negotiations to Variety.
Apple currently sells music downloads for 99c each, and has argued with music labels that propose a variable pricing system instead. Additionally the company also sells TV shows for $1.99 each. It is expected that Apple will be forced to price movies between $9.99 and $19.99, where more popular material will cost more of course.
"Every studio wants to have broad distribution in digital, and we all know that having Apple as part of that is very, very important," a studio exec said. The price of a movie download and what exactly you can do with them (like whether or not they can be transfered to a DVD and played on all DVD-Video players) will determine the level of success iTunes can hope for. Once again, the entertainment industry will be selling content on the Internet where it is also available for free through other means. Overpricing won't convince people to use a legal alternative.
According to a Reuters report on Friday, Microsoft is indeed developing a music and video device to compete with Apple's iPod as well as creating a music store to rival iTunes. The report cites information from sources familiar with the plans. According to these sources, Microsoft has held licensing discussions with major record labels and is already demonstrating the entertainment device.
Robbie Bach who headed development of the Xbox is apparently overseeing the project. Last December, Bach was promoted to president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division. At that time he passed an e-mail to co-workers saying: "While I will continue to play an important role in the games area, I will spend more time thinking about our broader challenges and opportunities across the division."
Microsoft's content protection software is already in use on several music download sites and it is the key to offering subscription based music services. iTunes had stayed on top however, despite giants such as Yahoo backing the monthly subscription fee option. The failure so far of subscription services can be credited to consumers' reluctance to "rent" music.
The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) is working to identify companies that are illegally sharing software on the Internet through P2P services. The organisations' "Operation Tracker" has just produced its results for its second phase which was launched in April. It has identified 25 companies where software is being illegally shared on the Internet.
FAST is tackling companies as it is aware that many employees make use of available high speed connections to share copyright material. SMEs (stands for small to medium-sized enterprises) are the worst offenders for such activity. FAST refers to its system as the CCTV of the Internet. Operation Tracker searches for software sharers and builds a library of what they have make available.
FAST said that this is a warning to directors who prevail over an environment where employees break the law. After the first phase of Operation Tracker, FAST recovered several thousand pounds and 18 identified individuals signing binding undertakings.
"Tracker works, and if corporates and their management teams think they can either hide from or ignore their liabilities they are going to have to think again. Misuse of software is something directors cannot plead ignorance to. If their staff are using the corporate network for illegal activity, those in charge may be liable. Theft is theft and will be treated accordingly." commented John Lovelock, director general of FAST.
Apple Computer Inc. has released a statement promising to investigate claims made by a British newspaper about working conditions at an iPod-producing factory in China. According to the Mail on Sunday, the factory employs some 200,000 workers who are pushed to 15 hour work days for about $50 per month. The workers live in dormitories where visitors are not permitted.
After the report was published and Apple fan sites started buzzing over it, the company released a statement. "Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible," the statement said.
The company is "investigating the allegations regarding working conditions in the iPod manufacturing plant in China." It added, "We do not tolerate any violations of our supplier code of conduct." iPod factory workers are employed by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxconn Electronics Inc.
While the working conditions at the factory might seem shocking to some, they are not unusual or uncommon according to Karin Mak, a project coordinator at a nonprofit watchdog organization called Sweatshop Watch. "It's very common," she said. "These types of conditions are very typical, unfortunately."
A task force led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized more than 20,000 CyberHome-brand DVD Recorders alleging that they use Philips' patented technology without a license. The task force (known as REACT) obtained a search warrant for the warehouse after being tipped off by Philips. CyberHome markets DVD players and recorders and also portable devices that can be found in some of the biggest chains in the U.S., including Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, Target and Wal-Mart.
The task force said that the raid was "part of an ongoing investigation into the illegal manufacture and sale of products bearing counterfeit trademark." Under California laws, punishments for the manufacture, possession, or sale of more than 1,000 items bearing a counterfeit mark include up to three years imprisonment or fines up to $500,000.
The recorders were brought away in eight loads with an estimated retail value of more than $2 million. "CyberHome has been using Philips DVD technology in its DVD players and recorders for a very long time now without paying royalties," said a spokesman for Philips Electronics North America.
"Their debts currently are a multimillion amount of dollars. At this moment, CyberHome is not licensed at all, so they infringe upon our patents. This is illegal, and it also creates unfair competition in the market, as many other companies are licensed. We always want to find solutions in a peaceful way, but if companies do not respect our IP, we are forced to take legal steps." the spokesman added.
European online retailer Play.com has listed a bundle of 60GB PlayStation 3 on the Internet, consisting three games it has been priced £549 ($1,019), excluding taxes or shipping. However, most of the gaming products are cheaper in the US, and the PS3 was originally announced to launch for 599 euros or 425 pound in Europe, which translate to $758 and $799, while the console was announced to retail for $599 in the US.
The games included in the bundle are SingStar, Warhawk and Formula One 06. Presuming that the £425 PS3 price is correct, the three games will sell out for £124 ($229) or around £41 ($75) each. But don't just yet go wrapping up your christmas presents, Play.com doesn't promise delivery before Christmas.
This surely isn't all we're going to hear from expensive bundles. The upcoming launch of PS3 and Nintendo's Wii will encourage retailers gathering one another crazier bundles.
After two solid years of lobbying by anti-piracy groups like RIAA and MPAA, someone in the US Congress has decided to listen. The two groups have asked for US resources to help stop Internet Piracy in foreign lands. After their jovial announcement of "sinking The Pirate Bay", the RIAA and MPAA used their raid as ammunition to coax US law enforcement to aide in their campaign.
The organizations claim that the entertainment industry loses as much as $250 billion per year to Internet piracy due to downloads of movies, music and video games. Such hot titles as "The Da Vinci Code" and "Grand Theft Auto" were used as figures showing huge losses in their respectful genre. Revenue from the entertainment business is said to account for 6% of the United States Gross National Product, tipping the scales at $626 billion. The RIAA and MPAA claim that the losses they incur from Internet theft could eventually have a detrimental effect on the US economy.
In the aftermath of The Pirate Bay raid, Swedish politicians have been quoted as saying that the US should keep to matters that involve the US. With recent developments of The Pirate Bay's move to the Netherlands to regroup in an astounding 3 days and their impending lawsuit against Swedish officials, it remains to be seen what kind of effect the US may have on other file sharing entities.
Next generation format pioneer Sony will be launching it's much talked about Blu-Ray format next week. Sony Pictures has stated that it will release select titles on June 20th, even though earlier reports say that Sony itself is delaying their very own Blu-Ray player. The launch, however is to coincide with a Blu-Ray player by supporter, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and the launch of Sony's Blu-Ray compatible VAIO laptop.
The competing format in the high definition disk war, HD-DVD was released earlier this spring by Toshiba Corp. to a less than enthusiastic audience. With only limited titles and even less acceptance by the masses, it's still unclear if their jumpstart has had any affect on declaring a winner.
Sony and Blu-Ray supporter, Pioneer have also stated that along with the launch, they will start a campaign to educate consumers about the technology.
"Based on it being a new format, we wanted the educational and promotional materials to be in full swing so that consumers can fully understand what it is," said a Sony spokesman.
Pioneer has also set up a task force to educate retailers.
"We realized that retailers didn't really understand Blu-ray and what its virtues are or what the differences were between Blu-ray and its rival," said Russ Johnston, senior vice president of home entertainment for Pioneer Electronics.
Commodore4eva has once again released a modified Firmware, after releasing Xbox Samsung drive and Xbox 360 Toshiba-Samsung drive modified Firmware it is time for the Hitachi-LG GDR-3120L Xbox 360 DVD drive. This release will work only on the Hitachi drive with 47D firmware, so if the sticker on top of the drive says something else than 47D version of the FW (ROM VER), you have to wait for another release, the 46D release is coming up later.
The flashing of the drive is easier than with the Toshiba-Samsung drive, you only have to run a .bat file which also makes a backup of your current firmware, and you're done. The games will have to be burned on dual-layer DVD+DL discs, as it is with the Toshiba-Samsung, using unedited images patched with the Security Sector (SS) and of the same region as your Xbox 360 or region-free.
The full details of the release:
Here it is, the long awaited World first Xbox 360 backup firmware modification to boot game backups on Hitachi!
The CEO of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) believes that the illegal swapping of copyrighted music online has been "contained," saying the legal digital downloads continues to expand while unorthorized music trading online has seen flat growth.
"The problem has not been eliminated," says RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol. "But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat."
The Supreme Court Ruling back in June of last year ruled that P2P services could be held accountable for the activites of users. As a result, several P2P networks were closed including WinMX in September and Grokster last November.
Despite the closure of many P2P networks, the trading of music files online still remains popular. According to Internet analysis firm BigChampagne, 10 million users now swap files, which is an increase from 8.7 million last year. But the firm also added that the rapid rise in Internet piracy is now beginning to level off as a result of the music industry's continued enforcement and education programs. Additionally, the success of legit online music stores such as Apple's iTunes Music Store (which has sold over one billion tracks), has greatly assisted the rise of digital music, according to industry executives.
Looking to set the DVD player market on it's ear, manufacturer Omisys just released one of the most versatile DVD players on the market today.
Forget about HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, next-gen and all those other buzzwords. What Omisys wants to do is make the way you currently use digital media a whole lot easier. With the release of the PN-210V WiFi DVD player, they take multimedia to another level.
Not just content with bringing consumers a DVD player that plays DVD, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, CD, MP3, WMA and Ogg, they have also included an 802.11b/g wireless card inside the DVD player to interact with your home network so media files can be imported directly onto the drive and played on your television of choice. Additional features include Ethernet ports and a port for accessing USB mass storage devices to ease your media delivery.
That's just the tip of the iceberg however as this player also supports full 1080p resolution with decoding capabilities for WMV9 and MPEG videos. Round off the package with DVI, component, coaxial, optical digital audio outputs and throw in the ability for online radio, news and search for good measure. This player seems it might just about have everything a mediaphile might need to get their home entertainment network sorted out.
A recent interview with Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi alludes to the fact that Sony will not charge users for connecting to the PS3 online service. He stated that Sony's current business model will rely on downloadable content as the bread and butter while basic service should remain free.
"You can't charge money for network matching and other basic services. These things are just taken for granted on the PC." Mr. Kutaragi was noted for saying, while reaffirming that Sony' online presence will be a force to be reckoned with.
Unlike Microsoft with their Xbox Live yearly subscription, Sony feels that people should pay for what they want and not be forced to pay a fee, just to connect.
Sony also hinted at the ability to use it's Cell processor in a multi-tiered environment thereby using the collective processing power of all the PS3s connected to their server as the power behind their conceived cyber-world.
According to Kutaragi, Sony will have network services available from launch day and has stated that digital storage and streaming will be a product to come. He hopes this move may eventually get rid of the need for optical drives, allowing the user to store content on an off-site server farm, gaining access whenever they connect. "If you have all the data on servers, you probably no longer need disk drives... But to do this, the server is crucial. It's a difficult problem," said Kutaragi.
The company with probably the largest market share in portable mp3 players, Apple has come under fire from Swedish lawmakers for their stand on DRM. Apple has been well documented to place DRM restrictions on music downloaded via iTunes into the much loved iPod, thereby cancelling any hopes by consumers for listening to their legally purchased music on any other device.
Scandanavian laws conflict with the Apple terms of service contracts, iTMS, in which Apple is clearly committing illegal activity in the countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden by forcing it's users to abide by it's DRM standards.
Swedish Consumer Agency spokeswoman Marianne Aabyhammar said "iTunes' terms and conditions are illegal in all three countries. If iTunes fails to improve its terms and conditions in Sweden, we may take the case to Sweden's market court."
Apple still refuses to allow users to convert their music files into any other format, thus enabling the music to be played on anything other than Apple products. Currently, Scandanavian law dictates that a user can lawfully break this DRM encryption for fair use purposes.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has enlisted football legend Pelé to encourage fans to "score a goal against piracy". The footballer and trade group made a Public Service Announcement that will be displayed by networks during the 2006 World Cup. The networks that will show the PSA include ESPNEWS, ESPN Classics, FOX Sports and HBO Ole. The MPAA says Pelé "embodies the notion of fair play and love of the game".
Pelé's own 2004 film, Pelé Forever, was widely pirated and available on the streets of Latin America. The MPAA chose Pelé because the typical pirate is apparently male and aged between 16 and 24 years old. The MPAA says that Pelé has broad support from individuals in that age group in countries across the world.
"We are honored to have a distinguished teammate in Pelé in our fight against film copyright theft," said Chairman and CEO of the MPAA Dan Glickman. "Pelé has a reputation for fair play and in this public service announcement, he carries that message to people - urging them to do the right thing by renting, buying or downloading movies legally."
Microsoft has altered how the Windows Genuine Advantage software behaves after accusations that the program was "phoning home" very frequently turned out to be true. At a system boot, the WGA software would exchange data with Microsoft's servers, even if the installation of Windows XP had been confirmed as legitimate by the software at an earlier date.
Lauren Weinstein, co founder of People for Internet Responsibility, posted his findings on a blog and compared the tool's activity to that of spyware. "I fail to see where Microsoft has a 'need to know' for this data after a system's validity has already been established," Weinstein wrote. "I'll leave it to the spyware experts to make a formal determination as to whether this behavior actually qualifies the tool as spyware."
Windows Genuine Advantage has two main tasks, the first of which is "validation". The tool will check your XP installation and determine whether it is legitimate or pirated. If it is legit, then the second task will not go ahead. If the installation is pirated, then the second task, which is "notifications", will begin. Users running a pirate XP with WGA installed will start to receive messages with links to Microsoft's site to see the benefits of using legit software.
CBS has added some of its primetime TV shows to the iTunes store. The new shows include Survivor, Numb3rs, NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY and CSI: Miami. As usual with iTunes, shows will be available the day after they air for $1.99. The last seasons are also available. The entire season of survivor can be bought for $25.87, Numb3rs for $39.99 and CSI and CSI: NY for $44.99.
These latest additions bring the total number of TV series being offered by iTunes over the 100 mark. "iTunes has proven that people enjoy viewing shows on their computer or iPod, which provides an opportunity to reach new audiences with our hit shows and gives our existing viewers a chance to catch up on missed episodes,"Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media, said in a statement.
Wow. Yet another year has passed and our website is now officially seven years old. In the world where thousands of websites get launched each week and thousands of sites fold as well, it seems like an eternity. But man, it has been fun seven years..
During the last seven years, pretty much everything that relates to our site's ancient history, the original idea behind the site, etc has been told, analyzed and discussed, so lets not get into that this time. Instead, looking back the year that has passed, I can say that it has been one of the most turbulent years during our site's existance.
Obviously, the fact that Finland adopted the EUCD legislation and the change forced us to remove huge amount of content from our site was the worst part of our sixth year. On good side of things, we have been extremely lucky finding good people to expand our excellent admin team -- Kata, Siggy, DaveDough, Lethal_B, Agent_007 and Juha have all made our team stronger and I'm sure that with team like that we can expect bright future for sites.
Despite the new legislation hitting our site badly (traffic slumped about 30 percent from December to February), our annual traffic has still managed to grow nicely, with the help of new content and new site sections. We have several improvements and new site areas coming up and we're confident that our site will be among top multimedia sites in the world also in the future.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has called upon Apple Computer Inc. to take steps toward interoperability by licensing its FairPlayDRM technology to other manufacturers.
FairPlay is the name given to the Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection that controls how a user can listen to and make copies of tracks purchased from the iTunes music store. You can transfer a song from iTunes to an iPod and listen to it, but you cannot do the same with a Creative Zen for example.
"We would advocate that Apple opts for interoperability," BPI chairman Peter Jamieson told the House of Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media & Sport inquiry into New Media and the Creative Industries. The tie between iPod and iTunes is gold for Apple as each plays a major part in the success of the other. iTunes and iPod hold over three quarters of their respective markets. Such a large share in the market is making the record companies uneasy.
Datel diversified the selection of PSP videogame enhancement products. The company announced 4GB Hard Drive, MAX Media Dock and a Media Solution Pack for the SonyPSP, all of which include the MAX Media Manager allowing file converting into PSP format, savegame download and managing file library.
Compact Flash cards can be attached to the Portable using the Media Dock, which supports up to 4GB CF cards and even micro hard drives, while the Media Solution Pack allows file transfer between the PSP and PC. The Dock is sold in three versions, without a CF card, with 1GB and with 2GB CF card, and the Media Solution Pack in two versions, with either 1GB or 2GB memory card. All these products should hit the shop shelves this week.
Here are the retail prices for the Datel products:
Media Solution Pack
1GB Version: £44.99 UK, $69.99 USA
2GB Version: £84.99 UK, $129.99 USA
MAX Media Dock
Base Unit, no CF card supplied: £29.99 UK, $39.99 USA
With 1GB Compact Flash card: £54.99 UK, $79.99 USA
With 2GB Compact Flash card: £84.99 UK, $119.99 USA
4GB Hard Drive for PSP Solus Pack
£129 UK and $149 USA.
As many of you probably already know, Nintendo single handedly stole the show at E3 this year with exciting and revolutionary concepts for it's new console, Wii. With talks about a sub 25,000 Yen and under $250 US price tag, the already demonstrated unique gameplay, and return of much loved Nintendo icons like Mario, Link and Samus already in the works, Nintendo says it's confident that the sales numbers will keep them almost out of the negative this next fiscal year.
Its a well documented fact that game console designers take a loss, sometimes substantial, whenever they launch a new product. Sony expects to lose somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 billion Yen ($884 million) with the launch of the PS3. Console makers depend on software sales to balance out these heavy losses and give the company a profit over the lifespan of their product. Nintendo doesn't seem to think this will be the case with Wii, however.
President Satoru Iwata told a news conference, "We can't promise we won't have even a one-yen loss, but we are not expecting an enormous loss. It is a strange notion that a game console always leads to mounting losses in the beginning. We are working to make the Wii business a healthy one from the first year."
Datel has announced a device which turns Nintendo DS into a full home entertainment system. MAX Media Dock allows DS to play music, movies and other forms of media from a Compact Flash card, up to 8GB of storage.
The Media Player cart is inserted into the slot used for DS games and the Compact Flash card into the GBA port using the Media Dock. You can browse using the featured browser and use the MAX Media Player to play MP3s and video footage as well as view JPEGs from your photo library. Datel's dock can also launch executable programs, such as home brew software, straight from the flash drive.
The MAX Media Dock, compatible for both DS and DS Lite, will be available this week and is sold in three versions. Without the Compact Flash card for $29.99, with a 1GB CF card for $54.99 and with a 2GB CF card for $84.99.
Last month, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)hit out at popular Russian music download service AllOfMP3.com, claiming it fails to pay artist royalties, and is therefore an illegal service.
In a press release on 2nd June, entitled 'Setting The Record Straight', the IFPI made claims that, "Allofmp3.com is not a legal service either in Russia or anywhere else. It is distributing music without any permission from the artists or copyright holders. Unlike all the legitimate sites, it does not pay artists or copyright holders so it is effectively stealing from those who create music. Like most things that appear to be too good to be true, allofmp3.com is not what it seems."
Up until now, AllofMP3 remained silent on the issue, refusing to answer any inquiries from virtually every media source. Now, however, AllofMp3.com has decided to set the record straight from its own point of view.
Point number five is particularly intriguing, as it implies that AllofMP3 may be negotiating a settlement on changing its popular cheap price structure:
Pioneer Corp. is to discontinue the production of DVD recorders on its own, as fierce price competition is causing losses to the firm in this segment, and it is now looking to link up with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co to reduce costs, company sources said Saturday.
Pioneer plans to continue developing next-generation Blu-ray format, promoted by Sony Corp. and Matsushita, by purchasing key microchips and software from Matsushita.
Back in 1999, Pioneer became the world's first company to commercialize DVD recorders, and is, to this day, its' fourth-largest supplier. Pioneer aim to eliminate unprofitable businesses and focus on its lucrative car-navigation equipment and other vehicle-electronics operations.
A recent inquiry made by Members of Parliament (MPs) has brought up several cases against music and video producers who regularly use Digital Rights Management (DRM) to help thwart piracy of copyrighted materials.
The public inquiry's purpose was to view DRM technologies from leading media industry groups. With DRM becoming increasingly popular with digital media such as music, movies and operators of online stores, it became apparent by the MPs that some scrutiny be taken to ensure that British law isn't being superseded by DRM practices.
The MPs released a report encouraging producers that choose to distribute their wares with DRM protection should label the media accordingly so the consumer knows, prior to purchase, exactly what they are getting into. It also ensures that upon purchase, if DRM protection is circumvented, the consumer was made well aware of what infringements they may or may not have broken.
The report went on to urge the makers of DRM systems to be aware of consequences of using aggresive protection practices on their products. This report was in direct relation to practices used by media giant Sony BMG in which they employ a virus-like DRM method which hides the copy protection on a CD to avoid the information to be copied. Corporations like this needed to be made aware that using such practices in the UK run a risk of being prosecuted for criminal acts.
The war between Sony's Blu-Ray technology and Toshiba's HD-DVD has been compared by many as the old drawn out battle between VHS and Betamax. Each competing for industry standardization, hoping for the huge royalties that will come from manufacturers using their products.
Recent discussions at the Computex trade show have shown different PC manufacturers showing their support all over the board. Companies like Dell, the world's largest PC manufacturer, has clearly stated they are in support of the Blu-Ray technology. While their competition, and 2nd largest PC maker, Hewlett Packard, states that their new machines will offer their customers both HD-DVD as well as Blu-Ray.
Smaller, but equally as powerful companies like Acer and Asustek Computer Inc. say they have plans for using both players, but were only showing off laptops with the HD-DVD technology in place. They were quoted as to saying that a lack of supply has left them without a working Blu-Ray model. "Right now we have no supply (of Blu-ray drives)," said Asustek's Vicki Hsiao. "We're expecting some this month."
Several disc manufacturers were showing off both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, however Chairman Bob Wong of CMC Magnetics Corp., the world's largest compact disc producer said that Blu-Ray's technology is a good six months behind HD-DVD.
Japanese magazine Ultra One has revealed that Sony plan to include the Playstation 2 chipset with each of their up and coming Playstation 3 consoles - at least until a proper PS2 emulator is developed.
When Sony initially announced the PlayStation 3's backwards compatibility with both the PS2 and PSone, the indication was given that the it would be provided through emulation. But this new report in the Japanese technology magazine Ultra One (partially translated by IGN) suggests that PS2 emulation is actually achieved through physical hardware, and not emulation.
The PS3 hardware is currently designed to include the PS2 chipset, (the Emotion Engine CPU and Graphic Synthesizer combo chip that is found in the slim model PS2), according to the magazine. With the PS3 already being expensive to manufacture, the inclusion of another chipset can only increase costs. In the same breath, however, the report goes on to say that Sony intends to remove the PS2 chipset from the PS3 once work on an efficient PS2 emulator is completed by its engineers.
Izumi Kawanishi, head of Sony's Software Platform Development Division, told the Ultra One that the PS3 as announced is, "nothing more than just the basic system." It is possible that Sony may release models with even larger hard disks/upgraded network features, but the CPU clock speed and memory specs will not change, as all PS3s must run the same games. The PS3 is also equipped with a "large amount of flash memory," which will be used to house the operating system and all future system updates.
Disney is planning to start selling movies over the internet via CinemaNow - including new films on the day of release. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's home video arm, is to make the films available on a download-to-own basis.
This move will give downloaders the ability to purchase films, new and old, for viewing on personal computers and portable devices. Films downloaded using this new service will, however be copy-protected using some form of Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Disney's service, scheduled to begin on 6th June, follows a similar move by five of its' Hollywood rivals, who launched similar services back in April. Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures collectively created a download-to-own movie service via Movielink.
Up until April of this year, Hollywoods' major studios had been reluctant to distribute their films on the internet, as they feared that it would encourage illegal copying of their films and harm revenue from box office and video rental sales. But now, it appears they are ready to cash in on the lucrative online market.
As the Recording Industry continues in its battle to combat rife online music piracy on P2P networks, blogs and other viral distribution channels, it appears to have a new problem in the form of music videos.
Content on sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Google Video and iFilm is user-generated, which has given a whole new dimension to the viral sharing of music videos across the web. Such websites allow music videos to be distributed without any approval from the recording companies.
This has caught the attention of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and in recent weeks, it has been stepping up its efforts to stop sharing of popular videos on YouTube. The site, which boasts over 6 million visitors and 40 million streams per day, has become a harbor for unlicensed music videos, much of which is coming from MTV broadcasts which are recorded by users with TiVo and other digital video recorders and posted onto the site.
The RIAA recently dealt cease-and-desist letters to some YouTube users caught sharing unlicensed music videos of popular artists. Links to videos taken down by the RIAA now give the greeting, "This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner the RIAA because its content was used without permission."
As you are probably aware by now, Swedish Police confiscated the servers of popular Bittorrent index ThePirateBay.org earlier this week, accusing it of being a source of global internet piracy. Now the operators of the site have stated that they intend to claim damages from the Swedish authorities if their innocence can be proved.
The statement, posted up on The Pirate Bays' website, said that those behind the site, "can receive compensation from the Swedish state [if] the upcoming legal processes show that [Piratebay] is indeed legal".
The Pirate Bay has always maintained that its' servers contain no actual media files, but links to BitTorrent files containing material. Christopher Wallin of the IT group of Swedish law firm Delphi & Co doesn't believe this is likely to be seen as an adequate defence. "Our opinion is that that is silly. That is an argument they have been making for the last two or three years," he said. "They have committed a contributory offence, it is a contribution to copyright infringement."
Update 3.6: After three days' downtime, The Pirate Bay is now back online sporting a new logo (pictured above), although doesn't appear to be fully functional just yet.
According to predictions made by Merrill Lynch, one of the most recognizable names in financial services, Apple Inc. will ship four million iPhones in 2007, followed by 12 million in 2008. The report indicated that monthly shipments will initially linger around 200,000-300,000 units, eventually reaching one million by the end of the year. The iPhone is expected to begin shipping before the end of June.
Merrill Lynch warns that component suppliers for the iPhone are unlikely to see a boost in their revenues in the short-term, but in the long-term, the iPhone may help drive demand for higher-end handsets which should help suppliers. Mobile phone companies including Nokia and Sony Ericsson are also waiting to see what the iPhone does to sales of high-end feature-rich models.
Nokia CFO Rick Simonson recently stated that iPhone presents an opportunity for Nokia and that the world's largest handset maker would respond quickly to any competitive threat in the market with added-value functions and new handset models.
Police have said that their website has been taken offline due to increased network data being pushed to their site. There is no word yet as to the amount of damage this DoS (Denial of Service) attack has caused, or how long the Swedish Police website will be down.
Syscan Imaging, Inc., the world leader in USB imaging scanners and developer for HDTV technology solutions with it's daughter company, Sysview Technology has unveiled their next advancement in the world of high-definition. Through the use of their proprietary carbon nano-tube designs, they have produced a true 1080p display on a screen that only measures 0.7 inches.
The 1080P Nano-LCOS microdisplay imager delivers 1080p x 1920 resolution on a screen about the size of your fingernail. With true 2 million pixel images that amount to a lower developing cost for the company, this type of technology could very quickly make its benefit known to the consumers. With lower production costs, companies are able to sell their HDTV sets at a lower price, thus driving up sales numbers and getting more of the world to move towards the natural HDTV evolution. With television standards set to move away from analog signals to HDTV completely in the next few years, this is a great leap forward in technology.
Chairman and CEO of Sysview Technology, Darwin Hu said, "We are extremely proud to be announcing Nanodisplay's great success in creating a truly unique and proprietary LCOS imager." Co-founder of Nanodisplay, Inc., Dr. Gehong Kim added, "We at Nanodisplay are very pleased with the advancements we have made, including a low-noise advanced architecture, low imager operating temperature and high component production yield. We're looking forward to substantive improvements in what OEM customers can expect from LCOS hi-def technology."
The file sharing community was shocked the morning of May 31, 2006 when it was announced that the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) in association with the IFPI (International Federation and Phonographic Industry) and Swedish law enforcement searched and confiscated a number of servers which held information towards alleged illegal activity by The Pirate Bay. What they failed to announce, however is how many "legitimate" business they've also inadvertantly taken down who were sharing server space with machines housed in Rix|Port80 (the ISP responsible for providing service for PRQ, thepiratebay.org hosting company). During the raid, every single server hosted by PRQ was seized by Swedish police, despite proper labelling which gave clear indication several of the servers had no affiliation with The Pirate Bay.
On these servers, some 200-300 domain names were being hosted and served. Some of these domains contained businesses who's sole method of income to cover operational costs, come from their website. Most of the servers that were confiscated were in no way related to the online copyright wars that the MPAA and RIAA have launched.
Recent news has shown some possible insight as to the price point of Sony's newest gaming console, the PS3. At the gaming industry trade show known as E3, Sony shocked the world when it announced it's new PS3 will go on sale for an astounding $599. Could it be that this inflated price may have been a foreshadow of their financial outlook?
Spanish Congress announced a new legislation that outlaws all P2P file sharing on personal computers owned and operated in the country of Spain. Congress unanimously approved this legislation as a civil offense where users caught downloading anything via P2P for personal or commercial use will be fined the amount lost by the licensee due to the download.
The homebrew scene has reason to rejoice as PSP Updates has officially found an exploit within the PSP 2.6 firmware that gives them access to the kernel.
