It took them two years, but Microsoft finally figured out that the ability to support for their own DRM is an area where they might have a definitive advantage over the iPod. One new media type that Zune is adding this time around is support for audiobooks. Although audiobooks won’t be sold on the Zune [...]
One questions that arose the other day in the Apple-NBC Kerfluffle was the demand that NBC wanted more copy protection. bq.NBC Universal also wants iTunes to stiffen anti-piracy provisions so computer users would not have easy access to illegal downloads. – Associated Press Most people were quite what that meant. bq.NBC apparently wants even tighter [...]
I ran into one of those Internet changing events last night. bq.Digg.com users, very upset at the news aggregate site for deleting articles containing an encryption key that could be used to crack the digital rights management on HD DVDs, have inundated the site with thousands of recommendations to pages that contain the code. The [...]
bq.EMI will offer songs without DRM, iTunes is first partner. Songs will be encoded at 256k and sold at $1.29 per song, $0.30 more per song than the current price. These will be offered along side the existing lower quality, DRM tracks, and consumers can choose. – Michael Arrington Is this a game changer? I [...]
bq.DRM is bad, but if we must have it, make it interoperable. Microsoft is willing to license Windows Media to Apple. Apple should be willing to license FairPlay as well. It’s that simple. We can talk about imaginary worlds where everything is free (free as in non-DRM’d) and no one steals, but let’s talk about [...]
bq.Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is [...]
bq.Reports are popping up all over that the major record companies are cautiously gearing up to sell music in MP3 format, without any DRM (anti-copying) technology. This was the buzz at the recent Midem conference, according to a New York Times story. The record industry has worked for years to frame the DRM issue, with [...]
bq.DRM’s sole purpose is to maximize revenues by minimizing your rights so that they can sell them back to you. – Ken Fisher This isn’t anything new. bq.There is no right in the copyright law to make backup copies of motion pictures, so the whole argument that people should have the right to make backup [...]
Different people have different ideas about what makes something “ideal.” bq.Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn’t give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That’s a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends. Ideally we [...]
Remember this rumor? bq.To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you’ve already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They’ll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they [...]