Sony Steals Feature From Your PlayStation 3 - those who think Apple's restrictive policy is bad, read this about Sony. If you bought your PS3 because of the possibility to also run Linux and play with the multicore system, you can now participate in a free feature downgrade.
drm
Amazon goes global with new Kindle - well, I think I'll rather continue to be a user of an e-reader with cracked DRM and without remote deletion of books. In some cases, offline is better than online.
Amazon deletes purchased Kindle eBooks - a good example of why online DRM is even more disgusting than the already stupid offline DRM. And why all the talk from Amazon about "super customer-friendly" is just talk.
The Secret of the Missing Books - and another DRM debacle, this time eBooks.
Jörg Schieb - iTunes verzichtet auf Kopierschutz - and hopefully buries the DRM nonsense in the industry. With two major portals - iTunes and Amazon - without DRM, the topic should hopefully be settled. But that Apple, as usual, immediately torches the iTunes servers and cuts off the purchase option, suddenly no longer offered, is quite ridiculous. Don't they expect their users to actually want to use these update offers?
Wal-Mart latest store to shut DRM key servers - and the next DRM debacle. After Microsoft (who backed out) and Yahoo now Wal-Mart.
Here We Go Again: Yahoo! Music Throws Away the DRM Keys - one would think that Yahoo should have paid more attention than Microsoft when they tried the same stunt (Microsoft has meanwhile extended this a bit, which doesn't really improve the situation). Yahoo is increasingly presenting itself as the fools of the Internet. And music buyers will hopefully finally wake up and understand what DRM actually means - withdrawal of the rights to dispose of purchased goods.
TidBITS Entertainment: Thank You for Not Playing: Microsoft Expires Future Playback of DRM-Protected Music - anyone who still thinks DRM is great can read this. In my opinion, this is simply fraud what Microsoft is doing.
HD Monitor Causes DRM Issues with Netflix - Netflix checks the output hardware and if it's too good, it prohibits playing files. And the kicker: if you follow the suggested troubleshooting path, rights for other files seem to be revoked (in the case of the OP then the rights for the movies purchased at Amazon). Great. DRM is garbage - and especially the one so often praised by the film industry, Microsoft's blob.
The Future of Reading (A Play in Six Acts) - a nice compilation by Mark Pilgrim about the Kindle (Amazon's eBook reader). eBook readers that can't even display PDFs (and thus fail as display devices for a lot of the electronic books on my hard drive) are just nonsense to me.
Microsoft's Digital Rights Management bypassed - well, anyone who relies on DRM is building on sand ...
Complaint against BBC over video format - "According to the BBC, one reason for the decision to use the Windows Media format was that the rights holders demanded that the films contain a 30-minute timebomb to prevent permanent access to the data. Only by complying with these conditions was the TV-on-demand service possible at all." - the logical reaction to this was probably unthinkable for the BBC: to simply scrap the whole project and publicly name the real culprits. Instead, they prefer to play the role of Microsoft's lackey.
HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc copyable again - Hare and Hedgehog.
Amazon kündigt DRM-freie MP3-Downloads an - nice deal for EMI. I think it's about time for the other major labels to stop with the DRM nonsense if they want to keep up. Two huge shop platforms for EMI and good press, that can quickly make the number 3 the number 2 or even better, if download numbers are the primary sales share.
Apple and Microsoft to be forced to use DRM - completely crazy. If a manufacturer threatens to sue for a market for copy prevention (whose effectiveness is questionable at best).
Hacker rip new hole in AACS encryption - hah. Bad luck, film industry. Funny, I remember exactly this attack scenario from the discussion of the DRM stuff for movies. Maybe the film industry will realize that DRM is a completely stupid idea and at best annoys honest buyers.
Interview with muslix64, Developer of BackupHDDVD - "With the HD-DVD, I wasn't able to play my movie on my non-HDCP HD monitor. Not being able to play a movie that I have paid for, because some executive in Hollywood decided I cannot, made me mad... After the HD-DVD crack, I realized that things where "unbalanced" by having just one format cracked, so I did Blu-ray too. "
Super-DRM Architecture of the Future
And the DRM nonsense continues
EFF member Cory Doctorow warns that the widespread use of CPCM would mean the end of free software. The requirement to make the system robust against any modification is incompatible with FOSS concepts. Furthermore, national copyright policy could be easily circumvented by CPCM, as US cultural exporters dictate the political rules. The EFF wants to prevent the standard at all costs. "This is," according to Doctorow's opinion, "no specification that can be used for good purposes, period."
If you read through the description of the whole thing, someone is ultimately demanding total control over any form of computer or media device - ultimately over any device that could even come close to media content. Complete madness, the whole thing. The frightening thing about it: with the brainless prolethicians like we have running around in Berlin and in Europe in general, it is almost to be feared that such nonsense will prevail and the freedoms will simply be traded for dying industries with bloated and outdated business models to cover up their management errors.
And will anyone get upset about it? Oh well. You can still drive faster than 130 on the highway, we are free ...
Google Groups : microsoft.public.windowsmedia.drm - the programmer of the Sony Rootkit asks in a newsgroup for free code for his work. Already strange ...