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On Friday, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published the first public draft of Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). EME enables content providers to integrate digital rights management (DRM) interfaces into HTML5-based media players. Encrypted Media Extensions is being developed jointly by Google, Microsoft and online streaming-service Netflix. No actual encryption algorithm is part of the draft; that element is designed to be contained in a CDM (Content Decryption Module) that works with EME to decode the content. CDMs may be plugins or built into browsers. The publication of the new draft is a blow for critics of the extensions, led...

LONDON (AP) - Record company EMI Group PLC said Sunday it planned to unveil "an exciting new digital offering" with computer company Apple Inc. (AAPL), raising expectations that The Beatles' music catalog is about to be made available through Apple's iTunes online music store. EMI said it would hold a news conference Monday at its London headquarters with its chief executive, Eric Nicoli, and Apple boss Steve Jobs "and a special live performance." The company gave no further details. EMI has been The Beatles' record label since the early 1960s. The Beatles have so far been the most prominent holdout...

A company formed after the burst of the Internet bubble to control assets of defunct ZapMedia Inc. has received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that could potentially send shock waves through industries that distribute digital audio and video content over the Internet. ZapMedia Services, which now owns Patent No. 7,020,704, has put it up for sale. Organizing negotiations, Atlanta-based Lava Group Inc., which manages patents and intellectual property, has been fielding calls from executives becoming aware of ZapMedia's portfolio. ZapMedia's patent describes a distribution model for audio and video digital content, a combination of streaming media...

Irish smut-busting outfit PixAlert has develeoped technology which it claims "completely prevents pornographic images being displayed and viewed on computer screens" by somehow blocking "illegal or inappropriate images as they are rendered". This impressive feat is achieved through "high-speed image analysis software" which can apparently detect "images actually being displayed on any screen and originating from any computer source". Hmmmmm. We're not quite sure how PixAlert distinguishes between Edouard Manet's Olympia, for example, and a XXXX snap of a recumbent cheerleader pleasuring herself with a pom-pom, but here's how the company describes it: PixAlert Monitor resides on the desktop and...

My posting Monday on Sony’s use of a rootkit as part of their Digital Rights Management (DRM) generated an outcry that’s reached the mainstream media. As of this morning the story is being covered in newspapers and media sites around the world including USA Today and the BBC. This is the case of the blogosphere having an impact, at least for the moment. But, there’s more to the story, like how Sony’s patch can lead to a crashed system and data loss and how Sony is still making users jump through hoops to get an uninstaller. At the core of...

ahknight writes: "The United States Copyright office begins its required review of the effects of the anti-circumvention portions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act on November 2nd. This review period lasts until December 1, 2005. They will be accepting your well-thought-out opinions on the web and by mail. If you're reasonably ticked that you can't legally get around encrypted files to get at the media you've bought, start writing a coherent stance for the USCO today."

Macrovision is expected to release a new DVD copy-protection technology Tuesday in hopes of substantially broadening its role in Hollywood's antipiracy effort. The content-protection company is pointing to the failure of the copy-proofing on today's DVDs, which was broken in 1999. Courts have ordered that DVD-copying tools be taken off the market, but variations of the software remain widely available online.

<p>The digital revolution has been all about empowering people, to use technology in ways that broaden our horizons and our freedom. So when the tech industry began moving into consumer electronics, there were reasons to expect great things.</p> <p>The consumer electronics companies, by and large, have sold closed boxes that deliberately limit customers' options. This is by tradition, in part for simplicity and ease of use, but also to placate an entertainment industry that tramples customers' rights in the name of curbing copyright infringement.</p>

Imagine I were to give you a computer and turn you loose on the internet. You could read text, see pictures, watch movies and animations, play music and enjoy interactive games. You can save these things to view them later, and share them with your friends. You can print them, burn them on CDs, edit them and modify them and create new things from pieces of old things. Most of it is free, too. You can publish things, and remain anonymous if you wish. You can indulge your curiosity in embarrassing ways and visit porn sites, pictures-of-dead-bodies sites, radical revolutionary...

Once again, the RIAA.org website has been hacked, mirrors are posted below and a description follows: RIAA.org Site Hacked from madirish Wed Aug 28 @ 22:29 (Reads: 35) Check it out at http://www.riaa.org while it lasts :) The server is getting mad requests after the news broke on http://www.fark.com. I've mirrored the front page on my homepage at http://www.madirish.net. Enjoy :D Relevant FARK thread with lots of mirrors. RIAA against music sharing? Not anymore! RIAA to sue music sharers? Not Anymore With the legal file sharing service kazaa still online, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today announced that...

2001 may not be the year the music died, but the pop biz did develop a nagging headache, and it's not going away. The recorded-music industry's first slump in more than two decades continues this year; the number of discs sold is slipping and so is the appeal of last year's stars. Britney Spears' latest album has moved 4 million copies—a big number, but less than half what its predecessor did. The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the five major labels that dominate CD retailing, would like to blame much of the slide on Internet music-file swapping. Yet...

<p>The price of television sets will rise substantially in a couple of years because of an FCC ruling Thursday that mandates digital tuners be included in the sets. In addition, consumers will likely see increased restrictions on home recording in the near future thanks to an FCC decision to open discussions on copyright-management technology.</p>

And you thought this was a free country, governed by the people? Think again. This is a corporatocracy. Bill Gates has much more to say about what legislation gets passed than you ever will. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has controlling tentacles all throughout Washington DC, in places you can only stroll between the felt-covered ropes as a tourist. Who cares? You should, if you use a computer. "Digital Rights Management" is a euphemism which really means "Total Copy Protection" for all digital content on computers, and the government and Hollywood are working tirelessly to implement it as...

By Grant Gross Posted: 07/18/2002 at 14:39 EST Advocates trying to speak for regular Internet users were basically told to sit down and shut up during a "public" workshop on digital rights management dominated by IT heavyweights and Big Hollywood at the U.S. Department of Commerce Wednesday. Members of NYLXS and NY for Fair Use mostly had to settle for interjecting comments from the back of the room and distributing a pamphlet called "We are the Stakeholders" and buttons saying "DRM is theft." The meeting's purpose was to discuss the progress of digital rights management -- the process by which...