Douglas L Ross: DRM

The Amazon.com Portal

Mon, 21 Jul 2003 17:47:01 GMT

Amazon is apparently trying to do what the Library of Congress probably should do, that is make archived book content searchable.

Amazon Plan Would Allow Searching Texts of Many Books. Amazon.com is negotiating with book publishers to assemble a searchable online archive with the texts of thousands of nonfiction books. By David D. Kirkpatrick. [New York Times: Technology]

New ReplayTV's

Mon, 21 Jul 2003 16:21:04 GMT

ReplayTV's New Owners Drop Features That Riled Hollywood. The development of consumer-friendly electronics products may be a hallmark of the digital age, but that engineered friendliness is not always appreciated in Hollywood. By Eric A. Taub. [New York Times: Technology]

Autonomy Acquires Virage

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 12:24:45 GMT

Autonomy (Nasdaq: AUTN) announced the purchase of a small company called Virage (Nasdaq-SCM: VRGE) which they apparently intend to integrate with their existing Dremedia division. Dremedia software uses Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating LayerTM (IDOL) technology and enhances it by providing a technology platform that automatically analyzes, understands, and manipulates video and audio content.

Acquiring Virage adds a software product suite that covers the creative side of video production, Internet publishing and webcasting. Virage is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and was established in 1995. It's products include:

VS ProductionTM for professional video production
VS PublishingTM for developing content into compelling Internet programming
VS WebcastingTM for planning and producing interactive, live and on-demand webcasts

The company has ~400 customers including: Cisco Systems, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Harvard University, NASCAR, Oracle Corporation, Pfizer, the United States Senate, Xerox and others. www.virage.com.

Here's an article in The Register about the acquisition. Autonomy swoops on Virage. Video Play [The Register]

Sony Plugs TV Into Notebooks

Tue, 10 Jun 2003 20:03:06 GMT

Sony plugs TV into Vaio notebooks. The Japanese company looks to boost its PC fortunes with a notebook that lets people pause and record live TV for future playback and another that packs Centrino wireless technology. [CNET News.com]

Microsoft At NCTA

Tue, 10 Jun 2003 19:10:46 GMT

Yesterday at NCTA, Microsoft introduce Microsoft^® TV Foundation Edition what they descirbe as "a new digital TV software platform designed to help cable operators get more value from on-demand and other digital TV services"

They simultaneously announced support (http://www.microsoft.com/tv/mstvIndustrySupportPR.mspx) for the platform from cable industry vendors Motorola, Inc., SeaChange, Concurrent Computer Corp., MetaTV Inc., Two Way TV Ltd. and Advanced Digital Broadcast Ltd.

They also announced a customer win (http://www.microsoft.com/tv/cablevisionselectsmspr.mspx) for the software platform with Televisa's Cablevision (CVC) subsidiary, one of Mexico City's largest cable MSO with ~450k subscribers announcing that they will adopt it.

Disney's Moviebeam

Fri, 02 May 2003 15:32:23 GMT

Disney has announced a service called Moviebeam which will deliver "VOD" movies to consumer homes via analog broadcast tv signals using datacasting technologies. The service requires a side-car TV settop box that will apparently have enough [PVR-like] memory to store up to 100 movie titles [~150 to 200 GB]. Disney plans to test the service in Salt Lake City apparently via its ABC affiliate station there.

This brings up the interesting question again about whether or not cable operators are obligated to carry the "datacasting" information embedded in the ABC television signal and thus to enable the use of Cable's network to compete with their own VOD services without any compensation from a broadcaster like Disney?

Microsoft Windows Media9

Fri, 04 Apr 2003 14:29:39 GMT

This is an interesting analysis of the DRM issues surrounding Windows Media9.

Microsoft's digital media mogul. Dave Fester, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Media, needs to balance the use of digital media to boost Windows sales with the piracy concerns of the entertainment industry. [CNET News.com]

Internet Streaming Media Alliance

Thu, 03 Apr 2003 17:55:15 GMT

"The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA), a global alliance of nearly 40 industry leaders in content management, distribution infrastructure, and streaming media, today announced that it is releasing for peer review a new content protection specification which will serve as the technical foundation for the secure delivery of streaming and download media content."

[See press release http://www.isma.tv/pub/resources/pr.shtml?PR1011.txt ]

Microsoft's Palladium

Fri, 28 Mar 2003 12:41:55 GMT

Microsoft To Demo 'Palladium' At WinHEC. 1010011010 writes "According to Microsoft Watch, Microsoft will be demonstrating Palladium (also known as 'Next-Generation Secure Computing Base') at WinHEC in ... [Slashdot]

DMCA Hearings At The Library of Congress

Fri, 21 Mar 2003 22:13:58 GMT

Library of Congress to Hold DMCA Hearings. petong writes "The Library of Congress's Copyright Office will be holding hearings to find out if changes need to be made to the DMCA, according to News.com. ... [Slashdot]

Media2Go From Microsoft

Tue, 18 Mar 2003 16:34:20 GMT

CNet reporting on Microsoft's launch of Media2Go software at CeBit.

Supreme Court On Spam

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 13:50:26 GMT

Foes lock horns in Web filtering case. The Supreme Court hears arguments to decide whether a law aimed at installing Net filters on public library systems balances free speech with the need to restrict porn. [CNET News.com]

NYT's Take On Record Company Online Offers

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 13:13:46 GMT

The Internet as Jukebox, at a Price. Record companies are offering online services as an alternative to music-swapping. Are they worth the price? By David Pogue. [New York Times: Technology]

Some Things Are "Born Copy Protected"

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 13:01:43 GMT

How Important Is Copy Protection? By David Pogue. [New York Times: Technology]

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 14:23:20 GMT

Copyright Office Posts Reasons to Curb Copyright Law's Reach. The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress has posted the Reply Comments on Rulemaking on Anticircumvention, commentary from the... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Does The Content Industry (At Least Music) Start To Get It About Online Sales

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 14:00:11 GMT

E-Music Sites Settle on Prices. It's a Start.. After years of confusion, most of the big record labels have coalesced around a set of prices at which they will sell their music online. By Saul Hansell. [New York Times: Technology]

CED article about AOL MusicNet service http://www.cedmagazine.com/cedailydirect/0302/cedaily030226.htm#1

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 13:06:29 GMT

Pondering Value of Copyright vs. Innovation [New York Times: Technology]

Rights Management Services in Windows

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 16:26:17 GMT

Various news sources are pointing to a possible announcement by Microsoft this week to incorporate Rights Management Services into Windows servers, at least initially to control the information in Office files over a corporate Intranet.

Microsoft devs Windows Rights Management Services. Tool to plug corporate leaks [The Register]

Here's some other things Microsoft has to say about DRM:

http://www.microsoft.com/issues/essays/2002/06-03digitalrights.asp