COPYCENSE

“Apple Computer has captured the lion share of the global digital music market through its ubiquitous iPod and hugely popular iTunes download service. However, many consumers have been reticent to take the plunge due to compatibility concerns.

“Apple, along with rivals such as Sony and Dell, use proprietary formats that limit consumers’ ability to easily transfer songs between competing devices. Some music fans are fearful that their investment in digital music files will permanently be consigned to a single device that may become obsolete.

“Emboldened by consumer groups, the French parliament recently attracted Apple’s wrath when it sought to address those concerns by passing legislation mandating the interoperability of digital products.

“Many commentators have panned the legislation, suggesting that Apple might choose to exit the French market altogether rather than comply with the law. The French parliament may have indeed gone too far since it could likely have achieved the same goal by merely establishing the right of competitors to tinker with Apple’s technology so that they could develop their own compatible devices.”

Michael Geist. Rights and Wrongs of the Digital Age. BBC News. April 18, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“The first HD DVD players and discs have gone on sale in the U.S. The release marks the start of the format wars between the Toshiba-led HD DVD and the Sony-led Blu-ray systems. The first Blu-ray discs are expected in late May, while the first players will be available in June.

“Next-generation formats are able to store much more high-quality data, especially important for high-definition video. Both technologies use a blue laser to write information. It has a shorter wavelength so more data can be stored. A Blu-ray disc will eventually be able to store 50GB of high-quality data, while Toshiba’s HD DVD will hold 30GB. A standard DVD holds just under 5GB.

“Toshiba, with NEC, Sanyo and others, is pushing HD DVD; while backers of Sony’s Blu-ray discs include Samsung, Dell and Apple. But the format war, which has been likened to the Betamax-VHS fight in the 1980s, may ultimately be won in the games console market.”

BBC News. Next-Generation DVD Battle Begins. April 19, 2006.

See also:

The Guardian. Has Hollywood Gone Overboard on Piracy? April 13, 2006

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“In its lawsuits against P2P users, the RIAA wants to argue two things. First, it wants to argue that illegal downloaders are infringing on the copyright owners’ exclusive right to reproduce their copyrighted work. As the very word “copyright” suggests, the rightsholders’ exclusive right to make copies of a work is at the very heart of copyright law, and the EFF in fact concurs with the RIAA on this issue, holding that P2P downloading is technically copyright infringement from a legal standpoint.

“More controversially, though, the RIAA would like to argue that those who upload copyrighted works onto P2P networks are infringing on rightsholders’ exclusive right to distribute copies of the work to the public. This argument that a digital transmission of a work that results in a copy on the other end equals distribution is where things start to get really, really interesting.”

Ars Technica. The RIAA vs. the EFF: Who Will Redefine Copyright for the Digital Age. April 18, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“On May 4, the French Senate will debate a copyright bill that is widely expected to have a chilling effect on the development and distribution of open-source software for digital rights management (DRM) or P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file sharing. That’s because the bill’s provisions include a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of €300,000 (US$363,171) for publishing, distributing or promoting software in France that is ‘manifestly intended” for the unauthorized distribution of copyright works.’

“The developers of the open-source multimedia player VLC, which can read DRM-protected DVDs, consider themselves targeted. But the legal uncertainty over the term ‘manifestly intended’ makes the bill’s coverage so broad that it could even cover the open-source Web server Apache, which hosts over 60 percent of Web sites, opponents of the bill say. Open-source projects are thought to be more vulnerable than commercial operations because they typically have few resources at their disposal to defend legal actions.

Peter Sayer. French Could Outlaw Open Source DRM, Peer-to-Peer. InfoWorld. April 14, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Rootkits, used by hackers to hide malicious software, are on the rise and becoming more complex, according to security company McAfee.

“In the first quarter, the number of rootkits seen by McAfee’s Avert Labs grew by 700 percent, compared with the same period last year, the company said Monday. Its research into ‘stealth techniques’ also covered cloaking technology bundled with commercial programs, such as Sony BMG’s antipiracy tool, and with potentially unwanted software such as adware.

“While the use of such techniques to hide activity on computers has been around since 1986, their number and complexity have accelerated over the last three years, according to a McAfee report released Monday (Click here for PDF). In the first quarter alone, the Avert Labs found more than 827 stealth techniques. That contrasts with about 70 found in the same period in 2005 and with approximately 769 for the whole of that year.”

Dawn Kawamoto. Rootkit Numbers Rocketing Up, McAfee Says. News.com. April 17, 2006.

See also:

McAfee. Rootkits 1 of 3: The Growing Threat. (.pdf) April 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.