Topic: News

A French select committee has decided to gut a law which would have protected users from DRM and forced Apple to licence its Fairplay technology.

In an effort to attract more subscribers to its digital music service, Napster have launched an ad-supported offering that allows users to listen to over two million tracks free of charge.

Canada's most famous popular beat combos have formed a coalition against moves in the recording industry to hammer fans in copyright lawsuits and stick DRM on their albums.

Anyone in the UK who rats on employers who use illegal or unlicensed software can now collect more than £20,000 according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

Sony will next month launch its LocationFree TV (LFTV) service in the UK and other key European territories, allowing PlayStation Portable users to receive television programmes transmitted from the home and out across the internet. Mac users are to get access to the service too.

Sonic Solutions have introduced Avid DVD BD Edition, the world’s first Blu-ray Disc (BD) authoring system for video professionals.

The Indian disc manufacturer Moser Baer has announced it's intentions to be among the group of manufacturers shipping next-gen blue-laser media by the end of this year.

NEC have acknowledged it has been the victim of a large-scale piracy ring that sold both counterfeit NEC goods as well as NEC-branded products including blank CD and DVD media.

In a surprise announcement, Nintendo have revealed the new name of its forthcoming game system: Wii. "As in 'we'," the official statement adds.

Pioneer has unveiled its BDR-101A, one of the world's first PC-use Blu-ray Disc (BD) DVD burner, for sale at US$995 (£560). Due to the high price, the model caters to professional users and enterprise users, according to general manager Shannon Yu for Pioneer's Optical Disc Drive Sales Division in Greater China.

DVD Blinding Light Flash has been in contact with news about a quick tip he recieved that should work to disable the new anti-piracy pop-up nag that comes with Window's Genuine Advantage.

BenQ and Philips remain on their schedule to launch their Blu-ray DVD burner in Q3 of 2006, and promise compatibility with the CD and DVD formats.

Lite-On has landed PC-use FVD (forward versatile disc) orders from a leading U.S.-based distributor with shipment slated to start in June, according to Derray Huang, deputy general director of the Opto-electronics and Systems Laboratories (OES) at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

Researchers of the super-fast Internet2 network unveiled on Wednesday their new networking speed record of 8.8 Gbps per second, nearing the Internet2's current theoretical limit of 10 Gbps, which is thousands of times faster than standard home broadband connections.

Yahoo released a beta version of its Yahoo Go for TV software that turns a PC into a digital video recorder. Once the software is installed, users may plug their computer into their television's video and audio input connections.

Seagate has come up trumps with the recently released perpendicular recording format for hard disk drives releasing a monster 750GB drive for the desktop.

Warner have announced that it plans to begin shipping hybrid DVD / HD-DVD titles in May. The discs will feature standard 480p DVD content that will work on any DVD player on one side, and 1080p HD-DVD content on the other side.

TDK have demonstrated the first printable versions of Blu-ray discs at the NAB tradeshow. Two different versions were shown - Rimage showed a thermal printable BD-R, while Primera had an inkjet printable at its booth.

Microsoft has been quietly piloting its Software Genuine Advantage programme in Norway and in Sweden since November. This week, the scheme has been be extended to the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Several second-tier makers of pre-recorded discs in Taiwan, under competitive pressure from China, Russia and even South Korea, have approached leading makers in Taiwan with proposals to merger in order to remain in business.