Topic: News

Companies across Europe face criminal sanctions, including prison time for employees, if their networks, software programs or online services are ever used to carry illegally copied material such as music or film, according to a draft law from the European Commission supported by a committee of the European Parliament.

Samsung has unveiled four new drives at this years CeBIT, a 20x burner in both internal and external varieties, and a 4x Blu-ray burner, both internal and external.

Continuing their aggressive push to lower HD DVD player pricing, Toshiba has announced they will reduce the cost of both of their second-generation decks beginning April 1st.

Apple have said that it has begun shipments of its Apple TV product, aimed at solidifying its hold on the digital entertainment industry, and expanding its presence into the living room.

Toshiba will begin adding HD DVD drives to its mainstream laptop line-up, the Satellite series, in Q3, the notebook maker revealed last week.

The recently proposed "DVD Download" format that features the CSS copyright-protection software will not be compatible with all DVD recorders or PC burners, according to the DVD Forum.

In view of emerging OEM and ODM orders for 20x DVD burners, drive makers are preparing to start volume production in the second quarter of 2007 with the drive speed looking likely to be become mainstream.

Video-sharing website YouTube is to present awards for the best user-generated videos of 2006.

The HD-EP10, unveiled at CeBIT, has a similar look to its older brother but is made of standard DVD player plastic rather than the HD-XE1's bullet-proof, shiny metal, making it significantly cheaper. Crucially, it can output video at 1080p for the very best HD DVD picture quality.

Nero is set to unveil Nero Linux 3 at CeBIT in Germany. The new version of the burning application will add Blu-Ray and HD DVD data recording support as well as an improved graphical user interface (GUI) that is similar to the look and feel of the current Nero Burning ROM 7 edition.

Fengtao Software have released software that can bypass Advanced Access Content System (AACS) on HD DVD discs to copy the content.

Google and YouTube have been issued with a writ by Viacom alleging intentional copyright infringement of its works.

A senior Microsoft exec has admitted that some software piracy actually ends up benefiting the technology giant because it leads to purchases of other software packages.

Police in London have raided a house that was allegedly at the centre of an online pirate DVD operation.

Sony has confirmed the company's intentions to release a redesigned version of the popular PlayStation Portable game device.

All US households with televisions that use analog technology will be eligible for $40 discount coupons to buy digital converter boxes, according to the Commerce Department.

Due to the long Chinese New Year Holiday, Taiwan optical disc makers saw their revenues drop sequentially in February, with leading players CMC Magnetics and Ritek seeing revenue drops of 21.3% and 14.0%, respectively.

A post on the Doom9 forums has claimed to have found another set of device keys crucial to the unlocking of the AACS copy protection used by both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.

Ricoh says that started shipping the new Double Layer DVD+R media with write speeds of up to 16x, significantly raising the standards for fast DL blank discs.

Sony has unveiled plans for its own virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users will be able to socialise, shop and even go to the movies -- all without setting foot outside in the real world.