Digital Rights Management

Media Rights Technology (MRT) has sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple, Microsoft, Adobe and Real, claiming that they have been infringing products under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. "Together these four companies are responsible for 98 ... percent of the media players in the marketplace; CNN, NPR, Clear Channel, MySpace, Yahoo, and YouTube all use these infringing devices to distribute copyrighted works," said MRT CEO Hank Risan. "We will hold the responsible parties accountable. The time of suing John Doe is over." (Source: arstechnica.com ) But MRT is not a content owner, so why is ... (view more)

Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been gaining some negative attention, especially with Apple's Steve Jobs pushing towards a DRM-free music industry. Sony seems to have magnified people's annoyance with DRM, and taken frustrations to a whole new ... level. The company recently released DVDs with DRM protection that makes the DVDs unplayable in various DVD players -- including at least one Sony DVD player. (Source: dvorak.com ) The aggravation can be attributed to Sony's ARccOS DRM technique. ARccOS works by scrambling sectors on the disc to prevent users from copying the disc. Most older ... (view more)

On April 2, EMI and Apple announced that EMI's entire music catalog will be available free of all digital rights management (DRM) protection on the iTunes store. While the buzz of the announcement has centered on the implications for the music ... industry, there is another facet of this situation worth discussing: Steve Jobs' orchestration of the shift to DRM-free music. (Source: techreport.com ) In February, Jobs released an open letter on the Apple website criticizing DRM protection systems. Jobs wrote: "Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable ... (view more)

A lot of the hoopla surrounding the new Windows Vista operating system (OS) is based on it's new multimedia capabilities. However, users purchasing Vista to use the much-hyped and enhanced multimedia capabilities to watch high definition or blu-ray ... DVDs -- or to listen to audio CDs -- may be in for a very upsetting surprise. In a disturbing, albeit, eye-opening white paper detailing a cost analysis of Windows Vista Contect Protection, Peter Gutmann (a Department of Computer Science security engineering researcher at the University of Auckland, New Zealand) details the consequences of ... (view more)

As the release of Vista nears, so too does the highly-anticipated business tool, Office 2007. With it will come a host of new options and features for corporate users -- so long as they're playing fair. Recently, insiders are whispering more and ... more about the rumored "Kill Switch", first reported here on Infopackets.com back in July . Although we could only speculate on the possibility that the switch would exist via WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) affected Vista PCs, it's now becoming apparent that the same could be true when it comes to Office 2007. (source: zdnet.com ) Back during those ... (view more)

Last summer, Microsoft made a rather big mess of things with WGA, or the Windows Genuine Advantage program. The company had only recently delayed Windows Vista, and the public was primed and ready to jump on them for any other slip ups. That came ... with the aforementioned WGA, MS' attempt to introduce antipiracy software. The problem wasn't necessarily the concept so much as it was the nature in which Microsoft implemented the program. Well, it appears the Redmond-based company has drastically updated WGA, and some of the harshest critics from mid-year are now slightly less annoyed. Although ... (view more)

Probably, I should preface my remarks by saying I don't work for Microsoft. As an editor for infopackets.com, as well as a contributor, it was hard reading all the articles without inserting my own opinion. Watching people jump on the bash Microsoft ... bandwagon, however, can be amusing. The furor over WGA is unfortunate. If it motivates folks to turn off Automatic Updates entirely, that would be tragic. Clearly, there were problems with WGA, both in its initial implementation and in the PR treatment. Leo Notenbloom, in a Lockergnome article, gave a fair and balanced view. http://ask-leo.com/ ... (view more)

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you've undoubtedly stumbled across the term "WGA" -- or more affectionately known as, The Windows Genuine Advantage Program. Reminder: What is WGA? Designed as anti-piracy software by ... Microsoft, WGA is an install designed to check the legitimacy of a user's Windows applications and Operating System. Those whose systems are running pirated software are given the chance to purchase legitimate identification keys or prove that they were duped into buying the illegal merchandise. Those who are victims of piracy dealers -- and can ... (view more)

I've been hearing a lot of hype about this Windows Genuine Advantage program. I especially liked Brandon Dimmels articles about it here at Infopackets (see "Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Under Fire"). I don't like programs that needlessly contact ... their home websites to report on me. Many people call that "Spyware" and I also agree that WGA fits the description. It's taken a little while for me to figure out what to do about WGA. The funny thing to me is that I've had the "Fix" on my PC for a long time. Here's what I've done ... Install BigFix Turn off automatic downloading of Windows ... (view more)

With Peer to Peer (P2P) networks keeping the piracy market flooded with illegal applications, songs, and movies, Microsoft is making a complicated and confusing attempt to limit rip-offs of its own merchandise through its latest anti-piracy program ... dubbed, "Windows Genuine Advantage", or "WGA" for short. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the WGA program has attracted much scrutiny from security experts in recent weeks. So, what's all the Hoopla about? According to Microsoft's website, the Windows Genuine Advantage (seen next to the smiling, comforted young woman) is in place to assure paying ... (view more)