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Anti-DRM Shirt contest
2007-04-25 17:13:00
TorrentFreak.com has a competition for a new anti-DRM T shirt design. For more details on participation and rules, check the article, there’s 250 bucks up for grabs. Most of us would agree that DRM is doomed to fail. Unfortunately the Music and Movie Industry is not convinced yet, we still have to let them know that we (their consumers) are against DRM. What better way to do this than organizing an Anti -DRM T-Shirt contest? Spread the word, the winner gets $250.
More About: Contest , Test , Contes

Yahoo online lyrics. For free.
2007-04-25 17:07:00
Everyone wants lyrics, by, everyone basically. And they’re available online, a simple search would provide you with them. Now, Yahoo plans to offer such a service for free, to attract more users. “Dozens of other websites offer song lyrics, but most are posting the words without the permission of copyright holders. Some are also inaccurate, as they rely on outside users to post new lyrics.” Of course, there’s always a catch, Yahoo will share revenue through ads with the copyright holders and as a bonus, take to task those who share unauthorizedly. Source: p2pnet.net
More About: Lyrics , Free , Online , Line

Amazon working on DRM-free music store
2007-04-25 16:55:00
About a month after EMI signed a deal with Apple to provide restriction-free versions of its songs on iTunes, Amazon has taken further steps in providing its own alternative. The London Times is reporting that Amazon has begun preliminary conversations with all major music labels to offer unrestricted MP3 files of their songs through an Amazon.com platform. Amazon has been unsuccessful so far in its attempts to compete with iTunes, scoring low consumer bases in its Amazon Unbox video downloading store and gaining little attention to its collection of free, uncopyrighted music downloads. Plans to develop an Amazon-branded MP3 player were also halted before production was finished. Earlier this month, iTunes struck a partnership with EMI to offer unrestricted versions of its songs for a 30 cent premium over the standard 99 cent price point. Sprint’s mobile music store also lets customers download straight MP3 files of their 99 cent mobile music purchases. Read
More About: Music , Free Music , Free , Store

Using Adsense to Fight Malicious BitTorrent Clients
2007-04-24 16:00:00
Torrent101, Torrentq and Bitroll are three malware supported BitTorrent clients which are heavily advertised on BitTorrent sites. They try to lure naive users into downloading these clients with catchy phrases like “We use unique technology to increase the download speed of your torrents�. TorrentFreak decided to turn the tables around and advertised with malware warnings on their websites. How? Well, TorrentFreak started to run Google Adwords campaigns on the Bitroll, Torrent101 and Torrentq websites. In just four days the ads were shown 20,000 times, the clickthrough rate was impressive, and the ads probably prevented more than one thousand people installing these malware-laden BitTorrent clients. TorrentFreak.com have an example of this sort, check the article out for more information. Read
More About: Adsense , Fight , Clients , Sing , Ense

Sony fixes faulty DRM
2007-04-19 13:27:00
Sony has gotten around to fixing a bug on its mainstream DVD disks which broke its own brand of DVD players. The copy-protection glitch stopped movies Casino Royale, Pursuit of Happyness and Stranger Than Fiction from playing on some DVD players. Sony said it had issued a patch of its DRM, the ARccOS copy-protection system, which is ...
More About: Sony , Fault

Piracy investigators infiltrate private Torrent sites
2007-04-14 16:03:00
In March, Torrent Freak published an article which aimed to answer the question ‘Are Private BitTorrent Trackers Safe?’ Now, an internet piracy investigator has admitted that his organisation has successfully infiltrated private BitTorrent trackers and is actively collecting information. Private groups are paranoid about being discovered, and are like members’ clubs; you must be introduced by an ...
More About: Piracy , Site , Sites , Vest

Philips watermark tech traces pirated TV content
2007-04-14 15:50:00
Philips today announced a ?forensic? watermarking tool for video content which allows copyright holders to follow the path of pirated content back to a specific PayTV subscriber. The technology, called VTrack, uses an ?imperceptible and indelible unique identifier? embedded into the video signal, which can be used to determine a potential pirate of video content. While ...
More About: Pirate , Tech , Content , Water , Lips

RIAA slams Steve Jobs
2007-04-12 16:40:00
David Hughes, senior vice president of technology for the RIAA, dubbed the spiritual leader of Apple Steve Jobs as a “hypocrite” over his attitude to DRM on iTunes. While Steve has been banging on about the music companies dropping DRM he has been unwilling to sell his Pixar movies through iTunes without DRM and DVDs without ...
More About: Steve Jobs , Slam , Riaa

Analyst: Corel?s DRM patch only a bandage
2007-04-11 15:37:00
A contest of wills has begun between hackers and the maker of software for playing back next-generation DVDs. Skeptics say that the outcome is all too predictable. Core l Software said in a statement last week that customers must download a new update of its InterVideo WinDVD software if they wish to continue watching HD DVD ...
More About: Band , Corel , Anda , Patch

Microsoft changes tune on selling DRM-free songs
2007-04-09 16:10:00
Following digital music pioneer Apple Inc.’s lead, Microsoft Corp. said it will soon sell digital music online without digital rights management (DRM) protection. Microsoft’s apparent change of heart on selling DRM-free music came in response to Apple’s deal earlier in the week to sell unprotected content from recording company EMI Group PLC. The company previously claimed ...
More About: Selling , Songs , Song , Change

RIAA and movie industry want to pretext
2007-04-09 15:57:00
The RIAA and the movie industry are lobbying lawmakers in a bid to get it excused from tough laws on pretexting. According to the LA Times, the law which is in response to the fiasco HP bought upon itself by pretending to be other people to spy on hostile journalists, is likely to first see the ...
More About: Movie , Industry , Rete , Text , Want

YouTube Video Ripper
2007-04-09 15:49:00
A script that will download all the videos uploaded by a specific YouTube user where the title matches a pattern (regexp compatible). The final output is flash videos named after the unique video ID. Check it out
More About: Video , Youtube , Ripper

Hackers turn Apple TV into computer
2007-04-06 18:39:00
Just two weeks after Apple released its Apple TV, hackers have turned it into something a bit more useful and created the cheapest PC that the Cappuccino outfit has built. Apple TV sells for $300, which is fairly expensive for what the gear does. Particularly as it is so limited and produces poor quality video content. However ...
More About: Computer , Comp , Hack , Hacker

uTorrent v1.7 Build 1092 Beta
2007-04-06 18:21:00
uTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients. Download | Change Log | HomePage
More About: Beta , Build , Rent , Utorrent

MPAA?s Anti-Piracy Dogs, Great Publicity but Nothing Special
2007-04-05 20:35:00
Commenting on the Malaysian haul, Neil Gane, a spokesperson for the Motion Picture Association told Reuters, ?Lucky and Flo were able to sniff under the doors ? all the doors were locked, and many of them had metal grilles. If they smelt polycarbonate, they would sit down. Then the officials used metal grinders and bolt ...
More About: Dogs , Piracy , Public , Great , Publicity

Verizon Bans P2P, Streaming Services and Online Gaming
2007-04-05 20:33:00
Verizon customers on the EVDO Wireless Data Service are in for a surprise if they read the Terms of Service (TOS) The Unlimited Data Plan is - yes, thats right limited to 5gigs of transfers each month but don?t worry, you won?t need anywhere near that amount because your internet multimedia experience is about to be ...
More About: Gaming , Services , Verizon , Online

Microsoft targets more software pirates
2007-04-04 19:46:00
Microsoft said Monday that it is taking action against groups that sold copies of Windows and Office discounted for academic use to regular users. The Redmond, Wash., software maker has filed nine lawsuits and sent more than 50 letters threatening such action, it said in a statement. The suits were filed in the United States, ...
More About: Software , Microsoft , Pirates , Pirate , War

EU investigates Apple, may levy £323m fine
2007-04-03 19:05:00
Despite a landmark agreement with EMI to offer DRM-free music via iTunes, European Union regulators are investigating Apple ’s iTunes Store for possibly violating competition laws, and said that they object to the Cupertino-based company’s practice of forcing consumers to purchase songs from its iTunes Store only in their home country. The European Commission sent a ...
More About: Gate , Vest , Invest , Gates

Illegal Music Downloads Outnumber Legal Ones 10-to-1
2007-04-02 20:23:00
The New York Times reports that, officially, everybody and their grandmother illegally downloads music from the Internet using programs like BitTorrent. Five billion songs were downloaded from P2P networks in 2006 versus 509 million from legitimate music stores like iTunes, according to the NPD research group. Many users say it?s simply easier to download music ...
More About: Music , Downloads , Download , Legal , Numb

Happy thoughts on DRM free music from EMI
2007-04-02 20:18:00
Following EMI’s announcement today that it will launch new high quality DRM-free downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store, senior advisor Torgeir Waterhouse of the Norwegian Consumer Council immediately came forward to applaud the move. “It’s with great interest [that] I’ve listened to the webcast from EMI & Apple today,” Waterhouse told MacNN. “No matter how the ...
More About: Music , Free Music , Free , Thoughts , Happy

EMI, Apple to go DRM free
2007-04-02 20:04:00
Did they say free or fee? The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and EMI will make a joint announcement today to sell large chunks of its music catalogue free of digital rights management (DRM) software. That will mark a reversal of the music industry’s King Canute like trend to cope with technology and the internet by ...
More About: Free

DVD Copy Control licence so badly written it?s invalid
2007-04-02 19:57:00
US lawyers have screwed up the licensing specifications designed to protect movies from being copied, reports EETimes. A California court ruled yesterday that a Silicon Valley company isn’t violating the technology used to protect DVDs because the licence and specifications for the technology are so badly written. The decision marks a rare, though small victory for ...
More About: Dvd , Control , Copy , Licence , Written

BT-chat.com announces FREE unlimited USENET
2007-04-01 17:30:00
We know we are a bit earlier than we said for May, but we have decided to launch our completely FREE usenet service. This service has been provided with a deal between us and giganews, and one of our ad partners. Visit BT-chat.com for more!
More About: Chat , Free , Hat , Unlimited , Mite

Apple Hacks Our Hacks
2007-03-29 20:36:00
If you?re planning on hacking your Apple TV, if you haven?t already, I wouldn?t bother because Apple is only going to hack your hack. I suppose there is always a downside to the Internet. Apple caught wind of all the hackity hacks going around regarding the Apple TV and they?re taking appropriate steps to rectify ...
More About: Hacks , Hack

Pinball software in P2P legal row
2007-03-29 20:24:00
THERE ARE a large number of very confused people in the UK who have received a letter from a firm of solicitors claiming that they are P2P pirates. The letters from a UK firm of lawyers Messrs Davenport Lyons claim that they have been caught distributing a piece of software called Dream Pinball 3D and that ...
More About: Software , Legal , War , Ware , Soft

Milwaukee says NO to RIAA
2007-03-27 20:33:00
Deliver your own mail! Recently, the University of Wisconsin (based in Madison, WI) announced that it would not forward on threatening letters from the RIAA to its students. Now, some of the other schools in the system are going along with it in what can only be seen as a setback to the recording industry?s thuggish ...
More About: Milwaukee , Riaa

RIAA vs Kylee Andersen, 10
2007-03-27 20:29:00
“Plaintiffs claim Michelle admitted to downloading and uploading Plaintiffs’ copyrighted sound recordings … However, that is not what Michelle said and it is certainly not what she meant. Of course, with RIAA’s counsel physically beating on the table, slamming down post-it notes with question after question … and scaring Michelle out of her seat, sending ...
More About: Kyle , Andersen , Riaa

Jamendo hits the million album mark
2007-03-27 20:27:00
France’s Jamendo, the free music community, says it’s reached a milestone: it’s distributed more than 1,000,000 albums on BitTorrent. “Like some artists?” - it asks. Then, “Pay them directly or just spread the word about them.” And it’s all down to Creative Commons licensing. What’s the most downloaded album to date? Silence, L’autre endroit, released a year ago on ...
More About: Men , Lion , Hits , Album , Mark

Sony unviels yet another cipher for DRM
2007-03-26 20:45:00
According to TG Daily, Sony ’s conjuring up yet another proprietary format instead of just making nice with the ones already available. Sony plans to reveal details about CLEFIA at the Fast Software Encryption 2007 conference, which will open its doors on March 26 in Luxembourg. So far,Sony has described the technology as a 128-bit block ...
More About: Other , Another , Cipher

Three quarters of students ignore RIAA threats
2007-03-26 20:10:00
The RIAA CLAIMS that its policy of threatening students who it thinks are pirates is a great success even though three quarters of those targeted ignore its demands for cash. The RIAA has been offering discounted settlements to 400 students at 13 universities. Basically it tells them that if they pay about $3000 they will not ...
More About: Student , Students , Arte , Three , Threats