I’d left this site for all but dead, but apparently it was just a little executive shuffling going on that kept the site down.
admins posted business as usual on 4/11.
Demonoid lives
April 21st, 2008DVD Jon Liberates Tunes from iTunes
February 19th, 2008More details to emerge, I’m sure, but this time DVD Jon, known for cracking the DVD copyright encryption, has cracked Apple’s DRM, enabling people to play their iTunes purchased music on non-Apple devices. San Francisco-based doubleTwist, co-founded by DVD Jon, is releasing the software.
Beyond computer-to-computer media-sharing, doubleTwist lets users synchronize media sitting on their computers to mobile devices they or their friends own, simply by “dragging and dropping” media files into a desktop folder that then drops copies of the media files onto the mobile devices over the Web.
This is similar functionality provided by Red Chair Software’s Anapod, which the Hobo’s Mom uses for dragging and dropping to her iPod. It also seems to mimic the functionality of Tunebite, which plays back songs in fast forward and re-records them as unprotected files.
While there appears to be little hope for DRM when users are determined to get around it, I still maintain that there is very little that people can’t do under “Fair Use” with DRM protected files.
MPAA Admits “human error”
January 23rd, 2008Ah, good stuff. Never hurts to trump up some numbers when trying to emphasize the size and scope of a problem.
In 2005, the MPAA said 44% of piracy came from college students. Now, three years later – oops! – we were wrong. It was only 15%. The blame? “Human Error.”
It took three years for the MPAA to find a math mistake that was 200% higher than the actual number? Solid.
The Hobo Argues for DRM on Mediapost
January 9th, 2008Check out The Hobo arguing FOR DRM on Mediapost.
TorrentSpy.com Loses MPAA Battle
December 18th, 2007DigitalMediaWire reports that a federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled in favor of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) member studios in their copyright infringement suits against TorrentSpy.com.
The judge also determined that TorrentSpy had destroyed evidence in the case and moved directly to the damages phase.
Slysoft Adds AI to AnyDVD
October 15th, 2007Slysoft, makers of the popular DVD copying software AnyDVD and CloneDVD, has added a new layer of artificial intelligence to AnyDVD to ‘futureproof’ the software from future copyright protection technologies.
AnyDVD is used for removing DRM and CSS copyright protections. CloneDVD is used for the actual copying of the disc, compressing video to fit one disc, and removing menus, alternate languages and other elements of a DVD that a user may not want to keep in an archived copy of a movie.
Biz Wins Over Minn. Woman
October 5th, 2007In the first illegal downloading case to make it to court, the Biz won.
A jury found that Jammie Thomas infringed upon copyrights and awarded damages of $9,250 for each of the 24 recordings cited, for a total of $220,000.
Record Industry Takes Its Case to Court Tomorrow
October 1st, 2007The music industry is taking its case to court for the first time tomorrow.
A group of record labels is suing Jammie Thomas for sharing music across the Kazaa P2P network. While most people threatened with legal action from the industry have opted to settle, Jammie Thomas decided to take it all the way.
At risk is more than $1.2 million. The recording association is seeking damages set under federal law, of $750 to $30,000 for each copyright violation, and accusing Ms. Thomas of sharing more than 1,700 songs.
EU Courts Take Pressure Off Telecoms
July 18th, 2007An adviser to the EU’s courts has told telecom companies that they do not have to turn over information about their customers, even if they are believed to be distributing copyrighted material.
SoundExchange’s Sound Decision
July 13th, 2007According to Wired’s Elliot Van Buskirk, SoundExchange will not enforce the new online radio royalty rates when they officially kick in this weekend.
Read more at Wired’d blog.