Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

“The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.” So says the warning on all movies released since early 2004. Well, granted many get a bit of a chuckle every time they pop a movie into their player and see that flash across their screen knowing they’ve just downloaded it from somewhere on the ‘Net, but still...it’s the thought that counts. And apparently, the thought of RealNetworks is that they want to make it a little easier for their customers to burn those dvds; since they are coming out with a new product called RealDVD which allows users to burn a digital copy of the movie of your choice...ummmm..legally?  Guess that remains to be seen.  Because there hasn’t been enough chatter about the whole piracy/fair use thing lately. 

MORE »

Google is trying to increase it’s poor market share in China by offering free legal downloads of licensed songs.  According to the Reuters report, Google’s main Chinese competitor, Baidu, is facing lawsuits for allowing copyright infringement through downloading unlicensed songs.

The new service from Google will allow Chinese internet users to search thousands of Chinese artists and songs, which can then be downloaded from Top100.cn. 

Estimates from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (think international RIAA) estimate that pirated files are currently more than 99-percent of all files downloaded in China.  In a country that recently released numbers putting it at the highest number of internet users in the world, that’s pretty big.

It’s cool that Google is trying to raise its market share by offering free music downloads, but it would be cool if they could do it in the U.S. as well.  Sure, we’re not behind the Great Firewall, but doesn’t the rest of the world deserve free music downloads? Of course, as you would expect, Google will also place ads on the service which will have the revenue shared between Top100.cn and its music partners.

Read [Reuters]

In an attempt to be more proactive rather than simply reactive, the MPAA has recently approved the DreamStream system and its 2048-bit “military strength” anti-piracy encryption technology to protect content streamed to viewers online.

First introduced to the MPAA in March of 2008 by Laura Tunberg, MGM’s former vice president of intellectual property enforcement, it was since reviewed by the MPAA and found it to be a viable means for securing digital content. Chief development officer for DreamStream, Ulf Diebel, is excited by this acknowledgment of their product.

“We are very excited to have the MPAA stand behind our technology.”

MORE »

Piracy in the software industry continues to grow, this time slashing $48 billion in the revenue of software companies in 2007. This is in contrast with the dip of piracy rates in most countries. Piracy rates decreased in 67 out of 108 countries. Despite that, an $8 billion overall loss growth is being experienced worldwide by the software industry. It has been noted though, that half of the increase in losses are attributed to the depreciation of the dollar.

The Business Software Alliance or BSA, have reported in their fifth annual report that there are “emerging markets”, like Brazil, Russia, China, and India, which grow in PC sales per year. However, the rate of growth of PC sales does not correspond directly to the number of software shipments.  BSA President Robert Holleyman stated that these emerging markets report to have 46 percent of new computer shipments last year, yet the percentage of software shipments is just 17.

That clearly tells how the number of software products lags behind PC sales, and this provides evidence of piracy. The BSA provides in-depth reports of the effect on revenue sales of firms due to software piracy.

Read [CNET]

With help from the so-called Web Sheriff, Michael Jackson (along with The Village People, UB40, and some folks who have the rights to Bob Marley’s music) are going to take on The Pirate Bay, just like how MPAA did. This all springs from, as you may already know, the fact that a lot of people are getting their music for free through the very popular Torrent web site. But of course, The Pirate Bay Team stands more firm than ever, with Brokep commenting that, “The common thing for all of these artists of course is that no one listens to them anymore.” Harsh. Now if that doesn’t hurt the Web Sheriff’s feelings, I don’t know what will. Oh, wait, I know—if they don’t win the case (which has a very high probability). Good luck to them all, though.

Via [Torrent Freak]

Pirates beware – angels are out to get you.

Following New York’s lead and the urging of the MPAA and the RIAA, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has declared that piracy “substantially interferes with the interest of the public in the quality of life and community peace, lawful commerce in the county, property values, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare of the county’s citizens, its businesses and its visitors.”

The five-member Board of Supervisors of the City of Angels likened piracy to other troublesome activities and as such, preserves the right to secure a property for up to a year for violating ordinance 13.90.010. The ordinance also empowers local authorities to bring a civil action to “temporarily restrain, preliminarily enjoin, and/or permanently enjoin the person or persons intentionally conducting, or knowingly maintaining or permitting the public nuisance from further conducting, maintaining, or permitting such a public nuisance.”

MORE »

2008 may be the year that the war on piracy really picks up in the UK as the Government has ‘given notice’ that it intends to get tougher on pirates, and to include ISP’s in the solution.

One area that could make a significant impact would be the plans to ban camcorders from cinemas or at least make it a criminal rather than civil offense, on the basis that an amazing 9 out of 10 pirates films first get onto the market as camcorder copies!

Threatening to suspend the service of ISP’s that break the law is another initiative been suggested by the film industry, who estimated that piracy cost them £800 million in 2005. It may seem somewhat harsh on the ISP’s but in France they are pushing a “3 strikes and you are out” policy whereby repeat offenders are banned from having access to the web.

Via [Times Online]

As if there wasn’t enough piracy on the internet, Griffin Technologies is essentially turning your iPod into a tape deck (I wonder what sort of litigation this is going to bring). With its new program, iFill, you can now record your favorite internet radio stations directly onto your iPod.  iFill allows you to determine the number of megabytes to use for recording and then you can choose any number of internet stations that you want to record.

My immediate concern was that I didn’t want to have 1 track that was 3 hours long but do not fear iFill divides up each track and labels them appropriately with the artist and song name.  Some tracks catch the next 3 seconds of the next song playing on the station but it is not that big of a deal.

Too good to be true? Well there are a few improvements that can be made… real-time recording is a huge down-side. No one really wants to sit and wait as their iPod fills up with new songs, but if you are working on your PC, might as well leave it hooked up. Secondly, it allows for duplicates. They could vastly improve this by detecting songs that you already have on your player and not allowing duplicates rather than having to go in manually and deleting them yourself.

All in all, it’s a great idea but can definitely be refined. The one week trial is definitely worth the shot, and if you enjoy it, its only a one time $20 fee! Record away, but watch out because the RIAA might be right around the corner.

View [Griffin]