Canada Wants 'Legal' iPods, Issues New Copyright Legislature
	iPod owners living in Canada are now allowed to copy "legally acquired" content to their iPods as well as to their computers, the updated Copyright Act says. Users, however, are banned from circumventing DRM on other media, facing penalties for doing so ranging from $500 to $20,000. "Canadian consumers could face damages of $500 and upwards for owning bootleg copies of music, books and other copyright material, under legi ... [read more >>]
	16 June 2008, 05:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Napster Takes on iTunes, Offers DRM-Free Music to iPod / iPhone Owners
	Bet you didn't hope you'd hear this when you got up this morning: the Napster full-track download service will (allegedly) work with Apple's iPod, iPhone and any other mobile handset. The new Napster service basically tries to take on Apple's expensive digital download service and offer more songs without copy protection or DRM (digital rights management), Reuters is reporting. "We're now moving f ... [read more >>]
	20 May 2008, 07:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Analyze That: On DRM, Videogames and Market Testing
	Last week, Electronic Arts dropped what might have been a bombshell in the gaming world, by announcing that both the PC version of Mass Effect and Spore would have a ... [read more >>]
	15 May 2008, 10:15GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Silverlight 2, Microsoft's Flash Killer, Gets DRM, Just Like Vista
	Microsoft's Flash killer, Silverlight, is on track to get digital rights management just like the company's latest Windows client, Windows Vista. Microsoft has faced a barrage of criticism over the content protection capabilities in Vista, and the subject is bound to yet again come into play with Silverlight 2. The NAB Show 2008 was the stage where the Redmond company announced new adopters of the ... [read more >>]
	14 April 2008, 12:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

PSN Store DRM Has Been Cracked
	As always with crack and hack news, take this one with the proverbial grain of salt. Several sites from the "underground" of the Internet have begun reporting about the fact that the Digital Rights Management on the PlayStation Store titles that are exclusive to the PlayStation Portable& ... [read more >>]
	08 April 2008, 06:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

DRM-free Music For BlackBerry, From Puretracks
	BlackBerry users will soon have a new DRM-free mobile music service and an on-line music store, thanks to Puretracks, a popular Canadian digital music provider, and Magnet Mobile Media. The two companies developed Puretracks Mobile Edition music store for BlackBerry, a s ... [read more >>]
	12 March 2008, 15:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Stop Buying CDs, Your Music Now Ships on NAND Flash!
	CDs and conventional music albums seem to be one step ahead their grave, as new storage media for audio files find their way on the market. The latest addition in the industry is the good-old flash disk or pen drive. Call it whatever you want, but it seems to be the future in the music industry. Instead of buying an audio CD with your favorite music, you could as well purchase a digital rights management-free version of the al ... [read more >>]
	18 February 2008, 02:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Yahoo! to Give Free Music Online!
	Talks have been held in the direction of allowing Yahoo! to offer DRM-free music for free or in exchange for a small fee, as a part of a service that’s self-supporting. Although in the early stages, the discussions were pretty straightforward about what the Sunnyvale-based company wanted, a couple of record company execs told the Associated Press. The online service from Yahoo! has not been given a launch date but, by the look ... [read more >>]
	24 January 2008, 18:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Service Launched to Bring Free Music to All!
	Strangely, in the last days, all I’ve been hearing about is music, the way DRM should be removed because it is obsolete, that perhaps iTunes should consider lowering its prices and so on and so forth. A lot of talk around one of the best selling products in the world, talks which sometimes I consider to be rather redundant. There’s no point in saying the obvious, once it has already been said a couple of hundred times. That’s why I co ... [read more >>]
	24 January 2008, 03:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

DRM-Free Music From the Combined Powers of Pepsi and Amazon
	By this point you must have heard about Amazon.com and in case you haven't I just hinted you where it’s at. Pepsi, one of the leading brands in the world when it comes to cola, is no stranger either. Now they’ve teamed up and by their powers combined… no, there’s no Captain Planet racing across the sky in order to stop pollution, but there’s DRM-free music. In my book that’s better. I don’t know why, because it’s not like I ... [read more >>]
	15 January 2008, 05:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Asus Xonar D2X – Hi-FI Sound on PCI-Express
	Asus has prepared an impressive sound offering including the PCI-Express x1 version of the Xonar D2 soundcard, along with better DirectSound, EAX and updated drivers for the Windows Vista users. Although there are a few changes in style when compared to the previous D2 version, the PCI-Express model will bring quite a few surprises, as described below. The D2X version features the same EMI shield and illuminated parts as the D ... [read more >>]
	14 January 2008, 04:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Apple Left out of Warner DRM-free Content Deal
	One can easily consider this a very good, if not the best, financial year for Apple. After the launch of the iPhone, Apple has only seen the good side of life on the financial market. Its products have been waited for mainly due to the innovative multi-touch interface introduced by Steve Jobs in January. At that moment in time, people almost instantly wanted to get their hands on the gadget and, as it seems, nowadays they still feel th ... [read more >>]
	28 December 2007, 07:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Introversion Software's Chris Delay About Copy Protection DRM
	Chris Delay, co-founder of Introversion Software, made public some very interesting thoughts about ... [read more >>]
	27 November 2007, 06:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Poor Pirates Complain That Nasty Law Enforcers Harass Their Business
	Sometimes, law enforcers do anything in their powers and even use illegal methods to prove the crooks’ activity. Of course, if the accused ones are proved to be innocent, then the law enforcers might get sued. Pirate Bay, the file sharing service is in such a case – they plan to sue companies, that earlier accused them of conducting illegal activities, as seen on WebUser. Thing is the "Pirates" are suing companies becau ... [read more >>]
	26 September 2007, 05:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Download Free Porn, Kill the XXX Industry!
	It appears that the folks in the porn industry have finally had enough of their materials being pirated and distributed on the Web. They are now acting against this, as a large group of producers and other industry members have met up with lawyers last week in order to talk about how to properly enact on piracy. As Ars Technica has it, this is one of the first major roundtables for the industry to get together and address what ha ... [read more >>]
	13 September 2007, 10:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Forget About Vista's DRM – Microsoft Cooks Unbreakable Content Protection
	Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, comes complete with digital rights management technology designed to offer support for commercial content scenarios. Microsoft stated back in January, even before the operating system was launched to the general public, in a move to defend the inclusion of DRM in the platform that the sole purpose of the content protection infrastructure in Vista is to make sure that end users will b ... [read more >>]
	11 September 2007, 11:27GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

DRM - No Match for Pirates!
	Have you noticed how security experts and companies strive to enforce the DRM, but with no notable success? They brag about new DRM modules and their strengths and the next day, a pirate hacks it and steals movies, mp3 and anything he likes, as if these weren't even protected. A lot of money has been spent on measures that would do nothing else but prevent normal users from ripping off various artists. The thing is that ... [read more >>]
	11 September 2007, 05:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

LimeWire Finally Changes Sides, Becomes Legal
	LimeWire is currently one of the most famous software solutions on the Internet and especially among the users who are interested in file-sharing applications. If you didn't know, LimeWire is built in Java and is especially meant to represent a peer-to-peer file sharing program that would allow the users to search and download almost any type of file placed on other consumers' computers which are connected to the Gnutel ... [read more >>]
	16 August 2007, 03:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Microsoft's Zune Surrenders to Hackers, Gets Its DRM Cracked
	It would seem that just about anything that's got the word "Microsoft" in its name is a target for hackers, especially if the respective product (either software or hardware) is considered by the company from Redmond to be unbreakable. And the latest example of this state of facts is related to Microsoft's more or less famous Zune portable media player, renowned mostly for its relatively low sales compared to ... [read more >>]
	16 July 2007, 10:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

White-Box Cryptography - the Key to Bulletproof Windows Vista DRM
	White-box cryptography is the key to bulletproofing Windows Vista digital rights management technology. DRM designates a content protection scheme designed to restrict the usage of digital media. The Windows Media DRM is the term associated with the Windows Vista Content Protection Infrastructure. Microsoft revealed that the decision of including DRM into their latest operating system is a direct result of the necessity to ensure that[ADMA ... [read more >>]
	26 June 2007, 11:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

DecyptHD - First HD-DVD Real Time Decryption Tool
	Since the HD DVD (High-density optical disc) format was released to general public in March 2006, when Toshiba announced their first HD DVD player in Japan, many movie titles were released in this high-quality video format. As movies were released, the need for "magical" tools to decrypt the HD content went forth because most of the HD DVD content is protected by the AACS (Advanced Access Content System) standard for content dis ... [read more >>]
	05 June 2007, 10:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Apple's DRM Free iTunes Songs Identify The Buyer
	Apple may have launched iTunes Plus and started selling DRM-free music, but that does not mean that they have given pirates a free hand. Regardless of whether or not the songs you buy from the iTunes Store have DRM, they do have tags that identify you as the buyer of that song. Those thinking that the new DRM-free music available for download from the iTunes Store is ‘free music’ should think again. Each and every track can be ... [read more >>]
	31 May 2007, 11:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Amazon to Revolutionize Online MP3 Distribution: DRM-Free Music Store!
	Amazon prepares a major hit for the DRM companies because the firm plans to launch a DRM-free music shop to sell unprotected MP3s. It seems like Amazon wants to release the store in the upcoming months and will allow the download of millions of songs without any limitation. According to Engadget, Amazon will sell music only in the MP3 format, the only extension that can be used without any DRM limitation. Because the store will ... [read more >>]
	16 May 2007, 10:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Labels Will Fight Jobs Over DRM Free Music
	While Apple’s deal with EMI for DRM free content has given Apple a stronger position in the upcoming negotiations with the music labels, it looks like the labels are still going to put up a fight. It is no secret that Apple and Steve Jobs have been pushing for the removal of Digital Rights Management for quite some time now. This initiative was regarded as a marketing push by Apple for a long time, and many argued that Apple ... [read more >>]
	07 May 2007, 08:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Late & Fresh News: Universal Buy BMG, Pending EU Approval
	You all know Universal Group, you simply can't say you don't, at least from the beginning of motion pictures. Well, they're in music too, you know? And they're way big! As a matter of fact, Universal Music Group is one of the “4 major“ who are responsible for RIAA and the crap RIAA is spreading around with their every move. Now, Universal have bought BMG, German Bertelsman's music division for a handsome $2.2 bi ... [read more >>]
	18 April 2007, 10:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Windows Vista DRM = Malware
	Security researcher Alex Ionescu has made available for download a program he authored himself called D-Pin Purr v1.0, designed to exploit the digital rights management processes in Windows Vista in order to camouflage malware. Although Ionescu is offering the proof-of-concept utility, he has not released the source code. “I won’t be releasing source code for the moment because I don’t want to encourage people to start adding ... [read more >>]
	17 April 2007, 05:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

YouTube Might Become a Pay-Per-Video Service
	Yup, the title is correct and the well-known online video sharing service powered by Google might become a pay-per-video solution. Why, why, why? Well, don't be too angry because YouTube will remain a free service but it will probably sell some videos based on a new platform recently released by Adobe. As you know, YouTube allows users to view clips through the flash player provided by Adobe, an application that was improved ... [read more >>]
	17 April 2007, 04:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Is Beatles Going MP3? EMI and Beatles Settle Court Disagreement for $59M
	The dispute between EMI and Apple Corps. (Beatles society owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison) has finally come to an end. A $59 million end, to be more precise. After an audit on EMI, which has somehow revealed that they were not fulfilling exactly all terms of the contracts, the Beatles went legal and simply sued the records company in late 2005. The suit went on and it was ... [read more >>]
	12 April 2007, 11:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sansoo OR Yahansa? Yahoo Teams With SanDisk Over Sansa Project
	It has finally happened! SanDisk's efforts to support the war against DRM and its fans have finally paid off: Yahoo's music branch has confirmed the alliance with the flash memory giant in what the future of the Sansa Connect portable device will be. Shortly, Sansa Connect will play both DRM-free MP3 files acquired from various locations (hey, RIAA, it will play even those illegal files downloaded by disabled older people, rig ... [read more >>]
	10 April 2007, 11:19GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Listen to the New Microsoft Tune – DRM Free Music
	Microsoft has officially confirmed that it will follow in the footsteps of EMI Group Plc and Apple Inc. EMI and Apple have been at the epicenter of an earthquake that has impacted the music industry and the digital world: digital rights management free commercial downloads. In the aftermath of the EMI and Apple announcement, Microsoft too revealed that it will deliver music online with no DRM protection. Microsoft's posi ... [read more >>]
	10 April 2007, 06:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Will Zune Drop the DRM?
	DRM. Apple started it. Yahoo said it was OK, SanDisk supported the idea and the consumers acclaimed. EMI agreed in the first place, then retreated, now they have changed again their mind, hopefully for good. The remaining 3 of the 4 major are silent. Is Microsoft the next in line? This is a question which popped up quite naturally because of 2 very definite reasons. First of all, Microsoft is battling Apple since the beginning (if not e ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2007, 09:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

DRM-Free Music Is a Major Strategic Move for Apple
	Apple’s Partnership with EMI to offer DRM free-music is likely to be the biggest move Apple has made towards seizing the market since the release of the iPod. Instead of playing the game, Apple has changed it completely, and now everybody has to either follow their lead or be left behind. Microsoft loves DRM and proprietary formats, as it allows them to control what they do not own, a game that Apple has been playing with surp ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2007, 08:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

DRM-Free Music Is a Great Thing, But Norway Wants More
	The announcement made by EMI and Apple yesterday is huge, and will have massive impact on the industry. While just a year ago, such a thing seemed very unlikely, if not impossible, the fact that it did happen shows that change is definitely in the air. The move, which was very well received by consumers everywhere was also welcomed by Scandinavian watchdog groups. "No matter how the digital music market develops, today w ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2007, 05:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

iTunes Store to Sell DRM-Free EMI Music
	At the EMI headquarters in London, a bomb has just gone off. Starting today, EMI Music will be launching DRM-free superior quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire. This new, higher quality DRM-free will be available first at the iTunes Store, and will compliment EMI’s existing offering. The decision was reached in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phon ... [read more >>]
	02 April 2007, 09:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Apple+EMI=Love? Make Up Your F***ing Mind, EMI!
	Now, it's rather hard to believe what the news feeds brought on my desktop: it looks like EMI has made a deal with Apple and will sell DRM-free music via iTunes and possibly other online stores as well. Let's dissect the content of what I have just written... First, a very uncanny association of two words: EMI and DRM-free; what's wrong with you people? First of all, you come forth and say RIAA is a god, we should all bow ... [read more >>]
	02 April 2007, 05:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Sins of Windows Vista
	Long before Microsoft announced that Windows Vista made a splash in its debut month selling in excess of 20 million licenses worldwide, the operating system was crucified for three sins. DRM, Virtualization and support issues. 20 million sold Vista licenses should be sufficient to silence criticism, but the truth of the matter is that customer perception has a constant momentum. The introduction of Digital Rights Management i ... [read more >>]
	30 March 2007, 09:12GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

DRM from Fraunhofer IIS and STMicroelectronics
	STMicroelectronics and Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS have signed an agreement to jointly develop a low power Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) applications. Riccardo Ferrari, General Manager Digital Broadcasting Radio Division of ST's Automotive Product Group said that: "By combining Fraunhofer IIS's technologies and intellectual-property rights on ... [read more >>]
	28 March 2007, 09:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Antitrust EU Official Questions Apple iTunes-iPod Competition Concerns
	It is no secret that Apple has faced criticism in Europe regarding the close ties between its music player and content distribution platform, and the company has been asked repeatedly to take steps to ensure better compatibility between its offerings and those of rivals. Earlier this month, before clarifying she was not suggesting legal action should be taken, European Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, raised the ... [read more >>]
	28 March 2007, 03:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sony-BMG Under The Magnifying Glass. Again.
	I guess there are few people interested in the music business that don't know who Sony-BMG is. For those who still don't know it, I'll just say that Sony BMG is one of the four major records companies (while the other three are Warner, EMI and Universal) and representatives of these 4 act together under the name of Recording Industry Association of America, better known and badly spoken of as RIAA. Now that I have mention ... [read more >>]
	26 March 2007, 11:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Universities Show RIAA the Finger
	It's cool, the University of Wisconsin has finally got very pissed off on RIAA and shown them the middle finger in a “stop harassing us” manner which has made RIAA think twice before they spoke further more. Shortly, the UW told RIAA to bugger off and cease to cry under the university windows for the “bad wolf” students' names because they won't be made public. RIAA, as expected, ranted and used their threats as usual; fo ... [read more >>]
	23 March 2007, 13:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How to Boycott RIAA
	Gizmondo is one bunch of guys I begin to like more and more, especially as I noticed we're on the same side of the barricade as far as the struggle against RIAA is concerned. Today, one of their editors, Adam Frucci, came in with a very cool idea on how we could kick RIAA’s a** further more: buying used CDs! Hell, man, this idea is really nice. After all, I guess there are but few people who have never bought used CDs and ... [read more >>]
	22 March 2007, 06:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Opposing The Webcasters' Downfall
	I am sure that those of you who are interested in DRM and the like already know what's on with the Copyright Royalty Board. Basically, they are the ones who regulate how much revenue different broadcasters must pay for delivering musical content. Now, the CRB are not alone and can't act by themselves amidst the industry so they receive various proposals from all sorts of organizations. Everything would be sweet and OK if they ... [read more >>]
	20 March 2007, 10:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Unlimited Music Distribution – Death of RIAA?
	This year's SXSW (South by Southwest Festival) has brought a very interesting idea, not a solution to the RIAA/DRM problems (at least not yet) but an idea meant to make people think that there may be different ways to solve a problem than what has been tried so far. Shortly (the debate itself was rather short as the idea is still shaped like a potential point of action rather than a fully-developed direction), the main q ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2007, 12:33GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Don't Read, Nasty S**t Inside!
	OK, so I promise I will try and quote as little as possible from the most recent RIAA release. “Again RIAA, aren't they bored yet?” might you ask just for me to say they're not bored at all but seemingly more and more interested in topping with honey the crap they're bathing in. The President and the CEO of RIAA, namely Cary Sherman and Mitch Bainwol have made up some explanation story and released it to the press; not an ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2007, 07:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Do You Say „You're An MP3 Criminal” In Chinese?
	Yo, Chinese music lovers, I am sorry for you. If you're not sorry for yourselves yet, you will be, unfortunately. Sina.com, one of China's biggest portals running in multiple online fields plans the release of a new platform for online music, downloads and other wireless value-added services (according to Shanghai Securities News). “So f***ing what?” are you tempted to ask... (don't deny it, because I know you just said t ... [read more >>]
	16 March 2007, 11:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Will Jesus Stand Trial?
	Yeah, once more the lovely check-ladies in the company looked back at me and told me that I am not to use the 4-letter words I had in mind for this article. This just isn't fair, I mean... these nasty words are the sole words I can think of using as I read about RIAA's latest bravery in the fierce battle against music piracy (reading “for fattening up their wallets”). Just when you and I were thinking that RIAA is co ... [read more >>]
	15 March 2007, 04:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Rotten European Apple
	I guess even the huge Apple fans agree with me as I ask the following question, taken from a recent statement made in Berlin on Sunday: “Do you think it's fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod?” These words belong to Meglena Kuneva, the European Union consumer chief and were addressed somehow directly to the computer and software giant. Now, everybody knows that Apple had ... [read more >>]
	12 March 2007, 11:29GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Free Software Foundation Urges Jobs to Drop DRM
	There's been over a month since Steve Jobs' "Thoughts on music" hit the web like a storm. The open letter talked about the current state of media content, about digital rights management and about Apple's proprietary DRM solution, FairPlay. The CEO pleaded for the abolition of DRM and said it was all in hands of the major labels to lose the digital protection requirements. He said they will happily re ... [read more >>]
	12 March 2007, 11:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Toilet Paper Fetish
	I guess everyone who is connected to the music and IT worlds has knowledge (if not even extensive knowledge) about the DRM wars and how much does RIAA suck. I mean, let's face it: I simply can't believe that RIAA is loved throughout the world and especially the US. It's like loving a person who is constantly stalking you, causing you only troubles, ripping you off, disturbing your life and overall, practically not giving a f ... [read more >>]
	09 March 2007, 09:18GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Future's Grim
	The crap around what will internet radio become in the future is far from being over. The Copyright Royalty Board's ruling on Tuesday regarding the new fees for webcasters has reached a much higher level even before it was appealed. To see how serious things are, a new hearing took place in the House of Representatives yesterday. Democrat Representative Edward Markey has spoken heavy words on the recent ruling which came from CRB T ... [read more >>]
	08 March 2007, 07:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia