Arik Hesseldahl in News on January 20 at 1:58 pm PT
Big as they were, the attacks carried out in revenge for the Megaupload arrests accomplished nothing significant.
Kara Swisher in Media on January 20 at 11:32 am PT
What would Jack do? (And would it work anymore?)
Simply put, it doesn’t matter how great a piece of technology you have invented, or how innovative a distribution platform you have created. You must have content.
– Former senator and current MPAA president Chris Dodd, in a speech Tuesday in which he stressed that Hollywood and Silicon Valley are in the content (and content protection) business together
Nitrozac and Snaggy in News on April 13, 2011 at 2:59 pm PT
Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at
Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site. (Click on the image to see a bigger version.)
Zephrin Lasker, CEO and Co-Founder, Pontiflex in News on February 16, 2011 at 11:02 am PT
If there is one topic trending higher in the press than the latest celebrity breakup, it’s the issue of online privacy. The government is now exploring tighter regulation of the online advertising industry. The FTC recently called for a do-not-track system that would allow consumers to opt out of being monitored online. And now the Department of Commerce has taken up the cause with recommendations for a Privacy Bill of Rights.
Kara Swisher in News on August 12, 2010 at 5:35 pm PT
An alphabet soup of entertainment-industry groups submitted filings to the Federal Communications Commission today as part of its request for comment on a framework for broadband services.
Specifically, whether or not to reclassify the Internet as a telecommunications service, which would trigger all kinds of juicy regulatory power.
There are all kind of complex issues at stake, from net neutrality to piracy to open Internet to broadband access.
John Paczkowski in News on March 3, 2010 at 3:01 pm PT
The Motion Picture Association of America has finally, and permanently, dispatched RealNetworks’s “legal” DVD ripper, RealDVD. On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall, who in January dismissed Real’s antitrust claims against Hollywood, really dropped the hammer on the company, issuing a permanent injunction barring it from manufacturing or trafficking in RealDVD.
John Paczkowski in News on September 30, 2008 at 12:24 pm PT
Just hours after RealNetworks filed a preemptive lawsuit against the major Hollywood studios to avoid outcry over its RealDVD DVD-ripping software, Hollywood responded in kind. The Motion Picture Association of America asked a federal court in Los Angeles for a temporary restraining order to halt the sales of RealDVD, arguing it illegally bypasses DVD copyright protections. Said the MPAA, “RealNetworks’ RealDVD should be called StealDVD.”
John Paczkowski in News on September 30, 2008 at 10:01 am PT
Turns out RealNetworks Inc.’s new DVD ripper RealDVD is as legal as its creator is litigious. Real debuted RealDVD this morning and along with it a preemptive lawsuit against the Hollywood interests that will inevitably attempt to litigate it into oblivion. Brought against the DVD Copy Control Association and a who’s-who of major studios, the suit asks the court to rule that RealDVD complies with the DVD Copy Control Association’s license agreement.