Redmond, Wash. - As a result of Microsoft shuttering its MSN Music store in favor of its Zune Marketplace, the company has told MSN Music customers that the licenses for the songs they purchased can be updated for the last time up until Aug. 31 -- after which time the songs cannot ever again be transferred from the devices on which they are currently stored, according to reports.

San Francisco - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) has scrapped PlaysForSure, a three-year-old program that placed logos on electronics devices whose digital rights management (DRM) systems were compatible with certain online music and video stores, CNET News.com reports. The logo and program will now become "Certified for Windows Vista," and retain all of the program's device testing requirements.

Los Angeles - Film studio 20th Century Fox plans to release a special edition DVD of "Live Free or Die Hard" that includes a copy that can be played on a computer and certain Windows-based portable media players, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Consumers will enter a 16-digit code from the DVD case on their computers, and then be able to download a copy of the film to their computer or any portable device supporting Microsoft's PlaysForSure technology. Fox also plans to include the Digital Copy feature -- a first for the industry -- on other future DVDs.