DRM

Copy-Protection Tech Firm Widevine Raising New Funds

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 13, 2009 - 8:10am.
Seattle - Widevine, a provider of forensic watermarking technologies and other digital rights management services for content owners, has secured $7.25 million of an expected $9.7 million round of new venture capital, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing.

Nokia's Comes With Music Subscriber Base: 107,277

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 16, 2009 - 9:51am.
London - Nokia's (NYSE: NOK) Comes With Music platform, where users pay extra for music-focused handsets that come with an unlimited download service, counted just 107,277 users in nine countries in July, some nine months after launch, according to Nokia figures published by Music Ally. In the U.K., where the service has been available since October 2008, the service counts 32,728 users. PaidContent notes that the service "has been hampered by DRM and complex PC operation and confusing PC-mobile sync."

German Retailer to Pay Damages Over Sony BMG 'Rootkit' CD

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 14, 2009 - 9:35am.
New York - A German court has ordered a retailer there to pay compensation to an individual who claimed financial losses as a result of placing a music CD with faulty anti-piracy software from Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG into his computers, TorrentFreak reported.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Piracy | Music | DRM | Sony BMG | Rootkit |

Audible Magic Lands $1.28 Million for Media Fingerprinting

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 21, 2009 - 10:38am.
Los Gatos, Calif. - Audible Magic, a provider of content identification and copyrighted media tracking services, has raised $1.28 million in new funding PaidContent reported, citing an SEC filing.

Sony to Adopt EPUB E-book Format, Ditch In-house DRM

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 13, 2009 - 3:54am.
San Diego - Sony (NYSE: SNE) announced on Thursday that it will convert its eBook store to the industry-standard EPUB format by the end of the year, and do away with proprietary copy-protection software in favor of a more versatile content server from Adobe.
tags: Sony | DRM | Adobe | E-Books | Publishing | Books | EPUB | Reader |

7digital to Sell Warner Music DRM-Free Tracks Across Europe

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 3, 2009 - 11:29am.
London - U.K. digital music retailer 7digital announced that it has expanded an agreement with major record label Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), and will now offer the label's digital catalog across Europe. Warner tracks will now appear on 7digital's country-specific stores in six new countries -- France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal -- adding to existing stores in the U.K., Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, with more to come at a later date.

tags: Music | DRM | Warner Music | 7%% |

Amazon CEO Bezos Apologizes Over Deleted Kindle E-books

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 24, 2009 - 4:52am.
Seattle - After a snafu prompted Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) last week to remotely delete a number of improperly licensed e-books from customers' Kindle e-book reader devices, CEO Jeff Bezos issued an apology for the controversy. "Our 'solution' to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles," Bezos wrote on the Amazon Kindle Community forum.

Orange to Make Web, Mobile Music Store DRM-Free

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 10, 2009 - 12:12pm.
London - France Telecom's Orange said on Friday that it will do away with digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on the music sold from its Orange Music Store. The catalog will feature over 700,000 tracks from Universal Music, EMI and independent labels. The company will also introduce tiered pricing at the store, with downloads to be available from 79p ($1.28).

tags: Mobile | Music | DRM | Orange |

MOD Systems Adds 5 Million DRM-Free MP3s to Store Kiosks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 8, 2009 - 1:46pm.
Seattle - MOD Systems, a provider of digital media delivery systems for retailers, said on Monday that it has signed new agreements with the major record labels and a number of independent aggregators to offer over 5.2 million DRM-free tracks to retail stores. MOD Systems' kiosks in retail stores allow consumers to purchase and download digital tracks directly to mobile phones, MP3 players, SD memory cards, and USB storage devices.

tags: Music | DRM | Kiosks | Retail | MOD Systems |

Walmart to End Support for DRM-Wrapped Songs in October

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 1, 2009 - 12:51pm.
Los Angeles - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has announced that it will shut down the servers maintaining access to customers who purchased security-protected songs from its online store before the company abandoned the use of digital rights management (DRM) in February 2008, Hypebot reported.
tags: Music | DRM | Retail | Walmart |

High-Quality Download Seller HDGiants Files for Bankruptcy

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 28, 2009 - 9:37am.
Incline Village, Nev. - HDGiants, an online retailer of high-quality HD downloads of music and video content delivered directly to home entertainment systems, has filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protections in the state of Nevada.

Report: Sony Mulling Music Downloads for the PSP

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 21, 2009 - 11:46am.
San Francisco - Sony (NYSE: SNE) is contemplating bringing music downloads to its PSP handheld game system, music industry sources told CNET News.com. To date, Sony has only offered content for the PSP on its proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD) format. Recent reports have speculated that Sony will do away with UMD in a forthcoming version of the PSP. The company is now reportedly considering offering direct music downloads, in a bid to compete with Apple's iTunes Store, iPods and iPhones.

tags: Games | Music | Sony | PSP | DRM | UMD |

Electronic Arts' "The Sims 3" Leaked to P2P Ahead of Release

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 18, 2009 - 12:28pm.
Redwood City, Calif. - Video game publisher Electronic Arts' (NASD: ERTS) upcoming sequel "The Sims 3," not due for release for another two weeks, has been leaked onto file-sharing networks, according to published reports.

Napster Offers Unlimited Streaming, 5 MP3s for $5 per Month

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 18, 2009 - 11:57am.
Los Angeles - Digital music service Napster (NASD: NAPS) on Monday introduced a new subscription plan that offers unlimited streaming of songs from its library of seven million tracks, plus five MP3 downloads, for $5 per month.
tags: Marketing | Music | DRM | Napster |

Scribd Debuts Digital Publishing Service for Writers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 18, 2009 - 10:16am.
San Francisco - Scribd, a website that lets users share text documents, on Monday launched a new service that lets publishers charge for their documents, and keep 80% of the revenue, The New York Times reported.

Qtrax Launches Free, Ad-Supported Music Download Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 13, 2009 - 12:49pm.
New York - Qtrax on Monday launched its free, ad-supported music download service, after securing licensing agreements with all four major labels and the major music publishers.
tags: Advertising | Music | DRM | Qtrax |

UK MP3 Store 7digital Integrated With AOL's Winamp Player

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2009 - 11:37am.
London - U.K. digital music retailer 7digital.com announced that AOL's Winamp has integrated its online music store into the free media player. The deal will put links to 7digital.com's catalog of over 6 million MP3s in front of Winamp's 77 million worldwide users, and make the store Winamp's partner in European countries including the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Ireland.

tags: Music | AOL | DRM | Winamp | 7%% |

Along With Apple, Amazon MP3, Others Hike Digital Song Prices

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 8, 2009 - 8:39am.
Seattle - While Apple (NASD: AAPL) got the most coverage for launching variable pricing yesterday at the iTunes Store, where top songs may now be priced at $1.29 and catalog tracks at 69 cents, the change affected much of the rest of the digital music retail market, with similar price hikes seen at Amazon MP3 (NASD: AMZN), RealNetworks' (NASD: RNWK) Rhapsody, Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT) ($1.24) and Lala.

Apple Debuts Tiered Song Pricing on iTunes; Removes All DRM

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 7, 2009 - 10:20am.
Cupertino, Calif. - Apple (NASD: AAPL) on Tuesday introduced its new tiered pricing structure at the iTunes Store, where new release and popular songs may now be priced at $1.29, while older, catalog tracks may be sold for 69 cents each -- although the majority of songs are expected to remain at the current 99 cents price point. The major record labels have long pressed Apple to institute variable pricing at the iTunes Store; the new pricing also coincided with the removal of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions from all songs sold at the store.

Verizon Wireless Launches MP3 Store With 5 Million Tracks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 3, 2009 - 11:05am.
Basking Ridge, N.J. - Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) this week added more than 5 million MP3s to its online media store, enabling downloads to its music-enabled handsets and any MP3-capable devices. The company is launching tiered pricing at the store on April 7, when new releases and best-sellers will be priced at $1.29; "most major contemporary releases" will cost 99 cents; and "most classic catalog releases" will sell for 69 cents each.