   DRM ArchiveJuly 21, 2006Audio Interview Update on DRM Mandates
EFF's own Fred von Lohmann gets you up to speed on the broadcast and audio flags in an interview with eHomeUpgrade.
What's the DMCA Good For? Platform Monopolies
Tim Lee argues against the efficiency of the iTunes-iPod tie and other such restrictions enabled by the DMCA and DRM.
Burn Your Own DRMed DVDs!
Nothing so empowering as wrapping movies in DRM yourself.
Rumor: MS xPod Won't PlayForSure
Report says that Microsoft's new portable music device will be "incompatible with other Windows Media services."
July 06, 2006Can't Compete With Ownership
Restrictions on use are one of the reasons services like Napster are stumbling in attracting college students. Bill Patry comments on a WSJ article.
July 05, 2006Will Bono Sign Against DRM?
FSF's Defective by Design campaign aims a petition at Bono's conscience.
The Rio Declaration on DRM
Attendees of the iCommons summit call for exceptions to anti-circumvention laws.
June 26, 2006Public Policy and the XBox Hackers
Ed Felten asks what place the law should have in the battle to install Linux on the Xbox.
May 31, 2006Dutch Music-Lovers Get Caught in DRM's Ratchet
David Berlind hears about the decreasing rights of the customers of a european music download service.
May 29, 2006A Catalog of Features Lost in iTunes UpgradesMay 16, 2006Real's Glazer Blames DRM Lock-in for Music Industry's Woes
Of course, he'd prefer if they'd lock-in to his DRM instead.
May 09, 2006What Does Embedded TV Copy Restriction Look Like?
The future of (broadcast flag) law enforcement: how CGMS-A looks when it's turned on.
May 04, 2006Who Will Own Your PC?
Bruce Schneier lists who wants to control your computer - including spammers, mail providers, spyware, and the entertainment industry.
May 02, 2006Net Neutrality Out, Broadcast Flags InApril 19, 2006Commissioner Tate Will Use FCC "Bully Pulpit" To Promote DRM
Supports DRM, even when courts have restricted FCC's power in that arena.
April 18, 2006HDCP: Broken by Design
The design of a key digital video output restriction is broken, says Ed Felten, and considers why.
April 04, 2006MythTV Invades Realm of Cable and TiVo
A nice, if cursory, look at the freeing power of MythTV from the Washington Post.
How AACS WorksMarch 27, 2006Come to FreedomHEC!
Immediately after Microsoft's depressingly restriction-obsessed WinHEC, Don Marti is organizing a DRM-free alternative for systems developers in Seattle.
Digging Up the DRM DebateMarch 17, 2006The Other Analog Hole
Everyone has similar "problems" to the MPAA's over analog leakage -- but it's obvious how impossible it would be to legislate against it.
The Truth About Your Battery Life
Handling complex DRM reduces the battery life of iPods and other MP3 players.
March 10, 2006"Another Lousy DRMed Product"
Tim Lee deconstructs the problems behind the famously bad New Yorker CD DRM.
March 03, 2006RIAA and Broadcasters to Huddle on Audio Broadcast Flag
Nothing like negotiating about the future of digital radio devices without a technology company or consumer advocate in the room.
February 17, 2006Curse of the Rootkit
Andrew Lack, CEO of Sony BMG is ousted. Bad publicity over their DRM is cited as one of the reasons.
Department of Home Directory Security
Homeland Security officials told Sony in "forceful terms" that rootkits weren't helping the fight to secure America's PCs.
February 16, 2006Rootkits Hidden on German DVDs by Hollywood
The clumsy, frustrating, innovation-impeding DRM on DVDs just got a bit more malicious.
January 31, 2006Your Senator Needs an iPod
IPac starts a campaign to bring modern, innovative technology into the hands of Senators--so they'll know first hand what the flag laws could do to interoperability and fair use.
DRM: Media Companies' Next Flop?
CNET casts a skeptical eye over how DRM will improve the content industry's bottom line.
Liberte, Interoperabilite, User-modifiabilite
A french take on the problems with DRM, free software, and anti-circumvention law.
January 27, 2006Evaporating Watermarks
Ed Felten takes a close look at CD DRM--in this case, the watermarking used by SunComm's MediaMax.
January 20, 2006UK's Consumer Council Comes out Against DRMRespect The Music
German indie groups come out against DRM on their music.
January 18, 2006Godwin's LibJanuary 09, 2006Never Buy an Anti-DRM CD Again
Pledge to boycott DRM publicly (especially if you weren't planning to anyway).
December 22, 2005Can GNU Software Support DRM?
Linux Weekly News discusses the dilemmas involved in open source support for DRM.
December 19, 2005Trusted Computing--The Rootkit You Can't Uninstall
Phil Windley on increased regulation and control in the computing world, and how that could mean stagnation and decline.
December 08, 2005Musicians Against DRM
The lead singer of OK Go explains why he fought against DRM on his CDs.
November 29, 2005Sony BMG's Costly Silence
BusinessWeek discovers that Sony knew about their rootkit problem for at least a month before it was separately uncovered.
November 22, 2005TiVo to Bring TV Programming to iPod, PSP
Or, as it would be known in a less DRM-encrusted world, "TiVo Introduced Simple File Transferring Feature."
November 21, 2005RIAA Online Chats With Students, Says Sony BMG Blameless
Audience's "OMG", "LOL", and "WTF?!111!"s edited for brevity.
Sony Crosses Wrong Man
Texas Attorney General goes after the Sony BMG rootkit.
November 18, 2005Sory Electronics
Putting pressure on Sony to sincerely apologize--and drop the DRM.
November 14, 2005Sony Considers Gutting Media Re-sale Market
Sony files patent that would block the lending or selling of second-hand media.
The Ongoing Story of DRM
USA Today gives a compact rundown, with quotes, of the wider DRM furore.
November 11, 2005DHS: DRM Can Be Bad for Homeland Security
"It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property--it's not your computer," says Stewart Baker of the Department of Homeland Security.
November 08, 2005DRM this, Sony!
CNET's Molly Wood lays the smack down on Sony and their deceptive DRM.
November 07, 2005DRM Crippled CD: A Bizarre Tale
Market strategist Barry Ritholtz fumes at the idiocy of copy-restricted CDs.
DRM and Universities
A sad, first-hand account of academics demanding DRM for their own lectures.
November 01, 2005Sony CDs Install a Rootkit
When content producers think they have a right to your computer.
October 24, 2005Bill Gates Against "Anti-Consumer" DRM
Blu-ray copy-protection crosses the line (handily drawn a little away from Microsoft's own DRM).
October 12, 2005Why Libertarians Don't Like the DMCA
Tim Lee responds to Patrick Ross' peculiar "free trade" defense of the DMCA.
October 06, 2005Most Monitors Won't Play New HD Video
The Washington Post catches on to HDCP and the DRM-crippled "features" of Microsoft Vista.
October 05, 2005Declaration of InDRMpendence
ZDNet's David Berlind has had enough of purposely crippled technology.
September 26, 2005What the Copyright Cartel Wants in a Broadcast Flag
Susan Crawford goggles at the broad language the RIAA wants in legislation that would give the FCC the power to mandate a Broadcast Flag in "all possible home copying and transmission, all possible consumer devices, and all possible online audio services."
September 20, 2005Hollywood to Waste $30 Million Believing It Can Build Better Copy Protection
That's the Onion-style headline for a Techdirt article criticizing Hollywood's plans to create home-grown DRM.
August 15, 2005"Copying Music Now Threatens Business like File-sharing Did"
AP reports on the sinister practice of "CD burning," and how the brave music industry is now seeking to control it.
July 28, 2005Crippling Innovation, One DRM System at a Time
Bob Frankston describes how innovation will be frustrated as more devices become like his set-top box, which treats him like a criminal by disabling compatibility with his high resolution monitor.
July 18, 2005Place-Shifting Technology, Grokster, and the Broadcast Flag
Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian talks about the careful path an innovative company has to tread these days.
June 28, 2005DRM Laundering
Strange thought experiments from the far side of lock-in file formats.
June 22, 2005Enter the Consistency Circumvention Device
Jupiter Research consultant advocates DRM, then, when it annoys him, bypasses it.
June 16, 2005Universal DRM Standard Now The Cure For Nonexistent Problem
Techdirt pours scorn on a report claiming that the lack of DRM is holding up media-sharing in the home: "DRM, by its very definition, restricts flexibility, not encourages it."
May 22, 2005The MPAA's DRM Police
Reverse-engineering for in-operability: the story of the MPAA's tech labs, which test - and sue - hardware manufacturers who fail to comply with CSS's license.
May 13, 2005DRM and RFID, Together at Last
A UCLA group is exploring implementing DRM - using RFIDs. Ed Felten says it
isn't totally crazy. In theory, at least. (Via CoCo blog.)
May 09, 2005Hilary Rosen On Why DRM is Bad
The former president of the RIAA is mad that she can't play non-iTunes music on her iPod and can't convert other online music stores' files to work correctly on it. As Ernest Miller explains, that's a world that the Rosen-supported DMCA created -- an environment of restricted markets, with no legal interoperability tools.
April 07, 2005Kaleidescape Coverage at LA Times
This piece looks at the high-end DVD jukebox maker's fight with the content cabal.
Victory for Consumers in DMCA Case
The Supreme Court has refused to hear Chamberlain v. Skylink, letting stand the appellate court decision that barred Chamberlain from using the DMCA to stifle competition.
Congress Blasts Apple for Failing to Keep it Real
Legislators recently held hearings on whether digital music formats need more regulation in light of the incompatibility wars between Apple and Real Networks.
March 16, 2005Apple Tightens DRM Noose
The Register reports on how Apple is digitally managing your rights away.
March 09, 2005German Court Bans Some Links
A German news site has been banned from linking to a website that provides software for circumventing copy protections.
March 02, 2005Major Labels Want to Raise Download Prices
They're trying to hit the sweet-spot of $18 per album (which is working really well for CDs). The future of music is not for the faint of heart - or light of wallet.
Breaking Down the Kaleidescape Suit
Kaleidescape makes super high-end DVD jukeboxes, and they even have a license from the cartel that controls DVD hardware. Read on to find out why DVD-CCA is suing.
February 23, 2005HP Sued Over Expiring Printer Cartridges
Consumers don't like it when their devices are programmed against their interests? Fancy that!
Interoperability Wins Another Round Against DMCA
Lexmark lost its appellate bid to stop a competitor from making cartridges that work with its printers.
Your Computer on Remote Control
AOL plans to remotely downgrade the popular music software Winamp after bloggers used it to record digital music from Napster's digital streaming service.
February 17, 2005France Knocks Apple, Sony Over DRM
The legal action claims that the companies' sale & marketing of use-restricted media is deceitful and anticompetitive.
New Use-Restricted DVDs in the OffingOops, Napster Did It Again
A gap in the company's copy protection scheme, coupled with its all-you-can-eat-from-our-tiny-buffet subscription plan, allows current Napster users to experience an inkling of the functionality that everyone enjoyed five years ago.
February 02, 2005German National Library Gets DRM Exemption
The German Federation of the Phonographic Industry has granted the German National Library a license to circumvent protection measures in order to facilitate archiving. It's nice of them to grant the license, but it's sad that libraries have to ask permission to do their jobs.
February 01, 2005Microsoft & Macrovision Launch Joint Copy Protection
The "M&Ms of DRM?" Okay, that was bad, but this news is worse. The two companies intend to saddle analog recordings with even more copy protection cruft.
January 11, 2005The iTunes Made Me Do It
A California man is suing Apple Computer for using its monopoly power to force him to buy an iPod. It may sound farfetched as an antitrust claim, but it's a great example of how digital rights management (DRM) can coerce consumers into doing something they normally wouldn't.
January 05, 2005Go Ask Hollywood
EFF's Cory Doctorow with a fabulous new piece on why you can't back up DVDs and who is to blame.
Reason #5,294 to Not Use DRM
Some firms are hiding ads and adware in copy-protected Windows Media Player files.
Critics Pan DVD Protection Sequel
Hollywood is eager to replace CSS - the broken system that's supposed to keep DVDs from copycats - with a new scheme called AACS. This IEEE article explains why the sequel isn't even as good as the lackluster original.
December 15, 2004Apple Makes iPods Incompatible with Harmony
RealNetworks' Harmony music service doesn't work with the newest iPod software, leaving customers who upgrade with unplayable files. Aren't the DRM wars great?
December 10, 2004DVD Jukebox Maker in Hollywood Crosshairs
Kaleidescape, a company that makes super-expensive DVD
jukeboxes for the home, is being sued by the DVD Copy
Control Association for violating the terms of its
CSS license.
November 19, 2004Microsoft Keeps Cracked Xboxes Off Net
And Halo 2 fans in the hardware-hacking community are distraught.
October 26, 2004Obscure Holiday Film to Be Released on Self-Destructing DVDs
Wow. I don't know if I've ever wanted to buy anything *less.*
October 05, 2004Uncle Sam Gives Free $50 Bills to Designers
Downloadable ones, since the real deal can't be scanned, manipulated, or printed on/in popular equipment and software.
Sony Pulls Hobbled CDs from Market
Is it because they don't work and consumers hate them? Of course not! According to Sony, the company has decided to stop making hobbled CDs because "its message against illegally copying CDs...has widely sunk in."
September 29, 2004Bits v. Discs: Plastic Is King - For Now
A European study says CDs rule - but predicts that digital downloads will outsell them by the end of the decade.
The Long, Winding Road to Digital Hollywood
Movie studios and tech companies at the Digital Hollywood conference pondered the perpetual problem: how to put even stronger locks on the stuff you buy.
September 23, 2004Pretty Version of Cory Doctorow's DRM Talk
Our dear colleague Cory Doctorow gave a wonderfully written and well-received speech on digital rights management this year, and now the folks at "Change This" have turned it into a great-looking PDF.
September 16, 2004CD Lock-Down Technology: There Can Be Only One
That's Microsoft's plan, anyway. The company wants record companies to rally 'round its plan to create a digital dystopia of consumer rights.
TiVo, ReplayTV Agree to "Limits" on Relationship with Public
It was getting cozy. Living together, watching movies every weekend - there was even talk about letting the public keep programs "forever." But then TiVo & Replay's on-again, off-again relationship with Hollywood began to heat up. Hollywood apologized for suing Replay into bankruptcy and made nice with TiVo. In the end, the thrill of that abusive relationship overwhelmed the companies' better judgment...and they broke the public's heart *again.*
September 08, 2004More Independent Software Turns iTunes into P2P Playground
MyTunes Redux allows iTunes users to share song files with multiple computers, not just stream music.
September 07, 2004Netflix to Download Movies to Your TiVo
We're pleasantly surprised that Netflix was able to get permission for this neat little trick.
Microsoft Likes the Sound of Competition
Gates & Co. last week revealed MSN Music - the latest way to buy music that won't play on your iPod.
September 01, 2004XM Pulls Plug on PC Radio
The satellite radio company's PCR could be used in conjunction with third-party software called Time Trax to download music.
Engadget Interviews Valenti
The retiring president of the MPAA provides his unique perspective on things like cryptography and fair use, which he likes to claim doesn't exist in the law. 17 USC 107, anyone?
August 29, 2004French Feds Investigate Restricted Music Discs
EMI France and retailer Fnac (say it out loud - it's fun!) are being investigated after numerous reports of copy-protected disc malfunctions.
August 26, 2004MPAA Sues Makers of DVD Chips
Hollywood has DVDs locked down so tight that you have to agree to strict licensing terms to make pieces for a player. Two chip companies reportedly ran afoul of these agreements by selling their wares to companies outside of the cabal.
August 25, 2004James Boyle Gives Apple the Eye
Essays about law and technology don't get much smarter or more accessible than this.
August 13, 2004DVD Jon Forces Apple to Play with Others
"DVD Jon" Johansen has figured out how to make the AirportExpress play music from non-Apple devices. In order to make it work, he had to add encryption to the streams of the other devices. Neat!
August 04, 2004HP Exec Worries About DRM and Open Source
Martin Fink, HP's vice president for Linux, thinks that moves toward DRM could freeze open source platforms out of desktop PCs.
July 18, 2004Pumping Up the Digital Volume
Neat article on the UK's digital radio market and the products that will let listeners copy/pause/replay anything they can tune. These are exactly the kinds of devices that would be affected by the digital radio broadcast flag currently being considered by the FCC. [Click here for some PDF'd background]
July 14, 2004Big Content/Big Tech Form New DRM Consortium
The new conglomeration will focus on finding ways to jam Hollywood-friendly restrictions into home networks.
July 07, 2004Hollywood Rolls Out New Piracy-Resistant Screeners
Will it work? We think this quote from Academy President Frank Pierson might turn out to be accidentally prescient: "It certainly looked foolproof to us."
June 29, 2004A DRM Forest and the Beastie Boys' Tree
International debate rages over the comparative nastiness of the trio's latest CD.
Picketing the UK iTunes Music Store?
British fans are angry about the lack of independent labels in the recently launched UK version of the downloading service. In protest, they're making community playlists with pleas to add more labels - and then voting them to the top of the iTunes charts. Priceless.
June 24, 2004Interview with a DMCA Reformer
Rep. Rick Boucher - the man behind H.R. 107, the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act - talks to CNET.
Felten On Universities and P2P
The good professor has more great advice for schools pressured to adopt technical "solutions" to P2P on campus.
June 21, 2004Beastie Boys Put Use-Restrictions on New Album
The irreverent trio's long-awaited CD slips computers a DRM mickey.
June 14, 2004More on RIAA and Digital Radio
The music industry is still lobbying the FCC for a broadcast flag-like mandate for digital radio, despite the fact that it's a bad idea and, in our view, bound to fail. We're filing comments in the FCC docket to explain why.
May 12, 2004Apple Squelches PlayFair (Again)
PlayFair allows iTunes-customers to strip the DRM from lawfully purchased songs, but leaves the unique IDs intact. The results are unfit for P2P trading, unless you like the taste of subpoenas. Sounds good to us.
May 04, 2004Tennessee Won't Pay RIAA Protection Money
A plan proposed by Napster 2 would have charged the state's 180,000 students $9.99/month for access to music - a yearly bill of $21 million.
Looking to Rent Some Music?
Of course not, and that's why Microsoft's "Janus" DRM initiative is yet another solution looking for a problem.
April 25, 2004Another Bad Tech "Solution" to P2P
Palisade Systems is partnering with Audible Magic to sell a tool that scans email, IM and other Net traffic for copyrighted material and breaks connections mid-transfer - regardless of whether the transmission is legal.
April 16, 2004RealNetworks Gives Apple the Eye
The streaming company wants Apple to open the iPod to another flavor of proprietary DRM.
April 14, 2004How Apple Can Afford to Take a Loss on the iTunes Music Store
The company's profits tripled on a 900% increase in iPod sales.
April 13, 2004FCC Taking TV Down the Tubes
Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn with a great editorial on (some of) what's wrong with the FCC's approach to regulation.
April 10, 2004Broadcast Flag for Digital Radio?
The technology is very young, but according to Public Knowledge and Digital Consumer, the FCC may already be preparing to slap a broadcast flag on it.
April 09, 2004PlayFair Fouled by DMCA
An open source project that offered tools to strip the DRM from your legally purchased files is now offline because of a DMCA notice.
April 08, 2004Wal-Mart Joins the Copyfight?
The company will soon sell DVD players equipped with ClearPlay - an on-the-fly editing technology designed to excise racy scenes. Directors claim that it violates copyright law and unacceptably drains the films' mojo.
April 07, 2004No More Recording "American Idol" for Cousin Vera
A Hollywood panel is pushing for locked-down set top boxes that can record television only onto encrypted, device-specific DVD discs.
WIPO Broadcast Treaty Hits the Fan
It's only a draft - perhaps they're waiting for the final version to remove the evil?
Weinberger's Three Horsemen of the Infopocalypse
The noted author says that DRM, digital identity technologies and trusted computing will significantly damage our ability to work with digital content.
April 05, 2004Industry Standardizes DRM
ISO has codified MPEG Rights Expression Language - an expandable DRM-signaling system - into a standard.
April 02, 2004iTunes Under Scrutiny
Harvard's Digital Media Project with a study of the norms and laws around Apple's iTunes.
March 28, 2004ReplayTV Hacks: Features Hollywood Doesn't Want you to Have
ReplayTV made products so modifiable that almost any feature could be added by someone with the brains to build it - until Big Content sued it into the ground. Here's a round-up of DIY-features for legacy owners.
March 24, 2004Wal-Mart Offers $0.88 Download
You may save two nickels over iTunes, but the service is only for Windows, the files are wrapped in DRM and the selection is only a pale shadow of what |