Philips, HP copy-protection ready for new FCC rules
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LAS VEGAS - Philips ElectronicsÂ and Hewlett-PackardÂ have developed a Plus-format DVD copy-protection system that allows the recording of digital TV broadcasts under the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) broadcast-flag regulation that takes effect in July, the companies announced Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Products that include the new technology will be available soon.
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Media companies including Viacom  , Microsoft Corp. , News Corp.'s  Fox  and MySpace units and others have agreed to guidelines aimed at  protecting copyrights online, a source familiar with the matter  said on Thursday.
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Government organizations will still be able to use proprietary software and formats but will have to justify it under the new policy.
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A pilot program at the Microsoft Download Center will require users to validate their Windows license in exchange for access to file downloads. Users with counterfeit software may find themselves locked out altogether.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that later on Thursday an impressive coalition of major media companies will release a list of guidelines for protecting copyrights online.
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Final spec that allows legal copying of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs is on track for the end of the year.
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The companies plan to share security features to help customers protect their networks from worms and viruses.
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An impressive coalition of media companies on Thursday will release a list of guidelines for protecting copyrights online, according to The Journal.
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Users have found a way to skirt copy protection on Napster Inc.'s  portable music subscription service just days after its high-profile launch, potentially letting them make CDs with hundreds of thousands of songs for free.
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The battle over home entertainment networking is heating up as a coalition proposes yet another standard for the IEEE&#39;s consideration.
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Microsoft is offering protection against patent claims for Office binary formats under its Open Specification Promise.
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Until earlier this week, some electronics companies were wielding the Digital Millenium Copyright Act -- a law that tries to curtail piracy of music and movies -- as a shield to protect their businesses from competition.
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Record labels and Microsoft are in discussions about ways that the next generation of the Windows operating system, code-named Longhorn, can support copy-protected CD technology.
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Last week, Microsoft quietly launched a program to address piracy issues with their software. The new program called &quot;Windows Genuine Advantage&quot; is a new validation on Microsoft&#39;s download center.
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(InfoWorld) - A group of technology vendors has submitted new test results for a wireless device intended to operate in unused portions of the television spectrum afterÂ an identical device malfunctioned in U.S. Federal Communications Commission tests earlier this year. The new tests showed the wireless device correctly detected TV signals and stayed out of that part of the spectrum 100 percent of the time, according to a filing on behalf of Microsoft and Philips Electronics. Microsoft and Philips are part of the White Spaces Coalition, a group of tech vendors asking the FCC to allow wireless devices to operate in the so-called white spaces of the television spectrum. The coalition wants the white spaces opened up to give consumers more wireless broadband options. Television broadcasters have opposed the White Spaces Coalition, saying it's too likely that wireless devices will interfere with TV signals. On July 31, the FCC declined to license a wireless device built by the coalition, saying it interfered with TV signals. Microsoft later said the device was damaged and "operated at a severely degraded level." On Thursday, Microsoft and Philips submitted new tests to the FCC. In their new tests, the wireless device detected signals that are "far too weak for a television set to produce a broadcast television picture," wrote Ed Thomas, a tech advisor to the White Spaces Coalition and a former chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC will likely do its own retest of the device. The White Spaces Coalition hopes the FCC can make a decision to approve the device by the end of the year, Thomas said. The group had originally hoped the FCC would make a decision by October, and members believe the FCC can still make a decision soon, he said. "We'd love to see the FCC do whatever they need to do to corroborate our data," Thomas said. "We hope we've moved the ball a long way to help them make a decision." This month,Â the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Association for Maximum Service Television launched a campaign urging the FCC to reject white spaces devices. The wireless devices could cause "devastating interference" to digital TV sets, the two groups said. "While our friends at Intel, Google, and Microsoft may find system errors, computer glitches, and dropped calls tolerable, broadcasters do not," Alan Frank, NAB's chairman, said in a news release this month.
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Philips is preparing a digital video recording system called Personal TV Channel, which could be seen as a competitor to TiVo. The cost of the service will be offset by its advertising features, which allow commercials in programs to be replaced by ones more relevant to what a consumer may be interested in.
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With a minimum of fanfare, the licensing body for the developers of a supplemental copy protection technology exclusively for Blu-ray Disc announced its initial specification for BD+ - which supporters had hoped would be available early last year - is finally ready for licensing to developers.