Audible Magic has anti-piracy technology
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The maker of software to thwart unauthorized online file-sharing has obtained technology that can scan video files and block computer users from making copies.
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itâs also a powerful learning tool, according to Apple. Audio has always had a place in the classroom but it is normally in the form
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Cliq coming Imagination Technologies, the company behind the Pure Digital radio brand, is to build music download technology into future products to allow listeners to buy copies of songs they've just heard.â¦
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Blog: EMI is now offering DRM-less downloads for iTunes and several Windows Media Audio-based stores. But for real portability, only MP3s will do.
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(InfoWorld) - A German company is offering MP3 files for download, unencumbered by DRM (digital rights management). Instead, Akuma discourages copying by adding a unique "watermark" to each download. Major record labels have mostly chosen DRM to protect their copyrights, limiting the number of copies buyers can make of a downloaded track, and restricting the music players they can use to listen to it. However, Akuma is taking a softer approach: The music store sells MP3 files which can be played on almostÂ any digital music player, but adds a unique tag to each download using watermark technology from Germany's renowned Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, which helped create the MP3 audio compression algorithm. The watermark technology makes slight changes to the data in sound files, such as a higher volume intensity in a tiny part of a song, that are undetectable by even the best trained ears, according to Fraunhofer researchers. However, if unauthorized copies of a download turn up on, for example, peer-to-peer file sharing networks, the watermark allows Akuma to identify the purchaser of a file and take action against them. "Around 40 percent of the labels we offer are embedded with watermarks," said Sascha Hottes, a managing director of H2 Media Factory, which launched Akuma. "This is the compromise we've reached with labels that are willing to release their titles in the MP3 format and not in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format with its DRM technology." As part of its service, Akuma monitors songs embedded with a watermark against illegal distribution on P-to-P services, according to Hottes. "We monitor P-to-P networks on a random basis," he said. Around 350,000 songs, mostly from independent labels, are currently available on the Akuma portal, with 700,000 planned by the end of the year. The roster includes artists such as Katie Melua, Toni Braxton, Simply Red and Deep Purple. A single song title costs â¬0.89, ($1.13) an album â¬4.49. Customers have various payment options: online, direct debit, telephone invoice and PayPal. Akuma offers MP3 files in a quality similar to CDs, with bit rates (a measure of sound quality) from 192KbpsÂ at the low end to 320Kbps at the high end. Like eMusic.com, the German music download store hopes toÂ break into a crowded marketÂ by making song downloading a piece of cake. The German portal requires no special download software and places no restrictions on the choice of music player, including the iPod from Apple Computer. Customers can make as many copies of the songs as they like, burn them to CDs and transfer them onto multiple portable music players. TheÂ akuma.de portalÂ is now available in a beta version to registered users.
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Using speech-to-text software and studying the contextual relationships between words, a new startup makes audio files as searchable as text on the web. By Eliot Van Buskirk.
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Amazon.com, which has been rapidly adding digital downloads to its vast Web store, will bolster those offerings with Audible, the largest online seller of audiobooks.
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Hard drive-based audio player will get a new look and a lower price.
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Should creators insist on copy protection and other technologies to block the unauthorized spread of their works?
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Acquisition of publisher Brilliance Audio should allow the web shopping giant to offer customers a greater selection of audio books.
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I noted yesterday that there seems to be some media fanfare surrounding Amazon's launch of a digital book tablet. It occurred to me that the markets surrounding media such as books, music and movies bear more than a passing resemblance to financial markets, and as such, perhaps they were amenable to a similar method of analysis. Being the owner of a sizable collection of paper books, this led me to consider the drawbacks one faces when Digital Rights Management restrictions are put in place.
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The MP3 music download service eMusic now offers audiobooks and a new helper app designed on open source 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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How XM and Sirius persuaded millions that paying to listen to a cool technology beats listening to a boring one for free.
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Technologies that let people record satellite and Internet radio broadcasts digitally are opening a new front in the recording industry's war on music piracy. This has given the music industry a new problem to worry about.
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The popular site is aiming to beat Amazon online with a selection of unrestricted MP3 downloads.
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Amazon has agreed to pay $300 million for audio book seller Audible.